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-16958 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16958 | Contacting an academic researcher by an outsider | 2014-02-14T04:45:44.273 | # Question
Title: Contacting an academic researcher by an outsider
If a person is working in the industry and wants to ask a few questions to an academic researcher (based on a paper published by them), what is the correct protocol to follow?
1. Should they disclose their affiliations right away? Should the academic ask for it right away?
2. Should they say 'I don't want to tell you why I'm asking this for, but can you please tell me so and so'? Should the academic insist on knowing?
3. Any other consideration?
# Answer
I am not aware of any specific protocol, nor do I think there needs to be. I think that every academic is somehow *responsible* for the work in their published papers, and that responsibility includes at least some degree of responsiveness to questions about those papers. But, as usual, some ways of going about this will do better in eliciting responses. For me, I would want to know that the person who is contacting me about my paper (i) actually understands it, at least to a sufficient degree and (ii) that corresponding with them about my work will actually be helpful. This includes some degree of knowledge of what they want to do with the work in question.
\[I should say though that I work in parts of pure mathematics in which it would take a truly brilliant mind to find direct industrial applications. So most of my correspondence is from students, other mathematicians, or people who aspire to be one of the above. For people who work in more applied fields, please discount this answer accordingly.\]
> Should they disclose their affiliations right away? Should the academic ask for it right away?
If you mean "I am asking this question on behalf of my work for Company X": I think so, yes. When correspondents do not identify themselves in this way, I am less likely to respond at all, and if I do, I will usually ask for some identifying information.
> Should they say 'I don't want to tell you why I'm asking this for, but can you please tell me so and so'?
Does *anyone* want to answer a question which is framed in that manner? I would help out a good friend who came to me in this way, but not a stranger.
In general, asking for help from an academic and not being willing to be forthcoming about what it is used for doesn't sound right to me. If you are just prevailing on the goodwill of an academic to publicly explain her work, then have the good grace to say what you need it for. If on the other hand you are actually trying to extract further expertise or information used for some proprietary purpose, then just writing to ask for it doesn't sound appropriate to me. If you want to use someone's professional expertise for some proprietary purpose -- or really any purpose other than just advancing your own knowledge -- then you should invite the professional to enter into a paid consulting relationship, it seems to me. In such a relationship, how much information about the use of the professional's expertise will be provided is something to be negotiated in advance.
> 17 votes
# Answer
Best, read one or more of they articles carefully, say you have read it and like it. To make sure this is not just a polite phrase, talk about something inside the paper that would show you really understand it and are interested in it, ask some questions that may be interesting to you.
You will need to invest some work to prepare for such a conversation, but this is an excellent starting point from where you can then continue without any formal protocol.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: industry, correspondence
--- |
thread-16957 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16957 | The chances of postdoc position higher in PhD country | 2014-02-14T04:37:51.257 | # Question
Title: The chances of postdoc position higher in PhD country
Are the chances of getting a postdoc position or full academic position higher in the country you are going to study your PhD in? What if you are not a citizen? Is it important to take into account postdoc stage and career path possibilities when you decide the country you want to study PhD?
# Answer
> 4 votes
In my surroundings (Germany, Switzerland), normally it's not a problem to get the first postdoc after you get a PhD in the same country.
However, a PhD in some country that is (sometimes wrongly) believed to have an inferior level of scientific merit may actually block the further scientific degree carrier abroad: impossible to start PhD studies a second time ("already has PhD"), and impossible to get a postdoctoral position as well ("bad PhD").
As a result, it is important to weigh the situation and think where and how to earn the PhD degree. I know people who have dropped basically complete PhD works right before defence just to be able to restart in another country.
---
Tags: phd, career-path, postdocs
--- |
thread-870 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/870 | If I abandon my PhD program, will it prevent me from continuing elsewhere? | 2012-03-25T03:50:03.990 | # Question
Title: If I abandon my PhD program, will it prevent me from continuing elsewhere?
After some bad experiences in a master's program, I decided to become a PhD student in the same program. My plan was to finish a paper and leave as soon as possible, meanwhile earning the recommendations that my bad early experiences prevented. That's basically been the situation for a couple years now - longer than I ever expected. At this point, I'm finally finish my projects and I've presented at a couple conferences. I genuinely like the professor I'm working with now. However, I never intended to specialize in this research area; the idea of doing my PhD in this area is very disappointing to me. And (selfishly?), I very much want to move to a new institution.
At this point, I'm not sure what to do. My ideal situation would be to finish my current projects and move to a new institution to work in a field I was more excited about. However, I'm afraid that if I reveal my desires the professor I'm working with will try to sabotage me. I'm also concerned that leaving now will look strange on a graduate application: why admit a quitter? I'm also starting to feel a little old to be starting a new program.
I'd really like to just be done with all this, but the question I keep asking myself is, "Why get a PhD in something you're not interested in?" Maybe, though, there are good reasons.
I'd appreciate any advice you may have.
# Answer
From what I could glean from this story, one thing is clear: you are confusing yourself a lot and your thinking is quite muddled possibly because of a few adverse experiences. Think on these lines:
* What is the 'new' area to which you want to move to? Do you *really* love the challenges it poses?
1. If yes, find some nice professors to work with, mail them asking about positions. Forget about your age, the number of years it will take and a host of other details: if you are passionate, the passion will carry you through the doctorate.
2. If no, ask yourself if you are passionate about the one you are working on. From what you have written you do not seem to be so. Even your publications seem to carry this 'ulterior' motive of getting a better grad school. If you do not love your PhD, then you should seriously consider moving to the industry.
* You have publications under your name, so it is unlikely that a professor *can* "sabotage" your application and more unlikely that he *will*. Get over the bad experiences with your first professors soon! Don't call yourself a "quitter", instead admit you have been working on a few research problems but do not want to work on them for a doctorate.
> 11 votes
# Answer
That might depend on the field, but you don't have to *love* your topic to get your PhD. You are not defined by your PhD topic, and it is usually possible to change topic later in your career. For instance, the topic of my first postdoc was quite different to the topic of my PhD.
So, of course, it's better to do a PhD on a topic you love with an advisor you love, in a university you love, but it's not always possible, and since you already have some papers in your current topic (which somehow says that you have at least some interest in it), and you appreciate your current advisor, then you can consider doing your PhD on this topic, and once you got it, then you can move on. You can also try to establish collaborations during your PhD with professors working on the topic you love, for instance by attending summer/winter schools on this topic.
Getting a PhD is not like taking an oath to work on the same topic for the rest of your life, it's simply getting a degree stating that you're able to do research. That being said, if you are accepted to a program that is exactly what you love, then there shouldn't be any harm in going for it, but it might not be worth to jeopardize your current situation.
EDIT: To illustrate that a postdoc can be indeed on a different topic than the PhD, I can for instance refer to aeismail's answer: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/844/102
> 9 votes
# Answer
To answer your direct question, I can only think of two reasons:
1. You began your research thinking you'd be interested in a particular topic, but as the research progressed and you became more familiar with the field your interest waned.
2. You have an end goal which requires familiarity with a particular area, and there are a number of ways you can approach that goal. You pursue a PhD in a field where you think it would be easiest to become familiar with that goal, despite the fact that you're less interested in the PhD than the ultimate goal.
The first reason, from my educated guess, is very common. The second probably much less so. Do note, though, that as Charles said, your degree is often very portable; someone with a math degree can likely successfully apply for positions in other related fields (engineering, statistics).
> 2 votes
# Answer
No, it won't prevent you from continuing elsewhere but from personal experience it would be easier to move laterally perhaps in your own university. However there are some questions that you must ask yourself:
1. How far into your PhD program are you?
2. What about the current topic don't you like and is there anything you can do to develop an interest in this? Very often, the more time you spend with a topic, a better sense of the same you have which can help in looking at it from a *better* perspective.
3. Is it your subject area that is bothering you or do you really want to move to an other university?
Moving schools has it's downsides:
1. Course requirements would need a reboot for you.
2. You may have to take your qualifiers again.
3. Building new relationships and networking will be a challenge (not impossible, just challenging)
Did you talk to your current adviser about your quandary?
> 2 votes
# Answer
Nothing is preventing you from trying PhD in another laboratory at least one or two times. It is appropriate, in some cases may be recommended and is usually accepted as a normal case.
Maybe if it is an adjacent laboratory next door, a potential new supervisor may not want to conflict with your former supervisor, but this seldom expands outside one institution, and even there largely depends on personalities involved.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: phd, career-path
--- |
thread-16960 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16960 | How do I 'read the room' and adjust my pace while lecturing? | 2014-02-14T05:01:07.550 | # Question
Title: How do I 'read the room' and adjust my pace while lecturing?
I am a PhD student. I've never taught a lecture-style course before. I just filled in for my advisor at the last minute, giving a lecture in an undergrad course.
I taught from the lecture slides that my advisor had prepared, drawing diagrams and examples on the whiteboard where I thought it was warranted. I stopped often and asked if anyone had questions, and if nobody did I posed questions to them, e.g., "What do you think is the benefit of this system over that?" "What did you learn about X?"
My impression was that approximately 30% of the class was pretty engaged, asking and answering questions, etc., 50% were taking notes and paying attention but not really speaking up, and the rest were zoned out. I think this is normal (from what I remember from being an undergrad), so I thought I was doing OK.
However, towards the end of the lecture, a few students said that I was going much faster than normal. And, I did get through more slides than my advisor said I should expect to, so they're probably right.
My question is:
> What clues do you look for to "read a room" to tell that you're going too fast, even though people seem to still be "getting it"?
>
> What can you do to slow down, beyond asking if anybody has questions and bringing up more examples (I can only think of so many examples)?
I am asking specifically about teaching undergrads, because I think they are more difficult to read than postgrads, or senior academics in the audience of a conference talk. But I would appreciate answers that apply to the latter scenario as well.
Also, I understand that things like clickers and discussion groups can make a difference, but I am asking specifically how to improve my lecturing, not how to restructure classes so I spend less time lecturing.
A related question is How to improve myself as a lecturer, where one answer says "Never assume that students follow you" and suggests you "see if they get the idea, sort of get the idea, or don't get it at all." I tried to do this, and it seemed like the students that were willing to engage **were** "getting it." Apparently they were getting it, but I was still going at a speed that made their heads hurt :)
# Answer
> 31 votes
In my experience it's easy to be misled by a few good students who are able to engage with you and answer your questions. This doesn't mean the majority of students feel the same way of course. I always try and bear in mind the weakest (and often the quietest) students in the class and try and not be lured into accelerating due to a few bright sparks at the front.
Asking if there are any questions or bring up examples is a good way to try and gauge the classes response. But if the class is shy or unresponsive (as is often the case initially) I find it very hard to know whether I'm boring the pants of them or they're completely lost.
A simple trick is to give a short relatively straightforward exercise and ask everyone to do it there and then. It should only take a minute or two. You can then briefly walk through the students and ask them how they are getting on. It should become obvious if many of them are struggling. Walking among the students and directly interacting with them isn't going to suit everyone though and if the class is large (or the seating is inaccessible) it will be more difficult. But it's crucial to get some feedback and if that means taking a more proactive approach then why not? I make sure to smile and encourage them since some students will be nervous if the lecturer asks how they're doing.
# Answer
> 9 votes
There are probably many different solutions to your problem. I will focus on what you could consider with your presentation. I think it is very easy to be too fast: you know the material, you feel awkward if there is a silent moment, nervousness/adrenalin kick etc. So there is a basic property of lecturing that prompts one to go faster than we may think.
When using slides you present ready written material for the students to copy. This means they write things while you speak, and what they write may not be what you are talking about. As a result they may split their focus and get confused. In the old days, the lecturer usually wrote on the board while talking. Hence students saw, heard and wrote the same material in the pace it took the lecturer to write it. I do not think the lecturer managed to talk about one thing while writing another, so the whole lecture hall was in sync and at a pace most could follow. This automatic adaption mechanism is partly lacking today, and it is possible to overload slides. It is of course possible to provide slide sheets of the slides to the students, but that will not promote a slow-down *per se*, and I do not think it helps understanding either, because students tend to not take notes as a result (I have no proof of this, but it is my experience when using such sheets).
So if possible, I think breaking up your presentation to lecture more interactively on a white board may help, apart from breaking the monotony of a slide show. To do breaks with questions is a very good way to keep students focussed to continue with that. You also need to think about what students need to take notes, so that they actually have a chance. Finally, I would recommend you to take a course in university pedagogics. In many countries in Europe, such courses are mandatory for teaching and also a requirement when applying for positions. I do not know how this applies in your neighbourhood, but having a course in pedagogics is never wrong; hopefully you can find one.
Finally, reflecting on these matters is good, and you gain experience as you teach. There are also scientific sources such as the Journal of Higher Education and Higher Education Quarterly. There are many other sources, and a search on Google scholar on relevant keywords should give additional useful hits. Hopefully your university allows access to some of these journals.
# Answer
> 8 votes
It sounds like you've done many of the things that one should do in lecture to feel the "needs of the room". Well done ! It is indeed true that undergrads are harder to read for the reasons you mention.
How long is the lecture ? When I teach 80 minute lectures, one piece of advice I was given that I continue to use is to force a 5 minute break in the middle regardless of how I think the room is doing (I have an alarm on my phone set for that time so that I don't forget). The five minute breaks allows students to get some water or take a bathroom break (things that can impair concentration), and it also gives people time to reflect on what they've been hearing and ask questions more "privately". You can also recap the first half of the lecture when you restart.
In a 50 minute lecture, you might find this less useful. However the typical attention span of a person is around 15 minutes (based on numerous studies that I don't currently have citations for - sorry JeffE), and so even in this shorter setting, forcing a break at around 25 minutes might provide the same kind of reset mechanism.
While this doesn't solve your problem entirely, it's a low-cost solution that can be used without extra work/prep.
# Answer
> 7 votes
One of my favorite teachers during my undergrad program was my honors mathematics professor. I originally started taking honors classes in high school precisely because I hated slow-paced classes, and was sick of the boredom. Overall, this move didn't spare me entirely, of course...but in that particular math class, **the pacing was wonderful**. It might not have been if it wasn't an honors course, but that wouldn't have been my professor's fault: it would've been a matter of the rest of the class preferring a different pace than me.
This professor always kept in tune with the class' preferences across a variety of differently challenging topics in a very straightforward manner: he **polled the classroom at the end of (nearly) each lecture**. It only took a fraction of a minute. It might've gotten just a little bit irksome, but I'm sure it paid off. There were times when the majority was less than happy, and the method often revealed some difference of opinion. After a few weeks, we got quite used to his polling system, but it could've been introduced quite plainly in one day with a PowerPoint or scale of voting options drawn on the blackboard. Simply, his options were: `too fast`, `just right`, `too slow`, and if he felt it necessary, he would sometimes add `way too fast` or `much too slow` as a fourth option or follow-up question. **The class would vote by show of raised hands.** For the most part, people weren't too shy to vote, even if it was to express uncertainty.
This might not be the case outside of an honors course, where I would expect academic self-confidence and participation in general to be weaker...but I tried this a bit myself when teaching an upper-division (non-honors) psychology course at a separate university halfway across the country (USA). I varied the structure of the questions a bit too much, and was occasionally confusing as a result, but would usually make an effort to **introduce the options** I had in mind **before taking votes**. I got a lot of good feedback about a variety of concerns this way without even realizing that the classroom was clicker-equipped, much less with any effort to set them up or read their results.
**Other functions of in-class polling:**
In one particular class, I asked late in the quarter, "How many of you aren't getting the grades you want, but feel you are keeping up with the lectures and reading material and don't know what else to do?" Then, "How many simply can't keep up with the lectures and reading material?" More people answered affirmatively to each than I was comfortable to see. This was probably the most useful feedback I received in the entire course, including course evaluations afterward (the only institutionally mandated form of feedback, sadly) and my own open-ended, short written response question administered halfway through about each student's primary concern with the class. For the people who didn't know what else they could do, I reviewed the variety of resources I'd made available to them, and suggested a few ways in which they could help each other study by using the normally available systems the university provides online, including a Q&A forum and wikispaces for student-coauthored study guides. For those who simply couldn't keep up, I slowed the pace overall, held a review session outside the normal class hours, and made the final test somewhat more forgiving. I wish I could say it was enough for those students, but at least I can say I tried everything I could think of, and as a result, it could've been worse.
# Answer
> 6 votes
One thing I've done in the past but no longer have need of – because I have restructured my courses to do less lecturing and more in-class activities (which you said you did not want to do) – is to simply help the students communicate non-verbally.
At the start of class, I used to tell them: "OK, I know that I know the material well, and I know you are unfamiliar with it, but I don't know how unfamiliar, so there will be an issue of how fast I am going. I can't stop all the time and ask, so here is how you can tell me to speed up or slow down: If I see everyone nodding their heads up and down I assuming that you are saying, 'Yes, I understand that.' This will make me speed up. If I see you stop nodding, then I will assume you are saying, 'I think I might understand that, but I'm not sure,' and I will start to slow down and start repeating myself in various ways to make sure you get it."
After this introduction, I would start. I started with the simplest material, and everyone was nodding. I started going faster. 75% still nodding; the others were asking questions of those 75%. No worries. I started going faster. Well, eventually, I was covering material so fast, everyone stopped nodding and stared at me with their eyes glazed over. We took a 5-minute break and continued.
All-in-all, actually, it worked quite well, other than the fact that I ended up going as fast as I did. As Peter wrote, we naturally speak about our subjects far faster than students can absorb the information, so having some signs from the students is exactly what we need. My suggestion is that you don't guess the signs, but rather you help them to understand how they can control the speed of the session.
---
Tags: teaching, presentation
--- |
thread-16973 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16973 | Job market after PhD in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) | 2014-02-14T15:36:03.563 | # Question
Title: Job market after PhD in Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
Do people in the industry consider HCI a non-technical field? Do they expect an HCI researcher to have more design and social science skills than technical ones?
# Answer
I am a little puzzled by your career goal and perhaps, this is rather early for you to decide.
**Your immediate goals are:**
1. Software Developer
2. Data Scientist
**Your future goal is:**
Entrepreneur
As far as I am aware, you don't **need** a phd to be a software developer and certainly not for an entrepreneur. So, discussion about a PhD in HCI is moot there.
There are also excellent data science jobs available with a bachelors or masters degree pre-requisite but a PhD can certainly help there.
A PhD candidate in HCI usually goes towards one of three ways -
They can gravitate towards usability design/usability studies/usability analysis. This requires ~60% knowledge in social sciences (e.g. theory, experimental design) and ~40% knowledge in the computing sciences - basically in applications (e.g. applied ML, application development)
They can also gravitate towards data analysis i.e what industry calls data science (I am not a fan of that term). For that, ideally they should have ~70% data analysis knowledge (ML is not the only approach for analyzing data) and ~30% social science knowledge. (i.e. if you are in the Facebook data science team and studying rumor propagation then you better have a very good intuitive grasp of cascades, diffusions and homo/heterophily theory). Many data scientists have 0 knowledge of their domain - which is both a reflection of their demand as well as the inchoate state of what "data science" actually is.
Finally, there are those rare few who manage a zen-like balance between social and computing sciences. They are equally good in qualitative and quantitative methodologies and have appreciation for all spheres of knowledge. Generally, I find these folks in academia (which is not to say that you won't find such folks in industrial research - you will!)
**Answers to your particular question:**
**1. Do people in the industry consider HCI a non-technical field?**
No. This depends on what your specialization is and what you have done so far.
**2. Do they expect me to have more design and social science skills than technical ones?**
No. Not necessarily. Again, this depends on who you are and what you have done so far.
**3. Finally, does having a PhD in HCI hinder my chances to achieving my career goal**
Yes, but its not a function of HCI but the fact of being enrolled in any PhD program. As I pointed out, you don't need a PhD to do software development or to be an entrepreneur. There is some advantage in having a PhD if you want to go specifically into data science but you can also see many counterexamples in industry - those who enter the data science domain with a MS and do extremely well.
Therefore, your current plan of action depends on what you want to do immediately. I urge you to ponder and self-reflect whether spending a sizable chunk of your adult life in a PhD is really worth it for you if all you want to do is to write code or start a business or analyze data.
**Most** PhD candidates from my departments and other similar ones in the US (CMU, UDub, GaTech etc.) either go into academia or into industrial research. I know of a few examples of folks who dropped out of their PhD with a MS because they realized that they don't want to do research but they want to contribute to industry in other ways.
> 4 votes
# Answer
If your goal is to be a software developer, they see your HCI background as a plus to their developer, because you'll understand tasks better and see things that they may not. If you don't have experience in things like UX, design, and user studies, don't apply for the jobs that need them, because they will test you on it. If you do want those jobs, good news! You have two years still to learn those things!
I have a BSc in CPSC with a concentration in HCI and a minor in Visual Studies and Art History. I took the minor because I wanted to learn how to express my ideas better. Eventually I'll go back and get a MSc in HCI. There are multiple HCI jobs open, but you usually do need that experience that you mentioned as you'll be doing things like designing the interfaces and doing research on what is good and what isn't. I am a Software Developer at my job, though a front end software developer. They loved the idea of a person who had HCI and design in their background and respect my opinions on it, but they have other people who do the designs. This sounds like the type of job you want. If that's the case, simply put your degree on your resume with detail on what you learned and excel in because of it, but only apply for software developer jobs. They will respect what you did for school and it can only help you.
To answer your first question, I have always had my HCI concentration be considered technical because I did work with HCI in school. In other words, I made the designs, coded it myself, and defended and tested to show that it was GOOD human computer interaction. So I guess for you, it's only technical if you've been doing work with your concentration in a technical way. If you have people creating the designs and user stories for you, and the low-, medium-, and high-fidelity mock-ups, and then you just implement them, that's not HCI technical, you're just coding while someone else does the hard HCI stuff.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: career-path, computer-science
--- |
thread-10355 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10355 | Do graduate school admissions appreciate individual "free time" study? | 2013-05-31T17:16:47.370 | # Question
Title: Do graduate school admissions appreciate individual "free time" study?
I am a year away from completing an undergrad degree in Computer Science and I find myself increasingly interested in more advanced subjects from pure mathematics that sometimes lie outside the scope of my major, and I think I would enjoy doing graduate work in pure math. But I feel like the amount of formal education I've had the opportunity to have in my undergrad isn't quite sufficient for graduate work in math.
If I were to go and buy a book or two on some subject I'd like to learn more about that I can't take a course on (say, Abstract Algebra or Number Theory), and spend this summer getting comfortable with it, is it likely that a graduate admission committee take my efforts into account?
My situation is worded specific to a CS --\> Pure Math trajectory, but it's part of a more general question. Do graduate school admissions take into account personal study, or do they only care about formal university education?
# Answer
> 12 votes
I have limited knowledge about this and I speak from experience as a graduate student who has gone through a similar situation *(from the outside)* as well as being the student representative on our graduate admissions committee *(on the inside)*. Obviously, a professor or academic with much more experience than I have can attest to this in better ways.
In **general,** formal education is given preference. Grades in relevant courses are given more importance than others. Note that there is a lot of competition for slots in a PhD program. Self study is a very fuzzy area and there is little scope for the graduate admissions committee to evaluate it. There exists of course, two mutually non-exclusive ways exceptions to this general norm:
1. A respected recommender in the area attests to the fact that you did engage in significant amounts of self study and that has contributed to your overall knowledge.
2. You do self study. Then you do research based on it. Then you publish in a non trivial journal or conference. That automatically attests to your knowledge in certain ways.
Otherwise, ask yourself this, why would graduate admissions committees believe you, especially when there is usually bound to be a few more well qualified applicants with good scores in relevant courses?
# Answer
> 5 votes
The other answers are of course reasonable, but my own viewpoint, perhaps an outlier, is that energetic/extensive self-study is a much more positive indicator about motivation and self-discipline and genuine interest than course attendance with good grades.
Yes, there is the obvious point mentioned in other answers: how to measure or certify self-study? The GRE subject test is very iffy, in a variety of aspects. Thus, the ideal circumstance is coursework *and* self-study, to have certifiable conventional ("passive") education as well as demonstrating initiative and interest. Further, very often the available undergrad curriculum really doesn't prepare people for grad school, so I'd strongly recommend substantial self-study in any case. Perhaps best under the aegis of math faculty who can provide some certification in letters of recommendation.
The thing that *might* be missing from self-study, if that's all one has as mathematics background, is the "regular drill" on basic reflexes that, in any case, routine coursework does cultivate. If one has to stop and think too much, the slowdown/cognitive-load can make routine things effectively impossible.
Also, beware, the usual first year-or-two of math grad school include "routine" coursework and exams that do presume a "standard" undergrad background, including routine drill on a fairly standard body of material. With an extremely thin or idiosyncratic background, one must play a lot of catch-up. This can have several bad effects: may give the impression of incapability, may make you tired and discouraged, may stifle natural interest. So "brace yourself" if that's the path you find yourself on.
# Answer
> 4 votes
If possible, I would recommend first seeking out a math professor at your university, preferably someone you know and who holds you in high regard. If you are home for the summer, e-mail would suffice, but an in person meeting would work much better.
Anyway, explain your plans, and:
* Ask the professor's advice about your self-study plan (maybe the prof has different suggestions)
* Ask if he or she would be willing to evaluate your progress at the end of the summer (e.g., you show up to his/her office and take an informal oral exam), and to write you a rec letter if you've done a good job.
Good luck!
# Answer
> 0 votes
Another option for the special case you describe is to take the math subject GRE after your self studies. This would validate your knowledge of the undergraduate curriculum in pure maths. They might take into account that you did not take any of the courses (you probably won't get the same score you would have gotten as a math major, because you don't know real analysis, topology, etc.)
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, mathematics, computer-science
--- |
thread-16991 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16991 | How to approach potential PhD advisors | 2014-02-15T06:41:47.470 | # Question
Title: How to approach potential PhD advisors
What is the correct way for a new PhD student to approach an interested faculty member to discuss becoming their student?
Is it better to come with a few thesis project ideas prepared to pitch? Or is it better to come in expecting to have the faculty member to pitch them to the student?
Typically, the student has a year or two after joining a group to formulate an actual research proposal - but at the beginning of the program, when approaching potential advisers, there is only limited time, and limited knowledge of the lab's current focus and planned future projects.
Of course, the answer depends very much on the actual faculty member in question. But in what ways does it depend? Are there any aspects to the decision that remain invariant?
I am in the physical sciences (biology) but to make the question useful to more users, perhaps it may be better if we could have answers covering the peculiarities and commonalities of this question for different fields.
# Answer
(This is for Computer Science and Medical Informatics, I suspect that most STEM fields are similar.)
> Is it better to come with a few thesis project ideas prepared to pitch? Or is it better to come in expecting to have the faculty member to pitch them to the student?
In my experience, if a faculty member is looking for a PhD student, they already have one or more projects in mind.
I think one reason for this is funding, and what faculty need to do to get it: The process of coming up with a grant proposal, submitting it, and getting a response takes months, and some grants can only be applied for once a year. That means that when you, the student, are joining the lab, there already is funding for you from a grant, and some general research goals are outlined in the grant proposal that your research needs to fall within. Some grants are more general than others, and there are also "training grants" out there the goal of which is to train you in a field (almost no constraints on the research topic).
The other reason is that faculty also have research interests.
I seriously doubt that you will need to pitch an idea out of the blue. It's possible that the faculty member will give you a general idea of what the direction of the research will be, since it would be under the constraints of their own interests and under the constraints of whatever grant is funding you, and then you would need to propose something more specific within those constraints. It's also possible that they will have something much more specific in mind and it will just be a matter of saying whether you're willing to do that research.
> \[A\]t the beginning of the program, when approaching potential advisers, there is only limited time, and limited knowledge of the lab's current focus and planned future projects.
That's why you need to read up on the potential advisor's interests, look at their publications, look at the publications coming out of the lab, and figure out what the research focus and direction of the lab seems to be.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: phd, advisor
--- |
thread-16919 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16919 | Is ps preferred over pdf format in some cases? | 2014-02-13T13:36:49.413 | # Question
Title: Is ps preferred over pdf format in some cases?
Some people use ps over pdf format for their paper.
Are there some advantages of ps format over pdf format?
Thanks!
# Answer
> 13 votes
No.
There are no advantages of PS over PDF.
Any modern computer system that can display PS files can also display PDF files. (The converse is certainly not true.)
Any modern computer system that can produce PS files can also produce PDF files. (Again, the converse is not true.)
Any material that you can present with a PS file can be presented equally well with a PDF file. (Again, the converse is not true.)
# Answer
> 8 votes
PDF was carefully designed by Adobe to fix some problems with PostScript as a format for interchanging files (as opposed to printing). PostScript was a full-fledged programming language, which means that its behavior could be impossible to predict. For example, people have written programs in PostScript that do things like emulating a calculator. In PDF, they removed just enough of the programming capabilities to make the behavior of a PDF file more predictable. (In technical terms, they made it Turing-incomplete.) This is a good thing, since you don't want to trust someone else's software to run on your computer every time you open their document.
This was all great in theory, but more recently Adobe added more programming features back into PDF (by adding javascript), and in fact there are now some security issues associated with PDF. Therefore there is no longer any clear security-based reason to prefer PDF, but in any case PS is essentially obsolete as a document interchange format, and if you give someone a PS file today, they are unlikely to know what it is or how to open it.
# Answer
> 4 votes
As for the final format, no, there are no significant advantages, as the other answers point out. There are however a couple of quirks in TeX (which is the standard typesetting program in many fields) regarding ps and pdf support.
* pstricks, which is a popular package for producing drawings, only works if you compile to a **ps** file (there are workarounds, though).
* microtype, which is a package for making automatically small typographical adjustments to the document and producing a better-looking line breaking, only works if you compile to a **pdf** file.
So users of the former package are encouraged to use ps, while users of the second are forced to use pdf. Of course there are converters in both directions, so it is not a binding choice.
---
Tags: publications
--- |
thread-17005 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17005 | Is consent required to record audio of a conference talk in the US? | 2014-02-16T00:27:01.430 | # Question
Title: Is consent required to record audio of a conference talk in the US?
Do I need a consent to record audio of a presentation at a scientific conference in USA (provided that the conference does not explicitly prohibit such recording)? I'm guessing since it is not a private conversation, it's okay to record it.
This question is out of curiosity. I do not actually have clear intentions of recording talks.
# Answer
I don't know the relevant laws, which may vary between U.S. states, but I wouldn't focus on the legal question. Regardless of whether you have the legal right to make a recording, you should not do so without the speaker's permission. If someone asked me, I would probably give permission, but making a recording without asking feels creepy and inappropriate. If you go around doing this in academia, it's likely to be viewed as unprofessional, and some speakers will become angry.
Even if you ask, people may wonder why you want a recording. (Are you stalking the speaker? Are you going to scrutinize the recording to try to find misstatements? Are you working on competing research and trying to document exactly what was said in your competitor's talk?) If you have a compelling reason to make a recording, it's worth explaining why. For example, perhaps it could help accommodate certain disabilities. Otherwise, you can certainly ask, but it may come across as a weird request.
> 11 votes
# Answer
In general, most large conferences in the US **prohibit** unauthorized audio and visual recordings of conference presentations. Smaller workshops may not explicitly do so, but you should not take this as blanket permission. As Anonymous Mathematician suggests, many people will wonder why you want to record their talk.
Now, if you have a compelling reason to want to follow up on a presentation later, the best way to do this is to contact the presenter after the session, and let her know that you'd like a copy of the presentation, if possible. This is usually preferable to making a recording, which could in principle get you into trouble if "caught."
> 7 votes
---
Tags: conference, united-states, legal-issues, audio-video-recording
--- |
thread-17016 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17016 | Do I need to focus my writing to specific paper? | 2014-02-16T12:40:16.100 | # Question
Title: Do I need to focus my writing to specific paper?
I'm a master student and I'm the phase of preparing my thesis. I've searched many papers related to my thesis but I'm a bit confused in what to focus. Do I need to take only a paper (or few papers) and to focus basically on that?
# Answer
I think the best answer to this question has already been given as a comment:
> You should ask your advisor. The fact that you are asking this question suggests that you and your advisor haven't discussed in detail what your thesis should consist of. It's important to have this conversation, even aside from the particular question you are asking here. (You don't want to risk discovering much later that you and your advisor had different visions for what the thesis should be like.)
This is a good answer to so many questions on this site (I have started to think that there should be an "Ask your advisor!" closure option), but it seems especially true here. From the OP's comment I can see that the master's thesis is being done in **mathematics**. The expectations and requirements for a master's thesis in mathematics are so highly variable across institutions and countries that I can think of almost nothing (other than "Ask your advisor!") which would be guaranteed to be universally applicable.
In mathematics programs in the US, it is especially unclear what work constitutes a master's thesis, especially in pure mathematics. Unlike the situation in many other countries, there are relatively few full-time master's students in American universities, even compared to the number of master's degrees awarded: in my experience, more master's degrees go to talented, ambitious undergraduates who get them alongside their bachelor's degrees, or to PhD students who have decided to drop out of the program and get a consolation degree. In my case I got a master's degree along with my bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago, and for such a top university you might be surprised to hear how minimal the requirements were: I had to complete all nine trimester courses that first year graduate (i.e., PhD) students take (I did so over two years) and pass a *pro forma* foreign language exam. \[In particular **I did not write a master's thesis**.\] When I went on to my PhD studies (at Harvard) I found that I was about as well prepared as most of the other students. I don't recall that my having a master's degree came up once during my five years in a PhD program...with the possible exception that some students would, a year or two into their program, fill out paperwork and pay a small fee to get a master's degree, whereas I already had one of those so chose to keep my money.
Having been heavily involved with the graduate (mostly PhD) program at the University of Georgia in recent years, I can say that here a master's thesis is whatever the advisor and student agree that it is, subject to the approval of two other committee members. Writing a thesis is one route; there is another route involving more coursework and some exams. Among master's thesis advisors I've talked to, the sense is that the student should take the thesis as an opportunity to engage with some piece of mathematics at a deeper level than they have done before, to the extent that they have *mastered* it and can show this mastery with an original (or at least, independent) exposition. This description seems rather at odds with the one given in another answer to this question:
> NO. Undergrads may get away with using one (or a few) papers to synthesize the essence into their own viewpoint, but at the post-grad level you should be reading for width and depth, which means using every seminal work in your field as well as exploring the newer papers on the topic.
This is probably a correct description of some academic fields, but not for mathematics. Very few mathematics undergraduates are reading "real" math papers at all. The task of reading, understanding and writing about even *one* "real" math paper may in fact be sufficient for a master's thesis. There are even certain papers out there for which rewriting them so as to contain the level of detail and completeness that would satisfy a master's thesis committee would be a real service to the mathematical community. I think that most PhD students in mathematics do not *use every seminal work in \[their\] field*: I didn't, for instance.
I am not saying that just any old thing will suffice for a master's thesis in mathematics: I am saying that the *global* requirements are very few, so it becomes more important to talk to your advisor.
I have so far supervised one master's thesis. My student carefully read and wrote about two papers concerning geometry of numbers and Legendre's Equation ax^2+by^2+cz^2 = 0. She then tried to extend the techniques of the second paper to diagonal quadratic equations in n \geq 4 variables. Much of this was easy, but the key was the existence of a "magic sublattice" defined in the three-dimensional case by the necessary congruence conditions for Legendre's Equation to have a solution. After much trouble (and some help from me), she was eventually able to prove that for more than three variables such a magic sublattice did not exist. She wrote up a thesis which contained expositions of the two papers she read plus a proof of this result (plus a few more small things, totalling a few pages). I remember that she was concerned that her thesis was rather short: 45 pages double-spaced. I thought her thesis was an unusually strong one and told her so. (If people are wondering, I think her result is not yet publishable -- it's along the lines of showing that a certain proof strategy cannot work, and such things are hard to publish in mathematics -- but that the work could be continued and made publishable. I honestly think that makes it an above average American master's thesis in mathematics.)
> 8 votes
# Answer
**NO.** Undergrads may get away with using one (or a few) papers to synthesize the essence into their own viewpoint, but at the post-grad level you should be reading for width and depth, which means using every seminal work in your field as well as exploring the newer papers on the topic. This is particularly important since you state that most of the published research in this area dates from 2007.
And even though you feel that you are not prepared to tackle original research in this area, consider at least having a section outlining possible future research.
> 7 votes
---
Tags: masters, thesis, mathematics
--- |
thread-16351 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16351 | Evaluate the effectiveness of a set of CS lab exercises for education | 2014-01-30T06:32:21.750 | # Question
Title: Evaluate the effectiveness of a set of CS lab exercises for education
I am a PhD student studying wireless networks/telecommunications, and I have developed a set of lab exercises related to the field. We have used them with \> 100 students so far in B.S. and M.S. classes on computer networks, wireless networks, and wireless communications.
With the first few cohorts, I asked them to rate each exercise with respect to:
* overall rating
* difficulty of lab exercise
* how interesting the material was
* experiment design
and to rate self on knowledge of topic before and after the lab. I also ask for general open-ended feedback ("How can we improve this exercise?" "Any other comments?") and recently introduced automated systems to measure exactly what students are doing in the lab. This gave me a general sense of which exercises were interesting to students, and which they thought were useful. Now I am looking for a way to evaluate how effective the labs are at educating students - not just their popularity.
I've been doing some reading in CS education research (although education research is not my field, so I can't devote too much time to getting up to speed on all the methodology), but I haven't come across a study design that I think would be a good fit for my scenario. I am under some constraints:
* I'm not the instructor for the class.
* I just run the lab exercises via a website. I don't meet the students in person.
* I don't have the ability to set up a "control group" by offering one section of the course with the lab and one section without.
* I can't ask my students to do a lot of work that is only for purposes of methodology assessment (e.g. I can have them fill out a short pre-class survey, but not much more then that). I can ask them to do some things that are also learning assessments (like quizzes on the lab topic).
> Given these constraints, how can I effectively evaluate the educational tools I've developed? (specifically, learn whether they actually improve students' understanding of the course material)
**Update:**
I don't have access to a comparable cohort from one year to the next, or between two sections. In the end, I came up with a set of questions that I think will help evaluate the exercises, even across only one group of students, all of whom are participating in the lab; I describe this in my own answer.
