id
stringlengths 8
14
| url
stringlengths 40
58
| title
stringlengths 2
150
| date_created
stringdate 2008-09-06 22:17:14
2024-03-31 23:12:03
| text
stringlengths 149
7.14M
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
thread-16434 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16434 | How to bring one's PhD research to another university? | 2014-02-01T13:34:25.703 | # Question
Title: How to bring one's PhD research to another university?
I was talking about a probable research topic that I got in mind for following a Phd in Computer Science to one of my past Lecturers. This professor told me that I should make a research proposal and see what happens with the evaluating committee. The research proposal was made and it got finally accepted. Now the issue is that this university, in which they accepted my proposal is not so well known worldwide. So I would like to apply to another more renewed university with the same topic, I think that could help me better in my academic career. What should I do? It is unethically to move to another university with my research idea? maybe my past professor could feel like betrayed?
Thanks
# Answer
You are free to take **your** idea wherever you would like. You cannot take your professor's project proposal to another university without her permission.
The professor at your school seeing this as a "betrayal" is a separate issue. A good advisor will of course want a good student to stick around. A good **mentor** will want what's best for the student—regardless of what's in the mentor's best interests as a potential advisor.
So, my advice is just to talk to the professor and let him know that you'd like to apply at other universities as well. (It's your right to do so, of course.) Ask if the professor would be willing to write letters supporting you. If the professor isn't supportive of this, you'll have your answer. (And if the professor is **not** supportive, then do **not** get letters of recommendation from that professor!)
> 4 votes
---
Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, advisor
--- |
thread-16412 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16412 | I'm writing a personal statement for a Master's degree. The length requirement is about 1000 words. I have written 2000. Shall I shorten it? | 2014-01-31T16:46:25.317 | # Question
Title: I'm writing a personal statement for a Master's degree. The length requirement is about 1000 words. I have written 2000. Shall I shorten it?
Currently I am applying for a LLM programme at SOAS and am having certain difficulties while writing the required personal statement. According to their guidance, the statement should be "describing your ambitions, suitability and interest for the programme you have chosen. This should be around 1,000 words in length", but I simply can't even fall under 2,000 words.
So my question is should I post the longer version that describes me better and for which I believe gives me a greater chance to be accepted, or should I simply delete half the text so I could manage their quota?
# Answer
> 17 votes
There's some variability about how strict people are about word limits, so if you have any kind of inside knowledge (like someone who knows the culture at SOAS), they may be able to give you better guidance for this specific case.
In the absence of reason to think they don't care about the word limit, I'd worry about going over, especially about going *way* over, like double the suggested length. You should consider that if you're that far over the limit, your personal statement may not actually be quite what they're looking for. Perhaps it's overly detailed, or trying to make too many separate points at once. In other words, you should at least consider that this indicates a problem with your statement of purpose that you're not seeing. (And you should try to get input from someone else who could give you a fresh eye on it.)
The risks are:
* It's possible they count words and ignore/mark applications that don't follow directions.
* Even if they don't count words, people reading your application are likely to notice that you're statement is double (!) the length of most others. At a minimum, they'll probably discount your statement of purpose on the grounds that you had a lot more space than everyone else, which might take away much of the benefit of the longer statement.
* Worse, they might be annoyed at having to read twice as much or upset that you didn't follow directions.
* And, they might take it as an indication that you're not that serious about the application: it could mean that you weren't paying attention, or that you're recycling a statement you wrote for someone else without much effort.
# Answer
> 21 votes
If the writing style in your statement matches the writing style in your question, you should just do some creative revising. Cut the fluff and write more concisely; for example:
> Currently I am applying for a LLM programme at SOAS and am having certain difficulties while writing the required personal statement. According to their guidance, the statement should be "describing your ambitions, suitability and interest for the programme you have chosen. This should be around 1,000 words in length", but I simply can't even fall under 2,000 words.
>
> So my question is should I post the longer version that describes me better and for which I believe gives me a greater chance to be accepted, or should I simply delete half the text so I could manage their quota?
**Much of that is extraneous and overly wordy:**
*Currently I am applying for a LLM programme at SOAS and am having certain difficulties while writing the required **my** personal statement. According to their guidance, the statement should be "describing your describe your "ambitions, suitability and interest" for the **chosen** programme you have chosen. This should be in "around 1,000 words in length", but I simply can't even fall under **I'm over** 2,000 words.*
*So my question is should I post the longer version that describes me better and for which I believe gives me a greater chance to be accepted, or should I simply delete half the text so I could manage **and meet** their quota?*
yields:
> *I am applying for a programme and am having difficulties writing my personal statement. The statement should describe "ambitions, suitability and interest" for the chosen programme in "around 1,000 words in length", but I'm over 2,000 words.*
>
> *Should I post the longer version that describes me better, or should I delete half the text and meet their quota?*
Original version: **99 words**. Revised version: **58 words**. I've cut your word count almost in half but I believe there is minimal loss in content.
Maybe you've done this already, but I thought this was worth mentioning, in case you haven't. By the way, in the past, when I've had to meet word count ceilings, I've usually been able to do it **without** eliminating core information.
# Answer
> 11 votes
It depends a bit on the programme, but the general answer is "stick to the 1000". Here are some good reasons for a committee enforcing such policies:
1. Someone has to read it. All of it. From everyone.
2. It would be unfair, if everyone stays within the limit and you don't. Some people just stop reading after 1000 words
3. Most things which can not be described in 1000 words are not better described using 2000 words.
Some tipps:
* Try to be focused
* Avoid empty phrases
Best luck
# Answer
> 10 votes
Look at it from the point of view of the person who has to read 200 of these things.
* 1,000 words: expected;
* 1,100 words: not noticeably different;
* 1,200 words: looks maybe a touch long but whatever;
* 2,000 words: "wow, long \[turns the page\] blah, blah, blah \[turns over again without even reading\] why does this idiot think I want to read all of this?"
You're applying for an advanced degree in law. A critical skill in law is getting your point across concisely and simply, without extraneous waffle and without going on so long that the jury gets bored and the judge gets annoyed. If your personal statement is twice as long as it should be, the person reviewing applications can see that you lack a key skill without even reading the words.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Part of assigning a word count limit is to determine if you can be concise AND follow directions AND still get your message across to the reader. For example, if you are asked to drive someone across town but in an effort to impress you take them to the next state that isn't accomplishing the assigned task. If you can't get your message across within the word limit then you are failing the assignment.
---
Tags: masters, application, statement-of-purpose
--- |
thread-16441 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16441 | Do 90% of all German Chemistry graduates start a PhD? | 2014-02-01T17:27:06.183 | # Question
Title: Do 90% of all German Chemistry graduates start a PhD?
Can someone corroborate the fact above? If it’s true, how did it come to such a high number, do they have some slots reserved, or is it easy to enter German PhD programs? Would it also be easy for foreign graduates (in my case chemistry) to join a German PhD program?
Source 1 (German Wikipedia):
> Rund 91 % der frisch diplomierten Chemiker begannen nach ihrem Abschluss mit der Promotion.
>
> 91 % of the recent chemistry graduates enrolled in a PhD program. \[This does not imply they completed it.\]
Source 2 (Universität Duisburg–Essen):
> Wie jährlich durchgeführte Erhebungen der Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) zeigen, begannen in den letzten Jahren über 80 % der Absolventen nach dem Diplom bzw. Master mit einer Promotion.
>
> According to yearly inquiries by the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) \[Society of German chemists\], 80 % of diploma or master graduates enrolled in a PhD program in the last years.
# Answer
According to the German Chemical Society, apparently 90% of master's recipients in chemistry **do** start doctoral studies afterwards.
Partly this is because PhD "admission" is largely not an admissions process at all in Germany. Individual faculty members who receive grants can hire master's recipients as "Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter" (literally "scientific worker," but "research assistant" is a better translation). They can do this without recourse to going through a department-level admissions process, and can skip outside advertising altogether if they have an internal candidate they can appoint instead. And, since many students follow the rule of "Was der Bauer nicht kennt, isst er nicht"—"What the farmer doesn't know, he doesn't eat"), many students do their entire education at one school.
So yes, it's much easier to get a PhD position if you're already in Germany.
> 4 votes
# Answer
The system in Germany differs from the PhD system in some points:
* Usually there are no (or very little) courses you have to take.
* One assumes, you are capable of doing your own research projects (at least after a year or so)
* You are mainly involved in projects running at one institute - and it's up to the chairperson to select the person.
* You might have to do some work which is not (or just slightly) related to your PhD, like teaching courses, taking over part of the administrative work, etc. (this strongly depends on the group you are in).
* Often it is requested that you write one or more grant poropsals (and be successful so that the person coming after you is financed). This also depends on the group you are in.
I know of several proessors who say "you are employee of the institute and you have the opportunity to use some of the time to work on your PhD". You should make sure, your "work for the institute" overlaps significantly with your PhD-topic, otherwise you won't succeed.
One reason why so many people in Chemistry have a PhD is, there are so many students and industry can just select the ones with the best qualification. I'm not very familiar with the situation in Chemistry, but I now some biologists and there is the same mechanism working.
In other fields, it is quite different, e.g. in engineering, computer science, etc. the PhD-rates are significantly lower (I don't have numbers, but my guess would be \<15%).
One tipp at the end: If you can bring some money (e.g. a DAAD-scholarship), I expect your chances to be quite good.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: phd, germany, chemistry
--- |
thread-16440 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16440 | What is the importance of postdoctoral teaching experience for US tenure-track jobs? | 2014-02-01T16:52:48.193 | # Question
Title: What is the importance of postdoctoral teaching experience for US tenure-track jobs?
I'm a math Ph.D student in the US who has just accepted a four year postdoc--NSF postdoc at a US school interrupted by a year in Europe. For better or for worse, I am only slated to teach for two semesters in those four years--likely during the second semester of my 3rd year and 1st semester of my 4th.
I am planning to apply for tenure track positions in the US afterwards and am wondering whether the relative lack of teaching as a postdoc will adversely affect my application.
Should I be looking for volunteer teaching opportunities?
If it matters as a graduate student I had fairly extensive teaching experience, serving as sole instructor for courses in various levels of calculus, multi-variable calculus, and linear algebra for four years in addition to mentoring REU students and grading/TA-ing graduate and advanced undergraduate courses.
# Answer
> 12 votes
Two semesters of teaching in four years sounds almost ideal for a postdoc, so I would not be worried about that -- if you are aspiring to be a mathemagician rather than teaching-focused mathematician.
# Answer
> 9 votes
I won't answer your question because I am in France and not aware of the practice in the US; but a similar question can be asked everywhere, so let me give an answer to the equivalent question in France.
From my experience in a few hiring committees, teaching is secondary to research in the assessment of applicants, if considered at all. More precisely, an excellent research record seems to compensate almost any other consideration, and a very good research record leads hiring committees to barely look at teaching to see if it seems ok. I have seen a candidate be ranked very high (and be recruited elsewhere) without *any* kind of teaching experience (and a quite limited skill in French). So, for the sake of one's career, I would say that focusing on research is the winning move.
In my opinion, this situation is very unfortunate, and I guess and hope that many other departments consider teaching more seriously. Also, for one's own sake, one should try itself at teaching and get regular practice before applying to jobs that will involve a significant amount of teaching. This need not be intensive though.
# Answer
> 7 votes
Given your level of grad student experience, I wouldn't worry a lot. I think it will hurt you when it comes to jobs at liberal arts schools, but for a research university, it sounds like you already have a reasonable amount of teaching experience. Make sure you save any evaluations you have from grad school, as those could be useful if there's any question about your teaching. Similarly, with your teaching during the postdoc, make sure someone actually comes and observes one of your classes and can write a letter based on it.
As general advice, I would be more worried about starting a TT job as an inexperienced teacher than not getting a job because of it. I personally had a relatively low level of teaching experience when I started my first TT position (one lecture course and 3 semesters of TAing) and I think it would have been beneficial for me to have a bit more, but I don't think it ever hurt me with a hiring committee. I think it doesn't matter a tremendous amount whether you get the teaching experience you do get as a grad student or as a postdoc.
It is worth seeking out volunteer teaching/outreach projects assuming they don't consume too much time. They're often a lot more fun than teaching normal classes and they're helpful for NSF grants, etc.
# Answer
> 5 votes
It depends on the type of job you are going for. If you want a job at a R1, then not having teaching experience hardly matters. If you are applying for regional universities or liberal arts colleges they will place much more importance on teaching (and since these job entail a much heavier teaching load, usually 3-3, but I've seen up to 5-5s compared to say, 2-2 at research Unis). Many of these schools will ask for a teaching portfolio as part of the job application instead of a teaching statement. You will have to submit past teaching evaluations, syllabi, and also the standard statement of your teaching philosophy. If this is what you are going for, you will want to have some of these material ready before you go on the job market.
# Answer
> 2 votes
My understanding is that at R1 US universities, for better or for worse, the reality is that pretty much nobody will even read your teaching statement. Unless your letters explicitly talk about how terrible a teacher you are, you should be fine.
Anecdotal evidence: In my three years of postdoc-ing, I only taught the last semester (and only for fun), so it didn't even make it onto my applications which were due before that. It didn't stop me from getting a tenure track job at a math department.
---
Tags: job-search, mathematics, postdocs, united-states, tenure-track
--- |
thread-16409 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16409 | Paper accepted for poster presentation in IEEE, what are the chances of it being published? | 2014-01-31T16:13:57.580 | # Question
Title: Paper accepted for poster presentation in IEEE, what are the chances of it being published?
I had recently submitted a paper to an IEEE conference and got accepted, but for poster presentation. This is the very first time I have written a paper. Although it is a great achievement for me given my inexperience in the field, my goal is to get it published.
* Does IEEE publish papers accepted for posters presentations?
* Should I pass on the poster presentation and send my paper to a journal?
# Answer
It depends on the particular conference and the field. In computer science (where the main publication venue is conferences), many conferences divide the published papers into "talks" and "posters" (eg NIPS, AISTATS, ...), and there's no difference in terms of publication.
In most other fields, however, acceptance at a conference means nothing, and you have to get published in a journal.
TL;DR: ask your advisor.
> 7 votes
# Answer
It depends on the conference. Many conferences publish the one page abstract that you're sometimes required to submit with the poster, but not all of them. If you didn't have to write the 1-page summary as part of the submission, don't expect it to be published. The poster itself is almost never published (I personally recommend that you make the poster available on the web).
Despite that, you CAN still list it as a publication on your CV, but posters are generally not worth very much and it's good to compartmentalize them to their own section of the CV so that your (eventual) journal and conference papers get priority.
A bit more description about "weight" and whether you should pass or not:
Generally, the weight of a publication (all else being equal, like let's assume for a moment that every paper's research content is the same) depends on the venue it's in and the type of publication it is. Posters are on the bottom, then short papers, then full conference papers. Usually, you get a poster because the work isn't developed enough to fill up a full paper. One thing to note is that if you "compartmentalize" your work well enough, you should be able to get the poster out and then later extend it to the journal without any issues - that is, if your journal builds upon your poster (quite often by adding more results, more interpretations/implications from the data, more analysis, etc.) then you'll have no problem with having both the poster and the later journal paper/conference paper.
I would like to take a moment to say that while this usually is okay for posters (poster to journal/conference paper), taking this path from a short paper/note to conference paper is often wrought with more problems. Because short papers already present an approach and sometimes results, you need to ensure that the full paper builds SIGNIFICANTLY on the short paper for it to be a real contribution. I've been seeing more recently people highlighting differences between short papers and long papers as a result (ex: "This paper builds upon the work presented in \[1\] by adding a thorough evaluation through two lab studies and one industrial field study"). You need to do this because if you don't, and someone does a web search for the topic of the paper, they might find your short paper and then be all like, "So it looks like someone has done this before". Unlike in a poster, where you really don't get that much space to talk about much of anything, you can usually discuss something of substance in a short paper.
Anyway, in general, it's usually okay to present posters and then later expand them into journals or conference papers. Poster presentations are healthy in that they are a quick and easy way to get yourself "out there", solicit feedback from the community, and get further ideas for what you want to do with your work. You can usually use the feedback from the poster session to build upon what you have and get a stronger research direction in the future. But do be aware that you're not "self-scooping" yourself by putting super-important results in a poster, because posters have low impact.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: computer-science, ieee, poster
--- |
thread-16458 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16458 | How to defend Masters thesis? | 2014-02-02T10:57:34.520 | # Question
Title: How to defend Masters thesis?
I have to defend my thesis. I have implemented new technique but the results are same(as with the old technique). So how should I defend it? Is this necessary to get the better results or implementation of new technique matters in thesis?
# Answer
> 7 votes
It sounds as though your major contribution to expanding the extent of human knowledge is in showing how the new technique can be used to confirm results (X) which were obtained by the old technique. So when defending your thesis, you better be very sure that you show how this new technique enhances our understanding of X!!
If you are unsure how to best present this, talk to your advisor. In fact, even if you believe you know how best to present your contribution, **talk to your advisor!** Take advantage of his/her experience and knowledge of the field to position yourself where your contribution can make the greatest possible impact.
You need to prove that you have expanded human knowledge, so focus on how this is better than the old technique, not on how you have gotten exactly the same results. Again, your advisor should best be able to show you how to do this.
---
Tags: masters, thesis
--- |
thread-16436 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16436 | How to advise a student looking for an under-grad thesis topic? | 2014-02-01T15:11:15.493 | # Question
Title: How to advise a student looking for an under-grad thesis topic?
There are some good answers here on how to find an masters thesis topic, but I am looking for advice on how to advise undergrad students who are looking for a thesis topic. Finding a thesis topic is a little bit different at undergrad level because it is the first time. How can I best help a student find a good thesis topic at undergrad level which will help them to get into a good university for masters and/or PhD?
# Answer
> 6 votes
An undergrad thesis is not expected to be mind-blowing or even necessarily that original (see @Cape Code's response about Lit Reviews, often a great option). Look to make some incremental improvements on a paper you've read that really interests you. Maybe you did a project for a class that you did very well on and would like to explore a bit more deeply. Starting from scratch is quite daunting for an undergrad (even a grad student or professor).
The least successful undergrad theses are often the ones that tried to be too groundbreaking and in the end the author had nothing because they couldn't make significant progress. Most theses are good enough to be accepted, if you get the work done. They do not have to be publishable. You usually only have about 1 year to finish an undergrad thesis, while completing a full load of courses. This is way different from a PhD or even a masters thesis where usually more time can be devoted. This is your first time at research, so have fun with it and don't worry too much about the consequences.
Often an advisor might hand you a project to work on, but you should come to him/her with general interests and having already read some of their papers and personal website.
# Answer
> 5 votes
There is always the option of asking for a thorough, methodologically sound, literature review on a given subject. Especially if you have too many students to allow them to do experiments in you lab for example. By allowing a certain freedom in the subject to pick, you give the personalized aspect without the risk of choosing a broad or unfeasible practical project.
Literature reviews have the advantage of teaching the undergrad how people usually do research. It can also confront them to the diversity of scientific opinion or the large variation in paper quality and thus develop a critical approach to literature reading.
I find these skills to be of great value at the undergrad level. And hey, the result might actually be useful to your research, which will be gratifying to the student.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I did not read the answers regarding master thesis topic search, but at least in Germany I see no difference in search strategies.
My personal opinion is: Look for something which is in the field you want to go into, find something which is challenging but manageable, and get a good advisor who helps you if you struggle.
If you manage to find all three, you did a very good job.
---
Tags: research-process, thesis, undergraduate
--- |
thread-16367 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16367 | Why do American colleges and universities have sports teams? | 2014-01-30T19:18:24.363 | # Question
Title: Why do American colleges and universities have sports teams?
In the USA, college sports are popular, and colleges may offer scholarship based on athletic skills. Yet, universities spend significant money on sports, and nobody earns as well as the head of the sports team.
Considering that the universities are losing money on it, and it's not their core task, then *why do they spend big money on sports?* Who benefits, and how? Do all major universities have commercialised sports teams, or are there major exceptions of universities choosing not to take part?
# Answer
Here is one side effect of a university having a famous sports team as mentioned by Federico Poloni in a comment: people know your name. This helps recruit new students, it helps alumni impress potential employers with a degree from somewhere they have heard of! I only know that Boise State University is actually a real university (and as it turns out a pretty good one) because their football field has blue turf.
One feature of American colleges and universities that is easy to forget is that they are often in the middle of nowhere. Pennsylvania State University is in a town named State College. You can guess which came first. So imagine you have thousands of young men and women in a place that is barely a town. What do they do on Saturday afternoon? Some will start organizing teams to play sports and then start going to nearby schools to play their teams. This grew greatly since the old days but the idea that a residential university is partly responsible for providing non-academic activities for their students take part in still exists as a real force. At smaller schools which do not have sports scholarships the sports teams are more about playing because the students enjoy it and it is just part of campus life.
Also at many schools the mission statements include character formation such as "building leadership skills." If this is the case you can actually argue that having some level of athletic competition on campus actually is part of the core mission. Maybe not an absolute vital part but one that contributes to the mission.
I am of course ignoring in large part the money and corruption that is part of the NCAA Division I level of college athletics. Of which there is an extraordinary amount of both.
Most schools, except for d3 schools, break even with their athletic programs. Americans want to be proud of something, that something for colleges is athletics. Most people wouldn't want to go to Harvard if they didn't have a good football team. I helps to bring diversity (age, interests, grades, and money) into colleges.
> 100 votes
# Answer
The University of Chicago's president (can't remember which one) chose to not have sports teams many decades ago.
I think the practice of having college and university sports teams arose from one of the older functions of "colleges" and "universities", namely, as finishing schools for children of the wealthy, especially young men. (As opposed to theology seminaries, or medical or law schools, or teachers' colleges.) Just one more entertainment for them, but/and obviously the degree of quasi-professionalism was much less.
In any case, it seems that alumni generally are more entertained by sports than by science or literature, say. I think it is believed that maintaining general alumni enthusiasm via sports may spill over into donations for other things. Certainly the box office revenue and alumni donations make sports programs *close* to self-supporting, sometimes running at a profit, depending on how one does the accounting.
> 52 votes
# Answer
A partial answer is that the proposition that universities lose money on sports is controversial. Some sports bring in large amounts of money, making the athletics department as a whole not lose too much money, and most universities believe that the alumni donations brought in by the existence of sports teams more than make up for any remaining loss. (For public universities this is even more extreme, since the state legislatures that apportion money are often very fond of those athletic programs, to the point that state universities do better in state appropriations in years when their most important teams are doing well.)
> 29 votes
# Answer
There are good answers already for why does there continue to be a huge emphasis on sports in American academia but none really answer the question.
The fact is that sports in America were introduced at universities out of necessity. Where in most parts of the world there has been long traditions of clubs or the local handling of games/sports, America had nothing. One small town might play another small town in a "sport" but that didn't satisfy everyone. You had elitist or exceptional athletes that wanted to compete against their equals, not Gary the blacksmith.
So this is mid 19th century and America is boiling. A nation divided on many subjects. So instead of a local rowing club or in today's terms playing for your company team, the easiest thing to gravitate to is a local university. They had the money, organization, place to play the game, and so on.
And back then universities had opinions and power concerning government and policy. So the elite universities (most were in this group at the time) wanted to take their debating and add physicality to it. Races, rowing, simple games. It invoked pride and if Harvard won the rowing competition then they must be right about slavery.
I didn't even ask who has time for games in mid 19th century? Well you are probably a male, somewhere between 20-35, you have lots of money, and no job - you go to school. This is the epitome of sports culture. Where are all of these people stacked at... Universities. So it was just the perfect storm.
Now once it started the early collegiate sports scene really was much like we see today - except it was admittedly like that in the late 19th century and early 20th century. What do I mean? Well players were old. You might not have many players on your football team under 20 and a few in their 30s. Some players student-status was highly questioned. There weren't really any rules at first and when they started the rules in the late 19th century there were ways around them.
Players were paid, sometimes "pros" went back to college, there were boosters... the schools were driven by pride, power, and money. Maybe the only things different were (lack of) media and that they were not preying on teenagers.
And the evolution of sports in the 20th century has gone from we have money and power so we will form the best teams, to we will get money and power from having the best teams. The big D1 schools are the worst. They hide huge huge earnings by allocating costs to sports teams so they can make millions/billions on tuition and licensing - yes everyone buys Texas Longhorns shirts for their Economics department.
Some universities "claim" to be losing money. There have been economic impact studies done showing that almost none that made the claims were even near losing money on sports. When they factored in advertising, enrollment, exterior sales, and so on. Really the only thing that makes sports somewhat costly for universities now is Title IX. Very few women's sports make money and most women wouldn't go to a university because their softball team is good.
So now we have the NCAA, colleges, tied-in businesses getting profits and tax breaks for players that are playing for free. This may change now that there has been talk of unionizing but could be years and years down the road.
Even if this happened and the landscape changed were the big sports went to a club system there would still be sports in American universities. They would function because students expect this now. Things would probably work like they do for club sports at current universities or how things work at most DIII schools. You play local teams, you drive to the game, pay for your equipment, maybe offset a little by entrance fees or a nice booster.
So why are there sports in American colleges? Pride, money, free-time of students, and the fact that there weren't other organizations to handle these things in the new America. Why will sports be played in American colleges in 100 years? Same reason they are played at clubs in France. Tradition.
> 27 votes
# Answer
In addition to looking at this from the perspective of universities, it's also worth looking at this from the point of view of professional sports leagues. In Europe soccer is based on a free market system with intense competition for players between leagues and between teams in the same league. As a result, teams sign younger and younger players. Thus top soccer players don't go to college (or even high school). In the US, by contrast, the leagues are strong cartels who collude to keep down the cost of talent. Both football and basketball in the US have strong salary caps (limiting how much a team can spend overall, and in basketball on how much they can spend on each player), revenue sharing (where the richest teams have to give money to the poor ones), etc. In particular, the leagues are able to enforce an age minimum. In basketball they require that americans be one year removed from their high school graduation date, and in football that's 3 years. This means there's a huge pool of future professionals who are barred from working in the professional leagues. In steps the NCAA, which is again a cartel which keeps down labor costs, and who has barred any member schools from paying their athletes. This seriously decreases the costs of running a sports team, and thus makes the cost/benefit analysis more favorable.
> 18 votes
# Answer
In the US, you're less likely to have multiple professional teams in the same sport representing the same city. The number of franchises is set by the professional leagues themselves (with the US government exempting them at different times from antitrust monopoly regulations).
The cities in the US that have two teams have either stolen an existing team from another city, or they've been able to convince the professional leagues to expand the set number of teams (the latter of which very rarely ever happens).
In Europe, there are no such restrictions, if a homegrown team is good enough, it will just start moving up through the ranks even if the city it inhabits already has other teams that are playing at that level. This artificial scarcity is what's providing American Universities with the opportunity to have semi-professional teams.
> Unlike major team sports in North America, where franchises are awarded to nominated cities, most European teams have grown from small clubs formed by groups of individuals before growing rapidly.
>
> ...
>
> Clubs therefore had an equal chance to grow to become among the strongest in their particular sport which has led to a situation where many cities are represented by two or even three top class teams in the same sport. In the 2011–12 football season, **London has five teams playing in the Premier League, while Liverpool and Manchester also have double representation.**
>
> \[source\]
If you think about it, in the case of American Football, 32 franchises is not nearly enough for a country like the US (which has way more than 32 cities potentially capable of supporting one or more real football teams at the professional level). And the cities could all battle it out with their own football teams, to see which ones are the better ones that should enter those leagues, but the professional leagues do not want teams selected that way.
> 9 votes
# Answer
In order to understand why big college sports exists in the US, I think it's important to understand the role that they play. For someone coming from Europe, I think this is the best explanation:
> Big conference American Football is the closest U.S. equivalent to international soccer in Europe.
The Ohio State-Michigan game is our equivalent of a Netherlands-Germany soccer match. It's what gets millions of people of all ages across a state out wearing team colors and rooting together.
It makes a lot of sense that *states* should be running sports teams to play each other in the US the same way that countries in Europe run sports teams to play each other in Europe. (Remember that many US states are larger than a lot of European countries.) That the states happen to run their teams through their state-run universities is a bit strange, but the underlying concept of state-based sports teams makes a lot of sense.
> 9 votes
# Answer
We shouldn't forget that most American universities were founded at a time when there was great admiration for classical culture. Academics in the mid 1800's would have been well aware of the Athenian ideal of "A Perfect Mind In A Perfect Body". The Apollonian and Dionysian ideals were very alive for these people.
It was only the demands for a relevant education in WWII and the 1960's that ended the classical educational curriculum with it's requirement that all students learn Latin or Greek. American universities remain a forest of Ionic columns.
You can get a good sense of the position of 'sport' in the culture of the upper class in the 1920's by watching Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'.
I'd remind that one criterion for Rhodes scholarships is that of athletic prowess.
Even as late as my own adolescence in the 1970's there was an assumption that the 'best' \[male\] students were the athletes. The ideal was Tommy, the quarterback of the high school team, and Suzy the cheerleader.
Also remember that many universities in the US were training grounds for the military.
In Europe, universities were more likely to have grown from the church.
> 8 votes
# Answer
Most of these answers address the existence of large sports competing at the highest level, or historical reasons for why sports first appeared. Here, most of the major points have been covered. It's important to note that the effects on alumni donations and new student enrollment (quantity and quality by standard metrics) are not speculative. See this paper and this paper. At the college where my dad teaches, when the basketball team makes the NCAA tournament, their applications increase both in quantity and quality. For this reason, the president loved the basketball team despite not caring a whit about sport.
I'd like to address why smaller colleges would choose to have sports programs, despite negligible ticket sales and no TV contracts or media coverage. The rationales they present are typically in the form of character building, and this aspect should not be ignored. As a college athlete, I learned a great deal about social interaction and that awful buzzword 'teamwork'. At our athletics department banquet, someone always quoted the (apocryphal) words of the Duke of Wellington, "The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton." As institutions pride themselves on crafting the whole individual, it makes sense that they provide the opportunity to play sports.
Another important aspect is recruiting. My choice of college was heavily influenced by the opportunity to play volleyball. Since graduating, my alma mater has added six new sports teams, all of which are sports traditionally played by the children of upper-middle class families. This is not coincidental: colleges are competing for students, especially those who can pay full tuition. For an explicit discussion of the economic benefits to the institution, scroll down to the Division III section of this article on why colleges are adding football teams (the first section addresses the financial and aspirational benefits to larger colleges).
Lastly, the role of sports in helping students identify with their college is immense. This is larger at universities with major sports programs, but still non-trivial. When we played our rival, people came out and watched (which they almost never did otherwise). At those competitions, students identified with our college in a visceral way. As seen above, this can significantly influence the student's relationship with the institution.
> 7 votes
# Answer
> Do all major universities have commercialised sports teams, or are there major exceptions of universities choosing not to take part?
In the U.S., most major universities have sports teams, but not necessarily "commercialised" sports teams. For the most part, the bigger and more well-known the school, the stronger the commitment to big-time athletic programs, although there are some exceptions – a few very well-known universities do not have major sports programs. For example, MIT and Carnegie-Mellon are known for academics first, and sports teams second, although even these schools field intercollegiate squads in sports such as tennis, track, and volleyball.
As for why they have sports teams, that is rooted in **tradition**. Collegiate sports rivalries go back into 1800s, and grew from there. It's part of campus life, in the same way other extracurricular activities are. The U.S. is a sports-obsessed society, and, to some extent or another, sports programs attract a rather strong spotlight in both high school and college.
> Why do they spend big money on sports?
Not every school spends big money on sports, and not every school spends big money across all sports equally. In the U.S., universities form athletic conferences. Some of the more well-known athletic conferences include the Pac 12, the SEC, and the Big 10. (The Big 10 so rooted in tradition that it still calls itself "The Big 10" even though there are presently 12 teams in the conference). Other conferences, such as the Mid-American Conference, are comprised of teams that would not be considered athletic powerhouses. Teams in the same conference compete against each other in several sports. The Ivy League consists of some of the oldest and most prestigious schools in the U.S., and they compete against each other in both major sports (football and basketball), as well as other sports (such as volleyball, golf, and ice hockey).
A key thing to understand is that not all schools devote the same amount of resources to their athletic programs. Conferences are generally made up of universities of comparable size, in roughly the same geographic region, with a commitment to athletics commensurate with other schools in that conference. Moreover, some schools might be known for having a very strong team in just one or two particular sports (for example, Wichita State University usually fields a very strong baseball team).
Joining a major conference means a major commitment to athletics – you wouldn't see Eastern Texas Baptist University trying to join the Big 12 unless they were prepared to dedicate the resources needed to field competitive teams in that conference, and the conference wouldn't let them join without that commitment, either.
As for why a vast amount of money is spent on sports teams, that is rooted in **prestige**. In a sports-obsessed culture, a well-known sports team can put your university on the map. The average person on the street couldn't tell you much about the chemistry program at USC, or the computer science courses offered at Notre Dame, or the economics department at Michigan State, but five men in a barber shop could talk about their football teams all afternoon.
There are hundreds if not thousands of universities in the U.S. The state of Georgia, for example, has about six dozen places where a student could obtain a degree. Most of these schools probably have sports teams, but only about four or so have have big-time, big-money commitments and nationally-recognized sports teams. The rest of the schools have athletic teams with everyday students who just happen to be on the diving team, or the wrestling team, or the softball team, participating in what amounts to an extracurricular activity, rarely playing their sport in front of more than 50 fans.
> 6 votes
# Answer
Something I couldn't understand in American culture. Last summer, I've read an article - an interview with some south-american novelist (I can't remember his name).
He said, it's a psychological trick. Generally, people going to university are among the best. They were the best, or one of the best in school. Now some of them have to be worst. People dislike being the worst, even if they are the worst among the best, and it's very discouraging. Many talents could get lost because of that.
But if we get sportsmen, they would be usually the worst in the class, and they would be perfectly happy with it, as long as they would get promotion and could concentrate on sport.
It's a logical argument for me.
> 5 votes
# Answer
> Considering that the universities are losing money on it, and it's not their core task, then why do they spend big money on sports? Who benefits, and how?
*Big* money is only really spent on Football, and to a lesser degree, Men's Basketball. Football generally does turn a profit, provided you are a successful enough team. Think of it as an investment. Pouring money into your football program is a huge risk. What if the team performs poorly? What if there is a lack of interest from students and the community? Your money could easily be wasted if this were to happen. That being said, if the team wins and the community supports it, there is a great deal of profit to be made.
The money that lost in athletics usually comes from other, less popular sports. College football teams have multi-million dollar TV deals and merchandising rights. Certain programs have helped develop a brand for their university and in turn generate a demand for everything from t-shirts to admissions.
Less popular sports however, do not generate such buzz but still require money to stay afloat. When Title IX became law in the '70s, it did amazing things for women's athletics and civil rights as a whole. Unfortunately, public interest is not that high for many "Title IX" sports. These teams, by law, must exist and while more popular sports such as football and basketball can generate profits, the less popular sports consume more than they can generate. This is where the losses come into play.
Now, why do colleges and universities bother to host athletic teams if in the end they only cost money? It comes down to branding. Each college and university in America is competing for the best and brightest students. American higher education is a business, and a great majority of these schools exist in order to turn a profit. Why would a student choose to go to the University of Alabama over Harvard if he or she were accepted into both? Because of Alabama's brand. Harvard may offer a better education and hold a more prestigious position in the academic community, but Alabama wins national championships and that appeals to the youth of America. This also entices kids from the opposite of the country to attend school there. Each state hosts multiple colleges and universities, so a popular sports team can be a good reason to lure a kid out of his or her home state.
Plain and simple, college sports teams (as a whole) are loss-leaders. They are investments in marketing and allow the schools to have a national appeal. This appeal allows schools to justify higher admission costs and creates a demand among high school graduates nationwide.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I am gong to assume that the NCAA is a reasonable proxy for "commercialised sports teams". The NCAA has 1,200 members which while large is not every accredited US university. A quick check of your list of major universities reveals Pomona, with an endowment of 1.6 billion, is not a member of the NCAA. Despite its sizeable endowment, with only 1,600 undergraduates I am not sure it qualifies as a major university.
As for the who benefits part, I will just quote the NCAA
> The result is that NCAA student-athletes are graduating at a higher rate than other college students. More than eight out of 10 student-athletes will earn a bachelor’s degree.
>
> Student-athletes work hard throughout the year to be among those who qualify to compete for 89 NCAA championships. That experience teaches them time management, leadership skills and the importance of working toward a common goal. They are the tools for success that last a lifetime.
> 2 votes
# Answer
I'm going to start here with a disclaimer, This is my opinion based on how I think it came about. I have no references except life experience from which to draw this opinion.
To me, sports teams came about because they needed to tire out their students. A large group of young people with nothing to do except study need an outlet. If all they did was sit in their chair and study all day, students would become restless. Restless powder kegs of young people developing world views is not good for stability. Provide a healthy distraction that keeps people fit and active. If you aren't a member of the teams at least you can go out, get some fresh air, watch and play vicariously.
Sports also provide a method by which people goal oriented can be motivated to remain strong and healthy; similar to Shaolin monks developing their exercises to enable them to stay awake during religious lectures(sounds like college to me).
Once these sports teams were in place, a desire for organization and status essentially lead to formation of leagues and regulations. Arms race capitalism happens and here we are today.
Also, above people mention there are places in Europe, far from everyone else that make due without sports teams. To put some sizes in perspective, Penn State, mentioned above, in the city State College, is in the center of Pennsylvania and surrounded by barely populated farm country. Pennsylvania as a "state"(technically, commonwealth), is literally half the size of the United Kingdom. If you were on that campus back when the school was founded back in the 1850s, there was really nothing to do and no where to go.
my 2 cents, thanks for reading.
> -2 votes
---
Tags: united-states, college-athletics
--- |
thread-16468 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16468 | Single or double thesis for double major? | 2014-02-02T14:47:38.453 | # Question
Title: Single or double thesis for double major?
I am having a double major in my BSc, first one is Electrical and Electronic Engineering and second one is Computer Science \[probably it was a bad idea because my cgpa is low, but anyways I have decided to do it\]. Now it is time for thesis. Since both of the major are closely related, either I can go for a single big thesis that is something in between both of the courses or I can go for two different thesis. Now the thing I am concern about is that, single thesis or double thesis which one will look good at my Masters Admission Application?
