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thread-7552 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7552 | Stack Overflow reputation in CV | 2013-01-29T09:05:30.127 | # Question
Title: Stack Overflow reputation in CV
Should I mention my Stack Overflow (and other Stack Exchange sites) reputation in my CV while applying for a post-graduate position?
# Answer
**No, you shouldn't. Not yet, anyway**
---
In general, I think it's perfectly fine to list that information on a CV for an academic position. Depending on the profile of the position itself, I would feature it more or less prominently. Say, if you apply for a scientific programming position (or a position with heavy coding), you could list it under a “Skills” section where you would say:
> C/C++/Fortran with a focus on shared-memory and distributed memory parallelism (OpenMP/MPI)
> Received formal training at XXX National Lab, taught parallelism course at University of YYY, involved in StackOverflow (username: zzz) on this topic.
(if the format allows it, like a PDF, consider including a hyperlink)
If the position is not one heavily involving code-writing, you could tone it down, or even list it in a “Hobbies” or “Personal” section. Many people like to list hiking or book reading or civil war reënactments, so why not list Stack Overflow!
**But…** in all cases, only do it if your account is of the *wow!* type. You don't have to be Jon Skeet (it may take years of therapy to accept that, but that's the sad truth), but you don't want someone to look up your profile and think *“meh”*.
> 46 votes
# Answer
I would say not to. As a hiring manager I really care most about the relevant details such as work experience academic focus. Although SE/SO is pretty darn popular it's also a website and, although we may disagree about this :-), not seen as a professional/peer-reviewed/authoritative/juried/etc. source. I would just see it at fluff and wonder why it was there. If you're going for a research position keep in mind that these people haven't seen sunshine in months, much less a computer that doesn't have Matlab open on it.
I would, however, be interested if somebody explained to me (in the interview) what this whole thing was when I asked the "so what else are you into" question. As a hobby this shows that you are a technologist first and that you make your geek part of your life. I would take that into consideration for an academic or a professional position because it shows where your interests are.
In general; I would say that if you feel strongly about something- don't put it on your resume. Save that for the interview and make a good impression with it.
My 2cents.
EDIT: Nate Eldredge made a good comment below. Although it should be obvious, it is worth pointing out that this post is made from an industry perspective. It is provided to frame the topic within the larger context of an interview; any interview. My experience has been that there is very little difference between my professional and academic interviews, ymmv - of course, and therefore I submit that the commentary is germane.
Re-reading my comments I realize that, yes, I was being a bit flippant for comedic effect. No offense intended.
> 20 votes
# Answer
If I was to hire a Postdoc, Phd student, a Master student or a programmer for my project and that position had a related component (lets say Programming, GIS, Maths, CS, Mathematica etc.) and someone had a very good reputation in the site that I understood, I will definitely see it as a strong indicator. Of course it's easy to check the type of questions that have been asked/answered and the calibre of the person =\> if someone develops a strategy to just get points by answering easy questions and asking general questions that are bound to get a lot of up votes that would not win a lot of brownie points. Nevertheless I will never penalize anyone for it. It's active participation which is always positive.
> 16 votes
# Answer
I can't think of a situation where it would be helpful to list SE reputation on your CV. Most people won't know what SE is, and so will either not care or think it's weird. If your reputation is not very high then it's also going to look bad. Finally in the one situation where it might help you (the person reading your CV is active on SE and you are a SE superstar), there's no point in listing it because the person will already know who you are. I don't need a CV to tell me that Qiaochu Yuan is a major contributor to MO.
> 12 votes
# Answer
It depends on the field. Unless you're sure that it's well-known and valued in your field, don't write it as a claim of competence — but you can write it as a hobby.
Let's not over-estimate the value of Stack Exchange. Stack Overflow, by far the largest website, has an Alexa ranking of 86. It's probably well-known among programmers, but probably not among others. Stackexchange.com in its entirety has a ranking of 469. That includes Stats, GIS, Maths, CS... `superuser.com` has a ranking of 1620, `serverfault.com` a ranking of 2159.
Most likely, an academic reading your application will not know the website you are mentioning. A CV should focus on the important parts. Any space wasted is harmful to your cause of grabbing their attention. Mentioning a high score on a website they haven't heard about is a waste of space. Therefore, I would not put it on your CV, unless you're sure it's going to impress them.
That being said, I've heard of people writing in their CV that they're among the top 200 in World of Warcraft. It's perfectly fine to write hobbies in the CV — but if you're trying to convince someone of your competence by citing your score on a website they're not familiar with, you might do more harm than good.
> 9 votes
# Answer
I don't think it is a good idea because the value of a "SO rep point" is unfamiliar to most of your audience (and varies across sites). Still, SO provides a useful public record of thinking, learning, teaching, dialogue, and social skills.
One way to leverage this would be to point to examples of your teaching, learning, and problem solving - with perhaps a well chosen example in the research and / or teaching statements; if your published results benefited from SO, a reference to a SO question could tell an interesting back-story behind a paper, and be a launching point for anyone who is curious about your other contributions.
> 8 votes
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Tags: cv, interview
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thread-7787 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7787 | Summer plans for first year computer science grad student? | 2013-02-05T01:15:47.113 | # Question
Title: Summer plans for first year computer science grad student?
I've worked at the same place for the past two summers doing software development, and very much enjoyed the work and practical experience. I was recently asked if I would consider a 1-2 year contract position. If they would have asked a year ago, I probably would have said yes... but I began graduate school this year. So instead they are offering me a summer position.
I'm waiting to hear back from an internship and my advisor, but neither seemed particularly hopeful last I checked. I am currently doing research part-time in AI, so this job would not really be relevant to that at all. But, it's a job, and I like the place. So my question is, should I accept (conditionally, if the internship does not work out), or continue looking for something more relevant? Is it "okay" to work in an unrelated area your first summer as a graduate student?
# Answer
> 2 votes
This will obviously vary by country and subject.
I'm not familiar with the idea of graduate students taking summer off from study. That's OK for undergraduates, but not for higher degrees. A multi-year higher degree is a full-on commitment, and doesn't leave time, space or energy for summer jobs.
But I'm going to take a leap here, and read a little more into your question than you've written. Now, this may apply to you, or it may not. It will apply to someone in the future who reads this question and might have asked the same thing themselves. It sounds like you're questioning whether you should be continuing this further degree, or getting out there into the workforce.
So, it's time for you to review, with your advisory / supervisory team, and with your trusted friends / family, whether to continue the degree, or to join this company as a full-time employee.
Only you know what your reasons were for starting a higher degree.
But if it was to help you land the sort of job you're now being offered, then perhaps it's already served its purpose - in which case, you're done with it.
If it was for much longer-term reasons, if it has to be done now rather than later in life, if it's the love of pure research, if you're considering a career in academia rather than industry - then your research degree is much bigger and more important than this job offer.
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Tags: phd, internship, computer-science
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thread-7795 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7795 | Ideal ways of making a call for nominations | 2013-02-05T06:50:32.507 | # Question
Title: Ideal ways of making a call for nominations
We're currently putting out a Call for Nominations for graduate research and historically we've received very few nominations. What are some good strategies to get more nominations. Should we be more specific or broaden the qualification.
The award is from a minority organization for "doctoral candidates who have demonstrated excellence in research or in teaching".
# Answer
Improve the reward. If you're not currently offering money, consider doing it. Other forms of reward I can think of can be:
* the opportunity to give a talk at a prestigious venue, to a nice audience
* the opportunity to give a talk alongside a famous speaker (say, allowing the awardee to give a 15' talk just before a 1 hour talk by some famous person)
* an introduction to some influent people, possibly looking to hire researchers
> 5 votes
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Tags: awards
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thread-7791 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7791 | What tense should paper titles use? | 2013-02-05T04:28:35.380 | # Question
Title: What tense should paper titles use?
I have recently noticed that the tense of paper titles can be somewhat odd. This previous question, In what tense (present/past) should papers be written?, has some great information but it doesn't directly answer for titles.
Some random titles:
* Improving source code search with natural language phrasal representations of method signatures
* A comparison of stemmers on source code identifiers for software search
* Using Formal Models to Objectively Judge Quality of Multi-Threaded Programs in Empirical Studies
* Modeling Programmer Navigation: A head-to-head empirical evaluation of predictive models
Most titles (in Computer Science) look to be present progressive. Is there a rule/reason behind this?
# Answer
> 22 votes
First: the usual (read: boring) way of writing academic paper titles is indeed without verbs:
> **A study of** acquired growth hormone deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in a subject with repeated head trauma
or using gerunds (which is a verb form, but in that case is used to construct a present progressive but a noun phrase):
> **Understanding** acquired growth hormone deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in a subject with repeated head trauma
---
However, I think include a verb is possible, and oftentimes makes the title much catchier and appealing to the non-specialist reader. For example, the titles I “quoted” above are of my own making, but the real title for the article (and believe me, you want to read it) is:
> Acquired growth hormone deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in a subject with repeated head trauma, or **Tintin goes to the neurologist**
There: even if I know nothing of “acquired growth hormone deficiency” and “hypogonadotropic hypogonadism”, I know what the paper is about.
Now, if you use verbs in article titles, they are mostly going to be about *established facts*, *generic questions*, *mathematical proofs*, … which means you should write in the present tense.
> * Vitamin C enriched diet can prevent scurvy
> * Minesweeper is NP-complete
I particularly like to use questions in titles, as they make quite clear the problem you're tackling:
> * How hard is the measurement of quartz hardness? A review of the commercial available apparatuses and their robustness
> * How fast does the swallow fly? Reexamining the impact of the bird's geographical origin
In a few cases, you would talk about a historical event, and then you'd use the past tense:
> * How World War One was won: the role of time travelers from the twenty-second century
> * The CERN measurement was not a fluke: finally establishing the Higgs discovery at the 10-sigma level
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Tags: publications, language, writing-style
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thread-7801 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7801 | What is the most appropriate time frame to apply to a Postdoc? | 2013-02-05T11:05:32.630 | # Question
Title: What is the most appropriate time frame to apply to a Postdoc?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> How long before PhD graduation should I start applying for post-doc positions?
I'm about to start a Postdoctoral program of 1 year, after that, there is a high possibility that the project won't go on. Hence, I have to find a new position.
What would it be a good time frame to start contacting professors to find a second postdoc, I found that applying very early usually ended up in me being not a suitable candidate because I had no immediate availability.
I know that there is no one size fits all time frame, but in your experience, what would be a better practice?
# Answer
> 3 votes
Charles answer here (https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/5303/4231) applies to your case. Some positions will start right away and some positions will have a fixed start date set in the future. I suggest you start looking around 6 months into your 1 year postdoc, at first focus on positions starting later: that info should be in the job advertisment. Then, if you have not found something suitable, focus on positions starting right away when you approach the end of your postdoc.
Do not wait until your postdoc is finished to look for a new position.
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Tags: postdocs
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thread-7754 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7754 | What is a "publishable" thesis? | 2013-02-04T01:11:51.790 | # Question
Title: What is a "publishable" thesis?
**What is a "publishable" thesis?**
I have often heard this term thrown about in conferences and even as advice to new grad. students.
From what I know, it is indeed rare for a thesis to be published entirely as a book, though one can publish papers out of the thesis.
# Answer
In some cases it might mean that the thesis could be published as a book. However, I'd generally interpret the phrase to mean that the thesis could readily be adapted and published as one or more journal articles.
> 12 votes
# Answer
I assume that, once again, this probably depends on your field and country.
In the Netherlands, apparently, it is required to leave a large quantity (\>100) with your university. Also, an ISBN will be assigned, according to my contract. This should mean that anyone could quite easily order a copy. I don't want to know the costs of such an order though.
Sometimes you can also find them on Google Scholar. Although I'm not sure how i will have to proceed to have mine appear there (in years), I like to read them. They usually are well written and give a very good overview of the field in a concise manner. Reading papers to achieve that kind of overview usually takes a lot longer.
This would be my answer to the title question. A well written overview of the work, done during your PhD, in relation to what is known in the field.
> 0 votes
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Tags: phd, publications, thesis
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thread-5015 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5015 | Differences in quality between a PhD with graduate course work, and one purely on research? | 2012-10-27T18:52:55.240 | # Question
Title: Differences in quality between a PhD with graduate course work, and one purely on research?
The UK PhD programs are based upon just research for three years, whereas in the US there tends to be substantial graduate course work included.
How does this difference affect the quality of the PhD thesis, and the quality of work produced in the long term?
# Answer
> 6 votes
When someone earned successfully and honestly his PhD in a good research group, either in the US system or in UK/Germany (Master degree is often mandatory for starting PhD), there will probably be no strong differences in the overall quality, I wouldn't make here any generalizations based on this fine system nuances. The level and depth of research experience are very similar (also STEM students in Germany don't work on average 80-90 hours a week, 60 will be rare ;))
But, when a student did choose a distinct topic and research field for his master **and** PhD thesis, you can be a bit more sure he is really motivated for this work and research generally, while a US PhD student with a bachelor (and without master) **maybe** is just trying to finish what he started over the years, in spite of vanishing interest/motivation in research generally (see link above) or that distinct topic. During the short time of a bachelor thesis you cannot find out, if you are suited for research and a distinct field in my opinion. In Germany it's hard to get invitations to PhD job interviews at all without a master thesis near to a given research project. Motivation and background is here more important than 0,5 better grade or 3 year younger age. In interviews they mostly check, how motivated, interested, knowledgable is a candidate for that distinct field. So there will probably be no big differences in quality, but you can be more sure about long term motivation and therefore originality/quality of his research.
As we currently have a (another) case of plagiarism in Germany (our education minister obviously wasn't trained, e.g. by a bachelor nor master thesis, for writing a long PhD thesis correctly), I have to add that somebody who has written a bigger master **and** PhD thesis will also have more practice in publishing, citing, researching literature...
Side note: Personally, I think the german system is more selective, while the US system can afford this system because of a abundance of PhD students and applicants (thats also the reason they have to work 80-90 instead of 60 hours, competition being stronger and teaching of undergraduate students in Germany needs very good command of german language, we are limited in hiring foreign students for those jobs). A very good master and PhD thesis is a strong hallmark for the motivation of a student and future researcher for a distinct research field.
# Answer
> 5 votes
In the UK, you can normally do a PhD only after completing a master's degree, i.e. you begin with research after you have already done a year or two of graduate level coursework. In the US, graduate studies normally begin begin with courses and end in research, at the end of which you have obtained a PhD. You can enroll directly after your bachelors studies. Overall the two are quite comparable in terms of time spent in courses and on research once you have your PhD. There are exceptions of course, but I understand that this is the default situation.
The effect on the thesis itself probably depends on how closely related the courses are to your research topic. In my experience, research topics are usually about adding new knowledge to a field, so it's hard to find more than a few courses (if even a few) that overlap much with your research. I see courses more as a way to gain some general expertise in your field.
# Answer
> 4 votes
In my opinion, there is an effect but it will only become apparent in people who would be borderline cases anyway.
In the short run, a given project- be it dissertation or what comes after- will require a very specific set of skills that, in general, need to be acquired on-the-job. However, *if* the grad school courses are relevant the PhD program with coursework will have a slight advantage. (I'd love to find these programs with useful prerequisites.)
In the long run, the challenge shifts to choosing the right projects. That requires a broad perspective that classes in grad school *could* give.
A motivated person who lacks the formal coursework can catch up.
Given all these, I think that the difference in PhD programs will only hurt those graduate students who might lack the motivation for life-long learning anyway.
# Answer
> 1 votes
The courses on research methodology greatly improved the value I got from my PhD. Sure, you can make it through yourself to get the research done, but a PhD implies having research skills and deep understanding of the scientific method, which can be taught formally. Tough US-style courses can only benefit. That said, I experienced a massive difference in the quality/relevance of PhD courses.
I also have a beef with the German PhD system (in reply to another post here). At least in my own field (social sciences), many German practitioners do a PhD in 2 years (often part time) by writing a "big book" which is defended in front of one's own adviser plus 1 external (generally). There is thus a glut of PhDs in the workforce but few if any German PhDs publishing in my field in ranked journals. Fortunately I think this is not the case for STEM subjects where the level is excellent in Germany. Still, the pressure to be "Herr Doktor" in order to move ahead in a political or management career in Germany seems to have lead to many low-quality dissertations written on the weekends with no formal teaching support (hence all the intentional or unintentional plagiarism popping up recently in Germany). Where there are PhD courses, there is support and structure, a research community, and a greater likelihood of higher quality and understanding.
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Tags: community
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thread-7826 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7826 | What's the name of Wikipedia's default referencing style? | 2013-02-06T15:15:21.443 | # Question
Title: What's the name of Wikipedia's default referencing style?
What's the name of the Default Referencing Style that Wikipedia Uses? Specifically, I'm looking for the name of the style that is used when you use the referencing styles use by default when you click one of these four options:
# Answer
As you can see above, references to journal articles from the English Wikipedia are styled in the following manner:
> Author, First A.; Author, Second B. (year). "Title goes here". *Journal of failed experiments* **volume** (issue): pages-pages.
This is documented here. **It corresponds to the APA citation style**, with additional quotation marks around the paper title (which are not present in the standard APA style). Also, the references are styled as footnotes rather than “(author year)”.
In addition, note that it is not a strict Wikipedia requirement: the documentation I quoted above says:
> There is currently **no consensus on a preferred citation style or system for Wikipedia**. If you cannot decide on which style to use, or if you do not know what information to include, an example partially based on the APA style is given below.
> 7 votes
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Tags: citations, wikipedia
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thread-7824 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7824 | Thesis peer review "service" | 2013-02-06T14:50:19.203 | # Question
Title: Thesis peer review "service"
There are a lot of post about peer review of papers, but how about graduate/undergraduate thesis? Is there somewhere on the vast internet, where one can submit his thesis for a peer review.
The reason I am asking this is because I am finishing my master's in engineering and so far my advisor has not seen my thesis even once. The only "review" I got was a friend who found out only grammatical and punctuation errors and I did the same for her. But the fact that we know nothing about each other's research stops us from performing a quality peer review.
# Answer
**There is a full-blown, high-quality peer-review process for a thesis**: it's called **the thesis committee**.
If you mean a service where you can get help improve your document before you submit it to your committee, that is something that one's advisor(s) tasks. Maybe you can actually get help from friends, colleagues, or in the most severe cases your advisor's friends, but there is not much.
The thing that may be closely related is that, in some systems (the French one at least), there is a person that is responsible for validating the PhD student's manuscript *before it gets sent to the committee*. Then, it's that person's responsibility (in theory) to do a basic check of your manuscript and your work, and decide if there is enough to gather a committee. I say “in theory”, because this person will probably get dozens of theses per year (at the very least) and can only perform the most basic checks. In practice, they most often do not check the manuscript content, but its form (does it follow the University's standards), as well as some simple indicators of your research (has the candidate published? how many times? did he attend conferences? that sort of stuff).
> 18 votes
# Answer
Your situation suggests that your relationship with your adviser has broken down. Fix it. I usually find going out for coffee and just talking, not necessarily about your thesis, always helps.
You can always get editorial assistance but you want expert assistance. This is where your adviser comes in. Make it easy for him or her. Submit perhaps a chapter at a time. Then meet and have a good honest discussion.
Other than the above, search for a newly minted PhD candidate in your department, perhaps a former student of your adviser, and ask him or her to review your work. Believe me, this does wonders because of the motivation that the newly minted PhD candidate brings to the review. By newly minted PhD, I mean a person who has already completed his study.
> 9 votes
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Tags: peer-review, thesis
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thread-7809 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7809 | Statistics on readership and posting habits for academic blogs | 2013-02-05T21:49:26.640 | # Question
Title: Statistics on readership and posting habits for academic blogs
Although this stackexchange seems to be a little hostile towards metrics (especially when they are about research productivity), it is still sometimes fun to indulge in a little bit of arbitrary measurement and quantification. Sometimes it can help you set targets, or let you know what is possible. In this case I am curious about blogs.
Having a web-presence is important, but **how do you know if your academic blog is doing a good job?**
From my own experience, I have noticed that my blog gets a lot more readership and mention than any of my papers. I usually find this encouraging, and at times it helps me increase productivity by incorporating blogging into my research work-flow and feeling like I am able to communicate with people before having complete results. Sometimes even receive feedback (although my blog is not at the level of regular commentators, and nowhere close to the comment activity I see on popular blogs that I follow).
However, getting more mention than my papers is not a fair standard. In fact, I have no standard by which to decide if I am doing an alright job blogging, and what I should aim for to improve the ability of my blog to engage other researchers or interested readers. Having some hard data is also useful for converting people new to blogging to the online community.
**Are there any statistics on typical readership, posting rates, and commenting frequency for small (non-superstar) academic blogs?** I would be especially interested in statistics that are broken down by area, since I expect a nutrition or cancer blog to inherently get more readership than one dedicated to Stone-duality. Of particular interest to me would be information about blogs in theoretical computer science and/or mathematical modeling.
# Answer
> 9 votes
I think it's interesting to consider the relative value to society of blog posts relative to more traditional forms of content distribution, such as book chapters, text books, journal articles and so forth.
### Obtaining Benchmark statistics
* RSS counts: Many blogs, particularly popular ones, show their RSS subscriber count. You can use the Explore Search feature in Google Reader to search for blogs you know. This returns the number of Google Reader subscribers. This is less than the total reader count, but it can give you a rough ball park.
* Page views: Some blogs occasionally post their site statistics. Alexa can provide a very rough estimate of the popularity of a site.
* Comments: It is straight forward to look at other blogs to get a sense of how many comments they typically get.
### My rough rules of thumb
I've been blogging since 2008 and have kept an eye on RSS feeds and page views over timeon my own blog. I've also picked up information from other blogs that I follow. My main observations are that it takes time to produce content, get indexed by Google, obtain RSS subscribers and so on. These would be my rough benchmarks for academic blogging. In the fields that interest me (e.g., psychology, statistics, R) I can think of specific blogs that fall in to one or other of these categories. This helps to inform the benchmark. Anyway, these are just my casual rules of thumb; of course, they aren't anything definitive.
* RSS subscribers:
+ 0 to 10: Not popular
+ 10 to 100: Just getting started
+ 100 to 500: Moderate levels of popularity
+ 500 to 1000: Relatively popular
+ 1000 to 10,000: Popular Blog
+ 10,000+: Superstar blog
* Annual Page Views
+ 0 to 1,000: Not popular
+ 1,000 to 10,000: Just getting started
+ 10,000 to 50,000: Moderate levels of popularity
+ 50,000 to 300,000: Relatively popular
+ 300,000 to 2,000,000: Popular Blog
+ 2,000,000+: Superstar blog
### What does a page view mean
It is a little difficult to know what a page view means in terms of achieving broader blogging goals. Only a proportion of page views correspond to a person reading the entirety of the page. And only a proportion of those page views have any meaningful impact on the reader. In order to get a sense of what these proportions might be, I reflect on my own browsing. For example, I might be searching to diagnose a software error, do a tutorial on something, or get a review of a product. It might take a few search results to find what I'm looking for. That said, perhaps something between 1 in 10 and 1 in 2 search results provide useful results.
In summary, even if only 1 in 20 pageviews helped someone in some meaningful way, if you're getting a hundred thousand page views per year, that's still 5,000 instances of people being helped.
# Answer
> 7 votes
I used to track my stats compulsively, but no longer do so. this is mainly because I get lots of readers through an RSS feed, which doesn't directly impact traffic. Sometimes I'll monitor the relative hit rate of specific posts, and I have seen dramatic jumps (for example if I do business meeting blogging, or if I post on something controversial).
As a rule of thumb, the more technical the post, the less traffic it gets. The more buzzwordy, the more traffic. I had some thoughts on deep learning recently and that got huge traffic in comparison to some of my more technical posts.
Now, because of G+, twitter, and blogs, my "visibility" is diluted across all three media, and while I'm sure there's some way to monitor all of them, I haven't paid that much attention. Ultimately, I blog because it's fun, and the more I get distracted by audience response, the more I find myself distorting the things I post about.
# Answer
> 5 votes
I can't say much about statistics, as I have not come across any, but in my experience blog readerships are usually small and most likely by specialists in your area. However, I view a blog as free advertising for my research, as blogs are generally more highly ranked than academic papers by google and the like. I also view a blog as an ideal platform to put your research into laymans terms. From my blogs I have had an out of the blue invited talk, and also requests from numerous researchers who I hadn't met for copies of papers or general queries about my work.
I personally find maintaining a nice website and blog well worth the effort, and I try and spend a couple of hours a week on new content, but usually concentrated when new articles are published. Ultimately it's all about raising the profile of your research, and having more accessible material is always helpful, even for specialists.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I don't know if it is the answer you are looking for, but I would be cautious with looking at blog views (or even likes/tweets):
* First, they may be superficial. You don't even know if someone actually read it (maybe (s)he entered just because of a sexy title, or a nice picture, or - misleading keywords).
* Second, they is are measure of popularity, not necessary quality, with a lot of mechanisms making scaling exponential (e.g. snowball effect).
Personally, I often look at stats of page visits of my various sites... but I cannot make much sense of it. But what I find important is:
* How often I can send someone a link to my post, so it save my time of explaining something once again?
* How much I learn something from readers, or make new contacts through it?
* Do I hearing feedback, especially from strangers or people I don't know very well?
Moreover, then I can compare blogs to regular articles on this ground. Still it's apples to oranges... but now they are quantized fruits. :)
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Tags: publications, online-resource, community, website, blog
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thread-7833 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7833 | What does a PhD Committee do? | 2013-02-07T01:22:38.983 | # Question
Title: What does a PhD Committee do?
I have been reading that many students have a PhD committee. I assume this is a group of experts supervising the student.
In my case, and I think this is quite common, I had two people. One was the principal supervisor and the other was the associate supervisor.
Almost all my contacts were with the principal supervisor. The associate supervisor was a back-up resource if and when needed.
This was a simple one-on-one contact between me and my principal supervisor.
I am just wondering how does a PhD committee work?
# Answer
At least in the US, a Ph.D committee will have 4-5 members, and there are rules about the composition of the committee (there might need to be at least one person from an external institution, and at least one person from a different department, or variations thereof).
The committee's formal job is to assess the Ph.D student's dissertation proposal, determine that the work being proposed is sufficient for a dissertation, and then evaluate the final dissertation defense and decide whether to grant the student a Ph.D or not.
Informally, a Ph.D committee provides a set of resources/expertise for the student to tap into for advice, research directions and even contacts for future work (yes, there's life after a Ph.D :)). There's prior discussion on how to choose your committee.
> 14 votes
# Answer
I want to clarify a point about your first paragraph: at least in the US, the PhD committee does *not* usually supervise the student very much. A PhD student has an advisor, who is typically on the PhD committee, and may be its chair, who supervises the student. The committee's main role is to determine whether the thesis gives adequate grounds to grant a PhD. At some schools the committee convenes only once or twice---perhaps once to approve a plan for the thesis, and once to approve it. At others, the committee might meet once a year to consider whether the student is making adequate progress.
Regardless, at least in the US, it's unusual for the committee to have a formal role beyond that. Of course it's possible that committee members besides the advisor might be involved in supervising the student, but the causation is more likely to run the other way: because they're involved in supervising the student, they're invited to be on the committee.
> 7 votes
# Answer
The answer to this question differs based on the country, university, faculty, department and the particular members of the committee.
In general universities and departments have regulations and procedures that describe in exact detail the roles and responsibilities of the PhD committee. No one in here can give you anything but some general idea which is already described in more detail in those documents. PhD committees have completely different roles in US and UK for instance. In US they are the ones that assess you but in UK your examiners assess you and then report back to the committee in the department.
> 1 votes
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Tags: phd, advisor, thesis-committee
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thread-7835 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7835 | Can I hand out students a few pages from books as supplementary materials? | 2013-02-07T01:54:10.490 | # Question
Title: Can I hand out students a few pages from books as supplementary materials?
No textbook is perfect. So if I want to supplement my course with some material (a few pages from different references every now and then, on topics I find lacking or weak in the textbook):
* is it legal to make copies of those a few pages and give them to the students as hand outs?
* is it legal to scan them and upload them on the course site?
* should I email the authors to take their permission 1st? what if one author is dead?
* in case the above is a violation of copyrights so what should I do then? asking the
students to go read those parts in the library? (the students would need to keep a copy of the reading/supplementary materials)
# Answer
> 9 votes
First, in most cases, the channels through which you distribute the material to your students (hardcopies, restricted-access course website) is not important. Secondly, the copyright holder for each work is (again, in most cases) the publisher, not the author. Thus, getting permission from the author is not necessary.
So, the surest way to avoid trouble is to secure the permission to reproduce the content from the publisher. Publishers should have an online page (e.g., see here for the American Chemical Society publications) explaining how to obtain this permission. Many academic publishers nowadays rely on a centralized online service called RightsLink, where you can directly select the material you want to reproduce and the conditions in which you will use it:
The tool then tells you if you can get a permission to reproduce at no charge (it usually is if you want to reproduce only small parts, a few figures) or if you would need to pay.
Finally, under US law you may qualify for a *fair use* right to reproduce parts of a copyrighted content.
# Answer
> 3 votes
For Germany, §53 of UrhG allows actually a lot (compared to other countries' fair use policies). The deal is that flat fees on copying machines, scanners, printers, etc. (as well as on paper) are collected and redistributed to authors.
I find §53 **slightly ambiguous for the university teacher**:
(3) says rougly:
> It is allowed to make copies of small parts of works, of small works, or of single articles that are published or made publicly available in newspapers or journals for personal purposes
>
> 1. to illustrate in teaching at schools, non-commercial facilities for education and advanced training as well as in facilities for professional training in the numbers required for the course participants.
> 2. for state exams or exams in schools, universities, non-commercial facilities for education and advanced training as well as in facilities for professional training in the numbers required.
So the "universities" are missing in 1. Usually, I'd say they are covered by those other categories, but they are explicitly listed in 2.
However, for sure the **students are allowed to make a copy**: (2) 1. runs:
> (2) It is allowed to make or have made single copies of a work
>
> 1. for personal scientific use, if and as far as copying is needed for this purpose and does not follow commercial purposes.
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Tags: copyright
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thread-7430 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7430 | Reading material on working conditions of women in academia | 2013-01-24T11:21:19.310 | # Question
Title: Reading material on working conditions of women in academia
Like many professions, academia is a challenging environment for women. In some disciplines (e.g. computer science), the number of women remains low despite efforts to increase it. Have there been any academic studies on the ways of improving the working conditions for women, specifically focussing on women in academia? As an academic working in hard sciences (i.e. not gender studies), what book or review could I read on the topic, to help me get a better understanding of these issues (and possibly improve my own behavior)?
I'm not interested in “advice” (in part because I am not a woman), but in studies of how effective are various possible ways of improving the working conditions for women (in academia). Like “we study universities implementing policies X and Y, and show that they do increase gender diversity bu xx%”
---
*The question “Women in academia” is related, but I'm asking for material with a totally different perspective.*
# Answer
> 10 votes
The most recent paper to make a big splash on this subject was "Science faculty's subtle gender biases favor male students", by Moss-Racusin et al. You can start there, and dig backwards through the references - you'll hit most of the major reports on this topic.
A few notes on the topic of this paper itself:
It is the same gender biases that academics have towards their students that they also demonstrate against their peers, so don't narrow your research too much. And if your question is "why are there so few academic women in the sciences?" you need to look at the problem from top to bottom. Women aren't going to want to become professors if they are already noticing the bias in undergrad.
# Answer
> 5 votes
You may want to check out the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) website. There's a resources area on the right side of the page which includes publications and factsheets. Elsewhere, there's a link to relevant committee or groups for different STEM fields.
# Answer
> 4 votes
In the UK there is Athena SWAN Charter which
> recognises commitment to advancing women's careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment in higher education.
They have a number of reports that could be of interest including Measuring Sucess and a whole section devoted to good practice.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I think that you read French, so there is this book: *Parcours de femmes à l'université : Perspectives internationales* and also this study: *Les femmes à l'université: Rapports de pouvoir et discriminations*.
# Answer
> 4 votes
A Google Scholar search of "academia women" seems to reveal a number of potentially-relevant studies.
Below are primarily retrospective/introspective qualitative articles, but some quantitative articles exist.
‘We make the road by walking’: a collaborative inquiry into the experiences of women in academia Elizabeth Drame, Jennifer Mueller, Raquel Oxford, Sandra Toro, Debora Wisneski, Yaoying Xu Reflective Practice Vol. 13, Iss. 6, 2012 http://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080%2F14623943.2012.732939
Inspiration From Role Models and Advice for Moving Forward Michelle G. Newman, Lata K. McGinn Behavior Therapy, Volume 43, Issue 4, December 2012, Pages 721–723 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2012.03.001
Kleihauer, Sarah, Carrie Ann Stephens, and William E. Hart. "Insights from Six Women on Their Personal Journeys to Becoming Deans of Agriculture: A Qualitative Study." Volume 11, Number 1–Winter 2012 (2012): 64.
Silander, C., Haake, U. & Lindberg, L. (2012). The different worlds of academia: a horizontal analysis of gender equality in Swedish higher education. Higher Education (18 december), 1-16.
O’Brien, K. R. and Hapgood, K. P. (2012), The academic jungle: ecosystem modelling reveals why women are driven out of research. Oikos, 121: 999–1004. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2012.20601.x
Multi-Institutional Study of Women and Underrepresented Minority Faculty Members in Academic Pharmacy Marie A. Chisholm-Burns, et al. Am J Pharm Educ. 2012 February 10; 76(1): 7. doi: 10.5688/ajpe7617
You may also wish to check out well-known blogs and sites that discuss the academic environment, including http://theprofessorisin.com and http://chronicle.com/section/Home/5 and http://www.phinished.org.
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Tags: workplace, gender
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thread-7753 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7753 | What should someone who has been rejected from all PhD programs do to improve their application for later admissions cycles? | 2013-02-03T23:20:15.457 | # Question
Title: What should someone who has been rejected from all PhD programs do to improve their application for later admissions cycles?
I tried asking this question in cstheory.stackexchange.com but it was closed and it seems like this question is more appropriate here.
I am an undergraduate and an American citizen who recently applied to Computer Science PhD programs in the US. Based on conversations with friends and posts on gradcafe I am very likely to be rejected from all the programs I applied to (I haven't heard anything while others have gotten acceptances and interview requests from all the schools I have applied to). I am now trying to brainstorm ideas for what to do after my graduation in order to improve my chances of getting into a PhD program when I try to apply again next year.
One option that seems to be brought up a lot is to attend a master's program. However, unless I can get funding, or transfer credit will lower my tuition significantly (I'll have 6 or 7 graduate level cs courses that will not count towards graduation requirements by the time I graduate), I'm not sure if I can afford such a program.
Another popular option is to be a lab technician or something similar. I'm not sure if such positions are available in theoretical computer science.
Is there anything else I can do?
# Answer
It's difficult to *really* answer your question without actually seeing your application, but here's some general advice.
* **Remember that the admissions process is random.** — There is *nothing* you can do to absolutely guarantee admission *anywhere*. The most you can do is maximize your *expected* return.
* **Calibrate your expectations.** — Are you *really* a good candidate for a top-5 department? (Hint: Do you have a STOC/FOCS/SODA paper?) For a top-10 department? For a top-25 department? *Really?* Be respectful but brutally honest with yourself. Ask your letter-writers or other faculty mentors to be brutally honest with you as well. Listen to them.
* **Identify potential advisors.** — Every department you apply to should have *at least two* faculty, preferably more, whose **specific** research interests closely match yours. Your research statement should not only name those faculty but explain why you think they'd be a good match. Ask your references (or other mentors) for feedback and advice. Listen to them.
* **Spread your applications.** — The rule of thumb I heard when I was applying was apply for four schools where you have a reasonable chance of being admitted, one or two backup schools, and one dream school. *Do **not** let the backup schools know that they are backup schools!*
* **Get good letters.** — Your letters *must* address your **potential for research** in personal, specific, and credible terms. A letter that only describes your performance in class is worthless. Your letters must come from research faculty — not PhD students, not postdocs, not lecturers, not managers. If possible, your references should have direct experience with strong PhD students (either as a reference or as an advisor) to make direct comparisons. If possible, your references should be well-known active researchers, but this is actually less important than experience with students. Since you've taken half a dozen graduate classes, you should be in good shape here.
* **Write a good statement.** — Your research statement (or "statement of purpose" as everyone bizarrely insists on calling it) *must* address your **potential for research** in specific and credible terms. Do not start with an inspiring quotation. Do not write about how computers are changing the world. Do not write about how you've been programming since you were in the womb; nobody cares. Write about your *research*. Describe your experience. Describe your specific interests (not just "theoretical computer science"). Describe a problem that you *might* want to work on, with enough background and technical language to convince the reader you know what you're talking about *and* that you actually care. Bonus points if you correctly cite one of your potential advisor's recent papers, but don't force it.
* **Get feedback.** — Send the *final* version of your research statement to your letter-writers (or other faculty mentors) and ask for their brutally honest feedback. Give them plenty of time. Expect to get your statement back soaked in red ink. Expect different people to give you conflicting advice. Listen to all of them. Lather, revise, repeat.
* But this is all about the *form* of the application. The best way to improve the **content** of your application is **DO RESEARCH**. Get paid to do research if you can, but do research anyway if you can't. Find a mentor (at your undergrad institution?) if you can, but do research anyway if you can't. Post technical questions *and answers* to cstheory.stackexchange. Follow CS theory blogs and read the papers that they write about. Keep a copy of the most recent STOC or SODA proceedings nearby to read while you're compiling, or waiting for the laundry, or riding the bus, or whatever. Talk regularly with your letter-writers about your progress. Write, write, write.
> 29 votes
# Answer
If you intend to do a PhD, then you're tackling the academic career path, so you're at the right place here :)
I am as well applying for a PhD currently, and went through the process of applying for a masters, here're the things I learned the hard way, In general, there are two phases in acceptance, the university acceptance and the departmental acceptance
1. You should avoid applying to programs directly without contacting anyone in the department you want to work in. So first, check the faculty's members, see their research interests, and contact one of them, telling him that you would want to work under his supervision for your masters because you find his research topics matching your interests and expertise. That person may then make the departmental admission easier.
