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thread-13479 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/13479 | What can a biostatistician do to earn money on the side? | 2013-10-17T17:23:48.703 | # Question
Title: What can a biostatistician do to earn money on the side?
I love my full-time job and do not wish to leave it (statistician in a small-ish research institute within a large university) because I believe the research we do will someday benefit humanity and because I get the freedom to pursue my own research and several open-source statistical software projects I'm developing.
However, I am not making enough to provide for my family, and we are starting to feel it. I'm looking for something low-risk that I can do from home and on my own schedule, so finding an adjunct position someplace is not on the table. I'm looking into ways to commercialize my software and teaching myself about investing, but neither of those will be reliable income streams anytime soon.
So, I would like to solicit people's stories/advice on how they got into freelance statistical consulting or any other "low-hanging fruit" jobs.
Also, are there specific types of businesses that are known to hire free-lancers to do survival analysis, repeated measures regression, and all-around R programming?
I'm not trying to be the next James Goodnight, just to find a way to make some extra cash doing stuff I find easy and other people find difficult. I'll do web development if I have to, but I figure there should be a more profitable niche where I put my less common skills to use.
# Answer
> 15 votes
This is more of a brainstorming session/life hack than an answer specific for academic, hopefully this can spark some more inputs. As a disclaimer, I identify with you as I am also working in the field of biostatistics and epidemiology, though I have not actively sought after extra income. However, I have always been a financial life junkie and I used to love to daydream how to be rich or at least to enjoy retirement with dignity. Here are some of my thoughts and, well, refined thoughts.
**Saving = Income - Expenses**
We should first recognize that you can save money by either getting more or spending less. Before going to get more, I'd recommend sitting down with your spouse and go over the financial situation. Here are a few exercises that I found easy to pick up, and once you have started, you may see if this route is good:
1. *Create a happy matrix for your spending:* Print out your credit card statement(s), item by item, grade how each of them makes you happy (Likert's scale, etc. you know the drill.) Identify things that are not contributing any satisfaction and avoid making the same purchase again. For those that truly make you happy, evaluate if you can cut back (usually, from all my reading, the culprit is often the $7.90 something Starbucks grande latte and a scone for the breakfast), or substitute with cheaper options such as shifting to other vendors or make them at home. I especially recommend everyone to check their credit card bill, bank bill, and cell phone bill: When I first started this routine, I found out that I have $280 sitting in my credit card as cash back! I just never claimed it.
2. *Have an energy audit of your house:* Most local government should be able to point you to some free energy audit service. They will evaluate your house's insulation, electricity usage, conditions of the heating system etc. and provide you a list of improvements and expected return on investment. For example, you can spend about $1,200 to inject foam in between inner and outer wall, and drop your heating bill by more than $200 per year. Other gadgets like motion sensing switch, smart thermostat, and CFL light bulbs may also help.
3. *Take public transport or bike:* I actually use this method. I don't drive and I live about 9 miles away from work. I commute on bike in spring, summer, and fall; and use subway in winter.
4. *Commit to be green:* This sounds like quite off. But I have come to realize that once you want to cut down on trash, you can't help but cut down on consumption. For example, I bring my travel mug and a collapsible box everywhere in case if I need to buy a drink or food. Since packaged food is automatically out of the equation (which are usually more expensive per weight), I save some money there. I also go to wet market or farmer's market for food, and I don't consume processed food. If I need an item I check out local flea market and freecycle websites (I give away stuff through freecycle as well.) For level 2 difficulty: Commit to be a vegetarian or vegan. Meatless lifestyle simplifies life tremendously.
5. *Use your educator's identity:* Many vendors provide discount to educators. Since you work in a university, you can flash your staff card and get some good saving here and there. I'd also encourage you to check with your university's benefit page. I got a 24% discount on my phone bill just because I filled in an extra form.
**Then up a notch**
If you have mortgages and complicated insurances, etc. Consider talking to a financial planner. Most of them can point you to some restructuring to make the system more streamlined. Simple things like grouping the insurance to one company can save monthly payment. I have even read about an extreme case that a couple actually ends up saving more by having one of them stopped working because the commute, childcare, and other expenses were eating into the take-home income so much.
**Now, zoom out**
I do understand that you value your biostatistics skills. But when it comes to making money, you don't have to only work on biostatistics. For me, after 9 hours of coding and reading outputs, I'd rather see something else. Once you have broken out from the box, you'll feel more liberated. Reassess your passions and hobbies, and see if you can pursue an instructor position somewhere. For example, personal trainer, yoga teacher, musical instrument teacher, handcraft, carpentry, gardening, etc.
On my own spare time, I write video game walkthroughs, and post them on various websites and my own wiki sites. In the walkthrough I put affiliated links to vendors and in the wiki I earn Google Ads money. Given I am not very prolific, I don't earn a lot, but I can usually pocket about $300-400 a year if I happen to have written a walkthrough for a popular game.
**Finally, zoom back in**
Now, back to your question. There are many ways a biostatistcian can expand their job repertoire. Here are some examples:
1. *Consult your local classified websites such as Craigslist:* Check for consultant type of jobs. You may even post an ad if you are so enticed. I used to do some consultation on and off as a student and got to charge $50 to $100 an hour.
2. *Propose a course to local adult learning center:* Most cities should have some adult learning centers the provide classes on hobbies or professional skills. Meet with the director and propose a course (on R, for example). You can build clientele and enlarge your social network as well.
3. *Statistical editor and reader:* You can also contact local editors and discuss on possibility to be an ad hoc statistical editor. I am actually working towards this direction. In my institution there are a lot of orphan data: grants ended, staff left, no body works on it and publishes the work. I found my niche of being a data undertaker, and I grew to be very interested in writing as well. Other than editors, you can also sell your skills to students who are writing their thesis. Most of their works can benefit by having a round of quantitative examination.
4. *Look for an adjunct position:* I know you don't want to, but I'd urge you to be a bit more adventurous on this option. Since online education is actually picking up traction, your skill in biostatistics and website building may actually be a good combination for some institutions looking for a way to move their program online. For remote course you usually just need to meet the student in the first 1-2 weeks or every other week, which can still preserve your flexible time table. Use online chat or billboard for office hour, give students feedback using track-changes, etc. You can do most of these at home.
**Closing remarks**
I hope I didn't sound patronizing. But I wholeheartedly hope you may find some of these useful. I used to have mindset like you do, thinking of how to expand my income sources (I have my own expense and family in my home country to support), but after a few rounds of thinking, and sorting out what are the most important, I didn't feel like that any more. Now I make sure I have good pre-tax saving taken out first, save at least 10%, allocate money for family, allocate minimal expenses, keep about 5% or so for entertainment, buy used, give away or sell my own used goods, bike to work, stop all cable TV, lend to people on Kiva.org, simplify my closet, practice the motto of "buy the experience, don't buy the stuff"... etc. I realize that I still have enough, and I am not really sure what I was fussing about in the past. I'm happier, calmer, and definitely feeling clearer about what I want. And I certainly hope you'll be able to find your solution as well!
# Answer
> 9 votes
I found ***private tutoring*** to be a great way to earn money on the side as an academic.
This often just involves going through exam papers with your tutee (e.g. studying Maths A-levels, GCSEs etc).
Here are some advantages:
* Great pay: ~£15-30/hr (depending on whether you are free-lance or via some agency or academy)
* Flexible hours: Often demand for tuition is after school hours ~5-7pm
* Rewarding and satisfying, your students remember you and may one day be great interns
* Self-improvement:
+ Keep up to date on pre-university curriculum/vocablurary (good if you need to lecture 1st year undergrads)
+ Keeping afresh the fundamental concepts
+ Great way to network with parents who may be in areas of business you may be interested in future
# Answer
> 7 votes
My answer complements the other, nicely crafted answers.
**Disclaimer:** My core competency is that of a statistician as well and I am still a graduate student.
I don't really *need* to earn extra money. However, in the recent past, I have been hired on as an analyst or statistician for various projects by other professors or researchers in my university or in other universities.
**How did this happen?**
Personal networking I presume. I don't really make an effort to network at conferences or their ilk (I mostly attend talks which I want to ; the poster sessions and hang out with whomever is most fun. :))
However, through formal and informal interactions with professors in my department and elsewhere, I have come to understand that I almost always position myself (*to them*) as a researcher coming from a math/stat background who is trying hard to understand and put on curious foot after the other in the interdisciplinary world of HCI/privacy etc.
This unintentional (*and honest*) positioning infrequently results in conversations like " **Hey ! We have a cool dataset and need to publish a paper which answers some of these research questions. Do you want to lend us your skillz in return for money/19th authorship?** "
Usually, in such cases, I almost always take the authorship offer but I have also done it for payment in the past as well. Sometimes, if its a really cool collaboration, it yields both !!
Therefore, I advise you to reach out through your contacts, other researchers in your institute/university/college/department informally (lunch/dinner/happy hour) or formally (seminar/colloquium/email) and see what opportunities might be there in your own backyard. You never know.
Good luck !
# Answer
> 6 votes
I have a few friends with similar stories, though in different fields of science. Overall, they realized that their specialty is not their only skill, and that as successful researchers, other generic skills are more in demand. In particular, you can be a **scientific or technical editor, scientific writer, copy-editor, technical translator** (especially if you live in a country where English is not the primary language). These tasks are in very high demand, and allow you to work on a “as needed” basis.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Have you tried Zombal?
**Disclaimer**
I have nothing to do with Zombal. I don't get paid whatsoever.
I am a statistician working in the government sector, and I don't earn a lot. So I too was looking to get some side income. I found Zombal through this blog, which makes Zombal look quite good. I have yet to give it a try because I don't quite have the time (yet) and like @penguin\_knight, I am not sure I want to do more stats after work. But since you are asking how you can get side jobs, I am throwing this out as an option.
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Tags: job, statistics
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thread-17518 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17518 | How did graduate schools come into existence? | 2014-02-27T23:52:34.413 | # Question
Title: How did graduate schools come into existence?
When did universities start to segregate their certifications into undergraduate degrees (bachelors) graduate programs (master's and doctorates)? More importantly, why did this separation occur? What prompted the need for separate levels of certification in academic settings?
# Answer
Bachelor, master, doctor degrees are medieval European in origin. Wiki has a reasonable page on medieval universities. The primary need for these levels was the certification of who was allowed to teach and what they were allowed to teach in the university. The Catholic Church in the Middle Ages being what it was was concerned with proper teaching to avoid passing along heresies (which universities got accused of from almost the beginning of their existence) which meant you needed a license to teach and to preach in those days.
> 3 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, academic-history
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thread-17511 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17511 | What are the risks of doing a PhD in a new department? | 2014-02-27T21:07:42.633 | # Question
Title: What are the risks of doing a PhD in a new department?
I was recently admitted to a doctoral program to be part of their inaugural class for a new interdisciplinary science and engineering department. The program is located at a top-tier university in the United States and appears to be very well funded by the founding university.
The faculty that they have hired so far are all well established researchers in their respective fields. These faculty have also successfully brought the majority of their students and post-docs with them, so there should be no major loss of continuity as far as research is concerned.
My primary concerns are that:
1. the graduate curriculum itself is new
2. the program (outside of the reputation of the individual faculty/university itself) is currently not very well known. Will this look bad to prospective employers (both in industry and academic), or is the reputation of my faculty advisor more important?
3. professors may need to spend more time doing administrative activities for the new department
What other risks are associated with joining a new program, and are there any professional/academic advantages to doing so?
# Answer
The risks are as you describe, although I suspect that the third item is not as serious (unless your advisor has a formal administrative role).
The pros are that you will have a lot more input into how the curriculum and the program is shaped. As a new department, people will try things, and not everything will work. There will be many opportunities to suggest improvements and how to do things differently.
If the parent university is well known, it's in their interest to make sure the new program succeeds, so you should also get some benefit from the level of attention paid by them. By bringing a number of faculty over, they've expressed "buy-in" to the new institute.
> 6 votes
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Tags: phd, research-process, graduate-school
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thread-17451 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17451 | Do any statistics program provide funding for masters students? | 2014-02-26T17:46:50.787 | # Question
Title: Do any statistics program provide funding for masters students?
I plan to be applying to graduate school next year in Statistics or Biostatistics and due to some financial constrictions, I will not be able to attend unless the tuition is waived at the the minimum. I am hesitant to commit to a 5 year PhD program for a funded education since I may run into some financial issues a few years in and may not be able to complete it. I know that most schools use their Masters program as a cash cow and thus are usually not funded. I was wondering if anyone here knew of any statistics programs that go against this and actually do fund their Master students?
# Answer
Apply to PhD programs that can or will award a master's degree after you pass your qualifiers.
This way you have funding and you may find that the funding is enough to continue even if other financial constrictions happen. You don't know for sure that they will happen or that other circumstances may mitigate the problem.
It might also be possible to ask the department for a leave of absence (for a year or two).
In a worst case scenario, hopefully you can finish with a master's.
> 1 votes
# Answer
Funding problems can come up in PhD programs regardless as to whether you expect them. For example, students who take more than 4-6 years often are given lower priority for department TA-ships, and lose their funding. The message here is that it is hard to predict your financial situation, and leaving a PhD for under extreme financial circumstances is always a morally acceptable thing to do (leaves of absences are very possible in this situation). You should do a PhD if you are truly passionate about pushing the envelope in statistics. In other words you think about statistics for fun. If this fits you, you should accept a funded PhD offer regardless as to future financial situations that may or may not manifest. Now if you are not passionate enough about the subject to pursue a PhD that is another story. In this case persuing one just because it is "free" and dropping out with a masters is generally looked upon as a major faux pas.
However, if you don't have interest in a PhD, another option would be to try online masters programs which are often cheaper and allow you to finish the degree while doing part time or in some cases even full time work. With an online degree program you can live with family members or move to a city with a low cost of living. The University of Washington has a program in data science, I believe. It certainly isn't free, but its about an order of magnitude less than a traditional "cash cow" masters degree.
If the above are too expensive take some free MOOCs (corsera etc) in your field of interest. Focus on skills as opposed to a degree. Apply for some jobs and if you don't get anything, go back to the drawing board.
The other option, and probably the best one if you are lucky enough to be successful down this road is to get a job in a field the combines your skill set with the tools you want to learn. So if you have some background in data science, stats, math or engineering, consider looking for jobs as opposed to degree programs. Often these jobs will fund your masters degree later on, if you choose go back to school. It generally comes with a constraint where you agree to stay with the company for at least a year or two after attaining the degree, but for most people this is worth it.
> 1 votes
# Answer
You should look for schools that don't offer PhD's in statistics, only master's. Then they will hire their MS students as statistics TA's.
> 1 votes
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Tags: masters, career-path, funding, statistics
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thread-17522 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17522 | Can I contact the author of a paper for questions, even if I've never studied over high school? | 2014-02-28T00:47:02.560 | # Question
Title: Can I contact the author of a paper for questions, even if I've never studied over high school?
I've never been in a University in my life, but I enjoy reading research papers to expand my knowledge and go deeper in the understanding of details which are not covered by books.
A recent paper shows that this substance X causes reaction Y. Many others have shown that reaction Y can cause a dangerous consequence Z. I'd like to ask the author of the paper if he thinks substance X can trigger consequence Z. No one seems to have answered this question and, if they did, they're out of my radar.
Many papers covers details and little aspects of how reaction Y causes consequence Z, however I've found that a Wikipedia article does a good job in summing up all of these papers:
* Can I link the Wikipedia article to the Doctor?
* Or should I link the 20+ papers?
* Assuming consequence Z is well known in the field, should I give for granted that he knows of it (thus not linking anything)? Can putting the links to something that is well known make me sound like a pretentious prick?
# Answer
> 3 votes
About your questions:
1) If you want you can link the Wikipedia article or make a small summary explaining your thoughts, usually Professors or researchers do not have too much time to read long emails; so try to keep it up simply
2) explained before
3) It is nothing bad that you point to the other papers of consequence Z, if he knows about them he will tell it straightforward
In conclusion, do not feel bad that you did not have any formal education. Just address to the researcher in a respectful manner and tell him/her that you are interested about his job. You do not need to send your CV or a motivation letter just for asking something, but beware, you can or you cannot get an answer (usually depends how much interested of free time the researcher you are appointing has)
Good luck!
# Answer
> 2 votes
You can contact any professor asking about they research projects, assuming you are polite enough and really interested in the topic, not just in talking with somebody from the "real science".
The kind of response (if any) largely depends on the personality of the researcher, how busy is he at the moment, how frequently he receives a contact requests of this kind and how good is your question (a really good question contains majority of the answer asking to explain which alternative is true or to clarify particular point).
There are no particular rules that would force a scientist to ignore or to respond your message.
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Tags: email
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thread-17537 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17537 | Is citing data from a presentation not trustful? | 2014-02-28T11:46:49.823 | # Question
Title: Is citing data from a presentation not trustful?
There is this investment bank specialized in the mining sector. I had access to one of their presentations where they have data regarding the production and end use of some chemical elements. They do not cite the data.
Do you think that is good or bad, trustful or not, to cite these data in my PhD thesis?
# Answer
> 4 votes
If the source has been used, it generally must be cited, otherwise you assign yourself results or conclusions obtained by other researchers.
Providing the source is not a question for its reputability. If you think the source is not reputable enough, do not use it in your work. It is not very common but I have even seen "personal communication" as a type of the reference.
# Answer
> 1 votes
It depends on your research topic.
If you are conducting research on the marketing value of a chemical element, the trustfulness of a presentation without citation sources is unknown at best. All you know is that they did the presenation for purposes.
However, if you are conducting research on the investment bank marketing strategies, this presentation can be a research subject. The trustfulness of the presentation can be a research topic by itself. However, you will have the citation issue if the presentation is not publicly available as @xLeitix pointed out in the comment above.
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Tags: citations, thesis
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thread-17541 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17541 | How can I tell whether it is the volume or the issue number that is given? | 2014-02-28T13:09:39.497 | # Question
Title: How can I tell whether it is the volume or the issue number that is given?
If I'm reading a journal article for which the reference for example is stated as "Journal of Examples 3, 74-78 (2014)", how can I tell whether it's the volume or issue number that is given? In many circumstances, I understand that it's quite easy to tell. For example, if the number is quite high, it's probably not the issue number. And if it's a journal which I know have been in existence for long (for example Science), I can surmise that if I'm seeing a low digit, it's probably not the volume number.
However, sometimes it's not unambiguous. In the example given above, is it a new journal which has only released three volumes? Or is it just issue three of some, unknown volume number?
Is there a system to all this madness? Is there a way to always tell what you're actually looking at?
# Answer
The general rules are:
* If there is only one number, it's the volume.
* If there are two number, it's first volume, then issue.
> 22 votes
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Tags: journals, citations
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thread-17533 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17533 | Grid lines on graphs | 2014-02-28T05:24:53.277 | # Question
Title: Grid lines on graphs
I'm told there are conventions in scientific papers around graphs. I'm publish material for a general audience based on a the findings of a scientific paper (unpublished) and having a disagreement with the author of the paper about how graphs must be presented.
I'm specifically asking here about the conventions for scientific publishing. I'm very aware that conventions outside scientific papers for graphs are much more open, I take my visual data cues mostly from Edward Tufte's books.
I'm being told that displaying horizontal grid lines implies a greater accuracy in modelling data and therefore should be absent in the case of this carbon sequestration modelling since it's not the results of measurements? (I would have thought significant figures on axis, axis spacing and fundamentally the caption explaining the data source and assumptions were more relevant to that)
I'm told that titles are a no go, captions only. (I've found a Uni spec online for science papers saying titles are mandatory). I'm told titles are rare in journals.
Is there any right or wrong to these matters of convention or is it just opinion?
# Answer
**On grid lines**
It depends on the points you would like to make with the graph. If you're just going to show an upward or downward trend, then the grid lines are probably redundant. If you'd need refer back to a certain point of a curve, and knowing the vertical position of that point would be crucial, then grid lines can help. It's not about the graphs (or I may go so far to say even within publication culture,) it's about the points you are trying to get across. If the grid lines will get people there with less puzzling or work, then yes to grid lines. In all other occasions, then no.
> I'm being told that displaying horizontal grid lines implies a greater accuracy in modelling data and therefore should be absent in the case of this carbon sequestration modelling since it's not the results of measurements
This is perhaps the oddest graphical rule I have heard in the last 12 months. For most grid lines are just an extension of the tick mark on the axes. As long as you provide the tick marks on the y-axis, anyone can draw horizontal grid lines.
It is, however, not advisable to provide tick marks or grid lines finer than what your instrument or model can discern. For example, if your measurement or prediction is in the unit of meter. Then, at most I'd just put grid lines at 0.5 m increment. I wouldn't go so far to put 0.01 or even 0.1 m increments. That would imply some precision that I never had. I believe your partner author's concern may be more related to this problem. In that case, you two need to talk and make sure at least the tick marks make sense.
**On caption vs. title**
> I'm told that titles are a no go, captions only. (I've found a Uni spec online for science papers saying titles are mandatory). I'm told titles are rare in journals.
Yes, they are rare in my field (biomedical.) We use captions (located *below* the graph) most of the time. The caption usually starts with something like this:
**Figure 1. The \[would have been title\]**
\[texts explaining the graph.\]
If you have a title in the illustration, it only serves to duplicate information, making it redundant ink.
Though, depending on fields and journals, the rule may differ. Check with the journal's guideline and other published work in that journal for clues.
> 6 votes
# Answer
There is no right or wrong when it comes to grid lines. There may be conventions varying between disciplines. The basic question of whether to use such lines or not, is if they add something useful to the reader to better understand the data displayed. A go figure should communicate as many thought as possible to the reader without to much effort. If you want to get some ideas of thinking about graphics, try to locate the book The visual display of quantitative information by Edward Tufte. There are many constructive thoughts about displaying information there worth considering.
In the end you need to look at how others publish similar data and figure out if a "standard" has developed. It may not be the best way to display data but since many are familiar with the format it becomes an efficient communication. Otherwise you should try to display the data as clearly as possible, lines or not.
> 3 votes
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Tags: publications, graphics
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thread-17543 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17543 | Lazy/Busy Professor does not give me my confirmation | 2014-02-28T13:35:46.050 | # Question
Title: Lazy/Busy Professor does not give me my confirmation
I have done a short summer research internship at a department of a famous University in Europe. Unfortunately, this was last summer and I reminded my professor several times now to give me some sort of written confirmation that I actually stayed at his department.(3 times per E-Mail and one time, when I left him). He always said that he will do it, but he always pointed out that he is very busy currently.
Do you think this sounds true? I mean, it has been half a year now and apparently there is not much to do about it instead of just waiting or is there? I also just asked for a few lines, not a confirmation letter of anything similar and I also told him that I would need this for my home university(Which was true)- but he did not really react upon that.
I do not want to pressure him by being more "rude" in my mails, this is not the way I deal with such situation, but I think his behaviour is very annoying and I want this piece of paper now.
How would you deal with that?
# Answer
> 16 votes
I would address this by contacting the professor's *administrative assistant* or *secretary*. Usually, such "form letters" do not need to be actively written by the professor in question—just signed by the professor. The assistant can prepare the letter, and get the faculty member's signature; in some cases, the assistant may even have a digital signature available, so the professor's direct involvement isn't even necessary.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Hah! It took me 4 years to get a confirmation for my exchange student year to get my degree. After numerous emails and even official letters from my University which all got ignored, the only thing that finally worked was a flight back and running around there for a week, where everyone was telling me they had no trace of my stay whatsoever and putting the responsibility on someone else. So I hope you don't need to do those extreme measures but stay prepared and first go to your departement and let them write a formal letter. Also phone calls may work better than emails. Good luck!
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Tags: academic-life
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thread-17564 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17564 | Publishing figures: Serif or Sans-serif fonts? | 2014-02-28T20:45:47.323 | # Question
Title: Publishing figures: Serif or Sans-serif fonts?
Whenever I am creating figures for publication, I often wonder if I should be using a serif or sans-serif font. I browse the journals in my field and notice that there is no standard, just chaos.
I have typically chosen serif font to match the typography of the body text; however, I have read that sans-serif stands out among the serif body text. My rationale for choosing serif text is because it allows me to reproduce the symbols from the text exactly in my legends (and/or annotations). To me, this seems clearer.
Does anyone have a source or standard that recommends one or the other?
# Answer
When it comes to typographic design, it can be dangerous to adhere to rules of thumb. Sometimes (actually most of the time) sans-serif fonts work, sometimes they don't. It would depend on tradition, trend, and overall feeling that the fonts project.
If the journal does not specify. I would usually favor sans-serif. The reason is that unlike my texts, I am not always sure how much the editorial team may size down my illustration. Sans-serif has a pretty good property that they are quite resistant to shrinking, and can still be legible at relatively small size.
In the mean time, if the publisher uses any software to smooth out the edge of the fonts after resizing (e.g. through aliasing,) serif fonts can sometimes appear broken at their thinner strokes.
There are, however, some illustrations that just don't look right with sans-serif. For instance, line labels and angle labels of trigonometry problem sets and formula like this one are much nicer with bold and/or italicized serif fonts, monotone ink-drawn anatomical charts (like this one) will just look very odd if we put on sans-serif labels. This timeline describing Shakespeare's Life may look ridiculous if sans-serif fonts are used.
In those difficult situations, look for serif fonts that are beefier or with more uniform stroke width. As they can likely withstand shrinking and aliasing. In addition, look for fonts that are slightly wider, and have a good "x-height" (literally height of the font "x"). Some possible candidates are Caslon, Baskerville, Garamond, and Palatino. Avoid cursive fonts, or fonts with some very thin lines like Times New Roman. A more in-depth discussion on squint-free fonts can be found in this blog page and this thread on SE UX.
> 12 votes
# Answer
I use Helvetica/Arial on all my figures, as it is a neutral font that doesn't detract from the point of the figure - to present data. It lacks the flourishes of most serif fonts, or stylistic features of othe sans serif fonts. As others have commented sans-serif fonts are more readable at small sizes, hence their overwhelming use in road signage. Since most figures are small when reproduced, readability is paramount.
> 5 votes
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Tags: publications, graphics, formatting
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thread-17557 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17557 | United States PhD fast-track | 2014-02-28T18:24:40.810 | # Question
Title: United States PhD fast-track
I'm going to finish my undergraduate degree in June and from September I will follow a masters course in the UK. My field of interest is theoretical/mathematical physics.
I had considered applying for a PhD program in the US but I have observed that most graduate programs require following some masters courses and completing an examination before starting your PhD research. If I had known I would have applied for the whole graduate program but all deadlines were around Christmas. So I would like to ask some questions about this.
* I guess this will depend on the specific program, but, would there be a possibility of doing some kind of fast-track?, i.e completing the examinations upon arrival and starting your research immediately. Or will I need to spend a year attending to these courses?
* I believe this may be a common issue for European students. Does anyone know somebody in the same situation?
# Answer
> 1 votes
Many departments don't have hard deadlines for the graduate school applications, but they might have some test requirements that you need to take for the school to finally accept your application (i.e., many public universities need a GRE score for all applicants).
In case the departments are fine with it, you can still apply and take the tests in the next month or so, although a lot of departments will start accepting PhD students soon (if they haven't started already).
The tests are usually a general test GRE, a subject test GRE, or the GMAT, but they may vary. Since you're from the UK you don't need the TOEFL english test.
I would suggest to email/call individual professors or departments and ask for more information.
In a lot of cases the graduate student assistants can give you a lot of answers directly since they handle most cases.
Usually departments have a faculty member in charge of the graduate student program. They are also good contacts.
When I applied for my PhD in the states I was still in school in Europe, so I went through a similar situation, although I was done with the standard tests by that December (eight years ago).
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Tags: phd, graduate-school, united-states
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thread-17573 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17573 | Is it possible to change PhD department, but keep supervisor if he has joint appointment in the other department? | 2014-03-01T04:23:20.937 | # Question
Title: Is it possible to change PhD department, but keep supervisor if he has joint appointment in the other department?
I am in my first year at grad school, and I am thinking about changing from EE/CS to BME. My supervisor is the professor in both departments (actually, full professor of the first and joint appointed of the second).
I have taken some modules that are required by both departments, and my project is related to biomedical science. I wonder if there are any possibilities that I can switch? Should I go and talk to the BME administrative before I mention it to my supervisor?
# Answer
Definitely talk to your advisor first. While I doubt that continuity of funding will be an issue, there could be other ones:
* your advisor should be allowed to advise students in BME (sometimes 'joint appointments don't by default come with the ability to be the advisor for a student). You may need to get a co-advisor in BME (or not: it depends on the rules)
* you may need to formally reapply. There might even be the possibility that you are rejected (but I'd be very surprised if that happened). It's usually never the case that you can just switch between departments. This also means that there will be deadlines, paperwork and possibly even some fees.
* since you're in the first year in grad school, committee composition is not an issue, but for someone later on in the program that could be a problem as well.
Your advisor will/should know the answer to some of these questions and the BME administrative staff (graduate advisor or equivalent) will know the rest.
> 6 votes
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Tags: phd, advisor, changing-fields, joint-appointment
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thread-17495 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17495 | Tools for data organising and processing | 2014-02-27T17:06:42.133 | # Question
Title: Tools for data organising and processing
Suppose we perform experiments with input parameters (temperature, humidity, processing time...) and collect resulting data (thickness, structure, mech. properties...).
Is there a tool (or set of tools) to organize, process and export data from such experiments?
Key features are:
* Structured files decomposition (raw text files).
* Basic math operations.
* Filter and sort by given parameters (show/export data from samples treated at given temperature and humidity for various times).
* Generating tables with given parameters and list of "constants" (table of times, mech. properties and thicknesses and list containing temperature, humidity...).
* Vector graphics output and/or output suitable for MATLAB (graph of thickness as function of time).
* Automated (or easy-to-create) LaTeX output (report sheet).
If not, any idea, hint or recommendation how to create it is appreciated. Right now I'm thinking of a spreadsheet (Excel) as core database and MATLAB as the processor (filters, sorting, graphics).
# Answer
I would store data in CSV (i.e. text file with a table, with values separated by commas) rather than XLS files (the first is easier to import from and export to anything). Otherwise many tools will do the job (if you are familiar with MATLAB - why not using it)?
For general data processing and manipulation, **Python** (with SciPy stack) is capable of everything you mentioned. In particular IPython Notebook is great for data exploration and presentation (you can use code, comments and LaTeX in such notebook - also for reports). For tabular data, use Pandas (R-like DataFrames).
For reports also you can create files in Markdown (with LaTeX), and then convert them to pdf with Pandoc \- may be much easier than generation of LaTeX code. (To get you some taste what is Markdown - look at StackEdit.)
And alternative to Python is , with knitr for report generation. If you are not sure, if to choose R or Python, then for your task R seems to be an easier and better way to start (especially with RStudio as an interface).
For a bigger list and links to tutorials, take a look at a list of software for scientists.
> 6 votes
# Answer
I find Google Sheets is easier and more powerful in many ways than excel. I have done a couple of projects with a sheet of raw data coming in via csv, then other sheets to process it. If you're clever, it can be done so that when the raw data are updated, everything else falls into place. Google Charts is basic but has some neat features for looking at data. The Transpose, Filter, Sort and even query (SQL) is very cool if you have lots of data.
You can collaborate in teams, commenting on interesting findings, etc. Graphs output to PNG or PDF look great in latex. Data are available in the cloud, not just on some file server in a lab. Tables are a special kind of graph that can be shared on web pages and have user-selectable options for sorting, etc.
> 1 votes
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Tags: software, data
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thread-17588 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17588 | How to deal with procrastination and delays in final assignment of undergraduate class? | 2014-03-01T16:03:53.593 | # Question
Title: How to deal with procrastination and delays in final assignment of undergraduate class?
This semester I taught an optional course for undergraduate students. While I find it normal that fewer students attend optional classes, presence in class itself was low even for the enrolled students, and now the only requirements for evaluation have not been met by most of the students. Only 7 out of a total of 21 students have turned in their final written essays until the deadline.
The problem is, the university grading system allows for students who have not passed the exams during the semester to take a "recovery" exam/written assignment. Through this loophole, students who have not even written their essays may pass if they get good grades in this "recovery" exam. While I think it is somehow unfair for the other students, because it allows procrastination and delays of over a week, and gives a second chance for students who did poorly during the whole semester no matter what the reason, it is not clear if I am supposed to apply this "recovery" exam or if this is optional.
The question is, if I do not do this (accept procrastination and delays), most students will not pass.
Should I just accept it or be strict with rules and deadlines?
# Answer
If the students were reasonably expecting the option of a recovery exam, it seems unfair to deny it for the current run.
In future, you could offer the recovery exam only to those who tried to pass in the regular way, i.e. handed in an essay on topic (but maybe bad and hastily written - so more unpleasant grading for you).
Generally, I would suggest talking to some students to figure out why they didn't hand in an essay. Maybe it was plain procrastenation, maybe it was wise prioritizing because they had other, more important deadlines in the way, maybe they found the course not that interesting and decided not to complete it. In my experience, undergrads often have more self-awareness of their learning process than we would expect :)
> 8 votes
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Tags: grades, exams
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thread-17598 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17598 | How to explore/identify similar works in one's own field? | 2014-03-01T20:30:37.170 | # Question
Title: How to explore/identify similar works in one's own field?
I bet most of the users here had one of the following bad experiences: your idea and someone's idea happen to be very similar, manuscript topics got scooped, etc. Among these bad experiences, the worst is perhaps finding out a very similar paper was already published after the experimentation, simulation, writing, or even submission was done. This is very time consuming and stressful.
I realize that this question is very general and field-dependent. However, I would love to learn from your experience on **how to efficiently look for related works in one's own field.** For instance:
1. Where (websites, publishers, pre-prints... )
2. When should we find or update these related works, and
3. What kind of tricks have you used to perform such searches efficiently.
To help you orient, my background is electrical and computer engineering, communication and image/video processing.
# Answer
1. Scholar.Google.com, IEEE, and ACM
2. After every major conference in your field.
3. See 1, find a paper, then follow its references and the papers that cite it. Repeat.
> 8 votes
# Answer
In addition to searching the published literature (as the other answers suggest), if your subfield is a very active one you'll also want to know about **almost-published** literature. There are two ways to do this:
1. Identify the important conferences in your field, and look through the list of accepted papers as soon as it becomes available.
2. By following Austin Henley's suggestions you will notice that some names come up especially often as authors of related work. These are researchers doing work similar to yours, and therefore there is a good chance that their next paper will also be related. Find their homepages and monitor their publication lists on a regular basis. Many researchers list their "to appear" papers, which may not yet be available from the publisher.
If you suspect significant overlap based on a paper title you see in the program of an upcoming conference or the author's homepage, you can request a preprint from the author.
> 5 votes
# Answer
In addition to the sources listed in A. Henley's answer, try also other databases like SCI (http://www.webofknowledge.com) and Scopus (http://scopus.com) to get a more complete picture.
> 2 votes
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Tags: publications, paper-submission, literature-search
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thread-17592 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17592 | How to finish Master's Thesis when my adviser is too busy to help me thoroughly edit what I have written? | 2014-03-01T18:59:09.627 | # Question
Title: How to finish Master's Thesis when my adviser is too busy to help me thoroughly edit what I have written?
I have finished my B.S. and I am now finishing my M.S. thesis (already finished M.S. classes). My original thesis topic was not getting me anywhere and I came to my adviser asking him to allow me to switch to a new topic that I have already started working on. The professor allowed such a change and I believe my new work is much better and more interesting. Unfortunately, the new thesis topic is not my adviser's area of expertise.
Moreover, I have been late in turning in my thesis for several semesters since I've also been working full time much of the time after I finished my B.S.. This makes it feel like my university does not really care about my success anymore and I am not even being pressured to finish writing my thesis as I would have been if I was a full-time student.
I will be finishing writing my thesis on this new topic, but much of the work I have done have not been checked by anyone with a Ph.D. This worries me. Should I just crowd-source some comments for editing my thesis from friends and try to just get it turned in and accepted so I can present? Or should I seek out more professors who are more familiar with this new topic and try to have them read it (it would take at least several hours to do this and, keep in mind, I am not a full-time or even part-time student right now)?
I think my work is good and I will pursue trying to get it published in a journal once my actual M.S. is done, so I am not too uncomfortable with the things I've written.
# Answer
It sounds like you have two major concerns about getting quality feedback from your advisor: (1) he's busy, and (2) he's not as familiar with your new topic. I'll address these separately.
## Getting high-quality feedback from someone very busy
To get the best feedback possible from your advisor, make sure that whatever you send him to review is as polished as possible. If he's pointing out typos and areas where the writing has issues, he's not going to have as much time to evaluate the content, which is where his feedback is most valuable.
It will also help if you identify and tell him about the areas where you think you most need extra high-quality feedback: "Could you tell me what you think of the formulation in Section 3, I'm not so sure about that part."
## Getting high-quality feedback from someone not an expert in the topic
Even though your advisor is not an expert in your new topic, he's an expert in *something* and he knows what good work looks like. He knows when an argument seems weak and "hand-wavy" and when the evidence on offer doesn't support the claim. So he's still likely to have good advice even if he isn't as familiar with your topic as you would like.
In fact, for PhD students at least, it is generally assumed that the student knows more than the advisor about the thesis topic by the time the student is about midway through the program.
## On crowdsourcing thesis feedback
Having said all that, it's still useful to get comments from others in addition to your advisor.
Ask your friends to read your thesis to (1) find typos and obvious mistakes, and (2) note areas where they think something is unclear, so you can improve the writing. This will help you make sure the version you send your advisor to review is as polished as possible, so you'll get better feedback from him.
If you know some professors who *are* expert in your topic, you can send them a copy, but follow the advice for getting feedback from someone very busy: Make sure what you send them is very polished, and identify where you want their help the most. If you don't know any professors who are expert in your topic, then after your advisor gives you his feedback, ask him: "Do you think we should also send this to an expert in the topic for review? If so, do you know anybody we could send it to?"
> 9 votes
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Tags: masters, professorship, thesis
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thread-17615 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17615 | Lengths of review process of mathematical journals | 2014-03-02T09:14:24.517 | # Question
Title: Lengths of review process of mathematical journals
Do you have any file containing the information of peer-review process lengths of mathematical journals?If yes, It will be very helpful for me. Thanks for your helps.
# Answer
The AMS maintains a list of the backlogs of research journals, which should give you some indication.
The most recent one (I think) can be found here: http://www.ams.org/notices/201310/rnoti-p1390.pdf
> 10 votes
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Tags: publications, journals, peer-review
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thread-17584 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17584 | Difference between private and public universities as a faculty member? | 2014-03-01T13:29:35.920 | # Question
Title: Difference between private and public universities as a faculty member?