# Answer
> 5 votes
*Write one thesis*, so you only have to write one introduction and discussion section, and only have to go through the thesis formatting nightmare once. If you prefer two small projects, you can make two projects two separate chapters for your thesis and just try and figure out a way to relate them in your introduction and discussion.
*Make the title of your thesis sound applicable to the field of study you want to get your masters in* (no one will read your undergrad thesis on the admissions committee and I doubt anyone will care whether you wrote two theses or one).
You say you have a low GPA. Perhaps two smaller projects (still for one thesis) will allow you to *collaborate with two different professors*. Why is this advantageous? Because that is potentially two very strong letters of recommendation. Many undergrads have one good letter of recommendation and the rest are just professors that taught a course they took. If you have two very strong letters, that is quite impressive, and will do more to get you into graduate school than anything related to your thesis, short of publishing it in a peer reviewed journal.
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, thesis
--- |
thread-13896 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/13896 | What to do when a PhD supervisor is not collaborating on publications after the PhD from it? | 2013-11-06T12:58:22.320 | # Question
Title: What to do when a PhD supervisor is not collaborating on publications after the PhD from it?
If someone's (SO) PhD supervisor is not collaborating on publications from SO's PhD. The problem arose as SO raised his mistrust (for the supervisor) on other academic issues. The supervisor treats student's work as his, and SO does not agree with that.
SO has one paper just rejected from a journal but could be submitted in another journal. This is from SO's PhD, so he would like to publish it and more from the PhD. SO is not sure how to go ahead with this, (with the supervisor or without). The paper is intellectually SO's but the supervisor helped in improving the writing (of the rejected paper). As the supervisor is refusing to collaborate, how can SO publish that? Can SO do that without supervisor name? What could be the consequences?
# Answer
> 6 votes
If the advisor made a substantial intellectual contribution (or, in fields where it's relevant, procured the grant supporting the work), there's not much the author can do to publish the paper without the advisor's permission. The advisor would have claim to authorship rights if:
* the paper grew out of work proposed by the advisor, or was supported by funds accrued by the advisor;
* the student discussed the work with the advisor and gained useful feedback or guidance about the direction or results of the project;
* the advisor contributed to the writing of the paper.
The last point is definitely true; it's not clear if the first two points hold, but they very well could, given the situation described.
Basically, if the advisor has authorship rights, the student is more or less screwed if they try to publish. If they publish the paper, with an author who has not given permission for submission or without an author who has authorship rights, then that is sufficient grounds for **retraction** of a paper.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I will try to add my perspective, since I have been in sort-of an opposite situation. In many places and fields, **improving the writing is considered as a part of the job of your supervisor, and if the result is yours, it is yours.** I mean, your supervisor is there to learn you how to write papers, and only if you do the research together, it is necessary to include his name on the paper. (Disclaimer: this is only one point of view, and only on the ethics, not on the legal view).
**Example:** I have a paper where I'm the only author. We were writing the paper down together with my supervisor, and it was certainly her who had more ideas on how to write things down (especially the introduction and the conclusions), which articles should be cited etc. Still, all the ideas were mine, all the proofs were mine (it's theoretical CS), so she said that I should be the only author.
**What should you do?** No, you should not, in my opinion, submit the results without your supervisor's consent. IMHO you can:
* Try to approach him again.
* Ask someone else at the same department for help. Just be careful who you choose, either it should be someone you know well and who knows you well, or someone who is dedicated for these cases: someone who should be approached in case of conflicts. The solution is not clear at all, and having insight from someone close in topic, scientific habits etc. could be helpful.
* Publish your thesis electronically on some public repository; this is at least a step how to make your result visible to the community, and you certainly doesn't need your supervisor's permission to do that. For instance arXiv accepts theses.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I'm no expert on the legalities/ethics of academic publishing. However, here are my 2 cents.
I think if you want to publish papers based on your PhD you should do so. As far as I know, there is nothing that requires you to get your supervisor's permission to publish your own PhD work. You are also not required to work with him if you don't want to. I think there may be some pressure to put his name on the paper, even if he has not done anything.
So, if I want to go ahead, I would do so. If/when the paper (or papers) get to the point of submission, it might be a good idea to ask him if he wants his name included on the paper.
It sounds from what you say that you already don't have good relations with your supervisor, so you don't have a lot to lose.
# Answer
> 1 votes
The question will benefit from some more clarification. Basically, I feel that just because he has a reputation to claim others' work does not grant you the right to bend the logical decision of assigning authorship.
"Improving the writing" can generally be considered as significant input and thus should lead to an authorship. Whether it may be downgraded to being acknowledged depends on the degree and magnitude of improvement. Changing a couple words here and there probably should go to acknowledgement; anything on par or beyond line editing should conservatively go to authorship, unless it's done by a paid editor/copywriter.
Another information we need to know is what is the supervisor's status in the rejected paper. If he was listed as a co-author, then in subsequent revisions he should be retained as a co-author even he can no longer contribute. An exception is that he explicitly refuses to be listed as a co-author in the next round and on.
Lastly, we'd need to know how did this adviser "refuse to collaborate." Did he refuse to do anything because he believes the first version is good enough? Is he too busy? Or did he say you should drop this article? The stated action is up for too many different interpretations.
Without too many details, I'd say keep him, resubmit and then move on without this person. And should you so loath the idea that he may claim your work, then cut the connection, forget about this paper, and publish independently from him on something new.
# Answer
> 1 votes
From an objective point of view, this is a matter of publication ethics. You appear to clearly be the first author, meaning you have provided most of the input from original idea through intellectual work including drawing conclusions.
It is not clear to me if you are past your PhD or in the middle of the PhD. Again, objectively, this would not make any difference but in practise, it involves more. If you are past your PhD, your advisor is not much more than any colleague and you as first author should be able to decide what to do with your work, still considering any co-workers who has made sufficient input to warrant co-authorship. If, on the other hand is still in your PhD you need to think about what you need to do to finish your degree. There must be people around with who you can discuss your situation and the way forward. Providing clear advise on this is quite individual and involves much more than can be deduced from your question.
In both cases, you should make an attempt to properly assess the contributions from all involved in the work. This will provide you with something tangible to use when discussing or defending your rights. Note that you need to include all parts of the process from original idea to the finished product. Many forget the initial question which is where an advisor usually provides much insight. At the same time, providing non-scientific input on writing, is not worth as much as many would think. After all, you could probably buy such a service and no-one would dream of co-authorship. It is as you have indicated the scientific intellectual work that counts.
A difficulty arises when someone, in this case the advisor, refuses to publish the material. Of course if the reason is that the material is not good enough that is one thing, if it is a personal conflict it is another. The rejected paper is a non-product as I see it. To resubmit, you need to make revisions and then resubmit. You need to send the manuscript to your co-authors (advisor) and state that you are planning to submit to another journal and that you would wish to retain him (and the others) as co-author(s), and invite comments and input.
I recommend you to look at the following links ICMJE, APA, Am. Psych., PARE and Union University, AuthorOrder.com to provide a few. the point is: build your own view and knowledge about authorship/contributorship to strengthen your position.
---
Tags: phd, publications, thesis, intellectual-property, supervision
--- |
thread-16469 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16469 | Emphasizing proper nouns and jargon | 2014-02-02T16:24:08.893 | # Question
Title: Emphasizing proper nouns and jargon
What is the recommended way to ephasize proper nouns and jargon in academic writing?
I usually use italics to emphasize specific proper nouns (e.g., the name of a software: *Gitolite*). Until now, I did not emphasize technical jargon at all. However, my editor suggested to highlight jargon with double quotes (e.g., "the gauge hierarchy problem" or "spaghetti code").
Is this a good practice? If so, should I use the double quotes only for the first appearence of a jargon term?
# Answer
Your question was tagged 'publications' - if you plan on submitting work to a particular journal, it would be worth checking to see if they have a house style for jargon.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: publications, writing
--- |
thread-11802 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11802 | What are effective strategies to work through 'drafting fatigue'? | 2013-08-11T05:00:38.103 | # Question
Title: What are effective strategies to work through 'drafting fatigue'?
Similar to my previous question "Strategies to overcome “academic-apathy” in the final stages of the PhD?", one thing I am noticing as I am drafting papers and the thesis, I seem to becoming overcome by 'drafting fatigue' - where things that usually don't bother me, for example:
* Punctuation and grammar fixups
* especially when my supervisor (advisor) suggests a change, I make the change, then he suggests changing it back on the next draft.
* wanting to add additional figures
and all things like this. After the 2nd draft, I find I am getting 'over it' (for want of a better term). So, this leads to my question - what practical effective strategies are there to overcome this 'drafting fatigue'?
# Answer
Having similar experiences, the only approach I have found effective is to **leave it alone** for an extended period (week to a month typically - with fresher eyes the longer I wait). You can dig into another project for that amount of time, so it isn't wasted doing nothing.
The bullet points jive with my experience as well, e.g. reading the same draft over and over again makes one less likely to see grammer mistakes, minor supervisor input is annoying, and you always want to do *alittle more* (like add in another figure).
For copy-editing sometimes I will ask my wife or a friend for a look over, which is nice because it gives you alittle respite from the draft as well.
> 11 votes
# Answer
* **Tackle one aspect at a time.** For example, on one pass, concentrate on fixing punctuation and make a conscious effort not to do anything about the other things that will inevitable jump out at you. (You can flag them for later attention if you're afraid you'll forget, but it is important not do too many things per pass.)
* **Vary your focus.** Shift from looking at the big picture to looking at the details. One on pass, evaluate each paragraph in light of the entire paper. On the next, evaluate each sentence or phrase in light of the paragraph; you don't necessarily lose sight of the larger structure, but it is less important on this pass.
* **Ask others for help.** This may mean asking your advisor to critique for you and/or have friends and family members proofread. Another set of eyes is invaluable; I am indebted to those friends and colleagues who have patiently answered my demands for feedback and blunt criticism!
* **Leave it for a while.** To echo the thought of Andy W above, there are times when stepping away from a paper is the surest cure for drafting fatigue. One caveat; don't stay away too long! When you put the paper away, have a clear idea of how long you will be away, what you will do during that time, and what needs to be done on the manuscript when you come back. (Attach a note as a reminder for yourself!)
One final note: YMMV. Every author works differently, and what works for me may not work for you. While I struggle with trying to do everything on one pass, I have worked with others who were fine with the minutiae, but absolutely could not see the problems with the big picture except with help from friendly critics. The tips above work for me,and I offer them in the hope that others may learn from my success without needing to endure my failures! :)
> 2 votes
---
Tags: phd, publications, thesis, motivation
--- |
thread-14695 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/14695 | What should I put in the introduction chapter of my thesis? | 2013-12-11T14:56:15.343 | # Question
Title: What should I put in the introduction chapter of my thesis?
I have to start writing my thesis. My topic for research is work life balance in IT sector - a comparative analysis of male & female IT professionals in Pune.
I need help in writing the first introduction chapter. what all should be included in this chapter & what should not?
# Answer
Talk to your advisor and look into student services provided by your university. The department should have pretty clear guidance on document structure and format. You will also learn a lot by reading some of the dissertations of previous (successful) candidates.
> 9 votes
# Answer
As has been mentioned - look at previous candidates' theses, and ask what is expected by your advisor. The introduction contents will vary between disciplines.
What I included in my (successful) PhD thesis is:
* Brief outline of the topic and subtopics being covered in the PhD.
* A rationale as to why the project is an important addition to the current body of knowledge.
* The main objectives of thesis and a brief overview of how these would be achieved.
* A hypothesis.
Note: it is important thatyou check to see if this or any format is acceptable and expected from your faculty.
> 4 votes
# Answer
An introduction should funnel the reader from the wider perspective, in which your study is part, to the formulation of your thesis theme or question(s). This means you need to establish the wider perspective where your work improves our knowledge as well as identifying the gap in knowledge where your work attempts solution(s). In terms of writing this can be accomplished in several ways, although similar content-wise.
In a short research paper you start out by writing about the wider perspective leading into identification of and statements about a gap of knowledge where your paper fits. You follow up by reviewing the literature to establish what is known in detail and perhaps highlighting the identified gaps. You may finish off by recapping your work and the main conclusion to the gap(s) identified earlier. Some prefer not to do so in the introduction; a matter of taste or tradition.
You can write your introduction in the way just described as a long chapter (due to the literature review) but you can also choose to split the text into several chapters. You would then have a chapter called introduction which will only contain the wider perspective and identification of a gap in knowledge. Sometimes it can be useful to add a short chapter detailing the aims of the thesis where you can expand on the questions based on the identified gap. You then follow up with a chapter called "background" or something more descriptive, but which contains the literature review.
Since all theses are different, some may have one question to solve, some may have several and somewhat disparate around a main theme, the way to write the introduction will have to be adjusted. for the former case the main template can be followed but in the case of several research questions around a theme some adjustments are needed. Exactly how to solve this is difficult to say since it depends on the type of questions and how they are tied together. But, it is necessary to make sure the place of each question in the greater scheme of things is known and that the literature review clearly shows what is known about each topic. This can in an extreme case mean to have a single short introduction of the major perspective and then have sections for each of the questions, almost like a set of papers (if it is not built from papers/manuscripts); each complete with introduction, methods, results and discussion.
> 2 votes
# Answer
In a lot of PhD dissertations, the introduction consists of material that would have been learned in a graduate course in your subfield. For example, the introduction to mine was a presentation of some basic ideas about low-energy nuclear structure that would have been contained in a graduate course in nuclear physics. Such an introduction is one of the least useful pieces of writing you'll ever do. Only a very small number of people will ever read it, and of those, only an even smaller number will learn anything from it. The text it contains will not be usable in a paper published in s journal. The only people who will benefit from it are maybe 2 or 3 people on your committee who are not in your subfield, and those people could just as easily read some other treatment of the topic. For these reasons, you should either not write such a chapter at all, or make it extremely brief. The whole concept of a PhD dissertation is a bizarre anachronism, and if your university offers an alternative, such as stapling together a set of published papers, you should take it.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: phd, thesis, introduction
--- |
thread-16428 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16428 | Keeping track of and sharing what you read | 2014-02-01T01:19:24.710 | # Question
Title: Keeping track of and sharing what you read
Do you keep a list of all papers you have read? Are there any good tools for that? and do they allow people to publish what they have recently read?
The tool I'm envisioning would allow people to follow each-others readings. I find it hard to determine which new papers are worth my time, and one of the greatest benefits of having a wonderful advisor was to get recommendations of which work to follow and which wasn't all that important.
So, are there any tools that sufficiently many people (incl. professors) use to record and publish what they read? Or am I the only one who would find that useful?
# Answer
Yes, there are several products to do this.
There's CiteULike, which is completely web-based, has good support, allows you to share your library, see who has read which papers, which papers are trending in the last seven days, and has a good recommendation system.
I hate to say this, because I've always had good support from them, but its functionality doesn't really extend beyond that, and that's a problem: I was really enthusiastic about it, but I notice that I've barely used it in the last 14 months.
---
There's the Elsevier-owned Mendeley, where you can add people as contacts, and share what you own. Recommendations are also provided anonymously, based on overlaps between your library and other people's. It has a desktop application, which I have used, and a website, which I very rarely use.
---
There's zotero, which does allow you to share your bibliography with others, and to see who is sharing what. I found that it also insisted on duplicating all the pdfs on my local drive too, which meant I quickly uninstalled it.
And there's EndNote Web, which might allow libraries to be shared publicly, but I found the interface frustratingly unusable, so couldn't say either way.
---
In short, there are several applications which allow you to share the metadata of the papers you read, on the web. However, the user experience, ergonomics and functionality is patchy.
> 7 votes
---
Tags: reading
--- |
thread-16498 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16498 | Is there any unwritten rule against hiring already unemployed PhDs? | 2014-02-03T10:14:47.927 | # Question
Title: Is there any unwritten rule against hiring already unemployed PhDs?
I have seen several articles in internet about a general bias against hiring long term unemployed people in non-necessarily academic jobs, see for example here and here. **I was wondering if there is such an unwritten rule in academia as well?**
I am sure someone might say it is not the case and according to the rules X and Y, it is considered a discrimination and it is forbidden by law and so on. I am not asking what the written laws say. **I would like to know if there is such a bias in hiring committees or not? And if there is such a thing how can a long term unemployed academic do to overcome this obstacle?**
# Answer
I don't think there is an unwritten rule, precisely, but I think once you are not employed in academia (even if you have a job somewhere else), your chances of getting a position in academia decrease extremely rapidly. Competition for positions is so massive, and there are so many well qualified applicants that I think someone who is not currently in an academic or research position is unlikely to be taken seriously. Not to mention that you typically aren't doing the kind of research and networking you need to get a position if you are unemployed (not always, but often). I think some fields where it's very hard to get work are a bit more forgiving (though, of course there there is even more competition), but this is part of what keeps people in adjunct positions, since it is a way of staying "in the game."
> 8 votes
# Answer
In any case (academic or not), you always have to account for any hole on your CV. The main idea here is that someone always loses skills when he doesn't have any activity.
However, holes in CV can have many different root causes (disease, looking for a job in a country struck by the economic crisis, humanitarian work, taking care of children at home...). It is usually best to either write it down explicitly (disease for example) or to turn it into some positive, meaningful experience (humanitarian work, etc.). For example, someone who took care of children at home can have learned some organization skills, done some scientific blogging or contributed to some scientific tool on spare time.
This will not always be accepted by a recruiter, but it's better than holes in the CV that just raise suspicion about one's commitment.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: ethics, job
--- |
thread-16303 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16303 | How does Microsoft Academic Search generate its rankings? | 2014-01-29T09:22:58.060 | # Question
Title: How does Microsoft Academic Search generate its rankings?
Yesterday, during some idle time in the office, a colleague of mine has discovered that I am currently ranked at position 20 worldwide by Microsoft Academic Search for my subfield regarding the last 5 year impact. While certainly flattering, this ranking is also quite clearly bogus, as many much more eminent academics are ranked far behind me in this list.
The Occam's razor explanation that there simply is another researcher of my name in my field can be discarded, as Microsoft Academic profile does indeed list my, and only my, publications (as well as a profile pic that they seem to have grabbed from an old university web page).
So my question is the following: **how does Microsoft Academic Search actually generate rankings** (of individual academics, but there are also rankings of journals)? It seems clear that not all citations and publications are considered equal (otherwise I would not end up so far to the front with a comparatively meager set of papers and citations), but how do they decide what is "worth" how much?
I am mostly looking for answers that refer to papers or web links coming from MS insiders on their ranking algorithms. Barring that, some well thought-through speculation from outsiders is also ok :)
**Edit:**
I just discovered that Microsoft Academic Search seems to employ the notion of a *field rating* for conferences and journals, and the rating for some of the venues that we prefer seems to be unreasonably high. However, that still does not fully explain my curious case (and it still leaves open the question of how these field ratings are generated in the first place).
# Answer
> 8 votes
> how does Microsoft Academic Search actually generate rankings?
Since Microsoft Academic Search, like Google Scholar, is a proprietary vertical search engine and its algorithms and ranking systems are *not* open source, you're unlikely to get a detailed "how" answer unless a disgruntled former Microsoft employee decides to chime in.
Microsoft Academic Search does make some details of its rankings and results system available, however. This page offers a basic explanation of the search engine's approach. For both Microsoft and Google, citations play a major part in search result rankings, which has subjected academic search engines to criticism in the past. As the Academic Search page above indicates,
> the information associated with Microsoft Academic Search author profiles is derived from the tens of millions of scholarly publications that are currently indexed by Microsoft Academic Search. Most of these publications have reference lists that Microsoft processes. The indexed publications and reference lists help create a snapshot of individual authors' publication history, productivity, and impact. As more content is indexed within Microsoft Academic Search, the accuracy and completeness of the author profile data improves.
Because Academic Search rankings can be distorted by factors including citation counts, incomplete publication indexes, and the field rating system you mentioned, it will inevitably produce some inaccurate results.
*Speculation alert*: it seems to me that the lion's share of ranking is accomplished through automatic citation list analysis, which is not necessarily a good indicator of
* Prominence in one's field,
* Number of publications (instead, it seems to emphasize how often a publication is cited elsewhere).
Finally, Academic Search is still in Beta, and I suspect that their rapidly growing index may not always be in perfect step with their ranking algorithms - in my personal experience with the search engine, there do seem to be cases of highly-ranked scholars or papers suddenly plummeting, then re-appearing again, which I assume is a consequence of ranking algorithm tinkering.
---
Tags: publications, bibliometrics, ranking
--- |
thread-16505 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16505 | How can one learn from poor teaching evaluations? | 2014-02-03T12:40:44.777 | # Question
Title: How can one learn from poor teaching evaluations?
I teach at a large R1 state university, and I just received my teaching evaluations for Fall 2013. Usually I get excellent evaluations, but this time my evaluations for Calculus II were an unpleasant surprise. My numerical scores were mediocre, and representative student comments included: "Answers were obscure"; "can sometimes be cryptic when answering questions"; "didn't really answer questions".
These comments do *not* appear to be sour grapes, as the same students didn't complain heavily about the workload or grading of the exams. Moreover, I got excellent teaching evaluations when I taught Calc I a year ago, at the same university, with the same philosophy and style, with similar course policies, and with a comparable workload. Clearly, I did something wrong with regard to this course in particular.
I e-mailed both of my TAs, and only got encouraging comments ("I thought you did a good job"). I then e-mailed the class, and explained that my teaching evaluations were poorer than I expected, and asked students to offer criticism and suggestions for the benefit of future Calc II students. No responses.
So, apparently my teaching left room for improvement but I have no idea what to improve. This is quite uncomfortable -- is there anything useful I can do here?
# Answer
> 19 votes
Ben Norris's answer is excellent but I would add one additional point to it. When you are asking for constructive feedback from the students, you must do so in a way that students feel completely comfortable that their honesty is not going to come back to bite them.
At the end of every semester, I email all of my students a web-based survey with some open and some closed questions specifically so I can get their honest opinion. Again, the key is that all responses are anonymous. I believe if I asked them to email me (not anonymous) I would get nothing but praise, which does not help me improve at all. While I do still get many positive comments, there are usually some small gems in there which help me improve.
# Answer
> 16 votes
Here are two things you can do:
> 1) Since the comments you mention have to do with the way you answer questions in class, perhaps it is time to explain your approach.
Sometimes all you need to do is explain at the beginning of a course why you are doing certain things. For example, if you do not like giving full answers to questions so that your students still need to work out part of the answer (and it sounds like that is perhaps the case), explain on the first day of class why you think this approach is beneficial. Perhaps you noticed that your students were more engaged and did better on exams after you started this approach. Let your students know that! It will help them buy in to the strategy. Explaining potential peculiarities of your instructional approach is especially useful if you are teaching the **second or third** course in a sequence, and you did not teach the earlier courses (this is the case). The students are used to different styles. If they were used to an instructor telling them the complete answer all the time, then they will not like what you do unless they understand it. You probably had fewer objections when you taught calculus I, since **you** set the expectations for those students on how a calculus class would go.
> 2) Ask some of your colleagues to periodically sit in on your class.
This is a good way to catch negative behaviors that you might be unaware of. The other benefit is appearing open to constructive criticism about your teaching. Having colleagues sit in on your courses also helps separate "students did not like what I did" from "what I did was bad". Just because students did not like, does not mean that it is a poor method of instruction (see point #1 above).
# Answer
> 10 votes
There are several ways this can happen. scaaahu provides one good reason, that students found Calc II harder than Calc I and was not prepared for it. Another reason could be that some person or group of persons in the student group infect the others with a sentiment. I have seen this happen and it only takes one dominant person to get others on the train.
Your description of the evaluations and your digging into them, with no response form the students, should tell you that the problem primarily is not yours in terms of teaching etc. The only thing you may consider thinking about is how you introduced the class. Setting the tone at the beginning of the course (or earlier if that is possible in your system) and thereby preparing them for the course can be a powerful tool to reduce complaints. This is all about the expectations and if expectations are wrong, it may lead to discontent.
As I was writing this a good response from Ben Norris was posted so I can only agree with that reply and let my anwser add to his.
# Answer
> 6 votes
Not only have I taught engineering courses for 10+ years and had to have students (corporate students) fill out evals after every 2-4 day class but I also built/run the company's evaluation system. In my opinion the following are things that heavily influence evaluations:
1. The student's view of the topic. If students don't want to take your class because they hate math but yet have to fulfill a requirement then your evaluation will be lower - for sure. This is the #1 factor. You can easily see this if you add questions to your survey like "What is your interest in CLASS\_FIELD?" (1-5) or "Why did you take this class?" (choices being part of major, liked topic, whatever, other).
2. Students want learning to be easy. If you made them do a lot of nonsense work for little payoff they will not be happy. I had a teacher make us write these essays once a week and the 15 essays were 10% of our grade. Just a ton of work and it mattered very little to our grade. "How would you rate the workload (I don't like that word but you get it) of the class taken?"
3. Be clear about your goals of the class. Make sure you discuss at the beginning what you will cover and a brief outline of chapters in a book, other materials covered, and if there will be class discussion questions not found in those. You do not have to tell them exactly what topics are on the test but there needs to be a happy medium between "Know Everything" and "Here are the exact topics". Your survey should have a question that says something like "Were the tests and assignments reflective our your expectations from the syllabus?"
4. As a teacher you need to make sure that your goals are aligned with the school's goals. Is your goals to have happy students after your class? Seems like the easier classes would rise to the top then or the classes that are more topical at least. The way to truly evaluate you as a teacher is to test their retention of the materials at 3-6 months. Not a flat out test, but do they still understand the concepts of the class? Even this can have a lot of noise because batches of students will fluctuate (but you could fix this with a pretest).
5. Culture and individualism. Nothing you can do in an anonymous survey to get around this. Basically there are certain cultures and groups that feel like a 3 out of 5 is really really good. While others may think that is horrible. You can label whatever but you cannot account for this noise in numbers. However you can figure out if this is the issue with blank essay boxes - at least one that is mandatory. If you really want a good mandatory feedback question (which is negative) "What about this class would you change?"
6. Knowledge of the instructor and comprehension level of topic. You are teaching Calculus I and II right? Moderate level of difficulty. So you probably get some brownie points with students if you know your stuff well AND more importantly you can explain the difficult points in an easy to understand way. I see instructors at my company get good scores because they are an expert (maybe the only expert) in a field. Some of these people can barely form a coherent thought but still good scores. But still that is the expectation of some students - they want the best/smartest teaching them. So... "What was your instructor's skill level on the classroom topics?" (1-5) "How well did your instructor explain classroom topics?" (1-5)
Now how do you make students fill out an eval. Well in my company (100 instructors) we tell them the eval is used to do attendance so they don't get credit without it. If your school cares they would do the same. If you want to know what range of questions get people to respond, I gave some hints but that is a different question.
Also we tend to call our evaluations the "happy forms". This is because generally the instructors act all happy before giving the online surveys out (they are fully anonymous and they generally follow Kirkpatrick I). I have witnessed instructors saying all kinds of positive things to their class and even some passing out treats during the eval/survey. Of course students will give the instructor better scores. Your variance from one class to another could have had just as much to do with your attitude and mood the 30 mins leading up to your survey than compared to the entire semester.
# Answer
> 5 votes
Don't wait for the end-of-semester evaluation. It does not give us a chance to improve the students' experience. And it usually causes the teachers a lot of remorse and confusion. Instead, **incorporate a mid-term evaluation**. Send online questionnaire to students and solicit their comments on aspects like i) if their expectations are met, ii) if the objectives are fulfilled in a regular base, iii) challenges they face, iv) and suggested improvements. Address their concerns and lay out your revision right after you have checked the results.
Use anonymous channels such as online questionnaires (Qualtrics or SurveyMonkey) or forum (TodaysMeet, which works like Twitter.) Compared to getting students' criticism from their e-mail, I think I will have better luck to talk a tiger into giving me its hide.
# Answer
> 3 votes
> "Answers were obscure"; "can sometimes be cryptic when answering questions"; "didn't really answer questions".
This makes it sound to me that students never really understood the core content of Calc II. It was a problem I personally struggled with and needed a tutor to solve. Often students will be able to complete homework and quizzes of Calc II content (especially tougher content of sequences and series), even though they don't fundamentally understand what is going on. Calc II is quite a course, as many students test out of Calc I and their first college math course is Calc II. With often a new way of thinking, and representations of problems that students have never seen, Calc II is extremely difficult. I'd suggest (especially with like Power, Maclaurin series, etc.) that you take extra time to explain to students at the most basic level what is going on and move forward. Relate it to real life scenarios if possible, and give a few examples of where such problems are used in real life. I think they're missing key connections which make understanding the course a lot easier.
While I don't think you're a bad teacher, I think there is a slight disconnect here between you and your students. Obviously your level of understanding at the content is much higher than theirs, and what you may think is an easy subject to understand, could be the complete opposite to your students. While your students probably understand how to complete many of the problems in Calc II, from what you've said I doubt they have a true understanding of the content.
# Answer
> 3 votes
In my experience, the noise in course evaluations is around 1 point out of 5. My evidence for that is that I once taught the same course twice at the same time with the same book, the same syllabus, the same homework, and very similar exams. Not only was the evaluation rating on my teaching different by almost one point out of 5, but the ratings of how appropriate the book/homework/exam was were also different by around 1 point out of 5. I had another similar experience TAing two sections of the same course (where the quizzes and exams were set by the professor) and where the class got rated 6/7 in one and 5/7 in the other. Students' expected grades have a huge impact on the ratings. So although you should definitely pay attention to your student ratings, it's also very important to smooth out the noise.
---
Tags: teaching, evaluation, course-evaluation
--- |
thread-16532 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16532 | What is the difference between Article File and Related Manuscript File in Nature? | 2014-02-04T08:02:55.920 | # Question
Title: What is the difference between Article File and Related Manuscript File in Nature?
They ask to submit those both files. **What is the difference between the two?**
# Answer
The text in Nature states
> Submission to Nature \[...\] is taken to imply that there is no significant overlap between the submitted manuscript and any other papers from the same authors under consideration or in press elsewhere. (Abstracts or unrefereed web preprints do not compromise novelty). The authors must include copies of all related manuscripts with any overlap in authorship that are under consideration or in press elsewhere. If a related manuscript is submitted elsewhere while the manuscript is under consideration at Nature Communications, a copy of the related manuscript must be sent to the editor.
In other words, related manuscript files means any *other* manuscript that overlaps with the one submitted to Nature and hence runs the risk of duplicating the Nature paper in some sense. Nature assesses such papers to see where and how the overlap occurs and, probably, rejects the submitted manuscript is the overlap is deemed significant to that it may be considered duplication. This is likely to safeguard the uniqueness of the Nature paper when (and if) it becomes published.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: publications, online-publication
--- |
thread-13405 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/13405 | How to write a good PhD literature review? | 2013-10-12T11:26:53.380 | # Question
Title: How to write a good PhD literature review?
I am in the early stages of my PhD and I am trying to put together a literature review of my topic. My intention is that this review will eventually be included in my thesis, something like "*the chapter that describes the state of the art in the domain*."
My subject is soft matter physics and a large number of theses have already been written this topic. When looking at the literature reviews included in these other works I've noticed that:
* The sequence of ideas is often the same (this makes sense, so why not?)
* Cited papers are always the same, even though 20 years elapsed between the first and last thesis. Moreover, papers from the 30's are cited but no one in my lab seems to have a copy available?
My hypothesis is that these theses are derived from some sort of a *Mother of All Thesis*, and that paraphrasing the work of the previous student is OK.
**So, what makes a good literature review?**
**How do you notice that a literature review is sloppy?**
PS: I posted this question because I assume many of you have experience with this process either in your own PhD work, or as a supervisor where you have had to deal with paraphrasing of your students.
PS2: I am not asking about making proper citations, LaTeX+BibTeX handles that like a charm.
# Answer
> 23 votes
The purpose and expectations of a PhD literature review is likely to vary from field to field. My PhD was in Physics, but my views might be taken to apply generally.
There is likely to be some repetition or paraphrasing between students in the same research group, when it comes to the literature review. However, perhaps the comments below might help.
A literature review should be an enjoyable to read (!) introduction, survey and guide to the state of the art. You want to introduce your reader to the field (assuming a clever, but non-expert reader), setting out what has gone before, and perhaps to some extent showing where the gaps are in the research - raising the opportunity for you to present your research as that which fills a gap (Next chapter: "Aims and Objectives", or similar).
My primary hallmarks of a poor, or sloppy literature review is that papers are listed **without any helpful context**. A dreary literature review, to me, is a listing of papers that we all already know about, without any guide to the reader why the trail leads me to hold the present thesis. No-one much likes reading a dry chronology of papers. I personally, want to be told the story of the research and the literature review plays an important part of that story.
The opportunity exists here to *review* the field - what are the general trends in the literature? For example, Paper A was the first to introduce the theory that drove the authors of Paper B to perform experiment Z which is now the standard technique. However, Paper C suggests that an alternative method may be more effective, etc.
Note that your review shouldn't attempt to be a complete review of the field - whole standalone papers are written on this, usually by invitation. Your PhD literature review should be more focused, but still a recounting of the Story So Far.
Since your literature review is to be a nice, focused review of the path to your contribution, it is likely that you will read far more papers than you will need to cite in your literature review. Those papers that do not contribute to the Story So Far can be excluded from your literature review. Going off on a tangent, like in any story, can lose and confuse your readers. If you feel a need to refer to these papers, perhaps you can refer to a decent review article which discusses them in detail, for the interested reader.
# Answer
> 7 votes
I think Nikolas' answer is already pretty great. I'm not doing physics, but I'll try and stay as general as I can. Here's some specific advice I got from my supervisor and things I realized while doing my own lit review:
* It is normal for a big section of referenced papers to be the same across a lot of survey / literature review papers. Those would be the **papers that *first introduced*** a problem, a concept, an approach.
* In addition to the *seminal papers* from your (sub)field, you usually want to describe **the current state-of-the art**. This would be based on current papers based on the original problem, concept or approach that adopt the problem for a different environment, apply a concept for a different purpose or represent an improvement to the approach.
For example, in Computer Science, it would be okay to talk about a structure or a problem (*seminal paper*) and then talk about the *current best algorithm(s)* to solving the problem (*state-of-the-art*) without mentioning every single "evolution step" of the algorithm.
<sub><sup> Basically, to sum up and dump up these two points: you cite the "first" and the "last" paper dealing with the same thing.</sup></sub>
<sub><sup>Of course, there's exceptions to this: if there's any groundbreaking papers between the "first" and the "last" paper, sometimes intermediate papers can also be viewed as "seminal papers" for the subject/field.</sup></sub>
* This might depend slightly on the type of document you want to produce, but usually it is okay for you to explain the technique / method in detail, while for practical uses of the technique, you just **mention** (and cite) **several successful applications of the technique** without going in to detail about how exactly the method was adopted.
* Finally, if your goal is to *publish your literature review as a survey paper* (which is usually worth a shot), you should think about how to "get a new spin on things".
Every paper, including survey papers, is supposed to be a scientific contribution. That means that you have to **find something that makes your survey useful**, or in some context better, then all the existing surveys. This might be a change of context in which the methods are examined, it might cover more material, offer new classifications of the methods or new links between them.
I would say you have to think of at least one type of reader (a reader with one type of goal) who will take your review and say: *"That's it!"*, while he can not say that any of the current surveys out there are exactly "it" for him.
# Answer
> 2 votes
There are couple of points i like to make from my perspective.
1. Bibliography is something which evolves during your PhD. I would recommend not to write it at the first place. As you read more and more, relevant to your area in Soft matter, you can keep adding it to your bibliography
2. Soft matter is a really huge area. One who works on Molecular dynamics may not even touch crystal defects while writing his bibliography. In that way it is really topic specific and not the entire area.
3. You said, you saw some say 30 papers in every thesis. This is not because of magic, this is only because they are path breaking. If you are in MD area (which is mine), and you are using a thermostat, it is 99.9999 % sure that you cite Nose-Hoover paper. It is no magic.
4. There is no point in saying none from my lab is cited. It depends on how many groups are working in that "specific" area and what impact had the papers published from your lab made in their research.
This all points out to the fact that one does not simply write a bibliography of an entire area :)
# Answer
> 2 votes
References and bibliography are to be read and digested in a progressive manner. References that might have been not so intuitive become useful over time as we gain more experience. One needs to document them in any suitable way and:
1. Add new references and connections with current work.
2. Track these references and revisit them when and where you touch base again with them.
3. Revise the entry with new information or clearer understanding of the subject.
4. Remove any parasite or related paper that you think is no more directly related to your work - clear clutter up - this is important to stop accumulating lots of bibliography which can become non specific!
5. All of the references you might accumulate may not be useful for the final bibiliography. There is need to sort or classify these references as biblio, self learning references, state of art, related (first order, second order) and so on and so forth.
Doing this using a wiki would be advisable - and if there is a team involved group updates would be preferable! Basically one needs a good sense of organization while writing the thesis.
---
Tags: phd, thesis, citations, literature-review
--- |
thread-16548 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16548 | Style guides on structured/ordered bibliography? | 2014-02-04T16:36:37.370 | # Question
Title: Style guides on structured/ordered bibliography?
**Edit:** The best guideline I have found so far is the Chicago Manual of Style 16th ed, section 14.58 "DIVIDING A BIBLIOGRAPHY INTO SECTIONS" (I have boldfaced the part which best answers my question):
> A bibliography may occasionally be divided into sections--but only if doing so would make the reader's job significantly easier. Where readers need to refer frequently from notes to bibliography, a continuous alphabetical list is far preferable, since in a subdivided bibliography the alphabetizing starts over with each section. Rarely should books be separated from articles, since a book and an article by the same author are best listed close together. **It may be appropriate to subdivide a bibliography (1) when it includes manuscript sources, archival collections, or other materials that do not fit into a straight alphabetical list;** (2) when readers need to see at a glance the distinction between different kinds of works--for example, in a study of one writer, between works by the writer and those about him or her; or (3) when the bibliography is intended primarily as a guide to further reading (as in this manual). When divisions are necessary, a headnote should appear at the beginning of the bibliography, and each section should be introduced by an explanatory subhead (see fig. 14.9). No source should be listed in more than one section. For alphabetizing, see 14.60--62.
