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thread-11876 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11876 | Using Paper under review as a Scientific Report in PhD application | 2013-08-14T15:27:53.957 | # Question
Title: Using Paper under review as a Scientific Report in PhD application
I have submitted a paper at a conference and it is currently under review. Can I use this paper as a 'scientific report' (asked to assess candidate's writing skills) for a Ph.D application ?
# Answer
> 5 votes
So long as this is for an internal evaluation process that doesn't involve any form of "publication," it's hard to see how this could be a problem. You retain rights as the author of a paper, especially if it hasn't been published.
If you have concerns over whether it is allowed, you can always ask the conference organizers if it's acceptable. On the other hand, if you are concerned whether the department you are submitting to will accept it, **ask the department**.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Submit it as a preprint in ArXiv and cite the corresponding document (I am assuming it has the minimum quality to be submited here). Producing preprints is a good practice (specially for countries with limited access to co$tly journals).
In my opinion: do not cite "submitted to TOP JOURNAL" papers. Only Tyche knows what is going to happen with that submission (e.g. maybe the referee is your arch enemy).
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Tags: phd, application, cv
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thread-11861 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11861 | What kind of papers is it acceptable to read during working hours? | 2013-08-13T17:25:29.970 | # Question
Title: What kind of papers is it acceptable to read during working hours?
In academia, one is forced to read papers that come out. Some of the papers I read are directly related to my work and then it is reasonable to read them in my working hours. Others are completely irrelevant and I read them just for the pleasure and to broaden my knowledge in other areas. These, I think, should be read in one's free time.
But then there are papers that are not directly related to what I am doing but may turn useful for my work, e.g., they may use a method that might come handy although they deal with a slightly different field. Should I read such papers at work as well or should I read them in my free time? How do I decide where the border between work-related and leisure-read papers lies?
# Answer
There may of course be differences between different academic cultures and systems but in essence you should be free to read whatever you want. Yes, you will of course *need* to read some literature to keep yorself up to date with your field to the extent that you can teach whatever courses you need to teach. I assume teaching is something you are *ordered* to do. Your own research adds the need to read other papers but since you decide your field you also decide what you need to read. If you find other areas of interest (still within your or related fields) then I cannot see that as a problem. There are many aspects of science such as methodology that can be extracted from, for example, neighbouring fields.
In my own case, I find I have a different problem: simply not time enough to keep myself updated to the level I would like. So, reading literature irrelevant to my major field is simply not imagineable.
So in the end the answer will depend on what your job situation looks like and what the expectations are, what you are ordered to do and what is your own initiative as well as what might result if you do not fulfil the goals of your employer.
> 13 votes
# Answer
A perspective from (theoretical) computer science:
One of the things that distinguishes academia from some other lines of work is that there is no well delineated line between "working hours" and non-working hours. Since you can probably be better paid elsewhere, academics tend to enjoy research. You seem to as well, since you read papers during your free time.
But that is the great thing about academia. Reading papers that you enjoy is work, since as you observe, reading in a field different from your own can nevertheless give you tools useful for your own work. So, I would say that you can read any paper you like during "working hours" and not feel bad about it.
Incidentally, one can always switch areas. If you feel that you are "forced" to read the papers that come out in your area, but there are other areas that you read for pleasure, perhaps you should work in those areas!
(Disclaimer: needless to say, to have a *successful* academic career, you can't spend all your time reading -- you have to spend some of your time writing! But there is no need to arbitrarily partition the reading into a work and pleasure pile.)
> 36 votes
# Answer
> In academia, one is forced to read papers that come out.
Not in academia. You are not *forced* to read anything at all after you get your PhD. As a graduate student, you may have regular reading assignments given by your adviser, but those are just like any other class assignments, so I don't think you are talking of them here.
> Some of the papers I read are directly related to my work and then it is reasonable to read them in my working hours. Others are completely irrelevant and I read them just for the pleasure and to broaden my knowledge in other areas. These, I think, should be read in one's free time.
One funny thing in academia (if we are talking about academia and not about an industrial job that pretends to be one) is that you *never know* what exactly your work is. Any time a colleague may stop by and ask a question, a paper may come for refereeing, etc., which may give you an opportunity (not "force", because you can reject anything you don't want either bluntly or in some fancy way like "Interesting problem but, unfortunately, it is outside my area of expertise") to think of something you've never heard of before. Another funny thing is that there is no work time (except teaching and meeting hours) and free time. You can wake up at 2AM and work like crazy if you have a good idea, or you can lock your office and go for a long stroll in the town if you don't feel like sitting and bumping your head against the brick wall will result in anything any time soon. I read whatever I want and wherever and whenever I want, and suggest that you do the same, provided that you meet your obligations and do not go on reckless reading (or non-reading) sprees.
> But then there are papers that are not directly related to what I am doing but may turn useful for my work, e.g., they may use a method that might come handy although they deal with a slightly different field.
Zillions of them! No chance to read them all, of course, but, by all means, look out and around whenever you have a chance.
> Should I read such papers at work as well or should I read them in my free time?
Whichever you prefer. I like reading when lying on a sofa and I don't have one in my office, so I read everything at home. Some people prefer to clearly separate the work and the social life, so they do all their reading at the office. There are no rules and no obligations in this respect.
How do I decide where the border between work-related and leisure-read papers lies?
Currently there is no such border in academia. We enjoy the total absence of the "reading police" and the internet made everything (well, almost: the copyright still spreads its shadowy tentacles far and wide but they are cut out one by one every day) available at a click of a button. The real danger is not in the "legal issues" but in the effective management of your time, which is the reverse sign of the freedom coin. But that is a totally different story...
> 19 votes
# Answer
My take (for profit company) is anything that clearly improves your domain knowledge in a way that can be tied back to your business.
> One funny thing in academia (if we are talking about academia and not about an industrial job that pretends to be one) is that you never know what exactly your work is
This is true in the business world as well. My boss has no idea that we need to consolidate user directories, set up a configuration management system or implement a system that lets us visualize netflow information. He comes to me with problems, I need to read to be able to reply with answers.
So work related stuff is almost always good.
Oh, and xkcd. Anyone should be allowed to read xkcd at work. Except bus drivers, but that should be obvious.
> 2 votes
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Tags: reading, working-time
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thread-11895 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11895 | Review too short and vague to be useful | 2013-08-15T14:55:25.863 | # Question
Title: Review too short and vague to be useful
My friend submitted a paper to a well-known computer science conference. One of the reviews was very short - only 2.5 lines of text, extremely general and vague, and rejected the paper. The review is so meaningless, that the author cannot even respond to it, or use it to improve the paper. Additionally, the review includes little justification to the rejection recommendation.
The other two reviews were balanced - there was one positive and one negative review.
The author feels that the short review should get a smaller weight in the final decision. How can he communicate this to the conference organizers? Is it a good idea to contact them directly by email?
The conference is organized by an automatic web-based submission system that allows the author to write a single response to the reviewers, but it is not clear if this response gets to the organizers or only to the reviewers.
# Answer
It reminds me of a review we got recently, in which, among other (reasonable and meaningful) things there was the phrase
"5) The argument at the top of page 7 is not as clear as it should be."
My immediate response was
"The referee's remark in section 5 is too vague to take any action upon it."
(I believe, my co-authors finally put it in a slightly nicer form, but the meaning stayed).
I completely agree with Chris that your friend should just ignore the "content empty" review and act properly upon the other two, but, before everything, ask yourself honestly whether the paper in question is good enough and written well enough? I don't want to know the answer but you should know it yourself before you proceed in any way or give him any advice. Only one positive review out of three is a clear signal of trouble unless your friend had quarreled with each and every influential colleague of his by the moment of submission.
The last thing: whatever your friend *feels* the organizers *should* do, most likely, trying to convince them of that directly won't accomplish anything. I believe that the indirect comments like the one I quoted above yield better results (especially if your friend's tact and sense of humor are not as terrible as mine :)).
> 8 votes
# Answer
Unfortunately, when submitting to a conference, you don't have control over the process to the detail you are talking about. It will probably be the case that the useless review does indeed get less weight during discussions (unless the reviewer happens to be one of those reviewers who holds a lot of sway and can get a paper rejected with a vague and general review!).
I would urge against sending an email to the conference chair / organizers -- unless you are extremely tactful, any attempt to sway them with this method will come off as whiny and will only hurt your case (or, rather, your friend's case).
The best option is to write a rebuttal as you normally would: fix all the critical comments from the other reviewers, address each comment specifically in your rebuttal response, and thank the reviewers for their consideration. The good news is that you got one positive review. While this is not normally sufficient for a paper acceptance at a very competitive CS conference, you have the chance to improve the paper as much as you can, and send in your rebuttal, and you should make the most of that opportunity.
> 10 votes
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Tags: conference, peer-review
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thread-11903 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11903 | As a dissertation advisor, how can I best help a "typical" graduate student? | 2013-08-15T18:29:53.010 | # Question
Title: As a dissertation advisor, how can I best help a "typical" graduate student?
I am about to officially become the Ph.D. advisor to a math grad student at a second-tier state school. (He is about to pass his comprehensive exams.)
He is strong, motivated, and talented, but not to such an extent that I wonder why he's in our program and not some top-20 program. He doesn't know precisely what he wants to work on, and will be looking to me for guidance. He hopes to get some kind of academic job afterwards, but hasn't thought about precisely what.
How can I best help him? For example, should I urge him to work on something difficult, technical, and of interest to experts -- or something less exciting to experts, but easier to explain and motivate?
Typically, although not always, our successful graduates don't get offered research postdocs, but do often go on to faculty positions at second-tier liberal arts schools or branch-campus state universities. Assuming he would be happy with such a position (which of course I will ask!), what can I do to maximize the chances for his success?
# Answer
Let him teach.
Assuming that he decides to make plans for working at a LAC or a branch campus of a state university he will need to be ready to teach the day he starts. So encourage him to take that part of his professional training seriously.
If your soon-to-be student is really going to end up in a small department a very helpful thing is that he can continue his research more or less independently. There is the internet but it is not the same as having half a dozen people working on the same topic just outside your door. This, I feel, is more important to his future than whether or not the topic he decides on has a large or small buy in cost. That being said he will want to have some facet of his research program that can be explained to a general mathematical audience, but this does not have to be all of it.
If all else fails, find a friend of yours or a not-so-recent graduate who teaches at a school like this and ask them what they want to see in a candidate. That should give you a good guide for what outcomes you should work for in your student.
> 16 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, advisor
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thread-11894 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11894 | Conducting a training seminar without projector | 2013-08-15T14:43:14.733 | # Question
Title: Conducting a training seminar without projector
What is the best way to conduct a training seminar inside a computer laboratory without a projector?
Is there an existing software program that could achieve the same results as conducting a training seminar with the aid of a projector?
# Answer
> 2 votes
Put your seminar material online, and just have people view it at the same time as you talk. It can be any easily readable format, like PDF file or simply series of web pages. If you are not sure that people will follow, just put large bold numbers on each page, and announce what page you're at when you change page. (A bit like kids' audio book!)
Either that, or hard copies of the material.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I'm not sure I get the situation:
Does "no projector" (and no whiteboard) mean
* You do not want to use a projector (nor a whiteboard)?
=\> IMHO you should then know what you want (and tell us why), without that we'll not know what to answer
* Or: just there is no projector available
=\> borrow projector somewhere
* or is it no possibity to project to a suitable space
=\> borrow projector and screen,
* no possibility for placing a screen, neithr
=\> or go for a different room?
# Answer
> 0 votes
CLI or GUI? If GUI, you can have everyone watch your screen w/ a remote desktop client. Other solutions for CLI too (screen program) but I guess you're using a GUI.
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Tags: presentation, seminars, training
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thread-11910 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11910 | How to write a scholarship press release? | 2013-08-16T01:49:35.960 | # Question
Title: How to write a scholarship press release?
I recently won a scholarship related to my career focus. I was chosen as a winner in part because of a recommendation from a former professor. She is now asking me to draft a press release about winning the scholarship. I am hesitant because I do not want to appear press-hungry, but I would like to allow a write-up to be used as a means of increasing the visibility of the college and this professor. **I do not want the focus to be on myself and my accomplishments.** How should I handle this?
# Answer
First, look at previous press releases from your institution and department. This may give you ideas.
But use the press release as an opportunity to speak to the public about things you deserve to be publicized. You're right, it doesn't have to be about you, but getting the fellowship is the award that gives you an opportunity to speak up about things you care. Press releases often contain quotes. In this case these could be quotes of other people talking about your involvement in a program you helped launch, or a quote of yourself praising whatever it is you want to praise.
In short: **use that opportunity to promote something you believe in**, in addition to pro outing yourself!
> 4 votes
# Answer
> I do not want the focus to be on myself and my accomplishments.
While many of us (hopefully) have a modicum of modesty, **there will be many times in your career where it is in your best interest to triumph your accomplishments, and this is one of them**. In this case, it is a no-brainer: your former professor asked you explicitly to write the press release, and you should do it. Your university home page or newspaper probably has a news section that demonstrates the type of press release you're talking about (e.g., a short story with a picture and a description of the research and/or accomplishments).
The press release will be primarily about you (if you are the only winner at your school), but you should also include a paragraph about the scholarship itself and about the college and how it relates to the scholarship (e.g., "The X Scholarship has been awarded at Y College for the past 10 years, and was funded through the generous donation of so-and-so, who graduated from the college in 1954...). If it fits in, you can mention your professor's relationship to the scholarship and your involvement (how did she know to recommend you? Was it her impetus or yours?).
If you're concerned about how to write the press-release, I would reach out to someone with journalism experience, whether it is someone who works for the school paper, or the news-section of the school website.
> 8 votes
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Tags: funding, self-promotion
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thread-11923 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11923 | Can a reviewer suggest references? | 2013-08-16T17:52:58.170 | # Question
Title: Can a reviewer suggest references?
I had submitted a paper to a reputed Computer Science Journal. The reviewer has a lot of constructive changes, in addition to that he also suggested citing a few more papers, all by the same author. Since this is a double blind process, we don't know each other's identity. So, is it common for reviewers to suggest references in this field or any other field ?
# Answer
I'd say it is a common practice, and I have both been given reference suggestions in blind reviews and given reference suggestions in my own reviews. If you are concerned about a reviewer trying to promote his/her own papers by the suggestions, I'll just say that if the recommendations are apt (i.e., if you read the suggested papers and they do appear to be legitimate references), then it makes sense to cite the papers regardless of whether there is a seemingly disingenuous motive by the reviewer. Even if you don't specifically use the prior work, it makes sense to mention them in your "Related Work" section. If you don't cite the suggested papers, provide a legitimate reason in your rebuttal.
Indeed, if a reviewer is chosen well, he or she should be an expert in the topic of the paper, and most likely does have apt references under his or her name.
> 20 votes
# Answer
**It is very common**. In fact, some journals explicitly ask the reviewer to answer the question *“Are the literature references appropriate and up to date?”* (in addition to other reviewing criteria).
Proper citation is an important part of academic publishing, and it should not be treated lightly. It is also the reviewers' job to make sure that you did not, in good or bad faith, forget to cite relevant work in the field. As such, **it is common (and desirable) for reviewers to recommend citation of some papers** that the authors may have forgotten, or not know of. It has also happened to me in the past, as a reviewer, to **recommend deleting some references which I believed were irrelevant or too numerous**. (In particular, some overly enthusiastic self-citation or friend-citation).
Now, it may happen that many references you were required to add are from the same author. Maybe it's the reviewer, maybe it's not, but it shouldn't matter to you. Read the papers, and if they're relevant, cite them. **If they're not relevant**, and you really believe citing them would not be correct, then simply **don't cite them and explain your position in the reply to the editor**. Don't make accusations (*“the reviewer is trying to improve his h-index”*), simply state that you do not believe the references to be relevant for reasons X and Y. Remember, the editor is the one making the final decision, not the reviewer!
> 10 votes
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Tags: publications, research-process
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thread-11927 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11927 | Letter of recommendation from a senior lecturer | 2013-08-16T21:35:11.513 | # Question
Title: Letter of recommendation from a senior lecturer
Is it OK to have a letter of recommendation from a senior lecturer rather than from a full professor? The lecturer knows me well (I took two of his classes and I'm TA'ing for him) and he really likes me. Unfortunately he is not involved in research, but I should have two other letters from research profs.
# Answer
> 7 votes
A clarification for what you need a letter would help. But, any letter that highlight academic skills should be useful. It will show your capacity to plan and carry out work so regardless of whether it is research or teaching you should get a leter. And, in each case the person most qualified to provide the letter should write it.
Providing letters that describe traits that are not sought after in an application will of course not be optimal (probably not detreimental, however). You therefore need to chose your authors of letters to match the skills requested for your application purpose.
# Answer
> 7 votes
From a reader's perspective, there are three components to a letter of recommendation:
1. what specific skills/accomplishments/qualities does it discuss?
2. how relevant are those skills etc. to the position or program one is being considered for? and
3. how much credibility does the letter writer have?
If someone who is not involved with research writes a letter praising your research abilities, that probably won't have a lot of credibility. If someone who is deeply involved in teaching praises your teaching, that will have a lot more credibility. If teaching is important in the PhD program you're applying to (it usually is -- and definitely if you're going to be a TA), then that should count in your favor.
Since you're getting letters from two research faculty who can speak to your ability to do research, it's probably OK to get a letter from an instructor -- as long as this person speaks about things within his/her sphere of expertise, it probably won't hurt and may possibly help your application.
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Tags: graduate-admissions
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thread-11812 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11812 | The GRE: Why does this still exist? | 2013-08-11T23:46:54.400 | # Question
Title: The GRE: Why does this still exist?
I did my undergraduate degree in the US and am heading to graduate school here in less than a month, so I myself have taken the Graduate Record Examinations (the general as well as two subjects tests) and I guess it always just seemed as a sort of un-avoidable formality that nothing could be done about, and so I just took it and got it over with.
In the intervening year between undergrad and the start of my Ph.D. work, however, I traveled overseas to Cambridge where I found that I was quite mistaken: the GRE is very, very avoidable. The solution is simple: don't apply to universities in the US.
By the time I had arrived there, I had already gotten it over with myself, but for most of my peers there, this was not the case, and quite a few of them had simply decided to not even bother applying to the US because of the inconvenience that comes along with that in the form of the GRE.
This made me wonder: are admissions committees at US universities aware of the number of highly qualified candidates they miss out on because of the GRE?
I could understand being willing to miss out on the potential recruitment of these students if the GRE were a significant part of one's application, but I have yet to find any US professor tell me that the GRE scores are weighted highly when it comes to making admissions decisions (perhaps I just haven't asked around enough?). In fact, I've often been told it's the *least important* factor when deciding whether someone should be admitted. (Indeed, my impression is that the general GRE is more or less a joke and only serves as a convenient way of tossing out applicants who would have been found un-qualified for other reasons.)
Putting aside for a moment the issue of those who decide not to apply to US universities, let's consider the inconvenience faced by those who do. Once again, if you're from the US, I can imagine simply not being aware of this (I know I wasn't), but I now know of several people who have *had to fly* (sometimes the flights have even been inter-continental!) in order to sit to take a GRE test. And even for those who don't (like probably most of us in the US), there is the ridiculous price: almost $200 for the general and an extra $150 per subject test. I was under the impression that admissions committees encourage people from all backgrounds to apply, rich or poor, but how can they honestly expect this to happen if even those who don't have to fly have to shell out anywhere from $300-$500 in addition to the application fee? (I personally find it a bit nuts that these tests cost several times more than the application itself.)
So, could somebody please explain to me why we still require students to take these things? Do they really add information about the applicant and their abilities that could not be found out any other way?
# Answer
### Empirical evidence on the relationship between GRE scores and post-graduate performance
There is a massive meta-analysis by Kuncel et al (2001) that empirically evaluates the correlations between various aspects of the GRE with multiple post-graduate performance criteria.
Based on hundreds of studies and thousands of participants, GRE shows reasonable correlations with post-graduate GPA (i.e., around observed r = .21 to r=.43). Similar correlations emerged between GRE and faculty ratings of the student.
Correlations of GRE with research productivity and publication citation counts were smaller, but still positive. This is not surprising given that these are more distal outcomes and there are many non-academic reasons why people may or may not pursue an academic career or have publishable results.
The authors thus concluded that GRE was a valid predictor of a wide range of graduate outcomes. They also noted that "subject tests tended to be better predictors than the verbal, quantitative, and analytical tests."
In general, selection decisions are assisted by standardisation, and a big part of academic achievement involves measuring baseline ability. Thus, the GRE combines both standardisation and competence measurement.
**Update 2023:** A new meta-analysis was published by Feldon et al (2023) that reviews GRE correlates with academic outcomes. They report correlations between GRE and GPA of .24 (total), .20 (verbal), .17 (quantitative), and .21 (analytical).
### Response to comments
There have been a few points made in other answers and in comments, which I'll comment on here:
* **Conflict of interest:** @msw wrote that they "consider the cited paper to be junk because ETS provided all available data". In general, I don't find the results in the meta-analysis surprising. Most tests like the GRE tend to have fairly strong correlations with general cognitive ability. It is well established through thousands of independent studies that IQ scores correlate fairly well with both school grades and job performance (i.e., in the r=.50 range; see Neisser et al 1996 for a field consensus review). The results show correlations less than .50, but that's not surprising given some of the issues around standardisation, practice, range restriction, domain specificity and so on.
* **Belief there is no correlation based on personal observation**: Note that if the correlation is around .20, that means that 4% of variance has been explained. That leaves a huge amount of variance in performance to still be explained. It would not be surprising to meet many people that did well on GRE and poor in graduate school or vice versa. Thus, it is problematic to rely on personal experience when it comes to evaluating the validity of tests where such correlations are likely to be only modest.
* **Small correlations are useful**: While a .20 correlation is small, it can still help make selection decisions. In particular, when evaluating the suitability of selection tools, you need to contrast the validity of a given tool with other available tools (e.g., interviews, GPA, references, and so on). I'm not as familiar with results in the graduate selection domain, but certainly in the employee selection domain, which is quite analogous, cognitive ability tests tend to correlate more highly than interviews, references and so on (for a comprehensive meta analysis of employee selection, see Schmidt and Hunter, 1998). That said, the best selection decisions are typically obtained by integrating multiple selection tools. Furthermore, the small correlation also should highlight to individuals who score poorly on the GRE that it is not that predictive, and therefore it shouldn't discourage an individual from pursing post-graduate study.
* **Does training invalidate the GRE?**: @user8134 wrote "many people significantly improve their GRE scores by taking courses with prepping companies like Kaplan. So it seems GRE test does not measure any intrinsic ability/talent necessary for grad. school." I agree that individual differences in training and preparation for the GRE may influence test scores. That said, if you characterise test scores to be determined by true ability, training, and error variance, then I would expect that true ability would remain the much larger source of explanation in test scores. This is based on general observations about testing for ability based assessment. In general, the degree to which training is an issue would depend on how much the test materials teach to the specific test. Overall, I would assume that this would reduce the potential validity of GRE, but that the GRE would still be useful. Furthermore, training and nuisance factors can be used to do better on many selection instruments. For example, people can be coached on how to frame their CV or how to answer questions in interviews. Such training is potentially a source of error variance, but it doesn't invalidate CVs and interviews completely.
* **Why would anyone care about post-graduate GPA? (@JeffE)** @JeffE further notes " in PhD programs, the only thing that really matters is the student's research output.". Some post-graduate courses include meaningful graded coursework and others don't. For the courses that do include meaningful coursework, then such coursework provides a more standardised way of measuring post-graduate performance. So the validity of GRE in predicting such outcomes is not surprising. And thus, presumably we could generalise this to being indicative of how people perform in less standardised aspects of post-graduate performance. Of course, there's an inferential leap here, but in general, performance in related domains tend to correlate (e.g., coursework in mathematics with research performance in mathematics); it's not perfect, but it's still a positive correlation. Furthermore, if the validation study includes some post-graduate coursework where everyone gets top marks and such data is mixed with studies where grades are valid measures of performance, this would only serve to attenuate the observed correlation. Thus, this would suggest that the correlation between GRE and post-graduate GPA is higher than reported by the meta-analysis. Also, the meta-analysis does report correlations with research output and they are weaker but still positive. It also reports correlations with supervisor ratings.
* **Better alternatives to GRE**: None of my comments above are necessarily advocating the use of the GRE. Developing an effective selection and recruitment system whether it be for employment or post-graduate admission is a complex task. That said, most post-graduate selection systems would want to get a reliable and valid measure of academic aptitude. GRE, IQ tests, other ability tests, undergraduate GPA, all have reasonably validity evidence. And in general standardisation and efficiency are important. So, for example, administering your own selection tools takes more time, whereas taking pre-existing measures like GPA and GRE is more efficient.
* **Ethics of requiring applicants pay money to complete GRE:** Several people are critical of the GRE on the basis that it costs several hundred dollars to complete. I think that this is a perfectly legitimate question, but that the question of predictive validity can be answered separately. Such a fee could potentially discriminate against low income applicants. That said, presumably the fee in comparison to forgone wages associated with completing a post-graduate degree is fairly small.
### References
* Kuncel, N. R., Hezlett, S. A., & Ones, D. S. (2001). A comprehensive meta-analysis of the predictive validity of the graduate record examinations: implications for graduate student selection and performance. Psychological bulletin, 127(1), 162. PDF
* Neisser, U., Boodoo, G., Bouchard Jr, T. J., Boykin, A. W., Brody, N., Ceci, S. J., ... & Urbina, S. (1996). Intelligence: Knowns and unknowns. American psychologist, 51(2), 77. PDF
* Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological bulletin, 124(2), 262. PDF
* David F. Feldon, Kaylee Litson, Brinleigh Cahoon, Zhang Feng, Andrew Walker & Colby Tofel-Grehl (2023) The Predictive Validity of the GRE Across Graduate Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis of Trends Over Time, The Journal of Higher Education, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2023.2187177
> 61 votes
# Answer
This is a good question. I have not been a fan of the GRE for 20+ years, although (through whatever luck I had a good-enough number on it myself that it didn't harm me...) many are. Having been on admissions committees and very much involved with graduate programs for 30+ years, I've had ample opportunity to see the (non-) correlation of success in graduate mathematics with GRE subject-test scores. (The other parts are often useful as tests of English fluency, mainly.)
Of course, the world would be a simpler place if GRE subject-test scores really *could* show talent for higher mathematics. We note that the Educational Testing Service (in NJ, that makes the GRE and other stuff) is a for-profit that has a vested interest in maintaining its products' apparent importance.
The cost is unfortunate, and certainly discriminates against people whose currency doesn't compete well with USD.
The vaguely useful bit of information provided by GRE is that, well, yes, it is the only thing that most applicants will have done, thus, if one insists on "simple comparisons", it is the only thing that allows that. It is clear that comparison of GPAs is even more pointless.
I have known admissions committees that simply ranked applicants by GRE subject test score. There! Done! :)
No, I do not care very much about GRE numbers, but in a way I am glad that some admissions committees do, in a fashion to the way that under-valued stocks are good investment values.
I do think that the elite graduate programs use GRE subject test as a convenient filter, because it selects somewhat for "quickness/cleverness", and they can afford to "lose" some prospects, because they have so many who are "quick/clever".
In the U.S., having a GRE subject test score is also a sign of awareness that people expect you to take it. Thus, it doesn't matter so much what one's score is, but that one \_is\_aware\_ ... even if it is only of "expectations".
But, in summary, no, I see no point in it. But there are economic incentives for ETS to keep making money. And a great number of admissions committees in math have personal predilections that lead them to be fond of (over-) simple numerical quantification, so... there-we-are.
Edit: As @msw observes in a comment, indeed, if GRE measured significant academic achievement cumulative over several years... it would be odd that one could usefully do the "prep" courses ETS provides. :)
Yes, performance on GRE probably *is* a good indicator of how well a kid can do on a multi-hour, timed, multiple-choice test, etc. Yes, if we make subsequent coursework resemble this (!?) then we *give* the GRE predictive power. No, I do not recommend making everything multiple-choice! But, amazingly, some people do believe that this could be done, and purportedly save us all a lot of work.
Sure, these things measure *something*, and produce numbers that can be manipulated. There are people who are inexorably drawn to the possibility of making final decisions in those terms, even when the significance of the numbers is unclear. Meanwhile, reading letters of recommendation and personal statements is obviously not easily quantifiable. Of course!
If it were really the case that "standardized testing" could tell what its promoters like to insinuate, it would be convenient, indeed. But, again, some decades of experience indicate that these tests do *not* indicate whether or not people can sustain interest over 4+ years, work hard for 4+ years, continue to develop scientific sensibility, and so on. *And* the latter issues prove to be vastly more important for completion of a PhD. In direct observation of about 700+ grad students, I'd estimate that fewer than 20 dropped out or failed due to lack of intellectual capacity or lack of prior knowledge. Rather, loss of interest in the subject, or personal issues (mental/physical health) dominate. This "sample" of mine includes a very wide range of GRE scores and even GPA.
More anecdotally, several specific examples stick in my mind, of very low percentile on GRE subject test (bottom 10 percent or smaller...) but exceptional achievement in coursework, prelims, and thesis work. These peoples' potential was easily visible in letters of recommendation and personal statement.
> 51 votes
# Answer
In my department, GRE scores are used mostly as calibration for students who have good grades but are from universities/programs that we are not familiar with and whose quality we are therefore not sure about. For students with good credentials from strong programs the GRE is pretty much irrelevant.
> 23 votes
# Answer
A couple of issues:
Re Mr. Anglim's comment, a suspect issue re. any correlation between GRE scores and success in grad. school is that many people significantly improve their GRE scores by taking courses with prepping companies like Kaplan. So it seems GRE test does not measure any intrinsic ability/talent necessary for grad. school.
Another issue is that the GRE is a form of forced labor: ETS uses one of the sections in the exam (just which section is unknown to the test-taker) as data for future exams, i.e., the section is not counted for the score of the test. So one is expected , basically, to work for ETS for free, producing high-quality data they would have to pay a lot for, or may not be able to produce themselves. GRE also puts out books to prepare for the exams, which cost above $20 each.
Now, ETS could find a way around this by asking, say, "There may be a section in this test which we use as data for future exams: if there is one, would you be willing to take it, or do you prefer to skip it?". This - asking you to work for them for free - is unethical, IMO, if not illegal. And ETS' BS response to this (I called them) is to tell you: "Well, if you disagree, don't take the test." The problem is some programs require you to take it in order to apply for their grad. programs; ETS is the Frank Burns of testing.
> 16 votes
# Answer
@Jonathan, if you were to ever come to the other side, you will see a great number of glowing applications from top students of the top university in Bolivia or Madagascar. How do they fare compared to the top student of the top university of Idaho? Or a top student from a mediocre university in Massachusetts? If you admit grad students planning to use them as TAs, how do you know that this student from Nepal will be understood by your students in Tennessee, who heartily laugh at both New York and Californian accents?
The GRE fills the role of such a filter, and as such is the cheapest, easiest to use tool available to graduate schools in the US. If you can get any UNESCO money to design and implement a version of it that would be free to international applicants, maybe you can get a *Nobels fredspris* for your efforts. (This is not such an unrealistic idea as it sounds: an alternative, freely available operating system known as Linux has been developed by enthusiasts, and in many dimensions has replaced UNIX.)
> 14 votes
# Answer
In a word, standardization.
I once asked this question to a colleague, and I appreciated the response I received.
Essentially, the faculty member told me, "What I like about the GRE is that it's the only way I can compare apples to apples."
He went on to explain, "How can I compare a 3.2 GPA at University X with a 3.7 GPA at University Y? I can't. But, at least with GRE scores, I can compare the two students on an even playing field."
My retort was that a high GRE score isn't necessarily a good indicator of potential in graduate school, although it might be a good indicator to determine the amount of time a prospective student spent preparing for the test. (I got a lot of milage out of my *How to Ace the GRE* practice book.)
He readily agreed, and assured me that it's just one piece of the puzzle. An admissions office only has so much to go on: a transcript, a GRE score, and perhaps a "Why I want to go to graduate school" cover letter.
We could throw out the GRE, but then there would be that much less information to base admissions decisions on.
My gut tells me that the negatives include the expense and hassle for the applicant, and a limited ability to predict how the student will actually perform. But I must admit my colleague had a point with his "apples to apples" perspective.
> 11 votes
# Answer
Explains the quality of our PhDs, doesn't it. I have personally found the American education system far more wrapped up in silly and actually dangerous formalities than schools in Europe, generally speaking. I was surprised to find this out first hand because the common consensus is that Europe suffers from a great deal of pointless formality that the US does not. The problem is that it's a category mistake: elaborate bureaucratic formalities: yes; greater social formality: sometimes, depends; educational formality, not necessarily. Also, there is a difference between formality and rigidity. While titles are more important in Europe when addressing one another, they actually can enforce a very healthy relationship between the student and the professor which enables a healthy flexibility and informality to emerge. The casual "buddy" culture of the US is actually too chummy which encourages disrespect and I think the reaction to it is a certain kind of seething rigidity that manifests in the student-professor relationship which is unhealthy and domineering many times. But I digress. When I experienced American education first hand, it seemed infantile in its execution and the GREs belong to this set of things which contribute to the culture of pettiness (other things include the "publish or perish" doctrine which has resulted in the explosion of BS and CV padding nonsense and the "career academic" (hopefully that translates into English properly). While there are entrance exams in Europe, graduate school acceptance is according to other criteria. It's not always optimal, but certainly less irritating than this test taking nonsense.
Btw, I find the correlations mentioned above to be exactly the problem. They make the same mistake of drawing rigid and often erroneous inferences from a very poor selection of data.