As a grad student I was, for the most part, shielded from issues like high-level bureaucracy, departmental duties and politics, and long-term career advancement. Obviously these things become more important when you're looking for a faculty job.
**Question:** As a faculty member in the U.S., what are the most tangible differences between being at a public vs. private university?
I.e., how does it affect your day-to-day life, or alternatively, key events like promotion, student recruiting, etc.? Obviously the question depends a great deal on the particular department and perhaps its ranking; I am interested mostly in departments "near the top" *\[ed: of some fairly arbitrary ranking systems...\]*, but broad answers are also useful.
Thanks!
# Answer
> 12 votes
A few anecdotal observations. It *must* be said that these are trends, and exceptions to everything I say are plentiful.
* As just-learning said, private universities tend to pay a little better. Also, they seem to have less faculty turnover (perhaps for this reason).
* Public universities often have more BS committee work. For example, my university periodically mandates a lengthy process of "post-tenure review". Negative or positive reviews have no consequences, and therefore the process is a complete waste of time, but we have no choice.
* At least among top-notch research universities, public schools are usually large, and many private schools are small. Large schools typically have advantages (big seminars, lots of courses that can be offered to students, etc.) and disadvantages (lots of grading, people can feel lost in the crowd, etc.)
* A corollary to the above: public universities often influence their towns more, simply because there are more people working and studying at the university. For example UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke are excellent universities (public and private respectively) which are ten miles apart, and it is Chapel Hill that has the really outstanding K-12 school system.
* Especially at public universities, there might be many clubs which are largely student organizations, but faculty members and others also participate in. Especially if you are not yet inclined to "settle down", this could be a huge positive.
* The campuses tend to be different. Many private universities are surrounded by lush greenery, where at public universities it is more common that you can walk across the street and get something good to eat.
* Sports culture is more prevalent at public universities (although it is also very big at many private universities). I am a bit of a curmudgeon, annoyed at the overwhelming football culture at my school. But those more laid back than me simply enjoy the games.
* Student attitudes tend to be different. At wealthy private universities many of the students will be more optimistic, and more ambitious goals and dreams seem to be more common. The downside (from what I have heard) is that entitlement and grade-grubbing are also more common.
* Public universities serve the public. My university enrolls a number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college. I attended a graduation ceremony, and when many names were called there was a palpable and obvious joy on the part of large crowds in the audience supporting them. Witnessing this was a deeply moving experience.
# Answer
> 1 votes
In the US, the private universities apparently tend to pay more to their faculty:
http://www.aaup.org/file/2012-13Economic-Status-Report.pdf
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/faculty-pay-survey\_n\_3038924.html
On the other hand, the private universities should, for obvious reasons, be less affected by the state budget cuts.
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Tags: job-search, academic-life, faculty-application
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thread-17254 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17254 | How good is the idea to do MBA after an MS | 2014-02-21T10:26:03.440 | # Question
Title: How good is the idea to do MBA after an MS
I am currently in my senior year of engineering in Computer Engineering from India. I plan to do a Master of Science (preferably non-thesis) in the field of Computer Engineering from the US this fall. In fact, I've secured admission at the University of Illinois, Chicago. I, however, was planning to do an MBA in Finance directly after my Masters, or maybe after gaining some work experience after the Masters, since I also like finance. How good or bad is the idea?
# Answer
Both are very diverse field. A general advice, MS may be done without any industrial experience but MBA should be done only after working for a couple of years with proper industrial exposure.
> 2 votes
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Tags: masters, graduation
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thread-17630 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17630 | Career advice – mathematics | 2014-03-02T16:51:55.557 | # Question
Title: Career advice – mathematics
I really need some opinions/advice on my situation.
**My background**
I'm studying for my master degree in mathematics. I have always (since I was 14) wanted to do my own research one day. As I grew older, I knew that mathematics was what I wanted to do. So I went to the university to study mathematics. After having encountered a course in group theory I knew that I belonged to the algebraic part of mathematics. I did my bachelor project in group theory and when I became a graduate student (September 2013), I took courses and made a project supporting my interest in algebra.
Along the way I created the vision that I would finish my master degree as a dedicated student in algebra. In order to realize this vision my plan was to study abroad for one semester taking new algebraic courses.
**The situation**
My situation today is that my study abroad semester begins tomorrow. As mentioned my dream is to do my own research, but more generally/important: *I want to develop new ideas and be dedicated to something and I would love to follow/explore my passion.*
My first thought (as many other students): I should get a PhD. So I did some research and figured out that there was an available position at the university I'm currently studying at in geometric group theory.
I don't know much about geometric group theory, but I do know that I love group theory. **So I would really like to know if this is an opportunity or if I should just forget it.**
I don't want to pursue a PhD for anything in this world. I just want to stay focus on creating a meaningful work life around my passion.
Any advice?
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**Further remarks**
I'm a student from Denmark and I'm studying abroad in Austria for one semester. After my study abroad semester I still have to study one year for my master degree in Denmark. However this year consists of a half year with elective courses and a half year where I'm making my master's thesis.
I don’t know much about the PhD position. I found it from a Google search (: “PhD position group theory”). There is only given a starting date and an e-mail address for contact. I’m going to attend a course held by the supervisor of the project, so the whole thing is a coincidence.
I have investigated my opportunities for a position at my home university. One of my supervisors, a professor in group theory, told me that he couldn't offer me a position, since it was a question about money, but would like to recommend me. I don't think the university accepts PhD students without a master degree and the positions are without project descriptions.
However there is also another university (in Denmark) with a talent program where it is possible to get a PhD position without having a master degree. I contacted them and they told me I should apply after my study abroad semester (because I would have a stronger profile). But I don't know my chances.
# Answer
I'm having a lot of trouble nailing down your question. After reading it several times, I think you mean that you have an opportunity to go on to study a PhD in geometric group theory at your current university. (Is it specifically relevant that you are going abroad tomorrow? How does this fit in with the rest?) From this I am guessing that you are not in the US, because in the US one would not have a position in "geometric group theory" specifically; one would just apply to the entire math department. It could be helpful to know what country you are studying in.
So I think you are really asking whether you should go on to do a PhD? You say that your motivation is to do mathematical research: for that you essentially need a PhD, yes.
> Along the way I created the vision that I would finish my master degree as a dedicated student in algebra.
Yes, okay, you're studying algebra. I feel like I'm missing some nuance here: what's the "vision"?
> As mentioned my dream is to do my own research, but more generally/important: I want to develop new ideas and be dedicated to something and I would love to follow/explore my passion.
Again, I feel like I'm missing a nuance. Doing your own research means precisely to developing your new ideas and being dedicated to something. Doesn't everyone want to "follow/explore their passion"? That comes off sounding mean, which is not my intent: rather, I feel like you're trying to say something here and I'm missing it.
> I don't know much about geometric group theory, but I do know that I love group theory. So I would really like to know if this is an opportunity or if I should just forget it.
It seems clear that a PhD in geometric group theory is an indeed an opportunity to do everything that you said you wanted to do...in geometric group theory, which is a subfield of the field that you say you like. Whether you will like GGT specifically seems best answered by learning some and finding out. If the PhD program is so specifically invested in GGT that if you find out you don't want to do GGT *per se* then you'll need to leave the program, then you should study GGT on your own / during your master's degree first in order to find out whether it's interesting enough to you to spend years of your life on. (I think GGT is really interesting. If I hadn't done arithmetic geometry, I think I would have had fun with it. So I assure you that there is nothing wrong with that subsubfield of mathematics!)
> I don't want to pursue a PhD for anything in this world. I just want to stay focus on creating a meaningful work life around my passion.
Huh? This time I don't understand at all. Please elaborate/rephrase.
> 2 votes
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Tags: phd, career-path
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thread-17576 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17576 | Should a Ph.D. be done with a low h-indexed professor | 2014-03-01T11:31:37.733 | # Question
Title: Should a Ph.D. be done with a low h-indexed professor
I live in a 3rd world country and at one of top universities in my country a professor offered me a PhD position. I will pursue a part time PhD while working full time. I have to decide on whether or not to accept his offer.
My PhD chances in U.S. or other western countries where an established academic community exists is infinitesimal. This is due to my undergraduate degree is from another nationally lower ranked school than the nationally top ranked university I mentioned. Professors at my undergraduate school have no connection with western researchers and no cares about them, my undergradute professors also do not care about the international academic community.
Though the institution I was offered to pursue a PhD is nationally reputed and having a PhD degree from there carries a nationwise reputation, I believe that my postdoc chances from decent to good schools in western countries are very low. My professor has a title as Professor, but his h-index is extremely low (\< 10), while his western colleagues usually have an index of greater than 30, and usually renowed ones have an index of gretaer than 50. Also his students do not seem to secure good postdocs.
I have started to dislike my professor too. I may work with him a few years and apply for a PhD after obtaining some publications, but still I will need his connections.
This might be my only chance for a PhD and I am not sure what to do. What are my chances in western academic system after this PhD ? Should a PhD done with a professor whose work does not receive much citations and who publishes rarely ?
# Answer
Picking a PhD supervisor based on his h-index is like picking a car based on his horse-power; you ignore a huge number of factors that are probably equally important if not more. It is drivable (can you work with this person?), is it expensive to run (do the guy needs to pampered and treated like royalty?), are other owners happy with their purchase (are his other PhD students happy with his supervision?), etc. etc. Getting a really fast car only to crash it cause you can't drive it does mean much and getting a supervisor who after a year's time makes you want to quit your PhD doesn't mean much either. Most probably in both cases people are going to think less of you.
I think the most important thing is that you say that "I have started to dislike my professor too." that is a major problem and you should not pick a supervisor that you dislike. I do not mean that by being "homies" with supervisor; I mean about mutual respect and ability to work efficiently and with understanding about each other maybe "small quirks". (eg. My supervisor avoided setting up morning meeting with me because I am a night-person; it was fine, he even joked up about it at times "Next week I have X thing going on so we probably need to meet at 11.00. I know you'll just be out of bed but that is my only available time." That did not mean though I was not expected to be always punctuational for our meeting or having worked seriously on the projects at hand.
To recap: As you present things I would say "do not to work with this professor" but not because of his low h-index but because you say you do not like him and that his PhD students seem not to take good positions (low after-sales value :) ).
You mention that US institution are out of the equation effectively; "fine". Have you thought of PhD programmes in Europe? Some small, not too famous but reputable universities in EU can be stepping stones for a post-doc in US (Given you do excellent work at your PhD obviously).
> 24 votes
# Answer
Having a low h-index doesn't mean that your professor is a poor scientist, in the same way that having a high h-index doesn't guarantee he/she is a good one. The primary reason is that the h-index is bounded from above by the total number of publications, so people who have entered the field recently have a lower h-index than those that have been working there for decades, simply because the former haven't had so much time to publish enough papers. Additionally, the h-index only cares about a minimum number of citations per publication, and it doesn't take into account the total number of citations per publication or the importance of those citations. For example, if I publish two papers in *Science* and then retire from academia, my h-index will never be higher than 2, even if those two papers are completely revolutionary and get cited a kazillion times by the biggest guns in the field. In contrast, if I publish 20 papers reporting trivial and mundane results in *North Dakota Community College Engineering Bulletin* that only get cited by a bunch of my colleagues in a seventh-rate journal, I can potentially get my h-index up to 20.
A better way of deciding if you want to work with this person is to spend an afternoon reading through some of his recent work, and then to ask yourself: *Does this person's work look interesting enough that I want to spend the next several years talking to him every day?*. Or *If I was already a professor, would I advise my own students to go get a PhD under this guy?*. Or, if in doubt, ask these questions to your current mentors, who probably will have a more informed opinion than you do.
> 6 votes
# Answer
I think the question of how good your advisor will be is of secondary importance here because the real question is will you do a PhD or not? PhD positions are not easy to come by (depending on the field of study.) This may be your only chance.
The role of advisor is of course important, especially when it comes to getting your post-doc positions. You need to ask whether you are confident enough in your own abilities to write notable papers that are going to compensate for the shortcomings of the advisor. Have you discussed with him the projects that he will want you to work on? The biggest danger is that he will want you to do something that you are not inspired by. If you like the projects he proposes and feel confident that you can do well even if your advisor's help is limited then you should go for it.
At least you will still be working part time so you have a backup. Why not give it a try and be prepared to drop out after one year if it does not look promising (but don't tell the prof that obviously).
One more thing, if you do go for it try to have a more positive attitude. No advisor is perfect but they are usually on your side.
> 3 votes
# Answer
I had a similar dilemma when I decided to pursue the PhD. The rank of the program is important but the intersection of your advisor's work and your interests is the critical factor. If your research is not related to that of your advisor, he will not be able to offer insights to guide you along. You can get in-depth guidance about literature searches, literature reviews, and selecting and arguing a thesis from many outstanding reference books. Furthermore, your advisor cannot cover the breadth and depth of these reference books in the few short meetings that will be allotted to you. What you need is concise, trenchant insight that is relevant to the research.
> 2 votes
# Answer
To address your last question:
> Should a PhD done with a professor whose work does not receive much citations and who publishes rarely ?
There are many considerations as pointed out by other answers. H-index is one measure that might help you understand, at a glance, things about a scholar, but given the seriousness of your situation (wanting to do a PhD) you should dig deeper. For instance, does the professor have a low H-index because he is new to the field (as mentioned by Koldito)? Or is the H-index low because his area is highly specialized, and quite small? These might be reasons for relaxing how important this metric is in making your decision.
If, on the other hand, his H-index is low because he does not publish often (e.g. he does not value publishing as a scholarly work), or because he publishes in venues with low impact, these might be good reasons for concern. Similarly, you note that others in his field who would be experts from the west would have an H-index \> 50; if this professor isn't an expert in the field then I would consider that cause for legitimate concern too.
You asked a second question:
> This might be my only chance for a PhD and I am not sure what to do. What are my chances in western academic system after this PhD ?
Your insight that his previous students don't tend to get good postdocs is something to consider, especially if other students in the university are able to secure quality postdoc positions. My personal experience has been that if you want to secure a position in the western academic system you need to do something there first (a degree, a postdoc, etc.), so making sure your PhD puts you on the path to achieving this sounds like it is important for your goals. I would encourage you to ask the adviser directly who he collaborates with and how you can get experience through the PhD working with scholars worldwide. Be explicit about your goals. If he decides he doesn't want to work with you because of this, then he probably isn't the right supervisor for you.
And a final note of advice, your social networks and institutional affiliations are more important when you are looking for that first academic job than your h-index. H-index is used more regularly for judging things like tenure, promotion, etc. In the western system, from my experience, you want people to know at a glance that you have credentials that are rigorous and prestigious. If doing a PhD with this professor won't put you on this track then you should seriously consider your other options. But dig deeper than the H-index to investigate this.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I have been working as a graduate advisor for many years and I am giving you suggestions based on that experience. I hope I don't sound overly critical, just a couple of things I usually tell incoming PhD students about their expectations of graduate school. This may be because I work mostly with undergraduates transitioning directly into graduate school, so often I have to play the antagonist in these discussions to challenge my students to think about their own plans for their own future. And to be realistic. So here goes:
Most importantly, I think that you should also consider the amount of effort you are willing to put into the PhD. Typically, PhD students are asked to commit full time to it, and though this varies with the discipline, my experience working with PhD students is that the more time they spend developing themselves as academics and masters of their field, the better they do professionally.
I am concerned that you do not like your mentor/professor much. Are there others on your committee (or academics you are considering to be on your committee) that you do prefer? It's not unusual to not see eye-to-eye with your mentor - it is unusual that you don't want to continue working/ knowing him after your graduate - but rather his connections. Typically, his word to his connections is what begins your immersion in his network - so you will have to be careful to either keep that disdain in check or work will not be fun and challenging (as it should be) and will end up being a chore and make you more frustrated - and isolated.
Finally, about rising in the ranks of academia. Being a part of the Western academic society is not the ultimate social status. Being a highly valued academic in your chosen field of work is.
Good luck!
> 1 votes
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Tags: phd, publications, postdocs
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thread-17606 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17606 | My supervisor plagiarised my bachelor thesis: what can I do about it? | 2014-03-02T02:15:01.347 | # Question
Title: My supervisor plagiarised my bachelor thesis: what can I do about it?
In July 2012 I submitted a bachelor's thesis on a machine learning topic. I designed an algorithm that I developed in Java.
Now I have found a publication (September 2012) by my supervisor with all the results of my thesis, including images, with only a thanks at the end for the "Java implementations", but all of the results and the designed algorithm were taken from my thesis. The supervisor has not added anything to what I had already written in my thesis.
For me she had to add my name as a co-author of publications. Of course the supervisor helped me in the writing of the thesis but having only revived my job in publishing, then I was expecting my name as a co-author because she has not added anything new.
What recourse do I have?
**Edit1:**
One problem is that my thesis, about 140 page, was written in Italian and the pubblication was in English. For this reason I suppose it's hard to write to the Journal to show him my thesis. In addition, my thesis is not published online on any official channel.
The project and the thesis was made by me and one other student with the constant help of her (supervisor). But on the publication the name is of Supervisor, Co-supervisor and one more people (i suppose this people have translated 140 italian page in 5-6 english page) but why not me?
In add now I'm in other city, in other university and now i have no bridge between my supervisor.
If i have no more contact (only an email) with supervisor is there any way to write to the person who published that? and how can I prove that content is that of my thesis?
# Answer
Unfortunately, your story does not seem implausible to me at all. Here in central Europe, some computer science departments seem to have a *very* lax mentality when it comes to acknowledging research contributions coming from undergrads or non-research master students. In some places, this thinking seems to be so ingrained that even otherwise honest and fair researchers do not even consider putting the name of undergrads on papers despite their work making up a significant part of the paper's research contribution (something that the same faculty would never do and, in fact, consider highly unethical, if the student was a PhD or a master student on a research track). I guess part of the problem is that around here, the majority of students heading for an industry career (which is almost everybody at many large universities) does not care one way or another, so nobody really complains about this practice (which, of course, does not make it ok).
*(the following is written under the assumption that what you wrote is actually correct - clearly, my advise is terrible if you vastly overstated your contributions)*
> If i have no more contact (only an email) with supervisor is there any way to write to the person who published that? and how can I prove that content is that of my thesis?
You should **definitely** get in touch with your supervisor. Keep the mail friendly, but do make clear that you are not ok with how this has went down. If (s)he is one of those that simply did not consider whether you should actually also be a co-author of this paper, there is a good chance that (s)he is in fact pretty embarrassed by the incident. Presumably, the first thing that the faculty will explain that this "is just the way it works around here". Don't accept this excuse (even though it might be factually true). Be aware that you are in the right here, and that you raising your valid concerns to the conference organisers will **at least** be **really** embarrassing for the faculty (and, as stated on this website once, reputation is the currency of science), so you do have some leverage.
Essentially, I think the onus is on the faculty to come up with a solution here. It is not like **you** need to think of a way how this can be resolved sufficiently. *Maybe* your supervisor will think of a solution for your issue that is acceptable for you. As a last resort, you can contact the organisers of the conference, as stated by just-learning, and give them the information that you also gave us above (now deleted). Be aware that you will likely gain little by this move, though - presumably, either nothing will happen or the paper will be removed from the proceedings. In any case, the reputation of the authors will likely be tarnished quite a bit by this incident, and, as stated in another answer, you will have certainly burned all bridges with this group of people.
> 12 votes
# Answer
The primary question here is what you would like to see happen.
It sounds like you are angry that your work was plagiarized, but are scared that it will impact your current work.
Typically universities have an ethics group or commission. Look into one at your past-supervisor's university. These groups often keep their work secret and use mediation to resolve such issues. That would be a good place to start to know the options available to you.
Good luck!
> 7 votes
# Answer
If this paper was published in a journal, you can write to the editor and state your case (or better, if you can, have a senior colleague to do that: (s)he would have more clout with the editor) and ask which are the available options (retraction, publishing a comment stating your authorship, etc.). It would be helpful if your thesis was available online for all that time at some respectable (and easily accessible) place like the University online repository, and the thesis has a reliable date stamp preceding the date of submission of the paper.
**Caution**: if you follow the above advice, **be prepared to burn all bridges with the person who plagiarized your work**.
**EDIT:** Following the suggestion given in comments below by Pete L. Clark: you may wish to consider discussing the situation with the supervisor first and, if you could agree on that, write to the journal together requesting the correction (adding your name as an author) rather than pointing out the plagiarism case. However, be warned that the odds of reaching such a compromise with the supervisor are, in my opinion, rather slim, and you should still be prepared to burn all bridges with the supervisor if the conversation doesn't produce any reasonable outcome.
In any case, it would be extremely unlikely to obtain (supportive) letters of recommendation from this supervisor.
> 3 votes
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Tags: publications, thesis, computer-science
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thread-14548 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/14548 | Guiding a mentee towards greater independence | 2013-12-05T23:41:54.683 | # Question
Title: Guiding a mentee towards greater independence
I am a Master's student who is mentoring a recent graduate through a research project in the same field (of astronomy). He is a very good *student*, but struggles with one of the realities of being an astronomer - coding. Right now, he is just running code others have written, but despite my strong suggestion that he start learning the language, still asks for my help on even the most elementary of problems. His confidence in using computers is lacking, and if he continues in the field it will become a serious hindrance.
I did provide a very high level of assistance early on, but this was mostly due to a couple of bugs in setting my own code up on his computer. In later stages of this research project, he is going to need to write some basic code of his own, so I feel we're getting to the stage where we need to establish a greater level of independence.
One of the key points of difference between a student and a researcher is that a researcher solves their own problems. It is the job of a mentor and supervisor to *assist* in that, but I feel that my mentee still feels entitled that I should solve his problems for him (I only solved "his" problems before because a bug in code that I wrote is *my* responsibility). It's time to start taking a more hands-off approach: I'm happy to give advice on how he might solve a problem, but it's his responsibility to sit down and implement that idea.
How should I approach this problem - (a) with my mentee, and (b) with our supervising professor (we have the same supervisor)?
# Answer
> 14 votes
**Disclaimer:** I am a current PhD student and speak from personal experience as one who has guided both masters as well as undergraduate students.
Learning how to code appropriately takes skill, time and confidence (among other things). My strategy for this while mentoring students is as follows:
1. Develop a small project which will have some significant coding component in it but will still add to the overall project. Lay out the coding expectations and deliverables very clearly. Don't start with something too difficult.
2. Consider using version control tools (such as git) to manage your mentee's code. Be very clear about what languages/libraries etc. you plan to use and how this code will add to the project.
3. Lay out a timeline with your mentee with very specific coding expectations.
4. Achieve each small component with your mentee. Guide (but **don't** spoonfeed/handhold) your mentee. Make sure that he/she codes everything by him/herself.
5. Give him/her a small reward. (coffee/sugary thingy/beer) This always makes my students very happy. :)
In my experience, once a mentee has achieved a small project by him/herself, they are usually quick and eager to move onto the next objective. I use this to ramp up the difficulty level slowly but surely.
Regarding the second part of your question, I would definitely keep your supervisor/adviser in the loop regarding this. He/She may have much better suggestions than any that I have to offer here.
# Answer
> 9 votes
One of the more difficult tasks of the mentor is to assess current skill levels, set milestones accordingly, and ensure that the student has the necessary resources (and capabilities) to improve his skills.
At your admission, he is a novice coder, if that. Are you setting expectations too high? Does he have the right resources to learn how to code? There are lots of books/websites/youtube videos/whatever that teach coding; is he aware of these tools? Does he know how to use his IDE? Having watched my wife learn to code as a graduate student, I learned that the ability to represent a theoretical solution in software is a skill that takes a lot of time to develop. He may just need time.
Having said that, if you've done all that and he's still not making any progress (after sufficient time... say, two to four months), then you may have to recommend that he take time off from working on your research until he becomes a more proficient coder.
# Answer
> 5 votes
The other answers assume that the mentoring relationship can be saved, and that there are specific actions you can take to help the mentee. I want to add that sometimes, that isn't the case.
As a PhD student who is the main "experimentalist" in my group, I mentor many other students (grad, undergrad, even high school summer research students). Some are very good, some are very bad.
Also, like mmh, I mentored 6 or 7 grad students when I myself was an undergrad (because I was more experienced with the particular project).
**Mentoring students is hard when you are yourself a student**, especially when your mentees are officially at a "higher level" (of study) than you.
Unlike the official faculty advisor, you don't have the ability to enforce consequences for the student's poor performance. Sometimes you feel that the mentee isn't putting as much effort into the mentoring relationship as they would if the mentor was a professor. A student mentor is more approachable than a faculty mentor, which can be good (mentee feels more comfortable asking questions and admitting weaknesses!) or bad (mentee doesn't respect and value mentor's time because he's "only" a student!) depending on the mentor and mentee personalities.
On the other hand, unlike a faculty mentor, you have the distinct advantage that **the student is really not your responsibility.** If you feel the mentoring relationship is not working out, you can always say the following to the faculty member who **is responsible for the student:**
**"I've been spending a lot of time working with X and I feel like it's not really a productive mentoring relationship. He is taking up a lot of my time, without putting in the effort that he would need to learn what I can teach him, and then become more independent. Please find someone else to work with him to get him up to speed."**
# Answer
> 3 votes
Some relevant questions. What is the computational background of your student? Has he ever done any coding before? If so, what languages? What is his general computer literacy? What language are you trying to get him to use? You just write "learning the language". Programming languages vary greatly in their difficulty for someone without experience.
The first programming language I ever tried to learn was C, in the middle of an already busy semester as a grad student, for a course in numerical analysis, in 1997. I used the famous book by Kernighan and Ritchie. I had zero experience of programming at that time, and in hindsight it was a crazy thing to try to do. The instructor didn't offer any programming help; neither did anyone else. I think the instructor was a fan of Fortran. :-) At that time online forums were probably in their infancy. In any case, it never occurred to me to try and use them. There were easier languages to use even in 1997. For example Python 1 existed at the time, though I don't know how usable it was. Anyway, I think I came last in the programming assignments - I think I didn't hand the last one or two assignments out of sheer exhaustion.
Unfortunately the culture in academia with respect to programming and related computer work is very much - toss people in at the deep end and let them sink or swim. This is caused by several factors - often the instructors/senior people are very ignorant. Second, there is a feeling that programming languages are too trivial to teach people and they should just pick it up themselves.
Anyway, I think, depending on what language you are trying to get your student to learn - consider having him learn something easier and more user friendly. I recommend Python. Have him do some simple exercises and gradually warm up to something more difficult. A language like C/C++/Fortran is probably easier to learn once one has learnt some programming in a language that does not require things like compilation and manual memory management. These days there are many resources online to help the novice programmer - point him to some of them. E.g. Stack Overflow. Also, tell him to give high priority to learning version control. I recommend Mercurial. Git is probably fine, but it gives even experienced people a headache. It might be quite scary for an inexperienced person.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Since you are not a professional programmer yourself, it is a poor idea to have you teach programming to your mentee. He should take a real programming course with Python or Ruby or Java, be that online (EdX is offering a computer science course starting Jan 1, 2014), or with a real instructor at your home school. That way, he won't learn your errors (which you admit you make), and will learn the professional tools like the revision control which I think Faheem Mitha mentioned.
Poor programming skills among scientists is an unseen, but a real impediment to reproducibility of research, its soundness, and eventually scientific progress.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Since your supervisor put you in this mentoring position, you need to let her/him know that you've run into this issue with the mentee. Then have the conversation with the mentee that "It's time to start taking a more hands-off approach: I'm happy to give advice on how he might solve a problem, but it's his responsibility to sit down and implement that idea." (your words are perfect!)
I supervise Higher Ed grad students - some are eager to work independently, others not so much. Be consistent with your expectations with all mentees you supervise. Help him by directing him to resources that will help him and set a weekly time to meet where you both go over progress made. You're not the one learning here, the effort is required from the one doing the learning. Be nice, but be firm.
Good luck!
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Tags: mentoring
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thread-17625 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17625 | Can I submit published articles to arXiv as well? | 2014-03-02T14:09:55.997 | # Question
Title: Can I submit published articles to arXiv as well?
I have several math research articles on my site.
Some of my articles are published in open access journals.
Some of my articles are currently available only from my site.
I may probably publish something in a closed access journal.
The question: Should I put these kinds of articles at arXiv (and possibly replace articles on my site with redirect to arXiv)? I think yes, because it would increase visibility of my articles, as many people search on arXiv and/or receive arXiv mailing lists.
Is it ethical to put an already published article also at arXiv?
# Answer
Well you can put your published articles on arxiv just for visibility purposes, but you will be having problems with the copyright of the journals and conferences in which your work is published. Essentially, the editors will not get too busy to track you down, but it is not ethical.
There is one way to go around this problem, publish in arxiv the draft versions of your articles, the ones that are a little bit different from the published ones. In that case you would not have any kind of ethical issues (you can also put them on your webpage, but always look to the copyright forms)
Good luck!
> 6 votes
# Answer
I suggest you first of all check
* the copyright transfers you signed
* the publisher's FAQ on rights you retain as author
Many publishers nowadays allow you to self-archive the version of the manuscript that passed the review. Some do not allow self-archiving on public repositories (but e.g. Elsevier makes an exception explicitly for arXiv). For a quick overview have a look at the SHERPA/RoMEO site.
* and your local copyright legislation.
E.g. the German UrhG now allows secondary publication (e.g. to arXiv) of your manuscript (including the version with exactly the content of the published paper) for journal contributions that were financed mainly by public grants.
> 25 votes
# Answer
Albeit not a mathematician, I like to add this: if your work was supported by a public agency and got accepted for a peer-reviewed journal, public agencies may have a policy to make these manuscripts available for everybody.
See (as example) the public access policy by the U.S. National Institute of Health:
> The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central immediately upon acceptance for publication. To help advance science and improve human health, the Policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public on PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication.
Depending on the journals listed in PMC, some articles are "Free Access" immediately (if published in journals like like *European Journal of Histochemistry*), delay of six months (like *Organogenesis*) or twelve (like *Optics Express*), for example.
While not a mathematician, I'm glad to see NIH *does* fund work in mathematics, too (according to their publication database). Of course, NIH's public access policy is in regard to the single articles published, not the entire journals listed.
> 1 votes
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Tags: publications, copyright, arxiv, online-publication
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thread-17644 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17644 | Are academic jobs easy to get in New Zealand for someone with a good PhD and Post-Doc experience? | 2014-03-02T23:00:49.507 | # Question
Title: Are academic jobs easy to get in New Zealand for someone with a good PhD and Post-Doc experience?
I have a Ph.D student (in a science related field, I don't want to be too specific) who seems to think that getting a professor job in New Zealand (his home country) would be no problem since he "knows people" who "like him" and just has to "ask around". New Zealand is his native country.
I have some very serious doubts about this since I know how hard it is in the US to land a good postdoc, much less a tenure track appointment. Can anyone who knows about New Zealand's universities fill me in? Is it really an "old-boys club" like the student seems to suggest? Are there really a lot of jobs to go around to New Zealander's with a degree from a good university and good postdoc experience. (I do mean good, not top 5 etc.)
# Answer
This may be subject-dependent, but my impression is that it is certainly not like that in mathematics (my subject). I come from New Zealand and would probably like to return to live there eventually, but I'm expecting to have to do at least one more postdoc (I'm already on my second, but my first was just one year) before I have any chance of a permanent job there. (And I do know people there who I think probably like me and, more importantly, are interested in my research.)
There are so few universities in New Zealand (eight, but one is small and primarily agricultural, I think) that there are by no means anywhere near enough academic jobs available to employ all New Zealanders with PhDs and postdocs from 'good' universities.
Still, I can imagine that if your student does indeed 'know people who like him' in New Zealand, his chances may very well be better there than for US universities of comparable standard (this is assuming that 'liking him' partly includes being impressed with his academic work).
> 7 votes
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Tags: phd, job-search, postdocs, new-zealand
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thread-17619 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17619 | How much does a low undergraduate CGPA affect chances of getting a faculty job in a top-tier university? | 2014-03-02T12:24:24.310 | # Question
Title: How much does a low undergraduate CGPA affect chances of getting a faculty job in a top-tier university?
Your undergraduate CGPA is quite low, but you were somehow accepted into a respected Masters and PhD program, and completed your postgraduate work quite successfully. Your undergraduate major was the same general field as your postgraduate research.
You are now beginning your academic job search. How would the low CGPA affect your chances of getting a job at a top-tiered academic institution in the US or UK?
If yes, then what else can you do in the meantime to counteract the negative effects of that low CGPA?
(btw, I am asking this for a friend, not for me as I am not in academia)
# Answer
As you have already done **Masters** and **PhD**, your CGPA in undergraduate is least to be bothered. If you are in academia, your quality of research matters more than the grades that you have obtained long back in undergraduate studies.
As your credential will grow, your resume will be filled with much more valued contents rather than just grades.
> 11 votes
# Answer
For applications for faculty positions people would usually state only their undergrad degrees with date, subject and university. For postdoc applications, one could include more detail, but I don't think anyone would get suspicious if no grades are listed.
Thus, having low grades on your undergrad studies would have no direct impact on jobchances after the PhD, because people simply wouldn't know about them.
> 8 votes
# Answer
What you have done since your undergraduate days is far more significant than how focused/motivated you were at that time. Everyone understands that students are still figuring out their priorities, and that adolescents are insane by definition.
If you're worried about it anyway, you may want to have an answer ready in case someone asks you about them. Mine would be a combination of:
-- I was spending too much time on student activities, mostly on volunteer projects though I admit D&D ate a great deal of my spare time as a freshman.
-- I was still figuring out what I wanted my actual career path to be. (In fact, my degree says EE but I've wound up returning to CS ... my grades would have been better if I'd stuck with my first love, but I felt I needed to balance my knowledge of software with more hardware insight.)
-- I was more concerned with learning the material than with proving I had learned the material. As a result, I tended to work hardest on homework in the classes where I was struggling, and sometimes blew off homework in classes where I felt I didn't need the practice. If you could look at my records in greater detail, you'd see a fair number of courses where my final grade was a B because my homework grade was C but I blew away the final. Obviously, I've gotten smarter about time management since then.
Note that every one of those, while true and admitting a failure, also acts as an opportunity to discuss what I learned from that failure, what *strengths* it demonstrates to offset the failure, and why I'm a good candidate now. Use it as an opportunity for storytelling and marketing; make lemonade out of the lemons.
> 3 votes
# Answer
My grandfather was famously (within the family) asked just this question (concerning poor undergraduate marks) during his interview an M.Sc. program. His answer was roughly "As an undergraduate, I enjoyed being an undergraduate; now I am ready to concentrate on my studies." He was accepted eagerly, and the subject never came up again.
> 1 votes
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Tags: job-search, undergraduate, faculty-application, gpa
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thread-17653 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17653 | Are Canadian applicants favored in graduate admissions or funding for Canadian graduate programs? | 2014-03-03T03:28:05.693 | # Question
Title: Are Canadian applicants favored in graduate admissions or funding for Canadian graduate programs?
I'm not sure if this question is off-topic here, but I have applied to some Canadian master's economics programs as an international student along with my Canadian classmates. Even though I have a better academic record than they do, I didn't get into the schools with as much funding as my Canadian classmates. My question is why is it so? Based on my knowledge and experience, I don't think that schools in US have this type of a double standard policy, as I received enough funding from some public universities there. I know I could be wrong as I may well be generalizing.
# Answer
Without knowing the details of your classmates funding, it's difficult to say whether there's bias. Having said that, Canadian students will be at a definite *advantage* when trying to get funding at a Canadian University.
For some students, funding at the Masters level will be formed from multiple sources:
1. Government Scholarships. Some of these are open to international students, others are not. For example, the NSERC Vanier scholarships accept international applicants, but the NSERC CGS M does not.
2. University scholarships: These are typically funded from a variety of sources which will have varying requirements. Some must go to students from Canada, some must go to international students, some are purely merit based.
3. TA/RA-ships. My experience is that these typically aren't restricted based on international status, but I can't say for sure.
So, it's easy enough to imagine that your friends funding could simply include scholarship money that is unavailable to you as an international student. Most universities realize that international students aren't on perfectly even footing, and will have sections of their websites dedicated to funding for international students. This could be of great help for you, though the money might not come soon enough for you to be able to make it work.
Another thing to mention, is that some countries have scholarships for outgoing international scholars. These vary hugely, but should also be considered.
> 6 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, ethics, funding
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thread-16893 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16893 | How do search committees use feedback from one-on-one faculty meetings during an academic interview? | 2014-02-13T01:26:51.940 | # Question
Title: How do search committees use feedback from one-on-one faculty meetings during an academic interview?
I am wondering how the search committees take into account feedback that is provided by faculty members who meet one-on-one with a candidate. I am curious about both the process as well as how the committee considers the feedback when making their decision.
So, for example, does the faculty member who meets with the candidate email the committee as soon as the discussion is done to write about how the meeting went? Are they evaluating the candidate on "culture fit", technical prowess, teaching/research, etc.? Do they have veto power over a candidate? Do they meet with the search committee and discuss candidates after everyone's met with each one? Is it the same faculty who meet one-on-one with the candidates, or does it depend on who's available that day?
I'm rather interested in the process of how it works, for those who have been on search committees, and that is why I ask this question. I am most interested in responses for research interviews for institutions in the United States but experiences from other locations would be valuable as I am sure that the process is not identical even within one country (or even one department).
This question is highly related, but isn't specifically addressing what I am wondering.
# Answer
> 7 votes
*I am in a US R1 institution in a department of computer science.*
All departments have their own style. Ours is something like this:
* Each candidate is "governed" by a search committee (we often have multiple searches in different areas) consisting of 4-5 faculty.
* Each candidate is "hosted" by one specific person on the committee: the host's job is to be the candidate liaison to the process, as well as managing the interview schedule, and making everything run smoothly from the department's point of view
* Immediately after the interview, the host sends out mail to the faculty requesting formal feedback via email. The host will also typically buttonhole people in the hallway to get informal "vibes" as well.
* after the formal feedback is collected (and anonymized depending on how things go), and after all candidates have been interviewed, the search committee sits down to assess the pool.
At this stage, faculty feedback plays the following role (the committee has already discussed the technical merits and strengths/weaknesses of the candidates):
> * Is there a clear consensus in favor of a candidate ?
> * Are there candidates that are drawing strong (and well-founded) opposition from the faculty ?
> * If the committee decides to choose one particular candidate to put forward to the faculty at large, will there be significant opposition, and why ?
> * what is the overall sense that the faculty appears to have about the candidates in general ?