I'm trying to find a style guide or similar on how to structure or organise a bibliography or reference section at the end of a book. Perhaps this applies most to a dissertation thesis where there are many different types of references. I am not looking for citation style guides on how to format specific types of references (I can find many such guides), but rather how to order them into groups by type, or even whether to do it in the first place.
For example, in my dissertation, I am currently considering a structure roughly like below (very simplified and inaccurate but only to get my point across). Now suppose I add more sections for journal articles, anthologies, etc... and this bibliography grows quite large, say over 30 pages or so. What is considered good practice here? See the two examples below. I find the first alternative a lot more tidy and easier to read, while the second is cluttered and just doesn't feel right.
I have found some recommendations which contradict each other. https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/library/teaching/writingyourbibliography.pdf on page 3 says
> You should not divide your bibliography into separate sections for different document types. References should contain all of the information required for a reader to find a source. Standards have been set for different document types to ensure that each reference contains the information necessary to aid retrieval of the source.
But there is no further explanation why there shouldn't be separate sections.
On the other hand, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/history/docs/thesis-guide-v51.pdf says on page 15:
> The bibliography at the end should be divided into Primary and Secondary Sources.
And http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/infoug/stylesheet.html says:
> The bibliography should be divided into manuscript, printed primary, and secondary sources.
I'm writing as a historian/scholar and we tend to work with many different types of sources, so not just books and journals but also manuscripts, letters, promemorias..yes even postcards, maps, brochures, etc.
I'm open to hear what it's like in other fields as well and regardless of national traditions.
The three examples:
(1) Ordering by document type:
(2) Unpublished documents
(3) Archival sources
> Letter from Ms. A to Mr. B
>
> Letter from Mr. B to Ms. A
>
> ### Other unpublished documents
>
> Miss A. Diary notes.
>
> ## Published sources
>
> ### Public documents
>
> Parliament records, 1980:CA-2:12231-13.
>
> Parliament records, 1980:CA-2:71236-01.
>
> ### Literature
>
> Foucault, "The History of Sexuality" 1960.
>
> Latour, Bruno, "Science in action" 1987.
>
> Stevenson, Sue, "This is a book title", 2003.
# 2) Ordered by alphabet only:
> Foucault, "The History of Sexuality" 1960.
>
> Latour, Bruno, "Science in action" 1987.
>
> Letter from Ms. A to Mr. B
>
> Letter from Mr. B to Ms. A
>
> Miss A. Diary notes.
>
> Parliament records, 1980:CA-2:12231-13.
>
> Parliament records, 1980:CA-2:71236-01.
>
> Stevenson, Sue, "This is a book title", 2003.
# Answer
> 2 votes
The first person to ask is your advisor and/or committee members for whether dividing the bibliography into types is a good idea, and then if they've seen other examples. Next, check with the graduate school or other group that will be accepting the dissertation for publication. There is likely already a style guide and templates. Third, if there is still no clear guidance, look at previously published dissertations in your field.
Having a bibliography grouped by type could make it difficult to find references from the text. You don't really want to make your advisor or committee members do more work.
There's no reason that you can't keep a working copy of the bibliography sorted by type, just be aware that you'll likely have to convert it into one list at the end.
Personally, I can't recall seeing a bibliography sorted by type. I have seen ones divided by chapters or sections. I find this type of bibliography difficult to work with, as I have to find the chapter's list, then the individual reference.
Note: I have STEM degrees, but attended a liberal arts university as an undergraduate, so I have no graduate level experience in your field.
---
Tags: writing, citations, writing-style
--- |
thread-9844 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9844 | Can I ask for payment if my employer wants to use my dissertation? | 2013-05-06T11:29:17.570 | # Question
Title: Can I ask for payment if my employer wants to use my dissertation?
I completed my PhD research as an industry based researcher. My employer was fully aware of my research. There was no support given by the employer other than encouragement. However, I used the company information which I had access to as part of my role. My employer had no objection and I was extremely careful of the disclosure I made.
I have now completed my PhD and graduated. My dissertation is publicly available on my university website. A google search can bring it up too.
QUESTION: If my employer wants to use my dissertation, would it be ethical for me to ask for a payment?
EDIT: To clarify some comments below, my company wants to use my dissertation as part of an advocacy campaign.
# Answer
I think your question is best rephrased as follows:
> If ***someone*** wants to use my dissertation, would it be ethical for me to ask for a payment?
Assuming you are asking about using the *intellectual content* of your dissertation, the answer is **NO**. Whether or not that *someone* is your employer is irrelevant.
However, your actual *presentation* is protected by copyright, which for dissertations is normally completely held by the author. So if *someone* wanted to use your specific words and/or figures beyond the limits of fair use, then you have the right to seek compensation.
> 42 votes
# Answer
Congratulations on your Ph.D.! You have contributed to humanity's lasting store of knowledge. To a first approximation, this knowledge is now freely available to everyone on the planet who is interested (and, perhaps, who can afford reproduction costs and/or to travel to your university), including your employer.
If they are still employing you, and they found your Ph.D. work valuable, your employer may find it in both your and their interests to increase your salary to retain you and encourage you to perform more similarly useful work for them. But asking them to pay you for using something that is freely available strikes me as counter to the principle of the academic pursuit in the first place.
> 19 votes
# Answer
I would like to address the title itself - how to benefit from wider distribution/usage/awareness of your research.
First, congratulations on your PhD - and your job!
I think it is very reasonable to want to get more benefit - financial or otherwise - for your work, so I hope I can suggest some ways you can make that happen.
For your dissertation, I believe your full compensation will be considered already paid. You were on staff when you made it, and from the wording I assume your employer let you spend "company time" on your work without threatening your pay or position. They also allowed you access and data that would likely have been unavailable to other researchers, and the quality of the data was likely high enough that you would have had to pay a significant sum of money for access to it - unless they have an open-data initiative, which almost no one seems to have in private industry (or at least its very rare). So your employer will almost certainly consider you paid in full, and consider any extra request ungrateful at best.
However, you are in a very good position - not only has the company employed and supported your work for years, but they are now expressing their opinion of your research and the value of it in a very positive way. They are saying its worth additional investment of time and money not just from you, but from other people as well.
Therefore, your potential is in the future work - not your past products. That's the only reason companies employ people anyway - for work to be produced, not out of gratitude for past accomplishments.
Now you are already the subject matter expert, so what would you like? Would you like to do some travel, presentation work, advocacy? How about more ambitious research which could be of even higher value to the company? Can a reasonable case be made for more generous expense accounts, a (larger) research budget, more latitude/authority in data collection or process improvement/alteration?
If nothing else you are in a good position for salary negotiations in the coming year, as you are now officially a PhD, and if they want to embrace and use your research then presumably they have a high opinion of you with good performance evaluations. If you want an administrative role, assistant(s), etc, now would be a good time to start brainstorming and dialog with your employer to see what plans they have for you, or if you just want to do more research you should all be on the same page.
If you want to just focus on your research and go back to work, that's fine too! If you will be doing post-doc work and therefore aren't simply done with school entirely, that's fine, but if you are done and it is implied that you'll be focusing/working with the company more then that is more support for increased pay going forward.
So you can very well get an extra payoff for your accomplishments, but its not likely to be in the form of paying to use your dissertation. You might qualify for a bonus, but that is usually something discussed before the fact. Its also possible that their use of your dissertation is a minor issue to them, so don't think it's worth millions if they are just trying to make use of something they feel they already paid for in a minor campaign that's \<1% of their ad/PR budget.
**TL;DR** Collect your data, have a bullet-proof case of your value now and increasing value in the future, and I really suggest you not focus on trying to get more pay for past performance but rather take your pay in future salary/bonuses/prestige/etc.
> 4 votes
# Answer
The short answer is that it isn't unethical to *ask* for anything. It's just a question of how comfortable you are, and your relationship with that company. If you have some figure in mind which is can be justified somehow and you feel comfortable asking, then send them an invoice.
Oh, and can I have fifty bucks?
See, that wasn't so hard at all, and I don't feel dirty or anything.
I suspect the real question is "do I have a moral basis for asking for compensation"? Based on your description of the situation, I would say yes, especially if in their campaign they make it appear that the material from your thesis is associated with them, through you.
The information that you used in the research is worth something, and use of the research in the campaign is worth something. Dollar figures can be put on it, and a difference can be computed.
> 2 votes
# Answer
This kind of question is, incidentally, why it's very good to have a clear "Who gets to do what?" document before you set out - for example, I had very frank discussion with some people providing data for my PhD as to what *they* expected to get out of it.
In terms of the content of your dissertation, my take is not really - the whole point of academic research is to put it out into the world, and its not exactly surprising that the folks who employ you might find it useful.
So no, I wouldn't be inclined to ask for money directly.
*However*, if the company does indeed end up using it, the fact that they did so, and your intellectual output is contributing to the bottom line should absolutely come up in your next promotion meeting/performance review, etc.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: phd, ethics, thesis, industry
--- |
thread-11135 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11135 | Requesting a copy of the PhD thesis from an author? | 2013-07-14T13:34:17.210 | # Question
Title: Requesting a copy of the PhD thesis from an author?
I think that many unpublished theses are available in libraries etc and reading relevant theses is a normal part of research and does not involve asking the author's permission. But suppose a humanities PhD student has seen a thesis title (2008, so presumably in electronic format), that is relevant to their PhD subject and they want to read the thesis but unlike most theses it is not available in the student's libraries or online etc, probably due to the author's geographical location. The author is now a lecturer with a page on the university website. Should the student just email the author and say "Hello I am a PhD student in your field, can I please see your thesis?" Is this a big deal? Are there any do's or don'ts in making this request?
Thank you...
# Answer
A PhD thesis is usually a published work, and is normally archived in a university's library. Almost all dissertations are available via reprints. So you could ask your own library how to order a copy of the thesis.
Alternatively, as you suggest, you can contact the author directly. As Anonymous Mathematician suggests in his comment, you can ask for a copy of the thesis, but you should definitely explain *why* you're interested in the thesis. However, it may be possible—and even more so for a humanities thesis—that the author is currently preparing it for publication, and may therefore be reluctant to share it via electronic means. However, it is just as likely that they're willing to share it.
> 17 votes
# Answer
I don't think it is a big deal, unless as discussed in other answers they have reasons not to respond, however "Hello I am a PhD student in your field, can I please see your thesis?" is maximising your chances of not getting a response. Remember you are asking for a favour from a busy stranger you need to give him a reason to treat you as worth responding to. Write a polite, well-subjected, but not too long e-mail, e.g.
> Subject: Request for a copy of your PhD thesis
>
> Dear Dr. X,
>
> I am writing to you today to request an electronic copy of your thesis \- "Boring yet strangely intriguing title".
>
> My name is Bill Bloggs, I am a PhD student at the university of stuff and things. I have seen your thesis referenced by XX and I was wondering whether you would be willing to send an electronic copy of your thesis to me so that I can read it as it seems relevant to my own work in blah and bimble.
>
> Thank you for your time,
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Bill Bloggs.
> 8 votes
# Answer
If you are worried about contacting the author directly, the ProQuest Database might be a place to start if the person whose dissertation you are looking for has already graduated and submitted to the final copy the their university, which appears to be the case in the scenario you mentioned.
In most countries once the dissertation is submitted to the university it comes into the public sphere (still copyrighted but its existence and content can no longer be thought of as private) so there should be no problem with contacting either the author or the Library of his or her PhD institution and requesting a copy politely.
> 5 votes
# Answer
In my field in the social sciences, scholars are divided into "article people" and "book people," depending on the nature of their projects (and of course, many people work on both, but there are differences in preferences and focus).
Oversimplifying a bit, article people tend to write their dissertations on something like a 3-paper model, where they combine published or publishable articles, and add on a front and back end. The book people simply write, for their dissertations, something that looks like a book.
The issue that the "book people" have, is that it generally takes longer to actually turn the dissertation into published book through a contract with a proper academic or university press. (and in my field, unlike what some of the previous posters said, a dissertation is NOT considered "published," it is considered an "unpublished dissertation manuscript" and should be cited as such.).
Because these book projects take much longer to complete (often will take a whole 4-5 years more), many PhDs working on books request a "dissertation embargo" with their school library so that their dissertations will not be made public immediately.
If you are having a hard time, finding a recent dissertation, this embargo might be the reason. You can of course email and ask the author, but some are worried about getting "poached" and other issues regards to dissertations that are being developed into proper books.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: phd, thesis
--- |
thread-7242 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7242 | Saving handwritten notes for future reference | 2013-01-16T06:19:02.097 | # Question
Title: Saving handwritten notes for future reference
I have more than one hundred pages of handwritten notes.
I made these notes while writing different chapters of my PhD dissertation. The notes include summaries of journal articles, my thoughts, suggestions by others and anything that I thought could be potentially useful for my research.
I am wondering what is the best way to organise and store them. Converting them into pdf is one way of doing it but I want to organised them in some way e.g. by chapter, or date or key words.
Is there any program or software that can be useful in this regard?
# Answer
> 14 votes
*It's not an answer, but it's too long for a comment…*
I have one word for you in the future: **Moleskine**. Good quality notebooks, organized either thematically or chronologically, is a great way to store that sort of information. For notes, **long term conservation** is a big issue, and you have little guarantee that bells-and-whistles software X will still be working on your computer in 10 to 20 years. Simple solutions (both electronic and not) are the best for that purpose.
Finally, I have managed my notes electronically for some time (I tried many combinations, including iPad/Evernote/Dropbox, text files, LaTeX), but wasn't satisfied for the reasons above. I went back to dead wood storage (aka paper) with delight!
# Answer
> 6 votes
I scan my notes to PDF and then use LaTeX to add a custom Table of Contents that helps with navigating the PDF.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Perhaps Qiqqa might be worth looking at.
It's a PDF / reference management system with particular emphasis (useful, novel features, not found in other such programs) on notes and links between notes on your various research papers.
...and STOP writing notes on paper! Write your notes on digital media and it'll make your life so much easier, especially WRT organization / linking / archiving / indexing...
If you're a scientist and want to keep track of notes you make, Open Notebook Science software solutions may also be worth looking at.
I wouldn't recommend EndNote. It's changed relatively little in years and years. Many of the newer PDF management systems have far better user interfaces and are in general more modern (and often free!).
# Answer
> 3 votes
I would second Evernote. They provide really great handwriting OCR, the key is to remember to scan your notes in as JPGs (or convert them to JPGs) as Evernote doesn't OCR handwriting in PDFs. With their OCR, you don't even need to organize in the app, you can just search for keywords to find what you are looking for. If you are looking for an easy way to get your notes into Evernote and you have an iPhone, I highly recommend JotNote Scanner Pro.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I use Endnote, which allows you to take pictures of the notes and put tags/dates/More Notes! on top of it.
It is very device independent, and you can do all the digitization process using an iPhone or and Android phone, of course if you have a good camera, it will be better for the resolution issues.
There is a company that does OCR for Endnote compatibility, but you have to buy their special paper, which is a bit pricey.
# Answer
> 2 votes
You could also have a look at Evernote, this does a nice job of organizing notes. I think it even supports making pictures with the Evernote app (android or iphone), and upload it (e.g. for a poster on a conference). I use to store computer typed notes, but you could also upload and store scanned handwritten notes. Evernote has a free account with limited bandwith, so depending on what you want this might or might not be enough.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Since you already have the notes written, it seems that mainly what you are looking for is a digital reference management system - akin to the digital card catalogs of the library.
This would allow you to search your notes for a key word or subject and then know that it is in notebook A on page 20. There would be lots of ways to do this but zotero is very flexible and should be able to accommodate your needs.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Even though this thread is old, this may be helpful info. You can use the Onenote program incuded in MS Office. It tries to do OCR on any document you either scan and drop into a Onenote page or "print" from pdf into a Onenote page. For notes that it cannot OCR, you can add annotations with searchable keywords. To separate pages of a large pdf document you can use a program like PDFill Free. Not a perfect solution, but can still be a big help in making handwritten notes into electronically searchable documents.
# Answer
> 0 votes
I would scan them and save them to evernote. An alternative is that you find a freelancer (for example on odesk) that types your notes (software is not very good at recognizing handwriting).
---
Tags: research-process, software
--- |
thread-16571 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16571 | Creating a schematic figure based on an existing one | 2014-02-05T00:40:47.867 | # Question
Title: Creating a schematic figure based on an existing one
In the context material chapter of my masters dissertation, between other things, I must write about the state of the art on the thematic presented. There are some very expressive and simple schemes in other authors works that I would like to use. I was wondering: is it legitimate if I create schemes by myself that convey the same structure and information and reference the sources in the following manner: "Image based on \[Reference\]" ?. The result would be different looking (colors, shapes, and several other visual elements) schemes that would express the same content.
I've looked at How much do figures need to differ to avoid copyright claims? but I wasn't sure if the context of that question is enough for the answers to apply for me.
Thanks.
# Answer
> 2 votes
No, I think it would be insufficient to say : "Image based on \[Reference\]".
Because, from what you've written, it's not just the image you're using: you're also using the intellectual content that is the structure and information.
So, not only do you need to cite your reference for the image, but you also need to credit the origin of the structure and the information explicitly in its own right.
So do say:
> Image based on \[Reference\]
And also say something like (using the example of the image being a classification of the existing literature):
> In creating this classification, I have followed the classification scheme set out in \[Reference\], using information from \[Reference\] and \[other Reference\]
---
Tags: masters, copyright, graphics, thesis
--- |
thread-16590 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16590 | Conducting a systematic literature review and paywalls | 2014-02-05T12:24:18.303 | # Question
Title: Conducting a systematic literature review and paywalls
I am writing a systematic literature review but I was wondering how to handle papers which fit the inclusion criteria but are hidden behind paywalls.
Is it ok to exclude them and state as an exclusion criterion in the methodology section "works that are not freely available are excluded."? Also some papers are accessible from my University without me noticing the paywall so should I rewrite the criterion to "... that are not freely available or included in the authors university contract"?
# Answer
> 11 votes
I don't think that either of these strategies is likely to be appreciated much by reviewers.
Very few papers are actually entirely unobtainable to researchers. Most papers are either part of a university subscription, available as preprint from e.g., the author's website, or at the very least most authors forward you a preprint on personal request via mail. The purpose of a scientific review is to review, to the largest extent possible, everything that is out there.
Limiting yourself to only Open Access material, while morally commendable, means that you are not surveying the state of research, but only the state of what's available easily. This will make your literature review significantly less appealing to reviewers.
Further, I would definitely not go for
> Also some papers are accessible from my University without me noticing the paywall so should I rewrite the criterion to "... that are not freely available or included in the authors university contract"?
That just seems like a lazy excuse for not finding out what licence the used papers fall under. Even if the paywall is hidden to you, you can certainly figure out whether the paper would be available without subscription.
---
Tags: literature-review, paywall
--- |
thread-16589 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16589 | How to cite a conference paper in an "extended" journal version? | 2014-02-05T12:14:46.040 | # Question
Title: How to cite a conference paper in an "extended" journal version?
I recently presented a paper at a conference which was published in its proceedings. Now it is time to submit an "extended" version with "30% new content". The new content isn't a problem, I've added several figures, a couple of genuinely new findings and some helpful illustrations that I developed while preparing my talk. However, the instructions from the publisher state:
`In the extended paper clearly cite the conference paper and list it as one of the references.`
In my opinion, this can be interpreted in one of two ways:
1. **Write a new article that assumes knowledge of the proceedings.** This is kind of a scary option because it implies that it really has to be a new work.
2. **Explain that an earlier version exists and what's new here.** This is a comforting interpretation but seems kind of uncharacteristic for the style in most journal articles.
What's the best path to follow here?
# Answer
I write something along the lines of:
> This paper is an extended version of work published in \[1\]. We extend our previous work by A, B and C.
Note that some new figures etc. will probably not really count as *new content* (this would probably be called new presentation rather than new content). New findings and new data, that's what people will really be interested in.
One common pattern that I often see in my field is that the conference paper has most of the ideas in place, but a rather cursory evaluation. The journal extension then has the ideas of the conf paper + whatever input came out of discussions at the conference + a more or less large-scale validation. The "nucleus" of the paper is reproduced more or less in verbatim. To be fair, I am not sure if this is even ok from a copyright point of view, but it certainly is common practice in my field FWIW.
> 9 votes
---
Tags: publications, journals, citations, conference
--- |
thread-16573 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16573 | How to convert courses and hours (from a non-european university) to ECTS? | 2014-02-05T01:35:49.127 | # Question
Title: How to convert courses and hours (from a non-european university) to ECTS?
I'm getting my "Licentiate of Computers/Systems" degree soon, in Argentina. The degree is composed by 40 courses of 68 hours of lectures each. On top of that, you have to add the time you spend on assignments, studying for exams, etc. Depending on the course, you might have to spend from 30 hours to 250, but of course, this depends on each person. You are supposed to take 5 courses per semester if you want to get the degree in 4 years (full-time).
I don't know how to convert my degree credits/hours into ECTS, given that, if I understood correctly, ECTS points do include studying and assignments hours.
I'd appreciate if someone could enlighten me. Please, let me know if more information is needed in order to calculate the ECTS.
Cheers.
# Answer
If you're getting a degree in Argentina, then you should be concerned about the eligibility/mapping of the actual degree, not on the ECTS of individual courses.
ECTS of individual courses would apply if you want to get a degree in EU but have some of your earlier courses of an unfinished degree to count towards that new degree; However, if you want to continue studies in, say, a masters programme then you'd enroll based on your Licentiate degree as whole, and none of the courses would be spearately treated.
In any case, if you need 'proper ECTS conversion', then you'll most likely need an official statement about that from the institution giving you the degree, not anyone else.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: undergraduate, degree, europe
--- |
thread-16598 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16598 | Is consistency in citation style important? | 2014-02-05T14:22:11.503 | # Question
Title: Is consistency in citation style important?
I have a habit of using two styles of in-text citation: with and without author name(s). The two examples below describe what I mean: (# here represents a bibliography index)
"...which is in agreement with simulations presented in **Lastname et al. \[#\]**."
and just
"...the X method **\[#\]** was here used to model..."
(in the latter case, reference # might contain an in-depth description of the X method).
I mix these styles freely, depending on what I deem to be appropriate in each individual case. Am I correct to do this or would you consider it to be bad style?
# Answer
> 17 votes
To your title question
> Is consistency in citation style important?
**Yes!**
On first reading this, it sounded as though you were planning to mix two citation styles such as APA and Chicago. Obviously, this would be unacceptable.
***However***, in your example, you are using two entirely compatible forms for your in-text citations, which is perfectly acceptable. I would strongly prefer this over the awkward and boring alternative of using exactly the same form for every citation. Continue to use the form that is most appropriate for the situation. Variety is acceptable, even commendable, as long as you are not violating the standards for your documentation style.
**Edit**: To clarify the point above; mixing the *in-text* citation style **Lastname et al. \[#\]** and **\[#\]** is OK! What is not OK is using two separate documentation styles, for example, also using the in-text citation **(Last name, year, page)**, which is proper is APA documentation style, but not in Chicago documentation style!
# Answer
> 11 votes
Yes, this is fine, as long as you make sure that the names of the authors are part of the sentence.
In general, mixing citation styles is not recommended. However, your examples both reference the citations in the same way: **\[#\]**. The other thing you should keep in mind is that sentences should still make perfect sense if all citations are omitted. To this end, I would change your first example to
> "...which is in agreement with simulations presented **by** Lastname et al. \[#\]."
# Answer
> 5 votes
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using different sentence patterns to introduce a citation. In fact, it gets quite tedious to read the same sentence structure over and over again. So, feel free, as you suggested, to use the style which is most appropriate for a given need in a given situation.
---
Tags: citations
--- |
thread-16586 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16586 | What constitutes a proper scientific result in Computer Science? | 2014-02-05T09:41:11.743 | # Question
Title: What constitutes a proper scientific result in Computer Science?
I work at a university at an Information Technology department. My colleagues claim we are 'computer scientists'. However, from what I observed, most of our work is pure implementation and often follows the Engineering Method, not the Scientific Method (see this page). What is the proper scientific output for research on a real life problem (how to transform a data model encoded in XML Schema into a useful web form for entering/editing data) that involves implementation of a new software (a new data model annotation language and a web form generator software)? Is the resulting software a scientific or an engineering result? What would constitute a proper scientific result?
# Answer
Coming from a similar research area myself, I can say that in practice the borders between **science** and **engineering** are often not clear-cut in applied computer science.
That being said, usually, the starting point of our research is indeed a hypothesis, but more of the style *it is possible to build a system that does X using Y in order to achieve Z.* (and, consequently, *this new way is better in some meaningful regards than the traditional way of doing it via X^*\*). Naturally, the way to falsify such an hypothesis is to set out and do a proof-of-concept, optimally in a realistic setting, and compare it against the traditional way.
Note that the proof-of-concept implementation here is **not the scientific output**. It is a vehicle for scientific validation. The **scientific output is the knowledge that X can indeed be usefully done via Y to achieve Z**. Maybe, the proof-of-concept can be improved into an open source tool or product (either by the researchers directly or by partner companies), but this **productization** is not science anymore - this is pure engineering (we know that it can be done, but now it needs to be done **properly**, which takes time, effort, and domain knowledge - all things that researchers often don't have in spades).
As such, to answer your question:
> Is the resulting software a scientific or an engineering result?
It is not the scientific result, but it was used to validate the scientific result. It may be considered an engineering result (depending on the quality of the proof-of-concept).
> What would constitute a proper scientific result?
I strongly dislike the term *proper* in this context, as it implies an ordering of value between science and engineering.
> 4 votes
# Answer
It depends on what area of Computer Science you're in. However, I think where things are getting confused for you may be in what you do with the thing that you built.
In a "scientific" perspective, particularly for Computer Science, the key lies in explaining why. After building the system, your goal is not only to have accomplished the construction but to either:
1. Compare it with existing solutions to "prove" your unstated hypothesis that your system is better while explaining -why/what makes- it better; or
2. If no solution exists, tie your solution in with previous work and explain not only how it solves this problem, but why it works.
If what you do is you build a solution to a problem and stop there, without trying to explain the why or testing it against the often unstated hypothesis of "my approach will be better than other approaches", then that may be what you're referring to as an engineering method.
The "science" or "research" method that you seem to be looking for is in the aftermath of building the system and seeking to add to the theoretical knowledge of the field by testing and explaining why your approach is faster/more efficient/easier to use/etc.
This is, of course, in addition to the big two factors of reliability (is it reproduceable?) and validity (is this a problem people care about, does this move the field forward, are you using the correct measures to prove your hypothesis, etc.).
> 0 votes
---
Tags: computer-science, productivity, engineering
--- |
thread-16608 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16608 | How to initiate an application of a research attachment fellowship directly with the potential advisor? | 2014-02-05T18:21:07.553 | # Question
Title: How to initiate an application of a research attachment fellowship directly with the potential advisor?
I am currently trying to seek a summer research attachment in the US institutions. CalTech offers a really attractive program, SURF, to the undergraduates.
However, in order to apply for the attachment fellowship, CalTech requires the applicants to contact a faculty member first and proceed with other admin stuff only after receiving the endorsement from the faculty.
As a non-CalTech student, I have no academic network that spreads to any professor in CalTech. In such a situation, can I directly email the professors that I am interested in working with?
Of course, I can do it, but my concern is that a professor will normally ignore this type of email, especially when he/she is currently not short of people in the lab.
How to initiate such a research proposal effectively so that the professor will not overlook my email and actually think about taking me in?
# Answer
If they expect you to get in touch with faculty first, and they widely accept students from beyond CalTech, then they're expecting you to reach out - no undergraduate has a particularly robust academic network beyond their institution (beyond a few edge cases).
Generally speaking, the best way to do this, in my view, is to email the professor, give them a brief introduction about yourself, your research interests, that you're applying for the SURF program, and that you'd like to work in their lab. Link this to the work they do.
I'd consider doing this for several professors, unless there's just one whose work matches your own. Worst case, they'll ignore it, but professors often at least read these, especially if they're from institutions they recognize, have concrete information, and are in coherent English.
For the record, this is how I got my first undergraduate research position, and ended up with a wonderful colleague I work with to this day.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: professorship, research-undergraduate, funding
--- |
thread-16545 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16545 | What can academics and students do to reduce racism in academia? | 2014-02-04T13:41:34.367 | # Question
Title: What can academics and students do to reduce racism in academia?
I am a postdoc at a university in the UK. Before I came here, a friend warned me that racism is common in the UK. True enough, during my first few months here, I have already received a couple of racist gestures and jeers, including one instance inside the university campus, possibly from a student.
What I would like to ask is this: what part can we play, as academics and students, to reduce such instances of racism in the academic settings?
---
I come from Indonesia, and being Chinese, racism has been a part of my life. I have seen signs of improvement, but when I grew up, I still remember how it was. I am not complaining about UK, although I must admit that during my study in Norway, I experienced hardly any instances of racism or discrimination whatsoever. I am not asking which country is the worst. I share my experience just to show that it is real. I am not asking how to cope with racism, either. I am asking if there is anything I can do, or we can do, as academic community, to reduce instances of racism in academia, to make it a better environment for an increasingly international academic population. I am citing UK, because that's where I am now; it could have been another country. But wherever I am, I have a part to play in making it a better place.
# Answer
> 23 votes
One of the forms of racism that UK universities suffer from is that they use unfiltered student opinion to inform hiring as well as evaluation of academics. Academics with foreign accents or unfamiliar (or particularly formal) appearances that the students don't like then suffer.
Interestingly this form of racism is widely understood and largely eliminated in the retail sector where no one would be allowed to choose the race of an employee based on the preferences of their customers. It is also a form of racism we could easily eliminate from academia if we honestly faced up to it.
---
I think the point of my answer has been slightly lost (see comments below). The point is that the students are not asked "Can you understand what the academic says clearly?". They are merely asked to rate the academic using a number and are not required to give any reasoning. This hides any prejudices they have and allows the hiring/evaluation committee to use racial preferences without having explicitly to admit they are doing it. The committee just says "They got low student evaluation scores".
# Answer
> 20 votes
Recognize that you may or may not have an implicit bias, and examine your own actions accordingly. This also goes for sexism. For example, rather than simply assuming "I'm not a racist!", sit down with something like the list of invited speakers for a conference and genuinely ask "Did we include people of color? Did we include women? Were they more than tokens?"
Like all things in academia, reducing bias benefits from rigorous, systematic thought.
# Answer
> 19 votes
**Do unto others as you would have them do unto you**
I believe that this is really the only thing that is in your control.
As the popular song goes, "Everybody's a Little Racist". :D
You cannot change minds of people forcefully but you can only change the way in which you behave.
Having said this, I don't think that I have faced any instance of racism inside the ivory tower in the US. Socially, yes. Academically, no.
# Answer
> 13 votes
There are many things we can do, here are some that I have been doing as a foreign student in the US and now an edcuator. And hopefully it would help sparking some more new thoughts.
**Aim for promoting diversity, NOT eliminating racism**
Politically, you will have a lot more buy-in in organizing a "diversity week" than an "anti-racism week." Racism is not something we can eradicate because it stems from the sense of superiority and difference in power, which will always exist in various degree. And in a personal level, given the same race/ethnicity, one person may think a certain treatment is totally fine while the other one may show a strong sign of being offended because the treatment promotes racism. You cannot win.
In most cases, the more one tries very hard not to be a "racist," the more difficult situations one can get into. A fun example: an African American colleague of mine went to watch *12 Years a Slave* with her husband and after the movie ended, a white couple came up and said, sorrowfully, "You people really had it hard, didn't you?" I found that attitude of "We had treated your ancestors so badly that now I am going to make up for it," a bit of, well, racist.
Instead, promote diversity. Diversity is less "silo," it incorporates many other aspects like religions, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, etc. What's more, it gives us some goal to achieve, something to build instead of some infinite amount of pests to destroy. This new goal will certainly improve your mental health and open up a lot more possibilities in improving the situation.
**Promote critical thinking**
Embrace critical thinking in both study and teaching. A lot of racism-related phenomena wouldn't pass the most fundamental critical evaluations. Equipping students with this invaluable skill will help them dissect the situation with higher clarity and certainty. Racism itself is very biasing, to the extent that it's nearly hilarious. For instance, if a member of Purple race commits an atrocious crime, the members of Green race tend to attribute the blame to the whole Purple race. While among the Purple race they tend to attribute the blame to the very criminal as a "bad seed," outlier, or isolated incidence. A simple thinking exercise on situations like this one opens up discussion among students quite well.
An additional benefit of being able to critically think on your feet is that you can instantly downgrade an intense racism argument to a logic-based, evidence-based discussion, pointing out the pitfall in their thought process rather than pointing out that they are a racist.
**Know your history well, and be ready to listen to other's history**
I found myself somehow have become the go-to person when someone has questions about my country. It is, to some degree, a polymorphic racism. Just because some girl is born in Japan doesn't mean she can dance like a geisha, just because some guy is from China doesn't mean he can recite all the characters in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. However, I do take this consultant role seriously, and try my best to be an ambassador. I tell them the good, the bad, and the disgusting, no reservation.
**Don't check your identity tags too soon**
This is somewhat similar to that poor answer with like 10 down votes. Sorry to say that but I do agree with that answer to a certain extent. I have never sorted out a clear list of identities for myself. It's not like I am in denial, my identities are always somewhere but I don't tend to flaunt them right at the beginning of an interaction. I feel that in a lot of the times, conflicts happen because we decided that the action or treatment has clashed with our identity a little bit too soon: You said something against penguins, and I am a penguin, so I have to be upset now and punch you in the face. I would, instead, opt for understanding where they come from first. If the situation is non-hostile, I would proceed to explain (with critical thinking and evidence) that it's not always the case, and move on. You can correct the information, you can never correct a person's attitude, they have to do that bit by themselves.
**Find an optimal environment**
Lastly, it's important that you are promoting diversity in a place that you feel reasonably tolerable and accepting. This whole process of achieving understanding is going to be very long, and it's not worth risking your happiness or even life just because you want to make a statement in a hostile place. In conclusion, don't cave in, be present and remind others of our existence. They don't need to like us, but they do need to know we are here to stay, with a strong will.
---
Tags: ethics, international, outward-appearance, harassment, ethnicity
--- |
thread-7589 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7589 | How can my colleague use our joint results in his PhD thesis? | 2013-01-29T22:07:29.873 | # Question
Title: How can my colleague use our joint results in his PhD thesis?
Over the past two years, I've been collaborating with a PhD student. He did experimental work, and I did modeling and data analysis based on his experiments. Now that my colleague is about to write up his PhD thesis, in which way can he ethically include the modeling and data analysis results in his thesis?
I don't need any of these results for a thesis on my own, and we are currently writing a paper on this together, so there are no worries from my side about misuse of these results.
There is the related question Are overlapping dissertations ethically acceptable?, but I am more explicitly asking about how my colleague can present the results which are more based on my work in a good way.
# Answer
**Don't worry, be happy (and be truthful)**. There's nothing wrong in including in one's thesis stuff that you didn't do yourself, as long as the delimitation between what the candidate did and what others did is clearly marked. And by that, I mean no lies, but also no half-truths either.
Basically, the presentation will thus depend on the interaction between you two and his part in the analysis (which ranges from “nothing” to “he suggested ideas that I tried” to “he ran my code himself”). In the first case, he could say:
> As part of project X, I sent these results to Dr. John Doe at Big U. for him to perform his widely acclaimed topological Bayesian half-filter analysis. This analysis revealed that …
There's nothing wrong with presenting results obtained by others from your work, as long as they shed light into the phenomenon you're studying. I once had a student who published a work, which was built upon by another group during his PhD, and he presented this at some length (and critiqued their extension) in his thesis. That's part of the whole story.
If the collaboration was closer, just make sure the thesis clearly indicates its nature and the contribution of everyone. Then, no fuss!
> 13 votes
# Answer
F'x's answer is good. I would just add that your collaborator should check his institution's thesis guidelines. Mine had specific directions on how joint work should be included in the thesis, such as an extra paragraph explaining who did what part of the work.
Of course, your collaborator's advisor should also be in the loop.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: phd, ethics, thesis
--- |
thread-16620 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16620 | How exactly do graduate students collaborate on a research project? | 2014-02-06T06:19:28.587 | # Question
Title: How exactly do graduate students collaborate on a research project?
My question can be elaborated as follows: When graduate students work together on a research project, are they usually expected to work on the *same exact things, at the same exact time*, or would it be more reasonable to have a division of labor and divide the work load?
# Answer
> 2 votes
It's really like any other collaboration. Presumably the (student) researchers are working together because they have a common interest in a problem and possibly have some complementary expertise that's useful for solving the problem. So they'll interact and as the situation merits it will divide up tasks (or work on some aspects together). There really isn't a single rule for this.
---
Tags: research-process, graduate-school, paper-submission, collaboration
--- |
thread-16624 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16624 | "With editor" status for 2 months: is it normal? | 2014-02-06T12:26:37.607 | # Question
Title: "With editor" status for 2 months: is it normal?
I'm a bit worried because one of my papers have been more than 2 months "with editor" status. It's a science journal (field: drug residue, food), from a famous editorial and impact factor 3.3. I'm used to 48h desk reject and I was wondering about the options of being so long with this status 1) very busy editor 2) my paper was forgotten 3) there is a mistake on the website
Oh, normally we have the option to send an e-mail to the assigned editor, but in this case there is only "view your submission".
**Edit:**
At the end it took 2 months but... We are under review!
# Answer
Times vary a lot between journals and, I believe, disciplines. Two months seems like a relatively long period to me but not unheard of. Out of your three reasons I would not opt for 2 or three depending, of course on the form for submitting manuscripts. If it is digital I am sure 2 and 3 would not be high on the list, if it is manual, by post or e-mail, then the likelihood is higher.