I find that university education everywhere have been ruined by the pressure to put everyone through it. What you have are glorified trade schools in most cases with millions of applicants pushing through as if through a military entrance exam where narrow indicators sacrifice complexity for measures of simple routine. It's highly corporate and prone to the rat race. Graduate school should be the last place where this kind of pettiness manifests, and yet...
Summary: GREs are a result of the culture, of modern (American) university culture like the silly innovations of the German university which sought to label and shelve every person for particular slots in the machine of the the Reich.
> -1 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, international, united-states, international-students, gre
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thread-11246 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11246 | How does one cite WHO apps? | 2013-07-19T16:30:00.277 | # Question
Title: How does one cite WHO apps?
The World Health Organization (WHO) has a number of apps, I felt I should keep the question rather general in order to prevent people from attempting to close this question for being too narrow, but I really am interested in how I would cite the diagnostic criteria in ICD-10 in Vancouver style.
# Answer
> 1 votes
As Daniel commented, "there is nothing special about The WHO." As with any source, cite in accordance with the citation style you are using. For Vancouver style, two online guides are here and here. Find the section relevant to the source you are using, (electronic book, print book or website), and use the recommended format.
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Tags: citations
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thread-11912 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11912 | Questions about termination | 2013-08-16T02:38:35.127 | # Question
Title: Questions about termination
1. What is the difference between termination and suspension?
2. Are there "neutral" ways for a graduate student leaving his graduate school without completing a degree? Is a student voluntarily leaving his graduate school called termination?
3. When applying to another graduate school, will the student be asked if he has ever received a probation and termination? How will that affect the student's chance to be admitted to the new school? For example, he received a probation because he didn't manage to find a research direction and research advisor in 2.5 years, followed by a termination a few months later because he didn't pass his PhD qualification exam without "protection" from an advisor?
# Answer
> 8 votes
There are basically two ways to leave an academic program permanently: *withdrawal* and *termination*.
* **Withdrawal** is a *voluntary* process, which can occur for any of a number of reasons: academic dissatisfaction, financial, psychological, medical, or family are usually the most common of these. The key factor here is that withdrawal is normally initiated *by the student*. It is "neutral" in the sense that normally the student hasn't done anything wrong, and could have continued in the program had she so chosen.
* **Termination** is an *involuntary* process initiated by the supervisor or department. Usually, under such cases, the reason is inadequate performance or violating departmental policies. For instance, one might fail a qualifying examination, fail to pass required courses, committed "academic dishonesty," or violated some other regulation. This is the sort of "black mark" that you are referring to. Depending on the situation, this can have catastrophic effects on the student's ability to apply and be accepted elsewhere. It all depends on the nature of the situation, and what the student's role in the situation was.
On the other hand, *suspension* or *probation* are serious issues that require disciplinary action but are not so serious as to require termination. Probation may or may not need to be reported, but an action which leads to a suspension—or temporary removal from the graduate program—probably would need to be reported, if asked about it.
It is not necessarily a given if you will be asked about this in a graduate application—it depends very much on the particular program or school to which one applies.
# Answer
> 4 votes
> When applying to another graduate school, will the student be asked if he has ever received a probation and termination? How will that affect the student's chance to be admitted to the new school? For example, he received a probation because he didn't manage to find a research direction and research advisor in 2.5 years, followed by a termination a few months later because he didn't pass his PhD qualification exam without "protection" from an advisor?
It sounds like the student is simply not prepared for graduate school, or at least that graduate program. (Moreover, the department was irresponsible for letting them stay so long without an advisor.)
Unless the student has a *very* compelling story about *why* they could not find an advisor, *why* they did not pass quals, and *why* neither of those circumstances will repeat in a different department — with all three explanations backed up in the student's recommendation letters — this will almost certainly kill their chances of admission anywhere. Admissions committees are looking for students with strong evidence of research potential, and failing to find a research direction, secure an advisor, and pass quals is a rather strong signal of the opposite.
In light of this answer, the student may be tempted to lie in their application, by claiming not to have been kicked out, or not to have attended the other graduate program at all. **This is a *VERY* bad idea.** Unexplained gaps in an applicant's academic record are *extremely* suspicious. And even if the student somehow got admitted, if the dishonesty is discovered later, they'd immediately get kicked out (again), and possibly asked to pay back any financial support they received.
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Tags: terminology
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thread-1078 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1078 | Is it acceptable to publish a paper using an affiliation with a former employer? | 2012-04-10T10:12:34.627 | # Question
Title: Is it acceptable to publish a paper using an affiliation with a former employer?
Recently I've changed jobs, and consequently the field of research has also changed. But I'm still getting proposals for publications in the previous field, and it is interesting for me to accept some of them. My concern is about which affiliation to use: on one hand I gain all the knowledge in that field while working on the previous employer, also I hope they can cover my expenses related to the publication. On the other hand, I do not work for them anymore, and my current company has very little interest in my old field of research, and probably will not support it financially, but I think it is wise to mention them as well. As a compromise I'm thinking to put the previous employer in the affiliation, and the name of my new employer in the footnote, something like "currently at XYZ". Surely I'll discuss this issue with both, although the opinion of the community is also very valuable.
# Answer
> 25 votes
If you have written the publication **only** with the resources and support of the former employer, then it is perfectly acceptable to do what you have written, and list the old address as your address for the "active" affiliations, and include a "present address" affiliation to show your updated physical location.
However, if your new employer *does* provide financial support, then you should list them accordingly. This is especially important if any of the actual research that makes its way into a publication has been performed while working for the new employer *using their resources*.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I would list the current affiliation in the address field (that field just tells where people can find you, not much more than that) and start the paper with an elaborate paragraph starting with "This work was made possible through the generous support by.... ". This way you kill both birds at once.
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Tags: publications, affiliation
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thread-11933 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11933 | How to figure out whether a Masters degree is a "Professional" or "Research" degree? | 2013-08-17T06:13:04.117 | # Question
Title: How to figure out whether a Masters degree is a "Professional" or "Research" degree?
How to figure out whether a university-program is offering Professional Masters degree or "Research" Masters degree?
Are all taught Masters degree programs professional programs?
# Answer
The main difference is that **research** MS degrees require a thesis, which describes the student's **research**, while professional/taught MS degrees do not.
There are several secondary differences as well. Professional/taught MS programs are cash cows; their enrollments are generally higher, their admissions criteria are generally lower, they almost never offer financial support, and students are generally treated like cattle. Research MS programs generally have smaller enrollment, because the students require more individual attention, and therefore higher admission standards; some research MS programs offer financial support in the form of assistantships or even fellowships. In many departments, there is an easy transition from a research MS program into the PhD program; transitioning from a professional/taught MS program into a PhD program is almost impossible.
Of course, these answers are very crude approximations. The actual difference will vary significantly between departments.
> 7 votes
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Tags: masters
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thread-11914 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11914 | Supervisor not satisfied and only willing to see me every two weeks, what should I do? | 2013-08-16T04:00:44.983 | # Question
Title: Supervisor not satisfied and only willing to see me every two weeks, what should I do?
My research supervisor is a quite strict person who constantly criticizes me for my faults (such as slow progress, or always asking others for help on programming issues).
I don't blame him being a bit too strict with me, because anyway supervisor is here to supervise and give constructive suggestion. I really learn from his lessons for me. In fact, I am very grateful for him being willing to teach me some lessons. His comments are always very helpful.
During the last meeting, he seemed not very satisfied and happy with my progress. I have previously told him about my plan of submitting a paper in November. It seems that he thought this kind of slow progress would fail the aim in the end.
At the end of meeting, after criticizing me for asking others for help too much instead of solving the problems myself, he decided to schedule the originally weekly meeting to two weeks later.
Obviously, I am quite worried as the submission deadline is just in November. Given my poor performance, I have no right to suggest getting the meeting every week.
It seems that my research indeed gets stuck here. I kinda need the supervisors' advice to move on. What may I do to save this situation?
# Answer
> 19 votes
"Once every two weeks" is actually "quite frequently" for an individual research project. Your supervisor, probably, just noticed that more often than not you could not tell him much after just one week of work (very few students can, actually) and decided to listen to your "progress report" once in two weeks. If you are really doing your work and aren't just dragged by him through it, this shouldn't slow you down in any way and I bet 10 against 1 that if you get something interesting to tell him tomorrow, he will listen to you the day after tomorrow no matter how far the scheduled meeting date is.
The idea of operating from a "submission deadline" in an unfinished research project looks totally ridiculous to me. The whole difference between a research project and house cleaning is that you never know how much time you'll need for the former and whether you'll be able to pull it through at all. In my own work, the failure to success ratio is 9 to 1 and that is generally considered quite good. You have to learn that things take time and that you may fail completely when doing research. It is *normal* and there is no reason to freak out about that. Even in the case when you see the general way to do things and are certain that it must work, the "little details" may take forever.
You can request direct help now and then but the request should be not in the form "I just don't know what to do next..." but in the form "I've done this. Now, for the next step I would need something like this. Unfortunately there is this particular obstacle in the approach I am currently pursuing. Do you have an idea of how I can overcome it or I should try a different route altogether?". You supervisor may share the "bird's view" of the road with you (and it is sort of his duty) but to go around trees, to jump over brooks and to climb hills is your job unless you really face an impenetrable thicket, a fast deep river, or a steep mountain on your way). Telling you how to do every little thing every time is no fun for him and takes the most important part of the research experience away from you. Passing the *routine* work (like programming of a known algorithm) to others is a no-no at your current level. You may "outsource" your own work only when you can do it faster and better yourself, but there is yet another task at hand that nobody else can do at all. You may (and should) seek general information, but not ready solutions to your particular problems even if the latter are as trite as "Why does this stupid while loop stop one step earlier than it should?".
So, my general advice is to relax, to forget about all deadlines, and to proceed on your own and at your own pace however slow it may seem to you. Just don't stop altogether and give up unless you are ready to declare an official failure and quit completely.
# Answer
> 9 votes
There may be several factors at work here:
* First, the advisor may simply have other commitments that prevent meeting on a weekly basis. I know that as my group has gotten larger, I tend to meet only with new members of the group weekly; older members are on an every-two-weeks or as-needed basis (per mutual agreement).
* Second, the advisor may be cutting back on the frequency of meetings so that you learn to become more independent. I know that the big breakthrough in my own graduate research came at a time when my co-advisors were both completely out of the picture for a while (one was on sabbatical and the other was on a temporary leave of absence). This might not work for everybody, but it can make a big difference if you "take off the training wheels" and start working things out for yourself.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Your supervisor is treating you like a grad student. This is very likely a good sign, but it can also be quite hard. Many of the problems you listed are very similar to my own early grad school experiences.
> My research supervisor is a quite strict person who constantly criticizes me for my faults (such as slow progress, or always asking others for help on programming issues).
I also tend to receive mostly negative feedback from my very amiable supervisor. In the early days he would start out by saying something positive first. As time went by, the positives got mentioned less and less, until they essentially stopped. Now that I am almost done, the negatives have slowed down to a trickle as well, AND I MISS THEM. I learned to appreciate the importance of someone taking a close look at my work and giving feedback which helps improve the end result. Because it's not about me - it's about doing high quality work. Dealing with mostly negative feedback is a typical experience for a researcher, and it takes some time to get through the soul-crushing part of it and start valuing the informational part. The way around it is to have a passion for the truth which overrides the need to feel valued for being right. It takes a while to get there.
> I have previously told him about my plan of submitting a paper in November. It seems that he thought this kind of slow progress would fail the aim in the end.
It sounds like you set yourself an unreasonable deadline, and that your supervisor could see that you're not yet quite at the level where you can write a paper. But that's OK. It just takes time. Imagine that you're to work on your next paper all alone. Which are the things that would be terribly difficult to do without others? Those may just be the things you need to work on right now. Programming is often a crucial skill for researchers, but it can be really difficult to get through that first period where you get stuck for hours over trivial things such as proper syntax. But that's simply what the learning process looks like. It truly gets easier with time.
All that being said, I am not saying that you're *wrong* to feel bad in this situation. It could be that your supervisor isn't particularly good at giving feedback and that he has a bad intuition on how difficult it is for a newbie to get into programming. But you're not alone, and you're getting a potentially valuable glimpse of the grad school experience right now.
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Tags: research-process, publications, advisor
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thread-11891 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11891 | GRE subject test- Biology or Cell/Biochemistry? | 2013-08-15T12:48:52.147 | # Question
Title: GRE subject test- Biology or Cell/Biochemistry?
I am majoring in computer engineering and having a minor in computational biology. I'm planning to apply for a PhD in computational biology too, though I didn't take an impressive amount of biology/chemistry/biochemistry modules. Therefore, I am taking the GRE subject test to compensate for the imbalances between my EECS and bio-related portions in my transcript.
Which GRE subject test will benefit me the most in this case? Biology or Cell and Biochemistry? The main purpose for me is to prove that I have good background in the fields.
Thanks
# Answer
> 3 votes
This is a question best answered by the admissions officers at the programs to which you want to apply. They will generally have recommendations as to which test they would prefer you to take. If there's a consensus that one of the tests is preferable to the other, that's the one that you should take.
(My particular sense on this is that Cell/Biochemistry is probably closer to what is expected for people in Computational Biology than the more general Biology exam. However, I am *not* a bio person, so I'm not speaking from a position of authority here.)
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, gre
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thread-11945 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11945 | How do I respond to papers that present the authors' views and opinions as scientific fact? | 2013-08-17T23:58:59.890 | # Question
Title: How do I respond to papers that present the authors' views and opinions as scientific fact?
Occasionally I encounter papers in which the authors expend significant effort to either:
* prove an hypothesis that I know to be false;
* promote a new theory that I know to be fundamentally flawed.
To do this, the authors use methods such as forging experimental results, misinterpreting results or misinterpreting cited references.
As I know that the views presented in the paper are false, I can deduce from the paper that the author must have favored promoting their views over correctness. However someone less educated in the topic might not be aware of this and base their work on this paper as they consider the presented views to be scientifically proven.
Is there a commonly accepted method to flag such a paper, so that future readers will be aware that the presented views are forged and false?
# Answer
> 5 votes
If you believe there are significant problems with an existing manuscript, then you should present these issues to the journal in which the "offending" articles appear. The format this response should take depends upon the nature of the problem.
* If the issue is in fact "forging experimental results," then the paper deserves to be retracted. However, this is a difficult allegation to prove, and you would need to have strong justification (not evidence, *per se*) backing up your allegations.
* However, if the issue is misinterpretations of results or previous literature, this does not quite rise to the level of "academic dishonesty" as forging results. It is not necessarily correct to have the paper retracted. Instead, you should consider writing a "comment" or "letter to the editor" or even a longer paper in response to the problems in the earlier work.
Note, however, that if the paper has appeared in a reputable journal, it has gone through some sort of peer review process. As a consequence of this, it will be necessary to present a more "airtight" argument than if the paper merely appears in a repository such as arXiv. In the latter case, however, then there's probably not much you can do beyond the aforementioned "response article," as the paper has not been published, and thus retraction depends on the author "self-retracting" the work.
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thread-11947 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11947 | Letter of Recommendation/Reference Protocols | 2013-08-18T02:06:58.513 | # Question
Title: Letter of Recommendation/Reference Protocols
I have a few questions about letters of recommendation for graduate school. I'll include my current situation, as I'm not sure what is relevant and what is not. I'm entering my fourth year of my bachelors in math, but I may stay an extra couple semesters to finish my minor (I also had a small setback, so doing the degree in 4 years wasn't entirely possible). I'll be applying for grad school in math. Here are my questions:
1. Can you ask a Prof to give a letter of reference to more than one university? For example, lets say that each school I apply to requires 3 letters of reference. Then, if I were to apply to 3 grad schools, would I need 9 distinct professors to ask for letters?
2. Do I get to see the letters which are sent?
3. There is one Prof who I've taken a course under, and I did well in his class. During that term, I showed an interest in the material, but I also think he does not like me (well, I'm not sure). This may or may not be the case, but let's say it is. Would it be unwise to ask this person for a letter?
Thanks.
# Answer
1. Yes. It's quite typical to ask each prof to write a letter for each school you apply to. Indeed, you almost certainly want to do this. Be sure to take care of all the paperwork beforehand, pre-address envelopes if any applications use snail mail, etc. so he/she doesn't have to.
2. No.
3. Hard to say. I'd find someone else in your department (who knows the prof in question) to ask. Good luck!
> 10 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, recommendation-letter
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thread-1184 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1184 | Why does professor prohibit me talking to people? | 2012-04-18T18:50:59.843 | # Question
Title: Why does professor prohibit me talking to people?
I'm considering a PhD and asked a professor at my university. I suggested a topic to him that he accepted. I applied and he offered me a position but I didn't accept yet.
Later he changed my project's topic to one that suits his interest. I said I would like to do the original topic that I got accepted with. Then I asked more about the project and it turns out he works in collaboration with another university. They divided the work up between themselves, but what the other university researchers is a lot closer to my personal interest than what he works on.
I asked my professor their contact details, so that I could ask them if I could work with the other university. He explicitly prohibited me from talking to them. He told me I would give bad reputation to him if I contacted them.
I am extremely confused as to why he prevents me talking to people. Even a simply inquiry email is not allowed. So I contacted the other university anyway. They told me that they would be happy to see me but they don't want to poach students from their colleagues.
I keep asking my professor if I could do my original topic with the other university that works on that exact topic that I'd like to do. But he keeps telling me that I either do his topic or I should do my PhD somewhere else.
I am utterly confused now and have no idea what is going on. Can someone please explain?
# Answer
There are several possibilities for this behaviour.
* You're good, he knows that, and the collaboration with the other research group is more formal than you may know (maybe they are in the same funded project because it was the only way to be funded, while the two groups may be in competition). In this case, he doesn't want you to go “behind enemy lines”.
* You're not the one he was looking for, he recently discovered that. He is very close with the other group and he don't know how to tell you that you are not a good fit for his group and relatives. So instead, he changed what he said in order to make it unacceptable for you, hoping that you will leave, and that you will also not go to the other group.
* He's not reliable, he had a weird idea of what is a student.
By the way, except if you are a recognized genius, this is unlikely that the other team will accept you if they are close to your current advisor and want to stay that way.
In all three cases, only one option: run far away.
> 35 votes
# Answer
This is a red flag. Find someone else to work with.
> 27 votes
# Answer
Your situation isn't quite clear. Are you deciding whether or not to accept a position, or have you already accepted and are trying to switch projects?
In the former case, if you're getting that kind of pushback from your advisor, then he probably is not going to be the kind of advisor you'll really want to work for in the long run. In which case, you should look for someone else to advise you (in other words, pick "somewhere else.")
On the other hand, if you're already employed by the advisor, your choices are more limited. It sounds lie you're writing from somewhere in the European system (otherwise, you'd be talking about applying to a different department, rather than another research group). The problem is exactly what the other group told you—they can't be seen as poaching a colleague's student. That's a major social *faux pas*, and would probably make their collaboration impossible to continue in the long run. Therefore, again, you probably won't get to work on the project you want, because you won't be able to move over to the other group.
> 8 votes
# Answer
I don't really see why you are concerned at all! When you apply for PhD admissions, you have can always suggest who you want to work with, based on their and your research interests (you have to like them and they have to like you). I guess my question is how did you get paired up with him in first place and why?
You make it sound like you are stuck with him, but you aren't. Now if he hired you to be on his project (remember this is his project/funding), you are to work for him and do it the way that makes him look good, (he has expectations to meet too and he wants to do a good job and look good to his superiors/sponsors). If you aren't interested in his project (and it clearly looks like you are not), don't west your time or his staying on his team. Approach your program and request to be teamed up with a different adviser and provide your reasons.
I hope you understand that, in most cases in research based universities, you don't get a PhD admission offer unless at least one of the professors in the department you apply to is interested in your research topic. Now it would be unfair of you for a professor to hire you (recommend you for admission) so you can be in his team and then expect him to let you work for someone else. While he doesn't own you, he also feels that you would be an asset to his team upon your admission into the program, otherwise he could've recommended a different candidate whose interest matches his research/project.
The bottom line is however, you should get out there. Approach your department Dean's office and request to be teamed up with a different adviser and explain your reasons. Keep in mind however that in most cases at PhD level, a professor will only agree to work with you/serve as your advisor if he feels that he is familiar with your research interest and that you will be of a great asset to his team. hope that helps. Remember that your tuition weaver and other monetary benefits (monthly stipend, medical insurance, etc) you receive while you are pursuing your PhD studies is covered by the money that is allocated to his project. So it is important that have interest in the work/project he has for you and you are confident you would succeed doing it.
> 1 votes
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Tags: phd, professorship
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thread-11955 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11955 | How can I address my career future with my current PI? | 2013-08-18T19:33:43.077 | # Question
Title: How can I address my career future with my current PI?
I'm currently midway through my first Postdoc gig, I got a 1 year contract and haven't heard a word from my PI concerning any possible extensions. I only have 6 more months left in my program, and I was wondering whether I should:
* Ask him directly whether he is considering to extend my contract.
* Start looking for other jobs without consulting with him first.
I know I'm under a grant that runs out shortly after December (my contract is due on February), and we might or might not have an extension for that. The answer should come around September's end, but I'm afraid it'll be too late to look for another postdoc then, I'm under a J1 visa in the USA, and I'm worried that the immigration process to extend it and the whole hiring process might take considerable longer than 5 months.
AS professors and more experienced professionals, what would you recommend to do, I'm also wondering whether asking him if I should look for another job might strain our relationship.
# Answer
Your advisor has the **duty** to inform you if you are meeting expectations, and to notify you in a timely manner if your contract will be renewed or not. Politely bringing this up at the end of the meeting should not cause conflict with your advisor—unless your advisor is a control freak (in which case it's not exactly a bad thing that you'll need to move on!).
However, I would have this conversation as soon as possible, as the end of your contract will be here quite soon. You should inform him, if you'd like to continue working with him, that such is the case. You should also politely mention that if the finances aren't secure for a commitment, that you will need to consider additional job opportunities to ensure that you are not "stuck" looking for a job without a current source of income.
> 14 votes
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Tags: postdocs
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thread-11951 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11951 | What should I do if the professor I intended to work with has moved to a different school? | 2013-08-18T13:48:18.860 | # Question
Title: What should I do if the professor I intended to work with has moved to a different school?
So, without giving out the details about the school. I joined a graduate program at school X, because I was really interested in work of professor Y. I met him during the graduate school visit and I accepted the offer to join school X.
Though Prof. Y did not officially accept me as his graduate student, he said come and meet me when school starts and we can figure out your research direction. Now, when I came to start at this school; I found out the professor Y has left and joined a different school Z.
I don't know what do now. My decision of joining school X was based on my intentions to work with Prof Y. Also, on top of that the school X now just has one faculty working in my interested area.
To be precise I am starting the PhD program now (Fall , 1st sem). I am not sure what my next step should be? I would appreciate any suggestions on the given situation.
# Answer
> 25 votes
Yeah, this happens. :(
I would recommend applying to school Z during your first year at school X. This would be very natural under the circumstances, and nobody (in particular, not those at school X) will think less of you for it.
Further, I'd recommend:
* E-mail and ask Prof. Y if he'd be willing to vouch for you with the graduate admissions committee at school Z.
* Simultaneously apply to a couple of other programs that might be more suitable for you than school X. This goes especially if Z is substantially more selective than X, so you are far from sure that you'll get in.
* Kick ass in your first year at X. This will keep you sharp, enable you to get a letter of support from someone at X, and better prepare you for the program at Z if you go.
* Keep in mind that you might not get into Z, or you might find a research area you like at X and decide you prefer to stay. (Another reason to kick ass in your first year at X.)
Good luck to you!
# Answer
> 18 votes
While you may very well want to transfer to school Z in order to work with Professor Y, I'd consider the following point. If you expressed strong interest in working with him, and he made comments in writing that you should talk to him when you arrive at the school, then he was remiss in notifying you that he was no longer, in fact, at school X. Do you *really* want to work with an advisor who's packed up and moved without letting you know in advance?
However, I would also recommend, as Anonymous does, that you see if there's anyone in your current department who you would be interested in working for. If so, I'd pursue that option alongside the possibility of transferring to other departments. However, I'd also recommend that, *before* you accept an offer in another department, that you ensure that you have **multiple** potential advisors available to you, if you're working in a field where a commitment is not required before you enroll.
# Answer
> 12 votes
My PhD student was in exactly the same situation when I was moving from Michigan to Wisconsin but I told him that that move would be likely to occur even before I became his adviser. He just transferred with me (asking me only to confirm to the chair of the new department that I'm, indeed, interested in having him there).
The morals are:
1) Arranging a transfer is not a big headache.
2) You should be sure that not only you want to interact with prof Y, but also that he wants to interact with you before making any drastic move.
Given that Y didn't inform you about his move in any way, I would start with getting a clearer idea of where you stand as far as the second point is concerned. It doesn't imply that you should stay at X, but it may turn out that your best option is really to move to V to work with W...
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Tags: phd, graduate-school, advisor
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thread-11961 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11961 | What is a "white paper"? | 2013-08-18T23:14:36.783 | # Question
Title: What is a "white paper"?
I recently came across a call for papers by NASA, asking for submissions of possible further missions using the Kepler spacecraft, given the mission-crippling loss of two reaction wheels. The call describes itself as a "Call for White Papers", and I am slightly confused by the term. What is a white paper, exactly? What other 'sorts of paper' can you call for, and how are they different?
# Answer
Some funding agencies (e.g., DARPA, AFOSR) use the term "white paper" to mean a brief synopsis of a project idea; this is similar to NSF's "Letter of Intent". White papers help funding agencies evaluate project ideas quickly, and provide feedback to the proposer about whether or not they're interested, without having the proposer go through the (considerable) hassle of preparing a complete proposal.
Wikipedia shows other meanings of the term (link), but given the context my guess is that NASA is looking for a synopsis of your idea. You might look at this DARPA solicitation for an idea of what sort of information an agency might want to see in a white paper (see Section 4, and note the length limit).
> 18 votes
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Tags: publications
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thread-11963 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11963 | Is it possible for a cs undergrad like me to apply for a cs grad program and study computational biology? | 2013-08-19T02:26:01.157 | # Question
Title: Is it possible for a cs undergrad like me to apply for a cs grad program and study computational biology?
I want to apply for an MS CS degree. However I want to study computational biology along with other subjects like AI, etc. But many colleges have a separate department for computational biology(eg CMU) while others provide some courses to grad students of the cs department(eg Stanford). Is it possible for me study computational biology at colleges which offer it as a separate program altogether?
# Answer
I suggest that you make contact with the admissions of the target faculty, as well as make contact with academics whose research interests match the field you are interested in. Have a look at the academic's profile pages as well as looking at papers that they may have published.
As JeffE said in his comment - why not? You have computational background and a clear interest.
> 3 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, computer-science
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thread-11970 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11970 | Contribution of the supervisors in publishing paper from thesis | 2013-08-19T12:22:10.417 | # Question
Title: Contribution of the supervisors in publishing paper from thesis
I did my M.Sc. recently and we have agreed to publish it in a journal with my supervisors. I have got once comments from the first supervisor but it is almost two months I couldn't got the final comments. I have followed up it and the supervisor mentioned he would give comments shortly. I am worry he may want to refuse from contributing, and he couldn't mention it, directly. He may have any convincing reason for him self for refusing from authorship but I am pretty sure the quality is good enough and it can be published in a journal.
How can I politely ask his decision?
Should those papers that are derived from thesis include supervisors name?
# Answer
*Authorship*: Strictly speaking authorships should be determined by the academic intellectiual contribution. It is rare that a thesis topic is solely invented by a student on their own so it is most likely that an advisor regardless of input during, say, writing stages will be an obvious co-author (if that is how authorships are determined in the specific field). There may of course be more co-authors and the order is not necessarily clear due to differences in traditions and cultures.
*Response*: Not getting response is unfortunately quite common and very unfortunate. I think you have to keep asking for a response but also add that you are interested in submitting the paper soon. If you are through with your education, you might be moving and it seems reasonable to get a paper in before leaving for other work/equivalent. So the answer is to simply politely ask and maybe massage your advisors ego by saying how much you would appreciate/need his/her comments to complete the joint paper. Just keep your cool and avoid nagging. At some point you will simnply have to provide a firm deadline due to whatever circumstances may exist. If you have some other faculty to whom you can confide then asking for advice may be a good point as well.
> 6 votes
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Tags: publications
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thread-11975 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11975 | Co-organizing a workshop, does diversity matter? | 2013-08-19T17:17:13.830 | # Question
Title: Co-organizing a workshop, does diversity matter?
I am planning on organizing a workshop as a part of a scientific conference (neuroscience). I have observed that some workshops are organized by a single person, and others are organized by multiple people. When it is organized by multiple people, they were associated with different institutes, and were not from a common academic family.
My question: is it preferable to have people from different institutes as organizers? Does it look "bad" if people from the same institute/lab organize a workshop together?
I am planning to invite around 10 people as speakers, and the organizers will have at most 1 talk altogether (except introductory/organizing short speeches).
# Answer
> 3 votes
EDIT: *To add after an edit focussed the question*:
The convener line-up will be important to attract people to the workshop so getting good names is not a bad idea as a starting point. Having conveners from several institutes may be beneficial since it shows prospective participants that the workshop has wider support. It may also mean that the advertisement can be improved, particularly if conveners come from different continents. Such signals should not be udnerestimated but will highly depend on the field and where research is carried out (geographically). There is of course nothing wrong with having conveners from only one institute. In the end it will be other factors such as convenience and interest that will determine the line-up of conveners.
*Answer to the original question as it was interpreted*:
The first question you should ask yourself is what is the goal or purpose of the workshop. I am used to workshops focussing on specific questions, perhaps leading up to common paper or document detailing a problem formulation or providing recommendations for the future. In any case, the persons to invite would be the most suited to provide input to the goal. I have run very small workshops where I could only accept one person from any department/research group due to limited physical space. In other words, getting representation was more important than getting certain names in.
So depending on the goals you have you will probably see how you distribute invitations. If you have the space and time then it may be open but that may not be the most efficient way and invitation only may be the way out. That requires careful thinking so that you can achieve the set goal(s).
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Tags: conference, workshop
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thread-11972 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11972 | Is it my responsibility to point out that a paper has been plagiarized from another researcher's blog? | 2013-08-19T16:31:20.497 | # Question
Title: Is it my responsibility to point out that a paper has been plagiarized from another researcher's blog?
While reading a series of blog posts on a sub-field in TCS (theoretical CS), I came across a paper recently published by a group of students/faculty that has literally copy-pasted large sections of a blog post, and made it into a journal paper thats available online. My question(s) are about what I should do about it:
1. Do I point it out to the author of the blog, and leave it to him about how to handle the issue?
2. Contact the journal in question - but since its not my work, I'm hesitant that whether I have a case
3. Leave it alone, finish reading the blog posts, and add the journal to my private list of journals to completely ignore?
The third option is most hassle-free for me, but I wondered if it'd be ethical to know about plagiarism and not point it out!
# Answer
> 40 votes
Ignoring the journal in question is probably an overreaction.
However, the best route to take is the first one—the author of the copyrighted material is the one that has the most responsibility to assert her rights. Your duty is to notify the person whose work has been infringed upon that the violation has taken place. Once you've done that, you've achieved what's ethically required of you. You are not obligated to take the matter up directly with the journal. (However, you may do so if you so choose.)
# Answer
> 18 votes
That being said, personally, I would contact the journal in question and inform them of the suspected plagarism. They may not be aware of the issue, as it's hard to be on top of all possible literature on a topic. The post may have been guest-posted from the original authors on the blog in question. There may be actual plagarism, and it would have to be dealt with. However, any solution relies on the journal being made aware of the problem. To paraphrase a famous quote, "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by lack of effort."
If you are for some reason worried about your being identified as the "whistleblower", so to speak, use an anonymous email address when you contact the journal.
# Answer
> 8 votes
This is very common among obscure journals. I have come across papers copy-pasting entire paragraphs from my papers and not even getting a citation.
It is possible to do something about it, but it is usually worthless since many of these journals even accept randomly generated papers (see).
In this case, I would go for **1.**, the second option might be too risky. Recall:
> The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The third one might not give you peace of mind.
# Answer
> 5 votes
I would start with option 4 (loosely based on Matt. 18:15-17, a principle of giving maximal opportunity for people to correct their own goofs):
* Privately contact the apparent plagiarist(s) and point the problem out to them. Most likely, knowing that the plagiarism has been discovered, they will want to fix it ASAP before it becomes public knowledge. It's always conceivable that there has been an honest mistake, at least honest on the part of some of the group of faculty and students. And in that case it would be best to let those in the group address the problem. That's how I would want to be treated if I were in that group (whether I was guilty or not).
* If they don't listen (e.g. if they make excuses) - contact their department or employer.
* If they don't correct the situation, contact the journal, since they've published the material, and have a responsibility toward the copyright holder even if the plagiarists won't do the right thing.
* I would contact the copyright holder only as a last resort, if the plagiarists and the journal both ignore the problem. Or, you could contact the copyright holder after the problem has been addressed.
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Tags: ethics, plagiarism
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thread-11978 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11978 | If I already have a master's degree, can I use it to apply for another master's degree (UK)? | 2013-08-19T18:14:17.490 | # Question
Title: If I already have a master's degree, can I use it to apply for another master's degree (UK)?