2. Most of us google for the top most universities and apply there, which makes our chances lower. Try to look for the 100-200s or search for new offers.
3. When you contact faculty members, NEVER COPY PASTE EMAILS! these will be very easy to detect, and will result in considering you a spammer. Make sure you tailor your email on the person's research interests and write your most interesting qualifications in the body of the email (not as an attachment, because usually they are too busy to check that, unless you really impressed them through the email's body)
4. Try to target funding organizations that give out scholarships based on minorities, ethnic groups etc.. these are easier to get accepted in, than the ones available for all the public
5. Narrow down your focus of the research area that you like most and would love to work in. If you have worked in that area before, it will make your application more unique.
So take care of the above points the next time you apply. As for the skills you can work on
1. Do some research, try to publish scientific papers
2. Work on a research proposal, learn how to write a good one as it will help you in future applications and when contacting faculty members. Try to contact your undergraduate university's professors and try to join a research group or work with one of them on a topic that you can publish papers from.
3. Take the GRE General test, that is a must in most of the universities in the US
4. Take the GRE computer science test, which is optional in most of the applications but distinguishes your application
If you are not from an English speaking country, make sure you
1. Take the TOEFL exam, most programs require 80/120, in US they usually ask for 90, which is pretty easy for you from what I can see in your question (take care as the score expires in 2 years, it has to be valid till the time of being admitted, not just the application time)
2. Make sure all certificates/transcripts are translated to English (by a trusted entity)
It is usually difficult to get funding for your Masters, because it is mostly studying and not actual working, and you're just staying for two years, thus not contributing that much to the funding organization, but keep trying, never underestimate yourself and go on applying. And remember that even if you keep failing, you are still a long way ahead of those who never tried.
All the best
> 9 votes
# Answer
The most important thing you can do to strengthen your application is: **get additional research experience**. PhD programs focuses on research. This means that the most important criteria for admission is arguably: *likelihood for success at research*.
One of the best ways to demonstrate the likelihood that you will be successful at research is to provide evidence that *you've already been successful at research*. To do that, you need to get involved in an active research and do some serious research. So, my recommendation is: go do some research. If you've already done some, do some more. The more successful research experience you have, the better your odds of being admitted in the future.
Beyond this, it's hard to give more specific advice without understanding why you were rejected and what were the weakest aspects of your application. Therefore, my recommendation is: contact a mentor you trust (a faculty member who is active in research at a Ph.D. program) and ask them to review your application and give you advice about how to strengthen your application.
> 6 votes
# Answer
How are your grades? Grades are a large factor when it comes to Ph.D admissions and it may be worth taking courses that enable you to increase your grades.
Presumably, you are applying to a University abroad, but if there is a local University that performs research where you are, then you may want to work with a professor at your institution for a summer. The chances of getting this type of position may be slim but if you do get one, it gives you some research experience that you can put on your application materials.
If neither of these are good options, then you will probably want to spend your time reviewing related work in the area and working on your research statement. Write it using principles from the foolproof grant template. As a potential student, you might not use all of the elements (as you are limited in both experience, as well as getting about a page's worth of writing) but you should follow the structure for the "first two paragraphs".
> 1 votes
# Answer
I have applied for FALL 13 in US and awaiting results. Therefore what I am writing here is a mix of my own experience and the accumulation of my understanding of others (includes forums/blogs).
I applied to all colleges which I thought were good in theory (my area of interest). This list was basically influenced by -
i) the papers I read during my master/undergrad and
ii) the fact that each of the college in the list must have at least 3 potential advisors in theory.
Now the BIG problem was : am I a good fit for these colleges? Frankly, these colleges never disclose their candidate profiles and mostly, the home-pages of the current PhD students do not exist. So I went to forums like gradcafe where there is ton of data but very little useful information but still worth a visit. Some people suggest to mail prof before you apply. In my case I have been advised to not to contact them unless I have strong reasons. Plus, I do not expect any prof to evaluate my profile and see if I am a good match.
What do the admission committee look into any candidate? - research potential. If you have published work then it speaks for itself. Otherwise we have typically three recommendations and statement of purpose (sop).
For recommendation letter, two things matter -
i) Is your recommender known in your area?
ii) How good he knows you? (your association)
Now ideally you should have done some research work with your recommender.
SOP is important and can be seen as you recommending yourself. It also shows your proficiency of writing and communicating with others.
GRE,TOEFL - Some basic cut-off should be cleared. I do not have any idea about the cut-offs.
Funds - If you can manage funds then you cost nothing to college and therefore would be preferred by them.
> 0 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, rejection
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thread-7816 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7816 | What are some guidelines and best practices for releasing PR statements and project summary to the general public? | 2013-02-06T02:56:12.570 | # Question
Title: What are some guidelines and best practices for releasing PR statements and project summary to the general public?
What are some guidelines and best practices for PR statements and releasing a project summary to the general public? My first tendency is to always shorten the project summary, reduce the length of sentences and use more "crisp" words. But what else?
Does anyone have any pragmatic/practical/ advice and is there any sort of tool out there aside from the likes of MS Word readability stats that gives you suggestions to what to change?
EDIT: Came across this tool today which is inspired by XKCD (what is not?):
CAN YOU EXPLAIN A HARD IDEA USING ONLY THE TEN HUNDRED MOST USED WORDS? IT'S NOT VERY EASY. TYPE IN THE BOX TO TRY IT OUT:
http://splasho.com/upgoer5/
There should be something on these lines available to help with simplifying the language for instance (perhaps with 5000 words rather than THE TEN HUNDRED which is very limiting).
# Answer
> 5 votes
Talk to someone at a media relations, public relations, or press office at your university. Most universities will have folks who work in this area; they are the experts and have a ton of experience, and you should take advantage of them. They will likely be glad to help.
Here are some tips that I have learned from public relations folks:
* Identify your message. What's the takeaway lesson? Can you write it in one short sentence, in a form understandable to the average person on the street? Take a lot of time to craft this carefully. Then, your entire press release should be centered around supporting this message.
* Look for three facts or points that support the message. Numbers and statistics are very powerful.
* Stay on-message! I cannot emphasize this enough. Everything you talk about should be focused on your message. Avoid the temptation for digressions or tangents. Yes, you are a witty raconteur and can wax on enthusiastically for hours about your work, but this is not the place for it. Avoid unnecessary details; give a spare answer that provides just enough for folks to understand the message.
* Yes, I know that you and your fellow researchers are fascinated by all of the details of your experimental methodology, the alternative hypotheses you considered and rejected, the details of why your finding is correct, your calculations, and so on. Sorry, but the average person on the street doesn't care. Your top priority is to explain your bottom-line finding, why the average person should care, and *maybe* a teeny bit of something to give some intuition about why your finding is true (enough to make it sound plausible to an average person).
* Edit ruthlessly. You want as many eyes on it as possible, and ideally people who are *not* involved with your project. Lean heavily on your press office.
* In many universities, the press office will help you draft a press release. They'll talk to you informally, ask you a bunch of questions, and then work with you to write a press release. If they're available to do it, grab the opportunity; it can be very helpful.
* Brainstorm a list of about 10-20 questions that you expect reporters might ask you. Next, for each question, draft a candidate answer. Your answers should be concise (at most a few sentences) and simple; and, the chance to throw in an analogy or fact or figure can help, too. When you are talking to a reporter on the phone, have this list in front of you. This way, when they ask you a question, you can refer to the list and give your honed, crisp answer -- or at least, you have it to refer to if you need it. The reporter will never know.
* Remember that the purpose of talking to a newspaper reporter is not just to educate them about your project. It is also to supply them with as many pithy quotes that they can use in their article. The more quotable you are, the more likely it is that you will be quoted. They will be listening for those great quotes. Take the opportunity to brainstorm in advance a few short quotes, and make sure to throw them into every conversation with every journalist. Read a bunch of newspaper articles in advance so you can see what kinds of statements tend to get quoted.
The public relations folks may also be able to offer media training. If you can get the chance to take a media training course, take it! This is especially important if you might be on TV, where you have to make every second count. There are some powerful but non-obvious techniques that they can teach you.
# Answer
> 3 votes
It may be worth looking to see if your university has a press office. My university has a press office. They are happy to meet with research groups to talk about the press release process in general. They are also happy to edit copy to make it more likely to be picked up by the press. I believe they also are willing to work one-on-one and write the actual copy with you. They also have all the contacts and know how to get press-releases actually published in useful places.
# Answer
> 2 votes
More than making the text crisp and understandable, you should work to make it *relevant*. Typically your "press releases" are in the form of articles for the research community, which understands why you find your work relevant; you're advancing the field. When dealing with the general public, you can make no such assumption. You have to state very explicitly why your work is important.
If you're having a hard time with this, I've had success looking back at the grant proposal which is funding my research. In some proposals, the introduction will have some overarching, practical goal, which will be easily understood by a layperson. Couch any achievement or research breakthrough in this context and the press (and the general public) will have a much greater significance for what you did.
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Tags: publications, funding
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thread-7348 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7348 | How to cope with the change from easy undergrad. to difficult masters? | 2013-01-19T19:37:11.397 | # Question
Title: How to cope with the change from easy undergrad. to difficult masters?
I'm doing a masters course at a different university than I did my undergrad (both in maths). I did well in my undergrad but now I'm finding it very difficult. The shock of the change is hard to cope with.
I'm not just finding it very difficult, but I get zero feedback: we don't have any tests and I was not able to make friends so I don't know how others are finding it. I'm starting to think that I might be an idiot.
* How can I build some confidence in my abilities at the same time as I rush and struggle to keep up with the massive rate of new material I need to learn?
* How might I get myself some reassurance that I can actually pass, or stop worrying about this so much? (I feel terribly guilty using so much money from my family to be here) It's possible that I don't really have a chance at all but knowing that would be fine.
# Answer
> 9 votes
Feelings of inadequacy are quite common when starting a new graduate program—you are surrounded by talented people (if they weren't, presumably they wouldn't be graduate students!), and there is often a big leap in expectations between the requirements of a bachelor's program and the corresponding graduate program, particularly if you're at a top program in your field.
As one of the commenters mentioned, talking to your professors or teaching assistants may be one good way to get help, or to get at least some reassurance about how you're doing. Depending on what your university or department provides, they may be able to provide you with resources to help you study or prepare for your exams. This might be as much as arranging a tutor for you, or as simple as providing you with sample exams from previous course offerings. If your department has a "graduate student council" or "society" or something like that designed to help out the students, then a lot of these may have already been collected by students from previous years for use by students in later years.
In general, though, don't get too discouraged. It is recognized by most instructors that graduate school is harder than an undergraduate, and the grading tends to match that view. There are very few graduate school courses that are not graded "on a curve"; otherwise everybody would have bad grades! (When the top score on an exam is 60/100, most schools won't let you fail everybody!)
# Answer
> 2 votes
I guess the level of undergraduate courses at your new university is higher than the ones at your previous univ. So it is better you audit some of the undergraduate courses or you study them by yourself. For example, if you have taken algebraic topology this semester you might need to audit general topology too or you maybe should study some advanced algebra as well. Ask the professors about the background necessary for master courses and how you can get this background.
# Answer
> 1 votes
My advice is to befriend a second year or older grad student. I was in the exact same spot as you are now and unfortunately for me, there was nobody there to help me (I am in a foreign non English speaking country, where people were anything but friendly).
I am in my 3rd in grad school and I have learned the following golden rules (the hard way).
1. If you are not sure what is expected of you - ask as many people as possible. No one will come and tell you what you need to know. If you are not confident doing this in person, an email is also acceptable.
2. If there is a problem you don't know how to solve, always approach the person you are going to ask, with a possible solution. Nobody is going to do your work for you.
3. Grad school can be a lonely place. Find some colleagues to share the pain.
My lack of confidence was usually a direct result of the complexity of a certain task. Just because something seems too complex, doesn't mean that there is no solution. When I find myself in such situation, I like to step back a bit and clear my head. I usually go out with friends or do some sports. This should jump start your motivation.
Next step is to break down a task into smaller junks that are easy to swallow. I use a free web tool called Trello, it also has a smart-phone app and supports collaboration. Decide on a deadline for the big tasks and try to fit the smaller once into a schedule.
A series of small successes is relatively easy to achieve and can do miracles for your motivation and overall confidence.
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Tags: graduate-school, mathematics
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thread-1298 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1298 | Is the end of April too late to find placement in Ph.D programs in the U.S.? | 2012-04-28T09:37:09.940 | # Question
Title: Is the end of April too late to find placement in Ph.D programs in the U.S.?
I am wondering if it would be worth emailing departments that I haven't applied to this year, asking if they'd be willing to take a look at my application material. Any advice, or should I just wait till next year?
I applied to too few places this year, because I couldn't afford all the application fees. I'm saving up now but I feel bad that I don't have anything planned for next year, and I really want to begin my higher education since I feel strongly about it.
# Answer
> 12 votes
For the most part, yes, it is too late to be considered for graduate admissions at most programs for this coming fall, as most schools have already made their decisions as to who they will admit.
That said, if you are an exceptionally qualified candidate, and unusual circumstances have taken place, it *may* be possible to be considered by specific programs. However, there has to be some really strange events taking place. (For instance, one school I know had a banquet during their one prospective students' weekend, and accidentally food poisoned everybody—and ended up with 20% of their expected yield of students. They probably would have loved additional late applicants!)
But, basically, you'd need a department that had a major shortfall of accepted students compared to their research needs, and you'd need to be a candidate that would be strong enough to accept in the regular admissions cycle.
# Answer
> 1 votes
The short answer is yes it is too late. The long answer is that usually only top programs have only one round of admission and other schools actually have also a spring round of admissions so you could trying going for that. This is not common but I found a few schools that do that, and some of them are actually decent schools. But I would say 85% don't accept late applications.
How about getting a lab tech position at your current school and get more experience/pubs under your belt?
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Tags: graduate-admissions
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thread-7870 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7870 | When changing fields from undergrad to PhD, which department should recommendation letters come from? | 2013-02-09T04:44:10.857 | # Question
Title: When changing fields from undergrad to PhD, which department should recommendation letters come from?
I am a physics undergrad who has worked with profs mostly on areas in Quantum field theory, string theory. However, my interests have changed slightly over the areas, and now I want to pursue a PhD in Pure Mathematics, perhaps in algebraic geometry or topology. Is it OK, if I apply for a math grad school with recommendation letters from physics profs, or would this diminish my chances to get selected? Should the recommendation letter be given by a prof working in the same area as that you want to apply to?
# Answer
I agree with blackace that you should probably be OK, but let me sketch what some of the drawbacks are:
Ideally, an application to math grad school will have recommendations from mathematicians. The further you get away from that, the less meaningful the letters are. (For example, at least once per year I see a letter from an English professor, which is utterly unhelpful.) The basic issue is that you need recommenders who really understand what it takes to succeed in math grad school and as a mathematician. Fortunately, physics is close enough that physicists can do a pretty good job of judging this, so you should be OK. In my experience, the admissions committee will worry about two things:
One is that physicists may not appreciate certain math-specific issues. For example, the expected coursework and background. A physicist may not fully understand the extent to which someone's background is nonstandard or deficient for the math program they are applying to.
A second reason is the belief that most people's standards go down a little when making recommendations for other fields. If someone is applying to the top schools in your field, you know very well what the standards and competition are like, and you have something invested in the system and your own reputation as a recommender. In practice, recommenders from other fields seem to be a little more cavalier about making strong recommendations based on a feeling that the applicant is smart, rather than a comparison with the rest of the applicant pool. This means recommendations with be taken with a grain of salt.
So if you have equally good prospects for letters writers from math and physics, you should choose the mathematicians for math applications. On the other hand, a physicist who knows you is still a good choice, much better than a mathematician who doesn't know you. (But a mathematician who doesn't know you is a better choice than an English professor who does.)
> 11 votes
# Answer
**No** I don't think you need to worry about it as long as you have a good track record and evidence for your interest in the other field which is demonstrable. If you get good recommendation letters (not the boilerplate type) from people who know you well and can provide evidence for their recommendation and can talk about your merits objectively you will not be at a major disadvantage. Of course it would be great to have people who can provide recoms in the same area but this is a common thing for people to change their field when they pursue higher level degrees so you will not be the first one having this issue.
It would definitely not diminish your chances if you get strong recommendation putting you in top percentiles of your program and supporting you in your decision. It also comes down to having a very good statement of purpose and explaining in detail why you are interested in changing field and painting a clear picture for your reasons and why you think you will be capable of doing what you want to do it. I have done this personally twice and encourage you to pursue your interest because in graduate school if you want to be successful you really need to be interested and love what you do.
My advise is to talk with your profs and explain your decision for changing your field. They will most likely support you and provide justification on why you can manage (if they think you have the capacity). Good luck!
Edit: I also want to point out that I have had many friends who have jumped from Math to Physics and vice-versa (and also to CS).
> 5 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, mathematics, recommendation-letter, changing-fields
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thread-7876 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7876 | How to acknowledge funding | 2013-02-09T11:09:40.317 | # Question
Title: How to acknowledge funding
This question expands a bit on my previous one Acknowledging funding.
I am unsure how to write proper acknowledgments at the end of a research paper. The wording that I read most often is *Author XY is \[partially\] supported by...*, which does not correctly describe my situation unless one stretches the meaning of these words.
More in detail, here are the two sources with which I have trouble:
* a foundation that used to give me a postdoc grant. I did part of the work of this paper while living off this grant, which expired six months ago, and part of it under my new employer. How should I write this? If I write *is supported by*, I give the impression that I am currently being paid in full by the foundation; if I write *partially supported* I give the impression that I just got a smaller grant.
* a research institute that paid my travel expenses for a conference. While this funding is not directly related to the paper, I met my co-author there and had a chance to discuss its state. And, besides that, it is basically my only occasion to acknowledge this grant. How should I write this? Is *partially supported* the correct wording, or is there a better expression?
# Answer
> 16 votes
> If I write *is supported by*, I give the impression that I am currently being paid
"Work by this author **was** partially supported by the Hitchcock Institute and by the Norman and Norma Bates Foundation."
> if I write *partially supported* I give the impression that I just got a smaller grant
Nonsense. Unless the institute was your **sole** source of income and equipment during the **entire** research and writing process, "partially supported" is correct. Also, it's standard idiomatic language; nobody will think twice about it.
# Answer
> 6 votes
First: check if the institution who provided the funding requires a specific sentence for acknowledgment. Some do! Otherwise, read on…
Many large research projects nowadays are supported by more than one funding source, especially if you include the institutions you are affiliated with (although, being already listed as affiliations, they need to be acknowledged specifically). Saying *“partially supported by”* does not have any negative implication to me, and saying *“is supported by”* does not imply that this is the only support received.
But if you want to avoid this particular phrasing, it also common to simply say:
> **Acknowledgements**
> We thank the John Smith Institute for funding, along with the William and Melinda Bates Foundation for post-doctoral fellowship (to F. P.).
The second part of the sentence makes it clear what was the support, while the first part is more ambiguous. Frankly, noöne cares! That is, except for the funding agencies: they want is their name mentioned for their statistics, but probably don't care how it is written.
# Answer
> 3 votes
"if I write partially supported I give the impression that I just got a smaller grant."
Not necessarily. It can mean different things like one of the co-authors was funded by them or your situation in which they funded some of it before.
I am not sure if I would mention the research institute that provided the travel expenses. If you feel like you want to do it its a different story. Then I would write that the "collaboration between the co-authors would not have been possible with out the financial support from research institute blah blah blah" or "The co-authors would like to acknowledge the support of research institute blah blah which resulted in blah blah blah".
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Tags: publications, acknowledgement
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thread-7865 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7865 | Do extracurricular research/activities in graduate school negatively affect your future? | 2013-02-08T19:03:44.757 | # Question
Title: Do extracurricular research/activities in graduate school negatively affect your future?
I'm the kind of graduate student that finds many research topics interesting and wants to participate in lots of student organization activities related to science and academia. But recently, one of my professors warned me against "doing too much" beyond my research focus, both in terms of publications and in terms of extra-curricular activities. As I see it, your goal as an academic is to develop a "specialty", so it is important to focus on one narrow topic and pass over opportunities to research other interesting, but unrelated topics. But can research outside of your particular focus in graduate school really negatively affect your ability to get hired in an post-doc or tenure track position in the future? How can "doing more" reflect negatively on one's self?
# Answer
*Read broadly, publish narrowly deeply.*
This is roughly what I've been telling my students. Now all of this depends greatly from area to area, but here's what I believe to be true. Having a broad background in your area might slow you down initially when trying to publish. But over the long term (your entire career), a broad base will help you more - it will let you be flexible about topics of interest, it will allow you to see connections where others might not, and it will help you place your work in a larger context.
But from your question, you appear to be referring not just to "exposure to outside topics" but "activities related to the larger enterprise of science and academia". With those activities also, you should be careful. Maybe choose one or two outside activities and devote your extracurricular efforts there. The advantage is that by focusing, you're more likely to be able to do something meaningful, and it also prevents you from frittering away time in busy work.
> 18 votes
# Answer
The issue is fundamentally that of "categorization": people want to have a box to put you in. "Dr. X is an expert in field Y." Early on, if you're all over the map, people don't have a clear sense of what your focus really is. That makes it harder for them to feel that you're going to be focused on *their* needs in your next position. Instead, the worry is that you'll continue to be all over the map.
This is also a problem for young faculty: they need to have a broad enough profile that they aren't trapped in a particular "niche," but not so broad a profile that they don't have depth in any one specific field. If someone can't be recognized as "the expert in her field," where 'her field' is somewhat arbitrary in scope, that makes for problems when it comes time for promotions and tenure cases.
> 12 votes
# Answer
It's true in an abstract sense that doing more is better than doing less, but there are psychological factors at play here.
Regarding extracurricular activities, hiring committees are unlikely to value them much, and they will come across as a distraction from research. For each activity mentioned on your CV or website, someone may read it and wonder whether you might have written another paper if you hadn't been doing this instead. It's not really fair, but you don't want people to be thinking about this.
> But can research outside of your particular focus in graduate school really negatively affect your ability to get hired in an post-doc or tenure track position in the future?
Partly it depends on how good it is. If you add a truly excellent paper to your CV, it should only help. However, research outside of your specialty or done on the side is probably less likely to be excellent, and someone who looks at just that paper may end up with a lower opinion of you than you would like.
> 12 votes
# Answer
I'll echo what the other answer have suggested and add a little more. On the academic job market you want to be able to explain what you do in a way that people can understand in a sentence or two. Your question seems to imply that already understand that having *a focus* is important and excelling in it is of utmost importance.
There are two ways that work or research outside of this core/focus can hurt:
1. Peripheral work may leave you with less time to make the core/focus really shine. You may simply have less achievements or publications than you would have if you had focused more on your core research. The issue is not only that people reading your CV might think this. It might really be true!
2. The second issue is that this peripheral work might be seen as a signal that you are not serious about your core body of research. Do you really care about devoting your life to the field, topic, or question that you are asking someone to hire you to work on? Are you likely to leave your career for this other thing? The core of your work might be seen as less focused than it actually is if it looks like you've got all these others things going on.
This second issue is a real risk, but it's possible to deal with this. Basically, it's your job to convey to people that although your extracurricular work is there — and although it may even constitute some impressive achievements or skills — *you* don't treat this other work as seriously as you treat your research.
This often means leaving irrelevant stuff off of your CV and website — although there are limits to what you can leave out. It also means organizing your CV so it's clear that the central thrust of your research is your priority. Many people have "selected papers" on your website or other personal materials. You can get to make that selection.
For example, I have written several technical books, served on several non-profits, and given hundreds of talks at (non-academic) technical conferences. I mention these things in brief and in passing at the end of my CV and on other pages on my website reserved for my non-academic work. I don't hide these achievements as I think they speaks to my skills and qualities as a researcher. But I make sure that when speaking to academic audiences, I — quite literally — place the core of my academic work first.
> 5 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, research-process, extracurricular
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thread-7805 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7805 | How to formalise the "extra-mile" work done by an academic? | 2013-02-05T16:23:23.113 | # Question
Title: How to formalise the "extra-mile" work done by an academic?
In my experience, academics are almost always expected to contribute some of their time to activities beyond their principal teaching or research roles. These extra tasks include, for example, attending open days, visit days, serving on one or more committees, acting as head of a student year group, admissions officer - the list is long.
Whether this should be the case is not in question here.
In one of my previous institutions, there was in place a "brownie-point" system which was supposed to keep a track of how much extra administrative/organisational/outreach or otherwise "extra-mile" work an academic had taken on. When a new task required action, the academics could use their accumulated points to argue why they shouldn't (or indeed should, in some cases) be allocated the task. Setting the value of a task relative to all the others, as you might imagine, raised some difficulties.
My question is: has anyone experience of any other kind of formalised system of evaluating and allocating these "extra-mile" tasks?
# Answer
> 4 votes
At my university, we have this system for PhD students.
I am a PhD student. In my contract, I have "up to 20% department duties". When I get assigned tasks not related to my research — teaching, administrative tasks, presenting our institute to visitors, etc. — I write down the hours. At the end of the semester, I report to my boss how many hours I have worked on such duties. Then, a corresponding fraction of my salary is funded from a different pot of money. At the end of my PhD, this means I will have an equivalent amount of time extra to finish my research before my contract finishes.
I think the system is quite fair, although some tasks — most notably teaching — don't get the actual time assigned, but according to a certain formula. So in practice, I *do* lose research time by doing teaching, because teaching takes more time than the formula accounts for, certainly if it's a first time. However, it's still much better than a system with no accounting at all, such as I have understood to be common elsewhere in the world.
# Answer
> 1 votes
This is similar to the answer from @gerrit but after the comment from @F'x I thought I would write it up separately.
I would think the best way would simply be to track how many hours are spent on each of these tasks by each person. If task A takes person A 2 hours and task B takes person B 4 hours, then it seems clear how much effort people put in. Though, one does need to watch out for padding any time people log hours for any purpose but that's management's job.
I used to do this in industry and while I would have preferred to avoid it, I didn't find it maddening. It simply added about 10 minutes to each day to log everything I did and who should be charged for it. It would be VERY maddening if task A was allocated 2 hours and task B was allocated 2 hours just because of some formula (like the teaching example from @gerrit)
Another issue is that person A might be able to perform task B in 2 hours, in which case, person A should do it. Quantifying other than by number of actual hours invested is only going to lead to resentment and ill-feelings within the department (whether you're talking about academia or industry). As far as knowing who is better at something, that's also management's job. I say this after being in management for more than a decade before moving to academia.
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Tags: research-process, teaching, career-path, working-time, workplace
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thread-7875 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7875 | Whom to discuss research papers with? | 2013-02-09T09:27:55.107 | # Question
Title: Whom to discuss research papers with?
When I read research papers I often come across many things that I'm unclear about and would like to talk over with someone. My advisor is not available to do this with me as she does not have time. I'm not sure with whom should I discuss these research papers with, in order to help me understand the papers better. I am the only student who is currently being advised by my advisor. How should I go about finding people to talk through these things with, so I can better understand the research papers I'm reading?
# Answer
Your advisor is not the only person to go to, to get answers to the questions that research papers are raising for you. Talk to other researchers, in your department, or online with peers at other universities.
But it does sound like you are getting insufficient advisory support. Do you really just have the one advisor? Time to build up your supervisory team.
Talk to your advisor about what's expected of you, and what's expected of them. It sounds like you've got a mismatch between your need and their resource, and it's important to get that fixed as soon as possible.
You'll also find a lot of good, relevant advice on these questions: skimming a paper and running a reading group.
> 14 votes
# Answer
I'd suggest that you form a reading group! (As also suggested in passing by EnergyNumbers.)
What helped me out early during my PhD was to create a series of reading groups around literatures I wanted to learn. A model I often followed was to organize a weekly meeting to read 1 book or 3-5 papers with 2-5 other students. We'd usually meet for 2 hours or so. I found other students in my cohort/program and others in the university who had similar interests. Ask around! If the papers you are reading are the kinds of things that are likely to be on your general or qualifying exams, chances are pretty good that others around you will have to be reading them as well!
> 8 votes
# Answer
There are many things not clear in your question. For example, is the paper something that your advisor has asked you to read ? Or is it just something that you're browsing for your own edification ? Did the advisor say that she cannot or will not help, or that she's busy ?
I can understand an advisor finding it difficult to spare the time to explain papers that maybe even she hasn't read. But if it's something related to your work with her, then I'd expect her to help a little more. You have to realize though that just because someone is your advisor, it doesn't mean that they know more than you about every single topic :) - in fact, part of your evolution as a student will be to get to the point where your advisor asks you for help !
But I think the general answer is as EnergyNumbers indicates: find other students in your department to discuss these papers with. That's really the best way. Also, realize that working through a difficult paper, on your own or with others, is the best way to learn new material. It's a normal part of the training process.
> 6 votes
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Tags: phd, research-process
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thread-1189 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1189 | Prospect of pro-bono/voluntary work with current advisor after graduating with PHD | 2012-04-18T23:21:07.963 | # Question
Title: Prospect of pro-bono/voluntary work with current advisor after graduating with PHD
As an international student in the united states, I am legally allowed to work for 12 months, extendable to 29months for STEM fields, after graduating with my PhD (or masters degree for that matter) without having to change my visa/student status.
Now, I am looking for post doc opportunities in the US at several univerities but unfortunately none of the PI's respond to any queries OR application material that I send them for opportunities **advertised on their websites**.
I am seriously considering working voluntarily, without pay for my current advisor after I graduate in Dec 2012 with my PhD in Mechanical Engineering.
1. I am legally allowed voluntarily as part of the **optional practical training** period available to me after graduation.
2. I intend on doing my post doc / work pro-bono in the US because, lets face it, my home country doesn't really do much research and the pay grades are about $140 a month for fresh PhD graduates whilst I earn *several times more* as a grad student here in the US.
3. Visa regulations make it horrendously difficult to move to an other country for post doc opportunities and it is easier for me to continue in the US as I am alreadly legally here.
4. I am planning on writing a couple of proposals with my advisor so that I may grow my own post doc
5. It is an absolute pleasure working for my advisor and I wouldn't mind doing it for free for the mental stimulation that it provides (although I wouldn't want to work for free forever teeheehee `:P`)
How should I approach this situation? I am planning on requesting him to retain me on a pro-bono thingy as I genuinely like the direction my research has taken since I signed up with him 3 years ago!
Has anyone else encountered such a quandary?
# Answer
I think it really depends on how long you plan to work without salary. If you apply for some grants in the next months, and you'll get the answers for instance in February 2012, I guess it's ok to work without salary for a couple of months, but only because you're expecting something specific. But I wouldn't recommend being in such a situation if there are no concrete expectation, because, in addition to the fact that you might need money to live, it can also be psychologically difficult, for both your advisor and yourself (maybe it's just me, but I would feel bad asking someone to do some work without any salary, even if this person is willing to).
You say that visa regulations make it difficult to move from one country to another, I don't know which country you come from, but having a PhD usually makes the process quite easier, especially coming from the US. You still have more than 6 months to find a postdoc, you would be better off with trying to get a job somewhere, meet new people, do something different and in the mean time, work with your current advisor on a proposal that would allow you to come back with some funding. An important aspect of a postdoc is to demonstrate your ability to cut the apron strings with your advisor, and to show that you can work with other people.
> 7 votes
# Answer
Why not just bring up the idea of staying in your current lab with your advisor? Without mentioning money straight off the bat?
If your advisor claims it's not possible to keep you around due to funding, then you can mention that you would be willing to do it without payment. And if you are willing to do it for free — and if you're already trained and have a good relationship — I can't imagine she/he would say no.
On the other hand, keep pursuing other options. If you work out something else, neither your advisor nor anyone else is going have hard feelings (or any sense of shock or surprise) if you leave for gainful employment.
> 4 votes
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Tags: job, postdocs, advisor, stem
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thread-7781 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7781 | Industry certifications as program entrance requirements? | 2013-02-04T18:42:00.823 | # Question
Title: Industry certifications as program entrance requirements?
I've noticed several academic programs that require, or accept in lieu of more traditional entrance evaluations, industry credentials for admissions.
**Is there a comparative analysis of programs that allow industry licensing/certification versus those that adhere to more traditional entrance requirements like the GRE?**
The specific credential that I'm thinking of is the CISSP (1). This certification has been eligible for transfer credit equivalency for some time (2), but I've only recently seen the certification as an admissions requirement (3) for an academic program.
Some data points that I would would be interested in are:
* How do examinations, such as GSE/CISSP/CISM/etc, compare to the GRE in terms of overall academic preparedness?
* Is there is measurable difference in the comparative difficulty between the different categories of examinations?
* If you've taken both types of examination, industry and academic, is one class of examination better or worse for gauging candidates, and why?
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Refs:
1. The Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) is an industry standard credential and certification.
2. For example: American Public University System (private, for-profit) and Walsh College, MI (private, non-profit)
3. Capitol College, just one of several examples.
# Answer
> 1 votes
> Is there a comparative analysis of programs that allow industry licensing/certification versus those that adhere to more traditional entrance requirements like the GRE?
I am not aware of a formal analysis of the differences. One could probably divide graduate programs into two camps, with some gray area between. In a really general sense, academic research doesn't prepare you for industry jobs and industry jobs do not prepare you for research. Therefore, the two type of graduate programs are research targeted and industry targeted. I would argue that any program that accepts/requires/weights industry certifications falls into the industry targeted camp. The two camps are so different that trying to compare across them is silly.
As to your other questions
> How do examinations, such as GSE/CISSP/CISM/etc, compare to the GRE in terms of overall academic preparedness?
>
> Is there is measurable difference in the comparative difficulty between the different categories of examinations?
>
> If you've taken both types of examination, industry and academic, is one class of examination better or worse for gauging candidates, and why?
Standardized tests in general are pretty rubbish metrics and that is why most admission committees also request transcripts, essays and recommendations. The GRE is likely marginally better at predicting success in research targeted programs and the industry exams will be marginally better at predicting success in industry targeted programs. As for difficulty, it really depends on the experience of the individual. Is an History exam more or less difficult than a Math exam?
Yes, but it depends on the individual. Individuals with an industry background will likely find the industry tests easier than the GRE, while those following a research based academic career path will likely find the GRE easier than the industry exams.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, certification
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thread-7914 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7914 | Issues with publishing dissertation on an interest/advocacy group's website | 2013-02-10T23:45:06.747 | # Question
Title: Issues with publishing dissertation on an interest/advocacy group's website
**I am wondering if it would hurt me (professional creditability etc.) if I publish my dissertation on an interest / advocacy group's website.**
My dissertation is in one of the areas that this group has been advocating for a long time. Obviously, there are many other contrary views to the views of this interest group. The interest group is known nationally and, in essence, functions as a political lobby.
I am employed in the same industry, so chose to study in this area from a well respected university. It was easy to identify this gap in knowledge and to address it with robust research.
There has been no issues to date but now that the dissertation is approved, I am thinking of making it more widely available, hence the above option.
# Answer
> 13 votes
I would be cautious. That said, I think there are easy alternatives that don't involve giving up exposure of your work through their advocacy.
If you value credibility as an independent researcher, you will be well served by not being perceived as shilling for any particular organization or political cause. I think the interests of the organization that is requesting permission to republish your dissertation is in line with this. If your research is findings that are politically expedient for them, they benefit from the enhanced credibility *that you garner* from perceived intellectual independence.
My advice would be something like this:
1. Publish your dissertation on your own website or in your institutional archive. (If you don't have a website, now would be a great time to set one up!) It should only take a day or so to get set up.
2. Once you've done that, suggest that the organization write a summary of your work on their website — clearly in *their voice* — and to link to or repost (if they feel that is absolutely necessary) your work.
You will benefit from the traffic to your website and they will benefit by having your work seem like the work of an independent researcher and not something done by someone inside. And indeed, it sounds like this is exactly the case!
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Tags: phd, publications, thesis, online-publication
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thread-7908 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7908 | Value of light-to-none peer reviewed pay-to-publish articles | 2013-02-10T12:47:38.837 | # Question
Title: Value of light-to-none peer reviewed pay-to-publish articles
I have been approached by an international student about doing a PhD with me. As an MSc student in his home country he has published 3 articles in pay-to-publish venues, that are known to have little peer-review process, with his supervisor as second/senior author. These articles are not particularly good and likely would not have been publishable in more traditional venues.
I am struggling with how to evaluate these articles and the candidate. Should I simple ignore the place/type of publication and evaluate the work on its own? Can articles in pay-to-publish places really be fairly evaluated? I am worried that changing his behavior will be difficult. I don't want to accept a student whose goal is to publish things in pay-to-publish places.
# Answer
From your description, it sounds like the problem is more likely to have been the MSc supervior than the student. As evidenced by some of the questions we've seen here, it's very hard for people new to academia to figure out which venues are reputable on their own---and the advice we give usually includes talking to someone in academia. If the supervisor's name is on the publication, that presumably means the supervisor encouraged publication in these venues.
Especially if it's a journal which does a small amount of peer review, I wouldn't assume, without further evidence, that the student has any idea that the papers weren't fully peer reviewed. If the supervisor isn't active in the international research community, I'm not sure I'd even assume the supervisor knows that.
> 35 votes
# Answer
I second Pedro's answer, but I note that it's not actually clear from your description whether the journals they published in had peer-review. Note that some well established peer-reviewed journals charge publication fees to the authors. One example of relatively high-profile journal following that policy is *Physical Review Letters* (flat publication fee of $690 per article).
Now, if the articles in question were not peer-reviewed, then **you should treat them as any non peer-reviewed publication**: book chapters, arxiv papers, blog posts, etc. Read them, see what they're worth. (Well, you'd do the same thing for peer-reviewed articles.) In addition, it probably depends on your field, but at least in mine being a MSc student without peer-reviewed publications is not a hanging offense :)
> 27 votes
# Answer
I have one addendum to the great answers by F'x Pedro, and Henry.
If you believe the work is good and your lingering concern is about that the student has some miscalibrated idea of what publishing should entail, *talk to them about it.*
If she/he is a Masters student, she/he probably isn't particularly set in their ways in terms of how they want to publish. A conversation with them — about this anything else that is worrying you — is a very sensible thing before you agree to spending the next *n* years working with them.
> 15 votes
# Answer
That is indeed a tough question.