After this is done, the committee might choose to:
* present a candidate as a consensus choice
* present two candidates as co-consensus choices that the faculty at large can vote on
* decide that no candidate has crossed the bar for a faculty-wide vote.
To answer your specific questions that aren't covered above:
* no one person (not even the chair!) has a veto over hiring someone, but obviously people closer technically to the candidate will have a "weightier" opinion. The way our structure works, it's possible (though unlikely to happen) that the committee will nix someone that the faculty all like, which is a sort of collective veto
* faculty are assembled to meet the candidate based primarily on possible match of interest, and occasionally also for tactical reasons :). The host will make sure that people who are stakeholders in the hire meet as many candidates as possible. But there's of course an element of "who's available that day".
# Answer
> 0 votes
I've been on a hiring committee twice. We don't typically have formal "one-to-one" meetings, but we do make a lot of time for informal discussions with the candidate and one or more faculty.
Each time, we have hired in an area which I'm very interested in but only know a very little bit about. So, I always have "stupid" questions in the back of my mind which I can ask to the candidates. This gives me a good opportunity to be favorably impressed by them.
Another thing I like to do is start talking about my own research area. Sometimes candidates will know at least a little bit about it and will ask very interesting questions. This also makes a positive impression, especially when it leads to a long discussion.
I don't care much about "culture fit", but candidates do, and they often ask a lot of questions about my university, the department atmosphere, and what the city is like.
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Tags: job-search, interview
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thread-17651 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17651 | How to handle getting offers from two PhD supervisors who know each other? | 2014-03-03T03:04:40.197 | # Question
Title: How to handle getting offers from two PhD supervisors who know each other?
The problem: I have a professor that accepted me to take on a thesis when i'm ready but another one offered me one also. The second one did it while the first professor was in the room and I felt the obligation to deny it, even though we have way better communication with the second one.
Both of them know each other very well (they even have neighboring offices) and denying one of them will complicate things and the worst case is that none of them will give me a thesis because I will seem too selfish.
The question: How can I choose the second one (if the offer is still on) without making a mess?
# Answer
> 14 votes
I recently posted a question about being on the other side of this scenario - a professor in my university offered to take on a student who had already agreed to work with me (and had been working with me for the previous year already).
You'll notice from reading that question and its responses that while I was a bit annoyed with the professor, I wasn't upset with the student. In fact, I advised the student to choose the advisor he thought would be best for him, and gave him a good recommendation to the other professor in case that's what he chose.
That's because **the student is supposed to act in his/her own best interest** (while still being responsible and professional, of course). It's not being selfish, it's being smart.
The first professor shouldn't get upset with you for pursuing an opportunity that is better for you - if he/she does, then you *really* don't want to work with someone like that, anyways.
So, go talk to the second professor: "I was thinking some more about your offer to advise me on my thesis and I have reconsidered my original decision. Is the offer still available?"
If he/she says yes, accept the offer and go talk to the first professor: "I really appreciate your offer to advise me on my thesis, but I've decided to work with X instead. Thanks, again."
# Answer
> 4 votes
\[I am assuming that you are in the American system where PhD students are admitted to and funded by the program as a whole rather than any particular advisor. I can't speak for the etiquette in other systems.\]
I don't really see a problem here at all. At any time you can work with any faculty advisor who will have you. Switching advisors may seem awkward from the student perspective, but in fact it is very common. If you haven't even started working with one advisor, then no time has been invested in the advising relationship, and you can start working with someone else without any qualms whatsoever. (Even after you have started working with one advisor, you can still switch at any time, but if you've worked with one advisor for a while then it does start to feel a bit awkward. Sometimes one must do awkward things...)
If the two professors know each other well, then of course they will find out about it, yes, but it should not be embarrassing or problematic for them: it's just the way things work. If you are sure that you want to work with the second professor, talk to the second professor to make sure that this offer is still on the table. Then accept it and immediately tell the first professor that your plans have changed. No biggie.
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Tags: professorship, thesis, ethics
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thread-17581 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17581 | Is there any reason to not make course details public? | 2014-03-01T13:05:20.753 | # Question
Title: Is there any reason to not make course details public?
While attending a course sometime back, I recall an instructor saying, "I need to warn (other instructor's name)...their course syllabus is available to anyone!"
I do not have access to an LMS for my classroom-based course, so I just post my course details to a regular Web hosting service. On the Web site, students, or anyone else, can easily locate:
* the syllabus
* exam study guide
* homework instructions
I cannot think of any reason why this would be a problem, but recall the comment, so wonder if there might be some issue I have overlooked. Is there any reason why any of this information should not be open to the public?
# Answer
> 13 votes
Basically, I would answer no! There are, however, several issues that may prevent people from publishing material openly. One is if it contains copyrighted material, another is if the material contains hints that can help students gain an unfair advantage. In your list, the only possible issue could be with the third if those in any way could lead to an unfair advantage (not that I can think of how). That said, many publish homework questions, lecture materials etc on web sites that can be found by a search. I have benefited from finding such materials when developing my own courses and I am very grateful for that. Returning to your three points, I think they provide a good basis for students to decide what they can expect from the course and hopefully will attract the right students to it.
# Answer
> 2 votes
As @PeterJansson explains putting material online has many advantages for the students. But I believe that there are two small conditions for this.
First, that the author keeps control of the material. By this I mean that is not just posted somewhere on the internet where the author cannot modify it. This is because usually the material created and typesetted by a single person has not gone through a publishing process and usually has many errors an typos that the author should be able to correct anytime. This is the reason why I believe any uploaded material should always explain the way to contact the author (at least an email address). We all have found note on the web plagued with error that the author either can't correct or doesn't even know they exist.
Second, that the existence of the material and the way to access the last version of it is explained to all the student attending the course. The problem is that we cannot control what happens whith the files once we upload them but at least we can tell students where to get the right version of them.
This is the way to avoid the only way to prevent the only form of unfair advantage I can think of which is some students having a more recent version of the notes or some students not knowing that the notes exist.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Let me put it this way, if I know of a published book that explains the topic of the course very nicely, do I have an advantage compared to my fellow classmates? One could think that. It is unfair? Not really, anyone could have done the same research as me and find the same book.
Some universities actually encourage professors to publish their class notes. It is a good way of getting prestige, as other professors can base their course plan on yours, or students may find the notes useful. In both cases, it is a very good publicity for the university, and very cheap.
Copyright issues are probably the only possible limitation, but they depend greatly on the subject: for modern English literature, you will need to comment on extracts of copyrighted books, and perhaps you want to avoid any legal fuzz regarding whether you are under fair use or not; but in mathematics there are hardly any copyrights in theorems.
Another reason not to have things public is if you are going to publish them as a book. But that is another ethics debate for another time.
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Tags: teaching, online-resource
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thread-17405 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17405 | How would a small liberal arts college view a PhD from Germany or the UK? Factors other than teaching ops? | 2014-02-25T18:23:46.587 | # Question
Title: How would a small liberal arts college view a PhD from Germany or the UK? Factors other than teaching ops?
**Main concern:** I am looking at PhD programs in Germany and the UK (vs US programs). Ideally, I would like to end up at a small liberal arts college (I got my BA from one). So I know I want a program with teaching requirements. I think this rules out France and Switzerland, but I believe many German PhD programs have teaching requirements. I also think the UK has teaching opportunities as well.
*Are there other factors I should be thinking about?*
**Specific Concerns I've thought of**
First, am I wrong in my assumption that there are only small liberal arts colleges in the US? Or are there places in Europe, where you can get the same research, teaching, and mentorship balance?
I know that liberal arts departments are smaller. Should I be worried that a foreign school that is good in my field might not be known in the department that I am applying to?
Also, I had a friend at Oxford, who said that she would need to do a postdoc (in a field that doesn't normally require them), because US universities will not see her 2 year masters + 3 year PhD, as equivalent to a master + 5 year PhD in the US. I'm in the sciences and my field doesn't normally require a masters. Should I also be concerned?
**Reasons** I am currently a Master student in a European program that allows us to do research in multiple countries (theoretically anywhere that will take us, but we have specific connections to France, Germany, and Switzerland). So far I really like the science culture here. I like how easy it is to collaborate with and even work in different labs. In my experience, PhD students in the US just don't have the mobility that EU students. I have an interdisciplinary focus, so this is very attractive to me. I also am interested in a very specific topic and there is better funding for it in Germany and (I think) in the UK.
In the US, it is hard to find a school with more than one lab working on the topic, I'm most interested in, so I like the idea of applying to the lab rather than the school. I am willing to consider working on related areas, but I'm not sure if I can spend 5 to 7 years working on something that is only tangential to my main interests. On the other hand, my Master program has a general focus and I would be interested in taking more classes that are specific to my main interests.
# Answer
It's hard to get a job teaching in America unless you do the degree in America. This is because so much of getting an academic job, especially at a small teaching college is going to depend upon personal connections.
Think about it from their point of view. The hiring committee wants somebody who is a good scholar, a good teacher, and a good citizen of the department (in some order, which factors are more important differ from school to school). It's really hard to evaluate somebody in depth along all three of those axes. It's even harder when you have a pile of three or four hundred applications for one job. So you use shortcuts.
One quick shortcut is no Ph.D. in hand, or a Ph.D. from a place that has a bad reputation. That cuts your pile to 200 or so applications. Then you look and see who doesn't have any good publications or presentations. Now you're down to 100 or so candidates, all of whom are very strong, but you're only going to be able to interview about 20 or so. So the next thing you look at is letters of recommendation. The way you get from that pile of 100 to the pile of 20 is by having letters of recommendation from people that members of the search committee have heard of. There's a chance that they've heard of your famous german mentor, but there's an even better chance that they haven't. Take two scholars X and Y of equal ability, but where X is an American and Y is a German. Let X and Y have equally good publication records and so on, it's still far more likely that the search committee has heard of X than that they've heard of Y, because they've got to conferences with X and heard X's papers and been impressed by him over drinks, etc. This matters hugely in terms of getting hired in the ultra competitive world of academic hiring, and so doing a degree abroad is always going to handicap you.
The only exception I can think of are Oxford and Cambridge. American scholars tend to know the names of those folks, and those two universities have such a strong reputation that you might not get penalized in this way having the degree from them. Everywhere else is a danger zone.
> 6 votes
# Answer
While my answer is pretty close to Pete Clark's, I'd like to put it a little differently: by doing a Ph.D. In Europe, you are taking a huge risk; there's a reasonable chance (not surety, probably not even balance of probability, but real chance) that you will end up with a record that will make you completely unhireable at a liberal arts college. Similarly, no matter what, you will be closing off the possibility of some liberal arts schools who are not going to consider a foreign Ph.D. Keep in mind, no matter where you're applying, there are going to be people with strong teaching records from institutions in the US in the candidate pool, and it's going to feel much lower risk to hire one of them rather than someone with a foreign Ph.D.
I want to emphasize, I'm not saying all, but some number will. I would only consider staying in Europe if you see a benefit that outweighs that risk, which I am not seeing in your current question, but I don't know the whole situation.
(Of course, you're taking a reasonably large risk by getting a Ph.D. anywhere and hoping enough liberal arts schools are still hiring by the time you finish. Nothing in life is sure.)
One good experiment: look at the CV's of young faculty at the sort of schools you're interested in being hired at. See what you find on them; that will probably be more valuable than whatever we're telling you.
You should also know, a lot of American academics think that in Europe, quality teaching is valued even less than in the US (I'll note, I'm not making a judgement about whether this is true, but simply that this is a widely held bias), so even if you have considerable experience with teaching in Europe, it may not actually help much. Schools are going to look not just at quantity but quality. They like to see class evaluations and reports from classroom observations, for example, so look carefully at what you'll be able to get those wherever you're going in Europe, and whether the courses you'll be doing are at an appropriate level.
**tl;dr**: it's possible that one could make this work out, but it's a big risk, so I would only consider it if you see a big benefit on the other side.
> 3 votes
# Answer
It's not impossible to get a PhD in Europe and then get hired in the US. I got my PhD in the Netherlands and a couple of years later got shortlisted for a tenure-track job at Stanford, no less. One of my grad school advisors got his PhD in Belgium and then got almost immediately hired at a SLAC (he then decided to return to Europe after a few years), as did a girl who was in a cohort a couple of years behind mine.
The reason why these stories are relatively uncommon is because the structure of graduate programs in Europe and the US is quite different. In Europe, there tends to be a disproportionate emphasis on producing a dissertation. I've met a number of people who have spent their *entire* time in graduate school (three or four years) working on their dissertations to the exclusion of everything else. In contrast, in US programs, the dissertation is just one requirement among many; before you even start to write your dissertation, you have to spend a couple of years taking courses, write one or two qualifying papers, and/or pass a qualifying exam. As a consequence, students with a US PhD tend to have a breadth of knowledge that students with a European PhD typically lack. Unsurprisingly, the European students that get hired or shortlisted in US institutions are invariably those that make a deliberate decision to delay writing their dissertation until their last 12-18 months, so that they can have a couple of years to take the kind of courses and do the type of research that gives them a breadth of knowledge comparable to that of their US peers.
So, if you want to study in Germany, what you want to look for is the kind of school and the kind of advisor that will push you to get out of your narrow topic of research and dabble in other subfields. If you can't find this much, you'll be better off going to a US graduate program of comparable standing.
> 3 votes
# Answer
I have not lived or worked in Europe, so discount accordingly, but my understanding is that, *yes*, "liberal arts college" does not really exist there. Also higher education in Europe is (at least in many parts; less so in the UK) already significantly more specialized than most US undergraduate education: the "Diplom thesis" that Germans write to get what is chronologically closest to an American bachelor's degree is often of a greater depth and sophistication than an American master's thesis (in mathematics, anyway). I am not really making a direct comparison, but one key to your question is that American liberal arts colleges and American research universities lie on a certain axis with respect to educational philosophies, and on this axis a European university would not lie between them but on the research university side.
Liberal arts colleges look carefully at their applicants for their familiarity with the issues of the above paragraph: they want their candidates to have had some direct prior experience with the liberal arts side of things. Candidates who have gone only to American research universities have real work to do to convince liberal arts colleges that they understand and value the liberal arts college product, to the extent that I think they should be doing some teaching-related activity which is above and beyond standard graduate student teaching. With this kind of additional work and attention, research-university candidates can still be successful...but I have still found that liberal arts colleges pay a bit more attention to **pedigree** -- i.e., where you got your degrees -- than research universities of the same quality.
So I think that doing your graduate training in Europe would be a strike against you, yes. If I were at a liberal arts college, I would worry that the culture of teaching in Europe is so different from that of the US that some of the acquired teaching experiences could actually be detrimental to acquiring good American liberal arts teaching practices. That's my general answer. The fact though that you went to a liberal arts college yourself is a huge point in your favor: that seems to be the best possible way to show familiarity with the liberal arts college ethos.
Overall I would say: if you know that your goal is to end up at a liberal arts college, doing graduate work in Europe is not the best preparation for that, no. But since you have liberal arts college experience, it shouldn't absolutely exclude you; rather, if for other reasons you find a European graduate program very desirable, you should be thinking from the beginning about how to keep yourself attractive to liberal arts colleges while doing so (e.g. a summer teaching opportunity in the US).
> 2 votes
# Answer
There is no specific requirement in the UK for teaching as a part of a PhD. The exception is when a University grants funding on the proviso that teaching work is undertaken - however, this is a separate contractual issue to the academic requirements of obtaining the PhD itself.
Having said that, most departments in the UK rely upon their PhD students for teaching (normally running tutor groups) and the available hours are handed out as evenly as possible. All you can do is to ask the department to which you are thinking of applying if teaching hours are available.
> 1 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-school, teaching, science, faculty-application
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thread-17668 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17668 | Keeping email records when moving between posts | 2014-03-03T13:39:01.520 | # Question
Title: Keeping email records when moving between posts
This question is about maintaining email records when changing institutions. I’m writing it here because it seems to be a problem quite specific to the academic context of managing long-term relationships within the context of a series of short-term posts which seems to typify post-doc life.
Now I’m in a new post-doc position, my student email has about 6 months left to run before everything is deleted when the account is closed, and which probably contains several thousand carefully filed emails (academic collaborations and correspondence, supervision and PhD project, university milestones, passwords, agreements...). Probably about only 30-40 of them will be crucial to me over the next couple of years, but it’s difficult to know which ones. I’d like to keep a fairly complete paper trail. I am also preparing to encounter this problem again when my post-doc post finishes in 18 months' time.
A colleague who was in a similar fix ended up mailing hundreds of emails to her new account, which is clearly less than ideal. Another colleague just prints everything and stores it in paper files. If I wasn’t in academia I would switch emails to a more permanent one, but it is essential to use the proper address for work correspondence, so this doesn’t appear to be an option, unless if anyone has any ideas.
(Technical bit: The previous system used Outlook and exchange on the web; the current system uses Outlook and outlook.com; the next system could use anything. To complicate things, Outlook has been auto-archiving files which means there are multiple .pst files, so this option looks a little nightmarish. I'm a mere social scientist, so eager to avoid a very technical solution.)
Has anybody found a reasonable system for handling this sort of problem, whether manual or automated, other than finding a permanent academic post?
# Answer
There are two distinct problems: having a permanent email address so that others can reach you even if they don't have your current details, and keeping an archive of your past emails.
### Email address
I have an email from my alumni association that's pretty much guaranteed to be for life. If you don't have this chance, you can rent a domain name for your own use for around $10/year (if you aren't picky about the choice of top-level domain). It's impossible to predict what the Internet will be like in the 40 years or so that an academic carrier lasts, but it is plausible that such methods of contact will remain relevant and affordable. At this price, you get the opportunity to make `http://your-chosen-name.tld/` point to some website and `whatever@your-chosen-name.tld` redirect emails to some email provider; hosting the actual website and storing emails is a distinct service. You would typically set a web redirection to `http://example.edu/~lplatts` and an email redirection to `lplatts@example.edu` and update when you change institutions (or redirect to some other service of your choice).
Some institutions may insist that you write the email address they provide on papers that you publish while they're paying you. Journals often allow you to specify two email addresses, though this can be crowded if you're co-financed by several institutions already. If you don't have your permanent email address in your published papers, a web page that's easy to find by typing your name in Google (or whatever becomes the de facto standard search engine) is helpful.
### Email archive
I strongly recommend that you keep an archive of all your academic emails on a computer that you personally own. Keep your emails also on an online service to be able to access it anywhere, but don't leave your data at the mercy of an institution that you'll be leaving sooner or later or of a commercial service that could fold or become unusable (e.g. due to an unacceptable change in the terms of service) at any time. In other words, uploading all your emails on Gmail isn't enough.
Most academic institutions consider that academic emails are related to your academic career and therefore your property. On the contrary, most companies consider your emails to be company property and won't let you walk away with them. If you have some data that may be considered confidential to your institution, they may not like you to walk away with it. Make sure to check your institution's policies. If you're only allowed to retain some of your emails, classify them in separate folders and export only those.
I recommend making sure that all your email is available in Thunderbird. Thunderbird is the email client from the Mozilla Foundation that also makes the Firefox web browser. Thunderbird runs on the major desktop operating systems (Linux, Windows, OSX) and has a decent GUI.
You can import Outlook's `.pst` files into Thunderbird. This way, you won't depend on a proprietary tool, you can move your archives onto any machine that has Thunderbird installed. Do this regularly even if you keep using Outlook. On your last day at an institution, import your last emails into Thunderbird and burn your mailbox to a CD. When you arrive in a new institution, either use Thunderbird or export your old emails to whatever the standard format there is.
You can *additionally* upload your emails to a service such as Gmail (currently free and with a practically unlimited mailbox size). This has two benefits: you can access your emails from anywhere, and Google's search is better than anyone else's. Once you have your emails accessible in Thunderbird, you can upload them to Gmail by configuring Thunderbird to access that account and copying the emails to Gmail. Do this only if you're willing to trust Google's privacy (depending on your field, you may not be willing to allow a potential competitor to process your emails, for example if you're researching search algorithms).
> 8 votes
# Answer
You can use a permanent account while still having the emails sent to your official address. I do this by getting gmail to check my university email accounts for me (Settings \> Accounts \> Check email from other accounts). I am then able to reply to those emails directly in gmail, while having them appear to come from my university address (there is an option to always reply from the same address to which the email was sent).
I'm not sure whether this solution can be any use for the emails you have already received (you may be able to use it, if you can for example mark all your emails as unread, so that gmail maybe sees them as new), but it might be worth starting now to reduce future hassle.
> 11 votes
# Answer
Disk space is cheap, so you might as well archive (almost) everything. You never know when you might need it later. But I think the technical details of how to do so are outside the scope of this site.
One consideration for academics, though, is that some of our email may have confidential information: student grades, or correspondence about disciplinary issues, or search committee business. Your institution may not want to you to keep a personal copy of such emails after you leave. If you keep them, and they later leak out, you could conceivably have legal problems.
Before archiving a personal copy of my emails, I search through them to purge information that should not leave the institution, or is otherwise too risky to save.
There's a similar issue if you want to keep your email in the cloud (gmail or similar); you and your institution both have to trust the provider to keep the data private. I know some institutions forbid users to forward their email to gmail for this reason.
> 6 votes
# Answer
In Outlook, your best bet is to **export** all of your mail.
* Click *File*, *Open & Export*. Select *Import/Export*.
* Pick *Export to a file* and click *Next*.
* Pick *Outlook Data File (.pst)* and click *Next*.
You can export a particular folder, or select your account if you want to save everything. (Make sure *Include subfolders* is checked.)
Outlook will save your data into a single PST file you can keep and open in Outlook at any time. Everything is saved in the PST file; you need not have access to the original email account.
> 3 votes
# Answer
I've had similar problems in the past. I think for the future, @TaraB's solution is the best one, given that gmail's reply-to features and identity management are quite good, and they also permit archiving of email.
But for the past data, if you're technically savvy, it's not hard to write a small script that can ping your server, download all the email and store it locally. I in fact run such a script once a month to flush out my mailbox and organize emails in monthly folders.
> 0 votes
# Answer
This is a quite different answer than all others, but many email services are accessiable via IMAP. Via offlineimap one can synchronize between two IMAP servers (say old and new university) as well as your computer and an IMAP server.
This allows for moving mails, keeping a local backup of all mails, as well as using this as a general-purpose email solution.
I synchronize between one IMAP server (my universities') and three different computers.
The disadvantage is that this requires some knowledge of unix-like tools, and reading the offlineimap manual.
> 0 votes
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Tags: email
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thread-17694 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17694 | Is it more difficult to score a Tenure Track position in the US when applying from outside? | 2014-03-04T07:11:22.613 | # Question
Title: Is it more difficult to score a Tenure Track position in the US when applying from outside?
I am currently located in central Europe. When I was hunting for an assistant professor position some months ago, I was also planning to apply to some US institutions for Tenure Track positions. However, one senior professor with some experience working in the US told me pretty much straight-up that this will be a waste of time, as "US universities do not hire people from outside the US/Canada on Tenure Tracks". Relativizing somewhat, stated that "of course exceptions exist, especially if they personally know the applicant, but generally you will get onto the *reject* pile immediately as they don't know your school well enough.". I was counselled to apply for a postdoc at an US institution first, if I really wanted to get into an US school.
Looking over the CVs of some existing assistant professors in good schools the statement could be accurate (almost nobody with the job title Assistant Professor seems to come directly from outside the US - many *graduated* somewhere else, but the last position before was almost always an US institution).
**In your experience, is this sentiment correct? Does it even make sense to apply for a TT position in the US from outside (under the assumption that your CV is reasonable for a TT in the first place, of course)?** Computer Science is most relevant to me, but any information from any STEM fields would be interesting as well.
# Answer
> 29 votes
While the "I don't know your university" element can have an influence on whether your application gets summarily dismissed to the reject pile, it's less of an issue than one might think. We all travel to Europe and Asia for conferences now, and meet colleagues who come from different countries. I can probably name the top few universities in my field in many European countries, as well as personally know people in each of them.
But there's a more mundane logistical reason for potentially avoiding applicants from other countries: expenses. There's always a risk in getting someone to come for an on-site interview, but with a foreign candidate the expense and logistical work (visa processing, payment methods and so on) are more onerous. We always want to find strong candidates, but when there's a large pool of highly qualified candidates in the US, it can be convenient to focus on those that we expect have a chance of actually making it through the interview process and coming.
There's also the question of whether someone from Europe (as opposed to someone working there) really does want to come to the US, or is just casting a wide net. But that can be addressed in candidate statements or even conversations.
None of this means that foreign candidates are disqualified. Far from it. But it creates a moment of doubt.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I'm going to speak out of personal experience. I did my PhD in Japan, and then started doing a Postdoc in the US, my University in Japan is regarded in most rankings as a better institution that my current one in the US (not by much, but still).
I applied roughly to the same number of postdocs while in Japan and now, that I'm changing gigs as well. In Japan I got only 3 replies. While now I got many more replies and much more requests for interview.
So there's that to that. I'm also Mexican, with a valid travel visa (yes, they asked that), so we as part of NAFTA can get relatively easy working Visas (we only need a letter of acceptance). Also, a trip from Mexico City to LA is cheaper/shorter than a trip from Washington to LA
I think our experiences have many differences, but in my personal point of view, yes it is easier to get positions if you are already in the US.
Also, to be blunt, few people in the US are going to take you seriously if you do not have at least a postdoc (in whatever institution). Even James Watson (Nobel Prize Laureate) did a Postdoc.
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Tags: career-path, united-states, faculty-application, tenure-track
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thread-17621 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17621 | What are predictors of the success of PhD students? | 2014-03-02T13:02:51.473 | # Question
Title: What are predictors of the success of PhD students?
Every year we organize a competitive international call for PhD students (in the area of biology). What measurable criteria should we use to predict their academic success and award them research fellowships?
I realize that part of the question is ill-defined because it is not clear how to define “success” for a PhD student. But since I imagine that many of us have this problem and have potentially thought of a solution, I would love to read your thoughts on this question.
# Answer
The major quantifiable predictor of success in research is... success in research. People who have done research successfully in the past are more likely than not to continue to do so.
For students that have not done research in the past, the best predictor I have seen for success (whatever that may be) is expressed in a quote from *The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research*, by Marian Petre & Gordon Rugg:
> *A willingness to learn for themselves and good judgement about when to stop and ask for feedback.**
It's not exactly quantifiable, but you can get a sense for it in an interview. (Of course, this quality can be learned, so a lack of it doesn't necessarily predict an *inability* to succeed at research.)
<sub>* *I took this quote completely out of context; the authors there are actually discussing the role of the PhD advisor, and they mention this quality in reference to a student "who can be pretty much left to get on with it, with supervisory meetings being something that both parties enjoy, and where each party learns from the other."* </sub>
> 11 votes
# Answer
**Short answer:** You should not be looking at what people do or how they are, but how what they do looks like.
This is, how are they qualifications, specially considering consistency between them, it's not about the average, but the average and a small standard deviation. The greater the deviation, the less predictable they will be.
On a side note: you will probably reject geniuses.
**Long answer:**
"Success" is now defined as "publishing", it's pretty clear how to define it since people that have to define quality and metrics are focusing on this.
This may be wrong, some people say it's wrong to use P-values to test your hypotheses, some people say it's wrong to use h-indexes to measure the quality of researchers, but it's certainly becoming more and more common. These values provide a warm feeling of objectiveness and it's very hard to refuse to that. IMHO, they are here to stay, and without any doubt, they are here.
Having clarified that, I have a personal hypothesis (not verified at all, sorry) that people that get good grades are better at publishing. The reason is that we can consider that the corrections of an exam and the reviews of a paper are similar.
In my experience, in both cases is not about how much you know or how much you can do, but on the contrary it is about:
* *Conformity*. Using the same language, terminology and not producing something shocking or hard to understand that will cause failing the exam or the paper being rejected.
* *Writing skills*. Trying to predict (consciously or not) how the person reading your paper/exam is going to interpret it, avoid misinterpretations, show self-confidence, clear ideas, clear structure, etc.
* *Concision*. This is more than a writing skill. Time is limited in exams, pages are usually limited in papers (and the less pages, the more papers, that's also good, in principle). But it's even more than that, because most of the time it's not about how much you know or how much you have done, but avoiding mistakes. An exam that replies perfectly to half of the questions (and only that) will look better than one that replies perfectly to 90% of them but then makes really stupid mistakes in the other 10%. A paper with a small contribution may get accepted (depending on how small it truly is), but a paper with an important contribution and then an important mistake will get rejected (even if the mistake is only in the mind of the reviewer because the terminology used does not conform to what is usual and this makes reviewers very confused).
So it's really about being compliant with the state of the art and moving step by step further, with small steps, baby steps, avoiding mistakes. How can you know whether someone can do this? Looking at their grades, and specially to the deviation of their grades from the average, it's not just about high grades, but consistent grades. It's not about how much they know, but about how often do they mess up, because if they do often, chances are they will do it at least once per paper, getting all rejected.
This is the case for me, from time to time I'd do something really *"brilliant"* in an exam, the teacher would not understand it and I would get a qualification of 0 in that exercise. I have never cared about qualifications, but learning, now publishing is just like any other qualification. *Success* is just like any other qualification.
> 1 votes
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Tags: phd, evaluation-criteria
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thread-17704 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17704 | another master's or PhD? | 2014-03-04T16:17:09.877 | # Question
Title: another master's or PhD?
Here is my situation, I have obtained a MSc in Computer Science in Europe with some publications in the field. Actually I would like to follow PhD studies, but the problem is that a lot of them are asking to have a proven track in Machine Learning (also in Europe). I have not followed any course on that topic and the things that I have learned about that field was from books, Coursera, or the Internet. I really like the field, but I regret that I did not follow any course beforehand, even though I know theoretically and practically the basics.
How I can address that in my PhD applications? or should I follow another MSc with specialization in Machine Learning?
Any suggestion?
# Answer
> 2 votes
Although it is odd for universities to ask you this, assuming that they did you have several options
1. Attend credit courses pertaining to Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence and re apply
2. Get some industrial experience in those fields and re apply
3. Select a program that does not require Machine Learning background.
4. Talk to dept advisers telling them that you will attend these courses when you are admitted, probably get a conditional acceptance or you do not want to do PhD in machine learning fields but something else (assuming that is the case) and approach the faculty member to back you up.
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Tags: phd, masters, computer-science
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thread-17717 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17717 | Is there a financial benefit for PhD student to join a funded research project | 2014-03-04T20:15:08.747 | # Question
Title: Is there a financial benefit for PhD student to join a funded research project
I'm a first year PhD in Computer Science at a UK university. Recently, my supervisor has asked me to join a funded research project consisting of other post-docs and lecturers, i.e. I'll be the only PhD student in that project. My supervisor believes that it will be helpful for me to join since my research topic and a project's theme have many similarities, which I also agree. However, he doesn't mention anything about if I get paid to work in that project. So, I wonder if it is normal for a PhD student to work in a funded research project without getting paid.
# Answer
I'm not in the U.K., but in my part of the world, it's common (one might say usual) for computer science PhD students to be paid. Is the determination of whether a PhD student is paid related to whether the project is funded? Not necessarily.
## When is it appropriate to ask about payment?
Should you talk to your supervisor about this? Instead of asking
> Is it normal to *not be paid*?
ask yourself
> Is it unusual to be paid?
In any scenario in which is is *not unusual* to be paid, it is neither inappropriate nor offensive to (politely) ask whether you can be paid for work you are doing.\* In your case, it is definitely appropriate. So, go ahead and talk to your supervisor about this.
<sub> * Here is an example of a scenario where it is not usual to be paid, and it was therefore inappropriate to ask for payment. As you can see, it's an extreme example :) </sub>
> 5 votes
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Tags: phd, funding, united-kingdom
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thread-17731 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17731 | Continue applications after accepting a position | 2014-03-04T23:35:21.870 | # Question
Title: Continue applications after accepting a position
There are various questions (and excellent answers) here about what to do when one accepts a job regarding existing applications. The general consensus is "withdraw existing applications".
I write with a variation on this that I have not seen addressed here.
If someone accepts a soft-money research position at one institution, and that position will start in 1.5 or 2 years, must they still withdraw and cease applying to other institutions?
Some context: The current role is post-doc. The goal is TT. The soft-money research position is a good step and starts when the post-doc ends.
It seems strange the candidate is effectively removed from the job market for ~2 years (1.5 until position starts, and one assumes it is bad form to apply for other jobs immediately in a new position), even though the next position is not committing to salary. It seems like other TT applications that are pending, or new ones that might be submitted in the next 1.5 years, could lead to the desired TT job, in which case the soft-money position would not be taken.
Is this approach unethical?
**Edit**
Soft money is a common term in my field. It means the institution provides no fixed long-term salary support. You are responsible for your salary by grant-writing.
**Edit 2**
Several questions about why the 1.5 year delay. This is part of dual career hire. One got TT, one got soft-money after post-doc ends.
# Answer
In my experience, setting up academic jobs more than one academic year in advance is uncommon precisely for this reason: each party gets nervous that the other will back out. Thus for instance it is relatively common that one wants to accept one position and "finish out" a current position, and in my experience it is quite often acceptable to stay for one additional academic year and very rarely acceptable to stay longer than that.
I would be interested to hear more about the circumstances in which a position gets offered and accepted 1.5 to 2 years in advance. As for the ethics: formally accepting an academic position involves (i) announcing your intention to do so and (ii) signing something saying that you accept the job, with a certain start date. I do know that some positions which are funded by external grants need to be accepted conditionally on final funding of those grants (I was quite recently involved in such a situation). This is potentially awkward, as the risks involved in a conditional offer not coming to fruition are highly asymmetrical: for the employer it means that some people's time has been wasted and that certain proposed projects will not get carried out; for the employee it means that a highly trained, valued worker is out of a job for a year through no fault of their own. It may be that one has the ethical right to turn down a conditional offer for an unconditional offer under certain circumstances; I don't think you should use this an excuse, but if you honestly have doubts that the offer will become actual, then I think at some point you are entitled to take a real job rather than a virtual one. (I would be interested to hear more about this point from others.)
If you are really signing on a dotted line a commitment to a position far in the future, conditional on funding, and with an uncertain salary...well, it is not clear to me why one would sign such a contract. Barring exceptional circumstances you probably shouldn't.
I feel like the standard unit of "going through with the position you accepted" is one academic year. In other words, if you agree in writing to take a position, then ethically speaking you should keep it for at least one year (I think). Most formal contracts I am familiar with are academic year to academic year anyway: I am a tenured faculty member and I still sign a contract every August. In my department we have the understanding that a postdoc, for instance, should feel to vacate the position at the end of any given academic year if they get a better job: in fact, these usually count as success stories, including on our part. In general vacating a postdoc for a tenure-track job seems especially understandable.
All of the above makes me unsure of what the etiquette might be on a position that starts so far in the future. As you can see, I am skeptical that such an arrangement should be as ethically binding as a standard offer, but it depends on the understanding both parties had when entering the arrangement.
**Added**: The additional information seems helpful. Is the current postdoc at the same institution as the partner's tenure-track job and the future "soft-money" gig? I gather not. Anyway, in this case the "soft-money" job sounds more like a courtesy to the tenure track partner than anything else. Have *you* signed any paperwork saying that you intend to take the job? If not, I think you're totally fine not to end up taking it (however if your partner plans to stay this should be done carefully so as not to cause trouble for him/her) and they probably will not even be that broken up about it. Probably you haven't signed a contract for something so far in the future, right? If you did sign a form signifying your intent to work at a certain job, it seems to me that you need to *ask* if you can not take the job rather than tell. But it's hard to imagine the circumstances in which they would hold you to a future job that you no longer want.
> 3 votes
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Tags: job, job-search, tenure-track, soft-money
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thread-17556 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17556 | How can I detect a toxic environment while on the interview circuit? | 2014-02-28T17:40:01.757 | # Question
Title: How can I detect a toxic environment while on the interview circuit?
If you are interviewing for faculty positions, how can you find out whether a particular work environment would likely be toxic? (Either generally toxic, or particularly bad for you as a {woman, early career researcher, researcher in a particular subfield, etc.})
Can such environments be avoided?
Can you ask about this during a visit or interview? **Who** should you ask (faculty, deans, students) and **what** should you ask that might elicit the relevant information?
Are there other ways to detect a toxic environment, besides for asking people who know to be on their best behavior for you?
This has been discussed here, here, and here for prospective PhD students, but not for faculty candidates (as far as I know). I believe the answers will be different for faculty candidates - for one thing, PhD students are likely to be honest when telling a prospective student about their advisor; faculty members talking to a candidate about their colleagues, not so much. Also, the interview/visit procedure is different for faculty candidates, as are some of the relevant indicators of toxicity.
\[Source: I read this question on FemaleScienceProfessor\]
# Answer
What I found useful was to be very watchful of how the interviewers act towards each other. Typically some sort of meal is part of an on-campus interview and you will be eating with several of the faculty members. If they can't make it through the meal without doing something objectionable you probably have a toxic environment. The funny thing is that they know to act properly towards you but will still forget to do so to their colleagues even though you are right there.
As an example there was one such dinner where I was pressured into drinking alcohol the night before the real part of the interview and the junior (and female) faculty member who was present was the target of most of the jokes from the senior male faculty members. Both of these details did not help their chances of getting me to accept their offer. Fortunately I had another offer to take instead.
This is by no means going to catch every situation you want to get away from but the general idea is to watch their behavior. In larger departments where the jerks are kept away from the candidates you may have to be more active in searching for these issues. I was mostly interviewing in small departments where I was able to meet everyone.
> 33 votes
# Answer
A comment on the FSP post offers the following answer:
> One tell tale sign at the last university where I worked, was that almost all the research collaborations in the department had fallen apart, many due to personal conflicts. If a department doesn't/can't collaborate I'd call that a bad sign. Lots of collaborations, especially interdisciplinary ones, suggest some rudimentary ability to interact with other humans :)
> 20 votes
# Answer
A couple of suggestions ...
1. There should be no "invisible" people. Do faculty greet students and administrative staff with a smile and words like "please" and "thank you?" Do they greet janitorial staff? A culture that values people for being people has a certain energy to it. Likewise, how do you interact with the secretary making your arrangements, people you see in the hallway during your interview?
2. Consider the structure of the interview. Will you visit with everyone in the department on an individual basis? Does everyone in the department have the opportunity to meet you, even if its not one-on-one? Departments thrive on discourse, its up to you to find out if its civil or disruptive. One way to check this is to be in a position before the "job talk" to observe the dynamics of the room as various members enter. If the room goes quiet when someone walks in, try to observe why. Do eyes roll when someone asks a question designed to demonstrate their knowledge as opposed to find out about yours?