The title already has the question. If I have a master's degree, can I use it to apply for another (in UK)? I have completed my master's degree (GPA 4.0/4.0) at my home country (situated in northern Europe), and I would now like to do another one-year MSc course at a top university to swap fields. The thing is, my BSc degree is clearly below average (lack of motivation during the first years... is costly), so I really hope this would be possible. I also have 4 peer-reviewed publications.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Yes, of course you can, since you are changing fields.
A friend of mind never finished his bachelor degree and had years of work experience and wanted to get into a master program (in the US). The program he wanted said they would take him if he had a bachelor degree but since he did not have one, he could not enter.
He went to the UK, got accepted into one master program based on his partial completion of his bachelor degree COMBINED with his real-world experience. Once he completed that master program, the program in the US (in a different field) did accept him.
So, yes, it is absolutely possible to do this.
I think what your real question is whether an admission committee will overlook your poor performance during your undergraduate since you have a master degree. It would help to know what your performance was during your master, and how 'top' of a school you want to get into.
The publications should help, especially if they are from reputable journals. The best course is to actually submit an application. However, you should consider what you really want to achieve. If you want to do research, perhaps going into a PhD program would be better for you. If you just want to change fields, but don't want to do a lot of research, then a new master degree might be just what you need.
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Tags: graduate-school, application
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thread-11986 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11986 | Can student be the corresponding author? | 2013-08-20T05:56:27.047 | # Question
Title: Can student be the corresponding author?
I am working in a research project (not PhD and after Master's degree). I have completed a work which my adviser thinks is publishable. But he has such a heavy schedule that he hardly has time to respond. Can I take the whole charge of writing the manuscript and communicating the paper with his permission. (I have not yet asked him.)
# Answer
> 12 votes
There's no problem at all with a student being the principal author (in the sense of “being in charge of the writing”) of an academic paper. In fact, I think it's very good that you consider doing so. Here are, however, some thoughts on the matter:
* Discuss this with your advisor before writing anything. Once both of you have established that there is sufficient matter for publication, and that you want to publish it, you should make plans for doing so. It includes determining (right now!) the authors list, the order of authors on the list, and plan who will do what.
* The *corresponding author* (or *corresponding author**s***), often indicated by an asterisk in the authors list and their contact details in a footnote, do not necessarily need to be the person(s) who actually did most of the writing. The contact author is the one who is the most central to the project, and who will be able to deal with correspondence about it in the near and not-so-near future. For that reason, some groups (including mine) do not consider students a good choice for corresponding author: in two years, they may be gone to a new job and not interested any more with the paper's research.
A few more comments for first time authors:
* If you've never written a paper before, don't underestimate the task. Writing a paper from A to Z is a complex project, even for experienced authors. It requires using many different skills, and is truly an exercise in both scientific reasoning and communication, with very specific constraints (style, formatting, length limits, …). Assign a lot of time to writing, and don't hesitate to get help if you're stuck!
* If in doubt while writing, **put yourself in the reader's shoes**. And specifically, a non-specialist reader's shoes. That should be the guiding principle.
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Tags: research-process, publications, correspondence
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thread-11997 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11997 | Importance of Mathematical Maturity for CS Grad School Admissions | 2013-08-20T11:36:45.577 | # Question
Title: Importance of Mathematical Maturity for CS Grad School Admissions
I want to improve my competitiveness for grad school admissions. My intended area of study is AI/Machine Learning and possibly other math and statistics heavy fields of Computer Science.
My undergrad math grades were terrible, mostly C's and a few B's. Although my mathematical maturity improved tremendously after years passed, as you will guess I have no proof for this. So I decided to take a math class to show my skills to adcoms.
Now I have to choose exactly one from the two options available:
* an undergrad MATH level mathematical analysis class following through walter rudin's PMA book or
* a graduate EE level Random Processes class about stochastic processes following through Ross.
So from an admissions comittee member perspective, which class do you value more for judging a students mathematical maturity?
# Answer
I'd go with the graduate-level class. But just taking one class is not likely to make much difference.
What you really need is for your **recommendation letters** to specifically address this point. Nobody will believe *your* claim that your grades do not accurately reflect your true level of mathematical maturity (although you can certainly *demonstrate* your mathematical maturity in your research statement). But people will generally believe your references if *they* make the same claim, especially if they back up their claim with specific and credible evidence of your mathematical maturity, and more generally of your potential for research excellence.
This will only happen if you develop a closer collaborate relationship with your professors. Don't just sit in the back of the random-processes class and get an A. Talk with the instructor; ask cogent questions; ask about research opportunities, or at least directions for further study. Impress them. Give them proof.
> 8 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, mathematics, computer-science, coursework
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thread-12005 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12005 | Is it okay for a PhD supervisor to claim co-authorship... even if it's my work, and he didn't ask? | 2013-08-20T16:13:48.273 | # Question
Title: Is it okay for a PhD supervisor to claim co-authorship... even if it's my work, and he didn't ask?
About a year ago I noticed that my PhD supervisor has listed on his faculty page that he co-authored a conference presentation together with me. The problem is, he didn't-- the research itself was entirely mine, and I wrote and gave the presentation alone. (This is in the social sciences, not the hard sciences). He never talked to me before claiming co-authorship on his faculty profile, and in fact, has never mentioned it to me-- nor have I mentioned it to him.
I can understand that he may have felt he needed the "extra credit" to beef up his publications last year while he was trying to get tenure. Now that he's got his tenure, though, and now that I've finished my PhD and am applying for jobs, I am worried that, should my potential employers google the items on my résumé and come across his co-authorship claim, it will contradict my résumé's claim that I was the sole author... making *me* look like the liar.
I'm really reluctant to "give in" and credit him as co-author for the presentation on my résumé too, because (a) it doesn't feel fair and (b) I don't have many publications/presentations to begin with... so including him as co-author could dilute what little power my résumé has.
However, I am also embarrassed to ask him to take this "publication" down from his faculty page, because I am worried that he may get defensive, which could ruin our relationship-- which would be a problem, because I still depend on him for references as I look for a job.
Any ideas/perspective on how to handle this?? Thanks!!
# Answer
> 19 votes
In a number of fields it's standard for the supervisor to be listed as the last author on papers or presentations that their students produce. This is because the supervisor helps in a number of ways, some of them indirectly: they get grant money, they train you to use the lab, they train you to do statistics... or they might make suggestions for the research design, the main theoretical focus of the presentation/manuscript, etc. If I wouldn't list my supervisor on a conference presentation, the only possible reason would be that it slipped my mind to add his name.
I would therefore ask other PhD students in your department what the standard is in this case, because your supervisor might not think that he's doing something wrong.
# Answer
> 12 votes
If there is an archival record of the conference presentations then the authors are whoever the authors are. If the conference doesn't have any type of archival record of the presentations, then you are in a grey area. Who is going to be authors when the work is eventually published? It sounds like the adviser expects to be an author. Presumably you have not talked about authorship with your adviser. I cannot stress this enough, **prior to starting any project discuss authorship and funding with your collaborators and advisers**
Given that a project has already begun without prior discussions of authorship, you need to work it out ASAP. I would hope that your adviser was not simply claiming credit to "beef up" his CV (if he was you have some serious problems). My guess is that he thinks he made an intellectual contribution to the work. You need to have a civil conversation with him to understand what his expectations are about the minimum contributions needed to warrant authorship. If you strongly disagree with this view, you need to consult other colleagues to determine who is being reasonable/unreasonable. Once the authorship parameters are laid out, you need to understand what he believes are his contributions. These then need to be compared to the criteria for authorship.
Do not suggest that your adviser has taken credit he doesn't deserve unless he is substantially below the authorship bar. It is an unfortunate situation but a co-authored paper and a reference is generally much more valuable than a single author paper and no reference. If he is clearly below the authorship bar then you have a **MAJOR issue**.
# Answer
> 4 votes
To be fair, if your advisor had no intellectual involvement in the presentation, then he does not have the right to list it on his CV. However, getting him to agree to take it off is a different matter altogether.
Perhaps the way to begin this conversation is to ask your advisor why the paper is listed on his web page. Don't make it a demand, but instead probe the reasons for doing it, and perhaps drop a few suggestions. For instance, as you mentioned above, you could ask: "Won't having a single-author credit on my CV be helpful?" as part of the conversation.
However, I think if you make it more of a "mutually arrived at decision" rather than a demand that he take the publication off the CV, you'll get a more favorable response.
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Tags: phd, job-search, cv, authorship, advisor
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thread-12011 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12011 | What are the career prospects after being an RA? | 2013-08-20T18:51:27.323 | # Question
Title: What are the career prospects after being an RA?
I'll be eligible to apply for the master's in Computer Science within a semester (2 max). I'm working as an undergrad for a research group (I'm implementation -- programming). I'd like to know what I could reasonably expect (in terms of job prospects and recruitment if any) if I work as an RA. How are RA's typically viewed by prospective employers?
Initially, I thought this would be good and that RA's are sought after since they're pretty well educated and have been working in cutting edge areas. But then, I wasn't sure if it's just too far removed from industry and that employers might think you just didn't bother to pursue any work in the private sector while getting a degree in a field that is highly employable by the private sector (i.e. they might not be sympathetic to your desire to do interesting research work as opposed to straight coding production work as is often in industry).
# Answer
> 1 votes
Being an RA (Research Assistant) means you get to work closely with one or more post-docs and faculty members in a context that generally requires technical, problem-solving, and communication skills -- skills that are definitely valued highly by employers. So, assuming that you do a good job, your supervisors should be able to write strong recommendation letters for you, recommend you to recruiters from industry, or possibly put you in touch with people they know in industry. Also, you may be able to use your RA work and experience as a discussion item in interviews.
A lot of the industry jobs that undergrads tend to work in look (to me) like grunt-work: website development and maintenance, routine programming, stuff like that. It seems to me that an RA would be much more preferable than those simply because it can allow you to be more creative and possibly also sharpen your communication skills. Of course, it's possible that you have some unusual set of skills --- say, Unix guru or security honcho --- that would make you suitable for a very different kind of industry job that would be even more attractive to employers down the road --- but in my experience this tends to be rare.
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Tags: graduate-school, job, computer-science, research-assistantship
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thread-12018 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12018 | Does failing the qualifying exam leave a record? | 2013-08-21T01:19:34.367 | # Question
Title: Does failing the qualifying exam leave a record?
For a PhD student, is it common that failing a qualified exam and thus leaving the PhD program results in a termination record, which any future academic program (the student will apply to) will be interested in accessing after getting the student's permission?
For example, some can leave their PhD program with a clean record, according to this blog:
> The graduate committee chair who gave me the news reminded me that I could still apply to other programs and that it wouldn’t go on my record or anything so it will just look like I just left with my MS degree. If I ever want to, I can return to grad school in the future, and I will be better able to choose a department that fits me.
But if the student has received his masters way before his qualify exam, is there other way to write the record that looks better?
# Answer
> But if the student has received his master way before his qualifying exam, is there other way to write the record that looks better?
First, the student doesn't get to write the record. The university writes the milestones that the student passes, specifically, which classes they took and with what grades, and which degrees they earned. (In some countries, the thesis itself also receives a grade, like a class.) At least in the US, intermediate milestones like finding an advisor, passing or failing quals, proposing or failing to propose a thesis, probation, suspension, termination, and even academic integrity violations are rarely recorded on university transcripts.
So, for example, if a student were asked to leave a PhD program after 2.5 years, for whatever reason, the transcript would show five semesters worth of classes, ending without the student earning a degree, because they didn't.
Many PhD students in this situation opt to switch to an MS degree program in their final semester, so that they can plausibly claim that they were just a masters student. (After all, in their last semester, they *were* just a masters student.) They don't have to explain why they left without a degree.
If the student already has a MS in their home department, earning a second MS in the same field is usually impossible. But another option is to switch to an MS program in a nearby field, for example, applied math or computer engineering or operations research instead of computer science. At least at my university, switching from a PhD program in department X to an MS program in nearby department Y is usually fairly painless, especially if you have a supportive advisor in department Y.
If even that is not an option, I'm afraid there's little one can do. Your transcript will end without a degree, and most people reading it will assume that (or at least wonder if) you left because you were forced out.
> 7 votes
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Tags: phd, transcript-of-records, qualifying-exam
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thread-12013 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12013 | PhD online interview | 2013-08-20T20:28:26.670 | # Question
Title: PhD online interview
I am invited to an online interview for a PhD position. Actually, it is my first time. What are the contents of the interview? What issues are usually discussed in these interviews? Am I supposed to represent a proposal in the context of research, at that time? Which parameters can increase the acceptance chance?
# Answer
> 7 votes
I work in a program for computational science, and we do online interviews with all of the qualified candidates for both our dual-degree (master's-PhD) and doctoral programs.
Because we are a rather broad program, we tend not to favor "quizzes" that test knowledge. Instead, we are looking for things like:
* Ability to communicate in English
* Enthusiasm for computational science (many people think we're a computer science program, instead of a computational science program!)
* Match for the research interests of one or more of our institute members (particularly for dual-degree candidates)
* Previous experience in computational science
* Evidence of teamwork and ability to fit our program
There's no real way to "game" the system, at least in my interview, unless you want to invent an entirely new personality for yourself. That's because most of my questions are free-form after the first few, and will try to explore the answers you've given in greater depth. For instance, if a candidate expresses an interest in fluid mechanics, I'll ask what they've done, what makes it interesting, what they'd like to do in the future. If someone happens to express interest in my area (computational materials), things will go in yet another direction altogether.
The best advice is be yourself. If you try to come off as someone you're not, that will likely show up during the interview.
# Answer
> 6 votes
In my case (machine learning), background knowledge of the field and previous publications are the most important parts. My supervisor enumerated the names of the sub-fields and asked whether I know about them. I need to give different level of introductions or explanations according to my familiarity. As for the publications, I have little publications so I had to explain my thesis at great detail. Actually my supervisor was not satisfied and I had to write several pages of "abstract" later. At last, my supervisor asked me to the read the xxx page of his paper and derive the differential of a complex function right away. I made some minor errors but finally got myself through.
**UPDATE**: In my case I don't think my supervisor was "quizzing" me, but try to obtain a rough impression of my background. For me, the point was to articulate what I have known and not to boast on what I don't know. And I was also asked about the ability of English communication and teamwork.
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Tags: phd, interview
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thread-12015 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12015 | What are some good things to make explicit between a student and his supervisor when beginning a PhD? | 2013-08-20T22:05:50.877 | # Question
Title: What are some good things to make explicit between a student and his supervisor when beginning a PhD?
This question is motivated by the fact that my last research internship was unsatisfactory in my relation with my supervisor. Partly because of me, I may have tried to be too much autonomous, rarely coming to him or sharing what I was doing or reading and never asking feedback. We didn't produce much and by the end he shared with me his disappointment, which strangely was a bit surprising to me, I was blind to the situation and our lack of exchange.
Now, I'm about to start my PhD with a totally new supervisor, and I'd like to learn from this mistake. I'm deeply convinced that the experience will be much more fulfilling for both sides if we maintain stimulating exchanges.
I was thinking about having from the beginning a long discussion about his expectation from me on short, mid and long term, his availability and the way he would like to supervise and push me.
Is this irrelevant or too much? Have you already had similar discussions? Have you tried something else?
# Answer
Having a discussion about the PhD project specifically and expectations in general is always a good idea. If there is a clear project lined up it will be useful to discuss the details, possible directions, publications etc. In some cases (systems/programs/traditions) it is useful (in fact mandatory) to write a research plan or to write a review of the field as part of reading up on it. It is necessary that both you and the advisor has the same view of what should be achieved to the extent the specific program allows.
Apart from the science it is useful to discuss expectations so that you can agree on how work should proceed. Should you meet regularly? if so how often? How much feedback should you expect? Well the questions are many but having such a discussion is useful, particularly if you can also note what you agree upon on a piece of paper. In my country, one actually signs an individual study plan that is followed up annually showing progress in terms of course work and research. having such a plan is actually constructive in that it makes it possible to see if you are on track and also identify if and when your plan needs revisions and goals may deviate from the originally proposed. But, of course, all this is something which to some extent is dictated by the traditions in the specific program.
So do take the opportunity to have a good talk about the future collaboration. you will robably sense if the discussion is received well by the advisor and adapt accordingly.
> 17 votes
# Answer
To echo some of the other comments here, I *strongly* recommend touching on topics beyond just science - your supervisor is going to be a very important figure in your life for several years if all goes according to plan, so in addition to things like the details of the project you're working on, I'd make sure to touch on the following:
* Any "lab policies" they have, written or unwritten. For example, some folks really prefer if their people work with a particular programming language, operating system, etc. Some people could care less if you work remotely as long as they see you now and again, and some people want geographic proximity, and seeing your face in the office.
* Working preferences. Are they a night owl, or a 9-to-5 type? Will they read drafts the weekend before a conference deadline, or do you need to get them weeks in advance? Do they want progress reports, or will they be happy/prefer with a finished product simply manifesting itself after weeks of silence?
* Authorship policies - how much do they want you writing your own papers, taking ownership of your projects, etc.
* How stable is your funding?
* Teaching expectations, if there are any. Are there courses they think you should take?
Slightly later on, once you've clarified your own goals, I'd also suggest a talk with your supervisor about where you'd like to end up when you're done. Teaching? Research? Industry?
> 14 votes
# Answer
Just to add to Peter's answer, another that needs to be made clear are practicalities, including any other commitments that you have (e.g. work, volunteer work, family etc). I found having this discussion in the early part of my PhD program has meant that we have been able to adapt deadlines and meetings around my (full time) work schedule. This is also important if you are required to travel or conduct experiments.
Other logistical practicalities include medical conditions, financial constraints - these kind of thing do not need to be divulged in detail, but as they may affect the research (in a practical sense) - just to make the supervisor aware.
> 8 votes
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Tags: phd, advisor
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thread-11822 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11822 | Should a undergraduate rely on PhD students to publish papers or do it individually? | 2013-08-12T05:34:54.403 | # Question
Title: Should a undergraduate rely on PhD students to publish papers or do it individually?
I am a undergraduate student who is trying to publish something so as to facilitate my PhD applications in the future.
I have a few seniors who help out in the lab and have been included as non-1st authors in some publications. Basically, what they do is helping the PhD's do some implementations. Thus, actually there is not much real research involved. But at least in the end, they are the authors, although not 1st authors, of some publications. It is quite nice for undergraduates to have such publications.
As for me, I am currently working on an **individual** project under a supervisor, who is extremely busy every day. Instead of being a helper, I am actually initiating the research all the way. I am also working towards publishing a paper to present the work.
Nice as it may sound, I am facing a lot of difficulties. As a undergraduate, my knowledge is so limited, and meanwhile I have to attend lectures. My time is also very limited. **So I am really afraid I can publish nothing at the end of the research.**
Since I have already started the research, no matter the decision to initiate one project my self is wise or not, I have to fight to the very end.
**Could anybody help give some suggestions to make my work get published more likely?**
# Answer
> 6 votes
One alternate strategy that could help is to see about trying to present a poster of your work at a conference. Even if that doesn't have quite the same prestige as a paper in a journal or an accepted paper at a conference (if you're in CS), it still is a sign of doing significant amounts of research. An especially good sign would be if you could win a "best student poster" or "best student talk"-type award.
However, the important thing for you will be to be able to discuss what you have done with authority in your statement of purpose to graduate schools, and to get a good letter of recommendation from your advisor that clearly outlines your contributions to your project. Having a publication is nice, but it's not an essential component for graduate school admissions.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I think working on your own project is a very good thing to get started with research, and it is a good basis for publishing something. But when you have little experience with the research and publishing process, it is important to have someone with more experience who is able to invest some time in advising you. As your supervisor seems to be very busy, he probably cannot take that role.
My advice would be to get someone senior, like a PhD student or, even better, post-doc with related research interests on board. It's probably best to get someone from your supervisor's group. You should also discuss this with your supervisor first, maybe he/she can even recommend someone. This would of course mean that you add someone else as coauthor, but it should allow you to learn much more about the research and publishing process than when you do it on your own.
# Answer
> 2 votes
As some people have suggested, it may be worth your time to see if you can get the research into a conference - while in some fields they're less prestigious than a paper no one is going to scoff at undergraduate research that ends up there.
That being said, I did author several papers as an undergrad, and it was immensely beneficial both to my job prospects and my outlook on research. It's tough, but if you want to do it you can - and no, you shouldn't rely on PhD students to get you a few papers with your name buried in the middle.
# Answer
> 1 votes
This may not be a magic solution but I would suggest focusing on a project than involves more applications and simulations than theoretical results. You would also need to find a suitable, likely small, journal that replies fast. Note that top journals may take years to get back to you with a first review or even an automatic rejection.
P.S. I got some *interesting* results after googling your profile picture.
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Tags: phd, publications, research-undergraduate
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thread-12024 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12024 | Are there benefits to taking a year off before entering academia after completion of the PhD? | 2013-08-21T07:22:35.257 | # Question
Title: Are there benefits to taking a year off before entering academia after completion of the PhD?
I am submitting my PhD for assessment in the next fortnight, by the end of the year, it will be complete. Currently, while studying (and to pay the bills), I am a high school teacher. Getting into a postdoc or lecturing tenure is quite difficult in Australia (particularly in my field - Physics). So, what is likely to happen is that I'll be high school teaching next year as well.
However, while teaching, I intend writing more papers (3 already published, 4th submitted) - my current supervisor (=advisor) has indicated that he is more than happy to collaborate on these ongoing projects, post-PhD (but is not in a position to offer a postdoc position).
So, generally speaking, beyond writing more papers and building up the research profile, what other benefits are there to stalling entering academia by a year?
In my case, it would be almost like an academic-gap-year except, I will need to be still full time employed.
# Answer
I would say that this is one time when taking a year off is **not** recommended. You are at your peak right now in a number of ways:
1. You have very recent publications and just received your degree. Both have a discernible half-life when it comes to being hired in academia (particularly for the first time).
2. You know the most people in your field, including your advisor and other professors who can write you up-to-date recommendation letters.
3. You have the most current knowledge of your field, and although it sounds like you're going to continue to publish, you won't be as able to actively learn (then again, I know from your previous posts that you were full-time employed during your PhD, so that may not be an issue).
I'm assuming that the timing is different in Australia, but in the U.S. there are generally key times of the year that academic hiring happens -- you put together applications in Nov-Jan and hope to land interviews and talks in the Feb-April time frame. If there is a similar time-frame in Australia, I would make sure you have the time available to put together applications and go on interviews, whether it is this year or after another year.
I assume you'll still be allowed to publish under your previous school's affiliation post-PhD defense, but if that isn't the case, I would urge you to figure out a way to work that out.
Finally (and I'm not really in a position to comment directly on this) is the question about how your job applications will be received with a year gap from academia. My feeling is that an extra paper will help you but that the time away won't help you (even though it isn't technically away it will be noticeable that you got your PhD a year prior), and it may be a wash. You'll have to consider this when you write your cover letters and research statement. I would think about how (if at all) you justify the extra year of high school teaching post-PhD in a cover letter. You've already got plenty of teaching experience under your belt to prove your teaching credentials, so an extra year in the classroom won't be beneficial from that standpoint.
> 5 votes
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Tags: phd, research-process
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thread-12025 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12025 | Preprint citations + Paper citations =? | 2013-08-21T08:27:12.387 | # Question
Title: Preprint citations + Paper citations =?
Given that in many areas the peer-review process is quite lengthy (even a couple of years), it often happens that, by the time the journal version of a paper appears, the preprint version (*e.g.* arxiv) has accumulated a couple of citations.
My question is: do citations of the preprint count as citations of the journal version?
# Answer
The answer depends on what you mean by "count". If we consider whether they should be counted as citations: yes definitely. Afer all, the citations reflect how your science is read and then cited by others. It is then clear that these "count".
A problem occurs when using the citation counts provided by different services such as Researcher ID through Web of Science. Then it is not certain that the "in press" version is counted. I, for example have papers where in press citations exist. In Web of Science, I can actually see them but the connection is not automatically done so I would have to add them to the appropriate paper count manually. I know it is possible to write to Web Of Science and have references corrected or coupled. I, for example have another paper that occurs in four posts because people have written the wrong volume number, the wrong year of publication etc. Since I am senior and these extra citations are not critical to me I have not tried to get them corrected but they can of course be more important in an early career case.
Other services such as Google Scholar may work differently. I have opted for providing measures from services to which I can link and thereby have others verify my numbers. So in the end this becomes a technical problem, the citations certainly count.
> 8 votes
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Tags: publications, citations, preprint
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thread-12030 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12030 | What are the minimum contributions required for co-authorship | 2013-08-21T09:50:34.483 | # Question
Title: What are the minimum contributions required for co-authorship
In this answer it is claimed that authorship is given away for "free" in some fields (e.g., obtaining the funding). The comments to the answer suggest that this is field dependent. I am looking for documentation from a field that suggests that authorship can be given away for "free". For example, the ICMJE has authorship guidelines that put a pretty high bar on authorship. Is there any documentation that suggests that supervising a student or getting funding is enough to warrant authorship?
# Answer
Short answer: free authorship, also known as **gift authorship**, is a clear violation of research and publication ethics. The limit between “small contribution” and “no contribution” is not, however, easily defined; different fields put it at different levels.
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I don't think the answer actually states that. It lists a series of contributions that are, in some field, considered important enough to warrant (in some combinations) authorship on resulting papers:
> *they get grant money, they train you to use the lab, they train you to do statistics... or they might make suggestions for the research design, the main theoretical focus of the presentation / manuscript*
All journals (or publishers) have **policies or guidelines on how authorship should be determined. In all cases, it involves significant scientific or technical contributions** to the work published. Authorship determination has to be weighted **in each individual case**, as no two situations are identical (and not simple rule of thumb can encompass all possible situations, as Peter Jansson highlights).
**There are so many ways in which people can contribute to an intellectual work**, such as a research project and academic papers. It happens that **different fields** of research have different habits in authorship determination, **giving more or less weight to different types of contributions**. My own background is in physics and chemistry, where authorship tend to be more generous that, say, computer science or mathematics. I'll thus argue two examples of what you (and some fields) may consider dubious basis for authorship, but which in my field would be considered fairly standard:
* **Getting funding**. In this age, getting funding most often requires writing a grant proposal for a specific research program, with good and novel ideas, and convincing a tough crowd of other scientists (in a competitive environment) that your program is a good use of taxpayers' money. Thus, in most cases, **the person who provides the funding also provides a clear scientific contribution**: they identified an important problem to be solved, and provided a general framework for solving it. That's an important part of research! Identifying the right question to ask yourself is half of the job, *it is known. (Yeah, I'm trying my hand at Dothraki style in academic context. By the way, thank you for reading so far down my answer.)*
* **Supervising**. Whether or not the supervisor actually provided the student with the research project in the first place, **supervision implies guidance** of the student, which is definitely a scientific contribution. The supervisor will, in many cases, provide a broader view of the field and ideas for related problems relevant to the research, scientific background, and advice on how to use one's research time most efficiently. All of that is highly valuable, and contributes to the publication.
*(I've read somewhere “but the supervisor is paid for this, it's his job, so he shouldn't be awarded authorship” — that's plain stupid, pretty much everyone gets paid to do research, thus by that argument most papers would be authorless.)*
In both cases, funding and supervising imply scientific contributions, which are the reason for authorship.
> 26 votes
# Answer
I would argue that the Vancouver Protocol is something most people understand but traditions, peer pressure etc. is what makes co-authorship a sometimes fuzzy decision. So as for documentation, I doubt any exists that is accepted by all. That said, I know that in large consortias such as in physics, for example, accelerator work, one signs a contract that automatically adds your name to all papers produced within a given time frame depedning on your time period involved in the project. Such consortia-authorships usually use the consortia name as author with a separate listing of individuals. The consortia-authorship is something I do not think the writers of the Vancouver Protocol had in mind.
EDIT:
Here is an example from from CERN.
In the case of large research groups this type of "contract" (specific in each case) could be a way to officially outline the policy accepted by participants.
> 12 votes
# Answer
This is going to depend on the field. For most fields, the norm is that an author has made "intellectual contributions" to the work. ICMJE updates this requirement to "substantive" intellectual contributions, but most conferences and journals have a written or implied cut-off for how substantive an intellectual contribution is. Many journals and conferences now ask for detailed list of contributions by the authors to combat vanity authorships.
In some fields, for example my own field of Chemistry, the norm is that the individual who has secured the funding has written one or more grant proposals specific to this project. These proposals may have been written with or without the assistance of the students working on the project. They may have even been written before the student joined the project. In chemistry, the proposal needs to be pretty specific about what types of problems will be examined and what methods will be used. Writing the proposal to get the funding is a substantive intellectual contribution counting as "substantial contributions to conception and design" as far as the ICMJE is concerned.
Funding does not necessarily happen this way in every field. As Peter Jansson suggests, a National Lab, consortium, or other funded research center or institute may have a budget process that is separate from the conception and design of experiments. In such a case, the director of the center, whose duties likely include making sure the center is funded, is probably not an author.
Normal behavior for whether the supervisor is an author has been established in every field. Ask your colleagues. Consult your journals/conferences. For example, the American Chemical Society has the following description in their Publication Ethics (Page 3) (emphasis mine):
> The co-authors of a paper should be all those persons who have made **significant scientific contributions to the work reported and who share responsibility and accountability for the results**. Authors should appropriately recognize the contributions of technical staff and data professionals. Other contributions should be indicated in a footnote or an “Acknowledgments” section. An administrative relationship to the investigation does not of itself qualify a person for co - authorship (but occasionally it may be appropriate to acknowledge major administrative assistance). Deceased persons who meet the criterion for inclusion as co-authors should be so included, with a footnote reporting date of death. No fictitious name should be listed as an author or coauthor. The author who submits a manuscript for publication accepts the responsibility of having included as co-authors all persons appropriate and none inappropriate. The submitting author should have sent each living co-author a draft copy of the manuscript and have obtained the co-author’s assent to co-authorship of it.
To the ACS, the individual who takes responsibility for the validity of the data and the work (usually the student's supervisor in chemistry) is an author, even if that person did not design the experiments, collect the data, interpret the results, or write the manuscript. The supervisor has a more permanent position than the student and is likely to be easier to reach with questions five years from now than the student.
> 6 votes
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Tags: authorship
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thread-12033 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12033 | Doubts about PhD advisor and unsure how to continue | 2013-08-21T11:18:25.643 | # Question
Title: Doubts about PhD advisor and unsure how to continue
**tl;dr** I think my supervisor has a severe lack of knowledge, does too many things instead of focusing heavily on just a few things and hence I can't really focus on my research project.
**Long Story** I started my PhD a few months back and was hired specifically to work on a certain project. We have a few very outstanding research groups as collaborating teams but all in different research areas.
After a few weeks into my PhD, I was hit by all the different side projects my supervisor tries to kick off. They are extremely time consuming and not research related at all. Besides, I noticed that my supervisor has a severe lack of knowledge in one of our core research areas. As a consequence, I can't discuss any of my ideas with him. As the other PhD students feel the same way, we have mentioned the lack of time quite a few times in our group meetings. And although he agreed that we need more time on proper research, things didn't really change yet. As a consequence, my motivation for the project starts to decline, although I continue to be extremely passionate about the project's overall goals!
So my question is, how I should cope with this situation? I thought about leaving his group, but I'm kind of stuck in a dilemma: I'd love to work on the project, and I don't want to let my collaborating teams down.
# Answer
> 13 votes
1. It's your project, not your advisor's. Your lack of progress/motivation and supposed lack of time have nothing to do with him.
2. Nevertheless, you *must* sit down with your advisor and have a serious talk about both of your expectations. Be honest about your lack of motivation, be honest about your disappointment, be honest about your intellectual loneliness. Ask for suggestions. Listen.
3. You have other senior collaborators that you can work with, so if you need senior collaborators, work with them. Ask your advisor to fly them out to visit you, or to fly you out to visit them. Schedule regular Skype/Gchat meetings. Similarly, get to know other faculty in your department, who might serve as more experienced mentors/advisors, if not collaborators.
4. You're surrounded by colleagues who are excited enough about their research to want to draw you in, and you turn them away because you feel stupid? **What a wasted opportunity!** *Of course* you feel stupid. *Everybody* feels stupid listening to other people talk about their ongoing research, because *by definition*, they're talking about stuff that nobody understands (yet). You're simultaneously complaining about intellectual loneliness and turning away potential collaborators. So what if they're not working on *your* project?
5. *Of course* you're constantly forgetting important things you once knew well. It is totally unrealistic to think that you can keep everything you've ever learned/read fresh in your mind. Don't even try. Write things down. Maintain a library of papers, or at least a close personal friendship with Google Scholar. Let yourself forget details, confident in the knowledge that they'll come back amazingly quickly when you read them again.
6. Since your feeling is shared by other students in your group, it sounds like your advisor is a bit overexcited and has bitten off more than he can chew. All the more reason to sit down and talk with him directly, and to develop mentoring relationships with other faculty in your department and elsewhere. Also, start looking into other potential advisors, even if it means moving to another university.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I see only two possibly justified complaints here: "supervisor incompetence" and "overloading with routine work". Unfortunately, without knowing both the supervisor and the subject in question, I cannot really tell you anything about the first (beyond the general statement that it may or may not be true and that if it is, nothing short of changing the adviser will cure it). The second can and should be discussed directly with your adviser, or, if it doesn't help, with the department chairman. Remember however that if the load you are talking about is a common rule for all PhD students in the department, you cannot request an exception for yourself without a really good reason laid out in a very convincing way.
I believe JeffE said everything else there is to be said here already.
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Tags: advisor
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thread-12048 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12048 | Where do the responsibilities of an MS GRA doing a thesis actually end? | 2013-08-21T21:55:51.047 | # Question
Title: Where do the responsibilities of an MS GRA doing a thesis actually end?