What would raise the most red flags for me is the fact that he does not have any articles in regular peer-reviewed journals. This raises, again in my opinion, the question if the candidate has simply bought himself/herself a publication list.
The student's *academic* merits should definitely be judged based on the content of the articles themselves, irrespective of where they were published, no question about that.
What would worry me, though, is this student's views on research, publishing, and the academic process in general...
> 10 votes
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Tags: publications, peer-review, application
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thread-5236 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5236 | How to improve myself as a lecturer? | 2012-11-11T21:47:44.543 | # Question
Title: How to improve myself as a lecturer?
I am a new lecturer in the field of Computer Science. I got my MSc and I would like to go for a PhD. However, I would like to improve my teaching methods and way of thinking before I pursue this goal. Any recommended books or articles?
# Answer
> 36 votes
The way I learned how to lecture was just drawing on things other professors did that were beneficial to me. If you are going to get a PhD however, teaching will be secondary. The focus on the program you go in will be teaching you how to conduct research and write papers for publications.
That being said the best way to improve, in my opinion, is to record yourself giving a lecture. Just audio is fine, make sure you are covering the context... Every lecture I give I make sure I have the following components in it:
1. I get to class early to talk to students as they come in and make sure I have all of the equipment ready to go.
2. I bring some anecdotal humor into the lecture. I don't sit there and tell knock knock jokes, but I make it relevant to them.
3. Use previous material to frame the new material.
4. Let them go early if I finish early.
In addition to that I use an Audience Response System, or clicker, and that helps keep the students actively engaged (class of 350 freshmen).
# Answer
> 38 votes
It may work very differently depending on the group size, their skills and engagement. My only experience (when it comes to lecturing, not - giving a talk) is with teaching gifted high-school students, for other cases (less skilled or less motivated students, or stricter plan) it may not hold.
**Never assume that students follow you**, just because they are silent, nodding agreeably, saying that they follow you or even (especially?) repeating your phrases. By interaction see if they get the idea, sort of get the idea, or don't get it at all.
(And "make it slower" is not an universal remedy, because either they may be totally lost at this point, or they may not follow because it is already to slow to keep them awake.)
After giving a course ask a few students is person to **name 3 strongest and 3 weakest points** of it. (It's important to do it, i.e. to force to give 3 weak points, because otherwise they may be not that willing to do so. All courses have \>=3 flaws. The questions is if they are minor or serious. And beware that a mean grade of a course (e.g. student gave you on average 7.6/10) is almost meaningless, even if split into categories; only text based comments make sense.)
**Be inviting so they ask questions** (compare: *"exams are a sick thing, when the more knowledgeable person asks question the less knowledgeable one"*. ) Don't kill the natural curiosity. And remember, if they knew everything, then it would be not point fort them to attend your course.
(BTW: One of my friend was giving a candy for every student asking a valid question, regardless if simple or hard.)
If the material goes slower that you want, never (once again: **never**):
* cut breaks (without a break many could leave the other part, learning not less),
* just run faster (it makes it even more incomprehensible).
Just plan better the next one, given you have some feedback. Writing a lot of stuff on a whiteboard may trick *you* into believing that you explained them, but in fact you did a chaotic, unpleasant lesson. Compare (excuse me for an entropy joke):
> Efficiency of teaching is measured by mutual information between you and your audience.
>
> Not by entropy of your blackboard nor entropy your created in their minds.
>
> Both are poor upper bounds.
Other things:
* watch others giving a lecture,
* record yourself giving a lecture.
# Answer
> 17 votes
As JoshRagem said in the comments of the question, **don't lecture**. Bloom published it scientifically as "The 2 Sigma problem".
Some ways I found to make a class less of a lecture (items marked with a * are covered in Lecture 6 of Teaching College-Level Science and Engineering):
* wait 5 seconds after a question (this is an eternity in front of 30+ students)\*
* use a feedback sheet every class meeting, to learn about your students\*
* use conceptual multiple-choice questions (individual or small groups)\*
* use conceptual multiple-choice with lots of discussion (entire group)\*
* buzz groups (although not easy to do when you're starting out)
* keep traditional "lecturing" to maximum 10-minute bursts, followed up with questions, exercises, etc.
Interactivity Engagement takes time during the course, which takes away from presenting "content." The solution is to *not* teach all the content during class time. You'll have to expect students to do the reading for the most material, and use lecture time to validate, reinforce, personalize, etc.
Although I'm definitely not the best instructor, I know I have improved a lot thanks to some other points:
* Get an evaluation from the "pedagogical resource" person at your institution (hopefully this person exists!). The evaluation was full of small, useful details about teaching. You might want to *check your ego at the door*, however, when you get the feedback.
* Tell your students that standard lecturing is not efficient, and that you want to raise the bar. But to do that you expect them to be prepared (to have done the reading) when they come to course for the interactive part. If I find they've not done the reading, I start to give small quizzes on the reading at the start of every course (I have 3-hour courses, so it's once every 3 courses if you have a 50-minute course period). These quizzes are multiple-choice and the questions can be used as the conceptual questions as above. The value of the quizzes is minimal in their final grade, but it engages the students.
* Tell your students that making mistakes is essential when learning. Encourage them to vote on multiple-choice questions. Sanjoy Mahajan states that "clickers" allow anonymous voting, which socially doesn't engage the students. It's important to get them to vote, but also to make them feel that being wrong is "more than OK" (because it's how we learn).
* Keep training yourself about pedagogy; try to stay motivated to teach well. Pedagogical patterns may be of interest. My students have often said they can see I'm motivated and find it refreshing. They are generally more forgiving when they know I'm trying.
* Relate material being taught to what students have learned before and will learn/use later. Anecdotes based on your real-world experience (if you have it) are useful. My students always ask me for more of that in my evaluations.
* Apply the "repeat without repeating" pedagogical pattern (Google fails me on finding a reference). Basically, it means that different learner styles (are more likely in large groups) respond to different examples, so it's helpful to repeat the same concept in multiple examples.
**EDIT** I recently bought this book and found it very useful because it covers many dimensions of teaching that might not seem obvious to first-time teachers. It's in a kind of check-list style, with references to external sources if you want gory details on certain techniques: Davis, Barbara Gross. Tools for Teaching. 2nd ed. Jossey-Bass, 2009.
# Answer
> 9 votes
There are three books that I found quite useful.
Aside from books, you could consider getting a PGCHE (post graduate certificate in higher education) which is normally a 600 hour / one year course specifically on teaching to adults. You can get one via distance learning, if you're not in the UK.
# Answer
> 4 votes
In my University they had a feedback system for every professor at the end of the semester, where you could evaluate their performance through the semester.
I always find that copying is also a good thing, think which teacher do you think were really good or with which teacher did you really learn, and try to figure out what did they have in common.
This is a bit out of the box, but I found that teaching to little kids (5-6) is one of the best ways to learn how to engage an audience, since if they are bored they will tell you on spot and if they don't like you they will tell you as well.
# Answer
> 4 votes
As a beginner lecturer, the University (or other institution) that employs you may offer training courses. In fact, depending on the law of your country, they may even be *required* to do so. In all cases, it is in their best interest to help you become a better teacher, so they should be able to accommodate requests for such training. Ask your teaching supervisor or head of department. (One might argue that, even if they can't help you, they will appreciate the fact that you voluntarily working on improving your teaching performance.)
# Answer
> 2 votes
You may want to take some direction from how education schools teach the art of teaching to future teachers. Generally, the curriculum involves:
1. Coursework covering education theory
2. Practice designing semester-long (and sometimes years-long) curricula, as well as individual lesson plans
3. Student teaching, where the teacher teaches in the presence of an experienced educator and receives regular feedback
While you'll probably want all three to some extent, note that (2) and (3) involve other, more experienced educators giving you regular feedback, rather than books and articles. I don't think you'll be able to set this up yourself; this is a very involved process which requires a significant time commitment from the mentor. I would speak with your department and see if you can get backing to run a program like this, even if just for yourself.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I taught high school physics for seven years before heading to PhD school, and the most important method for improving my own teaching was to **observe as many other teachers as possible.** In both my teacher education masters program and at the high school where I taught, it was mandatory for new teachers to observe other teachers multiple times per week. In fact, new teachers were given class observation duties that replaced other duties (e.g., cafeteria or study-hall duty) because it was deemed so important.
I found great value in observing all teachers, from the terrible (I once watched as a teacher ignored all raised hands and simply lectured in monotone for the entire class--the students looked like they wanted to jump out the window because they were so bored) to the outstanding, and everything in between. Obviously, you'll incorporate certain teaching methods into your own teaching based on your own style, but the more you observe, the more you'll see different variations and methods.
By the way, if you do want to figure out who the best teachers are at your school, you just simply have to ask the students. It isn't a secret, and the students see so many teachers every year that they will gladly tell you who is the best (and worst).
Finally, if you do want to visit other teachers' classes, it is probably best to ask ahead of time. While I wouldn't say it is rude to show up and ask to observe, it is courteous to do so ahead of time in person.
# Answer
> 1 votes
In the field of engineering, Richard Felder is very highly regarded. He has a lot of papers on how to be a good teacher/professor. You can check out of some of his articles on google scholar.
Also, the book *The Effective, Efficient Professor* by Phil C. Wankat has a variety of good advice for future faculty.
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Tags: teaching, lecture-teaching-method
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thread-7895 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7895 | Awards when applying for faculty jobs | 2013-02-10T05:55:02.227 | # Question
Title: Awards when applying for faculty jobs
Is there any significance of having received multiple "best paper awards" (in the field of theoretical computer science) when applying for faculty positions after a postdoc? Do the hiring committees watch out for such awards or do they fall into the category of "nice to have but no one cares"?
# Answer
> 12 votes
Best Paper Awards — especially at top conferences — count for a lot in computer science and can certainly help you stand out on the job market. I've seen people introduced multiple times in computer science venues as having won "many best papers awards" or "multiple best paper awards." People notice and people care.
Lots of other things matter as well and will matter more. A best paper awards at a conference nobody has heard of is unlikely to help much. In that sense, I don't think that hiring committees are "watching out for" best paper awards in any systematic ways. But I think it's absolutely normal to note your award winning papers as such in your CV and I think you *definitely* should. Having your work recognized as among the best at a conference will only help so there's no reason not to mention it.
# Answer
> 6 votes
**Yes.** Best paper awards at top conferences like STOC, FOCS, and SODA—especially multiple such awards—are taken *very* seriously by faculty hiring committees.
*I'm a theoretical computer scientist currently serving on my department's hiring committee. So I probably know who you are.*
# Answer
> 3 votes
Depends on the prestige of the conference or journal that you have got it from. If it was a 20 person workshop I would say no but if it was the paper of the year award in a leading journal or best paper in the leading conference in your field then it is definitely an indicator of the relevance of your research and recognition of your contribution and its quality. It is one of the factors that my faculty looks into when hiring so the quality of the publications, where they were published and these awards do matter.
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Tags: job, postdocs, computer-science
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thread-7900 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7900 | What should you do if you cannot reproduce published results? | 2013-02-10T08:55:05.617 | # Question
Title: What should you do if you cannot reproduce published results?
I am trying to reproduce published results in a paper. Those results come from numerical simulations. The original authors and I do not use the same software, and theirs is proprietary (I don't have access to it). I have tried to reproduce their results, and it works qualitatively but not quantitatively: the differences between their results and mine on typical quantities of interest are between 2 and 5 times the expected accuracy of the method.
So far, I have communicated with the original authors, trying to clear out all possible sources of error I could think of (checked that I got the tricky parts of the algorithms right, checked that the “usual” parameters that were missing from their paper had the “usual” values, everything I could think of). They are forthcoming enough, and reply to my questions quickly, but it's clear they don't want to invest time in doing any serious follow-up on their side. And without access to their software, it appears I'm stuck.
Now, my question is on how to proceed. The “ideal case” for unreproducible results is to make a detailed analysis of how and why they cannot be reproduced, and possibly find out a source of failure (or at least plausible issues). This advances the field, and is probably publishable (not in a very high-profile journal). Here, this is not possible.
**I have, however, nice results that I have obtained (extending their work far beyond what was already published), and if I didn't have these differences with their paper, it would make a very attractive paper. What can I do with those?** Is it possible to publish them, merely noting the different with their paper without more comment? Or are my results simply unpublishable? I welcome any comment, especially from people who have found themselves in such an uncomfortable situation!
# Answer
> 54 votes
Just publish. Publish your attempts to replicate the findings, documenting the discrepancies, together with the nice results you've obtained by extending their work. Consider sending a draft to the original authors for their comments.
# Answer
> 19 votes
Publishing results that contradict previous publications can be awkward, but if you can show that your method is correct beyond reasonable doubt, then it shouldn't be a problem. No code is guaranteed to be completely free of errors and no result is guaranteed to be correct just because it is published.
You don't say much about the nature of your computations/methods, but do you have any test cases for which analytical solutions are known or can be derived? If you can show that your code reproduces these results, then you can make the case that your code's results for the specific problem in question should be reliable.
Ideally, if you have such a test-case, you could ask the other authors to run it with their own code, and see if they also produce correct results. They may not want to, but that's their problem, not yours.
In summary, if you go to reasonable lengths in your paper to demonstrate the accuracy of your code/method against known analytical solutions, you shouldn't be too worried about not matching other people's results. At least that would be my opinion as a referee.
# Answer
> 12 votes
*(Disclaimer: I have no personal experience with such a situation, so I'm just going off plain common sense. That said...)*
It sounds like you've already taken every reasonable step to discover the source of the discrepancy, and you're now left with just an "unexplained deviation" between your results and theirs. You also say that the discrepancy doesn't actually affect the qualitative conclusions drawn from the results in any way.
At this point, if I were you, I'd just go ahead and publish your extended results, and just briefly note the discrepancy when you compare your results with prior work. As long as you're reasonably certain that your results are correct (up to expected limits of numerical accuracy), you can't really be expected to be able to explain any inaccuracies in other people's results. Of course, you definitely should make sure that others can easily reproduce *your* results and verify the correctness of the methods you used to obtain them, e.g. by making your software freely available.
If you really think that merely documenting the discrepancy between the two sets of results would be publishable on its own, doing that and then citing that publication in your main paper could also be an option. Generally, though, I'd expect that to be practical only if the precise quantitative values in dispute are actually of importance to others working in your field.
# Answer
> 8 votes
I would be very wary of publishing and as a reviewer I would be wary about recommending publication. The unexplainable difference in results hints at a mistake. That mistake is either yours or theirs. I would like to know for sure that it is their mistake before publishing. Even though you cannot compare the two methods directly, you could still publish your method independently showing that it gives the "correct" answer in a battery of test cases and then noting that it gives a different answer in the non-testable case.
You could then refer to this paper when you publish the real work. The advantage is that it removes the need to dilute the message of the real paper with the details of the method. A second advantage is it may result in the original authors running the test batter with their method. This is especially true if you call them out in an earlier draft and send them a copy prior to submission. You could also request them as reviewers.
A different strategy might be a lab visit (physical or virtual) to use their software on your test battery.
# Answer
> 8 votes
All the publications in the scientific journals should be reproducible and accurate. It is very important task to examine others' results. Original authors get lots of credit if an independent researcher verifies their theory or model.
Almost all journals have a section named **Comment,** **Letters** or **Letter to Editor.** Below are some links to these columns:
Of course, this is tricky, and you need to be careful. If you think everything is precise in your code, comment on the paper is an option.
# Answer
> 7 votes
Can you/are you willing to throw a bone?
It might be worthwhile to discuss having them as an author on the paper. Perhaps you can strike a deal to get what you want (get access to their software, results, etc.) in return for including them in your publications and having some level of collaboration. You might be surprised just being honest about this and talking about it openly might work! My best two papers to date come from doing exactly that and then developing working relation with the people that were not that forthcoming. After that we have published two additional papers together. Who knows you might actually end up collaborating and doing bigger and better thing together if it works. I would give it a try before deciding to just publish the results the way you described.
# Answer
> 7 votes
I'd like to add one point that has not been mentioned yet. It may or may not be applicable to your situation, but it might be in the general case. You mention that the output from the numerical simulations don't agree. Therefore, I suggest:
If two models can't be made to agree, it's time to do *measurements*.
Actually, this is a good idea even if they do agree, but if you can do measurements, you will be able to confirm that at least one of the models is incorrect at least for the specific situation of the measurement.
Of course this is not always possible.
# Answer
> 5 votes
I agree with others that have suggested that publishing the new results are OK. Mention that there is a difference with the old method but that it is not qualitatively different.
Many journals have a policy of asking for a comment/rejoinder from the author of any study whose work directly contradicted. If the editors think your comment within the paper qualifies, you might finally get the answer you are looking for.
But I would also urge you to think hard about how much you want to put on the line for this discrepency and how much time you want to spend on it. It sounds like the results are qualitatively the same. If you end up being 100% correct on everything, the contribution from a paper that only talks about the difference will be a slightly better estimate. In some situations, that can be worth a lot. In lots of others, it doesn't count for much. You'll know how important this is for your field.
I once found a small methodological problem in a paper in my second year of grad school. I asked a similar question to yours to a professor who asked me if the methodological error was likely to change the result or invalidate the core findings. When I said it was very unlikely, he told me that it was probably not the best use of my time to work a lot on a rejoinder.
It's tough. I think you *should* say something. A note in the paper is probably enough. For this sort of thing, I think a research note on Arxiv that you can cite might be an alternative.
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Tags: publications, reproducible-research
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thread-7902 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7902 | Website management for group seminar | 2013-02-10T11:12:13.927 | # Question
Title: Website management for group seminar
I am planning to start running a group seminar, with talks scheduled regularly, at my institute.
The seminars might be of interest for people in neighbouring areas, too, so I would like to have an "archive" website with all the abstracts and a calendar of the upcoming seminars, and of course I'd like to send out e-mail notifications (and optionally also a RSS feed/calendar widget for the more tech-savvy users).
Is there any software or service that can help me automate some of this setup? I thought of opening a blog-type site on some hosting site, probably either Wordpress or github/Jekyll.
Do you have experience working with similar tools? Do you think they would really save me some time? Or maybe is it better if I just add a page to my academic website, send the mails manually and forget about the other fancy addons?
# Answer
Having once been the guy making a site for a lab only to have it abandoned because I made it too complicated, I would strongly recommend that, whatever you do, you make it **simple to maintain**; unless you're the lab PI, the site you build will likely outlast you.
Wordpress is very easy to use, with lots of built-in functionality, freely available themes, and tons of tutorials online describing how to use it. Other CMS packages have similar benefits. Unless it's strictly necessary, I would avoid "rolling your own" software; almost all lab websites are the same few pages, and you don't need something complex for that.
I agree with @seismail that you should check whether your department will make the page for you or at least agree to host it. It will definitely improve branding.
> 2 votes
# Answer
A site hosted by your university, on your university website, will probably be a better choice than an externally hosted website. This is because you'll be able to immediately identify the seminar series with your university, and that will help to improve its branding. (It also looks a lot more professional!)
As for software, there are a lot of different options. I can't really offer a lot of guidance on this, as we have staff whose job it is to maintain our websites. Which one you pick will depend *a lot* upon the kinds of features you want, and how steep a learning curve you're willing to negotiate.
> 3 votes
# Answer
You might consider using google groups combined with a google calendar. It can be set up to provide email alerts and a calendar, and you should be able to extract an RSS feed as well.
> 2 votes
# Answer
I have always hosted reading groups and seminars using a page within a wiki. There are a bunch of firms that will provide you with a wiki for free or for a small price and many that specialize in doing it for Academia (e.g., PBWiki and WikiSpaces and I'm sure there are many others).
You might have to send out your own email announcements but that burden is pretty minor.
> 1 votes
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Tags: online-resource, website, seminars
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thread-7930 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7930 | Advantage of pure maths courses in transcript for physics grad school | 2013-02-11T16:11:08.260 | # Question
Title: Advantage of pure maths courses in transcript for physics grad school
Are there an advantages of doing courses in pure maths (master level) courses, if you want to apply to physics grad school for a phd in areas such as string theory, or high energy physics? Apart from the obvious advantage, that you get better at math, which is used a lot in this areas, I am asking about the direct advantage for grad school applications on the transcript? Does the selection committee like to see more grad level physics courses in maybe slightly irrelevant areas, or pure maths courses which have use in these areas?
# Answer
I think the real answer is that it depends on what it is that you're planning to do. The more closely your courses align with your proposed field of study, the easier it is for the committee to evaluate. So, taking pure mathematics courses makes more sense if you're going into a theory-based field than if you're doing something more experimental in focus.
However, you should also keep in mind that a strong grade in an upper-level mathematics course will at best be "neutral," and it might be possible to explain away a bad grade; a bad grade in any physics course will not go over so well. So you should factor your interest level and ability to handle the courses in your selection process. You should also consider if the course in physics is considered a "standard" course for undergraduates pursuing graduate admissions. If so, then it makes more sense to take that class than an elective mathematics course. (Otherwise, the question will of course be "Why didn't you take course X?")
> 1 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions
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thread-7924 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7924 | Printing a poster at the conference | 2013-02-11T12:34:16.570 | # Question
Title: Printing a poster at the conference
While peripherally related to Flying with a poster tube as a hand luggage, I am trying to avoid this. I would like to print my poster at the conference. I am considering this for two reasons. First, it means I don't have to fly with the poster. Second, it gives me a few extra days to work on the poster.
I can see three potential drawbacks.
1. Being unable to print the poster when you get to the conference. I have lots of experience printing posters at my university, but no experience in the conference city
2. Not being prepared/able to return with the poster to hang in the lab
3. Getting reimbursed for printing charges
As for point 1, the conference is in a major US city with at least 4 Kinkos (large scale professional print shops) within reasonable walking distance of the venue. My poster is not until day 4 of the conference and I am arriving 1 day early. On point 2, I do not plan on hanging this poster in my lab. I am a little worried about getting reimbursed, but our on-line reimbursement system has a category for printing charges. If I cannot get reimbursed, I am willing to pay out of pocket.
Am I missing anything that can go horrendously wrong with this plan?
# Answer
> 8 votes
Reimbursement is related to a particular institute's policy; and taking by plane - to a particular airline's policy, so I won't speak about it.
> Being unable to print the poster when you get to the conference.
Possible problems with printing facilities:
* they may by further from the conference venue than expected (or not as easy to get to them, or masked so it's they are not easy to find even if you are nearby),
* delays larger than you expect (at least assume "the next day", in general or due to other prints ordered),
* page can be out-of-date, or they may be not working for some reason,
* they may not print A0 format (permanently or temporarily),
* local holidays (or local customs related to working hours) may be different.
(I printed posters on-site two times, and it went almost without problems; some of people I knew had problems, especially with instant printing and poster sizes).
# Answer
> 6 votes
If you're not worried about transporting the poster or getting reimbursed, and the destination city has the same facilities as your home location, then there's no functional difference between printing locally and remotely.
In other words, once you define away all the differences, the two scenarios are the same :)
# Answer
> 3 votes
*Printing at a conference is absolutely no problem*. Many conference centers and associated hotels have print shops and Kinko's sprinkled around specifically for people at conferences and meetings to use for print posters, handouts, and other things. You can usually call and in advance and send in some material if you like and it will be ready to print out when you arrive.
In fact, the times I've gone to Kinko's near a conference on similar errands, there were other people from the conference waiting in line to do the same thing.
If you're presenting the first morning of the conference and getting in the night before, you might want to roll it up. Otherwise, you'll lose no sleep and shouldn't have an issue. The only real downside is that it will probably be more expensive than doing it at your university.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I had your problem 1 when I accidentally forgot the poster tube in the taxi when I arrived at my hotel. The problem was I arrived on Saturday and the poster session was on Sunday. For your case, where you have four days, there probably shouldn't be a problem, especially with so many print shops within walking distance. You could even perhaps arrange for the poster to be sent online *before* your arrival, and pick it up when you get there.
# Answer
> 1 votes
This is not to scare you but what if you fall sick and lose the 3 or 4 extra days you have.
Remember it is a new place you are going so things may not be as familiar as at home.
Its good to prepare in advance. Perhaps you can forward your poster in advance and collect it on your arrival.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I do not see any reason why you would not be able to print your poster at arrival. In the past, I have used fedex (or whatever is easy) to ship the poster to my hotel. That way, the poster is waiting for you when you get there. You do not have to carry it on the plane and no need to stress about Kinkos not wanting to print your posters...
# Answer
> 1 votes
The plan's fine.
Be sure to check if you only need to submit the poster to print and then return to get it, or if they require you to verify a proof first. Some print shops may refuse to print unless you sign off on the proof first, so be sure you ask about that so you can plan if you need to make more than one trip.
If you want to be the local hero, buy thumbtacks and scotch tape for your poster while you're out and be the envy of all of the poster presenters, as well as the conference organizers, who will undoubtedly have forgotten to bring one or both of those things. ;)
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Tags: travel, poster
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thread-7931 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7931 | How do you thematically include accidental findings ("serendipity") in a dissertation or paper? | 2013-02-11T16:34:12.587 | # Question
Title: How do you thematically include accidental findings ("serendipity") in a dissertation or paper?
I'm asking for approaches to include interesting, but not perfectly fitting results in a dissertation or a paper.
During my PhD project I have made an accidental discovery, which is what I believe you call *serendipity*. The finding is related to the overall topic of my dissertation and certainly interesting, but it interrupts the "leitmotif" of my argumentation, as this discovery is really just the result of a stupid mistake. So my question here is: **How do you eloquently include stupid mistakes (aka accidental findings) in a dissertation or a paper without sounding stupid or breaking the flow of arguments apart?** Is there even a generalizing answer to this question?
# Answer
*“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but rather, 'hmm... that's funny...”* (Isaac Asimov, thanks to EnergyNumbers for reminding me of it)
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If you're worried that it will distract the flow of your thesis, why not **put it in a “special” part of your thesis (e.g., an appendix) and refer to that from the main text, at the point that would be most logical**.
> *\[Following the description of your experiment.\]* In the next few sections, I describe the results obtained from operating the Pocket Helium Flux Positron Annihilator on a variety of samples: metals (section II.B), graphene (section II.C) and heavy water (section II.D). You will also find in Appendix A a description of the observations made following an accidental operation of PHFPA without a helium flux *\[you may not want to be specific and say: some moron forgot to replace the bottle\]* which allowed to check what happens when electroneutrality is violated on the µm scale.
An appendix is a good place, or maybe a small section as the end of the relevant chapter.
> 15 votes
# Answer
Thesis is a good place to place things not yet developed enough to make a full paper.
If it is at least tangentially related to you thesis topic, just add a relevant (sub)section (e.g. in further discussion, or near to the place where it is the most related).
BTW: Many groundbreaking discoveries were accidental. So I don't see a reason to value them less than ones planned in advance.
Again, if "accidental" means than some values were set such as a mistake - again, mentioning such is related to motivation/story, not the value of results.
> 5 votes
# Answer
The traditional ways people introducing important or interesting peripheral information without breaking the flow or core thrust of a manuscript is with footnotes/endnotes or with an appendix as F'X has suggested.
If it's a short aside, consider making it a long footnote. If it's longer, put in in an appendix and reference it either in the footnote or in the text. Long — even paper-length — appendixes are not abnormal in dissertations.
> 2 votes
# Answer
In the social sciences, there is traditionally a section in the concluding chapter that discusses limitations of the present study and scope for future research.
You can include your 'discovery' in this section. In this way, you are presenting your 'discovery' and suggesting some ways in which it can be researched - two-in-one, I suppose!
The other section in which you can include your 'discovery' is where you highlight what contribution your research is making to the body of knowledge in your field. This is traditionally another section in the concluding chapter of a social science dissertation. You can 'wrap' your 'discovery' as an accidental but important contribution to knowledge.
In my case, I talked to a number of people in my field as part of my stakeholder consultation. I soon discovered that they were telling me far more than what was needed for my topic. I summarised this information in my concluding chapter and said that it represented an important contribution to knowledge because it would lost if not captured in writing (the stakeholders were mostly from the older generation).
So, there are many ways to include it in your dissertation.
> 2 votes
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Tags: phd, writing, language, thesis
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thread-7955 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7955 | Is it appropriate to follow up on a faculty application? | 2013-02-12T14:38:10.047 | # Question
Title: Is it appropriate to follow up on a faculty application?
I am currently applying to faculty positions, primarily teaching positions at 4 year colleges and universities. I am told many of these jobs have more than 100-200 applicants. Some of the jobs ads themselves say they get hundreds of applicants, and go on to say something to the effect 'you probably aren't going to hear anything from us', which says to me - 'don't bother us'. I have 3 questions, which overlap:
1. If I don't hear back from them at all, is it appropriate to contact the department?
2. If I hear back that they got my application and materials, is it appropriate to contact the department?
3. People that I know from the business world encourage me to be more aggressive by calling the departments to check in, and even asking if I can come visit the department. I am concerned that this sort of attitude can have a backlash effect. Is this sort of aggressive approach accepted in academia?
# Answer
> 8 votes
You should keep in mind that the people running searches are busy academics who are doing this as service to the department. Checking-in aggressively — following your intuition for how this would work in business — *will annoy and will be very unlikely to help*. At the moment (early/mid- February), it is still early enough in some job markets that interviews have not been scheduled so asking for updates might be seen as pushy. I think it's unlikely that your chances will *go down* if you ask, but it still might be nicer to wait.
That said, there are many situations where contacting in normal and you might to do it through one of those channels:
* For example, if you have another offer from somewhere with a deadline, it is normal — and a good idea — to contact other departments to let them know that you will have to move forward without them. I've had friends who have had interviews offers *within hours* of telling a department this.
* Also, if you have updated material on your CV (e.g., a paper accepted, positions changed, an award, whatever) go ahead and send your updated CV. You can mention in that email that you're excited to hear about any updates from their search.
Contacting search committees in this context is normal and can signal that you continue to be very interested in a job. I was told by a search committee that ended up making an offer that they thought I might be unlikely to accept an offer and that one of these update emails rovided a useful signal. Of course, if they're not interested, emailing will probably just be noise and extra work for them.
I think that emailing or not-emailing is unlikely to tip the scale either way. They're going to make a decision based on the intersection of the quality of your work and what they're interested in having in their department. But out of kindness for the work of the search committee and its chair, try to do it as little as possible.
# Answer
> 5 votes
It is certainly appropriate to ask whether they got your application. It is also appropriate to enquire about how the process is progressing. I would avoid being too pushy about it, as this will not influence anyone, at least not in a positive sense. And sometimes these application processes take an extremely long time.
It may be appropriate to visit the department to give a presentation, as this is one thing academics do anyway, even when they are not applying for positions. Give a good presentation and this might help your application – though it could be the case that the people judging the application are completely disjoint from the people in the audience.
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Tags: job-search
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thread-7962 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7962 | Should non-tenured/non-tenure-track faculty be permitted to vote on tenure-track hires? | 2013-02-12T21:17:15.343 | # Question
Title: Should non-tenured/non-tenure-track faculty be permitted to vote on tenure-track hires?
My department has several non-tenured/non-tenure-track faculty in teaching-only positions. My department is also hiring at the tenure-track level this year and these non-tenured faculty are taking an active role in the search, even voting with the tenured and tenure-track faculty on who should be hired. Is this appropriate? Is there a precedent?
# Answer
> 12 votes
While on the job market this last year, I talked with top departments that gave all their full time non-visiting members of the faculty a vote in tenure-track faculty hires. So there is definitely precedent.
Personally, I'm not thrilled by the shift at many universities to having a larger proportion of the active faculty be non-TT. But when this means that the *responsibilities* of non-TT jobs are similar, it is only reasonable that the *rights* should be similar too.
Benefits of doing so include all things that come from a work environment that is perceived as more democratic and where all faculty get a vote in determining the future directions of the department. The drawbacks are much less clear to me.
# Answer
> 10 votes
Actually, there's a wide variety of latitude given to hiring processes.
At both of the universities I attended as a student, undergraduate and graduate students were involved in the selection processes for new *university presidents*.
Similarly, at the school where I currently work, undergraduate students regularly sit on the hiring committees for faculty hires, and can actively sink a nomination if they have concerns about his teaching credentials. (Normally, however, this implies that the other committee members have a bone to pick with the candidate as well.)
So it seems to me that there would be nothing wrong with a policy that lets non-tenured faculty vote on such a hire. After all, they are going to be colleagues, and it makes sense that there's a consensus.
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Tags: job-search, tenure-track
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thread-7204 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7204 | is it possible to complete a PhD in Industrial Engineering without any coursework? (US/Europe) | 2013-01-14T18:04:29.590 | # Question
Title: is it possible to complete a PhD in Industrial Engineering without any coursework? (US/Europe)
I completed my Masters' from Penn State University (US) last year in Industrial Engineering and I'm looking to enroll in a PhD. Here's the onion, I do not want to leave my full-time job to enroll in school full-time and complete the coursework requirment (as case with most US university), hence I was contemplating if there exists any PhD degree where coursework (or **on-campus presence**) is **not** required, either in US or Europe.
About research - I've already talked to my boss and he's quite okay with me performing research in-house (in company) for my PhD, better than that, he might even pay for it.
# Answer
In Europe it is quite common to do a PhD without course requirements. You will generally have to have a Master's degree though, before you can start. This answer is about the situation in Europe (or at least, the Netherlands).
To do a PhD while working for a company can be possible, if you can find a professor that is willing to supervise you. It will be hard though if you are not in regular contact with the advisor. The most realistic option would be to do research on a joint project with academia and industry. I don't think though that this would be feasible if you work in the US, and the university is in Europe.
> 3 votes
# Answer
As Pieter says, at many European universities you can get through PhD without any coursework. That, however, is a different issue than not being present on campus.
### Coursework
In the past, in countries like German, it wasn't customary to complete coursework during PhD. The idea was that a PhD student was being trained by the supervisor and the pursuit of doctoral degree was meant as a true "assistantship". It is however changing in the recent years and more and more students are introducing graduation colleges, or other lecture programs aimed specifically at PhD students. So times are changing, but it still is possible at some places.
### On-site presence
Some countries, like Slovakia or Czech Republic (not sure about others) have a form of a distant PhD study. How efficient that is, however, is another story. In Germany, it also is possible to be a PhD student without being employed at the university, this is quite normal for students enrolled at a Universities of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule). The idea is that the student does everything as any other PhD student would, however, since the institution he/she is employed at does not have accreditation to award doctoral degrees, he/she has to be additionally enrolled at a university which has this right. I know that this is how it works also in e.g., Norway.
There is also a possibility to be a PhD students and at the same time being employed at a company. I know of few students like this in the Netherlands.
Now with both options discussed above, there always is a requirement of presence on-site. It is not strictly necessary to be daily, but at least part-time is mandatory. I did not hear of a place where it wasn't, though there might be instances where this would fly. The underlying idea is anyway that the student in the end produces dissertation and research supporting it in the same quality as an "in-house" student would. You won't escape this one and this is the main problem you should try to solve. Your question rather is: "**will my non-presence and no coursework allow me to produce quality research to finally deliver a good dissertation, or not?**"
> 2 votes
# Answer
My understanding is that course works is nearly always required for US PhD programs and very often not required for UK and other European PhD programs. For many European programs, you essentially apply to the program with a PhD proposal and you can think of it as almost starting the PhD post-qualifiers or generals. You'll be expected to have a Masters and to be an advanced student before starting and you'll generally do this by finding a particular advisor and applying directly to them.
That said, not wanting to be on campus at all is going to be a challenge — especially if you want to end up in a top program. In theory, this will be possible but most potential advisors may be afraid that by trying to maintain a full time job, you won't be able to put an adequate amount of energy and effort into your program. Honestly, I'd share those concerns as well!
I will add that although I know about a number of fields, I don't have any specfic knowledge about Industrial Engineering.
> 0 votes
# Answer
A few more points on German PhD programs
* universities are more and more moving towards PhD programs with course-work, the ones without are usually the "old" programs.
The old programs usually take the point of view that the PhD thesis is your "private fun", you usually do not get paid for the research work. This leaves you free to have whatever daytime job you have. However, the experience is that unless your daytime job is to do the research, such theses often took/take *decades* (I'm speaking of 10 or 20 years; which is reasonable if you consider that the "modern" 3 years of 8 - 12 h / working day correspond to (4 - 6) x 3 years at 2 h / day).
* Some of the programs without course-work will require you to take a final exam, which can be replaced by the exams of course work.
* your search term would be "external PhD student" (externer Doktorand)
As walkmanyi already wrote, external PhD students are usually in research projects that involve a collaboration between industry and university. And external PhD students usually have to show up every few months to give their presentations, and they may be asked to attend the research group's seminar regularly. With seminar hours outside "normal" work schedules, this is possible if you live reasonably close.
* In the old "PhD is private fun" programs, PhD students are not paid for the research. However, they are/were frequently paid for teaching. Some PhD programs now require teaching experience - which means on-campus presence.
As far as I know, Italian PhD programs require the students to have a special kind of working contract with the university, so no external PhD there.
> 0 votes
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Tags: phd, coursework
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thread-7948 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7948 | Is use of unconventional design elements or layout something frowned upon in academic context? | 2013-02-12T09:50:40.633 | # Question
Title: Is use of unconventional design elements or layout something frowned upon in academic context?
I quite enjoy paying attention to how I design my documents and presentations. I usually spend hours thinking over and designing my slides for a workshop or presentation, so that they are aesthetically pleasing and as intuitive as possible. Likewise I recently started revising my CV I figured and I wanted to make it stand out a bit more. (Just to make it clear I don't mean making a clown of a document but just better use of colors, contrast and design elements.)
I have long wondered whether or not this is something that can backfire, since most documents in academic context are extremely plain, at least in my experience. It's very common to see the default Powerpoint slides (white bg, black arial text) or something as hideous as that.
My question is as follows: is putting time and effort into design of academic documents something that can backfire? Will I risk being prejudged with first impressions such as "well he put much effort in the presentation his documents, perhaps because the content is sub-par"?
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I realize that the question might be somewhat subjective from person to person but I encourage everyone to consider it in terms of this SE blog entry: Good subjective vs Bad subjective.
