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thread-27408
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27408
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Which section to start with when writing a research paper
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2014-08-20T12:17:14.707
|
# Question
Title: Which section to start with when writing a research paper
Which section of a research paper should be written first? When I finally finish my analysis I begin to write the Methods section and the Results section. That is the first "block" of my writing. After that, I discuss it with co-authors (they are of course involved in the analysis, but at this stage they have the real results, graphs, and tables) and co-workers. Only after that do I begin to write the Discussion section and the Introduction. Is that right or is it better to write it in a different order?
# Answer
There's no 'right' order. Starting where you feel able to do so is far better than not getting started. I usually write lots of sections concurrently, or start writing and work out what the sections are later.
On the other hand, it will make your life somewhat easier if you can work roughly in order of dependencies, so you don't have to keep changing what you wrote earlier. From example, it might be helpful to write out some of your notation before you start using it. The introduction will often come late in the process for this reason.
> 17 votes
# Answer
This almost exclusively depends on the personal taste and habits of you and your co-authors.
There are different types of writers and different types of projects. The order of writing has to be suitable for these. If you and your co-authors are absolutely certain that what you did already makes a nice and complete paper story, then writing the methodology and results first makes sense - you can adapt the introduction accordingly then. However, if the final scope of the paper is not 100% fixed already, writing the introduction first makes sense, so you can check whether your project-so-far actually reads complete. The literature review may then have some impact on your methodology section, so that you can make the distinction to previous work very clear.
Edit-as-you-go style writers may also want to write the introduction first so that what is written so far is always in a clean state. For others ("binge writers" and writers that iteratively refine detailed plans) it may not really matter again, so the properties of the project can dictate the order of writing.
There is a plethora of literature on successful academic writing, and different books will advise different approaches, so there is probably no unique answer to the question.
> 8 votes
# Answer
I would just like to address this comment from the TC:
> Everything is OK, I just heard one conversation that without a written hypothesis and proper literature review no one should start to write an article. I thing that this part belongs to the Introduction but it is possible to have it only in mind when I actually writing a paper and put it on it later. I´ve been just curious, how other people writing their papers.
The order Method \> Results \> Discussion \> Introduction (let's call this the MRDI method) is extremely common in my field (biomedical). From what I can tell there is nothing wrong with it, though your comments are certainly worth discussing.
**It's important to distinguish between conceptualizing and writing**
Generally, the path from concept to manuscript is not linear or singular. Some phenomenon, questions, or challenges might have sparked us to gather some evidence and perform a hypothesis test. At that stage we might not have writing an introduction, but we would have already known the big three in the introduction section: what is known, what is not, and how can our work help here. So, in a way, your quoted comment seems to have mixed up "research" and "writing." Yes, we may not have the introduction written first, but the big picture is already conceptualized, and recorded in some form not necessarily as a manuscript.
**Hypothesis integrated analysis plan**
As for the comment on written hypothesis. Again, I think the speaker mixed up "research" and "writing" or he/she was speaking to a group of very new science students. In my field, all analyses were based on hypotheses, and all procedures are predetermined. In a sense, if we come up with any results, it's already implied that hypothesis setting and analysis planning have already been completed.
**Don't fuss over the real "order"**
Personal experience: Don't sit down and think "Okay, I am going to write the Discussion section and nothing else!" When write, just let your thoughts flow, if later the materials deem more appropriate to be moved to Introduction, so be it.
Same goes for Results section. Some people were very disciplinary about not to interpret any findings in the Results section. But I just write whatever I want in the draft, and then parse out the interpretive parts later. For me, thoughts are thoughts, they just come out like a chain of... sausages of different stuffing, for the lack of a better analogue. After I am done, I'll then go back to cut them up and categorize them. As time goes on I am getting better at churning out sausages of similar stuffing in one chain, but I have no desire to compartment my thought process like how writers compartment a research article.
> 5 votes
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Tags: writing
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thread-27429
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27429
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What is the proper etiquette for requesting speakers from industry for an academic seminar?
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2014-08-20T18:39:34.683
|
# Question
Title: What is the proper etiquette for requesting speakers from industry for an academic seminar?