I think a busy editor is one possibility. It is not clear from your question if this is "with the editor" after submission or "with the editor" after review. If we consider the former, the most likely reason, in my experience, is that it has proven hard for the editor to get reviewers to accept to review. This occasionally happens to me and I can say that it has no clear relationship to the possible quality of the paper. In the case of the former (after review), the busy editor becomes a more likely candidate since the editor should study the reviews, decide on the faith of the paper, and possibly provide guidelines for your revisions.
If you have any indication, from for example peers, what typical handling periods are in the journal where you submitted your manuscript, you should definitely contact the journal to ask about the status of your submission. Such requests are commonplace (too common in fact) so try to assess if the two months is long or normal in the case of this particular journal before contact.
> 9 votes
---
Tags: publications, paper-submission, editors
--- |
thread-14926 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/14926 | Finding and requesting research funds from private sponsors for basic research with low short term marketability value | 2013-12-19T08:49:07.380 | # Question
Title: Finding and requesting research funds from private sponsors for basic research with low short term marketability value
I am currently hired as a research track scientist not funded directly by the university. As part of my contract agreement, I am required to secure my own funding in order to remain hired. However, government funding has dried up *drastically* over the last few years, and my best and just about only shot is to seek private sponsorships. A brief conversation with the department chair has confirmed that the department doesn't really care too much about the source of funding as much as whether I can get sufficient funding or not.
Given all of this, does anyone have any suggestions for a list of private individuals or organizations willing to fund basic research in theoretical physics without any *immediate* practical applications? How should I go about contacting such private sponsors, and what is the proper protocol for asking them for money? It appears most funders in the private sector care mostly about getting short term commercial monetary returns from what they prefer to call an "investment" instead of funding. How can I encourage them to think about longer term benefits which might take as many as a few generations to reap?
In my experience, sarcastic remarks along the lines of Benjamin Franklin's "What's the use of a newborn baby?" or Michael Faraday's "One day you may tax it." go on very badly to people in the private sector.
# Answer
Step in their shoes and figure out what *they* would be gaining from giving money to you. The question is not only about the benefits as such, but *who* will benefit. 'One day you may tax it' may be actually reasonable to a large government, but it is absolute nonsense to a private company, who will NOT be able to tax it when other companies use it. "What's the use of a newborn baby" also implies that the adult will be useful - but it will NOT be useful to the company unless they can own & control that long-future result.
In general, if you want to get industry funding for research where the results cannot be commercialized in the short term, then anyway your results have to be valuable from *them in particular*, rather than the whole industry including their competitors. So if it's too early to produce a commercial product/process, at the very least the end result should be some protected IP - usually patents - that would be a property of the funding organization.
If it's an investment, then take a look at how large the return benefit would be, when would that be, and how likely it is that it will/won't work out. If it's a 'sponsorship', well, sponsorships generally are a PR/marketing issue - in order for that to work out, the company needs your research and/or your name to be visible and known (not to academia but to their customers), so that they'd get some marketing benefit by their customers seeing (a lot of) their association with you and/or your research topic. It sometimes happens (for example, with high-end audio products; or IBM's Watson project is a case of such PR), but it's clearly not an option for most researchers.
An alternative might be private philantrophists - but that is based on individual relations, connections to very rich individuals, and your PR ability to convinve them that your research is so valuable to the world. Looking at how some other researchers have achieved such funding, it generally requires writing a popular book or a few of them, and years of public promotion of your research direction and ideas; that seed tends to grow into an ability to fundraise for continuing such research.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Funding from industry is generally going to be tied to the ability for them to leverage it into profit. Funding from non-profits are not always interested in making money, but they ant to be able to leverage it into profit, donations, or press. Generally you need to talk to potential finders about their interests and tailor your research to meet their needs and wants.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: funding
--- |
thread-16629 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16629 | How to deal with my academic advisor who offered me a postdoc position and try to prevent me getting other offers? | 2014-02-06T15:44:26.847 | # Question
Title: How to deal with my academic advisor who offered me a postdoc position and try to prevent me getting other offers?
I recently graduated and my co-chair offered me a postdoc position which I haven't started yet. I first thought he was trying to help me. Now I am getting other good offers from others.
I received a very good postdoc offer and was in a very good lab. I told my co-chair, that I will leave if I get that one. After the interview, the main PI told me that he will contact my references and will get back to me within one week. Later, he sent me an email saying he offered the job for someone else. Before the interview, he was writing me and even shared some confidential information even before they released them through the HR.
The way he handled my application gave me very high hopes on getting the job. Now I suspect that my co-chair who was known to my future PI changed the post-doc hiring committees view of me. He has given me very good reference letters in the past for other academic positions that I can start in several months if I was selected. I am now confused, and not sure how to handle this supervisor. Any help/advice greatly appreciated!
# Answer
This is a common reason why job references are normally asked from the former employers but not from the current employer. If the current employer would like to keep a specialist, adequate recommendations just cannot be provided because of the conflict of interest.
Try to get alternative recommendations. Maybe your work included cooperation with other laboratories, or maybe you had some more junior "intermediate" supervisor, or maybe you have worked along speciality at least part time? Suggest these people instead.
In the worst case, you may even ask for recommendation from another co-worker like you. Not very good yet better than nothing.
> 5 votes
---
Tags: advisor
--- |
thread-16627 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16627 | Do I need to repeat the books quoted in footnotes in the bibliography? | 2014-02-06T15:06:48.723 | # Question
Title: Do I need to repeat the books quoted in footnotes in the bibliography?
When writing an essay, if I have cited some paragraph from a book in the footnotes, do I need to include that book in the bibliography after the essay? Or I only need to include books that have not been cited in the bibliography?
# Answer
> 6 votes
If you are using OSCOLA style, then the footnotes will include all the necessary bibliographic information and a bibliography/works cited is not required. See, for example, the Oxford University Undergraduate Law Journal, which follows OSCOLA style.
Generally speaking, most styles that require a Works Cited/Bibliography have "in-line" or "parenthetical" citations, rather than footnotes (e.g., APA style). The key thing to remember is that the purpose of citations is to allow your readers to consult your sources for themselves and, where you are citing secondary sources, to give credit to the authors for their contribution to the scholarly conversation.
---
Tags: citations, thesis
--- |
thread-16636 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16636 | What is "Oberwolfach style"? | 2014-02-06T19:37:37.177 | # Question
Title: What is "Oberwolfach style"?
I've read the following in a description of a workshop:
> We have about 15 participants and seek an “Oberwolfach style” with a relatively low density of talks.
I couldn't find anything about this style in Internet. But I found out that there is The Mathematical Research Institute of Oberwolfach, and according to Wikipedia
> It organizes weekly workshops on diverse topics where mathematicians and scientists from all over the world come to do collaborative research.
But the sense of this “Oberwolfach style” is still vague to me.
# Answer
> 36 votes
This is indeed a reference to the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (Oberwolfach Mathematics Research Institute), a conference center in the small German town of Oberwolfach.
The Institute has developed a rather idiosyncratic style of meetings. The most common events are weeklong workshops on specific topics, whose participants are invited by the organizers. Speakers are chosen from among the participants on just one or two days' notice. The talks are indeed relatively "low density", perhaps 4 or 5 x 45-minute talks per day, so not all participants will give talks. Long periods are left unscheduled to encourage informal discussion and collaboration.
The conference center is isolated and so most people don't leave the campus during the week. Participants are housed and fed onsite and meals are communal. As Aru says, there are also measures to "encourage" a more social atmosphere: seating is assigned and changes from meal to meal, and Internet access is not available in the guest rooms until 10pm or so (edit: Najib Idrissi's comment below suggests that this policy has changed).
# Answer
> 9 votes
I have been to Oberwolfach several times. Oberwolfach's schedule is something like two or three talks in the morning, followed by lunch and free time until around 3 or 4 (I don't remember exactly). Then they serve you cake, and you go to a couple of more talks before dinner.
As there is no wi-fi in your rooms (until 10pm or so -- new addition!) you are expected to socialize and discuss mathematics with your colleagues during the free time, which often leads to fruitful collaborations.
---
Tags: workshop
--- |
thread-16635 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16635 | Keeping credit for my work | 2014-02-06T18:34:10.780 | # Question
Title: Keeping credit for my work
I joined a new lab a while ago, and am having an issue with keeping the credit for my work. Two instances so far:
* I co-authored a series of papers with the professor and a senior graduate student. I was always the first author, and it'd be fair to say that I contributed 95% of the research work and 70% of the writing. Somehow the other student was invited to give several talks on our work at various department seminars. I hadn't known until recently when I accidentally discovered his slides in our shared repository. The problem is that, in his slides, he only put his name, and there was no mention of my name/no credit given to me.
* Before joining the lab, I developed a research software, which was quite successful and widely used. When I joined the lab, I transferred the development to the lab, and a graduate student helped me to extend the software a bit. When programming, I always sign my code with my name: (C) 2010-2013 by My Name (Email). Just today, when I looked at the code (publicly shared on github), I discovered that the student had deleted my name from all the files and replaced with his name: (C) 2010-2013 by His Name (Email). He even hadn't joined the development until 2012. If people just look at the code, they would think he were the sole author.
Of course I want to keep the credit for my work. But I don't know what I should do. I feel that there is a culture in the lab that people just don't respect the credit for shared work. I don't want to cause heat in the lab. Both those students have been in the lab for longer than me.
# Answer
> 9 votes
### Talks with one name only
Here I think that customs vary between having a long list of authors and a long list of collaborators\* and only the *speaker* spelled out on the title, possibly including a long list of *authors* on the abstract.
* e.g. a slide listing the contributions of all the collaborators.
I'd recommend having a look how other people in the department handle this, and then maybe expressing astonishment (semi)publicly because where you came from it was handled differently. I think it is preferable to have a public discussion and the customs/style of the lab developing in some way than to offend everyone just because your previous lab put authors and not the speaker on the front slide.
Related issue: I like to know who tells what about my work. But OTOH, I think it is quite usual that you don't recognize your own work when a collaborator presents it... There are also drawbacks to being spelled out on the first page of a talk.
### Only student's name in code
I think this is much clearer. And, as you say the code is in a git repo, it is still easy to sort out things now.
As a first step, talk to the student privately and request that he rolls back these changes and adds "Contributions by " (ideally a contributions line for each logical step in the development with date and name - but the git messages can do that as well) only where he actually contributed code. Of course, if he is the sole author of new files, those stay "his".
I'm in a field where software isn't (yet) really a category of publication in the mind of most researchers. However, the usual result of not thinking about that is that there is no statement of authorship nor of a license. In contrast to that, deleting author lines is an active step.
As a second step, I'd explain that deleting the authorship lines from source code is as serious as taking a colleague's manuscript and submitting it under his own name without even mentioning the collaborator.
As a next level of pressure, you could explain to him that you talk to him privately as you do not want to unneccessarily endanger his graduation: from a legal point of view this is a clear violation of your author's moral rights (not necessarily copyright - although also the terms of the license could have been violated). Violation of author's moral rights is an offense that is extremely relevant for academia and thus may put him onto the fast lane to being thrown out of his programme without graduation.
Which you also should keep in mind if you need to go to your boss with the problem: be careful not to destroy more than absolutely necessary here.
(Always assuming of course that the copyright is actually yours as opposed to your previous employer's. But, if you find out that you just have author's (moral) rights, but not the copyright that is a point that makes it necessary right now to "heal" the legal issues by putting the proper copyright and authorship lines into the code ;-) )
# Answer
> 7 votes
Regarding the first point, the only conceivable reason for omitting your name is that the student was under the mistaken impression that in a presentation you only need the name of the speaker. It's not an uncommon mistake that students make when they're starting to present work.
But the usual way to fix this is to have a big "Joint work with X and Y" just below the name of the speaker. And there's absolutely no reason not to do that. I think it's perfectly reasonable to ask the student to include your name on all presentations and even on abstracts announcing the presentations (again, using the 'Joint work with..' formulation. If the student resists, then it's time to go to the advisor. There is **no reason** your name should not be on the presentation if you've contributed to the work.
Separately, how come this other student is giving all the talks if you're the primary author ? Maybe you should ask your advisor if you can give a talk on this at the next opportunity.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Let's be real. They (well at least the grad student) are going behind your back on both of the issues to make themselves look better.
Either they feel they have contributed much more to the project than you believe or they are just really unethical.
When you say that you did 70% of the writing - is that the real writing or does that involve formatting and proofreading? I just know that a person in my field (tech engineer) who acts as an "editor" would not necessarily be credited on the discussions about the topic or paper but would certainly be credited in the paper itself.
Need to handle this swiftly but show restraint. You first need to figure out if this is a problem with the lab or the person. You need to figure where you relationship is with the grad student and professor and whether you wish to continue either.
If you want to stay on good terms with the grad student it is simple. You go to them and say - "I know you switched my name on code, I know you are presenting these things as yours, please change these things or I will take the next steps." If this person wonders what the next steps are - and needs the threat as motivation - then they should be done to you. Then you move on to professor.
If you talk to the professor about these things and he/she seems astonished and takes action see where that goes. If the professor doesn't offer an opinion you may need to go to the next level.
I know for a fact that students have been expelled from universities that I have had affiliation with for removing copy-write/author information. This isn't an "ooops" case by the student. The git stuff is borderline dumb/illegal but the presentations are just the icing on the cake.
Personally I wouldn't trust the student again. I don't know enough about the situation to comment on the professor. The other student could have easily conned the professor into thinking the stuff was theirs. I think some of the other answers are a little too conservative. If it were just the presentations I might agree with them but changing author info on code is blatant. I would not start ambiguous conversations acting like what this person is doing might/might not be "incorrect". They are in the wrong. Confront them or professor and follow chain of commands at school and git.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I'm an undergraduate student, so I'm not particularly knowledgable about these issues. I had a thought I think is worth bringing up, though: Both of the incidents you brought up involve students. Is it possible that the students are simply unaware of what's expected or otherwise made simple mistakes? If so, talking to them in person would quickly resolve the issues.
I bring this up because it seems to me that you're in a position to get the students in question in serious trouble if you want to, possibly putting their academic futures in jeopardy. If they aren't being willfully antagonistic, it would be cruel to rake them over the coals (although it doesn't sound like you want to do so). Please take a gentler approach to start unless it is clear that they are deliberately acting selfishly.
EDIT: @blankip made me think about my answer some more. The students' unethical behavior might be bad enough to warrant some kind of punishment, regardless of how aware they are of it, not just a heart-to-heart talk. My biggest concern is that it also seems unethical (or at least cruel) to me to try to have the students expelled, subject to legal action, or something similarly extreme when they're relatively new to academia unless it's clear that they were deliberate.
# Answer
> 1 votes
**Presenting Your work**
It depends on *how* the student was presenting your work. Was he presenting it as something he researched by himself, or was he presenting on some work that the lab had been working on. It can be valuable to present research results to other labs and even across disciplines. If he phrased it as just a discussion of the latest work in the field that should be fine. If it was phrased as "this is what I did", then there's a problem.
**Copyright of software**
What license was the software released under? Did you transfer the copyright to the university? Did you work on the software on university time?
If you worked on it during university time this could be tricky question. Normally software is protected under copyright, but this could be seen as *individual works for hire*. Either way he shouldn't have removed your name and added his. The software should probably contain the universities/lab name for copyright with you AND him listed as contributors. You're an academic, so here's a paper to read on the topic. http://www.ifosslr.org/ifosslr/article/view/30
# Answer
> 0 votes
Ask him, politely, like if you were interested to compare your slides (maybe you also participate in seminars) or if you don't, pretend to be really interested in his slides to learn. Again, politely, tell him that you are happy that he used your work ("oh, you did well showing our work" something like this) and force him to include your name.
About second issue, talk to him about it openly. But think about the long-therm consequences and short term consequences. Is it really important to keep that credit? Which are the colateral damages of putting this issue on the table? Are you leaving soon the department? Or, on the contrary, are you in tenure track?
Anyway, if he is not cooperating, think about stealing his girlfriend :D (he'll learn how you felt about your software) And, at the end, you're lucky to be first author, you could be 2nd or 3rd author even doing everything.
---
Tags: ethics, collaboration, intellectual-property
--- |
thread-16650 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16650 | Approaching faculty members I don't know well to solicit career advice | 2014-02-07T00:40:24.863 | # Question
Title: Approaching faculty members I don't know well to solicit career advice
While researching career opportunities, I have stumbled upon an alumnus of the school I am currently at, who is a relatively new faculty member there. In a sense, this person's career is what I want *my* career to be like. It seems like they could offer me very valuable advice.
However, I do not know this person and do not know anyone they know. I thought I might write a polite email to them asking for advice, but I'm not sure what the prudent way to phrase it would be. And on that note, whether prudence would preclude even doing such a thing.
What's the polite way to ask a professor how to get a job like theirs (specifically, at an institution such as theirs)?
# Answer
Send this person a brief e-mail, explaining the followings:
1. How you found out about him/her, and give a 2-sentence introduction of yourself.
2. That his/her career path and/or research interests overlaps with or inspires yours very much.
3. Ask if you can have a phone conversation for 15 minutes to answer some questions. You can also ask for a meeting if he/she is nearby.
4. List the brief questions that you plan to cover. Don't be too broad. Think if these 15 minutes are really the only time that he/she will be willing to talk to you, what would you like to get out from this?
5. Provide 4-5 dates/times for him/her to pick, and invite them to suggest some dates if none of them works.
Avoid asking for reference letter, inside contacts, or any kind of favor beyond just formal career advices. He/she may not feel vested enough to do that, and if you push, he/she may close up. Also, don't attach any CV/resume; that would look like you're looking for a position.
And also don't ask "How did you get a job at an institution like this one?" Zoom out and ask for the job search process he/she went through. Ask him/her to elaborate on the thought process and how the pros and cons were weighed. Once the topic gets going, you can probe a bit further, but the focus should be on the faculty member, not the institution.
On the date, be on time, and honor the 15 minutes (or whatever you both agree upon) limit. At the end of the meeting, ask if you may ask for his/her opinion very occasionally through e-mail in future, and then establish the mentoring relationship from there.
When you got home, follow up with a thank you e-mail.
---
The tricks are:
1. Don't ask them to write back. Replying e-mail on this kind of issues takes a lot of time and thought, plus he/she may not know you well enough to know if the recommendations are suitable for you.
2. Make it low stake. At most they'll lose are 15 minutes.
3. Make it thoughtful by listing highly relevant questions. This shows that you really did look at their work and know something about it.
> 11 votes
# Answer
I've received emails from students before soliciting advice, or even sending me resumes asking to work in the lab. More often than not they had spent very little time even becoming familiar with our research or looking into the university. If you want a busy professor to give you advice, you need to earn it by proving that you're serious.
* Get familiar with the research
* Look at the professors CV (this can show you the path they took)
* Know exactly what you want to ask, and make sure it's clear.
* Consider asking a student in their lab what they did (presumably they have a similar goal)
* EDIT: As a general rule, if English is not your native language have someone look over your email for grammar mistakes.
> 4 votes
# Answer
If your question is of the form "how do I become a professor at the prestigious university X?", then I don't think that it is worth contacting this professor. But if this professor has an interesting career that no one else has, then I suggest that you follow the steps that the others have suggested.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: career-path, networking
--- |
thread-16633 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16633 | IEEE TVCG length of review process | 2014-02-06T17:54:35.710 | # Question
Title: IEEE TVCG length of review process
We recently submitted an article to IEEE's *Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics* journal. It is the first time I submit to a journal so I am a bit unfamiliar with the process, being used to conferences.
In their website they mention that the review process usually takes between 6 and 12 months. I am wondering, does this refer to the time taken by all reviewers to take a single iteration on the manuscript or, does this include more review iterations? I.e. does this time take into account also the time needed by the authors to revise their manuscript according to their comments and resubmit it? How much time does one have to do these revisions? Provided that it is not rejected...
# Answer
Review time is usually time from submission to final acceptance (ready to print). After you submit most journals will assign your submission to a group of reviewers based on their specialties. Those reviewers will read your paper and write up any comments, questions, or concerns. They also typically issue a recommendation as to whether the paper should be 'accepted', 'provisionally accepted', 'changes requested', or 'rejected' (my terms). All of that is uploaded to a central website, and when everyone has responded those comments are sent back to the authors. If it wasn't accepted outright, you'll usually have a chance to address comments or concerns by making modifications (clarifying graphs, numbers, etc.) and resubmitting for reevaluation. This can go on for a number of rounds of back and forth. If your paper is eventually accepted, you are notified and sent a proof of what it will look like printed.
Now sit back and watch the citations roll in.
IEEE's TVCG process may differ a bit. I'm familiar with publishing CS papers, but most of my publications are in Bio.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: journals, peer-review, paper-submission
--- |
thread-16438 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16438 | How will a "local" master's in CSE look when I apply for a Graduate funding in the USA? | 2014-02-01T16:30:49.073 | # Question
Title: How will a "local" master's in CSE look when I apply for a Graduate funding in the USA?
Please refer to this previous question of mine:
> As someone with low grades how can I prepare myself to study MSc in CS in USA?
>
> Would it be a good idea to quit my job to prepare for the GRE and TOEFL?
I live in Bangladesh. With a background in IT, I am doing a job in a bank. I am 32. Honestly speaking I am done with my job. With an ambition to do a PhD from a USA/Canadian/German university, I have understood that my current job is actually going to get me nowhere.
Some answerers of the previous questions pointed out the importance of having a job in the related discipline, proving research capability, involving in research activity, being a part of a research group and so on.
After considering all these points, I am actually strongly planning to quit my job and get enrolled in a "Masters with thesis" program in CSE in a local university. My previous degree was in Information Technology which is, I guess, considered a professional discipline. So, I am going for a CSE degree. As far as I know, Information Technology degree is not considered a fundamental discipline.
My plan is this: (1) I shall complete a masters degree in CSE with a thesis, (2) write and publish one/two research articles and finally (3) complete GRE+TOEFL, if required.
And one more thing, I want to secure a funding either in the form of Assistant, Teaching Assistant(TA), Research Assistant, Research Fellow or anything else.
Please tell me about my prospect as a Masters-by-thesis candidate along with a funding after completing this series of actions.
Is the risk of quitting the job worth taken?
# Answer
PhD positions in universities are limited and given to outstanding students who have a potential for research. If your aim is to pursue your PhD in USA/Germany/Canada etc., I'd highly suggest applying for a Master's in those countries UNLESS your local university is well-known, with good professors and coursework. Your application will be evaluated on:
1. Your GPA & Test scores
2. Reputation of university you're graduating from (Master's, undergrad) // And as Daisetsu says, the researchers you work with
3. Research aptitude
4. Reputation of the journals you're published in
5. Your statement of purpose
6. Letters of recommendation
7. Previous work experience
Also ask yourself, "Why a PhD?" What is your career trajectory and will a PhD help you? What about an MBA? How many years can you invest in this?
To be honest, no one here can tell you your chances of getting into a University for a PhD apart from the admissions committee itself. Spend some more time reading up the requirements of the colleges you're keen on and then arrive at a well informed decision.
Best of luck!
> 5 votes
# Answer
You're going to need to prove to admissions that you are better than the other candidates. Why should you be picked over all the other applicants who also have completed a masters degree and published a paper or two?
The people I know who have been accepted to PhD programs have a passion for their field which drives them to do something extraordinary. Go ahead and get a masters, publish some papers, but make sure you have something to prove that you're worth a universities investment in your education.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I can't comment yet, so I decided to post another answer in case you end up missing the edit.
Officially, there are no age limits when it comes to pursuing any degree. However, the main purpose of a degree is to enhance skills or gain experience in a different area. This requires a lot of commitment- both personally and in terms of time and money. That's why most people finish their studies early on. The more you're out of the habit of studying, the harder it is to keep up with the class too. It's also difficult to support your studies when you have a family to take care of. Note: I'm not saying it's impossible, just that it requires a lot of planning.
With regards to MS by research/ PhD- again, the universities look at your fit for the program. If you have 10 years of working in marketing or accounts they **might** not consider you to be the best fit for a CS program.
Again, ask yourself- "Why?" Make a list of courses that align with your previous education, your current job and your intended career. Then look at the universities that offer it and what their requirements are. That will give you a better idea. If a PhD is what you want, go to a research center in your area and ask if there are any openings for RAs or start thinking about your Master's.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, job
--- |
thread-16653 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16653 | What to write in appeal for a rejected PhD application? | 2014-02-07T03:15:51.043 | # Question
Title: What to write in appeal for a rejected PhD application?
I have applied for PhD scholarship in Computer science at a European university. My master is from Malaysia. Unfortunately, my application has not been selected (only 9 has been chosen among 116 applicants).
The email I received informs me that I can file an appeal form attached against the decision made by the committee. Although having a form is supposed to be helpful, I have not written such an appeal before and am not sure what to write. The form is one page (A4) and five lines of it starts with
> I expose
and I have to fill the five lines and other five lines start with
> And therefore, Kindly ask you for.
The question is, what should I write here? I have no idea about appeals and their justifications and consequences. The only thing I can add since my original application is that another paper has been published. I really believe I am very strong candidate for the program as it conforms exactly to my research area (which I had published two conference paper in).
My question is therefore, **what and how to write in the two sections of the form if I decide to write an appeal?**
# Answer
You don't say why you are appealing the decision. If only 9 out of 116 applicants got a scholarship, then it is overwhelmingly likely that they turned down many strong applicants. Do you have a good reason to believe that your application is stronger than the 9 who received the scholarship?
I hope you're not under the impression that simply not having received an award is grounds for appealing the decision. What if all 107 unsuccessful applicants appealed the decision? The program would surely have to reconsider having an appeals process or perhaps even giving out the scholarships at all.
> 30 votes
# Answer
The appeal form is likely for situations when you feel that your application had strongly misrepresented your abilities. For example, you had some examinations recently re-graded and your grades were notably increased. Or you had previously been accused of academic dishonesty but have been cleared of blame.
You cannot expect the admissions committee to thoughtfully reconsider all the other 106 unsuccessful candidates as well, as I'm willing to bet most of them feel rather hard done by as well.
> 15 votes
# Answer
I don't understand.
Are you certain that you would have been better than at least 107 other applicants? Are you able to demonstrate it? Or do you have strong evidence that somehow your application was discriminated against/overlooked? (Information of this kind is what should be in an appeal form)
I also don't understand the format of your appeal form. The appeal form already have the words "I expose"? If you are writing it, it sounds very accusatory, and it probably won't win any extra points for you.
Having two conference papers is pretty good, but I don't think that it is exceptional in computer science. Which conferences were they published in?
> 11 votes
# Answer
Here's what I would ask: is there anything you could include in the appeal that you didn't already include in your application?
You mentioned that you have published two papers. Did you mention that in your application? If so, that you don't really have any new information to give them – that is, you have nothing to "expose."
However, if that information was not included in the application for some reason (perhaps because you applied before the papers got accepted, or because there was no place on the application form to mention such accomplishments), then I would advise you to go ahead and file an appeal. Mind you, I'm not saying that your chances of success would be very high, but this might be one of those situations where you wouldn't have much to lose.
If you decide to appeal, I would recommend keeping the appeal short and too the point. Too much rambling might come across as quibbling, and probably not help your case. Simply mention that you have something new to mention, and that you would appreciate it if they would kindly reconsider. Don't say, "I think I'm a strong candidate;" let your academic record speak for itself. And only inclide information that was not part of your original application; otherwise, you risk irking the committee. (I can imagine three folks in a room, looking at your paperwork with ire and disbelief, saying to each other, "There's nothing new here – why is he wasting our time?", or, "Which part of ‘No’ does this fellow not understand?")
> 8 votes
# Answer
I would say, do not waste time on the appeal. There is no shame to loose the competition when only 9 from 116 applications are selected.
Learn that you can from this rejection (maybe some feedback have been provided) and write the next application. And one more later.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, application, rejection
--- |
thread-16670 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16670 | Advice for a career in healthcare management | 2014-02-07T11:17:58.030 | # Question
Title: Advice for a career in healthcare management
I have a bachelor's degree in Applied Nutrition and Dietetics and an MBA from a AACSB accredited university. I have about four years of work experience in the field of healthcare management. I have worked in corporate (pharmaceutical) and government (health) sectors. I am interested to further my education to sharpen skills specific to healthcare management. Is it a right career choice to go for a second Master's degree in Healthcare Administration (MHA)? or is it advisable to go for a Ph.D program in healthcare management? What would be the pluses and minuses of getting a second Master's degree (MHA) after MBA in terms of more employ-ability? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!
# Answer
> 1 votes
Just some thoughts and hopefully others will provide more ideas for you. I am answering with the assumption that you're in the US.
First, I don't think a Master in HCM is going to be a good fit. These programs want to prepare workforce for the HCM but you have already done that with real experience under your belt. Unless their syllabus contains a good amount of materials that you absolutely want to learn, or you feel that you're lacking the theoretical base for a PhD, I wouldn't suggest that.
PhD program seems sensible. And I'd also suggest checking out programs such as DrPH (Doctoral in Public Health) degree which usually gears toward applied rather than theoretical. I believe a DrPH selection committee will value you more than a PhD committee does. Regardless, since you want to come back out and work rather than stay in academia, look for a large mix of applied components with perhaps 30-40% research training.
As employment potential... I guess that depends on what you want to be. But generally, if I am to read a resume of an HCM candidate, I'd value experience and knowledge in:
* Program monitoring and evaluation
* Health economics
* Cost effectiveness analysis
* Statistics, biostatistics, or econometrics
* Qualitative methods
* Leadership training and conflict management
* Budgeting and management of organization
* Grant writing and management
That should open up some doors. Save some credits to specialize (it's better to have a broad research/work interest and a focus one, because funding streams are different in these two levels.) For instance, if you want to work in some large hospital, you may add a couple courses (or summer training or capstone project) in clinical trail management and electronic medical record. If you want to serve more specific group such as undeserved Hispanic population in California, then you can add a couple more components in health equity, community participatory research, and coalition management.
I guess my ultimate confusion is that you have already worked in HCM for 4 years, which means you were/are employed. What prompted you to get more employ-able? What is that extra thing you want? If you want to advance to the management position, then I'd perhaps suggest checking what kind of degrees these people have, and perhaps talk to a couple seniors and mentors in your company.
Regardless, I'd suggest opting for a slower pace and complete your degree while keeping the job. The affordable health care act is going to be an experience and you should keep involved in the field while studying. Apply what you learn back to your office, make your company treasure you (or even invest more in you.) When the degree is done, and if you're not happy enough to stay, then consider leaving.
---
Tags: management, health
--- |
thread-16677 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16677 | Literature search: Finding the most reliable data | 2014-01-08T10:06:03.447 | # Question
Title: Literature search: Finding the most reliable data
My problem: I need a value for a specific physical quantity. I found several papers with contradicting numbers. How do I make sure to not miss the most accurate data by e.g. missing the newest publications on it?
In other words: What is a good strategy to find the most reliable sources due to newest insights (where to start, which websites to use best, which books etc)?
# Answer
The US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) runs a web database where you can look up constants: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Constants/
These might not be the most recent ones, but they are regularly updated, reliable and represent, sort of, the academic consensus.
There are similar databases for specific fields of research. E.g. in particle physics, there is the Particle Data Group (PDG) which publishes the *Review of Particle Physics* (and the much shorter, yet comprehensive & handy *Particle Physics Booklet*).
> 1 votes
---
Tags: citations, data
--- |
thread-16639 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16639 | How can I choose ahead of time where my research should be published? | 2014-02-06T20:40:51.000 | # Question
Title: How can I choose ahead of time where my research should be published?
Ten Simple Rules for Getting Published states:
> Rule 7: Start writing the paper the day you have the idea of what questions to pursue.
This sounds like very good advice, not just because you would pace out the act of writing your paper over the entire duration of your research, but it would also help you stay focused and keep track of your progress.
However, in practice, how is this possible? To start writing a paper, I must first know what format and style it should be written in. To know that, I would consult the guidelines of the journal in which I want publish. But the choice of journal depends on the quality of the research and notability of findings. But if I start writing on the day that I start my research, how can I know what journal the research will be good enough for?
For instance, if I shoot high and assume I am going to have a Nature paper, what do I do if a year down the line, it turns out that I was unable to succeed in reaching my goals and Nature would not possibly accept my research? Now I have to rewrite from scratch for another journal, and the time I spent slowly building up my Nature manuscript is wasted. I might as well have focused on research only at first, and left the writing part for last.
What journal's submission guidelines do I pick to follow this *Rule 7*? The most prestigious journal? The humblest journal? Some generic set of guidelines for "no journal"?
Rule 9 from the same text says:
> Rule 9: Decide early on where to try to publish your paper.
But how can you know ahead of time where you will be able to publish, especially if you don't have much experience publishing?
# Answer
* Format and style should rarely, if ever, be your first concern in writing a paper. Your top objective should be describing good research to your readers. You need not worry about how to cite a paper or if you should use British or American English spellings at first. (Or at least not until you complete Rule 9!)
Instead, what this is rule is advising you to do are tasks such as organizing your thoughts, collect references, write up your methodologies, and think about the graphics you will want to use to help illustrate your points. This is more or less the same advice given by people like George Whitesides in talks and as a "editorial column."
* Knowing where to publish is not that difficult. Look for where the work you're drawing from is currently being published. If many of the papers you are citing are from journals X and Y, one of those will likely be a good home for your paper. Which one to select might be a matter of which audience you're trying to reach: for instance, *The Journal of Physical Chemistry* and *The Journal of Chemical Physics* cover very similar sets of areas. However, the former journal is mainly a chemistry journal, and the latter is primarily for physicists. (There is, as you might imagine, a lot of crossover.)
> 8 votes
# Answer
I was provided this advice by a few successful professors (in computer science): keep a track for a "small pond" and a track for a "big pond". A small pond is a yearly conference that has a pretty small community, is reasonably specialized in its area, and is often accessible as far as acceptance rate goes. Every year, you should aim to have a paper here and get known in the community over time. A big pond is a yearly conference that is large, has good impact and reputation, and is more general to the field rather than to your specialization. Again, aim for this conference every year, but keep in mind that because it's bigger and more prestigious, it's also more difficult to get in.
What ends up happening is that, almost by default, you get at least two yearly targets for publishing - and as a result you know where you're writing every year.
This advice isn't exactly the same when it comes to journal writing, but the general principle can still apply. Pick a couple of journals that are well-known in your field: a specialized one and a more general one, and use them as your main targets.
How do you select targets? Well, as suggested, the places that you cite are pretty good places to go to. Your advisor is likely to have a few favorite publication venues (and it's usually a good idea to publish with your advisor). When you read and write often, you will start recognizing which journals and conferences have respected papers in them, and what the bar is for getting accepted is.
Overall: start writing early. Research questions, for example, are generally going to be similar no matter what venue you submit to. Your methods are not going to change based on the venue you write for. Your results are not going to change based on the venue you write for. It's safe to write these things down early.
What does change with venue is the style guidelines (easy enough to just use a new LaTeX or Word template, or even to copy and paste) and the audience (mostly with respect to Introduction/Motivation and Implications/Discussion of results). It's important to choose the venue for these reasons - I personally consider it a bad idea to not customize the intro and the discussion sections to tailor it toward what a particular community expects.
> 5 votes
# Answer
A good indicator of where to publish and who is more likely to publish your work is to look at your citations. Its a good bet that a journal that you cite heavily has an audience interested in your work.
As far as having an adaptable, journal independent formatting for your paper, you may want to write your paper in LaTeX. You can easily switch formats by changing the .sty files particular your journal of interest. These usually include predefined reference templates so that you can simply include a separate .bib file with your reference information and the necessary formatting will be automatically be generated.
> 3 votes
# Answer
I write while I do the research, but I don't attempt to write the text of the journal paper from the get-go. What I write at the start is essentially a set of research notes, which often gradually evolves into a lengthy technical report. The journal article is written by extracting the most valuable and interesting parts of the report and adding some expository elements (introduction and transitions).
It's possible and sometimes worthwhile to "publish" the technical report as well, for instance on the arXiv or sometimes in an institutional series. In that case you may want to spend more time polishing the report itself. Here's an example of a 47-page report that's much too long for a journal article -- at least, for most journals in my field.
Sometimes it makes sense to submit all or most of the report to a journal with no page limits; for instance, this lengthy report will soon appear in the LMS Journal of Computation and Mathematics.
As Pete Clark says in the comments, I find that the most valuable effect of writing as I go is that writing things down carefully clarifies my own understanding.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: publications, writing
--- |
thread-16497 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16497 | Is the status of postdocs perceived differently in western Europe vs. North-America? | 2014-02-03T09:41:33.993 | # Question
Title: Is the status of postdocs perceived differently in western Europe vs. North-America?
In a footnote at this answer by on leaving a postdoc early, user Luke Mathieson writes:
> A postdoc in the US has lower status that it does in Europe/Australia/New Zealand/...,
I'm aware that postdocs in the USA *typically* have lower pay than in (say) Sweden or The Netherlands (I did not look into other countries). I don't know if pay is quite proportional to status. In the way postdocs are perceived by others—undergraduates, graduate students, pre-tenure academics, tenured professors—is there a difference in postdoc status in different parts of the world?
I realise this question is somewhat subjective, so I'm looking for either testimonies based on people who have worked as or with postdocs in both western Europe and North America, or in-depth articles exploring this issue.
# Answer
The big difference is that most places in Europe don't have a tradition of assistant professorship, or, more generally, tenure-track faculty. Here's an example of the "typical" career progression of an academic in Austria (durations can vary by a lot, I just give examples here for illustration purposes):
1. Phd Student (4 to 5 years finished with Doctorate)
2. Postdoc (6 to 10+ years finished with habilitation / venia docendi)
3. "Privatdozent" (undefined length, non-tenured position, somewhat comparable with a non-tenured associate professor)
4. Full Professor / Chaired Professor (tenured position).
Note that there is no assistant professorship, and (2) that no tenured position before Full Professor exists.
Clearly, in this system there are postdocs with many years of experience in their field. They often have developed their own small group, work very loosely with a faculty mentor or completely independently, have their own funding and supervise PhD students that are "quasi" theirs (postdocs are not formally allowed to supervise PhD students before habilitation, but it is common practice that the mentor of the postoc formally supervises the postdoc's staff without involving her/himself much in the actual process). **These postdocs are often considered assistant professors**, even going so far as to call themselves assistant professor on their web pages and business cards despite not actually being professors *de jure*.