# Answer
> 20 votes
It all comes down to a cost/benefit analysis. But, there is little risk to improve the design, graphics and typography of your documents (theses, figures, presentations). There is little risk that it backfires if you present a higher-quality document. In fact, the only case I can think of is if it seems that form took over content: i.e., if you have a very shiny designed presentation with just-meh scientific content, the contrast might draw attention.
One thing that might be a problem is if you put too much theatrics, 3D effects, animations, cartoons… I had a colleague who used every single “animation” possible (it was the early days of Apple's Keynote and its nice 3D effects) in the same presentation, and it was simply too much. It distracted people from his message.
Finally, coming back to the cost/benefit analysis: I believe that as in everything, 20% of the work can get you 80% of the reward if you choose wisely. People will have different pet peeves, but the areas which I think you should polish for presentation slides are:
* **Graphics quality**: no pixelated crap
* **Consistency between graphics and text**, and self-consistency of graphics: same quantities reported and plotted, same units, consistency between graph scales (as much as possible), etc. Sometimes you take pictures from an earlier paper, and they don't quite match what you are showing with them. Avoid things like “graph on the left is concentration, graph on the right is volume fraction” when they can be converted straightforwardly.
* **Careful about background colors**: to me, this makes the different between decent slides and good slides (for the presentation, not for the scientific content). If you use a colored background (not saying you should), don't include graphics with white background. Try to use graphics with transparent background (easy with vector graphics, use PNG with alpha channel for bitmap images).
* **If visualization requires it, use movies** to show a complex system: time evolution of spatial distribution, autorotation of a structure you present if it makes it clearer, etc.
# Answer
> 27 votes
Good design is invisible. The goal of design is to increase understanding/clarity. If your design is truly good then it will go unnoticed but your content will be better understood. If your design is noticed and distracts, then it is bad. I feel these principles are universal.
So to answer your question, yes, good design is worth it (it increases the amount that your content is understood), but just adding "design" elements without a good understanding of the audience and their expectations will not likely result in good design.
# Answer
> 8 votes
There are different kind of academic documents, and it might change from one field to another. For instance, journal/conference papers often have a required style, and so there is little room for improving the overall design of the paper.
About the CV, I have seen many places asking for a specific style for the CV (i.e., they give you a Word document to fill in ...), but when they don't, as long as the content respects the traditional Education/Experience/Publications, then it shouldn't be a problem.
When it comes to presentations, I would say it's a bit trickier. The overall impression I've had when talking with colleagues at a conference, is that the quality of the *speaker* matters first. I've attended excellent presentations where the slides where black and white powerpoint, because the speakers were merely using them as a support to put the keywords and the important formulae. Conversely, I've attended boring presentations where the slides where very nice, just because the speaker was not comfortable speaking.
In other words, I don't think putting time and effort in the design of slides will backfire, and it will not necessarily bring you bonus points, what matters is the quality of the presentation itself.
# Answer
> 4 votes
The only other note I'd have to add is that you should also remember *who your audience is* when designing your documents.
You can have a fancy version of a CV or a presentation template, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, as an example of where this could backfire: assume you have a LaTeX'ed CV that is being sent to an HR department of a large company. The text of the CV will probably be tested against some set of keywords for "appropriateness"; if it can't match because of ligature issues, you're out of luck.
Similarly, if the documents will need ti be scanned in on the receiving end (perhaps because they require an actual signature), then the design should be one that doesn't make the scanned version illegible.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Some scientists don't know how to properly layout a thesis, a presentation or a poster. They probably never learned it and too often don't care about it. This doesn't mean that you have to follow this bad example. I always appreciate when my students care about readability of text and figures, and think for a long time how to present something in the best way.
As for your question, I'd say this really depends on what you consider 'unconventional'! If your CV bursts with colours and Comic Sans, it will certainly backfire. If it's a sleek design with understatement, it certainly won't.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Assuming that we have similar concepts of what good design is (clarity, readability, ...), the only point I can see where it could potentially backfire is if there is a mandatory layout and you choose not to use it.
* thesis formats are often mandatory, and you don't want to risk failing because of not meeting formal requirements.
* The call-for-papers that comes with an ugly Word template that *is to be used*
* Many universities have a corporate design that is mandatory for public/outside presentations.
However, my complementary experience is that judicuous changes that leave the overall impression of where you belong intact, but e.g. allow better contrast in diagrams are usually not backfiring.
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Tags: cv, presentation, design
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thread-7985 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7985 | Is it ethical/acceptable to take courses for the sole purpose of getting a reference letter? | 2013-02-13T18:13:02.303 | # Question
Title: Is it ethical/acceptable to take courses for the sole purpose of getting a reference letter?
I am interested in going back for my masters. While I have been accepted by a masters program (quite a while ago) previously, I am looking at another university and require a fresh set of references. I have lost track of my previous advisors and am unable to get work references.
So I need to prove myself at this point to somebody. There are some optional courses in the undergrad that I am interested in, but to be honest I could just read the textbook and save some money.
So:
Is it ethical/acceptable to take courses for the sole purpose of getting a reference letter?
and
Should I inform the prof before taking the class of my intent if this is a gray area?
Note: I know that it is still the prof's choice if I get a letter and this method is nowhere near ideal. Just the best I could come up with.
# Answer
> 10 votes
Students have lots of reasons for taking courses and I don't think I want to be in the business of telling students that there are right and wrong reasons to take a class. I certainly think it's a good idea for prospective PhD students to think about who might be good letter writers early on in their program and to make sure they work with some of them — not doing so can make the academic job market very difficult. I don't see this as being substantively different. If you take the class, do well, and then ask for a letter, you might get a good one. Or you might not. So I'd say go ahead.
That said, there is something very mercenary about the way you have phrased your question that makes me skeptical. Do you *really* think that working with faculty wouldn't teach you *anything*? If it's true that the *only reason* you want to take a class is because of the letter you might get, something seems off. Maybe your interests are different enough from the professor's that I'm skeptical that this person would be such a great letter writer *for what you want to do*.
Being able to excel in a Masters program means not resenting the idea that you may have to learn from professors when you could "just read the book." I think it's OK to take a class for a recommendation but you should use this as opportunity to learn something you are passionate about in ways you could not with just the textbook.
Talk to the professor. Let them know you are an advanced and passionate student. Get feedback on your work. Go beyond what is just in the book. If you do that, you will get more than you would otherwise. In the process, you will also earn a much stronger letter. If you can't get over that hump, I suspect that your recommendations — and your experience in grad school — will underwhelm.
# Answer
> 6 votes
If you take a class for the express purpose of getting a letter, are you sure the class is to your interests ? If it isn't, and you aren't good at the material, you're not going to get a letter (or worse, you'll get a tepid letter).
If on the other hand you're taking the class because you like the material AND you hope that you can impress the professor enough to get a letter, then that's perfectly normal.
# Answer
> 2 votes
This is a completely personal decision. Is it ethical? Sure. People audit courses for all kinds of reasons. You're not the first person that has needed to get references so if you want to do that then just make sure that you're ready to give that course 110% to ensure that you get a 'good' reference.
There is, however, another implied question in your post: 'If I just go back for one class to get a reference will it have any value?'. Again, this is highly subjective.
(and here is why I didn't flag this question as being off topic) Your references should provide the admissions board with enough relevant information about your work, accomplishments, intellect, and character, to support your admission to the program. Taking one class, after a long academic absence, does not provide any frame of reference for your professor to make these types of assertions about you. You may find it better to solicit references from managers or people that you've done research with. Those people have the context to make a legitimate assessment of you and your work.
At the very least you should consider how your references support each other. If you need to have an academic reference and you don't have access to your previous references then taking a class to get one should be fine, just don't forget to support that as appropriate.
# Answer
> 0 votes
Absolutely, this is ethical.
Life is about proving yourself, and if you want to take a challenge to make a statement, there is nothing unethical about it.
I would absolutely go ahead.
The purpose of a reference letter is for someone to make a character or professional evaluation of an individual. The reason as to why the individual needs the evaluation should not make a difference.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, ethics, recommendation-letter, coursework
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thread-7990 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7990 | Status and selectivity of open access journals | 2013-02-14T00:58:51.990 | # Question
Title: Status and selectivity of open access journals
I am wondering about the following (after reading this question that discusses open access journals):
1. Is it easier to publish in one of the open access journals (when compared to the traditional journals)?
2. Does publishing in one of the open access journals affect the academic value of an article? (Unsure how to put this, but I mean does it affect your reputation etc?)
I note that some of the open access journals are peer-reviewed.
An example of open access is the Directory of Open Access Journals.
# Answer
Open access vs. closed access is a totally separate issue from quality of journal. There are high quality open access journals and low quality ones, and high quality traditional journals and low quality ones. There may be some correlation because open access journals tend to be newer and so less established, but nonetheless if you want to determine the quality of a particular journal you should look at that specific journal not try to extrapolate based on whether it's open access or not.
> 22 votes
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Tags: publications
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thread-7971 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7971 | How to reduce a paper's size for a page limited conference? | 2013-02-13T07:29:03.523 | # Question
Title: How to reduce a paper's size for a page limited conference?
This is a usual problem of mine, I have a page limited conference (usually 8) and my paper is 15 pages long, or in a less dramatic case 10.
1. How do you go about taking stuff off the paper. Do you have any rule of thumb?
2. How do you know what is "irrelevant" enough for you to take it out of the paper?
# Answer
> 28 votes
Before you go about the longer process of deciding "what to delete," have you first tried to remove the "dead weight?" Academic writing is often quite leaden in style, and can be trimmed quite substantially. Following Strunk's commandment to "omit needless words" can often cut down a page or two out of your manuscript *without* sacrificing "actual" content.
If, having pruned your text, you find you still need to reduce things, ask yourself the following question:
> What information do I want my readers to retain?
Then ask yourself:
> What sections of the paper do not provide information necessary for the reader?
Those should be a fairly good guide about what to delete.
# Answer
> 21 votes
First of all, a convenient approach is to "publish" the long version as a technical report or as a preprint (e.g., on arXiv). In this way, it is always possible to refer to missing parts in the shorter version.
If there are only a few pages too many, then it's probably possible to "tweak" the paper to fit within the page limit: scale the pictures, inline the equations, use only acronyms of the conference in the bibliography (e.g., *in POPL*, instead of "in Proceedings of the 40th Annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages), transform subsubsections into paragraphs, rephrase some paragraphs, move the proofs into the appendix, etc.
However, if you have too many pages, and you actually need to cut some *content*, then it might probably be better to directly cut an entire section rather than some bits and pieces in each section. For instance, I've rejected some papers because "due to the lack of space", the authors didn't provide any illustration of some quite complex notions, making the paper not understandable. Similarly, I've rejected a paper that was addressing many different points, but never in depth, due to the lack of space ... so it was quite hard to see the contribution (it was not a survey paper).
If you can't find a proper section to cut, i.e., you make a single contribution and you need 15 pages to explain it, then the venue is probably not suited, and you might rather look for a venue with a larger page limit.
Basically, if you have a 15 pages paper and a 8 pages limit, write *two* papers!
# Answer
> 7 votes
The first thing I do when trying to cut material is to make a backup of the paper (or a branch in your version control system). Cutting 20% is relatively easy while cutting 50% is much harder. For a 20% cut, the first place I look is the methods section. In my field we often include descriptions of methods that have previously been published. You can often save some space by simply referring to a previous published account of the method. In my field the methods section might be 10% of the paper and if you are lucky you can cut that in half, saving you 5%. The second place I look is my figures and tables. In my field figures and tables take up 25% of a paper. If you unneeded figures and tables, combine a couple, reformat and scale the rest, you can save another 10%. The third place is the efficiency of the writing. Obviously being succinct helps, but I find it helps to read your conclusions and then prune anything that is not directly relevant. These steps can help reduce a paper without changing the content.
If I still am not under the limit, I look at my conclusions and decide which one I want to cut. I then go back and remove the portions of the paper that lead to this conclusion. there is usually some setup in the introduction, a piece of results, and some discussion. This obviously changes the content of the paper.
# Answer
> 6 votes
There are many technical ways to reduce paper length without affecting your content.
If you use LaTeX for your papers (I highly suggest it), there are many web pages that help you reduce the number of pages without changing one bit of text. Do a Google search for "squeeze space latex" and you'll find plenty of information. My favorite one-liner command is `\linespread{<factor>}`, where `<factor>` is a decimal number, such as 0.99 or 0.98. I've reduced a twelve page paper to ten pages without any noticeable difference in formatting using that single command.
Obviously, you must stay within the paper formatting guidelines, but I've never had a problem with conferences and judicious use of re-formatting.
Other tricks that don't require significant content changes:
1. Find all paragraphs that have one or two words at the end and find a way to rephrase the sentence to make it fit on one line. This is relatively easy in many cases.
2. Make sure any figures are tight (while still looking good). For instance, don't have a title on graphs with captions -- the caption takes care of the title.
3. Make sure paragraph/section titles are a reasonable font size, and limit the space between the titles and sections. Make sure your titles fit on a single line. Sometimes you can get away with bold titles in the same font size instead of larger titles.
4. Reduce the font size for references. I've used `footnotesize` references without anyone batting an eye.
# Answer
> 5 votes
There are definitely some good tips already listed, in addition, here are some things that I've found really help:
1. Go back through your sections and write a bullet point outline of what you want that section to say. Assign 1 bullet point per paragraph and put it right above that paragraph. Go back through and re-read that paragraph making sure that each sentence supports your paragraph's point. If it doesn't, remove it or put it someplace else.
2. Go through your work keeping an eye out for terms that you use repetitively in each section or throughout the paper. If it's appearing more than a couple of times, consider creating an acronym or abbreviation for it (unless it's really going to make your paper difficult to read).
3. Ask someone else to read your paper and tell them that it is too long. Ask them to cross out or to mark parts they thought were unnecessary. If possible, have several people do this. Sometimes as the writer it is difficult to decide where to cut because you're too close to it. Having others read the paper and cross things out gives you a fresh perspective on if you're being repetitive or if some parts don't need to be there.
4. Take a break. If you have the time to do it, try not looking at your work for a few days or a week and then on your first time re-reading it make sure to mark any parts that stick out to you as unnecessary.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I don't know a single academic who's been able to get close to deadline and not say, "Look we're right on the page budget!"
Here are some strategies;
1. Don't cut too early. Cutting too early is a good way of losing some important numbers or paragraphs that your co-authors will keep asking you about.
2. Cut stuff that doesn't fit the story. I'm in computer science, so conferences are archival, but in general, if something isn't important to the overall contribution, then it goes away.
3. Make really nice tables and figures. Much of the time, having these separated and somewhat self-explanatory may actually save you the space of having to explain what's in each figure. As above, if your figure/table isn't related to the story, then cut it.
4. Write more concisely. You could either write, "The participants we recruited for the study were students who came from a wide variety of majors including computer science, electrical engineering, chemistry, nuclear engineering, and physics." Or, you could write, "Our participants were science/engineering majors". Different details, but functionally equivalent.
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Tags: writing, conference
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thread-7965 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7965 | How should I go about making CV as an undergraduate? | 2013-02-12T22:54:21.253 | # Question
Title: How should I go about making CV as an undergraduate?
I'm just an undergraduate math student, and I need to make a CV for a research application. However, from the CVs that I have already seen I have nowhere near enough to fill probably half of a page. I mean I can really only put my education history which is 3 schools. What else should I put?
# Answer
> 8 votes
Before starting research, An undergraduate student really only has a résumé. A *curriculum vitae* is generally intended for someone who is intending to pursue a career in research, and has a somewhat "standardized" format (although there are still many variations).
But as a young student just beginning to do research, I would recommend that you focus on listing skills that you have that would make you appealing to someone interested in hiring you. If you have more than the standard training for someone at your level in university (more courses, have already done research projects, etc.), then you should list that information. Similarly, if you have special skills (programming languages, familiarity with specific techniques or tools, etc.), then those should also be listed.
Any jobs that you've held that might also prepare you for such an experience would also be of interest.
# Answer
> 7 votes
You may want to consider looking at resume samples. My university has some great samples that students of all levels have used:
http://www.students.ubc.ca/careers/students/get-career-guidance/job-search-skills/resumes/
Notice that many of them make up for their lack of experience by providing specific examples of work they had done.
For example, suppose you had done an empirical project for an applied mathematics course. You could list that on your CV and provide information on how you had gone about doing the research.
Most undergraduates, I find have lots of experience relevant to the position they are applying to from experiences that on face-value appear to not be connected. Think of anything that utilizes skills that would be relevant for research.
Here is an example of something I used awhile ago.
**Example**
Research Experience:
Honours Thesis - Aging, Risk Aversion, and Stock Investment
* Compiled and arranged data from the Survey of Financial Security.
* Constructed statistical models to analyze trends in investment over Canadian's life-time.
* Controlled for violation of statistical assumptions, such as: auto-correlation, non-normality, and multi-collinearity.
# Answer
> 2 votes
CVs and resumes vary greatly by field and level of experience. A CV of an undergraduate applying to graduate school is very different than the CV of a associate professor applying to become a full professor. I would suggest talking to your classmates and the career services at your university.
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Tags: research-process, cv, research-undergraduate
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thread-7968 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7968 | Should I explain why I took grad classes at the same place I did my undergrad in my Statement of Purpose for graduate school applications? | 2013-02-13T04:04:07.787 | # Question
Title: Should I explain why I took grad classes at the same place I did my undergrad in my Statement of Purpose for graduate school applications?
I graduated last spring with my BS and intended to go to graduate school. I accepted an offer from (Big State School). However, during the summer before I could go, one of my parents became terminally ill; so I ended up declining the offer (well after the acceptance deadline) to move back in with my parents and help them out. At the same time, I also arranged it with my undergraduate institution to continue towards my masters there (since I had already acquired a bit of graduate credit) with the intention of transferring to complete my PhD elsewhere.
I am considering mentioning in my statement of purpose the reason why I graduated as an undergrad, have a semester gap, and then started taking graduate classes again at my old institution (I've heard going to grad school at the same place you did your undergrad looks bad?). But I'm also not sure if it's relevant to applications or even the sort of thing that belongs in a statement of purpose.
Would it be in poor form to do this, or should I leave such things out of application materials?
(Reposted from Math SE.)
# Answer
**Yes, you should mention your situation in your statement, briefly and unapologetically.** Omitting any explanation might raise a red flag with admissions committees, and most people will be sympathetic to your family situation.
You might also get back in touch with (Big State School) to see if they would be willing to reactivate your earlier admission. It's a long shot, but it couldn't hurt.
> 20 votes
# Answer
I agree with @JeffE's answer, but would reiterate that you should mention the situation briefly. You may want to consider a short addendum to your statement of purpose so as to keep the statement of purpose completely on topic. As to your concern about "going to grad school at the same place you did your undergrad look\[ing\] bad," your situation will cover that, but it is not uncommon for students to get their master's at their undergraduate school and their PhD elsewhere. That said, some of the best scientists I've known have received their PhDs at their undergraduate institutions, and ultimately it is your publishing record that will make or break future employment opportunities.
> 8 votes
# Answer
Better than just mentioning it in passing in your application would be to reflect on the illness and how that life experience has helped prepare you for graduate school/research.
> 0 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions, career-path
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thread-7999 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7999 | how to present a talk on work in preparation | 2013-02-14T16:43:42.870 | # Question
Title: how to present a talk on work in preparation
I guess this is very common, to do a presentation to your lab. I wonder how I can cite in my slides that the presented work will be part of a future paper.
I remember to see in past presentations a footnote with " Author A & Author B (in preparation)", but I am not sure.
or I should forget all this and just present the work?
# Answer
> 8 votes
If the work corresponds to a paper submitted to a conference, I put in the slides "submitted to conference X". Otherwise, you can put "ongoing work with Author B". If you present the work in part of a seminar, you can put "Seminar of the department X".
But mainly, you don't *have to* put anything, especially if the slides are not put on the web or distributed. The only important point I would say, is to indicate if your work has been done with other people, in which case, you can write "Joint work with B".
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Tags: graduate-school, etiquette, lab-meeting
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thread-7997 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7997 | Transition from PhD to postdoc with an intent to change field | 2013-02-14T15:50:35.130 | # Question
Title: Transition from PhD to postdoc with an intent to change field
I'm in the following situation: In 3 months, I'll finish my PhD in theoretical physics, and I'm certain that I want to pursue an academic career. However, I'm just as certain that my PhD research is a dead end. (My advisor doesn't think so, but I disagree with him.) Thus, I seek to change the direction of my research, but I need a few months to obtain the necessary skills. Anyway, I missed the main application period for post-doc positions (in the US).
**Given the following options (feel free to expand this list), which do you think provides the best perspective of leading me to a interesting post-doc position?**
1. Finish my PhD. Get any post-doc position. Do the work I'm required to do there. Work hard in my spare time to teach myself the stuff I want to. After 1-2 years, find a post-doc position I'm really interested in.
2. Finish my PhD. Get a well-paying job in the software industry. Do the work I'm required to do there. Work hard in my spare time to teach myself the stuff I want to. Work harder to keep publishing papers. After one year, find a post-doc position I'm really interested in.
3. Abort my current work. Find a new subject and a new PhD advisor.
4. Live on unemployment money as long as possible. Work hard in my spare time to teach myself the stuff I want to. Work harder to keep publishing papers. After one year, find a post-doc position I'm really interested in.
Pros:
1. Get the PhD title sooner. Stay in the scientific community.
2. Get the PhD title sooner. Earn lots of money (6 figure). In a 9-to-5 job, have more spare time for private research than on a post-doc position, where work is never finished. Go to a foreign country.
3. It's what I should've done 2 years ago. I'll have the education I want when I finish my PhD, not later (but be older anyway).
4. No immediate advantages over the other options.
Cons:
1. If a logical continuation of my PhD work, I'll suffer from demotivation. My next advisor will not want me to work on other topics that I'm not paid for. Might have to stay for 2 years.
2. I'll move out of the scientific community for some time. I know it's hard to get back in.
3. I'll be even older when I finally get my PhD. Not sure if I would find another advisor. Open fight with my current advisor.
4. I don't want to live on unemployment money for long.
A particular question concerning the options above: **Does being out of academia for a year kill your prospects of obtaining a postdoc position later?**
I do have some collaborators who will help me to keep publishing, provided that I put enough work into my research. Also, I'm willing to familiarize myself with other topics on my own (a prerequisite for an academic career anyway).
The next application period will be from October to December 2013, which isn't far away. I'm sure I'll have most of the skills I want by then (and a paper published proving that), but still would have to work until summer 2014 wherever I am applying now.
Please give me honest answers, even if they hurt. I'll provide more information as soon as possible, if anyone has questions.
# Answer
As one of my advisors once told me,
> The best dissertation is one that is written.
Tongue-and-cheek as it may be, I would strongly advise finishing up your PhD first, especially if you can do it in three months. If you have doubts about whether your committee will approve your work, then you should be having that conversation very frequently (at least once a week, if not more) with the committee members that you think will have an issue with the work.
If you are indeed "certain \[you\] want to pursue an academic career," choice (2) may be the hardest path. I've known a number of people who were certain they wanted to move back into academia after working in industry, but they didn't publish enough once they had a full-time non-academic job, and they weren't competitive for future academic positions.
Choice (3) would be a soul-killer if I were in that position. To see the finish line three months away and then scrap it for 2-3 more years of work? Not for me.
Choice (4) would probably be the worst decision -- every day you stay unemployed lessens the chance someone would eventually hire you (although maybe there are a ton of post-docs in your field). Proving that you've learned these things on your own is difficult, although you would have more time to publish (but will you have a university association still?).
Tough choices all around, but I suggest finishing up the PhD at least.
> 21 votes
# Answer
In my experience, when you start a post-doc, you will start working on a topic that is rather different from what you did in your PhD. This is often simply the case because you will be working for someone new who has different research objectives. Some shifting of topic is not only permitted, it is required.
For example, in computer science, if you did your PhD on programming languages you could continue your post-doc research on another aspect of programming languages, though it would be less likely that you could do a post-doc in machine learning.
Think broadly about what your skill set is and be willing to learn new skills on the job when you start a post-doc. Your new boss will expect that you know how to perform research (at a high level), though s/he will generally not expect that you know every single detail about the research you will be employed to do.
Regarding the application position for post-doc positions. In Europe, for example, these are heavily tied to various funding bodies, and in my experience, these are available (at different places) pretty much all year round. The season(s) for each country will vary.
> 13 votes
# Answer
Some postdoctoral advisors have a policy of intentionally making their postdocs do something radically different from their previous experience. I know that was certainly the case with my postdoc—I had to start on a brand new technique and a completely different problem than the one I was expecting to work on!
So, there really is no problem with jumping into a new field, if you find the right advisor. I also don't believe that there's an absolute "window"—some people may still have spots available; it's a question of being the right fit for the right project with the right advisor.
You might also have some other options available to you at your current department—is it possible that they can keep you on as an instructor? That way, you could have a little bit more of a cushion to look for your postdoctoral position, while not having to worry about having to take a job out of total desperation.
> 3 votes
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Tags: postdocs, career-path
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thread-8004 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8004 | What resources do you use when developing a new course from scratch? | 2013-02-15T05:50:55.903 | # Question
Title: What resources do you use when developing a new course from scratch?
I am in the process of developing two new state-of-the-art graduate courses. In the past five years I have been heavily involved in these fields and will use my own research and research from other relevant groups. I am also looking at new course developments in other universities.
Are there any other resources that you use when developing a new courses from scratch? Can anyone give me additional pointers?
# Answer
I'd go back and consult one of those "How to teach" books you've probably got lying around and focus on doing a good job of stating the course's **Learning Objectives**. Then, I'd make sure that the **course material**, **the learning activities** and **assessment tasks** are properly aligned with those objectives.
I would then make sure the students get to see those objectives and to understand how what they will be doing fits with those objectives.
I would design some sample assessment activities, such as sample exam questions (if that is one of your planned means of assessment). Then I would make sure that the content of your course is sufficient to enable students to do such assignments or answer such questions.
Mckeachie's Teaching Tips is an excellent resource for helping you do this. And it never hurts to refresh your didactic skills.
> 12 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-school, teaching, coursework
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thread-488 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/488 | Are there any online tools for student collaborative learning? | 2012-02-29T16:48:03.130 | # Question
Title: Are there any online tools for student collaborative learning?
There are many disciplines where collaborative learning is the norm; group projects in engineering, working in pairs in bio & chem laboratories, writing papers in a variety of fields, and Team-Based Learning in medical schools (among other areas). **Are there any software tools available that are specifically intended to augment collaborative learning?** In my head, this would include capabilities such as:
* Asking questions of the group
* Enabling real-time group discussion
* Sharing attachments
# Answer
> 5 votes
There aren't many popular ones specific to students. Many universities use BlackBoard, but despite having been in many classes where it was used, I've never seen students use it to collaborate. Students use the same tools everyone else uses... Skype, Github, Dropbox, Google Docs, etc.
# Answer
> 2 votes
> Are there any software tools available that are specifically intended to augment collaborative learning?
This strongly depends on the setting (i.e., the aim of the learning experience) and consequently expectations the teacher and the students have.
For collaborative knowledge-base management and/or note-taking, e.g., Wikis are an effective tool. There exist a plethora of various flavours of wiki's for various purposes, depending on the exact requirements you might have.
If you are after e.g., collaborative writing, then tools similar to Google Docs might be of some use.
In the case you would be after something more complex, such as collaborative exercise sheets, that would be trickier of course.
It also might be useful to start from Wikipedia's entry on Computer-supported collaborative learning
# Answer
> 2 votes
I've been using Piazza with some success. It provides a collaborative discussion forum for a course. The best thing I can say about it: my students actually use it. Caveat: it doesn't include the capability for students to upload files.
From the Piazza website:
> The (Free) Efficient Way to Manage Class Q&A
>
> How is this better than email, newsgroups, and discussion forums? Students actually use Piazza, they love it. This difference stems from how we built Piazza. We've personally met with and spoken to thousands of students and instructors. The result is a beautifully intuitive and simple product that students love and use.
Also see why Piazza works.
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Tags: teaching, online-resource, collaboration
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thread-8019 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8019 | How do I recognise a peer-reviewed journal article? | 2013-02-15T14:37:11.593 | # Question
Title: How do I recognise a peer-reviewed journal article?
I have lots of research papers, but can I tell which of them are peer-reviewed. Also, on Google Scholar, is there any way of finding only peer-reviewed articles?
# Answer
The cynical answer is that in borderline cases it's impossible to be certain what is peer-reviewed without a lot of investigation. Fraudulent journals claim to be performing peer review, and it's hard to disprove their claims (you have to distinguish between no peer review, incompetent or corrupt peer review, and genuine peer review with a very low requirement for how interesting the papers have to be). Sometimes someone gets a clearly absurd paper accepted (see SCIgen and follow-up projects such as Mathgen), in which case we know something is terribly wrong. However, there are other cases where we just don't know for sure, even though nobody really trusts the journal. It takes a lot of work to investigate, and there are tons of ridiculous "journals" operating on the web, so nobody has the time or energy to look into every case.
On the other hand, this doesn't come up except with pretty weird journals. Everyone working in a field has a pretty good idea of which organizations and journals are reputable; if an expert doesn't know what to make of a given journal, then that's a bad sign. I don't know of any systematic way to make this judgment other than based on experience and mentoring, although Beall's list is a useful tool to flag highly questionable publishers.
In particular, I know of no automated tool to do searches only for peer-reviewed articles, and I see no prospects for building a reliable tool of this sort (given that some publishers are simply lying).
This makes the situation sound much worse than it is. I've never run across a paper I was even remotely interested in where I had any doubt about its peer review status. However, it's a hard problem if you go dredging through junk journals.
Incidentally, in mathematics it would be a bad idea to limit your reading to peer-reviewed articles. Preprints are not yet peer reviewed, and if you ignore them until they are formally published, you may never catch up to the state of the art.
> 17 votes
# Answer
If the journal is listed by ISI, it has an impact factor and the chance is high the journal is peer reviewed.
In addition, proprietary search engines like Scopus seem to be more critical to its sources. Google Scholar picks up more, e.g. also the deliverable report I wrote for an EU project, which is not a reviewed paper. Using something like Scopus thus, imo, increases the chance of finding reputable journals. This comes however at a hefty fee, although is probably paid already by the institute.
> 12 votes
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Tags: journals, peer-review, citations
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thread-8023 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8023 | Pros and cons of not having PhD advisor's letter of recommendation after postdoc? | 2013-02-15T17:06:53.010 | # Question
Title: Pros and cons of not having PhD advisor's letter of recommendation after postdoc?
I have finished my PhD and am currently a postdoc. Since receiving my PhD, I have not worked with my PhD advisor. I am planning to apply for jobs for after I finish my postdoc — mostly tenured-track positions.
I am considering not asking my PhD advisor for a letter of recommendation. I feel this might be appropriate because I plan to ask my postdoc advisor to write a letter, because my PhD advisor may not have kept up with my current research, because my coauthors know my work better, and for other reasons.
What are the pros and cons of not having my PhD advisor as a letter writer?
# Answer
You should ask your supervisor for a letter.
Not having your supervisor write a letter is going to raise red flags. People are going to ask themselves, *why isn't this candidate's thesis supervisor writing a letter?* If you don't have a letter, you need to answer that question. Unless there's a very good reason to not have that letter, I think that it's better to avoid the question altogether. The reasons you've given so far do not seem good enough to me.
You suggested that (1) there may be more appropriate letter writers and that (2) your advisor might not be up-to-date on your current research.
I think these are not good enough reasons to not ask your thesis supervisor to write a letter and I think you can easily address these concerns:
1. You *should also* ask your postdoc supervisor to write you a letter. Not doing so will also raise red flags for similar reasons. If there are other great letter writers, ask them as well. For the tenure-track jobs I applied to, each expected *three or more* letters. There's room for everybody.
You can prioritize the more important or relevant letters. In your cover letter, it is normal to list the names of people writing you letters and it is normal to list those names in the order that you want them to be viewed. You can also specify in the letter which letters reflect more recent relationships, closer collaborations, or relationships closer to the core of your current research efforts.
2. It is not a critical problem if your advisor is not up to date on your current work. Presumably, their letter will talk the work that they know about and about your qualities as a researcher, colleague, and person that will not change. Also, you can point your advisor to or summarize the work you've done more recently.
I provided a copy of a draft cover letter, research statement, and teaching statement to each of my letter writers so that they could see how I was pitching and framing my work. I didn't do this because we were out of touch, but it seems like something similar would help address your concern.
> 12 votes
# Answer
The only time that you shouldn't ask for a letter of recommendation from your PhD advisor is when you are *not allowed to* ask for one. This is not often the case, but it does arise in a few instances. The best-known one I can think of is that in Germany a *Doktorvater* (supervisor) is not allowed to write a letter of recommendation in support of an applicant whose PhD he supervised.
Other than that, you should have your PhD advisor write a letter; it is expected by just about everyone that the supervisor **will** write a letter, and it will definitely raise questions for you if you do **not** submit such a letter. If there is a particularly compelling reason, then, you should have that well in hand at the time when you are writing your applications. Otherwise, you'll have a lot more explaining to do, and probably a lot of potential postdoc supervisors may not even bother giving your application a second look.
> 12 votes
# Answer
I wanted to reemphasize something that Benjamin said in passing. If they're asking for n letters, they mean at least n letters. So asking your advisor for a letter doesn't mean that you'd need to not ask the other people. Ask your advisor for a letter and ask the other people who know your current work better for letters.
> 4 votes
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Tags: advisor, recommendation-letter, job
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thread-8031 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8031 | Why are all these papers exactly 10 pages long? | 2013-02-16T14:31:20.883 | # Question
Title: Why are all these papers exactly 10 pages long?
I've been reading papers authored by professor A's PhD students. I have read about a dozen of papers by now, and realized that all of them are **exactly** 10 pages long. These papers were written by different PhD students and they were published in several different venues (very good ones). Is 10 the magic number for paper-length? (at least in professor A's field, which is computer science - human computer interaction)
# Answer
Most American computer science conference papers are precisely 10 pages long, because most ACM conferences have a strict 10-page limit on proceedings papers.
(ACM is the Association for Computing Machinery, the primary professional society for computer science.)
> 35 votes
# Answer
Conference papers often have fairly strict page limits; however, there is no uniform consensus even between different conferences in the same field, and certainly not between fields! For example, one fairly extensive series of conference papers (whose conferences I attend semi-regularly) limits contributions to *six* pages.
Similarly, many journals—such as "letters" journals—have even more severe restrictions (four or five pages), while other journals have (seemingly) no page restrictions at all: I've known papers in both engineering and mathematics journals that have gone for 20, 30, or even 40 pages.
> 8 votes
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Tags: publications, writing
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thread-2911 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2911 | Is reuse of "internal" results considered self-plagiarism if used in a later publication? | 2012-08-20T15:54:52.223 | # Question
Title: Is reuse of "internal" results considered self-plagiarism if used in a later publication?
This is a little bit different from the case of reusing boilerplate text.
Say one has done a series of experiments (either real or "virtual") to produce a set of results. Because the results are inconclusive as to the cause of certain effects, an additional, much larger set of experiments were performed under a series of different conditions to complete the "factorial matrix" of possibilities (all possible states of factor X crossed with all possible states of factor Y).
However, because the original results are valid, and represent unique "cells" in the factorial matrix, is it necessary to rerun the experiments for a future publication, or is it just a matter of obtaining journal permission for the re-use of figures and tables associated with the presentation of the data? As an example, am I violating copyright if I add a new set of curves to a figure which contains the same data as before?
I ask in part because there was just today a retraction based on reuse of figures, and I'd rather not run afoul of guidelines.
# Answer
From my experience, researchers are free to re-use a given dataset as many times as they want in numerous publications. I've been involved in single datasets (which, admittedly, took years to build) that generated *dozens* of papers, and that is by no means a unique scenario. My understanding is that researchers are to refrain from publishing an identical analysis on an identical dataset in different papers. If you're using a single dataset for multiple analyses, there's no need to re-generate the data.
> 19 votes
# Answer
I agree with the other answer that this is a normal occurrence.
To avoid any confusion, be clear and cite the previous publication as the source/original presentation of the data. It is *not citing* (even yourself), which is an ethical breach, as it makes it seem that have done more than you really have.
> 5 votes
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Tags: publications, ethics
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thread-8040 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8040 | Acceptance into graduate math programs | 2013-02-16T22:18:36.753 | # Question
Title: Acceptance into graduate math programs
I have been hearing different views about my likelihood of getting accepted into a math graduate program.
> Which of the following factors contribute most to the acceptance of a **non-math** undergraduate into a math graduate program (please order them)?
>
> 1. GPA
> 2. Recommendation letters
> 3. Publishing math papers
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Since I am an engineering student I only registered basic math courses (such as calculus, linear algebra, etc.). However, I studied a lot of other more advanced courses by myself. My GPA is about 3.5. A lot of people have told me that I need to raise my GPA in order to get accepted into a decent math graduate program and this is worrying me.
Courses that I self-studied: Undergraduate abstract algebra, real analysis (with an introduction to measure theory), first 4 chapters of Munkres' *Topology*, elementary number theory, graph theory
Courses that I am self studying: Hungerford's abstract algebra, algebraic topology
Courses that I plan to study: algebraic geometry, algebraic number theory, complex analysis.
I also managed to finish 2 math papers. So the question is:
Where do I stand now?
# Answer
Since you are an engineering major who took only the standard math courses, I infer that your overall GPA is driven by your engineering coursework. I don't think that graduate admissions will learn much from your grades in engineering, good or bad. The GPA of 3.5 is not that bad in engineering, especially if (as it seems) your heart was not really in it.
Self-studying is great, but the knowledge acquired from it needs to be evaluated by someone. Acing GRE Math would send a signal that you indeed learned something. If during your studies you kept in touch with math professors in your school, and they know enough about you to write an informed letter full of specifics, that would be even better.
The opinions on undergraduate papers in math are divided: e.g., not everyone considers them a good way to spend time as an undergraduate. I would not expect the admission committees to seriously read papers sent with an application, though they will glance at them.
So, my order is: letters, GRE math, papers, GPA.