I am in a program that has a seminar class where the students are strongly encouraged to get people to come and present. I was wondering if anyone else ever had to find speakers and if so had a sample form letter. I ask because I can offer nothing in terms of compensations so I am not sure how to go about doing this.
# Answer
I don't think using or even adapting a sample form letter would be very helpful, just as a canned letter wouldn't be very successful in a job application.
A couple of thoughts:
* In cases like these, a good network definitely helps. If you know someone, even only slightly, that gives you a better starting position that just cold calling someone. Think through your network, and even if you don't know anyone you could meaningfully invite, maybe someone from your network knows someone she or he could introduce you to.
* Can you at least offer reimbursement of travel costs? If not, look for people working close to you. Budgets are tight, and your speaker may have a hard time getting reimbursed for such a talk from his company.
* Just as for a job application: when you do contact someone, be brief and to the point. Introduce yourself (if necessary), briefly describe your class and ask whether your candidate would in principle be interested. Offer to follow up with details - don't include them in the first email. People in industry are busy (just as everyone else).
* However, you should definitely include a tidbit that (a) makes speaking interesting for your candidate and (b) helps him/her get permission/budget from the employer. Are your classmates close to graduation? Then the company can present itself as an interesting employer. Do you have any interesting projects? Are you working in a field that is related to your candidate's employer or even better to you candidate's own work? Are you perhaps potential customers? Any kind of motivation is good.
* Above all, don't worry overmuch. Everyone's ego is tickled at being invited to speak, even if they don't accept the invitation. And established people, whether in industry or in academia, often *are* happy to accept such invitations and help students out. The worst that could happen is a polite refusal (or no answer at all). The best would be a nice talk and an interesting contact for later on.
I kind of wonder whether this question wouldn't be better at workplace.SE.com. You'll get more answers from industry there than at academia.SE.com. Perhaps you want to consider flagging it for migration.
> 7 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, etiquette, industry, seminars
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thread-27435
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27435
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Intellectual Property Assignment Agreements for Ph.D. students - What is normal?
|
2014-08-20T20:35:09.637
|
# Question
Title: Intellectual Property Assignment Agreements for Ph.D. students - What is normal?
As an incoming Ph.D. student I was asked to sign an intellectual property assignment agreement in addition to an employment contract as a condition for receiving a tuition reduction and a stipend. The wording was rather vague, and contained 'legalese'. I have no experience with this. So, I do not know anything about it, and I do not know if the "agreement" I signed contains anything abnormal, because of the way it was written.
**Is this normal practice?**
**If so, what is contained in a standard intellectual property agreement?**
# Answer
Very roughly, at the US universities I have worked for, the IP policies have been along these general lines:
* When you write a paper or book as part of your research, you get to keep the copyright and any royalties. But the university gets permission to use the work internally, keep a copy in the library, etc.
* If, as part of your research, you invent something that's patentable, contact the university's IP office. They will help you with the patent process. You and the university will hold the patent together, or some similar arrangement. They have to agree on any licensing agreements, etc (where you sell some company the rights to use your patent), and they get a large share (perhaps half or so) of whatever royalties or fees are earned.
(I'm a pure mathematician, and we never invent anything patentable, so I always skim the patent part and may have got it wrong :-)
> 17 votes
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Tags: phd, intellectual-property, contract
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thread-27444
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27444
|
Splitting a relatively long paper into two shorter papers
|
2014-08-21T05:48:47.543
|
# Question
Title: Splitting a relatively long paper into two shorter papers
I have recently submitted a 40 pages paper to a journal, say (A). After about 6 months, the editor let me know that several reviewers have declined to review my paper, and so he decided to reject the paper. He suggested that I submit my paper to a more specialized journal. Journal (A) is already a specialized journal and I only know 1 journal more specialized than (A), let's call it journal (B). So, one of my options is to submit my paper to journal (B) and accept the risk of a similar feedback from the editors of journal (B), of course after several months.