I am doing a MS thesis in an engineering lab and I am fully funded by my advisor (tuition waiver plus stipend). We are a small lab and my professor is aiming for tenure. I am ahead of schedule and almost done with my thesis.I am good at programming and completed the project in 3 weeks (my professor thought it would take at least 3 months). Now, my professor is asking me to work on other things which involve developing apps for her other projects. I have protested by saying I am an GRA and I should only be concerned with my thesis project and my work in all other large projects in the lab should be at my discretion.
My advisor replied that I am pretty lucky to work for her since other professors have graduate students who work on 5 projects simultaneously (which of course is load of crap, I have other friends working in other labs who only work on their thesis). The other time I protested, my advisor said that since I am supposed to work 40 hours a week in lab, the project should be completed within 2 weeks easily. (These projects which my advisor wants me to do require some 80 hours of programming sometimes since I first need to learn the language and then write code for it). It's not that I don't want to develop apps, but I am more interested in writing journal papers for IEEE with deadlines in November, and I need all the time I can for that endeavor. I raised this issue but my advisor said that getting accepted in IEEE is remote, so I should concentrate on writing apps since there is a very good chance for her to get funded if I develop them.
I know that even if I refuse development, my advisor might throw a fit but my GRA will be intact because no advisor fires a student who is about to complete thesis. Also, I had asked my advisor if she would be interested in helping me with getting a PhD after thesis and she flatly said no. The advisor said I should probably go back to industry and work for 3-4 years and then decide on PhD. It seemed more like an excuse to make me get out of the lab. So it's pretty obvious there is no chance of a long-term relationship with my advisor.
> I am trying to understand what are the other job responsibilities of an MS student doing thesis? There is no chance of working with my advisor after MS, so why should i work on her projects? I can very well try to get some journals papers published as it might help in getting a PhD admit elsewhere, or should I just develop her apps because I work in her lab?
Edit: There are 3 people in my lab now (2 MS students and one PhD student), but I am the only programmer.
# Answer
**tl;dr** Your adviser is not wrong. There are plenty of additional responsibilities and duties of maintaining a matured lab affiliation even as a MS student.
I think you went about it a wrong way. A little hill out of a molehill has been created.
Being a GRA in a lab does not mean that the buck stops with your thesis research. I am a member in a medium sized lab based in a ECE department. Typically, we have 4-6 graduate students, 1-2 post docs and a gaggle of undergraduate and masters students at most given times.
**My Responsibilities:**
1. Thesis research. This is primary and takes up most of my time.
2. Collaborative research with another graduate student. This is my secondary project and takes up a little bit of my time.
3. Giving talks in the lab about our works in progress.
4. Guest lecturing for my adviser in his courses when he is away.
5. Mentoring REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) students when they come in summer.
6. Mentoring undergraduate and masters students from my own university in their own and lab projects.
7. Helping other lab members out with analysis - typically quantitative and some qualitative.
8. Reviewing articles written by other lab members.
9. Social engaging with lab members and lab visitors.
10. Designing presentations for lab funding reports and reviewing said reports.
I am sure I have forgotten a few more "responsibilities" but I can assure you that my work **does not** begin and end with just my own thesis research. It sounds like a lot but I can assure you that it really isn't and the situation is quite typical for my university and department. I have an excellent work-life balance. Now, I am a PhD student but once upon a time, I was a MS student and I had similar responsibilities.
The situation you describe is **not** atypical. I have seen folks in labs (which develop apps as a stepping stone to doing research) spend a lot of time actually developing the app. You are right. It takes time. Being a member of the lab means contributing to projects which are not just your own. It is a team effort.
Your adviser has actually given you a sanity check in terms of getting a PhD admit and in terms of what other graduate students usually do. Getting a paper accepted in a prestigious IEEE transaction is quite a considerable effort and takes a long time. It seems to me that your adviser does not feel that your research will be accepted into such a venue. I also think you hit a nerve somewhere when you argued about quantum of hours and projects to be worked upon according to your GRA deal. It doesn't work like that. You are not a unionized worker.
**Research takes as long as it takes.**
> 6 votes
# Answer
The way that I view my GRA position is that the university is paying your tuition and stipend. There is expectation is that you will provide labor that will contribute to their projects. It's a pretty good deal- you get an education with a mentor in exchange for work that hopefully you are interested in. I would expect them to think of you as an employee. At this stage, you work for someone and they tell you what they need and you do it. It takes time and effort to mentor you, make sure you contribute everything that you can while you are there.
> 2 votes
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Tags: research-process, masters, thesis, collaboration
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thread-12037 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12037 | How to motivate students to complete work that I cannot frequently check? | 2013-08-21T13:31:21.250 | # Question
Title: How to motivate students to complete work that I cannot frequently check?
I assign my undergraduate students assignments from a workbook as homework. The homework amounts to about 30-minutes per day.
It is impractical for me to collect these workbooks at each lesson, or even weekly, as any days when I am checking the work are days when the students don't have their workbooks in hand. Furthermore, I cannot constantly collect, carry, and redistribute hundreds of workbooks each week.
As such, I've limited my collections of these to twice per term. The results, however, have not been good. A great many students save many weeks of work until the last minute, only to discover then that the task is far more difficult than they anticipated.
How can I motivate my students to complete work daily when it is impractical for me to frequently assess it?
# Answer
The other answers are excellent. Without knowing your field or the nature of the workbook assignments, I'll give the following answer:
I have become a big fan of automated online homework systems (although I know some students hate them). If you happen to be in a field where these systems exist (e.g., Physics, Math, Chemistry--WebAssign, MyMathLab, etc.), consider this for a future semester.
The reason I bring up these systems is that (1) they provide a forcing function for the students to do the work, (2) the grading is automatic and immediate, (3) the better systems provide guidance on problem solving, and (4) the math-related problems can be randomized so students can't copy of another student's work (as easily...).
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Ideas for your current system:
1. Do a cursory check of the books every week. By cursory, I mean "check that there is writing on the required pages," and give a check or not. This doesn't preclude them from not putting in much work, but at least they will see that you've got eyes on them each week.
2. Give them a daily 1-question quiz that is straight from the homework (if it is the kind of work that has "correct answers").
3. Reassess why it matters that they do the work, and lay it out to them plainly. Do the students who procrastinate on the homework really do more poorly with the material? If the answer isn't an emphatic "yes," then why do you care? If the answer is "yes," then lay this out to them on the first day of class: "I assign the workbook material because it helps you get a better grade in the class. It's up to you to do the work, and your grade will almost certainly reflect the amount of work you put into the workbooks. I don't collect it because I expect you to do it on your own, and it's your grade that matters." In the end, your job is to give them the tools to learn the material, and their job is to use those tools. At the collegiate level, you can expect them to take their education seriously. I.e., "You can lead a horse to water..."
> 15 votes
# Answer
**Intrinsic motivation** is always a better motor than threats and coercion. They are, after all, adults. So, try to make them understand that doing this is important for their progress, and thus completion of the course. Also, be open to suggestions from them on how to make it less cumbersome (for example, by skipping a week if they are really hard-worked at that particular time).
You can, however, combine this with **extrinsic motivation** forces, in order to help them see very concretely how the benefits of doing the homework regularly. For example, collect 5 of them at random every week. Another idea would be to tell them in advance that 50% of the final exam will be on problems taken from the workbook: they will understand very easily that, if they have done the homework correctly, it will really help them secure a good grade.
> 11 votes
# Answer
Some ideas:
* \[reward\] Give some exam bonus to volunteers who will correct the homework on the board
* \[threat\] Randomly pick a student to correct the homework on the board and give him/her malus if he/she has not done it
* \[threat ++\] Make an exam (each week first, then each two weeks or randomly) in class on the given exercises, collect and evaluate the work
> 6 votes
# Answer
I usually give short quizzes based on the homework assignments. You do not need to include the exact homework questions there (though you can do it too) but they should satisfy the condition that whoever can do the current homework problems should be expected to pass them and whoever who can not should be expected to fail. I find this system more encouraging and revealing than grading a random subset. For completely routine things (like basic arithmetic, trigonometry, etc.) various automatic online systems are really good. You need to be very careful with how you set up the questions there and it can take a full day for one course but you can do it just once and never think about it again until the time to print out the student scores comes. Just don't forget to make those scores a noticeable portion of the grade. The other advantage here is that you may (but aren't obliged to) allow the students several attempts before they fail an online test, so they can really learn in the process, not just be evaluated.
> 5 votes
# Answer
I had a prof who marked us on completion. He taught 3rd year quantum physics for chemistry and would give out a page of reasonably easy questions that he marked, then several pages of really hard questions he wouldn't, but if you brought him each sheet completed he added 1 to your total grade. So whereas before you were out of 100, now you are out of 101. (Roughly, his marking system was out of more then 100 I think).
You could also complete previous years worksheets for the same thing, or textbook questions, anything like that. One page of questions (not answers) was one mark, or one of his old worksheets was one mark (Since the solutions were online).
This sounds like a lot, but someone worked it out that the first one you did added 0.4% to your final grade or something like that, but each one you did after that added less and less. The class perfectionist misunderstood the system and did 40 pages of textbook questions, and managed to raise her final mark by something like 4%. I just did all the old worksheet questions and got a percent or two, which really isn't much, but damn, did having done all those worksheets really help on the final.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Ask the students to photocopy or photograph their completed work from the workbook each week and email them to you as PDFs/JPEGs. (You may want a dedicated email to receive such files.)
Even if you don't grade the electronic copies, you can make submission a portion of the homework grade, e.g. 10-20%, depending on what your rules are about later changes.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Although there are other answers here which get to this point, I would look at making required things required. If you need the students to do it every week, then make them do it by tying their grade to submitting it every week.
The problem is that you don't have time to assess their work every week. I think everyone here can appreciate that. However, you need to at least partially solve that issue. One key for that is the proper use of technology. Either a Virtual Learning Environment, email, or other online homework systems.
If you cannot assess all of the students, then a random assessment might get what you need. After all, as a teacher, you should be providing feedback to your students. So, have them submit their work electronically (yes, this requires a change from a paper workbook approach) and each week randomly select a few for assessment. If you see some are stars, skip their assessments for several weeks. If you see some are struggling then assess them more often. The students don't know who will be assessed but their grade might not be based on the assessment of the homework, just that they attempted it for that, you can simply scan a list of submissions. Again, you could do this with email if you have no other solution.
Ideally, the students would be intrinsically motivated and you would not have to do any prodding but in my experience some students do need a little prodding to get them to overcome the inertia of laziness. For that, submission might be enough. However, in the end, you will need to assess some. You should assess as much as you can but you have to balance this with your other needs. There's a lot more to teaching that assessment but assessment is a pretty important aspect of what we do.
> 1 votes
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Tags: teaching, motivation
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thread-12029 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12029 | Under what circumstances would a lecturer 'bump up' a student to pass? | 2013-08-21T09:44:37.513 | # Question
Title: Under what circumstances would a lecturer 'bump up' a student to pass?
When would someone marking papers (lecturer, etc.) bump a student from just below pass up to the pass line? Do teachers consider things like attendance?
Regardless of the consideration (attendance, participation, etc.) for giving a student a better grade than they deserve, what is the justification?
# Answer
There are a myriad of reasons why a student could have barely passing grades and good attendance. Not everyone is able to grasp the concepts as quickly and as well as others. They may have a learning difficulty, or they are taking on something to extend their knowledge and skills.
An example, my short term memory is no good under pressure, such as in an exam - I barely passed, and had conceded passes twice - does that make me less deserving? I'll let the fact that I am now just finishing my PhD *in the same topic area* answer that question.
Good attendance is an indicator, albeit, not conclusive of effort, but more conclusive if they had not attended at all.
> 9 votes
# Answer
One of the things I like about teaching is that while we draw fine lines at numbers such as 65.0 and 89.5, teachers also get the final word on putting grades into the system, and the ability to look at a student's performance holistically to include non-tangible paper marks such as attendance (in class and office hours), intrinsic motivation, and future goals justifies "bumping" grades for particular students.
I don't do it often, but if a student is on the line and showed me high motivation but didn't quite get to the higher grade, I will consider bumping up the grade (but I won't do it because of grade-grubbing). Sometimes, it comes down to when I'm entering the final grade into the system, and I think, "You know, that 89.3% for Alice really should be an A-." I don't lose sleep over it, and it really is relatively rare.
> 14 votes
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Tags: grading, attendance
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thread-12066 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12066 | How to make good use of compulsory study plans in connection with PhD studies? | 2013-08-22T10:32:47.137 | # Question
Title: How to make good use of compulsory study plans in connection with PhD studies?
I am not sure if this concept sounds familiar to you but in Sweden PhD students are expected to have a study plan, which is revised every year, in connection with a meeting between the student, the primary and secondary supervisor(s). It's the closest thing I have to a contract actually.
Theoretically the concept is great, there's a formal demand to plan and revise the projects, so that things don't get out of hand. The study plan typically defines:
* the nature and title of graduate studies
* an expected time of dissertation
* the responsibilities the student has towards the department (teaching, lab/IT responsibilities etc)
* the extent of research/course ratio per semester
* courses taken/planned
* the project that planned to/will be a part of the thesis
Then comes a series of so-called *"lärandemål"* which I could possibly translate as "learning goals" mandated/advised by the board of higher education services (*Högskoleverket*) and what is planned/completed to achieve these goals. This piece constitutes a majority of the study plan essentially.
So far so good... I think conceptually it's a great idea. In practice, the part regarding learning goals becomes a whole bunch of formal gibberish that does not reflect reality but looks fancy on paper. My supervisor does not really care much about the plan, at least not in the format it's forced on both of us. I am not sure if this is the impostor syndrome speaking, but I feel like it's essentially an annoying piece of paperwork, on which I am forced to write what I am doing/have done in rather exaggerated fluffy words. I have also considered the possibility that I *perceive* it thus because even though I am very fluent, Swedish is not my first language. I could not say for sure...
I am trying to force myself to see the benefit in having and updating such a study plan. I could just do the minimal amount of work and get it over with, but seeing that this is actually my chance and legal right to influence the development of my graduate studies, I feel it'd be a waste of opportunity if I did not take the chance to make the best out of it.
Any ideas as to how I can make better use of these study plans and study plan meetings that go along with it? Likewise any plans as to how I can avoid seeing it as an annoying piece of work that has to be done and have no practical meaning?
# Answer
> 7 votes
I can sympathise with your sentiment about the study plan. The idea is generally good but it will only be as good as one makes it. In my department we started with study plans long before it became a mandatory requirement. The reason was mainly to establish a contract (although strictly speaking it has no legal meaning) where student and advisor agree to the terms of the work. We had instances where both students and advisers were not doing their part and lacking a paper trail made discussions difficult, usually both parties blaming each others for the catastrophe that emerged when it was too late.
So, I still look at the study plan as a tool when things go wrong, actually to identify when things start to diverge and nip it in the bud. There are students who do no appreciate the plan but as subject responsible (and in our case the discussion involves also me) I try to make it a good and reflective discussion. I do believe it is good to take the opportunity to reflect upon what has been done so far and try to lay out the plans for the next year because in a PhD project the nose is often close to the work and perspective may be difficult to get. Providing an opportunity to express the plans can therefore be enlightening for all parties.
I must, however, add that the bad cases which the study plan is supposed to reduce, still are very difficult and the study plan is not enough to resolve such cases. So my recommendation is to try to find a format for the discussions so that they become useful and positive for you. I would not expect everyone to experience these discussions the same way so in the worst case, try to make it as pleasant as possible.
EDIT in response to comment. As with most things that are forced into action from "above", the way to handle study plans and how to relate to them has become unclear. I can personally see that different departments view the document differently and although the Science faculty of my University has issued guidelines, my suspicion is that they have no clue what they are trying to say. So it is all confusing.
Now, recently I heard a lecture by Bob Harris at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm which concerned the so-called Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs; another fancy term). You can listen to a talk similar to the one I attended on BrainShark, however, a warning is issued for the poor sound quality. The talk was for director's of graduate studies and the Faculty. The point made here is that we need to decide what it is that we do during a PhD and it is only then \[my interpretation\] that we can make use of the study plan to see if we meet the expectation from the side of the Higher Education Act as well as from our personal viewpoints. All of this becomes very involved and I am myself in the process of changing the way we look at the study plan to also include the goals of the research education as formulated in the Swedish Higher Education Act.
A problem with study plans as they stand now is that everyone must be involved in the process and as with everything else, they are not necessarily so and opinions will vary. Some will find it very useful and some will not. If a study plan is merely a meeting where one says 'done that; will do this' then its use is very limited. At best it is a time to actually reflect upon the progress or lack thereof. In the end, I think we have all lost track of the purpose of a PhD, *we do not see the forest for all the trees*. Publish has become the (only?) goal but all the other skills are not highlighted well or even considered. Integrating the wider goals with the study plan to record and view progress, could in my opinion be a useful tool but it requires more or less reorganisation and additional adaptation by many.
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Tags: phd, productivity, sweden
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thread-1913 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1913 | How should references in non-Latin script language be treated in English paper? | 2012-06-06T10:32:37.503 | # Question
Title: How should references in non-Latin script language be treated in English paper?
Let's say I want to cite a Russian text in my own paper which is written in English. Should I:
* reference it as is, in the original Cyrillic alphabet, although the readers won't be able even to pronounce it?
* transliterate the authors' names, while keeping the rest as is?
* transliterate the names and translate the title of the work, journal name, etc. into English?
# Answer
> 26 votes
In general, this would depend on the style prescribed by your publisher (journal, conference, etc.) For instance, a blog post cites the Chicago style manual explains how one should go about sources in Chinese and Japanese:
> **10.108: Inclusion of original characters**
>
> Chinese and Japanese characters, immediately following the romanized version of the item they represent, are sometimes necessary to help readers identify references cited or terms used. They are largely confined to bibliographies and glossaries. Where needed in running text, they may be enclosed in parentheses. Computer technology has made it much easier than it used to be to typeset words in non-Latin alphabets.
>
> Hua Linfu 華林甫, “Qingdai yilai Sanxia diqu shuihan zaihai de chubu yanjiu” 清代以來三峽地區水旱災害的初步硏究 \[A preliminary study of floods and droughts in the Three Gorges region since the Qing dynasty\], Zhongguo shehui kexue 中國社會科學 1 (1999): 168–79 . . .
>
> Harry Harootunian and Sakai Naoki, “Nihon kenkyū to bunka kenkyū” 日本研究と文化研究, Shisō 思想 7 (July 1997): 4–53.
>
> That year the first assembly of the national Diet was held and the Imperial Rescript on Education (kyōiku chokugo 敎育勅語) issued.
And:
> **11.89: Titles of Japanese and Chinese works Chapter Contents / Languages Usually Transliterated (or Romanized) / Chinese and Japanese**
>
> As in English, titles of books and periodicals are italicized, and titles of articles are set in roman and enclosed in quotation marks (see 8.156–201). The first word of a romanized title is always capitalized, as are many proper nouns (especially in Japanese).
>
> Chen Shiqi, *Mingdai guan shougongye de yanjiu* \[Studies on government-operated handicrafts during the Ming dynasty\], . . .
>
> Hua Linfu, “*Qingdai yilai Sanxia diqu shuihan zaihai de chubu yanjiu*” \[A preliminary study of floods and droughts in the Three Gorges region since the Qing dynasty\], *Zhongguo shehui kexue* 1 (1999): 168–79.
>
> Okamoto Yoshitomo, *Jūrokuseiki Nichi-Ō kōtsūshi no kenkyū* \[Study of the intercourse between Japan and Europe during the sixteenth century\], . . .
>
> Akiyama Kenzō, “Goresu wa Ryūkyūjin de aru” \[The Gores are Ryūkyūans\], *Shigaku-Zasshi* (or *Shigaku Zasshi*) . . .
In summary, in Chicago style the format for article title is: transliterated/Romanized version (in double quotes), original script version, and English translation (in square brackets). The format for Hua author names and journal titles is: transliterated/Romanized version followed by original script version, with no English translation.
Harvard style and reference guide requires a translation, followed by the original name:
> Milani, F. (2001) The Phantom of the Opera. \[Le Fantome De L’Opera\] Paris, LeRoux.
In APA Style, the order is reversed: translation goes last, transliteration goes first, and the original script is not used:
> Motoki, S. (Producer), & Kurosawa, A. (Director). (1954). *Shichinin no samurai* \[Seven samurai; motion picture\]. Japan: Toho.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I will just add to good Alexander Serebrenik's answer. The main point of references is to provide traceable sources to information. This means the translation of the title and journal are key. The title provides insights into the content of the paper and the journal makes it traceable. All journals have different "standards" for how to do this in detail. It is also common that articles in French, German, and/or Spanish are not translated (again local "rules"). It is not common to see, for example, cyrillic in references, instead translitteration seems to be the most common. Again, there should be "rules" about this in each journal and so the best appraoch is to contact the journal editor and ask if no explicit information is available.
Here is an example of how journals may wish to see the references:
> Author(s), year. Title in original language (if possible) \[Title translated into English\]. Publication name in original language (if possible) \[Publication name translated into English\]. Volume/issue/page information (according to type of publication). \[In ‘language’\]
and as an example:
> Krenke, A.N. and Khodakov, V.G., 1966. O svyasi povercknostnogo tayaniya lednikov s temperaturoy vozdukha \[On the relationship between melt of glaciers and air temperature\]. Materialy Glyatsiologicheskikh Issledovaniy \[Data of Glaciological Studies\], 12. 153–163. \[In Russian\]
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Tags: citations, language, translations
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thread-11992 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11992 | What does a US university expect of a student applying from the UK? | 2013-08-20T09:49:13.713 | # Question
Title: What does a US university expect of a student applying from the UK?
How understanding are American Top-10 universities of different expectations abroad? In the UK, nearly nobody publishes anything before they start their PhD. The master courses are much shorter and usually include mostly courses instead of research. We are not expected to do any teaching. I am therefore wondering whether all of this will count against a UK student applying to the US. Personally, I have a very good profile for a UK student (Top of my class in undergrad and masters), but I only have 2 research internships outside of my courses. Is it expected of UK students to achieve the same things as US students applying to the same universities?
# Answer
> 4 votes
This may vary by field; my experience is in mathematics.
Most US students start a PhD program immediately after finishing their bachelor's degree, so they apply during the last year of their undergraduate program. It is less common to complete a separate master's first, especially in the sciences where PhD students are funded and masters students are typically not. The first couple of years of a PhD program are usually coursework similar to a masters program (you would probably be able to skip some or most of these courses, if they are comparable to what you have taken).
Therefore, the US students with whom you are competing are mainly undergraduates in the last year of their bachelors program. At this level a few of them may have published papers, but most will not. They may have research experience from summer projects, summer internships, independent study or lab work, but it is not usually comparable to graduate research. Very few of them will have any formal teaching experience; at most they may have worked as teaching assistants, which usually means grading homework. Some of them may have taken a few graduate-level courses at their undergraduate university, but not to the full extent of a masters degree.
So I don't think you need to be concerned about your level of preparation or experience in comparison with US applicants. If anything, you should be ahead.
As mentioned in comments, at a major US research department there should be people who have either come from UK universities or have experience with them. If they are not already on the graduate admissions committee, the committee members will consult with them if they have questions.
Good luck!
# Answer
> 1 votes
If you are literally talking Top-10, you will be on equal footing with American applicants, especially with your research internships.
Below that threshold you may well surpass American applicants, as you haven't spent any of your time minoring in side subjects since school.
This may not relate to how well your applications fare, but the larger universities will be well versed in taking on Eurasian applications, and you should expect fair judgement on UKish criteria.
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Tags: application, international, united-states, international-students
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thread-12082 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12082 | How should a student handle possible misconduct in his supervisor's work? | 2013-08-22T18:04:44.183 | # Question
Title: How should a student handle possible misconduct in his supervisor's work?
Given that you just read your supervisor's dissertation because it is important for your research. As you have already conducted a fairly broad literature review about the subject some time ago, you start to notice that your supervisor's work appears familiar to you. While skimming through the relevant papers, you are able to identify some large parts of your supervisor's dissertation that were invented before. Those parts are not properly marked, and/or your supervisor's (suggested) improvements seem to be fairly trivial and insignificant - at least in your opinion.
Would you suggest to approach the supervisor with your findings?
# Answer
Misconduct is of course a very serious thing. The problem you face is that you do not know the circumstances when your advisors work (or lack thereof) was made. It will also be hard to start digging into it to find out so I am afraid there is probably not much you can do. I do not think it would be wise to start spending time on this as a student either since it could seriously affect your thesis by distracting you and waste your time.
So what can be done? I would try to bring the question up with others. Discussing the different works and see if others pick up on the problem. Making people aware of what might be a problem can help you further assess the issue. I would tread carefully, however, unless you feel secure in opening up a can of worms.
I fully realize that this is far from a satisfactory answer from a moral point of view but it is pragmatic and I do not think it is your burden as a student to carry such weight. So the best you can do is to carefully expose the issue and perhaps later do something about it, if you still feel it is a serious breach.
> 8 votes
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Tags: phd, ethics, advisor, research-misconduct
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thread-12085 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12085 | What to change between Conference and Journal Paper? | 2013-08-22T18:43:11.147 | # Question
Title: What to change between Conference and Journal Paper?
If one is extending work previously published in conference proceedings, what must be changed?
Specifically, does one need to change the Introduction, Background Work, or similar sections that are not actually the new material being presented?
I understand that some journals use a plagiarism detection system that would throw serious red flags if sections were untouched; so, how do editors view this?
It seems reasonable to not have to modify every sentence, especially where the material has not changed.
Thoughts?
Edit: Typically, 25-30% new material should be presented, but does this have to come at the cost of rewriting some portions of the work that remain the same?
# Answer
> 11 votes
There is no good reason to simply copy large portions of an existing publication to make a new. By rewriting everything, you have the opportunity to rephrase your thoughts and most likely produce a better paper, at least from a writing point of view. Some journals definietly look at plagiarism and in this case self-plagiarism and the only way to avoid it is to rewrite. I think the benefits of rewriting clearly outweighs the possible time-saving by just copy-pasting.
Just to provide an example. I have written tens of papers about the same natural physical object that I have studied. In each paper, I have to provide a descritpion of the locality and characteristics and not once have this been copied. It is in fact interesting to see how many dofferent ways the same (dull) information can be conveyed.
As for a percentage of new material, I really would advice against relying on a numbr. It is possible this is a silent understanding in some fields but in general, only new insights and conclusion should warrant a new publication. Another year of data or something similar to that is in itself not enough. The paper might be published but such publication strategies are not looked upon favourably in the long term.
So, I strongly recomend rewriting each paper and not rely on copy-pasting. I am convinced you will develop as an author and also generate better papers by doing so. consider each paper a separate new entity.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I agree with @Peter Jansson, and I believe there is significant reason to rewrite the paper. That said, some of it is simply tedious!
I'm just going to add an answer here that I received after reaching out to an editor about this question.
Summary of their response:
> Good question! I will give you my point-of-view as an editor:
>
> * The delta will be evaluated **semantically** not textually.
> * There is no definitive need to rewrite sections; however, since you are not subject to the same limitations as a conference paper, detailed explanations are highly welcomed, specifically in unclear or shortened sections.
> * Also, since an extended paper contains something new, it is unlikely that Intro and Conclusions will be the same, and changes should be made accordingly.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Quite likely, when you were writing the conference version of the paper, you found yourself having to compress and cut here and there, ultimately telling a different story than the one you would have liked to tell. These cut will have occurred throughout the entire paper. When writing the journal version of the paper, you will have the chance to expand on those previously compressed sections. Indeed, you probably have better ways of explaining things or new insights. Now is the time to give those explanations and insights.
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Tags: publications, journals, peer-review
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thread-12062 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12062 | Does work experience help in (US) graduate admissions? | 2013-08-22T09:09:32.710 | # Question
Title: Does work experience help in (US) graduate admissions?
I have around 8 years of work experience. At this stage, the possible step is to go along management track. But, I am neither interested nor does it appeal to me. Thinking more on this, I have decided to go back to school, preferably for a PhD or, in the worst case, a master's degree.
My GRE and GPA are not so strong: 1100 GRE with 770 in math and 3.0 GPA (out of 4.0). My experience includes companies like Amazon and Zynga, but I have no research experience whatsoever.
Am I a good candidate for PhD or master's with research? My primary interests are in computer graphics or applied mathematics in simulation/visualization. What do you suggest I do? I am aiming for top 20 schools, but not sure if it will be right thing to do.
# Answer
> 7 votes
I would strongly recommend sitting in on, or somehow actually enrolling in, some upper level class at a local university. Treat it as if you were actually enrolled, and ask (beg) the professor to grade your homework and exams. And be sure to sign up for something brutally hard.
This will let you test your chops, and if you excel, then you can ask the professor to write a letter of recommendation.
Please keep in mind that top 20 programs are extremely competitive, and reject very many good people. Your competitors will have letters of recommendation from professors specifically familiar with the requirements of Top 20 programs, confidently saying that they are prepared to handle it.
An alternative would be to try to get into a master's program at a lower-tier university. If you prove yourself to be head and shoulders above everyone else, you can ask your professors to support transfer applications to better programs.
Your work experience is likely to count for very little, or perhaps even against you, since you have been out of school for so long. Sorry -- that's just how it is.
This is a hard road, I have at least sort of walked it myself. Good luck to you!
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, masters
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thread-11926 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11926 | As an editor, what measures can I implement to prevent image/photo manipulation? | 2013-08-16T21:01:47.957 | # Question
Title: As an editor, what measures can I implement to prevent image/photo manipulation?
There's been a case of alleged data manipulation in a recent *Nano Letters* paper (initial report here; now-retracted paper):
*You can surely make your own opinion on whether the images have been digitally modified, given the above snapshots (look for gray rectangles around the rods); I was careful to write “alleged” because the paper’s PI threatened legal action against the blogger who reported the issue.*
---
Now, this case lead to a large number of comments here and there about whose responsibility it was to catch this issue (reviewers or editor). I tend to agree that the reviewer should probably have caught it, but this lead me to wonder:
**As editor of a scholarly journal, what measures can I implement to prevent image/photo manipulation? And what about data manipulation?** *Organic Letters* has made the news two months ago when they hired a in-house data analyst. Is that the way to go? Are there other measures one could take to reduce the threat of image and data manipulation?
# Answer
> 10 votes
I think a search term for this type of manipulation detection is **image forensics**. Matthias Kirchner: Notes on Digital Image Forensics and Counter-Forensics may be a starting point.
**What can you do?**
I think a first step is to communicate clearly what image manipulations\* are acceptable and which are not:
* is it acceptable to adjust brightness and contrast?
* correct unequal illumination?
* whitelight correction based not on a whitelight measurement but on parts of the image?
* digital sharpening or other enhancement filters?
* where's the border between an inset picture and a fraudulent manipulation?
and so on.
**Who should detect this?**
I agree that the reviewer should have commented and asked about the pictures above, however my experience as reviewer is that I often get pictures in ridiculously low resolution (I comment on that). I'm not sure, but I think that the publishers may ask for high resolution pictures when they spot such problems in the production process. However, that would mean that the reviewers may not have seen the actual picture that is used for printing.
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* *manipulation* in the data analysis sense: calculations that change the information content (e.g. enhance contrast), and cannot be easily undone (as opposed to a transformation where the back transformation is easily possible, e.g. rotation), *not* in the sense of fraud.
# Answer
> 3 votes
There exist softwares dedicated to this. Journal of Cell Biology seems to have been a precursor in this in 2002.
A first simple check suggested in this paper is to open images in a image manipulation software and change "controls" (I guess: contrast, luminance, etc.) The problematic regions can then appear clearly.
I would say that, like plagiarism, this is the publisher to check or provide software to the editorial board, as this is technical and not scientific assessment.
# Answer
> 1 votes
It seems to me the only possibility is to subject all or particularly important images to an analysis detecting variation in noise levels (see examples here; service unfortunately closed). I personally do not know if such an analysis could be automated in an electronic submission system or be used as a tool by the editors. How much effort should be spent looking for fraud will obviously depend on assessments of, for example, how critical images are for the publication(s), the likelihood for fraud (random tests?) and the cost in terms of time and money for doing the testing.
It seems to me there would be much use to have a tool to do such an analysis for all submissions. The problem is of course that the noise level detection also identifies all kinds of manipulation and so it would seem reasonable to ask authors to provide a very detailed account of what has been done to each image so that the analysis can be set in a perspective.
# Answer
> -1 votes
"Kill the chicken, and make the monkey watch"
Institute an editorial policy by which all convicted offenders are banned for life from the publication in question. Convince other publications to share such info, and act in the same way after definitive proof is presented. No second chances.
Publicize these events far and wide.
That will probably take care of 60-70% of the problem, at least the blatant cases such as the one above.
Unfortunately few publishers have the conviction to do that.
EDIT: To answer your question: "Who do you ban among N coauthors?" To first approximation, all of them as co-authorship implies shared responsibility. However, that can be more accurately determined on a per-case basis as the result of detailed investigation.
Detecting instances fraud is trivial if crowdsourced. Blatant image manipulation as the one shown above would eventually have been noticed by a reader of that paper. Same applies to other similar kinds of fraud. Relying on a single overburdened editor and a couple of bored referees for that task makes it much more difficult. Hiring staff to essentially redo part of the research reported in manuscripts submitted to the journal is just laughable.
The point is to demand ethical standards as a publisher, and raise the stakes so high that the penalty of getting caught, guaranteed loss of professional reputation and possibly employment, offsets any gain from publishing a single or a series of papers.