3. When hiring (from the perspective of chair, dean, & provost), I want the candidate to know the unit's story and dynamic. That means a commitment on my part to allow the candidate to experience some of the discourse mentioned above. If all you see is harmony, then its either group think or a group that's been cautioned to hide the unpleasantness. You might ask your direct manager what people skills you could bring to the department that would build a stronger team.
4. Get specifics. You are interviewing the institution at the same time they are interviewing you. For example, if you ask what people skills you can bring to the team, and the response is just be nice, think twice. Productive working groups should be built upon mutual respect for each others' strengths and a willingness to overlook some of the weaknesses. With that said, a healthy department will have a sense of what it needs to get stronger as a team.
5. Read "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell and trust your gut. If you're sensing something is wrong, it probably is. For this to be effective, you need time to reflect. If you're being pressured for an answer immediately, you should be concerned. Not that you need 2 weeks to think about an offer, but you should know how much time you need to make a reflective decision.
6. It is a very small world in the academy with LOTS of information available, especially in the public setting. Want to know about the larger faculty culture? Go look up the minutes from the last 12-24 months of faculty senate and look at the faculty in department/college you'll be joining. Go to the website of the local newspaper and search for articles regarding the institution. Have you looked at the faculty satisfaction survey on the Chronicle of Higher Ed? Looked up articles on the institution on Inside Higher Ed?
One last point - healthy people are attracted to healthy environments. Think about who you are and take a look at what you want, make sure its consistent with the institution, and don't be fearful of asking difficult questions. You're worth it!
> 14 votes
# Answer
I know it's difficult to get straight answers out of people, but sometimes just asking, "Are there any politics within the department to look out for?" to multiple faculty on your one-on-ones will provide some insight. People who make a confused face and say, "No, no" or vehemently say, "Absolutely not!" are likely not lying about it. Those who sigh, or those who get wooden, or those who decline to speak about it might indicate some problems.
In my experience most faculty members are rather honest and have a hard time denying problems when asked straight up about them.
> 7 votes
# Answer
"for one thing, PhD students are likely to be honest when telling a prospective student about their advisor"
I disagree. In fact, I have seen the opposite. A PhD student's future is *completely* in the hands of their advisor in a way that not even TT faculty depend on their chair, etc.
I think the answer to this question is the same for both prospective students and faculty. You cannot ask directly but must read between the lines. I find that staying more quiet than normal during a conversation will sometimes inspire the other to fill in the silence in some very ... revealing ways.
> 2 votes
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Tags: job-search, interview
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thread-17707 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17707 | Can non-PhDs or non-Masters be on an accredited college's faculty? | 2014-03-04T18:11:33.007 | # Question
Title: Can non-PhDs or non-Masters be on an accredited college's faculty?
Do U.S. college accreditation agencies forbid teachers with only a bachelor's degree to be on the faculty of an accredited U.S. college?
# Answer
> 10 votes
It depends on what you mean. If you are asking a theoretical question about whether there are rules that forbid it, then the answer is that it is theoretically possible, at least at some universities. For example, Andrew Gleason was a tenured professor of mathematics at Harvard from 1953 through his retirement in 1992, without ever having attended graduate school. (Technically, Harvard awarded him an honorary master's degree when he became a faculty member, but he had no master's degree when he was hired and never received a Ph.D.) The rules vary between universities, but I do not believe Harvard's have changed since Gleason was there. For another example, if you invent the World Wide Web, you can become a professor with no master's degree.
On the other hand, it is impossible in practice. Unless you have received some sort of major academic recognition (a big prize, universities specifically soliciting an application from you despite knowing you have no master's degree, etc.), it's not even worth thinking about, since the chances of being hired are almost indistinguishable from zero. If you are aiming for an academic career, choosing not to go to graduate school means giving up on that career.
By the way, I'm assuming here that you are asking about fields in which there are very few famous practitioners without advanced degrees. I can imagine that in certain fields (perhaps art, business, or politics), there might be more people who would be attractive to universities despite having only a bachelor's degree. But even in those cases, it would require truly impressive achievements.
# Answer
> 5 votes
Yes, it is possible (at least for part-time appointments). I am part-time faculty at the University of Washington, and not only do I have just a bachelor's degree, my degree isn't even in the same field as my faculty appointment. My real world skills and knowledge combined with my mentoring/leadership experience are all that were required.
However, it would be very rare for full-time faculty to not have at least a master's. UW policy requires the master's degree for full-time faculty and a PhD for professorships, and some departments are adopting rules requiring a PhD for any full-time position.
# Answer
> 3 votes
It is not forbidden. Accreditation is based on many factors and percentage of terminal degree holders is one of those statistics that is considered. Even the most prestigious colleges may have a number of MS/MA/MFA on their faculty. In rare instances, even people without degrees might be on a faculty. You may find these rare people on performing or creative arts faculties -- writers, actors, painters, filmmakers, etc. that have outstanding bodies of work or accomplishments.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Extensive and creative work experience can trump higher ed degrees in cases where the person has something exceptional to bring to the faculty.
The idea behind attaining higher education degrees is that one becomes specialist of a discipline and that lends credence to teaching and research. Becoming a faculty member isn't instantaneous, there is a tenure track process which has its own requirements.
There are several accreditation entities, you have to be more specific about which discipline and accreditation entity you are referring to.
# Answer
> 2 votes
There is a category known as "Professor of Practice", which some schools use to explicitly recognize folks whose teaching authority comes from experience and demonstrated skill in the field rather than from academic credits.
However, if you're talking about tenure track, most schools will ask even these folks to have (or quickly obtain) a "terminal degree" in their field. That may only be a Master's for some fields, but Bachelors generally won't cut it.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Supposedly yes, but mostly they ask people with a master's degree minimum (depending of course of their publications in the field for both cases). If not they aim for PhD or post-docs.
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Tags: accreditation
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thread-17741 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17741 | Is IJCA a valid open access journal? | 2014-03-05T06:18:16.080 | # Question
Title: Is IJCA a valid open access journal?
Can someone let me know whether IJCA (http://www.ijcaonline.org/) is a valid open access journal to publish our research work?
BR, Tharindu from Sri Lanka
# Answer
This journal is in Beall's list of predatory journals, which is a strong indicator that you should **not** publish your work in this journal. (This question and its answers explain what a "predatory" journal is.)
You might also be interested in the answers to this question, which describe how to evaluate the quality of a journal.
> 10 votes
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Tags: research-process, publications, journals, open-access
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thread-17749 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17749 | What is a "running title"? | 2014-03-05T08:25:38.573 | # Question
Title: What is a "running title"?
I'm about to submit a paper and the format requires a running title in addition to the actual title. What is it for, and is it supposed to be longer or shorter than the actual title? Should I abbreviate the title, or take the opportunity to convey another message that could not be included in the main title?
# Answer
> 45 votes
Running title: "the title or abbreviated title of a volume printed at the top of left-hand text pages or sometimes of all text pages"
It allows readers to determine which paper they're looking at just by glancing at the top of the page.
If your actual title is already very short, use your actual title. If your actual title is not very short, use an abbreviated version of it as the running title. (The maximum length is often set by the publisher; for example, APA style sets the maximum length of the running head to 50 characters, APS style allows 55 characters, etc.)
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Tags: publications, paper-submission, titles
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thread-17740 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17740 | Open-source the project code before or after publication? | 2014-03-05T05:44:04.463 | # Question
Title: Open-source the project code before or after publication?
I recently completed a part of my project and communicated a paper to a conference. Let's call the paper's title as "*project x: for this and that*". Now, I wish to open-source *project x* to facilitate reproducible research and to have more (at least some) people use it (and cite it!).
Are there any specific drawbacks or risks involved in open-sourcing *project x* on, say, Github or Sourceforge? Do note here that I would still be improving on *project x*, and possibly sending the extended version to a journal (my area of work being Computer Science).
I understand that if a conference/journal requires double-blind review and my project is searchable on the Internet, I am revealing my identity to the reviewers. This is bad, right?
Are there any other cons I should be considering? And are there any pros of open-sourcing *before* a making it into a publication?
# Answer
Double-blind reviews are usually more common in conferences. For example, I don't know of any journals using double-blind review in my field (machine learning). I'm going to assume revealing your identity is not an issue (if it is, circumstances differ).
Whenever relevant I provide an implementation along with a paper. This also helps reviewers, in case they want to fiddle with an algorithm under slightly different circumstances than those reported in the paper (which is a good thing!). When an implementation is provided, the option is there.
The pros are increased visibility, reproducibility and (in my opinion) credibility since you allow everyone to try for themselves instead of taking your word for it in the paper. On rare occasions, your software may become quite popular during the review period, which may positively impact the paper under review.
A potential con is that someone may discover a critical bug in your implementation. From the perspective of software engineering this is always helpful since you can then improve the software. For the associated paper this may be a good, bad or irrelevant thing, depending on the type of bug:
1. One that does not influence the results reported in your paper: no big deal. Simply fix and move on. Best case this improves the user experience of your software, worst case you lost a bit of time fixing something unimportant.
2. One that *does* influence the results: big deal. This will *at least* delay a potential publication. Ofcourse it is better to find such errors and fix them instead of publishing erroneous conclusions, but this may have an impact on credibility.
> 10 votes
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Tags: publications
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thread-17693 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17693 | How important are classifications (ACM, AMS, PACS...)? | 2014-03-04T01:24:24.947 | # Question
Title: How important are classifications (ACM, AMS, PACS...)?
For paper submission, I have recently spent some time struggling to find appropriate classification. The main question is: who needs this information and why?
At first I thought that they could be used by the editor to find an appropriate editor or referees, but I have had two experiences contradicting this hypothesis. In the first one, I was only asked to provide classification AFTER the review process. In the second, I was requested to point myself to appropriate editors and referees.
In my experience, I do not look at those numbers, and that is true for other colleagues. The only exception is when I am trying to find appropriate classification and look at other related papers for inspiration. In such occasion, I sometimes found classifications which did not seem to match the content of the paper. Apparently people do not care much for this. Another aspect of the question is: how bad is it to have a bad classification?
# Answer
From the ACM page "How to use the Computing Classification System":
> An important aspect of preparing your paper for publication by ACM Press is to provide the proper indexing and retrieval information from the ACM Computing Classification System (CCS). This is beneficial to you because accurate categorization provides the reader with quick content reference, facilitating the search for related literature, as well as searches for your work in ACM’s Digital Library and on other online resources. It also ensures correct placement when a review appears in Computing Reviews.
There's similar verbiage for the AMS MSC.
In other words, the institution needs it for their own databases and search mechanisms. The AMS probably needs it for something similar. So your use for the classification system depends on how much you expect people to search for your work using the classification structure provided by the institution. For math, I'd expect it to be used a lot: for CS, not so much.
> 2 votes
# Answer
This classification would normally be used by librarians to catalog the books/journals/proceedings accordingly. There is more than ACM and AMS - there are at least other 10-15 frequently used systems, each meeting needs of a specific customer - be it a library or consortia of academic institutions. Almost any publisher, beyond ACM, would use one or several classification schemes. In theory, the classification of proceedings should depend on terms you provide for the article, in practice, it is not necessarily the case, as you say. There are a lot of things to be improved in classification, also using semi-automated approaches for finding right keywords for papers.
> 2 votes
# Answer
It's for classification purpose.
From practical side, I've heard that they use it for matching referees or seeing for what you can be a referee.
I've never met any scientist searching according to such classification. (Except for scientometrics or similar purposes.)
> 1 votes
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Tags: publications
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thread-17762 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17762 | Suggestion about research plan | 2014-03-05T13:49:08.833 | # Question
Title: Suggestion about research plan
I would like to apply for PhD studies in Computer Science in a university in Europe, but I have seen that among the requirements is **a brief research plan**.
Let's suppose that the field in which they are offering the PhD is in topic X focused in Y. For what I know the research plan is the outcome of an agreement between the potential supervisor and the applying PhD student; so what to put there if I only know X and Y, but still have not contacted any of the supervisors (the application does not say explicitly to do so)?
Comment: I know about topic X and a little bit about the specialized topic Y, but I am afraid that if I propose to do some research in Y, maybe, it would appear as a numb or dry topic to them and I end up losing this opportunity.
Any help?
# Answer
> 2 votes
As much as anything, the purpose of the research proposal (in the UK at least) is to show potential supervisers that you have the ability to construct and justify academic research, can write clearly and put forward coherent arguments. It is unlikely that you would be held to the specifics of your proposal. Once you have been accepted somewhere, it is generally accepted that the details of your research will (at least) be refined, if not completely changed! Just think of it as a way of demonstrating your abilities.
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Tags: phd, research-process, application
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thread-17720 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17720 | What is the history of teaching assistants (TAs) in France? | 2014-03-04T21:10:49.390 | # Question
Title: What is the history of teaching assistants (TAs) in France?
I know that in France, as late as the early 20th century, although I'm not sure if this is true now, a university student (undergrad or grad?) would take a nationwide *concours* exam to receive the *aggrégation* "to be aggregated" in the French school system and be able to teach at *lycées* ("high schools"?), *académies* (universities), and *grandes écoles*.
Was one with an *aggrégation* essentially a TA?
# Answer
The answer depends both on the time period you want to consider and on the fields. Let me try to give a partial answer.
Generally speaking, *agrégation* is indeed a nationwide competitive exam designed to recruit high school and *classes préparatoires* teachers. For a long time students began preparing for it after 4 years of university study, as it required a *maîtrise*. Nowadays, presenting the *agrégation* requires a master's degree, but for most students the master would in fact coincide with the competitive exam preparation.
The majority of successful candidates will end up being teachers in high school, junior high or (for a few) *classes préparatoires*. In first approximation, the answer to your question is therefore "no": the *agrégation* is not primarily designed to select "TA".
However, having the *agrégation* is not neutral for "TA" positions. Nowadays, for PhD students, it is much easier to obtain a teaching job if you passed the *agrégation*, as you will be given priority over students who did not. Additionnally, in some fields (mostly humanities) it is a requirement to have *agrégation* before even beginning a PhD (I am pretty sure there is no official rule to that effect, but an extremely generalized practice). So in a way, yes, having the *agrégation* helps become a TA.
Some decades ago (since your question is about history), there was a faculty position called *maître assistant*, which seems to correspond pretty well to "TA" (the *maître assistant* was apparently in charge of making students work in small groups) and was indeed accessible with *agrégation*. This position no longer exists: it was merged within the "corps des maîtres de conférence", to enter which you need a PhD.
Finally, note that in law, political science, economics and management *agrégation* can play a role very different from what I describe above. As I understand, they are designed to recruit university professors, but I really do not know much about it.
> 6 votes
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Tags: teaching-assistant, academic-history, france
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thread-17777 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17777 | Finding a Professor for my Honors Project | 2014-03-05T16:17:00.463 | # Question
Title: Finding a Professor for my Honors Project
I am doing an undergrad in Computer Science, and am seriously considering entering in the honors program at my school. I fulfill all the requirements (certain courses, GPA, etc) and now I just need to find a professor that is willing to work with me.
An honors project at my school is a two-part process:
1. First there is a Directed Study where the student and the professor work one-on-one to bring the student up to speed on the subject material that may be required for the thesis project. This happens over one semester like a regular course
2. After the directed Study, the student sets to work on the actual project/research, and presents their findings whenever they have completed their project (usually two semesters).
I have read the backgrounds on all the professors in my faculty, and have identified half a dozen who do research which would be similar to my project.
My problem now is that I don't know how to "apply". I have prepared a one page "pitch" which talks about my background, my project idea, and why I think that professor would be a good fit (based on their research interests), which I was going to email to my half-dozen potential professors.
Is this too formal? Too informal?
---
Extra info:
* I go to a Canadian University.
* I study Computer Science.
* I am away on an internship, or else I would go talk to the professors in person.
# Answer
For what it is worth, I successfully 'applied' for a similar program as an undergrad simply by sending emails to the potential mentors. I used a one or two paragraph pitch, then asked if they would be willing to explore the possibilities. This meant that the professors could have agreed to meet me to discuss the project without committing themselves to anything. It also meant that if I had decided that I didn't want to work with a particular professor after meeting them in person, I had left myself an option to gracefully decline.
(I ended up with a very successful honors project in this way. Good luck with your endeavors!)
> 2 votes
# Answer
An additional data point: Consider approaching the profs whose classes have intrigued you the most, and talk to them about what projects **they** have on their books, with no man power to do them.
Sometimes\* they'll have fantastic projects even better than what you come up with, because they have expertise in the area.
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(\*) not always though!
> 1 votes
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Tags: research-undergraduate, advisor
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thread-17783 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17783 | Why do papers sometimes appear unlinked in Google Scholar? | 2014-03-05T18:37:53.983 | # Question
Title: Why do papers sometimes appear unlinked in Google Scholar?
I would like to download this paper:
> O. Faure. Numerical pathwise approximation of stochastic differential equations. Applied stochastic models and data analysis, 1992.
but when I use Google Scholar, the paper cannot be accessed. I cannot even access the paper from within my campus firewall.
See the following image:
Why is the title of this paper black, not a blue link, in the list of Google Scholar results?
# Answer
> 35 votes
The paper appears black because Google Scholar has not found the full-text of the paper during its crawls. Rather it has extracted the document as a citation from other documents it has seen.
Hence Google Scholar knows that the document exists (it has been cited) but does not know where to find it.
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Tags: publications, literature-search, google-scholar
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thread-17594 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17594 | If I write a really bad, but controversial, paper, can I increase my h-index? | 2014-03-01T19:58:06.357 | # Question
Title: If I write a really bad, but controversial, paper, can I increase my h-index?
Imagine that I write a paper about a controversial topic like global warming denial, the link between vaccines and autism, why different races have different IQ. After publication, the paper gets the attention of mass media, and as a counter measure, serious experts start explaining why the paper is completely wrong.
Would that count as citations towards a higher h-index?
# Answer
*Yes, you can!*
**But that it is possible is by no means to say that it is ethical, practical, wise, or otherwise commendatory.** I would be especially concerned about becoming known as the 'person with a kooky idea' rather than as a serious academic researcher.
The question becomes, "It is possible to write on a very controversial topic, create a media firestorm, attract a lot of attention, increase your h-index, and still keep your credibility intact?" The answer will be highly variable dependent on the validity of your research, your previous reputation, and the sheer capriciousness of luck.
First, assuming that your work is valid, even if you have proven the viability of a very controversial position, your work is likely to attract some negative attention as well as attempts to disprove your research (or you-- *ad hominem* attacks are unfortunately common). However, if your work can and does stand up to scrutiny, all the brouhaha may actually work in your favor-- you have proven a controversial theory to be true, your h-index will increase and your credibility is not only intact but also bolstered by your success.
On the other hand, if your work does not stand up to scrutiny (which seems to be the scenario you are picturing), you will have made a public fool out of yourself and the slight increase in your h-index will be more than offset by the decrease in your credibility. Neither the counter-moves of serious researchers nor the attacks of fanatics are likely to help your academic career, especially if your work cannot stand up under scrutiny.
**So, write a really bad, but controversial, paper *only* if you are willing to sacrifice your credibility for the slight increase in your h-index.**
> 21 votes
# Answer
h-index counts citations regardless of the content of those citations, so citations by people criticizing the paper, disagreeing with it, or pointing out that it's nonsense do still count as citations.
(As a plan to improve one's h-index, this seems like a bad plan for a number of reasons. As a concern about the meaning of h-index, it's a concern, though there's room to argue about whether this sort of situation is common enough to matter.)
> 18 votes
# Answer
Not really: note that by definition of the h-index this paper can increase your h-index *at most by one*, unless you are lucky enough to get citations of the type described by David Richerby in the comment below ("X, despite making significant contributions to the subjects A \[1-3\] and B \[4,5,7-13\], has some unorthodox opinions on the subject C \[6\]").
However, attracting this kind of citations is very field-dependent, and I doubt that even if this strategy works out, be it with a single paper or in David's way, it would really pay off, especially given the losses in reputation.
> 9 votes
# Answer
No, you probably can't, because for it to gain a lot of attention it needs to be intriguing in some way. Simple rubbish isn't; there's plenty of that already, and the peer review process screens out most of it. You could try some huge publicity campaign, but if you're that good at publicity, maybe you're in the wrong field?
Finding just the right balance of plausibility, tension, incorrectness, and publicity is very hard. One indication that this may be the case is that the number of highly-cited bad/controversial papers is much smaller than the number of highly-cited good papers.
Just write a good paper. It's easier (not easy!) and more useful.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Most bad papers are ignored not cited for being wrong. You would have to get it into a good journal and get people to praise it etc. before other researchers will think it is worth critcizing it.
> 1 votes
# Answer
In my experience, most papers of this nature tend to be written by senior academics near the end of their careers, and so it has little impact on their h-indices as they already have a sufficient number of papers with more citations than the controversial paper is ever likely to attract. Less senior academics at the start of their careers (where it might have an impact on their h-index) tend to be more circumspect and careful (as their lack of experience tends to make them more self-sceptical). As a scientist, self-scepticism is a vitally important quality to be carefully nurtured.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I just want to add that your examples are not likely to succeed. If you attract media attention, the debunking papers will be published in newspapers, not in peer reviewed journals, and it will not count towards bibliometric indexes. For it to work you would need to attract attention in your field, and therefore, fool experts.
This said, there are some exceptions, one "good" and one "bad":
* Very groundshaking papers, like some of the ones published by Nature. They explore a very new frontier, and are likely to make mistakes. They do get attention because the ideas are refreshing. Even if they are not correct, the mental process is useful.
* In some multidisciplinary fields, most experts tend to be in one of the sides. For example, some branches of biomedical research are dominated by doctors and biologists, but there are not many physicists or statisticians. In these fields, people may incur in mistakes outside of their area of expertise (for example, a doctor may not have understood the electronics involved in his machine, and why his results are flawed). In this case, one could write a honest paper that has a fundamental mistake, and the reviewers are from the same area of expertise as the author and don't catch it; or someone could take advantage of his rare expertise and introduce wrong procedures on purpose. The first case is not unheard of, the second I haven't seen.
> 0 votes
# Answer
This is a clever idea, never thought of it.
You are famous for the wrong reason. Of course, what's being worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about. Unlike Hollywood, publicity does not equal fame, nor does it generate grants.
> -2 votes
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Tags: citations, bibliometrics
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thread-17801 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17801 | How do I negotiate an offer for Ph.D. funding? | 2014-03-06T00:00:23.057 | # Question
Title: How do I negotiate an offer for Ph.D. funding?
I've received an offer for admission next year. I would very much like to accept the offer, but I'm not sure the 50% TA position will be enough to cover the costs of commuting and an apartment near the university.
During the interviews last weekend, one of my likely advisors stressed the point that when an offer was made (they didn't come out and tell me then, but were very clear that my chances were good) it would be negotiable, but he didn't elaborate and I didn't feel comfortable asking what he meant.
How should I broach the subject of receiving more funding without coming across as ungrateful, and is there any way to know what kinds of additional aid the university might have available?
# Answer
As long as you are polite and don't come with a list of unreasonable demands, you don't have to worry about seeming ungrateful.
> How should I broach the subject of receiving more funding without coming across as ungrateful
Try this:
"When we spoke last weekend, I got the impression that the level of funding could be negotiable. Is that still the case? I appreciate the 50% TA position very much, but I'm concerned that it won't cover my living costs."
> Is there any way to know what kinds of additional aid the university might have available
Ask them:
"Are there any other kinds of aid (besides the TA position) that I could be considered for?"
> 14 votes
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Tags: funding
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thread-17793 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17793 | Contacting professors about research: if they don't respond to my emails, how long should I wait to follow up? | 2014-03-05T20:50:14.057 | # Question
Title: Contacting professors about research: if they don't respond to my emails, how long should I wait to follow up?
I am starting a MS in CS program this summer. My department is small and my particular concentration is both narrow and new. Currently only 3 professors at the school are listed as having research interests in my area of interest.
I have contacted 2 of them. One is tenured and one is an assistant professor.
I know that the tenured professor has *lots* of published work in the field already and would probably be the better recommender come PhD application time.
I'm not eligible for assistantships yet until I finish some prerequisites I lacked from my undergrad. But I want to get in and prove what a good little research assistant I can be as soon as I can so I can beat out the other assistantship applicants when the time comes.
**My question is:** If they don't respond to my emails, how long should I wait to follow up with them as not to be annoying? Should I just wait until classes start and go talk to them then? I'll be taking a class from the assistant professor this summer in a subject outside my research interest. What's the best approach to get people collaborate with me?
(Sorry this sounds like lots of questions in one, but I only have a year and a half to become the best PhD applicant ever and I want to make sure I do it right!)
# Answer
I agree with badroit's answer. I would also like to add the following:
I don't know what was in your original email, so this may not apply.
However, if your email requires some thought or effort on the part of the professor to respond to, then it will sit in his inbox until he has a chance to sit down and compose a proper response. Since you are an unknown student and he is very busy, this is low on his list of priorities and he may never get to it.
On the other hand, if you politely follow up a week or two later with an email in which you ask to *meet*:
> Dear Professor Y,
>
> I am going to be a student in your department next semester.
>
> I have been reading about your paper on Y and I am very interested in talking to you about it; do you think we could schedule a time to meet next week?
This email is easy and quick to respond to ("Yes, how about Tuesday at 10?"), so you may be more likely to get a response.
(I know this doesn't make sense, since the professor would still have to expend time and effort to meet with you. But spending a half hour on a meeting on some future date seems much less of a burden than spending ten minutes *right now* to send an email to an unknown student.)
> 8 votes
# Answer
> Whats the best approach to get people to let me help them?
Impress them. Demonstrate that you genuinely can help them.
The problem you face is that professors are busy. Though professors need students, any decent professor that "takes on" students (be it in an advisory, mentorship or official supervisory role) knows that it's a commitment. In as much as working with a good student can be rewarding and productive, working with a bad student can be a huge time-sink and personally draining.
And good professors often get lots of offers of "help".
So you need to demonstrate that you'll be one of the good ones. You need to surprise them, show your motivation, your interest, your enthusiasm, your skills, your ideas.
Just a couple of thoughts:
* Read a difficult paper authored by the professor in the area. Approach them to tell them you found the paper interesting and to talk about the finer details of it. Try to challenge them about weaknesses of the paper (\<- depending on their character). This demonstrates your ability to read papers independently, as well as your knowledge of the area, your ability to think critically and your enthusiasm for the subject.
* Try putting together a list of elevator-style ideas for research topics in the area. Tell the professor that you are interested in doing research, why you want to do research, and try pitching some ideas to them. Try flesh out an idea or two with them: ask them questions.
Like any sort of work relationship, if you meet with them face-to-face, it's also important that you come across as someone *easy-going* who would be pleasant to work with.
> My question is: If they don't respond to my emails within some time frame when is it no longer annoying to follow up?
Approach them in person. Emails from strange students don't last long in the harsh environs of the INBOXes of senior professors.
> 6 votes
# Answer
I did several internships when I was an undergrad. Here is my advice
1) Meet the professors in person.
2) Look out side of your department, the best internship I did was for NASA. CS degree is highly sought after in other colleges.
3) Talk to and buddy up with other students that are in an intern position. They will make good references and will tell you when there is a spot open.
4) Be prepared to take the first one or two for no pay. My first two were for credit.
5) Talk to all the Professors, Some of them will take you on more to do some quick task they don't want to do.
6) Don't be afraid of a few no's. It's not personal, it just they may not have the time to train you.
My internships are what set me apart for my first job, and they really will help out.
> 4 votes
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Tags: research-process, etiquette, computer-science, professorship, research-assistantship
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thread-17806 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17806 | Acknowledging funds from an award tied to a specific individual | 2014-03-06T01:17:31.923 | # Question
Title: Acknowledging funds from an award tied to a specific individual
I am organizing a conference at a major University. Much of the funding for the conference has come from the an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation award received by a particular scholar. He controls the funds tied to the award and has chosen to give some funding to support the conference. Should this be acknowledged on the advertising material associated with the conference? What wording should I use, if so? It looks strange to me to include the name of the academic, viz. "This conference has been made possible by Prof. X", but if I simply say "This conference has been made possible by the generosity of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation", this gives the impression that they directly funded the conference, which is not the case.
Advice is appreciated!
# Answer
> 6 votes
I have seen this kind of acknowledgement. It was phrased something like "We are grateful to Prof. X for supporting the conference through his Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funding.".
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Tags: conference, funding
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thread-17780 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17780 | My Plan to Get into a CS PhD Program | 2014-03-05T18:02:59.430 | # Question
Title: My Plan to Get into a CS PhD Program
Some background:
I graduated 3 years ago from a big state research university. I had an irrelevant sociology major and graduated with a 2.9 GPA mainly because I had no inclination that I would ever want to go to graduate school and thought it was more important to just make sure that I had a job to support myself and graduated on time.
After graduation I had a crappy office job for 2 years and took some random IT graduate courses which lead me to eventually get a job as a programmer at a large marketing firm for about a year and I got really interested in the more complex world of computer science especially computer vision, modeling and simulation.
Which brings me to now.
I will be beginning a CS Master's program this summer at a medium sized state university with a concentration in Modeling and Sim. I plan to to the thesis option and I've already begun contacting professors about research opportunities.
My GRE score is 162/155/4.5 but I didn't study because I found out I had to take it at the last minute. With some prep I think I can at least bring that up to about 165/160/5.
All that said, do you think that with my thesis, a publication or 2 and a stellar GPA my masters work would over-shaddow my crappy undergraduate career enough to get me into a good PhD program.
My *dream* department would be Caltech. But I'd at least like to go somewhere reputable if I'm going to bother with a PhD.
Diversity note in case this helps my cause: I'm female, 1st generation college student, armed forces veteran.
TL;DR
BAD UNDERGRAD: 2.9GPA/unrelated major
If I do really well on my CS Masters program, get some research published, and get my GRE score up to like a 165/160/5 do you think a top program would ignore the transgressions of my youth?
# Answer
My opinion is that you will be a shoo-in somewhere if you can do good work at the Master's level, while building relationships with the faculty. The fact that your undergrad degree was in sociology almost makes your low GPA irrelevant.
Definitely aim for Caltech if that's what you want, and there is faculty you want to work with. But don't get too hung up on big name schools. There are lots of other schools which maybe aren't as highly ranked but could be a good fit for you.
I recommend reading this book, which helped in writing my statement of purpose. The author is another person who graduated below 3.0.
Here's a personal anecdote to give you encouragement: I was a mediocre undergrad at a big public university, then went to work for a number of years before deciding to enroll in a part-time Master's program at a smaller state school. I had a great experience working with my final project advisor, who encouraged me to apply to a PhD program. I am still working on publishing the results, but in the meantime I have been accepted to a PhD program for the coming year. I never imagined it would happen, but it did. If I can do it, so can you.
> 6 votes
# Answer
Given how far away from your original undergraduate degree you've moved (several years' work experience, change in degree program, and so on), it makes it very hard for a PhD program to give your undergraduate transcript *too* much weight in the admissions process. You will also be able to stress how far you've come as part of your application, either in the statement of purpose or in a "other notes" section—and you should take avail yourself of the opportunity.
As for being female and a veteran, that will matter much more to schools than being a first-generation college student. (Being a female applicant in CS certainly can't hurt your chances if you're a qualified candidate.)
> 7 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-school, application, computer-science
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thread-17811 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17811 | How to handle multiple years lost to test preparation on CV? | 2014-03-06T02:00:37.387 | # Question
Title: How to handle multiple years lost to test preparation on CV?
In 2011, I passed the Master's degree in mathematics with more than 80 percentile. I had a dream of becoming a research scholar in one of country's reputable mathematical institutes.
However, here in India, PhD candidates have to pass a test called National Eligibility Test before facing the interview board of such institutes. To prepare for the test, I disconnected myself from the outer world. Unfortunately, I failed the first three times but managed to pass the test in my fourth attempt, and subsequently joined the institute of my dream for PhD in 2013.
Because I didn't do anything other than preparing for the test, I have a hard time filling the 2-year gap in my CV. Whenever I look at it, that 2-year void pains me as most of my fellow scholars can show an uninterrupted career path on their CVs. I do understand myself that my mathematical knowledge grew in that two years, still I can't find a single demonstrable item to support my case.
Most people either clear the national test in the first or second try, and most of the rest would choose to leave the field forever, or get involved in guest lectureship in some institutes while preparing for the test. For me, however, I found it hard to make the time for anything else on top of studying, and hence I did nothing else. Now, I really wish to have such examples in my CV.
My question: **have you lost many years in order to prepare for tests or exams? If so, can you suggest some examples on how to explain that lost time?**
# Answer
> 12 votes
I agree with @socialsciencedoc's comment, although I think that what s/he describes is a more common phenomenon in the social sciences than in STEM fields. In the former, it's rare to be a 20-something PhD, and in the latter it most certainly isn't: not getting your PhD in math until you're 30 makes you (slightly, and certainly inessentially) older than average.
Anyway, I am not really scrutinizing gaps in candidates CVs until *after their PhD* (at which point I am!). Having a gap between undergrad and grad is still very common in STEM fields: e.g. many people do a couple years of high school teaching before the siren song of academia lures them back. One of my current PhD students did some high school teaching (among other things...) and will be over 30 when he gets his PhD. In his case, he acquired some skills in his "gap years" that are proving useful to him as a student and future mathematician.
Spending multiple years *only studying for an exam* is not something that most Western academics would be so familiar with, I'm afraid. I'm not sure how to spin that positively. So I would just not explain the gap at all. Put your energy into what you can now control: getting a PhD in a timely manner (in math, four or five years is ideal; six is still totally fine; after that it begins to look like you lack sufficient locomotion) and, of course, proving some great theorems in your thesis work. My eye would probably slide right over this gap in your CV...and I think that is exactly the way you want it.
**Added**: I missed this sentence reading your question the first time: " I do understand myself that my mathematical knowledge grew in that two years, still I can't find a single demonstrable item to support my case." That's great; truly. So your time was actually well spent, and I'm very glad to hear that. You don't have to further justify that that time was well spent: it got you into the great university that you now attend. So I think you have little to worry about, actually.
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Tags: mathematics, cv
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thread-17810 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17810 | Is it ethically problematic for an internal candidate to attend the job talk of a candidate for the same job? | 2014-03-06T01:42:25.090 | # Question
Title: Is it ethically problematic for an internal candidate to attend the job talk of a candidate for the same job?
I noticed that my university has been considering "internal" candidates more strongly for permanent faculty positions. These are candidates who have received their masters degree and/or a PhD at the same university.
So when candidates are interviewed, the top contenders are invited for an "on-campus" interview/presentation.
Are there any ethics involved with one internal candidate attending the other internal candidate's "faculty interview presentation"? Wouldn't there be bias established in that manner for or against both candidates since one candidate would receive "pointers" (in)advertently?
Would it be a different situation if the competition for the internal candidate was to be an external candidate?
# Answer
> 8 votes
First, as I inquired about in the comments, most job interviews have both public and private aspects. Public means that they are open to the entire department (or maybe, and probably in some formal sense are, open to the entire university community): e.g. there should be at least one *job talk*, and most often this talk will be advertised on the calendar like any other talk, sometimes called a "special colloquium talk" or something like that. That makes it a departmental event. As a department member you certainly have the right to go. There are also usually some private "interview" portions: this is several faculty members asking questions of the candidate, either one-on-one or in groups (or at meals; even lunches and dinners are part interview, really). These are usually not public events; rather they are activities on the part of the faculty search committee, though in some contexts, e.g. at a small liberal arts college (SLAC) students and other non-faculty members may play an auxiliary role. Certainly as a candidate for a job you can't be part of the search committee to hire into that job: that is the Cadillac of conflicts of interest! So you should try to distinguish in your mind between "search committee activities" and "public events" and be sure not to attend the former. (As usual, if you are in doubt, ask.)
Now I want to make a few comments on StrongBad's (good, I upvoted it) answer.
> One of the jobs of internal candidates, like all member of a department, is to help recruit the individuals being interviewed such that whoever is given the offer, hopefully you, is more likely to accept the offer.
At least at a large research university, it probably not the case that all department members are involved in recruiting for faculty jobs (either temporary or tenure-track). For instance students are usually not involved at all other than maybe wandering into the job talk (though at a SLAC they might be), and temporary faculty are not on search committees for permanent faculty. So I don't necessarily agree with the above sentence. Moreover being involved in "recruiting" for a position one has applied for again sounds like a whopper of a conflict of interest.
> When you are interviewing after an external candidate, the thing to remember is that in most cases watching what someone else does is not going to help you. One case where there could be a definite advantage is if the search committee has some fixed interview questions and you attend an event that gives you access to these prior to your interview.
Yes, I completely agree with that, and it answers one of the OP's main questions. Most academic interviews I know are not sufficiently formalized that watching someone else's in advance would help you with yours. Most questions asked in academic interviews are not content questions or "gotcha" interview questions: they are questions *about you*. I also think that a job talk is a strange place for asking pointed interview questions.
So here is my answer: being an internal candidate for a job is potentially awkward enough so that you should seek some guidance about what to do. If the job talk and the interview aspects are not separated sufficiently clearly in your department, then I think the ethically correct thing to do is just stay away from the whole thing (but tell the faculty in advance that you are planning to do this, in the unlikely event that they have other plans). If the question really is attending another job candidate's talk: I see no ethical problem with it, and if you're in a department where it really is expected that faculty in your position attend all such departmental events (again I'm thinking of a small department) then maybe you should go. It is an academic talk after all and you might learn something. However I think that you should really (forgive my colorful language) shut the hell up as an audience member in this situation. Interacting with another candidate in any active way is also a huge conflict of interest. If you have a sincere academic question, of course you can find a way to communicate your question to the candidate later on.
I don't see how multiple internal candidates makes much difference. I guess that if I knew the other candidate very well and was very friendly with her, I would be more inclined to come to her talk rather than skip it...and especially I would be more inclined to ask what her preference is. I would not do that for an external candidate because it's a potentially loaded question that they shouldn't have to deal with.
# Answer
> 5 votes
As an internal candidate you should talk to the search chair about which events you plan on attending and not attending. One of the jobs of internal candidates, like all member of a department, is to help recruit the individuals being interviewed such that whoever is given the offer, hopefully you, is more likely to accept the offer. That said, you do not want it to appear you are trying to gain an unfair advantage. Many departments interview the internal candidate first which helps deal with this issue. When you are interviewing after an external candidate, the thing to remember is that in most cases watching what someone else does is not going to help you. One case where there could be a definite advantage is if the search committee has some fixed interview questions and you attend an event that gives you access to these prior to your interview.