# Answer
You are adressing a topic which (in my humble opinion) is one of the most difficult ones: How to measure effictivenes of teaching methods.
The only good way is to have a control group (and make sure they are large enough, randomly asigned, subgroups represented equally, et.c). In most practical situations this is just not feasible. (I have the same problem at the moment).
What I plan to do (so it is just an idea, not proven to be correct - fedback is wellcome!):
1. ask students who did the class twice how they liked the new format and whether it helps them in learning
2. Compare outcome.
I think 2.) is the one we should aim for since the ultimate measure of successful teaching is compentent students leaving the university. Since it is hard to measure their competence late in real life situations, the only thing we can do is measure their perfomence by tests / exams. So I'll compare the results of my current group with the one from last year and look for failure rate, attendeance at test, ... Given that your tests are comparable, this gives at least an indication.
> 1 votes
# Answer
In the end I decided to try the following, based on my understanding that lab exercises are particularly suited for repairing misconceptions that students might hold:
* Before students complete the lab procedure, they have to answer an open-ended question about what they think the results will show, based on their knowledge of the course material.
* At the end of the lab, students have to write whether their initial guess was correct. If not, they have to explain why they originally made that guess, what factor they hadn't considered that led the actual results to be different, and what (if anything) they understand now that they misunderstood before.
This serves as both a learning assessment for the students, and a methodology assessment for the lab.
* The students earn a grade based on whether they eventually have a good sense of what's supposed to happen, either before doing the lab procedure or after.
* The pre-lab and post-lab questions together help me quantify to what degree the lab exercises address misconceptions that students have about the content.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: teaching
--- |
thread-17034 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17034 | How to frame incomplete previous studies when applying to new graduate school without being too negative about previous program? | 2014-02-17T00:35:46.137 | # Question
Title: How to frame incomplete previous studies when applying to new graduate school without being too negative about previous program?
I had a bit of an unfortunate experience with an academic institution where I completed the coursework for a theology Ph.D. without high enough grades to continue. There were other things that were unfortunate about that experience, but the best advice I have been given is that if I try to return to studies, I need to explain why I don't have a reference from my previous Ph.D. programs, and if I document things that were wrong, that comes across as "*I am a negative person who will publicly backstab a university by criticizing it after exhausting his appeal options*" rather than "*XYZ happened and if you can document it, we will make accommodations.*" (Additionally, I've tried to document the talent I have, but documenting that I am talented, no matter what talent I document, doesn't seem to trip any light bulbs of recognizing I may be a promising student.)
In graduate school admissions, what is a convincing non-negative way of explaining "I don't have references from my prior program?" And is there any way to get connections made between "gifted" and "promising student"?
# Answer
> what is a convincing non-negative way of explaining "I don't have references from my prior program?"
If you dwell on it, it will sound like you're making excuses. It's not really worth spending more than a sentence describing unfavorable circumstances that made you leave this place or that place. It might even be better to not mention at all. Just make sure you have favorable references from somewhere to go with your application.
> is there any way to get connections made between "gifted" and "promising student"?
Through achievements. If you say "I am good at X," no one cares, or really believes you. If you say "I did A, B, and C," it's good if you can say "I received award Y," by pointing to things that demonstrate that you are good at X, then you will look good. Talents only count to other people if you use them to achieve results.
> 5 votes
---
Tags: phd
--- |
thread-17040 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17040 | Computational Physics or Engineering Physics, which deal with new technologies related to energy? | 2014-02-17T01:04:36.740 | # Question
Title: Computational Physics or Engineering Physics, which deal with new technologies related to energy?
I currently on track to graduate with a B.S. in Computer Science and Physics. I am on the fence on which masters program I should pursue. I want to deal with new technologies like sustainable energy and things like Tesla motors.
Which degree would be more beneficial for the field I described or is there another engineering program that would better fit?
# Answer
If you want a hands-on approach then Engineering Physics seems like the logical option, if, however, you want to think about the problems on a more abstract level, Computational Physics seems like the right choice.
Since you are doing Computer Science, you probably love, as many of us do, the power of coding languages, and might feel more comfortable using these to solve problems, once again that would mean computational physics might be more your thing.
The real question is how you want to deal with these new technologies. If you want to really work with these new technologies, I'd opt for engineering physics. You might want to take a look at some of the courses in these master programs and see which suit you more, or you could engage with master students of these courses to get a better insight in the course.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: masters, degree, engineering, physics
--- |
thread-1348 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1348 | How to get into position to teach college Arabic? | 2012-05-01T19:58:56.690 | # Question
Title: How to get into position to teach college Arabic?
I am interested in teaching at the university-level in Arabic. Would teaching arabic in a high-school first(as I have no university-level teaching experience) help me? I currently teach science to 6th graders, and am considering quitting after 4 years there.
I have an MS in Arabic from UCLA, also an MS in Educ. Bachelors in Arabic also. Thanks
# Answer
> 5 votes
It is my opinion that unless you have a PhD in Arabic or something intimately related to it you won't get more than a part-time adjunct instructor position. If your goal is to teach some classes without working towards a full appointment, then you might not need the PhD.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Are you a native speaker? If you are not, don't bother. If you are, try substituting. Teach adult education courses. Military courses. Speak to your own professors for suggestions. You may have to relocate.
---
Tags: job-search, teaching, language, university
--- |
thread-16632 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16632 | Doing a habilitation in Mathematics in Europe for a non EU citizen? | 2014-02-06T16:28:22.243 | # Question
Title: Doing a habilitation in Mathematics in Europe for a non EU citizen?
I'm a non-EU citizen, currently doing a postdoc in mathematics in Europe, and I'm thinking of doing a habilitation. Since my google search didn't yield much, I'd appreciate if you could please answer my following questions regarding habilitation:
1) If I understand correctly, habilitation is the highest academic degree you can receive and people do it for getting a permanent academic position in Europe. How many years or how much/many publication does it normally take to obtain a habilitation degree?
2) Since you could be admitted as a PhD candidate, but not as a 'habilitation candidate' (but instead, say, as a postdoc) can you publish in your postdoc and write the paper(s) as a book and submit it for the defense of habilitation?
3) Suppose you do a one year postdoc in university A, and a second in university B, can you apply to university B for habilitation? How about university A?
4) If you do your PhD and postdoc in unrelated areas, or say even if you switch from pure to applied math, would that be a problem for getting the degree?
5) (Kind of vague question, somewhat opinion-based too) How much does the chance of getting a European tenure increase if you do a successful habilitation?
# Answer
> 8 votes
I'm starting this by answering some questions for **Germany**:
> 1) people do it for getting a permanent academic position in Europe.
Note that even being a professor does not imply a permanent position:
* junior professorships run 6 years, and according to Wikipedia only 8% of the junior professorships can be considered proper tenure track (applying for a permanent position at the same university without a public job advertisement), for another 4-10% of the junior professorships it is possible to apply for a permanent position at the same university, the remaining majority will not be considered for a permanent position.
"Hausberufungen" ("in house appointments" = offering the professorship to someone from the same university) are somewhere between extremely uncommon (having a fishy taste) and forbidden.
* Also regular professors can have a probation period before getting a permanent position.
> How many years or how much/many publication does it normally take to obtain a habilitation degree?
A junior professorship is 6 years and is supposed to be an equivalent alternative to the habilitation, I think that gives a first rough estimate. Besides, I'd recommend that you look into habilitations in your field: they are published in the respecive university libraries and nowadays usually available electronically.
> 2) Since you could be admitted as a PhD candidate, but not as a 'habilitation candidate' (but instead, say, as a postdoc) can you publish in your postdoc and write the paper(s) as a book and submit it for the defense of habilitation?
Cumulative habilitations are very common. Again, look at some in your field.
> 3) Suppose you do a one year postdoc in university A, and a second in university B, can you apply to university B for habilitation? How about university A?
No idea. But the habilitation is supposed to show that you can teach the whole field and one distinguishing criterion (from dissertation) is that also the presented research must cover some breadth.
> 4) If you do your PhD and postdoc in unrelated areas, or say even if you switch from pure to applied math, would that be a problem for getting the degree?
Not sure, but as a habilitation in maths means that you are allowed to teach all kinds of maths I guess that would not be a problem. I know physicists and engineers who habilitated in chemistry (though doing the scientific work in a chemical institute).
> 5) How much does the chance of getting a European tenure increase if you do a successful habilitation?
Well, in practice in order to become a professor you either need a habilitation or become junior professor (for 6 years) and then successfully apply for a professorship.
* number of habilitations / year is about 1600. Approximately 650 professors are pensioned / year, so approximately 1/3 of the people who habilitate actually become professor
Update for maths & natural sciences: ca. 160 profs pensioned / ca. 260 habilitations per year =\> would correspond roughly to a 60 % chance.
* roughly 3% (total: 1439) of all professors (43 862) are junior professors, that is aproximately 240 new per year.
Maths & natural sciences: 305 of 7500 = 4%, corresponding to ca. 50 / year.
* Wikipedia says that somewher between 1/3 and 2/3 of the junior professors work at their habilitation despite being junior professors.
Here's what the Statistische Bundesamt says about these subjects.
# Answer
> 7 votes
I'll answer for France, but some answers may be field-dependent (I am in mathematics).
> 1) If I understand correctly, habilitation is the highest academic degree you can receive and people do it for getting a permanent academic position in Europe. How many years or how much/many publication does it normally take to obtain a habilitation degree?
It is the highest academic degree, but in France permanent positions are available earlier: "maître de conférence" (a kind of associate professor) and "chargé de recherche" (same but without any teaching duty) are tenured positions that only needs a PhD. Also In mathematics, I'd say that nowadays people are usually hired within 2 to 4 years after their defense.
Habilitation is need for Professors positions, which are more or less equivalent to full professor positions.
It takes usually from 6 to 12 years to complete a Habilitation (this is probably field dependent, and mathematics are certainly on the junior side).
> 2) Since you could be admitted as a PhD candidate, but not as a 'habilitation candidate' (but instead, say, as a postdoc) can you publish in your postdoc and write the paper(s) as a book and submit it for the defense of habilitation?
Yes, this is common. In fact, usually one even only write a survey of their results and quote the articles. May be strongly field dependent, I do not know.
> 3) Suppose you do a one year postdoc in university A, and a second in university B, can you apply to university B for habilitation? How about university A?
I would say that you would apply to university B. Most people apply when "maître de conférence" or "chargé de recherche" rather than postdocs, but it is not impossible to apply as a postdoc, there are famous examples.
> 4) If you do your PhD and postdoc in unrelated areas, or say even if you switch from pure to applied math, would that be a problem for getting the degree?
Probably not an issue. You'll need to find referees and a jury that complements well if you want to present everything, but usually you do not include your PhD work. I chose not to present my earlier post-PhD work to get a more consistent Habilitation.
> 5) (Kind of vague question, somewhat opinion-based too) How much does the chance of getting a European tenure increase if you do a successful habilitation?
In France, it would help to get a professor position; if you work abroad I do not think it is mandatory, but good referees report and the composition of the jury can help an application. It would actually *hurt* an application to a Maître de conférence position, as you would be seen as too senior for the job.
Beware that Professor position are rather rare these years, and that Maître de conférence position do not have an internationally competitive salary (but outside the region of Paris, one lives quite well on it).
# Answer
> 2 votes
As for France, you should rather google for the whole name ("habilitation à diriger des recherches") and look e.g. here for starters:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habilitation\_universitaire
(note that the contents is quite different from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habilitation ).
---
Tags: job, postdocs, mathematics, europe, habilitation
--- |
thread-16995 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16995 | strategies to secure more independence in a postdoctoral position? | 2014-02-15T13:07:09.803 | # Question
Title: strategies to secure more independence in a postdoctoral position?
I am soon to finish a long PhD, and am thinking about postdoctoral applications.
As a PhD student I did a lot of quality work and have some publications in respected journals/conferences. However, I did not develop my own research ideas or objectives as a PhD student. This was just the state of affairs and there wasn't much I could do about it. Also, while my work so far is primarily applied and methodological, I am interested in theoretical work. I do not want to continue doing the kind of work I have done so far.
I have a couple questions under the theme of the title:
1. Do I need to sell my PhD work as my own idea in a postdoc application, or is it reasonable to be honest?
2. Will it arouse suspicion in an application to propose research in an area which is not closely related to my PhD research?
3. If I want to be able to develop my own ideas as a postdoctoral researcher, should I seek to clarify that goal, seek positions which advertise that option explicitly, or conceal that goal and instead simply do so once I have a position?
More general question:
1. From my observation and reading, there's an art to developing a research objective/question. Ideally, I would like to have some kind of guidance in doing so. In my experience that is unrealistic. How can I seek meaningful mentorship, but somehow frame it in a manner that allows me to move forward and to maintain financial and intellectual freedom from the mentor?
In my experience for students from mathematics and physics the answer to (2) is often "no". However, coming from an applied area wishing to do more theoretical work, the standards are unclear to me.
# Answer
First of all, let me say that your choice of words really rings an alarm bell with me. The general impression is that you are very ready to be inhonest, and (in agreement with that) your default position seems to mistrust your future employer and you seem to expect suspicion as opposed to taking in the situation openly.
Now if someone does not trust me, a natural question for me is: why should I trust them? I would not want to work with someone with this attitude towards work. And moreover, I wouldn't want to have someone messing up the working atmosphere in my group.
(But don't worry: I'm not in the position to hire anyone.)
> Do I need to sell my PhD work as my own idea in a postdoc application, or is it reasonable to be honest?
I'd say it is even **necessary to be honest**, and it is most probably futile to try to get away with anything else. Academia is a small world, and phone, skype and email reach very far nowadays. Particularly if you say that your field is so small that you do not care to name it here.
> Will it arouse suspicion in an application to propose research in an area which is not closely related to my PhD research?
No. But you should have a positive reason to apply there.
> If I want to be able to develop my own ideas as a postdoctoral researcher, should I seek to clarify that goal, seek positions which advertise that option explicitly
I'd say that you are *expected* to develop your own ideas in a postdoc position.
So: Yes, why not. I had interviews where we discussed openly how much own ideas would be possible, welcome, and what the bottomline of things-that-need-to-be-done-no-matter-what would be.
> From my observation and reading, there's an art to developing a research objective/question. Ideally, I would like to have some kind of guidance in doing so. In my experience that is unrealistic. How can I seek meaningful mentorship, but somehow frame it in a manner that allows me to move forward and to maintain financial and intellectual freedom from the mentor?
I can ensure you that there are good mentors and leaders, including also mentors and leaders who are even good at teaching leadership in research. But such learning can only work if you trust your mentor. That in turn makes financial and intellectual dependence a non-issue. It may not be easy to find a good mentor. But on the other hand, you could also learn from someone who is not your direct supervisor. That way, you'd have the financial and intellectual freedom.
---
But: if you feel you need mentoring how to develop research questions, how can you feel ready to apply for a postdoc position?
> I did not develop my own research ideas or objectives as a PhD student. This was just the state of affairs and there wasn't much I could do about it.
How come? How could your supervisor prevent you from thinking your own thoughts and from having your own opinion and judging of what needs to be done and how? As a research professional, crititcal and independent thinking is one of your core tasks.
Remember: you were a professional already when you started the PhD. If that wasn't necessary, it would be appropriate for an apprentice to apply for a PhD position.
And if you had gone to work in industry instead of in academia, you'd aslo have been profesionally responsible for everything you do.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Time for some tough love. What your future employers want is a steady stream of scholarship, increasing in quality, quantity, and self-sufficiency. This includes both those hiring you for a postdoc and those hiring you (hopefully) for a permanent position afterward.
Normally to switch from subject A to subject B requires time and produces a gap in the stream. This is very bad. Even if there is no gap, switching topics renders much of your hard work publishing papers less relevant to future employers. All other things being equal, I would prefer to hire a specialist in subject B rather than someone who straddles both B and A.
If you're Terry Tao, you can work your way through the entire MSC 2010; that's just being brilliant and prolific. However if you're a mere mortal it's a bad idea to switch specialties until at least after tenure.
PS. If you are less than forthright about how experienced you are at working independently, this cannot possibly lead to a result in your favor.
> 2 votes
# Answer
> Do I need to sell my PhD work as my own idea in a postdoc application, or is it reasonable to be honest?
You need to **honestly** show how your work is your own and you need to show that the research question you worked on is important. The people hiring you want to see that you do groundbreaking work on important problems, they aren't looking for a story about how an original research problem came to you in a dream. You need to talk about what you did. You should devote very little space to what other people did, if any.
> Will it arouse suspicion in an application to propose research in an area which is not closely related to my PhD research?
Not if you justify your interest in the proposed research. It would be good to show some sort of conceptual connection between the proposed research and the previous research, but probably not essential if the proposed research is something "hot" in your field.
> If I want to be able to develop my own ideas as a postdoctoral researcher, should I seek to clarify that goal, seek positions which advertise that option explicitly, or conceal that goal and instead simply do so once I have a position?
Developing original research ideas (under constraints) is usually the point of a postdoc. It's not really something you need to clarify, and not something that needs to be in the ad. Do make sure that the ad is compatible with your intended research direction, obviously.
> From my observation and reading, there's an art to developing a research objective/question. Ideally, I would like to have some kind of guidance in doing so. In my experience that is unrealistic. How can I seek meaningful mentorship, but somehow frame it in a manner that allows me to move forward and to maintain financial and intellectual freedom from the mentor?
The postdoc isn't the PI. At a postdoc position there will usually be a few senior people who can be your mentors. So you'll get mentorship.
*Meaningful* mentorship isn't exactly something you can ask for (or that can be given on-demand). It's like friendship: it doesn't really make much sense to "ask for meaningful friendship," it's something that develops with people who are the right fit for you.
Intellectual freedom is sort of implied in the position, as mentioned before. The postdoc's job is to do original research on a particular topic. Obviously there are constraints to what research you can do, but that's true at all levels: everyone has constraints on the research they do.
As for financial freedom... I'm not entirely sure what one needs to do to get fired from a postdoc, but I think that having original ideas isn't that thing.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: postdocs
--- |
thread-16793 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16793 | Ph.D. in the space between two fields? | 2014-02-11T03:38:01.210 | # Question
Title: Ph.D. in the space between two fields?
I'm applying to PhD programs in two fields and I am interested in the space between two fields, where one is applied to the other.
In my particular case I'm interested in researching Software Engineering as applied to Robotics. I will use a similar but slightly different case as an illustrative example between the fields of Software Engineering and Machine Learning, which I am also interested in. Software Engineering applied to Machine Learning could incorporate better ways, such as new language syntax, to design and implement Machine Learning Algorithms. The opposite would be using machine learning to solve Software Engineering problems, such as automatically discovering database regularities in a data mining application.
Essentially, I see understanding, researching, and being able to apply software engineering to robotics as an area that will expand enormously in the next 10-15 years, much like how software engineering research has expanded as applied to mobile devices and data centers.
I am very interested in both fields, but ideally I would be studying how to apply software engineering to robotics.
* **How do I explain my interests to both Robotics and Software Engineering professors, respectively?**
* **How do I communicate why this matters at all, and more importantly why it matters to them?**
* **Should I focus primarily on Software Engineering programs, Robotics programs, or both to reach my goal?**
Answers based on analogous situations from other fields are welcome.
# Answer
> 7 votes
I know little about either of these fields, but will try to give a generally applicable answer.
I think your best bet is to **find an advisor who already has some appreciation for the intersection of these two topics**. Convincing someone who only works on one of them that they are important together -- and that he/she should supervise a thesis involving both -- may be difficult. However, since the fields you mention can often be found within the same university department (computer science), the latter approach is also possible.
To decide which type of programs you should look at, ask yourself **in which field will I innovate**? If you will apply standard software engineering techniques to do something new in robotics, focus on robotics. If you will devise novel software engineering ideas that are useful with respect to existing robotics applications, then focus on software engineering. Of course, the answer is rarely clear cut.
**Important**: if you're not substantially innovating within either field, it may be difficult to convince a committee that you deserve a Ph.D. (even though the combination may be innovative). You can't usually get away with work that is worth half of a Ph.D. in each field.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I think David Ketcheson's answer is the right way to approach it.
One thing that I'd like to add to it is that you might not be that original: there are plenty of interdisciplinary programs that do this sort of heavy collaboration between fields, there could already be a program that focuses on what you want (or something close to it).
Example: Machine Learning is the intersection of Statistics and Computer Science. There are Statistics departments that do ML research, there are CS departments that do ML research, and Carnegie Mellon University has and entire Machine Learning department.
# Answer
> 1 votes
As David Ketcheson suggested, **the ideal scenario** would be to find an advisor who works in both fields. But even if you find one, he/she will probably have preferences on one topic or the other. Both fields are extremely wide and highly *"trendy"*.
So, I believe it comes down to which field you would like to go more in-depth. Either find a highly specialized advisor in Robotics with some knowledge/applications in Software Engineering, or the opposite.
From my perspective (as a Mechanical Engineer), I would suggest to go for in-depth research in Robotics, which has quite sophisticated dynamics, control and solid mechanics, and couple your research to Software Engineering, with for example the design of an efficient graphical interfaces for control purposes or advanced image processing techniques for trajectories planning.
These are just examples, as I said before, both fields are extremely wide in terms of possibilities, so it is up to you and your advisor to find a middle-ground that suits you both.
# Answer
> 0 votes
Bridging two topics is more complex than a simple PhD devoted to a single topic. You must be lead by a professor who is also highly interested in and *actually helps* with your research plan, not just "allows". Professor should take care to make a plan of the suitable PhD research project from this idea.
So start from finding such a supervisor and drop the idea if you cannot.
---
Tags: phd, research-process, code
--- |
thread-16475 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16475 | When is it acceptable to ask a graduate program about their admissions decision? | 2014-02-02T19:47:56.557 | # Question
Title: When is it acceptable to ask a graduate program about their admissions decision?
I've recently applied for PhD programs in mathematics. I received an offer not long ago, and in light of this offer, there are only a few schools that I would consider an offer from. From past years results (and this year's), I expect to get results from two of them in the coming week, but another of them usually only sends out their final decisions three or so weeks from now (though they do, and have, sent decisions already to some applicants). I would like to make a decision fairly soon, and knowing about the status of my application at this final school would indeed make a difference in any decisions I make. When is it acceptable to ask them about the status of my application? Should I simply wait until they send me the result, or is it OK to ask earlier?
In more generality, so that this question might be useful to somebody that's not me: in general, when is it acceptable to ask schools about their admissions decision if they've not notified you yet?
# Answer
If there's a specific reason, such as a deadline at another school, that it would be helpful to know your status, then I think its very reasonable to send a message to the graduate director at a program you're considering. Asking just because you're curious is generally discouraged, but if you have new information, then its reasonable to ask for an update.
> 22 votes
# Answer
I would say that in general it is OK to ask if you haven't heard from the program in a long time or if you, say, see decisions being posted on The Grad Cafe. Sure, you don't want to be e-mailing them every week, but a short e-mail to the graduate department (not necessarily the graduate director, but the person listed under who to contact for graduate admissions) shouldn't hurt and they shouldn't be offended or annoyed by it. If they are getting swamped by such e-mails, it is not hard for them to just ignore them and not reply. If they only get a couple, however, they might actually give you a better estimate of the timeline.
Personally, I also consider answering e-mails asking such questions to be a part of the job description of whoever is the contact person for graduate admissions. Yes, the graduate director should not deal with such questions, but that is why I also think the graduate director shouldn't be listed as the contact person.
To sum it up, I only think it's "inappropriate" to constantly bugger them, but not to send a polite e-mail asking about your status.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, etiquette
--- |
thread-17013 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17013 | Is it usual for finished PhD students to send out physical copies of their thesis to unknown persons? | 2014-02-16T11:25:08.983 | # Question
Title: Is it usual for finished PhD students to send out physical copies of their thesis to unknown persons?
Some time ago, a recently-graduated PhD has sent me a physical (book) copy of his dissertation. The graduate works in a somewhat-related field, but is personally entirely unknown to me (I have some loose connections to the advisor, though). I was reasonably confused by this - I personally have never heard of a custom of sending physical theses to anybody besides maybe parents. I was 100% convinced that I received the dissertation in error (also because the mailing was addressed to my name, but using a wrong department name).
Last week I by chance got hold of the graduate and told him that he sent me his thesis by accident, and asked whether he wants to have it back. He seemed confused and a little bit annoyed that I wanted to give his thesis back - it turns out he actually sent me the book on purpose, assuming that I would be interested in his work. **He told me that he thought it is customary to send a finished PhD thesis to people that he thought might profit from its results.**
**So, is this a thing, at least in some fields? If so, why not just send the core papers or a link to a digital version of the thesis?** Mailing out printed copies seems extremely expensive, and also (at least for me) very unlikely to result in anything else than me having another book gathering dust in my office shelf. I am honestly very unlikely to read an entire thesis, *especially* if I only have it in a dead-tree book version.
# Answer
This is not uncommon in the country where I did my PhD (the Netherlands). There you have to print a reasonably large amount of hardcopies anyway, typically people get around 200-300 copies in my field. It is not uncommon to send some copies to researchers that you genuinely believe may be interested in the work, usually people that you have been in contact with before, or are in contact with your advisor.
The cost of the thesis printing and mailing is generally reimbursed by the university (of course, all within reasonable limits). In countries where printing the thesis is not so common, I can imagine that the practice of mailing around copies is not common.
> 52 votes
# Answer
In some countries you print a large number of copies (as stated by Pieter Naaijkens), in some only a single digit number which should then be distributed to a specific set of recipients. Regardless it is not unusual that a person might distribute copies to people that might have some interest in it. It is, however, not a must and the recipients is up to the author. When you send a thesis I think it is wise to write an accompanying letter explaining why the thesis is sent to the specific person. To send them without such a personal note may come across as a little odd and can of course be misunderstood.
I did my PhD in the US and made a larger number of cheap copies (do not remember how many) to distribute among friends. I sent a few to others whose research I had built on. This was outside of the, at least then, mandatory five bound copies. In Sweden, where I now reside, printing of about 250 is mandatory and the student can print additional copies at their own cost. We recommend students to think about sending their thesis to people they can imagine would be interested in it. Since the life time of a thesis is usually quite short, most will soon be properly published, it is a good way to advertise your PhD and your work right after you have completed the work.
> 34 votes
# Answer
I have, so far as I can remember, physical copies of three PhD theses that were not written by my own students. (I do not have a physical copy of my own PhD thesis.) Two of these were indeed PhDs from the Netherlands, where they bind the theses in an attractive way and clearly send them out rather broadly. One of them is from an older student in my department, whose work was very influential to me.
I have certainly been happy to have all of these theses. The one from the student in my department I have certainly consulted at length. The other two less so, but a colleague of mine once borrowed it (and then duly returned it). I am not aware that any of these three theses are freely available on the internet, so it is not purely an empty gesture.
> Last week I by chance got hold of the graduate and told him that he sent me his thesis by accident, and asked whether he wants to have it back. He seemed confused and a little bit annoyed that I wanted to give his thesis back - it turns out he actually sent me the book on purpose, assuming that I would be interested in his work.
As you've probably realized by now, your behavior was a bit rude. What are the chances that someone sent you a PhD thesis by accident?? Offering to give back something that someone sends you without first inquiring into the circumstances in which they sent it is really not great behavior. When someone gives something to you -- in circumstances other than a bribe or some similar kind of implicit *quid pro quo* -- the polite thing to do is say "Thank you." It would be a classy move to apologize to the person whose thesis you tried to give back.
> 20 votes
# Answer
This varies by country and probably by field as well, which means I can only speak from my own experience in physics, in the US. What my experience says is that it is exceptionally rare to do this. Typically, a student will have one copy of their thesis printed and bound for their adviser, one for themselves, one or two for the university library if required by policy, and perhaps one or two for the student's parents, if they're interested. Each one of these copies costs $50 or more, and costs are borne by the student, so there is a large incentive to print as few copies as necessary.
More recently (in the past few years), I believe a lot of universities have switched to electronic archival of theses, which means the campus library no longer requires a printed copy. In these cases, a finalized PhD thesis might never get printed at all, depending on the preferences of the student and the adviser.
Certainly, to me, it is unheard of to send unsolicited printed copies of the thesis to other researchers. Of course, in physics some PhD theses are uploaded to arXiv for electronic distribution, so interested researchers can get access to them that way.
> 6 votes
# Answer
Perhaps it could be of interest that in some countries of Central and Eastern Europe there exists a tradition of sending to many places in the country where the Ph.D. studies are done (especially major libraries and universities) not the full Ph.D. thesis but the so-called thesis summary ("autoreferat"). The sending is usually done by the institution where the Ph.D. studies are done and takes place *before* the viva, so that, at least in theory, the interested parties may visit the viva and ask the questions to the author of the thesis.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I sent printed copies of my thesis to the people I mentioned in the acknowledgment section. That is about 20 persons. I obviously didn't think they would read it, and in fact the content was already obsolete at the time it went through the printer, it was more of a way of marking the event, and well, letting them know that I thanked them in my preamble.
I would not be surprised, however, that someone would get puzzled if I sent them a copy and they had no direct tie to my work. I mean, I don't send pdfs of my articles to people I think would be interested in reading them...
> 3 votes
# Answer
Totally uncommon to me. I'm doing my PhD thesis and if I were that student, I'd send first an email asking whether there is an interest or not. In any case, I'd not expect that someone will read my thesis (book) just for fun or because *that might interest you*. Even PhD supervisors complain reading PhD theses that look like books!
> -1 votes
---
Tags: thesis, graduation, etiquette
--- |
thread-17099 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17099 | Include conference papers with/without proceedings in CV | 2014-02-18T12:23:51.770 | # Question
Title: Include conference papers with/without proceedings in CV
I have papers X and Y published. Each of those produced papers Xc and Yc for different conferences. Xc was presented in a conference with proceedings while the conference of Yc didn't have proceedings. Both Xc and Yc are published in the arXiv and have my name on it as I'm one of the authors in X and Y. However I did not give any of those talks.
My question is do/should I include these papers on my CV? If affirmative, under which section and how to specify that I didn't give the talk.
# Answer
On my CV, I have a section called *Conference Papers*, where I highlight the papers for which I gave the talk by underlining my name in the list of authors. You can definitely list these papers, as you contributed to them. Drawing positive attention to the papers you *did* present probably gives a better impression than highlighting papers you did not present.
Another way to list the conference papers once they have appeared in a journal (or are accepted), is to simply add a note to the journal publication with the conference information.
The customs for conferences with and without proceedings vary. Some researchers separate these into different categories, while others do not make this distinction. Essentially, it's up to you. Researchers who are familiar with your field will know the relative merits of these venues regardless.
**Disclaimer**: I'm in theoretical computer science, where conference papers count as publications. Fields that place less value on conferences might have other customs.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: etiquette, cv
--- |
thread-17050 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17050 | Acknowledging the discussion with someone in the paper but excluding this person as a reviewer: how to do this? | 2014-02-17T14:10:12.013 | # Question
Title: Acknowledging the discussion with someone in the paper but excluding this person as a reviewer: how to do this?
While writing a paper I discussed its first draft with a certain colleague (he is from a *different* university, so it is not likely that he will be automatically ruled out as a reviewer as suggested in the Visoft's answer). He made a few helpful suggestions but by and large didn't like the paper: he would like the results to be compared with the ones one could obtain using his favorite method -- but this is a separate piece of hard work, and his favorite method is, to put it mildly, far from being universally recognized by the community of experts in the field.
I would like to acknowledge his helpful suggestions in the paper but at the same time I would like to rule him out as a possible reviewer (some journals give you an opportunity to let them know whom the paper should NOT be sent for review).
**QUESTION:** How should one word the acknowledgment of this colleague's helpful suggestions in the paper in a way compatible with excluding him as a possible reviewer, so that the editor who will handle the paper does not get confused by the whole situation and honors my request to exclude this person from the list of possible reviewers?
Also, which is the best way to state the reason for excluding this person from the list of reviewers (conflict of interests, or something else)?
Thanks in advance.
# Answer
First of all, I assume that you do not mean "colleague" in the narrow sense of someone at your institution? That would make a (nearly?) universally inappropriate choice of reviewer, right?
Regarding your question: I must admit that I don't have much direct experience with "suggested excluded reviewers". I am almost never asked that question on papers I submit; I think I might have done so once: when I did it, the idea was to help out the editors by pointing to someone that they might have thought had a lot of directly relevant expertise but that I knew would not actually be so interested in reviewing the work in question. The point is that I interpreted this as a (ever so slightly pathetic, I might add: I think this occurred at, by far, the lowest quality journal I have ever submitted to) request from the editors for me to help them out in finding a good person for the job, not excluding potential reviewers for "conflict of interest" reasons.
Because of this I am not totally clear on what constitutes a "conflict of interest" for a reviewer: in doing any referee work one volunteers to give one's professional opinion. I don't have any "academic enemies", but moreover I once recommended for rejection a paper by one of my closest friends: and it was a very good paper; I just thought that it was not good enough for the journal to which it was submitted. (Because I knew the person I also felt that he could get a better publication by working on it a little longer, and in fact that is what happened: about a year later he published a magnificent paper in a higher quality journal.) Oh, back to you: is it clear that your colleague would actually be an inappropriate referee for the paper? Were his opinions about doing the alternate method actually fully *professional* opinions, or is that just his more personal reaction to the paper, reading it in terms of his own interests? Moreover, does his alternate perspective really lack validity in some sense? If so, then wouldn't a good editor not choose him anyway?
To summarize the above: it is not clear to me that "X already read my paper, and he didn't like it so much" is a sufficient reason to exclude X as a potential referee. You wonder what the language of exclusion should be, and I agree: you'll have to work a little harder to paint this as a *conflict of interest*: I'm not seeing that.
But okay, now a direct answer: well, they asked you if there's anyone you'd like to exclude, so it's really up to them to evaluate the reasons. If you don't want this person to review your paper I would say so using exactly the reasons you've told us: then it is up to the editors to decide whether to grant your request.
Let me give one other piece of advice which may seem a little shady at first but which I claim is mostly practical:
> Consider not acknowledging your colleague in the first version of the paper you submit, knowing that you will put this acknowledgment back in the published version.
Concerning this, let me first say that you cannot do it if his contributions were beyond a certain point: it would then simply be academic dishonesty. But many acknowledgments are subjective largesse: you have not just won an Academy Award, so you don't thank every single person that helped you.
Anyway, the reason why I recommend this if it is possible is to short-circuit the dopey editorial practice -- **which I have seen happen several times** -- that the editors send a paper to a certain reviewer *because she is explicitly acknowledged*. What a frustratingly lazy practice this is.
The editors who ask the author's opinion on referees tend (in my direct experience) to be lazy types, who just might choose someone in the acknowledgments...and might do so thinking they are doing you a favor! So the idea of delaying the acknowledgment to forestall a bad editorial choice seems ethically defensible to me. Finally, if the editors are asking for the author's opinion perhaps they will also ask you for especially plausible referees? If so you should think hard and suggest really good choices: i.e., the most qualified people, not necessarily the ones who would like your paper the best.
**Added**: After airing out my advice to unacknowledge your former collaborator X, I am having trouble standing by it. Based on what you say there is a good chance that X actually would be the referee, and if he can then see that your paper has been modified according to his advice but that you have not mentioned him, then it is possible that he might be personally hurt by it and that this might come out in the referee report. I think the "unacknowledgment" suggested above is only feasible if the version of the paper you're submitting does not bear any mark of X's helpful suggestions. As I said, whether X is an appropriate referee for your paper really is up to the editors to decide. You can help them out by giving them all the appropriate information. Doing much more than that could be ethically problematic...
**Added**: Upon further reflection I can only *clearly* remember the practice of being asked to referee a paper in which I was acknowledged happening once. I'm sorry for the inaccuracy. However that one time was from a leading journal, and I made sure to ask whether the editor was aware that I had been acknowledged in the paper, and he was.
> 6 votes
# Answer
learning, welcome to Academia StackExchange.
In my opinion you should add the name of your colleague to the acknowledgment section of your paper because he gave constructive hints:
> "The authors would like to thank Mr. xxx for the helpful suggestions regarding chapter X, " etc.
Most of the editors rule out automatically reviewers based on their affiliations or proximity with the authors (previous work together, previous shared affiliations, etc). So there are very small chances that a colleague of yours be your reviewer. I only heard of this situation once, on some conference.
If the journal asks you for a list of possible/avoidable reviewers you can list him/her here. However, the list is just a suggestion and the editor might choose another reviewers. Best reason for reviewer rejection is, in your situation, to explain that you worked together.
On a side note, you might mention other methods and rule them out based on some (semi)objective criteria (rarely used, without available implementation, debatable, etc). Anyway, be prepared to accept the reviewer's comments even if they require implementing some rare and weird techniques.
Hope it helps!
> 4 votes
# Answer
As has been suggested by others it is easy to exclude people from being reviewers. You usually provide a cover letter for your submission and you can point out that certain persons have been involved with the work but are not authors. You can thank the person any way you want in the acknowledgement. A person who is involved in work and who is asked to review a paper should also decline with the obvious excuse that they have a conflict of interest. Thus everyone in the process has some obligation to keep reviews on track and objective. It is furthermore possible and even requested at the time of submission to list persons who may have conflict of interest or who are "non-preferred reviewers" due, for example, to personal conflicts etc.
So to answer the main question. you can phrase the acknowledgement anyway you want, it is not the place to list people who may have a conflict of interest, you should do this in the cover letter or, if the submission system provides it, when non-preferred reviewers should be listed. The cover letter, is however, the best place since you can describe the problem to the editor.
> 4 votes
# Answer
It is a normal procedure. When sending a manuscript together with the letter to the editor, it is normally possible to list several researchers or laboratories as competitors, not appropriate for the reviewing of this publication. This is especially appropriate if topics overlap and a lot depends on who will publish first.