Relying on automatic detection schemes is inherently unreliable. Smart people will always find creative ways to cheat more effectively. To illustrate my point, consider the unending arms race between virus writers and antivirus software companies.
To conclude, and since you seem to be quite green, I suggest you give this a thorough reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schon\_scandal
It won't take many Schönen to drive the point home...
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Tags: publications, peer-review, editors
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thread-11649 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11649 | What are my duties regarding reporting plagiarism when reviewing a fellow graduate student's paper? | 2013-08-05T04:34:08.180 | # Question
Title: What are my duties regarding reporting plagiarism when reviewing a fellow graduate student's paper?
I am a PhD student, and have just finished the last part of my course requirement. My last assignment is to review several other student's term projects from a seminar course.
One of the projects I have been asked to review is rife with plagiarism. More than 75% of the paper is plagiarized, from over two dozen different sources, including academic papers, stackoverflow.com, and wikipedia. I have reported all of this to my professor, along with a detailed summary of which parts are taken from where.
However, some of the paper appears to be plagiarized from the student's *own* earlier assignments, in a different course. It's fairly obvious that this is the case because they first plagiarized the assignment description to summarize the problem they wanted to study, and then provide an answer to said problem, including answering discussion questions that are on the assignment, but somewhat unrelated to their main topic.
I know the professor who taught the earlier course well. Should I contact him directly? Should I suggest to my current instructor that the earlier professor be notified as well? Which course of action is more appropriate?
# Answer
If you've spotted plagiarism, you have a duty to report it to a responsible authority. Just because the student is a fellow graduate student in your department does not absolve you of the duty. However, the politics of the situation can make things much more complicated, because it may lead to intra-departmental conflict, which is most certainly *not* a good thing.
I would believe the correct initial approach is to notify the professor of the current course of the current and past plagiarism. If you feel that no appropriate action has been taken, then you can consider notifying the instructor of the past course; however, the actions that can probably be taken are somewhat more limited than for a class where the final grades have not yet been assigned or have only recently posted.
How far you want to pursue this matter, on the other hand, depends on how serious you believe the transgression is. If the plagiarism is serious enough that it calls into doubt the student's ability to be an independent researcher, then further escalation—perhaps (in order of approach) to the graduate "officer" for the department, the chair of the department, or the dean for graduate students—may be necessary, if your initial efforts don't lead anywhere. This is, admittedly, a rather severe course of action, and one which may cause problems for you later down the road. So I would also recommend talking to your advisor as well, and solicit feedback as to what are the consequences of pursuing this.
> 14 votes
# Answer
The other answers make it sound like it is *your* bounden duty to hound the plagiarist, yea, even unto the ends of the earth. My feeling is different in this case.
As I understand your question, the project was assigned for a course, and you are assisting the instructor of that course (call him or her Prof. Smith) by reading and evaluating the papers, in a role similar to that of a teaching assistant. You should certainly report your findings to Prof. Smith, and be willing to answer any further questions they may have, but **your responsibility ends there**. It is up to Smith to decide how to handle the matter and whether to pursue further sanctions, consistent with the institution's policies.
Regarding the student's self-plagiarism of past assignments (say, from Prof. Jones's course), again, report your findings to Smith. If appropriate, Smith can discuss it with Jones directly. It's not clear that the student has committed misconduct with respect to Jones's course, only Smith's.
> 12 votes
# Answer
This is very serious, just noting the extent of plagiarism in your question:
> One of the projects I have been asked to review is rife with plagiarism. More than 75% of the paper is plagiarized, from over two dozen different sources, including academic papers, stackoverflow.com, and wikipedia.
and from the student's own work. To my way of thinking, this is wilful and blatant plagiarism, possibly due to laziness, and maybe desperation.
Just to add to what aeismail suggested, I would seek the faculty/university's rules and procedures for dealing with plagiarism and follow them to the letter - there must be a documented protocol to follow in situations such as this.
It may get awkward within the department, but putting the seriousness of plagiarism aside, they have put you in an uncomfortable position, something I am sure you don't need at this stage of your studies. Also, remember that they chose to plagiarise (at 75%, it is very likely a choice), so they have, in a way, chosen to bear the brunt of the consequences.
> 5 votes
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Tags: ethics, plagiarism
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thread-12061 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12061 | Is it wise for a BPAD (bi-polar affective disorder) recovered student to enrol for PhD? | 2013-08-22T08:43:05.353 | # Question
Title: Is it wise for a BPAD (bi-polar affective disorder) recovered student to enrol for PhD?
I have a masters degree in electronics engineering. When I was pursuing my B.Tech (Electronics and Communication) I had a nervous breakdown (to be specific BPAD) which was treated. After successful treatment I was able to succeed satisfactorily in my career. I have had to follow strict medications from then and sleep of 8 hours was must and the doctor warned me not to be in tense situations. I qualified the entrance exam for M.Tech with a 97 percentile and I have a severe love towards research now. I have started to fall in love with subjects like signal processing, linear algebra, statistics and probability, machine learning etc, but one professor from a premier institute of engineering and science warned me not to do a PhD, because competition is so heavy nowadays and people like me may have a second nervous breakdown.
I am currently working as an lecturer at a private engineering college. The management people are bothering me which is creating great tensions. I will give you an example: The vice principal was asking for an explanation letter and apology along with lot of scolding for a malpractice done by a student in an exam where I invigilated. They are also compelling us to do a lot of office works and not allowing us to focus teaching itself. What my argument is that since I can tolerate these humiliations and tensions, couldn't I join for a Phd programme and advance my career?
I have tried comparing myself with my teachers in engineering college and to my colleagues (who are certainly healthier than me). One instant I can explain: I had a teacher who when I asked a doubt on optical communication answered me that a teacher hadn't taught that....meaning they were not willing to take a look to the reference text. I am far better than my colleagues here. I regularly clear most doubts in the department.
As a human being who has the right to exist in this world and to support my poor family, and to do justice to myself, let me ask that couldn't I do a PhD in this present world?
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**Update:** I submitted my Ph.D. thesis in January 2020. Of course, there were tough times. But I survived. I got a postdoc position too. :)
# Answer
> 18 votes
I'll start with the basics: doing a PhD usually implies a lot of stress, and the process is both very competitive and tense. However, it depends a lot on the environment around the student. Therefore, without knowing your specific medical situation (and not being a medical expert, even if I knew all about you), you may not get a more useful answer than: **yes, it is possible**, but you have to be very careful about **ensuring that this is done in an environment compatible with your condition**, and be prepared to **quit if you have to choose between your health and your job** (recognize early on that failure is always an option). It will be hard, but I don't think it's impossible.
If you are to enroll in a PhD (or graduate program, I don't know the details of India’s graduate-level education system), it has to meet certain conditions:
* Make sure that the people taking you on as advisor and department head know of your condition, and wholeheartedly embrace the idea of you having special needs
* Discuss it with the doctor that follows you regularly. Also bring into the discussion your future institution's resident doctor, because he is (in most countries, by law) the person who will mediate between you and your institution if problems arise.
* Realize that if you love research, it's not only a PhD, but already think of your career ahead.
A last note of hope: in many countries, **people with disabilities are allowed by law to obtain work adjustments from their employers**. This is more commonly done for people with physical disabilities, but I know at least one person who successfully obtained very specific (and very large) adjustments to his PhD program because of his mental health (this is in France, if it makes any difference).
# Answer
> 8 votes
## The bad news
Your doctor has warned you not to be in tense situations.
**Listen to your doctor.**
Like somewhere around 10-25% of the population, you have challenges to your mental health. Those are challenges you have to live with and work with. For that, you will benefit from medical support.
So listen to your doctor.
**Doing a PhD is a lot of stress. A *lot* of stress.**
From what you've written, according to your doctor, you are not in a position to take on that stress. So don't.
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## The good news
There are lots of ways forward from here. There's lots of good evidence-based psychology going on, in India (for example at the CARE Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Chennai) and elsewhere, that may be able to help you develop your own early intervention toolkit to help prevent any recurrence of your former ill health. Such a toolkit might conceivably give you the tools you need to take on a PhD in the future, and to deal with the other challenges that life offers.
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## Final caveat
And life will throw enough stress-inducing events at you anyway: there's no need to go seeking out additional ones, until you've got the tools you need to handle them, so don't.
Just listen to your doctor.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I'd love to tell you to pursue your dream, but it's not as easy. As Daniel said, a PhD (almost?) always leads to some tense situations. However, I wouldn't be as pessimistic (or at least as definite) as he was.
First, Jack's comment is right on spot: we cannot give medical advices. IMO, you should discuss this with your doctor. How much stress can you take? For how long would it be O.K. for you to lose sleep? As your PhD draws nearer to the end, the stress will rise, whether you want it or not, and you will get at least few sleepless nights. Is there some medication that can help you with that? A doctor should now that, as well as the risks.
Second, you should look for a potential advisor and talk to him/her. Explain your situation, see if there is something to be done (i.e., give you much looser deadlines), maybe even arrange to meet with both your doctor and your potential advisor together to discuss this. An advisor can point out the potential problems, and a doctor can address them.
Third, what would you do after getting a PhD? In many countries, a PhD is the first real step towards the research career. Such career, while relaxing in some aspects (flexible working hours, for example), is quite stressful in others (paper/conference deadlines, looking for grants, fighting for university positions, your own PhD students, problems in getting results and/or being unable to solve some problem,...). At that phase, you will not be able to have the world adapt to your needs. A journal will not postpone its next issue to wait for your paper, a conference will not be postponed for you, grants will not be just handed to you,... Is this the life you can handle? This is also to be discussed with your doctor (if possible, have someone with such experience along). If not, what does PhD give you and is it worth going for it?
Not to end in such grim tones, there might be alternatives. You can go for a "normal" (i.e., non-research) career, but talk to some researcher(s) and see if you can cooperate (see it as a hobby at first), so that you do some research, but without all the pressure. And, if that works out well, you can always discuss doing those additional steps.
But, do remember: communication is everything. Without consulting your doctor and at least one academic, I don't think you should go for a PhD.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Is it possible to do a PhD at part time status? It usually seems like PhD's in the US work on campus and these usually require being enrolled in a certain amount of hours. I'm not sure what India is like.
I really wish you luck with your condition. Hopefully, over the years, you've learned different ways to stay balanced and handle stress. Exercise and meditation are essential to keep me in balance.
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Tags: phd, disability
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thread-12052 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12052 | How many arXiv papers are uploaded in their final (refereed) versions? | 2013-08-22T00:06:21.047 | # Question
Title: How many arXiv papers are uploaded in their final (refereed) versions?
In a recent meta.physics.se discussion on the use of permanent links form physics.stackexchange, I proposed as policy that
> when linking to the arXiv, link to the abstract page (arxiv.org/abs/...) and not directly to the pdf, as a courtesy to users on lower bandwidths. If the paper has been published (which will be noted on the arXiv abstract), *include a link to the journal version, even if it's paywalled, if only as a courtesy to the referees' hard work.*
One comment on the italicized part was
> Doesn't pretty much everybody post the final version on arxiv?
and I would like to know (if that is even possible) to what extent this is true. My gut feeling is that this is field-dependent, but I do not know what evidence may be available to explore this, other than anecdotal evidence.
Thus: **Is there a clear trend for authors to upload post-referee-process versions after publication?** Does this depend on the specific field? What evidence is available for this?
# Answer
> 17 votes
It is a lot of work to find out which paper in arXiv has actually the same content as a published paper. However, taking arXiv's journal-ref field as a surrogate indicating which paper has a journal version out, I arrive at these fraction of papers:
So it looks as if the gut feeling that this is field-dependent is true: high energy and nuclear physics have consistently high fractions of papers with journal-ref field set. On the other hand, this seems far less common for maths papers. Note that a certain drop at the end is to be expected as the preprints may be uploaded to arXiv considerably before the paper is accepted, printed and the journal-ref is updated in arXiv.
Here's the marginal plot over all fields: So overall, about 45% of the papers have a journal-ref. However, it is set for almost 60% of the 2001 - 2007 papers. Whether this is a real decline or just the lag between preprint and paper publishing remains to be seen (in a few years).
Also, neither the overall nor the subject-dependent trends seem to have a convincing increasing trend, even if the decline due to "not yet published and updated" is assumed to be the sole cause of the decreases.
For the complete picture, here's the development of total number of papers:
and number of papers with journal-ref set:
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Tags: publications, arxiv
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thread-12109 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12109 | What benefits are there to university alumni mentoring undergraduate students? | 2013-08-23T10:09:26.137 | # Question
Title: What benefits are there to university alumni mentoring undergraduate students?
My faculty is starting a mentorship initiative where they match undergrad students with alumni from the same program. I was contacted by one of my old professors, and asked whether or not I could be a mentor.
Now I have been in mentorship programs before; and I currently have a mentor myself, but I have always been the *mentee*, never the mentor. I have to say I never considered what the mentors have to gain in these programs. Is it mostly charity, in the sense that you selflessly help/guide the mentee, or are the intellectual/practical benefits to mentoring, particularly within academia?
# Answer
> 10 votes
> What can a mentor gain from the mentor/mentee relationship?
**Altruistic answers:**
1. Passing on learned knowledge and lessons is a hallmark of a society. What you learned as a student, employee, employer, *citizen*, etc. is important so that once your brain and the brains of others in your generation are pushing up daisies, the knowledge isn't lost, and repeating mistakes can be avoided. Many people consider this a satisfying endeavor.
2. As a role model, you can demonstrate moral, ethical, compassionate, etc. strategies for using the education you got from the school. Knowing that you've led someone down an ethical path is a good feeling.
3. You can act as a sounding board for your mentee's questions about your field, and for the types of questions that don't routinely come up in class. There is a certain satisfaction in being able to answer questions based on your experience.
4. There might be new ideas that your mentee knows about your field that you can learn from. While you pass on your wisdom, you also have the opportunity to learn some of the new ideas that are being taught today.
**Less altruistic answers:**
1. Depending on your field, having been a mentor looks good on a resume or in an interview.
2. In your case, you'll gain points with your former professor, who might be more inclined to write you a good letter of recommendation some day.
**Decidedly bad answers:**
1. Steer the kid in the wrong direction, and that's one less competitor!
2. You might get your lab cleaned because "it builds character."
3. In academia, if your mentee has good ideas, you can steal them and publish the results yourself.
# Answer
> 8 votes
I view this as "paying it forward": someone who has received good mentoring advice should pass this onwards to others.
In addition, it's a way of encouraging promising young talent, and making sure they make their way through a challenging transition (from high school to college graduate is a big change!), and prepare them for their careers in the future.
It is also possible to gain new insights and experiences by working with students of varying backgrounds. Helping them has actually helped me to develop closer connections both within the administration of my university, as well as with colleagues at other universities.
# Answer
> 6 votes
From the mentor point of view, I think one important practical benefits of mentoring/tutoring is that it gives you access to a pool of students (your *mentees*, as you put it), from which you may find future interns/grad students/post-docs. This access can be used to try and recruit them, either for yourself, or within your network (or your field in general).
Also, it gives you privileged (yet indirect) access to the students currently enrolled in the program: if you wish to circulate, e.g., a job or internship offer, it will look more attractive coming from a classmate than sent to them from a stranger.
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Tags: undergraduate, mentoring, alumni
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thread-12099 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12099 | Publishing again acknowledging the original publication of oneself | 2013-08-23T04:29:52.003 | # Question
Title: Publishing again acknowledging the original publication of oneself
I have come across the International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications(IJACSA). The copyright section says that "*Authors retain the right to publish their material elsewhere, providing the original publication is acknowledged.*"
Can the same paper be sent to somewhere else as well. Given that I have seen that mostly conferences/journals require unpublished material, what does this clause exactly mean ? Is it normal clause in Open Access Journals ?
# Answer
That means that IJACSA will not try to stop you from publishing your work elsewhere. (They'd have little reason to do so, as they are not profiting from it.) It is common for open-access journals to let the author retain the publication rights.
However, no reputable journal will publish an article that has already appeared somewhere else.
You could "publish" it on your web page, or on arXiv, or as part of a book (though again, a reputable book publisher will probably balk if the content is just recopied).
Note: IJACSA is published by The Science and Information Organization, which is on Beall's List of Predatory Open-Access Publishers. Its website makes the journal look very dubious, especially the ridiculously broad scope and the promise to complete peer review within 15 days. I wouldn't publish there (or would I?).
> 15 votes
# Answer
I think the more specific meaning of this statement should be that you have the right to:
* publish your work in alternate formats (on-line repositories, your website, internal technical reports, etc.)
* re-use *excerpts* from your work in alternate venues
The latter would be, for instance, to reprint a figure that you used in one publication in a second publication you've written, but simply citing that it came from the original figure.
> 4 votes
# Answer
It's very important to understand the difference between **copyright law** and **academic ethics**. They give you permission, waiving the normal copyright assignment process, to retain the copyright of the work you produced. You can thus republish it, in full or in part. While doing so in another journal, even with appropriate citation, would be unethical (journals require *original* content), there actually are some ethical ways in which this could happen:
* republishing as a chapter in a book, with a clear notice;
* republishing parts of it in course material;
* republishing “as is” in a more prestigious journal 20 years from now, if it so happens that your paper spawned an entire new field of research and is now revered as such
* reformatting it and putting it on your blog (which *is* a publication).
> 1 votes
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Tags: research-process, publications, acknowledgement
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thread-12056 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12056 | Is it common practice to remove an author's name from a paper? | 2013-08-22T03:09:33.243 | # Question
Title: Is it common practice to remove an author's name from a paper?
I work as an instructor at a university. I am not a graduate student there and my responsibilities end at teaching. Recently, a supervisor from another department asked me to prepare an article for their department to use, for some extra pay. The subject aligned well with my background and recent research.
When I finished the article, which involved additional research and several weeks of work, I put my name as author, as I would any other paper. After I finished, the supervisor requested that I completely remove my name, as he wished to submit it to the leader of his department, assembled together with some students' work.
Is that at all unusual that someone would request that I remove my name from a paper?
# Answer
This seems to be a blatant attempt to take credit for your work - as far as I know, this is both not common, nor acceptable. To quote @JeffE *"hell, no"*, or a polite variant, is the only response.
I would, politely but firmly, state that as you have done the research and the write-up, then you are the first author, perhaps offer to have them as a co-author, only if they have contributed something.
I would also consider having a quiet word with the head of the department about this.
> 91 votes
# Answer
This is a "slam-dunk" case, *provided you have a paper trail.*
If you have both done research for the paper as well as wrote the first draft, then your colleague is *required* to give you co-authorship on the paper. (In fact, there's a strong case that *you* should be the first author, not your colleague.)
So I would agree with Damien that you should "politely but firmly" make your case to your colleague. If he refuses, then speak to the "leader of the department" and present your evidence.
I would also make sure not to work with this colleague again in the future!
> 43 votes
# Answer
An episode I personally witnessed:
A married grad student at a top university in a semi-experimental field told one of her two PhD advisers that she was pregnant 3 months before the dissertation defence (the baby was due 5 months after the defence). He replied *"congratulations, I suppose"* and sent **her** an e-mail (the same day) telling her that he was removing her from the author list in one of their joint papers. To say that she was shocked is an understatement. After much agonizing she replied to him **and** *all the other paper authors*, listing her contribution to the paper and expressing a surprize that this does not merit her being one of the authors. The advisor apologized and her authorship was reinstated.
In short: *never surrender*.
> 38 votes
# Answer
Just to round up the discussion, there are situations where you *want* to have your name removed -- when you are not satisfied with the quality of the work in the paper. I am a statistician, and I have heard of cases when a group of substantive researchers would ask a statistician for initial guidance, do the (wrong) analysis on their own, and stick the statistician's name into the list of authors to make their paper more credible. I have also heard of really weird situations when statisticians from pharma industry did not want their names on solid papers so as not to signal to their competitors that their firm is working on this new type of a drug. In either case, the initiative of having the name removed comes from the co-author themselves, not from the lead author.
Other than that, I have +1ed most answers here. As most others, from your description the situation appears to be that of plagiarism and a blatant violation of your authorship rights.
> 13 votes
# Answer
If someone wants to steal your research for whatever purpose, he is a thief. It is not acceptable in academic world to do such thing, but as far as I know, such things can happen quite often in comparison how unethical it is. You have to resist and you have to change or expel your supervisor as soon as possible. If he use your work without your name, you can / and you have to use it against him, (with help of 3rd party, who will "accidentally" find this) so such thing will not repeat in the future and you will have no strikes back. Academic world should be (and unfortunately it is not) free of parasites.
> 6 votes
# Answer
My answer assumes the worst case, namely that said supervisor indeed attempts to claim authorship for your work. As LarsH justly pointed out, you might first want to clarify this is not a severe misunderstanding by having a talk with said supervisor, i.e. why would he want you to do such a thing (and please don't go down the path of asking "ok, assuming I did, what's in it for me?"). There may be a sensible argument, but personally I doubt it, thus let's assume he basically wants to publish your work as his:
Not only is this unusual and unethical, it is against all scientific conduct and might even be a felony to press charges against. This would warrant said supervisor to face severe consequences like being fired or having their PhD/tenure disavowed. Do however not attempt something stupid like blackmailing them - instead, assuming you have sufficient prove of this, expose them immediately since this is intolerable misconduct. (If you don't have prove, treat carefully though, since this might backfire into you ending up being "that jerk jealous of the "real"<sup>*</sup> scientists")
<sup>*</sup> No offence meant, but unfortunately in the event of doubt rank all too often outranks common sense
> 5 votes
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Tags: ethics, authorship
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thread-12070 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12070 | Right way of requesting research project from a professor as a non-affiliate | 2013-08-22T11:58:19.810 | # Question
Title: Right way of requesting research project from a professor as a non-affiliate
I am a new immigrant and my question is about norms in American universities. I have MSc degree from abroad and in order to improve my chances for admission to a decent PhD program I would like to get published. I would appreciate your answers about the following questions:
1. Is it acceptable for *someone outside a department/university* to contact a professor and ask him/her for a research project (as a non-student)?
2. I do not have journal publications. What else can make them convinced?
3. Finally, what would be an ideal etiquette/strategy for contacting professors with a plan for making such a request, if it is sensible at all.
# Answer
> 6 votes
1. It is acceptable, but not the best strategy. Getting the attention of a top professor is like fishing a very picky fish: you need a good bait. In my experience, it is easier to approach them by offering something rather than by asking for something. Also, the approach should be genuine. This is, you approach them because you want to work on something that might fit his/her research interests not just because you want to see his/her name tied to yours in a paper.
2. **IDEAS**: Professors salivate when they see an interesting idea.
3. Just follow all the etiquette rules. Be polite and respectful as you would be with any other person. Also, try to be precise, they are busy people.
More importantly: Publications are not strictly necessary to be admitted to a decent PhD.
If you have some project in mind, write it and send it to the Professor in question. Tell him/her that you are interested in working on such project and that given his/her research interests, you think that the project would be greatly benefited with his/her ideas and that you would appreciate collaborating with him/her on it.
# Answer
> 2 votes
@Iron's advice is good, but you will probably get turned down. I get many such requests and none has worked out yet.
The best way for you to get to work with a professor is to first be admitted as a PhD student in his/her program.
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Tags: publications, research-process, graduate-school, computer-science, independent-researcher
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thread-12119 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12119 | Are publications on arxiv.org valued by graduate admissions committees? | 2013-08-23T15:36:11.500 | # Question
Title: Are publications on arxiv.org valued by graduate admissions committees?
Please see this question of mine first.
My question is: Does the admissions committee in grad school consider publications in places like arxiv.org as a significant achievement given the student has only completed bachelors?
I am asking this question because I have seen many math papers in arxiv.org that have not made new contribution to the field. In other words, those papers have not made new discoveries or solutions of the unsolved problems. This makes me wonder whether publishing at arxiv is considered a big achievement.
# Answer
> 19 votes
"Publishing" on the arXiv is not a big achievement; actually, it's not an achievement at all. In terms of how prestigious it is, it's not really any different from putting an article on your own personal website. The arXiv isn't a publishing venue, it's a preprint server---it's purpose is to serve as a public repository for potential articles. It has various benefits (it's probably more reliable than your own website, it gives credible evidence about when an article was posted and modified, which is sometimes desirable), but it achieves those in part by *not* refereeing the articles on it.
However, *writing* an article as an undergrad is certainly a meaningful achievement, and given that it can take a while for a paper to make its way to being in print, an appropriate unpublished article is still a positive for an applicant. Of course, the admissions committee wants to distinguish a good article from a bad one, and since posting on the arXiv isn't a good proxy for quality, the committee will look for others (recommendation letters, for instance, or possibly just reading the article themselves).
# Answer
> 15 votes
**It depends on the paper.**
If you post a **good** paper to arXiv, it will definitely be valued by admissions committees, especially if you (and your references) make a compelling case to read it in your statement (and their letters). On the other hand, if you post a **bad** paper to arXiv — poorly written, making no new contribution, or both — it will also be valued by the committee, but as an easy excuse to reject your application.
In other words, it's exactly like any other publication.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I agree with JeffE's answer.
One of the things the admission commitee look for is your **research potential** when they review the application.
You need to show that you do have the potential to do research. How do you show that? A well-written paper on arXiv is the evidence. Whoever writes your recommendation letter can use that to say it. You can mention that paper in your application. If the commitee has any doubt in your research potential, they can look at the paper and draw the conclusion themselves.
As long as the quality of the paper is good, I believe it's achivement. Whether or not the achievement is big depends on the quality of your paper. Of course, you may kill your chance to be admitted if the quality of the paper is bad.
In order to improve the quality of the paper, I would suggest you to let somebody (your prof/advisor) review the paper before you put it on arXiv.
# Answer
> 4 votes
The answer to your question is not really. This is because the people in Grad schools see if your publication has been submitted to a known conference or journal, or at least that they are peer reviewed. In arxiv.org anybody can publish their own work, being more like a big database of not or pre peer reviewed papers. I mention you this because I usually put my articles, the drafts that has been accepted in conferences, in arxiv.org, but there are some people that put only its ideas and even some articles that do not contribute too much to the developing of an specific field of science.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I think it is important to highlight one exception to the different answers given above. There are a few subdomains of research, mainly in physics, in which repositories such as arXiv are the primary means of communication. (This applies to topics such as string theory, and I believe some high-energy areas as well.) If you happen to work in one of these areas, then an arXiv publication will carry much more weight. Otherwise, the warnings given above do apply.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Putting papers on arXiv is publication, but it is not a referred publication. People use it for various reason but most importantly to timestamp their work and communicate their works with others earlier.
That being said, publishing on arXiv itself is useless, since no one has read on your paper yet. I bet that the admission committee won't read your paper at all. There are hundreds of applications, why do they want to waste time to go to arXiv and read a newbie's paper.
However, situation could be different if you can show your work already "reviewed" in other way. For example, it is discussed by journals like Science/Nature, or very well known website like arxivblog before the referred publication. Or, the arXiv version is already cited by independent research groups. Remember to mention that if you have.
In any case, you should put it in your CV if your papers are good. If possible, you can a try to attach a short excerpt from your paper such as abstract or the first page. It might be useful to show your work in progress and support your research interest in your application. In particular, if you already have at least one referred publication, the extra arXiv papers should sound much better.
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Tags: phd, graduate-school, publications, arxiv
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thread-12137 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12137 | How much more does a recommendation letter from alumni help in PhD admissions? | 2013-08-24T07:00:42.450 | # Question
Title: How much more does a recommendation letter from alumni help in PhD admissions?
Imagine a case where I wish to apply for MIT. I happened to work with a young assistant professor who finished her PhD in MIT. How much will her good words weigh in recommending me to MIT PhD program?
I am asking this because I am facing a choice in asking for recommendations:
* A recommendation letter from a more experienced full professor OR
* One from a young assistant professor who just came back from MIT?
I understand that what matters most is whether the professor knows me well or not. But for them two, I think they understand me roughly the same.
# Answer
> 9 votes
I disagree with Damien's answer for the specific case of your question. A graduate of the department, who knows you very well and can write a good letter of recommendation, is worth just as much as the "big name," because she is familiar with the department as it is currently operating, and would be able to place your work in context of people also known in the department. So, for the specific case of applying to a school that is someone else's alma mater, I would say go for it, with a caveat.
That caveat is that if a person is not able of writing a good letter of recommendation, then you shouldn't use it. A bad letter will not help you at all. If you have a career services office or academic counselor who can help you sort through which letters are most suitable for graduate school applications, that will help you make the decision.
# Answer
> 2 votes
As both the academics know you the same, I would obtain a reference from the more experienced full professor for your application and a reference from the new assistant professor for your records/supplementary notes.
I have found that you can never have to many references/recommendation letters, but strategically use them for what you are applying for wisely. However, use the recommendation letter only if their specialisations are the same or are similar to what you are applying for.
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, recommendation-letter, alumni
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thread-12130 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12130 | When will the authors be listed alphabetically? | 2013-08-24T03:07:56.283 | # Question
Title: When will the authors be listed alphabetically?
Recently, I noticed that some of the papers actually had their author names listed in the alphabetical order.
Say Mr. Smith contributed more than Mr. Black. Then without noticing the tiny footnote, one will simply take Mr. Black as the first author.
I am wondering whether there exists some certain such scenarios where the authors have to be listed as such. Will it be unfair for the first-author-should-be?
Update:
I am talking about EECS field. I see most of the papers list the authors according to the contributions. But only occasionally, I see alphabetically-listed authors.
# Answer
**It happens when the authors chose to do so!**
Journals do not impose the order of authors in the authors list. They usually give guidelines (or policies) on authorship standards, i.e. who should be co-author and who should not, but they leave the ordering up to the authors themselves.
Now, different fields have different customs. In physics and chemistry, alphabetical ordering is very rare (used for example in consortium publications), while in mathematics alphabetical ordering is more commonly, but not exclusively, used. **Unless there is a footnote clarifying the authors’ respective contributions, you cannot definitely tell which system they used.**
> 3 votes
# Answer
In mathematics authors are almost always listed in alphabetical order. This works, among other reasons, because work groups are organized less by a lab structure so you get more rhetoric of equality between all authors.
> 11 votes
# Answer
In CS, it varies by subfield. Theoretical Computer Science follows the math tradition and (almost) always uses alphabetical ordering. Many other subareas use some form of order-by-contribution.
> 3 votes
# Answer
In my field (Atmospheric Physics) it does not happen - the principal researcher is first author, then the list is in order of contributions.
According to this section of a Wikipedia article, it really depends on the field of research, and these seem to be relatively well established within those fields, so I would imagine that there would be very little feelings of unfairness (though I would imagine that such conflict would still occur). It would get trickier in interdisciplinary studies, where this would have to be negotiated, once again depending on the policies of the journal.
> 2 votes
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Tags: publications, authorship
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thread-12147 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12147 | Is it okay to submit a paper to a conference or publication from another field? | 2013-08-24T18:02:29.620 | # Question
Title: Is it okay to submit a paper to a conference or publication from another field?
For instance, my field is Information Technology and I would like to know if it is okay to submit to management and environmental science publication. Of course, it's not purely I.T. but this is a paper on how I.T. can help preserve the environment, specifically on reducing consumption of resources.
What are your thoughts on this?
# Answer
There isn't anything wrong with submitting to a conference that might not be a perfect fit. I would urge you to ensure that the fit is decent enough that you won't be wasting anyone's time, but cross-polination can be great for both fields.
When I was a graduate student and was helping my advisor review papers for a prominent conference, I read an outstanding paper that I didn't believe was on-topic for the conference, and I suggested to my advisor that it should be rejected it even though it had a novel (and cool) contribution. When I discussed it with her, she said that for really excellent papers, program committees will sometimes be flexible. If I was convinced it was that good, she said, I should give it a positive review and let the committee sort it out. In the end they accepted the paper. It was very well-received at the conference, and the authors were excited to get the paper into the competitive conference, where it would undoubtedly be seen by a lot of people.
> 6 votes
# Answer
I think if your work is either *interdisciplinary* (i.e. has impact in two different fields), or at the border of two fields (e.g., physical chemistry or molecular biology), you *should* publish in journals and conferences in a way to address both communities. We usually have a lot to learn by outsiders coming into a given field of research, as they bring a new view, new ideas, concepts and methods. Your case sounds exactly like that, so I'd say go ahead!
> 1 votes
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Tags: publications, journals, ethics
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thread-12164 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12164 | Can I tactfully change my mind after agreeing to do an independent study with a professor? | 2013-08-25T19:46:43.460 | # Question
Title: Can I tactfully change my mind after agreeing to do an independent study with a professor?
I recently asked two professors by email if I could do an independent study with them. Both of them responded, saying that they can sponsor me for the study. As soon as I received the first professor's response, I replied, saying that I wanted to work with him and scheduling a face-to-face meeting.
Now that both professors have responded, though, I think I would enjoy working with the second professor more. Would it be appropriate for me to tell the first professor that I changed my mind, or would it be wrong to take back the commitment I already gave him? If it would be appropriate to change my mind, how can I handle the situation tactfully?
Although I would prefer to work with the second professor, I know that I would enjoy working with either of them, so I'll be fine if it's too late to change my mind.
---
**Edit:** Here is some more information about my specific situation.
I am planning on doing the same project with either professor. I am currently writing the music for a video game, and I would be working with the professors to produce the music and create a graded portfolio. I haven't worked out any specific details with either professor.
Both professors are music professors who have specific knowledge about music technology. The reason I would prefer working with the second professor is because I know he has expert knowledge of the software I'm using to produce the music. In addition, he is skilled with the genres of music I'm producing as well as writing film scores. I'm not sure how much the first professor knows about these specific topics.