A case where it might be appropriate to attend a job talk would be if your department struggles to reach critical mass at job talks. In this case having an extra body present can be very helpful. Unless attendance at the talk is pitiful, I would suggest you refrain from asking questions or talking to colleagues about the quality of the talk. Another example would be if you are currently a PhD student applying for a TT position, it might make sense for you to have lunch with the external candidate with the other PhD students. This is especially true if you have a post doc lined up in the department such that you will be there the next year and potentially collaborating with the new candidate.
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Tags: ethics, job-search, presentation, interview, conflict-of-interest
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thread-17763 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17763 | Is it good practice to let students consult their text materials during exams? | 2014-03-05T13:51:43.093 | # Question
Title: Is it good practice to let students consult their text materials during exams?
I teach undergraduate level courses in the humanities. Following practice in my department, I have let students take their texts for consultation during their written exams. They can choose a number of questions they want to answer from a set of questions. After a few semesters, I have begun questioning the validity of such an approach.
I usually had one exam in this form and one final essay in the end of the semester. The issue is, although the subject dealt with in the first part of the course is more or less objective, I find students "copying" my classes much more than using the texts to answer the questions. A complicating factor is that most students cannot presumably understand the material, available only in English. To make it clear, most of my students cannot read English (I could mention the material is not available at the library, but that is another matter). And it is a required course.
What bothers me is that with this approach I cannot, as suspected, measure the level of understanding of the students. Some of the questions deal with very basic issues and concepts. Even then, the overall level of reading, understanding, and writing, as evidenced by their exams and final essays, is very low.
I have thought about changing the syllabus next semester, to one exam (without consultation), perhaps another exam and the final written assignment, but I am quite unsure of the results. Perhaps a lot of students will fail.
Am I too concerned, or is this the way to go?
# Answer
> 13 votes
I am in mathematics, so my experience will be different from yours. What I have found with tests on which I have allowed students to use their text or notes is that the students have not prepared as well as they should have, and waste a lot of time looking for things in their notes. Ultimately, they end up doing worse, as a class, than they usually would. Now, in math we have a lot less material for a test than in, say, history or political science, so there may be some legitimate reasons for allowing the students to consult other sources during an exam, but I do not recall ever being allowed to do so in the humanities courses I took as an undergraduate (mainly in political science and diplomatic history). I think a significant component of a college level education is learning how to absorb, and synthesize, relatively large amounts of material. So, my students have only their own brains to consult during an exam.
# Answer
> 30 votes
I take a compromise approach to the problem of bringing materials to an exam. I allow students to bring one or two sheets' worth of notes **that they have prepared themselves**. No magnifying glasses or other "reading aids" other than standard prescription glasses are allowed, so they can't simply photoreduce a whole bunch of pages and then use it—it's something they have to hand write or copy themselves.
Such an approach forces students to prepare the material, but still gives them some flexibility not to have to commit everything to memory (Is that sign positive or negative? Is that denominator regular volume or molar volume?).
# Answer
> 13 votes
I would ask that the teachers try to also be understandable for those of us with testing anxiety. I was always very thankful to have notes or the text with me during tests because it allowed me to relax some and actually be able to focus when answering questions without fear of forgetting some small detail. I also found that I prepared more when allowed to bring notes because I took time creating them which made my foundation of that knowledge stronger. When I didn't have notes, all bets were off.
# Answer
> 7 votes
The real question is what you're attempting to test.
If the proposed notes are material which the students are going to need "off the cuff" -- data and operations which are absolutely basic to the discipline they're learning -- then it makes sense to test whether they have memorized it, since consulting reference materials every time will slow them down too drastically for them to work productively at the next level up.
If they're material which a practitioner will generally not have memorized and will look up anyway, then it isn't unreasonable to make references available to the students... while pointing out that being able to work without the hardcopy references will let them solve the problems faster and with more confidence and thus may improve their grades.
Note that these cases presume two very different sets of exam questions.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Usually exams that allow the students to use their text materials is because of the density of the topics. I mean there is a lot of material to be covered and for that reason not easy to memorize, or in some cases it is futile to make the student to remember some specific topics (like in my field of CS).
For what I see the students prefer to paraphrase your material instead of what is covered in the text book; that could be a direct consequence that they find the questions in the exam too easy to answer, and with the answers directly related to your material. In this situation what I do recommend is to twist the difficulty a little bit higher, so you can force that the student has read the material from the book beforehand; and also that can show that he or she knows the basics.
In general it is not bad to let students to use textbooks during the exam, the bad thing is not to adequately tune the difficulty of the exam.
Good luck!
Side note: English is almost a universal language and it must be a prerequisite before following some courses. In any case if they are too lazy to learn a new language then try to get translated copies of the required textbooks (or just prepare one for your own).
# Answer
> 3 votes
I come from an engineering background, and we were allowed to bring our books and notes. This was in the 80s and 90s so there was no Internet to access. I found that if I didn't know the material that the books and note were no help, and that searching the materials just wasted time.
Unless the test asked the exact same question as was in an example covered, the materials were not useful as a resource during the test.
It should take only one experience like that to persuade a student to learn the material rather rely on the books and notes as a crutch. Consider it a bonus life lesson for the student.
# Answer
> 2 votes
My answer is based on my own experience as a college graduate, and, in short, is "No, you are not too concerned, and, no books during tests is not the way to go." I feel that a teacher's two responsibilities are to encourage students to learn on their own, and to effectively relay information to them: few things are capable of so thoroughly sabotaging this process than offering an open-book test.
Teachers of mine have tried all kinds of policies during my college career, and, in deed, my entire student life. Open notes, open book, open book and notes, closed everything, study sheets, index cards, you name it.
I found these two strategies in particular to be the most effective:
2nd-most effective:
Usually about a week before each test, our teacher offered for us to turn in a blank blue book with our name on it (standardized bound sheets of paper for essay exams) that she would mark in a supposedly tamper-evident way, gave it back to us the next day, and allowed us to fill it with hand-written notes to our heart's content. We were allowed to use these notes and these notes only during the test, during which she would verify the authenticity of her markings on any study guides in use at her leisure. This was incredibly effective for me because taking the time to *write down* information from scouring books, class notes, the Internet, and even collaborating with others doing the same thing, was, in effect, *actual studying*. I usually found that I seldom needed it at all during the test because I'd committed so much of it to memory while creating its content! Additionally, it was a confidence boost to have it available, and that any time I felt like referring to it, I usually knew specifically which page of notes on which to find the answer!
Absolutely the most effective:
The first day of class we were handed a list of 150 questions, and were guaranteed that our *entire* final exam would be *exactly one randomly selected question* from the list (possibly different for each student), and alone, worth *100% of our course grade*. I had never so diligently studied for a class in my life!
# Answer
> 0 votes
This has been touched upon by the two lowest voted answers, so I am going to give it a go myself to make it clearer.
First of all, except for orientation courses where memorization is the central issue, open book examinations are incredibly good, *however* they are only as good as the questions you ask. The thing you should be aware of is that with examinations like this you're able to far more complex questions which are **not** about specific sections of the text, but rather about the course as a whole. For example, rather than asking what the effects were of the actions of a specific individual on his field of study in his time you can suddenly ask students to describe the trend over a far greater time period. Or you can ask for an analysis of the approach of a set of individuals on a very specific detail. What you should be aiming for is comprehension of the matter, questions which can not be paraphrased from the covered materials as they simply were not explicitly covered.
Another existing 'trick' is to make the exams so huge that students never have any chance of finishing the entire exam. If you go down this route you have to make very clear which depth and length you expect for each question, but the nice thing of this technique is that you can see quite clearly how well students know the full width of the subject matter.
Now, I have to be honest that a lot of these kind of examinations - open book exams in general - are often none the less not well done. It becomes more about just learning the index of the books well then understanding the topic matter, but in essence I believe it is crucial for a good modern education to not be based around memorization - we have the internet for that - , but rather comprehension and recombination.
# Answer
> 0 votes
It depends heavily on what you're testing.
Is it a computer science paper, where you want to test your students' knowledge of basic data structures and algorithms? Then you probably don't want to let them have text materials.
Is it a first year linguistics mid-semester test, where you want to test the students' knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet and different places and manners of articulation? Then you probably don't want to let them have text materials.
Is it a second year linear algebra exam, where you want to test the students' ability to apply different methods to solve various systems of linear equations, but you don't need them to remember whether a projection is `v.n/n.n * n` or `v.n/v.v * n`? Then you should probably let them handwrite their own notes.
Are you testing the knowledge of something? Or are you testing the ability to apply that knowledge to solve a problem or compare two algorithms, historical events, methods of solving an equation, etc.?
# Answer
> 0 votes
Does your school allow tests to be given and answered in your native language? If so, then ask questions in your native language and have them answer in your native language. Those who do not understand the text will fail (they cannot pass by just copying the English text, as you have required their answers to be in the native language), and those who do understand the text will pass.
# Answer
> 0 votes
What do you want "create"? Robots like google? or persons that have resolve problems, analyze and creative responses... let robots memorize and let hummans create and be creatives.
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Tags: exams, evaluation-criteria, humanities
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thread-17859 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17859 | Best practices for keeping a campus computer network from getting brought down by inappropriate use? | 2014-03-07T00:18:13.487 | # Question
Title: Best practices for keeping a campus computer network from getting brought down by inappropriate use?
I work at a California community college that has chronically underinvested in computing and networking. The school has been gradually increasing wifi coverage, which now includes all but a few areas of campus.
As a result, you can walk through the cafeteria or the halls of the natural science building and see one student after another watching TV shows on a laptop. Yes, it's conceivable that they have an educational reason for doing so, e.g., maybe they're watching "I Love Lucy" in order to research a paper on media stereotypes for their women's studies class. But in reality, I think they just want to watch Spongebob for entertainment.
This causes severe problems, because the network was never designed to be a TV conduit for thousands of students. It apparently was one factor leading to the fact that the entire wifi network went down for the first 6 weeks of this semester.
My school's Acceptable Use Policy forbids various uses such as commercial activity, chat, and playing games, but it does not forbid binge-watching "Breaking Bad" over the school's wifi network. I can understand the concern that once the school starts blocking certain web sites, there is a slippery slope leading toward violations of academic freedom. However, it seems farfetched to say that we have to let students access Netflix while logged in to a student account.
Are technological solutions such as bandwidth caps for student accounts a good option? This would seem to sidestep the issue of academic freedom. Spending our way out of the bandwidth deficit does not seem to be an option; not only do we not have the money, but there is every reason to expect that demand would expand to saturate supply.
Can anyone describe best practices for keeping a campus computer network from getting brought down by inappropriate use? An ideal answer would describe both a successful policy and how it was successfully enforced without infinging academic freedom.
# Answer
> 10 votes
I see this as a resource allocation problem, not an academic freedom problem. Your network just does not have the resources to support many users with high-bandwidth demand (whether the demand is academic in nature or not), and your school does not want to apportion more money to upgrade network resources.
It sounds like you don't really want to prevent a particular use of the network; if you did, it would be in your Acceptable Use Policy. You just want to prevent a user from hogging network capacity, which degrades the experience for everyone else.
Instituting bandwidth caps (or a similar content-agnostic strategy) to prevent excessive resource use by one individual does not violate academic freedom. For example, Amtrak limits use of WiFi on its trains; streaming music, streaming video, and downloading large files are disabled. This is understood to be a reflection of their unwillingness to spend the money that would be required to support high-bandwidth content, not censorship.
If you want to make sure that students still have access to I Love Lucy and other essential academic content, you can offer uncapped network access in specific areas (e.g., in the library).
Of course, if you plan to implement this, you should announce the change, explain the reason for it, and expect students to be very, very unhappy about it. "Network" is simply one of the resources that students expect from a college; from their point of view, you are failing as a college if you do not provide a reasonable amount of this resource.
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Tags: academic-freedom, facilities-services
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thread-10352 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10352 | How to find the best journal to submit a paper to (when having written the title, abstact and full text)? | 2013-05-31T15:52:40.540 | # Question
Title: How to find the best journal to submit a paper to (when having written the title, abstact and full text)?
Consider a case of a new researcher that does not know well all possible journals and has no access to human advice (from colleagues). (please do not comment that this is the best - out of scope of the question!)
Or one journal rejected the paper and the author is looking for outside the box candidates.
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**Possible examples:**
1. E.g., in medicine, one can use this tool (ETBLAST) by submitting full text of the article http://etest.vbi.vt.edu/etblast3/
Some journals even require top 3 similar papers (found by ETBLAST) to be pasted into a form during submission (making sure authors well addressed related literature).
2. Or Elsevier JournalFinder service.http://journalfinder.elsevier.com/
# Answer
> 12 votes
You need to know your field. Part of knowing your field is reading lots of papers. This should give you an idea of what kinds of papers each of the major journals publishes, and what journal may be best suited to you. If you're a good researchers, you ought to already know what are the main journals that publish research in your area. If you don't already know that, then maybe you need to spend more time reading published work first.
In particular, the best way to figure out if a particular journal is a good fit for your paper is to read a bunch of papers published at that journal. That will give you a pretty good sense. You can use the "call for papers" as a further sanity check, but nothing substitutes for reading what else they have published.
There is no shortcut. If you are a knowledgeable about your field, a random webpage is not going to know your field better than you do. If you are not knowledgeable about your field, then the first thing you need to do is to fix that.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Presumably you have included references in your article! Just check which journals you tend to cite most (or at least twice each in your article). Those must be good and relevant enough (since you cite the work published there in the context of your own work). Then check their guidelines to be sure (possible length constraints, level of detail, etc.)
If you do not want to go to the most prestigious journals because you fear your work is not groundbreaking enough, or because you want an easy ride, or, as you said, because they rejected your article already, here is a relevant rule-of-thumb: do not publish in a journal which you would never cite for whatever reason.
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Tags: publications, journals
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thread-17871 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17871 | Can research papers be mentioned as projects in a cv? | 2014-03-07T05:57:24.693 | # Question
Title: Can research papers be mentioned as projects in a cv?
While working as a research associate at an institute, I contributed to a research project through it's development and experimentation phases. From my contributions on this project I was listed as a second author on some research papers.
*How should I list these papers on my CV, independently or in relation to this research project?*
# Answer
> 3 votes
It cannot be a research paper without a project. Research papers are for describing the results of the projects. Even review articles represent projects to collect the information about the current status in the particular branch of the science.
Once you are a co-author, you have been involved into that project. Co-authorship always assumes significant enough involvement. Hope this answers your question.
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Tags: conference, professorship, cv, research-assistantship
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thread-17551 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17551 | When can a professor refuse to sign off on a committee-approved thesis? | 2014-02-28T16:06:14.827 | # Question
Title: When can a professor refuse to sign off on a committee-approved thesis?
(Breakdown of a larger issue - full story here)
I did a masters research project as part of a grant project my professor received. Her project was to redo a standard, widely design using a new technology as a feasibility comparison, to see if the technology should be adapted as an accepted (possibly standard) design. My thesis project was to redesign key part of the original design in order to provide her with design parameters; we then iterated over each design twice more to finalize on common parameters.
It took a couple months to get clear criteria from the sponsor, and we finished a couple months behind schedule, but ultimately our work was a success. Our work was combined in a single dual report to serve as both my thesis and her official report.
Following my successful defense, with no changes from my committee, she bluntly refused to sign off on my graduation paperwork until she had official acceptance of the report from the entity funding the grant. She admitted this was an entirely separate issue but "wanted something to hold over my head in case they ask for changes". This delayed my graduation significantly, which has had serious consequences for my professional career. As far as I can tell, the was done solely for her benefit to secure full grant payment (to her) and not as any part of the school's needs or my graduation requirements.
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**If all the requirements of a prescribed study program are met, are there any situations when it would be appropriate for a professor to deliberately delay a student's graduation?**
# Answer
From a mere common sense perspective, this is, clearly, grossly unethical. However, professors at most institutions are given a huge amount of latitude in making decisions of this kind. That latitude is intended as deference to the professor as the one closest to the situation and a recognized scholar in the field, etc, etc. It's not intended to extend to capricious or unethical behavior, but I'm sure your case is, sadly, neither the only one nor the most egregious.
As the professor has already departed academia (and good riddance!), there's not much to be done about that particular individual. In a few years, though, you will likely be getting contacted by your alma mater frequently as they are very interested in what you would like to contribute, etc.
There might be some opportunity here to ask to speak to someone who will be interested to know why you are unable to donate. Until they have clear policies in place that prevent the kind of abuse you were subjected to, you can't see your way clear to making contributions to an institution that, through their own negligence, damaged your career while it was in at its most vulnerable point. Obviously there's no guarantee you will get through to someone who will listen, but it's worth a shot--if they do, it might prevent someone else from going through what you went through.
To anyone else going through this, get everything in writing. "Why are you withholding your signature?" Get a paper trail, or it's your word against the infinitely more powerful professor's as to what is going on.
> 7 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, thesis, ethics
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thread-17885 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17885 | Where does the remaining money of FP7 projects go? | 2014-03-07T10:12:19.637 | # Question
Title: Where does the remaining money of FP7 projects go?
> 'Framework programmes' (FPs) are main financial tools through which the European Union supports research and development activities covering almost all scientific disciplines.
I am a fellow of FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) project. As a hosting institution, the faculty I work at got funding to support me and related research. Where does the non-spent founds after the project ends? Do they stay within the university or are they returned to the European Commission (EC)?
# Answer
As usual, the answer is: it depends.
I have no experience with the Marie Curie programme, but for traditional FP7 research projects, the funding system worked as follows.
Your funding plan consisted basically of two large blocks: **direct costs**, and **indirect costs**.
Direct costs included things like personnel (the largest part, usually), special equipment, or travel funds. For direct costs, the research institution needed to proof how they spent the money exactly. In case of underspending (for instance, if one planned for a postdoc but ended up hiring a PhD student), the left-over money has to be refunded to the agency (or, in some cases, can be transferred to another partner in the project). In case of overspending, the research institution has to cover the costs themselves.
Indirect costs, on the other hand, are a lump sum. They are calculated as a percentage of the planned direct costs (typically 25% for universities, iirc) and are meant to cover all the other costs of a project that are hard to account for exactly (things like the office space and heating for the people working in the project, etc.). These are paid out no matter what, and are not refunded. The research institution does not need to proof in any way that it actually spent all that money.
So to answer your concrete question: everything that is designated as direct costs in the ITN proposal and is not spent will go back to the EU. However, all the indirect costs associated with the ITN will stay with your host institution regardless of whether they spend the money or not.
> 8 votes
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Tags: funding, europe
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thread-17848 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17848 | Dislike PhD project | 2014-03-06T19:29:30.283 | # Question
Title: Dislike PhD project
I'm a few months into my PhD, but I'm finding that I'm not interested in the my project. I joined my research group with a masters in electrical engineering. I wanted to do research that incorporates electrical engineering and biology, but somehow I ended up with a project that is exclusively biology. A I'm worried that if I continue down this path, I'll end up stuck in a career I don't like. I've talked to my adviser about my concerns, but he made it clear that I must work on my current project. Here's what I see my options are:
1. Finish my PhD with the project I currently have and switch fields immediately after
2. Try to switch research groups
3. Quit school and get a job
Eventually I would like to work in industry developing medical devices. How feasible is it to reach this goal from where I am now? I'm also interested in hearing from people who were in a similar situation I am in now and what they choose to do.
# Answer
> 15 votes
> Eventually I would like to work in industry developing medical devices.
Did you tell your advisor this when you had your discussion ? Did your advisor tell you why you need to stay on this project ? It's possible that they had a better vision of how this might help you with your long term goals, but it's also possible they aren't really thinking about your goals.
I've had students who had strong opinions about what they wanted to work on, and did NOT want to work on what I suggested. **They always won**, and that's how I think it should be. But it took time for me to understand their reluctance to work on my project, and it helped immensely when they came to me with their **own** project ideas.
**So I'd suggest you think about a project that you'd prefer doing, and go to your advisor with that idea**. Hopefully it's not too far removed from your advisor's expertise (otherwise they'll have a hard time - well - advising).
# Answer
> 7 votes
Before I try to answer, I think it's really difficult to advise on such a major decision without knowing you and your situation. Personally, the best advice I can think of is to seek out a senior researcher who is unbiased, who knows the area, who knows your context and who can talk you through your decision.
But based on what you've said, since you are early in the PhD process and since your reason for wanting to switch seems genuine and not a temporary disillusionment (i.e., your PhD project is in a field you are not interested in and that's not going to change), you should probably try to apply to other PhD positions, keeping your current position until you find something better (or at least see how difficult it would be to find something better).
> I've talked to my adviser about my concerns, but he made it clear that I must work on my current project.
Also, need it be said, you should take the advice of your supervisor with a pinch of salt: they are biased and will want you to stay in the PhD, even if it's not in your best interest. You don't *need* to work on the current project: you can always quit and go somewhere else.
# Answer
> 7 votes
First, and foremost, **this is your PhD**. Not your supervisor's.
The question that you choose to address in your PhD **needs to come from you**. You might take guidance on this from your supervisor(s), but if you don't own the problem wholly, then I doubt you will have the drive to survive the slings and arrows that will come your way during your PhD, including the general malaise that hits almost all PhD students during their thesis. **If you are working on a problem in which you are not fully invested, I doubt you will succeed.**
You've done the right thing in bringing your concerns to your supervisor. If he is resolute that you must continue on a path that you don't feel sufficiently in control over, or which is not addressing the question you seek to answer, then I suggest you switch research groups - or indeed find a suitable job for the time being.
Regarding the job you mention - medical devices - I suggest you make contacts with the recruiting agents for a number of firms and get their feedback on the general qualities that their successful hires have. Try and identify recent hires yourself and introduce yourself, asking them for a little about their training. This will give you a good idea of how to proceed with your own training.
You might find people on this website to offer advice, however I think that their answers might be off-topic for this question.
Best of luck.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Now this is just **my** opinion and it worked for *me*. Per Steve Martin in the movie "Mixed Nuts", "In every POTHOLE, there is HOPE" (if you re-arrange the letters and so on).
I was faced with a similar situation. I sought out the challenges of the project I disliked and tried to, as dispassionately as possible, look at the aspects of the project however small that I would consider working on. I did exactly that. Yes, I had to construct a convincing argument for my adviser as to why focussing on a sub-aspect of my project whilst not losing track of the bigger chunk would be useful for me and the project. Yes, I did have a quasi-supportive adviser and an quasi-supportive department chair who wanted me to succeed since the "greater good" of my public university was at stake.
Since you have already "talked to your adviser", you may need to wait it out for a semester or so before you broach the subject matter again. i.e., if you find aspects of the project you like (time can change our perspective).
If you don't... perhaps you would need to cut and run to another research group or university since your professional life would be at stake.
**So in summary, those are the two options that *I* had:**
* Focus on a sub-project of the main project. Link that to the success of the main project and work in that direction. Worked out for me! I am happier with my contributions to the field.
* If things go from "bad to worse", cut and run to another group/univ.
**Subplot**: Yes, per Badroit's answer, you should generally heed your adviser's er... advice. Since they would generally look at the greater good and the bigger picture. But you would know best about his/her personality and you may need to use your gut feelings in such situation.
Good luck! Either way, it will be a character building exercise which will also provide you with interesting technical skills and temperament which are the subtle skills necessary for success in industry or academia (or so I am told).
# Answer
> 2 votes
> I'm a few months into my PhD, but I'm finding that I'm not interested in the my project. I've talked to my adviser about my concerns, but he made it clear that I must work on my current project.
"A few months in" is still very early in a doctoral program, so it shouldn't be too early to switch research groups. If your adviser said that you "must" work on your current project, I assume that means, "If you're going to keep working with me, you'll have to work on this project." (It's not too unusual for an adviser to balk at the prospect of advising a student who wants to start a new project, particularly if they don't feel they have sufficient expertise or interest. Some research efforts take months or years to get underway, and students can't expect every faculty member to put aside what they've been working on just to accommodate a new student's whim.)
I would start looking around your school to see if there's another research group working on something more closely related to your interests. If not, you've left out a fourth possible option, which is to transfer to another school. If you're not even a year in, then it may not be too late to switch, particularly if you can find a faculty member who is working on exactly the kind of work you are hoping to do.
# Answer
> 1 votes
You present three options:
1. Finish my PhD with the project I currently have and switch fields immediately after
2. Try to switch research groups
3. Quit school and get a job
Let's take a closer look at each of them:
1. "Finish my PhD": This is what you are doing now. This is the default option, the base with which you have to compare everything else. Be aware this is not a particularly easy path.
2. "Switch research groups": Do a quick search, can you find something? Because this option only makes sense if there is some research group to switch to, where it's possible to switch (being admitted, it's not like saying hi and crossing the door...), where the advisor is not a jerk/moron/whatever, where it's possible to do the research you want to do (it could be the same or even worse). We don't know, you don't know, nobody knows. Search, get information. It's not easy, IMHO, but you may have skills for this, I've no idea.
3. "Get a job": what kind of job are we talking about here? How interested are you in doing a PhD? (the one in option 1 and the one in option 2), would it be a dream job in what you want or simply something to earn some money? how much money? Again, search.
Try not to invest/waste more time in searching than what you need to make a decision, in either case, you have already decided (by default), you are in option 1, you have not enough information to make a **specific** decision and the clock is ticking. Any of those three options could be a life-saver or a death-in-life depending on *specific* details (but most probably it will not be any of both, there is a lot of room in between).
Good luck.
PD: I know people that have started a PhD on a different topic after 3 or 4 years of working on a different topic. People that have started a PhD after years in industry and paying the loan for the house (big deal). People that have quit a PhD after 2 or 3 years. People that have published the thesis as a (free public) book, so that it's there in the record, but have no made the defense (and probably never will, because there is a limit in time for that).
In short, this ((academic?) life?) is not like the rails of a train where you make specific decisions that cannot be changed (ever), is more like a sea you sail, think about it in a more open way.
Also, shipwrecking is possible, as well as going adrift, getting lost, etc.
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Tags: phd
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thread-17877 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17877 | Can MS be done with full scholarship? | 2014-03-07T06:47:51.803 | # Question
Title: Can MS be done with full scholarship?
Although graduating from a low ranked college I was able to become research associate at a well known research institution. My work there provided me with three research papers.
Is there any possibility of getting a full scholarship for a MS program?
# Answer
> 1 votes
I did an MS in math. My tuition was waived and I received a stipend that was enough for me to live on (albeit very cheaply). In return for this I taught one class of either business math or college algebra every semester I was there. I think everyone that was there with me at the same time was on the same deal.
It shouldn't be hard to get this information from the school or schools of your choice. If they have a program like this they probably recruit for it.
This might be different from what you are asking, since it more or less involves working for the money, but for anyone that needs a way to pay for a Master's degree, this is definitely a way to explore. I can't say how common an arrangement like this would be outside of mathematics, however.
You should contact the school(s) you are considering attending and find out what kind of arrangements are made there.
# Answer
> 0 votes
Yes of course. I personally had a full scholarship for my MS. Even more specific, for example, no one from MIT media lab can be accepted WITHOUT a full scholarship (http://www.media.mit.edu/admissions/faqs) . Your full scholarship is based on how much the university/professor/department needs you. If you have the ability to perform at the level of a researcher or PHD student, there is no reason they would not want to pay for you to be working there.
Of course, this depends on both school and country. Some places may have specific rules on how you can have a scholarship. It may be contingent on teaching assistant or research assistant positions.
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Tags: research-process, masters, professorship
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thread-17544 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17544 | Is it acceptable, or advisable, to include self-assessed ratings of your skills on your CV | 2014-02-28T13:43:13.767 | # Question
Title: Is it acceptable, or advisable, to include self-assessed ratings of your skills on your CV
I am in the process of updating my CV. Since I often get labeled as "the bioinformatician" I get to play with many different languages and technologies, and similarly what people expect from a bioinformatician varies from person to person. So I figured it would be a good idea to indicate how much I *feel* I know in respective fields/languages.
Inspired by this question, I came to wonder whether or not its acceptable to have self-assessed ratings of your technical skills, such as: proficiency programming languages, familiarity with relevant software etc.
My own feeling is that such ratings are useful to indicate what you feel most confident or comfortable with. It would also be useful to show any potential future employer the level of competence you have in different fields. If you think about it a bit, it is common to have some type of rating for the languages one speaks, so I think an analogue to programming language proficiency should not be that alienating.
On the other hand there is the risk of rendering your CV like, as a friend of mine put it, a role-playing game character sheet.
Is it common to have such ratings on skills? Are there any potential problems with it?
**Edit:** What I was thinking is a small listing something like:
# Answer
What scale do you intend to rate yourself on? Maybe that sounds like a silly riposte, but that's a serious issue. If you say you're proficient in Java, how does the person reading the CV know what on earth you mean (assuming they're willing to take your word for it). I would be much more inclined to focus on what experience you have with a language (I have X many years of Java programming experience, I've done such and such projects), since that's actually something which people understand the meaning of. You also don't necessarily need to cover this in a lot of detail in your CV, since if you're applying for a job where these skills are relevant, you can mention it in your cover letter.
**EDIT**: In response to the proposal of using stars or a 0-5 rating: **DON'T DO IT!** If you want to write "I'm proficient in Java and have some experience in C" that's harmless but won't make too much of a positive impression either without some more concrete information. The stars will make you look eccentric at best, and lunatic at worst. I know that some times the usual convention about how to do things seem constraining and silly, but if you've never seen something on a CV before (and I've never seen giving yourself numerical ratings on an unknown scale), there's probably a good reason.
> 16 votes
# Answer
Let's get some terminology clear. A self-assessment is something like this:
> I am proficient in Java and Python, and have a good working knowledge of C++.
You don't want to self-assess, if only because, in the absence of an external standard, self-assessments are difficult for others to evaluate. What does "good working knowledge of C++" mean, for example? If my work depends on a program that involves many thousand C++ lines across dozens of files, can I count on you to maintain, debug, and expand it?
What you want to do is accomplishment-listing, which looks like this.
> I took CS304 "Advanced C++" (grade: A) and CS407 "C++ Applications in the Life Sciences" (grade: A+) in Alma Mater State University (2010-2011). At BioInfo Inc. (2011-2013), I helped develop the C++ backed of the following programs...".
This is much more helpful for prospective employers.
> 13 votes
# Answer
I do think there *can* be some value to listing skills and your confidence in them, especially if they're not immediately obvious from your accomplishments.
But, I agree with the others that the stars are not useful and do not work in your favor.
For example, if your CV lists: "Project X: Did A, B, C, (implemented in Ruby)" and "Project Y: Did D, E, F (used HTML, CSS, Javascript)" that doesn't really tell me much about how much you've really done with each of these languages. In Project Y, did you really design your CSS or did you find some nice templates and modify to suit your needs?
It's not always appropriate to describe in such detail what each project entailed. If I'm looking for your expertise in a particular skill that isn't obvious from your experience, then a listing of skills and confidence levels *is* helpful. But, there's a better way to do it than with star ratings.
Google's self-rating scale (reportedly) goes like this:
* 0 – You have no experience
* 1 to 3 – You are familiar with this area but would not be comfortable implementing anything in it.
* 4 to 6 – You are confident in this area and use it daily.
* 7 – 9 You are extremely proficient to expert and have deep technical expertise in the subject and feel comfortable designing any project in it.
* 10 – Reserved for those who are recognized industry experts, either you wrote a book in it or invented it.
On your CV, a textual description ("**Ruby**: I am confident in Ruby and use it daily") is more useful and also makes you sound better than saying "**Ruby**: 6/10"
(Of course, the rest of your CV should go on to present your experience in Ruby, so the reader becomes confident that your self-rating is reasonable.)
You didn't ask about this, but I would also strongly advise **against** listing "Microsoft Office" as a software skill if you are looking for a technical job in a technical field.
> 5 votes
# Answer
It seems like you need a second opinion so:
No way should you put the graphic you added to your question in your CV. It looks very strange and does not help you. When I see it:
(i) My eye immediately notices that there are a lot of missing stars. Altogether you are giving yourself 63.3% of the maximum possible programming proficiency \[whatever that means!\]. That sounds really mediocre. Most other candidates' CV will contain only 100% positive information about them.
(ii) While my eye notices that you haven't rated yourself so highly, my brain is very frustrated that it doesn't know what any of the ratings mean, high or low. You give yourself 3.5 out of 5 stars on LaTeX. If I want to take your LaTeX skills into account in my decision on whether or not to hire you...then what on earth am I supposed to do with 3.5 out of 5 stars?!?
> 4 votes
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Tags: cv
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thread-17897 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17897 | How to leave a collaborator after being offered to join a new group? | 2014-03-07T16:58:27.390 | # Question
Title: How to leave a collaborator after being offered to join a new group?
How does one leave one collaborative group for another, prior to the start of the research? This relates to switching project teams for graduate course work, switching research labs, or basically dropping any collaboration. How does one do so politely?
My specific situation:
I have been asked today by one of the best teams to join their group for our major University project. However, I have promised my friend 2 months ago that I will join his team.
How can I join the better team without jeopardizing my relationship with my friend?
# Answer
> 3 votes
First make sure that this is what you want. This is a very important thing to do. Being in a better team is a chance, but also a burden. They will expect you to cooperate at a certain level, which means: stress, lots of work and being on time. If you think that's worth the result and that you are willing to dive into that, then do it.
If your friend is a good friend he/she will understand. I'd suggest to invite your friend for an activity that both of you enjoy a lot, then bring up the topic. Make it clear to your friend that you value the relationship and how difficult it is for you to take that decision, but also can't put down the chance. Ask him/her what he/she would do in your position to get your friend to see it with your eyes.
True friendship will survive that. And if not, then knowing that you took the right decision will help you getting over it.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Make sure that if you are going to do this, it leaves him enough time to find a new group (assuming this is related to a class or an undergraduate/masters project and not a phd collaboration). Going back on your word is one thing (subjectively unethical), but it would be extremely unethical to go back on your word if he does not have the time to adjust to your news accordingly.
If you two have already formed a project idea together, view every idea you have told him as his. Absolutely do not take anything from your current project idea to the new team (especially if he is unable, or too lazy to, find a new team that has their own idea)
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Tags: university, collaboration, conflict-of-interest
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thread-17922 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17922 | Benefits of doing Part III at Cambridge (Pure Math) for US PhD applications | 2014-03-08T13:27:56.413 | # Question
Title: Benefits of doing Part III at Cambridge (Pure Math) for US PhD applications
I applied to various US Pure Mathematics PhD programs for entry this fall and the responses from my top preferences were not favorable, though some of my lower preferences were. I also have an offer to do "Part III" at the University of Cambridge, which is a 1 year masters degree via coursework (although there is an essay component worth about 1/6th of the assessment). I'm considering the option of accepting this, and then re-applying to the US schools with the hope that my application has improved and I get accepted into one of my higher preferences.
> My question is: How do US Mathematics departments view the Part III program, and if I do it then will it have a good/bad/no effect on my subsequent application?
Some things to consider: The Part III program is intended as preparation for a PhD degree, unlike many Masters degrees that are intended as terminal degrees. Is this well known?
An essay is part of the course - it usually involves giving a unified exposition of several recent papers on a certain topic. Though the content of the essay can be quite advanced, it often does not contain much original research.
The course is from October '14 to June '15, while applications to US schools are due around December '14. This means I will not have had enough contact with Cambridge faculty to get a letter of reference from them. The marks for all the subjects taken are released around June '15, so I won't be able to include any of those marks in my application either. However in the time between now and October I will continue work with my undergraduate supervisor, which should improve my main letter of reference at least a little. My field is algebraic geometry, and my supervisor has said that it would be better for me to go through Hartshorne in the next ~6 months rather than forcing myself to research just yet. So I won't be getting any original research done by the time I apply again.
# Answer
I think Part III is quite common amongst US students nowadays, and is thus well-known to graduate admissions committees. Probably the effect on your application will be good, since if nothing else it shows you are serious about studying mathematics; a school can also reasonably expect you to be considerably better prepared coming after a year at Part III than when you finished your BA. So if one of your issues was a weak curriculum as a BA student (as opposed to poor grades or weak letters), then Part III could help quite a bit. On the other hand, I wouldn't count on a dramatic change in your graduate school admissions, in part because as you note, you won't have your grades or a strong recommendation from Part III in hand when you apply for graduate schools the next time around. I wouldn't worry about the fact that Part III is not research based; obviously doing research before starting graduate school is great, but most graduate schools in the US are not really expecting you to have done much in the way of it beforehand, or to be even close to ready to start when you enter.
I think if money is no object, then Part III is probably as good as anything else you might do for having a strong graduate application in the coming cycle. **EDIT:** I should probably also say that a matter of substance (as opposed to application strategy), Part III is probably on average better than spending a year as a grad student at a random respectable grad program in the US, since it will bring you into contact with a wide variety of other students and ideas.
However, I think you should weigh that next to the possibility of starting graduate school at one of your lower preferences, and then trying to transfer after a year, or when you get a master's degree. There's no guarantee this will work, but the same can be said of Part III. If you've been offered funded admission at a respectable school in the US, and would have to pay your own way at Part III, I would look hard at whether you think it's worth the money.
**EDIT**: I wouldn't count on the "glamour" of Cambridge itself to have a strong effect. I honestly don't know how selective Part III is (maybe someone who knows can comment.), so I wouldn't rely on assuming that admissions committees will consider it as such. There's some psychological "band-wagon" effect where getting one prestigious position reinforces getting others, but it won't work if the substance isn't there. Getting a BA from Harvard or MIT is helpful for getting into graduate school (if you have a strong record) because an admissions committee is more confident that getting an A in math class at Harvard really means something, and that a professor at Harvard has a lot of experience with talented undergraduates and thus can speak with some certainty about what it takes to succeed in graduate school. So, if you went to Part III, got good scores on your exams and got a strong recommendation from a professor there, that could strengthen your application a lot as a "second opinion" reinforcing the recommendations and grades you have from your BA. However, as discussed, those would only be available for the fall 2016 admission cycle, not 2015. One possibility is to see about accepting one of your safety schools with a deferment to go to Cambridge, going to Part II in 2014-5, going to the safety school in 2015 and applying for transfer in 2016 or 2017 if you're unhappy there.
One piece of information we're lacking is what your "lower preferences" are (don't put too much stock in USNW rankings, but they help to be concrete in a discussion like this). It makes a big difference whether we're talking about a school in the rank ~25 (like UCSD), ~50 (like UVA) or ~100 (for example, South Carolina). In the former case, I'd say it's a waste of time to try to try to move up unless you go and are miserable, whereas in the latter it makes a certain kind of sense.
**LATER EDIT**: Incidentally, yes, given that your undergraduate grades are already "baked in," the main things you can still hope to change are your letters, and also your GRE scores if those were bad.