The editor will simply pick some other competent reviewers.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: publications, journals, peer-review, writing
--- |
thread-17117 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17117 | Best way to respond to a request for CV | 2014-02-18T19:03:14.637 | # Question
Title: Best way to respond to a request for CV
A couple of weeks ago I met this person who had come to our institute for an invited talk. Her domain of work was same as my area of research. Later I discussed with her some of the topics and asked her if there are any openings in her company (she is in the industry as an R&D head). She responded: *"Send me your CV, I will look into it."*
Now I want to write to her. How do I begin with that? Should I send my CV in the first mail itself? If so should I also include a cover letter? What's the best way to introduce myself?
# Answer
Well... there are lot of important variables not mentioned, but this is how I will generally draft it:
> Dear Madam Give-me-a-job,
>
> It was great talking to you after your talk on Jan 17th, 2014 at My-Little-Institute. I found your experience and nature of your job fascinating. In our conversation about pursuing a career in Whatever-you-are-working-in, you were so kind to offer giving comments to my CV. And if you don't mind, I would love to take up your generous offer.
>
> Attached please find my CV. I would love to follow up with you in two weeks and set up a phone conversation to discuss how I can strengthen my profile so that I can be a more competitive candidate in this job market. Thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to your invaluable critiques and suggestions.
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
> Penguin Knight
My approach:
1. Don't treat it like a lead to a job. She might just say that to be nice. If I come off too pushy, I may not even get a chance listening to her comments. For that reason, I *will not attach a cover letter* that details my experience, research interest, and why I am suitable for the position. There isn't even a job, a catch-all cover letter is difficult to write and hard to be made impressive.
2. Ask for follow up and act on it. A lot of the "send me your CV" didn't get follow up because the candidate really just "sent the CV" and that's the end of it. I specifically tweaked it as wanting advices from her, making it easier for both parties to engage in another conversation.
3. No need to worry about "what if she really just gives me comments?" She probably knows and remembers. If my CV is really good, she will mention the availability of openings. If there isn't or I am not good enough, then I can use this chance to flush out weaknesses and improve them.
> 31 votes
# Answer
I wouldn't make a big deal of it:
> FirstName,
>
> Good to meet you the other day. Interesting presentation.
>
> Attached is my CV as discussed.
>
> Best wishes, Your full name
Most people are busy and they're not going to read more than a couple of sentences anyway.
Also, the longer the email, the more desperate and obsequious your tone; save time and your dignity - keep it brief.
> 17 votes
# Answer
> Hello (Speaker-name),
>
> We spoke on (date here) when you came to our institution and presented on (topic here). I very much enjoyed your speech and our discussion afterwards on (a few words on what you talked about) and possible openings in your company. As discussed, I've attached my cover letter and resume for your consideration.
>
> Thanks so much, and I look forward to hearing back from you!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> (Your name here)
My post is making the email a bit less formal, as I assume you talked to her in an informal way. By bringing up where you guys were, when you met, and what you talked about, you're likely sparking her memory (unless she gave two talks and had identical conversations that day, which is unlikely). I'd also keep the email relatively concise, because your intent is to seek jobs, not make a new friend.
Personally, I would attach my cover letter, because the cover letter gives a better indication on not only what your skills and past experience is, but also on what your desired position is. It also gives the employer a bit more indication into what you're like as a person, and whether or not they'd want to hire you.
This is all, of course, assuming you're emailing her and not mailing it. If you mail it, I would put a shorter version of this email into the cover letter and only send the cover letter and resume.
> 9 votes
# Answer
CV and cover letter in an email and maybe send physical copies as well. Just a friendly brief email with the attachments in the companies preferred format. Make sure to mention the sort of position you are looking for in the cover letter.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: cv, email
--- |
thread-17128 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17128 | Can I submit a conference abstract that duplicates a submitted paper? | 2014-02-19T00:56:32.907 | # Question
Title: Can I submit a conference abstract that duplicates a submitted paper?
I have a paper already submitted to a journal. Now, I want to try and submit an abstract to International Congress of Mathematicians 2014. The abstract basically contains the same thought and spirit of the submitted paper though I plan to rephrase it differently from the abstract and introduction of the submitted paper. Does this violate publication ethics?
# Answer
> 11 votes
If you are submitting an abstract for a contributed talk or poster at the ICM and your paper is submitted to a math journal, then there is no issue. The mathematics community does not consider the abstract to be a publication and there is no conflict with simultaneous submission of a paper. In fact, this would be common.
If you are writing a paper for the ICM proceedings (i.e., you are giving an invited talk), then this could theoretically be an issue. It would be polite and proper to inquire with the journal to make sure they are OK with it, but they will certainly say yes. ICM proceedings papers are considered expository, and being invited to speak is an honor, so there's no way anybody will interfere with it.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Not ethics, but you do need to check if it violates the policies of either the journal or the conference. That's something that you should be able to find out from their websites or by contacting them directly.
Sadly, ICM doesn't seem to list an explicit policy about dual submissions on the website, so you'll need to email someone (probably `abstract@icm2014.org`) to ask.
In my experience, a dual submission to a journal and a conference has been allowed, whereas a dual submission of the same work to two journals, or to two conferences, has not been allowed. Even then, some conferences are less strict.
---
Tags: publications, ethics, conference, abstract
--- |
thread-17097 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17097 | Acknowledgements and reviewer selection | 2014-02-18T12:08:59.330 | # Question
Title: Acknowledgements and reviewer selection
For some reason, I was always under the impression that people that are included in the acknowledgement section of paper are not contacted to review your paper because they would be predisposed to give a favourable review. However, after reading the discussion in this question it seems like it is standard to send papers out for review to people in the acknowledgements section if there is not another conflict in place (like being from the same institution, for example). Which is it?
**Do editors send a paper out for review to people in the acknowledgements section?** Can I suggest a person I acknowledge for helpful comments as a potential reviewer (assuming there aren't other conflicts of interest)? If the field matters then I am interested primarily in mathematics, theoretical computer science, and biology.
# Answer
> 10 votes
The acknowledgement is there to thank people for their help in the work. It is not a place to provide information to the editor on who may have conflicts of interest. You list such persons in a cover letter with an explanation for why there is a conflict. This will make the situation clear to the editor. Persons in the same department will pretty much be excluded by default but if an obvious connection is not present it should be pointed out in a letter. It seems a little odd to thank someone without there being any connection to the work so I would not recommend trying to suggest such a person as potential reviewer. At the same time a person who ha a conflict of interest should decline to review with the excuse that there exists such a conflict. I would say such behaviour is good etiquette and good ethics.
I know there have been instances where a person received a strong reject review on a crap paper by a high-ranking scientist and then used the name in the acknowledgement thanking for input on an earlier version of the manuscript. The manuscript was almost the same but the signal was the high-ranked scientist approved it and so reviewers were unwilling to reject it. Hence the acknowledgement is not a place where a seasoned editor would look for valuable information.
# Answer
> 8 votes
> For some reason, I was always under the impression that people that are included in the acknowledgement section of paper are not contacted to review your paper because they would be predisposed to give a favourable review.
This is certainly true in my field (software engineering). I was also reasonably confused by the underlying assumption of the question you linked. It certainly does not seem to make sense to me to ask people that are clearly closely related to the authors for fair peer review.
What **does** happen a lot in practice is that authors mentioned in the bibliography of a manuscript get asked to review a paper, especially if the editor is not from the same field and does not know any experts in the field by heart.
Apparently, this is particularly common for grant proposal evaluations (at least in Austria), as the people assigning reviewers there are usually not scientists themselves. Hence, they rarely have deep insight into who the big players in a field of study are, and instead select persons that are not obviously related to the proposal authors and have published a healthy amount of related papers cited in the bibliography of the proposal.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I think you're talking about my comments.
Unfortunately I am speaking from direct experience. I did have the occasion to think more carefully about this since seeing your question, and at the moment I can remember exactly once when this occurred. (I have refereed probably about 40 papers over the years, and I can't tell you that I went back over all of them...) So once is only once. But this one case is awfully distressing: it was at a very famous journal, with a very famous editor, and the acknowledgment in question was very far from random or frivolous: the paper was, in fact, a continuation/improvement of a recently accepted joint paper between the author and me! So in my mind this somehow "counts twice". But do other mathematicians know for sure that this happens? I would be very interested to know.
Let me also add that it almost never happens that I get asked for a list of recommended or excluded referees: I think once or twice out of about 30 submissions.
It it tempting to speculate more broadly about why this practice -- which I think everyone here agrees is not kosher if authors do not clarify/disclose information about potential referees -- may in fact exist. But actually I have some academic work of my own to do tonight (and not so much "tonight" left). So maybe later...
---
Tags: publications, journals, peer-review, ethics, etiquette
--- |
thread-17138 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17138 | What do departments/universities do about unethical behavior by faculty? | 2014-02-19T07:26:10.257 | # Question
Title: What do departments/universities do about unethical behavior by faculty?
I see questions on this site that describe extremely unethical behavior by professors (e.g., not giving a student authorship when it is obviously warranted). I've also seen some behavior of this kind firsthand (not by my own advisor, thankfully), and realize that many of the perpetrators are "repeat offenders."
Often the object of the unethical behavior is a student/advisee, for whom it may not be personally beneficial to lodge a formal complaint. (The student, understandably, does not want to do anything that will jeopardize graduation, reference letters, etc.)
Given that many students won't go on the record about unethical behavior by a professor or advisor, how do academic departments and universities find out about these incidents? (Do they?) What do they do to prevent the offenders from doing it again?
I am not asking about actual university regulations, since I am specifically interested in cases where no formal complaint is made. Rather, I am asking what practical action one could take (e.g.as a faculty member of the same department, a dept chair, a dean of some kind) to
* Become aware of the incidents (dept gossip is the only way I know about, is there a better way?)
* Officially or unofficially try to stop it from happening again
For example, I know that in my own department, I will warn prospective students of an unethical advisor. I am a student though; I imagine this would be inappropriate for a faculty member.
# Answer
The main problem as I have experienced it is hearsay vs. facts. By hearsay, I mean rumours or coffee-table talk and the like. The university and departments can do a lot but not on hearsay. I know of one case where all PhD students finish and then distance themselves for life to the advisor. If one of them had made a formal complaint, things would have been easy but no-one has. In this case the department has behind the scenes "decided" not to grant the person any more graduate students. I am sure many who read this can see that it is highly unsatisfactory "punishment" since it is all happening behind the scenes, but without official complaints there are no other ways to go.
To widen the perspective a little. When it comes to discrimination due to sex and ethnicity the situation is different, there not much is needed for action. A person can be unfairly branded by almost anything regardless if any evidence exist (such as a student unsatisfied with grades and eager for revenge accuses someone for -ism). In such cases, we, rightly, have the approach no smoke without a fire. Unfortunately the other types of misbehaviours are not generally acknowledged as problems of similar dignity and so a wealth of hard evidence is required and lost of benefit of doubt exists in the process.
So although much can be done, many cases go on for long periods due to lack of hard facts. Sometimes problems are taken care of behind the scenes but these cases can drag on for very long periods. The fact that they are handled behind the scenes does not carry legal certainty and can be a problem by themselves. So clearly problems exist but the processes of "pressing charges" are unclear and uncertain. So to cap off, it is a legally tricky situation where anything but an open process carries unsatisfactory issues.
> 8 votes
---
Tags: professorship, ethics, university
--- |
thread-17136 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17136 | Carry your PhD project with you to post-doc and beyond | 2014-02-19T07:00:27.027 | # Question
Title: Carry your PhD project with you to post-doc and beyond
Say you develop your own research project during your PhD years and want to carry on the research project with you to post-doctoral and beyond, are there any restriction that you can or cannot carry on the project?
# Answer
From a career perspective, it's a bad idea to carry your PhD project as your **primary** work further into your career. It's perfectly normal for people to finish up the publication of papers related to one phase in a later phase of their career, but it's not so good to keep working on basically the same project.
The reason for this is that you don't want to be "pigeonholed" as a researcher who only studies a narrow topic. In most fields, it's not conducive to a successful career, because it makes a researcher look as if uninterested in other research fields (even if that's not the case).
So even if the funding and willingness of the advisors is available to support such a path, it's not one you should follow (absent a very specific reason to do so).
> 7 votes
# Answer
In general, this depends primarily on your supervisors (old and new) and/or funding. If they give you the green light you're good to go.
If you have been working with industry or parts of your research have been patented there may be legal issues if you intend to collaborate with other parties (both companies or universities).
> 2 votes
# Answer
As soon as the article is published, any laboratory can plan experiments described in that article, continuing the research. I see no reason why the original author should not be allowed.
However this is often not as good idea as it may look like. Assuming the PhD student have worked seriously over PhD time, all "low hanging fruits" of the topic may be already picked up and published in journals. And if your parent laboratory continues that project as well, they put up the competition that may be very difficult to win.
The probable exception would be if the continuation of the topic requires to apply methods that are not well developed in the originating laboratory, and you are starting a post-doc in the new laboratory with your current project.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: research-process
--- |
thread-17134 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17134 | Funded PhD position chances for international students in Austria | 2014-02-19T05:26:56.153 | # Question
Title: Funded PhD position chances for international students in Austria
In the midst of my quest for potential countries to find a funded Ph.D position in computer science, I came across Austria. However, my initial impression was there is no big chances for international student there for the following reasons:
1. Most of the universities websites are not fully available in English (In contrast to German universities websites, Austrian's one have many brochures and sub-links related to postgraduate studies in German only)
2. I have sent few emails inquiring the admission and I received responses apologizing for not accepting international students
3. Every time I google (Ph.D computer science Austria) I get results about Australia instead. (I know the way I used to search here is trivial but isn't this an indicator?)
So my question here, do you agree with my impression or not? If yes, do you have more information that Austria has no many chances for international students? If no, would you explain why. Generally, do you advise to go ahead with my search in Austria or it is waste of time. All answers and comments are appreciated.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Doing a PhD in the German-speaking part of the world works a bit differently. Typically, you would find an advisor that has project funding or the like and is willing to hire you as a "scientific employee". Being admitted to the PhD studies itself is most often not that difficult once you have an advisor - there are formal requirements, for sure. But with a Master degree from a "proper university", this is likely not to be the problem.
The employment part is also very relevant when it comes to visa questions, health insurances, and the like. It may easily be that the reason why you have been told that no international students are taken is that without the prospect of getting employed in a Professor's research group, there is little hope for getting a student visa for PhD studies (that's just a guess, though).
A notable exception to the above guidelines are graduate schools. A well-known example is the one of the IST Austria (http://ist.ac.at/), which has internationalization as one of its explicit goals. You might want to have a look at their web page. But even the text on that page talks about "employment as a PhD student".
---
Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, application, computer-science, austria
--- |
thread-10251 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10251 | How to find out the editorial times (for article review) of CS journals? | 2013-05-27T08:24:25.793 | # Question
Title: How to find out the editorial times (for article review) of CS journals?
Elsevier has recently lunched a tool called Journal Finder by which researchers can use paper's title and abstract, and field of study to find a suitable journal for their manuscript. Here is the sample in which the editorial time is 12 weeks. They surely maintain database for their own, but is there any other source we can do this for other non-Elsevier journals, like IEEE or ACM? I know WoS provides some information about it, but WoS's database accuracy is not yet clear to me since I have seen lots of inaccurate information in WoS reports (for instance, number of "review article" published is often inaccurate).
# Answer
Once a year the Notices of AMS publish the backlog of mathematics research journals containing *inter alia* the data you are interested in.
The 2012 one is here:
http://www.ams.org/notices/201210/rtx121001473p.pdf
and the 2013 is here :
http://www.ams.org/notices/201310/rnoti-p1390.pdf
and both do list some journals in informatics including the non-Elsevier ones (e.g. the Springer's Acta Informatica).
> 5 votes
# Answer
Elsevier has recently launched a new toolbox including lots of useful information about journals. If you visit any Elsevier journal's homepage (I assume it works for all Elsevier journals\], you will see the following box there,
Click on it and select 'Speed' link and it takes you to another page like here (example for JNCA journal). The following information let you know the latest turn around time of this particular journal.
Hope other journals start similar approach. Thanks and hope you find this post useful.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Please see the following link Here. However, it is more about psychology and non-engineering journals. I with there was such an repository for CS.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: publications, peer-review
--- |
thread-12611 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12611 | Adding ResearchGate profile to Resume? | 2013-09-12T16:57:56.867 | # Question
Title: Adding ResearchGate profile to Resume?
It is common that people add their LinkedIn profile in their resumes. On the other hand, they add profiles (like ResearcherID) counting publications, citations, and showing factors such as `h-index`.
ResearchGate is something in-between, but I have not seen if anyone add his/her ResearchGate profile link in resume. Is it because ResearchGate is young and not popular, or it is not technically convenient?
# Answer
The different services such as Researcher ID, ResearchGate, LinkedIn have not generally caught on in application processes (I am sure there are several exceptions). I am, however, sure these will become more common. To use the *h*-index provided in ResearcherID is one way to get a relative standard measure, compared to one calculated by each individual. Hence, I am sure these linkable sources will become more common in application procedures.
I use researcherID in my CV and am now on ResearchGate and will use their measures as well. Since they are official checkable soures I think they serve well in CVs. In my case, however, I have noticed that maybe 5-10% of the citations I can find in Web of Science cannot be found through Researcher ID, this is because some references occure as several entries due to errors in peoples reference lists etc. I believe it is possible to send in error reports to Web of Science to get corrections made. This means that the total number of citations through, for example, ResearcherID may be smaller than what you think you should have. But since this problem likely affects everyone in a similar way the values are still comparable, at least that is howI think about it.
So, I think it is fair and very useful to list these measures that can be independently checked. You could (should) check your field to see what services are often used and perhaps focus on those first.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I think the reason ResearcherID is sometimes used on CV's is because **it's a quick way to link to (and host centrally) your publication list as well as bibliometric information** (h-index, number of citations, etc.). I also see people use Google Scholar as an alternative service for that, although the quality of citation data is not as good.
For **LinkedIn**, it may be field-dependent. I see a large number of people around me (chemical engineering, both academic and industrial) semi-actively using it, i.e. maintaining a network of peers and getting the occasional introduction/reference through it. I do not often see it used in CV's, however. It is clearly used for **networking**.
**ResearchGate**, as you stated, is neither here nor there. It's not very widely used yet, and rather aims to be a "Facebook for researchers": it is centered around papers, comments and discussion. While it can be used to host a publication list, **the metrics it offers access to are not commonly used and, one must say, rather opaque**. I think that's why it has little value to add to a CV.
> 8 votes
# Answer
IMHO it would be better to have a web page containing the links to all the professional profiles you have (ResearchGate, LinkedIn, etc.), and give a link to this web page (rather than several links to separate profiles) in your CV.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: cv, website, social-media
--- |
thread-8968 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8968 | Are Shared Office Common for Lecturers | 2013-03-29T05:13:42.193 | # Question
Title: Are Shared Office Common for Lecturers
Are there any standards in higher education (any country) on when lecturers (any level, any field) have a private office or a shared office?
I know it's a good idea to provide 'consultation time' for students as one-on-one teaching helps the student in so many ways. However, in a shared office it seems that some of the benefits of one-on-one teaching disappear. For example, the student is less likely to be concerned about how they look in front of others if it's in a private office but if there are other teachers (perhaps with other students) then your student will have those issues again.
So, are there any standards about private vs shared offices for university lecturers?
# Answer
> 14 votes
You're going to find answers all over the map for this one (i.e., there probably aren't "standards"). I personally like having a private office so I can get the most work done, but I'm generally comfortable with a shared space if it doesn't get too loud. I have found that it is rare for students to worry about how they perform if they are just trying to get help figuring out the material. If there are conference rooms or open classrooms available, that's sometimes a good place to tutor students, too.
For what it's worth, I never have closed door meetings with students because that has the potential to lead to allegations of improper relationships, etc. If a student does have something private to discuss, I'll ask them to take a walk around campus where we are visible but can't be heard, or to go into a conference room that has windows into the hallway.
# Answer
> 12 votes
I don't think there are likely to be any standards that address this issue specifically.
For example, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, one of the recognized regional accrediting agencies in the US, has published its standards. The closest they come to discussing office space is Standard 2.G.1:
> Consistent with its mission, core themes, and characteristics, the institution creates and maintains physical facilities that are accessible, safe, secure, and sufficient in quantity and quality to ensure healthful learning and working environments that support the institution’s mission, programs, and services.
Obviously this leaves a lot of leeway. If an institution were to assign 17 professors to a broom closet, an accrediting agency might take note, but private offices versus shared isn't likely to be addressed.
In the US, I have seen places where everyone from graduate instructors on up gets private offices, and I have seen places where even full professors share.
If you're looking for arguments to convince your dean that your department needs more office space, I doubt that standards are the way to go about it.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I can give two views:
In France, quite often you share office with other people from the same department. However, offices are in general a no-meeting space as long as your office mates are there and are not part of the meeting. You have black/white-boards on the corridors, several small meeting rooms etc. Of course, coming into an office and chatting for 1 or 2 minutes is usually fine. On the other hand, people even go to the corridor to answer their cell phone, so that they don't disturb others.
In the Czech Republic, it depends mostly on the space available. However, in general at the universities, silence in an office is less a standard than in France.
# Answer
> -1 votes
Everybody needs privacy; to really discuss this issue some ambiguities must be removed. Imagine a chemistry lecturer sharing an office with a political science lecturer? This will only lead to total confusion. Though it might help both lecturers to diversify their ideas, but will not help academically.
I would suggest one senior lecturer with an assistant lecturer from the same field sharing an office. This will help the junior lecturer, and one hopes that the senior academic may learn from his/her younger colleague as well.
---
Tags: job, teaching
--- |
thread-17153 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17153 | crossroads between continue working or going to a PhD | 2014-02-19T16:10:03.913 | # Question
Title: crossroads between continue working or going to a PhD
Here is my situation, I got a MSc from a renowned university in Europe and I have been working as a lecturer in a non-EU country until now. I am in my mid thirties (upper part =)) and I have came to an important decision to make:
* I have been offered to work as a full time lecturer with all my benefits in a local renowned university in the country that I am staying
* At the same time I have an offer to follow PhD studies in a ZA university, but I am not very keen about it, mainly because the problems with the crime rates and low salary per month
I have seen that there are a lot of possibilities for getting funded PhD positions worldwide, but I am afraid of the following:
* That after my studies and if I do not get an academic position in the place that I did my PhD studies, to not be able to get another academic position as the one that they are currently offering me (I will be ending my PhD at 42 years old approximately)
I have a high interest for academia, unfortunately the universities in the country that I am working are not so much oriented to research, but only to lecturing. That is why I feel like bored and stressed to do the same task everyday, to do research is very hard because I must occupy my little free time and most of my ideas get stuck after a while (mainly because there are not other academics to talk about problems encountered along my projects)
I would not really like just to end with the MSc and I feel that is something missing in my life, this has lead me to a problem of anxiety and depression.
Any advice?
Thanks
# Answer
First of all, nobody can tell you what the best decision *for you* in such a decision is.
That said, what you need to look at are the *opportunity costs* of your different options. What do you gain from each of the different possible choices? Equally important is to ask yourself what will you have to give up to pursue those choices.
For you, you need to ask yourself:
* How important is being a researcher compared to being a lecturer?
* How difficult do you think it will be to get a position when you finish your PhD?
* Is your offer of graduate admission worth the upheaval it would cause in your life?
And other questions like these. Once you get a feel for how important these issues are *to you*, the easier it will be to make a decision. It will still be a very tough decision (these sorts of choices always are), but **ultimately it will be your decision, and you'll need to be comfortable with the decision you've reached.**
> 4 votes
# Answer
You are contemplating a choice that has a high risk of failure.
1. Risk of not completing Ph.D.
2. Risk of not liking research.
3. Risk of not finding even a lecturer position afterwards, much less a research position.
4. Risk of unhappiness due to the conditions during the Ph.D.
5. Risk of being academically unrewarded/isolated even in a research position.
If all things unfold perfectly, then you will achieve a research position in some years. You may like this more, but will objectively be similar to the position you have now: indoor work, no heavy lifting, job security and benefits, education field, some things you like and some things you dislike.
This seems like a poor risk, particularly for someone already pushing 40 -- the potential upside is smaller. My advice is to correspond with scholars at other institutions, to achieve your spiritual fulfillment while still earning a good paycheck.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: phd, research-process, workplace, academic-life
--- |
thread-17094 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17094 | Which are the best journals for letters in mathematics (bordering with mathematical physics)? | 2014-02-18T09:24:46.287 | # Question
Title: Which are the best journals for letters in mathematics (bordering with mathematical physics)?
Although in mathematics the *letters*, i.e., really short articles, just a few pages long, are perhaps less common than in the other fields (see e.g. the comments by Pete L. Clark under his answer to this question), sometimes such a letter really is the best way to communicate the result. It is also quite clear that for this very reason (that the letters are quite uncommon), such letters are not likely, save for some *very exceptional* situations, to be a good fit for the top pure math journals like the *Annals*, *Inventiones*, *JAMS*, etc.
Apparently in earlier times the best place for publishing letters in mathematics was the French journal *Comptes Rendus*. This journal still exists but I am not quite sure whether it is *the* place for letters in mathematics anymore.
Another option that comes to mind could perhaps be the math section of the PNAS but again I am not quite sure how this journal is actually standing with the pure math community, especially outside the US.
There should certainly be other worthy alternatives, so I look forward to the answers pointing them out as well as discussing the journals mentioned above.
**QUESTION:** What are the best (in terms of standing in the math community and being widely read by mathematicians) journals, or perhaps sections of mathematical or even multidisciplinary journals, for letters in mathematics nowadays?
P.S. I am specifically interested in the journals which would tolerate the papers which are on the border of mathematics and mathematical physics (just to clarify, this refers to the subject matter rather than, say, lacking in rigor). The *Letters in Mathematical Physics* and *Nonlinearity* appear to be a bit too niche, I would prefer more broad-scope alternatives.
# Answer
> 18 votes
As Pete L. Clark, I do not quite know what a letter is: short papers are usually quite similar to regular paper, only shorter and usually called notes.
Concerning the venue suitable for short articles, there are quite a few. First, you should now that most journal could accept short papers, but certainly you have more chance to get accepted in a journal specifically targeted toward short paper (except if you solve a known problem or reprove a notoriously difficult theorem, in which case no reviewer can use the length of the paper to argue it does not have much merit). Let me give my impressions on the journal that come to mind (to remind that this is from a biased perspective, I will often refer to the French mathematical community), limiting to journals that to not claim being restricted to a subfield -so called generalist journals.
* **CRAS** (Comptes-Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Paris): this journal publishes both research announcements and complete short papers. The announcement part is less and less relevant, but I do not know whether it is less present now. Sadly, while CRAS published top-notch papers, it cannot afford to be very selective anymore. It also suffers from the research announcement role: French hiring committees often blankly dismiss CRAS papers, partially because they may be only announcements.
* **PNAS** (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA): this journal is not very well-known from French mathematicians, but publishes some quite good papers. I think it has a particular taste, but I cannot find the word to describe it. Beware that even if it has a page limit, the format is very dense so articles are not necessarily that short overall.
* **PAMS** (Proceedings of the American Mathematical society): this journal is explicitly for short papers, but the page limit recently moved from 10 to 15 (AMS format). As far as I can judge it is selective, and sometimes publishes excellent papers. It is reasonably well regarded, benefiting from the sisterhood of Transactions AMS.
* **Bul. LMS** (Bulletin of the London Mathematical society): this journal is the LMS counterpart to PAMS, and is somewhat similar (although a little less known and considered, maybe). Since the LMS series has three journals (Bulletin, Journal and Proceedings in increasing order of paper size) instead of two for the AMS, I guess that the average Bulletin paper is somewhat shorter than the average PAMS paper, but the different format makes it difficult to judge.
* **AMM** (American Mathematical Monthly): this journal is well-known and extremely selective. It publishes papers of general interest, of varying length. The notes are typically a few pages long. It is even possible to publish mathematical facts of a few lines, in a grayed box. Since it is considered somewhat recreational, publishing in the Monthly gives less weight to a CV than its harsh selectivity would do for any other journal.
* **Elemente Math.** (Elemente der Mathematik): this is a Swiss cousin to AMM, much less known and much less selective.
* **MRL** (Mathematical Research Letters): this does barely belong to the category of note-publishing journals: it does not usually published paper more than 30 pages, but the average paper there is not a note as far as I can judge.
# Answer
> 7 votes
I think this is a good question because I don't really know what "letters" means in the world of mathematical publishing. While I have a paper published in *Math Research Letters*, I am having trouble pointing to a single way in which that paper is different from any of my other papers: it is slightly short (12 pages) but I have several other papers which are shorter, it contains complete proofs, the syle is not especially conversational or different from the norm...
With regard to *Comptes Rendus*: it still exists, and it is still a very high quality journal, so far as I know. I do not have a *CR* paper, and I wish I did, but setting aside the limitations of my own research achievements I am not sure exactly what papers to submit to this excellent and highly French journal. My understanding though is that it is roughly analogous to *Proceedings of the AMS* but of higher quality (or better taste?). For instance I have a *PAMS* paper and think that would be in the right ballpark of *CR* but that I would be lucky to get it published there.
It was suggested in the comments that the publications in *CR* are more like **research announcements**. I don't think that's true. They're short, punchy and written in a somewhat telegraphic style, but they certainly do include proofs. Quite recently I had the occasion to go to the actual library and pull off the shelf a *CR* paper. It was lovely, and short enough so that I transcribed (and translated, but big whoop: mathematical French is so easy that *I* can do it) it in its entirety on my notepad. (If you're interested, it is Guy Terjanian's first paper, referred to here...and as I learned slightly to my chagrin, one could regard the research contribution of this note of mine as being a fleshing out of a mild Alon-style generalization of Terjanian's argument. Actually there is another theorem he proves in that paper as well which is more interesting. To me this is a *CR* paper *par excellence*: a small but perfectly polished gem.)
I also think that *Enseignement Mathematique* is somewhere in this constellation of journals: more apparently elementary than *CR*, less laconic, but still high quality work which is somehow in "good taste". And note that the title of the journal would lead you to think that it publishes expository papers, but I don't think that's really the case.
After all this, let me come back to where I started:I am not sure what a "letter" is in this context, other than a short paper which is high quality and is written in a relatively laconic way. I have, unfortunately, zero expertise with physics, including the substantial portions of mathematics that overlap with physics. Maybe the concept of a letter is better understood by that portion of the mathematical community?
Added at the end: okay, let's see how *MRL* describes itself:
> Dedicated to rapid publication of complete papers of original research in all areas of mathematics. Expository papers and research announcements of exceptional interest are also occasionally published. High standards are applied in evaluating submissions; the entire editorial board must approve the acceptance of any paper.
Thus there is some kind of vestigial connection with abbreviated papers, expository work and research announcements, but by and large it is no longer what that journal is about. I think this is rather typical.
**Added**: Since I was specifically asked to comment on PNAS, and I am a little gun-shy about leaving things in comments at the moment (see the meta site for more on this...), I will add the following non-answer answer: I have very little direct experience with PNAS. I tried to think of a single paper that was published in that journal and I came up with Milnor's "Eigenvalues of the Laplace operator on certain manifolds", a famous one page note. Based on that one paper (!!) I will guess that PNAS is like *CR* but for laconic treatments of even more important results. (I will also guess that most of their papers are more than one page long...)
---
Tags: publications, journals, mathematics
--- |
thread-17165 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17165 | Should I use both surnames when addressing a Spanish professor as 'Dr' in an email? | 2014-02-19T19:14:29.633 | # Question
Title: Should I use both surnames when addressing a Spanish professor as 'Dr' in an email?
I'm writing my professor. She has two surnames. So far, I've been using only her first surname; however, I'm curious whether that's, generally, how I should address a professor with two surnames. I don't know whether the addressee's culture affects the answer, but the professor is from Spanish South-America. (I've noticed that some Spanish people use only the first of both last names, but most English people who take two names ask others to use both names.) Also, I don't whether familiarity matters but we communicate frequently enough that I begin my emails with 'Hi Dr...' instead of 'Dear Dr...'.
Thank you
# Answer
Mexican here!!
We also have two surnames, and to be perfectly honest we do not mind if you use both or only one of our last names.
People call me Dr Palafox and my former advisor (Who is the head of the CS department) Dr Benitez. We are talking people from all the spectrum of workers, from administrative and cleaning staff to general directors. So is perfectly fine to use only one last name.
Actually is going to sound weird if you end up using both names, because we rarely do. Even the President is rarely called by his 2 last names, unless is a very specific situation.
> 19 votes
# Answer
You cannot do any harm if you are more polite when writing to someone with a significantly higher academic state than yours. So unless she's ever written you a mail signed less formally, stick to the formal way of writing.
It's actually quite unlikely that she gives any attention to it. When she replies, the way she signes at the end is how you should title her next time, with "Prof." added, which she'll very likely exclude.
Example:
You write: *Dear Professor Doe-Toe,* ... *Sincerely, John Brown*
She replies: *Hello,* ... *Regards, J. Doe*
Next time you write: *Dear Prof. Doe,* ... *Best regards, J. Brown*
---
There are people who are really really informal. One professor at my university always uses just the first name at the end of e-mails. She really does not care, but politeness in my environment (Czech) says that you shouldn't reply so much impolitely.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: email
--- |
thread-17151 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17151 | Relation of lecture mandatory attendance and lecture quality | 2014-02-19T15:41:29.893 | # Question
Title: Relation of lecture mandatory attendance and lecture quality
My university recently made a direction that lectures attendance is mandatory. Now my question is, are there any studies that compare mandatory and not mandatory lectures quality? The university is trying to increase its quality and this was its main step this year.
More description: As lecture quality comparison I mean, when is it easier to concentrate, study, teach and learn? When lectures are mandatory, there are a lot of students that doesn't have real interest in subject and are disturbing and making noise. That influences all students, as you can't hear what professor is saying, professor is disturbed and interrupted in teaching. So are there any studies that prove this?
Is this in overall a good step of university? I believe that good professors can motivate students to come to lectures, and if lectures are empty, it's a sign of something (not necessarily bad quality of professor) and this doesn't solve it at all, or am I wrong?
# Answer
In fact there are many studies undertaken in this topic. Below you may find the link to some of these papers.
You can find tons of papers in this topic. Look at this link and her
Hope it helps
> 11 votes
# Answer
The answer to this question is that the question has no answer, because classes are not all alike. If you're taking a foreign language, then obviously attendance is extremely important. If it's a creative writing class, then students are critiquing each other's work in class, and there's no substitute for that experience. Classes come in different sizes and are taught using different methods. If the class is 500 students in an auditorium, and the professor gives old-fashioned straight lectures, then maybe watching the lecture on video would be just as good -- if not better, since you could repeat some parts and skip others. If the class is 25 students and the professor uses modern interactive teaching methods, then attendance is probably extremely valuable.
The idea of having a university-wide rule strikes me as a stupid idea. It's one-size-fits-all, which I've argued doesn't make sense. It's an improper violation of academic freedom. What it sounds to me like is this. This school got worried about their "success rates." Success rates are not a good measure of the quality of education, for a variety of reasons. At the community college where I teach, students consider it normal to take every class two or more times in order to optimize their GPA. (They can drop up to the 12th week and get a W on their transcript.) Furthermore, success rates can easily be raised simply by lowering standards.
> 3 votes
# Answer
My school also has a mandatory attendance policy. While some uninterested students do cause problems there are classroom management techniques to handle that. For example when my students get out of control I warn them. If they continue then I remove them and mark them absent for the day.
While I do understand you are looking for studies I want to make clear that there is not much reason for lectures to drop in quality just because you have a forced attendance policy.
All that said, I could see how in-class activities have lower participation in such a situation and that could lead to reduced learning for the group.
> -1 votes
# Answer
It's a great step for the University. If a student comes to the lecture, they will learn something whether they intend to or not. This should, theoretically, raise the grades of the students in the classroom, which will raise the grades in the University as a whole.
Think of this in a case where you're in a lecture and the professor puts his notes online. Students see this and decide they don't need to go because they can simply read the notes themselves and learn it on their own. This doesn't necessarily mean the prof is bad, it just means that the students are a bit lazy. Even if they do end up reading the notes (which is rare), they're still missing out on critical notes, hints the prof may give, and emphasis on certain topics. Even asking or hearing other students questions. When I was a student, I was in a class that was full and our professor posted his quizzes online, making it so you just had to look up the answers on the internet or take the quiz with a student that did attend class. In the end, I was one of 5 students out of 60. That class had a very low class average.
It's true that students could be in the class that are disruptive, but having mandatory attendance doesn't restrict the prof from kicking those disruptive students out and taking away their attendance for that day. I certainly wouldn't hesitate to remove extremely disruptive students. And if they're there but don't care about the topic, they shouldn't be in the class anyway, or should at least understand that you need to take the class and should make an effort to understand it.
I don't have a study to show you about this, but if you look at it from the view where it's good and think about it, it's pretty obvious there are reasons for it. Schools without the mandatory policy look at schools that have it and see that there's benefit for it, which is why that put it in themselves. No school would put a mandatory policy in without checking into its effectiveness, especially if it's the main step to making their school better.
> -1 votes
---
Tags: teaching, coursework, reference-request, attendance, lecture-teaching-method
--- |
thread-16998 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16998 | Significance of American Mathematical Monthly Problems in Math Grad School Admissions | 2014-02-15T17:15:16.203 | # Question
Title: Significance of American Mathematical Monthly Problems in Math Grad School Admissions
I have started solving problems from the American Mathematical Monthly. While I will definitely continue this, I am not sure how much this will help for math graduate school admissions (assuming I submit my solutions and they are recognized by the Monthly). How significant would multiple solutions to Monthly problems be in admissions? What about having the published solution to a problem? One issue is that I don't know how difficult the problems are presumed to be: all I know is that I personally have solved at least one of them!
# Answer
It probably depends on the committee members, but I wouldn't expect it to help much.
If you get a really clever solution published, or they publish a problem you submit, that could make a difference. It certainly wouldn't mean as much as a research paper, but it could be viewed as the same sort of thing on a smaller scale.