# Answer
> 11 votes
Do you have a project already lined up ? it sounds like your meeting with the first professor would be to discuss topics for the study. In any case, if no financial agreement has been reached, I see no harm in talking with both professors and then making a decision based on what happens in those meetings. I disagree with @aeismail that you've given a formal commitment at this stage.
You didn't say though why you'd prefer to work with the second professor prior to having a meeting ? is it the subject matter ? general rapport ?
# Answer
> 6 votes
It's a good situation to have to be interested in two projects, and be equally happy to work on either of them.
However, if you have given a commitment to one of the professors, then you really should honor that commitment. Reneging on your commitment will look bad to the first professor, and if the second professor finds out, that could leave a bad impression on his mind, as well.
You could tactfully tell the second professor, "I would really love to work for you, but Professor X gave me an offer first, and I accepted before I received your offer. I am sorry to have to decline, but perhaps we can work together in the future."
I don't think there's a tactful way to say the same thing to a professor after you've made a commitment; you'll come across as very opportunistic instead (note: that's not a good thing!).
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Tags: professorship, ethics, communication
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thread-11920 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11920 | How to format multiple authors name, affiliation and email in a paper? | 2013-08-16T14:56:58.000 | # Question
Title: How to format multiple authors name, affiliation and email in a paper?
I am writing a paper with my teacher and his teacher. I don't know the standard of writing authors name, affiliation and email in the paper. I am using **IEEEtran** template for an IEEE conference. If the authors are in different department or university there is no problem we can use column author name like this:
```
Author one Author two Author three
Department one Department two Department three
University one University two University three
author.one@uni-one.edu author.two@uni-two.edu author.three@uni-three.edu
```
but what if two of them be in a same department and just two of them has a .edu email address? In this situations we can use another style like this:
```
Author one*!, Author two*! and Author three^#
*Department One, University One
^Department two, University two
!{Author.one, Author.two}@univ-one.edu
#Author.three@univ-one.edu
```
or it should be like this?
```
Author one*, Author two* and Author three^
*Department One, University One
{Author.one, Author.two}@univ-one.edu
^Department two, University two
Author.three@univ-one.edu
```
My question is this: What is the right format in this case when different authors with different affiliation, department and email should be on a paper?
In my specific, we all are from the same Univ. and Department but they both have .edu email and I don't have one.
Thanks in advance.
# Answer
> 7 votes
We had a similar complicated case in our paper. I'd suggest this as a good way to do it.
For your own case, add a comma after the braces, followed by your email.
Here's how it would look like:
```
{Author.one, Author.two}@univ-one.edu, Author.three@univ-ten.edu
```
I am assuming your username tells the reader that it is yours (has your lastname, initials or so). Additionally, do your best to sort the emails such that they follow the same order of authors.
# Answer
> 5 votes
Just look up previous conference proceedings and do the same!
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Tags: publications, email, authorship, affiliation
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thread-12097 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12097 | Chances at funded cs PhD with high GPA and GRE scores but no research experience or professor connections? | 2013-08-23T01:51:53.900 | # Question
Title: Chances at funded cs PhD with high GPA and GRE scores but no research experience or professor connections?
I see a lot of questions about grad school prospects with poor grades and/or gre but what about the prospects of getting into a funded PhD program with no research experience or professor connections but good grades and gre quant (3.9 and 165 respectively)?
I graduate in December (BS CompEng from 2nd tier US college) and don't really have time to get interested in undergrad research (though i'd love to but I can't afford to quit my job). If I just blanket applied to the top 20 CS PhD programs do I have a good chance at picking up decent funding (say $18k+)?
Also is there an online resource to profile what kind of applicants get accepted to which schools?
Edit: I received some good advice but no one has responded to my original question: can I get into a decent funded cs PhD program with good grades and gre while lacking research experience. I can certainly ask my professors to write letters of recommendation and 'top 20' is a somewhat arbitrary number. I would really be happy in any school that is actively outputting interesting machine learning or combinatorial optimization research.
# Answer
> 6 votes
Your big challenge—and this would be true regardless of the field—is that you have no "professor connections." This is a major challenge for you, because one of the most important parts of a graduate application is the letters of recommendation. If you don't have people who know you and can vouch for your capability to be a successful graduate student, you're going to have a tough time getting admitted to a graduate school, and especially top-20 programs.
The good news is that in most science and engineering graduate programs, if you do get into a reputable program, you should be able to get a guarantee of funding (either as an RA or TA) for the length of your graduate career (assuming you make "normal progress" and are a good departmental citizen, etc.). I would be leery of accepting an offer from a school that doesn't make such a commitment!
# Answer
> 4 votes
> Can I get into a decent funded CS PhD program with good grades and GRE while lacking research experience.
Yes
> *Will* I get into a decent funded CS PhD program with good grades and GRE while lacking research experience.
Apply and find out.
Graduate school applications at the highest level are strongly biased random processes. For the good programs, there are *always* many more qualified applicants than available positions. Many times it boils down to which professors are looking for candidates who are strong in certain subfields, and that changes on a yearly basis.
If you want to go to graduate school in your field, put together the best application package you can (great letters of recommendation, well-written research statement, etc.), and apply to a range of schools that meet your criteria for "school\[s\] that \[are\] actively outputting interesting machine learning or combinatorial optimization research." Don't be silly and apply to only the top schools (*no one* is guaranteed acceptance), but don't feel shy about applying with excellent grades, scores, and letters.
If you're concerned that you'll be throwing money away by applying, there are times in life where you do have to take risks in order to proceed, and spending application money may be one of those times. However, this: "If I just blanket applied to the top 20 CS PhD programs" is a bad idea and almost certainly a waste of money.
If your concern is more "should I spend another semester/year getting some research experience to be more competitive," well, that's a bit more nuanced. It can't hurt, especially if you do well in that research (either publish something, and/or demonstrate to a professor that you have good research potential). Are you the perfect candidate now? No. Will you be competing against other students who don't have research experience? Yes. Do students with quality research experience have a better chance of being accepted? Yes.
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions
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thread-11985 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11985 | How should I choose which graduate programs to apply to for the PhD? | 2013-08-20T05:14:22.850 | # Question
Title: How should I choose which graduate programs to apply to for the PhD?
This fall I will be an senior mathematics major at a small public liberal arts university. I'm trying to finalize the list of schools to which I will apply (to PhD programs in pure math), but I am finding it somewhat difficult. I know that I am not a candidate for admission at top-tier universities. My school is relatively unknown outside of its state, and the professors who will write my recommendation letters aren't very well-known either (although they do publish somewhat frequently in their respective fields). I have taken two semesters of abstract algebra, one semester of real analysis, and two semesters of topology, and received an A in all. By the time I graduate I'll have taken another semester in real analysis and a course in complex analysis, plus several other applied and discrete math classes. I haven't taken any graduate courses since my school doesn't offer them, but I have completed a research project with one of my professors in the area of math which I hope to study in grad school. My GPA is around 3.85.
I think (and please correct me if I am wrong) that I should focus on applying to "mid-tier" programs, but I find it very difficult to determine which programs are at this level. I know that one student from my school was accepted at a program ranked in the 40's by the U.S. News math grad school rankings.
Essentially, my question is this: Do the U.S. News rankings accurately reflect the selectivity of programs, and if so, is there some point in the rankings at which schools become "mid-tier" or at which I would be competitive for admission?
# Answer
**Yes**, the rankings (roughly) reflect the selectivity of the program, as far as I know. Your choice to focus on mid-tier programs makes sense. (I think defining mid-tier as starting in the 40s is plausible, though I suspect you'll get conflicting answers from different people.) **However**
1. **Don't confuse the quality of the program *overall* with the quality of their specialty that you hope to study.** Their specialty program could be much better or worse than the program overall. In math departments (as opposed to, say, some computer science departments), students are typically admitted *to the department*, rather than to a professor's research group or a specialty area. Taking advantage of this could get you into a specialty program that's rated higher than you "deserve".
2. **Don't exclude a school just because it's too highly rated.** It's good to **apply to a wide range** of schools, some "reach" schools that you think it unlikely you'll be admitted to, and some "safety" schools that you would be quite surprised *not* to be admitted to. All sorts of factors influence how likely it is you'll be admitted to a given school in a given year, many of them completely unknowable to you. For example, maybe a new faculty member will be coming and looking for students (or maybe one will be leaving). Maybe the program has all their TA positions tied up with current students who haven't finished yet, or maybe not. Maybe a dean wants to grow the program, etc. Many of these things you just can't know. Most likely, you won't get into MIT, Harvard, Princeton, or Stanford. But once you get into the 20s, 30s and below, the outlook is less clear.
3. **Focus on *fit*, rather than solely on *ranking***. Think about where the school is located. If you plan to live there for 5 or 6 years, you don't want to hate the place. This can include proximity to your family or friends, climate, scenery, nightlife, etc. If you know what specialty you want to study, the school should have at least 1, but hopefully 2 or 3 folks that you would potentially like as an adviser.
4. **Focus on aspects of your application that you can still change**. With a transcript no stronger than yours, I got into a top-25 school. The cool part is that for the specialty I chose, they were top-10. At this point, most of your transcript (and much of your application in total) is fixed. But you didn't mention your GRE scores. (The surprising thing about the GRE is that you can do pretty well if you're just really good at Calculus (through multivariable), Dif. Eq., and Linear Algebra.) I think my subject test was something like 65th percentile. That's not terribly good, but I think it was enough to convince the admissions committee that even though I was coming from a small LAC that no one had heard of, I did know something. The other thing I did, which I highly recommend you try, is get a letter of recommendation from a faculty member at *that school* (where I was admitted). I wrote code for him for 3 or 4 weeks (about 30 hours/week, I think) during Christmas break of my senior year. In exchange, he wrote a recommendation for me. I'm sure it didn't say that I was a math wunderkind, but whatever it said added just enough to my application to get me in.
> 23 votes
# Answer
Dan C's answer is great, and I just want to echo some points and add a few things to it.
First, I'm not sure why you've decided you're not a candidate for a "top-teir" school. It sounds like you've been successful in your coursework, and you can likely get strong letters of recommendation. If you don't bomb the GRE, you can certainly get into a "highly-ranked" school! I went to a college just like the one you describe, and my friends and I all did fine when it came to grad school admissions -- one of my friends got into a "top ten" department, and we all got accepted by schools in the top twenty or thirty. So don't count yourself out simply because your school is small and relatively unknown. And, most importantly, if you do get into a prestigious program, be sure to base your decision to enroll on more than the US News rankings!
(I've used the quotation marks above because the rankings are all a bit questionable, and one should really consider the strength of a department in your field of interest, like Dan C said.)
Regarding the professors who will be writing your letters of recommendation: They may not be heavyweights in their fields, but chances are they know some people of influence. Take a look at some departments, get a feel for what you'd like to study, and possibly with whom, and then talk to your letter writers. It may happen, when you mention your interest in working with Professor X, that your letter writer was roommates with Professor X in grad school. These little personal connections won't get you admitted, but they will help ensure that your application gets a fair evaluation despite your school's relative obscurity.
Good luck! Aim high.
> 7 votes
# Answer
I'll just note that my credentials weren't so different from yours when I graduated from college (obscure liberal arts college with little track record, etc.) and I got in to Berkeley, Michigan and Northwestern. Of course, I can't actually compare our cases (and this was a decade ago), but I don't think you should hesitate to apply to, say, Wisconsin, or UT Austin or Rutgers (depending on your regional preferences). If you doubt it, you can always contact the graduate coordinator and ask if they think you're a plausible candidate.
As Dan says, a good range is the best approach; apply at least one place you can't quite believe you'll get in, and at least one place where you feel absolutely confident, and a few in between. This stuff is indeed incredibly unpredictable, but there are a lot of slots in reasonable graduate programs, and fewer good candidates than you might think.
> 5 votes
# Answer
I'll only address the question of deciding what "mid-tier" means. There's one coarse classification that could be helpful to you.
There are 48 math departments considered as Group I under the AMS classification (the older one, deprecated as of last year but the most useful one in my opinion). There's obviously a lot of variation within this group, but I think it's safe to assume that the programs at these 48 schools are stronger than the 56 math departments in Group II. (The bottom of Group I is probably not separated from the top of Group II by *too* much, however, so don't stress too much about the cutoff.) However I have a lot less confidence in the division between the bottom of Group II and the top of Group III; in this region the AMS's case for switching to the new groupings seems quite strong to me.
> 2 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, mathematics
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thread-12156 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12156 | Hypothesis for an Engineering Oriented Research Thesis | 2013-08-25T10:22:00.673 | # Question
Title: Hypothesis for an Engineering Oriented Research Thesis
**Question: What to write in a hypothesis that can't claim statistical results of any kind -- only those of engineering nature.**
**Explanation:** In thesis writing, hypothesis is claimed to be one of the most important aspects. I'm not arguing with that but in some cases, it seems a little over-priced. I am currently writing a thesis that deals with enhancing an existing security model. I can't give out the exact idea obviously but please let me explain with the help of an example.
Let's say, I have a security problem that the existing "role-based access control" of MS-Windows does not solve some problems -- so, I come up with time-based constraints for the model used and incorporate them in a new "enhanced" model. In the thesis explaining this contribution, what do I write in the thesis? I can't claim an "N%" increase in security or any other statistic that I can think of.
So, what's the hypothesis in this case?
# Answer
> 9 votes
The hypothesis-model is good for research where you want to understand how something works, but I think it is ill-suited for capturing the full scope of engineering research. After all, in engineering, you're primary goal is not to learn something about how the world works, but rather to **change how the world works**! So, instead of a hypothesis on how something works, I'd put up existing gaps in the ability to do something as a working basis. That will then put a focus on your research result as an extension of technical capabilities. In order to evaluate your research results, you would then have to show that your results actually close the existing gap.
Of course, also engineering research needs to understand something about how existing things work in order to be able to create something new. Hypotheses **are suitable** in engineering to clarify these preliminary things. In your case, you state that *"the existing 'role-based access control' of MS-Windows does not solve some problems"* \- that sounds like a perfect hypothesis to test for. But verifying this hypothesis is certainly not the key step in your research, and maybe it has already been done previously. That's why I'd recommend not to focus on a hypothesis as the basis for engineering research (though one might use them to clarify preliminaries), but focus on **identified gaps in current technical abilities**.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Effectively, what you are doing is *development* of existing research, rather than designing something *de novo*. The notion of a research hypothesis is therefore somewhat inappropriate to such work, and you wouldn't write a paper describing this work specifying a definitive "hypothesis."
Instead, you'd write the paper emphasizing that your model does something "better," "faster," "more securely," or specifying whatever other accomplishments advance your work from the previous state of affairs. Your thesis should then show how that is accomplished, and give some evidence thereof.
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Tags: thesis
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thread-12177 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12177 | What do statements of interest, teaching, and research mean when applying for an academic job? | 2013-08-26T06:18:47.223 | # Question
Title: What do statements of interest, teaching, and research mean when applying for an academic job?
I'm looking at a job application that asks for the following:
* C.V. (required)
* Statement of Interests (required)
* Cover letter (optional)
* Statement of Research (optional)
* Statement of Teaching (optional)
I find this confusing because I don't understand what a "Statement of Interests" is supposed to be, relative to the others. Does anyone know what's expected in a document of this kind? I'm a bit shy to ask the institution in question just yet, for fear that it's something well-known.
# Answer
> 6 votes
That is a rather confusing request, actually. However, what I think the job offer is looking for in a "statement of interests" is a description of the research areas you are interested in, while the "statement of research" would be a listing of projects you'd plan to start if you were hired.
However, in many job postings, those two items would potentially be conflated into a single statement. So I'd recommend that you contact the department. I'd recommend doing this by phone, if possible—that way, you don't have to give as much identifying information.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Since I assume it is an academic job you apply for the letters will cover aspects of that type of work. The job profile could possibly also reveal how to interpret the requested information. My general advice concerning the confusion is to contact the employer to get additional information (they may also keep such information on a web-page). It seems the instructions are sub-par in this case, which is annoying.
View the CV as the back-bone and the statements as an opportunity to provide some meat.
aeismail has already covered two of the letters/statements well. How the research statement should be interpreted is less clear, but posdef's comment is good because it may concern what you have already done. If it is then it is common to go through previosu research and highlight what you consider are your major contributions out of your production and how you consider your work original and contributing to development in the field(s) of concern. I would strongly advice asking about the focus for this letter.
The statement of teaching is usually detailing your views on teaching. The purpose is to get a sense of your ideas and understanding of pedagogical aspects of the work. This may nclude techniques/methods you have already used or ideas on such that you wish to develop. It could also include ideas on courses you would like to develop (if you have a sense of your possible coming mandate at the place at which yo apply. If your position is not concerning teaching, such a statement may not be necessary (I assume you received a form letter?). But, if you are pplying for a position which includes teaching then such a statement may be quite important and provide the job committee with a firm picture of your teaching philosophy.
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Tags: job-search, cv
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thread-12170 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12170 | How to write a Ph.D. thesis Introduction chapter? | 2013-08-26T01:46:03.853 | # Question
Title: How to write a Ph.D. thesis Introduction chapter?
I am in the process of writing my Ph.D. thesis and struggling with the introduction chapter, what to cover, and what not. This is a technical thesis. The broad area is molecular simulation in statistical mechanics.
There are lots of tips available on the Internet, but those are very general often. I have found a few theses also searching on Google. All those tips and theses vary in style and content and it is difficult to decide which one to follow. Please provide tips on how can I write a good introduction chapter with high academic standards.
EDIT: After reading your valuable input, I am adding here a few more points. (Thanks everybody). Your comments on these points are highly appreciated.
1. I have seen theses where people include background theories. On this matter, I have read that the theory should not be something that others know. Now, this is difficult to predict what to include as background theory, and what not. I have seen people include theories that are widely available in textbooks.
2. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the literature review. It is also important to briefly mention the background and relevant research works. Here I have found people are giving a little elaborate technical detail.
# Answer
> 20 votes
My thesis, which does happen to be in the area you are writing about, took a somewhat different approach for the introductory chapter:
* Motivations—why is this particular problem important
* Related efforts—in what context was the work done
* A short summary of the main development of the thesis (without a formal hypothesis statement)
* An outline of the remainder of the thesis
The following chapter, which was also an "introductory" chapter, but more of a "preliminaries" chapter, defines all the major concepts, tools, and ideas used in the remainder of the thesis (which were derived from my published papers, and therefore somewhat briefer than what is needed for a thesis).
# Answer
> 6 votes
I am in a slightly different field to you (atmospheric physics), but have had my PhD thesis approved for submission. Your university should have a style guide available to you - take that advice first.
My introduction comprised the following sections (this was also used successfully for my MSc):
* Rationale - this comprises an overview of the background knowledge in the field (and was expanded on in the Literature Review that was written after the Introduction). Make sure all variables are explained in detail here (dependent, independent and controlled).
* Hypothesis - what exactly is the predicted result of the entire project.
* Objectives - The main outcomes of the research (these related to the main papers that have been written and published along the way).
* Thesis structure - how the thesis is organised.
# Answer
> 6 votes
In my opinion, all the other answers omit a very important purpose of the Introduction: You should introduce not only the thesis but **the results of other people** in the Introduction.
A good introduction cites quite a handful of works by other people. Basically, a reader, after reading the Introduction, should have a good idea as to what the thesis is going to be about, and in what wider concept of science it fits, and this cannot be done without citing other people. This shows that you are not doing some rubbish that nobody is interested in.
# Answer
> 5 votes
The introduction of a thesis is a good place to give a **bird’s eye view of the problem you face**, its importance, relevance to major challenges in the field, and possible applications (including in related fields). You can very briefly explain what others have done to approach it, but I would **definitely not include there a full review of the literature**. You want the introduction to give the readers (and demonstrate to your committee) that you have a high-level understanding of the context and problem at hand.
Then, you can include a section giving a full review of the state of the art in the field (i.e., what others have done so far) later in the manuscript, either as its own chapter or as part of a “methods” chapter that is structured as such:
> **Methods**
> 1. Foundations of molecular simulation
> 2. State-of-the-art for your specific problem
> 3. Methods you have developed
# Answer
> 3 votes
An introduction is a funnel into your work, be it a paper or a thesis. The basic idea is to start by providing the wider scope within which your work resides. You then focus in on your part of the field or research question through a few steps.
The wider perspective of the beginning should also be the perspective in which you will later put your own results, to show how they feed back into some more general perspective. This part should allow the reader to focus in on relevant research and obtain a firm background of the current knowledge in the field. Once you have established the background you should identify for the reader the gap of knowledge which you have tackled. you then finish off by stating your plan for solving the problem so that your choices of methods etc. can be seen from the perspective of knowns and remaining problems to be solved. We can summarize the text as
> Background
>
> Gap
>
> Your approach to a solution
Writing a thesis and a paper can mean this approach can be accomplished in several ways. In a research paper, all of this usually goes into a single heading "Introduction". When you write a thesis the introduction may be many pages long and it is not uncommon to either have the list above as subheadings under the introduction or to outline this part slightly differently.
When you have a lengthy introduction, you may start out by having a chapter called introduction, which does what has been outlined above but cuts out the background details and only summarizes what is known and identifies gaps, almost like a summary of the whole introduction. You then follow up with a detailed background in a separate chapter and likewise for identifying gaps and providing the outline of your research.
The point is that there are many ways to format or partition an introduction but the general idea is still there regardless of what form of publication you are writing: research paper or thesis.
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Tags: phd, writing, thesis
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thread-12190 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12190 | Is it bad style if a section has exactly one subsection? | 2013-08-26T12:01:21.280 | # Question
Title: Is it bad style if a section has exactly one subsection?
In a discussion on why subsubsections are evil, egreg comments:
> If you have subsubsections, you must have at least two of them in a subsection; you must have at least two subsections and, of course, at least two sections. Draw the tree and you'll understand.
When I'm writing long texts, such as for my thesis, I might have sections that contain only one subsection. For example:
```
5.3 Topic X
... bla intro bla ...
5.3.1 Special Case in Topic X
... bla detail bla ...
```
Is it considered bad style to have `5.3.1`, but no `5.3.2`? Should I rather put the `bla intro bla` in a `5.3.1 Introduction` and have the special case in `5.3.2`? What are the general approaches here, what is considered good or bad style, and why?
# Answer
> 26 votes
Having a section with a single subsection is usually considered bad style: **most style guides, academic or not, advise against it**. In particular, the *Chicago Manual of Style* advises against it.
Regarding the reasons why this is considered bad practice, I'll quote Wikipedia:
> **Single Subsections**
> Just as your English teacher told you, if section 2 has a subsection 2.1, there'd better be a section 2.2 as well. If you see a section with a single subsection, you have three choices:
>
> * If there's a lot of text in the section, followed by the subsection, you ought to be able to carve out a good subsection from the initial material, or even two, to create multiple subsections.
> * If most of the section's material is in the subsection, you may not need a subsection. Just combine the two.
> * If the content of at the top of the section is short and substantially different from what's in the subsection, you might be able to promote the subsection (for example, change the heading from level 3 to level 2). On other hand, if the subsection covers something relatively unimportant, then don't promote it to a level 2 (top-level) heading.
Other sources, both style guides and writing advice, say the same thing: , , …
# Answer
> 12 votes
IMHO, it is a bad style in most contexts, and I will try to explain why, on your example:
> 5.3 Topic X
> blabla
>
> 5.3.1 Special Case in Topic X
> bleble
---
If you write a long work (like a thesis or a chapter of a book), you have to use sub-sectioning, still you should keep a good structure. In your case, I would use
> 5.3 Topic X
>
> 5.3.1 General Approach \[or a similar title\]
> blabla
>
> 5.3.2 Special Case \[and not "Special Case in Topic X", that's redundant\]
> bleble
One of the reasonable measures whether you have a good structure of your work is the Table of Contents. Just look at it: If it looks good and truly helps in using the text, then the structure is good.
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If you write an article and this would likely be the only subsection in it, just make it a section:
> 5 Topic X
> blabla
>
> 6 Special Case in Topic X
> bleble
If it's too short to deserve a section, it's quite likely too short to deserve a subsection, in the case you don't use subsections to keep some general structure of the works.
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*(Needed to say, I speak as a mathematician and as a typesetter of a tech journal. I've seen solitaire subsections a lot. Unfortunately it is out of my privileges to remove these in the articles I typeset.)*
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Tags: writing
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thread-12189 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12189 | The Importance Of Final Year Results In US PhD admissions | 2013-08-26T11:41:15.373 | # Question
Title: The Importance Of Final Year Results In US PhD admissions
How important are final year ( more especially final semester ) results in PhD admissions?
I am on MEng course in the UK where final year results are usually released mid to late July, and I intend on applying to US universities, now when reading on the application procedures at many universities I noticed that the application deadline for a lot of US engineering PhD programs seems to be from late November to late January, with admission decisions usually being made around April.So I am curious to know how important final year/semester results are in a PhD application.
# Answer
Admissions to US graduate programs are generally *conditional* on final-semester grades. That is, you are required to pass your classes, and in general maintain a reasonable GPA in them. Developing a case of "senioritis" and getting D's on everything could have an effect on your admissions offers. (Whether or not it will depends on the department and the school.)
However, the grades earned in the final semester do *not* influence the decision whether or not to accept you in the first place; that is determined by your grades up through the end of the first semester of your final year (or the last semester of your penultimate year, if the grades aren't available by mid-year).
> 6 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, engineering
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thread-12195 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12195 | What should I do if I found a citation error in a published paper? | 2013-08-26T14:45:43.787 | # Question
Title: What should I do if I found a citation error in a published paper?
I've found a mistake in a published paper, and am unsure what to do now.
I was looking at all cited articles from a paper over 10 years old, and found one that is citing the paper in error.
A variant of a certain protein and a fusion protein made of 2 proteins have been confused, that is the citation points to a paper on a protein which shares an abbreviation but is entirely different - this is a pretty big mistake and suggests they haven't actually read the paper they referenced!
The Elsevier journal published this in 2013 and I don't know how to report it, or what the etiquette is here. I can't see contacting the authors to be of much use as it is already printed, and they could very easily delete my email and forget about the error, whereas an editor or some such person would surely be able to take reasonable steps to address it.
For the record I'm an undergrad and have no professional link/competition/other conflict of interest with this researcher or department!
# Answer
> 48 votes
**Small errors that do not affect the results or conclusions of the paper are normally handled through publication of a correction (or erratum)**. This is handled by the journal editor, who will be in contact with the authors for confirmation that they agree as to it being an error, and provide for the exact correction to be published.
The journal that published paper should have a policy on corrections, check it out! *Physical Review Letters*’s editorial policies and practices state, for example:
> Errata.— The Errata section contains notices regarding errors or omissions in papers previously published. Besides the standard Erratum, several special categories of documents may appear in this section. In the online journal, each of these documents involve bidirectional links between the original article and the document in the Errata section. The category of the corrective document is indicated in its title and in the link from the original article.
>
> The standard Erratum is a statement by the authors of the original paper that briefly describes the correction(s) and, where appropriate, any effects on the conclusions of the paper.
Thus, what you should do is:
1. Make double sure it is actually an error.
2. Then ask someone else to double check it again. Preferably someone more senior, i.e. with some experience of academic publication.
3. Write to the corresponding author, pointing out the error. Be nice, and make real sure not to assume to worst.
You say *“this is a pretty big mistake and suggests they haven't actually read the paper they referenced”*: depending on context, it could actually be something minor like a copy-paste mistake (pasting the wrong reference, when they meant another paper)
4. If you do not obtain a response, or they respond but don't intend to correct the error, then consider contacting the editor.
I can understand why, as an undergrad, you would consider contacting the editor directly without writing to the authors first. However, as long as you remain professional in your correspondence with them, I think it's best to contact the authors first. It's more polite, and they may actually be able to provide you with some explanation you haven't thought of. Contacting the editor before the authors is somewhat overdoing it…
# Answer
> 23 votes
Sometime last year, a colleague of mine and I were writing a paper on scientometrics and reading associated articles. We were closely following a certain paper on preferential attachment in networks and realized that the numbers in the published tables do not add up.
We double checked with each other and then asked our faculty adviser to double check. Upon confirmation, we emailed the corresponding author about this error. The author immediately wrote back with a note of thanks. The major conclusions of the paper were not affected by this error - it was merely a calculation error which should have been caught during the reviewing process but sometimes isn't due to so many numbers floating around in a paper.
Since then, I have always assumed that contacting the corresponding author with a note of caution is always the best way to go.
# Answer
> 11 votes
I think it would be wise to bring the matter up with a researcher who may have the insights you have and beyond. You (two) can then discuss if something should be done and if so what. The error you describe sounds like it is significant but it could also be a typo or have less impact than what appears because of other factors. So getting someone to backing up your observations could be good.
What can be done? Depending on the severity of the problem, it may be necessary for the journal to retract a paper (if the problem negates the results). More commonly you and the researcher you pair up with could write a "Letter to the Editor" pointing out the problem and perhaps detailing the ramafications of the mistake. This letter could lead to a correction being made or lead to a discussion where the author will have to explain how the problem is not one.
So there are several possible outcomes. As an undegraduate you need the support of a more senior scientist since it is unlikely journal will accept letters from persons who are not considered experts in a field (which is what a PhD can signifiy). That does not reduce the merits of your observation but will ensure the observation gets the attention it may deserve.
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Tags: publications, citations, journals, etiquette, errors-erratum
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thread-12203 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12203 | Where to describe the pros and cons of the related work in a paper? | 2013-08-27T01:09:28.030 | # Question
Title: Where to describe the pros and cons of the related work in a paper?
I just start writing a paper. This is also my first time doing so.
I have a problem describing the pros and cons of the related literature. **I am not sure where I should place them.**
1. Some of the papers address the pros and cons of related work in `INTRODUCTION` section so that they can claim why their research is superior. e.g. after pointing out the cons of the related work, one may claim that they work has fixed this and thus superior. So it is like the research motivation and work desctiption come directly after the pros and cons. They are all in `INTRODUCTION`.
2. The second style I have seen is writing them in `RELATED WORK` section.
Both ways seem fine to me. And I am even confused with these two sections! **I notice that there is usually some related work described in both `INTRODUCTION` and `RELATED WORK`.**
So where should I put them? `INTRODUCTION` or `RELATED WORK`?
FYI, I am in EECS field. But any generic advice is welcomed.
# Answer
One criterion is how important these comparisons are for understanding your work. At one extreme, you may be writing a paper whose sole purpose is to address a gap in the literature by doing something in a better way than other papers or using different hypotheses. In that case, nobody can really understand your paper and its purpose without an explanation of how it relates to these other papers, so you would need to discuss this in the introduction. At the other extreme, you may be mentioning related work only for completeness or because it might interest the reader, with no necessity at all for understanding your paper. In that case, you might as well not clutter up the introduction with it. Most papers are somewhere in between these extremes, in which case you'll have to make a judgment call (and may end up with a compromise, such as discussing some related work in the introduction and other papers in a section of their own).
> 11 votes
# Answer
I've seen a variety of styles used in Computer Science. One that I personally like a lot is where the Introduction has a succinct summary of the pros and cons of related work, with a more leisurely and detailed "Related Work" section towards the end of the paper. The idea is as follows:
1. You want to set the stage for a quick summary of the specific contributions of your own work. To do this, you need to briefly summarize the related work in the Introduction -- in particular, pointing out the problems that your work addresses.
2. The reader's time and attention is precious, and you want to start discussing your own contributions soon instead of meandering about talking about other people's work. The initial summary is therefore necessarily brief (I'd suggest aiming to get to your research by page 2 of the paper). If necessary, include a forward pointer to the Related Work section later in the paper.
> 5 votes
# Answer
In my field (business management) this is always done in the literature review which normally follows the introduction.
> **Introduction** This paper will show that the key to motivation within a team is.....
>
> **Literature review** Jones (2012) believes that money had no influence on individual performance but this paper will show evidence which directly contradicts his claims. The fundamentals of his theory are quite strong and informed this current research; however, there were a few points that he did not seem to fully consider...
>
> Fuller (2010) had a very thorough study of motivation and which covered interpersonal interaction quite well, however, ...
>
> **Methodology** ....
I've also see some papers where people put the literature review at the end of the paper but it seems less common.
> 1 votes
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Tags: publications, writing, literature, literature-review
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thread-12187 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12187 | PhD approved by advisor, rejected by examiners | 2013-08-26T11:23:17.110 | # Question
Title: PhD approved by advisor, rejected by examiners
This has recently happened to an acquaintance of mine. A bit of background, in Australia, we do not 'defend' the thesis, we submit it to be examined by, usually, 3 academics (in the country or overseas).
The situation is, the thesis was approved by the advisor, after several drafts and some feedback. However, when it has come back from the examiners, it has come back as 'failed'. Some of the errors detected are ones that the advisor should have picked up on (as they are within their field of research).
Asides from the appeals procedure (dependent on the policies of the University), what are some practical options? Should they start again? Take her research elsewhere?
Edit for clarification:
* This has **not** happened to me, it has happened to an acquaintance (as said above).
* My acquaintance submitted her thesis well within time and underwent several drafts (as said above).
* The advisor is young/new to the academic scene.
# Answer
> 11 votes
It is difficult to answer the question without also judging the supervision and other aspects of the student-advisor "relationship". I have been involved in a case which also resulted in a fail. I, being non-Australian) got the impression the thesis was done either by meeting a time deadline or by the student "deciding" so. I cannot imagine any advisor would recommend the thesis as completed in the shape it was. I could not, as examiner, figure out what rules made the thesis judged as competed, it would simply not go in my own system.