> 12 votes
# Answer
I don't see this question as being definitively answerable without a lot more information, both about your background and qualifications and about where you are applying. Grad schools differ enormously in their approach to admissions in unusual cases. Some lower-tier schools are eager to take a chance on smart but nontraditional applicants who will be rejected by more prestigious universities. Others have established rigid rules after having had bad experiences with admitted students who had inadequate backrounds or didn't understand what they were getting themselves into.
Regarding grades, keep in mind that the world has seen a lot of grade inflation, and there are startlingly large numbers of applicants with nearly perfect grades. You generally cannot impress an admissions committee by having excellent grades, although poor grades can hurt your chances. Math departments typically care a lot about grades in mathematics and heavily mathematical fields (e.g., theoretical physics or CS), a little about grades in other scientific or engineering fields, and not at all about other grades, except that exceptionally poor grades in any field suggest the applicant is not good at getting things they don't care about done (which is not a good omen for their career). I.e., math departments don't care if you get a B- in history, but getting an F in history could be a problem.
Recommendation letters are absolutely crucial. In my experience they are by far the most important factor: other aspects of the application could hurt your chances even if you get good letters, but those other aspects cannot get you admitted by themselves. If you can't arrange for enthusiastic letters that the admissions committee will trust, then you have no chance at all of being admitted at a higher-ranked school. It's possible that a lower-ranked school might take a chance on you, but as I understand it every graduate program cares a lot about letters.
As for math papers, it's unfortunately not hard to write a near-vacuous or unoriginal paper and get it published somewhere obscure, and carefully evaluating a paper can take a lot of time and effort (refereeing is hard). If you simply list a paper in your application, with no evidence of its quality, then it's unlikely anyone will have the time to investigate carefully. The important thing for graduate admissions is not the publication per se, but rather the research experience that led to it, and you need a letter of recommendation that talks about this research and vouches for it. (In fact, having such a letter can be very valuable even if the research did not lead to a published paper.) This means you need a letter from your supervisor or mentor, or at the very least from someone who has read the paper and knows something about how it came about (for example, someone who can single out your own contribution if you had coauthors). In principle, if you publish in an especially prestigious journal and without senior coauthors, then the journal's high standards might serve as enough of signal of quality by themselves. However, this very rarely happens with undergraduate research.
So in short:
1. Bad grades could hurt you but good grades won't serve as a strong argument for admission.
2. Recommendation letters are crucial.
3. Research experience could help you get great letters but is very difficult to judge except through the letters.
However, as I said in the beginning, there are a lot of graduate programs out there, with different approaches to admissions. If all goes well, you'll get strong letters from math faculty and will be admitted in more or less the usual way. Otherwise, you may have to find a school that is willing to take a chance (usually because they have trouble attracting strong students with conventional backgrounds).
> 17 votes
# Answer
The earlier answers make good points...
And I would say, in your situation, most likely the "papers" are of little consequence in admission-or-not, and a 3.5 GPA is fine. No one cares beyond that. *Letters* matter a great deal when I recommend-or-not admission. What I read *first*, however, is the personal statement. Do be aware that in many programs there is a dominating impulse to "mechanize" admissions, which obviously has difficulty making use of either letters of recommendation or personal statements. But, still, if you explain your interests, your self-study, this can have a huge, repeat *huge*, impact on admission chances. I suspect you've not had much contact with math faculty in the course of your self-study, so can't get letters from math faculty. (If this is not correct, so much the better!) Letters from engineering faculty about students' mathematical talent are typically nearly worthless, since there seems to be a general tendency for "engineers" to believe that "mathematics" is "just a tool", and that they've mastered it, etc. Nevermind.
But the point is that you should not expect even glowing letters from engineering faculty to have much impact on admission to math grad school, exactly because the prejudices of many engineers are very familiar to mathematicians.
The subject-test GRE may help your chances, and you *must* take it, because a low-ish score is vastly better than the cluelessness indicated by having no score at all.
But for a person approach mathematics with genuine enthusiasm, but "belatedly", the personal statement, explaining unapologetically how you came to your present course, is the most important thing. Very few people choose to self-study mathematics... (although quite a few seem to believe that they have special gifts that require *no* study...!)
Explain yourself in your personal statement. Get letters from the people who think well of you who have the best idea of what professional mathematics entails.
Edit/addition: very literally, it is best to have letters from people who have been to math grad school themselves, preferably at better places, so have an idea of what that entails. Many or most math grad programs have "breadth" requirements apart from the eventual goal of "original research"=thesis. So it's not so much a question of your letter writers' "peer-reviewed publications" so much as their first-hand experience with math grad school. (These days some people who've done PhD's in math do end up in engineering depts, and vice-versa, but this is still unusual.) Thus, a recommendation letter should perhaps literally say something like "From my first-hand experience in math grad school at X, and observations of math grad students at Y and Z, \[student\] will be a success." That's the kind of thing that leaps out at me when I read these letters. (No, don't have your letter writers send CVs or publication lists.)
> 4 votes
# Answer
3,1,2 . And high GRE (subject) score may help.The content and level of your papers is crucial. And your goal will determine your chance.By the way ,this math-gre website lists many applicant profiles and admission results. Definitely worth a look..
> -1 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions, mathematics
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thread-8007 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8007 | Does previous participation in Google Summer of Code help when applying for a Master's program? | 2013-02-15T07:15:00.573 | # Question
Title: Does previous participation in Google Summer of Code help when applying for a Master's program?
Does participation in Google Summer Of Code help when applying for a Master's program ? Irrespective of the fact whether your project is directly related to the area for which you are applying or not.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Applying to Masters Program does not really depend on one single factor but a variety of factors.
The above sentence is very important before we move on to the answer. The decision on your admit depends on your application as a package and will be evaluated in its entirety. If your are a local student and then you attend Google Summer Of Code as part of the general trend of your location, then its obvious that most of the people from your school would have done so as well. In that case, what factors in is your school an its culture.
But say, if your are an international student and from a non-reputed institution, then the grad schools does not really know a lot about your institution, but then what matters is how you have excelled in your institution. Are you an student, who just want to finish of your course work or wanting to do beyond something? Here what you have done matters a lot.
Now the school where you are applying counts in as well. Some programs in a school would need a certain kind of attitude to survive. So it all boils down to how you project your resume, SOP (statement of Purpose) and how can good you have come up with what you have?
So most of grad schools know students dont have the luxury of doing all things needed for a program, but will seek to know how the applicant has fared in his life.
So it does matter a lot unless you did study in school where just most of them would have done something beyond just academics or apply to a program where you expect to see a lot of these performers apply too.
Just highlight them in way that is appealing to the school. Like 'I am 2 of 100 people in my school who participated in Goodle Summer of Code'. Strike it like its still hot.
Source: Personal Experience/Opinion when applying. I did focus on highlighting things I did and my other folks in college did not..
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Tags: graduate-admissions
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thread-8057 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8057 | Finding academic collaborations by location | 2013-02-17T14:09:38.073 | # Question
Title: Finding academic collaborations by location
What is the best way to find academic collaborations between two locations (e.g. Berlin and Australia) occurring within a certain field / topic? Some variety of massive, searchable, citation / co-author network map would be ideal, but the examples I can find so far seem quite limited.
# Answer
> 9 votes
You can, to some extent, use traditional publications databases for that. For example, with Web of Science:
```
(CI=Berlin) AND (CU=Australia) AND (SU=Chemistry)
```
will give you the list of publications with affiliations listing both Berlin and Australia in Chemistry. You can then skim through the list, or analyze it further, for example here by institution:
---
Another way to find a destination for your next holidays can be:
1. Start with a senior colleague you know well
2. Try to see who he's been working with recently: find papers, sort by institution
3. Pick your location and ask him to put you in contact with them!
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Tags: citations, collaboration, networking
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thread-8055 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8055 | Do community colleges have good math libraries? | 2013-02-17T11:24:31.937 | # Question
Title: Do community colleges have good math libraries?
Do community colleges have good mathematics libraries (with advanced books)? I am sure that it is different from place to place. I am interested to get some feeling of the general situation.
# Answer
Of course, as Dave Clarke says, every institution is different. However, in general I would expect the answer is **no**.
Community colleges typically offer only lower-division courses and don't expect their students or faculty to carry on research. Moreover, they are usually publicly funded and charge only nominal tuition, so they are not likely to have a lot of extra money. Given this, it's difficult to see why a community college librarian would want to spend money acquiring advanced mathematics books or journals.
That said, a community college library would almost certainly have access to the interlibrary loan network, allowing one to (eventually) acquire any resource of interest. Some might also have a reciprocity agreement with a nearby research university library. It is also quite possible they would have access to online databases that could include a lot of material in mathematics.
> 13 votes
# Answer
I fully agree with Nate Eldredge's answer, but here are some resources for exploring what sorts of mathematics books you might find at primarily undergraduate institutions:
If there are specific community colleges you are thinking of applying to, you can look for an online library catalog, or visit the library in person and check it out. This is by far the most reliable way to tell whether you would be happy with the library.
The Mathematical Association of America provides a basic library list of books recommended for undergraduate libraries, annotated with how essential they feel the book is. Decades ago the list had two-year and four-year sections, but nowadays it is probably aimed more at four-year colleges. Still, it will give an upper bound for what one can reasonably expect of a typical community college. You won't find research monographs on the list.
The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges apparently had a similar list, at least as of 1993 when these guidelines were written (see D.1), but I cannot find it online. You could probably learn more by asking them.
Of course, underfunded institutions may lack even the most essential books on the basic library list, while fancy schools may have all of them and more. Note that while there are some pretty fancy liberal arts colleges out there, you don't generally run across community colleges with big budgets.
> 7 votes
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Tags: research-process, career-path, mathematics, library
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thread-8034 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8034 | Will self funding a PhD hurt employment chances? | 2013-02-16T16:49:32.423 | # Question
Title: Will self funding a PhD hurt employment chances?
I am thinking of self funding a PhD in Applied Mathematics at either the University of Oxford or Cambridge. Would employers, both for academic (postdoc etc) and industry (research) jobs think less of a PhD holder if he or she is self funded?
E.g. Would they feel that because I failed to secure funding for their PhD, I am inferior to students who did? Although I am planning to self fund to UK schools, it would be nice to hear about views from across the pond (USA) as well.
# Answer
There's nothing on your CV that needs to indicate exactly how you were supported during your Ph.D. In fact, if you were self-funded, and managed to get an occasional fellowship or other form of support, that's a plus !
All a recruiting committee should (and does) care about post-PhD is the quality of your work (for faculty positions there are additional issues). No one cares about how you were paid to do that work.
> 23 votes
# Answer
Self-funding alone need not be visible in your applications and is unlikely to hurt in any case. That said, getting outside funding *is* likely to help and you should pursue it if you can.
First, it's not clear how any potential employer would know that you were self funded. Although it's normal to list fellowships or funding that you have received, it's just not normal (in my experience) to list the amount of money you received from a particular fellowship/grant unless it was a very public award.
That said, a list of grants, fellowships, and outside funding will help build a stronger CV. One thing many search committees are looking is a demonstrated ability to bring in grants and funding. Although that can be hard to discern in a graduate student/post-doc, the ability to apply for and get student fellowships can bring a little comfort. Being able to point out in your coverletter that you've thought about grants will inspire a little confidence in your application.
But the standard answer to questions of the form "*does x matter for the job market*" still applies. The quality of your work, your publications, your letters, and many other things will weigh *much* more heavily than the fact that you don't have fellowships that others do.
> 7 votes
# Answer
In *theory* I would say self-funding shouldn't hurt your employment chances, as there's not necessarily a reason to report how you were funded as a PhD student.
That being said, I have found that some people who have an external funding source not tied to a particular project/professor/etc. have two major problems:
1. It's not particularly urgent that you find a project to fund you, which means there's more time spend exploring, "finding yourself", concentrating on classes, etc. This is a double-edged sword - it can slow things down.
2. It's hard for any particular professor to "take ownership" of you - responsible for funding generally comes along with feeling responsible for other things as well, like your aforementioned progress. There's also less pressure to get involved in the early stages of grant writing, since you don't need to worry about it.
Those aren't necessarily reasons not to self-fund, but it's something to consider. None of those will impact *employment* chances, but they can effect your experience in ways that have downstream effects.
> 2 votes
# Answer
First I have a couple of questions, and suggestions for ways to try to avoid self-funding your PhD:
Do you already have a Masters? If not, it could be a better idea to self-fund a one-year research masters and then try for funding for a PhD after that. That would not leave a 'gap' in your CV, except that probably it's actually too late already to apply for next year.
Have you actually applied anywhere else than Oxford and Cambridge for a PhD? If not, that may be the reason you were unable to obtain funding. There are a lot of other very good universities in the UK (which specific ones are the best will depend on your subject), and doing a PhD with funding at one of those would surely be better than doing one without funding at Oxford or Cambridge. Or if you were not set on doing your PhD in the UK, you could also choose a country (for example the US or Canada) where PhD students are offered funding as a matter of course.
By the way, if you only applied to Oxford and Cambridge, then Noah Snyder's point, which I think is a good one, doesn't really apply, since it's not the case that you couldn't find anyone willing to fund you, it's just that you didn't try enough possibilities.
It may be possible to apply for funding again once you have already commenced your PhD. I know a few people who self-funded their first year and managed to obtain funding for the rest (these were all in the UK). At least one of them is now a lecturer.
In my opinion you should only try this if you can afford to fund the whole PhD (i.e. *don't* take out a loan for it!), and even then only if you are very passionate about your subject.
Now to my opinion on your actual question:
You needn't mention how your PhD was funded in job applications, but I suppose that in applications for academic jobs in the UK, employers might notice if no funding source is mentioned. I highly doubt this would count against you at all, as what is really important for your first job after your PhD is the work you have done in your PhD (although an ability to attract funding *is* highly valued in academia!).
> 0 votes
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Tags: phd, job-search, funding
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thread-8052 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8052 | What is the location of the nomenclature section in a scientific paper? | 2013-02-17T09:43:19.350 | # Question
Title: What is the location of the nomenclature section in a scientific paper?
I received this comment from a reviewer: *“ It is better to add a nomenclature section with a list of all the used symbols and their meaning as example (DVB-T, DVB-S2, BCH, OSFBC, LDPC...), consequently the paper should be re-arranged eliminating all the definitions given in the sections”*.
**Are there any specific position for this section ?**
# Answer
> 9 votes
The correct position for a nomenclature section is the location normally used by the journal in question. While as Paul suggests, the logical location for this should be at the *start* of the paper, in many journals, the nomenclature section is placed at the *end*, largely because it does not "look as good" to have the nomenclature section right on the first page (which is optically the "prime real estate" of the paper).
# Answer
> 3 votes
If you add such a section, it would need to be directly after the abstract. This way, any nomenclature is explained before it is used in the main text.
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Tags: phd, peer-review
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thread-8058 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8058 | How hard is it for someone who already has tenure to find a tenured position elsewhere? | 2013-02-17T14:20:05.793 | # Question
Title: How hard is it for someone who already has tenure to find a tenured position elsewhere?
I am in my second year as an Associate Professor (with tenure) at a top research university (listed among top 20 in *US News & World Report* in my field). My publication, teaching, and service records are all very good to excellent. I have also received numerous awards such as Sloan Fellowship and NSF's Career Award. In general, I am happy with my current institution, but sometime wonder if I can move to more prestigious university. There are other personal reasons as well that makes me ponder about such possibility. Would it be a good idea to apply other universities for someone at this stage of their career? How do search committees feel about hiring someone who has a tenure?
# Answer
> 14 votes
"Poaching"—"stealing" a tenured faculty away from one department to another by offering a more lucrative package—happens in academia with some frequency.
Obviously, if the position you're interested in applying for is a tenured position, then there might be a chance that the search committee will consider already-tenured candidates for the position. However, it is not a guarantee that this will be the case. (It depends a lot upon the candidate and the relative "fit." Also, a candidate who is fairly close to retirement may not be at the top of their priority list—simply because that means the search may have to be repeated in a few years anyways!)
One other thing to keep in mind—the working relationship you have with your *current* faculty may be significantly strained if you handle this the wrong way. You may want to see what you can find out on a confidential basis *before* committing to applying for positions. Once you've sent it out, it's out there—and could cause problems for you if word gets back to your present department.
You may therefore want to have a discussion with your department chair, but I would strongly recommend **not** using "these schools are more prestigious" as a reason for applying to them. If that's the only reason you're doing it, then you may want to reconsider, as switching schools is a time-consuming and nontrivial process.
# Answer
> 12 votes
It's rare that a search to fill a tenured position proceeds along the usual lines (post an ad, interview candidates, make an offer). Because of the delicacy involved in poaching, it's usually a lot more "under the radar". Which is to say that if someone hasn't approached you yet, they might not be interested in what you have to offer.
Having said that, one strategy (if you're really interested in moving) is to drop hints in the right places with the right people. Contrary to what aeismail says, I'd argue that "moving to a much higher ranked place" is probably the ONLY reason to move that won't create hard feelings (in that people usually can understand the desire to move up the rankings). Even then, the shift should be significant, else moving between universities that are similarly ranked doesn't make a lot of sense unless you have other reasons (geographic, two-body, etc).
I realized I didn't answer the question in the title. The short answer is: it's very hard, but not impossible. It depends much less on the availability of positions in general, and much more on the specific match between the institution and you.
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Tags: career-path, job-search, tenure-track
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thread-8083 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8083 | Doubts about an experimental PhD project | 2013-02-18T20:09:02.260 | # Question
Title: Doubts about an experimental PhD project
I recently finished my MSc in Physics and my average is within the absolute 1% of the whole institute where I study. I really like programming and numerical work, so my thesis was also concerned a lot with this, but there was also some experimental work to "justify" the numerical results.
I want to continue with a PhD and my thesis-advisor offered me a PhD project. However, the project is mostly experimental and the amount of programming is quite limited. The project is still interesting, because a large part of it is realizing the setup I proposed and simulated in my MSc thesis. It should be noted that the project is partly funded by a relatively large space agency, so (besides looking good on my CV) there are good chances of getting new contacts through this specific project. I thought that I could use this opportunity to see if it possible to spend 1-2 (or more) months at this agency during my PhD, working with them on their programming-heavy work. This wouldn't be directly related to my PhD project, so I'm not sure I'm "allowed" to do this, but this should be an option for me to investigate further.
I'm not sure if I should accept this experimental PhD project, because I worried that doing too much experimental physics may not be where my interest lies. On the other hand, I don't have any other offer and it may very well take some time before I find an alternative.
---
Regarding my future, then I definately see myself having a job which is based on programming/numerical work. This is another motivation for finding an alternative project, but would an experimental PhD make me less "attractive" for such a job?
Besides looking at my future, are there any questions I can ask myself to clarify this decision I have to take?
# Answer
Do **not** spend several years of your life pursuing a PhD project that you aren't enthusiastic about. If you do not want to be an experimentalist, it won't do you much good. It will be a lot more difficult to overcome the challenges and setbacks you will face if you don't like your project. Moreover, it's harder to become "an expert in the field" if you're not highly motivated to do so.
However, that said, it is possible for people to move back and forth between computational and experimental work. It's perhaps somewhat more complicated now than it used to be, but it's still certainly doable. Unfortunately, it may take some additional convincing to show people that you want to be a modeler if you've only done experimental work.
> 10 votes
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Tags: phd, job-search
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thread-8077 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8077 | How to get back on track after falling behind | 2013-02-18T09:34:31.347 | # Question
Title: How to get back on track after falling behind
I'm a first year master student currently taking courses on the second semester. For the most part I did pretty good on the first semester except that I got behind in one course which is specially demanding and hard.
Now I'm taking the equivalent amount of work as before plus I'm trying to finish my assignments for the other class in order to get my grade. And I'm also collaborating in a research project which I wasn't doing last semester.
I'm having a hard time trying to manage my time in order to accomplish everything. As I don't want to get behind in another course I try to be on top of what I'm seeing in class. However I find that this consumes a lot more time than I expected and I never accomplish the goals I set for the day.
As an example, if I have some class the next day I try to really understand everything we saw the previous meeting, and by the time I manage to do that (if I do), there is only about 3 hours left to do everything else. In a normal day I expend all the time doing my "academic stuff" and I only stop for eating and sleeping. Where the sleeping time could vary from 0 to 6 hours depending if I feel I'm getting too far behind or if I managed to finish all I wanted for that day (rare). I have to admit that I always try to get the most miniscule detail and expend a great deal of time thinking how to go from point A to point B on the text which in some sense is a pedantic attitude. However, I find that if I don't do this, then the ideas are very shaky (there are holes in my understanding) and I tend to forget those very easily, which is not good for doing exercises or taking an exam.
I have tried to split the day in blocks and only expend a fixed amount of time doing an specific task. However, this way I feel I go so slow that I'm not accomplishing anything. So basically what I end up doing is working nonstop in one task (which can take more than one day) and then try to compensate for the other tasks I didn't do by cutting sleeping time or further delaying other work.
I sometimes think that if I'm working that hard at this level, I have no chance of getting a PhD or continuing in academia. I see that some of my peers have time to have fun, go out and still get good grades while I barely have time to enjoy a meal. I also get good grades (I have to in order to keep my scholarship) but I feel that the effort I'm putting is too much for the reward (not exceptionally good grades).
# Answer
I want to give you one piece of advice which I think is very important: Sleep more.
If you don't get enough sleep, your brain won't work as well and so it will take you longer to understand things. You will be able to work much more efficiently with enough sleep. Also, your brain does a lot of important work during sleep, helping reinforce connections made during the day etc. So the time spent sleeping is not at all a 'waste of time' as far as your study is concerned.
Try not to view sleep as something optional that you can leave out if you don't have time. Have a go at sleeping at least six hours *every* night for a couple of weeks (I need at least eight most nights, myself, but six would be a good start at least) and see if you feel a lot more on top of things after that!
In my Honours year I found that it was hard to get to sleep if I had been doing maths within the last two hours before going to bed, so I made a rule that I had to stop doing maths at 10pm every night. I mostly stuck to it, and it worked very well.
Also, I'd like to offer some encouragement that having to work this hard now doesn't mean you couldn't do a PhD or continue in academia if you wanted to. I am now doing my second postdoc, and have never worked as hard as I did in my Honours year (that's like the first year of a two-year Masters).
> 38 votes
# Answer
One of the biggest challenges in any professional career is mastering time management. It's a tough assignment—and in recent years has become even tougher.
The most important thing to realize is that there is **never** enough time to do everything you want to do perfectly, unless you tackle a very small number of things in aggregate. For instance, if you are a professor, your list of tasks probably includes some combination of:
* Supervising research of your students
* Teaching classes
* Performing committee work
* Writing grant applications
* Networking with colleagues
* Writing, revising, and reviewing papers
And there may be a whole host of other administrative duties that eat up a lot of time, but don't otherwise help you get things done. Unfortunately, the day is currently limited to 24 hours \[1\], and you still have to figure out how to do all the other tasks of daily living (eating, sleeping, exercising), and having some semblance of a social life as well (so that other people know you're still alive!).
You can do many things well; the trick is to realize that you can't do *everything* perfectly. After a certain amount of time invested in working on something, you will hit the *point of diminishing returns*: an additional unit of time spent will yield a smaller incremental gain than the preceding unit. That's the point at which you should start moving on to other activities. It can be frustrating to have to stop working on something (it's certainly intellectually unsatisfying!), but it's the only real way to get everything you need done.
One other thing to think about: most of your tasks (in academia, at least) are known somewhat in advance: classes have an established duration, papers are in progress for a while, meetings with multiple groups do not happen at the drop of a hat. Thus, you may be able to at least get a rough schedule for your week planned at the start (or at the end of the previous week). Leave yourself a few blocks of time that aren't completely scheduled, and schedule a block of "personal time" (whatever you choose to do with that that helps you to "recharge your batteries," or get in touch with your inner self, or however else you relax).
\[1\] Days *will* get longer eventually, thanks to the slowing down of the earth's rotation, but not quickly enough to help us out!
> 22 votes
# Answer
* Seek contact to other people that work on the same tasks or have solved similar tasks before. An active communication about what you are working on can be a lot of fun, can accelarate learning and productivity a lot, and open a bunch of new chances.
* Do your best at the moment, don't worry about lost time or chances, since the only time where you can act and use real chances is now. Learn from the past and focus on the future, but don't get obsessed with analysing and planning. The mind set of 'now is the moment' can be both relaxing and motivating.
* Do some time management. Instead of focusing on tools and life-hacks, I would recommend to focus on the following principles:
+ Get a long term perspective (meaning: picture your own funeral) what you want to achieve in life. Your intermediate goals should have some connection to your long-term goal.
+ Prioritize your activities and goals. Priorization should be dependent only on YOUR goals, not what someone else wants to make you believe is important.
+ Reserve a lot of time to socializing, because most goals you cannot achieve without the interaction with others.
+ Don't exploit yourself, don't ignore your needs. Reserve enough free time.
> 12 votes
# Answer
In general, I've found that awareness is a key part of time management. Here are some tips that can help:
1. Take the time over a week or two to really log exactly where your time is going, what you're doing, and how long it's taking. While sometimes it is the case that you're working at 100%, often there are snippets of time here and there that you could be using more effectively. It can be difficult to adjust how you're managing your time until you really understand where your time is going. As an example, I know a guy who says he works at least 16 hours a day, but after working in the same room as him I came to realize that it can take him 4 hours to write one paragraph because he is constantly getting distracted with browsing the web, answering his phone, replying to e-mail, and talking to other people. While he is technically "working" the whole time, it makes it easy to understand how he's always missing deadlines and complaining that he doesn't have enough time in a day.
2. Based on that log, look at what is taking the most time and think about why. For example, maybe it turns out that you spend 120 minutes a day answering e-mails. If you notice trends, consider whether there's anything that you can do to decrease that time or spend that time more efficiently. In the example, maybe you could designate "e-mail time" at two points during the day to aggregate your work in it rather than constantly checking and being interrupted.
3. Brainstorm other resources that might help you to reduce some of the larger blocks of time. For example, if you're spending a ton of time trying to understand your classwork, can you form a study group that's a set amount of time and perhaps cover the material faster? Are there on-campus resources to help with difficult concepts such as tutoring?
4. At the beginning of each week, start a prioritized to-do list to manage what really needs to get done and what it would be nice to get done. As others have said, it's normal to have too many things to do and not enough time. However, you can definitely order your time so that the things that need to get done, get done. Don't be surprised or shocked if you always have carryover for the next week. There are some great online tools for this such as teuxdeux and Trello. These tools can also help you track what you've accomplished each week. Sometimes it's easy to think that you haven't gotten anywhere but I find that an archive of the things that I've finished can help to dispel that impression.
5. Lay out what your ideal schedule would be like. Make sure to prioritize blocking out time to sleep (you work more efficiently if you've had some) and time to eat. You don't need to go overboard on these and there will be times where you'll have to skimp on them, but you should have a baseline to aim for.
6. Last, learn to know when your schedule is blown and set a goal or deadline for when you will get back on track. Sometimes you have a deadline that makes it impossible to get enough sleep and you need to put in 110%. This is normal, but you also need to have a plan/date for ratcheting the workload back down to manageable levels or you will burn out. Once you've burned out, it can be very difficult to get back on track, so don't think that you can just keep working at maximum levels.
As an added note, when I first started graduate school a senior professor told me, "Done is better than perfect." Sometimes this really helps me to figure out what's a priority.
Hang in there and I hope that helps!
> 4 votes
# Answer
It sounds like your primary issue is not as much **"I don't have time to finish what I *need* to do."** as **"I don't have time to finish what I *want* to do."**
Combined from your original post and your comments this is what you currently are undertaking:
* Normal current course load for your program.
* Catch up from last semester's *exceptional* class.
* Research project.
* Additional research (expanded syllabuses) on your normal course work.
With your additional research, you are adding extra work for yourself on top of what your peers are doing and then wondering why you don't have time to finish what you *need* to do. That you have the interest to dig deeper is wonderful thing, but it seems you are getting carried away, and you may not see any long term benefit for your efforts.
> Unfortunately this doesn't usually get reflected on the grades but I feel that in the future (when doing research) I won't waste too much time trying to understand the fundamentals.
While this *may* be true, in the short term you are killing yourself. I say *may* because by this supposed point in the future, through the normal *expected* course work for your program, you might find yourself with the same level of expertise. Unless this extra work is done under some guidance, it seems highly unlikely you are choosing the best sources for your research. Worse, you may also be spending all your extra hours mastering some techniques that are *even now* obsolete by the state of the art but are taught as stepping stones for future topics.
Really, why are you are doing something that is ***not*** reflected in your current grades at the cost of something that ***is*** reflected in your current grades? Your grades are Academic currency as you said yourself you need them to keep your scholarship.
You mention your peers discuss problems that give them trouble or would ask the the professor or course assistant for help. How often do you? There is limited class time so some things don't get full treatment, or they have to choose the manner a topic is presented out of many options, one of the other options may make a troublesome topic just click for you.
If you continue with the extra research. Discuss it with your professors, they should be able offer advice as to what is worth exploring, what is a waste of your time, and what would be better left for a future point in your studies. For what is worth your time, they'll be able to point you in the direction of the best resources to use. Discussing with them will also make them aware of the extra work you are doing which cannot hurt.
> I see that some of my peers have time to have fun, go out and still get good grades while I barely have time to enjoy a meal. I also get good grades
It may very well be that they see better outcomes for the time spent because they take time to enjoy themselves.
* As others have pointed out, we need an appropriate amount of physical rest to be at our best.
* We also often need time for things to soak in mentally.
* Long term retention works best with many short study sessions.
* Relentlessly cramming on the same subject without break until you master it is almost never the most efficient way to learn.
Mental focus is a finite resource. It can be divided between foreground (conscious) and background (sub-conscious) processes. Both are required to learn. If you work relentlessly, you don't give the background processes a chance to do their part.
By taking time to have fun, they give themselves time for it to settle, for their brains to run those background processes. They give themselves a chance for the 'Ahh Ha!' moment where it all falls into place.
For myself, most 'Ahh Ha!' moments came away from the books, away from actively working on the related topic.
> 3 votes
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Tags: graduate-school
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thread-8088 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8088 | Special professor titles? | 2013-02-19T00:58:33.340 | # Question
Title: Special professor titles?
I have noticed several *special* professor titles and I was wondering what are the exact details behind them. For example:
> Stan Franklin, W. Harry Feinstone Interdisciplinary Research Professor
I am guessing this is some sort of award but what type of awards come with a title like this? Are these internal or external? Does it last forever or is it tied to funding and then no longer applies?
# Answer
This is called an endowed chair.
> 14 votes
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Tags: professorship, titles, awards
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thread-8085 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8085 | Would getting a faster MSc instead of just BSc affect admission chances for PhD? | 2013-02-18T21:18:09.927 | # Question
Title: Would getting a faster MSc instead of just BSc affect admission chances for PhD?
I will try to describe my situation briefly. The university I'm currently studying at offers a 4-year Bachelor program in mathematics.
I am currently in my 3rd year and the program for the 4th year consists only of optional courses (which I choose). As I have taken a rather high amount of optional courses so far, I can satisfy my ECTS requirements for the whole program in 3 years. The university, in this situation, would allow me to graduate at the end of my third year. Then, I could pursue an MSc. degree at the same university for a year and graduate with an MSc at the end of my 4th year of study in the university.
I would like to note that this has been done before by other students here and I'm not fantasizing.
My intention is to apply for a PhD at a university in the USA after the 4th year. (I am not a US citizen and I haven't studied there).
My question is: would getting an earlier BSc and MSc degree affect (negatively or positively) my chances for admission in a top university in the USA? Should I just graduate with a BSc. in math? I know that sometimes having a MSc. from the same university can be a negative sign. Should I be worried about that?
Some other background: My current university is not really "elite" of any sort; it barely enters the top 600 in the world. I have a few published articles and I have participated in conferences. I am also currently pursuing an internship in a research institute in the country.
Thank you.
# Answer
> 10 votes
(I'm on the admissions committee of a top-10 US computer science department; my advice may be way off base for mathematics PhD programs.)
**All else being equal, getting a master's degree in one year would probably count *against* you.** You're far better off taking some graduate-level courses, and possibly getting some research experience, while staying in the BSc progam.
At least in my department, PhD applicants who already have master's degrees are held to a significantly higher standard than applicants who only have bachelor's degrees. While having formal research experience is an *advantage* for undergraduate applicants, it's a de facto *requirement* for applicants with an master's degree. One year is not a lot of time to get some real (meaning publishable) research experience, especially since most one-year master's programs have heavy coursework requirements. And you'll be competing with other MS applicants who've already spent two years in graduate school.
My department steers PhD-oriented undergraduates *away* from our 5-year BS/MS program for this precise reason.
# Answer
> 7 votes
One issue to keep in mind is that in the US, the PhD program includes the coursework phase associated with the Master's degrees in Europe.
While this wouldn't be a negative factor in your admission, you may or am not be able to get a waiver for the coursework phase, even with a Master's already in hand. In some cases, they'll let you place out of courses, in others, they might not. Therefore, you should contact the individual schools you want to apply to and inquire about their policies.
However a Master's degree will help you if you do well; if you struggle, it probably won't be of much benefit at all.
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Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions
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thread-8099 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8099 | Why do some reviewers mention their decision explicitly? | 2013-02-19T20:31:49.620 | # Question
Title: Why do some reviewers mention their decision explicitly?
Recently, some of the reviews I received mentioned their decision at the end of the review (i.e. 'I recommend acceptance of the paper'), while others do not have such statements.
What is the point of adding the decision statement while the overall evaluation (i.e. on EasyChair system) explicitly says it? Is it just the reviewer's habit?
# Answer
Typically I include an explicit recommendation in the report to be shared with the authors when I have a strong opinion, but not necessarily otherwise. In the former case, the editor can still decide either way (referees make recommendations, not decisions), but if they disagree with me at least the authors will know for sure what the referee thought.
> what is the point of adding the decision statement while the overall evaluation (i.e. on EasyChair system) explicitly says it? is it just the reviewer habit?
It may be habit, and it may reflect uncertainty about what information from the web form will be available to the authors.
> 22 votes
# Answer
The only reason I can think of to include a outright recommendation the authors can see is if the "feel" of my comments and the decision don't necessarily align naturally. For example, if I've issued a lot of criticisms, but most of those are "With fine tuning, this would be an outstanding paper", or hoping to see what is an adequate treatment of really spectacular data turn into a great treatment, I might not that despite the page of suggestions, it could probably fly as is.
At the same time, I've reviewed a paper with a very small number of comments, but in those comments have been tempted to use words like 'fatally flawed'. So including a 'I would reject this paper' comment might help with "There are only three things you need to change, but you need to take them seriously."
> 15 votes
# Answer
As far as I can see there are two main reasons:
* The editor usually isn't an expert in every area. Adding an explicit recommendation (accept, reject, ...) may help the editor.
* An explicit recommendation (accept, reject, ...) is the reviewer's ultimate summary. The reviewer should only provide it if they can defend it and feel it's fair. In that sense adding the recommendation strengthens the review.
> 7 votes
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Tags: publications, conference, peer-review
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thread-8090 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8090 | APA style for program used in a study | 2013-02-19T02:46:37.883 | # Question
Title: APA style for program used in a study
APA Format: When writing the name of a program I used in a study (MyFriendQuest) do I need to italicise the name or add a trademark sign? I am not sure how to stylise the name of the program or if I even need to.
# Answer
> 3 votes
According to Section 7.08 (page 210) of the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the APA,
> Do not italicize the names of software, programs, or languages.
Furthermore,
> Reference entries are not necessary for standard software and programming languages, such as Microsoft Word or Excel, Java, Adobe Photoshop, and even SAS and SPSS. In text, give the proper name of the software, along with the version number. Do provide reference entries for specialized software or computer programs with limited distribution.
An example of a reference entry:
> Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (Version 2) \[Computer software\]. Englewood, NJ: Biostat.
# Answer
> 0 votes
I have to cite my online university references in APA, and know that the journal article/book title has to be in italics, to make it stand out. I'm not as sure about a program like this, though it could be in my 15-odd page style guide I have to use.
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Tags: citation-style
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thread-8116 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8116 | Is it possible to be a paid RA in a math or computer science lab in order to be immersed in the academic research context? | 2013-02-21T04:40:11.203 | # Question
Title: Is it possible to be a paid RA in a math or computer science lab in order to be immersed in the academic research context?
I'm currently a research assistant in a neuroscience lab at MIT and I'm considering pursuing a PhD in math or theoretical computer science. The RAs in my lab who want to eventually become neuroscientists are in a perfect place - a large, collaborative environment where they get paid to work closely with neuroscientists and learn hands on what the entire research process is like in that field before committing to a 5 year grad program.
I want an environment as close to this as possible in math or theoretical computer science to solidify my belief that I would be happy pursuing research in these areas. Is this kind of opportunity available in these fields? What is the closest I can get? I did an REU program in undergrad and loved it, but want more if it's out there.
Thank you so much for your advice, this is a great community.
# Answer
Opportunities to work in specific labs are abundant, but you need to start up a conversation with the professors who run individual labs or research groups to see what is available at your school. Whether or not you can get funding for a position will vary per lab/RG. It is generally more difficult to get a funded position in a math or theoretical computer science research lab because without experience, there isn't much you can do to justify getting paid (whereas in an experimental lab you can at least help out with the menial work that is inherent to experimental labs).
My suggestion: make appointments to see professors or lab directors in the labs or groups you might like to work in. Plan on working for free for at least a year, in order to prove your worth. If that means taking a second job elsewhere, so be it. Be prepared to discuss why you think you will make a valuable team member to include a discussion of your long-term goals. This should be more than "I might want to work in theoretical computer science." Do some pre-reading of recent papers that have come out of the lab, and know something about the professor's background.
Unfortunately, jumping into a theoretical research group probably isn't the best way to test the waters for a particular field (esp. without a good background already), so you may get more worth out of continuing to take courses in those disciplines you find interesting, and doing a good deal of reading on your own.
> 4 votes
# Answer
A word about your terminology: a "research assistant" at many schools is *already* a PhD student. If you mean getting the opportunity to be a "research affiliate" or "associate" or some other position that implies you are working for the professor *before* you enroll in a degree program, this becomes a challenge, largely because of the "culture" of mathematics and computer science. There are very few large-scale mathematics and computer science groups, in part because there isn't a need for an extensive support staff. Thus, the positions that you're describing typically aren't available.