Otherwise, the potential impact is not large. Solving Monthly problems would be viewed favorably, as evidence of talent and effort, but it's not likely to mean the difference between admission and rejection. (Still, it's worth listing on your CV.)
> 17 votes
# Answer
I agree with the other answer, but just to add another data point:
You might as well list it on your CV, but you shouldn't expect it to help very much.
I did (along with a few others) graduate admissions for the math department at UGA for four years -- and in fact am about to get involved in it again later this week, despite not being on the committee anymore -- and I remember exactly one student who listed it on his CV. It was sort of interesting but not particularly impressive, and if I remember it right we did not admit him in the end. He had a rather distinctive name and, while flipping rapidly through the *Monthly* problems in the months and years since then, I've noticed that he has submitted several more problems as well. I am starting to wonder what happened to this student...but I wouldn't go so far as to say that I regret the decision we made.
In general I have to say -- and this is a very personal opinion, not a professional one -- that it seems to me that "problems" sections in journals like this are a bit old-fashioned. They do not seem to play a nontrivial role in contemporary mathematical life. I remember having exactly two conversations about Monthly problems:
1) As a first-year graduate student, I did solve a Monthly problem. (This was the one and only Monthly problem that I can remember having thought about for more than five minutes, and I think it is telling that, while I usually have quite a good memory for mathematical minutiae, I remember precisely nothing about the problem.) Rather I remember standing in a mezzanine outside of the mathematics department and telling a fellow student that I had solved a Monthly problem. She politely congratulated me. I asked her whether I should actually submit the solution. She said that she couldn't see why not. I ended up not submitting the solution (thus I can't be completely sure that I correctly solved the problem...and it is telling that I don't care very much!). Okay, that was not my most riveting anecdote.
2) This is slightly more amusing. As a postdoc I remember having lunch with one of my close friends. He told me that he was flipping through the problem section of the Monthly and his eye was caught on a problem that had been proposed...by him. He racked his brains about this and did not succeed in recalling anything about the problem or his submitting it. He did have a friend who was involved with editing the problems section at the time, so he guessed that must have had something to do with it (his friend was very conscientious; it is not plausible that he would have done it as a joke or prank).
I'm not saying that most Monthly problems are easy: on the contrary, I am a relatively experienced, relatively successful research mathematician, and I still sometimes at least pass my eyes over these problems while flipping towards the reviews, and I rarely if ever see one that I think "Oh, surely I could solve that very easily." I'm just not really sure what the point of solving them is: I have plenty of other math problems that I'm trying to solve! It's a little like math contests, only adults can participate too.
To be honest, I think that MathOverflow has significantly overtaken solving Monthly problems as being a minor way for young people to show their talent. There are a small number of undergraduates that I would admit in a heartbeat because I have come to see their brilliance on MO (and to a lesser but still probably sufficient extent, on math.SE). Most of these students are so brilliant that they do not condescend to apply to my graduate program, and I assume that if they did the rest of their application would be so superior that I would not have to spend much time explaining to my colleagues doing the admissions why their performance on math Q&A websites makes me confident that they will be excellent graduate students...but still.
I also think that participation on MO and math.SE is really better than solving problems or doing well in math contests...not better in an absolute sense, but closer to what mathematicians actually do and thus more indicative of academic mathematical career potential (as opposed to raw talent; certain kinds of raw mathematical talent are less useful to a career mathematician than one might think!). Still not that close, of course: the fact that I have a higher reputation on MO than any of several Fields Medalists and other true luminaries that regularly contribute there is ample evidence of that.
> 9 votes
---
Tags: graduate-admissions
--- |
thread-17161 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17161 | Are papers entirely unrelated to my field going to hurt my chances in the future? | 2014-02-19T18:47:49.403 | # Question
Title: Are papers entirely unrelated to my field going to hurt my chances in the future?
For the past year I have been doing a postdoc in a Neuroscience lab, the position advertised was for computer science.
For the first year, the work was mostly related to my discipline, but my PI's funding got cut and now he has been pushing me to write and do experiments in an area that is entirely out of my expertise or even my field (electrodeposition/ impedance characterization). To be honest, I do not like the area, and was not written anywhere neither in the job posting or the offer letter.
I got a postdoc offer in a different University, and have already accepted, but my PI is pushing me to delay my start date or even come back over the summer to finish these experiments and the paper. (Probably at my own expense, the position is in a different US state)
As I would like to apply for a Tenure track position after the coming Postdoc, I would like to know how much can this affect my chances, would a publication in a field that is not even remotely similar to my own (Machine Learning) can hurt me more than help me?
I've tried to think on ways to turn it around so I can come with a feasible explanation on how is a paper on that topic even going to help build my ML expertise, but so far I have come with nothing.
# Answer
A legitimate scholarly publication can only help you (although it might not help much). If you're really worried you can always just leave it off your cv.
> 20 votes
# Answer
I agree with vadim's answer above:
> A legitimate scholarly publication can only help you.
As for the concern about the 'helpfulness' of a paper in an unrelated field, I would tend to see it as a positive thing, showing that you are not restricted to working/thinking in/knowing about one area only. You have proven that you are capable of scholarly research in a tangential area; this should help rather than hinder your TT search. Of course, you may find that some possible positions will be unappealing to you if you really hate electrodeposition/ impedance characterization. If that possibility is a large concern to you, then you might consider leaving the paper out of your CV.
However, I do not believe that leaving the paper out of your CV would be a good solution, unless the paper is also of very poor quality, in which case the point above does not apply and you really don't want to use this experience when searching for tenure track jobs. If the current project is of poor quality, you may be better off moving on to the next, more compatible post-doc, and also politely declining your (current) supervisor's offer to continue/finish the project you are working on now.
> 8 votes
# Answer
Interdisciplinary research, especially at the interface between computer science and biology, is pretty hot at the moment. In that sense, a paper in neuroscience could even be helpful, especially if you later want to apply machine learning to that kind of area.<sup>1</sup> The down-side is that doing these experiments takes time, which is time you could spend doing something else.
If it wasn't for the fact that you already have another job lined up, I'd say you should weigh up the possible advantages (increased experience of possible applications of your ML research) against the obvious disadvantages (time spent away from your core expertise). However, since you *do* have another job lined up, just go for that. Tell your current PI that you appreciate his efforts to keep you in a job even after his funding got cut but that the work he has for you just isn't your cup of tea. You're under no obligation to come back and finish the experiments (and, hey, if push comes to shove, your new employer can't give you that much time off, right?) and, since you're not an expert in that area anyway, your current PI can probably find somebody who can finish them better than you could.
---
<sup>1</sup> If even makes sense... As you can probably tell, I know next to nothing about machine learning and even less about neuroscience.
> 4 votes
# Answer
My feeling is that a publication in a totally different field will simply be ignored and certainly wouldn't help, unless the job you're applying for is specifically interdisciplinary and across departments.
A publication in a different subfield can help or hurt depending on its quality (and somewhat on how you're selling yourself).
> 0 votes
---
Tags: career-path, postdocs
--- |
thread-17201 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17201 | How do schools typically handle a request for short-term leave from a student? | 2014-02-20T12:44:05.960 | # Question
Title: How do schools typically handle a request for short-term leave from a student?
A student at my college will graduate soon and go to the US to study full-time, on a visa. His family however, are planning an important event sometime in the middle of the semester, and they hope that he can return to his home country for two weeks, then return to the US to finish the semester.
* During that semester, he will only be taking courses and will not be receiving any grants.
Do colleges typically have a policy prohibiting such arrangements? Are professors generally willing to accommodate such requests, e.g. adjusting deadlines for homework?
# Answer
> 6 votes
Colleges do not prohibit such events because colleges *can't* prohibit such events. On the contrary, colleges have policies explicitly permitting absences for certain specific reasons: travel on university business (including athletics), documented medical emergencies, deaths in the family. There is typically a special grade of "Incomplete" awarded if the material missed is critical, such as a final exam; the student takes the final soon upon returning and the grade is adjusted accordingly.
As for what the professors will do, this is highly variable. Some will be accommodating and will extend deadlines, others will mark missed work with zero, while a few might even kick the student out of the course.
Luckily, there is a simple solution for this student. While enrolling for classes, at the very beginning of the term, he should speak to the professors involved and explain the situation. If any professor is particularly hostile, then he should take a different course instead. In extremely unlucky circumstances, a specific course will be essential to take that term (and no later), and the professor will be very hostile. In this case it might end up that the student takes longer to graduate.
# Answer
> 1 votes
The answer will highly vary according to the institute, or even according to the professor because some institutes leave the professor to decide.
What the student should do is to e-mail or meet with the professors who will be teaching in his/her chosen courses, and inform them that he/she will be a away for two weeks, give the professors the actual dates of departure and return.
Usually, deadline can be moved and sometimes even exam can be rescheduled. But it's mostly about how flexible the professors are willing to be. If the professors wouldn't accommodate, then the student should not take that course.
Also, the student should make arrangement about getting the lecture slides or notes that he/she will be missing, and perhaps ask for the lecturers' permission to let a friend of the student's to record the lecture, if possible.
Just remember all of these communications should be done preferably before the semester starts. Never just disappear for two weeks and then come back to negotiate for accomodation.
---
Tags: phd, coursework
--- |
thread-17199 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17199 | how not to burn bridges between two academic jobs? | 2014-02-20T12:00:15.397 | # Question
Title: how not to burn bridges between two academic jobs?
Last year I have been submitting my CV to different faculties for a lecturing position. Of all the ones that I applied only one was more serious and wanted to keep in touch (institution A), the other one (institution B) was completely silence and only they reply with a general "we are interested, but we will tell you when there are open positions". Actually the following has happened:
* Institution A has offered me a full time position with good salary, and the freedom to make research or even to work in other places part time.
* Institution B contact me a few days before the offer of institution A, telling me that they would like me to work part time with them; when I told them that I would like to have a full time position they started to tell me "that procedure is going to take time". A couple of days passed and I got the offer from the job that I mentioned in the first point.
* Now last week Institution B called me and they told me that they want not only to offer me a full time position, but also a position as a student coordinator of the career. The drawbacks are: the salary is 14% less than A, the hours are not; fixed that means that one should stay for overtime unpaid if the goals have not been reached, the research is keep to the minimum and I will not have the chance to work in another place part time. The only benefit is that I will be have a higher rank than in A. This same institution has already booked me for some partial hour lecturers in a couple of courses. I have been sincere with them when they called me and I told them that I have been offered another position (from institution A), so I need to wait to their answer. Even with that institution B has continue insisting me for getting the job with them.
So by factors of time, research and money; institution A seems a pretty good choice, but how I can reject politely the offer from B without being "marked" for not working there or not to burn bridges with them. Maybe somebody could say "why I do not want to burn bridges with them?, well it is just to have like a backup plan. Also institution B has the story that they are used to cut off their lecturers at any time they want, so what to do?
Thanks
# Answer
What stood out to me is:
> This same institution has already booked me for some partial hour lecturers in a couple of courses.
Have you, in any time, either written or orally, communicated with institute B indicating that you will take up the position (even just the part time one)? If so, the *polite thing* would be to honor this commitment with Institute B, even just for one term (if you really want to work at Institute A, you can try to talk to them to see if they can arrange for the offer to be deferred for a year or a term).
If you have *not* indicated to institute B that you would take up the position, and they, *without your knowledge*, advertised you as a part-time lecturer for their courses, I would be very, very wary of joining their faculty. It is simply not the case that a department can strong-arm a potential hire into working there *just by listing his or her name on a website*.
---
Aside from the above: the job market is competitive. It is expected that you will be looking out for your best interest. As long as you have not made any formal commitment to either of the institutes, you are free to choose which one to affiliate yourself with in the future. If you really prefer the offer given by Institute A, you should just be honest and reply to Institute B and say that Institute A has given you a better offer and you regret that you will not be able to work for Institute B.
This really should not be a situation that counts as "burning bridges". From your description it sounds like just the normal competitive hiring process. If the administrators at Institute B are the type that will hold your declining of their offer against you in the future, I really doubt you will want to work for them anyway. (That just doesn't sound like a healthy work environment.)
> 10 votes
# Answer
You should very politely say to institution B that you appreciate their efforts to get you an offer, but it's not as good as your other offer. Then there are three options:
1. Say your better offer is for 15% more money. This commits you to institution B if they raise their offer 15%. If they don't raise their offer, it commits you to institution A. If they raise their offer less than 15%, you may choose.
2. Say your better offer is for 15% more money and no overtime, and that you will need 25% (or whatever you choose) more money to make their offer competitive.
3. Say your better offer is for twice the money. They can't match this, so this commits you to institution A.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: workplace, lecturer, job
--- |
thread-17200 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17200 | What are some good ways to provide computer labs for the students? | 2014-02-20T12:34:45.677 | # Question
Title: What are some good ways to provide computer labs for the students?
Our university provides computer lab rooms for the students. We will soon build some new ones, and possibly re-build some of the old ones, and we are looking for new solutions.
What we have now looks like this:
From my experience, and a Google image search on "university computer lab", it seems similar to other universities all around the world.
But we would like to re-think the old ways and provide a better environment for the students, as envisioned in CDIO workspaces ("Workspaces and laboratories that support and encourage hands-on learning of product and system building, disciplinary knowledge, and social learning").
Perhaps a new floor plan with smaller rooms, or new furnishings, something like what is described in New Design and Synergistic Collaboration Revitalize Gallaudet University's Harkin Computer Lab?
We would like to hear from others who can share experiences from some alternatives. What have you tried? Did it work?
# Answer
> 8 votes
Just a couple of comments from local experience (CS Biased).
* When building your lab, you have to ask what it is that makes it special. In many universities, you can expect that some very high fraction of the students are going to have their own laptops (this will vary by discipline, of course). Simply providing a generic computer may be a waste of resources -- a desk and a power-plug, with an external monitor and keyboard could be sufficient.
My take is that a computer lab today should serve a distinct purpose: Teaching a course on computer graphics: Have a lab with beefy hardware that will minimize waiting time when attempting renders. Teaching a physics lab? Perhaps have a data-capture system integrated into the workstations.
In the same vein, labs get used more when students see the value of going to the lab. A lab with large (or even dual) monitors will get used more, because it's A) less likely the students have that equipment at home B) more likely the students will understand the value of using that lab -- higher productivity for example.
* Consider a 'virtual lab': If the reason the lab is there is because of a peculiar software requirement, think about providing a virtual machine instance of the lab machine for the students to use at home. This can ease the grading workload on TAs too, by eliminating platform differences as an excuse.
# Answer
> 4 votes
As Matthew says, many people may have their own laptops. Obviously, this depends on the university. I know of universities that make laptop ownership compulsory. Perhaps you could comment on how common it is for students to have their own laptops and bring them to the university. So you should think about what kind of value you can add for such people.
One possibility is to have laptop docking stations available. Or if not, at least have external keyboard, mice, monitors available that can be plugged into a laptop.
Nice big good-quality monitors (26 inches or larger) are a good idea, and are not that expensive these days.
Good ergonomics is a must. Buy the best workstation chairs you can. I have the Steelcase Leap, which is not perfect but a decent chair. Keyboard trays are probably also a good idea. Humanscale is popular. Of course, there are many other brands, depending on location.
Adding some whiteboards around the room would also be reasonable.
If you are keeping actual computers in the lab, then consider having computers running operating systems different from those students may have encountered. Encouraging people to use the free Unix-like systems that are now common in scientific enterprises is a good idea. E.g. the systems based on the Linux kernels, the various \*BSD systems. If such systems are already widely used in your university, this is probably unnecessary.
---
Tags: university, facilities-services
--- |
thread-17209 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17209 | Relevance of computer science degree to pursue a career in cognitive science | 2014-02-20T17:47:32.020 | # Question
Title: Relevance of computer science degree to pursue a career in cognitive science
This forum looks like the perfect place to ask a question that is being bothering me for a long time.
I'm 22 and a college dropout for numerous reasons (economic and mostly because I didn't like the major that I was studying, which led to depression, etc.) Anyway, I recently discovered MOOCs (coursera, edx, udacity, OCW-MIT, etc.) and khanAcademy and I immediately fell in love with science and more precisely computer science. I also fall in love with the brain and love to think about thinking, decision making, logic, critical thinking, neuroplasticity, etc... I also appreciated cognitive psychology and the philosophy of the mind but I haven't gone any deeper to those two. So, you can say MOOCs changed my life because I'm able to learn things that I never would have consider ever studying.
I'm thinking of pursuing a Cognitive Science degree which can expose me into computer science and some kind of neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology.
The only thing is that here in Greece, Cognitive Science is only a postgraduate degree so I have first to finish an undergraduate degree in Computer Science or in Philosophy and History of Technology (those are the only two majors from which students are accepted for the Cognitive Science degree).
My question is, should I spend the next year of my life into studying for a test that will get me to the University (in order to get to a University you need to give exams in May, I'm not ready to give it this May so I have to give it on the May of 2015)?
Is it worth it to study Computer Science for four years to pursue the Cognitive Science degree which is my primary goal ?
PS: The possibility of studying abroad is out of question given the economic situation of my family, unless a scholarship for studying abroad is available.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Think further ahead: what do you want to do *after* you finish the Cognitive Science degree?
Do want to go into academia and work as a professor (probably after some research postdocs) in the field? If that's your ultimate goal, then that's the most straightforward career path.
If it's something else, figure out what the prerequisites for that thing are. There are too many people who got into grad school pursuing a degree in something because they thought was cool only to discover that after they graduate, they have nowhere to apply their degree.
Whether it's worth it depends on you. Weigh the costs to you against the benefits to you.
# Answer
> 2 votes
As a EU citizen you have access to the education in the entire European Union, so you can look around for the Cognitive Science programs in the other EU countries too. It is quite possible that some of them would not require a previous graduate degree and would be taught in English.
It may happen that there would be tuition fees (if I recall correctly, this is the case e.g. in the UK), but as a EU citizen you also can work in any EU country without almost any extra formalities (pretty much under the same conditions as a citizen of the country you are in), so you can earn the money to support yourself through your studies.
---
Tags: computer-science, undergraduate, degree
--- |
thread-17207 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17207 | Is there examples of mathematicians who had to lose years | 2014-02-20T15:44:56.603 | # Question
Title: Is there examples of mathematicians who had to lose years
Is there examples of mathematicians who had to lose years before proving themselves in the field? I'm asking since in most of the cases I noticed a steady career path for most of the mathematicians.
# Answer
> 5 votes
A large number of Mormon mathematicians have taken time off for a 2-year mission, including Jim Cannon (a founder of geometric group theory), Stephen Humphries (found minimal generating set for mapping class group), and Tyler Jarvis (recent Annals paper on string theory). Very little time is spent on math during a mission.
# Answer
> 10 votes
Vladimir Berkovich, as he writes "I finished studying in 1976 and got a Ph.D. a year later. Getting an academic position would be too much luck, and the best thing I could hope for was the job of a computer programmer at a factory of agricultural machines... As a result, I practically stopped doing mathematics." The context here being the he was Jewish in the Soviet Union and made trouble for him. He did not really start working on non-archimedean analytic geometry until 1985 and then did not really return to academia until 1987 when he was able to emigrate to Isreal.
The quote is from his introduction to: "p-Adic Geometry: Lectures from the 2007 Arizona Winter School" published by the AMS.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Not a theoretical mathematician but John P. Snyder was trained and employed as a chemical engineer. He came up with a map projection useful for a United States Geological Survey (USGS) satellite-based mapping system (Landsat), then was hired by them as a cartographer. He published several more map projections and recast others to take advantage of electronic calculators and computers.
He was over 50 when hired by USGS.
---
Tags: mathematics
--- |
thread-17211 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17211 | Math journal for young mathematicians | 2014-02-20T18:34:42.967 | # Question
Title: Math journal for young mathematicians
I think I have good results for publishing a paper in a math journal, but I've never published one. I need a propose about any good math journal in mathematics for young mathematicians who have never published a paper. It can be with impact factor or with international board.
Thank you in advance.
# Answer
> 6 votes
If you're a student you should consider Involve, or other publications geared toward student authors.
# Answer
> 5 votes
If you are a high school student or an undergraduate, then you might want to read the answers to Journals for undergraduates, Math journal for high school students?, and What are some examples of journals that will accept undergraduate student research?.
---
Tags: journals, mathematics
--- |
thread-17236 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17236 | Does graduate school reputation have any effect on your academic career? | 2014-02-21T05:13:46.647 | # Question
Title: Does graduate school reputation have any effect on your academic career?
I am an Australian citizen and studying at University of Newcastle (Australia). Does your graduate school reputation has any effect in your academic career? So if I decide to do my PhD at a US university (like Harvard or Stanford) instead of doing it at an Australian university (say University of Melbourne or Australian National University), would that make me more successful in my academic career? Does that make me more employable? Say that after doing my PhD, I apply for an academic position at a Canadian university, which of them would help here more?
# Answer
The short answer is **yes**, of course.
The long answer is, it depends. Ultimately, your future career will depend on your publications and other output, their quality and their impact. If you can produce a number of high quality publications from a lower-ranked university, this will be better than producing nothing of interest from a higher-ranked university. However, the chances of "succeeding" are higher at higher-ranked universities, because they have "better" people to help you along the way. They also have higher standards and more pressure. So there will be a bit of a trade-off.
That said, the University of Melbourne and ANU are good places.
> 11 votes
---
Tags: graduate-school, academic-life
--- |
thread-17113 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17113 | Template for taking notes for a paper? | 2014-02-18T17:33:08.013 | # Question
Title: Template for taking notes for a paper?
I will soon start my thesis, and have read a bit of literature, particularly a few short papers. One professor recommended using a template, displayed below. However, I generally feel that the questions in the template don't apply well to the papers I have read, and my answers get very "artificial" or "forced", while some aspects are not answered by the template at all. Obviously no template can fit perfectly for every paper, but perhaps there are better templates out there.
Are there any standard templates for this purpose? Perhaps a list of questions to ask oneself when reading? Or other structured ways of note writing for scientific papers or similar literature?
> **Title**
>
> Title of paper
>
> **Citation**
>
> Authors
>
> **Abstract**
>
> A short summary of the paper.
>
> **Issues**
>
> What are the issues that the paper addresses? Describe the problem.
>
> **Approach**
>
> What did the authors do? How did they approach the problem. What did they do? What methods did they use?
>
> **Conclusion**
>
> What are the authors conclusion? What do they claim about their results.
>
> **My Conclusion**
>
> What do you think about the work presented in the article? Explain
>
> **Rating**
>
> Give a score \[0 - 10\] 0: awful, 10: brilliant.
# Answer
> 4 votes
It can't be any more minimalistic than that.
Basically you have some metadata: title, citation, abstract, comment (your conclusion) and rating.
That fits every intellectual work, you could apply it to movies, songs or anything that has an author and about which you can have an opinion.
Then there are a few other fields that cannot be any more minimal:
* issues: why is the paper written and published? There has to be a reason for that work to have been done, presumably people don't enjoy wasting their time.
* approach: which is basically what they do. There was a reason to do something (and then publish it) an "issue" and something has been done about that "issue" so that it is less of an issue in the future.
* conclusion: there was an issue, something has been done, is it still an issue? are there more open issues?
Quite simple if you think about it.
Survey papers and so on basically solve the issue of summarizing something, they cite other papers, so you should also fill this template for those other papers.
Are you having trouble with some other kind of papers? This seems to capture everything that is relevant. Do you miss something?
# Answer
> 2 votes
I had a template for myself, pretty similar to that one:
> * Journal name, article name, reference information
> * One-line description of the problem
> * "What They Did"
> * My conclusions
The issue was that, in almost all cases, I was studying their paper to better understand either (1) the field in general or (2) how to solve a problem I was having. I found that, **for note-taking purposes**, focusing on mainly what they did and then recording for posterity my *own* conclusions and thoughts about their research was much more useful than re-reading my synopsis of what *they* concluded.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I have been thinking about this since asking the question, plus I have done some actual note taking.
For me personally, I have found the following points to be helpful:
* Why did I read this paper: Perhaps my professor recommended it, in which case it probably is relevant despite what it initially seems to me.
* My takeaways for the thesis: Ideas, inspiration or references, that I can use for my thesis
* General takeaways: What I learned, that is relevant/interesting/useful, which however are not directly useful for my thesis.
* What I did not understand (entirely): Maybe some terminology, maybe some theory. I am writing them down, so I might get a chance to ask them later, or I might revisit it later after having gotten a better understanding.
* What I should (perhaps) look into: Projects, literature, websites. Typically other papers that they reference in the paper.
---
Tags: note-taking
--- |
thread-17224 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17224 | How to address the lack of seminars in my department | 2014-02-20T23:50:10.973 | # Question
Title: How to address the lack of seminars in my department
My CS department greatly lacks invited talks hosted by faculty members and/or seminars organised within/by the department. Except for the seminars done by graduate students as a requirement for their degree, during the last year there was no seminar organised by the department/faculty member. If curious, the department size is relatively small (around 20 faculty members) and some faculty members are well-known figures in their areas. As a PhD student I like seminars and wondered how to address this to the department.
# Answer
It's hard to change the culture of a department as a student. You should definitely tell your advisor, and the department chair, that you wish there were more lectures. You might also talk to other students and encourage them to express their feelings if they feel the same.
Then you should take action. Is there a student chapter of the ACM at your school? If not, organize one. Then organize monthly seminars by inviting faculty and students in your department and from nearby schools to present their work. If you can get a little funding, invite one of the world leaders in your area to give a seminar at your school. You might be able to get funding through the department or through the ACM (I know SIAM gives funding for such things).
It requires work, but it sounds like it will be worthwhile to you. It is also a great excuse to meet important people in your field.
> 9 votes
# Answer
We have somehow the same problem (not that we don't have seminars - but we don't have enough in my opinion). The graduate student association in our department (CS as well) tried once to organize such seminars. There were many interested professors and students, especially when it comes to topic that are not very technical \[a professor told me that such lectures are more useful for the students\].
However, to make these seminars frequent, it was found that the best thing is to do is to make the seminars specific to one topic. In order to do this, there is a need for a group of researchers led by a professor (or more) - all working on the same area. Some professors tried to do something like that, however, only the big labs were successful in this mission (i.e. labs with many professors and students). Issues are:
1) finding large number of speakers,
2) intellectual property, some researchers simply do not want to share their ideas with others. \[in fact, the association tried to do a conference each year, but the fear of IP theft was the biggest obstacle and the lack of motivation for researchers to publish in an non-indexed conference\].
Conclusion, you need a lot of support in order to organize frequent seminars in your department, but it is not impossible. Talk to young professors, they are the most motivated.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Your faculty isn't huge but, at the same time, it's bigger than many research groups that have successful seminar series.
The first thing you need to do is to establish why there aren't already seminars. If the reason is just that nobody has bothered to organize any, you can deal with this; if the reason is that the faculty members aren't interested in attending seminars, you might be wasting your time.
One important piece of information that's lacking is your location. If your university is in, say, the middle of North Dakota, it's going to be difficult and very expensive to organize a seminar series with external speakers. Every speaker will need flights and a hotel and, even when you pay expenses, speakers are unlikely to take a 2-3 day trip just to give a seminar to 20-30 people. On the other hand, if you're in, say, England, and there are several other universities within two or three hours' travel from you, things are much more practical.
A good way to get the ball rolling might be to organize informal lunch-time seminars. Start with the grad students and try to get a few faculty on-board. The idea would be to have a 30-45-minute whiteboard talk while people eat lunch. No slides, so people don't have to spend hours preparing; lunch-time so it's not taking time out of people's days; typical topic would be "What I've been working on recently", so things stay relevant. Once you have a seminar culture started, you can think about doing something bigger.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: research-process, etiquette, seminars
--- |
thread-17257 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17257 | What is a "Graphical Table of Contents" Abstract? | 2014-02-21T11:14:54.430 | # Question
Title: What is a "Graphical Table of Contents" Abstract?
For one of my accepted papers, the publication editor sent me this note:
> AUTHOR: Please provide a short “Graphical Table of Contents” abstract (maximum 80 words or 3 sentences) summarizing the key findings presented in the paper for Table of Content (TOC) entry.
Can someone please explain what that means? I understand the bit about 80 words max abstract but I don't understand why it's tagged "graphical". Is it supposed to be illustrated?
# Answer
> 6 votes
Some publishers (ACS I'm lookin at you) have what they call GToC, which is like a ToC with small images. You might have seen such in some magazines, here's an example.
Accompanying the image is usually a short text that is sort of like a teaser for the article, in a way the coolest tidbit about what you have written. I believe that's what they are asking for here.
---
Tags: research-process, publications
--- |
thread-17261 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17261 | How can I collect information about the study plan of a graduate program? | 2014-02-21T12:23:24.120 | # Question
Title: How can I collect information about the study plan of a graduate program?
I am an international student who has been admitted to a graduate program in US. I am collecting information about the *study plan*. For example, what courses can be taken? How many courses can I take outside the department? Any typical study route for reference? Can I work with more than 1 professor on research?
There is a study plan in our college.
I Googled around, but I can only find very rough information about the general policy on the website, which I went through several months ago. What I need is detail.
Question: What is the equivalent of the *study plan* in America? How can I collect information about the *study plan* of a graduate program?
# Answer
The best option is to e-mail the school you are going, and ask for a copy of *degree audit checklist* or *degree requirement checklist*, which usually list the required and elective courses you'll need to complete for a certain degree.
You may also ask for a *course schedule* and an *academic calendar* of the recent academic year and get an idea on which semester/trimester and time slots were those courses made available. And in the calendar you can get a gist of when is the start and end of the semesters/trimesters, last date for adding/dropping courses, etc.
Lastly, some schools may include the degree requirement information in their *student handbook*. It wouldn't hurt to ask or search for a PDF copy of the handbook as well. You should also find details on cross registration to other institutes. Also be careful that universities tend to have a handbook for the whole study body, and then the smaller departments within them may also have their own smaller handbooks. Make sure to get all the copies that are related to your degree.
These terms should give you a good start. But do bear in mind that by the time you start to study, some of the information may be updated in the new academic year. So, you may plan, but be ready to be flexible.
As for if you can work with one or more professor on research. The answer would depend on many things: some students got assistantship to help the professors, some work as if the professors hire them, some work for academic credit (as a directed study.) There are too many variations that I doubt you will find a single document telling you everything. This question is probably best asked on the orientation day once you arrived there.
---
As for digging into their site, try to use some suffix in Google to enhance your results. For instance, try to search for `degree requirement checklist site:MyInstitute.edu` to confine the results from the domain of `www.MyInstitue.edu`. You can also modify it into `degree requirement checklist site:MyInstitute.edu filetype:pdf` to search for only PDF documents.
Good luck with the planning.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: graduate-school
--- |
thread-17214 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17214 | I have a degree but it isn't actually what it looks like it is. How do I list it on my CV? | 2014-02-20T19:59:26.007 | # Question
Title: I have a degree but it isn't actually what it looks like it is. How do I list it on my CV?
Due to various department sortings and organizations, I have a degree that is, functionally, a computer science degree but because it belonged to the College of Mathematics, the degree is formally "Mathematics".
Unfortunately this leads to many employers thinking that I have a mathematics background when the reality is far from this: I don't think like a mathematician or particularly enjoy its work.
Is there something I can do with my CV to reduce this bias? Is it as simple as changing "Mathematics" to "Computer science" even if it isn't the official title of the degree? Are there other options?
# Answer
> 26 votes
I would list it directly with the degree. I have a similar issue in that my degree is Geodetic Science, but my focus was in (at the time) computer-assisted mapping, now known as GIS. People try to call me a geodesist, but I'm not really. I would use something like:
M.S. Mathematics (specialty: Computer Science)
*Edit: I finally remembered what the various tracks were called in our department--a concentration, not a specialty. Other synonyms include focus, even research or research topic.*
# Answer
> 7 votes
In your CV, state that you have a degree in "Mathematics, specializing in Computer Science" or something like that. If you're sure it's not misleading, you could even say you have a degree in Computer Science from the College of Mathematics, Whatever University.
In either case, explain in your covering letter.
# Answer
> 4 votes
This is a very relevant problem for majority of the engineering school graduates in Sweden. Based on the Bologna Process all MSc level programs are essentially cut into two bits; one that roughly corresponds to a Bachelor's (approx 3 years) and one that corresponds to Master's (approx 2 years). So far so good, the issue is that you get 1 diploma and you are supposed to have 1 title however there are numerous ways you can do your 3+2.
What they have done to amend that is to formulate it as:
> M.Sc. in Engineering X with specialization in Y
which could be something you do in your CV as well.
---
**PS:** I have the same issue even for my PhD, my group is part of a department that has a much different focus compared to what I do. So much so that there is pretty much zero overlap between my departmental association and my day-to-day research.
Even there the I will be getting a PhD title with a description along the lines of:
> PhD in \[dept\_name\] on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
Of course one would and should write more about the actual work regarding the PhD, like the thesis title, and a short description of what it's about.
It really is a clumpy way to describe what you "are" and what you have "done" but it's getting harder and harder to define and classify research as fields start merging into one another.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I would suggest, for your CV/Resume, that you present yourself as a Computer Scientist and you present the University up-front, as opposed to the college, and that you frame the PhD as being in Computational Mathematics, and then list the topics that you studied, classes that you took, and technologies that you used in getting your degree (depending on how you prefer to frame it), and then finally your actual degree. e.g.
* Studied algorithms, numerical methods, and symbolic methods.
* Took Monte Carlo methods, computer simulation, theory of computation
* Used R, Matlab, and C to solve multithreaded Linear Algebra problems
* You were presented with a PhD in Mathematics with a concentration in Computer Science
# Answer
> 0 votes
Depends on the employer. Any academic employer will look at your publications, rather than what your degree actually says. So I see no problem there
If this is for an undergrad degree, I think is out of the scope for this particular forum, since this is mostly oriented towards jobs in the Academia.
But I do think you might have problems with different titles in your undergrad, I would recommend mostly just applying for jobs and in your CV make the comment that it is oriented toward CS, many universities CS departments spawned from the math department, so I do not think there should be much of a problem.
---
Tags: cv, credentials
--- |
thread-17178 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17178 | "Due to many requests, the submission deadline has been extended" is this real? | 2014-02-20T01:00:28.397 | # Question
Title: "Due to many requests, the submission deadline has been extended" is this real?
following different CS conferences I see the following phrase very often:
> Due to many requests, the submission deadline has been extended.
Or something similar to this.
I won't overestimate if I said 80% of the conferences (I have followed) have this attitude. This brings me to the question of whether this is true or people (conference organisers) admit a lie when say this. Why does this attitude exit in CS conferences? Do other fields experience the same thing?
# Answer
*Warning: personal opinion.*
I view conferences that regularly shift submission deadlines as a little suspect. You're right that this happens in CS conferences, and it soon becomes pointless because everyone expects the extension ("Nobody expects the extension!!"). But your estimate of 80% is rather off. Almost none of the (many) conferences I submit to have deadline extensions for submission of the full paper.
And don't underestimate the level of pleading that goes on. People will always ask for an extension if they have even a smidgen of hope that the pleading will work. It's only when a conference takes a firm stand for many years that people stop asking.
> 18 votes
# Answer
Extensions are common in conferences because many people procrastinate and or otherwise just need a little more time to complete their paper, prompting a heavy demand for extensions. Unless the conference is overwhelmed by submissions (which is very rarely the case), there's usually room for a little bit of flexibility in the submission deadline.
It's not a lie... Organizers tend to anticipate it based on past experiences in previous conferences.
> 8 votes
# Answer
This is outside CS, but in my field, I've only had three conferences extend submissions, and they were all for low numbers of submissions.
* One I know because the day a office mate and I submitted (the last official deadline day) we were abstracts 001 and 002, and we were not early morning people. This one, ironically, is probably the closest to your experience, and arguably *was* a CS conference, even though I'm not in CS.
* One has a chronic problem with this, because the session they're recruiting for (its a big enough conference that there are multiple sessions each with their own abstract committees) is a lot of work without much payoff.
* One was because the sequester made travel by federal employees in the U.S. impossible, which meant a quarter of the abstracts were suddenly gone. So the "late breaker" deadline got moved way back.
So in my experience its fairly *uncommon*, and either symptomatic of a larger problem with submissions, or some unforeseen circumstance.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Usually when a conference extends a deadline it means that they don't have enough submissions, or that the ones they do have suck, and they're hoping to find a couple more good ones if they can.
If it were a case of a couple of people needing extensions, the conference organizers would just privately contact those people and allow the extension. You only *publicize* the extension, when there aren't enough submissions in quantity or quality.
I'm not in CS, so YMMV, but I suspect it's the same.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: publications, conference, deadlines
--- |
thread-17066 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17066 | Are there any documented cases of meta-science or scientific meta-research? Does that have a name? | 2014-02-17T19:01:34.633 | # Question
Title: Are there any documented cases of meta-science or scientific meta-research? Does that have a name?
Research is an activity, a process to obtain knowledge, which has been greatly empowered by the scientific method.
We can collect lots of information about research, consider impact factors, etc.
There is data and information there, that data could possibly become knowledge through some analysis, hypothesis testing, and in general terms *research*. So what I'm talking about here is research about research, meta-research.
First of all, I'm interested to know whether this has been done in the past.
Second, if this has been done (I guess so), I would like to know by what name, so that I can search for it. It's easier to find information about fluid dynamics when you know it stands by the name of fluid dynamics.
BTW: I'm not interested in philosophy or epistemology, but science and hard verifiable facts.
There may be some lack of that, whatever that is. Related article: Scientific method: Statistical errors
# Answer
Philosophy of Science, History of Science, Sociology of Science, Scientometrics to name a few meta-sciences.
(General trick for meta-science: use *X of Science*, where *X* is a science. To generalize it even further, for meta-X, use *X of Y*, for some *X* in *Y*.)
> 14 votes
# Answer
Are you asking about scientometrics?
From Wikipedia: "Scientometrics is the study of measuring and analysing science research." http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientometrics
It's a major field of study in its own right, with its own journals, etc.
Citation analysis, mentioned by James Barrett, is one area of scientometrics; there are many others. For example, formal studies of the prevalence of research fraud also fall in this category.