The general takeaway is that being a postdoc in Europe *may* have higher status than in the US, but it is not true for *every* postdoc. As postdoc status can last a **very** long time in Europe, one needs to look very closely at the person himself to see how senior she/he actually is.
> 11 votes
---
Tags: postdocs, united-states, europe
--- |
thread-16689 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16689 | Attending conferences as a first-year undergrad | 2014-02-07T22:32:30.800 | # Question
Title: Attending conferences as a first-year undergrad
I'm a first-year undergraduate student in physics. Since starting my studies I've tried to get involved in research as much as possible. Recently, the team I work with encouraged me to submit an abstract about my current project (which is the first serious one that I've taken on) for an upcoming conference. I did and I got accepted with a poster.
Now my question is: **How should I approach this to benefit the most? Or maybe there isn't even a point in me going at all?**
I'm under the impression that most of the typical advantages of attending a conference such as networking, or keeping up-to-date with recent advances aren't really applicable to me as I simply lack the necessary knowledge. So far I've only taken a basic mechanics course and I have some working knowledge that I've acquired while working at the lab but nothing beyond that.
Additional information: the conference is obviously not a high-tier one. Judging by previous editions, about 150 attendees are expected, around 1/3-1/2 of that international (this is all in Europe by the way). Travel funding is provided by our department \[active participation, in form of a poster, was part of the requirements to get that funding\].
# Answer
> 18 votes
> "keeping up-to-date with recent advances aren't really applicable to me..."
Not so; that's a myth. Your poster got accepted, and that means **you** are now **part of** the "recent advances" in the field.
So, go. Tell people what you are doing. No, people won't flock to your poster and ask for your autograph; however, chances are, someone there will find your work interesting. You might get to talk with people who have done similar work. You might get a few pointers. You might get some affirmation that you're working on an interesting problem.
I went to a conference once where I was just starting out in the field. One of the world's most renowned experts attended my talk. Imagine my surprise when, a year later, my advisor returned from the same conference, he told me that this same expert approached him, and asked, "Where is that student of yours? I really liked his idea..."
You never know what kind of benefit you might get over the course of a few days when everyone there shares expertise in some common interest. Sometimes it's someone who can help you out, or nudge you in the right direction, or motivate you, or challenge you (hopefully in a constructive way), or merely encourage you by nodding their head as you speak, seemingly interested in what you are doing. Maybe you'll end up with a business card and a contact number of someone who can help you down the road as your research progresses.
Likewise, you stand to learn a lot from them, too. Who knows? Maybe someone will light a spark that will ignite a passion later.
By the way, most people like talking about their own research. So, if you attend a session that interests you, but a lot of it goes over your head, try to sit with that speaker at the lunch table. I'd bet that, more often than not, he wouldn't mind explaining some of the fundamentals to a bright and curious student.
Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I'd bet you'll come back a bit more rejuvenated, somewhat more enlightened, and a lot more encouraged.
# Answer
> 14 votes
**Before the conference**
* Usually the organization will release a conference directory. Read that before hand and highlight the sessions you'd like to attend. Have one primary and a secondary in case if the primary is a total bomb you have a second choice.
* Gather maps, travel apps or travel guide of the city you'll be visiting. Draft a few places for sightseeing. For guidebook, just a little one should be fine.
* Double check the dimension of the poster boards.
* Have your poster printed earlier. Don't wait till the last day. I usually opt for fabric posters because they can be folded and stuffed into the luggage.
* Sometimes you can reuse your posters (e.g. internal research day in your university, etc.) So, don't print any conference name or date on your poster directly. If the organizer requires you to display abstract number, print that on a separate piece of paper, and display that next to your poster.
* Pre-print some returning labels if you want to do some sightseeing around the city after the conference, you can mail the poster tube and conference materials back to home.
* Try to talk and see if any of your friends have friends in the city. It's easier to get a closer non-touristy look of the place if you have some local guiding you.
* Bring some push pins for your poster just in case.
* If you're planning to give out an A4 version of your poster, it's time to print some as well.
* Bring some business cards (or print some in case someone would like to contact you.)
* Work on a 1-2 minutes speech that summarizes your poster.
**Once you're there**
* Try going to the conference center the day before and weed out all the transportation problems.
* Identify the room and board for your poster before hand.
* When you are free to join presentations and look at posters, follow your previous chosen options. **Don't be too greedy,** if you aimlessly take in everything you will get overwhelmed and tired very soon.
* Some conferences organize local tours and dinner parties. Take advantages of those.
* Have some note-taking device ready for main points, resources or references. Also bring your phone w/ camera or digital camera with you in case you want to take a picture of a poster (with permission of the presenter.) **Focus on comprehension, not recording.** I have seen some conference attendants just walking around taking picture of every single poster as if they are rare birds. Meanwhile, they didn't even greet or talk to the presenters who were right there; it was sad to look at.
* It's absolutely okay that you don't know their subject. Just be straightforward: "I study \[whatever\] so am not too familiar with this, could you tell me what are the implications or applications of your findings to the field/my field?"
* Try challenge yourself by asking at least one question in each session or on each day.
* When manning your poster, ask any viewer if they'd like a summary, and give that 1-2 minutes talk that you prepared. Ask them to ask you any questions. Sometimes conversations take off, sometimes not. Don't feel awkward if nothing is said.
* Befriend the poster presenters around you, as they probably share the same research area as you do.
* During the off-conference time, do some sightseeing.
* Save all the receipts, boarding passes, etc. for reimbursement.
**After the conference**
* Continue to travel if you have developed a travel plan.
* Evaluate what you learned, assess what interested you in the process, and what kind of techniques or information you can incorporate into your research.
---
Generally, don't confine what to learn. Because sometimes we don't know enough to know what should or should not be learned. Just be open, pick a good mix of topics that are about 50% that you are familiar with, 30% somewhat but not sure what they are, and 20% completely over your head.
Also, don't just look at the academic side. Connect with people and learn something about how they craft their research, or how they speak eloquently, etc. It's not all about the contents.
---
Tags: conference, undergraduate
--- |
thread-16524 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16524 | Are there examples of highly cited papers that very poorly written? | 2014-02-03T19:31:11.993 | # Question
Title: Are there examples of highly cited papers that very poorly written?
We've had a little debate at work about whether a paper that presents good research, but that is at the same time very poorly written (either sloppy presentation, or not written in the native language of the authors), would nevertheless get a lot of citations. Are there good examples of such papers, specifically ones that present seminal work in some field, but that are very difficult to read because of the language or are riddled with errors?
# Answer
> 2 votes
I think Heidegger's *Being and Time* might fit this criteria. Though the philosopher's work was important to the field, he was criticized for the use of convoluted, imprecise language that managed to confuse *other philosophers* (Bertrand Russell being one such critic). In fact, the philosopher Paul Edwards published a collection of articles under the title *Heidegger's Confusions* in order to
> rescue \[Heidegger’s\] valuable ideas from the logical confusions in which they are embedded and from the willfully obscure and perverse language in which they are frequently expressed.
With regard to more recent (and research-oriented) writing: talk of the poor grammatical quality of academic journals has been around a while. Take a look at this quote from the *Chronicle* article "Bad Writing and Bad Thinking"
> Many people—publishers of scholarly work, editors at higher-education publications, agents looking for academic authors capable of writing trade books—who think about the general quality of scholarly prose would admit that we're in a sorry state, and most would say there isn't much to do about it.
So, although an example other than Heidegger's writing doesn't come to mind, it doesn't seem you'll have to look very far.
---
Tags: publications, writing
--- |
thread-12400 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12400 | Active or Passive Voice in International research journal, within the field of microorganism? | 2013-09-03T10:45:32.470 | # Question
Title: Active or Passive Voice in International research journal, within the field of microorganism?
I have been composing the International journal for microbiology research. I learn that research journal should consist of active voice not passive, but I find that the previous researchers for related subject mainly used passive voice. How should I consider?
* Examples:
1. This genus is characterized by two types of conidia called α–conidia (fusiform) and β–conidia (filiform). \[I think it is valid. Please correct me if I could change it to active voice\]
2. Diaporthe sp was reported causing dieback of rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) (Van Rensburg et al. 2006)
\[Van R et al 2006 reported Diaporthe caused dieback of rooibos (Aspalathus l.)?\]
3. A novel Phomopsis sp was reported as a weed (Carthamus lanatus) pathogen and may be used as a biocontrol agent (Ash et al. 2010). \[Ash et al. 2010 clarified that a novel Phomopsis sp as a weed (Carthamus lanatus) pathogen may be used as a biocontrol agent?\]
\*** Note - 9/4/2013: Thank you so much, I appreciate the clarity from everyone.
I also did online research and learn this (may it help those who have the similar problem):
> "Many writers are torn between whether ***they should write the paper in the active or passive voice***. In the former, the subject performs the action; in the latter, the subject receives the action. ***Too much use of the active voice has the tendency to make the text monotonous because of too many first-person references. On the other hand, overuse of the passive voice can cause the tone of the paper to be dry, boring and even pompous*.** To ensure that *the text is more lively and readable,* it is best to try and strike a balance. Consider the following example:
>
> *We used eosin-methylene blue agar plates for the preliminary isolation of P. aeruginosa. The bacteria were Gram-negative bacilli, and motile. The results for oxidase and catalase activities were negative. Additional experiments showed that the bacteria did not ferment glucose, galactose, maltose or lactose (Table 2). Based on these results, we concluded that the organism had an oxidative metabolism.*
>
> Try translating this in to an entirely passive or active tone. **You’ll notice that the creative mix of both voices makes this narrative not only lively and engaging but also states the results in a clear, confident and unambiguous manner**."
# Answer
**The choice between active and passive voice is mainly a matter of taste**. As a writer, you are entitled to a certain degree of liberty in your stylistic choices. Even within the generally tight constraints of scientific and academic writing, there is no established dogma on passive vs. active voice, and you will find people advocating (some very strongly) both for and against the use of the passive voice.
Duke’s Graduate School Scientific Writing Resource has a good summary of the pros and cons of passive and active voices. In particular, it lists the position advocated in some high-level style guides, editorials, and other essays of note.
I think the current trend is toward a diminution of use of the passive voice. The reasons are summed up nicely by Randy Moore (*The American biology teacher*):
> Most scientists use passive voice either out of habit or to make themselves seem scholarly, objective or sophisticated. Scientists have not always written in passive voice. First-person pronouns such as *I* and *we* began to disappear from scientific writing in the United States in the 1920s when active voice was replaced by today's inflexible, impersonal and often boring style of scientific writing.
**The main argument used in favour of passive voice is that it promotes objective statements**, rather than focusing on the actor. However, removing the mention of the actor in the text does not actually prevent subjectivity in the experiments: even if I write *“the sample was smeared until it reached a thickness of 1 µm”*, somewhat actually *did* smear the sample (and could have screwed it by going too slow or too fast). So the counter-argument is that passive voice does not *promote* objectivity, but only the appearance of objectivity.
**The main argument in favour of active voice is that it makes for shorter, clearer, less boring text.**
---
I love that anecdote from Rupert Sheldrake (*School Science Review*):
> *“The test tube was carefully smelled.”* I was astonished to read this sentence in my 11-year-old son's science notebook. At primary school his science reports had been lively and vivid. But when he moved to secondary school they became stilted and artificial.
> 11 votes
# Answer
First, follow the journal's style guide. It doesn't matter how well your paper is written: if it doesn't comply with the rules, you'll make the editor's job harder. Getting published is, in fair part, about making the editor's job **easier**. And you are writing in order to get published, right? The more like recent papers your writing style is, the easier you may find it to get published. So look at how the active and passive voices are used in similar papers to yours, in recent issues of your target journal.
Then, as far as compatible with that, follow your institution's style guide, as far as you must.
Then, as far as is compatible with those, write in professional, lucid, interesting prose. The choice between active and passive will depend on context and rhythm. I highly recommend the books from Tim Harford's article Three books you should read if you want to write, which are:
1. Style: Towards Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams
2. The Art and Craft of Feature Writing by William Blundell
3. The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
> 4 votes
# Answer
This is primarily a question about taste and tradition. The passive voice has largely been the norm but it has its obvious drawbacks, it is boring to read. Using the active voice is therefore recommended. Your need to get a sense of what is the "norm" in your field because you may encounter unnecessary resistance if your deviate. Unfortunately This problem May be larger for a younger less well known scientist.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Web search for "active voice" and you'll find that a great *many* top universities (MIT, Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Cambridge, and several more) have taught their science students to prefer active-voice writing in their reports, papers and articles for *more than 20 years*.
Also, America's leading science magazines (*Nature, Science,* etc.) now clearly urge submitting authors to lean toward active-voice writing in the lion's share of each submission.
Further, the U.S. government's plain-language law (enacted in 2010 and fully on display at www.PlainLanguage.gov) now ranks among *several* laws worldwide that urge technical writers to "make it clearer and plainer."
Which always will include a predominantly "active" form of writing, with clear cause-and-effect linkages dominating. (Passive voice leaves cause and effect fairly vague.)
> 2 votes
---
Tags: publications, journals, writing, writing-style
--- |
thread-16674 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16674 | How do I know if I'm good enough to be a math professor? | 2014-02-07T13:11:55.697 | # Question
Title: How do I know if I'm good enough to be a math professor?
I would like to apply for graduate school to become a mathematics professor.
However, given that the opportunity cost of grad school is high and that I already have a stable, good paying job, I would like to know whether I have the talent and ability to be a math professor before I start. This is obviously a very difficult question to answer, but I'll explain my situation.
I believe I have above-average math talent, although I wouldn't consider myself a genius and I've had people in my classes smarter than me. However, I've gotten high marks in nearly all math courses and I've written a honors thesis which has also received very high marks. I've also worked as a research assistant. Basically, I think I've done pretty well and perform competently in all the mathematical challenges that has come my way so far.
But being a math professor requires original ideas and lots of publishing. I haven't had any significant original ideas, but it's probably true that most people at my level of education also haven't (correct me if I'm wrong here). My main concern is how do I know if I would be able to generate enough original ideas to keep publishing and maintain a successful academic career? Unlike working in mathematical modeling in the private sector, where one cannot really get "stuck" in the same way, it seems like a risk to be a professor since it's really hard to guarantee that you'll always be able to produce new research.
Do any mathematicians working in academia have any comments about how one knows if they'll be able to continually generate new ideas to produce publishable research?
# Answer
> 41 votes
> Do any mathematicians working in academia have any comments about how one knows if they'll be able to continually generate new ideas to produce publishable research?
I can remember freaking out about this as I was writing my first paper. It was the only publishable work I had ever done, and I remember thinking to myself "What if this is the only idea I have in me? Or what if, instead of getting easier, generating ideas gets even harder as I have to scrounge around in deeper recesses of my brain?"
Fortunately, generating ideas turns out not to be as intimidating as it sounds. In practice, it's very rare to sit down in a chair and say "I shall now think deep thoughts." Instead, any depth comes as a spin-off from much more mundane activities. You read papers, you idly wonder about things, you come up with questions you care about, you figure out how to investigate them, you grapple with technical obstacles, you study things you hadn't realized you needed to know, you chat with colleagues and ask them questions, you work with collaborators, etc. Each of these activities is pretty natural, and they all feed into each other in a complicated web. At any stage you may come up with or run across new ideas, but they are generated organically rather than being something you have to worry about explicitly.
You can expect that a strong graduate program will bring you to the point where you can do this reliably. Of course some people will be faster or more prolific, some will have more striking or creative ideas, some will work on more important questions, etc. You can still improve many of these factors through practice and mentoring, but at that point the question is a little different. Not whether you can do research, but rather how to reach your full potential as a researcher.
So I'd recommend not worrying about this too much. Doing research is a skill that most undergraduates don't have but that graduate schools can teach. Once you get up to speed, generating ideas doesn't end up being a bottleneck. \[In fact, you'll end up having more ideas than you have time or energy to investigate yourself. This lets you suggest some to students to help them get started with research, without worrying that you are giving away a limited resource you need for your own research.\]
> However, given that the opportunity cost of grad school is high and that I already have a stable, good paying job, I would like to know whether I have the talent and ability to be a math professor before I start.
Doing good research is necessary but not sufficient for getting a job in a research university. It's difficult to assess talent and predict career success, but one way to get a crude approximation is by looking at what happened to past students in your position. When you are admitted to graduate school, you can look up former students of advisors you are considering and see what happened to them. For example, you can find lists of students using the Mathematics Genealogy Project, and then you can search for them on the web. This is certainly not perfect: some advisors don't have many students yet, job markets change over time, some former students are just not representative of your situation (if a potential advisor used to be at a less prestigious school, then placement records from that school are not so relevant), etc., and of course there's always random variance. However, it will give you a crude picture. If the advisors you are considering have had many students who got jobs you would like, then maybe you will too. If very few of them got jobs you would find acceptable, then you are taking a much bigger risk.
# Answer
> 13 votes
I was in the same situation as you.
By good fortune, I lived in a city with an excellent mathematics department. I chose a graduate course that looked interesting and asked the professor if I could sit in on his course. He kindly agreed, and I did so -- including all the homework and a term project. He was impressed, wrote me a rec letter for grad school, and I had the good fortune to succeed -- I am now working as a math professor. So it's possible!
I would definitely advise the same to you if practical.
Also, I recommend that you ask this question to whoever will be writing your rec letters, as they are familiar with what it takes to succeed in mathematics graduate school. (If they are not, then you probably don't want to get letters from them.) If they believe you are strong enough to get accepted to, and succeed in, top programs, then that's a very good sign.
You might consider hedging your bets by only applying to top (say, top 25) graduate programs. You can also get an excellent graduate education at second-tier schools -- indeed, I am a professor at such a school -- but you face longer odds if you graduate from such a school, and if you don't mind the prospect of being admitted nowhere, then being very selective is one way of partially mitigating your long-term risk.
Finally, you might investigate what it is like to work at a not very prestigious institution, such as a regional branch campus of a state university. Would you prefer such a job to your current one? The answer to that question should inform how much of a risk you are willing to take.
Good luck to you!
# Answer
> 6 votes
One aspect of the question is whether you are willing to move. Even targeting "only" low-mid tier research universities, there are many more good applicants than positions, and if you want to end up in particular area then the risk not to find a job is very high. So, to get higher odds you should be ready to get a PhD somewhere, do a couple post-docs at different places, and then (hopefully) be hired in yet another place.
Concerning your fear with the long-term ability to do math research, I would say that if you manage to find such a job, then you most certainly have what it takes. Sure, some of us loose their way, but it is usually because of particular events and possibly the way they handled it. In all cases I know, at the time of their tenure no one could see a difference between them and ultimately more successful colleagues.
---
Tags: graduate-school, professorship, job, mathematics
--- |
thread-16456 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16456 | Regarding Phd in distance learning mode | 2014-02-02T09:43:58.273 | # Question
Title: Regarding Phd in distance learning mode
I hold a bachelors in Engineering from an Indian university and have six years of work experience in the software industry. Is there any foreign university that offers a PhD related to finance in distance learning mode?
# Answer
To be honest, most PhDs can probably be (largely) conducted at distance. I live quite a way from the University at which I'm registered for my psychology PhD. However, you might want to try contacting the Open University http://www.open.ac.uk which is the UK's very highly regarded distance learning University. They do offer PhDs and I would assume that since they are geared up for distance work they might be one of your best options.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: phd, distance-learning
--- |
thread-16626 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16626 | How to write a cover letter for a PhD position while involved in another PhD? | 2014-02-06T13:10:27.977 | # Question
Title: How to write a cover letter for a PhD position while involved in another PhD?
<sub><sup>*Disclaimer*: I am asking on behalf of my friend, so I can not give many specific information. Still, I hope the information provided will be enough to give advice.</sup></sub>
Let's say that a person got a position as a PhD candidate in a ok lab in Europe a bit less than a year ago. After a few months, the person realized that the current PhD project is not a good match for her (language barriers, communication problems, different work approach and pace from majority of the lab...).
After considering the situation, the person decided to apply for a few a different PhD projects in North and South America where the topics are a better fit, and where it is less likely to have language problems (the person found some open applications and researched them on her own time, while still working normally for her current position).
While finishing writing the applications and cover letters, a dilemma emerged about **at which point should the person mention (if at all) the current involvement in a position as a PhD candidate?** Fully aware that lying is not an option, the basic dilemma is weather to *mention it in the cover letter* or *the first interview (if it comes to that).* (The CV format required for most applications is such that the current PhD position is not readily apparent).
Basically, the questions would be:
* whether to mention the current position as a PhD candidate in the cover letter / application, or at some later point in the process?
* when mentioning the current position as a PhD candidate, how much detail about the current position (and reasons for looking for a new one in order to leave the current one) is the right amount of detail?
# Answer
Just be forthcoming about the reasons why you're switching. If you have evidence that you have a track record of success (grades, publications, etc.) in your former PhD program, there is little reason to believe that mentioning this information will count against you. Even if you don't have a particularly "good" track record, it's important to be forthcoming about your experience nonetheless.
The key to a successful transfer into a different PhD program is how you justify changing programs. This falls more into the category of your *personal statement*, rather than your CV. If it is because you realized that you have stronger research interests in another field and wish to pursue research with a top professor in that field, then I don't think any institution would frown upon this regardless of your track record.
I'm not familiar with your track record, and I don't want to make any assumptions about you one way or another. Thus, I want to address one more key issue: If you are changing programs because to avoid "impending failure" at your previous PhD program, this will most likely be interpreted as "jumping ship" and institutions will not look highly upon this. If you happen to be failing in your PhD program, you need to do some introspection and ask yourself some tough questions. *If a PhD is what I really want, why am I failing?* The more open and forthcoming you are about these questions in your personal statement, the more strongly you can justify your reasons for pursuing a PhD in another institution.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: phd, ethics, career-path
--- |
thread-16141 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16141 | Best ways to obtain a scholarship for a Masters in financial mathematics/ quantitative finance | 2014-01-24T16:04:47.100 | # Question
Title: Best ways to obtain a scholarship for a Masters in financial mathematics/ quantitative finance
I am not a UK or US citizen but I would like to get a scholarship to study in a master program in either financial mathematics or quantitative finance. My GPA is around 3.65-3.7 but I will still like to study in the best school I can.
Are there any clear guidelines on how to increase one's chances of getting a scholarship in a subject like this to attend a decent school in the UK or US?
# Answer
> 3 votes
I can't answer for the US, but it is highly unlikely that you would get any sort of funding in the UK. Unfortunately UK funding is very hard to obtain (even for British students) and is, in any case, largely restricted to EU nationals. Further any Masters level UK funding is generally awarded as a precursor to a PhD. This is known as "1+3" funding. Good luck though!
---
Tags: masters, funding
--- |
thread-16706 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16706 | Non-degree courses and Masters admissions | 2014-02-08T13:23:14.747 | # Question
Title: Non-degree courses and Masters admissions
I had a low Undergrad GPA, around or below the cutoff of most of the masters programs that interest me. I have since started pursuing a graduate certificate (Mining Massive Datasets from Stanford) and am doing much better (A's) than I did as an Undergrad.
What should I expect in terms of how universities look at the non-degree courses I have taken towards the certificate? I realise I could draw attention to the grades in my personal statement, but is there any precedent for including post-degree courses in the GPA calculation for cutoff purposes? How might they be weighted? What can I do to emphasise them?
A few more specifics for my case if the question is too general: I did my bachelor's in Math and graduated in 2012. I am interested in a Machine Learning-focused Masters in the US, UK, or Canada.
# Answer
I was an international student and did not have amazing bachelor GPA. But I got accepted master degree in NY, plus without TOEFL which was requirement.
How?
I met department chair once. So, probably the department chairman liked my works and it was a good enough first impression on him.
Conclusion: Show your works to department chair. Proof that your bachelor GPA is *just some numbers* on the paper.
Good luck
> 1 votes
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, masters, computer-science, certification
--- |
thread-16712 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16712 | Why would a school prevent reapplying after declining an offer of admission? | 2014-02-08T21:08:16.037 | # Question
Title: Why would a school prevent reapplying after declining an offer of admission?
I am currently applying for a mid-range private school that teaches the career I want primarily (software engineering) and a prestigious public school for computer science (it doesn't have software engineering). So if I make it into the public university, I would evaluate between the specific career of the private one and the economic help of the public one, and choose the most appropriate one.
However, reading their entrance rules, I saw that if I decline the offer of admission in the public one, I could not apply to it again for the next two admission cycles (at two per year, that means a year and a half). What is the philosophy behind this? Applying to several schools benefits students, giving them more schools to choose from. And it also raises the funding because of the payment that is done to give the entrance exam (which is not one of the things public schools in my country can brag about). And it doesn't harm anyone, because the next one in the list would enter. The only collateral damage I can think of is extra administrative effort, but a year and a half vetted from applying to the university because of that seems too much for me. So, why? Is there some extra side effect that they are accounting for?
---
The information @Pete L. Clark requested: I am living in Peru, and here the admission process in public universities is pretty simple: You just present your legal and education papers, pay for the entrace exam, take it, and see if you are admitted or not. So, everything boils down to that 3-days exam. But once it is finished, you are in.
# Answer
I believe the issue here is that if a student has already been offered admission and turned it down, then the school has already given that student due consideration in reviewing the application. Reapplying in the following year means that the candidate was apparently unsatisfied with any of the offers of admission received, which included the school in question. So what would have changed in such a short period of time that meant the offer wasn't good enough *then*, but is good enough *now*?
> 6 votes
# Answer
Programs don't like to be used as a "backup", because offers to people using them in this way delay offers to others, sometimes to the point that the other people give up and accept offers from yet-other places. Thus, making offers that fail tends to degrade the quality of candidates who will accept offers. Thus, since you declined once, obviously chances are good that you'd decline again, thus again somewhat-lowering the quality of candidates that will be made an offer early enough to accept.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I guess whether backup applications (and re-applications next time) are or are not a problem depends very much on how many prospective students do how many backup applications.
No problem if a small percentage of prospective students apply for one other university.
But if lots of the people who want to study apply at several places, you end up in a situation where the administrative part of the whole process runs into chaos because one or two more rounds acceptance letters and waiting whether the student accepts are needed. And of course, the chances that a student who ended up on the waiting list with you accepted somewhere else or meanwhile took a job because they thought it unlikely to get a place to study would be high. Thus, administration has *a lot* of additional work and also stress. You cannot start the application process too early (e.g. the final exam of the schools is needed). But you need to allow a reasonable amount of time for the student to accept or decline the offer of the univerity and students will tend to send the refusal late (or forget to send it at all) because they wait for acceptance of another university. If you are too late sending out the acceptance (for those on the waiting list), this is anywhere between stressful and impossible for the students to accept: they have to find housing and move, and if courses already started they also have to catch up with the learning.
Also, universities cannot overbook like airlines.
In other words, the situation becomes highly stressful for everyone involved:
* the university has a high unnecessary workload (n "backup exams" have to be graded for each student),
* university administration also has a high workload and pressure: they need to react *immediately* on the refusal letters of the students and may need several rounds of acceptance.
* Students who do not get accepted immedately at the university of their dreams have to stay ready for moving immeditaly without knowing where. Also the prospective student may "hang in the air" because they don't apply for a "regular" job / training while there is still a substantial chance of getting a late acceptance.
I'm wondering whether the fact that you have to pay for the exam is just another symptom of this same problem (or the univiersities' fear of that): both rules may be designed to keep down the number of backup applications.
There are other ways to try avoiding this administrative mess: In my country (Germany) the most overrun fields of study have a central application: you file your *one* appliation including a statement of backup universities (and backup subjects) and then get an offer according to this. If you end up at a university that was not your first choice, you can anyways start there and try to change later on.
Nevertheless, the last letters of acceptance are usually sent out when the semester has already started (to fill in places of students who accepted but didn't show up or because this is round 3 of the acceptance: the student on the waiting list declined).
> 2 votes
---
Tags: graduate-admissions
--- |
thread-16446 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16446 | How to get my humanities paper published in the short timeframe before admissions deadline? | 2014-02-01T20:09:32.980 | # Question
Title: How to get my humanities paper published in the short timeframe before admissions deadline?
I have around two months before the application deadline to a masters program in humanities, and I want to increase my approval chances. I don't have papers in the program major (got one paper in mathematics though), but I already have enough material for a short article.
So I wonder if there is a way to improve my admission letter by listing a publication in a subject close to the major. Is preprint (via some analog of arxiv.org) the best I can have within the time limit?
# Answer
Journal review times in the humanities tend to be longish and I doubt that you'd have a paper accepted in a journal of sufficient quality to impress anybody. (I just got back yesterday a round of comments from a paper I submitted in September.) If I were you, I'd maybe try to submit a paper to a graduate conference instead. Look around for Ph.D. granting programs in your field in the area and send them a paper/abstract. It's much less work for you to write up an abstract, and a much higher likelihood of actually getting something accepted in a reasonable timeframe. An undergrad getting something into a grad conference is probably sufficient to make the committees think you've got potential as a researcher. Maybe it isn't quite as impressive to have a presentation as a publication, but I doubt that'd be a big factor here. To get accepted to a grad program, you just have to get past a threshold of potential, and doing something that puts you way, way above that threshold (publication in a reputable professional journal) just isn't really any more helpful to getting accepted than doing something that just barely puts you above that threshold (a grad conference presentation).
One exception here: if you have a paper or something that one of your profs was just raving about and told you that you just have to publish it in Such And Such Journal, then yeah, maybe shoot it off, but don't expect it to get picked up in time to make a difference in your apps.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: publications, graduate-admissions, deadlines, humanities
--- |
thread-16634 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16634 | Switch fields from Physics to Electrical Engineering in US: MSc vs BSc? | 2014-02-06T18:24:55.347 | # Question
Title: Switch fields from Physics to Electrical Engineering in US: MSc vs BSc?
My brother wants to switch to Electrical Engineering and possibly do a Master's degree (with thesis). He also has a BSc and MSc degree in physics but not much formal training in EE (except some basic electronics, solid-state physics and advanced electromagnetism courses).
Since the most important factor in grad school applications is research, he has tried to contact professors and labs so many times for even non-paid internships, with no results. The other option is to apply to BSc degree or just about any MSc degrees in order to take the prerequisite courses.
How should he proceed? What are some advantages or disadvantages of getting a BSc in EE (using some credits from the previous degree) vs doing a Master's program in EE with thesis that accept him and take the prerequisites courses?
# Answer
It depends on his goals. Since he wants to do research, it doesn't matter that much whether he has a BSc or a master's as long as he can convince the department he applies to for his PhD that he has the necessary knowledge. A master's might be slightly better since he will naturally get more research experience, but it is possible to get research experience as an undergrad by volunteering in your professors' labs. The disadvantage of going straight to a master's is that he won't have the same background as the other students. This means that either (a) the department will ask him to take prerequisite courses, at which point the master's program will take almost as long to finish as the BSc, or (b) he will be expected to catch up with the other students on his own time, which will be a lot of work.
If he thinks he might want to work in industry at some point, I would recommend doing the BSc. Engineering is a professional designation in the US, so without the BSc, he can't call himself an engineer. This doesn't mean he can't get hired, but it means he will get hired under some other job title ("technician", say) and may get paid less than he would if he were hired as an engineer. Considering that this would affect his whole career, I would recommend investing the extra time up front, especially if he can shorten the BSc by reusing some credits from the physics degree.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: physics, changing-fields, electrical-engineering
--- |
thread-16730 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16730 | What to do when you get a grant and move to another institution | 2014-02-09T15:34:18.820 | # Question
Title: What to do when you get a grant and move to another institution
My general question is; let's say that you are PI and apply individually or jointly with other research groups to a grant, and you get it. After some months, you move to another institution; can you generally "move" all the money and resources you were awarded with or should you abandon them?
The question goes for H2020 projects or any other national or international funding schemes (NIH, NSF, UK, etc)
# Answer
> 12 votes
> And in particular this goes for H2020 projects.
This happened to a colleague of mine for FP7, I assume H2020 will be pretty much the same. Essentially, you have two options:
(1) Find a *proxy* to formally finish the project on your behalf. That is, find somebody at your current institution with a high enough status that he is allowed to take over the project without much administrative quabbles (e.g., a senior professor), and formally hand over the project to him when you leave. You will of course still do the actual work - the handover is just a formality. Of course this requires a significant amount of trust and goodwill (on both sides), so you better be good friends with the person that proxies for you. As long as you both are at the same institution, the administrative effort of this solution is not too high.
(2) Officially *transfer* the project to your new institution. This requires an amendment of your DOW (description of work), and the sanctus of your new institution, all partners of the project, and the european commission (i.e., of the PO and the responsible lawyers on EC side). This will take **long** \- expect the entire process to take possibly a year or so. Additionally, there is a chance that some negotiations between you, your old institution, and your new institution are required (e.g., to answer the question to what percentage the overheads should be transferred to the new institution). H2020 proposals are good money for universities, and you should not expect your old institution to let go of such a project easily.
**Edit:** Clearly, option 2 is only available if your new institution is also eligible for H2020 funding.
# Answer
> 3 votes
What is allowed depends on a number of factors. For example the funding agency may not allow you to move the grant. This is especially true if it is an international move or if the grant requires a resource that is not available at the new institution. It also depends on your current institution. They may not allow you to take equipment that was previously purchased on the grant with you. You new institution may also not allow you to bring the grant over if it does not provide sufficient overhead. If the time remaining on the grant is short, the two institutions may decide to not formally transfer the grant and work off of a sub contract instead. That said, generally for non-international moves you will be allowed to bring over the unspent money.
---
Tags: funding, eu
--- |
thread-16461 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16461 | How to attend conferences without funding | 2014-02-02T11:43:18.987 | # Question
Title: How to attend conferences without funding
I would like to attend some conferences this year, but we are running out of funding until 2015, so I need to look for other options. For instance, I organized a special session in a conference, and attained 12 speakers, so accommodation was free and also registration but not travel expenses. So my question is, if you do not have funding, which other options you know for attending conferences?
P.S. Given my position (PI of a research group), I can not ask for student travel grants, etc
# Answer
If you don't have funding from your research group's resources, you obviously have to find someone else to cover the costs of your conference visits. It's not easy to achieve, but there's a number of options to pay for at least part of the costs, and if you can combine some of those, you might even be able to make this trip without stressing your own purse too much.
* I'm not sure whether that applies to you, but in some fields, there's conferences where invited speakers get paid everything, including registration, accommodation, and travel. Usually you have to be well connected and famous to get such an invitation.
* As you note in your question already, there may be ways to get a registration waiver and maybe even accomodation paid, for example by taking part in the conference organisation. That leaves to pay for travel, for example by the following:
* It is usually much easier to get travel costs reimbursed when giving a seminar talk at another research institution than for a conference. If you can arrange an invitation to a research institution close to the conference location, they may be able to cover your travel costs. It would be difficult for intercontinental travel, but for national or continental trips it could be a good opportunity to get part of the costs paid.
The base line is to be creative, to use your academic network, and to try to cover different types of costs from different sources.
> 8 votes
# Answer
I know your question is based around the assumption that "funding cannot be found" but I write my answer as a challenge to this assumption.
**Short answer:** Sometimes you can go out and find funding in odd places.
**Long anecdote:** I was working in a research lab as an undergraduate. We had very little funds pretty much all the time being in an undergraduate-only institution (with respect to my field of study which is chemistry). We had some great work that we wanted to take to a fairly prestigious conference halfway across the country but we had no money to go. Myself and a co-worker knew how much this conference would mean to our boss so we decided to go on a crusade to find money to make this happen. We marched out of the lab with all pertinent information in hand and took it straight to the top. We literally walked into the president's office (of the Uni) and asked the secretary if we could meet with him. She was immediately concerned and amused at what we were trying to do. Of course we weren't able to see him straightaway, if at all, for our shenanigans. But she did allow us to make our case to her to see if she could help us out any.
This turned out to be a very profitable and endearing experience. She dropped some contacts in various departments and suggested we go talk to them. She even left us with some business cards to take with us. We immediately contacted every single person on her list and, much to our surprise, we received some very positive responses. I remember one office in general, "Undergraduate Enrichment", which dealt directly with the promotion and advancement of undergraduates. They were nearing the end of the fiscal year and they had money lying around in some accounts that had not been used. Well, long story short, they gave it to us. All of it. We managed to pick up a little bit here, a little bit there, through a few departments, and were able to come up with all the funds we needed. It wasn't a cakewalk though. My friend and I went as far as to appear before Student Government where we asked for funds and had to present our case to, for all intents and purposes, a group of dimwits who were not only apart of Greek life, but ran Student Government strictly around the idea of advancing Greek life (i.e. they didn't give two squats about anything we had to say) and it was one of the most painful and grueling 40 minutes of my life standing before them. We managed to squeak about $500 from them which topped us off.
**Summary:** My friend and I dove in feet first and asked around for money. Found the funds in some of the oddest places. We went on the trip and were able to present our research in a prestigious conference.
Don't give up my friend. Be proactive and think outside the box. You may walk away being quite surprised.
> 10 votes
# Answer
I do not have ideas on how to obtain funding other than personal money. However, if using personal funds, you may have some options to decrease your overall costs.
First note that I am not a tax professional. Attending conferences is normal for this type of business. You should be able to deduct travel expenses to any conferences you attend. This includes airfare, lodging, and, depending on distance, food. Because these are expenses not reimbursed by your employer, you should be able to write them off. Consult your tax professional.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: conference, funding
--- |
thread-16735 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16735 | Should the PhD supervisor's name be first in a scientific journal? | 2014-02-09T17:58:06.173 | # Question
Title: Should the PhD supervisor's name be first in a scientific journal?
I am a self funded PhD student and have been told by my supervisor that her name should be first on any future journal I will be publishing during my studies under her supervision as "this is the only thing she gets from her PhD students".
I am just wondering if the ordering of author names matter? She is going to help me only by proof writing my article. All research will be done by myself.
Is she legally allowed to say it? Should I accept it?
# Answer
> 10 votes
> I am just wondering if the ordering of author names matter?