> 4 votes
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Tags: education
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thread-8061 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8061 | How much time before (possible) effect of US sequester is felt on grant funding? | 2013-02-17T14:42:28.047 | # Question
Title: How much time before (possible) effect of US sequester is felt on grant funding?
When a US institution that manages grant programs (such as NSF) suddenly sees its funding cut, as will be the case after the US sequester takes effect in March, **how long does it take for that cut to trickle down onto grant programs and grants?**
Namely: **Can grants already started get cut** (like, they tell you you'll lose 20% funding for the last year)? What about **grant programs where the selection was already announced**, can they make changes to that? Or will it “merely” impact the number of grants they can fund from now on?
*(I know that the government will move, and though the situation is stupid, it's not as much of a dead-end as it is pictured… this question assumes that the sequester goes in effect, and not deal is made to lessen its impact.)*
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This question was spurred by today's PhD Comics:
# Answer
> 6 votes
See the NIH answer below on what's happening to grant budgets, at least for their agencies. It sounds like there is some budget trimming for the amount awarded for new grants, but they're trying to mitigate that somewhat. Where I think there's going to be a much greater impact is with *new* awards - with less money, and not wanting to hamstring grants with further cuts, they're simply likely to make less awards.
As for how much time before the possible effect of the sequester hits? It already has. Several people I've spoken to who do program planning, grants work, etc. for the Federal government have expressed the feeling that, because of the level of uncertainty about what money they'll have in the future, funding agencies are being very conservative about what they commit to spending. We could see this in the last budget cycle and the near shut-down - funding slowed to a crawl for a bit, and then when the continuing resolution got passed, there was a small "bump" as agencies spent out money they hadn't yet promised "just in case".
So if the sequester goes through, what that will really do is make those conservative, "We better not spend $$$ until we know we'll have it" plans a reality, followed by more severe paylines etc. in the next grant cycle.
So worst case: It's already here, we're just not committed to it yet.
Best case: The next funding cycle.
Edit: The actual answer has come from the NIH: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-13-043.html
> The NIH continues to operate under a Continuing Resolution as described in NOT-OD-13-002, and therefore all non-competing continuation awards are currently being funded at a level below that indicated on the most recent Notice of Award (generally up to 90% of the previously committed level). Final levels of FY 2013 funding may be reduced by a sequestration. Despite the potential for reduced funding, the NIH remains committed to our mission to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.
>
> Should a sequestration occur, NIH likely will reduce the final FY 2013 funding levels of non-competing continuation grants and expects to make fewer competing awards to allow the agency to meet the available budget allocation. Although each NIH Institute and Center (IC) will assess allocations within their portfolio to maximize the scientific impact, non-competing continuation awards that have already been made may be restored above the current level as described in NOT-OD-13-002 but likely will not reach the full FY 2013 commitment level described in the Notice of Award. Finally, in the event of a sequestration, NIH ICs will announce their respective approaches to meeting the new budget level.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Okay, I read today in *Chemical & Engineering News* an article that gives good, fact-based information on the issue. It seems to indicate that **already accepted grants would be cut down**, not only current and future proposals:
> At the National Institutes of Health, for example, sequestration is expected to cut $1.5 billion of its funding for 2013. The cuts would amount to a 5.1% reduction for each of the agency’s 27 institutes and centers. “That translates into hundreds of grants that would have been funded in this fiscal year that simply won’t get paid,” says NIH Director Francis S. Collins. As a result, several thousand research positions could be eliminated.
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Tags: funding
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thread-8128 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8128 | "Looking for a postdoc" ad inside a conference talk? | 2013-02-21T15:21:46.887 | # Question
Title: "Looking for a postdoc" ad inside a conference talk?
I got my PhD one year ago; I am looking for a position (e.g., postdoc). I am going to a fairly attended conference, and was pondering about how to make audience aware that I am on the market.
* An explicit, dedicated slide (maybe at the end)?
* A verbal statement?
* A caption on my T-shirt? :)
Would you find any of this appropriate? What would you advice me to do?
**EDIT** In case you think it's not a good idea, I'd be interested in knowing why. Otherwise, I'd be interested in any additional implementation advice (how to formulate that, or whatever comes to mind).
# Answer
Don't be shy about advertising. As you and Dave suggest, place it at the end, but you don't need to be very subtle about it. I've seen a number of talks where people advertise the fact that they're on the market, and everyone understands the need to do this. Presumably you're worried about it seeming desperate, but it isn't.
> 20 votes
# Answer
I would add to the end of your conclusion a simple statement:
> By the way, I'm looking for a postdoc position.
I've seen it done before, and I don't think people minded.
A T-shirt could be a fun way of broaching the topic when talking to people.
> 19 votes
# Answer
Be personal (if possible). Try to research the person or people that may be interested in you and approach them directly.
> 2 votes
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Tags: conference, job-search, presentation
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thread-8134 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8134 | How to quickly get complete list of citations to all my papers? | 2013-02-22T05:09:07.433 | # Question
Title: How to quickly get complete list of citations to all my papers?
I need to get citations (with complete info including authors, journal, date) to all my papers. What's the best way (hopefully without too much manual copy & paste) to do this?
What i so far tried:
Google Scholar seem to give more complete list of papers that cite my paper that it includes papers in non-English language journals etc. But i can't see how to get authors, journal title, volume number etc quickly from the Google Scholar search output.
# Answer
You can use Scopus to do that, but only if you / your institute has access.
Search for an article that you (or someone else) has authored, click on the author name, then click on "citations".
<sup>Scopus screenshot, author page</sup>
If you click on the *13* link, you will see a full list of documents citing Gerrit Holl:
<sup>Scopus screenshot, author citation page</sup>
In my experience, Scopus doesn't have many false positives, although it might miss publications in new or unknown journals.
I'm not sure if Scopus deeplinking works, but try this for a direct link.
> 13 votes
# Answer
As an alternative to scopus, you can use Web of Science. It's also subscription based though, and your institution may or may not have access.
Go to http://apps.webofknowledge.com , select the tab labelled "Web of Science", and enter your name in the search field for the author. When the results show up, you should see a link labelled "Create citation report" near the top right corner of the results list. Follow that, and in the results table you will see an element "Citing Articles\[?\] : nnn", where nnn is the number of citing articles. Click on the number, and you are taken to a list of all citing articles from the Web of Science database.
In case the result list after searching for your name has false positives, you can exclude them from the citation report either by setting a year range, or manually excluding them one-by-one.
> 6 votes
# Answer
Harzing's Publish or Perish software is the tool which will probably help you most. It is a Windows application, which allows you to specify queries and then goes to Google Scholar to retrieve and sort the references, citations, etc. Besides computing h-index and a host of other bibliometric indices, it allows you to produce reports from your searches and this is what you seem to be after. Even though running only on Windows, installing Wine emulator to run it is worth the hassle.
> 4 votes
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Tags: publications, citations
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thread-8111 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8111 | FOIA request for full NSF awards proposal and report | 2013-02-20T19:56:07.813 | # Question
Title: FOIA request for full NSF awards proposal and report
*Related to this question on mathoverflow…*
Indeed, I just found out that to see full proposal or later reports. One needs to file a FOIA request, as described here.
So I am curious if anyone has done so? And how is the process like? In particular, can the requester remain confidential after the request (so other people will not know that I made the request)?
Additional follow up question: What kind of people can file FOIA request? Does it have to be US citizens? Or just anyone working in US? etc..
# Answer
The name of the requester does not remain confidential.
A friend of mine was recently on the other end. NSF contacted him to tell him that an FOIA request had been made for a copy of his proposal, told him the name of the requester, and asked whether the proposal contained any sensitive information that he wished to have redacted.
The general feeling was that making such a request, rather than contacting the PI directly, was unprofessional and borderline creepy. I second JeffE's comment: **Ask the PI first.**
> 24 votes
# Answer
OK. Now I have some **very clear answer**. The list of all requesters is in fact **PUBLISHED** on NSF website.
See, for example, all NSF FOIA request in 2010 (PDF) http://www.nsf.gov/policies/2010\_FOIA\_LOG.pdf
The link is found at the bottom of this page: http://www.nsf.gov/policies/foia.jsp
> 14 votes
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Tags: funding, nsf
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thread-8144 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8144 | What to do with a paper with references but no citations? | 2013-02-22T17:21:32.727 | # Question
Title: What to do with a paper with references but no citations?
I just received a paper for review that does not have a single citation (in the text) of its references.
I wonder if this is common in other areas non-CS related.
Since it is a conference, I don't think I should contact the editor, but I do think it should lose many points in its evaluation.
Overall the paper is well written, and they do not seem amateurish people writing their first paper.
What would you do in this case?
# Answer
Reject.
No work exists in isolation. The authors need to position their work in relation to existing work, and this requires more than just putting a bunch of papers in the bibliography section: it requires a detailed comparison. The authors failed to do this.
*In any case, there will always be another conference for them to resubmit to.*
> 25 votes
# Answer
My initial reaction is that they merely have encountered a set of issues for which there are no relevant papers they could cite. For example, where would you expect citations in there? Citations for the sake of citations are a Bad Thing. Citations should advance the position of the paper in a meaningful, shoulders-of-giants kind of way.
And initial reactions are often the right one<sup>\[citation needed\]</sup>.
But upon further reflection, it occurs to me that with the vast multitude of papers out there, the likelihood of not having a single paper that could help advance this paper's position in a meaningful way is probably very, very small. What is much more likely is that the authors either did not do their due diligence in looking for work that could have advanced their position and/or saved them time, or worse, specifically excluded other research because glaring similarities. Both are common, and either is bad for the authors and the scientific community as a whole.
The main thing that concerns me is... where did they get the idea to do whatever is in the paper? Was it not at least *partially* based on some published work that they're either challenging or advancing? That is the most troubling thing to me.
> 4 votes
# Answer
It's not clear from your question, whether they simply don't regard other papers in the field, or they do have related work etc. but they omit the in-body-citations.
If it is the first case, I'd second Dave's answer (unless it's a brand new question with a brand new technique that solves it, and they clearly say that no related work can be found to the best of their knowledge).
However, if it is the second case, it seems quite technical issue that can be easily fixed, and in this case you can just mention in your review that references are missing and this should be fixed (also note this to the PC chair; s/he can condition the acceptance on fixing this issue)
The fact that it's a conference, in my eyes, makes it more flexible -- papers should be considered mainly by merit and not by technicalities. I can think of the opposite case, where the paper has all the citation, gets accepted, but in the camera-ready version all references are removed.
> 4 votes
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Tags: publications, conference
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thread-8006 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8006 | What lessons have you learned over the years as a TENURED FULL Professor that you wish somebody had told you when you started as an Assistant Prof? | 2013-02-15T06:00:12.343 | # Question
Title: What lessons have you learned over the years as a TENURED FULL Professor that you wish somebody had told you when you started as an Assistant Prof?
As a **Tenured Full Professor** and given your long experience in Academia, what valuable lessons have you learned over the years that you wish somebody had shared with you earlier when you started as an Assistant Professor? Given these experiences what would you do differently if you had the chance?
# Answer
> 50 votes
Learn how to say **NO**.
It is very easy to say yes to every PC invitation, every paper collaboration, every committee, every this and every that. But this spreads your time too thin and means that you perform far less than optimally at everything you do. Ultimately, work encroaches too much on family time, and life becomes less enjoyable.
Also, learn how to teach properly. Take a teaching course or two. It will make your job easier and increase the amount you enjoy teaching.
See also: What is expected of a postdoc?. Many of my comments there are applicable.
# Answer
> 56 votes
### You do not have to accept responsibility without appropriate authority.
It's a classic problem in any organization, and it's related to Dave Clarke's answer. Some concrete examples:
* Rather than extend the deadline for homework when the bookstore doesn't have enough copies of the course textbook, give the students the email of the manager of the bookstore so they can write him directly about their situation.
* Rather than ask meekly for a bigger classroom when there aren't enough seats for the 47 students enrolled in your class, give the email of the department coordinator who's responsible for assigning classrooms and say this is the person to whom you should vent your unhappiness.
* Rather than teach a course that is watered down because it has no prerequisites, teach to the higher level students and explain clearly in the syllabus what you expect people to know. If students complain, explain to them your predicament (if you teach the basics, half the class will feel they wasted their experience). Students have more power to change an academic program by organized, constructive complaining than a non-tenured professor.
* If the department chair doesn't involve you in selecting TAs for the course you are responsible for, and students are not happy about the quality of the TA (or the TA hounds you for a lot of help because he wasn't qualified to teach the course), encourage the chair to allow you to be involved in the selection process (refer to the principle of authority and responsibility).
* If you're asked to be on a committee, insist that the committee have a clear mission that's feasible within the authority of its members. If a mission cannot be clarified or you can't identify with the mission, then minimize the amount of time/energy you put into it.
# Answer
> 38 votes
Can I give advice as a former Assistant Professor who did not get tenure? Here is where I went wrong:
1. Be quick to change. It takes a lot of time to change into a new field. If you feel you may need to do this to secure more funding, don't delay. Make time to continually evolve. Sticking to one thing may have taken you to where you are now, but successful academicians are continually branching into new fields and collaborations.
2. Collaborate early and often in your career. Do not isolate yourself (and be careful going to a department where you are the only person doing what you do). You will need collaborators to get consistent funding.
3. Hire the best graduate students and postdocs. It's tough when you're new, because you feel like you have to grab the first student that expresses any interest. The problem is you may waste more time and money training a bad student than it's worth in the end. The difference between a success and a failure in academia often hinges on getting the right trainees. Do not underestimate the importance of this.
4. Don't worry about teaching for your first few years. Do as little as possible. Same goes for service (i.e. committees). Most departments will give you a break your first few years anyway, but some make the mistake of volunteering time they really should be spending on research and securing funding.
5. Learn how to play the game. A lot of the effort to getting funding these days is about marketing yourself and your projects. Figure this out early. Why should people care about what you're doing? Why do you deserve this million dollar grant? Not everyone is trying to cure cancer, but you need to be able to justify your research to anyone. You need to be able to generate excitement about your research.
6. Think long-term in addition to short-term. There are short-term goals everyone has to accomplish, but make sure your long-term strategy makes sense for your chosen career path.
7. Figure out what you're good at. Before you become a professor, everyone is always patting you on the back, but that's before there's real money at stake. When you start to apply for $1M grants, you need to be an expert in your field. One of my biggest issues was I tried to do a little bit of everything, but in the end, I wasn't a true expert in anything.
# Answer
> 22 votes
While on the interview circuit I ask this question of almost every faculty member I meet with: "What advice would you give to a new assistant professor who's starting up?"
Here are some of the universal, non-conflicting advice I've heard.
* Put enough time into your teaching to do an adequate job, not an excellent job. Save the rest of the time for research. It was emphasized that you want to teach courses that involve the minimum amount of preparation as well. You can have a tenure case stopped in its track for poor, unacceptable teaching, so you want to ensure that it's maintained to a minimum standard, but it is rare to have a weak research program that's propped up by teaching excellence. (Yes, it's somewhat unfortunate that this is the state of things in the United States's higher education, but that's the culture).
* Develop your research program so that it is deep, rather than spreading out into too many research areas peripheral to your main research. Stay focused and specialize first.
* Be aware of how you select students and especially how the department selects students. This varies from department to department, but in general I was given advice to be reasonably careful when choosing students, and to consult with other faculty members to see if others know the student who's looking for an advisor.
* One faculty member I spoke with mentioned concern about getting all of the hardware set up (for computer science), and mentioned that was something that took a little longer than expected, so have a contingency plan to continue research while your own hardware's going through purchasing. This faculty member used another faculty member's cluster until he got his own up and running.
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Tags: professorship, tenure-track, workplace
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thread-8166 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8166 | Conference sponsored by a top conference? | 2013-02-24T08:27:30.100 | # Question
Title: Conference sponsored by a top conference?
How related two conferences are if B is sponsored by A? If A is a top conference, does this make B a worth-trusting conference also? For example, SIGCOMM is a top conference in computer networks & communications, and CoNEXT is sponsored by it. Does that automatically make CoNEXT a quality conference?
# Answer
The top conference has reputation to keep up, so if they associate themselves with the other conference this indicates that they trust the organizers of the other conference to do a good job. So, I'd see the endorsement as a sign that the level of the conference is probably good, although there are no guarantees.
> 5 votes
# Answer
I'm not sure what it means for one conference to sponsor another. In the particular case you mention, "SIGCOMM" is both the name of a conference and the name of a group within the ACM that sponsors that conference. So it's likely that SIGCOMM (the group) is sponsoring CONEXT, rather than SIGCOMM (the conference).
> 8 votes
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Tags: publications, conference
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thread-8131 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8131 | How to submit 'teaching evaluations' for a job application? | 2013-02-21T17:59:17.970 | # Question
Title: How to submit 'teaching evaluations' for a job application?
Some jobs ask you to submit 'teaching evaluations'. Assuming the school doesn't have any preference for how I submit the materials, my issue is that I literally have hundreds of teaching evaluations - If I just send them all I know no one is going to look through them all, but if I do any sort of condensing I feel as though I will be clearly cherry picking the good comments. Any suggestions for making the most out of these materials in a job application?
# Answer
> 18 votes
I don't think a modicum of cherry-picking is a bad thing in this regard. What you need to send is a set of teaching evaluations that describes what is significant about your teaching -- the
> Great teacher!
comments aren't particularly worth it, but the
> Dr. X constantly provided clear examples of the material, and it made the difficult topics more concrete.
samples can provide the insight that will be helpful to a hiring committee.
The committee is trying to get a feel for *why* you are a good teacher (be that the case), and that's why they want the evaluations. I have provided bulleted lists of evaluation comments, but I have also provided a link to all of my comments from multiple classes. The evaluation website at the university where I taught recently actually provided a statistical breakdown of the survey questions on each evaluation topic, so I was able to highlight the statistical takeaways from the surveys.
# Answer
> 5 votes
First, in most cases you have summary pages that give your overall statistics and even compare you to other teachers in the department. By all means, submit those (juts scan them all into a single PDF). Those are not cherry-picking in any way, so that would remove your main concern. Second, on the top of it, sift through the hundreds you have to choose the most meaningful and nice comments and scan 10-15 of them (you shouldn't be shy and afraid to show your best in your application: after all, if you tell me that you always dress as neatly and behave as nicely as you do on your interview day, I'll just laugh). That should be more than enough for any hiring committee member unless he has a strong prejudice against you for some reason.
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Tags: teaching, job-search, course-evaluation
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thread-8170 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8170 | Converting from and to British grading scheme | 2013-02-24T10:46:59.647 | # Question
Title: Converting from and to British grading scheme
I've tried googling around for this but I haven't really understood how the British grading scheme works. I am specifically interested in knowing the following things:
1. What is a 2:1?
2. What is a level A?
3. How can I convert from and to A, B, C grades to numerical grades?
# Answer
The UK system uses the notation of 1st, 2.1, 2.2, 3rd as degree classifications. Most individual modules/classes are grade on either an A, B, C, ... scale or a percentage scale. I believe the conversion of A-=70=1st and B-=60=2.1 is pretty universal. At reasonable universities, approximately 10% of students get a first and 60% get a 2.1.
Under no circumstances would I advise converting your own marks on an application. State the marks you got and if it is a particularly bizarre system provide a link where they can get more information.
> 5 votes
# Answer
* An A is 70% upwards (this is also known as a 1st)
* A 2:1 is 60%-69% (also known as a B or upper second)
* A 2:2 is a C 50%-59% (lower second)
* A 3rd is 40-49% (a d)
> 4 votes
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Tags: grading
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thread-8118 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8118 | How to encourage administration to handle plagiarism? | 2013-02-21T09:48:59.350 | # Question
Title: How to encourage administration to handle plagiarism?
I obtained my PhD about five years ago and immediately took up a postdoctoral position at a national lab in Japan to continue my research in computer engineering.
Over those five years I worked with the person who is now my supervisor, and trusted him in the same way I would trust any ordinary person, only to learn (too late!) that my trust was misplaced.
After working on a large project of his for about two full-time years, he forced me to "leave the project". Now that the large project is nearing completion, I have since discovered that he has started to present my ideas and my work as his own.
The administration vacillates between feigning ignorance and admitting there is a problem but then claiming that they are powerless to do anything about it.
What can I do? What *should* I do - and why?
# Answer
It is harder to deal with plagiarism in oriental countries than in the western world. It's even harder when your employer is a national lab.
To answer your question, how to **encourage** the administration to handle plagiarism?
There is something you need to know (I suspect you already know it to some extent), orientals tend to treat their faces much more seriously than anything else. This is the key.
Things may not be that serious as you would think. So far, he only presented the idea and the work as if they were his. But I agree that it's a bad sign. You need to deal with it as soon as possible before he goes any further.
**Edit** (I would like to argue that we do not have sufficient information to tell if plagiarism will happen or already happened.) **End of Edit**
From what you described in the comments, your supervisor seems to have personal issue with you. You might have some conflicts with him without you even knowing it. The key word *face* is the most probable reason I could think of. There is probably some cultural thing buried somewhere you would need to figure out if you want to resolve it. It may not be that serious as you think, could be just misunderstanding.
There is some different thinkings between oriental and western world. In the **western** world, **people take individual ownership** for what they think and do. In the **oriental** world, some tend to think the ideas and the works are products of the **whole team/group**. Thus, the head of the group would present the idea and the work as **the head of the group**. This could be construed as plagiarism in the western world
You said *they are powerless to do anything about it.* This is probably due to that thinking. I must say that changing a culture takes huge efforts and long time. If you want to talk to them to encourage them to handle plagiarism, you need to
> Talk to them politely, professionally and **discreetly**.
> 6 votes
# Answer
As you've mentioned, a paper trail is always harder to deal with in presentations—and taking credit is a lot harder to define than on a paper.
Right now, you have a few key challenges: you will first need to find a new job as soon as possible. Secondly, you will need to establish the paper trail that shows that the ideas and results that you have obtained are in fact yours. This requires having a clear email trail, plus any relevant lab notebooks and supporting evidence that shows such work was in fact yours.
Beyond that, you have already done due diligence in that you have alerted the administration to the possibility of academic dishonesty on the part of your advisor, and you have also informed him of your intentions in this matter (by email, which he has received).
If you have done both of these things, then you should be able, as you suggested, to work directly with the editors of any journals in which your advisor chooses to publish this work without you.
However, one other thing that you could do is write up your work independently. Presumably, you are much more knowledgeable about the specifics of the methods and techniques that you've performed, and would be able to write a better paper on this topic than he can by himself (which he would need to do in order to publish without you). You could then offer him to publish those manuscripts. (Before sending him such a manuscript, however, I would be sure to watermark the PDF, and lock it down so that it can't be printed, edited, or copied. Alternatively, I'd only send part of the paper—by withholding the methodologies and conclusions sections, for instance.)
> 1 votes
# Answer
Let me start with plagiarism/academic dishonesty is a serious offense and it should always be dealt with. You said, "After working on a large project of his for about two full-time years..." this immediately puts us into a gray area. Did you discuss authorship at the start of the project and if so what was agreed then?
When I employ someone to work on a grant, that doesn't guarantee them co-authorship on everything they work on. Often I need someone to turn a crank and there just isn't the opportunity to make a contribution worthy of authorship. Other times I may not trust the person enough to do anything independently enough and therefore spoon feed them. In my opinion the extent to which supervisors "steal" the work of their advisees is often overrated by advisees, especially ones who have had a falling out with their supervisors.
You have a sour relationship with your former advisor and the first thing you need to do is to repair the relationship. Accusing a former supervisor of academic dishonesty by brandishing words like plagiarism is not helpful in this regards. Talking to him and explaining that you need to publish the work is useful.
I would suggest creating a list of all the projects that you worked on while in his group. From this list, you need to identify the publications that you can generate without needing any resources from him (i.e., access to HIS computer/software) and ones that you need to collaborate with him on. The goal is to identify all potential publications and establish authorship (i.e., what should have been done at the outset).
For each publication that does not need any additional resources, write a short description/abstract about the key findings, propose an author list and order, provide a time line until submission. For these publications, you should be the only one responsible for anything on the time line (apart from providing feedback on drafts). Ask him to provide feedback on the key findings, author list, and time line so that you can tailor them to better fit his needs.
For each publication that requires additional resources, you need to remember, he can ignore your previous work and just regenerate it and write the publications on his own. What you are offering is a collaboration. Again, you need to write a short description/abstract about the key findings and the additional work required, propose an author list and order, and provide a time line until submission. For these publications, the more you expect of other and the more resources you need, the less enticing the collaboration is.
> 0 votes
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Tags: research-process, plagiarism, workplace
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thread-8172 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8172 | I was rejected from my dream graduate school...what should I do? | 2013-02-23T04:50:12.390 | # Question
Title: I was rejected from my dream graduate school...what should I do?
I applied to a prestigious university in the States for my PhD but was unfortunately rejected. I had a great undergraduate track record... but still didn't quite make it. The faculty I really, *really* want to work with are at this University... I really don't know what to do. I spent the whole day refreshing my email, waiting on the off-chance that an acceptance would come... but it didn't. I'm honestly devastated right now. I know I shouldn't feel so strongly about this, but I'm an incredibly competitive person my nature and I've wanted to attend this institution since I was a freshman in high school.
What are my options? I did apply to some backup schools...but I don't know if I should consider going to one of them or just waiting a year and reapplying... Any help would be greatly appreciated.
# Answer
Disappointment is a real part of life, *especially* in academia.
My belief is that, in order to succeed in academia, one needs to maintain a *concrete yet ultimately attainable set of goals*. These goals should be things that have a realistic probability of being achieved, but allows you some room to maneuver around in which to attain them.
Saying "I want to go to graduate school to get a PhD in \[insert field of choice here\]" is reasonable and gives you several routes to get there. Saying "I want to go to graduate school X to work with professor Y on topic Z" places way too many constraints on yourself: first you need to get into graduate school X, then hope that professor Y is still offering projects in topic Z, and prefers *you* to other applicants in the program. This is a way of setting yourself up for disappointment.
So, what I would recommend is regrouping. Find an alternate strategy for yourself. What do you want to do in graduate school—beyond working with Prof. X or Y (who by the way, might not be a very good graduate mentor)? Figure out what the goals you have are, both for your graduate degree and beyond, and then figure out what options, among the ones you still have available, will be the ones that best get you there.
> 32 votes
# Answer
**Go to grad school at the best place where you were accepted**, and work hard to take advantage of whatever opportunities that school has to offer (even if they were not what you first envisioned). At the same time, keep in mind the **possibility of transferring after you finish a masters degree**. This is fairly common in mathematics (my field). It can be a great way to "move up" to a higher quality school.
If you're considering transferring, you should immediately begin working (at your first school) to **network** and to **develop relationships with professor who can write you letters of recommendation** (obviously, you should also **publish good papers**). In fact, you should do all of these things regardless, but now you will have more urgency. One advantage of this approach is that your work will be valuable whether you transfer or stay at the same school.
In short, it sounds like you had your (academic) life planned out, and now you must make a new plan. One weakness of your first plan is that it was "fragile" in the sense that it depended on many things outside of your control. **You will be happier (and generally more successful) if you focus your plans and energies on things *inside* your control.**
> 20 votes
# Answer
OK, I will try to form an answer.
Last week I set through a three hour memorial presentation for the 25 years since the death of Feynman. The person who was presenting the way the Feynman Lectures series ( red books) caught the imagination of physicists made the following comment: ".most of the real students in his audience left physics" . I tried to find a link but did not succeed. But I had some personal experience:
Back in 1964, when I was a graduate student in a nascent school in Athens, Greece, after a semester of field theory from the book by Bogoliubov went to a Cern summer school in Yugoslavia. There Veltman gave three weeks of lectures where the scales fell from my eyes and I realized in my gut feelings what all the fuss with operators was about: crossections. Enthused by this I managed to get a place at the Erice meeting of 1964 where Feynman would lecture. I was severely disappointed.
I realize now that I joined at the time the students from his feynman series course :). The reason? At the time we were all excited about the eightfold way and quarks and tantalizing SU(3) . Feynman spent his time in showing us how HE derived the same things in what was for me not a particularly elegant way.
I also followed a series of lectures he gave in 1981 in a Crete workshop when QCD was all the rage, and again , he derived for us QCD in his own unique way. This time I could appreciate it having become sophisticated enough to admire how he could think out of the box still at his age.
My anecdotes are to show that a physics personality may be very attractive to an aspiring physicist but that does not mean that being a student of Feynman would allow one to develop as an independent thinker next to his shade. If you are competitive, you should think of this .
In your place I would choose one of my alternate universities, looking at how the graduate students from there were placed as post docs, and not waste time : most original thoughts come before 30 for physicists.
my two cents.
> 19 votes
# Answer
If you really want to study in particular place, you can consider doing PhD another place (where you get admitted) and then apply again. But beware, as aeismail says, putting too many constrains is risky (typically people apply to at least a few different universities).
It may depend on your priorities, but one friend of mine applied to a few PhD programs in US (from EU)
* one year he got rejected everywhere,
* the next year he got admitted everywhere (and they were only top-tier universities).
So, what was the difference?
In the meantime he has learnt how to apply (e.g. how to write a research statement, how to get an appropriate guy for a recommendation letter) and got external funding (Fulbright fellowship). He spent the extra year doing research in another institute, so it was not wasted in any sense.
(BTW: The story / "how to": http://kni.wikidot.com/gdzie-doktorat (in Polish), and research statements "before vs after" http://kni.wikidot.com/moja-historia (links on the top - at least they are in English :)).)
> 16 votes
# Answer
I understand that your question has been migrated, and therefore it might not be obvious whether you want to have your career in academia. But if that's the case, not being accepted to your first choice is probably not as bad as it first seems.
First of all, you don't need to be in the same university to collaborate with the faculty you *really* want to work with. Perhaps it would be easier if you were in the same department, but you're starting a 45+ years career, you will have plenty of opportunities to work with him/her in the future. Getting your PhD is just the first step, not the final one.
As some comments say, in the end, *where* you did your PhD is not the most important, *what* you do during it is. If you can find another nice place to work, then consider it as a challenge to work hard enough to get a permanent position in your dream university later.
Finally, just to look at the bright side of things, not getting there might be a chance: a very important aspect to measure the quality of a PhD is to show how you can do *independent* research, i.e., without your main advisor. Hence, doing your PhD with someone you admire (I'm extrapolating here), although very rewarding on the short term, might tie you to work only with him/her, and thus reduce your visibility as an independent researcher.
To answer shortly your question: since you're competitive (and many people are in academia), go do your PhD where you are accepted, do the best PhD ever witnessed in this university, get the best publications, and then people will look at your work more than the place you did your PhD.
> 12 votes
# Answer
A similar thing happened to me, although I did get the academic position at first, but not the funding a few months later. I was absolutely gutted.
Right now I'm writing from the comfortable position of a PhD student at a place (another place!) which is great in almost any respect I can think of. In retrospect, here is what I learned:
* By enrolling in grad studies, you're entering a whole new arena. In good schools, nearly every student who comes in is used to being in the top 10% of his year. Of them, in grad school, only 10% will have this distinction. Sometimes, dealing with this disappointment starts with the admissions process. But wherever you're admitted to, it will continue: a good part of being a scientist is about becoming genuinely interested to hear more whenever you're told you're doing something wrong. This goes against every gut instinct you have, and takes time to internalize.
* Universities have rankings, which gives an impression that they're in competition with each other. But great science comes from having many different people poke at a problem from different angles. This means that there is normally good collaboration going on between labs (i.e. universities) working on any given subfield. It is not uncommon for a student to be shared between supervisors from different universities, so you still have the opportunity to collaborate with the lab you were initially interested in even if you go elsewhere.
* You can always try again at the original university, either by transferring during your graduate studies, or by applying for a postdoc.
* If you have great passion about a particular area of research, it will very likely be ignited once you come in close contact with some other area of research. Mastering new concepts, and pushing the boundaries of your field with exciting new research, is just intrinsically pleasing. So if you like research, you will likely enjoy any lab you get into.
* Ultimately, your chances for remaining in academia will mostly depend on your publication record. If you do well in that respect, nobody will take it against you if you didn't go to a particular school. On the other hand, a one-year break in your studies could look bad.
So hang in there: it's not easy being rejected, but not so many options are closed to you as it may seem at this moment. I would just go for another school and work my way from there if I were you.
> 4 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, rejection
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thread-8169 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8169 | Having a low tier publication as an undergraduate student? | 2013-02-24T10:34:34.067 | # Question
Title: Having a low tier publication as an undergraduate student?
Is it a good thing for an undergraduate student to publish in a low-tier conference as first author? Or should the student avoid such places and only publish in at least reputable places? If it is a good thing, how should the student present his study in the graduate admissions process to admissions members (since the conference name is mostly unknown to much of them)?
Note that, by low tier, I mean the conferences which are ranked at "*C level*" according to ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia).
# Answer
Let me answer the important parts of your question:
> Is a good thing for an undergraduate student to publish in a low-tier conference as first author ? Or should the student avoid from such places and only publish in at least reputable places ?
**Yes, especially if the venue is peer-reviewed.**
As the answers to this question suggest, graduate schools look for evidence of **research potential**. The undergraduate research experience is about developing some basic skills and demonstrating that you are capable of handling a research project. Publishing at a third-tier conference, so long as there is some level of peer review, is better than no publications. Would publishing at a higher tier conference be better? Sure, but it might not be worth the effort or the risk of rejection. Publishing at a third-tier conference would look better than being rejected from a first-tier conference. Being first author on a paper at a lower tier conference should hold more weight than being a middle author on a paper at a higher-ranked conference.
Your research adviser probably has some wisdom about the level of conference at which your work should be presented. Choosing a lower tier conference is not about making your work seem less important. The choice might be about guaranteeing you get the change to present it at all.
> If it is a good thing, how should the student present his study in graduate admissions process to admissions members, since the conference name is mostly unknown to much of them?
Present your work and conference presentation the same way you would present any other similar experiences. If you have to provide a personal statement as part of your application, write about the experience and how it benefited you. If they ask for a list of relevant accomplishments, include this presentation in that list. Put it in on your resumé. Ask your research adviser for a letter of recommendation.
Do not use any negative language or derogatory language when describing your experience. For example, don't mention that the conference is lower tier or that you thought you could have presented at a better one. If the admissions committee knows about the conference, then they already know about its ranking. If they do not, then you should not be the one to give any hint that you think your experience might have been sub-par.
> 14 votes
# Answer
Just to add to extensive Ben Norris's answer - as far as I know, ERA has been discontinued, but, Brazilian CS community did a conference ranking for their internal evaluation purposes. Here is the list (explanations are in Portuguese, but the names of the conferences are from all over the world) - http://www.capes.gov.br/images/stories/download/avaliacao/Comunicado\_004\_2012\_Ciencia\_da\_Computacao.pdf, A1 is the best, B5 is worse - that is essentially based on h-index of a conference computed via this tool: http://shine.icomp.ufam.edu.br/index.php
May be the conference where you published is of better position there:)? There are also several community-driven rankings but I cannot post links to them as my reputation is not enough for posting more than 2 links;)
> 3 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, conference
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thread-8180 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8180 | What is the minimum one should expect from the day-to-day supervisor? | 2013-02-24T17:42:05.357 | # Question
Title: What is the minimum one should expect from the day-to-day supervisor?
**What minimal responsibilities can a student expect from their day-to-day supervisor?**
In my institute, we usually have the head of the institute as the formal supervisor, followed by another day-to-day supervisor. In fact, the head of the institute does nothing, and the day-to-day supervisor is the one who is supposed to do the PhD supervision.
A few institutions do codify the responsibilities of advisors and supervisors. See, for example, the "Code of Practice for Supervisors, Advisors and Research Degree Candidates" from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, and the "Policies and Guidelines on Graduate Student Advising and Supervision" from McGill University in Canada. Are these guidelines universal?
# Answer
I think it is reasonable to expect two things from a day-to-day PhD advisor. The first is a willingness to meet in a timely manner and discuss expectations and the second is a willingness to deliver on agreements in a timely manner. If there is something you need/want from your day-to-day PhD advisor, then ask him/her about it. If you are concerned that your request is unreasonable, then ask colleagues or here.
The problem with answering the question in general is summed up in the UTS link you provided:
> At the outset it is important to acknowledge that the nature of the student-supervisor relationship cannot be mandated, largely because it needs to be flexible and take into account the particular circumstances of the research project, the student and the supervisor.
As far as the universality of formal guidelines about expected behavior in regards to advising students, all universities provide a faculty handbook that has some minimal guidelines, but generally it is not as long or formal as the links you provided.
> 9 votes
# Answer
*Based on my experiences...*
Based on those I know, the guidelines you link to are *not* general.
The day-to-day supervisor approach is typically implemented passively because the main supervisor (i.e., the guy in absentia most of the time) is too busy to actually manage the students. For this approach to be practical, the day-to-day supervisor must have expertise in your research and must be aware of the general research path of the group (i.e., can provide not only advice but direction).
For what it's worth, most labs with a day-to-day supervisor in addition to the main one will be more difficult to work in as a graduate student. The only case where this can be a benefit is where the formal advisor is some ridiculously well-known figure in the field, and your just being in their lab will lead to opportunities down the road. For the majority of labs with this setup, though, it's simply because the formal advisor is too busy to deal with (or otherwise disintereted) the graduate students, and has set up someone else to deal with them. This typically leads to communication issues, lack of guidance, long delays in your advisor reviewing your work & publications, and frustration. I would approach these setups cautiously.
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*Edit based on comments:* The main reason these setups tend to fail is that the supervisor's unspoken job description is one that will never be filled; replicate the domain expertise and research experience of the advisor while essentially being a graduate student counselor. Anyone who can do that will be running their *own* lab, not helping you manage your students.
This means that those who *do* take the job either don't have the relevant domain expertise to adequately answer student questions, or relevant research experience to design, run, and analyze data from a complete research project. Any lacking expertise translates into "lets just wait until your next advisor meeting", which adds long delays to *everything*.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I'll add that Guidelines, Codes, and the like are almost meaningless in academia, simply because it is easier to herd cats that to get a bunch of independent, highly-intelligent group of people to follow some set protocol or rules. Try attending a faculty meeting and you'll see what it's like. An institution may have guidelines, but there is probably very little chance of enforcing them.