> 7 votes
# Answer
**If the objective of meta-science is to determine what are the good ways to perform science**, it immediately runs into a major methodological hurdle: it is necessarily going to beg the question. That is why work by e.g. Popper counts as "merely" philosophy of science. So if that is the meaning of your question, then the question *"Give me meta-science that is not philosophy of science"* is similar to *"give me an answer to 2+2 that is not 4"*. It will only result in bad answers, because you are excluding the only good answer.
**If the objective of meta-science is to better understand what happens in the practice of science**, then you cannot exclude sociology of science, as science is a social activity (you mention impact factors yourself: I do not think any discipline is better suited at understanding those than sociology, or the related field of scientometrics).
So the question is poorly formulated and cannot be answered satisfactorily. The current first answer (Piotr Migdal) would be the best answer if the question was modified in such a way that it can be answered.
> 5 votes
# Answer
There has been some research done on citation patterns. See for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation\_analysis. A recent post asked Is there an inflation in the number of authors per paper?.
> 0 votes
# Answer
The sociology of science is another possible avenue. It may not qualify as the most data driven way to study science but it does shed some interesting light on the effects of intermediate reports, naming of concepts, and funding strategies amongst many other topics. You may liken it more to the study of scientists rather than of science per se.
> 0 votes
# Answer
In bioinformatics, it is common to do the data mining, generalization and normalization, putting together results of multiple past research projects. See for instance the Genevestigator project that does normalized analysis of multiple available micro-array experiments.
The idea behind this project was that while raw data obtained by different laboratories are largely of the same type, the subsequent processing and normalization is often too different to make the numeric results actually comparable. The project collects raw data and applies the same normalization for them.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: terminology
--- |
thread-17274 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17274 | "Be a small fish in a sea, or a big one in a pond" | 2014-02-21T14:54:17.347 | # Question
Title: "Be a small fish in a sea, or a big one in a pond"
I graduated (BSc and MSc) from the top university in my country and I'm currently a PhD candidate on another strong university. I expect to defend my thesis in a few months. After that, I plan to stay in academia pursuing a tenure track, and at both mentioned universities I can get a decent position (I've managed to include a number of my undergrad professors in my grad studies or at least collaborate with them at some point, mostly because of my supervisor). However, my hometown is also an university town, and I could certainly apply for a position there, but the uni there lacks the prestige and esteem of the former two. Through my qualifications, I'm confident that I would advance faster through the academic ranks, contribute to the society in my hometown and introduce some changes to the faculty there. Another obvious big advantage is that I would be residing at my hometown. On the other hand, the staff and research are much better in the former ones.
My supervisor suggests that it would probably be better for me to be at home, since I think about it in the first place, given that, by keeping and broadening my connections I would experience no significant penalty, at the same time the local academic society would benefit through my ideas.
**So should I apply for a position in my home town, where I would be a big fish in a pond, or should I apply at the other universities, where I might be more like a small fish in the sea?**
# Answer
Apply for, and fully investigate, all such possibilities. But I would go even farther: 3 places is not nearly enough to apply to, especially if you are interested primarily in tenured track positions.
Deciding which job you want to take before you've actually been offered one is perfectly natural, and is a perfectly terrible practice! It so often leads to disappointment, missed opportunities, and general dissatisfaction.
Now would be the time to expand your horizons! Find new institutions you might like and apply to them; put the word out about your availability through advisors, fellow researchers, friends of friends in academia, etc.
The chance of getting any one position is terribly unflattering, regardless of your background or standing. If you can find a dozen places that you'd be happy to go to work - relative preferences for one over the other not withstanding - then your chance of getting something you want improves remarkably. Don't put yourself in the position of being disappointed because you had to "settle for your last choice", instead of "winning one of your top 3 picks" just because you didn't look into more possibilities. (This is advice I have to give myself over, and over, and over again.)
> 3 votes
---
Tags: university, computer-science, career-path
--- |
thread-17299 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17299 | How to convert GPA to German Grade? | 2014-02-22T06:51:33.530 | # Question
Title: How to convert GPA to German Grade?
My GPA of bachelor is about 3.0, and I just want to know how much it would approximately be in German Grade? Would it be lower than 2.7 in German Grade? I have read other questions on this website, but none of them could help me, can you simply tell me how to convert GPA to German grading system?
# Answer
> 2 votes
A GPA of 3.0 is (usually) exactly a B, which is coincidentally 3.0 in German Grade. Note that this is an estimate. Also, the correct way to calculate it would be not to convert the GPA directly, but to go through the transcript and re-compute the average using the German Grade.
This is a tool I found after a second of googling: http://www.foreigncredits.com/Resources/GPA-Calculator/
It has grade tables and even a calculator that can do the math for you.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Without knowing the specifics of your system, no, it's not possible to tell you how to convert *your* grades (or anyone else's) from one system to another.
However, what you do need to know about the German system is that it works "backwards": a 1 is the best grade, and 5 is a failing grade. The "1,0" corresponds to an A or A+ in an American style 4.0-system, and then moves in increments of 0.3 or 0.4. 4.0 corresponds to a D, and anything below that would be regarded as an F.
---
Tags: gpa
--- |
thread-17300 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17300 | What to do if I can't trust my advisor no more? | 2014-02-22T07:35:22.387 | # Question
Title: What to do if I can't trust my advisor no more?
After so many incidents happen that my advisor trying to bad mouthing to my committee, sobstege my publication, secretly removing me from my PhD projects I feel I cannot trust my advisor anymore. Now, I feel everything he said was insincere and full of lie. My advisor always says positive thing but all end up negative. He is not consistent of what he said and what he actually does which disgust me. I don't want to let him handle my manuscript or assign me project because I always fear that he will do something underhanded. If I really grant a PhD from my advisor, I would be ashamed of such lineage. All I want now is live in bubble space undisturbed focusing on my own topics. I want to be myself as a phd student and one day as a professor. What should I do? Please help!
# Answer
> 6 votes
Switch advisors. There is really not much else you can do\*.
\*If the person does something truly unethical and you have definitive proof you can try to bring it up with someone who has more authority.
---
You say that that isn't an option, and it sounds like you're planning to stick it with this advisor until you get your PhD. Things to think about:
* Do you think it's realistic to get a PhD at all with this advisor?
* Are all of his grad students just as miserable, or just you? What are the successful students in his group doing?
* Who are your letters of recommendation (you need 3, typically) going to be from when you apply for postdocs/jobs after you graduate?
Nuclear options (purely for completeness, I **don't** recommend them):
* Apply to a PhD program somewhere else (you don't have to finish this one, you can apply while you're still in this one, actually, and only quit the program if you get accepted somewhere else).
* Quit academia. (Warning: it's hard to get back in once you're out.)
---
> I am not sure how you define "successful" (fellowship, publication, support)? I know there are people who were quite supported by my advisor because they know what my advisor like, and it's their way to get ahead. That's fine and that should be the norm but I'm not the norm.
Successful means publications (well, that depends on the field), research that is progressing in a clear direction, completion of milestones towards the degree. The advisor having successful students ultimately is measured by how good the jobs the students he graduated got are.
It sounds like he has students that are content to have him as an advisor. It also sounds, from your other question and the comments there that you think that your advisor is incompetent, which means that you don't take him seriously. This creates at least half the problem, because if you don't take him seriously, he won't take you seriously, which, among other things, includes telling his colleagues about how terrible you are, and not trusting you to write a manuscript for submission.
If you're staying in this PhD program with this advisor, you will make your own life a lot easier if you at least imagine that your advisor might not be incompetent. When he gives you an idea for an approach, make an honest effort. If it doesn't work, try to figure out why. If you figure out why, don't look happy about it: look concerned about it. If you have an idea that you think will work, propose it as a solution to this problem you just found. And by "propose" I mean actually ask him for what he thinks about it, and be interested in what he has to say.
This is what "taking him seriously" means. If you start doing that, he might start taking you seriously for a change.
Also try to have insightful research-related conversations with some other faculty (preferably the rest of your committee), maybe even have one or more of them meet with you and your advisor when you discuss research ideas (make sure to plan meetings so that everyone is in the loop, don't try to surprise anyone). Build those professional relationships for some good recommendations.
# Answer
> 1 votes
When I read your question I must take into account that I am hearing one side of a dispute, so it is likely to be biased and incomplete. I don't know who is in the wrong but I can see a few pointers. Firstly you make very few specific complaints about what your advisor has done. You say he is trying to sabotage your publication and remove you from projects. It is the job of your advisor to decide when your publication is ready. He has much more experience of this than you do. He can see better than you what direction you need to go in.
No advisor takes on a student to sabotage them. An advisor can only have a limited number of students and they want them to succeed. You claim that things he says are insincere which means that he is saying positive things that you will not accept. It sounds like most of the anger is on your side. You even indicate that other students are getting along with him.
If there is a personality or culture clash between you and your supervisor it may be possible to talk to your department head about a change, but it is more likely that you are on a slippery slope towards failure and it would be better that you listen to your advisor who seems to be trying to help you. Put your ego aside and consider the possibility that your advisor who has been working in the field for many more years than you may know it better than you. If you still genuinely think that your ideas are better and you want more independence then you need to discuss this calmly with your advisor. He may agree to let you take that route but that is only likely if you are exceptionaly talented. If he doesn't he should explain why and you need to listen and find a compromise.
One last thing, your English grammar is not very good. I dont know if you are an English speaking native, studying in an English speaking country or writing papers in English, but if any of these are the case then you need to improve your English. It will have a bearing on your ability to communicate with people including your advisor.
---
Tags: advisor
--- |
thread-17303 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17303 | How to write a paper about marketing for publishing in ISI Journals? | 2014-02-22T08:09:46.990 | # Question
Title: How to write a paper about marketing for publishing in ISI Journals?
I have read many ISI papers, and now I want to publish my own paper, but the subject I want to write is about marketing and brand development, which lots of people are writing in this topic. Is it possible if I don't do any mathematical or analytic researches and just write my paper based on other papers and my own knowledge and by mentioning the sources and books that I wrote my paper? My main question is, can I just write descriptive words and mention some issue in just words, and I don't do any math or numeral calculations? And what ISI Journal do you suggest me to send it, which will easily accept it, and has a good Impact Factor, and doesn't cost me too much?
# Answer
Writing for an IF journal should follow standard good practises. First you need to have a well defined question/hypothesis for the work. You need to provide a solid and up to date background for the work (Introduction providing an overview of all relevant literature, i.e. earlier work). You need to successfully show significant (new) results and conclusions. Then you need to write the paper well, which means no spelling and hopefully no grammatical errors, clear and concise language, good structure. Finally you should adhere to any instructions for authors regarding how the journal requests papers to adhere.
So this is actually not so difficult in theory. To what extent this will be easy for you depends on your experience. Based on your question, it sounds as if you are thinking more about a literature review with some own thinking on the topic, avoiding new data and data analysis. This does not sound like the easiest way to gain acceptance. Likewise, knowing your field also involves understanding what journals accept what sort of papers. You seem to be at an disadvantage also here. The best advice is therefore to try to connect to someone who knows the field better and ask for assistance in, for example discussing the problem, and possibly helping with the strategic decisions regarding format of the paper and where to send it. One has to know the details of your work to provide such advice and that is clearly beyond the scope of this site.
Finally, as already stated by scaaahu, "easy accept" is not a concept known to the majority of us when it comes to scientific publishing.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: publications, writing, paper-submission
--- |
thread-17315 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17315 | How to responsibly apply for more than one PhD position? | 2014-02-22T19:52:41.800 | # Question
Title: How to responsibly apply for more than one PhD position?
My Master thesis is under review, may be it will finish in a week. I had a discussion with my thesis supervisor about a potential PhD position. He applied for a 1 year grant, with my name as student beneficiary. Together we decided to apply for some more grants once I graduate.
In the mean time, I got an interview for PhD in another much better university. If I clear the interview, this employer would contact my supervisor for reference and my supervisor might think that I am playing a double game. Did I do something unethical? How to handle this situation?
I will inform my supervisor about the interview sooner anyway. I am extremely worried about this scenario that I could not focus on preparing for the interview at all.
# Answer
No reasonable person can fault you for exploring different options since
* there isn't a guarantee of a job
* you haven't committed to this job.
Definitely tell your advisor so that you'll be in the right frame of mind for your other interview and can excel there as well !
> 12 votes
---
Tags: application, citations
--- |
thread-17320 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17320 | Research grants for international PhD candidates | 2014-02-23T01:08:13.870 | # Question
Title: Research grants for international PhD candidates
I recently came across a friend who is applying for a PhD in my lab. He happens to be from Brazil, on an F-1 visa. He was told by my advisor that his citizenship status affects the sources of funding available to support his work. I was always under an impression that the principal investigator applies for research grants and funding does not depend on visa status (if any) of the students under his guidance. Was I wrong in making this assumption?
# Answer
> 14 votes
It absolutely depends on the source of funding. Each organization has their own rules. By and large, the NSF (since you mentioned F-1 visas I assume this is US-centric) allows foreign students to receive funding from grants, but this intent has to be disclosed at the time of submitting the grant request.
DARPA has slightly tighter rules although I'm reasonably sure foreign nationals can be funded. But if you're from a "country of interest" like Iran, there can be other complications.
Finally, while these are not PI-requested grants, the NSF-Hertz graduate fellowships are exclusively for US citizens.
p.s This even applies to PIs. There's a large DARPA program that you're not eligible to apply for unless you have a SECRET clearance, for which a necessary but not sufficient condition is that you're a US citizen.
# Answer
> 2 votes
The question (or the supervisor's answer) does not indicate clearly if the supervisor is planning to incorporate your friend into one of his grants as support personnel, or is planning to have your friend write his own doctoral fellowship grant.
For the first option, the student's visa status does not matter in most of the cases. I have seen CDC and NIH grants used to fund foreign students. My PhD was also funded by NIH (I was not listed as an investigator) when I was holding an F1 visa.
The only wrinkle I can think of is that, the PI (principal investigator) might have budgeted a full time salary of, say, $50000 a year for an assistant. Due to F1 visa's limitation, the student has to be a full-time student, which means he cannot get full-time salary as a worker simultaneously. The usual approach is to resubmit a minor adjustment and change the budget into $25000 part-time salary and $25000 scholarly support. At this point, some problems can occur as some grants might have specified that they wouldn't fund school fee (which means your friend may have to look for scholarship to supplement his study. But he will have some stipend from the grant), and the agency may also question the feasibility of cutting a position's time in half. etc. Otherwise, I cannot think of other significant reasons.
For the latter case, then visa status matters a whole lot more. If your friend is going to write his own grants, it is true that a lot of grants do not accept proposal from non-US citizens. Try to scout around some grant websites such as Grants.gov and do a search. The site allows you to screen out grants by applicant's visa status. As far as I have seen, PhD fellowship grants mostly welcome all kinds of visa status.
So, in conclusion, clarify with the said supervisor, and start assessing the grant availability.
---
Tags: phd, funding, united-states, international-students
--- |
thread-17277 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17277 | How to write a technical paper of a not so significant idea? | 2014-02-21T16:00:28.860 | # Question
Title: How to write a technical paper of a not so significant idea?
I am a PhD researcher in my first year. For the first 3 months all my supervisor made me do was read related papers on IEEE, so a LOT of literature review.
Recently in trying to recreate the result of another paper I was reading, I wrote some code on segmentation that appears to work really well and has got my supervisor's attention and interest. He thinks this may lead to a publication.
He asked me to write a technical report on it. So I wrote a simple report in MS Word which included a brief explanation of the method with graphs and result images but he said this is not what he wanted. What he expects from me is a IEEE style report/paper, including introduction, algorithm/method explanation, mathematical representation, experiments, future work etc.
The problem is that I believe he thinks too highly of my code, its just a for loop applied at different settings. That is all..
What is the mathematical representation of a for loop? How do I make it look more professional? As I know my reports are those of an undergrad standard.
# Answer
> 26 votes
Quite possibly, your supervisor is encouraging you to write early, to learn how to write, and to get into the habit of writing your results down.
You would gain a lot by watching this youtube video by Haskell inventor Simon Peyton Jones on How to write a great research paper. Part of his message is that you can do the research while you are writing, meaning that many ideas will come to you as you are writing things down.
You ask how to write a paper. Didn't you just read a whole bunch? Pick one that you found easy to follow and inspiring. Model your paper on its structure and style.
Regarding the actual work. A formal model of a for-loop has already been done, so I suspect that this is not the right level of abstraction to consider. What is the data to which your for loop applied? What did it mean? What did the parameters mean? How are the results of your code interpreted? Were some better than others? On what scale? *Part of science is learning to ask and answer the right questions.*
# Answer
> 7 votes
From the wording of your question, it looks like what you wrote can be summarized as "I wrote this code and obtained these results". Even if your code and results are correct (I assume they are, if they got your prof's attention), this is not a publishable paper. The reason is that "I wrote this code and obtained these results" is something that you can say of any piece of code that actually works, no matter how trivial or mundane. What your prof is expecting you to write is a paper that says "I wrote this code and obtained these results, *and this is interesting to you, dear reader, because...*". There are a bunch of reasons why your code is interesting: it might run faster than standard code for certain cases; it opens up a different way of attacking a certain problem; it shows that a certain cases have some properties that set them apart from their complement class; and so on.
If you had decided to go into industry after getting your BSc, you would be paid to write code that works, period. In grad school, on the other hand, whether your code actually works is to some extent secondary (cf. Knuth's quote "Beware of this code: I've proven it correct, but I haven't run it yet"). What matters is whether your code teaches your peers (grad students, postdocs, profs) something new about your (sub)field.
---
Tags: publications, phd
--- |
thread-17307 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17307 | Meaning of "Study curriculum with rankings" | 2014-02-22T12:41:46.450 | # Question
Title: Meaning of "Study curriculum with rankings"
I have decided to apply to PhD studies and in one part it says that my CV should contain: *"Study curriculum with rankings"*. What does that mean? because they are also asking me to submit my studies transcripts.
# Answer
Study curriculum means the list of titles of courses/subjects and their contents, credits, and so on. In other words, the syllabus.
The term 'Ranking' is generally associated with the institution. Probably they are asking for the ranking of the university/college you attended. 'Ranking' may also imply your position in the class of X number of students. It may also simply mean the semester-wise serial number of courses.
You can have a look at this link.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Do these instructions come from an institution in an English-speaking country? If this came from an university in my homeland, I'd interpret it as "list of all courses taken with grades", clumsily translated into English. Besides that, it's not unusual to ask for this kind of information in when applying for a PhD (at least in Italy).
> 2 votes
---
Tags: phd, graduate-admissions
--- |
thread-17309 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17309 | Are the methods used in math-based teaching (including physics, engineering, etc.) substantially different from those used in other areas? | 2014-02-22T13:23:55.607 | # Question
Title: Are the methods used in math-based teaching (including physics, engineering, etc.) substantially different from those used in other areas?
**Background:** There is currently a proposal for a new Math Teaching site that will be entering private beta once enough people sign up. One question that came up during its question is (basically): Is teaching math significantly different from teaching any other subject? Would it be better to broaden the scope to all education?
I had my own opinions, but I don't have enough experience teaching non-math classes to know. And now I am really curious about variation in teaching methods across disciplines.
Therefore, I have this question:
> Is there any evidence (such as refereed sources) to show that teaching mathematics and related fields uses significantly different methods or skills than teaching other subjects?
Conversely,
> Is there any evidence that teaching ability and/or techniques transfer across a wide variety of disciplines?
# Answer
At the University of Georgia we have a program (which is not identical to a "department", but is close enough so that the distinction has always eluded me) in **Mathematics Education** and thus we have undergraduate *mathematics education majors* and also *mathematics education graduate students* (both master's and PhD).
There are certainly close ties with both the mathematics department and other education disciplines -- e.g. the mathematics courses I teach have a substantial population of mathematics education majors -- but such undergraduate majors also take plenty of courses with the name "Math Education XYZW". These courses are split into "content" and "pedagogy" courses. This distinction was very hard for me to wrap my mind around (it literally took me a few years to do so, although obviously I was not working very consistently on it!): see for instance this page, and please read carefully: the courses that they list as Content are actually in the math department (one or two of them are taken mostly by math education majors, but many of the others are also required courses for undergraduate math majors). Rather the distinction between "content" and "pedagogy" -- which are the terms used by UGA students and faculty who talk to me about this -- is a distinction being made between two types of courses in the longish list of Professional Education courses. Thus e.g. compare
> EMAT 3800.
> Course Title: Connections in Secondary Mathematics II
> Course Description: Exploration of secondary mathematics topics related to number and measurement with an explicit focus on reasoning that connects critical topics of secondary mathematics to one another and to problem situations. Sample topics include proportional reasoning, number theory, and probability.
and
> EMAT 4800
> Course Title: Teaching Secondary School Mathematics I
> Course Description: Introductory ideas about mathematics education, including current mathematics standards and policy documents, learning theories, and teaching strategies. Students will explore how secondary students think about and learn mathematics, examine how to select and modify tasks, use appropriate technology, and apply their learning in an accompanying field experience.
This seems to give rather strong evidence that the answer to the OP's first question is *yes*: Math Education is rapidly becoming distinct enough from Education in general to count as its own discipline. (Obviously there remain many connections and commonalities between Math Education and other kinds of Education, just as virtually any academic field overlaps significantly with others.) In particular, yes, math education students learn math-specific teaching methods. This is indirect, though strong, evidence that there are differences between the teaching methods of various subjects. But my other point is something that is not explicitly in the OP's question: more than just teaching methods, techniques or ability, there is actually **additional content** that math teachers learn and that other teachers (and students of mathematics who are not intending to teach!) do not.
Let me also introduce you to my colleague Sybilla Beckmann. Beckmann (who was trained as an arithmetic geometer and holds a faculty position in the UGA mathematics department; her office is next door to mine) is truly\* one of the very top American experts in the field of mathematical education of teachers. (Beckmann is also largely responsible for my awareness and understanding of the issues presented above. In fact I will contact her and ask her to look over this response to make sure I have gotten things right.) One of her initiatives over the last few years has been to promote the idea of an explicitly identified **mathematics teaching community**. In this regard, please see this article and this website. Also, Beckmann writes on her webpage "Longer term, we plan for this project to include an electronic self-organizing journal."
**tl;dr**: Yes, this is definitely a thing. It is a thing which has grown in recent years and is liable to continue to grow in the near future...and everyone seems to agree that we want/need it to grow.
\*: So much so that I need not justify it here: just search the web for her and you'll see it right away.
**Added**: My colleague Sybilla Beckmann took time out of her busy workday \[on Saturday!\] to quickly look over what I wrote above. She pronounced it "basically accurate" and went on to add the following:
> Teaching methods in math are definitely different from other disciplines. Work of Lee Shulman and Deborah Ball on mathematical knowledge for teaching has been transformative for the field in that regard. Some sources to refer people to: the CBMS Mathematical Education of Teachers II on the CBMS website. It refers to various other sources. Math education is a separate discipline with a large body of research amassed over the last 30 - 40 years. It connects to other education research but is its own separate field. At UGA, the math ed program is within the department of mathematics and science education (it used to be a separate math ed department but was joined for administrative reasons some years ago).
I added links to the wikipedia articles on Shulman and Ball, and I recommend at least skimming these. Shulman is responsible for the idea of **pedagogical content knowledge**, a concept which is rather slippery at first \[or at least, it was to me\] but really seems to lie at the heart of an answer to the OP's question: it is precisely the material that you need to know as a mathematics teacher that you do not learn in your mathematics courses and cannot learn in non-math specific education courses. To nail it down more specifically than this is beyond my expertise -- e.g. the above two course descriptions were intended to convey this distinction but looking back it seems even more complicated: none of EMAT 3800 would be appropriate material for aspiring teachers of most subjects other than mathematics, and *some but not all* of EMAT 3900 would.
The two linked wikipedia articles give entry points into the vast body of literature on these matters; people who were interested enough to read this far are encouraged to delve into the literature itself. And when you do, come back and tell me about it! I am an academic mathematician and thus a mathematics educator, but I have no specific training in mathematics education.
> 11 votes
# Answer
The methods we use in physics are certainly different from the ones used in math. We have lab courses. Also, there is a huge pedagogical literature on overcoming students' preexisting conceptions of physics, and the literature seems to show that straight lecturing never does an acceptable job of overcoming these preconceptions. The classic paper is Hake, "Interactive Engagement Versus Traditional Methods: a Six-Thousand Student Survey of Mechanics Test Data for Introductory Physics Courses, Am. J. of Phys, 66 (1997) 64, and I believe it's available online.
> 8 votes
# Answer
One evidence that some *teaching abilities/techniques transfer across a wide variety of disciplines* is the existence of the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF), which *"provides a general description of the main dimensions of the roles of teaching and supporting learning within the higher education environment"*.
I'm currently attending a training course at my university to obtain some qualifications for this framework, and this course is attended by people from many disciplines (from maths to history, including medicine or economy), and the teaching techniques we are learning do not depend on the field (and the people in charge of the course are explicit on that fact).
Of course, some particular aspects can be specific (for instance, techniques specific to teaching in a laboratory with potentially dangerous equipment might not be relevant to mathematicians), but for instance, learning how to conduct an interactive exercise can be done similarly in most fields.
Now, perhaps the proposal in question looks for techniques for very specific topic, for instance, how to teach Pythagoras theorem, or some nice examples of matrix operations.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: teaching, mathematics
--- |
thread-16344 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16344 | Look for a second advisor while on the first, any advice? | 2014-01-30T03:46:24.880 | # Question
Title: Look for a second advisor while on the first, any advice?
Due to incompatibility with my current advisor, I am currently looking for other advisor on his back. Any advice? I am so scared that what if he discovers that I'm looking around. Now I have tried to set up new email account so I can deny everything if things get ugly. Any people have the same experience, can you share your trick with me please? It is pretty much a very dangerous covert mission.
# Answer
I don't see anything dangerous or necessarily covert about looking for another advisor, and I'm puzzled by things like using a new e-mail account you can deny was yours. (Are you planning to make contact under a fake name? Pretend someone was impersonating you if your current advisor finds out?)
You don't need to be nearly so worried. It's completely reasonable to switch advisors, and I know plenty of people who have done it without any trouble at all. You don't owe your current advisor anything, and there are no good grounds for anyone to object.
Of course you could cause offense if you are tactless. Don't tell your advisor "I'm switching because I'd prefer a competent advisor." But there are plenty of reasonable excuses. For example, you could say your interests are developing in ways that are a better fit for an advisor with a somewhat different specialization.
Fair or not, your advisor is probably not happy to be working with you either and may actually be relieved when you switch. In comments on other questions you have expressed a fear that your advisor will badmouth you to other potential advisors. That's possible, but you could also run into the opposite phenomenon: sometimes an advisor who is frustrated with a student will try to convince other faculty to take on the role of advisor, since then the student will be someone else's problem. (The less cynical version is that the student may get along better with an advisor with a different personality.)
I'd recommend keeping two things in mind:
1. You seem very interested in criticizing your advisor. Now is not a good time for that, whether it's addressed to your advisor or to a potential replacement.
2. You seem worried that you are doing something underhanded. If you act nervous and suspicious, people may suspect you are up to no good. Looking for a new advisor is not doing anything wrong, and you may get a better reaction if you treat it straightforwardly and calmly.
> 13 votes
# Answer
> Due to incompatibility with my current advisor, I am currently looking for other advisor on his back.
Did you mean "behind his back"? That's okay, people usually don't tell their advisor (or employer, in the business world) when they're looking for another one to switch to.
> Any advice? I am so scared that what if he discovers that I'm looking around.
If he finds out and confronts you about it just tell him that you don't feel like you are able to contribute to the research that he does.
> Now I have tried to set up new email account so I can deny everything if things get ugly. \[...\] It is pretty much a very dangerous covert mission.
Nope, that's just paranoid.
> Any people have the same experience, can you share your trick with me please?
I switched, after a year with my first advisor. The work he was having me do didn't interest me at all, and to be honest, I wasn't doing it as well as I probably could (lack of motivation reduces work quality).
I simply asked about the department for who was looking for graduate students (like I did in the first year to find this advisor in the first place). I didn't tell my current advisor, but I also didn't take any paranoid measures like switching email accounts. I used my official university account for everything. After finding a new advisor, he contacted the old advisor, making sure everyone is good with the switching arrangement, I finished up my semester of work (up to the end of the contract of the funded project) with the old advisor, I had a meeting where I gave an overview of the work to the person who will take it over and answered some questions, and then I started working with the new advisor.
At the end, everyone was fine. I'm even collaborating with the old advisor a little on some research right now.
> 2 votes
# Answer
It is better to have a single supervisor than two. Because every time you show some work, there will be two advices and many revisions to your papers,thesis.
Unless you know the professors thoroughly, don't consider having two supervisors.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: advisor
--- |
thread-17340 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17340 | I have been betrayed and isolated by my advisor and I am mentally drained. What should I do now? | 2014-02-24T02:21:24.323 | # Question
Title: I have been betrayed and isolated by my advisor and I am mentally drained. What should I do now?
I'm in the middle of a complicated situation, and I'm wondering whether this is commonplace in academia.
Long story short: I'm an international student, and I recently completed my master's degree in CS. I had been working with one adviser (Prof A), I completed my course work in December, but since Prof A couldn't find worthy candidates to fill my place, Prof A told me that if I assist her with her research projects for one more semester, she will help me find a job. Fast forward two months, she told me in a meeting that she tried to help but she can't and that I should look for a job on my own. I recently asked if I could pursue a PhD in her lab. She said no, as she has no funding. I've successfully applied to a different lab (Prof B), only to find out that all professors are provided funding for first-year graduate students. **Why would she lie about this? Is this normal?**
The situation has since developed that I've been able to play my acceptance to Prof B's lab off of Prof A, and she was very happy to take me on now that I'm working on B's research; she clearly hopes to get research funding out of this new-found collaboration. This seems incredibly callous to me; she clearly has no interest in my situation, and simply wants more grant money. **Is this normal behavior for academics?** I was on the edge of being deported, and she clearly could not care less about my personal situation, only for her research money. **Are all academics this callous?**
# Answer
So essentially, what you need is someone to take you on as a PhD. It looks like your current advisor just isn't interested in having you be her PhD student. This other professor is interested in having you as a PhD student, but you aren't interested in his research.
It sounds like neither of these is an option for doing a PhD. This means that you need to find someone else to be your advisor. Think about who else is in your department.
Other than that, your only choices are probably to find a job or leave the country.
(I'm not mentioning trying to apply to another university because I think admission season is almost over for most, but there might be some places still accepting applications.)
---
Post-edit things:
> Why would she lie about this? Is this normal?
First of all, you don't know if she lied. You have no idea under what constraints she operates. Yes, you've been told first-years get funding, but a PhD is more than a year, so what is she supposed to do with you after that, if she really doesn't have funding? That would have been worse, spending a year working for her and then being deported, don't you think?
Secondly, if she did lie, she might have done it because she doesn't tell you what's really preventing her from taking you on. What if you're not as good a researcher as you think you are and she doesn't want you working on her project? What if she got funding from a grant that requires the participants to be citizens, and she's trying to get another student, who actually qualified for it, to join her? There are lots of possibilities.
Is it normal? Academics aren't special. People lie. I lie sometimes. I'm sure you lie sometimes. Lying is as normal in academia as it is anywhere else.
Honestly, the above answers the rest of your question too. You assume you know her situation and motivations when the fact is that you don't. You conclude that she's callous---maybe she is, maybe she isn't---again, sometimes you're going to run into a callous person, might even get (un)lucky and stumble upon a sociopath, that's just the risk you run when interacting with people. Nothing special about academia there either.
> 26 votes
---
Tags: phd, research-process, ethics
--- |
thread-17339 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17339 | Stay or leave for PhD | 2014-02-24T01:20:34.620 | # Question
Title: Stay or leave for PhD
I'm a master student at a university in Korea and going to graduate next June. By now, I think about doing PhD and have to make a decision on "stay" or "leave".
Stay:
1. My professor is very nice and quite well known in my university. The working conditions are good, PC, seats, no time restriction... (but everyone working like crazy).
2. The professor really nice to me (actually us - foreign student), I was found a good scholarship for the master course ($1300/month) while the average is $700-600.
3. I don't have to make much effort on searching for a PhD position (don't need to take English test like IELTS, toefl) and the salary is good in comparison with other universities in Korea.
4. It's not really face to face talking but I agree with my professor to continue PhD there before I go to the graduate university. (Which I am most afraid of).
5. My background is not good since we focus on publishing only very narrow field. I'm not very good at programming **C**/C++ as well, I use Matlab all the time.
Leaves:
1. I'm not quite sure about another place but in my University, they focus on research not the graduate course. My background is quite weak.
2. My professor is very very busy and not really good in my current topic. Almost every member in my team have to find their own way (follow the topic of their project).
3. I feel like this environment is not very good for the PhD. The communication between Professor and student is like a one way communication. We obey what ever we are told. Not really two way communication or discussions.
4. I'm 25, single, and want to do something.
Should I continue my PhD on the current Lab or looking for PhD position in some where else?
Ps: I'm looking for PhD position which related to signal processing and Compressive sensing. My current's topic is image/video compressive sensing.
# Updates.
**Mar. 2014**: Thank for your advice, I decided to stay for my PhD but more for my personal issue. For my current PhD it is little disappointed.
* my support is lower than what I discussed with the professor before starting PhD. We agreed on $1000 but later paid me $800/month due to lab situation (the other PhD salary is still the same $1000 or higher). After asking many times, I now have to do an internship 1 day/week as an solution with $250 salary more.
* The professor is very busy, even for checking my conference paper before sending.
**Jul. 2015** Now I'm a little doubtful what to do.
* The professor has no time for us and even for my journal paper
* One PhD student left without a word
Advice for someone considering study in Korea: Master is enough, go somewhere else for PhD!
# Answer
> 4 votes
Since you say you like the research where you are and you are fairly productive there, you can probably successfully get a PhD there. It sounds like your advisor is not perfect (busy, etc) but few advisors are "perfect" from their students' perspectives. And if you stay, you won't have to interrupt your research to apply to other schools and transition to a new group. Staying where you are is a "safe" choice.
If you go somewhere else, some of your weaknesses (which you are able to ignore in your current position) may be exposed, and you'll have to work on improving them. And you will probably meet new collaborators (especially if you go to anther country) and be exposed to new ideas and techniques that will be difficult to learn, but will make you a better and more capable researcher.
So the answer to your question depends on what you want to gain from your PhD: Do you want to get a degree and some nice publications? Then staying where you are sounds like the easiest way. Or do you want to improve yourself and broaden yourself as a researcher? Then you might be better off leaving.
Having said that - of course, even if you stay, you can still challenge yourself and improve yourself and your capabilities. But since you don't have to "prove yourself" in your current position, there's nothing forcing you to do so - you'd have to be exceptionally self-motivated and disciplined.
---
Tags: phd, research-process, professorship
--- |
thread-17318 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17318 | How do I go from Math BS/MS to Exercise Physiology PhD? | 2014-02-22T22:30:18.600 | # Question
Title: How do I go from Math BS/MS to Exercise Physiology PhD?
I'm graduating with a BS in Math in April 2014, and I'm starting a Math MS program in September 2014. I realized (a little late) that my true passion is in Exercise Physiology. How do I get from a Math MS program to an Exercise Physiology PhD program?
The only relevant courses I've had are freshmen-level general biology, junior-level chronic disease prevention, and senior-level plant physiology.
# Answer
The way to get into any PhD program is to apply to it. If you are interested in staying at your current institution, you can seek out faculty in Exercise Physiology (assuming there are any; I must admit that I know nothing about this particular program, including how common it is) and ask them whether your coursework so far would make you a reasonable candidate for the program, and if not, how much more you need to do.
One obvious question: are you interested in using your mathematical training in a significant way in your future career in Exercise Physiology? If so, then continuing on to get the MS is math could be an advantage: I imagine that relatively few Exercise Physiology PhD students have that much mathematical training, but like in most academic fields there is always room for people who do have that training and want to use it.
If you are having a real change of heart, I have to ask: why begin a master's program in math if you have decided you don't want to use mathematics later in life? Why aren't you trying to take courses in Exercise Physiology? Also, I am a mathematician, so I can say that getting an MS in math is not a triviality: it most typically takes two years, and if your heart's not really in it, it could drag for longer than that and really not be fun.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: phd, career-path, mathematics
--- |
thread-17348 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17348 | Switch PhD program: how to contact possible PhD advisors when already enrolled in PhD program? | 2014-02-24T08:32:25.043 | # Question
Title: Switch PhD program: how to contact possible PhD advisors when already enrolled in PhD program?
Say a student is enrolled in a PhD program in the US and is in the first or 2nd year and has not started their thesis work but has only done coursework. The student has always been in the same lab (no rotations). Say such student for whatever reason wants to switch to a PhD program in Europe.
How should such a student handle contacting PhD advisors and other institutions? Should the student mention in the first e-mail that they are already enrolled in a PhD program or can this be mentioned in the first phone call? Or should it be mentioned at all? How much would this situation decrease the chances of getting accepted into a PhD program in Europe? Or should the student first quit the current PhD program before applying to any other program?
# Answer
**Email, honesty and avoid burning bridges.**
You can freely email (and otherwise) contact potential PhD advisors, of course remembering that they are always busy, so you need to be concise and have something of interest to offer.
You need to be honest about your current situation. If you are not and then the potential new advisor finds out about it, it will look bad and will likely ruin your chances.
Do not quit your current situation. That would look worse than wanting to change/improve your circumstances. And if you fail to find a new position, you'll be left with nothing.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, application, career-path
--- |
thread-17354 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17354 | What is citation index? | 2014-02-24T11:35:26.737 | # Question
Title: What is citation index?
What is citation index? How are such indices calculated? How can any journal become part of an index? These are my questions about various indexes that are used at academic environments.
# Answer
> 2 votes
There is actually an entire field dedicated to answering the question about how to measure scholarly impact.