In the mean while, I think the main reason several reviewers declined to review my paper is that (1) my paper is relatively long, (2) My paper consists of two parts and each part addresses a different subject. Therefore, the set of reviewers who have expertise in both subjects and are willing to read and review my paper is very small. Due to these facts, it is very likely the editors of journal (B) face the same problem. So, as the second option, I am thinking of splitting my paper into two shorter papers each consisting only one subject of my original paper. Regarding this option, I can think of the following pros and cons:
Pros:
(i) There are a good number of experts in each subject and it is fairly easy to find a reviewer for each one of my shorter papers.
(ii) This facilitates the referee process of each paper and hopefully reduces its time period .
(iii) Two papers (each approximately 20 pages) look better than one paper (approximately 40 pages) in my CV.
Cons:
(a) The second part of my paper depends on the notations and results of the first part. So the reviewer of the second part may prefer to read and review the whole paper at once, or even worse he/she may call the paper containing the second part incomplete.
(b) Part of the motivation of the developments in the first part of my paper comes from my work in the second part. By separating these two parts, the reviewer of the first part can complain about the lack of enough motivations and justifications for my results. In my opinion, it is not a serious problem because I will explain the application of my works which is going to appear in the second paper. But I am not the person who makes the final decision and the reviewer may blame this and reject the paper.
(c) I can imagine that it would be a difficult path to follow the referee processes of two related papers simultaneously, because of the following reasons: It is possible that the opinions of reviewers of the shorter papers differ significantly. Or it is possible that these papers get refereed in two very different time periods. It is also possible that one of the papers gets accepted and the other one doesn't, which is a pretty ugly situation.
Unfortunately, I have faced each of the above difficulties ((a), (b) and (c)) in my previous submissions and I know how they can ruin my papers. In fact, the main reason that I organized my results collectively in one paper was to avoid the above issues. But now that my paper has been rejected without any peer review, I am considering the option of splitting my results into two papers. So, I have the following questions to ask from people who have more experience and have been involved with similar situations (for instance as an editor or a referee):
(1) What do you think about the above pros and cons? Do you know any other pros and/or cons? And, is it a good idea to split my paper into two shorter papers?
(2) If it is advisable to split my paper into two papers, should I submit them to the same journal, (maybe same editor), or should I submit them to different journals according to the best editors who can handle my papers?
# Answer
Well, in my opinion, the following fragment of your question outweighs everything else:
> (2) My paper consists of two parts and each part addresses a different subject. Therefore, the set of reviewers who have expertise in both subjects and are willing to read and review my paper is very small.
I appreciate that you are able to imagine the problem that will be faced by the journal editors. So, splitting into two is certainly not a bad idea in this case.
I can mention some instances where this has been done in the past. In each of these cases, the problem wasn't as acute as yours (i.e. both could actually be reviewed by the same expert), but perhaps the authors chose to do this because of length considerations (or some other reason that I can't imagine). Also, in these cases, it wasn't a case of two different journals A and B - it was two sequential papers in the same journal. So, that creates an additional option for you, if you find it appropriate. *(The context here is Physics, but I'm sure this can be generalized to Maths, if I'm right!)*
**Example 1**: R. P. Feynman was a charismatic Nobel Laureate (Nobel, 1965), as you probably know. Here are his two significant contributions to QED, appearing back to back in Physical Review:
Paper1, Paper2 (both are free pdfs officially, given their landmark status.)
In particular, he began Paper 1 by writing:
> This is the first of a set of papers dealing with the solution of problems in quantum electrodynamics.
and started Paper 2 with the sentence:
> This paper should be considered as a direct continuation of the preceding one ...
He had developed the formalism in the former and applied it to the problem in the latter. That makes a candidate for splitting into two.
**Example 2** Here are two papers by Sidney Coleman which form the backbone of phenomenological effective Lagrangian method in low-energy Nuclear Physics. (These aren't free and I'm not sure you will be able to get past the paywall here!)
Paper 1, paper 2.
Notice again, that they are consecutive papers in the same journal. The second paper also has an extra author, and that could be one reason for splitting into two. But once again, from the point of view of content, the general method was devised in paper 1 and applied to some context in paper 2. But here, the authors spent a section of paper 2 in explaining what they developed in Paper 1.