You'll find supervisors/advisors on both ends of the spectrum. Some will want to be in the day-to-day operations, micro-managing all the details. Some will meet with you, then say "Come back in a few weeks when you have progress". The most common method seems to have weekly meetings to discuss progress and provide insight/expectations on advancing the project.
This is the interesting part about academia. You aren't really taught how to supervise others, or people skills in general. Most academics seem to just go with their instinctive, personality inclinations, or they simply do what their previous supervisors/advisors did.
I'll add that if you're not getting along with your supervisor, either you need to discuss the problems, or plan a move.
> 2 votes
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Tags: etiquette, advisor, supervision
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thread-8200 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8200 | Is it acceptable to email the authors of a paper for the slides they used while presenting it in the conference? | 2013-02-25T16:04:50.647 | # Question
Title: Is it acceptable to email the authors of a paper for the slides they used while presenting it in the conference?
I've noticed that while there's no alternative to going through the actual paper in detail, it often helps if I've gone through the presentation based on the paper, which the authors had used while publishing their papers. (Mostly because, the few presentations on TCS papers that I've seen have good geometric examples/illustrations which may have been instrumental in getting the intuition in the first place, but the brevity required by CS conferences mean very few of them make it to the published paper!)
While a few authors graciously maintain the links of such slides on their web-pages, most do not - and I haven't even seen a single CS conference maintaining such documents on their web-page!
So, I've the following questions:
1. Since I'm ultimately interested in understanding their work (and extending it if possible), is it considered OK to email the authors for the slides (if they still have it)?
2. If it is, do I have to justify/explain why I want the slides, or would just a polite request do (with minimal explanations on my part to keep the mail short!)?
3. Would making such a request more than once make the author feel offended, and/or make them think that someone who can't read papers at the highest level without "assistance" isn't exactly someone worth helping out?
4. If there are 2 authors listed, without any implications about who is the corresponding author, should I mail both of them at the same time (which may lead to both of thinking the other would be responding), or separately (which may lead to duplication of efforts!)?
I'm not sure what to tag this query with - feel free to re-tag/add more tags as you see fit!
# Answer
1. It's never a problem to ask. In particular if you are interested in extending their work, they should be interested in providing you with more information. Perhaps the extension will happen in collaboration with them, but at the very least you're going to cite their paper. In my experience, views on sharing slides vary, but the objections I've heard related to unpublished material; I understand that in your situation, the material is already published.
2. I would explain why. It's polite to do so. But do keep the mail short. You could write that if they're interested, you can provide more details on your ideas; like that, you don't swamp them with unrequired information, yet you're open from your side in stating your ideas. Such an offer shows that you trust them, and as they need some trust in you if they share their slides, that is probably a good idea.
3. I don't think they would feel offended.
4. Depends on the field. If there is no clear first or corresponding author, I would contact either one of them. They would probably either reply or forward the e-mail to the other author.
> 19 votes
# Answer
1. I think it is reasonable to make such a request but your success will depend on how it is done. If you clearly express your interest and reason for asking as well as express your understanding if they were to decline, you have made a humble request which should not offend anyone. If you can I think it would be even better to try to talk to the person directly (putting a face on the request). This takes some guts but is clearly worth it if you think you have significant use for the results of the paper. If you get a no, you might be able to ascertain what the reasons of the no might be, there might be personal or copyright reasons.
2. The answer to this is perhaps given by 1 already. Yes, short but with enough details to give the person the clear reasons why you would benefit from the presentation.
3. Turning it into a habit is probably not advisable unless the person you ask becomes more of a mentor than just a source for information. I think most people want something back and perhaps admiration might just not be enough.
4. I would say, yes, contact both with the same mail. Sending two separate requests would probably just be seen as fishy.
So in short, be brief clear and polite in your request and be honest about your reasons for the request. Just remember that the response will vary from person to person so there is no guarantee for success in every case.
> 6 votes
# Answer
Unless there are reasons that a presentation is considered proprietary (the ground rules of the conference, or it occurred in a non-conference setting, such as a presentation at a corporation or program review), it is unlikely to be a problem to email the presenter for a copy of the slides.
A short note with the email indicating where you saw the presentation, and why you're interested in it, is never remiss, as it shows active interest in the researchers work. With respect to how often to ask, I'd wait a few weeks between requests; otherwise, you will be seen as being a bit too "pushy."
With respect to coauthors, usually the first author is the presenter, unless otherwise indicated. It's probably best to contact the first author initially, and then move to additional coauthors if there's no response.
> 3 votes
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Tags: publications, etiquette, presentation
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thread-5889 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5889 | How young is typically “young”? | 2012-12-20T14:31:06.333 | # Question
Title: How young is typically “young”?
I was reading about a “young researcher award” recently being attributed in my field to a colleague who is 40 years old (and has had a permanent research position for 12 years now). It may be viewed as borderline ridiculous, so I must ask: in this context, how young is typically “young”? For the purpose of this special projects/grants/awards, how do research and funding organizations define “young”?
# Answer
Here are some awards presented to people aged 35 and below:
1. The Young Scientist Awards of the Singapore National Academy of Science
2. The Young Scientist of the Year Award of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
3. The Young Scientist Award of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research
4. The WMO Research Award for Young Scientists of the World Meteorological Organization
5. The Young Scientist Award of the European Powder Diffraction Conference
There are many more; just use a search engine to search for the terms *"young scientist" award 35*.
A similar list of awards can be found with a search for *"young scientist" award 40*.
> 10 votes
# Answer
The Fields medal also has an age cutoff of 40 (Andrew Wiles being the most recent example of someone who missed the age cutoff for an otherwise sure award).
Grant agencies usually define "young" in terms of "years since Ph.D", or "years in academic position" with the typical cutoff being 6 or so.
Note that while for most things\*, 40 might not be considered "young", in many disciplines you might only get your first academic position near that age (especially in biology).
* politics being the other venue where 40 would be considered young :)
> 20 votes
# Answer
"Young" does in fact have many different connotations. For example, in the ERC Starting Grant program, applicants can have been out of graduate school for as many as *twelve* years before applying as a "Starter" (or "Consolidator"). So technically, they're still "young," according to that program, but not what we would normally think of as "young."
But, in general, "young" can refer in terms of age (in which case I've normally seen the cutoff be about 35 or so), or in terms of relative experience in the field (typically five years, although it can be shorter or longer, depending on the field or country).
> 13 votes
# Answer
In economics, the most prestigious award outside the nobel prize is probably the John Bates Clark Medal (most winners go on to eventually receive the Nobel too). It is awarded biannually to only one person, so in a sense is even more prestigious than the Nobel (which is awarded annually to typically more than 1); to who is deemed the leading 'young' researcher under 40. So 40 as a cutoff for 'young' doesn't surprise me much, but there are obviously no hard rules.
> 11 votes
# Answer
The EU has the program FET OPEN Young Explorers, where young is defined as:
> A project must be led by a young researcher, and the leadership by young researchers of all work packages is also required. No more than six years should have elapsed between the award of a Ph.D. (or equivalent) for each such young researcher and the date of submission of the short proposal.
I have also seen postdoc position reserved for people who obtained their PhD less than 5 years ago, but I can't find the reference back.
> 9 votes
# Answer
Sometimes what is still considered "young" also depends on the specific situation of the individual: I've seen exceptions described in the areas of paternity leaves, compulsory military service, or receiving additional clinical training.
> 1 votes
# Answer
The NSF CAREER award (Faculty Early Career Development Program) is a grant for "young" scientists, and requires that winners have the title "assistant professor." This typically means that the person has spent \< 6 years in a tenure track academic position. Of course, such a person need not be "young" -- someone who worked 2 years in industry before grad school, spent 6 years doing a PhD, 2 years of postdoc, and then spent 5 years as an assistant professor might win one of these awards and be nearly 40.
> 0 votes
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Tags: career-path
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thread-8125 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8125 | Can a reviewer suggest literature for improving the language? | 2013-02-21T14:16:04.627 | # Question
Title: Can a reviewer suggest literature for improving the language?
I am working on my PhD now for 1.5 years and was recently asked by my supervisor to assist him with a review. The reviewed paper was also written by a non-native speaker.
For my first publication I bought a book on English writing skills for research papers, which was very helpful for me.
Can I suggest this book to the author of the paper I got for review, so he can improve his English? I do not want to critize him, only to give him an advice I also give my colleagues. I am not sure if this exceeds my responsibility.
# Answer
> 5 votes
As editor in chief of an international journal I often come across these problems. There are several ways forward (in no particular order):
* Does the journal publisher offer links to services to improve the language? Cite those to the author.
* You can start correcting the English for about a page or two and then state that the authors must seek the help of a native English speaking person (I have found that this is unfortunately not always a sure way to success). By high-lighting the level of problems, it is harder to ignore by anybody. It is after all the author's responsibility and most journals state this very clearly. Remember that the editor is also part of the publishing procedure and you may express your thoughts to him/her to get assistance in your requests.
* If the problems are less severe and you think the paper is very deserving, do the work. But don't make it a habit.
* If the first author has an identifiable native English speaking person as a co-author there is no real excuse and you should point that out to the *editor*.
The suggestion of providing references may seem like a good one but make these suggestions to the editor. I really do not think such books will be of much use other than in the long term for authors who have problem grasping the English language; and in some cases never.
# Answer
> 9 votes
Certainly, poor English is a significant problem, one that hinders communication, and undoubtedly has an impact on one's ability to publish top-quality articles.
It may sound a bit rude to make such a suggestion, but in extreme cases I think it is warranted. It's probably better and more cost effective than trying to improve the English yourself and better in the long run than simply ignoring the problem (and suggesting to reject the paper).
# Answer
> 2 votes
This is anonymous reviewing? If so, absolutely! A book may be helpful. There are also a number of companies/services (see for example Elsevier or this list) out there aimed at helping non-English speakers prepare scientific publications. I routinely suggest that authors revise their writing before something gets published.
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Tags: publications, peer-review
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thread-8214 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8214 | Graduate math student migrating to engineering? | 2013-02-26T03:33:39.323 | # Question
Title: Graduate math student migrating to engineering?
I don't know how to start, truly, but lately I've been involved with some projects in pure mathematics and I've grown frustrated and disappointed. I don't think that pure mathematics is so inspiring; my intent is to move on to study some applied math but most teachers in my department aren't that dedicated to it. All I see are theoretical approaches to problems "that applied sciences may be interested some day".
By talking to a colleague of mine who is seriously considering moving on from Math to Physics, he told me of some engineering departments who might accept someone with a master's degree in their Phd programs. There are some areas I like that might have a connection with what is studied in some Engineering Phd programs, like applied ODE and Dynamical systems and I'd love to put some programming on what I do.
But every teacher I talked about this so far tells me to avoid this kind of migration, since it brings a loss of academic focus and it might be hard for me to find a job later as a teacher. There is no strong tradition in Mathematical Engineering as there is in other countries (I know that such courses exists in Italy and some other European contries).
So I'd like to know some thoughts from more seasoned students and researchers out there. Any advice is welcome.
# Answer
The only problem with switching to a particular field of engineering is that you'll be missing a core set of knowledge particular to that discipline that will hinder your progress for a while. For instance, you would probably do great in many electrical engineering sub-diciplines, but if you've never taken a circuits or signals course, you're going to be lost for a while before you can learn that material.
If you already have research experience, that will count for a lot, but I would suggest finding an engineering program that would allow you to take a few undergraduate courses during your first year or two in order to get up to speed. If you find a professor that is looking for a mathematics-savvy graduate student to fill in the gaps in his/her lab, that might be the best way to get your foot in the door. You've got skills that could be very valuable to the right lab, and if you use those as leverage to join a particular lab/research team, you'll be able to fill in the missing pieces to your new field and move forward with your own degree.
> 10 votes
# Answer
The most likely domain of interface for a mathematician with engineering would be in the realm of "computational engineering," in which numerical algorithms are used to study physical and engineering systems. This work is highly interdisciplinary, and requires close collaboration among all of the different researchers involved, as very few are experts in all of the areas with which they are concerned.
However, there *is* a certain amount of logic to the idea of staying in one's "home" discipline. It makes it easier to figure out "who you are," which can make starting your career a bit easier. One possibility might be to pursue a degree in *applied* mathematics, in which you study problems relevant to engineering, rather than remaining in "pure" mathematics. This might be a reasonable compromise that keeps you in the mathematics field, while still allowing you to pursue topics in areas that interest you more.
> 9 votes
# Answer
I have been in your shoes, as I migrated from mathematics to computational engineering. While my math background gave me some advantage, I remember it was difficult to make the transition because I was very unfamiliar with a lot of the key concepts in engineering. What really helped me was watching online courses (MIT, IIT, etc...) in the material I was missing... Of course, I had an entire year to prepare for it. If you have a lot of time to make the transition, by all means do so and you shouldn't have "too much" trouble. But if you're pressed for time to make up for a lack of engineering background, it can be quite overwhelming. It's best to hit the ground running in graduate school.
> 6 votes
# Answer
Most CS graduate programs would be quite happy to admit a math major. It might be tricky early on if you have zero programming experience, but depending on the kind of work you're interested in, you could be in a strong position.
> 5 votes
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Tags: phd, mathematics, engineering, changing-fields
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thread-7737 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7737 | Festschrift articles: is the peer-review as strict as for other papers? | 2013-02-03T09:31:11.233 | # Question
Title: Festschrift articles: is the peer-review as strict as for other papers?
Many journals sometimes publish Festschriften, i.e. special issues in honor of a distinguished (but still alive) researcher in their field. Articles for such issues are typically invited articles by other groups in the same field, and current and former collaborators of the researcher honored.
A colleague told me that such articles are peer-reviewed, much in the same way regular papers are. I somewhat suspect that this might not be entirely true, and that the standards used by the editor (and even reviewers, if they are aware of the context) are lower for these special issue invited papers.
A quote on Wikipedia (from one Endel Tulving) seems to agree with me:
> a Festschrift frequently enough also serves as a convenient place in which those who are invited to contribute find a permanent resting place for their otherwise unpublishable or at least difficult-to-publish papers
So, my questions are: **in your experience, are reviewers given a hint by the editor that the paper they review is intended for a special issue? and is the review process and editorial decisions typically as strict as they would be for a regular paper?**
# Answer
I think the difference is whether the Festschrift is its own book (then the quality solely depends on the editors) or in a renowned peer-reviewed journal (who'd have a reputation to loose with a bad special issue). And I'd have a look what is the title and what the subtitle - the impression of "Festschrift for Big Guy" is entirely different from "Scientific Subject" subtitle "dedicated to Big Guy" or "collected in honor of Big Guy's scientific work".
In my field, special issues of peer-reviewed journals about conferences or concentrating on a certain subject are common. The idea behind the conference issues is to ensure the normal peer-review process because conference proceedings have a bad reputation of no or no real review after the contribution is accepted (by abstract only). To the point that many people do not submit conference proceedings because they see them as a complete waste of time.
The indications I have are that the peer review process is up to the usual standard of the journal.
If you look at this table of contents of a special issue dedicated to Prof. Mantsch, you'll see that the special issue consists of original research, there isn't even a review article in about the historical development of the field in that issue (there is an editorial, though). Also, it is primarily a conference special issue, and this conference (of a regular series) also had the dedication (which came out most at the conference dinner speech, not at the scientific sessions).
Our paper had a two-line dedication before the abstract, and besides that it is a normal original research paper that underwent peer-review. I have not seen in my field a special issue that was primarily dedicated to someone and not primarily thematic with a dedication.
(thematic special issues):
* I don't know whether the reviewers know that the paper is intended for the special issue, I never had a review to do that indicated anything of the sort.
* In my experience not only the normal quality but also the normal subject criteria apply.
* Sometimes, the invitation takes place only after the peer-review process is over: after the acceptance of a paper we were asked whether we'd like it to be published in a special issue that was upcoming and where it thematically fit in.
* Sometimes, special issues are not filled by invitations, but the fact that a thematic special issue is planned, is circulated.
> 4 votes
# Answer
In my experience in mathematics, papers submitted to a Festschrift are held to the same standard as any other papers as far as correctness and novelty go, but there is definitely some flexibility regarding importance. The Festschrift is often considered a good place for articles that would be of particular interest to the person being honored, because they build on this person's work or involve topics close to their heart, even if the papers are not particularly important in absolute terms. Referees know the paper is submitted to the Festschrift, and I think this vision of which papers are appropriate is broadly shared among authors, editors, and referees. An embarrassing or inappropriate paper would be rejected, but for example a minor observation related to the honoree's work could be accepted.
It's hard to say how this compares with typical journals, since there's a range from low-end journals that will publish anything arguably new and correct to high-end journals that regularly reject excellent papers because they aren't quite wonderful enough. A Festschrift will never match the very most prestigious journals (there simply aren't enough thematically-appropriate papers at that level to fill it up), but it can be comparable to a middle-of-the-road journal or occasionally better.
As in Stephan Kolassa's comment, a large majority of the Festschrifts I've seen are monographs, rather than journal issues. When they are special issues of a journal, it's generally not a particularly prestigious journal. (However, it can happen: the Duke Mathematical Journal published a Festschrift for Nash.) My interpretation is that prestigious journals generally don't want to publish Festschrifts because they know the papers won't all meet the highest standards of importance.
> 18 votes
# Answer
In two such instances that I have been involved since November (invited papers for special issues but not Festschrifts) no indications were given to the reviewers and strict double blind procedures were followed. I would go as far as we had even stricter procedures because of the notion that special issues are not of the same quality to the point that I found it frustrating.
I suspect this is entirely dependent on the editor and the practices vary significantly depending on the journals editor, the special issue editor, and the relation between the two.
> 3 votes
# Answer
I think there is a difference in the peer-review process, but not so much on the reviewer end. In general, when I review a manuscript, I do not consider the target journal. I attempt to point out the good and the bad and leave it to the editor to decide what to do with my reviews. The difference then arises with what the editor does. While the topic of a manuscript might not fit in with the journal in general, hence making it difficult to publish, it might be a perfect fit for a special issue. Similarly, the manuscript might not have as much data as typically required for the journal making its scope narrower, but it still might fit fine with the special issue (especially give the time constraints).
> 2 votes
# Answer
I have reviewed a few articles for special issues. At some journals, you know that there's a difference, because you're recruited as a reviewer by the "special editor" for that issue.
With respect to the *standards* used, I would say that there *should* be no difference between the two. However, I think it's fair to say that some allowances might be made for special issues that would not apply under normal circumstances. At the same time, I think that the awareness of this is fairly widely known in academic circles, and therefore some allowances are made for this. These tend not to be the "super groundbreaking" papers, but often tend to be "current progress" or "latest but perhaps not greatest" work out of the labs submitting them.
> 2 votes
# Answer
I would argue that this may differ quite a lot between individual journals and, I venture to guess, may also differ between journals with different status. A basic "rule" for a journal (upheld by its editors) is to make the journal as good as possible, to attract good and high impact papers. To have an issue that is sub-par is therefore not favourable. Hence each editorial board will impose restrictions on such "festschrift"s. In the journal where I am Editor-in-Chief, we have had a tradition of such "schrift"s but we decided to not accept such themes. We do run thematic issues with guest editors but in all cases the papers and their reviewing is transparent to the Editors-in-Chief which means we can intervene and ensure a fair review process and uphold the quality we strive to ensure. In my opinion the "festschrift" is something which is generally not looked upon favourably since it signals that there may be dodgy reviewing or just buddy-reviewig involved. Most journals probably stay clear of such issues for this reason. In the end the local traditions will determine whether such "schrift"s will be produced. So the bottom line is that certainly editors would be cautious about such journal issues. This means that the review process may not be any different, in fact sometimes more strict, while in some cases anything could go through and it is this uncertainty which on the whole makes the "festschrift" concept unattractive to any journal which tries to uphold a good reputation.
So my (probably unsatisfactory) answer is: yes and no, it will vary quite substantially between journals. Such differences should not exist but they do and it is difficult to know or judge in each individual case.
> 2 votes
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Tags: publications, peer-review, editors
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thread-8175 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8175 | Should I keep my name on a paper in which I have no important contribution? | 2013-02-24T14:38:50.160 | # Question
Title: Should I keep my name on a paper in which I have no important contribution?
Prof. X added me as a coauthor on a paper , although my contribution was minor. I told him so, he insisted and said it was necessary for me (I can't give details). Later my relation with Prof X seriously soured. I asked that he remove my name from the paper: I already have an OK publication record (about 100 citations) and I didn't want to pollute it with an undeserved paper, especially in view of the souring of my relation with Prof X. I had an essential contribution in all my previous papers. Prof X said it was impossible to remove my name since it was already submitted. I reluctantly accepted. The paper was rejected. Prof X wants to resubmit it to a less prestigious journal. I definitely don't want my name on it. Prof X insists to keep my name, saying that re-submitting the paper without my name might harm his reputation in the community. I can't claim to be white as snow : It's clear that I should never have accepted to have my name on this paper in the first place. I don't want to antagonize him further, but what should I do now ? Is it true that resubmitting without my name can harm his reputation ? Isn't there some way around this ? (My field is Math/Physics/Engineering. I can't give more details).
# Answer
Standards (and customs) for coäuthorship depend heavily on your field, but if you contributed to the work reported in the paper, you might first want to consider actually accepting coäuthorship:
1. Unless you think the work is actually crap, there is no downside (having a few not-so-great papers doesn't actually hurt, even if it doesn't help your career).
2. If you worked with prof. X, it might be nice to have something (a paper) to show for it.
3. The relationship may have soured, but are you ready to burn that bridge? If he insists on coäuthorship, a flat refusal will annoy him, probably because it would hurt him for some strategic reason.
Now, on the other hand, it's entirely your choice to make. Nobody can force you: if it comes to that, just flatly state that you do not wish to be a coäuthor on the paper. After that was made clear, and in writing, there is little chance prof. X will submit it with your name behind your back: that would be a very severe breach of ethics, and grounds for immediate retraction of the paper when you find out.
Finally, on the question of whether resubmitting without your name can actually hurt him… yeah, it could be an annoyance. There are a few people (editor and referees for the first paper) who would have knowledge that the same paper was submitted twice with different author lists, which definitely gives a bad impression of the senior author.
> 25 votes
# Answer
> The relationship may have soured, but are you ready to burn that bridge? If he insists on coäuthorship, a flat refusal will annoy him, probably because it would hurt him for some strategic reason.
This happens more than you think (user6114), it is common. Again the choice is yours. A know a few students that had this "offer". Offer to put someone has co-author or offer to be co-author...the decision is 100% yours.. but ... if the paper was alreday submitted you shouldn't ask to take out your name.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Adding to (and emphasizing parts of) the answers by Fx and MaybeAnotherPhD:
First there seems to be two issues: (1) you were added to a paper by the first author where you did (and still do) not think you deserved it and (2) you now are in conflict with the first author and may not want to be associated with him/her.
I think you can approach this from another perspective. Based on the assumption that you pursue an academic career, does this paper hurt you by, for example, it being bad science, or the first author being a *persona non grata* in the community? If the answer is no to these questions, I would as a general rule say, leave it. To follow up, there is not much you can do without raising a lot of commotion and probably risk being branded yourself even if that is not true.
I can understand your feeling of not being worthy of co-authorship, and my only comment there is that it is of course not good to be part of a paper if you cannot defend its content in some way or another. But, I think many end up being added to papers where their input may be marginal. I see it as a natural part (problem) of the process. Of course to add people left and right as a rule is something to be combatted, so save your energy for those cases.
Then to cap off by the uncomfortable truth, the system we live in pushes us to publish or perish (as was the title in a Science debate article some time ago). With time this paper is just one of many in your list and simply adds to your publication list. If it is good you may benefit from citations and that might be your reward in the end. In other words being a little pragmatic doesn't hurt.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Gift authorship is unethical. At my institution it is explicitly forbidden by policy. Check if your institution has a similar policy; you may be able to use that as justification for your request.
Also, since you made a minor contribution, I would ask him to simply put your name in the acknowledgments. If he's worried the editor will view this change badly, you can offer to write a note to the editor explaining that you requested the change.
> 2 votes
# Answer
I wouldn't know if people care for a change in the list of authors as long as its length does not become ridiculous compared to the length of the paper.
If you don't want your name on that paper, have him remove it and go all the way! If he refuses you can always go past him and approach the editors directly. Explicitly stating to the editors "I had no part in this contribution" would hurt his reputation more than anything else by a long shot!
> 1 votes
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Tags: collaboration
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thread-8223 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8223 | Dealing with irresponsiveness from far-away scientists | 2013-02-26T10:55:54.500 | # Question
Title: Dealing with irresponsiveness from far-away scientists
When meeting some scientists in person, I've had good conversations with decisions upon interesting plans for research cooperation and personal visits. But then, subsequent contact by e-mail is difficult, where the other party either doesn't reply at all, or very slowly (several weeks +). However, when I then meet them again at a later date, they are still enthusiastic about the project (where the bulk of the work is mine) and a short in-person discussion makes more progress than the past months of (lack of) e-mail have. So it appears that a lack of interest in the project does not explain the lack of response. The project is scientifically interesting, fits with my PhD, and the visit enhances my chances of finding a post-doc after my PhD (it's a very good institute for my field).
I understand that many scientists are very busy and flooded by e-mail, but it feels sad to abandon a potentially interesting project just because communication by e-mail is not working well. I'm quite sure it would work if I were in the same building. What strategies exist to mitigate this problem? I can think of:
1. Try to ask a common acquaintance to poke him/her (my local colleague has a shared friend with him/her). Pro: Might get indirect feedback as to why the irresponsiveness. Con: involves 3rd party (may or may not be on-site) not necessarily involved.
2. Send reminder e-mails (*did you see my e-mail from 20 February?*). Pro: increases chances of being noticed. Con: may be considered annoying
3. Phone. Pro: hard to run away. Con: I don't like phoning and I don't like being phoned.
4. E-mail someone sitting in the neighbouring office. Pro: neighbour has small step to irresponsive scientist. Con: a bit strange to involve someone I don't even know
5. Give up on the project. Con: means no project and no visit.
6. Try to do the project without their input. Pro: no need for communication. Con: might waste a lot of time by trying known dead-ends that I'm not aware of.
What other options exist? What advantages and disadvantages have I not thought of? What is wise to do?
# Answer
First: that situation is common. Actually, that situation is *very* common. You listed a large number of options that come to mind, let's discuss them a bit:
1. For me, that's the best.
2. Reminders don't cost you much, but they can only go so far before you risk being annoying.
3. **I would strongly advise phone or Skype**. Don't get me wrong: I hate phone too. It has the inconveniences of both verbal communication (you need to reply fast, and have no time to smith your words precisely) and written communication (you don't see the other person's face and non-verbal indicators). However, it helps if people are unresponsive to email. Also, consider that maybe *they* like phone better than email (some people do!).
As I said, Skype (or any video-chatting tool) might be a useful alternative to phone. Some people hate it, some people love it, so be sure to ask if they would consider it.
4. **No**. You can ask a friend or common acquaintance to poke them, but don't use someone you don't know well. **Unless it's their job**, of course: if you communicate with a big boss or dean or whatever, it is fine to use his personal assistant or secretary to check up on things or remind him of deadlines.
5. and 6. It's your choice to make, not much we can say here.
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To your (already good ideas) I would add an important one:
7. **Set yourselves** (or give him) **a goal and a deadline**. On one occasion where you actually meet him, use his enthusiasm to set an (achievable) goal, possibly with an associated deadline: decide that you want to present this work at this occasion, or submit to a given special issue that has a deadline in 6 months, or want to have the project finished by September to hire a post-doc with funding from the John Doe Foundation, …
Whatever the deadline is, it will spur contributions from his side. The research environment puts people under a lot of pressure with bureaucracy and deadlines. If your project doesn't have any visible deadline, he will never get it done. So, create one, even if it's more of a pretext. Then use that deadline as a hammer!
> 21 votes
# Answer
I recognize this all too well and I do not have a patented solution. This is in part because the reasons will vary from case to case. I have found that collaborations will be easier in two cases: The first is when the collaborator is driven by their own agenda and can see a strong personal gain apart from the collaboration. This might seem a poor excuse for a collaboration but, I think, reflects the stress most are under. The second is when you strike up a true friendship and simply enjoy each others comåany apart from the science. This should not be underestimated even if it is hard to chose collaborators based on such premises. Over to the answer.
If you think you have a collaborator where a mutual interest to collaborate exists according to the above, the best way is to arrange to visit for a couple of weeks. This can be folowed up by a returnvisit at some stage. Under suchcircumstances you can work in relative pace and you can set up short and unintrusive meetings under a short period with your collaborator. Such a visit can be preceded by some homework but expect to do most yourself if the initiative is yours.
A visit is certainly possible in all other cases as well but if the personal chemistry/interest is not strong to begin with, I do not know how successful you will be. Uncertain in any case. You will also likely end up doing most of the work throughout the process.
The bottom line is that unless the project (paper) is priority one on everyones list, you run the risk of not getting much response and certainly not much drive from your collaborators. It just seems to be the nature of things. I am sorry if this sounds negative but the times when I have done work during visits (going away or receiveing a visit) have seen a much higher success rate.
> 9 votes
# Answer
One point that I would like to stress is to set a new date for a live/skype/phone talk at the end of each meeting. In this way you avoid having to email someone for a new date, and you minimise the risk of your communication dying down until the next live meeting. There is still the risk of the appointment getting rescheduled, but at least a rescheduled appointment is more concrete than waiting for an email back that never shows up.
> 8 votes
# Answer
In addition to the fine answers here already, I've found helpful to get the ball rolling to *do work on my own* and then send that along to the colleague.
It seems to me that often a substantial block is if project has some ambiguity, and if a person can't devote a large amount of time to it they will put it off in favor of more concretely defined goals. Doing some work on your own can frequently help to refine the goals of the project and how the collaborator fits in.
Obviously you can't do the whole project on your own and need feedback, but often there are substantial amounts of work you can do on your own. A literature review, an extensive outline, writing particular sections of a paper, preliminary data analysis etc. are almost always good candidates.
> 6 votes
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Tags: communication
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thread-8229 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8229 | What is the downside of not pursuing postdoctoral fellowship position? | 2013-02-26T13:22:28.993 | # Question
Title: What is the downside of not pursuing postdoctoral fellowship position?
Suppose after graduating from a PhD program, you don't do a post-doc. Are the chances of getting a tenure-track position severely reduced? Also is it possible to do a post-doc after a completion of a masters program (probably should be called a "post-masters")?
# Answer
The purpose of a postdoctoral fellowship is simply to gain the skills detailed in this answer to a similar question, notably:
* Get involved with obtaining funding
* Build an international reputation
* Start collaborating with external parties
* Learn how to manage projects and a lab
* Start to devise a strategic research plan
* Improve your publication record
If you have all those things from your work as a graduate student, then you should have no problem finding employment and furthering your academic career immediately after you earn your PhD. Most students don't, which is why they try to find a postdoc position to help them gain these skills before attempting to run their own lab.
> 13 votes
# Answer
What people expect from a candidate for a tenure-track faculty position is the ability to guide research and to set up an independent research group. The candidate will have to prove extensive (almost) independent research experience and a research vision to last for many years. A post-doc candidate will be stronger in these requirements than someone just graduating with a PhD. It is not impossible to get a tenure-track position directly after the PhD, but I think chances are better with a post-doc.
Nevertheless, if you just graduated and there is a position announced which fits your profile, by all means apply for it. Even if you're not successful, it may give you valuable experience.
All types of faculty positions I know of have a formal PhD requirement, so usually it is not useful to skip that.
> 11 votes
# Answer
Currently, I believe this is a very field-dependent issue. In physics, for instance, it would not be possible to get a faculty position without a postdoc (or even *two* postdocs) unless you're an Einstein-level talent. In some fields, such as engineering, it may still be possible to get a position directly after a PhD—but in such cases that candidate is usually told to take a year or two, do a postdoc, and *then* start the faculty position.
However, I think that it is in general a *very* bad idea to just "take some time off" if one is planning to pursue a faculty position. Working in industry or doing something that keeps one active in research is probably OK, but a "sabbatical" that doesn't contribute toward a CV in any way will likely set off some hackles on the part of the search committee.
> 11 votes
# Answer
Let us start from a different perspective. What is required to get a tenure-track position?
I would say that two things are primarily used as criteria in the selection process: number of publications and ability to secure funding. Related to the publication list is of course aspects of publications, publication rate number of citations and the impact factor of the journals in which you publish. Exactly how these aspects are weighted is varying. Note that rates are important so it is not exclusively a matter of pure numbers.
In both cases time is an aspect and obviously you will standa a better chance the more merits you can accumulate which takes time. I do not know what other possibilities might exist to get some time to improve your merits. In some cases you might be temporarily hired to do teaching. Teaching will of course also be a merit but not on the expense of research. and under such circumstances contnued research output may be a challenge. So obviously a Post-Doc should give you a head start but I would not see it as an exclusive prerequisite.
"Post-Master": Since this concept does not formally exist, I could see there being opportunities to partake in research by being a lab-assistant or something similar. Any opportunity to widen your experience and possibly getting you into the research activities, especially publishing would be beneficial fo r the future.
> 5 votes
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Tags: career-path, postdocs
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thread-8236 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8236 | What percentage of phds in math actually get a tenure track academic job? | 2013-02-26T15:21:39.477 | # Question
Title: What percentage of phds in math actually get a tenure track academic job?
I'm interested in knowing what percentage of math phds actually succeed in landing a tenure track academic job?
Also, does a phd from AMS Group 1 guarantees you an academic job in top universities? If not what other factors come in to role to play?
# Answer
> 14 votes
**No.** No one single factor guarantees you an academic job in a top university. Whether or not you land such a job is a combination of many things. These include,
* talent
* hard work
* motivation
* quality of research
* quality of teaching
* ability to network and get along with people
* ability to communicate (both orally and in writing)
* success in securing external funding
* luck.
If you want such a job, here's what I recommend. Choose an area that you're passionate about, go to the best school (most challenging and "highest rated") that you can get into, and work with an adviser with a strong publication record. At each step along the way, surround yourself with (and learn as much as you can from) the most successful people possible.
You can find a partial answer to your question about percentage by reading the annual Survey of the Mathematical Sciences (by the American Math Society):
http://www.ams.org/profession/data/annual-survey/annual-survey
# Answer
> 10 votes
I understood in the Netherlands somewhere around 5% ends up in a research position. This also includes people who after their PhD leave academia, so the percentage for those willing to continue is a bit higher. Ofcourse, as others already said, these general statistics do not say what your chances are, but it does illustrate that it is hard to find a position. In the Netherlands, it is important to get, apart from a good publication record, into a prestigious grants system (Venice, Vidi, Vici system). The first step is essentially a prestigious postdocs, the second leads to assistant professorship (fixed position), and the final one to full professorship. Getting into such a winning streak is important, successful projects make it easier to get new ones, I.e. the successful become more successful.
# Answer
> 8 votes
An additional parameter to consider is **fashion**: some research fields are deemed sexy and some aren't (and that assessment changes with time unpredictably!), and your chances of finding a position depend on the current perception of your field by the senior faculty.
# Answer
> 5 votes
As I said in the comments: The success rate of the population will tell you little about YOUR chances of success. You are better off focusing on ways to improve YOUR chances.
To answer the second part of the question, most hiring committees at top universities for tenure track jobs primarily considered your publication record, your ability to secure funding, and your fit to the department. The fit to the department is tricky. It generally includes either research area or ability to teach a class, but may also include departmental politics. Sometimes an applicant can be such a poor communicator (often discovered during the interview) or be a known pain in the ass that this can influence the decision, but generally the decision is based on publications, money and fit. I would venture to say that more often than not the rankings do not chance based on the interviews/campus visits.
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Tags: graduate-school, mathematics, tenure-track
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thread-8251 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8251 | Phd Decision Date Gaps? | 2013-02-26T18:00:32.263 | # Question
Title: Phd Decision Date Gaps?
2 schools I applied to accepted me in early Feb.
The other schools I applied to have yet to respond and their sites say their admission decisions typically occur mid-march.
Is it accepted to contact the departments ahead of time requesting information on your app status given that you don't want to make the other schools wait too long?
My apologies if this is the incorrect forum to ask this question.
# Answer
> 7 votes
Most graduate schools in the U.S. follow a policy that accepted candidates are not required to make a decision until a set date agreed upon by the schools (April 15th, I believe). This means you can (and should) take as much time to make your decision as you need. It sounds like you do need to make your decision earlier than that deadline (but it might be worth finding out if the other schools do follow that policy and simply asked you to make a decision earlier), so contacting the other schools is probably a good idea.
Remember, however, you are making a decision that will at the very least directly affect the next four to six years of your life, who you work and collaborate with, future contacts, where you live, and what your future employment prospects are! So, I'll reiterate: take the time you need, and get as much information as you can if you are up against a hard deadline.
# Answer
> 3 votes
As Chris mentioned, USgraduate programs have a common deadline. International programs have different deadlines and operate on a very different system. Sometimes this is unfortunately used as a cudgel to get students to commit to a particular group by giving a short window in which the offer is valid.
That said, if you are faced with such a dilemma, I would recommend accepting the best offer you have at the time when the decisions are due. If a better offer comes along, u can reconsider your decision. You should note, however, that rescinding your acceptance is not something that is appreciated, particularly if you are planning to join a particular professor's research group as part of the admissions process.
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Tags: graduate-admissions
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thread-8265 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8265 | How significantly does the salary amount for tenured faculty impact the quality of a deparment? | 2013-02-26T22:17:35.957 | # Question
Title: How significantly does the salary amount for tenured faculty impact the quality of a deparment?
I mean both the salary a department offers to new hires and to already hired faculty members. I would prefer answers specifically about math departments, but I would also be interested in answers about departments in other STEM fields as well as other fields such as the humanities or the social sciences.
My motivation for this question came from another question I asked recently on another website. I had asked specifically how math departments improve and received the answer that with enough money, a math department could hire and keep the best researchers in some specific field. Now I'm asking here to confirm that that is indeed the case for math departments, but I am now also interested in seeing if this applies to all departments in academia in general.