Two indices that you could probably compute by hand in a little bit of time are the h-index and the g-index.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-index
Also, if you are an author thinking about submitting a draft, and looking for a good journal in your field, one place to look is on Google Scholar. Go to scholar.google.com, then click on \`metrics'. Google has auto calculated the h-index and g-index for the last five years of a lot of different journals in different fields. Generally speaking journals with higher h or g numbers are going to be better places to publish. (Not an ironclad rule, so check with a trusted advisor before sending something out, but a good rule of thumb)
If you are an editor of a journal and you want your journal indexed, then just write to the editor of Journal Citation Reports and ask about the process to be included. Be prepared for a lengthy wait though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal\_Citation\_Reports
---
Tags: publications, citations
--- |
thread-17230 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17230 | Is there a standard format for sharing data? | 2014-02-21T03:26:32.797 | # Question
Title: Is there a standard format for sharing data?
We are writing a paper, and want to share the raw data. My advisor suggests that I share the data as an Excel file, but I believe that a plain text file (such as a text-delimited or comma-delimited file) would be better.
1. Is there a standard format for sharing data?
2. How do I convince my advisor that a plain text file is a better format for sharing data?
# Answer
> 9 votes
**1. Consider non-proprietary format as a good practice**
You might find an argument in the Tim Berners-Lee 5 star approach. When discussing Open Data (something we should be embracing more in academia as well), he presents the following:
> Under the star scheme, you get one (big!) star if the information has been made public at all, even if it is a photo of a scan of a fax of a table -- if it has an open licence. The you get more stars as you make it progressively more powerful, easier for people to use.
>
> ★ Available on the web (whatever format) but with an open licence, to be Open Data
>
> ★★ Available as machine-readable structured data (e.g. excel instead of image scan of a table)
>
> ★★★ as (2) plus non-proprietary format (e.g. CSV instead of excel)
>
> ★★★★ All the above plus, Use open standards from W3C (RDF and SPARQL) to identify things, so that people can point at your stuff
>
> ★★★★★ All the above, plus: Link your data to other people’s data to provide context
It is best to publish in an non-proprietary format (csv would be fine) as you claimed. Stars 4 & 5 are for Linked Data structure which is a nice thing to aim.
**2. Publish in a reliable repository thinking long-term preservation**
Citation and versioning are very important if you want to alter something on your data-sets in the future. I would recommend you publish your data in Figshare. Research made publicly available of figshare gets allocated a DataCite DOI at point of publication. It supports versioning as well.
Another alternative for a repository is DataVerse suggested by Thomas below
# Answer
> 12 votes
No.
Depends greatly on the field and kind of data.
Some fields do have relatively standard formats:
* In Astronomy, FITS is considered pretty much the standard for imagery.
* In machine learning, CSV/TSV is relatively common -- though as the data set sizes get larger and richer, other formats come into play. You can troll the UCI ML Repository to get a feeling for what's common.
In general though, I'd argue that plain-text based formats are what you want to preserve. If, happiness of happiness, your paper becomes hugely influential and you only provide an `.xls` file, you can bet the first thing that's going to happen is a bunch of ersatz plain-text copies will appear.
If you want to annotate your data, and that's what is swaying your advisor to Excel, perhaps consider something like XML or JSON -- easy for the computer to process and plain text based, yet free-form enough that you can annotate it however you'd like.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I agree with everything Matthew G. has said. But I wanted to offer some additional thoughts on your second point about convincing your advisor to use a plain-text file format. Demonstrate any of the following:
1. Send the Excel file to a friend running Linux and ask them to open it.
2. Save the Excel file in Excel 2007+ format and try to open it in an Excel version from 2003 or earlier.
3. Try to open the Excel file in a text editor to make changes.
Then repeat all of the above with a CSV/TSV. The portability of the plain-text format will be shown to be unmatched.
---
Tags: data
--- |
thread-17365 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17365 | Applying for jobs without significant publications: is it worth the pain and what to highlight? | 2014-02-24T18:15:45.043 | # Question
Title: Applying for jobs without significant publications: is it worth the pain and what to highlight?
I'm in a conundrum. Due to a change in areas half way through my PhD, I find myself at the end of my training with no significant publications. I have one in press, and several in prep so in the next year I should have 3-4 if all goes well. I'm also at a top ten university in the US and have good recommendation letters etc...
My issue is: I need to get a job as soon as possible **in Europe** to be with my partner. I have applied to both post-docs and to some assistant professorships at smaller schools in his city thinking I should at least try but I'm feeling seriously under-competitive where the norm in my field is at least three papers by graduation.
I have an option to stay on as a grad student for a 6th year at my institution, but it would have to be remotely (as I will move to Europe anyway) and frankly, I don't want to have to do that (both because it's too hard to do research and I make little money). But it is a safe option, and might give me time to write up all the backlogged data I've recently acquired.
**So my options are to take an extra year with very little pay and apply later, or apply extensively and effortfully to jobs that will probably reject me, though there is a small chance I'll get one.**
In your experience, will people even consider PhD's with very few pubs, or impending pubs, and if so, are there things I can do to make my application look more competitive, e.g. should I explain myself (I don't want to make excuses though) or highlight grants and presentations?
Or should I just cut my losses and suffer through living abroad with no money and taking the extra time I would have spent applying to a million places to write up a bunch of papers and then try again next year with more confidence and competence, and maybe landing a better job?
Thanks!
UPDATE: I ended up getting short-listed for five institutions, two of which are top-tier, and ultimately was offered two assistant professorships and one post-doc. I am sure I would have been better off with more pubs but I'm glad I ended up applying for reach jobs as ultimately I think I ended up with some great choices, met a lot of people in the field, and most importantly, got a job!
Thanks for all your input.
# Answer
Disclaimer: this question is seriously underspecified. For a reasonable answer we would probably need at least the city you are looking for, your field, your qualifications beside publications, etc.
That being said, I feel that the Assistant Professor market in Europe is **insanely** dry in most fields, and, honestly, getting an Assistant Professor position directly after your PhD graduation is very unlikely even with an extremely good CV. If your CV is not **absolutely** top-notch for your field, I am afraid applying is largely a waste of your time. On the other hand, at least in my field, getting a PostDoc is often comparatively easy and uncomplicated, and reasonably payed in many places. A PostDoc is also a really good time to write up a backlog of publications and improve one's CV, so maybe this is what you should be shooting for.
> 12 votes
# Answer
Just to clarify, OP, you are listing the papers in press and under review under your publications too, right? You don't have to wait till the thing is actually printed to put it on your cv, so long as it is absolutely unambiguous what status each paper has, whether it is under review, been sent back for revision, accepted for publication but forthcoming, etc.
You should also list current working drafts if but only if those drafts are good enough that you would not be embarrassed to email them to a search committee member instantly upon request.
> 7 votes
---
Tags: publications, professorship, application, job-search, postdocs
--- |
thread-17363 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17363 | Are search committees biased in terms of a candidate's looks, such as long hair for men? | 2014-02-24T16:51:46.447 | # Question
Title: Are search committees biased in terms of a candidate's looks, such as long hair for men?
As a male Ph.D. student in engineering, I have not had a problem with long hair at any of the reviews I've attended with funding agencies, conferences, etc. However, I wonder if search committees will view long hair in a negative light.
I would particularly like to know if anyone has known of any instance in which a male candidate's long hair worked against their chances of obtaining an academic position, but I've edited this question title to be more general with respect to a candidate's outward appearance attributes *which are under their control*.
# Answer
First, let me place my answer in the context of American academia. I'm sure that in some other parts of the world social conventions are different.
Contemporary American academia is one of the more formally progressive and tolerant subsets of western society. There are American schools which recognize a student's right not to have any gender! Although this is an extreme point, academic culture places a premium on toleration of personal differences, to the extent that most hiring committees are instructed not to take such "irrelevant things" as personal appearance into account.
But do they? I think all human beings do, in some ways. I do believe that people who are more physically attractive make more attractive job candidates, all other things being equal (and there are lots of studies to back this up). Recently for health reasons I lost a substantial amount of weight, and I think that my relations with undergraduate students are noticeably better, e.g. resulting in higher evaluations. Of course this probably has at least as much to do with the way I (nonverbally) communicate that I perceive myself: being more comfortable in your own skin shows.
As a result, if long hair feels natural and good to you, then I would recommend that you keep it. Like Samson, it may somehow be a source of strength for you. I was going to say that even the fact that you're asking about it seems slightly strange, but then I remembered that as a graduate student I would shave my goatee every fall (when I was teaching) and let it grow every spring (when I wasn't). I have now had a goatee continuously since getting a PhD in 2003! I also used to dress more nicely for class than I otherwise would. While I still think that one should not wear clothing which is especially ratty in any professional context, I have long since learned that nobody cares whether I wear sneakers or a jacket or anything like that.
The other thing is that it is not 1964 anymore: the men who were long-haired youths in the 1970s are now some of the senior people around, and many are still proudly growing long what remains of their hair. Both of the men who have been department heads in my time at my present job grow their hair longer than what conservative mores would recommend, and the current chair has hair halfway down his back. It is really no big deal.
Let me say finally that the odd faculty member who mutters something sour about your hair probably had other reasons not to like you. And if not, do you really want colleagues who are so superficial and intolerant? Times are tough, but I think one needs to make feeling comfortable in one's own skin a high priority.
> 38 votes
# Answer
We all agree that they *shouldn't*, but the truth is that probably they *are*, at least some of them. It's difficult to control subconscious feelings.
You can try to play the game in your favour, though: wear an elegant, smart outfit and make sure your hair is well groomed (there is a difference between "long hair" and "hasn't seen a pair of scissors in years"). What people are usually biased against is not long hair *per se*, but the feeling of untidyness and negligence that they associate with it; you have to disprove this unconscious mental association.
(Disclaimer: I've had long hair for 1/3 of my life, and cut it a couple of years ago).
> 18 votes
# Answer
*By request:*
The simple answer to your question is the Luxuriant Hair Club for Scientists.
> 13 votes
# Answer
You are making a mountain out of a molehill. Just cut your hair and grow it back when you get the funding, job or whatever. Just keep it neat. Dress up nicely and conduct yourself well. Unless your hair is like the guy below, you should be fine.
> -1 votes
---
Tags: job-search, outward-appearance
--- |
thread-17384 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17384 | Are undergraduate classes ever used as a means to learning what a PhD candidate needs to learn to earn his PhD? | 2014-02-25T05:59:08.973 | # Question
Title: Are undergraduate classes ever used as a means to learning what a PhD candidate needs to learn to earn his PhD?
I'm a philosophy major. I sometimes wonder how some professors and PhD candidates know as much as they know about subjects outside of their discipline. For instance, I read one philosophy paper by an author who proficiently used methods from other disciplines {agent-based modelling, computer programming, game theory, advanced set-theory} to argue his claim .
I know that a big part of earning a PhD is learning how to learn; the author of that paper evidently learned how to do that. When I imagined myself doing the same, I imagined being able to learn the concepts independently, but feeling unsure about how well I had learned them. So I wondered whether completing, or challenging, classes would be a viable strategy for learning about matters relevant, but not pertinent, to my graduate studies.
Are undergraduate classes ever used as a means to learning what a PhD candidate needs to learn to earn his PhD?
# Answer
**Short answer**: sometimes...
**Long answer**: see below.
(*Disclaimer: this describes a STEM-related experience. Not sure how this translates to other disciplines - like philosophy - where instructor interpretation plays a very large role*)
I can only relate my personal experience. In grad school I did take a number of classes, but somehow, even though as an undergraduate I was able to juggle 5-6 courses effortlessly, I found it much more difficult to sit through lecture after lecture and do homeworks.
For certain kinds of material (let's say real analysis, or topology) the discipline of a full length course can be quite useful. But most often what you're looking for is some specific concept or set of concepts from a different area. As you "learn how to learn" better, you quickly realize that the most efficient way to do this is to find some lecture notes, or even find an expert who can explain the key ideas in an hour or so. At that point, if you're experienced enough, you know what to take away, which ideas are important, and which ideas you don't need to understand to get your job done.
Of course, the other factor is time: you're trying to master a body of work in your own research area, and you don't have a lot of time to spare mastering a whole other area as well. But it's surprising how much you can learn from late night paper binges and frantic googling.
And now of course there are MOOCs and other learning aids that help the self-directed learner. So you can pick up things at your own pace.
> 13 votes
---
Tags: phd, graduate-school
--- |
thread-17362 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17362 | How to get letter of recommendation from current advisor if transferring PhD to another university for family reasons? | 2014-02-24T16:20:58.913 | # Question
Title: How to get letter of recommendation from current advisor if transferring PhD to another university for family reasons?
I've been in engineering PhD for 6 months and now considering transferring to another university. The reason is not academic, but family -- I'm in a long distance relationship with my boyfriend. We're both serious about this relationship and plan to get married. However if I keep doing my PhD in my current university, we'll be separated for many years
I am considering transferring my PhD to university closer to him. My questions are:
1. Should I contact the potential future advisor first before telling my boss I'm leaving?
2. When should I talk to current advisor and how (focus on my family reason?)
3. Is it possible to get his letter of recommendation, or I'll screw up this relationship entirely?
4. will it possible to transfer to an university better than my current one? (honestly getting to a higher place is not my purpose, believe or not, but around my BF's place are almost all very good universities (1 tier higher than my current one), which actually refused me when I applied them last time. So I'm very concerned if I could be able to enter them now)
One thing that comfort me is that because I work hard, my current advisor seems have good impression on me. But I don't know whether this will help. If anyone have any ideas, would you share your suggestion?
# Answer
**I did this.** I moved to a higher-tier department that had previously rejected me, after two years in my first PhD program, to be close to my SO. My former advisor and the other faculty in my research area were nothing but helpful and understanding.
The sooner you talk to your current advisor the better. The last thing you want to happen, no matter how friendly and understanding your advisor, is for someone to ask him "So why is Jae leaving?" before he knows you're thinking of leaving.
Be honest and direct. Keep in mind that you are asking for help—which is your advisor's job—not for permission to leave. Try to bring your advisor in as a collaborator in your move. Reassure him that you will finish whatever tasks are still on your plate, and that you are willing to help choose, train, and/or mentor your replacement if his thinks that would be appropriate. (Follow through.) Try to leave doors open for future collaboration, either through visits or remotely.
Finally, ask for a strong letter of recommendation, and for suggestions for potential advisors to contact. Since your target schools have already rejected you, you need strong evidence of excellence beyond your undergraduate record. Your current advisor is the strongest source of that evidence; people will take his letter very seriously. Conversely, *not* having a letter from your current advisor will raise a red flag.
Finally, if you can pick up a master's degree before you leave, that will raise fewer eyebrows when people look at your CV in the future.
> 14 votes
# Answer
If your advisor is generally an emotionally sane person, he should be able to understand your position. If your advisor is not, you're better off finding out as early as possible, and then to run.
That said, the right time to talk to your supervisor is right now, for two primary reasons:
1. As you're working in a lab, it is quite likely that your supervisor would want to hire a replacement for you, which takes time.
2. Your supervisor may have contacts to the relevant universities, and be able to help you moving.
When it comes to what to talk about, there are two important aspects besides your wish to be closer to your family:
1. You'll want to reassure him that you are not leaving unfinished things around. Wrap up your experiments as far as possible before you leave, and be available to work on manuscripts after you're gone, too.
2. Do you plan to take your thesis topic with you? If so, you probably should discuss intellectual ownership with your advisor. Even if you feel it was your idea, he may disagree.
Finally, is there any risk that your current lab has some "secret techniques" that you'd "hand over" to the competition? If so, try to address potential concerns.
> 13 votes
---
Tags: phd, application, advisor, recommendation-letter
--- |
thread-17382 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17382 | In journals submissions, what does "Confirmation of Intent" mean? | 2014-02-25T04:26:39.287 | # Question
Title: In journals submissions, what does "Confirmation of Intent" mean?
I am planning to submit a manuscript for a special issue in a journal. The guest editor puts a deadline for *Confirmation of Intent*. What does this mean? What the editor expects from the authors at this level? are there any samples of such thing?
# Answer
As @vadim123 said in the comment, this is to estimate the size of the special issue. If it were too small, the journal may decide to:
* make a very small special issue;
* join special issues from two conferences into one;
* cancel the special issue and propose acceptance of the paper through a standard process.
If the special issue is too large, they would typically make it into a supplement.
**What should you do?** Reply *yes* or *no* for your participation in the special issue, and if yes, then the estimated length, like: *"We'll provide the full proofs while in the 10-page extended abstract there were obly sketches, it'll be circa 20 pages long."* If they wanted more information, they would have asked for it explicitly.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: publications, journals, editors, special-issue
--- |
thread-17393 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17393 | What is the difference between dual degree, 2 Bachelors and double major? | 2014-02-25T11:37:42.817 | # Question
Title: What is the difference between dual degree, 2 Bachelors and double major?
We are considering to offer double majors between my department and other departments. While looking at examples from other universities, we came across other terms such as dual degree.
On the undergraduate level what is the difference, generally speaking, between:
* Double Major
* Dual Degree
* Two Bachelors
Moa
# Answer
> 3 votes
My understanding is that:
**Double Degree** often means you get two full Bachelors degrees, which may be from two *different* universities, in two entirely unrelated subject areas. Often these programs are designed to be completed in 5--6 years total. I have also sometimes seen it used with reference to graduate programs. For example, a double degree Masters/PhD program, though this is rarer in my experience.
**Double Major** means you get a single degree from one university, but with a speciality in two related subject areas. For example, you could be a Physics/Chemistry double major. Typically this means you satisfy the core requirements of both programs, possibly using the electives of one to fill in the core of the other.
**Two Bachelors** means you get two full Bachelors degrees. Sometimes this is used as a synonym for a Double Degree, sometimes it is differentiated by requiring that both degrees be granted by the same institution.
---
Tags: university, undergraduate
--- |
thread-17398 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17398 | Is it possible to get into Psychology research after a PhD in HCI (human computer interaction)? | 2014-02-25T15:02:31.817 | # Question
Title: Is it possible to get into Psychology research after a PhD in HCI (human computer interaction)?
I'm very interested in psychology research, especially exploring patterns and reason of behaviour, and mechanisms of human mind. During my PhD, I spent considerable amount of time exploring cognitive and neuropsychology literature, and conducted quite a few behavioural and user studies. I'm very confident of my skills in designing experiments and statistics.
**My questions are:**
1. Is it possible to be employed by a psychology department merely with these skills and knowledge?
2. Should I rather try other types of jobs which could compromise between my interest and skills?
A little bit more about my background: I did one-year taught master course in *psychology*, but both my undergraduate and PhD were in *computer science* departments.
# Answer
I've met people who were Computer Science PhDs and actually were part of Psychology departments.
If you did HCI, I think it gets harder to do Psychology, after all is a whole study area by itself, since yours was more specific.
My advice would be to find a laboratory that has both of them, and that way you can get involved in some projects so you can learn other things about psychology
I do not presume to know about the filed, but I'm guessing there are multiple laboratories that might have a psychologist as well as a computer scientists.
Essentially, build up your creed as a Psychologist by going somewhere where there is interaction between the two fields.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: career-path, changing-fields, psychology
--- |
thread-14563 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/14563 | Post-doctoral research statement/project: current/future vs thematic | 2013-12-06T14:50:46.203 | # Question
Title: Post-doctoral research statement/project: current/future vs thematic
I am currently applying for several post-doctoral positions. For these applications I have to prepare a research document in which I present my current research and my future projects in a limited amount of pages (typically not more than 4 or 5). But there is two possible organisations of ideas:
* 1) A first approach would be to present first my past and current research topics and then my future projects.
* 2) A second approach consists in a thematic organization in which I present for each topic my past and current research and what I plan to do in this topic in the future. Some topics can be only past/current and some other only long-term project.
What is the best organization ?
# Answer
> 3 votes
I would favour option 1.
You are trying to tell the story of your research career so far, and how your story could continue at the institution(s) to which you are applying. Looking at it in this way, you are casting your past and present research activities as "Background".
Your subsequent sections would be about specific projects - the "Future". In each section you can refer to your skill set, showing how this project is based on a firm foundation of skills developed during your Background years.
A reader will get a much clearer picture of you as a scientist - past and future - if you structure your application this way. It makes for easier reading, and you want your admissions committee to be happy.
Splitting up your "story" thematically - showing how parts of your background set you up for the project under consideration - makes it more difficult for a reader.
# Answer
> 3 votes
There is a third option which you may want to explore.
1.) Current research
2.) Plans for future research
3.) Past experience in this area
In other words, structure this the way you would if you were talking to them rather than writing to them. Simon Peyton Jones recommends this approach for writing a research paper, but the same concepts work well for any types of writing. Explain your idea to someone else, and then write it in the same order, using slightly more formal language. When I am explaining my research interests to someone, I will often say something like this, "I am working on Idea B now, and I expect this to continue in to Idea C in the future. This line of research grew out of my previous exploration of Idea A."
---
Tags: application, postdocs, statement-of-purpose
--- |
thread-17411 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17411 | Is it normal for PIs to change projects to unrelated research | 2014-02-25T20:41:58.097 | # Question
Title: Is it normal for PIs to change projects to unrelated research
As I asked in a previous question, I ended up with a project that is not nearly close to my interests or research expertise, and my PI is pushing me so I publish something in that topic.
But that made me wonder. Is it usual for this to happen in Academia? I'm not talking "Topic was A and ended up with slightly related topic B", No, I'm talking a topic about a whole different field (even) than topic A, let say Topic Omega (Different Journals, Conferences, etc)
I reviewed my CV and the Job posting of almost 2 years ago, and it clearly said the job was on building algorithms for Brain Machine interfaces using Machine Learning.
However I ended up building electrodes (heavily balanced toward doing electrode characterization) for Brain Signal Capturing, and the paper he wants me to publish is in this topic, that is not nearly related to Machine Learning. Also, nowhere in my CV I even stated that I had nor the expertise nor the experience to deal with these particular field. And at the end of the day, had he advertised it as a heavily experimental postdoc I would not have applied at all.
We are talking Postdoc level here, not a grad student who suddenly switched topics. I just want to know if this is normal, or just a bad situation.
Knowing that this is normal might reduce my level of frustration, but if it is not, at least I can speak up in the exit interview.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I would say, no, it is not normal for a PI to shift focus so radically.
In the normal run of things, when hiring at the PostDoctoral level (and lower), the PI will have:
1. Submitted a funding request with a detailed outline of the research plan.
2. Have received acceptance of that plan and a budget.
3. Advertised open positions accordingly to the budget looking for people with the necessary skills.
4. Hire people with the necessary skills for the duration/budget allowed by the funds.
5. Supervise execution of the research according to the initial plan.
... pretty much in that order.
Topic shifts would normally occur where funding for a project has run out (which should correspond with the end of the PostDoc contract) and the PI wishes to find funds from other projects to keep the PostDoc employed and to extend the contract.
Shifts might also happen if the PI is pooling sources of funding together, which can sometimes happen: they might decide to juggle resources between different projects on the fly. This, however, is far from an ideal situation, esp. for managing researchers on temporary contracts.
The questions I would ask in your situation are: in which of the PI's projects you are working on, has it changed recently, where the funding for that project came from, and what the original proposal was.
* If you have moved project, you should ask why.
* If you are in the same project, you should ask why the topic changed so radically all of a sudden.
---
Tags: career-path, postdocs
--- |
thread-17378 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17378 | In which type of schools can I have better research experience in Biology, liberal arts college or large research university? | 2014-02-25T01:35:12.907 | # Question
Title: In which type of schools can I have better research experience in Biology, liberal arts college or large research university?
I'm struggling with deciding to which type of school to go in order to gain a better research experience. Basically, the research experience is the most important factor for me to decide my college, since I want to be a strong applicant in PhD admission. Most reputable, research universities are far larger than LACs (liberal arts colleges), and they (except for top schools like HYPSM) are not so friendly places for those who want to conduct their own research and engage in research from Sophomore or even Freshman. To get rich research experience, I want to be involved with research as early as possible and not only during the summer but also throughout a year. Just for example, Reed College has mandatory Senior thesis like Princeton, and profs are eager to help even Sophomores to do their research. However, in research universities, I can take graduate-level courses and touch with cutting-edge research as a research assistant. So, I can gain more advanced knowledge than those in LACs.
Could you tell me your recommendation both for me and those who have the same aspiration?
\*If my question is too vague, please just compare UC Berkeley/University of Michigan vs. Reed College/Carleton College. I'm sure this will be a good comparison, since the quality of the students are almost equal.
# Answer
> 5 votes
I went to a small liberal arts college and worked at a large university lab, that had undergraduate interns. From both experiences I agree that it is the lab and not the school that matters. However, there are conditions that you will be more or less likely to find, depending on the type of school. In general liberal arts colleges will give you more personal attention and large universities will have more resources. Funding at liberal arts colleges is focused on undergraduate education and funding at larger universities is focused on research.
**Personal Attention:**
*Liberal arts:* A lab is led by a principal investigator or PI. Liberal arts colleges often do not have graduate students or have few graduate programs. So, at a small liberal arts college you will work closely with your PI and get to know them well. I left my college with great letters of rec that helped me overcome a poor GPA (due to a medical problem in my first two years) and get into grad school.
*University:* The undergrads were trained by PhDs and post docs and had little contact with the faculty. Post docs and PhDs can often be great teachers, though, since they either are students or were students recently and might be able to anticipate the student's perspective. At a university, they will normally write your letters of recommendation and the faculty will sign them.
**Independence:**
*Liberal Arts:* All of our grants were training grants, so the emphasis was on teaching, as opposed to producing results. This means you will get to do more independent work. I got first hand experience with the equipment (EEG) and techniques (analysis of FMRI and EEG data) that few undergraduates get to use. Additionally, I know of at least two of my friends who published, as first authors, in major research journals. This is not uncommon in my school.
*University*: The undergrads had to learn a program that is no longer used by most labs in the field. There was little room for mistakes (all of the labs grants were research grants), so the undergrads were given the task of modifying previous work and really did not develop any understanding of how the program actually works. However, this lab was an older lab. I also believe students at an older lab at my undergraduate school had a similar experience, where the methodology they were taught was not consistent with current standards in the field.
**Connections:**
They are pretty equal in this area. Liberal arts college professors often collaborate with people at larger institutions and can connect you with other labs. I have friends who got summer jobs at Stanford and CalTech this way. At the large university, one of our undergrads got to go to Oxford for the summer, because of the professor's connections to a lab there.
**Equipment and Resouces:**
*Liberal arts:* We did not have access to some of the most expensive equipment (an MRI, for example). However, one of my professors also worked at a local university that had access to an MRI and we got to use it there. Ideally, you should get some lab experience at a major research university, so you are exposed to techniques that require more expensive equipment. You can do this during summer internships. Getting more experience at different labs will look good on your application.
On that note, a liberal arts college is more likely to have grants that will help students study at other institutions. My college had several such grants for student research grants. Additionally, all senior thesis was funded by the department. The senior thesis funding and one of the summer fellowships both require students to focus on their own original ideas. In most fields the first author is the person who had the idea for the project. This is how undergraduate students were able to become first authors.
*University:* Universities will have the best equipment, but they are less likely to have funding for student research. The institution I worked at had grants for students, but they were only for work at that university. They also had no specific grants that would allow students to propose their own projects, based on their own ideas.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I wouldn't say that any university "type" is universally better or worse for gaining undergraduate research experience. The culture with respect to undergrad research varies so much, even within one school.
My advice is to look up the Biology faculty in the schools you are considering, and identify those you would be interested in working with. **Do your homework** \- don't just spam the entire department. Then email them:
Dear Professor {X},
I am {applying to, accepted into} the B.S. program in Biology at {University}. I am interested in pursuing a PhD in {specific area related to X's research} when I graduate, and am hoping to start doing research early in my B.S.
I am very interested in your ongoing research on {subject area}. {Say something intelligent about subject area that demonstrates your ability to contribute.} Do you take on undergraduate research students?
(I highly recommend reading the tips here for contacting a prospective research advisor: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/advice/prospective.html)
By doing this, you'll get a good sense for where you're most likely to have undergraduate research opportunities, and a head start on finding a potential research advisor.
---
Tags: phd, research-process, graduate-admissions, undergraduate, research-undergraduate
--- |
thread-17421 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17421 | What is difference between funding an MS and a PHD student | 2014-02-26T00:06:20.657 | # Question
Title: What is difference between funding an MS and a PHD student
I am trying to understand this regarding aspects of funding only and not quality of research.What is difference between funding an PHD and an MS student.
I thought both took courses, get some stipend and advisor funds them.Maybe for PHD they fund students for 5 years instead of 2 years of MS ?
Is there any other major difference?
I understand PHD student's research output expectations are completely different.I am asking this question with specific regards to state universities in US.
# Answer
This is a US-based answer and maybe specific to Mathematics, but I think this generally applies.
From my understanding, the difference is only whether or not you have been admitted to the PhD program or not. Many times it is the case that you can be admitted to an MS program but not a PhD program until after you have passed some type of qualifying exams.
Depending on the university, you may see an increase in your pay after successfully completing the necessary qualifying exams, etc.
It is not necessarily the case that an advisor will fund you during your MS or PhD. At many universities, you will have an offer of a TA position (not related to research, as the name suggests), and you are required to teach / grade / hold recitations (depending on the university) in order to fulfill your TA contract. Often, you can attain funding from an advisor so as to 'cover' your teaching load for the semester or potentially the summer. The benefit here is that you are primarily spending your time on research and are not under a TA contract.
Often, if you have been admitted to a PhD program and passed your qualifiers, you will have the opportunity to teach higher level courses that a MS student would not.
> 2 votes
# Answer
*Disclaimer: this is US-specific and quite likely engineering specific.*
The only potential difference is that the rates for funding Ph.D students (post-candidacy) might be different to that of an MS student. But the difference is usually between types of funding(RAship, TAship, etc), not who gets funded.
> 4 votes
# Answer
Other answers pointed out that the amount of support for PhD students (post-qualifying exam) can be higher than M.S. students. However, in addition to funding levels, funding **sources** for PhD and M.S. students can be very different.
For example, in my lab (US, engineering), most of the M.S. students working as research assistants are supported by funds allocated by the **department** to the professor every semester. This money is given specifically for the purpose of creating extra educational and training opportunities for M.S. students, through participation in research.
Then, in my lab, the funds that support PhD students usually come from their advisors' **research grants**. (A small number of PhD students are funded by the department for a year, but this comes from a very limited "pool" that is separate from the M.S. student money, comes directly from the dept to the PhD student - not the professor - and is much harder to get. Some PhD students are funded by external fellowships, like NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.)
You didn't ask about undergraduate researchers, but we also have those in my lab, and they are often funded by the NSF from Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) grants.
Thus, in my lab there are certain funds that may be used only for undergrads (from NSF via REU grants); certain funds that can go only to M.S. students (from the department, via a pool of money allocated to create research opportunities for M.S. students); and certain funds that can go only to PhD students (from the department, via a pool of money allocated specifically for one-year PhD fellowships). Then there are funds (mainly, from the professor's research grants) that can be used to support any kind of student.
This is of course just an example - other labs will have entirely different "pools" of funds that they may draw from, which may or may not have restrictions as to who may use them.
It is entirely possible for a professor to be able to fund an M.S. student (because it comes out of departmental M.S. research opportunities money) and not a PhD student (because they don't have enough active research grants, or all their grant money is already committed, and the department PhD fellowship pool is empty).
> 2 votes
---
Tags: phd, research-process, masters, advisor, funding
--- |
thread-17425 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17425 | Which summer internship to take? | 2014-02-26T02:35:55.163 | # Question
Title: Which summer internship to take?
I asked a similar question last year, but the stakes have changed slightly.
So, I have an offer from a top 5 program in Chemical engineering (my major). There are a couple of extremely accomplished professors in fluid mechanics here, which is what I want to study in grad school. However, I am not so interested in attending this school for graduate school because it does not send many people to academia post-graduation, despite being a top 5 program, mostly because it isn't a very big name school. Or at least I assume this is the reason.
The deadline to reply to this school is March 5th.
To complicate things, I am waiting on a reply from a much more prestigious university for a summer internship. While the school has a much better name, its ranking is slightly less (number 6 for chemical engineering). I think I have a very good chance of getting this internship (my PI went to grad school here and wrote a very strong letter, plus I have a good resume otherwise). However, I learned today that they will NOT be able to get a response back to me before March 5th.
I am much more interested in attending School 2 (slightly lower rank, better name), because they very frequently send people to academia, which is my long term goal.
School 1 (higher rank, worse name) was pretty firm in the March 5th date, so I don't think I can ask for an extension.
Financially, School 1 offered me a slightly better deal, I'd be netting about 2k more over 10 weeks. However, that isn't as important to me, since the experience is worth far more than the money.
I apologize for the long question, but any advice or guidance would be appreciated. Am I putting too much emphasis on the name and rank? I don't want to be greedy and put all of my eggs in School 2's basket, and be left with nothing if I end up not getting it after all.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Since these are both REUs, I do not think attending school 1's summer program will affect your chances of attending grad school and continuing in academia. Most REUs are designed to give students an opportunity to see if they can conduct scientific research and / or enjoy it. Depending on the university and the discipline, they may be considered 'recruiting' camps for people to attend that university's grad school program in your discipline.
Since you have a fairly strong inclination to working in academia, you do not need the experience other than to confirm your suspicions and to make you a better candidate when you apply to graduate schools.
As for what I would suggest --- ask when you think the earliest day / time you would be able to get a response from School 2 on acceptance or rejection, and then from there, try to see if you can eke out some more time on School 1's deadline so that you don't end up shooting yourself in the foot.
You may also be able to talk with your current PI and see if he can hear anything through some back channels as to whether or not you have a decent chance.
At the end of the day, it's up to you. Consider all your options wisely.
---
Tags: research-undergraduate, internship
--- |
thread-17347 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17347 | CV for leaving academia after PhD | 2014-02-24T08:12:03.360 | # Question
Title: CV for leaving academia after PhD
I am soon finishing my PhD in computer science and I decided to leave academia for the industry (not industry research).
I am not clear about what to include in the CV. I currently structured it like this:
* Education
* Work experience (including teaching positions and internships)
* Selected Honors, Awards & Fellowships
* Programming Skills
* Selected journal publications
* Selected Workshops, Schools & Conference Talks
which in its current version results in a two page CV.
I am neither sure about the ordering of the above items as well as the importance of each.
For example while I have ten publications I only mention two of them in the CV. On the other hand I mention about eleven Workshops, Schools & Conference Talks. I think this is not the right balance. On the other hand I am not sure how much companies (like Facebook, LinkedIn, ...) care about theoretical publications. I also do not mention any research visits I did.
So my question is, what academic information do you include in a CV for non academic positions and how important is each of the items?
# Answer
> 44 votes
The current structure of your CV looks like an academic CV to me. You put too much emphasis on the academic credentials. You definitely need to rewrite it.
What the industry (not industry research) companies are looking for are your **skills and experience**. They are not interested in how many publications you have or how many conference talks you gave. They are interested in how much you know about **solving problems** so that you can help them to make money.
I would suggest you to emphasize your programming skills, the contents of your publications (what kind of problems you solved in those papers), the internships, etc.
Don't under-estimate your teaching experience. Emphasize it. Many hiring managers had told me that they like the teaching experience on my resume. I asked them why. They said I must know how to communicate because I can teach. Knowing how to communicate to others is an essential skill in industry.
Good Luck!
# Answer
> 7 votes
I am not sure if you are writing a CV for particular position or a CV to put on a web-page. A common advise is to **fit the CV to the particular position** (What makes a good CV? section) you are applying for. So lets assume that you are writing something like your CV template.
In such a template I would suggest to put as much papers, experience, skills and relevant information as you can think of. This may significantly shorten the time of CV preparation for any particular position in the future.
Later on, when you will prepare a version of your CV for particular job, you will delete all points which are not relevant as you want to keep your CV as short and as relevant as possible.
So to answer the question: **you should put that academic information which is relevant to the application**. In some jobs, it can be relevant that you are able to write long texts, in some others that you are able to lead a group of people, speak in public or your innovative thinking and so on. So put everything now and choose the relevant content for each CV later.
If you feel that the list of the conference talks, or the papers is way to long you can include only 5 the most important or the ones which can be easily checked. In case you really want to emphasize the quantity of your work, put list of the papers/conferences on a separate paper or provide a link of such information in the accompanying letter or mail.
# Answer
> 7 votes
**tl;dr: The industry hiring process is entirely different from academia. You'll have to adapt but it isn't that hard.**
*Note: It's not clear from your answer whether you're in the US or elsewhere so please translate my US-centric answer to fit your situation.*
I received specific advice on this subject when I was doing the same thing years ago. It's a variant of "speak to your audience":
1. A one-page resume is for the human resources filters.
2. A detailed CV is for the people with whom you want to have a detailed conversation.
The human resource filtering problem is a serious one. From the point of view of HR, everyone in the world is applying to the job, regardless of experience, requirements or even location. HR might not even know what all the technical jargon means but they're looking to filter that pile down as fast as possible.
So, you need to write the one-page resume carefully to fit the position description and set of requirements. Yes, they're looking to see if you've ever held paying work and who they can call to confirm that. However, they're also looking for certain called out buzzwords and key points.
For example, if they use the phrase "required experience elements" in the position description, make sure that your resume has a bold "Experience elements:" section. If the description asks for "Java", make sure your resume describes your use of Java for each position or project that you list.
In short, the resume is all about taking away their excuse to say "No."
The CV is an entirely different thing. Someone who's interested in your CV knows a lot about the details of the position and wants to have a detailed conversation with you. With the CV, you have the ability to reduce a lot of the friction: you're already volunteering plenty of the "tell me about this project..." content up front.
Here's what I did:
1. Rewrite the resume from scratch for every job, tuning the words to fit the position description. It's not that onerous: it's only a page.
2. Offer the CV in correspondence. These days, I would probably point them to LinkedIn or careers.stackoverflow.com
3. If I was called in for an interview, I would brought several paper copies of my resume and CV tucked in to my portfolio of previous work.
Repeat all of the above far more times than I like to remember and eventually you find a paying job....