Thus, long story cut short - it should be possible to go ahead and split into two parts. If they are consecutive, you can carry over everything directly, if not, spend a few sentences explaining your notation etc.
PS - Congratulations for doing this sort of work which could put the editors into this type of a fix. That smells like a significant contribution to Maths, having applications elsewhere (other branches?), which is probably why you insist that it would be rare to find a referee who can ably judge both!
> 15 votes
# Answer
This problem sounds either:
* bad editorial choice and poorly structure paper or
* two papers that were not split in time
Generally a research program is not just growing like a blob, but follow some strategy, planing. If you split the two parts, you can briefly mention this strategy (even if it is retrospective) and the results of the other paper. It can be in the introduction and in discussion as well. Most journals allow to cite manuscripts under revision. If not, you can try to describe without citation that you had this and this motivation, and the results will be published soon.
If you don't want to split the paper, you can restructure it as one part to subordinate to the other. Eg. if you you have some important technical detail in the first part you use in the second, but boring in itself, you put the details in an appendix or SI. It is pretty common practice, especially in older paper, and it helps the reader orient themselves around.
Two notes:
* Again, I would consult with the editor at first place. They are busy, but generally nice people, so he may comment more in detail about your worries about size and structure. You may have completely different reasons of rejection.
* You always can try to send out another journal (not necessarily more specialist) without much re-editing. Different journals have different expectations for length, structure, scope.
> 3 votes
# Answer
(b) could be a serious problem, because the referee reading the first paper does not know how legitimate the promised application in the second paper is.
If so, one option is to just follow the editors' advice, resubmit to the more specialized journal, and move on.
> 0 votes
# Answer
Allow me to quote from the code of practice of a journal in my field, which (IMO) should apply everywhere:
> Fragmentation of research papers should be avoided. Authors who fragment their work into a series of papers must be able to justify doing so on the grounds that it enhances scientific communication.
The practice of splitting papers up into "publons" (or minimum publishable unit) is a scourge. Get rid of the "two papers looks better than one" adage in your mind. It's not necessarily true, and can be detrimental to the science.
As it stands, you present no valid reason as to why splitting the papers up will improve how your work is communicated. Therefore, you shouldn't do so.
> -4 votes
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Tags: publications, paper-submission
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thread-27385
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27385
|
Should the editor's name be included in a rebuttal letter?
|
2014-08-20T04:21:25.800
|
# Question
Title: Should the editor's name be included in a rebuttal letter?
To make things simple, I am asking whether the rebuttal letter is starting with
> Dear Editor and Reviewers
or
> Dear Reviewers
# Answer
One thing to do is to write two documents:
* a short letter to the Editor, summarizing your rebuttal in a few sentences;
* a detailed Answer to Reviewers, including line-by-line response to all comments and suggestions of the Referees.
Note that the Editor not necessarily has enough time to read through all the detailed response him/her-self, but the presence of this document re-assures that the discussion between Authors and Referees is going in the right direction. If you experience problems addressing Referees' questions, or disagree with them significantly, you should mention this in the letter to the Editor.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Generally you address all letters to the editor (she/he is the contact person!) and if any part of your letter is relevant to a review, than you address them, too. In practice generally t means that in the main header I address on the editor, and when I answer the reviewers, I address them there.
> 1 votes
# Answer
The traditional review process is a communication between the editor, who have solicited reviewers to obtain critical peer review of the manuscript, and the author. As such you should respond to the editor and provide a response to the review comments by the reviewers. It is not likely the reviewers will see your response unless they agreed to re-review your revised version of the manuscript.
Open review processes are gaining ground where the entire review process is open to the public. The Open Access publisher Copernicus has such a system where anyone can leave comments to the authors. The handling editor will also appoint official reviewers who's reviews will be posted publicly. In such a system the response to the reviewers (official reviewers as well as other who have left comments will also be posted publicly. In such a case the letter can be directed both to the editor and the reviewers since at least part of the review process has the form of a public discussion (Copernicus also calls their manuscript "Discussions".
So in the traditional sense all communications will be with the editor but in the case of public discussion format review processes, the letter can be directed also to reviewers.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I usually address the editor since I don't ever communicate with the reviewers. However, I thank them for the report in the first sentence of the letter. I think that this corresponds well to the way how reports are written, because they are impersonal as well (they don't begin with *Dear authors*).