**EDIT**: I cannot give a specific criteria for "quality" as I assume this may vary from field to field. What I can say somewhat concretely, though, is that research productivity should be weighted above attention to teaching. Of course, if a department happens to have one or two extremely productive researchers in some specific field but does not offer a PhD program, then I would not considered that department a top department.
# Answer
> 7 votes
There are several main *financial* factors faculty candidates must consider when weighing offers:
* Salary and resultant standard of living
* Overall compensation package (health, retirement and pension, other benefits)
* Institutional support (resources, personnel, infrastructure)
The first two are with respect to the financial resources committed directly to the faculty member; the last is the amount of resources committed to the professor's working group. It is difficult to say how much the different factors are weighted, as this is highly subjective and personal.
However, I would caution against considering *absolute* salaries as a metric; salaries always have to be considered relative to the cost of living in one's environment. (Would you rather have $50,000 in New York City or $40,000 in Akron?)
# Answer
> 5 votes
I know people who have changed their mind about where to go for ~20% increase in salary. It wouldn't make them go to a terrible place instead of a great one, but it was enough to weigh advantages. I also know people who have not changed their mind about where to go for a \>30% increase in salary, but that this was viewed as somewhat surprising by people who heard it (given that the places were otherwise not *that* different).
Based on this very limited data set, I would speculate that in the 20-30% range you'd have substantial power to attract faculty members a tier higher than your reputation would otherwise allow.
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Tags: mathematics, salary, stem, ranking
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thread-8239 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8239 | Are there any acceptable reasons for omitting data in a publication (i.e. "data not shown")? | 2013-02-26T15:53:58.910 | # Question
Title: Are there any acceptable reasons for omitting data in a publication (i.e. "data not shown")?
I was recently going through an article (which I was told is fundamental in the area of my new project) published in a respectable medical journal. In short, the paper is about the similarities between a particular sub-type of tumor cells versus a particular type of stem cells in the body, then they go on to investigate what that similarity might indicate.
Barely two pages in and I realize that the authors omit what I consider to be critical data when motivating the use of two particular proteins as markers in establishing their fundamental assumption, that their immunohistochemistry findings are representative of the reality and that their model is valid:
> *Accordingly, we screened all known ..... markers against our ..... data to determine which, if any, decrease with differentiation (data not shown). Of all the potential ... markers, we found that X and Y are the best candidates, and they were therefore used in this study.*
Now it might not be a big deal to some but I find it important to see that omitted data, since:
1. I am not that informed in that particular type of biology
2. Seeing that their "real" findings are built on the results of the aforementioned screening, the validity of their research is practically depending on the decision of using those two markers.
Which brings me to my question: **Are there any cases where not showing "critical" data in such a manner is acceptable or common?** I know that some journals do not accept "data not shown", but obviously it does happen in better journals as well...
# Answer
I think it is perfectly reasonable to not "show" data. For example, consider a multivariate randomized control trial with two groups. If there are a large number of partially correlated dependent variables, the data are not suitable for graphical or tabular presentation. What we are potentially interested in is if there is a difference between the two groups. We can "see" that from a single sentence about a statistical test and a comment that the data are not shown (so people do not go looking to find the figure).
In a biology example, maybe you are counting the number of intact cells after two different treatments. There may be hundreds of slices that result in two numbers. What exactly do you want to see?
> 12 votes
# Answer
*Critical data*? Probably not. But, I have seen many papers with data left out simply because of paper length restrictions, and in all cases other graphs and data appropriately contributed to the papers' fundamental arguments.
In the cases where I wanted to see the data that was omitted, I've written one of the authors and they have almost always forwarded it along.
> 6 votes
# Answer
What constitutes "data" is a highly subjective issue. If "data" means "all scientific output," in many cases this exceeds what can reasonably be shown in a paper.
In molecular simulations (my particular field), we may generate *gigabytes* or even *terabytes* of data for individual papers. This data needs to be crunched down and represented in figures that process the data and make sense of it to the reader, as it is plainly impossible to show the reader the same data over and over again. Thus, we choose to show only the most essential information, rather than deluge the reader with more information than can be handled either visually or in tabular form.
> 5 votes
# Answer
It is of course difficult to judge this particular paper without having seen it so I will stick to general terms.
I do not see any reason for not representing all data in some form. When I say represent I mean that the complete data set can be given in terms of, for example, statistical measures which would at least provide some way to see or judge whether the subset shown is truly representative. But, I still have a hard time seeing a good reason for omitting it without clearly explaining on what grounds.
Journals allow supplementary information and so it seems reasonable to use that option if it exists in th eparticular journal. In very old papers where plots were mae by hand, there may be some excuse if not everything is included.
As I see it one of the fundamental principles of scientific publication is reproducibility. That requires access to all data. There are of course instances where this i snot possible such as when patient journals are involved.
> 3 votes
# Answer
From the way you've described it, it sounds like the choice of markers was somewhat arbitrary. Presumably they had figures that demonstrate that the markers they *did* choose are good at marking whatever-it-is that needs to be marked. Thus, the fact that they looked at howevermany others is immaterial to the scientific content of the paper and is rightly omitted.
Now, that data could well be useful to someone else for whom markers X and Y are inadequate (maybe because of expression problems or tissue type or whatever). It would be useful to the scientific community to know what that data is (if indeed it was done carefully enough to be worth anything--maybe it wasn't, but it didn't matter because X and Y checked out). But there's no requirement to be especially helpful to the rest of the community (or to avoid being sloppy in some areas as long as you go back and do it carefully/right once you know what you're doing). So it seems reasonable to me.
(Again, inferring from what you've said. If that screen was what *told* them that X and Y had the properties that they thought, and there is no other confirmation, then they'd *better* show that data in convincing detail!)
> 2 votes
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Tags: publications, research-process
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thread-8274 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8274 | Is one or two years' postdoc experience helpful for a (nonacademic) research career? | 2013-02-27T07:52:55.607 | # Question
Title: Is one or two years' postdoc experience helpful for a (nonacademic) research career?
I just graduated with a Ph.D. in Asia. And I'm considering to look for a postdoc position in US in the field of computer science (to be specific, machine learning and computer vision). But I don't want to go for a faculty position (at least I don't want to at this moment) in the future. I'd prefer to find some research position in industry or some research institute in US. My question is that do you think one or two years' postdoc experience really helpful for a research career, considering it may not be that easy for an oversea student to directly get a research position in industry or research institutes?
Some of the advantages I can think of are:
1. Postdoc's supervisor's networking with other people in industry or researh institutes
2. More publications before job hunting
3. Get to know more people in my area
Hope to hear some advice from you. Thank you very much.
# Answer
> 7 votes
It's hard to define "helpful": yes, it's better to do a postdoc in a top place rather than staying at home, but if you want to work in research industry, it might be better to do some development for a year rather a completely unrelated postdoc in the middle of nowhere.
If you want to apply for a position, you have to understand the competition you might be facing: positions in the top research labs (public/private) are highly attractive, and you would be facing people with good achievements in academia (publications in top venues, PI for important grants, extensive network for collaboration, etc), and/or people with good achievement in industry (project managers, success for a specific product, good contact with academia, etc).
So, the question is not whether it's good or not to do a postdoc, but what will a particular postdoc bring to you:
* a different research topic, increasing your multi/inter-disciplinary skills
* a very promising research topic, potentially increasing your visibility by publishing at top venues
* a collaboration with industry, thus increasing your academia/industry network
* etc
A good approach could be to check, when available, the CVs of the people working at a research lab you could be interested to, as it could give you a good idea of what they did before joining the lab.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Although CS post-docs are somewhat rare compared to many other fields, you have the right idea that it is a good idea as a stepping stone for further research or faculty positions down the road. If you're willing to take a position and can find one, I don't think there are any downsides if you do indeed continue to publish and make contacts. I would also suggest broadening your search to European positions, as there are many excellent opportunities at outstanding institutions there, as well.
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Tags: publications, job, postdocs
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thread-8270 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8270 | A discipline being superfluous? | 2013-02-27T03:34:54.027 | # Question
Title: A discipline being superfluous?
I heard for the second time today that a discipline is "superfluous". This comment was made by a young assistant professor, who does not do research in this discipline. Just to be fair to the commenter, that was not a serious comment, but just a casual remark.
However, I think deep in his mind he believes that this discipline is "superfluous". And deep in my mind I have the same doubt from time to time. Can a discipline be superfluous? How do you know whether a discipline is worth researching or not?
PS: In this case this discipline is HCI (human computer interaction), but you could replace it with any other discipline.
# Answer
Superfluous usually means unnecessary. So the person is claiming that a discipline is unnecessary. Presumably, this is a claim that can be investigated further: does research in that discipline have any kind of external impact ? does it affect other related disciplines ? Is there at least a path from the questions being asked to some future impact ?
In fact these are all good questions to ask about any discipline, whether it's deemed superfluous or not. And these are good questions to ask about one's own research in a discipline.
p.s While this is off topic, there's a common feeling among CS folks that HCI is either fluffy or superfluous. All of these people are also forbidden from using a Kinect, any video game console, a tablet interface, or even a smartphone.
> 10 votes
# Answer
The first question is open to the typical mathematician's answer: Can a discipline be superfluous? Yes, of course it *can*. More usefully however, I think there's a more nuanced version which is also interesting: can a discipline *as an academic research area* be superfluous? This is a different (though not completely disjoint question): an area can be very important, but conducting research "in it" is unnecessary.
Using your HCI example, it's clearly not superfluous in the general sense, but is it necessary to devote academics to it when there's plenty of corporations who are going to perhaps do the work anyway? (I do have an opinion here, but the phrasing here doesn't necessarily indicate it, and it's not really worth discussing in this forum.)
The second question is much, much harder though (in the general case). If you can tell, reliably, if a discipline is superfluous, you are worth a lot of money in many, many fields. The obvious example is large swathes of mathematics, sometimes the uses that make them relevant don't appear for centuries. Other areas seem really important, but produce nothing that ever proves relevant (or to really emphasise the point, *hasn't yet* proven relevant).
> 8 votes
# Answer
It's a tricky subject really... The questions are clearly very subjective, or rather any possible answer to these questions would be subjective.
For what it's worth, I *do* think that a field can be superfluous, in the meaning that a field might get outdated, or "deprecated", based on the assumption that more money (and time) invested in that field will most likely not yield any significant results. One such example I can think of is, anatomy. It used to be a critical area of research within medical faculties, but during the second half of the 1900s anatomy research has shrunk and eventually died out in many, if not all, medical research institutes.
Whether or not a field is worth researching is a HUGE question, in my humble opinion. Even deciding on whether or not a specific idea within a field is worth the trouble is tricky, and I believe it's a quality that a few of us may have, or develop after many years in research.
> 1 votes
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Tags: research-process, research-topic
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thread-8279 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8279 | Quality of an image for publication reproduced from another source | 2013-02-27T13:03:05.187 | # Question
Title: Quality of an image for publication reproduced from another source
I have my paper back from a reviewer. The main point is that a quality of the image is not good enough for the publication. I reproduced this image from another paper (with permission) but the only thing I could do, was a print screen of the original and paste into graphical software. I improved the quality by smoothing, but it is still not good enough for the publisher.
The reviewer comment:
> The quality of the figures 1 and 2 is still not good. I recommend authors convert the schematics into vector graphics.
I can't find what and how to do it. Did you have a similar problem and solved it?
EDIT to explain what is on the figure: The figure shows elements of a vehicle with dimensions (numbers), different coordinate systems, force... it is rather complicated and maybe I could redraw the arrows (alhough many of them) but the background is a photo of the element.
# Answer
It is difficult to provide a detailed reply without knowing more about the figure, for example if it is a photograph or a line graph. I will therefore concentrate on the general aspects.
First, the best would be if you could get some form of original from the author (or whoever) has the copyright). Screen dumps are clearly not sufficient since printing requires high resolution (300 dpi in final reproduction size is a commonly quoted resolution in journals)
Second, if it is a line graph, and it sounds as if that is the case, I would argue that the best way is to put the image in the background of a vector-based drawing program such as Inkscape/Illustrator/Corel Draw and manually redraw the figure. This is done by placing the illustration in a background layer and then draw lines in the program to reproduce the background. This requires learning a vector-based software and is a tough solution for the short-term but one I strongly recommend for the long-term. If the plot is based on data, for example a scatter graph, then you could digitize the data and re-plot it as long as you think of the re-plot as a version of the original plot and not use data points for additional analysis.
There are of course numerous kinds of complicated plots where the second approach will not work so trying to get the source would be the first choice. Screen dump quality bitmaps will be rejected by most if not all journals.
> 7 votes
# Answer
Without going into the *how* of your question (which @Peter Jansson answered succinctly), I would say that going forward you should always try to have the best quality graphs when you provide a submission. That means they should either be vector graphics (i.e., graphics that do not rely on bitmapped representation but rather are scalable), or high DPI (dots per inch); I try for 600dpi in all images that aren't vector.
Tips: if your graphic has a .jpg, .gif, .png, or .tiff extension, it is not a vector graphic. If it has a .eps or .pdf extension, it *may* be a vector graphic, but you need to zoom in to ensure that the lines are not turning fuzzy. If it is a .svg, it is (I think) a vector graphic, but I always do the zoom test to make sure.
Finally, always do a zoom test on all your graphics in your PDF submissions. I've had vector graphics turn into bitmapped graphics during the conversion-to-PDF stage. If that happens, you need to figure out where the problem is taking place and fix it (e.g., it could be that your conversion from .eps to .pdf for an individual figure changes the image, and another conversion tool might be able to handle it properly).
> 6 votes
# Answer
Many PDF viewers (including Adobe Acrobat, Skim, and Preview on the Mac) can be used to copy regions out of a PDF file as independent PDF files. (A typical workflow is to select a rectangle with the marquee tool, Copy, and then New from Clipboard.) In particular, you can extract pixelmap graphics from PDF files at exactly the same resolution as they appear in the source PDF, and you can extract vector graphics. If there are undesired elements of the paper that overlap the figure, you can usually remove them in Adobe Illustrator, which reads and writes PDF files natively, so editing will preserve vector graphics and pixelmap resolution.
> 3 votes
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Tags: publications, graphics
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thread-8288 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8288 | How do I plan for my PhD now that I have graduated with a Masters degree without thesis? | 2013-02-27T16:00:28.677 | # Question
Title: How do I plan for my PhD now that I have graduated with a Masters degree without thesis?
A bit of background: I am an Indian citizen with an undergraduate degree in Electronics from India and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science (Funny, it is called a minor, given that 60% of my credits are from Computer Science Dept.).
I am currently working as a software developer with a company in Boston, MA. I was involved in some research work during my grad school, but however, nothing materialized and I decided to graduate with a coursework only option (with many projects as a part of coursework). Needless to say, I burnt a lot of bridges along the way which eliminated even the minutest chance for a strong letter of recommendation.
I wish to, however, apply for a PhD in Machine Learning and/or Algorithms, at least 2 to 3 years from now. The job I am at currently is not a research oriented job. I am doing a bit of research by myself with the data sets available online.
Given that all of the PhD applications in the US, most in Europe need strong letters of recommendations, if not publications, how can I now set things straight in the coming years. What should be an ideal line of action and is a PhD with a good adviser, possible, at all?
Note: I am currently working on some Machine Learning related open problems on large data sets, but I am not sure how much can I get done, while working full time in a non academic environment. Also, I do not have any reputable papers as yet.
# Answer
Probably the most important thing what you can do to make some doors open is to write a peer-reviewed research paper.
If you have any chances, find someone in academia, try to structure your interest and do some bit of research which you can publish under the academic.
Form another point, I know there are some Universities, which value "business" contacts and experience. Don't give up and apply, apply, apply...
> 9 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-school, graduate-admissions, professorship, masters
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thread-8289 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8289 | Is there anything that I can do while waiting for the decision on scholarship | 2013-02-27T16:18:03.570 | # Question
Title: Is there anything that I can do while waiting for the decision on scholarship
I applied for a PhD degree and has received an offer for it! However, I have to wait until next two months to know whether they give me a scholarship as well. I'm very nervous as the number of scholarships is limited and it's highly unlikely that I can join the programme without it. I am also applying for other universities as well but none of them offer scholarship covering everything for international student like the one I'm waiting for.
Is there anything that I can do while waiting in order to strengthen my application?
# Answer
The period between admissions and scholarship decisions is not really any different from the period between submission and acceptance notification.
If you have any *major* changes in your status—if you receive a significant award ("Best paper," teaching award, or similar), or if you have made a notable research contribution (*published* a paper, or at least submitted one), then that would be relevant information for the department. Otherwise, you'll just have to bide your time.
> 5 votes
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Tags: phd, application, funding
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thread-8295 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8295 | What are the aspects associated with working in a 'liberal arts environment' in academia? | 2013-02-26T15:14:56.697 | # Question
Title: What are the aspects associated with working in a 'liberal arts environment' in academia?
I am asking with respect to decoding a job ad for an assistant professor position at a US University. The ad essentially asks how my talents and goals relate to a 'liberal arts environment'. Previously I associated 'liberal arts' with the major that goes by that name, or thought that it simply meant well-rounded, which is something a student could get at any school. So I guess another version of my question is, what isn't a liberal arts environment at a US university?
# Answer
> 10 votes
There is an important distinction to make between a "liberal arts *college*" and a liberal arts environment in general.
The former indicates a particular kind of school, normally without graduate schools and professional degree programs, which specializes largely in undergraduate education. While faculty and students do participate in research activities, they are not nearly as extensive or as important as at research universities.
The liberal arts environment, on the other hand, is the tradition in which essentially all modern Western university operates.
# Answer
> 7 votes
While I don't mean to make these binaries -- because they really aren't and there is a lot of fluidity in humanistic endeavors involving technology and likewise technology that is deeply invested in humanistic thinking, etc -- what "*isn't* a "liberal arts environment" is a STEM environment (science, technology, engineering, math).
Working in a liberal arts environment in general means there is room for and the expectations of independent and outside-of-the-box thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving, rather than what some might call more rigid practices and procedures. Often, a premium is placed on one's ability to communicate opinions and interpretations effectively, and to listen to and consider alternatives -- sometimes to the point where the conversations and the path toward problem-solving ends up more important and useful to the organization (and yourself) more than the actual answer itself. Projects and research tends toward better and fully understanding human nature and society, rather than tangible products, per se.
Or, it could simply mean you'll be working with a bunch of English and History professors instead of Biology professors.
**Note**: This answer was written when this question was at The Workplace SE, and it did not have specifics about the position itself as it does now. This answer is more appropriate for someone taking a general staff position within a college or university and not for a faculty position that is already in a specific field.
# Answer
> 3 votes
A liberal arts environment generally focuses on teaching, research, and service. Teaching seems to be the biggest component of a liberal arts environment. Service is also important. A good research program is important also, it is just that more time is spent teaching and honing teaching skills. Usually, teaching evaluations have more weight than publishing in high impact journals.
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Tags: job-search, humanities
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thread-8297 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8297 | What to do when you are a promised a research-based research associate role but are required to act in an IT support role? | 2013-02-27T19:02:41.090 | # Question
Title: What to do when you are a promised a research-based research associate role but are required to act in an IT support role?
First some background. Two years ago I joined a research group as a research associate. My intention in obtaining that position was to publish with the group and build some academic capital, but in the two years I have been there, I have been steered toward support work and software development, and away from research. I have not been included in any of the group's publications and have had to publish unrelated work on my own.
I subsequently found out that to justify the Ph.D. requirement for the position I hold, my employers added a few sentences to the job description to suggest that research would be the central focus of the work. Within my group I am seen as a system administrator and IT specialist. This is apparently what my employers really wanted.
I’m also acutely aware that I lack the superior eloquence of my more persuasive colleagues. (This inability would hamper me not only in academia but in virtually any career.) My superiors cannot be persuaded that the system I have been assigned to create, intended to demonstrate (nonexistent) technical capabilities to a skeptical funding agency, has already been executed by several competent, experienced and well-funded teams of more than one person. The project is an all-consuming, deeply anxiety inducing death march for which I am underqualified. Against this, I have at least three competing projects which cannot receive the exclusive, full-time attention each deserves, and I am continually interrupted with trivial software installation requests and technical failures rare enough not to have been documented in the ever-expanding global online archive of technical minutia, to which StackExchange is a prominent contributor. The perspective is that information technology hasn’t specialized in the past 30 years–nothing is too trivial to undertake (except for them) or too specialized and technical to require immersion and consistent practice. It is the menial and urgent work of cleaning digital bedpans.
I don’t have a family or children–I did not want them. I wanted to work in an environment where I could be paid for research. The compensation is $24K less than the administrative position I previously held. I feel that it is self-defeating for me to continue supporting professors, postdocs, and postgraduate and undergraduate students. There is little incentive to promote an individual assigned to projects that provide funding for the group, and to activities that support the research efforts of others, but which are unlikely themselves to result in publication.
But since my work as a mental technician is valued, I'm wondering whether I might as well seek better compensated employment outside of academia, where I would not have the indignity of supporting persons whose career opportunities are foreclosed to me.
# Answer
> 38 votes
The answers so far have many good points: you are being abused, you have been misled, you would do well to seek employment elsewhere, perhaps you were not assertive enough, and so on. But I believe *none of that matters much compared to your decisions from this point on*. You sound like a person who prefers to think ahead and plan important decisions rather than improvising—many researchers are thinkers who want to weigh their options and take their time to come to decisions. If you wish, you may plan for retribution and for taking a fight, but in the end this will not make your current workplace any more healthy for you to work in. I would suggest the following concrete steps of action:
Find the job advertisement you responded to, the written job description, your letter of application with any supplements (even if it was just an email), your employment contract, and any other documents (including emails) that pertain to the decision to accept your current employment. File these together in a place where they are safe and where you can find them if needed. Make copies. *Assert to yourself that you were promised something that was not delivered.*
Gather the articles you have written or started to write, regardless of whether they are published or not. Also, make a list of other work you have performed during your employment. For example, list the features you have implemented in the software system you described. File them together in a place where you can easily find them. *Assert to yourself that you have performed well in your work despite the situation.*
Look for a new job that is certain to either include research opportunities or to be totally unrelated to research but limited enough to allow you the mental capacity you need to conduct research on your own. Perhaps this position can be found within your current university, but in another group. Choose carefully and ask direct questions about what is most important for you: "how many days a week will I be able to work on research?", "how many days a week will I have to do overtime?", etc. Ask to meet one or two of your potential co-workers and ask them if they believe you would get what you are looking for. Be friendly and remember it is not their fault your current supervisor is misbehaving. *Assert to yourself that you can consider the options in your own time and that the responses to your direct questions are what matters in your choice, not feelings that you are fabricating out of previous bad experiences.*
Agree on the date when you will start in the new job, taking into account the conditions of your current employment. When you have signed the contract for the new position, immediately notify your current supervisor that you will move to another job and ask for a prioritised list of tasks that you should complete before leaving. Complete these tasks to the best of your ability and ask for a letter of reference. *Assert to yourself that you have fulfilled the conditions of your employment and are entitled to a reference.*
If your supervisor asks for a reason for you leaving, or becomes unreasonable, explain shortly that based on the job description, you thought you had a research position but it has turned out to be a technical position. Your supervisor is likely to try to bargain with you, and try to promise you more research opportunities in the future. Don't trust this promise—it comes from the person who misled you and who cannot be trusted. Stay firm but polite and state that you feel it is time for you to move on. Keep repeating this if the supervisor insists: you wanted to do research but the position is technical, and it is now time for you to move on. *Assert to yourself that you have no obligation to explain your personal choices.*
If your supervisor does not write the letter of recommendation, politely but shortly remind him a few (three) times (do it over email and save the emails), but then let it be. He will owe you one, and if you ever meet in the future, he will be the one who didn't behave properly. *Assert to yourself that you have resolved the situation by your own actions and that any remaining problems are not yours.*
If you got a new research position, engage frequently with your new supervisor and agree on writing a joint article. Make it something simple that you can complete soon. Focus on getting that article out, even at the expense of other assignments. Then keep repeating the exercise, taking on larger and larger projects, involving other members of your group. *Share your successes and failures in your new job with your supervisor and your peers, and listen to their encouragement and advice.*
If you didn't get a new research position, relax in your new job. Don't take on new things and just let your supervisor assign tasks to you. However, always carry out those tasks well. In your spare time, you can now complete the work you had started before, and build a small portfolio to support you in applying for a research position. *Assert to yourself that you are not going into the game that your supervisor went into—you proceed in your own pace.*
The most important thing after getting out of your current situation is not to bring with you any maladaptive behaviour that you may have developed as a result of the stressful and unreasonable environment you have worked in.
Good luck!
# Answer
> 45 votes
Your writing certainly does not betray a "lack of eloquence"; in fact, it's probably better than most of the computer scientists I know!
That said, as JeffE has indicated, you are being mishandled by your employers, and I would strongly encourage you to find a new position as soon as possible. However, it is important to point out that your situation is *not* academic versus industrial, but instead good employer versus bad employer. The distinction is crucial.
In any position, there will be parts of your job that are less appealing than others; the absolute "dream job" which you're happy about 100% only exists in Utopia. The key is to make sure that the important parts of your job give you more satisfaction than the less desirable aspects take away. Here, this clearly isn't the case. That does **not** mean that you can't find what you're looking for, either in industry *or* in academia. What it does mean is that you need to find it somewhere else than where you are, because it's clear the job isn't going to change in any sort of meaningful way in the short term.
# Answer
> 8 votes
You are being taken advantage of.
You should check the rules at your institution relating to authorship. It sounds like you have made a significant intellectual contribution to the papers that were published, so you deserve to be listed on them as an author. There are means by which you can have yourself rightfully listed as an author on the papers.
The practice of more established academics taking advantage of postdocs and research assistants is widspread in university departments worldwide. Your situation is all too common.
It does however sound like that you "walked into" the situation a little bit, and that you should have been more assertive and forthright from the start about your role in the team, your contribution to the papers that were published, and your rights as an author.
You should move on and view the situation as a learning experience for next time, and improve your self confidence and assertivenes.
Btw not sure what not having a wife and kids has to do with anything apart from you are able to take more risks with your career?
# Answer
> 6 votes
This sounds terrible and also highly questionable on the part of the research group. To provide help is difficult since the question really is one for you to solve in the sense that you need to think about your options. As I understand you stand very good chances of getting employed if you decide to leave your current position so employment does not seem to be the issue. This is a positive aspect of the situation because you have a "way out".
The decision is whether you value to continue with research (in its true sense). Added to your will is also the market of research positions. A careful check of what is out there and also possibly some contacts with groups/persons that are working on topics that within your sphere of interest. this allows you to sound out your possibilities so that you could set a time frame on your decision, when to pull the plug.
So i think the decision is exclusively yours and it hinges on probing your interests and the possibilities around you. I hope this is of some assistance.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Perhaps the situation in Ireland is different from other parts of the Commonwealth. But I would have thought that the role of "research associate" would be that of a support person and not on the track to acquiring a PhD nor a means of building up "academic capital".
In my experience, you'd first need to acquire a PhD as the first step to building up your "academic capital" - another term for publish or perish (aka get funding or perish)
In the absence of more information it would appear that there is a difference between what you thought you were being hired for and what your employer hired you to do. Another point ... you say "employer"; is that an academic institution? or some enterprise undertaking research?
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Tags: research-process, career-path, job
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thread-8305 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8305 | Who am I? A "Copy Editor"? | 2013-02-27T22:23:25.990 | # Question
Title: Who am I? A "Copy Editor"?
I help with typesetting of one scientific journal: I recieve the articles in the form in which they were finally accepted, and I re-format them etc. to make them ready for publication. Currently, my title in the journal colophon says: "**Graphic Design and Typesetting: M. Name**".
However, I get the impression that this position is in the scientific jargon usually called "**Copy Editor**", which would suit the colophon quite well since there are other "Editors" listed there (Language, Guest, Editor-in-charge, etc.). I want to make sure whether this is appropriate or not.
So: *Who am I?*
# Answer
> 9 votes
In order to answer your question, let me explain my view of copy editing and typesetting
In my field, after an article is accepted it is copy edited and then typeset. The role of the copy editor is to check for consistencies with the journal style, find grammatical and typographical errors, and provide guidance to the typesetter. The copy editor often produces a short list of "author queries" where the copy editor has found "inconsistencies" (often unused references or undefined abbreviations). Generally I receive a copy of the double-spaced manuscript with the copy editors markup and the typeset article. We are then expected to make sure the typeset manuscript is "correct".
I don't think there is a difference in prestige between copy editor and typesetter, they are really different roles (or different perspectives of the similar roles). You say in your comments that you do not like the title, I would talk to the publisher/editor-in-chief about changing it. You can either approach this from a graphic design vantage (the list will look better) or from a professional prospective (I edit I don't do graphic design). The key is you need to know what you want to be called.
# Answer
> 9 votes
A copy editor is usually the person who runs through the manuscript checking that it adheres to the style of the journal. this includes checking references, checking figure numbering but also spelling and language, in short almost everything. The copy editor improves the paper from these formal/technical points of view. It is not usually the copy editor that typesets the paper because that is usually done by a typesetter involved with the printer. Having said that, with purely electronic publication it is more likely that this task would also end up with a copy editor. Thus the old demarcation lines between copy editor and printer may be less and less clear.
The editors usually handle scientific content and managing contacts between reviewers and authors on matters of the scientific content as well as making decisions. The name for this varies a lot between journals.
So who are you? Your current "title" may be OK but if you also improve the formal and technical quality of the paper, copy editor would be most appropriate.
# Answer
> 7 votes
According to Wikipedia,
> Typically, copy editing involves correcting spelling, punctuation, grammar, terminology, jargon, and semantics, and ensuring that the text adheres to the publisher's style or an external style guide \[...\].
You say that you "re-format" articles. I assume you mean things like changing font and paragraph attributes. If you do not change the text (e.g., correct the errors), then perhaps the title "copy editor" is not the best fit for you.
However, Wikipedia states that
> The role of the copy editor varies considerably from one publication to another. Some newspaper copy editors select stories from wire service copy; others use desktop publishing software to do design and layout work that once was the province of design and production specialists.
The last statement supports Peter Jansson's comment that "the old demarcation lines between copy editor and printer may be less and less clear."
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Tags: publications, journals, job, copy-editing
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thread-8322 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8322 | Proper way of refering to yourself, according to graduate level | 2013-02-28T15:43:18.153 | # Question
Title: Proper way of refering to yourself, according to graduate level
I currently have a degree as a Master in Computer Sciences, and i was always wondering on how to call myself in a more "short" manner. For example, a PhD might introduce himself as a "Doctor" to other people, but how does a MSc call himself: "Master"? "Mister"? "MSc"?.
Talking to some PhD and MSC acquaintances, they had the same doubt about it, and i think this might be a good place to inquire about such topic, and i could not find another related question to answer myself.
# Answer
> 10 votes
While my Internet search has come up sparse, I think most etiquette guides suggest that you do not refer to yourself with honorifics. There are some exceptions where the honorific carries immediate pertinent information. For example, it might be acceptable for a medical doctor walking in a exam room to introduce herself as "Dr. Jane Doe", to indicate their role in the relationship, although I prefer "Your doctor Jane Doe" since it clearly separates honorific from role.
As for how to refer to an individual with a masters degree, there is no associated honorific.
# Answer
> 29 votes
According to proper etiquette you may use *Master* as a title (as in “Master Segovia”) if and only if you are:
* the heir apparent of a Scottish viscount or baron
* a boy not old enough to be called “Mr.”
The *New Oxford American Dictionary* (which gives the above information) also lists the archaic use as a “title for a man of high rank or learning”, but (a) that is archaic, (b) it was not linked to a specific degree, just a courtesy title.
**There is no formal title** in British English or American English to designate someone who holds a Master's degree. *Get over it, and earn a PhD! :)*
# Answer
> 3 votes
You would not address yourself as 'Master so-and-so' but there are circumstances where is it not inappropriate to include your graduate degree with your name; 'So and So, MSc'. The obvious examples of this type of use are publications and presentations.
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Tags: etiquette, presentation
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thread-8316 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8316 | How long does it take for a recruiting process to finish? | 2013-02-28T11:31:19.570 | # Question
Title: How long does it take for a recruiting process to finish?
I think the title says it all, but here it goes. I am a final year PhD student in pure mathematics. My PhD has been running smoothly and I will graudate on time next summer.
This year I started applying for postdoctoral/assistant professor positions in Europe and in United States. The reviewing processes for these positions have already started, for example the earliest one started in mid December.
As times passes I start to worry that the reviewing process will take longer than I expected. I understand that the people in the search committees have other things to do an that they may have large numbers of applicants to review. But as someone who will be unemployed next September, I am worried that there might not be enough time for me to look for alternatives if these applications turn out to be unsuccessful.
Hence, I would like to ask what the normal period of time is for a recruiting process to finish. A side question might be if I would be notified if my application was unsuccessful. In a few job announcements it is stated that only the successfull candidates will be contacted. Hence if it is not stated otherwise in the job announcement, can I assume that I will be contacted no matter the outcome?
# Answer
First off, timings are very different in different countries. I have experience applying in Germany, UK, US and Sweden, with radically different time scales. The US runs on a very steady clock, where there tends to be a season for applications, for interviews, for notifications, and relatively few events happen outside this rhythm, while elsewhere is much more anarchic with respect to timing.
Shortest time periods I have had in the UK where a polite refusal has shown up as quickly as within about 2 weeks after the deadline.
In the US, you would usually apply during September-January, interview January-March, and be offered a job February-May or so. Slightly different timings are in effect for postdoctoral positions versus professorships, and there tends to be a second round of applications when schools scramble to cover teaching needs for the fall.
My experience with the US also indicates that you should **not** expect full information from everyone. Finding out you were not considered by simply not hearing anything from the school for several years is not an unusual situation.
UK schools have been diligent about letting me know one way or another.
German schools have sometimes delayed up towards 2-3 years before letting me know.
And the Swedish system is a beast almost entirely unto its own. For one thing, the process is utterly transparent: the list of applicants, as well as external reviews of the candidates and the minutes of all the committee meetings are all a matter of public record, and is usually distributed to all candidates directly as a matter of courtesy. The process is one of the lengthiest I have ever seen — it is in no way seen as unreasonable that well over 1 year passes from application deadline to notification.
> 17 votes
# Answer
In general I think it is best to assume that unless you are successful you will not hear about any decision. In other words rejection letters are fairly uncommon. This is not a good thing, but it is a fact of academic life. From a university prospective the hiring process is not finished until they have a signed contract. This might not happen until months after a formal offer is made and verbally agreed to. In the cases where HR sends out notifications, it is often not until the search is over.
A reasonable coping strategy is immediately after submitting the application to assume that you have been rejected and not think about the application again. If you miraculously get an interview you will then be happy. Immediately after completing the interview, you should again assume you have been rejected.
As for the uncertainty influencing the job search, you need to be applying for everything and anything. If you are lucky enough to get a position, you then need to decide if you want to accept it. Unfortunately the job market is so competitive that a position in hand is almost always better than a position applied for or a position yet to be announced.
> 7 votes
# Answer
You mention that you are worried that you will not have enough time to apply for alternative jobs if you are unsuccessful in your primary choices.
When I am in job seeking mode, I apply to every job that I would find acceptable, irrespective of what other jobs I have applied for.
I assume the worst for any given application - even those for which I can tick every box and satisfy every criterion. I do not live in hope. I apply, consider my application a ticket in a lottery, and look for the next job to apply for.
> 5 votes
# Answer
I think the timetable in Europe is a little more chaotic, but if you haven't been told you're under consideration at a job in the US in mathematics by the end of February, it is extremely unlikely that you are going to get it.
This not to say that lots of offers don't go out in March and April, but those are usually to people who already know they are on a short list or have been interviewed by this point. You might want to inquire with committees about whether you are still under consideration (it's fine to do this *once* by this stage, I think).
Of course, there are exceptions (there are even a few jobs being posted now), but I would definitely start looking into alternatives. My personal perception is that this was a very tough year for postdocs in mathematics in the US, so lots of good candidates have had trouble finding jobs.
> 5 votes
# Answer
From what I've seen, the time highly depends on the formality of the recruiting process. For some postdoctoral position where the recruitment only depended on the PI of the project funding the position, the process was very short, i.e., a couple of weeks between the deadline and the interview. On the other hand, I've witnessed, for a lecturer position, a deadline in June and candidates for the interview contacted in late September (but I guess the summer break does not speed up the process).
Usually, when they mention that only successful candidates will be contacted, they also mention a notification date: "If you haven't heard from us by the X, then consider yourself as unsuccessful". I've also seen cases where the announcement didn't say that only successful candidates would be contacted, and yet they didn't contact unsuccessful candidates.
In any case, if there is a position you're particularly interested in, do not hesitate to contact the recruiters, if only to know when you might get an answer.
> 4 votes
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Tags: job-search
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thread-8335 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8335 | How to get a PC member's attention to comment on or review my submission? | 2013-03-01T20:17:05.010 | # Question
Title: How to get a PC member's attention to comment on or review my submission?
I have submitted a thesis abstract to PhD consortium and my submission was accepted.
I just noticed that one of the program committee is well known professor on my thesis area. *Actually, many of the paper citations contain his name*. Now, I believe he was not a reviewer for my submission (I know because I didn't get critical -deep- questions about my work) but I don't have hard evidence for this.
what is the right way to get his attention to comment on my work?
is it adequate to email him my submission?
# Answer
The PC member may be a professor, but I promise, they are human just like you and me. In your place, I'd find out the email address of professor and write a polite email making your case that
* you are both researchers in the same field
* you noticed the professor is actively participating in that special PhD consortium
* your submission to that consortium was accepted
* you have been following/citing that professor's work, but be very brief and direct about it! you're a researcher, but neither fan nor worshipper!
* you care for a meeting at the conference to which that consortium is associated
* you appreciate that professor's opinion
Or, if you really just care for feedback on that submission, you can flat out ask for an opinion on your submission.
These worked quite well for me. Also, direct approaches during coffee breaks are opportunities as well, but (T)PC members often have closed meetings during those so you would have to take your chances ...
But seriously, experts in their research areas care for the work of other researchers ... or you needn't care for their opinion.
> 7 votes
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Tags: phd, conference, peer-review
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