In my case we bring in an examination committee from other universities and mostly from abroad. The thesis must stand an international scrutiny. This also means the advisors and students are aware of this requirement. In your case, as well as the one I experienced, I ask myself what sort of system is in palce to safekeep the general scientific standard?
As you can see there are many open questions which makes a simple answer difficult to provide. In some cases it might be possible to use the feedback to improve a thesis. In the US system it is common that a thesis is given revisions to complete. In my system (Sweden) all this quality work has to be made before time, there is no recouperation after a fail. Hence, the options depend on what is possible within the Australian system. If it is possible to revise and re-defend? then that is one way. Tpo take the work elsewhere might be possible but if the work does not stand international scrutiny then that option does not look bright. If there are deeper misunderstandings that lead to the verdict then it might be possible to claim a "mistrial" but failinga PhD thesis is not a good thing under any circumstances. I am just left wondering why it happened, not so much to put blaim but it seems something(s) must have failed in the process and finding out the reasons may provide a better view of possibilities to go forward.
finally, start again? another 3-5 years ona different project will require both a strong interest and financing (I would presume). It is possible but usually, I do not think anyone would subject themselves to another PhD period lightheartedly.
EDIT:
An example that just occurred.
# Answer
> 10 votes
This type of thing is one reason that many graduate colleges or departments will not allow an assistant professor (or other non-tenured new academic regardless of formal title) to be the sole/primary advisor for a Ph.D. student.
Other than the obvious ill effects on the poor doctoral candidate, this also reflects extremely badly on, and could hurt, the advisor also (e.g., during tenure review), and even shows the department in poor light. I hope your friend is able to salvage things, but in my opinion this is at least as much the advisor's and department's problem as the candidate's, and they should be actively working to find a proper solution. If they're not, then I regard that as a bigger problem than the thesis rejection itself.
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Tags: phd, ethics, thesis, exams
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thread-12228 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12228 | Submit a paper to a conference where co-authors are in the committee? | 2013-08-28T05:04:03.313 | # Question
Title: Submit a paper to a conference where co-authors are in the committee?
I recently read a paper whose co-authors are found in the conference committee.
Although they are not in the executive committee, they are in organizing committee and all the committee people know each other well.
So I am wondering how this can happen? I mean, is there any regulation, either ethical or by law, that prohibits this type of thing? Or it's allowed?
# Answer
For any reputable conference, authors with a conflict of interest will recuse themselves from discussions about their paper. They won't have a vote on the paper, and if things are very well administered, other committee members won't even know that the paper is from that particular author, only that the author has a conflict of interest. Indeed, there are many reasons for a conflict of interest:
1. Current or prior colleague at the same university.
2. Current or prior collaboration or co-author on a paper or papers.
3. Current advisor / student relationship.
4. etc.
These guidelines are generally spelled out in the paper submission guidelines, too (if you are an author and have a conflict, you should list them). Also, in many program committee meetings, committee members go in and out of paper discussions based on whether they have a conflict for a particular paper or not.
> is there any regulation, either ethical or by law, that prohibits this type of thing?
Ethical: sure (see above).
Legal: no. I'm not sure why people think there are a lot of legal rules that dictate how independent, non-government conferences and journals are administered. I've seen this in a number of questions recently, and the bottom line is that a conference has its own rules to abide by, and that's about it. Conference organizers have a vested interest in making things fair to the extent that they don't want the conference to have a bad name, but they aren't in the position to be bound by any laws pertaining to the way the conference is administered (outside of normal law-abiding behavior).
> 19 votes
# Answer
It would be a strange situation if you were forbidden to publish something when you organize a meeting. What usually happens is that your paper is taken on (for editing or other scrutiny) by someone else in such a committee. I agree that it can become a little sensitive if you are the sole organizer handling the reviews and submitting a paper. In such a case ethics would hopefully make you think about a co-convener or to openly state that someone with more neutral standings will handle your paper specifically.
So this situation is common, very common, and in most if not all cases there are ways to avoid conflicts of interest. There may of course be cases where the intent is to circumvent objective handling but such cases are likely noticed in the community. In the end, I think it is bad judgement to avoid objective handling.
> 7 votes
# Answer
In some of the communities I am in, the following processes ensure that bias is removed. In one case, such papers would receive additional reviews and would be rejected if any of the reviews suggests rejection. In another case, there is an additional committee whose task in part is to review such papers.
> 5 votes
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Tags: publications, ethics, conference, conflict-of-interest, program-committee
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thread-12239 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12239 | Career for a mathematician outside academia | 2013-08-28T08:23:47.893 | # Question
Title: Career for a mathematician outside academia
Briefly, the question is: what are sensible career choices for a trained mathematician (with a doctoral degree) outside of academia?
The situation I've found myself in is the following. I have been employed as a teaching assistant at one of the top Polish universities for a year now. The salary of TAs in Poland is borderline acceptable (as in, if it were a little bit less, one wouldn't be able to make ends meet), but when I was signing a contract, I was promised I will be promoted to assistant professor after a year.
Now, I was informed a few days ago that I am not getting said promotion, but they'll be happy to keep me as a TA. It was stated very clearly that this is happening not because I am not doing my job properly (in fact, I have a pretty solid track record); apparently the university is in financial troubles. As a corollary, I may be stuck as a TA for quite some time.
I have a family to provide for, so this is unacceptable for me.
To make matters even worse, the timing of the information left me without any option to pursue a postdoc position. This got me thinking that -- even though I enjoy doing research and teaching very much -- perhaps it's time to take that step and decide on changing career path. The problem is, I don't really have any experience in work outside of academia. I feel that I am professional and disciplined enough to handle any kind of work, but sending resumes at random doesn't seem like a good idea.
I realize the question may be too vague, but I'm thinking maybe someone has already been down that road and has some advices to share.
# Answer
> 8 votes
The past few years, many friends, either mathematicians or people from physics/chemistry who knew how to write code, have gone other to various financial companies to do algorithmic trading, data analysis, that sort of things… and some others have joined web startups. In short: their coding, algorithmic and reasoning skills were more valuable than their specific academic knowledge.
What I would advise you to do is to **look where alumni from your department have moved**. Ask the department for statistics or listings, if they publish them; otherwise, look up people's names on the web or professional networks (LinkedIn comes to mind). See where they are now: this will give you an idea of who is hiring people with your skills (and network).
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Tags: career-path, job
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thread-9446 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9446 | How much can you share unpublished forum articles? | 2013-04-18T03:16:59.497 | # Question
Title: How much can you share unpublished forum articles?
There are some journals, such as Behavioral and Brain Sciences, that publish a single target article per issue, followed by 20 to 30 commentaries on that article, and then a rebuttal/synthesis from the target article authors. Their rough workflow seems to be:
1. Authors submit a target article.
2. Target article is peer-reviewed as in a normal journal, with a focus on if it is of sufficient interest to warrant discussion in such a forum setting.
3. If accepted, the editors send a massive number of invitations to associates of the journal, soliciting commentary proposals on the target article. A dark-net link to the final version of the target article is included.
4. Authors submit commentary proposals, and the editors review them, selecting a subset that would make a good discussion.
5. Selected commentators write their articles and submit them to the editors
6. Editors do a quick review of commentaries and pass them on to the target article authors for a rebuttal.
7. Target article authors write a rebuttal.
8. Everything is published at the same time (this is the stage that BBS makes anything directly publicly available from their site).
At stage \[3\], the number of commentators contacted is significantly in excess of what you would for soliciting peer review. A link to the post-review paper that is accessible without any logins is also distributed, but this link is on the 'dark net' -- nothing on the main site links directly to it. The contacted associates are encouraged to share the article with their colleagues and bring non-contacted collaborators on board if they want to write a commentary.
My question is: **to what extent can the sharing in step \[3\] be taken?**
* Can you share the article privately as much as you want? I.e. can a non-associate that was sent the article by an associate (but not the editor) then forward it to another non-associate?
* Can you contact the authors of the target article with questions or comments that make it obvious that you've read the article? (Note, that you wouldn't be able to do this for an article you are peer-reviewing)
* Can you write a blog post about the article before it comes out, making a summary of it, and referencing it as (to appear)?
* Can you share the link that was emailed to you publicly (say on your blog)?
Note that the target authors often have a preprint of the target article linked from their website, kind of like a white paper (although it isn't always exactly the same version as is sent out by BBS). I am interested in answers to the above questions in both cases: when a preprint is available from the authors and when only the BBS dark-net link exists.
# Answer
> 5 votes
If you are unclear on the matter, I would ask the person who sent you the article. Asking the editor or authors may get the person who sent it to you in trouble. In most cases, the first answer is probably no. However, it may be true in some cases where there are no provisions on the confidentiality of the article. When sent out to be peer reviewed, they usually stamp the title page of the article with the confidentiality clauses. I don't think you should contact the authors until the peer-reviewing process is over, but that doesn't mean you can't. They might just refuse to comment. The last two questions you have posted... You most definitely cannot do that. You could get in major trouble for early distribution of research, especially if the project is not finished. You may face academic dis-accreditation which would make it very difficult for you to ever be involved in the academic community. This would be especially true if you wanted to peer review articles for that journal in the future or if you wish to publish articles with them. You would likely also face difficulties publishing in related journals, which may be problematic if you choose to work in an academic setting. If the author has a link to the article on their webpage, I would suggest you contact them and ask for their permission to post it on your blog. Doing so without their permission is an infringement on their property.
# Answer
> 3 votes
**If the paper is not publicly accessible, and you were not given explicit permission to share it, I would consider it confidential**. It was sent to you (and few others), so assume that it is not yours to share. If you want to, ask the editors (not the authors, in case your identity was not yet given to them).
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Tags: publications, peer-review, etiquette, community
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thread-10444 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10444 | Waiting after a review | 2013-06-04T14:08:23.207 | # Question
Title: Waiting after a review
Regarding this question on when to ask about a manuscript's status in review I wonder (since it is happening to me): What does it mean when a paper is "with editor" for two months after a first review?
# Answer
> 4 votes
So, after the first round of review, you were asked to revise your manuscript extensively. And you made changes accordingly and resubmitted a revised version. Two months has passed since then, but it doesn't seem like the revised manuscript has been sent out for external review because the status of your submission you can see online hasn't been changed and is still "with editor." (Edit: I know some journals use "being handled by editor" or something similar at any stage of the review process except when the manuscript is with the author. You're sure it wasn't "with editor" during the first round review, right?)
If that's the case, most likely it means the editor is having hard time finding referees for the second round or maybe simply taking their sweet time examining your resubmission. Or possibly they forgot about your submission so you need to remind them.
I don't know what the norm is in your field. But if I were you, I'd send a short and polite email to the journal to ask what is up with your paper, probably after waiting a bit more. If it doesn't work, I'd send another polite email to someone else working for the journal. In any case, you should understand that the editor is a volunteer (unless you're submitting to a journal with fulltime editors like Nature, Science, PRL etc.), and sometimes it takes a while to handle your submission for various legitimate reasons. So be polite when asking what's going on.
Edit: And the best way to know if two months is too long is to ask experienced researchers in your field like your advisor if you're a student.
# Answer
> 0 votes
There's no way to know for sure except to ask the editor.
If you mean that the editor received the first review from a referee two months ago, it may be that the editor has not yet decided what to do with the paper, based on the review. Another possibility is that the editor wants a second review, and has not yet found a referee for it.
# Answer
> 0 votes
It most likely means that your manuscript is undergoing a second round of review, after you made revisions to it. In most fields, two months is not overly long time to wait for reviews, especially if you made large modifications to the manuscript, or if the editor is not sure what to do and asked for an additional referee’s opinion (or adjudicating referee, in some cases).
You can, however, write a nice email to the editor enquiring about the status of your manuscript.
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Tags: journals, paper-submission
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thread-12235 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12235 | Using "Smith et al" when another Smith is also referenced | 2013-08-28T07:29:44.550 | # Question
Title: Using "Smith et al" when another Smith is also referenced
My name is John Smith and I'm writing a paper. In the discussion of the existing literature, I cite quite a few papers from another team, including many whose first author was a David Smith. I usually write this using heavily the “et al” style:
> Einstein et al. first established in 1976 a possible plan for eradicating world hunger by massive beet culture in Antartica,<sup>1</sup> but it took 20 years before Wiles et al. clearly delineated the challenges of such a prospect.<sup>2</sup> The earlier analyses, by Smith et al.,<sup>3–7</sup> held the narrow view that climate<sup>3–5</sup> and transportation issues<sup>6–7</sup> would be the limiting factors, forgetting to address the marketing aspects and negative implications on consumer image of the brand. In this paper, we present …
(the journal style calls for superscript numbers for citations)
Now, it seems somewhat likely that the reader may think the Smith from “Smith et al.” may actually be me. How should I help avoid this?
1. Not worrying about it.
2. Use first name or initial, “David Smith et al.” or “D. Smith et al.”
3. Choosing another author, like the last author, as in “Professor et al.”?
4. Some other formulation?
# Answer
Working through your list:
1. Using just the standard "Smith et al." is the usual standard that I've seen in my fields (physics, materials science, chemical engineering).
2. If you feel the need to indicate explicitly that this is not your work, then you can choose to use a variant that includes the full initials of the author:
> "D. A. Smith *et al.* found. . . ."
3. Using a formulation "Professor *et al.*" is incorrect usage of *et al.*, which is normally used to designate in "actual" order the authors listed. The better formulation would be "Jones and colleagues" or "Jones and co-workers"; however, if the same first author is responsible for all of the papers, then using one of the other authors as the "focal point" is very misleading.
4. Other formulations, I believe, would be much less common than any of the other variants you've listed.
However, you could always try to just avoid mentioning Smith's name by referring to the contents of the work directly without saying "Smith et al. did X," by writing "X has been observed under conditions Y" or something similar.
> 5 votes
# Answer
If your references clearly can be traced to a unique paper then the name is not (or should not be) confusing. Yes, someone may mistake you for someone else or *vice versa* but then their checking of sources is out of sub-par. You can safely continue referencing the (standard) way you do it.
If two publications exist as Smith yyyy (Smith et al. yyyy) then it is common to use letters so that the references become Smith yyyya and Smith yyyyb (Smith et al. yyyya; Smith et al. yyyyb). So not even in this case is it necessary to add initials. You may find that initials are used in older puiblications but by introducing the letters to distinguish several similar references initials have become obsolete.
It is also possible to add indicators in the text that allows the reader to understand where your work is referenced by using "we" or "I" (as the case may be) when discussing a particular reference/result, that is use an active voice instead of passive.
> 7 votes
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Tags: publications, writing
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thread-12241 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12241 | Can I submit more than 3 reference letters with my grad school applications? | 2013-08-28T09:07:58.233 | # Question
Title: Can I submit more than 3 reference letters with my grad school applications?
Is it acceptable to attach additional reference letters to an application under the supporting documents category of an application? Say I have 3 references from my masters institution, and another 2 from my undergraduate institution. I would think that if they are all positive, that the more is better. Would this be acceptable or is it a no-no? I am particularly thinking about top-10 universities.
# Answer
## No!
US institutions expect that you have never seen your recommendation letters; your references are supposed to upload/submit them directly to your target departments. But presumably you are uploading/submitting your own supporting documents.
If the application web site somehow restricts you to naming only three references, then you only get three letters; choose wisely. If it's a paper application, just ask all your references to mail in their letters.
(I assume you are applying to a graduate program.)
> 7 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, recommendation-letter, united-states
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thread-12010 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12010 | How do admissions committees evaluate coursework? | 2013-08-20T17:43:03.677 | # Question
Title: How do admissions committees evaluate coursework?
What steps are taken to evaluate an applicant's coursework?
* Are graduate-level courses weighted higher?
* Is this a significant part of the decision process (outside the major components of research experience, personal statement, and LORs)?
I'm interested in what adcoms look for as good signs, red flags, etc.
Any information, particularly for CS PhD programs, is appreciated!
# Answer
> 2 votes
```
Are graduate-level courses weighted higher?
```
Relative to your core undergraduate courses, I'd imagine so. Taking advanced graduate courses (preferably, more advanced versions of your core classes, since this will look like an upward trend if you didn't so hot in your core ones), and doing well in them, implies one can do potentially good research in grad school. Courses at this level will tend to expose you to current research that you may work on in the future. Aside from LOR and conference/journal publications, this would be the next best indicator of your potential success in grad school. Which leads to the next question. . .
```
Is this a significant part of the decision process?
```
I wouldn't say that it's significant (consider that some liberal art colleges may not have available graduate courses to undergraduates, as compared to a research university) but it's still important, if the resources are there. Graduate admissions are aware of that, but they key is to stretch your intellectual vitality as far as possible. Remember that there aren't too many indicators of whether or not an undergraduate can do well in grad school (after all, the "research frontier", depending on the discipline, may simply be inaccessible, even to an exceptional undergraduate). This applies to other fields like mathematics, but three factors will always be taken into account by any respectable institution (LOR, statement of purpose, research experience), and you've already mentioned them.
Aside from that (and GPA, which is really more of a "cut-off" tool), if all else is taken into account, it will probably come down to best fit; whether or not your research interests coincide with the faculty of your chosen area. If you wanted to do research in artificial intelligence, it wouldn't make sense to apply to a program that (hypothetically) only specializes in mathematical optimization, so you would probably be passed over to someone who does want to do research in AI.
aeismail had a nice answer so I will not add much more regarding "red flags" (I would say that even if you did terrible, say, your freshman year, the best thing to do would be to show an upward trend in your grades). However, remember that the **main question** admission committees want to answer is "Can this person succeed in our program?" (i.e can this person do research?), so you have to persuade them to say yes. Your application will be scrutinized by professors who want to see if you're worthy. Coursework is important, but demonstrating your research potential in ways that are not just related to coursework is **essential**.
The best thing to do would be to create a check-list of what they expect to see in your application, and meet all of the requirements, then go above the call of duty (whether it's in the form of a publishable senior thesis, which I would argue is always better than chugging coursework, or presenting your work at a conference, or getting an awesome research-based LOR from a professor who knows you well and can vouch for your potential, or all of the above).
# Answer
> 3 votes
This is more of a general answer.
Graduate-level coursework should carry additional weight in a graduate school application, because it normally suggests that you are capable of doing work at a higher level than the standard undergraduate curriculum. However, it should be pointed out that more weight will be given to a full graduate-level course than a "shared" course that regularly offers both undergraduate and graduate enrollment.
The primary red flag would be poor performance in one or more "core" courses in your discipline, while encouraging signs are taking more or harder classes and doing well in those.
As for the relative importance of this in an application, I'd put coursework in general somewhat behind the letters of recommendation and research experience. However, this is something that may vary from school to school, and even department to department.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I am part of an admissions committee in the field of applied math. Since there are very few undergraduate programs in applied math, our applicants have a wide variety of backgrounds -- mathematics, engineering, physics, and others. My main interest when looking at the transcript is:
* First, do you have good grades in the most relevant courses?
* Second, how well-prepared are you in terms of course coverage? It's typical for students from outside math to have one or two gaps.
Also, we interview promising applicants, so I look at the transcript to see what the student **should** know, and quiz them on typical course material.
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Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions, computer-science
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thread-12244 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12244 | What are the general ethical procedures to restart abandoned research? | 2013-08-28T09:44:44.050 | # Question
Title: What are the general ethical procedures to restart abandoned research?
*Please note: this is a hypothetical situation*
Sometimes, for whatever reason, research is started by another academic (not necessarily known to you) and abandoned part way through (more often than not, the reason is tragic). This will potentially leave research incomplete.
In a general sense, what are the practical and ethical considerations and procedures to restart and complete the research that has been abandoned by another academic?
# Answer
It seems to me that the ethics here really relate to the foundation upon which you will build. Conducting additional research and writing additional papers is not problematic in itself, but if you must use materials, data, and ideas from informal conversations then you have ethical and/or practical considerations. If you have never met the other researchers and have just read some papers, found it interesting, and then they stopped publishing, I don't see how you would have any obligation to those researchers. This is academic life- we build on the work of others. In fact, you might say we have an ethical obligation to advance the field.
Coming from this perspective, what is acceptable with respect to the foundational elements would be governed by the normal rules. So here are some examples:
* Data: If you need actual (generally unpublished) data from the other researcher(s) then you will have to ask for the data and have their permission to publish that data. You should acknowledge the source of that data in any related publications.
* Materials: If you need code or study materials, you will have to ask for it as well and you will be bound by any relevant licensing restrictions. Again, this should be acknowledged.
* Ideas: If you are building on informal conversations with previous researchers, then you should seek their permission and acknowledge that as well. This is about not losing friends, unless you are under NDA, in which case it may be a legal matter as well.
There may also be cases in which your reputation and friendships may be at stake, for example if you publish research that competes with that of your old advisor. This should not generally be a big concern with projects that are abandoned. If in doubt, you should probably communicate your intentions and seek their blessings.
In many cases, particularly if others have given advice, it may be a good idea to ask if they want to be involved as a coauthor. A researcher who has had to stop doing their research, perhaps due to lost funding or changes in their employment, may be excited at the opportunity to help advance the field while improving their own CV, by just providing some past data and helping with some writing.
The most important thing is to be sure to always give credit where it is due.
> 8 votes
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Tags: research-process, ethics
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thread-12237 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12237 | Choose master thesis topic | 2013-08-28T07:56:20.467 | # Question
Title: Choose master thesis topic
These days I'm going to take the subject of my master. I'm wondering how to search about the subject and how to decide which master thesis I can take and work. The one option is to go to a professor and take anything that he gives me and work with if I like it. Is any other way to search about hot topics on my research area? So far, I have search on google scholar for related work on my area... Any other suggestion that I can do before decide for the subject is more than appreciated.
# Answer
My advice would be to go visit not one professor, but a few. **Don't ask them specifically for a thesis topic**, but tell them you are looking around and **ask them to talk to you about their research**. Ask about **weekly seminars** at your department, and go listen to a few of those. Get a broad view of the different topics that groups around you are working on, then decide on something.
> 14 votes
# Answer
You should have a research methods teacher who will guide you through the process of identifying a good area of research for you.
Your thesis will take a significant amount of work and you need to consider many things. For example, what are you interested in? If you select a topic which you are not interested in then you will likely lose hope and go nowhere or do a poor job, receiving a poor mark.
Another consideration is access. This is a significant issue in research related to business management. For example, if you want to study how telecommunication companies do something specific with regards to recruitment, you need to make sure you actually have access to telecommunication company HR departments. Without that access even if you are interested, you will find yourself very frustrated, again turning in poor quality work receiving a poor mark.
Basically, you should have a teacher who will walk you through this. If you don't, you should have an adviser who can walk you through this. If you don't have that, then I would definitely take advice from @F'x and ask **several** professors to get some ideas and narrow it down from there.
> 6 votes
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Tags: masters, thesis
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thread-12254 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12254 | Who gets to write book reviews for academic journals? | 2013-08-28T13:35:10.493 | # Question
Title: Who gets to write book reviews for academic journals?
Some journals publish reviews of newly published books in their field. It's not clear how authors for these reviews are typically chosen. Can you apply for writing a review? Or should you do just like for a regular paper: buy the book, read it, write your review and submit it? How is this typically handled? Is it reserved to the editors to initiate such reviews?
# Answer
I am sure this varies but is most likely one of the following (in some kind of falling order):
> * you are a well-known and respected researcher/educator in the field
> * you have recently written material that are key to the book (perhaps referenced in it)
> * you are known not to know the word "No" (makes the editors work easier)
> * you are friends with the editor (makes his/her life easy)
I doubt many editors will necessarily take you up on an offer (depending which category you may fall into) but I am sure some might be fine with it. It never hurts to contact an editor and express interest. You should then provide a background for why you should be considered for such a task.
> 8 votes
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Tags: publications, books, review-articles
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thread-12256 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12256 | Work Resume vs Graduate School Resume | 2013-08-28T13:54:04.083 | # Question
Title: Work Resume vs Graduate School Resume
I've been working in corporate IT for the last two years and would like to apply to graduate school for a MA in East Asian Studies.
I was told I should keep my work resume to **one** page, so I have done that. It wasn't that hard to do because jobs aren't as concerned with your volunteer experience as a masters program would be.
The MA program is asking that I attach my resume. I'd like to add back in my volunteer + other experiences a graduate school would be interested in... but that would put it **over one page**.
Is that okay? Is there any difference (apart from content) in the structure/general guidelines of submitting a resume in the work world vs the grad school world?
# Answer
> 14 votes
I am **not** a fan of the "1 page resume." If you have had a number of relevant educational experiences and work experiences (and relevant volunteer experiences), and it goes over two pages and is in an aesthetically pleasing form (e.g., 10-12-pt font, 1-in margins, etc.), don't worry about it. I've seen some absolutely horrible resumes where the applicant has tried to cram everything onto a single page, and it is a detriment to that person's application. I haven't had a 1-page resume since just after undergraduate school.
Graduate schools are normally looking for a proper Curriculum Vitae (CV), which would include education, work experience (primarily academic), publications, awards, and possibly references. Now, this isn't to say that you *must* reformat your resume into a CV, especially if you don't have research/publications/awards/etc., but you do want this document to highlight your experiences to some degree.
Finally, your resume/CV is not as important as some of the other documents you will provide with your package: letters of recommendation, transcripts, and your research/personal statement. Your resume/CV should list the pertinent information from your past, but it will be amplified in your other documents.
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Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions, cv
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thread-12261 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12261 | Is it ok to ask a potential PhD advisor for more information about their future grants? | 2013-08-28T14:55:33.590 | # Question
Title: Is it ok to ask a potential PhD advisor for more information about their future grants?
Is there an etiquette when asking Potential Advisors about their future projects?
The reason I ask this is because a Potential Advisor informed me of a future grant that she is applying for, which would have research a topic I am fairly interested in. The advisor gave me a general outline, but she left out some important details that are important to me; my fear is that the advisor will think I am trying to steal the grant idea. Perhaps I am making too much of this?
# Answer
> 8 votes
I think you can certainly ask (nicely) for some more details about her ideas and the research she proposed as part of the grant. Especially so if this is going to be something you end up working on, or close to your own projects. You are, after all, possibly going to work for her! I don't think she will think anything else than you having interest in her research, which is quite positive.
However, don't ask for the grant proposal (i.e. the written text) itself, as it could be seen as assuming. Ask the questions you have, and let her decide if she wants to reply or simply give you the document to read.
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Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions, etiquette, funding
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thread-12208 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12208 | When to publish and what to include in a work in progress? | 2013-08-27T03:43:29.247 | # Question
Title: When to publish and what to include in a work in progress?
I have often seen conferences which invite papers on "work in progress" or "work with not too mature results" along with the original and exhaustive research. So, when is it apt to present your work in such conferences as work in progress in terms of the expected level of maturity, implementation progress and results ?
My field of research is Computer Science.
# Answer
> 6 votes
Presenting work in progress on conferences is a good way to elicit a first discussion of your (preliminary) research results, to establish yourself in a new topic, or to claim first ground in a "hot" research area. The important thing to me seems to be that you are able to present at least **some results**. Research concepts and plans often do not yield good conference papers.
There's a number of ways in which results can be regarded as premature, such that you would want to present them as "work in progress". I'll give some of them without claim of completeness:
In **empirical research**:
* Small amount of data compared to the standard in your field.
* Contradictory results which prevent firm conclusions.
* Low amount of replicates or additional supportive data for your conclusions.
* Experimental setups which may not capture or control for relevant factors in the system you're looking at.
In **theoretical research**:
* Restrictive assumptions which make a theory applicable to only a fraction of the relevant problems.
* Evaluation of a method with a smaller or more restricted test case than what would be done usually.
* Mathematical results from numerical experiments without a clear proof.
* Missing steps in an implementation such that only partial results could be obtained.
In many cases, it is a difficult decision, whether you should publish preliminary results (in case they are publishable in principle) or rather wait until you get more complete results. It depends on how fast you want to publish something on the topic, whether you can quickly get more complete results or not, and probably a range of other factors which I didn't think of now.
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Tags: publications, research-process
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thread-12264 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12264 | How should a student defend his 1st authorship in front of his advisor politely and effectively? | 2013-08-28T15:11:19.057 | # Question
Title: How should a student defend his 1st authorship in front of his advisor politely and effectively?
Inspired this good question, I think posting this question will surely benefit the next generations of students, albeit this does not happen to myself.
The research students will publish several papers along the research road under someone's supervision. When it comes to the issue of **the author order**, the student and the advisor may **not always reach an agreement**. i.e. Sometimes the student thinks he or she deserves the 1st author, but the advisor doesn't.
In such cases, the students are usually very worried and upset. Having been working on that topic for such a long time, the student feels very disappointed to be listed as the non-first author. Being the **weak** party, the **student may not even dare** to argue with his advisor. After all, the advisor is kind of "in control of" his remaining PhD life.
Simply put:
**How should a student defend his or her 1st authorship in front of the advisor politely and effectively?**
# Answer
> 17 votes
Authorship questions inevitably end up having two threads: what should be and what happens. The "what should be" is that the amount of intellectual work (as described in the Vancouver Protocol)
```
1. Conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data
AND
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content
AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published.
```
that each author has put into the work. As with most agreements, it is best to discuss this in advance and agree on how to evaluate the work done. Usually the first author is in charge of writing and the other author(s) provide feedback and contribute to the writing. If everyone follows these rules then the argument is fairly "straightforward".
In reality, we have to also deal with different types of personalities and other situations that affect judgement. It is not uncommon for persons to want first authorship if they are up for promotion or if they see that something they did not fully think was great actually is. The list could be made long. Straightening these cases out is sometimes (if not often) really tough.
Being pragmatic, I often think about if the situation will hurt me and evaluate if the fight is worth it. In the case of a PhD student, having ones advisor as first author is not necessarily a bad thing since, hopefully, the advisor is well-known and respected. Hence some of that rubs off on the co-author. As a PhD student I think a valid argument is that you need first authorship on some of the work in your thesis. This is a particularly good argument if the "switch" occurs repeatedly.
Arguing against irratianal excuses for first authorships will be hard or near impossible to win so I am a little pessimistic when it comes to such cases. You need to evaluate the situation yourself, gather objective arguments for your claim and possibly asking other faculty for advice and support.
# Answer
> 21 votes
In addition to Peter's answer, one should also keep in mind the accepted practices in one's field of study. For instance, in some fields, such as economics and parts of mathematics, alphabetical order is the default; in other areas, such as organic chemistry, the principal investigator of the lab—not the primary author of the paper—has traditionally been given the first spot in the list.
If you are in a field where the order is somewhat preordained, it's going to be very difficult to change that tradition, for many reasons. In such cases, you should optimize your placement within the "available" options.
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Tags: publications, advisor, authorship
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thread-12268 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12268 | Visiting Student/Scholar | 2013-08-28T19:18:25.810 | # Question
Title: Visiting Student/Scholar
1. Can one be titled "Vising Student/Scholar" at a university if one is already graduated from another institute (with BSc/MSc) and is currently not affiliated with any university?
2. Does one have to pay registration fees, etc.?
3. In this case, can one be paid for as a TA/RA by the university?
Is it different in US and EU?
# Answer
> 3 votes
This answer is based on my experience in the US. It won't necessarily apply to every institution.
Typically, these titles are used for people visiting University X for an extended period (one or more academic terms) to work on a research project with a faculty member (call her Prof. A) who is already there. If this is not your situation, then please clarify your question.
You would not be employed by University X, but would typically be entitled to courtesies such as library privileges, computer access, and perhaps office space. The exact qualifications needed for each title may vary, but if Prof. A wants you to visit, she can probably arrange for you to get whichever one is appropriate for you.
I would expect that if you are not attending classes, you wouldn't pay tuition or fees. There might be a nominal fee for a library card or something like that.
Teaching assistantships would generally be reserved for University X's own enrolled (degree-seeking) students. It is conceivable that you might be able to get one if they are really short staffed, but probably unlikely.
If you want to get paid for teaching, depending on University X's policies and needs, you might be able to get an appointment as an adjunct professor or instructor. This would be something for Prof. A to bring up with her department chair. At some places an MSc would be sufficient for such an appointment, but other universities might require a PhD.
The most likely way to get a research assistantship would be from Prof. A's grant funding. It would depend on the specifics of her grant, the rules of the funding agency, and the rules of University X. In any case, her own official graduate students would probably have priority. Again, this might depend on how strongly she wants you to visit.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I think that there are a lot of different variations, between continents, countries, and even individual universities. It is definitely true that pretty much every school in the US will have its own policy (since there are no national policies regarding registration in the US—although there are some rules that apply to financial aid obtained from federal sources). In Europe, things can also vary greatly between countries and schools (although they're trying to standardize things, this is still very much a work in progress).
Your best bet is to contact officials at the international office of whatever institutions you're interested in attending, and asking them directly.
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Tags: visiting
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thread-11658 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11658 | Questions about contacting a professor for getting PhD | 2013-08-05T09:26:40.027 | # Question
Title: Questions about contacting a professor for getting PhD
I have contacted a professor about the availability of a PhD position. And I got the following responses:
> I would be interested to explore the opportunities for you to come and complete a PhD in the Precision Livestock Management group that I lead. I have attached a formal application form for you to complete. One of the issues that we will need to address is funding. I do not have any current direct funding, however, it is possible that depending on the project area I could seek some indirect support from the University to waive the overseas fees. We would still need to find funds to cover your living expenses. Do you have any opportunities for funding to support your PhD?
>
> I would also be interested to hear what areas of research you would more specifically like to focus on that might relate to precision livestock management?
My Response:
> Thanks for your message and consideration.
>
> Actually, as you may know finding the financial support is not simple, usually. Honestly, I am not so optimistic to find one. However, I will keep eyes to find any financial support.