In a small number of academic fields -- like mathematics -- the overwhelmingly majority of jointly authored papers list the authors' names in alphabetical order. In these fields, a non-alphabetical ordering of the authors stands out like a sore thumb: the average mathematician knows it is meant to look bad for the latter-listed author but is not sure exactly what it means. In a field like this, if you hear a potential advisor say this, you should say "Thank you, I'll look for someone else" and walk out the door.
In most other academic fields, the ordering of the authors conveys important meaning in a manner which can be subtle and vary from field to field. There are some academic fields where being the *last* named author carries a lot of prestige, but in my understanding this is the kind of prestige awarded a very senior person. I don't know of any academic field in which putting the junior author at the end looks good for them.
But anyway, here is another kind of answer to your question: the ordering of names must matter *to your potential advisor* or she wouldn't have brought it up! Therefore if you yourself are not sure what rights you are signing away in such an agreement, you should be especially skeptical. I think the first thing that you should do is look around to see how common this practice is among other faculty and students in your department. (If you are in an academic context far from the American one, it would be more prudent to do this even if you are in a field like mathematics than to immediately walk out of the office like I suggested above. I don't know what the standard arrangement is at every math department in the world...obviously.) This will be easy to check just by looking at the publications of the faculty members. Also asking the other students can help.
> She is going to help me only by proof writing my article. All research will be done by myself.
Proofreading is not the same as advising. An agreement where your advisor guarantees in advance not to advise you in most meaningful ways *and* that she will insist on first coauthorship sounds like an especially bad one. It also sounds unethical to me by the general standards of academic ethics, although subfield ethics may have a role to play.
> Is she legally allowed to say it?
Not every form of bad behavior is illegal (thank goodness). I can't speak to the law over the entire surface of the earth, but in the US there are certainly no laws pertaining to this kind of thing.
> Should I accept it?
I think that what potential advisor is really trying to say is that she does not want to be your potential advisor. Sometimes people have trouble saying "no" outright; this happens in academia (where the tenure process takes a good shot at making "yes-men" and "yes-women" out of academics) but also in life generally. A lot of times I have seen academics offer to do things for students only under quite unreasonable conditions that they clearly (to me) expect the students to turn down...only to have the student not know so clearly that the conditions are unreasonable and accept them. Of course both parties end up unhappy.
In your case I feel reasonably confident that your advisor is trying to tell you to go away. What I am unsure of is whether she's telling it to *you* specifically or to all students generally: the rather oafish "this is the only thing she gets from her PhD students" seems to indicate that this professor is simply not onboard with the practice of having PhD students at all. But either way, I advise you to look around: probably you can do better.
# Answer
> 5 votes
In many fields first authorship signals who has contributed the most, scientifically, to the paper. Included in this is not only efforts to do experiments and drawing conclusions from the experiments but also to originate the ideas on which the paper is built as well as writing the paper. It is quite normal that the first paper a graduate student writes may have the main advisor as first author because of the wealth of input an inexperienced student may need. As time progresses, I would say the student should move to the first author position as the work becomes more and more independent. The goal is, after all, to train you to become an independent researcher. So the statement that the advisor should be first author on all you produce would not be considered reasonable in many disciplines.
Should you accept it? From an ethical point, no. In reality, you need to think of your future and assess what effects such actions would result in. Not knowing the way publications normally look in your field it is difficult to say anything specific but when considering general authorship guidelines as detailed in, for example, the Vancouver protocol (do a search on Academia.se to see details) the person who fulfil all criteria should be an author and the person who contributes most should e first author.
---
Tags: publications, journals, ethics, advisor, authorship
--- |
thread-16741 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16741 | I need a reference letter but I've been out of school for 3 years | 2014-02-09T19:09:15.557 | # Question
Title: I need a reference letter but I've been out of school for 3 years
Ok I need some advise on my situation. I obtained my BSc in Mathematics and Physics in Spring 2011, but I've been working in a programming position since then, in actuarial business. I want to apply to Financial Mathematics, but I need two reference letters. I was not a very good student back then, I skipped a lot of classes, didn't take care much, yet I've done ok in terms of grades. Anyway, the point is, I rarely spoke to my profs, so I'm not certain how I could ever be endorsed. I'm doing very well at the job, but I believe reference letters from academia are much more valuable than those coming from the industry.
Also, I think it's worth mentioning that I applied in the past, but got refused. Still, my personal situation has much positively evolved since then. I'm just not sure how can convey it.
Thanks for any comments/advise !
# Answer
> 3 votes
In your case it sounds like the strong letters you want from your former instructors are just not going to happen. None of your professors from 2011 or before can speak to your recent good work in a mathematically relevant branch of industry. They can only try to remember what kind of student you were back then, and it doesn't sound great.
In your case I would go with letters from people in industry who have skills and qualifications that would be respected by those in Financial Mathematics. If possible, all but at most one of your letters should come from someone with an advanced degree, and you should make sure that they know you well enough to convey the positive arc of your trajectory in recent years.
You should also take any relevant standardized tests especially seriously: you certainly want a great score on the MATH part of the GRE. I'm not sure whether the GRE math subject exam is required or applicable for master's programs in financial mathematics: I guess it would be at some programs but not others. I think that either way it would be good to take some practice versions of this exam, and if you can see that you'll do well (over the 50th percentile is now a good performance from an American student) then you should consider taking it even if it's not required.
You may also have to face the reality that you'll be admitted to a lesser quality program because of your "checkered academic past". If you're really serious about graduate school, you can spend one or two years in a lesser program, really light up the place, and then transfer into a better program.
Good luck.
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, recommendation-letter
--- |
thread-16433 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16433 | Is it possible to apply for a second masters degree in a different field of study? (different department) | 2014-02-01T07:16:02.033 | # Question
Title: Is it possible to apply for a second masters degree in a different field of study? (different department)
Specifically, is it possible to apply for a second masters degree in **MS&E** (management science and engineering) or statistics (**MS in statistics**) after a masters degree in **computer science**?
How will my application be treated compared to other applicants? (with a bachelors degree)
# Answer
It's always possible to *apply*, whether you will be *accepted* is a different matter. The best thing to do is to speak to the academic who is the programme director (or similar title), explain that you are interested in applying for the course and see what they say. They will know what the general rules are as well as being able to provide specific guidance. The fact that your current masters degree is in a related subject (different department, but probably the same faculty) means it should be considered relevant.
I applied for a MA in Classics & Ancient History after getting a BSc in Computer Science, and then went back to do an MPhil in Computer Science, so it is possible to move subjects.
> 2 votes
# Answer
I do not know about your school, but in my school, the title of your degree doesn't really matter much PROVIDING THAT YOU HAVE SUFFICIENT ACADEMIC BACKGROUND in the discipline that you are interested in. For instance, if I am a BSc in Statistics grad, and if I have taken significant number of Computing Science courses, then given that my GPA is high enough, I will be admitted to the Computing Science department for their MSc program.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions, masters
--- |
thread-16726 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16726 | Should I include journalistic articles in my CV? | 2014-02-09T14:28:04.673 | # Question
Title: Should I include journalistic articles in my CV?
I have written a couple of articles for two different daily newspapers. In them, I have discussed the issues of my academic field. Should I include these articles in my CV?
If so, under what title? Is press release appropriate? What is the most common and accepted term?
# Answer
> 9 votes
> I have written a couple of articles for 2 different daily newspapers. In them, I have discussed the issues of my academic field. Should I include them in my CV?
Yes, certainly, as long as you clearly separate them from your academic publications. Strictly speaking, they are form of publication, so it wouldn't be lying to list them together with your research papers under a vague enough title, but this would be a very bad idea. It would come across like you are trying to make your publication list look longer by inflating it with non-academic publications.
\[If the newspaper articles had nothing at all to do with your academic work, then mentioning them probably wouldn't make sense. However, it sounds like they do.\]
> If so, under what title? Is press release appropriate? What is the most common and accepted term?
Definitely not press release, since a press release is something else: it's a document given to journalists to inform them about a possible story they could write about. Occasionally newspapers publish lightly edited versions of press releases, without gathering much more information, but this is considered bad reporting.
I don't think there's a clear standard for how to list this information. You could list it in several ways: outreach, other publications (if you have a "scholarly publications" section, say), writing for the general public, etc.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I am very impressed that you wrote articles about academia that got published by daily newspapers. I think that information is well worth including on your CV.
In terms of what to call it: I don't think there are any codewords here, at least none that will be reliably decoded by your entire intended audience. Rather, just clearly identify what you've done, e.g.:
**Articles published in *Daily Xer:*** Title1, date1; Title 2, date 2;
**Articles published in *City Y Times***: Title3, date3
If you feel like your readers might not know that the Daily Xer or the City Y Times is a daily periodical, you should include that information as well.
In terms of where to put it on your CV: well, think about in what way writing these articles will be impressive and valuable to readers of your CV. Does it show off your high quality writing skills? Does it show your willingness and ability to communicate technical or insider issues to a very broad audience? And so forth. Once you figure out what is the "primary virtue" demonstrated by this activity, you will know where to put it in your CV (perhaps with a section of its own title, but the title should indicate to the reader how you answered the above question).
# Answer
> 3 votes
I definately think that you should add them to your CV, but, as other have mentioned, under a separate heading from you academic publications. My suggestion is to use the heading **Popular science articles** for these (if all of them are indeed science), or **Newspaper articles** for something more general. I've seen both of these used on CVs. "Press release" would not be suitable to use.
The ability to express scientific results in layman's language is clearly valuable (both inside and outside of academia), so generally I see such an addition as a plus on the CV.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I do not think there is a standard ,unless such articles are commonplace in the specific field (e.g. journalism). I definitely think it is worth adding such materials to a CV since they indicate activity. You need to think twice, however, whether or not they provide a positive aspect when you use your CV. Suggestions for appropriate headers could be many. your suggestion sounds good., you could consider something like "Scientific debate articles" or something more descriptive that encapsulates their contents.
---
Tags: publications, cv
--- |
thread-16723 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16723 | Is there anything special to the CV format for PhD applicants in Germany? | 2014-02-09T11:22:07.943 | # Question
Title: Is there anything special to the CV format for PhD applicants in Germany?
I want to pursue my PhD program in Germany. Is there any special format for academic CV to for applying there?
# Answer
No, there is no special format for an academic CV in Germany. In general, CVs in Germany differ somewhat of Angloamerican CVs (see for example this newspaper article by The Local). It might be the case, that German professors and selection committees expect a more German CV. However, that should not be a boundary, as academia in Germany is internationally oriented. The Career Center of the RWTH Aachen offers an English information sheet about German CVs that might be helpful. In addition, you could use the European CV from the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training as an orientation.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, application, cv, germany
--- |
thread-16758 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16758 | Which role should other graduate students serve in a PhD defense? | 2014-02-10T11:02:05.713 | # Question
Title: Which role should other graduate students serve in a PhD defense?
In some countries and at certain universities, graduate students are advisory members of the committee during the PhD defense. In other countries like the Netherlands, a PhD defense takes place in public and everyone might ask questions at the end. Therefore, I would like to know:
1. How should another graduate student serve his/her role as an advisory member of the PhD committee?
2. What kind of questions should one ask in a public PhD defense?
3. How should he/she prepare for the defense (other than obviously reading the dissertation)?
# Answer
> 8 votes
The first thing I would do is to ask the committee chair what are my rights and responsibilities as an advisory member. In short, what is it expected from me. I guess I would be expected to ask questions but I will not participate on the final decision of the defence.
Participation in a PhD defence committee seems to me as a good opportunity to learn critical thinking about research. The thinking every researcher should apply on his/her own work. Therefore, as a preparation I would recommend:
(as you mentioned) **Carefully read the dissertation and**
* if you find something which is not clear to you even after several readings, ask about it
* look at some of the references you find interesting and try to ask yourself: "Is this reference appropriate here? Why?"
* in case some formulas or computations are present, you can try to reach the same result as the PhD candidate
* if you are interested in methodology you can ask the candidate why he/she used that particular method
to do more, you can try to **find another works on the same topic, read them and compare them with the dissertation** as it is always good for discussion to have more information about the topic
---
In case of public PhD defence, the audience can be very broad from family members who do not know what is the research about to an expert from another department who came to rise his/her ego by asking non-answerable questions. Here, the question depends on the person who is asking. No background knowledge is expected here and one should not feel restricted by the circumstances.
My personal opinion is that **one can ask really about anything as far as his/her intentions are good**. If the question is irrelevant the PhD candidate or one of the committee should kindly explain why.
---
Tags: phd, advisor, defense, thesis-committee
--- |
thread-16764 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16764 | Publishing without a pre-defined PhD topic? | 2014-02-10T13:33:58.880 | # Question
Title: Publishing without a pre-defined PhD topic?
I tend to believe that starting with a well defined goal is an undeniable prerequisite for publishing a quality paper on a certain topic.
Alas, can a PhD revolve around a fuzzy subject, that offers the student a lot of freedom of choice regarding what problem to solve, as long as the problem is solved using the methods in that field of study?
More explicitly, is it possible to develop a quality research paper in an applied scientific field without fixing the goal beforehand?
# Answer
Your question contains two related questions
* "can a PhD *revolve around* a fuzzy subject... as long as the problem is solved using the methods in that field of study?"
* Is it possible to *write and publish* a quality paper without a well-defined goal?
In research, almost by definition you do not know what you are going to find. (See the answers to this question.) If you did, it wouldn't be research! So it is definitely possible to have your PhD 'revolve around' a fuzzy subject. But when it comes to writing the actual paper, you **will** need a well-defined goal for the paper. The paper may not, and probably will not, cover the entire scope of your research. So although your research goal may be nebulous--at least in the beginning--when you are writing a paper to report the findings of said research, you should be able to very clearly articulate the purpose of this specific paper.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: research-process, publications, graduate-school
--- |
thread-16671 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16671 | Difference between criterion validity and reliability equivalence | 2014-02-07T12:27:41.360 | # Question
Title: Difference between criterion validity and reliability equivalence
In the book *Doing research in the real world* by David E. Gray, there is a section on experiment design. When discussing validity and reliability, the author defines “criterion validity” as
> This is where we compare how people have answered a new measure of a concept, with existing, widely accepted measures of a concept.
and a little later, in the “Reliability” part, there is a subheading “Equivalence”, which says
> Another way of testing the reliability of an instrument is by comparing the responses of a set of subjects with responses made by the same set of subjects on another instrument (preferably on the same day).
So if I got this right, we are both times measuring if there is a difference between the answer on our new instrument and another, existing instrument.
Is there a practical difference between the two concepts, or only a philosophical one? And whether practical or philosophical, what *is* the actual difference?
**Update** The author discusses validity and reliability in general, then lists 7 different aspects of validity and 5 different aspects of reliability. "Criterion validity" and "reliability equivalence" are only one type of each, respectively. Please consider in your answer that this question is not about validity vs. reliability in general, but only about these two specific aspects.
# Answer
**Criterion validity** concerns with *measuring the right thing*. For instance, GPA is likely to have criterion validity to measure a student's academic understanding. While the change in weight in the last semester has much less criterion validity to measure the same trait. Basically, if the measurement you use and the trait you want to measure has a high correlation, then there is likely criterion validity.
**Reliability** concerns mostly with *measuring the thing right*. For instance, if GPA can measure a student's academic understanding, and percent attendance can also measure a student's academic understanding, then GPA and percent attendance should correlate, aka, they are reliable. Before subjected to reliability assessment, the tests are usually checked if they are criterion-valid. However, it's possible to have two tests that are highly correlated (reliable) but invalid. Such as using dietary fat intake and serum lipid to predict a college graduate's earning potential.
Notice that there a few different types of reliabilities, the one you cited is more about *alternate forms reliability,* there are also *test-retest reliability* and *inter-rater reliability*, etc.
Practically, they are not interchangeable. Validity happens between the true trait (or behavior) and the measurements. Reliability happens between two measurements (or modes/instances of measurement.)
> 7 votes
# Answer
`Validity` is comparing the new results with the existing literature, without doing extra experiments.
`Reliability` is comparing the new results with some extra experiments that you carry on with some other settings/devices.
*I agree with @StrongBad that this question is off-topic, but there is no SE site on research in general and I think this question is quite interesting.*
> 0 votes
# Answer
Slightly off-topic as the terms you ask for are more specific, but:
Unfortunately, there is some ambiguity as to what exactly is meant by different terms in this quality control/validation/method context.
E.g.
* in machine learning the "validation set" is often used to optimize parameters - as opposed to proving whether or not the model "does its job" (a shortened version of one definition of validity). The latter is measured with the "test set" (again, in my opinion, a rather ambiguous name).
* The Handbook of validation in analytical chemistry spends several pages to compare and discuss differences between several definitions given in literature and norms specific to the field of analytical chemistry. The bottom line of these definitions is that in analytical chemistry, validity is not only about measuring the right thing (as @Penguin\_Knight nicely explained), but also about measuring the right thing *right*.
I'd therefore recommend that you state what you are speaking about rather than relying on these terms.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: methodology, experiment-design
--- |
thread-16776 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16776 | May additional time in college harm my chances of going to grad school? | 2014-02-10T17:43:08.800 | # Question
Title: May additional time in college harm my chances of going to grad school?
I'm an electrical engineering major (my home university is ranked #25 nationally). I'm about to start the fifth year(engineering takes 5 years in my country).
I also granted a national science scholarship last year, and was an exchange student at University of Colorado at Boulder. I did very well over there (3.9/4.0).
In my country, electrical engineering and electronic/computer(EECS) science are different. Electrical deals with power systems and telecomunications, while EECS deals with microelectronics, dsp, embedded systems, theory of computation and so on.
My home university doesn't have the EECS option so I had to choose electrical engineering, since I hadn't money to move to another place.
at CU Boulder, I basically only took classes in advanced math (even grad school level) that is my passion for life and computer science(another passion). Since I got back I'm not very motivated with my program, because I want to study EECS and math and not power systems.
Currently I'm attending the math summer program(summer here is January and February) at one of the leading math research institutes in my country(and even one of the best in the world) and I was invited to start the Master of Advanced Studies in March. They offered me a scholarship, so all my expenses will be covered. Since I didn't complete my undergrad studies yet, they offered to transfer my Engineering course to the school of engineering and math(ranked #1 nationally), and then after 2/2.5 years from march I'd have a bachelor's of electronic/computer science engineering, a second bachelor's degree in math and Master of Advanced studies in math. The only "problem" is that in the end, I'd have taken 7/7.5 years to complete my bachelor's of engineering program.
My question is the following: Will this "long time" for completing the engineering program harm my chances of being accepted by grad school, in math or computer science in a top graduate school?
May I argue in the applicant's form that I took 7.5 years because I moved on, I wasn't happy with my course/university, and when I chance to study my passions at the best schools in the country so I went forward ? (that would in fact be true)
In the whole thing I'd have 3 degrees(by # 1 institutes) in a total time of 7.5 years and a really good education, but I'm a little concerned about this "time to complete" thing, I really don't know how it works, specially in US
Can someone help?
Thank you everybody,
Dmitri
# Answer
> 1 votes
Taking a long time to complete *one* degree can be a bit of a red flag in US graduate admissions. However, this does not apply in your case, because you will have three separate degrees. The fact that you have transferred from one school to another also mitigates the lengthier time you've spent in those study programs.
If you hadn't done this "master of advanced studies," spending 7.5 years as an undergraduate would probably not be looked on too favorably. But in your specific circumstance, it's not as bad as it looks at first blush.
There might be a question, however, about why you want to do EECS at the graduate level, given that your master's degree would be in a math-related field. But that would be up to you to explain in any case as part of your statement of purpose.
---
Tags: graduate-admissions
--- |
thread-16791 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16791 | Is it possible to upload expository papers to arXiv? | 2014-02-11T02:51:13.373 | # Question
Title: Is it possible to upload expository papers to arXiv?
I would like to know if arXiv allows authors to upload expository papers (for example, a paper in which the author explains a specific topic). If this is the case, how should those papers be written? And will they be automatically moved to the General Mathematics section?
# Answer
> 16 votes
The official line appears to be that:
> arXiv accepts only submissions in the form of an article that would be refereeable by a conventional publication venue. This excludes \[...\] reports that do not contain original or substantive research \[...\]
That said, I see expository and survey papers appear there all the time, and nobody seems to mind. I think if your expository paper is of a quality that you would consider submitting to an appropriate journal (there are many that publish expository papers) or lecture notes series, then it's fine for arXiv. If it's just your course notes on the fundamental theorem of calculus, don't do it.
I don't see why they should be moved to "General Mathematics"; they should be categorized with the topic that the paper is about.
---
Tags: arxiv
--- |
thread-13726 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/13726 | Should I supply code along with my paper submission? | 2013-10-29T23:24:15.223 | # Question
Title: Should I supply code along with my paper submission?
I am submitting a paper to a machine learning/computer vision conference. Is it worthwhile to include some source code of my implementation so that the reviewers can test it themselves or gain a greater understanding of my idea? It will take time to clean up my code and make sure it is anonymised.
Is this a common practice? If so do reviewers pay attention to the code?
Is it worth the time to prepare anonymised and clean code?
The code will be included as a ZIP archive through the paper submission website. After the paper has been accepted I intend to release it with an open source license.
# Answer
> 18 votes
> Should I supply code as supplemental material?
Yes, but it would be better if you published it in an open access fashion.
> Is this a common practice?
No.
> If so do reviewers pay attention to the code?
Depends on the reviewers.
> Is it worth the time to prepare anonymised and clean code?
That depends, don't do more than necessary.
Also read:
# Answer
> 7 votes
Making code available is *always* a good idea, as long as the code works. It is probably a good idea even if it doesn't, since even non-working code can help reviewers and users/readers of your work to understand details of your implementation that your paper does not cover. However, if the code does not work, you should clearly indicate this in the source. In the case of working and tested code, bear in mind that sufficient documentation to run the code is highly desirable. You only mention reviewers, but you should also be thinking about general readers of your paper.
I think it is probably reasonable to supply a current snapshot of the code to the paper as a zip archive (or similar) for reviewing purposes, but why not just put it online directly as a Git or Mercurial repository on Bitbucket, Github, or similar, and reference this on the paper? I also recommend making repositories available in more than one place, in the interests of redundancy. For example, I have used both Bitbucket and Google Code for my Mercurial repositories. This has various advantages over a zip archive file; for one thing you can push corrections and other changes to your repository, and everyone will immediately have access to them.
If you are concerned about releasing your code before your paper has been published might mean someone else will "scoop" you, that seems unlikely to me. At least, it is not something I've ever worried about.
# Answer
> 5 votes
Absolutely, yes.
If you don't release code, then your work is not de-facto reproducible; and if you will get me as a reviewer, I will do everything in my power to either get you to publish code, or get rejected. Rare exceptions to the contrary, where an implementation is trivial. But implementations are rarely trivial; and often a great place to sweep a lot of quirks under the rug which conveniently arnt mention in the paper.
Granted, it is not hard to get away with not providing code; journals are particularly lax at enforcing or even adopting standards, even though most people in the field will decry the lack of reproducibility of published work. But nobody will resent you for providing code either. Writing code you actually feel comfortable releasing out into the open requires work of course. Time which you could spend doing other things. If you don't feel comfortable zipping up your code and providing it right now, that's probably a good indication that any papers written about said code arnt ready to be published yet either.
Unfortunately, there is a tension there, between doing what is right scientifically, and doing what is right for your career. But as for me as a reviewer; no code == no publication.
# Answer
> 0 votes
This largely depends upon the reviewers and the field customs. Some reviewers, specially in journals, may ask for source code. However, it is unlikely that in Computer Science conferences reviewers ask for source code specially when the paper is well-written.
---
Tags: publications, conference, computer-science, paper-submission, code
--- |
thread-16767 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16767 | Definitions in Glossary? | 2014-02-10T14:26:09.093 | # Question
Title: Definitions in Glossary?
While writing my thesis, I was putting down some definitions of terms as they are used in the scope of the work.
Does it make sense to move them to the glossary and write their definition as well? Looks like the Glossary is used mostly for acronyms in the thesis/diss I have seen.
# Answer
Yes, it makes sense.
Doing so will add value to your thesis, if you do it well, and help the readers. Most people don't do this because they think of it too late or do not have the energy. Start doing it early and do it well, or don't do it at all.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: thesis, glossary
--- |
thread-16796 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16796 | How to enhance my prospects for a PhD? | 2014-02-11T05:35:57.743 | # Question
Title: How to enhance my prospects for a PhD?
I am looking to apply for a PhD in the CS realm in the next cycle, particularly something with an AI flavor like Machine Learning or NLP. I am a bit of an anomaly in CS as I have undergraduate majors in a very different area (one was history...). I am finishing up a Masters focusing in signal processing at a well-renowned school and have a good GPA and top GREs. I was a CS minor undergrad, but started too late into college so I couldn't have gotten the major, although I took the core courses.
Although I finished undergrad with plenty of accolades (and I TAed in CS for 3 semesters), and I have excelled in the engineering courses at the Masters level, I am really concerned about my chances to get into a great PhD program. (There are a number of reasons why I want to pursue PhD, but at the same time, ****for me****, the time commitment doesn't feel warranted if I'm not working with great faculty at a great institution.)
I have some research experience (an undergrad honor thesis in my majors--I know it's not exactly related--and I'm a co-author on a couple non-CS papers published in IEEE journals from some summer work), but nothing really in depth I've done on my own. My Masters is a non-thesis program so I've had trouble finding an adviser who'll take me on (I want to do a thesis anyway). I've also had trouble finding (and being accepted) to worthwhile summer research opportunities (academic settings related to my interests). I have actually really enjoyed my previous research opportunities, and I know that for PhD admissions it's research, research, research (and some recs). So here are my questions:
1. How do I find my way into substantive research endeavors?
2. With my eclectic background, how can I rise above the thousands of CS undergrads with plenty of relevant research during the admission process?
3. Any suggestions how to sell my academic background as a positive?
NOTE: Of course I think I'm qualified (every applicant does or else they wouldn't apply). I also think that my unique background is a bonus. I'm concerned that those making hiring/admission decisions will feel differently. (edited since first posting)
Thanks in advance for the advice!
# Answer
> 2 votes
Unless I am mistaken, "next cycle" is half a year from now. There are many ways to enhance one's PhD prospects, but many big ones are no longer available to you due to timing.
Robert Peters in *Getting What You Came For* cites an ETS study about how important various parts of the PhD application are considered by committees, on a scale from 1 to 5:
* 3.9 Undergrad GPA in major field
* 3.8 Recommendations from faculty known by committee
* 3.7 Undegrad GPA in last 2 years
* 3.6 GRE verbal score
* 3.6 whether undergrad major is related
* 3.5 Undergrad GPA
* 3.0 Educational or career aspirations
* 3.0 Recommendations from faculty unknown by committee
* 3.0 Whether applicant is known to the committee
* 2.9 Academic achievements (papers, projects)
* 2.9 Quality of undergraduate school
* 2.7 Personal statement
* 2.7 Interview
* 2.6 Work experience
* 2.6 GRE analytical score
* 2.5 Non-faculty recommendations
* 2.5 GRE Subject score (related to program)
* 1.9 Other test scores
* 1.9 GRE Subject score (related to undergrad major)
* 1.6 Particular subscores on GRE Subject
You have half a year. Some of these things, like your GPA, obviously cannot be changed. What you can do is:
* Try to publish or present at a conference
* Make sure you don't get low grades from any classes you are taking
* Make sure you get strong recommendations
* Study for the GRE, especially the verbal part
* Make contact with faculty at the programs you think of applying to
* Research thoroughly the programs you are interested in
* Start working on your Statement of Purpose so you have time to edit it
# Answer
> 1 votes
This depends in which country or "world" you live in.
PhD programs and similar are very different around the world.
You have:
\- U.S.
\- Uk
\- Countries like Sweden
\- Switzerland
\- Central Europe like Germany/Austria
\- India
\- etc.
Each country has a very different culture in general and a different university culture in turn, and also different resources.
Just one example: in India PhD positions are hard to get, in Germany/Austria there are sometimes 5 applications for a single job, so just by chance it is easy to get a position.
In research in technical disciplines (computer science, electrical engineering), my option is that the most important thing is mathematics. It is the hardest and most gerneral applicable topic. This is also, in my eyes, the most important topic for applied research.
If you don't know mathematics it is hard to do functional programming. You need Category theory to use Monads, Functors, etc., to write programs in functional languages like haskell. There are state of the art programming languages based on Higher Order Logic and others that are based on Martin Löw type theory. Without an excellent mathematical background one is helpless.
If you want to analyze and predict signals in electrical engineering, this is comparably easy if you know how to do harmonic analysis and state of the art statistics.
---
Tags: phd, research-process, graduate-school, computer-science
--- |
thread-16806 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16806 | Can a honours supervisors be called a Project Leader? | 2014-02-11T13:10:27.247 | # Question
Title: Can a honours supervisors be called a Project Leader?
I am completing my undergraduate honours. To do some of my experiments I am considering applying for some supercomputer time. I would be applying to a external organistation who manages supercomputer for research in this state. It funded by a partnership of universities (including my own) and the state and national government.
One of the conditions on the application is that the listed "**Project Leader**" be a non-student member of a university. Can I (after talking to my supervisor), fill out the paperwork, listing him as "**Project Leader**"? Even if his (direct) contributions are minimal, I would still be going to him for advice regularly, so he would be providing leadership on the project.
On the other hand, I would be the person doing all the interactions with the people from the supercomputing organisation.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Yes, this is a fairly standard description of a supervisors role in undergraduate research projects. Typically supervisor, despite potentially limited input, are responsible for the research conduct of their students. This might include booking of resources (e.g., labs or super computer time) and ethical approval for research that involves human and animal testing.
---
Tags: ethics, advisor
--- |
thread-16790 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16790 | How to properly cite other papers in my slides? | 2014-02-11T02:29:53.510 | # Question
Title: How to properly cite other papers in my slides?
We recently submitted a paper, and now I'm creating some slides about it for future presentation. There are papers that we have cited in our paper and I need to cite them in slides too because they are directly related to our work. What I would like to do is inline citing when you just mention author's name, or conference name, or the year. I have seen works in which what is mentioned is the first author's family name, e.g. *(Patterson, 2013)*. And I've seen those who just mention conference name and year, e.g. *(PPoPP, 2012)*.
I want to know which one is more appropriate, or actually correct? Where to use one, and where to use the other? Or should I use something different?
# Answer
As an applied mathematician, I like to go for the format \[Author1, Author2 JST '99\], where "JST" is an abbreviation for the journal. I truncate longer author lists with *et al*, and add initials in some cases to reduce ambiguity \[Li RC, Guo CH, LAA '05\]. With the help of a macro, I put the citations in square brackets (following the LaTeX usage), in a different color (dark grey) and font (`\small`/`\footnotesize`).
Of course every solution to this problem is a compromise between brevity, readability and googleability, but it seems to me that this one works well in my field.
> 4 votes
# Answer
Well, in my field, it's certainly the habit to mention only the authors and the year, unless it's really old. So I would have
> **Theorem \[Doe, Soe, 2010; Smith 1997\]** There is ...
The reasons are:
* If someone needs the full citation, he has the proceedings / book of abstracts.
* The only interesting things in the citation are:
1. It's not *your* result, you borrow it from elsewhere
2. Which people did it -- quite likely you have some of them in the auditorium, they can get upset if you don't credit them, and they'll be pleased if you point them out.
3. How old is it -- is it something known for years, or is it a "hot result"?
If you publish the presentation online after the conference, it might be a good habit to add the whole bibliography of the proceedings as a last slide. It can be in a small font since it's only for people to read it on the computer.
*The key of a talk is not to be precise, but to show the most relevant information!*
> 9 votes
# Answer
My suggestion is probably not applicable to presentations using *a lot* of citations, or using them on a lot of pages (but then, I think a good presentation shouldn't cite too much, so it's okay).
In addition to using whichever citation style best works for you ( (Smith, 1995), \[Smith et. al., CSJ, 2007\]\*, or even just \[1\] ), plus changing the text color sounds like a good idea, why don't you **add the expanded citation in the slide footnote in a smaller font?** If it's not more than 1-2 or maybe 3 cites per slide, on no more than a few slides, it could work nicely and even allow you to use the basic \[1\], \[2,3\] citation style.
Also it could be a good idea to **include the list of most important citations on the last slide** (maybe not showing it in the presentation, but useful for possible questions).
---
<sub><sup>Something like this: **:)** </sup></sub>
<sub><sup>* Smith, Jones and Doe: *"Very important article"*, Cool Science Journal, 2007</sup></sub>
<sub><sup>or:</sup></sub>
<sub><sup>\[1\] Jones and Smith: *"Yet another important article"*, 2000</sup></sub>
> 4 votes
---
Tags: citations
--- |
thread-16779 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16779 | How can I avoid having a specific teacher? | 2014-02-10T21:44:57.283 | # Question
Title: How can I avoid having a specific teacher?
I am mostly very happy with my teachers - they are almost all good or excellent at teaching, nice as people, and knowledgeable about their subjects. However, my chemistry teacher is a poor teacher, has behaved very unprofessionally in the past, and I suspect possibly does not know much about the subject.
The bottom line is that this teacher is, in my opinion, lacking in both subject matter knowledge as well as knowledge about how to behave with students. I want to study chemistry but I do not want to study with them. Changing schools is a tremendous challenge for me and because of my other teachers, I would strongly prefer to stay in my existing school.
Are there any options here to avoid this teacher in the future?
Edit: The issue was resolved, as the teacher failed to pass the exams they would have been teaching (teachers at my school have to do the exams every so often, presumably to check that they are competent), and I am very happy with the teachers I have instead.
# Answer
I think there are two parts to answering this question. First, you should make sure that the teacher is *incompetent* and not merely *unlikable*. Second, if the teacher is incompetent, there are a number of options available to avoid studying with them.
With respect to the first point, it is important to note that a teacher can be unlikable, and perhaps even appear ignorant (to students), while still being great at his or her job: making sure you learn things. For example, group work and peer instruction are known to be effective teaching strategies. At the same time, they are also quite unpopular with students, and some students even take the view that the instructor is not doing their job when these strategies are applied (even though the *outcome* may be very good). Professionalism and teaching style are very personal traits, and I've not seen any evidence that they have strong impact on student learning outcomes. It sounds like maybe your personal dislike of the instructor is clouding your judgement about whether they could be an effective teacher. A teacher has only one job: making sure you learn things. If they can do that job effectively, then it shouldn't matter whether you like them or not.
Talk to students who have finished the course, and find out what they've learned. Often its only after such a class is complete that students realize they've learned a lot. If you know you'll get a lot out of the course, then you should probably take it even if you don't like the teacher.
On the second point, if the teacher really is incompetent, and former students are in strong agreement on this point (and they really don't seem to have learned anything about the subject), then you do have some other options:
1. Many schools will let you take online courses from other universities for credit. For a chemistry course with a lab, this may not work out, but otherwise this might be your best bet. You can shop around, find an instructor that you like, and still get credit for the course.
2. If the instructor is genuinely incompetent, you could speak with the school administration, and make a formal request for a different instructor. Often your request will be ignored, but I have seen this result in a new instructor being assigned once. Again, it is important that you make sure this is an instance of incompetence and not unlikeability. This is a serious step, and could have implications for the instructor's job (especially if they lack tenure).
3. You might be able to wait it out, and take the class with someone else. At the university undergraduate level, this can be the easiest solution, provided that the course is not a major prerequisite in your program. At the high school and grad school level, there may not be an alternative instructor in that subject area, so this may be infeasible.
4. Attend the class, but plan to use external resources to study. Consider forming a study group at the start of the semester, and meeting several times a week to talk about class material. Use online courses like those offered by MIT's Open Courseware, or any of the MOOC companies, to supplement the lecture material, and shop around online to find the best textbook at your level for this topic. You can make sure that you've learned the material well, even if your instructor is unable to help you learn it.
> 10 votes
---
Tags: teaching
--- |
thread-1726 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1726 | Does getting awarded your PhD in physics depend on the quality of university? | 2012-05-27T10:41:35.077 | # Question
Title: Does getting awarded your PhD in physics depend on the quality of university?
Say you wrote a good thesis on some discovery you made in physics.
If it was a mediocre discovery, nothing special, are you more likely to get awarded the PhD at a 'not very good' university than at a top class university like Cambridge?
# Answer
The quality of the university and the quality of the theses produced are not perfectly correlated. You are just as likely to end up with a "nothing special" thesis at a Cambridge as at a Random State University. The criterion for awarding a PhD is the completion of an independent and original contribution to the field of knowledge one is studying. There is no requirement that it be "groundbreaking."
That said, given that the "top" universities also tend to have superior resources available to students, the likelihood that a "nothing special" thesis will be accepted *by the advisor* as suitable for a PhD thesis is also somewhat mitigated as a result.
> 6 votes
# Answer
The quality of a thesis depends on several factors, the PhD student, the advisor and the work environment of the department where they work. th ePhD student should do the work and come up with own ideas and drive the work forward, more so towards the end than early on. the advisor, in most cases have established the basic research questions for the project in which the student works. The advisor also has a responsibility to facilitate understanding of the scientific method, ethics and plain knowledge to the student through the advisory role. The department may or may not have resources to provide a good work environment which includes size of collaborating research groups, lab space etc.
From this view it may be likely that a top tier university has more funding, has attracted "better" (however you wish to define that) scientists and lastly may attract better students (at least from the perspective of competitive application processes). It is, however, clear that these ingredients may not necessarily lead to success but it would not be a wide stretch of the imagination to say that basic conditions may be better and that this is reflected in the theses produced.
The bottom line, however, is that a good research environment is more likely to produce better work than just top tier ranking. In some cases bad luck may lead to poorer output, for example if the ice samples from Antarctica on which you completely rely for your work melt in a freezer accident. The question that remains is to what extent good research environments are determined by tier ranking.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: phd, thesis
--- |
thread-16784 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16784 | Open access journal for long-form publication | 2014-02-10T23:27:32.370 | # Question
Title: Open access journal for long-form publication
I am currently working on a paper in the field of image reconstruction, or computational biology if you will. Now matter how I slice or dice it, it is one of these stories that cannot be told in 3500 words or so. Not only are there several equally important methodological points that need to be discussed to get a complete story, there is also quite a bit of background required to point out the subtle flaws in the currently popular ways of approaching this particular problem; and it takes some words to clearly point out what may appear to be a subtle problem from a distance, especially while making sure to be fair to everyone.