# Answer
> 4 votes
I don't see any reason to omit your publications, since in your proposed ordering they are at the end. You definitely want to indicate your programming prowess as soon as possible. It might also help to insert a line above the Education section indicating your areas of expertise and interests. This is useful for bots that look for keyword matches.
# Answer
> 2 votes
You may find the website Versatile PhD helpful, as it provides guidance on how to transition from an academic research track into the non-academic market.
The most important thing to keep in mind, though, is that you need to stop thinking in terms of the incentive structure of academia (i.e., firstly publications, secondly grants, positions, and awards) and start thinking in terms of skills that you can offer.
This usually means you need to organize your resume in terms of employment or projects and the skills and competency you demonstrated therein. If you have project management skills (supervision of research assistants, for example), programming skills put to use in projects, or other skills (meeting deadlines, working collaboratively with others, etc.) these are the things to emphasize as bullet points under jobs/projects rather listing out academically-valued output (pubs, presentations, grants, visits, etc.).
Also, if you're applying for entry-level jobs in industry, I see no reason why your resume should be longer than one page. If you have an online presence, you can always have a longer CV online that possible employers can look at if they're intrigued by what you have to offer from your short-form resume.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I'll just add a few points a couple of friend as recruiters told me.
The Interviewing process usually goes through HR first, believe me, they could not care less about your publications.
That is the short form CV, is the one you usually give out first. And since is HR people who will be looking at it first, you have to put emphasis on WHAT tools you know how to use.
For example:
* My research consisted on the optimization of distributed systems
That is mute for an HR, and more than one TI manager. But if instead you rewrite.
* During my research, I used extensively tools like HADOOP and JAVA in a team setting, using collaboration systems like Github (even saying subversion might not help at all).
Both sentences are saying the same, but in the second one you are specifying which tools did you used.
Remember that academic buzzwords like "parallel computing" , "probabilistic inference", etc. Do not mean much for many recruiters. They care about the tools, and how long have you worked with them.
If you have a github repository with some examples, that might help them as well (I'm assuming you are a programmer)
# Answer
> 1 votes
Assuming you're looking into joining a Dev Shop, I'd ensure that your CV includes your engineering skills.
What do I mean by engineering skills?
Which source control tools are you familiar with? Which test frameworks have you used? Have you used any CI tools (i.e. Hudson)? Which Agile methodologies do you use? Have you contributed to any open source projects? Do you have a github account so that interviewers can see your code?
There is a perception that developers from Academia tend to be a little light on these skills, so it's important to ensure your CV describes them.
# Answer
> 0 votes
Since others have this covered fairly well, I'll add only this: make sure that your main bullet points are recent!
Here's a few examples:
When you're applying to colleges, they want to know what you did in high school. They don't care about K-8(in the US). They want to know extracurricular activities, standardized test scores, etc.
When you're applying for grad school, they want to know what you did in college. What's your overall GPA, what's your major's GPA, GRE scores, extracurricular activities, undergrad research positions, internships, etc.
When you're applying for your fifth job in your career, they want to know what you did at your previous jobs. They may still be interested in knowing your Alma Mater, graduation date, and GPA, but they're less interested in all of the details. You've had 4 jobs since college, and they want to hear about your successes in those jobs.
Likewise, when leaving academia for industry work, they will want to hear about your grad work first and foremost. Others have mentioned the kinds of information you should include - such as skills - so I won't say much other than to say these look good:
* Education
* Work experience (including teaching positions and internships)
* Selected Honors, Awards & Fellowships
* Programming Skills
Teaching experience can easily translate into communication experience. Communication is a great skill to have in the industry, and if you're able to communicate with technical and non-technical folks alike, that is a *huge* advantage.
Honors, awards and fellowships are proof that you're not lazy, that you're motivated, have initiative, etc.
On the other hand, your last two bullet points about publications and workshops probably won't gain you much, if anything.
In short, make sure to highlight your accomplishments in college, nothing earlier than undergrad, and focus on your graduate years.
# Answer
> 0 votes
If you already have industry experience, then highlight it *prior* to your academic achievements. Given that you don't have any industry experience, exploit your PhD thesis **as an actual project** in term of how did you manage, designed, developed and why it is significant especially to industry. It automatically qualifies as a project if it was not in theoretical computer science, otherwise you need to justify how the theoretical aspect is valuable for industry. From this point of view, you can add your PhD time frame as your *work experience* and demonstrate that research was actually working on a project. For many tech companies, even personal pet projects are considered valuable, so in that sense a good research project is invaluable.
Your CV should flow from a Summary, Skills, Experience and then Education. Remember, the industry is interested in your computer science skills not your qualification. The final and probably most important point is that you should aim for organizations closer to your field or at least the jobs which are closer to your skills rather than applying to every single developer/analyst position.
---
Tags: phd, cv, industry
--- |
thread-16150 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16150 | Eagle Scout rank on CV? | 2014-01-24T20:57:26.923 | # Question
Title: Eagle Scout rank on CV?
Q: Should I keep Eagle Scout (the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America) on my CV?
I do not think that this is an appropriate item to include on a CV. However, CV is loosely translated as ''the course of my life'', and this is an achievement that takes a lot of perseverance, and something that is earned and not just given away. It requires a significant amount of time and volunteer work to complete a project that gives back to your community and also shows leadership and management skills which, you don't normally acquire until a little further in your academic career, but shows the ability to do so.
Is this award detrimental to include? looked down upon by hiring committees? not even given a second glance?
I have not found a satisfactory answer for this.
If it is kept on the CV, where should it go, i.e. award or outreach (both I think would be appropriate items, and it may be that if deficient in one or the other, one could move it around).
# Answer
> 22 votes
I wouldn't include it. I doubt it makes much of a difference, but you yourself say it's not an appropriate item. I agree.
To expand a little bit, let me say this: the things you should put on your CV are those that directly connect to the job you want to have. Something like a job you had in an unrelated field is worthwhile in that it shows you were employed and not a hobo, but most other things that aren't really directly part of your career (jobs, education, publications, info about teaching, conference presentations, grants, etc.) is just a distraction, and will make it look like you are padding. I think high school achievements are especially bad in that they focus things too much in the past. Nothing on my CV goes earlier than my junior year of college (and probably I should cut that; nobody cares where I studied abroad).
Of course, it's good to have lots of things to list on your CV, but you also want to keep the average high. There are only a few things on there that are really important, and you don't want to distract people from what they are.
It would be great to discuss your experience as an Eagle Scout in a personal conversation, say if you have an informal dinner or drinks during an interview, but I just don't think the CV is the place for it.
**EDIT:** A point which a deleted answer raised also occurs to me: one reason to avoid putting extraneous things on your CV is that you can't control what associations people reading it might have. For example, the Boy Scouts of America have stirred up a lot of controversy with their stances on homosexuality, and for many people that maybe be the first thing that pops to mind. It's unfair to connect one scout to that, but people aren't logical. They read "Eagle Scout," they think homophobia, and they have a negative reaction to your application that they weren't even conscious of.
I recently read an application for graduate school by a student who listed on their CV membership in some political groups with which I vehemently disagree. I don't think that should affect my judgement of their file (luckily, I'm not on the committee, so I didn't have to try to make a judgement), but I honestly did not want to know about that aspect of their lives. I'm sure they thought it showed something about leadership, but to me it looked like very poor judgement.
# Answer
> 6 votes
To me, as someone who isn't an eagle scout, it seems inappropriate. But I will tell you this, every person who I personally know in academia who also happens to be an eagle scout has for some reason left it on their CV (there may be some selection bias here, but in each of these cases I didn't find the fact out by reading their CV, so probably it's not that big - sample size of 2 though is very small - 1 postdoc - 1 grad student on the job market for postdocs - note no professors). Anyways, based on this fact, I surmise that other eagle scouts will see it as a positive. So if there is an eagle scout on the hiring committee it may very well be a net positive! Now the probability there is an eagle scout on the hiring committee is very low (as you point being an eagle scout is an amazing accomplishment and very few scouts ever get it). I'd leave it out based on my initial reaction, which I think is the reaction most people would have. I see why you might not want to leave it out though. This line shows a lot of qualities that may be important in academia but most people would find it irrelevant even though it is an amazing accomplishment.
However, if you "organized" a massive charity event that is at least loosely related to academia as part of your eagle scout badge, you probably should list it, but not necessarily just putting eagle scout down. You might "sneak" it in by saying "organized ... as a part of winning my eagle scout badge" or something like that, and stick it in the service section. But if you do include it, at least make an attempt to make it sound relevant.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I wouldn't put high school achievements on a professional CV unless it's at the level of a medal on international science olympiad or a top 10 Intel talent search finish. I don't think Eagle scout is quite at this level. That said, it probably won't make a big difference either way, unless your CV has enough questionable things that it looks padded (which is bad).
# Answer
> 3 votes
If you have a longer and more comprehensive CV, I would keep it. It's an achievement and it tells people who know a little about the Boy Scouts that you've learned a few things about leadership and engaged in significant community service.
That said, I would put in *way* at the end with other trivia and less important tidbits. An an extra, it *might* end up being a slightly positive thing for some readers. For those of that don't care, make it very clear that you don't place this among your most important achievements as a scholar.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I have a "Non-academic activities" section at the end of my CV that mentions that I'm a semi-decent long distance runner and that I used to moonlight for an amateur comedy troupe. But then, I do this because I can afford to do so: we are talking here about *two* bullet points that come after about 150 separate items including publications, talks, grants, teaching, advising... so it's obvious that I'm not including this to make my CV look longer than it actually is. If your CV is substantially shorter than this, you might want to think twice about including this kind of section. If you do include it, *please please please* do not write anything banal or mundane there. I once read a postdoc application to my department that included the line "Hobbies: watching movies". The CV in question wasn't great anyways, but this line was the metaphorical nail in the coffin.
# Answer
> 2 votes
It depends on the position you are applying for. I would not include it in an application for a professorship, but for a post-doc I would keep it in under *"misc"* or *"additional information"*. If there is a structured application form and they are asking for it, then include it.
# Answer
> 2 votes
It depends on:
\- whether you have other volunteer experiences
* If your last volunteer experience was only in Boy Scout, then I wonder why you didn't get involved in other things in undergrad/grad. If you are listing a bunch of experiences, it probably doesn't hurt to include it.
\- whether this experience is related to what you are applying for
* If you see this being relevant to an education or outreach aspect for the position you are applying for, then perhaps it is a good idea.
If you list this as part of your career achievements, I might think that you are a bit desperate (as if you don't have anything else to write about and just want to pack your CV). Not to say that this is not important, but for an academic position it is not directly relevant; if you want to include it, it should go into "miscellaneous" or "volunteer experiences."
---
Tags: cv, awards, outreach
--- |
thread-17383 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17383 | Getting into gradschool from a "real job" | 2014-02-25T05:15:54.073 | # Question
Title: Getting into gradschool from a "real job"
I'm interested in going to grad-school but I have been working at a "real job" as a software engineer for the past few years (since I graduated with a BS in Math in 2010). What are the best ways to to break back into the academic world? How can I spin my work experience in a positive way to departments?
Ideally I would be getting a phd to study Mathy CS, or CSy Math.
# Answer
We see a number of students who apply to graduate school after an undergraduate degree in math/cs followed by some years spent working at a not-any-realler-than-faculty job. In short, what admissions committees would like to know is:
* what have you been doing since then, and in what way does it influence your current interests and desire for grad school
* have you continued working on projects on the side ? (not a problem if not, but good if yes)
In other words, I don't view work experience as a negative in CS. In fact it's a bit of a positive because the student then usually knows what they want to do and is a lot more focused about it. There's a lot more maturity as well.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I have seen people coming from top companies like Google into PhD and still they struggle a lot during their PhD. So, when it comes to research, the work experience is not everything. You can see it from a couple of different perspective.
1. Given that your "real job" is relevant to your future program, a good practitioner style CV would be beneficial.
2. Also, if your "real job" is truly cutting edge AND you maintain good relationship with your past organizations AND you can demonstrate that you can use your industry experience to involve organizations in a way that it will add empirical component to your research, THEN it is quite an attractive offer for universities. Too good to refuse.
3. However, if your "real job" is yet-another software engineering job and distant to your future program, then your industry experience is somewhat irrelevant.
On top of it all, for US universities a low academic scores such as GRE could be deal breaker with or without experience.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: phd, application, industry
--- |
thread-8337 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8337 | Not enough guidance from advisor | 2013-03-01T23:50:25.917 | # Question
Title: Not enough guidance from advisor
I'm a third year PhD student. I'm not getting much guidance from my adviser. We only meet once a month, and he keeps giving the same general advice. As a consequence of that, we have had to cancel one project since I have no motivation at all for that project.
Now having the new project, things are getting the same. I'm worried about my progress as some of my lab mates are about to graduate. What should I do? I realized my responsibility in driving the project by myself, but most of the time my idea are discarded. Recently when I showed my result, he claims that's garbage without any reasons. What should I do? I'm really thinking of dropping out if situation is not getting better.
# Answer
"we have had to cancel one project since I have no motivation at all for that project". What exactly is the relation between having a meeting once a month and not being motivated? This to me sounds more like an excuse rather than a good enough reason.
In the third year of your Phd having one meeting a month is not too bad. Your supervisor is assuming that you know your way and at this stage you should be left to figure it out yourself rather than him spoon feeding you. Of course he will still have strong opinions and might say what you have done is not the right way. It might be that he is busy/not happy with you/thinks he has mentioned to you before how you should do it and you are not listening or that you have a problem in your relation that you don't even know of. If for instance you are just not motivated the way you described its not unnatural for your supervisor to not be so happy with you.
Next time you meet him once he rejects your idea ask him for suggestions and guidance on what to do. Ask politely and genuinely, and if he is not forth coming explain that you need help to figure it out. If he says your results are garbage ask him given his freaking awesome powers and knowledge how he would have done the work differently. He is only human and sometimes complementing somebody can go a long way. At all costs try to be more motivated and don't exhibit the behavior you described in the first part of your message. That's not going to do you any good and might be the root cause of all of this pain.
I don't see why you should drop out after investing so much time and effort. It is in the interest of both of you to sort out the situation and no PhD advisor would like to see someone dropping out after three years (at least for their selfish interests).
> 13 votes
# Answer
> I'm worried about my progress as some of my lab mates are about to graduate.
>
> I'm really thinking of dropping out if situation is not getting better.
Before you pull the nuclear trigger and drop out, I strongly suggest that you take some time to figure out when you want to graduate and *what you have to do to accomplish that goal*. Be very specific (e.g., "I will prepare the following work for conference X, which has a submission deadline of Y;" "I will be ready to propose to my committee on Z"). Once you put this on paper, you can go to your advisor and ask him to review it with you, and to make suggestions or provide other guidance. If you can't get your advisor to agree to the plan, at the very least go to another professor (possibly the ombudsman, if there is one) and talk over the plan with him/her. You need something concrete or you could linger forever.
I was lucky in that my advisor forced me to come up with a plan early on (within the first year of working with her), and we came to an agreement on what that plan was going to be. The proposal stage of your eventual PhD work is a similar agreement with your committee. I had a tacit agreement from my advisor that if I met all the goals, I'd be ready to graduate, and I worked hard to make all the deadlines I had set. That in itself was a big motivation, and it worked out.
As far as your projects go, you *must* be personally invested in getting them done. That's one of the driving factors in *every* Ph.D, and you (hopefully) have an intellectual desire to work on the project, so I suggest trying to get into the mindset that you really want to find the answer to the questions posed in the project. That's the fun part of being a scientist, after all! :)
> 10 votes
# Answer
If you are want to have this degree You have to motivate you by yourself, too. Just wait hints from supervisor is not enough. You have to work in your research idea and you can request a bit your supervisor by diplomatic way. You write to him email every week and can give to him update reports, what you doing and how is your progress. Of course, you will nee hints. But I must have some own idea about your future thesis and you better have to work on this idea. You can try write paper to conferences. Conference reviewer evaluation is always good impact to researcher. If just you want you can find way and your method how you can handle situation. Just give to your self some time. And please think, what is important for you! If PhD is important you have to move... You must work by yourself, first...
> 3 votes
# Answer
Welcome to the PhD world...
Where the advisers have little time for you and your ideas are always bad...
... Until you realize that the PhD is a learning process as well! Learning how to do research, how to be independent, how to have integrity and how to push the boundaries of science by a tiny delta...
In the course of those 3 years I am sure you have learned a lot and have become critic about what you do and what others do as well. That is the first step to understand your work was not all in vain!
Find a hint from your adviser, something he inspires you to do and something you think he is right about! (there has to be something, after-all he is still your adviser after 3 years...). Use that hint as inspiration (although you don't love the muse) and work on something you believe is good. Your adviser is not the only reviewer of your work, scientific community (those papers we submit) are also an evaluation of our work.
Get inspired from the adviser, evaluate your work through scientific community and have confidence.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: advisor
--- |
thread-616 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/616 | Is web-presence important for researchers? | 2012-03-06T19:10:22.480 | # Question
Title: Is web-presence important for researchers?
How important is web-presence to researchers? How does its importance vary by fields? (My interest is STEM, theory in particular)
I noticed that there is a pretty large variation in amount of web-presence even within a single field (I will use theoretical computer science/related math as an example). There seems to be 3 different levels of web-presence:
* \[**High**\] Very active member of various internet tools (MathOverflow, cstheory, blogs, G+, etc) usually accompanied by a clear homepage with all the \[Medium\] info.
* \[**Medium**\] A clear up-to date website that provides a clean bibliography/CV (usually with links to self-hosted pdfs), a repository of course-notes and teaching information, and list of students.
* \[**Low**\] No personal website (or extremely outdated website).
Increasing your web-presence usually requires effort. Should you invest this effort? Or are you just wasting research time?
If you enjoy being active on the internet (so it is not a cost for you, but maybe a time-sync) is there any danger to having a high web presence?
# Answer
> 77 votes
The short answer, at least in theoretical computer science, is **yes**. Especially pre-tenure.
The Coin of the Realm in academia is fame. Hiring and promotion decisions are based primarily on the perceptions of your impact by leaders in the research community. Those intellectual leaders must know who you are, they must know what you do, and they must think that what you do is excellent. This is precisely why it's so important to network, network, network — go to conferences, visit other departments, talk to visitors, ask questions, answer questions, go to lunch, drink beer, play pool/golf/frisbee/Settlers of Catan, race go-karts, exchange business cards, all that stuff. Having a visible online presence is just another form of networking.
Similarly, if you want to attract good students, they have to know who you are, they have to know what you do, and they have to think what you do is interesting.
Similarly, if your work is not freely and easily accessible on the web, it is *much* less likely to be cited than freely accessible work of comparable quality.
To give some personal examples, I have good reason to believe that these web pages were a significant factor in my academic job search and even my tenure case, and this stuff definitely helped me get promoted. I expect that these pages similarly helped Suresh, and these pages similarly helped David.
# Answer
> 23 votes
In my opinion having an up-to-date website is very important. This way people will find out about your papers and what you are working on. It can also help to attract students. It also helps when you're teaching as you can put frequently requested information there and save yourself the hassle of having to reply to hundreds of emails.
In my experience, maintaing a website is not that much effort either.
# Answer
> 16 votes
I think it also depends on the position of the researcher. For instance, a computer scientist who has a permanent research position, publishes one paper a year in a top conference, and doesn't care about the publicity does not *need* to have an important web presence.
On the other hand, a postdoc who is looking for a job knows that every time he sends his CV somewhere, one of the first reflex from the recruiter is to Google his name. So, in this case, it's quite important to have a good presence, and to have an updated webpage, in particular with papers accepted but not published yet.
About the maintenance, as mentioned the other answers, maintaining a website is not particularly demanding, especially if it's quite simple. However, maintaining a blog can be quite complicated, especially because having an non updated blog is probably worse than not having any blog at all. As for G+/SE, I guess the investment is worth the return from the community.
Concerning the danger of a high web-presence, well, obviously there is the risk that some "private" information might be connected to a public profile. For instance, I have a flickr account with pictures that, although not particularly shameful, I wouldn't like a potential employer or a student to see. Of course, my account is under a pseudonym, but that's the same pseudonym that I can use on other services (such as twitter), and maybe at some point I will refer to my twitter account from my G+ account, that maybe I will refer from my SE account, where I use my real name. But I guess that's the risk with the Internet in general: if it's out there, it has to be considered as public. There is a similar argument for opinions or ideas you could have a site such as Academia SE and that could be later on taken out of context and used against you.
# Answer
> 13 votes
An Internet presence
* facilitates collaboration (via Google),
* attracts prospective student attention (Google, Twitter), and
* informs their decision about whether to come (Web page. be sure to say where your lab alumni have gone & to give lots of hat tips to everyone who has passed through),
* informs funding agencies / grant reviewers about how well you disseminate, both scientifically and to voters / your community, how many careers you've assisted with your previous grants, etc. (Web page)
* social media lets you share the papers you think are important & to learn what your peers are reading (Twitter is especially good for this.) If you are in a small university this is like extending the size of your group.
* certainly takes time and trades off with research and scientific publication productivity.
# Answer
> 9 votes
You might find some interesting answers to this question on Brian Kelly's UK Web Focus blog — for example one recent post talks about how links on the web can enhance access to your published papers.
Another place to look is the altmetrics movement, which is developing new ways to measure the quality of a researcher's work other than just citation counts.
# Answer
> 8 votes
It's a good question Artem. Establishing a good system such that your research can be known to other researchers in your field (or even in other fields) seems to me the way to go. The main problem I see is for those of us that do not work in fields where the hiring people are themselves interested in having a web presence. Most cancer researchers do not seem to care much about having one. Few have a website for their group and many of those that do don't seem to care much about it. Twitter and blogs are almost unheard of for experimentalists. They don't use them much and don't expect you to have one. I wish I could say that the new generation is a lot more adept but that doesn't seem to be my experience with the biology grad students and postdocs I know.
# Answer
> 6 votes
The only presence that the vast majority of researchers give significant thought to is their presence in the literature. Most labs view web presence as a way to inform the community about their work, and as a way to attract new students, but that's about it. This purpose is served by a pretty simple site, which includes:
* Basic info (name, broad research interests, contact info)
* Recent research projects
* Names of lab members (graduate students, postdocs, undergraduates, technicians, etc.)
* Recent publications
For professors who teach often, having a "teaching" section is very helpful, but remember to pull down things like answer keys and test solutions after the semester is over, unless you want future students to see those things.
You can do more and it will look nice, but investing in any site more complex than that has a pretty low payoff.
# Answer
> 4 votes
The web is everywhere and if you would like to be known, you need to have a strong presence on it. Anyone who is curious about you, will "Google" you and you must have control over what comes up.
There are four key players in creating a solid web presence: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+. Each site should link back to your website and your website should link to each service. I suggest maintaining public professional accounts and private personal ones to keep your presence prisitine.
As for the website, a simple 3-4 page site will suffice or you could have one very long page with headings to separate the sections and quality content. There are many content generation tools to assist with this such as http://www.layzilla.com/ or http://www.blended-html.com
---
Tags: community, online-resource
--- |
thread-17445 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17445 | How much does it matter if my Masters is in Stats or Math (in Stats track) | 2014-02-26T14:12:01.073 | # Question
Title: How much does it matter if my Masters is in Stats or Math (in Stats track)
I have a choice of Master's programs in statistics, one of which is formally a program in applied statistics, the other is formally in math with an applied statistics "track".
The courses in the 2 programs are about the same, so I am wondering how much the label of the degree really matters (I most likely will not work in academia unless I am doing contract work).
Thank you for any insights you may have,
Matt
# Answer
> 2 votes
Well, do you want to end up applying for a job that is looking for a "Degree in Statistics (or related field)," or a job that is looking for a "Degree in Mathematics (or related field)?"
Employers don't usually ask for transcripts and don't look at your list of courses, they just look at your resume/CV, which will just have the title of your degree and perhaps your GPA (or some other summary grade if not in the US). If you look like you don't quite have the right qualifications on paper, you'll need to explain how a "mathematics" degree qualifies you for a job in statistics, or vice versa.
---
Tags: graduate-school, masters, career-path, mathematics, industry
--- |
thread-17441 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17441 | Statement of Interest for Ph.D. admissions | 2014-02-26T10:51:08.230 | # Question
Title: Statement of Interest for Ph.D. admissions
I am trying for a Ph.D. (computational biology) at IMSc, India (link). They are asking a covering letter, a statement of interest, a curriculum vitae including university grades/marks. When I searched about statement of interest, some webpages were dealing this same as thesis proposal. So I am confused.
Is statement of interest, statement of purpose and thesis proposal same?
# Answer
> 4 votes
The primary difference between a *statement of interest (or purpose)* and a *thesis proposal* is the specificity. A thesis proposal outlines a specific project to be pursued during the thesis research, and will usually be written at some point during the process. However, in many cases, this is done *after* the graduate student has been accepted and joined a particular research group, rather than before admission has been granted. When asked for at the admission stage, it's usually in cases where the assignment to a particular research advisor is done at the outset of the doctoral program.
A statement of interest, on the other hand, simply details the kinds of problems or research areas a given student would like to pursue as a graduate student. This is usually asked for in admission cases where the decision is being made at the departmental level, rather than the individual faculty member level. A student is not specifically committing to a particular project at this stage—nor does the department necessarily want such a commitment.
---
Tags: statement-of-purpose
--- |
thread-17430 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17430 | Will my age affect my chances of finding a funded PhD position? | 2014-02-26T05:32:45.077 | # Question
Title: Will my age affect my chances of finding a funded PhD position?
I just finished my masters studies. My question is, **will my age (29) affect my chances of getting a funded PhD position?** I finished Bachelor of Engineering when I was 24 (took 6 years to graduate, normally my program was 5 years). I worked as a Lab course assistant (teaching the practical part of the course at a local university) for 2 years before I started my MSc a bit late due to financial reasons. I started working in industry a year ago (for same financial reasons) in a computer science field but irrelevant to the research area. I know that most of PhD *scholarship* positions *officially* require the applicant's age to be under 35, but do not they prefer someone who is 25 rather than 34?
I have two conference publications, one in IEEE, and about to send the third for journal publication. My field is computer engineering with a focus on the software side and I am trying to apply in Europe mainly.
# Answer
> 11 votes
The short answer is: no. Quite the contrary, many universities value the experience (preferably from industry) so it is beneficial. Also, your conference papers will be the most important factors in getting the PhD position and/or funding. I'd also emphasize that you should highlight the fact that you have a journal article (preferably A or A\*) in progress.
I have not seen any such requirement which is restricting PhD or any academic degree to a specific age. In fact, doing so is illegal in most (read: all) European countries as it comes under age discrimination.
To narrow it down further, different funding bodies could impose their own restrictions per project, for instance DAAD's grant that you mentioned is "to promote and fund young artists" according to them, that is why it is restricted to a certain age group. A similar example could be feminist studies where it could be restricted to a single gender. Again, this has nothing to do with general conditions of admission.
# Answer
> 6 votes
In general, the idea of age restrictions is not to punish non-traditional educational paths, but to target "younger" professionals who are just getting started in their careers, rather than "returning" students. Thus, in some cases (including the DAAD link provided), you'll notice that there's a two-pronged requirement: either be under a certain age *or* have procured the degree within the last *X* years. This allows programs some flexibility while not excluding candidates who have made their way in a manner other than the traditional route.
---
Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, research-process, age
--- |
thread-17438 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17438 | How should I cite a tool or a library in my article? | 2014-02-26T09:23:58.337 | # Question
Title: How should I cite a tool or a library in my article?
When using an online library, tool, framework or something similar, what is the proper way to reference it in an article?
(I work in Computer Science). For example, I want to say that many popular implementations of the method presented in *\[article reference\]* use a slightly modified version of the main formula. I mention some examples for the implementation (e.g. OpenCV, VLFeat).
When thinking of a way to reference this, I have several dilemmas:
* I could *put a small explanation in a footnote* or *add it to the list of references*
* I could use the link to the *main webpage* or to *an online manual*
* do I reference it at all?
This question about how to reference Python is somewhat similar. The difference is that the tools I want to reference are fairly well known in my community (unlike Python for biologists). In short, **I am looking for a good way to acknowledge tools, frameworks or libraries *not associated to any article* in my writing**.
# Answer
A good citation has the following properties:
* Gives credit where it is due for an (idea, tool, dataset, etc.) that is not your own.
* Directs the reader of your paper where to look, if he/she wants to verify that your claims about the (idea, tool, dataset, etc.) are correct.
Any of the following can be used to cite a tool, as long as the above properties are satisfied:
* If the authors of a tool explain how they would like it to be cited, follow those recommendations.
* If there is a paper or tech report about the tool, cite that, because that is what the authors would probably want (if they didn't specify).
* If there is no paper or TR, cite the website of the tool.
Of course, in most cases, you're not the first person to cite the tool - go search Google Scholar for the name of the tool, and find out how others cited it.
> 7 votes
# Answer
I'd put emphasis on the **literature review** section of your article and/or thesis. From this perspective, there are two possible citation styles. First, instead of referencing a programming language, reference the concept that you are writing about. For instance, instead of saying
```
C++ (Stroustrup, 1986) is a programming language.
```
say
```
Stroustrup (1986) extends C to develop object-oriented programming by doing so and so.
```
In this way, you enrich your literature review and not simply accumulate references.
On the other hand, if the tool is quite novel and not used anywhere in literature yet, then cite who and where it was developed. For instance, SuperComp has developed SuperLang that you want to cite. It could look like this:
```
SuperComps (2014) develops Superlang for this and that so on and so forth.
```
The reference for it could be an online resource, book, manual, etc and will simply follow your referencing style e.g., APA, Harvard, etc.
So, you can simply cite OpenCV, VLFeat as either website, online resource, related paper, or patenting or licensing author(s).
> 1 votes
# Answer
If there where an article related to the presentation of the tool, framework or library then a proper citation should be used.
If you are looking for a good way to acknowledge tools, frameworks or libraries not associated to any article, (such as the case of Python) then you can do this in a footnote.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: publications, citations, writing, citation-style
--- |
thread-17464 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17464 | Is it possible to obtain feedback from a declined NSF postdoctoral fellowship? | 2014-02-26T22:32:29.177 | # Question
Title: Is it possible to obtain feedback from a declined NSF postdoctoral fellowship?
I applied for a NSF post doctoral fellowship in mathematics last fall...and I got rejected.
Is it possible to obtain any feedback from NSF or from the reviewers?
# Answer
> I applied for a NSF post doctoral fellowship in Math last fall...and I got rejected. Is it possible to obtain any feedback from NSF or from the reviewers?
I believe it's not possible. According to the program solicitation, "No written reviews are generated during the review process for this program, so the Fellow will not receive copies of reviews for proposals submitted to this program solicitation." This agrees with my understanding that no feedback is provided. There is definitely no feedback from the reviewers, and I believe the program officers also do not supply feedback.
> 11 votes
---
Tags: funding, postdocs, rejection, nsf, feedback
--- |
thread-17465 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17465 | Renewal of postdoctoral appointment | 2014-02-26T22:36:56.913 | # Question
Title: Renewal of postdoctoral appointment
I noticed during my application process for post-doc jobs that several say "1-2 year appointment" or "possible renewal for second year". I understand from this answer that it is in everyone's benefit to not be "stuck" in a postdoc situation for too many years for fear of starving oneself.
My question is, if not mentioned, what is the general criteria for a renewal of postdoc appointment to a second year (or perhaps to a third)? Most of the applications I have put in to labs/univs. are not clear at all on renewal criteria. Is it based on need? performance? Mutual understanding? Does anyone have examples on some of these situations?
# Answer
My feeling is that unless there are funding issues, there would be some resistance to firing a postdoc unless there were real problems: the startup cost/time for a new postdoc can be high.
Having posted ads like these myself before, I can say that one non-funding-based reason to mention a 1-2 year postdoc is to allow for a hedge in case the hired person turns out to be really bad. In that case, you have the option of doing a first-year review and dismissing the person (i.e the default bit is set to NO and some activation energy is required to make it a YES)
In the reverse case of a two-year postdoc, the default bit is now YES and significant activation energy is required to make it a NO. If not done right, this could even lead to charges of unfair dismissal and so on.
So since there's a glut of postdocs and a short supply of positions, the "buyers" have some power to shape the position to suit their needs.
> 8 votes
---
Tags: job, postdocs, evaluation-criteria
--- |
thread-16946 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16946 | Can you teach at a community college with a master's degree? | 2014-02-13T23:37:47.733 | # Question
Title: Can you teach at a community college with a master's degree?
I'm interested in teaching a class at the community college level. I'm not interested in it as a career, but rather because I like teaching people about computer science. How likely is it that I would be able to teach a evening class at a local community college with a masters degree (Computer Science).
I don't have a lot of formal experience teaching (TA/tutoring). I spent most of my time doing research in the lab, but during that time I mentored/managed/herded a number of undergrads.
Maybe being a TA would be a nice way to get my feet wet and see if it's for me. Is that possible, now that I've already graduated?
I have a regular 9-6 job that I would have to work around.
# Answer
I teach physics at a community college and have been on a number of hiring committees for full-time positions, as well as participating in a bunch of hires of part-timers. Different departments and different individuals have different priorities. Some full-timers who have a master's might actually feel threatened by a PhD applying for a part-time position. Often we get applications, for both full- and part-time positions, from people with PhD's that clearly show that the applicant has no real interest in teaching and thinks it should be easy to get a community college job as a fallback. A PhD will typically be somewhat of an advantage in applying for a part-time job, especially if the course to be taught is at a high academic level (e.g., differential equations). The bigger problem is your lack of teaching experience.
There is a lot of randomness involved, and you can maximize your chances if you're in a big urban area and apply for a lot of jobs. Sometimes a full-timer gets sick or there is some other last-minute reason to hire someone to teach a class. In these emergency situations, you basically have to be available, meet the minimum qualifications, and give a non-disastrous interview.
The fact that you want to teach in the evening is a good thing. Many full-timers don't want to teach evening classes, so often those are the hardest to find a teacher for.
I think MHH is right that this discussion is going to be more valuable if we widen it to include full-time positions. For full-time positions, the value of a PhD seems to vary greatly. At my school, for example, the math department has 3 PhD's and 27 people with masters', while the natural science division has 21 with PhD's and 11 with masters'. One department clearly considers a PhD more important than the other does. This may be partly because the math department's offerings are bottom-heavy with remedial classes. For a full-time position, there will typically be a list of minimum qualifications, which are set by law, and a list of desirable qualifications. The two biggies on the list of desirable qualifications are teaching experience and a PhD. It helps if you have both.
When we hire for a part-time position, we're hiring someone to teach a specific course. If the course is low level, then we don't care as much about whether the candidate has a PhD. When we hire a full-timer, theoretically we want someone who can teach every course their department offers, but realistically we usually have something more specific in mind. When someone with a master's is hired full-time, usually that person ends up getting slotted into teaching gen ed courses, remedial courses, or other low-level courses for the rest of their career. Many people are very happy in such a slot, e.g., I hear that many folks in math see teaching remedial math as their ideal job, and they have no interest at all in teaching calculus.
> 18 votes
# Answer
My parents met in English graduate school. They became more enamored of each other than their program, so they each got out with Master's degrees and taught community college (full time, at the "associate professor" level) for many years. This was a little while ago, though; my father passed away in 2000 and my mother has been retired for about ten years.
In my parents' day, some of their colleagues had PhDs, and my understanding is that the main reason that they never had the academic rank of "full professor" was the lack of a PhD. (Nevertheless salaries were decent, based in part on a strong teachers' union, in which my father played a key role way back when.) Degree inflation in academia is an ongoing process, and I would expect that a higher percentage of community college faculty have PhDs than before. Also the precise meaning of the term "community college" varies quite a lot from one region of the United States to another. I now live in Georgia and eventually noticed that almost nothing is called "community college" around here, but some PhD graduates from my department (mathematics, UGA) go into to teach in what I think are, more or less, what would in other regions be called "community college".
I think the fact that your goal is to teach some courses rather than have a permanent job / get benefits / get a competitive salary makes your goal much more reasonable. Most community colleges have a substantial percentage of "adjuncts"; in my understanding it is quite rare for these people to have PhDs. Wanting to teach courses at night should also make you desirable -- more in some areas than others, but overall it is a definite positive. Also, I would have to think that just about any academic institution in the country teaches courses on computers at this point, so that's a good choice too (the number of people who know something about computers is also quite large, but having a master's degree should get you in the door).
Maybe you know this already, but many courses at the community college level are at the level of a high school course: e.g. many community colleges offer no mathematics course more advanced than "business calculus". (This of course does not mean that such classes cannot have significant intellectual content or that you won't sometimes get very good students: they can and you will. As Richard Feynman liked to say, "We are not that much smarter than each other.") You should check to make sure that what they mean by "computer science classes" is compatible with the courses that the institution(s) is offering: as above, this will probably vary significantly from one place to another.
But overall, what you suggest sounds very possible, sounds like it could be fun, and sounds like you will be rendering a real service to people. I hope it works out for you: good luck.
> 11 votes
# Answer
My mother teaches English at a community college. I know her TA graduated from a different university. Her TA is also my best friend from kindergarten and after said TA's parents died, my mother has been very involved in her TA's life. So I know that it is possible to TA after you've graduated, but it would help to have some connection to the college. However, there might be more of a demand for TAs in CS than in my mother's field.
One way to "get your foot in" might be to take classes at the college. My mom had applied for jobs at this college for years, but it was only after she took a few classes that she got her job. Her classes were in other departments, but when her professors found out she was interested in working there, they introduced her to people in the English department. Suddenly she wasn't "random applicant", but rather "that person my friend introduced me to and I had that nice conversation with".
> 5 votes
---
Tags: masters, teaching, teaching-assistant, credentials
--- |
thread-17409 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17409 | When should you stop asking your PhD advisor to do advisor like things? | 2014-02-25T20:21:43.497 | # Question
Title: When should you stop asking your PhD advisor to do advisor like things?