>
> Herewith are the topics that I would prefer to do the research on them: . . .
>
> Besides, in the case you have any suggestion about a topic please let me know.
>
> To complete the application form I have to attach the research proposal. Thus, I would be grateful if I could have your confirmation for the topic.
Then, I sent him a required information and got the following answer:
> I will give some thought to possible project areas. In your initial application you will need to say that you are applying for a full fee-paying place. We can then explore options for securing funds for a project.
Actually, it is my first serious contact with a professor. Does his response include any sign that I may get the position? How serious is the position? Should I count on this position? He asked me to fill in the application form. Am I supposed to send the application form to him or the admission office? He told me, he will give some thought to possible project areas. One of the required documents for application form is the research proposal. Should I wait for his thoughts and write a research proposal based on that? Should I follow up his thoughts? Within which timeframe should this procedure usually be completed?
# Answer
This doesn't look very good. The guy is happy to take you on, but requires that you pay full tuition fees for your studies and is only willing to “explore options for securing funds” after you do so. This would be expected at undergrad level, but for a PhD it means either he is not very interested in you, or he doesn't have funding but is not willing to decline a potential student. In any case, it doesn't look good.
> 7 votes
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Tags: phd, professorship, application
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thread-12277 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12277 | What consequences should I expect after violence in my classroom? | 2013-08-29T00:29:56.013 | # Question
Title: What consequences should I expect after violence in my classroom?
I am a teaching assistant and master's student in the math dept. at a large state university. I was holding a discussion section this morning when some young man walks in with his shirt off acting verbally belligerent. He comes up to the front of the room and just kind of stands there, not saying anything just kind of smiling in this creepy way and showing absolutely no signs of embarrassment or anything. After asking the class if anyone knew him (no one did), I told him he could either leave right now or I would get someone to remove him. I'm a small guy and he wasn't huge but he was certainly bigger than me.
He didn't leave so I stepped out of the room to get someone, although in retrospect I had no idea at the time who I would have gotten, but then as soon as I stepped out I realized that that probably wasn't a good idea since he could take my stuff or who knows what. So I walked back in and sure enough he's got my water bottle in his hand, so I grab it from him and say something to the effect of,
> !@#$ it, does anyone big want to help me get this guy out of class?
And two guys stand up, and one of them is clearly super pissed at this guy disrupting class and goes straight over to the guy and BAM hits him in the face super hard and he goes down and then hits him again and then kicks him in the face all in the span of like 5 or 6 seconds, like a proper #$!%ing beat down, and there are girls screaming and I'm a bit in shock as I was expecting him to just kind of strong arm him out of the class, and one girl comes up and is like
> stop hitting him stop hitting him!
I don't exactly remember what happened next, but the guy must have left and then the assistant dean appeared almost immediately. I talked to her privately and explained quickly what happened, but I didn't say that the student hit the guy, I just said he got him out of class. She said I would need to file a report. I then held class as usual, and everything was fine.
I tried to talk to the student privately after class, but the assistant dean came back in. I asked the assistant dean if she could step outside while I talked to the student in private, since I didn't want to incriminate him. But she got super offended and told me that "I shoo you, you don't shoo me, get this straight I'm your superior." So I apologized, but I think maybe the look on my face wasn't sufficiently contrite, I was really taken aback. So she writes down my name.
No one -- not my professor/student-teacher liaison, not my ombudsman -- seems to know what I should expect from all this. I also really don't want the student to get into trouble, since I did ask for help removing the guy. I scheduled a meeting with the dean, and now I'm super worried that I'm going to be fired or kicked out of my masters program. What should I expect from all this?
**Update:** I found out that the guy who was disrupting class got arrested later that day and he was not a student. I also talked to several students who said that this is not the first time he has done this, and that several weeks ago in another class he walked in and lit a cigarette, and the professor took the cigarette out of his mouth, stomped on it, and then physically threw him out of class.
# Answer
> 62 votes
You should have called the campus security/police when the incident was happening.
Had you done that, you'd worry about nothing right now. How did you know that guy did not have a gun? Why did you ask the student to help you to get the guy out? It was the security/police officer's job. You put all the students' and your life in danger !
Now, what happened already happened, too late to change that. To answer your question, you should talk to your professor, the department chair and the assistant dean. File the report. Just tell them the truth. You can use this question as the draft of the report. Take out some improper words. Admit that you did not know the appropriate action to take when it happened and you learned a painful lesson. Ask them to provide security trainings so that you'll know what to do if this kind of thing ever happens again. They'll understand. I don't think you'll be kicked out. A reprehend action is probably unavoidable.
To answer the question directly: It really depends on your department and school. If they had established security procedure and provided training to all faculty, staff and students as how to deal with this kind of thing, then they should also have the procedure as how to deal with anyone who did not follow the procedure. If they never had the security procedure, It's time to have one now. You can put that in your report.
# Answer
> 43 votes
Short: **Contact a local union representative, and ask them for information and advice**.
The advice given by others (*speak the truth*, *contact your department head and ask for his help*, etc.) is good, and if cool heads prevail, you shouldn't be in too much trouble, though the experience must have left you in bad shape. Also, on that note, **do not hesitate to contact the school's counsellor/shrink** if you need someone to talk to in confidence. Sometimes, some of the things we cannot say in official channels (*“I somehow feel responsible for the guy getting beaten, after all, I set students onto him”*, that sort of stuff) need to be spoken.
However, **even if things are probably going to be fine, you also need to prepare yourself in case things go wrong**. So, just in case serious or threatening administrative procedures are started, **get informed on what your rights are**, and get advice on what to say exactly. (Yes, you will speak the truth, but there are many ways to phrase it.) That's your union's job, and they can even help you further if things turn for the worse.
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If you don't have a union, you could also get good advice from a lawyer… you may have access to a legal clinic or public-funded law consultations near you
# Answer
> 18 votes
You clearly found yourself in a very uncomfortable and unpredictable situation (I'm assuming the school never prepared you for this kind of situation). The fact that you are young and relatively inexperienced should help you.
You should definitely see the head of your department and ask for his/her help. The bottom line is that you were unsure of what to do, you felt threatened, you did something which seemed reasonable at the time (asked for help). Yes, the other student seems to have gone a bit too far but for his situation there are mitigating circumstances (his teacher felt he was in trouble and asked him to help).
Basically, there are mitigating circumstances all around. Even you shooing (really?) someone whom you should not have happened only because everyone was off balance.
Yes, it is not good but for everyone involved, any reasonable third party can clearly see that there are mitigating circumstances all around.
So, go to the department chair and ask him/her what to do. Don't hide anything.
# Answer
> 14 votes
While not as serious as an infraction as what you are going through, I was just recently in a bit of trouble with my school (public consumption). I was able to get past it by doing the following things:
1. Spoke Nothing but the truth
2. Had people from my department advocate that beyond this infraction, I was an asset to the department and the school.
What you also need to do is:
* Explain that you were clearly in an unsafe environment, and that beyond the stranger's threat, you put your students in danger by asking for help. While you aren't much older than the students, I assume, You are responsible for them as a Teaching Assistant.
* Explain to them that, if you are fortunate enough to keep your job and stay in the program what you would do in similar situation, which is, call the police. Get on your phone and call Public Safety or the Police, that is their job.
* This may have legal ramifications, depending on the particulars.
* Find as many people as possible with stature to advocate for you. Does your advisor love you as a student? Time to find out.
Thats all I can really think of. I really wish you good luck, as you know this is super messy.
# Answer
> 6 votes
Everyone else is giving good answers about your specific question. I want to add one thing: you need to think about how to handle such situations going forward. Set up time with campus security to learn what their policies are. You might try taking a good self defense class - not sport martial arts, and not military-go-kill-someone martial arts, but something designed for citizens who truly want to protect themselves. If you do so, you'd be well advised to learn about the different types of violence, so you can recognize whether someone is likely to hurt you vs someone who just wants your money. Rory Miller is a great starting place.
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Tags: ethics, administration
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thread-12216 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12216 | What are Industrial Case Studies and why are they required? | 2013-08-27T12:34:46.193 | # Question
Title: What are Industrial Case Studies and why are they required?
I searched on the internet about this but found no convincing answer. I have to submit a paper to a conference where they are also asking for an Industrial Case Study. I contacted the conference chair about this, they replied:
> If there is a pragmatic solution to a problem or there is an innovative application developed then an Industrial Case Study is required. For more details you may search for case study submissions for similar conferences.
The domain is KDD (Knowledge Discovery in Databases). I did search but did not find any good stuff.
Could anyone help me out with this?
# Answer
> 1 votes
An industrial case study is when you take your solutions or your processes, apply it to some situation in industry, and then report on the results. You might use the Case Study Method research method if what you propose can be appropriately investigated using a qualitative case study. This is appropriate if you're in management sciences, human-computer interaction, and software engineering (which is what the Damian paper referenced above is about). Note that industrial case studies of this type are VERY difficult to do and take an extremely long time to write up and report on, so I actually doubt the conference is looking for this kind of case study.
Alternatively, in the field of Knowledge Discovery of Databases, an industrial case study may simply be applying your algorithm to a database that is used in industry to discover something novel or meaningful. This is more common for analytical fields in general and simply requires you to acquire a database or some other data source that was generated through industrial activity.
The reason for "industrial case studies" is because a lot of people create methods and techniques and test it only with "fake laboratory data" that they happen to create or acquire. This fake laboratory data doesn't reflect very accurately the real world and people want to see that techniques in fact work on, affect and influence the real world.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I could not find a specific definition; however, I found a few Industrial Case Study examples from your and similar fields that may be useful analogs for you to model your case study off:
"An Industrial Case Study of Immediate Benefits of Requirements Engineering Process Improvement at the Australian Center for Unisys Software" (Damian et al. 2004).
"http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA446147" (Cook and Wolf)
"Process Monitoring using a Combination of Data driven Techniques and Model based Data Validation" (Duchesne et al. 2007)
"Signed Directed Graph Based Modeling and its Validation from Process Knowledge and Process Data" (Yang et al. 2012)
# Answer
> 0 votes
I contacted one the authors on the papers UV-D mentioned and according to the author:
> "Industrial Case Study" means the results presented have been validated in actual plant operation, they are not only based on theoretical considerations.
I even asked this question on Google+'s Machine Learning Community. You can have a look at the converstaion here.
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Tags: industry, independent-researcher
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thread-12303 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12303 | "other spoken languages" in graduate applications | 2013-08-29T21:49:07.097 | # Question
Title: "other spoken languages" in graduate applications
I am noticing that many graduate applications require a "primary spoken language" and "other spoken language".
For the "other spoken language", do they mean you must be proficient in writing, speaking, and reading? What if you can only do one (and you may not even be great at it...)? Does that count?
**EDIT** What if I do not know any of the jargons used in my study in that language?
# Answer
If they ask about *"spoken"* languages then it is about speaking, not about writing and reading.
This should not be a surprise depending on the area of research you are studying. It could impact those you will be working with or it could involve your research subjects. For example, if you want to study cross-cultural team dynamics specifically between fracophones and anglophones and you only speak English and you cannot communicate at all in French, then you are going to have some difficulty with your research.
If they do not ask you to qualify your speaking ability, then do not worry about it. If they do, then answer appropriately.
So, in short, yes, if you can speak one *other language* even if not well, it does count.
As a side note, I know plenty of people who speak zero *other languages.*
> 2 votes
# Answer
The application to my program explicitly asks candidates to list the language the foreign languages they know, as well as identify their skills in speaking, writing, and reading those languages on a poor/fair/good/very good/excellent basis. We also ask them to identify how long they've been learning the language. (The disconnect between how people evaluate themselves—particularly in writing—and the quality of their written statements of purpose is at times quite jarring, as you can imagine.)
However, I'd say that the purposes of such questions are the same: to see how well you are able to communicate in languages other than your "native tongue," or to see how proficient you are in the working language of the program, if you're attending an international program.
If they only ask about speaking, then they only want to know about speaking and oral comprehension; writing and reading don't enter into the equation. The same is true if they ask about "reading knowledge" of a language: if you can read it, they're not necessarily concerned about your ability to speak it. Requiring reading knowledge used to be the case, and often still is, in fields such as mathematics and chemistry, where much of the "classic" literature in the fields were in languages such as French, German, and Russian. Therefore, the ability to be able to read and understand papers in at least one of those languages was considered a necessary skill for doctoral students to acquire.
> 2 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, application
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thread-12310 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12310 | Does a student need official permission to publish an independent research article with university affiliation? | 2013-08-30T16:43:03.593 | # Question
Title: Does a student need official permission to publish an independent research article with university affiliation?
When a junior student is doing research independently (for example theoretical), does s/he need official permission to publish a research article? In the article, s/he needs to introduce his/her affiliation. Normally, this affiliation is connected with the research funding.
Does studentship qualify him/her to use the university name as his own official affiliation, even if this affiliation has no connection with this independent research project?
# Answer
> 12 votes
1. First, check if your university has rules/policies/guidelines in place. If so, follow them.
2. Otherwise, use your university name as affiliation. No need to ask them. (Trust me, they are much more worried about people *forgetting* to use the affiliation, than the other way around!)
# Answer
> 2 votes
Basically affiliation is valid for employes to an organisation. Graduate students will belong to that category as well since their degree depends on producing publishable materials. Undergraduate students are not automatically entitled to use an affiliation. I do not think this introduces any majpor hurdles. You need to talk to the department chair or have some faculty member do so to get the permission to use the affiliation. I am assuming such affiliaiton will not need decisions higher up in the university bureaucracy; you need to find out, of course.
Affiliation will make publication easier than using a private address so getting to use an affiliation provides a stamp of approval with it which may work to your advantage. So, if I understand your final question right, there does not have to be any connection between the research you do and the affiliation. The affiliation simply means that the department/university supports your publication and thereby your efforts in research.
In this example it is evident that there is a responsibility associated with using the university name (for example as affiliation). It is clear that the affiliation cannot be used "as you wish" without possible repercusions, hence asking for permission is a natural first step. Particularly when the work is not done at the university.
Universities have been very relaxed about "brandinG" but trust me, they are becoming increasingly watchful. This is evident by studying the visual identity and similar branding policies of many respectable universities.
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Tags: publications, research-process, university
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thread-12313 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12313 | Is there a difference between an "update" to a scientific paper vs. a "new" paper in a scientific journal? | 2013-08-30T17:07:42.327 | # Question
Title: Is there a difference between an "update" to a scientific paper vs. a "new" paper in a scientific journal?
I have been doing research with a professor of mine pertaining to the topic of a well-received paper he wrote several years ago. The original paper discussed a computer program that the professor wrote. The research I am doing consists of adding new features to the computer program and broadening the scope of what the program does. The work does not change the basic premise of the paper, but rather expounds upon it and adds new applied programming concepts that have broader implications for the field. The professor wishes to publish the results of our research as an "update" to his previous paper, using the same format and information as the original paper, but with new information discussing the features being added.
Is this a common practice in academia? How are "updates" to scientific papers handled when submitting to journals? Will the paper be considered the same paper but only republished with a new title and date or will it be considered a "brand new" paper of which I will have co-authorship?
# Answer
Recently, I have had a very similar situation occur. The original paper discussed and explained the theoretical and practical aspects of a scientific technique that we adapted; the second discussed and explained the programming automation of the technique.
My advisor and co-author advised me at the time that each paper has got to be unique, taking the lead from the previous one and adding new information, techniques etc. The journal that I published in are quite happy to take on a follow up article, just as long as it is sufficiently unique.
So, in answer to your questions - it would most likely be a new paper for publication, make reference to the previous one, but place the emphasis on the new developments.
> 4 votes
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Tags: publications, paper-submission
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thread-3123 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3123 | Feasibility and procedure for getting graduate admission in CS with non-CS-related engineering background? | 2012-09-07T07:00:43.713 | # Question
Title: Feasibility and procedure for getting graduate admission in CS with non-CS-related engineering background?
It is often said that branch change is possible while going for MS/ PhD in USA. But almost all examples (as seen on university sites and various blogs) are of someone completing undergraduate studies (ie BE, BTech) from ‘Circuit’ branches of engineering i.e. Electrical, Electronics, Telecom, Instrumentation etc and joining MS/PhD in CS.
* How difficult it is to go for MS or PhD in CS, having studied in ‘Non Circuit’ branches like Mechanical, Civil, Chemical and Aeronautics Engineering?
* Are there people out there?
* What one should do if one has a strong drive, skills and suitable projects, seminars, publications to support the same?
(My query refers mainly to top ranking colleges, say top 20)
# Answer
> 5 votes
Yes, it is possible to get an admission for MS or PhD in a US university having studied Bachelor degree in 'Non Circuit" field. This is more true if you have *strong drive, skills and suitable projects, seminars, publications to support the same*. However, to get into the top 20s would be a special case though not impossible.
Try approaching professors from top universities in CS showing them your credentials. If you are able to convince a professor, the battle is more or less won.
One of my friend did his Bachelor in Civil Engg. from a reasonably good non-US university but got admission in Electrical Engg. in a US university of medium rank.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Having to deal with applications for admission to a taught MSc CS programmes, I am sorry to say that we only accept CS BSc graduates or \`\`equivalent''.
Even if applicants come form \`\`related'' areas such as electronic engineering, they usually lack experience in basic (and non-basic) CS areas such as programming, databases, operating systems, security, discrete math, and web technology.
Sure, it's possible to learn about these matters but to enter the programme you must prove you've mastered them on a formal basis. (Otherwise, we might as well let anybody enter.) We're willing to accept applicants with provable industrial experience, provided applicants can back up the experience with a relevant CV and some references.
When it comes to non-CS BSc graduates, we simply cannot accept them *unless* they can prove they've studied CS on a formal basis. In short this usually means you always need a BSc in CS or the equivalent of a CS conversion degree.
# Answer
> 0 votes
As @Stat-R said, it is possible to change fields for your M.S. or your Ph.D., but it is harder to get in and you need all those things that @Stat-R said. In addition you may find some M.S. programs in C.S., offered for non-CS major students. I know that U. Penn has such a program. If you are in Mechanical Engineering, you might have worked with robotics. Robotics Institute of CMU offers both M.S. and a Ph.D. and they accept Mechanical Engineering major students too.
I think that it is harder to get into a Ph.D. program, especially if you haven't done any research on related topics, but I think you can easily get into an M.S. program.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, computer-science, changing-fields
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thread-12314 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12314 | Can a paper directly be written on a new application developed rather then an algorithm from existing research results or algorithms? | 2013-08-30T18:43:58.787 | # Question
Title: Can a paper directly be written on a new application developed rather then an algorithm from existing research results or algorithms?
Suppose we design a prototype for a new product that is indeed novel.
Would writing a paper on such a thing be useful as mostly the papers talk about new algorithms or their upgrades or some new theory ?
I am talking about just a new product that does something better than the existing ones but uses old algorithms and research.
# Answer
> 5 votes
This is something that I have been doing. If I understand your question correctly, you are looking at a new product using existing algorithms and techniques. If this is the case, the answer is yes: many journals will welcome this, as I have found. I have also taken an existing technology, aspects of existing algorithms, based on existing research and developed a brand new technique.
A couple of caveats though:
* You will need to make the specific context to which it will be used crystal clear, this must be the focus.
* You must give full credit for the prior information and techniques.
* You must fully justify why such an altered technique is useful, what are the implications and benefits of such a product.
# Answer
> 2 votes
So basically you are finding a new (and maybe promising) *application* to an existing technique **X**. If that's the case then yes. You are showing a new perspective of **X** applicability to real domains.
This is specially important when the applicability of **X** is questionable (i.e. **X** literature lacks real applications for it), then definitely this seems strong findings.
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Tags: research-process, independent-researcher
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thread-12299 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12299 | Deep reading or just skimming and scanning? | 2013-08-29T20:17:43.463 | # Question
Title: Deep reading or just skimming and scanning?
In order to write a lit review from papers which I already have, should I read all those papers deeply and summarize them, or can I just skim and scan and just pick the information that I need to connect it with other information available in another paper?
**The main point that I want to understand**, do I have to understand the paper fully that I took some things to write from? For example, If I found a paragraph in a paper and it is good to include in one of the themes, then do I have to understand that paper fully?
# Answer
> 7 votes
**Short answer** Probably not.
In order to write an effective literature review, you should definitely understand the material. So...
> > \[D\]o I have to understand the paper fully that I took some things to write from? For example, If I found a paragraph in a paper and it is good in include in one of the themes, then do I have to understand that paper fully?
I would say that you may not need to understand the entire paper completely, **but** you should be sure that you understand the primary points well enough to be absolutely sure that you are **not taking the quote/paraphrase out of context.** Again, as other replies point out, whether you can determine this from skimming will depend on your current level of understanding of the subject. I assume you have already read these papers, and have a fair knowledge of the content; however, I would still advise you to read carefully anything you will be quoting--this will improve the quality of the lit review you are writing (and anyway it is never fun to be called out for having misrepresented someone's paper!). Bottom line, unless you know the subject--and the relevant papers--very well, you will probably be better off with reading thoroughly.
# Answer
> 4 votes
It really depends on your level of understanding in the specific topic you are researching. Having said that, it does not hurt (and more likely benefit) you to read each article carefully - taking notes of the important points, terminology, equations and any other relevant aspect of the paper.
One effective means that I have found (has worked well for me), is to paraphrase these key points as you go, this resource about paraphrasing and summarising may be of help.
# Answer
> 3 votes
If the paper you are reading is familiar material, it might be easy to assimilate the data from scanning. If it is news to you, you may have to go slower. The answer is, read as fast or slow as you have to in order to actually understand the material.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I would add to the above answers that it also depends on what exactly you want to cite. Is it the description of methods, results, conclusions or general discussion or something else? I can think of a couple of scenarios that I came across:
1. I was writing about some algorithm on networks and cited a physics paper that used similar approach. I only skimmed the paper as just wanted to highlight that the method is widely used in various fields in various contexts.
2. I cited two papers that conducted similar studies but obtained opposing results. Here I read the papers thoroughly, especially methods section, to pick out the differences and try to understand what was the cause of such discrepancies.
3. I cited some general discussion and future hypotheses to test from one review paper. I liked the reasoning of the guy and I knew that he is one of the leading scientists in the field. I did not hesitate to cite his opinion because I had read a couple of his previous papers and knew his contribution to the field. I would probably be careful with citing opinions/conclusions from some obscure sources. If you don't know what brought the author to conclude something, you are risking that you cherry-pick nice sentences out of context (as already mentioned in previous answers).
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Tags: writing, literature-review
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thread-12331 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12331 | I have sit the TOEFL iBT for several times, Which one can I post: my most recent score or my best score? | 2013-08-31T16:55:54.760 | # Question
Title: I have sit the TOEFL iBT for several times, Which one can I post: my most recent score or my best score?
I know that it's possible to pass the TOEFL iBT several times. However, it has been one hour since I looked for the answer on the web, but I don't manage to know if all the scores are sent to the university I apply.
In other words, if I pass the test two times, can I send only my best score?
# Answer
> 3 votes
In general, the only way for schools not to receive the complete record of test scores is for you to cancel the test score. Since nowadays the test scores are usually finalized once you agree to get the score, I think the answer is probably no.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, language-exams, toefl
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thread-12325 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12325 | is it possible to have different research topics for the MSc and PhD? | 2013-08-31T14:21:29.643 | # Question
Title: is it possible to have different research topics for the MSc and PhD?
Here is my case, before I studied my master´s degree I managed to write a research paper jointly with a Professor (not from my university) on databases. After that I pursue my master´s degree in CS, but on neural networks rather than databases. The thing is that I would like to do my PhD in databases with the professor I wrote the research paper with. Do you think that I can have problems with the admission committee? I would not like to go to study a PhD without any financial support at all.
# Answer
> 9 votes
I don't see why there should be any problem with this whatsoever. It is quite common for students to move around topics, particularly if you are switching between programs or universities. If everybody agrees that you are a good candidate for the position in question, then it shouldn't really matter too much that the topic is not an exact match.
# Answer
> 0 votes
It is possible. As long as your professor agrees. You have to work 4 years+ on the topic so it should be something that you are passionate about.
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, advisor
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thread-12347 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12347 | What is "Honorary Lecturer" in the UK universities? | 2013-09-01T11:23:09.240 | # Question
Title: What is "Honorary Lecturer" in the UK universities?
I was browsing some UK universities, and I was surprised by the number of 'Honorary Lecturers'. I understand a 'honorary professor' position, normally given to an outstanding scientist outside the academia, but I wonder how a junior academic position (like lecturer) can be given with honorary title.
First, I thought it can be a political figure or something like than rather that someone with scientific achievements, but suprisingly, I found it is VERY popular to fall in this category.
For example, 10% of faculty members in UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences holds the positions of 'honorary lecturer', 'honorary senior lecturer', 'honorary reader', or 'honorary research associate'.
# Answer
In this link they explain the subject in detail In general regarding honorary academic titles for non-employees it is written:
> To recognise the association, the College may confer an honorary academic title on a non-employee during the period of their association.... The title to be conferred will depend on the level of distinction and qualification of the candidate.
And specifically with regard to "honorary lecturer":
> **Honorary Lecturer**: Must continue in teaching, research or joint industry/academic activity to an appropriately high level
> 5 votes
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Tags: professorship, university, titles
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thread-708 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/708 | Is it possible to work on extra activities (start-up project) during PhD? | 2012-03-13T19:01:05.147 | # Question
Title: Is it possible to work on extra activities (start-up project) during PhD?
I am about to get my bachelor degree in computer science. I have applied PhD programs of US universities to earn doctorate degree in computer architecture subject. I kept my hopes high and applied the most of top US schools, but rejected from the most of them (mostly because my GRE, TOEFL grades are not top for these schools, I think). Hopefully I will be admitted some of the schools that I applied.
I know pursuing a PhD and conducting research is not easy, but it is a serious process that requires the one to devote himself or herself to. Luckily I like working on computer architecture and learn about new innovations, techniques, ideas proposed by researchers. I think computer architecture is a field fully open to innovation, research and development. However, at the same time I love spending time on web technologies. I have been developing new applications related with web services, mobile services, social media, content management systems etc.
Do you think would it be really possible to pursue a PhD and simultaneously work on a start-up project?
I am not looking for answers saying that it would be possible as long as you manage your time to work on them both or it is up to your advisor or program etc. I know after some point everything up to you, but I don't know the PhD experience and that's why I am asking this question here.
PS: I hope this question would help others in the sense that it is about the possibility of serious extra activities during PhD process, rather than being an personal issue.
# Answer
Yes, Yes and absolutely Yes! Yes, you **have** to manage and balance your time well and make sure you devote the time to your Ph.D first, if your startup kicks off and you start raking in millions, you may again decide how to distribute your attention :)
Now, what are the benefits of doing a start-up-like project (notice 'like')? You don't really know how/what this project will turn into. So first pursue it as 'passion' or have 'will to do it' to solve a 'pain point' and NOT for *'it's fun to start my company, let's do it!'* kinda attitude.
First, find a pain point and talk it out with your peers, friends etc. Basically anyone whose pain you will relieve :) Get a pulse of the solution and its possible acceptability.
Second: Is this in line with your PhD focus area? Can you 'put it line' with it? The reason I ask is that'll be all the more worthwhile and you'd be 2x willing to work your a\** off :) and time devoted to either will be beneficial to both!
Now if it's not in line and a totally different project here are some benefits:
* Strong honing of skills with a focus on 'value' - you'll HAVE to prioritize the requirements with a focus on the most valuable/risky items first (and not necessarily the easiest ones)
* Understanding who will be your success critical stakeholders and how/what will satisfy their needs (i.e. what are the pain points, whose feeling it and how to relieve it)
* What it takes to run a business or bring an idea to fruition
* How painful is quick and dirty in the long run i.e. if you sacrifice maintainability/readability/adaptability the business will teach a lesson ;)
* Develop a techno-business mindset i.e. along with the development skills you'll also (hopefully) develop some valuation skills. These are those that help you 'sell' your idea to someone (VCs, Angels etc.) to invest in your business - you'll learn to speak the language of 'business' to help them understand the value of your idea.
* Learn to do risk/return tradeoffs
This will make you a 'System Engineer' in a sense - you'll be able to look at a broader picture along with your particular skill set (computer architecture)
Now, assuming your PhD is purely technical, you will develop (and appreciate) business understanding, complexity and communicability! In the future it'll help you communicate well with the 'other folks' (i.e. marketing, managers, CEOs, bosses, customers etc. etc.)
These skills ARE EXTREMELY VALUABLE in the long run. Working on your start-up project may help you at least get an inkling if not the entire understanding but you WILL definitely have a better understanding of technical + business oriented aspects and I think that's a skill all PhDs ought to have!!
PS: I am in your shoes :)
> 7 votes
# Answer
Honestly, my instinct is "no".
Both startups and PhD advance in the same way - the massive influx of effort. And that effort is often unpredictable. Both settings have "crunch time" wherein for the next few weeks, you might as well have dropped off the face of the Earth.
Balancing that is, imo, a very tall order for a human being and will probably result in one of them suffering, falling to the side and getting triaged if you try to split the middle.
That being said, there are paths you can try, particularly if you can manage to either consult for a startup in a way that has structured limits on your time, or manage to link your dissertation to the startup's work enough that your effort counts for double. But as entirely unrelated projects? Its begging to have one fall apart.
> 15 votes
# Answer
It depends the most on how much time and effort you need to pursue your start-up project. If you were able to do it and have a normal job - then probably yes.
However, time management is an issue - both PhD and start-up are things with unbounded times - so always competing with each other. The thing with devoting oneself may be psychologically harder, as you need constantly to switch attention and evaluate priorities (but sometimes it may be beneficial - serving as an 'intellectual crop rotation'). Moreover, dealing with the pressure from two opposite sites at once may be difficult. And don't underestimate it.
For US, note that first 1-2 years is the coursework, so it may be not the easiest/possible to start your project then.
Anyway, it may be the best not to start both PhD and star-up exactly at the same time - better to learn how much time & effort is needed for one activity and e.g. what is approach of your professor / graduate school to your other project(s) (actually, sometimes they may be supportive, including in the financial aspect).
Source:
I'm a PhD student running a sort of a start-up project (Confrenzy).
EDIT: Now failed, or frozen.
> 10 votes
# Answer
Unfortunately the answer you don't want to hear is the most plausible one in my opinion. There are plenty of cases where people even start companies while doing a PhD and then never finish their PhD (Google being a notable example). People also do both at the same time, or change to a part-time PhD.
If you are serious about getting a PhD, this is only really an option in the later years of your studies. If you start working on a project that is not related to your PhD right away you will probably run into difficulties with your studies, the project or both.
> 9 votes
# Answer
Awesome question.
My answer is - **for sure!** (if it is related to your research as a grad student)
Let me expand. I think grad school is time for couple of things:
1. Widen your knowledge in the field.
2. Deepen your knowledge in the subfield of the subfield of the subfield ... of your field
3. bla bla bla
4. Get to be known by your peers
5. Make new connections
Professor could usually tell you that points 4 and 5 are easily achieved by publishing couple of papers and going to couple of conferences (realistically, how many conferences grad student can go in 5 years? maybe 8).
Of course, also, advisor doesn't want you to spend time on the stuff that will not has his/her (advisor's) name on it. That is understandable, advisor needs a list of stuff to put in the grant/whatever proposal to get funding. However:
1. Advisor pays you a minimum wage (in most of the cases)
2. Makes you work on his/her spherical cow
3. There are hardly any jobs on the market \[1,2\]
For at least these reasons my answer is - **for sure**.
Now, usually startup'ers invest time and money into something, and hope to get more money back. In my case, I have decided to invest in myself. So my startup goal is to contribute to a list of the opensource/closed source project in my field and arrive into authors/contributors list. This will accomplish the following:
1. Get to be known by your peers
2. Make new connections
3. Get myself aware of the code
One more thing I'm happy about, only my name will be on the list. In academia people get authorship on the papers for all kind of things, only not for doing research, well, in the software - there is no such issue - as commit history is the judge.
thanks for the attention.
1. http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/web/2012/03/Unemployment-Data-Worst-40-Years.html
2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.caredit.a1300184
> 2 votes
# Answer
It can be great if you learn skills that you can apply in your PhD. Some Universities even encourage it. As long as you communicate this clearly to your professor and still devote enough attention to your PhD it is OK.
> 1 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, phd
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thread-12344 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12344 | What simple events can a graduate student club organise to network with former students, companies, etc.? | 2013-09-01T07:22:57.800 | # Question
Title: What simple events can a graduate student club organise to network with former students, companies, etc.?
I'm a graduate student in Engineering. This semester we're going to form a graduate student club. We're thinking about creating some networking events with former students, companies, etc.
Do you have any related ideas that are not hard to implement and not too expensive?
# Answer
Simple ideas:
1. Seminar where a professor gives a talk on his/her current research. Provide beer.
2. Invite an alum from one of the companies you're talking about to give a talk on something new from the company. Provide beer.
3. Simple cook-out, which includes beer (even better if this is a recurring event, monthly, once a semester, etc.).
More involved ideas:
1. Mini-poster conference, where a quorum of students have posters about their current research. Alum can act as judges, if you want to award prizes. Provide beer.
2. Invite a famous alumus to give a talk. This always involves more work than you're expecting, but can have big pay-offs. Might necessitate actual cocktails (and possibly pay for the speaker, but if you play it right you should find an alumnus willing to do it for free).
3. Field-trip to a local engineering firm that may have something interesting to look at (or a tour). Drinks at a local bar afterward.
> 11 votes
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Tags: collaboration, networking, soft-skills
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