I don't intend to butcher what I feel is a solid and profound story for the sake of cramming it into some word budget. I am no fan of needless verbosity, but I really am going to need about 20 pages to do this right. I strongly prefer to publish in an open access journal. And I would imagine that an open access online journal does not have as much of an incentive to be stingy with word counts, no? PLOS computational biology would be a logical choice, yet they do have a restrictive word count. I can't find any open access journals that appear to be sympathetic to my plight.
Am I missing something? Or should I just write the whole article first, make that into the supplement, and then write a 3000 word teaser with nonstop references to the supplement to substantiate my claims? I am somewhat afraid that people will actually miss the point without an explicit disclaimer at the start of the 'article', along the lines of 'hey, if you want to read the actual story with a good flow to it, you need to start reading the supplement. this is basically just a drawn out abstract.'. If you are referring to the supplement, the convention is to refer to a figure of secondary importance; not to three pages of text you kind of have to read first to understand the rest of the article.
Does anyone have a helpful perspective on such a situation?
# Answer
> 6 votes
*Plos One* do not have an explicit word count limit, and computational biology should be on-topic for them:
> There are no explicit restrictions for the number of words, figures, or the length of the supporting information, although we encourage a concise and accessible writing style.
For further info see http://plosone.org/static/guidelines
Also, have you seen that *Plos Computational Biology* has two types of articles, Research articles and Software articles, and that the 3500 word limit only applies to the latter (see http://www.ploscompbiol.org/static/guidelines). For Research articles they only say:
> Although we have no firm length restrictions for the entire manuscript, we urge authors to present and discuss their findings concisely.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Have you considered arXiv? They are open-access and handle quantitative biology e-prints. Here's an excerpt that may interest you from their "Oversized Submissions" help page:
> If you have trouble submitting a very long paper, such as a long review article with many small figures, or a thesis, AND you are sure that you have efficient figures, then contact the archive administrators to ask for an exception (be sure to quote the automatic rejection identifier and to explain the large size).
---
Tags: publications, journals, open-access
--- |
thread-16837 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16837 | Paper Rejection on Molecular Biology, What should I do? | 2014-02-12T05:48:30.287 | # Question
Title: Paper Rejection on Molecular Biology, What should I do?
I'm a third year undergraduate right now. I submitted a review on Cell motility, waited 6 months and got a rejection. The first reviewer appointed the manuscript as "publishable with corrections" and gives recommendations. The second reviewer didn't like it at all and made harsh comments. It seems that the first reviewer went throughout a longer analysis of the manuscript (based on his careful comments), while the other discarded it quickly, without too many protocol. The Editor's comment at the end sounds a bit like "We could be friends in the future, but go somewhere else this time".
Although I agree with the majority of their points and I know most papers are rejected nowadays (so I'm not desperate with this issue), I'm confused. Is the papers worthy of revision and resubmission (to another journal) or should I tank it? I've to be careful with duties (Thesis, Assistant job, etc.) because I don't want to spend an extra semester at College due to this nuisance.
# Answer
> 11 votes
Congratulations on submitting a paper as an undergraduate that one referee found to be publishable with corrections. That's impressive.
Are you really the sole author on a biology paper as an undergraduate? Biology is not my field (I'm a mathematician), but that sounds unusual to me. Even if you are, you must be doing the research under the supervision of some faculty member, right? If so: **ask them for guidance**.
From where I'm standing, I would think that what one referee at a reputable journal finds publishable with corrections should be publishable by another journal, and perhaps even one of roughly equal quality. But you should not take the word of someone from a different field who doesn't know your work or your manuscript. Again: ask for guidance from a faculty member.
P.S.: The fact that the referee with a more balanced recommendation looks like they did more work and understood the paper better is unfortunately a familiar phenomenon to me. The refereeing process in academia is far from perfect: it works well when the referees decide to be conscientious and fair...but there is almost nothing inherent in the process which forces referees to be conscientious and fair or even allows one to discern with anything approaching certainty whether any given referee has been conscientious and fair. It is a bit frustrating. All I can think to do is to try to apply the golden rule and hope for karmic benefits to accrue eventually (if I may mix metaphors slightly).
# Answer
> 1 votes
First of all, congratulations are in order!
Secondly, without deeper understanding into the field noone here can really tell you whether or not it's worth reworking and resubmitting. Even with deeper knowledge in the field without seeing the manuscript in question, and the reviews, it's hard to say anything. The only person that can and will most likely give you valuable feedback on this is your supervisor, or whoever is last name author on the manuscript.
In general papers typically get rejected more often than they get accepted, sometimes on sound reasons, sometimes on petty differences and small issues, and sometimes based on arrogance of the editors/reviewers (if you happen to bash a technique or an idea they are emotional about). The common practice in those situations is to make the best out of the reviewers' comments and either resubmit to the same journal (unless of course the paper was rejected by the editor based on not being interesting for that journal), or more commonly to another journal.
Sometimes your interpretation of the impact of your work might differ from those of others (like editors) in those cases aiming for a journal with slightly less impact factor, or broader scope, might help.
Good luck!
---
Tags: peer-review, paper-submission
--- |
thread-16523 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16523 | Has anybody had any success with a college level "flipped classroom?" | 2014-02-03T19:09:42.120 | # Question
Title: Has anybody had any success with a college level "flipped classroom?"
The "flipped classroom" seems quite successful and growing in popularity in high school. Students get their lectures at home from youtube or kahnacademy, write clarifying questions about the material and then bring it to class. This allows the instructor to focus on practice and application. Does anybody have any information about its success or failure when implemented at university?
# Answer
Oxford and Cambridge University courses in England have always operated a bit like this. In my Oxford Maths course, I'd attend 1 or 2 1-hour long lectures on the subject, have worksheets to do, then have classes in college of about 5 students to 1 instructor where we would discuss and work through the material.
What you're suggesting is basically the same, but having recorded lectures. Given that most of the lectures were non-interactive, it amounts to much the same thing. In general, I found it a very successful approach.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: teaching, professorship, writing-style
--- |
thread-16853 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16853 | Career advice about a short stint at a mathematics institute as a postdoc | 2014-02-12T15:18:09.780 | # Question
Title: Career advice about a short stint at a mathematics institute as a postdoc
I'm finishing my PhD, and am about to take up a postdoctoral/visiting professor position this Fall. I do have the option of taking leave for six months to attend a Mathematics institute, which is having a thematic year in a field of my interest.
It's clear that I need to be as productive as possible in the next three years to get a tenure-track position. Since I do not have a very specific problem that I'd like to work on with people at the institute, I'm worried that I'd be wasting six months of my time at the institute. On the other hand, its always nice to meet new people, make connections and learn new math.
I'd like to hear the community's experiences so I can make an informed decision. Thanks!
# Answer
> 7 votes
I did precisely what you're discussing (attend a semester program at a mathematics institute immediately after graduating), and I'd strongly encourage it.
You say you're worried about wasting six months of time because you don't have a specific problem to work on with the people there. Unless the only work you're expecting to do in the next six months depends on someone who's at your postdoc institution, presumably you can expect to be at least as productive at the institute as at your postdoc.
But as a newly minted PhD, you want to be productive, but not just by continuing to work in the exact speciality you carve out in a thesis. So you don't want to only be working on the specific problems you're already thinking about right now: you exactly want to encounter other perspectives and other problems and get some work done on those.
Which is basically the point of a thematic program. Even if you aren't going in with a specific problem in mind, you may well discover one. Someone may want to work on something with you, or may mention something as an open problem, or it may just come up while talking to people. And even if it doesn't, and you end up doing most of your work by yourself in your office, you'll still get a lot of exposure to the broader state of your field.
Also, of course, you'll meet a lot of people, which may pay off down the road. Even if you don't end up working on something with the person in the next office while you're there, you'll hear a lot about they're specialty, and perhaps a year from now suddenly realize that they're the perfect person to ask about something.
---
Tags: career-path, postdocs
--- |
thread-16821 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16821 | Post-doc positions in Mechanical Engineering | 2014-02-11T16:39:10.077 | # Question
Title: Post-doc positions in Mechanical Engineering
What is the best way to approach professors when looking for a Post-Doc position ? Are there any particular search tools for this type of position ?
I found a similar question on this website: How to maximise one's chances of getting a good postdoc position?
My question is more directed towards the way one should contact potential advisors, specially if they are in foreign countries and a face-to-face meeting is not possible. Is it better to contact directly the Professor or rather contact fellow PhD/PostDocs of that laboratory ? Is an e-mail sufficient or should you try to contact that person through tools like LinkedIn or ResearchGate ?
What would be a good time to do so ? 3 months, 6 months, a year before finishing the PhD ?
Should one be specific on what you would like to work on or rather general so that more possibilities are available ?
I guess this is a really open discussion topic where there is not a "correct" answer, so feel free to share your personal views and experience.
# Answer
Context: *I'm not in mechanical engineering, but am a potential post doc advisor.*
Remember: ootential advisors are (almost) always on the lookout for good people, even when they don't have money to hire them, because they always have grants submitted, so any time soon they may receive another grant.
It is fine to contact potential advisors directly, but beware that they will receive many such emails, including many that are easily considered as SPAM, due to their impersonal and indirect nature. This means that your emails need to be personal, and they need to quickly establish what you do and what value you could be to the potential advisor, for instance by finding a real connection with their research.
Having a concrete research proposal is also a valuable idea, but beware that a potential advisor may not be interested in supervising a topic that is outside their core research focus.
Contacting a potential advisor 3 months in advance would put you in the running for any positions that the advisor may have open.
Contacting a potential advisor 6 months in advance might be a way of putting your name in the advisor's mind, but it would probably be too early to actually get a position. That said, the advisor may have applied for some funding, and this may come available after those 6 months. Then having your name in the advisor's mind would be a good thing.
Contacting a potential advisor 12 months before you finish might be useful if there is a funding opportunity that you both could apply for.
Of course, contacting the potential advisor 3 months before you finish might lead to an opportunity 12 months down the track, and so on.
> 5 votes
# Answer
Nicholas, I am a mechanical engineering PhD and have had success applying for post-doc positions. Here is my profile (which may be relevant):
* Not the best publication record in peer reviewed journals
* High throughput of papers at peer reviewed conferences (ASME-IMECE, ASME-HTC, APS DFD) and some allied niche meetings (Wolfram conferences, Suborbital researchers conferences)
* Significant teaching experience (teaching labs, undergraduate courses and graduate level courses since the opportunity presented itself).
Now with my profile in mind, I applied to Post doc positions **more than 12 months in advance of my graduation date**. I applied for post doc positions in early to mid 2012 in anticipation that I would join or receive a positive job offer for early 2013 and mid/late 2013.
When approaching professors through their emails or through post doc adverts, this is what I focused on:
* **All** my applications were via email to either the Professor/PI or through post doc websites such as academicKeys, MathJobs or CFD Jobs and similar others.
* **All** my applications leveraged my ability to churn out conference worthy results and my teaching skills and how they related to time management.
* In all cases, if I thought that my research was particularly relevant to the position I was applying to, I included a "snippet" of a figure or plot from my research in the cover letter and described it's applicability to the job.
* In some cases I also included that I was available to have a conversation via a telecon/videocon/skype meeting and a good 10-15% of the PIs responded to it by having a chat with me.
The last two bullet points resulted in a 100% success rate for **me**.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: advisor, job-search, postdocs
--- |
thread-16866 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16866 | Affiliation on a paper written mostly in previous position | 2014-02-12T19:40:50.010 | # Question
Title: Affiliation on a paper written mostly in previous position
If research was done and paper was mostly written at institute A, but then it finally got accepted while the author moved to institute B, say, 3 years later. Should the affiliation of the author be
1. Only Institute A: because 95% of the support was from here, and work was done here
2. Both Institute A and B: in some sense, both institutes supported the work
3. Only Institute B: this is where the author is affiliated at the moment
related: Changing affiliation on publication
# Answer
There are no fixed rules but I would opt for your option (2). The affiliation is intended to aid in facilitating contact with the author but is of course useful to a department to show count the paper as a product from that institute. By listing your former address first indicating that that is where you did most of the work and then adding the second as *present address* provides the best and useful information for all parts. Option (1) means your present location is not disclosed which is a missed opportunity to locate you. Option (3) has the disadvantage that your former department are not associated with the work you performed there. So although all are acceptable, (2) would be the best (most polite and useful) way in your situation.
> 13 votes
# Answer
Firstly, **some journals have specific rules about what counts as an affiliation**. So if the journal has such rules you should follow them. These rules are variable, and I have seen all three of the options included. In my opinion, affiliation should match your current contact information **and**, on top of that, match any affiliation where you conducted the research, if possible. Note this means options (2) is best. If the journal has a rule precluding option (2), be sure to thank any institution you don't put as an affiliation in the acknowledgment section. All universities deserve credit for what they contributed. That said, in my experience the majority of people in this situation (not a huge sample size), use the affiliation that either matches their current contact information or their contact information from when they submitted the paper. However, this doesn't mean it is what they should do.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: publications, etiquette, affiliation
--- |
thread-16862 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16862 | Accepted post-doc and have subsequently received offers for full time faculty position - quandary | 2014-02-12T18:04:58.517 | # Question
Title: Accepted post-doc and have subsequently received offers for full time faculty position - quandary
After my PhD (Mechanical engineering) in 2013, I have been employed as a "visiting assistant professor-TERM" for 2013-2014 at the same university (in the USA). In this time I have been applying for several post-doc and faculty positions all around the world. The following fortuitous situation has now developed:
* I was interviewed for a post doc position at a famed lab in Europe and received a job offer. This job offer is contingent on me getting security clearance for this lab and getting a long term visa. One of the ground rules laid out was I would not accept other post-doc positions.
* Prior to this post-doc interview, I had interviewed for faculty position at US universities. Fortuitously a few weeks after this post-doc job offer, I have been offered full time faculty position at two other universities in the USA.
* Now the reason I did apply for post-doc jobs is that they would help me build my network, publish more and help with an eventual faculty position!
* **I am in some moral quandary now:** I know that I have given the post-doc PI my word and I will not renege on it. However, the faculty positions are definitely more lucrative and long term.
* I accepted the post-doc job because I was asked to make a decision soon and since I am a foreigner, timing is everything for me and a "job in hand is worth two in the bush" `Groans at quotation`.
The options (likely and unlikely) that present themselves to me are:
* **Unlikely:** Postpone the faculty positions to Fall of 2015. I don't think these universities would want to do that.
* **Likely:** Angle for better pay/better title at the post-doc jobs.
I am hoping that given the experience in this forum, people could throw some light on this situation.
**Edit: Advantages and disadvantages of these positions**
**Advantages and Disadv. of Postdoc:**
* (+) Great change of work, reputable lab, exposure to different work culture, deadlines, work pressure, expanding professional network on both sides of atlantic
* (-)1-2 years only, relatively poor pay
**Adv. and Disadv. of faculty position**
* (+) Faculty position nuf' said. Much Better pay, "long" term
* (-) Will miss out on once in a lifetime post doc at great lab
# Answer
A job offer which is contingent on a visa and (especially) on a security clearance is not a present job offer but the promise of a future job offer if certain conditions are met. I had a PhD student who wanted to accept such a job, but his security clearance didn't come through in time for him to start the job (note: I'm not saying that he failed his security clearance; it just wasn't resolved in time, even though he started the procedure months in advance). Thank goodness my student was also pursuing other job offers: he is now in a one-year temporary position with the intent to start the aforementioned postdoc next year...still assuming his security clearance comes through.
I am a little confused about the "no other postdoc offers" clause. Surely it cannot be that *just by applying for that job* you promised not to apply for other postdocs? (Why would anyone apply for a job under those conditions??) And as I understand what you've wrote, you haven't signed any forms or officially accepted anything but only given your word to someone that you intend to take the job. (If you did intend to take this job, then as Ben Webster writes, you certainly should have written back to other jobs that interviewed you and informed them that you are off the market. That was a mistake. I wouldn't beat yourself up about it too much though: none of us gets much experience in these matters from the point of the job applicant. Later we get the rest of our career looking at things from the other side, and "the right thing to do" becomes increasingly clear.)
If you haven't formally accepted the postdoc -- and you can't do so before a security clearance comes through, in my understanding -- and the tenure-track job is much more desirable to you, than I think you are legally 100% in the clear in taking the tenure-track job. Ethically speaking: well, you haven't acted in the best possible way, as mentioned above, and I would not lightly go back on my word to a senior academic who did me a great service....so it shouldn't be a light decision, but in my opinion it would still be understandable and ultimately acceptable if you took the tenure-track job under these circumstances.
It would indeed be a classier move to explore the option of deferring the tenure track job and taking the postdoc for one academic year, or even one semester. Deferring a tenure track offer is quite common in the contemporary academic world: in my department (mathematics, University of Georgia) about half of our recent hires have completed a postdoc and arrived one year later, and recently we had someone *start* a one-year postdoc at UGA with a tenure-track job waiting for her afterwards (which she did then go on to take). You should understand though that that simply may not be possible for reasons having little or nothing to do with their desire to have you: the decision will probably be made rather on their ability to find personnel to cover your academic responsibilities.
Finally, it may also be a good idea to communicate your thoughts to your putative supervisor. Maybe she will be totally okay with it, and with her blessing your conscience should be pretty clear. Or maybe changing your mind will cause trouble for her in a way that you don't see. Either way it seems respectful to keep her informed.
> 19 votes
# Answer
Maybe I shouldn't start the answer with the judgey part, but if you don't feel like you can accept the faculty positions because of your previous commitment, why the hell didn't you pull your name from consideration the moment you accepted the European job? On my personal list of academic job hunting sins, not withdrawing your name from a position you've decided you can't accept is much worse than declining a postdoc offer for a TT. So, there's really no ethical choice at this point, so you may as well do what's best for you long term.
That said, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the possibility of starting the TT job with a delay. This is very common in mathematics (my field); I've done it, and I know dozens of other people who have as well. I can imagine reasons it would be harder in mechanical engineering, but it's worth a shot. An important thing to remember as a job candidate is that once you have the offer, the tables are reversed. They've shown their hand, they've made a time, financial and psychic investment in you, and their other candidates are slowly slipping away as they wait for your answer. They really want you to say yes, so a concession like letting you take an initial leave is a small one. After all, they don't even need to pay for it! Universities are very flexible about letting you do things if they don't have to pay for them.
I mean, really they should want you to do this, since you'll come to them better trained, with more fresh ideas, and a wider perspective. So sell it on those grounds, and I bet you'll succeed.
> 24 votes
# Answer
It's an inherent risk when hiring good postdocs that they could get a faculty job offer and leave. Take the faculty job offer and decline the postdoc offer. It's what almost everyone in your position would do.
(Trying to get a year off from the faculty job so you can work at the postdoc job for one year as promised is a very reasonable thing to do first. But I think it's generally a mistake to decline a faculty offer in favor of a postdoc job, unless you are very confident you can get an equal or better faculty offer in the near future.)
> 21 votes
---
Tags: job, postdocs, faculty-application
--- |
thread-16872 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16872 | Does the admission committee for graduate studies look down on foundation courses | 2014-02-12T21:02:27.577 | # Question
Title: Does the admission committee for graduate studies look down on foundation courses
Many universities do not accept international secondary school qualifications unless there is an agreement between countries. The agreement I think compares the standard used in the country of the university (e.g. GCSE A-levels or SQA (Advanced) Highers in the UK) with the qualifications of another country.
International Students with unaccepted qualifications are given a conditional offer in some UK universities. The student has to do a "Foundation Course in ......" in an institution affiliated with the university (an "International College") and by passing with a certain grade, they go to 2nd year of a 4 year bachelor's degree or to 1st year of a 3 year bachelor's.
Beside the topics related to the degree, the foundation course focuses a lot on academic skills such as writing, presenting, note taking etc.. On the university transcript, the first year appears as a "credit transfer".
My question (finally), does the admission committee look down on such certificates even if the student got the bachelor's degree with a high GPA?
If it makes a difference, I would appreciate it if answers are given related to: 1- entry to MS degree 2- direct entry to PhD.
# Answer
In general, if the GPA is high, this shouldn't be too much of a big deal. Normally I would look upon such a class as equivalent to an introductory-level course, and would not "look down" upon such a course. If the grade in such a course is poor, however, that could affect the decision.
If you are concerned about reviewers at another school evaluating this course appropriately, you could always include a note about it somewhere as part of your application (either master's or PhD).
> 3 votes
---
Tags: graduate-admissions
--- |
thread-16825 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16825 | I have been invited to peer review a manuscript for a reputable journal. This is my first so I have a few questions to the more experienced | 2014-02-11T21:37:18.953 | # Question
Title: I have been invited to peer review a manuscript for a reputable journal. This is my first so I have a few questions to the more experienced
* Are PhD students generally invited for such reviews? I was under the impression they would prefer someone with a Doctorate degree or more experience in the field.
* What are the advantages/disadvantages of accepting to review?
* The general discipline that the paper treats is related to my field of study but my active research is not necessarily related. Is it still OK to accept the invitation to review?
# Answer
It is not unusual that PhD students get invited as reviewers, after all a PhD student will likely be a true expert in the field of the PhD. If you are a student during your first years of study, the request may be a little premature, generally speaking but if your are in your final year then it will be a good experience. What you need to consider is whether you can provide an insightful review of parts of or preferably the entire paper. You should have a sense of why you were invited, i.e. why your expertise may have been asked for.
Peer review is a vital part of the publishing process so getting experience of reviewing other's material is very worthwhile. If you continue in academia this will be expected of you so you will have to start sometime. You can definitely add reviewing for journals in your CV, not mentioning what you reviewed but certainly for what journal you have reviewed.
If yo have not done a review before you should probably ask someone (or preferable more than one) more experienced within your field for a brief outline of what should be included in the review and how to formulate the review.
> 16 votes
# Answer
I would just add to Peter's answer couple more remarks:
* It is **important to write reviews**. I can tell you that the list of names of people who don't do reviews is, at least amongst people I know, a "public secret". I mean, people who don't do reviews are known for it and it's certainly a negative thing.<sup>1</sup> On the other hand, if you reject because you don't feel strong enough to do it, that's fine. Still, there has to be "first" once.
* If it's your first review, **tell that to the editor** once you decide to do it. Just a brief mail: *I have recieved the preprint and I will review it. However, I would like to bring to your attention that this is the first review I am writing.*<sup>2</sup> After all, in many cases (especially at conference reviews), you have to choose a "confidentality score" from 1 to 5, which exactly says how strong do you as a reviewer feel considering the review.
* Discuss with your supervisor. It's surely ethical to ask someone close to you for opinion/help, so don't hesitate to approach him if you feel so. You may agree with him that you read the article yourself, mark what things you consider problematic, and then he helps you classify which things are crucial and which are not, and how much positive or negative the review should be. After all, **your supervisor** is not only your research director, he **is there to help you** (but not to do your job) with all parts of the scientific work.
---
<sup>1</sup> There're people who reject reviews in Elsevier and Springer and some other publishers' journals, because they don't like the fact that these companies profit from it a lot. That's probably fine, too.
<sup>2</sup> It's in general good practice to reply to the editor and say whether you accept. Unfortunately, not many people do it.
> 9 votes
# Answer
1. Yes, PhD student often have more time available than Faculty and they are actively keeping up with the literature themselves.
2. Disadvantages - a good review takes quite a bit of time. Advantages - it's useful experience, you can add it to your CV, you will learn a little bit more about active work in your field.
3. Yes, that's fine.
In terms of writing a good review, you will find a lot of helpful advice from any Google search. The one thing I would add to that is that (at least in Computer Science) it is sometimes quite easy to spot reviews from PhD students as they tend to be harsh and unhelpful. As a student yourself you are probably used to getting a lot of feedback on your work, and that is good. Don't be tempted to take your frustration out on the poor person who has written the paper you are reviewing.
Remember that at least part of the purpose of reviewing is to **increase** the quality of work in the field. If you review a paper which is rejected, likely it will be submitted elsewhere. If you accept the paper, the authors will improve it before final submission. So the purpose of the review, apart from quality control, is to tell the authors specifically how to improve their work. Avoid being vague in your criticism and avoid taking an unprofessional tone. Even if reviews are "blind", write as if the authors know you (and chances are that at some point you will meet them). Think about how you would wish your supervisors to give you feedback, and take your own advice.
By far the best reviews I have ever had have not been the most complimentary ones, or reviews from the best places I have submitted to, but they have certainly been the most helpful. They contained comments like "X is a poor presentation of the data, use the technique mentioned in paper Y". Or, "the author has used technique Z, this is outdated and should be replaced with W". The worst reviews I have had may well have been correct in what they said, but they have also been rude and unhelpful. For example, "X is not novel" is a fine criticism to make, but to be *useful* you need to say where X has been done before.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: phd, journals, peer-review
--- |
thread-16879 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16879 | In what ways would co-authoring a graduate research paper as an undergraduate help me? | 2014-02-12T21:44:09.297 | # Question
Title: In what ways would co-authoring a graduate research paper as an undergraduate help me?
I have been working on a graduate level research project, with the bonus of being listed as a co-author if I make a significant contribution (which I likely will). I am still an undergraduate, but have significant experience (professional and educational) in the field.
My question is: Is this a big deal? If I go to grad school in that field, would this allow me to obtain a PhD quicker?
What if I don't go to grad school, but choose to work in the field, would being listed as co-author on a research project of this level hold enough weight to warrant listing on my resume?
# Answer
It doesn't exactly "allow you to get a Ph.D quicker". However, you would have more experience in academic writing than if you hadn't contributed to the writing in the paper. Writing a paper isn't just "writing" a report - a lot of analysis, interpretation, and technical work goes into papers and these are skills you want to have as a Ph.D student. Being a co-author on a paper will make your application stand out.
If you go into any job, you can list this as a project that you have worked on. If you are familiar with the contents of the paper, then you can talk about it as if it was another project that you've worked on. Having your name on the paper is verifiable and can look pretty impressive especially if you are familiar with the details.
> 3 votes
# Answer
It won't let you get a PhD quicker, but it will improve your chances of getting into PhD programs. It will also give you valuable experience in the process of writing a paper and getting it published. This could result in you publishing more papers during your grad school career (because you'll be better at it), which could improve your chances of getting a desirable job after you finish your PhD.
> 3 votes
# Answer
The benefit will hopefully be that you get to learn how to prepare and write a scientific paper. If you continue to graduate school then having been involved at this level will obviously be a positive. If you are not planning to continue with research you will still benefit from learning the process since academic writing is something you will likely continue doing in a professional role. In addition you will have some insights into how papers are written which may help you read and assess papers and reports. Since communication through written reports is key for any academic work this will be of use to you. It may not count for very much when applying for a job but you should also consider the skills you will improve when taking part in such a process.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: research-process, research-undergraduate, authorship
--- |
thread-16841 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16841 | Should I charge entry for a public lecture? | 2014-02-12T08:13:51.127 | # Question
Title: Should I charge entry for a public lecture?
I am a research scientist, and as part of my role I am expected to perform some form of public outreach and engagement. I enjoy outreach activities and giving public lectures.
I have a suspicion that free public lectures are usually poorly attended. I suspect that the attitude is one of "Well, it's free and you get what you pay for". Certainly the quality of artistic performances that I've seen is strongly correlated with entrance fee.
While it is a reasonable expectation that my Faculty would pay for the costs of lecture room hire, advertising, possibly even tea and biscuits, I wonder if there is an advantage of charging a nominal fee to attend, to overcome the low-quality perception of a free lecture.
# Answer
> 19 votes
I doubt exclusivity as represented by an entrance fee would attract people to a lecture. After al, it is the subject that is of importance. thus the advertisement is key and the way you set your topic in a wider perspective. If the topic concern people such as climate change, environmental issues, medicine to mention a few, people will come. It will be more difficult to attract people to topics they either do not know anything about or are not interested in (or in the worst case, is not widely reported in media). Thus, my negative perspective is that the success of attracting an audience is to a large extent a question of how the topic is known by and an interest of the public.
So, I would advice against charging for the lecture and put all efforts into making the lecture as interesting as possible for the intended audience. And, to do this by coupling the topic to a larger picture that is relevant to the public. And finally, if you do not get a huge audience, it does not mean there is anything wrong with your research or lecture, public interest varies over time and research can have huge relevance for important aspects of society and life without attracting a wide audience.
# Answer
> 16 votes
I remember this issue from my econ 101 class (far too long ago). The teacher said **"As the price of something goes up, demand goes down, all else remaining equal."** A student responded *"But if you increase the price, you increase the 'perceived value' of your offering thus more people will want it then your demand will increase."*
One saw things from a marketing perspective and one saw from an economics perspective.
The teacher, however, responded that **the student's statement is generally only true for luxury items** which demand higher than normal market prices for their category of product.
I believe your thinking is in line with the student in this story. I would not consider a talk from an academic to be a luxury item (even for a 'rockstar academic'). I would go along with Peter in his answer and posdef in the comment: The cheaper (best=free) the lecture, the more likely I am to go and the more likely I am to encourage my friends to go, since they cannot complain about it being too expensive.
# Answer
> 4 votes
If your work is publicly funded in some way, then your outreach should be free. If attendance is poor, consider finding some other venue for your outreach, such as an event hosted by a school or museum where you will have a more "captive" audience.
# Answer
> 2 votes
A possibility that I have not seen mentioned: contribute the lecture as part of a fundraiser.
This stems from the belief that while information should be free, the actions of distributing it should not. If you find an organization (possibly even on campus) toward which you are sympathetic and might have such returned because of the subject matter of your lecture, you might offer the lecture as part of a fundraising effort, requesting a minimal contribution. This may achieve both goals of increasing its perceived value (as suggested elsewhere in this thread) and having you perform more of a service than just delivering information. A side benefit is that the recipient organization normally will handle the logistics of scheduling the talk and getting the audience.
Check with your university on approved ways of doing this: I have not done anything like this in this millenium, so the rules may have changed.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I think whether or not charging a fee is a feasible idea depends on the circumstances. There are several factors at play here.
* **Your role.** This is the hearer's primary perception of you. E.g. I think it is quite common that authors who read from their book charge some fee. This would be perceived like the artistic performance you mention, and it is also the case for journalists talking about e.g. political topics. On the other hand, it is really (at least here) uncommon to charge entrance fees for scientific lectures for the public.
* **The topic.** The "norms" of fees for lectures may vary according to your topic.
If you are talking about some medical topic and charge even a nominal fee, I think there is a risk of repelling people more than one could attribute to the fee: you may leave a slightly "fishy" impression that you are talking *for the fee* and thus maybe you are saying what you think the audience wants to hear as opposed to giving an independent opinion. Just like the default opinion is "be cautious" if the lecture were sponsored say, by a pharma company.
I don't think it would matter in this case if the fee is so nominal that it doesn't even cover the rent for the lecture hall. Of course in this case, you could turn the argument and say "I'm charging a fee of you, dear audience, so that I do not need to go to pharma industry for sponsoring".
For topics which are also discussed politically, I think the reasoning should be roughly similar. Though people are used to hearing speakers that have a clear political opinion, and there are scenarios where it would probably be perceived as normal if entrance is charged (see the book author reading).
If on the other hand you are going to give an awesome experimental lecture, I think no concerns about your integrity would be linked to the fee. People may be willing to pay just as they pay the entrance fee for a science museum.
Note that none of these points looks like drawing a larger audience (unless maybe the fees are to cover extra advertisement), just like repelling some or not.
A completely different consideration: **Why not choose a smaller lecture hall?** It is not very pleasant to be in an empty-looking lecture hall, neither for the speaker nor for the audience. Much better if the hall small enough to be well filled. And a slightly overfilled lecture hall leaves the nice impression that far more people did come than were thought to come... May also be creating an impression that this lecture is an insider tip.
---
Tags: fees, outreach
--- |
thread-16747 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16747 | Citing papers that use unpublished data that I want to publish | 2014-02-09T23:49:15.853 | # Question
Title: Citing papers that use unpublished data that I want to publish
I am getting ready to submit a method paper which describes a dataset that I had created. However, I was late getting the paper ready, and a couple of other colleagues used the dataset in their own papers, and those papers are already online (I am coauthor in them).
The other papers do not describe in detail how the dataset was constructed. I am afraid that if cite them, it might harm my chances of getting my own paper on the dataset published. Any suggestions on what would be the right thing to do?
thanks!
# Answer
> 2 votes
If you have at least 40 % new material you can submit your paper to journals and you should also cite the other paper without any hesitation.
# Answer
> 2 votes
If the new paper you are submitting adds something significant on how the data was generated it should be OK to include it again and cite the other papers- it would be not formally correct to not cite them especially since you contributed the data.
---
Tags: publications
--- |
thread-16847 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16847 | How to convince your PhD adviser about the research value of the topic? | 2014-02-12T12:10:30.077 | # Question
Title: How to convince your PhD adviser about the research value of the topic?
I'm already in the second year of my PhD studies and my advisor insists on pursuing a very vague track, in order to produce *some* results that *may* be publishable. The problem is that the topic itself was extensively studied in the past two decades and there's little maneuver space without overlapping with others' past ideas (it's in applied Computer Science). My adviser seems to be constrained by his grant committee to have a solution for the topic's problem using a certain kind of technique that will be outperformed by other, more specific algorithms right from the start. Although it has other benefits, they're not interesting for this particular topic (since they're not going to be used in any way).
To put it simple, how can you tell your advisor that what they want you to do is like killing flies with TNT and then have the denotation site rebuilt in order to get rid of those flies? (in an elegant way, of course).
I should mention that my advisor has a different area of expertise than the one chosen for my PhD program and often seems not to having the slightest hints on what state of the art means for that particular field and why it is important not to reiterate past methods and algorithms just because they can be applied in a slightly different field from the one they were initially proposed for.
# Answer
> 11 votes
I believe you are rushing ahead of yourself. In popular areas as applied CS, all areas one way or another may be considered overcrowded. Take any hot topic right now and you are going to see multiple publications with incremental updates / improvements. Still, a new dataset or a new test case ignites new research and so-on. No CS problem may be considered entirely solved. The fastest algorithm may be impossible to use for some datasets, its preprocessing may not scale and slower algorithms may be more parallelizable and more attractive to use. New hardware (CUDA / multiprocessor chips) change the way we write algorithms and so-on. There is a not a single criteria for what is the "best" solution. Stil, this is something you cannot know just by a literature survey.
Have you actually implemented any of the previous solutions to get a grasp of their advantages / disadvantages? Will you be able tomorrow to implement on your src code the state-of-the-art in this suggested problem or you assume it is too perfect to improve (to avoid the trouble of actually doing the implementation). Have you asked /contacted any of the authors if they can provide datasets or binaries for their solutions? Have you actually created multiple datasets to test previous solutions (and yours)? Or is everything just in your head. If yes, you must get them out of your head and into your PC.
If you actually implemented a quick and dirty (1-2 months) implementation of your advisor's suggestion, get some insight of how it behaves and 100% confirmed that your results are much worse than state-of-the-art solutions then no one (including your advisor) will object to you changing direction (no one likes dead ends). But this time will not be wasted. You have learnt what went wrong, you improved your coding skills and you see the research area more clearly. Maybe then, you can even come up with a test-case where your solution is way better than previous works, you perhaps know how to combine this problem with other related sub-problems and you have a solution that works (although not optimally) to partially satisfy the grant's requirements.
So, out of the books / papers and start writing some code!! It is more fun after all.
# Answer
> 5 votes
It is difficult to say very much about this without knowing some of the details of your research area. However, I think you are probably being a bit harsh on your supervisor, for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, every PhD student has to start somewhere, and replicating work from a good paper, or otherwise solving and already solved problem, is a perfectly reasonable way to getter a better understanding of the area you are working in. You will gain an appreciation for some of the subtleties of the area and some insights that will help inform your future, hopefully more novel, work.
Secondly, if this is part of a funded project then it has to be done. Gaining experience on a funded project, especially if you can collaborate with others, is good training for your future career and a good way to make contact with people you might work with in future. It may also be that follow-on funding from this work could become part of your own future work on your PhD.
Thirdly, if you can get a publication out of this work, even if it only obliquely relates to your PhD topic, will help you establish a reputation. When you come to your viva, if you have a authored few publications it will be difficult for your examiners to fail you since you have already demonstrated an ability to work at PhD level, as validated by the fact that your papers have been peer-reviewed.
I could go on, but you get the picture. Your supervisor probably has a number of reasons for wanting you to take this work on and it would benefit you to talk these reasons over quite openly. Don't assume that the work has no value!
# Answer
> 4 votes
If you have serious doubts about the value and success of your PhD project, try to change the supervisor and the laboratory. It is the job of the supervisor to persuade you that the project will succeed under the normal expected work input from your side.
The supervisor may use arguments like he and his laboratory has multiple published works in this area, there are some preliminary results that show good prospects, it has never been a failed PhD project under his supervision, etc. If heard and proven, these may be reasonable to consider. From the other side, your case as described looks miserable, if you see everything correctly.
Most important, do not try to suggest and push alternative topic yourself as you are not competent to do this. Even if the supervisor would yield at the end, your idea may actually be worse.
---
Tags: phd, research-process, advisor
--- |
thread-16824 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16824 | What is the process for PhD applications and contacting professors in France? | 2014-02-11T17:36:56.380 | # Question
Title: What is the process for PhD applications and contacting professors in France?
I would like to apply to a PhD program in France, but I am having trouble understanding the admission process. How should/could I submit my application? Is it proper to contact the Professor I would like to work with and ask about any openings? If yes, what should I include in my mail?
I am only familiar with the admission process in US institutions.
# Answer
TL;DR: in France you have to find first the supervisor, then you apply for a funding. If you have a funding of your own, you have to find a supervisor to be admitted. In both cases : you need the supervisor first.
There is various things to know when you apply for a PhD in France :
* It is forbidden to be a PhD without having funding. In France a PhD student is considered both as a student and an employee.
* The funding can be a state funding, an industrial funding, a funding on a research contract (either from a national funding agency or a company), or you can also do your PhD while working elsewhere (some teachers in secondary schools are doing their PhD this way).