After you have finished a PhD when does it become inappropriate to ask your advisor for advice, read over a manuscript, or do any other "advisor things"? Presumably if every student an advisor ever had continued to act as if the former advisor was still his/her advisor, the professor wouldn't get anything else done. Basically how should one interact with the former advisor once the PhD is finished?
# Answer
> 39 votes
My advisor, at two different points in my academic career, said:
1. "I am your advisor for life. You can always count on me."
2. "I think it's time for my old students to start finding new people to comment on their work."
I took away from this that your advisor should always be available at some level, it's part of the point of taking on students. You are part of their scientific (or otherwise scholarly) contribution. At the same time, post-PhD you have to develop your own network of support, which is part of your growth as a scholar.
But how do you know when to do this? I think the best answer is simply to ask your advisor (see, they're always there to answer the hard questions). Hopefully they'll give you an honest opinion - either to keep asking them for help or that they think you're ready to fly on your own. Either, if you don't feel confident that you have enough peers to count on, it's probably a sign that you both can still ask your advisor for help *and* that it's time to put some more energy into expanding your professional network.
# Answer
> 17 votes
All the answers here are very good. I'd just like to add one extra point.
There are often two kinds of advice one looks for in one's career:
* What should **someone** do in this situation ?
* what should **I** do in this situation ?
The first class of questions are things that often get asked on this forum, and are relatively easy for someone more experienced whose advice you respect to answer. And in fact it's useful to cultivate a few such people whose opinions you respect. When you're a student, most of your questions are of this kind.
The second class of questions are much harder: they're not really about the situation but about you. So the person answering has to know both the situation and understand some things about you. Sometimes (and not always) an advisor can provide that dual insight since they are both experienced, as well as experienced in understanding you. Again, this is not true for many advisors, but it can be true.
Of course, the best person to answer the second type of question is yourself :), but sometimes the perspective from outside helps.
What typically happens is that as you "leave the nest", you stop asking your advisor for answers to questions of the first kind, and you might occasionally still ask them for advice on the second kind of question. There are no hard and fast rules here.
# Answer
> 12 votes
Honestly, I'm not sure if it ever becomes "inappropriate" to have your advisor continue to give you advice, to read manuscripts, or even to help write them (as long as that person gets authorship credits), unless of course, your advisor says, "No".
Many universities however evaluate a tenure-track faculty member based on his or her ability to do independent research, which means that if your entire CV is filled with publications co-authored with your advisor, they will not consider you as doing independent research.
# Answer
> 12 votes
After the Ph.D. the advice should get more career-y, and less student-y. So less, "hey will you look at this paper for me" and more "i've got this really great paper, but i'm not sure whether to publish it in a Journal X, or just expand it into a book?" Or, "man I hate my first job, but i'm getting close to tenure, do I need to go on the market again and try to move up before I get stuck?" stuff like that.
# Answer
> 10 votes
A few years after finishing my PhD I emailed my advisors (I had two) asking for advice about something. I prefaced the email with something like, "How long after finishing a degree is one entitled to ask one's advisors for advice?" One of them responded, "When they start asking you for advice, you might want to reconsider."
# Answer
> 1 votes
Note that something industry has been trying to do is encourage more employees to seek out mentors and/or become mentors -- either in working effectively with the company, or in specific skills (which may result in the new kid teaching the oldtimers).
Try not to waste their time with trivia you could teach yourself, and have the grace to be embarassed if you have to ask for advice on something you really should already know... and accept that sometimes the right answer is going to be "go read X and come back to me if you have specific questions" -- but if someone has the answer you need, there's nothing wrong with asking them how to approach the problem.
---
Tags: phd, advisor, mentoring
--- |
thread-17478 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17478 | Is it OK to hire another lab's student? | 2014-02-27T06:08:34.163 | # Question
Title: Is it OK to hire another lab's student?
An undergrad who's worked with me for just over a year (for course credit or for pay, depending on his preference in any given semester) presented a poster on his work with me at an event hosted by my lab. Afterwards, the student told me that he spoke to Professor B at the poster session, and Professor B suggested a project that he'd like the student to work on with him.
He had a meeting with Professor B to talk about the specifics, after which Professor B emailed me and asked whether I would recommend the student. I indicated in my response that the student is very capable and I would rather **not** lose him, to which Professor B responded, "He's planning on working with me for course credit next semester."
**Was Professor B's behavior in this case OK**?
More generally,
**Under what conditions is it OK to hire another lab's student?**
By "OK," I mean "not considered inappropriate behavior by the professor."
Hiring another lab's student is of course a continuum:
* On the one hand: Student from Professor A's lab appears in Professor B's office, says "I've heard about your research and would really like to work with you." Professor B says, "Sure, I'd like that a lot."
* On the other hand: Professor B attends event (open house, workshop, etc.) hosted by Professor A, where Professor A's student gives a talk about his ongoing research with Professor A. Professor B chats with the student after the talk, then says "You should work with me next semester."
Is either or both of these considered OK/not OK?
Does the type of student (PhD, MS, undergrad, high school student doing summer research) make a difference to your answer?
Do the terms of the student's position in either lab (earning course credit, getting paid, just getting supervision) make a difference?
Does it matter how long the student has been working with Professor A?
Should Professor B ask how Professor A feels about it before offering Professor A's student a job?
---
This is not an active, ongoing situation - I am not looking for advice on how to respond to Professor B, or whether I should say something to the student. (The student chose to continue his work with my lab and not to work with Professor B.) I just want to know whether Professor B's behavior was appropriate.
# Answer
Consider the following scenario:
> I've been working with a professor for a year now, and at one of his events, I presented a poster. Another professor came up to me and started talking, and it turned out that this professor had a very interesting project related to my interests. I'm applying to grad schools in a year, and if I can get two recommendations from faculty it will really help my application. Should I work with this professor or not ?
Students have agency too. There's a lot of context and background missing in your description that Koldito alludes to. But in general students should be free to make their own decisions about their research activities and honor existing commitments that they've agreed to.
Personally, if I were Professor B, I might suggest that the student talk to you first before deciding, but it's also possible that B did that, and the student indicated that no continuing commitment existed. If I were advising the student, I'd also suggest they clear things up with you first. I might also suggest that depending on the level of interest in the project they have with you, they give you the right of first refusal.
But this exact situation has happened to me with students (twice). They worked with me for a while, and then found a topic that made more sense to them with another professor. I wished I could have convinced them to stay, but they did well with their advisors and I was on both their committees, with no hard feelings at all.
> 22 votes
# Answer
In this particular case, there are two factors to consider.
1. Prior to Prof. B's offer, had Student expressed an interest (or committed) to remain in your lab next semester?
2. Prior to Prof. B's offer, had you (or anybody in your team) already invested time and effort in the specific research that Student would be doing?
If the answer to both of these questions is "no", then Prof. B is totally entitled to try and get Student into his team. We'd be talking about a student whose connection to your lab finishes, as far as anybody is concerned, at the end of this semester. So why shouldn't other people try to hire him? On the other hand, if you had already prepared this semester with this student in mind, and/or he had already committed to staying with you, things are different. Prof. B would effectively be disrupting part of your lab's work, and you should let him know that he would be. You should also tell Student that it is not good behavior to suddenly abandon a project after committing to it. If he really wants to leave you under these circumstances, it should be because Prof. B can offer him something you can't (for example, if my brightest MSc student told me "I have been accepted to this super prestigious PhD program, under the supervision of Prof. Superstar, so I'm leaving at the end of the semester", I'd be annoyed, but I'd let him go for his own benefit).
> 3 votes
---
Tags: professorship, ethics, etiquette, job-search
--- |
thread-17479 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17479 | When should ideas be shared on stackexchange? | 2014-02-27T03:23:13.267 | # Question
Title: When should ideas be shared on stackexchange?
I get exciting ideas about math a lot, and I was wondering if it is a bad idea to share them in question form to vet them, expand them, or show their lack of novelty. I know free exchange of ideas is good, but is it wise to exchange so broadly so early? If someone uses my idea from SE I know they are supposed to cite me, but could they take the career credit despite my having "The Idea"? Would I be a coauthor to the first paper from the idea?
# Answer
> 1 votes
There are several points that you should consider in this respect:
1. Most of the time our novel ideas are not as great as we think and there might be simple answers or counterexamples for what we have in mind. So it is better to think about a question in mathematics for a while and study some of the related literature, before sharing it with others. This has happened to me a lot, just see some of my questions in mathoverflow!
2. If you have an idea but you do not know how to tackle it, it is a sign that your idea is so raw and you don't own it yet. I experienced several times that a great idea is the one that comes with a clue for solution and extension. Otherwise, it is at most a spark in a well functioning brain of a hard working mathematician. I am being kind to mathematicians:-))
3. If your idea looks so great that can solve some big problems or answer some famous conjecture and you know how to pursue it, why do you want to share it? **Just do it!** And I believe such an idea deserves several years of works.
4. I suggest you ask related questions around your idea without giving a whole picture and what is your ultimate purpose. In this way not only you did not reveal it with every body, but you can also gather lots of valuable insights and knowledge to think about your main idea.
5. Read related questions and answers on mathoverflow or mathstackexchange. A great deal of wisdom are contained in these questions and answers and sometimes you get a clue about your idea.
6. Most mathematicians have bigger fish to fry. So, I do not worry to share some of my ideas with them, However, I do not think mathoverflow or mathstackexchange are good places for such interactions. Talking with mathematicians in conferences and/or even sending them emails look better procedures.
---
Tags: intellectual-property, public-domain
--- |
thread-17443 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17443 | What is the purpose of career objective in an Ph.D. admission form? | 2014-02-26T11:44:34.127 | # Question
Title: What is the purpose of career objective in an Ph.D. admission form?
I have a very basic doubt. What is the purpose of *career objective* in a Ph.D. admission form especially when the applicants are from a wide variety of a subject backgrounds? For example take the case of a PhD admissions in computational biology where students from even electronics background are allowed to apply. The prior knowledge from masters is not going to help them much.
# Answer
> 2 votes
There is no single answer for this question and must be determined on a case by case basis. I will rule out the career objective section of your CV since it's a matter of personal preference. Assuming you're asking about a section in an official application form, there are number of ways to address. In most cases, the career objective will indicate how your future research and/or potential research project relates to your long term career goals. It becomes significant when the application is for a funded PhD and/or the research project is related to industry. Most universities are interested in the publication of research in top journals, so you can address this issue by demonstrating the potential of your proposed research. In this way, you also implicitly address the question of becoming a future academic. Finally, if you are coming from industry to academia, then you can mention your transition from organizations to academia. The last point is somewhat trivial unless the proposed research is in industry as well.
---
Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, cv, career-path
--- |
thread-13355 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/13355 | What do you wish you knew as a student before you became a researcher? | 2013-10-11T21:17:18.967 | # Question
Title: What do you wish you knew as a student before you became a researcher?
There are a number of lessons I learnt as an undergraduate which I wish somebody had told me much earlier.
Although each of you learnt different lessons with different notions of which way is the right, please share your findings and wisdom so that an eager reader would contemplate over your advice and would not regret avoiding later in life.
# Answer
Research can be great, but I learned it can be so hard.
First, Google "should I do a phd" and then "should I do a PhD in ". There are tons of people who succeeded and failed in academia and writing about it, about what's it going to be in Academia, and so on. Two examples:
Beyond that, here's a few things I've learned:
* Being a researcher is a career job, not so unlike being a lawyer, a manager.
+ After all, a paper has to change the scientific knowledge on the topic. You're going to teach respected scientists something they didn't know and something they thought was wrong.
+ I hear that in life sciences, the career aspect can extend to people sabotaging fellow researchers (that is, competitors).
* Being more intelligent does not (necessarily) mean being a better researcher. If you're admitted to a decent program, you're more than smart enough for research. Managing your work (in all senses) can be more important, even though supervisors can help you with (part of) this in the beginning. But it's also about discipline and character:
+ Choosing a good question to work on (supervisors can help) - the question should matter (or you should make it matter, if you can).
+ Keeping an overview of what you're doing is important: otherwise, you might find an excellent solution to a problem which in the end is the wrong one.
+ Working enough on it (keeping focus among distractions of grad school can be hard).
+ How do you choose which way to approach a problem? Some approaches might not ever work, but others will only work if you keep at them long enough. So you need to be tenacious, and be able to change mind, depending on the moment. You need to delude yourself that you'll succeed until you do.
* A good supervisor is extremely important. Nowadays it's extremely hard to start doing research "by yourself". On the one hand, there's too much written knowledge to navigate (literature). On the other hand, there are often unspoken assumptions which you won't learn from reviewers. It helps if he's available enough for you.
* A supervisor must also fit you, character-wise. You mustn't be friends, but you need to function together, and neither you nor your supervisor study how to occupy your position.
* Communication is extremely important. You're supposed to learn something and then tell your peers (and the world). And nowadays, if your peers don't get it, it's your problem (because your paper gets rejected). Hence, learning technical writing was very important for me.
Of course this is what *I* learned, which is influenced by my weak points, my experience and my field — I'm saying this because I'm sure somebody will disagree. I'm a programming language researcher, so I invent and design stuff (programming language). And evaluating design is hard. So much that many ideas are not right or wrong per se - you can make it right or wrong by determined work (see also this). But other disciplines probably experience similar phenomena in different form.
> 24 votes
# Answer
I've seen a lot of people have a bad time until they realized this:
* your supervisor/adviser is somebody you should work with, who can guide and direct your research, but after not so much time, **you, not the supervisor, become the expert in your topic**.
Supervisor is the *more experienced researcher*, and his expertise should definitely be taken into account. But, after months of research into the topic, you start knowing more about your specific problem than anybody else, and should *not* expect the supervisor to be a *fail-safe book of infallible answers*.
Another very important one that I'm happy was told to me:
* you **can't do research as a *side*-activity**. In order to do it well, and to be happy... um... in your life, you have to love research in order to do research.
There might be jobs that are not your dream jobs, but are worth having because of other personal benefits (e.g. proximity to where you live, good salary, etc.) which you can do full time and have a happy and full life beside them, even if you're not working your dreams. Research is just too demanding and too exhausting to do if it is not *the thing* you want to do.
> 22 votes
# Answer
Two key pieces of advice:
* **Learn to discern.** You will encounter a lot of new information as a graduate student. Some of it will be absolutely illuminating; much of it will be of at most tangential benefit. Other papers and ideas won't be worth the paper they're printed on (or the bits of hard drive space they take up). One of your biggest challenges will be to figure out what's worth knowing, and what isn't. This will take skill, practice, and guidance.
* **Learn how to learn.** As a researcher, the odds that you will be doing the same thing throughout your career are asymptotically small. Your PhD should not be just about picking up skills for solving a particular problem. Ultimately, it should be about learning *how to become an expert in a field you haven't seen before.*
> 17 votes
# Answer
Networking is crucial (it's not only a game of skill and hard work).
It works in two ways:
* most opportunities (positions, workshops, fellowships) spread organically,
* for everything you need to provide 2-3 recommendation letters; if you don't know professors who are well-known and respected in the place where you apply to, it may strongly affect your chances.
> 7 votes
# Answer
1. Don't fly solo. Having initiative, coming up with your own ideas and avenues of research is great, but find someone to take responsibility for you and your success - especially when it concerns funding and advocating for you in the department. Being a ronin grad student involves semi-recurring desperate searches for funding.
2. Don't get too distracted by side projects - they're sometimes quite useful, but it's easy to get bogged down in new shiny things, and a collection of unrelated musings does not a dissertation make. Similarly, don't be afraid of presenting the same thing twice - continually submitting unrelated, novel projects just leaves a bunch of half-done things gathering dust.
> 2 votes
# Answer
This and related issues were also intensively discussed on ResearchGate, see e.g.
http://www.researchgate.net/post/What\_do\_you\_wish\_you\_had\_known\_about\_the\_process\_of\_doing\_research\_that\_you\_did\_not\_know\_before\_you\_started\_it
http://www.researchgate.net/post/What\_things\_should\_supervisors\_tell\_their\_research\_students
> -1 votes
---
Tags: research-process, academic-life
--- |
thread-17470 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17470 | What is the general protocol to name something after somebody (some people)? | 2014-02-27T02:21:55.567 | # Question
Title: What is the general protocol to name something after somebody (some people)?
In mathematics (and other sciences) there are thousands of concepts, theorems, lemmas, etc which are named after some mathematicians (scientists). However, this nominations are not always very straightforward, especially if we are going to assign a new name for new concepts. For example, I can imagine the following scenarios and I would like to know what general protocol we should apply in each case:
1. A concept may have several origins in different fields and due to several individuals.
2. A concept is built on another concept which already have a name and this can happen several times. For example "Hecke pairs" is a concept in mathematics, then Bost and Connes make a particular Hecke pair famous, so we have "the Bost-Connes Hecke pairs". Should we name all influential people in each stage of advancement of a concept?
3. If an author invents a concept, is it appropriate to name it after him/herself, or he/she should wait others call it after his/her name?
4. A concept was invented by some author "X" in long time ago, and then it has evolved to something very modern and somehow different. Should we still call it by the name "X"?
Please do not hesitate to add new items if you can imagine other scenarios too.
Finally, I would like to ask another related question:
Can we use acronyms in stead of the full names, especially if the names of several people are involved?
# Answer
Good questions. I will only tackle the last two:
3) In mathematics, it is (virtually?) universally bad form to name something after yourself. This is high on the list of things that amateurs/newbies do that make the professionals/veterans roll their eyes.
Some people have joked that the best strategy to get something named after yourself is to give your nice new concept such a terrible name (or lack of a name) that the rest of the community converges on naming it after you.
Even after something has been named after you, it is not necessarily completely kosher to speak your own name when referring to the concept. Rob Kirby famously speaks of "the calculus of framed links" (or, I think ironically, "the calculus") where others speak of "the Kirby calculus". At one point Armand Borel writes of "the subgroup whose name I have the honor to bear".
It gets a bit ridiculous: when you give a talk and state one of your own theorems, it is most common to write out the names of your coauthors and not write out your own name. In my student days I saw a lot of first letter then dashes. Nowadays I mostly see the name dashed out entirely. Come to think of it, this reminds me of the Jewish practice of leaving letters out of the name "Jehovah", although the theological implications of treating *your own name this way* are much more profound.
4) I don't know whether we "should", but we often do. In general, it seems to me that mathematics has gotten used to naming things after certain people, and we often name things after people who would never have understood the things that are named after them. The example **Hilbert space** (coined by von Neumann in its present generality) is a famous one. The example **Euler system** has always struck me as being especially ridiculous (I asked my advisor about this, and he told me that the name comes from Euler products: that's quite a stretch).
Some people in mathematics are somehow especially good at getting things named after them. In my field, perhaps the outstanding example is John Tate: he has curves, algebras, half of the Shafarevich-Tate group, half of Hodge-Tate weights, half of Lubin-Tate formal groups, a pairing...As a graduate student, I was struck by the fact that I was giving a talk on Galois cohomology of products of Tate curves, analyzed via Tate local duality. The title of the talk, "Tate-Tate-Tate Stuff" was a riff on the title of the previous speaker's talk ("Hodge-Tate Stuff") and this Tate-ish ubiquity. When Tate showed up for the talk, I got very nervous...but he was cool with it.
Needless to say, John Tate is a true luminary. The fact that so many things bear his name is only possible because of the immense amount of fundamental work that he did. But the converse does not hold: e.g. Barry Mazur is a mathematician with a similar impact on the field, but he has...what? A manifold and a swindle? (Both of these come from his work in topology at the beginning of his career.) Instead we have the **Eisenstein ideal**. These things are strange.
> 16 votes
# Answer
In order to disabuse you of the idea that there's a reliable system to name things after people, I present to you: Stigler's law of eponymy.
And if that's not enough, you'll occasionally have item A invented by author X but named after Y, and item B invented by author Y and named after X.
My usual joke about this is that something is usually named after the last person to invent it, because they're the one to popularize it enough that no one else can reinvent it.
> 14 votes
# Answer
The following has been my impression as a biologist:
> What is the general protocol to name something after somebody (some people)?
There is none. For certain things, such as names of genes or species, there is a protocol for submitting a name to the relevant databases, which is a right reserved for authors of the publication. This name can be anything you want, although certain standards are encouraged.
People often name species after their own name. For plasmids, the convention is to acronymize the name(s) of people who created the plasmid and make it the name. For genes, this would be considered tacky (the fashion seems to be to naming them after "clever" puns instead) but I'm sure you could get it to happen with enough perseverance. But there is nothing special about it being *your name*, because the name of the thing is arbitrary. You are allowed to give it any sort of name, your own name is just one of the (less interesting) options.
> A concept may have several origins in different fields and due to several individuals.
>
> A concept is built on another concept which already have a name and this can happen several times.
Concepts are not formally named after people. When originally published, the authors may or may not invent a term for the concept they discovered, to facilitate its discussion. It gets named after them, when the research turns out to be so seminal that everyone cites and recites it, and the authors begin using "the Smith protocol" as shorthand for "protocol described in a recent high-profile publication by Smith and colleagues (Smith et al. Nature 2012)". If it yet persists the test of time further, it may become a de facto tradition to call this the "Smith protocol", especially once textbook authors start electing to use "Smith protocol" as the canonical name in their own texts.
> If an author invents a concept, is it appropriate to name it after him/herself, or he/she should wait others call it after his/her name?
The exception I name earlier notwithstanding, absolutely not. A scientist would get laughed out of the room if he tried to present something he blatantly named after himself (some subtle reference to his name, like an anagram of his first name, might be begrudgingly accepted), unless he was perhaps a famous Nobel laureate.
If he was a famous Nobel laureate, people would still laugh, they would just wait for him to leave the room first.
> A concept was invented by some author "X" in long time ago, and then it has evolved to something very modern and somehow different. Should we still call it by the name "X"?
Since I assert the naming of concepts happens not through formal procedure, but as a consequence of frequent references to the original publication, then an improved "Smith protocol" may be named the "Doe-Smith protocol" or "Doe protocol (based on the Smith protocol)" or even just "Doe protocol" if Doe manages to publish a paper which provides a useful reference for the improved version, and the improvements are substantial enough that people feel the need to cite and refer to Doe's paper at least as much as Smith's paper.
If you were trying to get something named after you, the realistic strategies in biology are:
1. Discover and name a new species, plasmid, gene, etc. And hope the nomenclature committee doesn't think you're being too arrogant.
2. Describe a new experimental or mathematical/computational method, and fail to give it a nice name yourself.
3. Write a definitive reference which synthesizes several existing ad-hoc variants of a concept into one unified theory, and fail to give it a nice name yourself.
For 1, formal procedures exist and are detailed by the agency you submit your name proposal to. For 2 and 3, you basically write the paper, and wait for everyone and their brother to start citing your landmark publication - hopefully they will talk about your research so much that the name you used will prove too cumbersome.
Some examples:
* The famous Southern blot is described as only "a method of transferring fragments of DNA from agarose gels to cellulose nitrate filters" in Southern, 1975. Although extensions of this method, like the Western, were important discoveries, their popularizers got a bit less glory since it turned out that geographical puns were more fun.
* Eagle's minimal essential medium is described as "a fluid medium" in Eagle, 1955.
* Okazaki fragments were not referred to as such in Sakabe, Okazaki, 1966.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: writing, science, reputation
--- |
thread-17497 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17497 | Recommended rejection of a paper, but invited to review the paper again | 2014-02-27T17:30:18.400 | # Question
Title: Recommended rejection of a paper, but invited to review the paper again
I was recently asked to review a paper, and ended up recommending a rejection of the paper. The journal has, apparently, asked the authors to revise their paper, and the journal has come back to me asking me to review the revised paper. There is, however, no option offered for me to decline. I will likely recommend rejection again as I see that the main problem with the paper is still not addressed. What should I do in this case? Should I write to the journal that I am not willing to review this paper again, or should I go ahead with the review and recommend rejection for the second time? Since I need to provide my comments to the authors again, what should I write while still being constructive? This was my first time recommending a rejection.
# Answer
This has happened to me a couple times. As Peter Jansson has pointed out, what probably happened is that, while you recommended rejection, reviewers 2 and 3 said "it's actually publishable if the authors solve such-and-such problems". This is the kind of situation where a sympathetic editor will make a "revise and resubmit" decision.
In this particular case, you have it easy. Just write a very short review along the lines of "in my first review, I recommended rejection of this article because of \[problem that made you recommend rejection\]. As the authors have not addressed this problem, I'm regrettably forced to maintain my previous evaluation".
\[FWIW, one of the times I reviewed a paper like this, the journal actually ended up publishing the paper in question, with the problematic section still exactly as it was when I reviewed and rejected it. Go figure\]
> 24 votes
# Answer
That the paper was not rejected probably depends on the second (or more) reviewers comments. I would consider it normal to ask if reviewers wish to review the paper again. That you were still asked may be a mistake, most electronic systems would require you to make a decision on that point. There may also be a flaw since a rejected paper would not need a second review and the paper was not rejected based on your suggestion. One can only speculate. I would consider it only fair to write to the editors and state that you are not interested in re-reviewing the manuscript. You could state that your impression is that a similar result would be likely were you to do the job. But, honestly, why you decline the review is no-ones business and you should have been asked before being faced with the task.
> 8 votes
---
Tags: publications, peer-review, editors
--- |
thread-17455 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17455 | How and why did the top journals become top journals? | 2014-02-26T18:34:07.063 | # Question
Title: How and why did the top journals become top journals?
Journals like *Nature* and *Science* have impressive impact factors. How and why did these top journals become top journals? Why are they able to sustain their statuses?
# Answer
All journals that have a high standing have the standing because of the support of the community. If the community loses interest, the journal will drop in the ranking. The top journals have therefore attracted authors for one reason or another. The editorial staff of journals try to maintain this status by making sure the work published there is of good quality and will be cited. It is thus not impossible for new journals to attain high status as long as authors provide the necessary papers. To this mix, we now also add the impact factor and other bibliometric factors. They matter now but have not been the driving factor for making the older journal what they are today.
I work with a more modest journal and I can definitely state that improving your impact factor is far more difficult than to drop in ranking. But, if your ranking becomes high enough (no specific number will be relevant since it varies between fields) a journal will be self-fuelling since many want to publish their material there and competition stiffens leading to a strong selection.
So the standing of Science and Nature, is part their long history, in part the hard work by the journal itself and in part the, now, need for authors to publish in as high ranking journals as possible since that is what forms the basis for most evaluations in academia.
> 29 votes
# Answer
I think this is analogous to "why is Harvard a good university, and able to maintain its standing as such?" A partial answer is that (1) it was founded a long time ago, and (2) it was founded by serious people. Given that, further serious people will tend to gravitate to the same institution, creating an inertia in the rankings.
A quote from *The Crucible* (set in the year 1692):
> I am not some preaching farmer with a book under my arm; I am a graduate of Harvard College.
> 21 votes
# Answer
Suppose you start with a collection of journals and people who want to publish quality papers in them, who arrive over time. Suppose that each new quality paper is sent to a journal which is chosen at random, but where the probability of choosing journal X is an increasing function of the number of quality papers which have already appeared in X. Then you are dealing with a preferential attachment process and you will find that after a long time, most of the quality papers will be appearing in a few top journals and there will be lots and lots of mediocre journals with very few quality papers.
Naturally it's a very simplified model, but the same argument can be used for the sizes of cities, views of Youtube videos, distribution of wealth, etc. See Chapter 18 of Easley and Kleinberg's textbook for more.
> 17 votes
# Answer
One related comment-
There are some comments here that are equating high-impact factor with high prestige. I think this generally holds true, especially for people working firmly within the boundaries of a single discipline. For these people, of course, reputable journals are going to be more widely read and thus cited more frequently, and have higher impact-factors.
For people whose work are more inter-disciplinary, the relationship between prestige and impact factor are not so straightforward, because the size of the disciplinary audience can be very different.
For example, my work is interdisciplinary and lies at the boundaries of sociology, economic geography, management/organizations, and Asian studies. Journals in each these fields have different audiences, number of scholars, and thus, different impact factors. For example, Asian studies have a number of high quality high prestige journals that publish excellent papers, but because the size of the core audience, even the top journals hardly have impact factors that exceed 1. For management, however, because the field is very large, even journals that publish not-so-rigorous studies tend to have high-impact factors, easier exceeding top journals in social science/humanities. There are a number of journals that have impact factors over 5 or 6, and even mid-range journals have impact-factors around 3. Sociology and geography lie somewhere in-between.
It might be a natural tendency for people to try to publish in journals with high-impact factors. However, I would say, at least in my field, there is definitely higher prestige that will be attached to work in, say, top tier Asian studies journals (say, impact factor of 0.5-0.6) or a top- sociology journal (impact factor around 2-3) than a mid-tier management journal (impact factor of 3-4).
> 4 votes
# Answer
Journals gain their status mainly by being the first to offer publications in a new field and secondly by recruiting influential people in the field as editors.
Once a journal has a high impact factor people will want to publish there because authors themselves are judged on the impact factors of the journals they publish in. This means the editors can set a higher standard for acceptance. Since the impact factor is based on citation rates it then increases further. Most academic journals publish only papers and have very little editorial content, so this positive feedback mechanism is the main thing that maintains their top ranking. The mechanism operated even before impact factors were formally measured because people still knew roughly what the impact and standing of a journal was.
It is very hard for a new journal to get a good reputation because it takes two years for them to even be given an impact factor and this will remain low because they will fail to attract the best papers initially. A new journal needs to offer something different to succeed. They may specialize in a new field that does not already have a top journal, or they may offer open access for low charges in order to get going, but the established journals are always very hard to dispose.
The other factor that keeps a journal in the top ranking is its editorial board, but this is not because the editorial job requires their skills and knowledge. What the journal needs is a good supply of peers willing to review articles well and it is not easy to persuade academics to dedicate their valuable time to this chore when they don't get paid for it. The main reason they do agree to review articles is to impress the editors because the editors are influential people in the field who may help them get their next job.
Editors themselves take on the role because of the prestige of being an editor for a top journal and because they get an opportunity to identify reviewers who understand the field so that they can recruit them. This establishes another positive feedback that helps maintain the journals top spot. One of the few things that can destabilize a top journals position is the resignation of its most influential editors.
Whether this amounts to a good system for academia is very much open to debate. Most top journals are in the hands of big commercial publishers who understand how the system works and who have cleverly developed and promoted the journal impact system to their advantage. They make huge profits taking money from scarce scientific funds when most of the hard work in publishing is done by unpaid authors, reviewers and editors. Efforts by academics to change this usually fail because they don't understand how the system works, or because they dont have the time or funding to realize their ambitions. Another reason seems to be that governments and funding agencies like the big profitable corporate publishers so they tailor legislation to suit the publishers rather than the academics. Also the academic societies (APS, AMS etc.) who supposedly oversee the interests of the fields are themselves funded mostly through their journals so they have a massive self interest in perpetuating the system.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Stringent review standards, leading to highly integritous articles, could account, in part, for what has led these journals to become 'top' journals.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: journals, bibliometrics, impact-factor
--- |
thread-17504 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17504 | Efficient process for writing a STEM journal article | 2014-02-27T18:57:21.443 | # Question
Title: Efficient process for writing a STEM journal article
**Background:** I have done quite a lot of research work for a particular project. I am working in the field of operations research (i.e. applied math/physics), so this work primarily takes the form of propositions, proofs and numerical experiments. In the process of my research, each day I write up my daily progress in my lab notebook, which in my case takes the form of a very very long LaTeX file. I am now trying to write up my work as an article for submission to a journal.
**Question:** What is an efficient process which I can use to write the journal article?
**Related links:**
* The Mumford method sounds interesting. However, as Mumford is a philosopher, his writing process seems to me to be less relevant to writing in the sciences.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I think the process of writing papers is pretty individual to each researcher. What works for me may not work for you. That being said, the following are a few rules that I usually give me mentees and students when we start writing a paper together:
* As "Not Quite An Outsider" states, do start with an outline. Look through related work for papers with a similar scope / methodology / idea and start by imitating their outline. However, do not do so blindly. Instead, focus on **understanding** why the authors of your related work chose to structure their paper the way they did, and check whether their (assumed) reasoning is also useful for your paper.
* Keep in mind that your paper needs a "story" - you know your material and reasoning, your readers do not. Start at the beginning, and end with the conclusions. Avoid statements that are not understandable at the point in the paper where they appear (rule of thumb: when you feel writing something along the lines of "as will be explained later on", you likely have a bug in your structure).
* Plan the length of your paper. Fill each section with some Lorem Ipsum filler text of roughly the same length as you plan for this section. This allows you to see how much space you actually have for each part of your paper. During writing, when I start a new section I remove the filler text and replace it with what I actually plan to say at this point. I sometimes even go as far as drafting where in the paper I will have which figures, and put placeholder figures there instead when doing the outline.
* Write the paper **in order** (i.e., in the same order as it will appear in the final paper). This is a bit controversial - I have seen many experienced paper writers suggest various other orders ("Start with Related Work" - "Start with Conclusions" - etc.). To me, the problem with writing in a different sequence is that it is very easy to lose track of what a reader actually knows at this point in the paper (hence destroying the story of your paper). For instance, you would end up using concepts and ideas that you actually only discuss at a later point. This makes papers unnecessary difficult to understand. I feel it is also much easier to produce a convincing line of argumentation when you produce the material in the same order as it will be read.
* In any way, later rearrangements will be necessary. After reading the paper, you decide that you need to switch some subsections around, or that you do not need Section 3 at all. Stay flexible and don't be too much in love with your current outline just because it is how you initially wanted to do it. One additional sidenote in this is that you write your paper in LaTeX. This makes later changes in the outline trivial.
* Write the text the way you suppose it should appear in the paper. Do not draft too much - there is no point writing throwaway text unless you really do not know how to write this section / part properly at this point. Only go on to the next section when the last one is pretty much done.
* As soon as a section is pretty much done, get some feedback on it. Remember that your paper should already be coherent and complete up to this section, so there is no harm in sending it to colleagues or your supervisor and asking them to tell you whether the paper makes sense up to and including Section X.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I should think an annotated outline (indented list of titles) would be effective. Do a basic outline of the article with however many titles, and under each title put one or more of:
* link(s) to the text to use from your journal
* a short phrase to use in conveying the point of the titled section
* an idea of how much (word, line or paragraph count) to use to fill this out.
* links to other outline titles.
Once the structure looks good (or even make a few structures to pick from), go back over and fill in the body under each title. The annotations will help you keep track of certain goals (word length, number of ideas, enough persuasive sentences, logical coherence), and it is easier to manage a high-level version of the article this way. It also makes editing easier if you prioritize which titles to cut.
---
Tags: writing
--- |
thread-17512 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17512 | Have most journals recently stopped providing off-prints to authors? | 2014-02-27T21:28:14.533 | # Question
Title: Have most journals recently stopped providing off-prints to authors?
I've recently obtained my PhD in mathematics and started a post-doc this year. I have 5 published papers, across a wide spectrum of journals (in terms of quality, from very good to mediocre). However I never received any off-prints from the journals and it seems that to receive those one has to pay. On the other hand all the professors that I know of have always a lot of off-prints for most of their journal publications. I always wanted to have these neat looking off-prints but it seems that the winds have changed and journals are becoming "cheaper" (behavior-wise) than ever.
This leads me to the following question:
* Is this a recent change? Is it considered the norm now to not send off-prints free of charge?
* Are these professors perhaps ordering the off-prints through some departmental fund?
Is there anything that can be done about this situation? Can I pressure the journal into sending me off-prints free of charge (e.g would trying to refuse signing the publishing agreement, unless they provide the off-prints for free work?). Have people tried boycotting journals not offering off-prints? This kind of cheap behavior really strikes me as pushing the boundary of what is acceptable. Not only we do most of the work for the journal (refereeing, writing, etc.) but on top of that journals are expensive and do not even offer off-prints anymore.
# Answer
> 17 votes
Off-prints are a remnant from the days when photocopying hadn't been invented and, if you wanted your own copy of a paper, the only reasonable way to get one was to write to the author and ask for an off-print.
Providing off-prints to authors certainly seems to be becoming less common. Some journals still provide them for free, some only for a fee, and some not at all. I don't think most people care, and among those that do care, many prefer not to receive the off-prints. It's been years since I received a request for an off-print, so when I do get them they just end up sitting in piles in my office while I offer them as party favors to anyone who enters the office. Some decline and probably many of the rest recycle them, since electronic copies are far more convenient.
> Can I pressure the journal into sending me off-prints free of charge (e.g would trying to refuse signing the publishing agreement, unless they provide the off-prints for free work?).
I wouldn't try pressuring them, which could come across as both eccentric and rude. Instead, you could try begging, by explaining that you are a postdoc with strictly limited funds but would really love off-prints and hope they could provide them at a reduced cost. I have no idea whether this could work, but the worst that can happen is that they'll say no.
> Have people tried boycotting journals not offering off-prints?
You are welcome to investigate which journals provide off-prints for free and submit your papers there, but I doubt many people will join you in this.
# Answer
> 8 votes
Offprints were a key part of the publication process before the digital era since digital versions did not exist; a smaller number of them commonly included in the page charges. Since journals are now digital and are also moving away from printing as a whole, reprints are things of the past. That your professors get them is most likely because they are used to have it this way but I am sure there will be journals from which they would not be able to get them other than the now standard pdf. I am not sure they get them for free anymore either. A pdf is easy to distribute and carries virtually no cost, to the publisher (journal) or the environment. I am sure the publishers were happy to see them go but the move was not primarily a financial move, it was a lack of demand. Some publishers still provide reprints but since they are no longer part of the standard service, they may charge for them. After all you get a pdf for free to distribute in a similar manner as the reprint. I have been publishing long enough to have a shelf full of useless reprints that in addition exist as pdfs as well. I am also an editor for a journal and for us it is also a question of when, not if, we move away from printing altogether. And in that case the publisher has no part in the decision since we are a society owned journal with no page charges. So I am not sure why you believe the reprint is so important. There is little demand for posting reprints to others when a pdf exists that can be sent over e-mail. I can understand that sending a paper copy can be more personal than e-mailing a pdf but I still think the demand for a printed copies is very low indeed.
---
Tags: publications, journals, publishers
--- |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.