> 8 votes
# Answer
Part III is pretty widely known, including in the US. Many of my fellow students who sought PhD positions there were successful; though, of course, they were students with strong academic records to begin with. Something to keep in mind, though, is that not only will you not have had sufficient faculty contact to get a proper reference by the American application deadline, and not only won't you have any results by then: you won't have even a record of your ongoing classes. There's no official course registration, and you only declare your exams in the spring. Until then, the academic section of your transcript is literally blank. So, unless you're prepared to wait an extra year to apply for your PhD, the only boost Part III can give your December applications is on its reputation alone.
Side note: the essay is *not* mandatory, though it is highly recommended. In addition to giving you the closest faculty contact you're likely to have - thus making a reference letter possible - and being genuinely good practice at synthesizing complex research, the Part III courses are brutal. Being able to replace one of them with the essay is a gift. Also on the topic of reference letters: an academic reference commenting on your coursework as a whole is usually obtained from your Director of Studies (a fellow at your college) rather than from any particular course instructor you had. But there's no rule or anything, so if you were to get to know of your instructors and did well on the exam, there's nothing stopping you from getting a letter if he or she is willing.
The lack of primary research is a bit of a treat, to be honest. If you're doing a PhD in mathematics or theoretical physics, you will generally need to take some advanced courses before your research can really get off the ground. Being able to tackle some of those courses with intense focus for a year is a nice alternative to trying to get through them while also trying to justify your research pay, taking qualifying exams, and juggling TA duties. So, yes, you are paying your own way (unless you manage to get a scholarship) but, in fairness, you aren't really doing anything that would justify anyone paying you to be there.
> 8 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, masters
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thread-17928 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17928 | How can I transition from industry to academia without having a college degree? | 2014-03-08T18:45:34.560 | # Question
Title: How can I transition from industry to academia without having a college degree?
I've been working in the "private sector" since my late teens. I've gathered good web-development experience to be able to find work quite easily thankfully. I was never really interested in getting a degree, I only have a high-school diploma. I was passionate enough to study for myself and learn new things from colleagues and friends.
Web-development is still my passion, however recently I've been thinking about the actual work that I've been producing over the years for the companies I've worked for. It seems as though that even if the work is fun and challenging, I still get very little recognition for it: once the work is produced, my name is barely ever mentioned. I've been asking myself if all these things I'm building are really going to change someone's life.
Then I look at academia and research. Here people are doing things they actually love and study those subjects deeply with passion and generate new knowledge to help others within a specific field.
Has anybody ever switched from an industry job to an academic job? I'm wondering if it's possible to do research without a degree. What suggestions might you have for someone in my situation that wants to get a glimpse of the life of an academic where you can build and study something you actually love and not always do what "the company" wants.
# Answer
> 17 votes
If recognition is your key desire, academia will only be marginally better for you than your current situation. Just because your name is on a paper, doesn't mean anyone is going to care about your work.
I feel like there's a couple of threads in your question outside of recognition though. I'll make some comments where I can.
* To transition into academia and start working on your own ideas you'll need to probably start a degree program. Masters and PhD programs, more than anything, are training programs on "how to work on stuff".
It seems obvious right now that you have hundreds of ideas and the skills to pursue them -- but the academic context is a bit different. Research typically fits into a larger context than a single project, and you'll need to be able to sell your ideas to people who are experts in the area; most research projects that aren't 'consumer' oriented produce papers, not projects, so you'll need to learn how to write papers. The requirement for evidence is (or at least ought to be) high, which means that you'll need to learn what kind of evidence you have for your hypothesis, how to gather it, how to present it. All of this, the politics, the nitty-gritty of putting together a paper, is what you ought to get from a degree program. You can try to do some of this on your own to be sure, but it's not an easy ride.
* If you want to get a feeling for what working in academia is like, without getting the degree, I'd seriously look into the possibility of becoming a programmer for a university. This helps you get a feel for what the work, environment, people are like. It could be that if you find the right project, your influence will be sufficient that you can get the recognition you want, without having to get the degree.
* Reading your question, I get the feeling of a grass-is-greener illusion. One thing that might be worth considering is: How much of the problem just your job? Could you find work at another company, in another niche, doing some other kind of programming that could be better for you? I feel like you could get 99% of your desired outcome not from academia, but from a job change. Maybe you need to go deeper into the stack; work with a company that builds the web technology you use. Maybe you need to go higher in the stack; start building client applications to the web technology you use. Maybe you need to get away from the web... perhaps start looking at transitioning into games, or hardware, or.... the list is endless.
# Answer
> 11 votes
Like Matthew, I get the feeling reading your answer that you don't have an extremely clear idea of what switching into academia would entail, and a pretty starry eyed view of what life in academia is actually like. While it's true that at its best, being an academic lets you work on exactly what you want to, pushing forward the boundaries of knowledge. But it's a long slog to get to that point, and even when you're there, there are a lot of other issues at play.
Of course, if you're independently wealthy, you can do whatever you want, but for most of us, we need to have a job, and just like any other job, a lot of the parameters are dictated for us. You also often have to get outside funding. In both cases, it's true that you aren't literally assigned research projects from on high (though some days that would be a lot easier than coming up with them yourself), but you do have an eye constantly on impressing your colleagues (on various levels) who make or influence decisions about funding, promotion and hiring. Not to mention that one often has teaching or service duties which really are assigned from on high (though admittedly, I think these still have a lot more autonomy than jobs in most fields would). I'm sure you can find plenty of horror stories about how this can go awry just reading the archives on this site. And that assumes you can get a job, which is far from assured (especially if you want to stay in Italy!).
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Tags: job, industry, degree
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thread-17865 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17865 | How to handle team member who is unable/unwilling to collaborate | 2014-03-07T03:46:49.767 | # Question
Title: How to handle team member who is unable/unwilling to collaborate
Okay, this is a problem I am really scared of lately. I am always willing to learn something exciting whenever I do any coursework. However, this adventurous mind of mine is risky and can often put my grades in jeopardy. Now, the problem is, there are "unfortunate" times where I have to collaborate with other students. It then becomes a serious issue of ego clash, when my classmate wants an easy way out, while I want to be all out conqueror (which I think should be the goal, since I am spending my time at college to learn something new, not to respect and elongate my comfort zone). So, it often happens that this internal squabble is very detrimental to the overall group performance and at the end of the semester the overall outcome results in a hodgepodge. Moreover, I end up having a bitter relationship with my classmates.
**So, my question is how can I motivate my project partners to do something interesting and challenging, without distracting them to think that the project is hard(which it ultimately can be).**
*P.S: Thanks for pointing out my mistakes, I will be more careful with my attitude.*
# Answer
> 20 votes
> I am always willing to learn something exciting whenever I do any coursework
Great.
> However, this adventurous mind of mine is risky and can often put my grades in jeopardy.
Less great. I am concerned that you are setting up a false dichotomy. Being ambitious in coursework does not have to involve risk of poor grades. It is part of being a mature student and researcher to learn how to reach for the stars in such a way that not attaining your full expectations does not result in complete failure but in work which is itself still valuable. (This is admittedly an "advanced lesson": I have known people who have made it to the tenure-track without learning it...sometimes with grave consequences.)
It sounds like you are getting an assignment -- let's say a coding assignment since I see you are a computer science student -- and planning something much more ambitious than is actually asked of you, even to the degree that the chance that you will not be able to pull it off gives you a bit of a thrill. But you don't need to work in this way. With planning -- and applying some insight early on; it's not all grunt work -- you can design a project in which you first complete what is asked of you and then move on to the more ambitious aspects that you are (happily) more interested in. Coding work in particular is best done incrementally. If you work on code over a long period of time, it is much more useful for everyone if *some* of the code that you write can be used (and tested, responded to...) right away than if you write things in a way so that you have nothing that works until the very end.
So far this advice is just for your own work. In collaborative work I think you should be clear about (i) what you are definitely going to do -- i.e., what your collaborators can count on you doing -- and (ii) what you would like to aim for in your remaining time (which if you are talented and hardworking, you will almost certainly have). Also, if you are actually more talented/quicker/have more time to put in, then it is reasonable to use at least some of your leftover time to try to help your collaborators with their projects. That will certainly go a long way to getting your collaborators on your side and avoiding bitterness.
In general, when you are working with other people you should stop every so often and really try to view things from their perspective. This sounds almost condescending, but it is not meant to be and it is really a skill: some people are good at putting themselves in others' shoes and others just can't let go of their own perspective; the former are much more valuable team players. One tip here: would your classmates describe themselves as wanting "an easy way out"? Or do they have goals which are just different from yours in some way? Moreover, do they see your flirtation with failure that, in your own words, can often put your grades in jeopardy and think, "Gosh, I wonder whether whoknows is going to come through with what we agreed he would do or come back proud of the fact that he bit off more than he could chew?"
# Answer
> 8 votes
I think you are doing things the wrong way. Although university is a place to learn new things, it is also a place to learn how to allocate proper resources for solving particular problems within certain timeframes. This is a valuable lesson for all careers (inside academia or in industry). In that sense, your co-students are right (which makes you wrong). If a certain assignment requires 10 hours of work to deliver almost perfect results, allocating another 10 hours for a mere 1% improvement is (in most of the cases) a waste of time. Time is not free. You think it is (you are in university after all) but it is not. This extra 10 hours, may be spent better elsewhere in another assignment, in a preparation for an exam and so-on. This will follow you in you future life. If you work in a company that needs something done in a month, it is enough / encouraged to deliver "almost perfect" results within a month than perfect results in three months. After all, aiming for 100% perfection is a dead-end. All things may be improved one way or another and someone must learn where to stop and move-on to greater problems.
So, I think it is you that needs to change his mindset. You must always find the best way to be productive and deliver requested results but with minimum effort. Do not get me wrong. I do not mean slacking or doing the minimum to pass courses. I mean doing the best to conserve effort and still deliver almost perfect results. You can always strive for absolute perfection but only in your free time (not in expense of your co-students time). If you still do not want to do that, then take assignments on your own. We cannot change other people. Only ourselves.
# Answer
> 5 votes
Some tips from personal experience:
* Ambition is good, and as a student, the consequences of failure at this point in your life are lower than they will ever be again for as long as you live. Take risks if you can learn from them: the most important thing is to really think hard about why a project failed or succeeded.
* If you have a drive to stretch the limits of your capabilities, take advantage of them now while you have a chance. Even though I have a fantastic employer, I wish every day that I could go back to high school and college so I could work on whatever projects strike my fancy.
* Be conservative when you hold someone else's livelihood in your hands. If what the other students want is so much smaller than what you want, deliver the "easy" version fast. Change the challenge from creating something big to creating something small, but *quickly*. It's important to learn the limits of how quickly you can do things. Programmers are notorious for pushing deadlines.
* It's one thing to have a personal failure, it's quite another to be responsible for the failure of an entire team. You want to be the guy who gets stuff done, the guy who everyone wants on their project, not the guy who only dreams and never ships.
* Force yourself to make solid commitments and then deliver on them. Cut out a portion of the project and take responsibility for it. Then you can handle that part as you please, so long as you get it done when you're supposed to and it is what you promised. This isn't optional when you have an employer, so it's a good idea to get used to it.
All of that said, the difference between a good developer and a great one is not their ability to write software, but their ability to manage *time*. Great developers are able to consistently deliver quality products in the established time-frames. Perhaps when you face a group that wants to "play it safe," you can use it as an opportunity to show that you have both programming skill as well as the pragmatism to manage your time effectively.
# Answer
> 3 votes
If you want to learn something exciting about your coursework and do something risky, it does not have to be in the context of a graded project.
You can do the collaborative work in a "normal" way, so as to be considerate to your classmates and their needs. Then do your "risky" project related to the course material on your own, just for the fun (and for the sake of learning).
I think if you ask nicely, the professor would even be happy to look at your independent project and give you feedback on it :)
# Answer
> 0 votes
> Now, the problem is, there are "unfortunate" times where I have to collaborate with other students. It then becomes a serious issue of ego clash, when my classmate wants an easy way out, while I want to be all out conqueror
I have been in both sides of this situation. I believe that the seriousness of the member depends on how useful or interesting they find the course or their personality (apathetic or enthusiastic). Everybody does not have to share your passion for a course.
For example, in an engineering program, there may be some business courses. People who simply want to be well-rounded or want to create their own company might be highly interested in those courses, which is fine. Then, some members might only be interested in technical courses. These guys might know the importance of business, but might not find it interesting. Also, there may be some courses which are truly fluff or of little value.
If you can justify the need for a course, then you can try to convince the others. If you cannot justify it, then perhaps you need to rethink why you took the course. If some are not interested in the course, then you don't have to penalize them for it. Try to see where they can be of help.
I suggest that you gauge the interest levels of the members in the beginning itself and agree upon the bare minimum effort (within reason) that is expected of each member. If you like the course far more than the others, then you can put the extra effort if need be. But, make it clear that the scores should be distributed according to the work and results. Also, I suggest that you don't try to be perfect all the time. When your income is in millions, why bother about tracking the pennies ?
# Answer
> 0 votes
Other students may not have the kind of free extra time you have. You need to, as a group, do what you are assigned to do, and it is up to you to figure out what that means, but creating extra work for others is certainly not the way to go. It is good that you have ambition to learn above and beyond, but you do that on your own time. You do not force your group mates to do this, because they may have other priorities (quite possibly including doing the same thing for another class!)
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Tags: collaboration
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thread-17813 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17813 | Are there usually consequences for attempted duplicate publication? | 2014-03-06T04:49:58.870 | # Question
Title: Are there usually consequences for attempted duplicate publication?
I recently reviewed a paper for a (reasonably reputable) journal and found that it was already published (verbatim, by the same authors) in another journal (a fake one). I wrote the following review: "*This is a duplicate publication, it appeared two weeks ago in Journal X, here is the link to the copy on Journal X's website*."
The timing suggests that they submitted the paper to Journal X around the same time they sent it to us.
In retrospect I should have emailed the editor instead of going through the review site. But anyways, within a day or two the review site showed that the associate editor had seen my review, and the editor listed for the piece changed from the associate editor who was originally assigned to the editor-in-chief.
However, the decision letter that went out to the authors was just a standard rejection letter, with my review appended to the bottom. (The standard rejection letter thanks the author for submitting the piece for consideration and wishes them success in finding another venue to publish it in...)
It seems to me that this is a poor strategy for disincentivizing attempts at duplicate publication; at worst, one risks a rejection if found out. (Disregarding for the moment what the consequences would be if they were successful, both papers were published, and then they were found out by someone else.)
I checked the publisher's website and though it specifies clearly (and authors have to certify at the time of submission that the piece is not published or under review somewhere else) that duplicate publications are not permitted, I didn't find any specific details on what the consequences might be.
**Is this normal procedure? Do editors usually follow up and try to impose consequences for attempted duplicate publication?**
If so:
**What kind of consequences are usually imposed for *trying* to publish the same paper twice, if caught by a journal while in review?**
# Answer
> 9 votes
Good question. First of all, as far as I know, there is no penal system in academic publishing. Reputation is everything. (BTW Many of us have made big or small mistakes when we were young and ignorant, learned our lesson, everyone moved on.) Of course, a journal could always shun authors "indefinitely", if they attempt to violate codes of conduct. There is not much more a single publisher can do. In cases like yours, the responsibility falls back entirely on the academic community - whose members are also editors and referees like you - and the control power of one's reputation within it.
In your particular case, as you said, the editor presumably consulted with the editor-in-chief, which shows it is not a trivial problem to handle, and they decided to proceed as they did. If the journal had rules in place, such as that they would have to refuse future submissions from the same authors, they would inform the authors, but that's obviously not the case.
You did not specify if those authors are known in your field or obscure. If the editor knows the author personally (which I doubt in your case), the dynamics is different.
# Answer
> 7 votes
I stumbled upon last year on a "black list" of authors in the context of an IEEE conference. I don't know if such lists are common and known among editors. I think that each area of publishing (engineering, medicine, biology, etc.) have its own habits. But again, this is at editor/journal level and not at reviewer level.
On the other side, I think that you should give the authors some benefit of doubt. Take one busy PhD coordinator, an eager to publish student, some communication discontinuities, add in the mix the publishing invitation spam and you get a good paper submitted to a fake journal.
Maybe, after the advisor recognized the error, was too late to withdraw the paper. So they sent the paper to a regular journal so a hard worked paper doesn't go to waste.
My 2 cents.
**EDIT**
Usually it is allowed (and sometimes encouraged) to extend a paper already presented at a conference with new results, new comparisons etc. and submit it to a journal. However, in the cover letter, the authors must clearly specify that! And cite the older paper.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I am familiar with one case of duplicate submission (simultaneously, to two reputable journals). I know that one of the publishers banned the authors for five years from submitting to any of their journals.
In my opinion, that is an appropriate consequence. After all, the authors gave their word to both journals that they had not simultaneously submitted the paper to another journal. In reply to some of the other answers posted here, I would say that **lying** is not the same thing as **making a mistake**.
# Answer
> 1 votes
No, I don't think that there is any standard policy for treating these cases.
Still, remember that no matter what, all the editors and reviewers are humans like everybody, and they do know it when someone does it, and usually they are from the same branch and meet the authors at conferences etc. And no matter what, some information always leaks out, and such a strong negative information seems to leak out faster.
Breaking the ethics in such a way is seen as a strongly negative thing by many people, and they will likely treat you accordingly, while never saying that they know it. You probably can't speak about a career suicide, but think of it that way a bit.
However (to make the post less negative and more fair): As the other answers say, we all do make mistakes, and others know this.
**What should you do?** Nothing probably. Especially if one of the journals was a fake journal, I would say.
# Answer
> 0 votes
I am personally aware about the history when as little as several sentences from the *introduction* of the own article has been reused in another article (not even results or conclusions). The history became public, dragging various of events that were not very severe but unpleasant enough to avoid.
So I suggest better not to do this. Of course, this also depends on the policies of the both journals but most of them disallow duplicate content. To make the long story short, it might be sad consequences.
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Tags: publications, journals, ethics
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thread-17970 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17970 | New to USA - Masters vs. Staying with my mentor | 2014-03-09T16:11:23.450 | # Question
Title: New to USA - Masters vs. Staying with my mentor
I'm 23, I recently immigrated to USA (legally lol) and I'm loving the amount of opportunity here and I sure want to make good use of it. However, I'm confused about a major decision and need your opinions.
I graduated from India with a Bachelors in Engineering degree (Computer Science) from an okay-ish standard University. Lots of people I run into tell me that I should get into a Master's program, as it will not only give me a great education and name of a USA school on my resume but also teach me a lot about culture and life in general.
But on the other hand, I have my uncle who is a CEO and founder of a multinational and multi-million software development company, which is where I'm working right now. Since I live with him too, we talk a lot and he is my mentor. Despite his insanely busy schedule, he is always willing to talk to me and answer my questions and teach me stuff. Its good for me since my life goal is to start a software company myself in future and learning from him can be a game changer. Its bad for me because I'm kinda immature, and staying with him keeps me on a safe side (CEO's nephew).
My question is, what would you do if you were me? Sticking with mentor vs. getting a master's degree.
# Answer
Depends on what you expect to get from a master's degree.
From the sounds of it, your career path certainly isn't going to be dependent on the credentials, but could perhaps be aided by a degree.
Personally, I could see you getting benefit out of a good Masters on a couple of counts:
1. An introduction to where the state of the art lies. Since it sounds like you have an entrepreneurial bent, finding this state of the art could help point you in the direction of problems which have been solved, but not productized... could be a great start for a company.
2. Another mentor. Having multiple people to bounce ideas off of is a valuable thing, especially when they have substantially different backgrounds.
3. A chance to exercise your grit, away from the perhaps comfortable situation you're in now. A masters will force you outside your comfort zone.
4. The benefits you list are going to be there for sure; an immersion into American culture and life.
Of course, getting all of this doesn't *require* a Masters degree. You're already living in the USA, and you can try to stretch your research legs on your own.
> 3 votes
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Tags: masters, computer-science, mentoring
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thread-17942 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17942 | Why would a journal accept my previous paper for publication, but reject latest manuscript due to being "outside of the journal's scope?" | 2014-03-09T01:33:16.980 | # Question
Title: Why would a journal accept my previous paper for publication, but reject latest manuscript due to being "outside of the journal's scope?"
I submitted a manuscript last year to an IEEE journal, and the paper was accepted for publication. I recently submitted a new manuscript to the same journal, but, this time, the paper was rejected, and I was told that I should submit to another journal since my paper was not within the journal's scope. The two papers both target similar applications. Furthermore, the second paper uses some work in the first paper, making substantial improvements at solving a much more difficult problem. Based on the reviewer's comments (and my own personal assessment), I do not believe that the work presented in the second paper was "incremental" in nature. Far from it. Two of the three reviewers gave positive reviews. The third reviewer, however, mentioned the "outside of journal's scope" issue and the associate editor and editor-in-chief both sided with the 3rd reviewer, and the paper was stopped dead in its tracks.
I'm scratching my head trying to come to terms with how in the world my first paper could be accepted by this journal, but the second paper focused on the same application space and achieving substantial improvements on a much more difficult problem (backed up with measured results) could be rejected. Any ideas?
# Answer
> 37 votes
Four ideas:
1. It was really out of scope last time, but they either
* didn't notice and mistakenly accepted it, or
* didn't have enough in-scope papers to fill the issue, so they accepted yours even though it was slightly out of scope.
2. They made a mistake and your new paper is actually in-scope. However, you won't win any friends or improve your chances by trying to convince them of this.
3. The journal has changed scope slightly in the last year, or is trying to change scope slightly now, or different editors have different ideas of what the scope is (as suggested by NateEldredge)
4. There was some small detail about the first paper that made it in-scope which the second paper lacks, which we couldn't possibly identify for you.
# Answer
> 5 votes
The question and most comments assume that the publication process is more rational than it really is. This happened to me very recently: journals A and B rejected my paper one after the other; in both cases the editor and/or referee said that I should submit it to journal C. So I did, and now journal C tells me (with reports from two referees) that my paper is interesting and technically correct, but not a good fit for their journal.
# Answer
> 4 votes
There could be any number of reasons. Ultimately, since your two papers were different, it's perfectly possible that one was within scope and the other wasn't.
Perhaps your first paper was on the borderline of the journal's scope. Even if it wasn't, perhaps the extra analysis you had to do for the second paper was outside the journal's scope. For example, the people at CERN had to develop some serious computer systems to process all the data coming from the Large Hadron Collider. Those systems were completely necessary to solve the harder problems resulting from experiments with the LHC, compared to those done before the LHC was built. However, a detailed description of those computer systems would, I assume, be off-topic in a physics journal.
Also, remember that there are some papers that everybody will agree are within the journal's scope, and there are many papers that everyone will agree are out of scope (e.g., political history in a biology journal). Everything else is subjective: some people will say it's in-scope, some people out. Some people will say it's in scope today but, if you ask them again in a year's time, they'll say it's out.
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Tags: publications, peer-review, rejection
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thread-17968 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17968 | Evaluating and negotiating a start-up package | 2014-03-09T16:01:57.813 | # Question
Title: Evaluating and negotiating a start-up package
I've been offered an academic position, and am now in the fortunate, but unfamiliar position of negotiating the offer. I've seen a few blogs/comments/posts on this process. However, I have no real idea how to evaluate the offer that's been made. Coming from the position of a postdoc, the package seems impressive (given that, as a postdoc, my "package" consists of a very modest salary and health benefits). However, I also realize the importance of maximizing (within reason) my initial offer, as this sets the baseline for, at least, the first few years of my faculty career and could provide support that would prove very important in the initial year or so while I'm trying to obtain grant funding.
In particular, I'm looking for two types of information. First, what types of startup packages are standard for tenure-track assistant professors of Computer Science at a *public* RU/VH (i.e. Research) university? This is just to give me some point of comparison. Second, what types of changes are reasonable to negotiate? Can I ask for more summer salary support while still conveying to them my desire to obtain grant funding as quickly as possible? The offer already includes a reduced teaching load for the first few years --- is it also reasonable to ask for an extra semester off prior to a tenure review?
I understand these are fairly broad questions, but any input or suggestions would be very helpful. I'm definitely interested in the job; I really liked the department and think it's a great opportunity. I don't want to alienate anyone by pushing too hard, but at the same time, I want to make sure that I make every reasonable effort to maximize my chances for academic success, which includes maximizing my available resources by negotiating the best startup package I can.
# Answer
> 28 votes
**Every department is different.** Everything I'll write is specific to my (top 5 CS, public, RU/VH) department. And while I know quite a bit about the *process* of hiring new faculty, I do not know the precise *details* of any recent startup packages (except for salaries, which are public). My department head manages all startup negotiations directly.
Our formal startup package is a bag of cash (formally: "unrestricted funds"). New assistant professors can spend that money to pay their own summer salary, support students, but equipment, pay for travel, and so on, in the hopefully brief period before they have active research grants. Precisely how and when they spend the money is up to them. Moreover, this money does not "expire"; I still have a bit of money in my 15-year-old startup account. Again, I don't have an exact figure, but I'd guess somewhere in the low six figures.
Our teaching loads are already low — 1 course per semester — but there are courses, and there are courses. The de facto standard is for our assistant profs to teach mostly smaller graduate courses (in part to attract students), with at least one semester without teaching in the first two years (to work on research and grant proposals). However, it is important for assistant profs to teach a few required undergrad classes before tenure. We usually pair new instructors with more experienced faculty the first time they teach such a class. I don't know how much of this is formally described in our offer letters.
The other department that offered me a job *n* years ago had much more restricted startup package. They asked me to give them an itemized budget listing specific equipment (which they would buy for me), a specific number of student semesters, specific dollars for travel, and so on. At the time, I found this approach unreasonably inflexible, but it's much more understandable now because...
At least at my university, startup packages in each department are funded by indirect cost recovery from grants originating in that department — a small fraction of every grant I obtain goes to CS startup packages. Thus, departments with more grant activity can offer larger and more flexible startup packages. This is orthogonal to faculty *salaries*, which (at least at my university) are paid entirely out of state money, making them much less flexible.
> Second, what types of changes are reasonable to negotiate? Can I ask for more summer salary support while still conveying to them my desire to obtain grant funding as quickly as possible? The offer already includes a reduced teaching load for the first few years --- is it also reasonable to ask for an extra semester off prior to a tenure review?
It's perfectly reasonable to **ask** for anything, as long as you understand that the answer may be no. **Do not be afraid to ask stupid questions.** Everybody knows that you're new and don't understand the department's budgeting constraints and standards. That assumption of naïveté gives you the freedom to ask for things you think are "obviously" unreasonable. They probably *are* unreasonable, but they might not be.
Also, remember that if you're already negotiating startup packages, the department has already decided that they want to hire you. That decision requires developing consensus among the faculty, getting approval from upper administration (not just for hiring *you* but possibly for hiring *anyone*), and filling out a metric buttload of HR forms. (Warning: Some universities still use imperial buttloads.) There is almost nothing you can **ask** that will change their minds about the basic offer.
Don't worry about giving the impression that you're not interested in applying for grants. Any such impression will vanish the moment you actually start applying for grants! (Which is soon, right?)
Finally, the best way to find out what's reasonable is to **ask the other assistant professors in your target department about their startup packages.** Just straight-up ask them. They won't all answer, but some will.
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Tags: job-search, job, tenure-track, negotiation
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thread-17965 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17965 | How can a proof question be asked online? | 2014-03-09T13:49:58.587 | # Question
Title: How can a proof question be asked online?
Let us consider a quiz question whose answer is a proof. For instance, a question in mathematics, such as *prove that for every natural number $n$ the quantity $n^3-n$ is even*.
**How could such a question be implemented in a computer interface so that the computer can check the proof for correctness?**
A simple, yet unreasonable way would be to have a multiple choice format for the question, where every choice was one way of proving the relationship, but I guess the shortcomings of this are obvious...
# Answer
> 6 votes
I have experimented with a system that provides students with a collection of phrases/formulae from which they can drag and drop a selection to construct a proof. I think that this is a promising approach but there are still a large number of different ways in which students can get the answer wrong, and an even larger number of ways that they can construct an answer that cannot be parsed as something meaningful. If you simply reject such answers without comprehensible feedback then you will just make the students hate you. So you have to write a large amount of code that tries to analyse all possible answers and explain what (if anything) is wrong with them. The logic is quite complex and I am not sure how well the students would understand the explanations. I hope to return to these experiments at some point but at the moment I am not teaching anything for which they would be useful.
# Answer
> 1 votes
It is true that a computer program cannot check the correctness of an algorithm as explained in the answer by paxinum, but that is not what is required here.
It *is* possible in principle for a computer to check a proof. The problem is that the proof would have to be written in a very complete form with each logical step spelt out. This is far beyond what would be required in an exam. Remember that Russel and Whitehead famously proved that 1+1=2 using 52 logical steps to finish a whole book that set up the logical formalism they would need.
In practice we write proofs with many details of the logical steps missed out and a computer would need a high level of artificial intelligence to fill in the gaps.
Neil Strickland's formulaic approach may be the best that can be done for now, but I think it would give too much away.
# Answer
> 1 votes
There is a rich area of proof assistants which deals with these problems. See
http://coq.inria.fr/
http://wiki.portal.chalmers.se/agda/pmwiki.php
http://nuprl.org/
There is also a "market" where people can offer bitcoins for proofs checked by Coq. https://proofmarket.org/
# Answer
> -1 votes
Checking proofs automatically from free-text is not something that is solved. Even if you impose very strict rules on how to type stuff, you cannot expect a program to check it.
Here is why: if your student were asked to type a computer program to solve a specific task, you cannot expect a computer program to check with 100% certainty that the algorithm is correct, in general. This is not due to technical limitations; it has been proved that there is no computer program that can guarantee that the program it checks terminate (thus is not in an infinite loop, a common error in computer science).
Hence, I suspect there will never be a generic solution to your question either.
Maybe a better from of evaluating the students is to maybe give fragments of a proof, and ask them to order these in a way that makes sense. Or even better, give the full proof, but instead ask questions about the details, with multiple-choice or simple free-form that only has a finite number of correct answers.
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thread-17951 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17951 | What should a faculty member outside of the US do to move to a top-tiered American university? | 2014-03-09T06:27:33.200 | # Question
Title: What should a faculty member outside of the US do to move to a top-tiered American university?
I have three close friends who are ambitious and young junior lecturers at universities in Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore who are interested getting academic jobs in a top-tiered American university.
How might they go about achieving this? What can they do in the meantime to increase their chances, compared to academicians who are already based in the US?
Neither of them are American citizens, although one of them studied in the US and another in the UK. They all work in the humanities and social sciences. I know that entering the academic job market in the US can be expensive, with all the traveling. And my friends live more or less at the other end of the world.
# Answer
> 7 votes
As discussed here (Is it more difficult to score a Tenure Track position in the US when applying from outside?), getting a US tenure track position from e.g., Thailand might be tricky. JeffE pointed out that it is not necessarily impossible, however, your friends would likely need to be on the top of their fields in that case. Your friend from Singapore seems to be a different case, as the universities in Singapore (at least NTU and NUS) have an **excellent** reputation around here (something that can, unfortunately, not be said about universities in Thailand or Indonesia).
In any case, my tip is to **try to get a postdoc position in the US** first. Postdocs are often reasonably easy to get into (at least in CS, can't really say for social sciences), and can act as a step ladder of sorts to faculty positions. Anyway, your friends need to be aware that the academic job market is no piece of cake in the US. Hence, no matter what they do, they need to expect that getting a professorship at a top university may simply not work out, so they should have a fallback plan to account for this case.
# Answer
> 5 votes
To give some thoughts on my own question:
Foreign lecturers in the US are common but from my anecdotal experience (I am not an academician) a lot of them began their academic careers in America, probably transferring from being a grad student there.
For academicians who used to be based at universities outside of the US and Europe, my impression is that they were mid-career and already well-known and respected in their fields before they made the move. They were usually specifically recruited by the American university.
Having some sort of visiting professorship stint in the US and presenting work at conferences in the US might help with the exposure, I guess, but I am not sure.
# Answer
> 2 votes
1. **Publishing.** If your field has "A" journals then publishing in them will add to your credibility.
2. **Co-authoring.** If you can manage to have co-authors in the U.S., you can come over during your sabbatical or visit their school for a few months. Make more connections, gain more visibility, present your work in informal or formal workshops at all the nearby research schools. Once people know who you are, they will think of you when a need arises or your application will carry more weight when there is a systematic search for a candidate.
3. **References.** Strong letters from reputed academics that are known to US schools.
4. **Networking and presenting at conferences.** Networking at top conferences. If you can manage to have your work be presented at top conferences, that would give you lots of visibility and also opportunities to network.
Staying and Traveling in the US is expensive but the harder part is reducing the information asymmetry (about your future publishing potential) between you and your potential employers and also convincing them that you would join, even if you did get an offer. For example, some school in rural Virgina may want to hire you but they probably won't try because they don't think you will come live in a rural culture which would be very alien to yours.
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thread-1798 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1798 | Dissertation acknowledgements | 2012-05-29T14:46:11.027 | # Question
Title: Dissertation acknowledgements
I'm at the stage in writing my dissertation where most of the substantive aspects are finished and the only tasks left are more or less administrative. However, one thing that I've been avoiding is writing the "Acknowledgements" section. Obviously I will thank my supervisor, committee members, other faculty and staff that have played a meaningful role in my education, other students who have been friends and co-workers, my close friends, and my family (in that order!), but I'm struggling with how to approach it. Does anyone have advice or hot tips about what to do or not do that they'd be willing to share? Is it possible to make it meaningful without sounding contrived or pedantic or disingenuous? Do I go with the standard disclaimer about how any errors that remain after getting all that wonderful help and support are mine alone...? Thanks!
# Answer
The acknowledgements are the only part of the dissertation where you are writing as *yourself* instead of the Impartial Professional Narrator. Just relax and be honest. (Yes, that can be hard, especially after so many years of writing as Impartial Professional Narrator.)
Don't worry too much about writing it the right way. Just be yourself. *Of course* your acknowledgements will sound trite to the average reader, but you're not writing to the average reader; you're writing to your mentors, colleagues, friends, and family, who will value the sentiment far more than the specific words.
And don't forget to send a copy of your dissertation to each of the people you acknowledge, *especially* your family.
> 40 votes
# Answer
I'd like to add one more point to JeffE's answer - though I have no idea how localized this is:
Over here, the "I-did-the-work-myself" declaration contains a phrase that noone but those named in the acknowledgements did help with the work. So in addition to thanking all the people whom you like to thank for moral support etc. (where forgetting someone would be impolite, but usually not have any further consequences), it is *legally* important not to forget anyone who helped with the work.
> 6 votes
# Answer
To mirror JeffE's answer: Your Acknowledgements section is for *you*. And possibly the small number of people who will actually look at your dissertation cover to cover. Write it in your own voice, and write it the way you want to write it.
For reference, this is mine, with identifying information removed:
> I would like to gratefully acknowledge the guidance, support and encouragement of my doctoral advisor, Dr. Chair, and the members of my committee during my time at University, as well as Dr. Helpful for her continued mentorship and collaboration, and for logging many miles between City A, City B and City C while on my committee.
>
> My gratitude extends to Dr. Data and Dr. AnswersMyQuestions at Nearby Institution for their enthusiasm and willingness to provide both data and clinical expertise, to Expert for references and advice about Topic and to my friends at University for many hours of mutual support, complaining and insightful discussions in the student room.
>
> This dissertation would not have been possible without funding from the FUNDING AGENCIES.
>
> Finally, I would like to thank the makers of Dr. Pepper and the members of the StackOverflow and CrossValidated communities for their invaluable assistance in many a late-night coding session.
Yes, it's a little flippant, but in my opinion something in a dissertation should be, and to quote the Rifleman's Creed: There are many like it, but this one is mine.
> 6 votes
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Tags: phd, thesis, writing, acknowledgement
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thread-17949 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17949 | In what circumstances do departments permit graduate students to complete their program off campus? | 2014-03-09T03:46:37.750 | # Question
Title: In what circumstances do departments permit graduate students to complete their program off campus?
I believe that the law could make better use of formal logic. I've been accepted into a good law school. After I graduate, I'd like to use part of my career to explore ways lawyers and the law could practicably use logic.
On a number of warrants, I believe that completing a graduate degree in logic (either a master of mathematics, or a master of philosophy) would help me accomplish that. That said, the university that operates the law school I plan to attend doesn't offer many logic courses. I have a school in mind whose math and philosophy departments teach a great deal of logic.
However, my circumstances are such that I'd need to complete my studies in logic while studying law. Preferably, I'd study logic during the summer terms and law during the other two terms. Although, many instructors don't work full-time during the summer, which could make that plan less feasible. Alternatively, I've considered completing the course work, or pre-studying, during the summer months, then rendering the course work and completing the exams during the regular terms.
In sum: I plan to study law away from the school where I'd like to study logic, so I could go to the school where I'll study logic during the summer terms, and only occasionally during the fall and winter terms. Thinking in or out of the box, what could I do to make this work?
Thank you.
# Answer
> 1 votes
This is really something that will differ depending on where you are, what field, and even who your advisor is.
For example, at my previous institution, the rule was that you couldn't work on your dissertation remotely until after your proposal date (meaning you are fairly far into your program - proposals at that institution were 2-3 years in for many) and only with your committee's approval. Some chairs could, and did, refuse.
Others were extremely laid back, and probably wouldn't have objected to skirting that rule.
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Tags: graduate-school
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thread-18027 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18027 | How to acknowledge contributions of anonymous referee in new paper? | 2014-03-10T21:28:22.880 | # Question
Title: How to acknowledge contributions of anonymous referee in new paper?
I'm in mathematics, just in case that matters.
I submitted a manuscript to a journal, and got an extensive referee report from referee X. After sending the revision, the paper got rejected, so I sent it to a second journal where it got accepted.
Later, I got a note from the editor of the first journal saying that referee X found a way to improve my results, and the editor gave me a pdf file from referee X outlining his/her ideas. Unfortunately, since my manuscript had already been accepted for publication I could not change it at this point.
Nevertheless, the improvement that referee X suggested is significant enough to merit another paper. I asked the editor to pass on an invitation to referee X to work on a joint paper with me, but the editor refused, saying that he didn't want to violate referee anonymity.
I think the paper needs to be written, but I feel it would be strange for me to write a single-author paper when the most significant idea does not originate with me. (Referee X only gave me a vague sketch of the idea, there are things that still have to be worked out. I still have to do a lot of work, but the most important insight would be referee X's). I suppose I'm just going to write a few paragraphs in the introduction explaining the situation. I was wondering if there would be another way to handle the issue.