Industrial funding and research contract are basically given to the supervisor, who can choose alone amongst all candidates. So for PhD with those fundings you have to contact directly the targeted supervisors.
State funding is given by a committee to a bundle (candidate, subject), this means that a professor, with a subject, has to find a candidate and then propose to the committe this candidate on his subject. Then the candidate is on his own : (s)he will generally have to send an application letter, with a reference letter from the supervisor, and if (s)he is shortlisted, (s)he will have to make a short presentation (either on location or using skype or a similar service).
Last case: you are funded on your own (job, external funding for foreigners). Even in this case, the procedure is that you find the supervisor, then you apply.
> 6 votes
# Answer
I'm a PhD candidate in France (economics) and yes, you can (and, in fact, must) contact a professor first. He or she will then direct you to source for funding and through the whole administrative process (the funniest part...).
> 3 votes
---
Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, professorship, france
--- |
thread-7211 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7211 | Are there Conference Proceedings that have impact factor? | 2013-01-14T20:10:55.813 | # Question
Title: Are there Conference Proceedings that have impact factor?
In Medicine, an Impact Factor of a journal is important indicator (IF) of journal quality.
Are there examples of conference proceedings that have a formal IF figure computed?
# Answer
> 17 votes
> Are there examples of conference proceedings that have a formal IF figure computed?
There is nothing like **the** "formal IF". What you are referring to is probably the Thomson Reuter's Journal Citation Reports impact factor which is one of the most respected measures in the academic world. As such, to my best knowledge there is no such thing for conferences.
However, there are other sources which could prove useful as an estimate of conference quality:
* As already Charles pointed out, there are exist cached versions of Citeseer's estimated impact factors for computer science, but this is too old to be useful.
* Furthermore, Google Scholar lists ranks of top venues mixing journals and conferences in their listings. Here is an example of top publications for AI, as you might see, there are several conferences mixed in. They list h-index of the venue instead of an impact factor.
* Another very useful, resource for ranking conferences is Microsoft Academic Search, where you can find profiles of conferences, such as this one for IJCAI and they also publish rankings for different categories of venues, see an example here.
* Finally, you might find useful the Australian Research Council's ERA conference rankings from 2010. In 2012 they decided not to rank conferences any more, but the 2010 list is still very useful and at least somewhat authoritative. They would rank conferences into categories according to their own quality metrics, which however (at least in my area) correlate with the community's perception.
# Answer
> 6 votes
Yes, the impact factor being usually the number of citations divided by the number of publications, it's possible to calculate the impact factor of conferences too. I know Citeseer used to keep a "Venue impact ranking" in Computer Science, but the link seems to be broken now. I found however a cached version from 2003.
# Answer
> 3 votes
As I just came across this questions. I think walkmanyi already came up with a nice overview. However, I realized that the SCImago Journal Rank indicator was not mentioned so far. According to Wikipedia SCImago uses the same formula as that for the calculation of the Thomson Reuters impact factor. SCImago also features many conferences.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Some years ago Thomson Reuters decided to drop Proceedings from their regular citation index list and start a separate proceedings index. This caused a lot of problems for journals that published papers from meetings but where the review procedure was as stringent as in a regular journal. I guess Thomson Reuters thinking was that proceedings would be lower quality in general. The solution to the problem for one particular journal (that did not have any wordings in its title that referred to proceedings) was to state in the journal "selected papers from the 'so-and-so' meeting". It would then pass as a proper journal.
I do not know how the proceedings index faired but obviosuly this meant that many journals were dropped from the index and they were thus not resulting in impact factors any more.
So from the point of Thomson Reuters, they wanted to separate possible lower quality proceedings journals from higher quality refereed journals and create a separate index for the proceedings. What the main reason for this was in unclear since it struck both higher and lower quality journals without distinction.
(I must admit I feel awkward using high and low quality in this reply but think of it as a relative term)
# Answer
> 0 votes
hye PPl! Excellent blog , Actually conference proceedings have no IMPACT factor . If you are still aint buying it then read the link below http://conferenceseries.iop.org/content/quick\_links/Policy%20on%20Impact%20Factor
Policy on Impact Factor Under current policy, Thompson Reuters (the owners of ISI Web of Science) do not calculate Impact Factors for ANY proceedings titles. Therefore, proceedings journals are not issued with Impact Factors. hope it clears the ambiguity
# Answer
> -4 votes
At the moment, there are 56 proceedings-journals which have an Impact Factor according to the only source of Impact factors, the Journal Citation Reports (Thompson Reuters). These journals have the word proceedings in their title, and presumably concern conference proceedings.
**Later edit:** This list is just a suggestion which might help to gather some additional information. The titles have not been checked they really are Conference Proceedings.
```
- ALLERGY ASTHMA PROC
- ASLIB PROC
- J INVEST DERM SYMP P
- MATH PROC CAMBRIDGE
- MAYO CLIN PROC
- P ACAD NAT SCI PHILA
- P AM MATH SOC
- P BIOL SOC WASH
- P COMBUST INST
- P EDINBURGH MATH SOC
- P ENTOMOL SOC WASH
- P EST ACAD SCI
- P GEOLOGIST ASSOC
- P I CIVIL ENG-CIV EN
- P I CIVIL ENG-ENG SU
- P I CIVIL ENG-GEOTEC
- P I CIVIL ENG-MAR EN
- P I CIVIL ENG-MUNIC
- P I CIVIL ENG-STR B
- P I CIVIL ENG-TRANSP
- P I CIVIL ENG-WAT M
- P I MECH ENG A-J POW
- P I MECH ENG B-J ENG
- P I MECH ENG C-J MEC
- P I MECH ENG D-J AUT
- P I MECH ENG E-J PRO
- P I MECH ENG F-J RAI
- P I MECH ENG G-J AER
- P I MECH ENG H
- P I MECH ENG I-J SYS
- P I MECH ENG J-J ENG
- P I MECH ENG K-J MUL
- P I MECH ENG L-J MAT
- P I MECH ENG M-J ENG
- P I MECH ENG O-J RIS
- P I MECH ENG P-J SPO
- P IEEE
- P INDIAN AS-MATH SCI
- P JPN ACAD A-MATH
- P JPN ACAD B-PHYS
- P LOND MATH SOC
- P NATL A SCI INDIA A
- P NATL A SCI INDIA B
- P NATL ACAD SCI USA
- P NUTR SOC
- P ROMANIAN ACAD A
- P ROY SOC A-MATH PHY
- P ROY SOC B-BIOL SCI
- P ROY SOC EDINB A
- P STEKLOV I MATH+
- P YORKS GEOL SOC
- SADHANA-ACAD P ENG S
- TRANSPL P
```
---
Tags: impact-factor, medicine
--- |
thread-16915 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16915 | How to cite Nature's "Supplementary Information" papers? | 2014-02-13T11:11:18.933 | # Question
Title: How to cite Nature's "Supplementary Information" papers?
In one of my works I cite several times this kind of publications, but I don't know the recommended procedure to refer to them at the end. For articles I usually take `bibtex` code from Google Scholar or a similar site, but these papers do not figure there. I'm not sure even whether the *best writing practice* is to cite them or just to cite the main article, when referring to some specific information that is not published in this main article.
# Answer
Supplementary information is always part of a paper. Just cite that paper as you would normally do. If you want to specifically mention in your text that you are referring to supplementary information you can just call it by its title, something like "(Supplementary Figure 2)".
> 4 votes
---
Tags: publications, citations
--- |
thread-16914 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16914 | Application to create 3D figures for papers | 2014-02-13T11:02:14.290 | # Question
Title: Application to create 3D figures for papers
I would like to know of a good and easy-to-use application to create simple but visually appealing vector figures such as spheres, planes, lines.
It should permit transparencies for example, and 3D coordinate representation to be able to show concepts in the 3D space, such as tangency or crossing.
Thanks!
# Answer
In this Wikipedia link you can find a list of different vector graphics softwares available, giving some details on their use and characteristics.
From your question it is hard to say what is it that you want to do and seems similar to this question. Plus, there is probably not a single answer to this question. I personally use **Inkscape**, which is quite powerful in terms of possibilities and it's *Open Source* !
> 1 votes
---
Tags: publications, graphics
--- |
thread-16888 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16888 | What does it mean to have vacation time in European academia? | 2014-02-12T23:11:06.477 | # Question
Title: What does it mean to have vacation time in European academia?
I am a US-based researcher who recently accepted a postdoc in Sweden. My offer letter states that I will be entitled to a 6-week annual vacation during my appointment. Being from the US where I have been in charge of structuring my own schedule (except for teaching), this obviously confuses me for several reasons.
1. First, I am not sure if we are legally entitled to vacation days in the US, but even if we were, I have never seen people officially take "vacations" in the US. This is, in my mind what school administrative staff or office workers do, not academics. Over the past years, I have structured my work and vacation time around my teaching schedule and figured out when to rest and when to work on my own without having to count days or ask my department's permission. Of course nobody cares when I take vacations as long as my vacation time does not overlap with my teaching schedule.
2. So the fact that my new department is emphasizing "legal vacation hours" is a little strange. What does vacations mean when I will likely be spending whatever free time, rushing to finish my manuscript, grant proposals, or course prep anyways?
3. Also, does the fact that the school is counting vacation days mean that I have to be in my office during "normal work hours"? I've never heard anything sillier, because for academics, number of hours in office does not equate productivity, and I actually like switching up my work location time to time rather than being stuck in an office! (In the US, I only show up to school about 3 days a week-- mostly when I have to teach and want to be in office. Other days, I just go to a local cafe to write. If possible, I'd like to keep things this way...)
I'm wondering if anyone can clarify what academic vacation means in Europe and if it really differs from the US?
# Answer
Welcome to European vacation regulations :-).
You are entitled to X days of vacations per year. Literally. There's no hook to it. You simply ask the employer, basically your direct supervisor (head of the group, department, dean?), and if there's no reason to say "no", they will approve it. Of course taking time off during days when you are teaching needs to be explained very very well, but if your vacation days do not interfere with teaching obligations, or similar duties, you will be given the time off. That's it.
Normally at universities, unless you have a very fussy boss, nobody cares when you take vacations time (still recall non-interference with teaching), but most people take several weeks off in the summer and people with a family also during school vacation periods (country dependent). In companies, the system tends to be stricter, you should plan any longer breaks several months ahead and coordinate with your colleagues so that it does not happen that everybody leaves for two weeks and a company stops. At universities that is a non-issue, though.
Legal vacation time means you are entitled to that time. The employer is obliged to give you that time off. Suppose they will refuse to approve your vacations when you wish to take them (e.g., when you work in agricultural sector you shouldn't leave at the harvest time). In that (rare!) case, they will have to select and offer you another period of (usually at least two weeks of uninterrupted) vacations period some other time in the year.
But there is another potential surprise for you. If you won't take all your vacations in a year, since you are entitled to that time, it will be (in all countries and places I worked, but there might be local differences) shifted into the next year when you will be entitled to the standard X days per year according to the union negotiations PLUS whatever carry-over from the last year. The regulations regarding how far into the future that contingent of vacation days can be pushed differ, but normally the carry-over is useful in the very next year in full. Sometimes you might even be obliged to take it. Because if not, the employer might have a problem - again, you are entitled to vacations. And the employer can even force you take time off in order to use that vacations budget. The reason is that they don't like the idea of accumulating and then even making use of several months of vacations in a row.
As for being in the workplace during working hours, again, regulations differ but most of the time there is at least a certain period (10oo-15oo?) when you are obliged to be there. But in reality at universities I never heard of anybody making any fuss about this (except for Eastern European universities, where it can be a matter of local department politics - but that is of no concern to your case). Think about it as a legal issue. If something happens to you at office hours (a car accident), it might be considered a work-related accident, so the employers try to counter-act that by requiring you to be in the office unless allowed not to.
Later edit:
> What does vacations mean when I will likely be spending whatever free time, rushing to finish my manuscript, grant proposals, or course prep anyways?
You structure your time. It doesn't have to be the way you describe. What use does an employer have of burned out and stressed out employees?
Even later edit:
Just for completeness, being entitled to take vacations also means that often you will be able to trade days off for salary. Usually the union contracts regulate, or prevent this, but for example when you are leaving, the employer will either compensate the unused fraction of the annual vacations budget by money, or will force you to take it right before leaving the position - during that time you will receive the regular salary up to the date of leave.
> 21 votes
# Answer
This answer will just clarify Swedish conditions since that is where you are heading. The following applies to Swedish universities and other state employment:
* A fixed number of days of vacation are given by law and varies a little depending on seniority and other factors. The basic number is 35 workdays a year. If you are employed a shorter time the number decreases directly as the fraction of the time of a year you work.
* Vacation days are salaried and you also receive a smaller amount extra for vacation days.
* You will be asked to place your vacation days in advance. You can always change the dates later.
* You will not be insured for work-place accidents by your employer on your vacation days. This means you should retract vacation days if you actually work when you should be on vacation.
* You cannot save more than 31 days of vacation in total to be carried over from one year to the next.
* When you complete your position, days of vacation not taken will be reimbursed as payment.
* A work week is 40 hours and you should normally be at work. However, there are possibilities to get permission to work from home, particularly during summer.
In reality no-one really cares if you work or not on vacation days but as I stated above there are possible negative effects one should be aware of. No-one cares where and when you work. As a post-doc you will probably not be involved in much bureaucracy and so all you need to figure out is when your collaborators want you to be there and learn the local *modus operandi*.
I would not advice you to be invisible since part of a career in academia means involving yourself in activities and politics of departments. People will probably not be very up-front with their opinions about your presence/absence but will not look very favourable on someone who gets a salary and an office and never shows up. A funny law in Sweden is also the coffee(tea)-break, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. this is a time and place where you socialize with others in the workplace apart from immediate colleagues. You absence from these will not go unnoticed. This will not prevent you from working elsewhere for weeks at a time if you wish but showing some presence outside of mandatory chores will likely be expected.
> 21 votes
# Answer
Peter Jansson's answer is right on the spot. I'd just add a few more pieces of advice and "exemplary" cases I picked up along the way:
* most people here in Europe will refer to their PhD/postdoc as a *job* rather than *school* (you're not going to school, you're working)
* it's almost the *perfectly evaluated job*: people judge you by how much you produce, not how much time you behind is in you office chair (of course, the "almost" part comes from all the things Peter Jansson already warned you about: you should be there and visible)
* if you have an obligation away from the office, or in some cases, it's simpler to work from home, nobody usually has a problem with it. Last year, I think I had maybe 5-6 days when I did not go to the office at all and worked from hom, and another 5ish when I had obligations in the middle of the day and would spend half a day working from home.
Some of these included after-flue recovery (e.g. I felt fine but was coughing frequently... I worked from home as to not disturb my noise-sensitive officemate), some tasks were just simpler to do from home (some tests etc.).
* People in Europe actually would like you to have free *free* time and not to rush all the time: (this might be a bit special cause I'm in France, but) I strongly suspect that our lab cafeteria is closing at 5:15PM to deprive people of coffee and make them go home.
* This whole "free time" of course does not work: I know people coming to the office around noon and leaving between 10PM and midnight on a regular basis. Nobody minds...
* ... unless you don't have any overlap with your team and especially your supervisor. You should have a schedule that overlaps with their at least partially.
* Where I am, it's not really sunny really often, and there's a lot of people that start missing the sun very soon. I had a friend who would spend every single sunny afternoon in a cafe (working) instead of the office. He was sharing the office with his supervisor -- and it was okay.
* It is very rare for you to be able to take a long chunk of vacations at once (except for 1st year PhDs): precisely cause of deadlines, proposals and other things that wait for nobody.
* One of the most frequent uses of vacation days among European PhD students is extending their conferences and other official travel. The university does not generally mind for which days they buy the plane tickets, so virtually anybody takes a few days up to a couple of weeks of vacation at every cool, exotic and new conference location they're sent to :D
But, basically, you should feel your team/lab dynamics. If it's a very coherent team, you might want to be there for the morning and/or afternoon coffees and lunches between often and always, otherwise you get a bit more flexibility. Of course, it might be that you got a postdoc in a very strict lab, but I don't think that is very common.
On the other hand, the lab/office can be a nice and fun place (even a nice, modern, spacious above ground facility with enough windows and sun ;)). You might just arrive and realize you *want* to spend time in the office: I realized I much prefer working *only* in the office, staying longer or coming earlier when needed. It helps me to stress out much less about work, especially when I'm away from the office and supposed to relax.
And lastly, I just want to add that I was almost as surprised with your description of US-(non)-vacation system as you seem to be with the European system.
> 9 votes
# Answer
The parts of the question about vacation days have been answered above. Formally, you're supposed to arrange your vacation days in advance; in practice, this usually means going to the person you report to (e.g., the professor you're working for as a postdoc) a reasonable time in advance and saying, "I was thinking of taking X time off; is that going to be OK?" The answer is usually yes, unless you're supposed to be teaching in that time, in which case you'll need a really good reason to be away and you'll need to arrange cover. "Reasonable" just means, you know, reasonable.
The simple answer to the "Can I work in a cafe instead of my office?" part is that it's up to your employer, so ask them. You will probably find that your employment contract specifies your "normal place of work" as being the university department. However, academic staff are usually trusted to work sufficient hours in a suitable place without being managed in detail. As long as the people you're working with are happy for you to work outside the office, that's fine. If you're working collaboratively with somebody else, you might be expected to spend more time in the office than in cafes, so you're available for discussions but I doubt anyone would demand you work in the office just because "that's where you're supposed to be."
In summary, it's probably not going to be an issue. You and the people you're working with will quickly figure out something you're all comfortable with.
> 5 votes
---
Tags: europe
--- |
thread-16937 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16937 | Postdoctoral fellowship -- what is it about? | 2014-02-13T16:42:12.173 | # Question
Title: Postdoctoral fellowship -- what is it about?
Assume you are just about to finish your PhD and you are facing the decision of whether to go for a postdoc position or for an assistant professorship. Which one should you choose?
Let's ignore the salary for the sake of this question. Then which of the two is better? What about the benefit of short-time employment and getting to work with lots of different people (in case of postdoc) vs. being stuck at one place for several years (assistant professor). Is it beneficial to work with different groups or is it irrelevant?
Does a career involving several postdoc positions look like the individual could not get other (''better'') employment (even if they deliberately chose one over the other)?
Will a postdoc position give you more time for research because you don't have to teach or have to teach less?
Is it generally better to seek professorship rather than postdoctoral fellowship?
# Answer
> 8 votes
The typical perspective for U.S. people in this situation is to try to balance the following three items:
1. The desire for a permanent, tenure-track job, and its associated stability.
2. The desire to do as much research as possible in one's life.
3. The desire to not starve to death.
Generally those just completing their PhD's are not eligible for tenure-track jobs that have a large research component, because their track record is insufficient. Therefore it is common to take a postdoc (or two, or five) to bolster the research record. This has the immediate effect of meeting the second and third goals, and has the potential to open up more research-oriented tenure-track jobs. However too many postdocs and it becomes more difficult to get tenure-track jobs (and further postdocs). The implication is indeed as you suggest, that these positions have been taken because the individual could not get a suitable tenure-track job.
Very few people consider "assistant professor" negatively because of being "stuck at one place for several years"; the only reason to turn down such a position is because it may be a bad fit, as compared to the sort of place one wants to be.
# Answer
> 6 votes
Vadim makes some valid points. The one I would amplify on is how good a fit the school with the assistant professorship is as far as your career goals are concerned. You've got to be careful. When I started out, I thought I could go to a small school, build up a research record, and move on to a research university. It didn't happen. I started out at a small school near a research university. My school had an atmosphere that totally discouraged research (I wish I had known that). Teaching three courses a semester wasn't that bad, but keeping fifteen hours of office hours a week was. Throw in committee work, etc., and there wasn't a lot of time to do much research. The school I'm at now has a base teaching load of four courses a semester, and expectation for advising, committees, and so on. They claim to support research, indeed it is a significant component for advancement, but the general climate works against any serious work. What output I have managed, not nearly as much as I wanted, has been a struggle. That being said, I have certainly managed to satisfy Vadim's goals 1 and 3. As far as goal 2, let's just say that I'll need something to do when I retire, assuming I can remember anything.
So, again, be careful. Personally, if you have the ability I would opt for a postdoc or two. But be realistic about what you want your career to look like ten, fifteen, or twenty years down the road. Then, do what you think gives you the best chance to get there.
---
Tags: career-path, postdocs
--- |
thread-16906 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16906 | Request for startup package details at interview stage | 2014-02-13T09:10:49.203 | # Question
Title: Request for startup package details at interview stage
I have an upcoming interview/campus visit for an assistant professor TT position with a US R1 university in the sciences. They have asked that I bring a details about my desired startup package to the campus visit. I have never heard of anyone being asked for details about their startup package prior to an offer being made.
This seems to have two effects. First, to some extent my startup package depends on what is already available in the department and the interests of the department. Second, it seems it potentially changes the negotiations. With an offer in hand, you can ask for more in your startup package, since they may not give you what you want, but they won't take the offer away. If I ask for too much in my startup package before having an offer, they may not even make an offer.
I guess I have three questions. First, is it common for US universities to ask for details about the desired startup package prior to making an offer? Second, how does this change what I should include in my startup package request? Third, can I ignore this request and only give them a general outline of what I need to do my research?
# Answer
> 3 votes
It's very unusual: I've never heard of this happening before. Since they're asking about the startup package (and not salary, which is less elastic at a university) that changes things slightly though.
You might be able to get away (at a first approximation) with a list of things you need (without specifying a price tag). Typical elements of a startup package include summer salary, support for students early on, space for offices/labs, and equipment. All of these can be specified without particular price tags: i.e you need support for X students for Y years, lab space to support this kind of machine, or these many students, and so on.
If you're pressed to put a price tag (which would be also unusual), then you'll have to have some number ready for things that you can price (equipment for example, for which you could add a generous inflation factor). For other things you can ask them ! (how much does a student cost, what is typical lab space, and so on). Again, the goal is to provide as little information as possible while satisfying the unusual requirement.
In addition, if you're asked to put a price, you should preface with "while it's a little unusual to ask this now, and while I can't be certain what things will cost once I'm in a position to purchase them", and ask first whether there's some flexibility in these numbers.
# Answer
> 5 votes
I've also never seen this at universities in the US (or elsewhere in the world) but I've seen it a lot in industry. I'm guessing someone came in to 'shake things up' or they hired a consultant and are trying things differently this time. Therefore, I will answer with respect to industry which I'm guessing will actually be applicable in the end.
It is a common negotiation technique to get 'the other guy' to make the first offer with the belief this puts him in a weaker position. This seems to be what they are doing and as you stated in your question, when they make the first offer you are indeed in a stronger position.
In your last question, could you ignore their request and simply not give them a number, tread lightly on this point. Some hiring people will become angry when you don't follow the rules and will count it as one reason not to make you an offer at all (or lower your offer because you are unable to follow simple instructions).
As far as how to actually handle the negotiations, like any negotiations, it is MUCH better if you are negotiating from a stance of understanding how you can work together to benefit each other. That is, don't get locked into a 'the more I get, the less you keep' train of thought. The goal is to be creative and find a way that you can actually ADD value to the equation and then divide that new value between the both of you...leading to the win-win settlement.
The problem is if you must make some kind of an offer blind and you have no personal rapport developed with your counterpart, it is very difficult to go down the win-win path. At that point, I would see if you can find a way to change the situation and start building some kind of relationship (even a telephone call can make a huge difference with regards to finding a genuine win-win solution).
If you are stuck and you cannot have any any meaningful conversation before you give a number, then the best I can say is to make a serious statement about what you would like but make it in terms of ranges (say between $100 and $120 *\[replace with reasonable numbers for you\]* per month depending on the rest of the details). By offering a range you have retained some flexibility but allowed them what they demanded: Something.
As you might guess, they may lock in on the lower number. However, you have not committed to that lower number firmly because of 'the rest of the details' you included.
Congratulations and good luck!
# Answer
> 3 votes
Something to keep in mind: The reason that startup packages are typically negotiated at a later stage is because they are not a major factor in determining whether to take someone for a tenure-track position. I think that in your case, even though you are asked for this during the first interview, it will still not be a major factor.
This means that unless your startup package requests are extremely unusual or the university is unusually poor, this will probably not affect the outcome. So I would not worry about this aspect too much.
---
Tags: job-search
--- |
thread-16910 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16910 | Are single author publications given more weight in math hiring? | 2014-02-13T10:34:09.707 | # Question
Title: Are single author publications given more weight in math hiring?
Suppose candidate A has only published alone, and in an alternate universe candidate B has an identical list of publications, most of which are with coauthors. All else being equal, would a typical hiring committee rate A higher?
I suspect the answer depends highly on the field; I'm especially interested in (pure) math.
# Answer
> 19 votes
*All else being equal*, solo papers can only be weighted more highly than joint papers in hiring decisions. This is probably especially true at the very top: e.g. a joint *Inventiones* or *Annals* paper makes your application look fantastic. A solo publication in either of these journals is a golden ticket for many academic jobs.
Things get much more complicated when one tries to determine *how much more* to weight solo papers than joint papers. To the best of my knowledge few departments or universities have hard-and-fast rules or even written guidelines about this, so much of this evaluation goes on in the minds of the individual evaluators. The truth is that in some situations jointly authored papers will count to exactly the same degree as solo authored papers, and in other situations the existence of coauthors will cause the work to be substantially discounted.
There is a dramatically increasing prevalence of joint papers in the mathematical profession. Thirty years ago they were quite rare; and they are even more common now than at the beginning of my career, which was not much more than ten years ago. There are now, for instance, certain conferences and workshops in which several people sign up in advance to work on a certain problem under the guidance of a senior mathematician. And then everyone who came to the workshop gets their name put on the paper, even if everything they did was under the guidance of someone else. This is a model much closer to that of the laboratory sciences than what used to be common in mathematics. In my opinion, it is time for the profession as a whole and various groups within the profession to put down in writing some feelings about the merits of joint papers. Of course this will be hard to do since the matter is so complicated: it matters whether your coauthors are "senior" or "junior" to you, it matters whether they have supervised you, it matters what percentage of your papers are joint and whether your papers are always joint with the same coauthors....
Sometimes I see certain publications listed on young people's CV's and think "I find it unlikely that they had a significant intellectual contribution to that work." That's a problem both ways: i.e., people may be wrongly evaluating the merits of this type of work in either direction!
# Answer
> 8 votes
This situation is very complicated. First, there's no hard and fast rule as different mathematicians have different opinions. Second, it really matters how individual facts (like whether one paper is coauthored or singly authored) fit into a larger picture.
People want to hire candidates who have demonstrated that they have their own research program and their own direction. Coauthored papers can hurt with this. This is especially true if a candidate has too many papers coauthored with their advisor, or almost no singly authored paper, or too many papers coauthored with a single more senior person, or all papers coauthored with the same person. (Of course, other factors like letters can counteract against this narrative.)
On the flip side, people also want candidates who are influential on their field. Coauthored papers are one way to show that other people are interested in your research program. (Of course there's other ways to demonstrate this, like giving talks at great places or letter writers say you're influential on them.)
In general my impression is that a paper with n authors counts as less than a singly authored paper but as much more than 1/n of a singly authored paper, and that in some sense the perfect situation is to both have effective collaborations *and* also do good work solo.
# Answer
> 5 votes
This depends not only on the field, but also on the institution doing the hiring. At some places, a joint publication and a sole-authored publication are identical in terms of "credit" toward promotion decisions. At the other extreme, other institutions consider a three-authored paper as one-third credit. There are many in between as well. Truly elite places don't care about how many papers or the authorship, but whether you've amazed the world.
Further, if the publication record is substantially more or less than expectations for the position, the authorship doesn't matter. A place that expects its hires to have a dozen papers won't be impressed by an applicant with 5, even if they're sole-authored. A place that expects one or two will be delighted with the same 5, no matter how many authors.
---
Tags: mathematics, job-search
--- |
thread-16933 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16933 | Is it Common to hire and fire people in lab frequently? | 2014-02-13T19:06:23.050 | # Question
Title: Is it Common to hire and fire people in lab frequently?
I have never seen this happen in other research labs in my university and I am trying to get into the mind of my advisor and understand what his intentions are! We are an HCI lab of two people. In last year, we have hired and fired *seven* people. They get hired, work for a month or two, my advisor is not satisfied them and removes them from the team.
My professor is new to the lab, it was given to her upon joining in Summer 2012. Another PhD student and myself have been working since beginning of the lab before the professor. We are the only permanent fixtures.
I am the defacto programmer and I program all the projects in lab. I had asked my advisor for PhD last week, as I completed my thesis defense last year, but she said she needs to check her funding and will get back to me. At same time she is putting out a word to other professors that she needs good RAs.
In the interim, an established tenure professor in our department in operations research had asked me to join his lab as PhD student for a project in data mining. He said I am very good at Computer Science and he needs my skills for his projects. I had asked him if its common in his lab to change people constantly and he told me there were only four people working in his lab for past 5 years and he said always asks for input from his own students in lab before contacting anybody for RAs.
The professor I am currently working with has never asked me or the other PhD student for advice before taking on people or firing them. It puts an uncomfortable pressure on me as I feel that she is not happy with my work and looking for replacement. I really don't like working with new people every two months. So why is my advisor doing this?
*How frequently do you hire and fire people in your labs?*
# Answer
First, it is uncommon to hire and fire people that quickly in almost any context. Evaluating and hiring good people takes time. Training people to do anything useful takes time: usually more than two months of time. What you're describing is incredibly inefficient and, as you note, bad for morale. It's also bad hiring practice in a small lab to not conduct a group interview with the potential coworkers. To be frank, your adviser does not seem very good at the HR aspects of running a lab.
However, as a counterpoint, it depends very much on the funding situation. A new professor, unless they're particularly lucky, may not have very much funding on-hand. Especially if their funding agencies pay out the award in installments, they may literally have to let people go because the funding has run dry. To be quite honest, a new professor supporting 2 full-time PhD students and their own summer salary is already looking at an annual outlay of $100k-$150, at least in the US (most of which is tuition, since they're supporting two students through grad school). Many grant agencies (e.g., NSF) typically award $100k-150k per anum grants. So they could be scraping very low on their funding and have to cycle through people for that reason (e.g., can afford them for the summer, have to dump them in the fall due to tuition costs). Funding has been particularly tough the last few years.
Secondly, if they are not sure if they can cover your tuition, but the other professor certainly will? It's possibly time to jump ship to the other guy. Currently, having just finished your masters and early in your PhD, this is the best time to do so. If I were you, I would do the following:
1. Talk to the tenured professor to ensure this is a serious offer, backed by grant or internal money. Inquire about how long currently awarded funds are likely to last.
2. If the situation sounds good, ask if it would cause any political problems to talk it over with your adviser. Ideally, you want to do this (they are a reference), but not if it might sink the sure offer.
3. If it won't ruin the new opportunity, tell your current adviser the situation and ask the same questions (is there money, how long).
4. If they're comparable, choose the one that seems like a better fit for your interests and your academic security.
5. If it's lopsided, go for the funding security and find a way to work your research into what you are doing. To be frank, I would avoid any PhD that you can't get funded for. If there's not enough money in the area to train you, why would there be enough to hire you when you finish?
Finally, if your adviser takes it personally that you are exploring other opportunities when they can't assure you funding next semester? Jump ship. A boss who takes things personally is a bad boss. I had a great programming intern last summer, who we would have loved to keep as an RA. Unfortunately, a big chunk of funding was delayed due to Congress playing chicken. A company affiliated with the university offered four years worth of tuition and stipend, guaranteed. We do work he is more interested in and we could almost certainly cover him over that whole period. But the key word is "almost." I told him that I would not blame him at all if he took their offer (which he did). I hope he's doing great over there. If your adviser doesn't have that attitude, it's time to go.
> 11 votes
# Answer
The scenario you describe is not uncommon in my lab. Let me explain why:
In my department, we get some funding for RA work for M.S. students "free" (i.e. out of department/university funds, not research grants). The rationale behind this is that is valuable for M.S. students to get some research experience, so the department/university wants to make it possible for more students to get these positions.
We therefore have a fairly low threshold for hiring students for these positions. We obviously prefer to hire talented students - we ask other faculty to recommend students to us from their classes, etc. But since the money is "free", we're not as selective as we would be in hiring for positions that are paid out of our grant money.
As a result, there is a lot of turnover in these positions - we hire a few students, try them out for a semester. If they don't work out very well, we don't hire them again the next semester so someone else can have a chance. If they are talented and hard-working, then we hire them back, and also offer additional support out of research grants on top of the department-money stipend they're already getting.
Not all labs in the department do this. Some feel like it's worth it to use the department funds to cast a wide net, in hopes of picking up someone good, and to give many students a chance to gain experience. Others will hire very selectively because they don't want to waste time and energy on random M.S. students, many of whom won't work out.
Perhaps something like this is going on in your lab?
> 5 votes
# Answer
It may be uncommon to have high turnover, but so what? You don't know the circumstances of those hires -- perhaps they were favors or trial runs that were likely to fail. Or maybe your advisor has high standards, or just got unlucky.
You might not enjoy the high turnover, but that should be a small factor as compared to your own degree, future job prospects, and own job security. If you're worried about these, you should address these issues directly with your advisor (and not the indirect issue of lab turnover).
> 4 votes
# Answer
This certainly isn't normal - when people complain about the high turnover in academia they're normally talking about contracts of one or two years rather than a couple of months. However, as @vadim123 says, perhaps there are reasons.
IMHO the most important thing is whether your adviser and fellow group members are people you feel comfortable working with, and whether they are giving you the support you need for your research. If not then you'll end up being miserable and producing bad work.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: phd, research-process, research-assistantship
--- |
thread-16954 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16954 | How to politely negotiate PhD funding offer? | 2014-02-14T03:36:35.350 | # Question
Title: How to politely negotiate PhD funding offer?
I have been fortunate enough to get accepted with 5 years guaranteed funding to my 2nd choice graduate school. While the guarantee is great, the funding is only for 9/months out of the year. Would it be rude to ask them to guarantee summer funding to me for the first year until I can write a grant to get on a RAship? I know I should be more appreciative, since not everyone gets funding, but just an increase of about ~3k a year would make living there so much better and I do not want to accept an offer at a lesser institution just because of money.
What would be the most polite way of doing this?
I want to make it clear that I am not trying to get more money for the sake of getting more money, moreover that I am just not comfortable with so little money and such a high living cost in that area.
Thank you for your time.
# Answer
> 10 votes
You can always ask, and the polite way to do it is simply to ask politely, while indicating that you have a strong interest in enrolling in the program. The best circumstance is that you have a financially superior offer from another program which is of equal or slightly better quality. Then the graduate program in question may see a small amount of additional funding as a reasonable expense to ensure your enrollment. (If the other program is more than a little bit better, then everyone will be expecting you to go to the better program...unless you have personal reasons to want to go to the less good program, in which case you do not need a financial incentive.)
user45756 "guaranteed" that such a request would not lead to summer funding. Of course no one person could possibly make such a guarantee, and I have *very occasionally* seen additional funding given to graduate students to help attract them to a program or keep them in a program. But user45756's answer is still accurate in spirit: in the overwhelming majority of cases you get what you get.
However the expression **The squeaky wheel gets the grease** is very applicable to academia: people who ask for a little bit more\* tend to get a little bit more. Your request for summer funding is unlikely to magically result in a higher starting salary, but it may well result in your being placed higher on lists for various summer funding opportunities. I think it is a good idea to say something like "I understand that additional funding may not be possible, and I very much appreciate your offer. However, I am sincerely concerned about quality-of-life issues while enrolled as a graduate student, and I would very much appreciate being told of any other funding, scholarship or teaching opportunities that are or may become available."
\*: It is true though that people who don't know the culture well enough sometimes ask for *a lot more* when they think they are asking for a little bit more, and that often causes them to be taken less seriously or ends negotiations. (Imagine if you had an assistant professor job interview at a public American university and, after shaking hands with the department chair, told them that you were holding firm at a $100K starting salary. It is more than likely that you've just talked yourself out of any possibility of a job offer.) There is a real art to asking for something in a way which makes clear that you will be grateful for *any* response that you get, not that you feel absolutely entitled to getting your precise demands. A graduate student asking for extra funding should make extra clear that they are "just asking" and will be grateful for any response they will get. I remember one long-ago friend who was hoping that the MIT mathematics department would "get into a bidding war" with some other department of comparable quality. Of course that didn't happen, and though he did start a PhD program somewhere quite good, I could tell from this behavior (I was a first year graduate student at the time) that he didn't quite get the academic culture. I believe he dropped out within a year. (And then I lost touch with him, but I am willing to guess that he now makes much more money than I do...)
# Answer
> 5 votes
First off, congrats! That is very good news.
I can commiserate with you on the expensive living in grad school (I'm in NYC...). Maybe in other fields it is more common, but I haven't seen very much negotiation in Economics. It seems that there is sometimes a little talk between the student and school to make sure that they even get the funding, but the funding packages we receive seem relatively fixed. I do know that we can get more funding by working as research assistants or teaching assistants. If your funding is a fellowship (basically no catches, you get the money without being required to do anything extra) then you should ask about getting funding by working as an RA or TA. Also, have you received your funding letter? A lot of the schools that I have friends at only have a month or two that you don't actually receive funding. Your best bet is to check with the secretaries or PhD coordinators at your school.
All that being said, probably the best way to find out more is to email some of the other grad students at that school and ask what they have done to stay alive during the summer months when there isn't funding.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I have never heard of graduate students negotiating salary. Where you go to graduate school matters a lot in your career; I have seen many sub-par people from top graduate schools obtain pretty good positions afterwards just on the merit of the fact that they go to a great school; so, another student on your school's waitlist would be just as good as you would be in the future, if they were admitted in your place, assuming that you are not exceptional (which I am assuming, since you said that you are thinking of going to your 2nd choice school). That is, the institution holds all the cards.
At postdoc or tenure-track level, negotiation happens because you have expertise that no one else can replace. But right now, you are quite replaceable, so it doesn't make sense to negotiate.
You could ask, but I can guarantee right now that negotiation will not happen.
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, funding, negotiation
--- |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.