# Answer
You can state something like "I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer of an earlier paper (give ref) for providing insightful comments and providing directions for additional work which has resulted in this paper. Without the anonymous reviewers supportive work this paper would not have been possible." The exact wording is of course up to you and what you see fits reality best.
I think it is a pity the editor does not want to forward your invite (I assume the review system is not double blind?). Asking is not a breach. I can, however, see that an editor does not necessarily want to become a messenger.
With a clear statement in the acknowledgement you have done what you can and I am sure the reviewer will pick up on it sooner or later and maybe after your new paper get in touch. After all, there is really not much you can do about it.
> 23 votes
# Answer
From my understanding of the details of the situation, the editor is not acting well in refusing to pass along your *invitation* to the referee. Doing so does not violate anonymity in any way (I am confident that the review process was not "double blind" -- i.e., the referee knows the author's identity -- in my experience, no mathematics papers are reviewed in this way.) Maybe what the editor is thinking is that in order to accept your offer the referee would have to violate anonymity.
However, is this an ethical issue? I have always held it to be the case that a referee can disclose her identity to an author at any time, and I have done this more than once as a referee. I can vaguely see some ethical problems which *might* arise if this process of referee-self-disclosure were very widespread, but it seems like a bit of a stretch. I would be very interested if someone can explain to me why this is a real concern.
Against the highly nebulous previous paragraph one must balance the ethical issue that **academic ideas are not gifts that one person can freely bestow upon another**. I wrote the previous sentence in full awareness of the fact that mathematics in practice does have some degree of *noblesse oblige*: one often encounters very eminent and senior mathematicians giving ideas away to younger / less experienced / less eminent mathematicians without wanting anything in return: in mathematics we are inculcated to have a view that certain contributions are "below our level" and thus not worth taking credit for. That is fine if "not taking credit" means not becoming an author on a paper. But if it means not disclosing your contribution at all -- with the consequence that the begifted junior mathematician gets "too much credit" for work that had a significant component that was not his own -- well, that is hardly a victimless crime in our current highly competitive job-market. In fact it seems to be a form of plagiarism.
\[The situation brings to mind Karl Iagnemma's short story "Zilkowski's Theorem". This was anthologized in the Best American Short Stories of 2002. Remarkably, this was only one of two short stories in that anthology in which the main character was a practitioner of the mathematical sciences. The other is Leonard Michaels's "Nachmann from Los Angeles". Both were excellent!\]
Perhaps you should write back to the editor to express these ethical concerns. Getting the editor-in-chief of the journal involved (if this is not already the editor you are dealing with) is also a good idea at this point.
If you really don't know the identity of the author, then you need to indicate clearly the circumstances in whatever paper you write. You may also want to make it known in your circles that you would very much like to know the identity of the mathematician who helped you write your next paper. Depending upon how small / tightly knit your particular subcommunity is, you may have more or less luck with that, but it's certainly worth a try.
> 28 votes
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Tags: ethics, intellectual-property, acknowledgement, peer-review
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thread-18035 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18035 | Ethics of spending research money on food and meetings | 2014-03-11T03:31:11.090 | # Question
Title: Ethics of spending research money on food and meetings
I assume this varies from different universities/research institutes/countries, however, is there a general percentage or ethical rule on how much money from a grant can or should be spent on food and meetings? When I was a graduate student I didn't need to deal with this too much, but also never really saw any of my advisors going out to nice dinners or having meals with people on research funds, granted, they did do it with the internal budgets of the institute.
My current situation had me get a grant for around 20,000 USD, the project is 8 months, and was asked to list how much money I will spend on food and meetings. I had always thought of this to be inappropriate as research money should be for research. Am I over thinking it and this is a normal practice? I was told 1k of the 20k could be for food, but asked for 200 instead, out of my own thinking of what should be appropriate for giving students or interns coffee (this is separate than the money reserved for travelling to conferences).
# Answer
There are many events one might hold to benefit a particular research effort, for which it is usual to provide at least coffee, fruit, and pastries (at least at my school), sometimes more:
* You invite a researcher to visit your university and give a talk about his latest work, which is directly related to, and will help bootstrap, your funded research.
* A major goal defined in your grant is to publicize a particular bit of research. You hold an open house and invite visitors from industry and academia to disseminate the results of your research.
* A goal of your research is to develop certain tools and methods and then publicize them. You hold a workshop or "summer camp" for grad students from other universities to teach them how to use the methods/tools you've developed for your research and get their feedback.
* You have a collaborator at another location working on this research effort with you. He visits your university once a year for a project meeting, including lunch.
Depending on the nature of the project and the funding, one or more of these may be an appropriate use of funds. Generally, to be permissible, it must be for an event that directly contributes to the goals of a *specific* research effort (not e.g. a department event). Sometimes, the grant is given explicitly to host such an event (such as a workshop or summer camp).
(Obviously: follow the rules from the university and the funding source about how the money may be spent. The NSF, for example, has very specific guidelines on the subject.)
> 16 votes
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Tags: ethics, funding
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thread-18013 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18013 | How do you deal with many many authors for many sections and equally many subsections in a collection? | 2014-03-10T15:41:59.253 | # Question
Title: How do you deal with many many authors for many sections and equally many subsections in a collection?
I have found one source which is a collection which contains several hundreds of subsections with easily 100 authors I presume. It's a textbook on synthetic material.
The bean counter I am, I initially tried to incorporate every single author of every (sub)(sub)section of the book because unfortunately Springer, the publisher, only listed the authors for each chapter. The DOI import does not work on any level below. Just to make it clear for everyone's sanity: I only cited the collection so far and do not intend to work in the other authors by hand.
If you were to take on the task to simply enter any info of every author for his/hers contribution into your literature database (*not* your paper/essay's or thesis' bibliography), how would you do that? Note it all down by hand in your favorite literature management software or do you have some tricks?
# Answer
In most cases, one of the following possibilities would be appropriate:
* Cite the whole book, e.g., like this:
> A. Smith and B. Doe (editors.), *Recent Advances on Synthetic Materials* (Springer, New York, 2014)
Your citation manager should provide a data type for this (in BibTeX this is `BOOK`). In this case, you only give the editors and not every single author.
You should only cite a whole collection for purposes of providing a broader scope for your work, e.g., in the introduction.
* Cite one article, e.g., like this:
> C. Foo and D. Bar, Synthetic Materials and You, in *Recent Advances on Synthetic Materials,* edited by A. Smith and B. Doe (Springer, New York, 2014), pp. 123–145.
Again, your citation manager should provide a data type for this (in BibTeX this is `INCOLLECTION`). In this case you give the authors of the relevant section and the editors (depending on the journal style).
This is what you should do if you are referencing a result or similar from an article in this collection.
> If you were to take on the task to incorporate every author for his/hers contribution, how would you do that?
Even if I somewhat came to the conclusion that (contrary to the above) citing every author were appropriate, I would not implement this, simply because no journal, supervisor, etc. will print or accept such a citation and it would be a waste of time.
> 2 votes
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Tags: citations, reference-managers
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thread-17984 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17984 | How to do a flawless and natural presentation? | 2014-03-10T00:40:07.993 | # Question
Title: How to do a flawless and natural presentation?
I have been attending a number of academic / professional conferences recently and one thing that really awed me was the flawless and natural way in which the speakers presented on their topics.
Sure, they had the occasional mispronunciations or awkward pauses but they spoke with authority and confidence.
Some of them used powerpoint slides but were not reading from the slides; they were just talking on the points and they had so much to say on each point that I felt they could not do it without notes, but they were not even looking at their notes most of the time.
(The advantages of not looking at their notes too much was that they could maintain eye contact and could use very interesting slides that were not crammed with the dot points of their speeches.)
I hate to think that they had memorised their speech notes but some of the presentations went for more than an hour.
I know rehearsal is important but I wonder how could anyone remember so much in a nervous situation. (Its one thing to know everything on your topic; its another thing to present that 'everything'!)
**Question:** What background / foreground things do presenters do that make their presentations flawless and natural?
# Answer
> 38 votes
A natural presentation comes from practice, and lots of it.
From practice comes confidence. Excellent speakers rarely have more than a few words bullet pointed on their slides. This means that the audience's attention is focused on the speaker. The speaker then tells the audience what the speaker wants them to hear, or directs the audience's attention to an image displayed on the screen.
Aside from not splitting the audience's attention between speaker and loads of text on-screen, having few words on your slides means that you are not tempted yourself to read your presentation to the audience. Such recitation is only suitable if you are analysing the text itself closely.
Further to that last point, having only single or few key words on your slides forces you to know your subject and what to say on each point. You don't have the slides to fall back upon, allowing you to lazily read them to your audience.
Which brings me back to practice. One way of getting familiar with what you want to say on each point is to write down a few detailed notes for yourself. When you practice your talk, you can refer to these detailed notes. Next time through, distil your notes down to only a few key words. Next time through - or when you are confident - your notes should be only the key words on the screen for the audience, and are therefore redundant. No notes, fluent delivery.
# Answer
> 14 votes
> Question: What background / foreground things do presenters do that make their presentations flawless and natural?
I don't think I've ever seen a *flawless* presentation by the way ... much like I've never seen a *flawless* conversation.
In any case, I think if you do not have a lot of experience, as ff524 says (edit: and Nicholas), practice is important. In particular, if you are going to present at a conference, for example, try present in front of (and get feedback from) your colleagues.
With more experience comes more confidence. With more confidence, presentations become less about "speeches" or memorised text and more about having a conversation with the audience.
At this stage, when you prepare a talk, you can imagine the flow of exposition, how the slides should be ordered, what the audience will understand at that point, what questions they might have and how they could be answered, how to order the points of conversation, how to clarify the "why" before the "how", how to ask the question and engage the audience's curiosity rather than just provide the answer. When you deliver the talk, you have the outline of the conversation you're about to have and you follow through with it, improvising the exact phrasing as feels right.
For me, it often helps to think about the audience as one person that I'm trying to engage with. An audience can be daunting -- a blur of faces -- but if you rather think of trying to engage directly with that guy/gal who came in late and is sitting right at the back of the room ... and make it almost more personal ... I think this is the attitude to have. (This is orthogonal to memorising exact phrasing, which I often find leads to unnatural talks. Having a few nice catchy phrases is nice, but they'll stick in your mind naturally when you prepare the talk.)
# Answer
> 11 votes
The first thing that you need to know is that it is not "natural". If you're lucky enough to watch the same person give the same talk more than once (as I have) you will discover that it is a lot less spontaneous than it appears to be. Giving a live talk draws on several different kinds of preparation at once:
* the talk itself is typically prepared and practiced over and over. There may be notes in the speaker notes section, or the bullets on the slide may be enough to remind the speaker what to say to each slide. The talk is organized in a way that makes it easy to remember all the points that need to be covered, to be able to drop some material if necessary, and so on.
* the speaker has a wide collection of stories and jokes that can be used to provide time to think, to lengthen a talk that is going too fast and will run short, or to relax an audience that isn't interacting enough
* the speaker knows a physical vocabulary: where to stand, how far and how fast to walk, what arm positions to use, whether to pause at the far edge of the stage or hidden behind the desk, and what effect all of these will have on the audience
* the speaker knows the overall length the talk must be and often knows some milestones within the talk (finish demo 1 by 12 minutes; should have 5 minutes left when we get to dog picture) so that subtle lengthenings or shortenings can keep the talk on schedule
* the speaker has learned to drop meta talk (oh, I see I covered these points earlier, hm, I guess there isn't time for this demo, ah, this is awkward I seem to have finished early) and to project tremendous confidence even while internally panicking over a demo that isn't working, a slide that has gone missing, or the sudden realization of the current time.
It's hilarious to watch a well done "spontaneous" demo that is exactly the same every time. I tell you what, the speaker says, let's throw some code together to let you see what I'm talking about. Closing the Powerpoint (or at least minimizing it) and bringing up a developer tool, the speaker goes on: I can do this in C# I guess, of course it works in other languages too. Let's make a .... pause .... look at the screen as though trying to decide ... Windows app, sure that can work, I'll put a button or two and a text box, yeah, that should work. ... the demo goes on and on to all intents and purposes just being made up on the fly, but I'm in the back of the room with the demo script and I know the speaker is doing exactly what we planned.
You need to know the material well in addition to practicing. If you forget to mention something, you'll need to spot a chance to work it in later. If you get a question from the audience, you'll need to be able to answer it. And if you get thrown by a technical glitch and need to speak really spontaneously, you will need to know where you were headed for sure.
All of this is something you can learn. If you think it is natural and flawless, you may think "I either have it or I don't." That's not true. You can learn the mechanics of structuring a talk, of laying out a slide so that it doesn't detract from the talking you're doing, of using your voice, your pauses, and your body to support your message. And you can practice over and over, and watch other people too, until you are good. Some people learn faster than others, but everyone can learn this if it's important to them.
# Answer
> 11 votes
There's a lot of great answers here, and most of them say *practice*. Well, I agree, but I didn't see this particular point in any answer yet, so let me try and explain what usually helps me "keep the flow" and how.
Well, it's all about **practice**, but:
* when I write the slides, I always have a rough idea of what I would like to say and try out a few (different) phrasings in my head (only the key points / words end up on the slides)
* (ideally), I do multiple rehearsals, improvisation-upon-improvisation. At this point, it is not uncommon for the first rehearsal to last 4 or 5 times as much as the allotted time.
* at early-stage rehearsals, I will **try multiple phrasings** for the same slide. If I start saying "Um...", my sentences get lost in the middle or something similar, I will just calmly stop at this point and try a new approach to what I want to say.
* I tend to do around 2 more rehearsals after I get the presentation down to the allotted time (for me, personally, going on much longer I might unintentionally shorten the presentation too much)
* now, **what, concretely, I get from all these rehearsals** is multiple, different ways to handle every slide.
The reason presentations sound flawless is because **not just every sentence by itself is good, but the transitions between sentences, slides and sections are well done**.
And, after doing 4-5-6 rehearsals for the presentation, **you know multiple ways** to **say each thought**, and then multiple ways **to transition to the next** thought, and even if you "slip" and say something other than the "perfect, planned version", you still have a rehearsed back-up strategy.
* as for writing down the notes, I usually sit down after a rehearsal number 2 or 3, and focus only on **difficult transitions**.
If, in those few first rehearsals, I sill didn't find a fluent way to say something, or if I did but I stumbled around it, I will try and **write down verbatim what I want to say**, sometimes even multiple versions.
Just writing it down usually helps, but if I'm going to go over any notes minutes before presenting, these are going to be it.
* finally, making a rehearsal if front of a test-audience helps. I dread anybody hearing me on the rehearsal number one or two, but I like for somebody to listen on around the pre-last rehearsal.
By this time, I usually "know" my presentation well enough so I can easily integrate suggestions in, but I still have a go to test if the suggestions fit fluently.
* this all helps the presentation sound more natural. Since you can handle multiple "lingual" situations, you do not sound like you're reciting by heart. On the other hand, you're sure that you have multiple "fallback" options which allow you flexibility and that all of them will deliver the same idea.
# Answer
> 6 votes
As someone who has been trained in creating and presenting presentations, let me tell you the secret: it's practice.
With practice and learning comes confidence, and with confidence you manage to make up for all the minor flaws most people might not even notice with nothing but a simple smile.
There is one technical aspect to it, which has something to do with how the brain works. In stress or panic situations, the human brain has a functionality to switch off all higher-level areas to focus on the situation at hand. While this is perfectly good and useful when i.E. fighting lions, it is absolutely not helpful when in a test situation. So the prime rule for good presentations is: keep calm and present on.
The second trick is to generate so called island-knowledge. Basically you take all the required topics, then learn enough about them that you could hold a speech for each one of them without having to prepare. Once you did that you not only have the knowledge to speak more freely but also the confidence when it comes to questions. Because for every question asked or for every mistake you make, you know which island to hop to, to find an immediate solution that at least sounds professional.
And then there is still the good old "sorry, I don't know" answer. If you preset something about a topic, it is perfectly fine if you do not know everything. Admitting that is a strong sign of confidence and the audience will honor you for not talking "bullshit". Knowing that the audience will react positively if you openly lack some knowledge will help you to present that lack as perfectly fine.
# Answer
> 5 votes
I have no idea how to give a *flawless* presentation, but to give a good one, follow points from:
(Don't be afraid of the word "PowerPoint" here - there is nothing specific to this program. Moreover, many points from there work for any presentation, including one only with blackboard or even one without it.)
In any way, to make in better and better there is no shortcut to preparation and practice!
# Answer
> 4 votes
Practice, as has been mentioned.
Here's one concrete points with respect to practicing:
I like to write *exactly* what I want to say in the Speaker Notes section of the slide.
This point is a little contentious, because the first thing people usually learn about public speaking is "not to read". I used to subscribe by this. Now, I've gone back to writing really really complete notes and reading for practice.
Before I get a whole community down my throat let me explain. When I was practicing in the past, I kept misstating things or adding 'um' or pausing and would have to retract my words, and then that led to even more awkwardness. So I thought, "Well, I'm just going to write down exactly what I want to say then" and not have to try to find the awesome phrasing by memory. So I did. What you then need to practice is *delivery*, not *content*.
The problem that people have is that they often associate reading with how you do reading out loud in school - you just kind of drone out the text in a monotone voice that's drab and boring. In reality, you can read and still make it dynamic and interesting and fluid and fun. Do practice that. Imagine your favorite speechgiver - a famous world leader, a CEO of a company, and so forth. A lot of them are reading their speeches. Think of your favorite newscaster or comedy anchorman. They are all reading off of the prompter and yet it feels like they're just talking to you.
It is pretty important that, when developing a dynamic reading habit, to get a sense of how you sound. Record yourself and play it back and see if it sounds like you're just talking to someone in conversation. That's how it should sound like. It shouldn't sound like you're reading a research paper. Figure out if it's the content that's doing this or if it's the delivery.
Once you practice this a lot - just reading dynamically - then you're going to start to know your talk so well that you won't need the notes, and you won't need the slides, and you won't need to worry about interruptions or anything.
Another thing: I don't write notes for every section for my talk: just the tricky parts that I stumble on. I often do it for the very beginning of the talk (Yes, I actually write "Thank you very much for the introduction. My name is Irwin and I'm happy to be here today" in my note slides because when I'm at my most nervous moment, I need to be able to start off without any ums, ifs, or buts), technical portions, and places where I have big "A-has" and "punchlines" and so forth.
Hope that helps.
# Answer
> 4 votes
A number of factors that are I have found to be important to giving a good presentation. I have not yet given a academic presentation yet, other than at undergrad level, but have attended some. In my professional career as an Accountant (I am also a part-time Post-Graduate) I have given some and attended many. The number of people I have normally given a presentation range between about 50 to 300.
* **Good knowledge of topic**
This may seem like a given but you'd be amazed haw many poor presentations can be put down to this fact. This gives you the ability to expand on your presentation naturally if the need exists. It also can help if your preparation, for whatever reason, was not the best. Trust me it can happen.
* **Preparation**
That said about knowledge; preparation is very important. I've found over the years that this can vary from presentation to presentation. At first & I still do I would type out my whole talk. This would serve as a template for my talk and I would follow it pretty closely but would go off script if or when I felt it would be of benefit. Sometimes with time you can sense a vibe off a room that you may need to expand on a point you were talking about. On other occasions I would just make bullet points to keep me on track when I am comfortably with the topic. For me preparation also includes being comfortable in the space in which you are giving your presentation. I have found it is good to get to the venue early to survey the room that you would be speaking in. Walk the room if you can; note how big it is. Is there equipment for you if you need to use slides, a podium or table for you to use and water available. These may seem small issues but it's good practice so as to keep yourself in a good frame of mind before you speak. Nothing worse than 30 minutes messing with a laptop and projector to frustrate you before hand.
**\- Practice**
This has been dealt with in many of the answers so I won't dwell on it to long. It is important so the more you can do it the better. As said already if you can do a trial run with friends or colleagues that is good. I know in my university there are some workshops available that help with public speaking and I believe Toastmasters was also mentioned where you could practice. You can also practice on your own. Two techniques I use are 1. when out for a walk I run over in my mind little short sections of make talk and see how well I can present them and then check my notes when I get back; 2. (this may sound a bit vain) you can practice in front of a mirror which I think helps you get comfortable with how you look when talking and you may also notice bad habits you will wish to eradicate from you presenting style.
* **Confidence**
This is noted in most of the answers as well. You can be naturally confident or it may be some thing you have to work on. If it come naturally then nerves can play less of a role in your presentation style and people can notice a nervous speaker. That said, all the confidence on the world will not help you if you don't research your topic, prepare and practice. Where confidence is of benefit even if it acquired over time is that it helps ensure you are more relaxed when giving the talk and when you are relaxed you are better able to concentrate on what is important, the material.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Note that presenting is a teachable/learnable skill. You may want to consider classes, if you can find them, or doing your presentation for friends and asking for feedback. Some folks suggest investigating the Toastmasters organization as a way to learn public speaking skills; I don't know enough about them to have an opinion.
As others have said, practice makes better, and -- as with most arts and crafts -- this is more about being able to recover gracefully so nobody especially notices the mistake than about a perfect performance.
Afterthought: a flawless presentation is highly unnatural...
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Tags: presentation
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thread-16193 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16193 | How to highlight the text changes to the supervisor? | 2014-01-26T05:15:34.517 | # Question
Title: How to highlight the text changes to the supervisor?
How to highlight the changes I made to a text (report, thesis etc) to the supervisor? Red colour/adding bubble comments, you name it. I use Word.
# Answer
> 10 votes
In Word, you can use the 'track changes' function.
It depends a bit on the amount of changes you're making though. Track changes will mark every cut and paste, every comma and deletion of every double space. This can make it too difficult to read. Personally, I've resorted to just underlining the most important changes so that my supervisor can see them easily, and adding the occasional comment bubble.
# Answer
> 6 votes
If you use LaTeX, then, of course, it would be easiest if you and your supervisor would have access to the same versioning tool (e.g. git/mercurial/svn/...) where you both could check changes in the source code.
If you use LaTeX and your supervisor has no access to your versioning system then I suggest to use latexdiff to produce a pdf that has the changes highlighted in nice way (see e.g. this image taken from this blog post).
If you don't use versioning then: Start now! If you still haven't started, keep versions by hand and use latexdiff.
# Answer
> 2 votes
If you are writing the paper in latex use highlight to denote sections that have been changed.
While it might be too technical for most people, I would suggest using Version control if your advisor is okay with it. Why use version control systems for writing a paper?
# Answer
> 1 votes
As a starting point have a discussion with your supervisor on how they would like you to present documents with changes in them. Have you own research prepared so as that you can answer any questions they may have on what you are proposing. It may end up that you will us a combination of methods.
I think you would find that using the track change feature in word would be of great benefit to yourself but it does include every change so may not be of the best for your supervisor reviewing. You would have to change the settings to only show the changes that your supervisor requires or requests. Here is a good blog entry on How track changes works and the feature explained from the Microsoft office site.
I know from my own experience I put in the footer of the document version number and date submitted (Draft V.1.0 27/02/2014). This helps you keep track of the documents so if you supervisor gets a new version they know there is significant changes to it. Bubble comments on the document explaining new or major changes to content can inform your supervisor of the major changes since the last draft.
Just as a note I am at the moment using Lireoffice (similar to word) but am considering switching to LaTeX. I am in a Humanities field (history)
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Tags: writing, thesis, collaboration, advisor
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thread-18025 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18025 | Job applications reviewed "until the position is filled" (i.e. soft deadline): What does that really mean? | 2014-03-10T21:01:50.590 | # Question
Title: Job applications reviewed "until the position is filled" (i.e. soft deadline): What does that really mean?
I noticed that many ads say "Review of applications will begin on Day X, and continue until the position is filled". I wonder how this kind of search works. Assume the search committee received a certain number of applications on Day X. Usually none of the applications is from a superstar that you definitively want to hire, but let's say between five and ten are good enough for you to hire one of them. What would the search committee do? Would they contact the candidates, arrange interviews and hire the best one there? Or would they still wait for a month or two just to see if a superstar would apply after all?
# Answer
"Review of applications will begin on Day X, and continue until the position is filled" is also translated as:
*We want you to get your application in on time, but if you're totes amazeballs and late we'll overlook it*.
The motivation is the same as what was mentioned. If you say that there's a hard deadline for submissions, and then Dr. Awesome Sauce applies a day later and gets hired, you're opening yourself up to a lawsuit from all the Dr. Not-So-Awesomes.
Practically, academic hiring works on a calendar, and universities compete with each other. For example, in computer science it's rare to be making a first offer well into May unless you're at the University of I'm-So-Cool and know that you can afford to be last. And even then it doesn't always work. So practically speaking there's a deadline of sometime in March to make decisions on offers and start wooing your preferred candidates.
This means that you can't realistically process a new application any later than early-mid February (because it takes time to collect references and organize a trip)
> 16 votes
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Tags: application, job-search
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thread-18049 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18049 | Doing all the simulations and plotting, do I deserve an authorship? | 2014-03-11T19:17:25.017 | # Question
Title: Doing all the simulations and plotting, do I deserve an authorship?
I, an electrical engineering undergraduate, am currently involved in a research project, wherein I help write all the codes, run all the simulations, and plot all the graphs.
The paper is about to be submitted soon. I am hesitating whether to mention my desire to be listed as a co-author to my advisor.
Admittedly, I have no contributions to the idea and the theoretical analysis, as those are a bit too complicated for an undergraduate, or at least for me myself.
However, I have done all the implementations of the ideas and plotted all the resulting graphs, which, I believe, will be put into the paper.
In such a case, do I deserve an authorship (maybe 3rd or 4th)? Or it is reasonable to just acknowledge me in the Acknowledgement paragraph at the end of the paper?
If I deserve one, should I bring this up now or wait until I have done all my work?
# Answer
> I am hesitating whether to mention my desire to be listed as a co-author to my advisor.
Please mention it to your advisor **right away**.
They may say, "You're right, you should be a co-author." Or, "Given your specific contributions, it wouldn't be appropriate to list you as a co-author, but you will be listed in the acknowledgements." Or they may say, "Given your current contributions you can't be a co-author, but if you also do XYZ for the paper before it is finished, then it would be appropriate for you to be 3rd author."
You may agree or disagree with their answer.
We can't really tell you definitely whether or not you should be a co-author. (We don't know enough about the content of the paper, or your contribution, and it wouldn't be appropriate for you to give that level of detail here.)
But, you should **definitely** talk to your advisor about it (preferably right away, and definitely *before* the paper is submitted).
**Edit: The OP made the following comment -**
> After digging out some info about the previous undergraduate students, I find all of them are not listed as authors. But they are indeed acknowledged in the paper.
If you think for some reason your advisor will be reluctant to include you as an author, you can do some preparation for your talk with them as follows. Then, if your advisor's first reaction is "I've never given authorship to an undergrad before," you are prepared to politely and non-combatively make a case *to your advisor* for why you think you merit authorship.
* Check if your university or department has any formal policy on authorship. For example, here are three different policies.
* If you have no university-specific guidelines, you can refer to the IEEE rules.
* In either case, identify to yourself things you have done that you think qualify you for authorship according to the guidelines.
Then, if your advisor's first response is "No" and you disagree (after listening to the reasoning), you can present your side (which your advisor may or may not agree with).
Also, if your advisor's assessment is "No, you haven't done enough to warrant authorship," you can ask "What else I can do before paper submission that will 'bump' my contribution up to authorship level?" I have had students in the past whose contribution to a paper didn't warrant authorship. In those cases, I told them: "Your current contributions do not merit authorship (only acknowledgement), but if you also do X, Y, Z, you will be an author."
(Note: I'm *not* advising any kind of escalation at this point - you don't even know yet what your advisor will say! But you may feel more comfortable with some kind of plan in mind for how to explain your contributions (as you understand them) to your advisor *if* advisor says "No" and you don't think advisor fully understands your side.)
In any event, **talk to your advisor** as soon as you can.
> 53 votes
# Answer
You do not have to have formed a solid opinion about whether your contributions merit coauthorship in order to ask the question of your advisor. In fact I think that every young person doing work which is being used in any way in a published academic paper would do well to ask this question. If you like, you can frame it not as your trying to suss out whether you have been unfairly denied coauthorship but that you are looking to learn more about the research process itself and inquiring into what sort of research contributions merit coauthorship. (Even if you are seeking to do such a sussing out, framing it as a teachable moment is probably a better way to get a helpful, unguarded response.)
In my experience, things go smoothly if the issue of coauthorship is raised earlier in the collaborative process rather than later. It is hard for me to think of a situation in which it is "too soon" to ask this question, although if you ask it early enough the answer may not be definitive. It is not good to be working on something and wondering whether one will wind up as a coauthor or not. That's needlessly stressful.
Also in my experience, undergraduates often have unrealistic expectations about what sort of work merits publication and/or coauthorship. It seems, especially on this site, that a lot of undergraduates are hoping that their undergraduate research can be published. In some cases it can, and how feasible this is must be highly field-dependent, but here is an inherent feature of undergraduate research: it is research done by someone who has much less subject-area knowledge and insight than *she will herself have later on*, assuming she continues in the discipline.
(If you don't continue in the discipline then you should ask yourself seriously why you want to be published in it. Getting anything published anywhere sounds neat to any suitably bookish young person -- and it sounds neat to me too, and I am a published author -- but the reality of it is that academic publication takes a lot of time and work over and beyond the work that was done to write the paper. If you are a 20-year old who has written an electrical engineering paper and then decided to go on to some other career, please think seriously about just putting that paper on your webpage and spending the time that it would take to get your paper published learning to play the guitar, or watching Lars von Trier films, or finding a cute boyfriend/girlfriend, or...almost anything else, really. If you don't continue on in the discipline, then having a published academic paper is worth essentially nothing beyond the neat feeling you get by being published. It does not convey the real life advantages that, say, being able to talk knowledgeably about Dogme95 would.)
Note well: I am not saying that undergraduates cannot do good research. They can: in rare but extant circumstances, undergraduates have done research which is better than what most other people in the field can do. What I am saying is that almost every undergraduate who does research will do significantly better research a little later on, to the extent that I cannot think of a situation in which someone's undergraduate research became a big part of their professional profile.
**Added**: I did not mean to create the impression that I feel that in this particular case the OP's contributions do not merit coauthorship. I can't know without knowing the details of the situation, and I wouldn't be a good judge anyway because I work in a field -- mathematics -- where the standards for what constitutes coauthorship are very different from in EE. Let me reiterate the points that I did make:
(i) The advisor is much better equipped to understand whether the student's work merits coauthorship than the student. So statistically speaking, if a student is unsure about this, asks the advisor, and the advisor says the student has not done enough for coauthorship, the advisor is probably right. Of course this unequal expertise and authority sets things up perfectly for a predatory advisor to exploit his undergraduate workers. My answer is mostly directed towards the higher probability event that the advisor is acting honorably. The main thing I advised the OP to do was to talk to his advisor about the standards for coauthorship. I feel very strongly that this is the correct first step (and should have been taken before, in fact, since the OP has some anxiety about the situation). If what the OP hears in this conversation is very unsatisfactory to him, then we can further discuss the situation. I don't want to assume that will happen.
(ii) The line between getting acknowledged and getting coauthorship is certainly a gray area, even among adult academics. For example, in the last few months alone I was invited to be a coauthor on two different papers. I had to think about each one. In the end, I turned down one request -- which came from two graduate students in my own department, including one of my own advisees -- and accepted the other *after doing more work* so that I felt like my coauthorship was justified. Both of these could have gone either way. When I think about whether to include myself or someone else as a coauthor, first I weight intellectual contributions (in a way which may not generalize so well outside of mathematics, which is something I have recently learned by discussion with other members of the site) and second I think in terms of the professional implications of putting on or leaving off a certain person's name. The paper that I left my name off of was the third paper coming out of a graduate research seminar organized and led by me \[I was a coauthor on the first two\], and the results obtained were ones that I specifically asked for. Nevertheless the work done on this paper was by the students and not by me\* -- my own direct contribution to this work was positive but indubitably of a smaller order than theirs -- and the advantage to each of these students of having a paper which does not have a faculty coauthor is considerable. For me, having one more publication of a similar sort as the other two is not a big advantage to me. In fact, by not putting my name on the paper I am in fact claiming a sort of academic seniority: I'm showing that I've reached a certain point in my career where I can successfully inspire and direct projects that I am not directly involved with. So my answers come from the perspective of a faculty advisor who thinks carefully about which names to put on or leave off a paper...including his own. This behavior does not make me an unusually virtuous member of my academic community: it seems like business as usual. So I would like to extend the benefit of the doubt to the OP's academic advisor and assume that he is acting honorably until specific information comes up to the contrary.
\*: In fact this third work involved computations that were so substantial that although I am, I suppose, capable of having done them, in practice I would not have been willing to devote the time and enthusiasm that my students did, and it would certainly have taken me longer to write a much kludgier version of the code than what my student came up with fairly quickly.
> 11 votes
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Tags: undergraduate, research-undergraduate, authorship
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thread-18058 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18058 | Optimal structure of cover letter for PhD application submitted directly to PI | 2014-03-12T02:27:05.410 | # Question
Title: Optimal structure of cover letter for PhD application submitted directly to PI
I am currently applying for PhD positions (mainly - though not exclusively - around Germany and Switzerland). As I would like to start as soon as possible and would rather be paid than receive a scholarship, I am not applying via grad schools but directly to potential supervisors.
This is an arduous process as very many PIs interest me, though most do not have the financial freedom of creating new PhD positions on the spot. Consequently I have written a lot of emails and I have developed a short formula which I adapt to each individual PI. The structure is roughly:
* Title: 2-3 buzzwords related to the PIs work followed by " - PhD Opportunities"
* Introductory statement - *Who am I*
* Short summary of my experience, explicitly mentioning points relevant to his focus and including a link to my full CV
* Explicitly state my preferred topics related to his focus
* Explicitly ask if he has a PhD position opening, possibly including a suggestion of what sort of project would motivate me, and what about him/his group precisely I found interesting.
Here is an example e-mail:
> **Neurogenetics and Psychopharmacology - PhD Opportunities**
>
> Hello, I am a Molecular Neuroscience major from Heidelberg. I have recently graduated from our MSc. program and am currently looking for groups in which to pursue my PhD.
>
> I have very versatile experience in neuroscience - ranging from molecular biology, microscopy, and genetics in model animals up to fMRI, eye tracking, pupillometry, and behavioural tests in humans (for more on this please refer to my CV: http://chymera.eu/docs/cv-acad-gen.pdf ). I would like to continue using a broad spectrum of methods in my research, and put my scripting experience (Python, R, Julia, MATLAB, SPM, FSL) to good use in the analysis of complex data sets.
>
> I am very motivated by research into mood disorders and genetics; and I would also like to augment my methods spectrum with psychopharmacology and NIBS over the following years. I find the addition of these methods particularly important because in my opinion they present the most solid ways of testing causality in correlations between human brain activation and behaviour (as observed via fMRI or PET).
>
> I have browsed your list of publications and I found your neurogenetics work most motivating. I would like to ask you whether you would be able to offer me a PhD position in which I could integrate the genetic focus of your group with brain imaging and brain stimulation (perhaps to elucidate brain area function or psychopharmacological treatment possibilities resolved for endophenotypes). I would also be grateful for the opportunity to discuss further project ideas with you.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Christian
I generally just write one email, and follow up 7-14 days later with a second one if there is no reply within the first week. Of the PIs that do not respond to the first email less than 25% respond to the second.
With this email structure (and what I believe is a strong background) I get a reply rate of ~50%, of which all replies specify that the PI would like to take me on - in principle. Actual invitations for interviews, however, are at about 5%. I am thinking this could be a lot better.
Do you have any (different) email structure which you have found optimal? Are there any other details - such as tone and style - which you think are very important to note in such a context?
# Answer
I would say you are waiting too long to explain why you are interested in the research group. Your motivation for writing and taking up the faculty members' time should come **much** earlier in the message—I'd recommend no later than the second paragraph.
I'd also suggest that you might also want to consider sending the message to the *Oberingenieur* or *Akademischer Rat* of the faculty members' group; he or she may have a better idea of what vacancies are currently available.
Finally, "cold calling" does not get a high response rate; if there isn't an active opening, most potential advisors won't really respond unless they have to.
> 7 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, application, email, application-cover-letter
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thread-17553 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17553 | Can a student seek redress for the administration neglecting their paperwork? | 2014-02-28T16:31:52.757 | # Question
Title: Can a student seek redress for the administration neglecting their paperwork?
(Breakdown of a larger issue - full story here)
Following the (delayed) approval of my thesis paperwork by my professor, the review staff of my small (~20 grad students?) department took weeks to give me each round of revisions. After the second revision, having already had my thesis for nearly the entire semester, the reviewer admitted to "forgetting" about my paperwork for over a month. She followed that up by telling me she was shelving my paperwork to "focus on other students who still have a chance of graduation this semester." Even though I should have graduated the semester previous, and had been waiting months for her to finish the review so I could get my thesis bound (required by the graduation process).
The reviewer was fired shortly after the end of that semester, the new reviewer and I got it finished up in just over a week, and the dean of the college wrote a letter to the graduate school requesting my graduation be back-dated. This was refused with only blanket statements about 'policy'. Obviously I should have escalated the issue much sooner, but I wasn't world-weary enough to realize that "the people in charge" were being so negligent and unprofessional, or to realize that I could do anything about it. I think students in general are often too intimidated by the people in the 'ivory tower' to speak out and ask for better treatment.
How can students know when they are being treated unfairly? How can they get their complaints taken seriously and appropriately escalate issues through their department/college without being ignored? Is there any recourse for them - a way to get the school to correct the issue?
# Answer
> 14 votes
You're not at the end of the line yet. Getting the date changed may be not be an option, but there are still steps you can take before going full Edmond Dantes. First, I'll try to answer the more general questions.
> How can students know when they are being treated unfairly?
You usually know at a base level when you're being wronged. You clearly were on multiple occasions.
> How can they get their complaints taken seriously and appropriately escalate issues through their department/college without being ignored?
**Being respectful and professional is key.** The second you "rage," you will no longer be taken seriously. Avoid personal attacks at all costs and always check yourself before you go forward. Assume that people are reasonable and willing to help, even when they seem otherwise. Communication is about the message that's received, not the one that's sent.
Carefully measured accusations of impropriety can sometimes help, but be *cautious*, they will also burn bridges. I had a strong disagreement with a professor where at one point he refused to discuss the topic further. In turn, I summarized our interaction and accused him of being unprofessional. When he defended himself, he included a restating of his understanding of my goal. At that point, it became clear he mistook my *request* for my *objective.* What seemed like arrogance and dismissiveness were really misunderstanding. We were able to resolve the matter and are now on good terms.
**Judicious use of carbon-copying.** CCing the wrong person at the wrong point will actively work against you on the points of both respect and professionalism. That said, there is a role for it when transitioning between administrative levels. When you CC someone in on an ongoing conversation, they can see the back and forth history.
If you are:
* *Clearly* conducting yourself properly and respectfully
* Being treated unfairly
* Have a concrete goal they can do something about (simply complaining won't cut it)
then you can attempt to escalate the matter to the person's direct superior by CCing them instead of generating a new e-mail chain. You should be immediately switching the direction of your conversation to the new person at the same time, referencing the fact that your are doing this because you are out of options, and be in the right. You will be very, very heavily implying misconduct on behalf of the previous person in this case, but will want them to come to that conclusion on their own. One could make an exception on this in extreme cases regarding ethics, safety, etc.
I think you are past the point where you can begin to CC someone's superior before taking it to them directly, as that requires some degree of personal familiarity. That does remain a potential, if very risky, option in other situations.
> Is there any recourse for them - a way to get the school to correct the issue?
There are three further levels you can take this.
1. **The President of the College.** The individual College Deans still have to report to someone. You do not want to telegraph your moves anymore at this stage. I don't have a good suggestion for the best way to frame your request for an appointment, but you can't afford them asking the Graduate College Dean for details prior to the meeting if they've already been compromised. Here are some more important tips for this:
* You will also have some serious convincing to do that you're an adult. Be wearing a suit/dress and be immaculately groomed.
* Have your greeting and synopsis rehearsed.
* Lead with the impact this has had on you, not the history; your career and licensing is also their primary method of exposure to the working world.
* Have every single piece of documentation you can scan or print, and have it ordered chronologically and separable by party at fault, if possible. Chronology is more important, as it shows your body of support and could reveal any collusion against you.
* The copy of documentation you bring with you needs to be something they can keep then and there.
2. **The Accrediting Agency.** This is no longer about degrees at this point, and it will do nothing for you directly. I'm not even sure the issues at hand are relevant to them. But they do vouch for the integrity of the school. You will really just be filing an official report against the college at best, but if your degree dates remain changeable by College policy and they refuse to do so, it could be considered a form of academic misconduct.
3. **Legal Recourse. (Disclaimer: I Am Not A Lawyer)** You could go the legal route, as suggested. They are damaging your ability to earn income in an easily quantifiable way. Legal fees, lost wages, and maybe some psychiatric care may be able to be recouped, but you will certainly be paying up front for this. This will probably cost you more money overall, not to mention the time and stress dealing with the court proceedings.
As you take this matter to increasing levels of aggressiveness, you will find your support waning. People don't like to get involved with other people's problems, especially when it ceases to benefit them. I personally recommend stopping after the President regardless of the outcome. Your health and happiness are the most important things you have, and this is already taking a sizeable toll. **You really have to ask yourself, in twenty years, will you be happier that justice was exacted or that the whole thing is a distant memory?**
Finally, find a good therapist. If nothing else, it's a place you can vent where the negativity won't linger. Your home should be where your soul can heal and rest, not where you dump the wastewater from washing the wound. I hope something in here is helpful, and wish you the best of luck.
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Tags: graduate-school, ethics, administration
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thread-18053 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18053 | Do's and Don't's of Undergraduate Research | 2014-03-11T21:20:06.080 | # Question
Title: Do's and Don't's of Undergraduate Research
I was fortunate enough to get a position as a researcher for the Mayo Clinic's SURF Program this year. My PI's lab focus is on the the immune system's role in CNS axonal and neuronal injury, specifically through the lens of how innate and adaptive immune effectors interact w/ infected neurons.
Although I do research under a professor at my college and I volunteered for a state university lab during the previous summer, this is my first REU/SURF opportunity, and I REALLY want to make a good impression. Here are my questions:
What are the do's and don't's in terms of being a skilled and efficient researcher?
Since I am still an undergrad, I know that I will be a less useful asset to the lab than a grad student or post-doc, but what can I do as an undergrad to not burden my colleagues and PI?
Thank you all for your help! Wishing you all the very best!
# Answer
To me, the quality that makes a student *not* a burden is the following:
> A willingness to learn for themselves and good judgement about when to stop and ask for feedback.\*
If a student isn't willing to try things out and learn independently, then it creates a burden on the supervisor. I really don't appreciate when a student asks me how to do something *before* they do a basic Google search.
Similarly, if a student doesn't know how to judge when he/she is "stuck" and needs help, this also creates a burden on the supervisor (because the supervisor has to keep checking on the student to make sure they're progressing).
The dos and don'ts (to avoid being a "burden") that come to mind are:
* **Do** ask your supervisor this question at the very beginning, to find out what he/she expects from you.
* **Do** take detailed notes when you have a meeting with your supervisor or somebody teaches you how to do something, so you can refer to them later
* **Do** keep a written record of your own attempts and progress (such as a lab notebook) to show your supervisor during meetings
* **Do** ask a question if you don't understand an instruction or something that is said, because it will be much better for everyone involved if you clear things up sooner rather than later.
* **Do** mention your own ideas to your supervisor, if you have some that you think will make your research better.
* **Don't** think that just because you are an undergraduate, you can't make much of a contribution. Obviously experience helps, but it's really only a small piece of what makes someone a skilled researcher. Willingness to learn is a much bigger piece, IMO. I've had high-school summer interns who were better than any of the M.S. students in the lab, simply because they put in more effort to *learn*.
* Source of the quote: *The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research*, by Marian Petre & Gordon Rugg
> 33 votes
# Answer
The purpose of REU/SURF programs is to educate undergraduates about research, and to encourage them to make good decisions about graduate school. Secondary benefits include advancing science and the careers of the participants. Note that these are not the same goals as of a PhD program (such as in ff524's answer).
The very natural desire to be a "skilled and efficient researcher" is orthogonal to these goals; in some circumstances it will be counterproductive to be skilled and efficient. Your supervisor sees the whole project while you only see what's been set in front of you.
You should set your goals as:
1. To learn as many details of the lab dynamic as possible.
2. To participate in the lab dynamic in the manner you are expected to.
3. To do the tasks you are assigned in a skilled and efficient manner.
4. To noticeably improve in your abilities and understanding, over the course of the program.
5. (stretch goal) To have a good and creative idea that transcends the tasks you were assigned. Share this idea with your supervisor; do not just implement it. Do this at most once during the summer.
To expand a bit on (2): Listen carefully, including to body language. Your supervisor has a role in mind for you. Different faculty have different expectations with regards to issues such as creativity, asking questions, frequency of meetings, quality control, etc. You need to meet these expectations as well as you can. Exceeding expectations may not be a good thing; that's why I recommend doing it at most once.
> 5 votes
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Tags: research-undergraduate
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thread-18062 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18062 | Writing a letter of recommendation as a graduate student | 2014-03-12T07:57:03.757 | # Question
Title: Writing a letter of recommendation as a graduate student
I am a MA student who frequently works with undergraduates on projects. One student has asked me if I can write her a letter of recommendation for graduate school. Are there any risks to me submitting a letter, as opposed to her finding a faculty member (who likely would not be in the same field as her interests)? For graduate school applications how much does the position of the person writing a recommendation letter matter, as opposed to his/her academic familiarity with the student? I have already advised her to check with the programs she is applying to in case they have requirements.
Edit: I realize I left this unclear before-- she has two tenured professors willing to write letters. If I agreed to, I would be the third letter. The department is small, so there might not be too many options for an additional letter.
# Answer
> \[H\]ow much does the position of the person writing a recommendation letter matter, as opposed to his/her academic familiarity with the student?
It matters very highly. For most graduate programs it would be better to have a letter from a very eminent and trusted person which simply says "Student X's performance in my class convinces me that she will be successful in a top master's/PhD program. I highly recommend that you admit her." than a more personally insightful letter from a less well known faculty member, let alone someone who has not even completed the degree that the student is applying for. If you have not yourself completed a master's degree, how can you certify that the student will be able to do so successfully? (Well, of course it may well be that you probably can, but what degree of trust can the reader put into your letter? Not very much.)
In general, I would recommend that even postdocs and temporary faculty should defer to more senior faculty, if possible, when writing letters, and in any case the student should make sure to get at least one letter from a senior person. If someone who has a PhD (let's say) but is otherwise very junior can say something about the student that other faculty cannot, it could be a good idea to send along a letter, but it would be better to have that be an *additional* letter beyond the number required. However, for someone like you who has not even completed the degree the student is applying for, I would simply say that you should not write a letter for the student. If you want to help, I would recommend that you find a faculty member who is senior enough but doesn't know the student very well and give them the information that you wanted to convey in your own letter. (Don't write the letter for them! Just give them the information.) It helps of course to find a faculty member that you are comfortable with.
By the way, if you are in the habit of mentoring grad-school bound undergraduates, you would be doing them a favor if you let them know as early as possible that it is in their best interest to make significant contacts with senior faculty as well as with you.
> 37 votes
# Answer
I agree with Pete above - it is important to have PhDs, esp. senior faculty members as referees. If the student needs three letters, then your will add good specifics to her case. One common problem with letters from senior profs is that they are often too generic. I am a tenured prof, and review applications with reference letters all the time. Most of them are awfully generic. -that being said, I had one of my former students from when I was a T.A. as a Ph.D. candidate from years ago who has asked me for several reference letters over the years: two for teaching jobs, and one to get into grad school. It might have helped that my letter was stamped as a faculty -albeit very junior from a small university - at that stage, but all my comments were about my observations as a T.A.. The student (who was very good) keeps getting in to whatever she applies into. hope this helps. S.
> 8 votes
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Tags: masters, undergraduate, recommendation-letter
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thread-18083 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18083 | Nonpaid, volunteering position in a lab | 2014-03-13T01:49:32.820 | # Question
Title: Nonpaid, volunteering position in a lab
I already have a BSc degree from an unknown school in outside the US. I have convinced a professor at a top US school to let me join his lab to work on a project that he will propose and conduct experiments at his lab. In return for learning and having access to the lab and working on a project, I am supposed to help the lab with programming their machines. However, there is no pay, that is my title would be "Volunteer". Therefore, I have to work in part-time or night jobs while working there (I have work permit).
Is this common in US, that is to work in a lab without getting paid and working on a part-time job outside the lab to pay for living expenses?
# Answer
Your description of being "allowed" to do research work in exchange for programming work sounds off to me. Learning and running experiments for a research project proposed by a supervisor is basically the *job description* of a research assistant. It's work in its own right that people are typically compensated for in some way, not a reward for doing other (programming) work.
The arrangement you describe is *not* common, and it might also violate U.S. labor law. **Under U.S. law, it's illegal to let someone work for you for free unless they meet specific legal requirements to be considered a "volunteer" or "intern."**
"Volunteers" according to U.S. labor law are individuals
> who volunteer their time, freely and without anticipation of compensation for religious, charitable, civic, or humanitarian purposes to non-profit organizations.
Your intent is clearly *not* religious, charitable, civic, or humanitarian in nature, so you do not legally qualify as a volunteer.
And to be classified as an "intern" you must meet the requirement that
> The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded.
(among other requirements). That is, the employer cannot expect to be dependent on your work for normal operations. I don't think you meet the requirements for an unpaid intern, though it's not possible to be 100% sure from your description.
The usual interpretation of the U.S. labor law is that an internship has to be part of a *formal educational program* (e.g., you are enrolled as a student and get credits for the internship, or write a report which you submit to your home institution) or a *formal apprenticeship* for it to be legally unpaid. In fact, if you search for unpaid internships in the U.S., you'll find that most listings say that only current students who can earn college credit are eligible. It doesn't say in your post that you are currently enrolled as a student somewhere.
This is not to say that there is no legal scenario in which a U.S. lab can allow you to participate in research there without paying you. (If the entire experience was supposed to be for your educational benefit - including the "help the lab with programming their machines" part - then my answer might be different.) But from your description, I don't think the scenario you describe is acceptable or normal.
I personally do not allow anybody to do work for my lab unless they are paid or doing a personal project (like a thesis) for which they earn academic credit. I've been told it would be legally problematic. For example: suppose I have an M.S. student working with me for academic credit. He graduates in May and has a job starting in September. I'm not allowed to let him keep working in the lab from May-September unless I can pay him (according to my university lawyers).
(Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer)
> 14 votes
# Answer
I think that one of the main points is: do they **need** you? If they do, well, ff524's answer is true and honest. But **if they do not**, if their experiments already have all staff needed, if they gain nothing they need by letting you in and they will need to use some of man-hours to teach you and make sure you don't cause trouble, then it looks fair. You say you had to convince a professor. So it seems likely that he already had all the research assistants he thought he needed - and probably was also afraid you will use their time to learn (that's why you do it, isn't it?) so he wanted something in return.
It would be safer for professor and better overall for you if you could find a research assistant job where you are needed, not convince anyone to let you in where they seem not to need you.
> 4 votes
# Answer
IMHO the real question is that it is an exploitive offer, or it is a good possibility. My opinion is probably the second, although a little bit of exploitation can't be closed out, a research job in the U.S. can have this price.
It were an exploitive offer if you had (or will have) alternative opportunities to get an U.S. job. IMHO this isn't the current situation. If you want to get a real, paid U.S. job, first you should be already there. Out of the U.S. it is much harder (nearly chanceless), even if you have a work permit.
Your boss (professor) probably knows this, and it has to be a big chance, that you will get a much better (=paid) offer from him, or from any other, if you are already in the U.S. In this case it isn't an exploitive offer, but an opportunity, and you can see this volunteer-time as a trial period.
If you are sure that you will be able to get better offers, then you should reject it, but I don't think this is the case.
> 2 votes
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Tags: research-process
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thread-17534 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17534 | Can I use facts from surveys which are done by others and are available on internet? | 2014-02-28T08:52:41.033 | # Question
Title: Can I use facts from surveys which are done by others and are available on internet?
I am doing a research on family business and there are few survey available on internet providing a lot of key information/data.
For examples, there is one detailed survey done by a accountancy firm (2000 interviews around the world) and showing very interesting results which I want to use in my research paper.
This accountancy firm is sharing this survey with viewers on their site, they are even allowing to download the .pdf copy.
So my question is, can I use this information (of course I will give credit to them for this information) OR do I need permission from them to use these facts?
# Answer
> 3 votes
From my perspective, there is nothing wrong with using results of surveys in you text. In many cases, this can help your argumentation and give the reader the idea of the state of the art. And in deed, surveys are used in research papers or other publications as a source of argumentation. Survey papers have their place in academia.
This is one papers using survey in the introduction:
> Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SME) are the most common employers across the world. In 48 out of 76 nations covered in Ayyagari, Beck and Demirgüç-Kunt (2007), SMEs employed more than 50% of the formal workforce
>
> <sup>*What have we learned from the Enterprise Surveys regarding access to finance by SMEs?,Kuntchev V.,Ramalho R., Rodríguez-Meza J.,Yang J. S.,2012*</sup>
This is THE TECH WRITER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE written by Janet Van Wicklen who uses surveys many times:
> A 1999 survey by the Society for Technical Communication (STC) found that 95 percent of its membership had a bachelor’s degree or higher<sup>1</sup>.
with references after every chapter:
> <sup>1</sup>STC 1999 Technical Communicator Salary Survey (Arlington, Virginia: Society for Technical Communication, 1999)
---
Anyway, before you will use the information you should check:
* **reliability of the source** \- you do not want to include results from a company which is considered to be unprofessional and discredit your research
* **sufficient statistic sample** \- surveys which say: 9 from 10 asked doctors recommend using alcohol as a medicament against cough will not help your credibility
* **check the survey closely** to avoid some misinterpreting
And you should:
* **include appropriate citation**
* **be careful when interpreting** the results
* **NOT to change numbers** : )
If you are interested, you can take a look at more surveys and related papers at Enterprise Surveys
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Tags: research-process, data
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thread-18081 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18081 | Is it a good idea to stay an extra year at my masters institution while re-applying to PhD programs elsewhere? | 2014-03-13T00:01:47.370 | # Question
Title: Is it a good idea to stay an extra year at my masters institution while re-applying to PhD programs elsewhere?
Im getting rejections from my PhD applications and it is rather difficult - emotionally. So, I am doing a 2+3 programme in a non-US country at the moment and I will finish my masters in 4 months or so.
I have consulted my situation with my current advisor and other professors and they said since I have secured 5 year funding here I can just stay for another year or two if I want to. I am tempted but I don't know how it is going to look to admission committees when I apply again to the States for Fall 2015 entry. Should I just leave after my master's? Or should I stay another year? (I think I will learn a lot by just staying another year, I love my supervisor, and I really like the university but it has always been my dream to study in the States and I am definitely re-applying)
# Answer
Staying in your university for a year and reapplying is a GREAT plan. I know some of my friends who actually got into 15-20 ranked universities in the US for PhD, they reapplied to the top 10 universities again (for the next term) and they got in those top 10, and they transferred (well, you basically start a new PhD program in the top university).
As for as you are not concerned about your age (getting old) or number of years (for some reason), you will be totally fine. Since your supervisor is nice, he/she will always understand if you want to go to a better school because its makes sense. Some would say, oh, for PhD it does not matter which university you go to, but it actually matters in most cases. At least, it can be a driving force for you to achieve great things in PhD and make a significant contribution to the scientific community.
Morally, it would not be the right decision to discontinue your current university with the funding. But it happens if you are aiming high and you have to be decisive. So its up to you.
BUT, reapplying with one more year of experience with the SAME supervisor will not help. There are several factors involved. Not to mention luck which we cannot control. So BE CAREFUL. Top universities are hard to get into. This year MIT got 3000 applications for EECS PhD, UW got 1500 for CS PhD, and Purdue got 1200 for CS and they offered 40 students PhD admissions. Its incredibly hard.
So keep your UNIVERSITY as a backup.
> 4 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions
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thread-18046 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18046 | What is the typical Legal Structure of a modern College? | 2014-03-11T17:20:00.570 | # Question
Title: What is the typical Legal Structure of a modern College?
I'm very perplexed as to how the terms **College** and **University** are archaically used to denote associations of people, but are in modern times being used to denote buildings or realty.
What are standard organizational structures in a legal sense for different Colleges in a US-based Research University??
For example, if the **corporation** of the University Trustees makes the policies providing for faculty appointments in a College of Arts and also in a College of Education, will these different Colleges typically be like **departments** in the same corporation, or do they have separate **Legal Personalities**?
Are the Colleges associations or corporations, or merely administrative units defined by the internal policy of the Trustees to distinguish different collections of offices?
Do the Colleges have members, and if so who are the members? Are all the **matriculated** members, or just current students? Are the faculty members of the College?
# Answer
As I understand it, in a typical private U.S. research university the different colleges or schools that make up the university have no legal independence, and they are simply administrative units within the university. (On the other hand, part of the endowment generally consists of restricted gifts, which can only be used in certain ways or by certain departments. This can give the corresponding parts of the university more power or independence in practice than one might otherwise suppose.)
> Do the Colleges have members, and if so who are the members? Are all the matriculated members, or just current students? Are the faculty members of the College?
This is entirely a matter of university policy. Current students, staff, and faculty would usually be considered members of their corresponding colleges, but this can vary (and some universities just aren't organized this way in the first place). In practice, this generally doesn't mean very much: it may determine some requirements for students in addition to departmental requirements, it could be listed as an affiliation on your publications (although departments are more common), it might give a few privileges such as building or library access, and it tells you how to fill out university forms, but it's otherwise not a big deal.
> 7 votes
# Answer
Oxford University (**constitution**) it seems was able to get the Crown to either recognize as or raise into corporations each of the Oxford Colleges. Additionally, the members of these Colleges (example **charter**), including students and faculty, also appear as individuals in the membership of the corporation of Oxford University. Oxford University as a corporate person seems to be a charter party exercising control over the Colleges, but is not itself a member of those Colleges.
When we get to USA State Universities, there seems to be some oddities where the **Uniform Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act** (Ohio's UUNAA) might implicitly turn Administratively created Colleges into **William Blackstone Corporations**. This is because UUNAA seems to assert that almost any group of people with a voting membership and a succession continuity plan and that isn't forbidden to acquire property will be able in principle to hold that property in **mortmain** perpetually outside of Probate, just like any regular business corporation. In the USA, these entities would likely be deemed **Quasi-Corporations**, in part because they probably don't have the same constitutional Due Process rights that a generic corporation would have. Any governance rights which the University Trustees have vested in the faculty via a Union Contract are possibly relevant for determining the legal status of the Colleges.
Since any legal personality for colleges seems unintentional in the University Policies I have read, I am going to assume until further notice that Anonymous Mathematician deserves the Check Mark.
> 4 votes
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Tags: university, administration
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thread-17912 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17912 | Is there a Plain English dictionary/glossary for education terminology | 2014-03-08T05:38:16.230 | # Question
Title: Is there a Plain English dictionary/glossary for education terminology
I am looking for a plain English dictionary (or glossary) for terms in education.
My friend has stated a Math Education degree and is having trouble reading the material (e.g. the lecture slides), It is full of education jargon (e.g. constructivism, ) but these are defined in terms of more jargon so it is very difficult for her to make sense of the definitions. Furthermore, English is a second language for her. Even for me for whom English is my primary language, I have difficulty reading the slides and other material and making sense of them.
Does anyone know of a plain English dictionary or glossary of education terms that I could recommend to her. This would help her to learn the jargon.
thanks, Glenn
# Answer
In relation to Educational Terms, Kathlyn Griffith and Helen Kowalski have published a Dictionary of education terms.
While not the most ideal source Wikipedia have a Glossary of education related terms that may be of some help as well.
You can also view a copy of the Oxford Mathematics Dictionary at the link. While it's the concise edition (coming in at just under 900 pages!), it covers a lot of terms that you friend would encounter and has biographical information on famous Mathematicians as well. It appears that many of its explanations give short examples as well. The English is clear and as plain as can be expected from such a publication.
This Glossary link also has Maths terms searchable in alphabetical order.
> 1 votes
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Tags: teaching, mathematics, education
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thread-17738 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17738 | How to check international academic credentials/degrees? | 2014-03-05T04:24:01.150 | # Question
Title: How to check international academic credentials/degrees?
What is the most efficient way of checking the academic degrees of an international pool of job-seekers? The tough thing is that many graduated from institution of non-English speaking countries.
# Answer
There are a number of checks that can be done.
1. You can ask for a copy of their degrees but for added comfort you can ensure that they get a third party to certify them. For example I know in Ireland you can get a lawyer to view the original of a document, they photocopy it and certify that it is a true copy.
2. You could ask the graduation department of their university to confirm that they graduated with their degree.
3. In cases where the certificates are in a foreign language you could have a pre-approved translation service that the applicants have to use to translate any documents. Again for example (in a different field) when my brother and his wife emigrated to a country in the UAE the immigration office would only accept their official documents if they had being translated by a certain translation service provider.
> 1 votes
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Tags: credentials
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thread-18107 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18107 | How long does it takes to receive a master graduation document (degree) | 2014-03-13T17:00:13.347 | # Question
Title: How long does it takes to receive a master graduation document (degree)
Can any body tell me how long after the Master's thesis defense do it take the student to receive their Master graduation document (degree) in Spain, France, UK or USA?
I'm asking specifically about the degree *in paper*, the one stamped with signatures, etc (which you can hang in the wall :) ).
For example if the student were to defend their thesis let's say today. How long after that does it take to receive a piece of paper saying something like "University of SUCH Master Degree in favor of SUCH"?
I know Spain, France, UK, USA are very different countries and all systems must have differences. Any country of the previous ones mentioned is good for me. It is a simple curiosity of mine.
# Answer
> 0 votes
It depends on the university you attend and how many credits they require for a master degree. In out university, 30 credits (10 courses) needed to complete a master degree. But finishing time depends on you. You can take all these courses in one year (spring, summer, fall) or do it in two years or even three. Its totally up to you.
The graduation document, I mean the degree, would be awarded the last day of your last semester. That would be your official "master" title date. The will mail the document to your home address. Plus you can also collect the document on graduation day at the end of spring semester. If you have graduated in Fall 2013, you can attend graduation day in May 2014 and get the degree with fancy clothing.
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Tags: thesis, titles, graduation, defense
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thread-18097 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18097 | how to indicate citations from the same, long document at different pages | 2014-03-13T13:38:29.007 | # Question
Title: how to indicate citations from the same, long document at different pages
I am proofreading a grant from another researcher. This is going to be submitted to the NIH which follows AMA guidelines. A particular, long report is providing her several of the researcher's citations. I asked for page references to some of her stats since I couldn't read the whole thing, and I needed to verify her correctness in interpreting them. This document is hundreds of pages long and she cites 3 different sections in the article.
1) Is it necessary for her to indicate the actual pages in the citations
if so,
2) How to cite the same document at several locations?
# Answer
The AMA citation guide does not accept *ibid*, *op cit*, or *loc cit* references. Their protocol is listed here:
http://jeffline.jefferson.edu/Ask/Help/Handouts/Citation\_AMA\_style.pdf
and the basic recommendation is that endnote references should include page numbers when necessary e.g.
> In his early work, Smith found a significant difference between smokers and non-smokers<sup>8(p.23)</sup> Age was also a factor. <sup>8(p.64,66)</sup>
> 4 votes
# Answer
When citing a specific page or pages of a longer document (not generally necessary for published journal articles although that may also be mandatory in some fields) one adds the page number to the reference. In the Harvard system one would write "Smith (1969, p. 24)" or "(Smith, 1969, p. 25)". There are as far as I know no hard rules when such references should be made but an author should consider the readers of the work they produce and facilitate finding the information cited as well as possible. In a short article of 10-15 pages this would not be difficult but in longer works one should consider providing pages. The point of references is after all to provide sources for information used in the article and one should not have to read an entire book to find it.
If I understand the second question correctly, citing different pages in a specific document is done as above and the reference in the reference list will be just the document itself; no need to refer to page numbers there. The reference list provides the litterature to find and the in-text referenes will provide information on where in the literature you need to look.
> 8 votes
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Tags: publications, writing, citations
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thread-18111 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18111 | Do A+ grades (as an undergrad) matter at all for graduate school? | 2014-03-13T20:16:24.363 | # Question
Title: Do A+ grades (as an undergrad) matter at all for graduate school?
If I get A+ grades then it will raise my GPA in my undergrad institution, as well as for Columbia which is where I want to go to graduate school for statistics. **Should I try hard to get A+ grades or should I be content with As?** Trying for A+ grades would not cut into any of my important academic activity such as research or my other classes because I already make all As, but it might slightly affect sleep and socialization.
**Edit** (from answer): To be clear I am an undergraduate right now.
# Answer
If your undergrad school awards more GPA points for A+ rather than As then you should definitely try to get A+. As a matter of fact, you should always be trying to do your very best anyways. But for a top program this will be especially important. If you go to grad school, academia will be your full time 9-5 Mon-Sat job, so I would say go on and start early. treat your subjects that way in undergrad and excel in every way possible so as to get into the very best program possible.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I would say it depends what field you are going into, as some grad programs have more qualitative criteria for selecting candidates; in the humanities and social sciences, your cover letter, research proposal, CV,life/professional/creative experience and an interview can matter more than GPAs, especially with so much grade inflation everywhere. I know people who got into fully-funded master's and PhDs with Fs on their transcripts which they were able to justify in their cover letters and/or interviews, and I also know of people who didn't get in (particularly in med school) for having a few C's. Can you be more specific about the kind of grad school you have in mind and what you know of the evaluation criteria?
> 1 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions, grades, gpa
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thread-18126 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18126 | Should references in the supplementary information be included in the main text? | 2014-03-14T05:07:28.320 | # Question
Title: Should references in the supplementary information be included in the main text?
I have been cutting some sections out of my article and moving them into the supplementary information section so my paper will fit within the journal's length requirements. However, some of the information (particularly the methods section) has citations.
Should these citations only be referenced in the supplementary information section or in the main part of the article as well? And how would the numbering work for that?
# Answer
> 6 votes
Citations that do not appear in the main article should not appear in the bibliography section of the main article. Instead, you should create a separate references list in the supporting information, and use a separate numbering scheme. Usually you can use the same numbering scheme as in the main article; it will be clear that references apply to the supporting information, rather than the main article. (You could add a footnote to that effect if you want to make this clear, since supporting information is usually handled "as is" by the publisher.)
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Tags: journals, citations, publications
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thread-18122 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18122 | How to Stop Making Stupid Mistakes | 2014-03-14T00:48:37.163 | # Question
Title: How to Stop Making Stupid Mistakes
This has been a plague upon my performance for what seems like all my life (or all my graded life).
No, it's not an 100, it's a 98 because of calling bromine a gas carelessly. No, it's not a 6/6, it's a 5 out of 6 because you didn't realize that such a simple question had a minor twist No, it's not a 100, it's a 98 because you had all the right work but you mispunched the calculation.
I'm sick of making careless errors that can truly mean the difference between obtaining one grade and the other. I need to make sure that from now on, I don't, because it is killing me inside.
If it is of consequence, I don't have much time for sleep due to 6 hours minimum of work per night. I get around 6-7 hours a night as opposed to the recommended 9 for a teenager.
Any and all tips would be greatly appreciated.
# Answer
> 5 votes
I had a student come to me trying to get back "lost points" on an exam, because the lost points dropped hm below what was needed to get an A, and he got an A- instead. This was in spite of the fact that his answers were demonstrably wrong.
When I spoke with him, he said that he needed to have the top grades in the class, because he didn't know how else he could demonstrate that he was a "good student." I had to explain to him that the degree to which he was insisting on a regrade (effectively demanding that he be awarded the points, even though they hadn't been earned) actually could hurt him in the long run, because it turns people "off"—no one wants to work with an inveterate complainer. And, ultimately, if he wanted to go further in either the academic world or in a professional career, what he needs are good letters of recommendation from people who are willing to vouch for him and support his career.
My reason for including such a long-winded anecdote here is that the underlying issues are the same: don't worry about little issues here and there. (That doesn't mean don't complain if there's a *big* problem—clerical errors and mistakes do happen!) Small mistakes are a part of life, **and we learn more from those mistakes than from successes.**
Nobody is going to think poorly of you because you make small mistakes. Just keep doing what you're doing, and try not to stress out about it when taking exams and doing your work. Worrying about perfection is a good way not to achieve it.
# Answer
> 1 votes
While it a good thing to be able to move on from small mistakes (everyone makes them and there have been studies about rates of error), it also good that you realize that you make "careless" mistakes. You will never be able to do everything 100% all the time and you might drive yourself crazy (and make more mistakes) if you try too hard, but there are somethings you can do to decrease your risks/catch yourself when you make mistakes.
* Prepare yourself mentally and physically. This means being fed, watered, having enough sleep and not stressing yourself out. It isn't always easy to do, especially when you put a lot of pressure on yourself to do well, but it will help you make less errors and catch them when you do.
* For exams, always read questions twice and look over your answers. If you have time look everything over at the end.
* If you have papers, proof read and have someone else look things over. It can also help to read what you wrote out loud.
* Don't rush through things if you can avoid it and still complete your task.
* When you do make errors, keep track of what kinds they are. Do you misread questions more often or do you mix-up words? This will help you be more aware for next time.
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Tags: grades, methodology
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thread-18082 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18082 | If I have an academic dismissal from a school should I ever go back there? | 2014-03-13T00:58:46.733 | # Question
Title: If I have an academic dismissal from a school should I ever go back there?
As a 19 year old I had to withdraw from a university because of depression. However, at the time, one professor refused to let me withdraw and gave me an F. On the strength of that grade I was dismissed from the university.
I got myself together and went to DePaul and graduated Cum Laude. Now I have received an offer for an assistantship (full ride) and a stipend from the university I had to leave as a young student.
I want to teach at university level and will someday be sending transcripts on to a PhD program from my MA. Will the dismissal show on my transcript? Will it matter? I appreciate you help and input.
# Answer
Undergrad and graduate transcripts are normally separate things. If you want to make sure whether the undergrad grade would show up on your graduate transcript, that's a question you should ask the school's admissions and records department.
If the F is going to show up on your apps, you could choose to explain it in your statement of purpose, or you could choose not to explain it. A single F in a single course is probably not going to cause anyone any big concerns if all your later work from other schools looks good. If you choose to explain it, you run the risk that there will be people on the admissions committee who have medieval attitudes about mental illness.
> 12 votes
# Answer
Ph.D applications typically ask for transcripts from *all* undergraduate institutions you attended, so the question of whether the withdrawal will affect you is generally independent of whether or not you go back to that school.
That said, it's extremely unlikely that it will impact you negatively; your subsequent good work more than makes up for it. If you absolutely feel that you need to explain it in your statement, I would not spend more than a few words and be vague (after taking some time off to deal with a health issue, I transferred to DePaul where....) However assuming your subsequent work is good enough to stand on its own (and it surely is if you were accepted to the master's programme with scholarship) I would advise not mentioning it at all.
> 6 votes
# Answer
I'm going to answer your question for a general case (i.e. not the school that you are applying to but what happens in most cases).
A drastically bad mark in your curriculum is much better than a mark which is just bad. To make it clear, allow me to clear my point with an example. In my country the max you can get from an exam is 20 and anything below 10 is fail. I somehow was absent during an exam an as result, I got 0.25 for my final mark (0 is was not acceptable by the software system).
When I was applying for post-graduate studies, that 0.25 was a concern. But the fact is, the committee easily understood that this mark is somehow a particular case, they simply asked me about it and it was dealt with within 5 minutes.
The point I'm trying to make is, an inhomogeneous result in your career automatically tells that it is a particular case and it does not necessarily represent you. Moreover, post-graduate committees are more into your recent career rather than a dark point in your teenage years. Proceed with self-confidence and above all, with honesty and you shall prevail.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Usually from what I have seen, as long as you can explain yourself and be honest, you should be good. A lot of good places look at the drive you have towards your goals and fortunately professors these days are getting out of the "only-grades-matter" attitude (albiet slowly).
Please do what you want to do instead of pre-empting what may happen. I wish you all the best.
> 1 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions
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thread-18137 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18137 | Is it possible to use my partially published previous work as a bachelor thesis? | 2014-03-14T11:38:38.640 | # Question
Title: Is it possible to use my partially published previous work as a bachelor thesis?
Some time ago I put up a question on the SE network. I ended up writing an extensive answer myself and published it in the same question and on my blog. Later, I put a lot more thought into the topic and found additional results, which I did not publish yet.
I have since considered if that question might be usable as a topic for a bachelor thesis.
Disregarding the fact that I would need to convince a professor to accept an existing topic, does the publication of the question and some results in the past prevent this?
# Answer
Posting on SE or on your blog does not count as publishing in the traditional sense (the work has not yet appeared in a scientific journal or conference proceedings). This means that it is unlikely to be a problem. Just make sure you discuss it with your potential supervisor.
> 3 votes
# Answer
This depends on what the institution's goals for a bachelor thesis are.
Some institutions may want evidence that the student is capable of such work; in this case you've already met the requirements. Some institutions want work done in the context of the thesis course; in this case you will need to do additional work, although it may be related to the existing work such as extending and documenting it. Some institutions may want evidence that the student is capable of work-for-hire (i.e. assigned by faculty and not chosen by the student). In this case you will need to do a thesis completely from scratch as chosen by the advisor.
> 0 votes
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Tags: ethics, thesis
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thread-18148 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18148 | Which discrete math journal should I choose to publish my findings? | 2014-03-14T17:14:09.163 | # Question
Title: Which discrete math journal should I choose to publish my findings?
I have some results, related to *imposing group structures on subspaces of finite fields with a metric*, and I would like to publish my work. My advisor asked me to choose a journal, but I have no idea how to decide.
I have some further results on a paper published in Linear Algebra and its Applications. I have resolved a few open question they pose in their paper.
Is it advisable that I publish my results in the same journal? What other options do I have? How do I know if it is a good journal?
# Answer
> 6 votes
One good place to start is the journals in which your most important references were published. (The authors of those references would be good candidates if the journal asks you to propose referees.)
Or: ask other people that work in the same field what journal they would suggest. (While you are at it, send them the manuscript and ask them for comments, nicely.) Have you presented your results at a conference? Do you recall anyone there working on a similar topic? Ideally someone who sat in on your presentation?
Your advisor should have at least a passing acquaintance with your field, so he should be able to suggest something. That he does not do so suggests to me that he is watching how you cope with this situation :-) How about other students of your advisor, does anyone work in this field?
It is not easy to judge whether a given journal is good. @EnergyNumbers' comment is helpful.
# Answer
> 5 votes
Helping you choose a journal is exactly the sort of aid your advisor should be giving you. Often in the relationship between an advisor and a graduate student there is a lack of clarity and/or a miscommunication about what the student should be doing on his own and what his advisor could be helping him out with. I remember that one of my students gave as part of an oral exam a talk on an important paper. He asked me about it a little bit, but not as much as I was expecting. When he gave the talk it was excellent, except that at one point he presented a sort of black box and said "unfortunately I didn't understand this". It was (to me) no big deal, but I had to wonder, "If you understood everything except this one thing, why didn't you ask me about that thing before the exam?" He must have had different ideas about the amount of independence that was being asked of him.
The point of the above story is this: given what little you've said, I am not yet persuaded that your advisor is unwilling to help you choose a journal for your paper: why wouldn't he be willing to help? In general, here is a good strategy for getting help from any faculty member: rather than saying "I'm stumped; please advise," try *something* and then get feedback on the merits of what you tried. In your case you have the idea of submitting to *Linear Algebra and its Applications* because you answer some open questions raised in a previous paper in that journal. To me that sounds like an excellent idea: I have several times submitted to journals with the same idea (unfortunately, acknowledging that you have successfully answered questions from a prior paper does not guarantee that they'll want to publish your paper; I've had it happen both ways) and most of the journals that I've submitted to have been for less logical reasons than this (the other common strategy, related to yours, is to look through your bibliography and see whether any journal comes up more than once; if it does, if your paper is similar in subject matter and scope to any of those journals, then it's at least reasonable to submit there).
Here's an idea: why don't you come up with one or two more ideas for where to submit your paper which feel different from *Linear Algebra and its Applications*: e.g. try a journal which does not specialize in a mathematical subfield; try a journal which is of significantly higher quality -- e.g. *Discrete Mathematics*; if it doesn't sound ridiculous, maybe try something like the *American Mathematical Monthly*. Then bring these specific journal suggestions back to your advisor and ask for feedback. If you don't get any feedback from this, that's strange, and it is probably worth asking (as sunnily as you can possibly muster) *why* you're not getting help on this.
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Tags: journals, mathematics
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