However, In my opinion, while one should keep a good level of politeness, your paper won't be treated any better or worse if you write *Dear Editor and Reviewers* or just *Dear Editor*.
> 0 votes
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Tags: publications, peer-review, editors
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thread-24577
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24577
|
I want to do research but I'm too old for a PHD
|
2014-07-09T18:25:43.347
|
# Question
Title: I want to do research but I'm too old for a PHD
I really love research. I started a research project in graduate school for my M.A. in English. My research topic is a very viable and interesting topic for a dissertation. I'll be 60 on my next birthday and I know that many Ph.D programs are traditionally geared toward younger students.I was wondering are there any programs that I can continue this research in without facing the issues of ageism in academia?
# Answer
My father got his Ph.D. (from a highly respected department at a major university) in his late fifties. I brought my regalia to his graduation. There were also two grad students in their fifties in the same program I was in. One was puttering along at his own pace and on his own funds, but the other had a funded position and was working under the same time pressure as the rest of us.
Some departments may effectively limit funded positions to younger applicants, but there is no magic number after which people won't accept you.
If that is what you want to do, then do it.
> 56 votes
# Answer
Here are some statistics on Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities in 2009:
from Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: 2009:
> Data presented in *Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: 2009* were collected by the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED). The survey is sponsored by six federal agencies: the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Education (USED), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This year's edition of the report presents the summary of these survey data in new online and print formats, and the report title has changed slightly. Previous reports were titled in the series *Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: Summary Report*
./SED\_2009/data/tab24.xls.
Since the NSF often blow their links, data back up as CSV:
```
"TABLE 24. Median age of doctorate recipients, by broad field of study, sex, citizenship, and race/ethnicity: 2009",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"Field of study and
demographic characteristics","Median age
at doctoratea (years)",,% distribution (in age),,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,All,25 and under,26–30,31–35,36–40,41–45,Over 45,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
All fieldsb,32.2, ,100.0,0.6,38.9,30.4,13.5,6.0,10.5,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Life sciencesc,31.3, ,100.0,0.4,45.9,32.0,11.1,3.9,6.7,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Physical sciencesd,30.2, ,100.0,1.3,56.7,29.0,8.2,2.6,2.2,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Social sciencese,32.4, ,100.0,0.4,37.5,32.6,15.1,6.0,8.4,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Engineering,30.5, ,100.0,1.2,54.0,30.3,9.1,2.6,2.7,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Education,40.5, ,100.0,0.1,10.1,21.4,20.2,13.6,34.6,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Humanities,34.5, ,100.0,D,21.0,37.7,19.1,9.0,13.0,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Other non-S&E fields,36.1, ,100.0,D,18.0,31.2,20.7,11.6,18.1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Sex,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Male,32.0, ,100.0,0.7,40.5,31.9,13.8,5.7,7.4,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Female,32.6, ,100.0,0.5,37.2,28.7,13.1,6.4,14.1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Citizenship,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
U.S. citizen or permanent resident,32.7, ,100.0,0.6,38.0,26.3,13.6,7.1,14.4,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Temporary visa holder,31.7, ,100.0,0.7,41.0,39.7,13.2,3.6,1.8,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"Race/ethnicity (U.S. citizens and
permanent residents)",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
American Indian/Alaska Native,38.0, ,100.0,D,23.6,20.8,17.4,8.3,29.2,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Asian,31.8, ,100.0,1.1,40.6,32.0,14.0,5.9,6.4,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Black,36.7, ,100.0,D,24.3,22.6,18.5,10.7,23.7,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Hispanicf,34.1, ,100.0,0.3,29.3,30.9,15.2,7.7,16.6,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
White,32.3, ,100.0,0.5,39.7,25.6,12.9,6.8,14.3,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Two or more races,32.3, ,100.0,0.8,40.8,27.9,13.3,6.2,11.0,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
D = suppressed to avoid disclosure of confidential information. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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a Includes only doctorate recipients with a valid year of birth.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"b Includes those of unknown citizenship, unknown race/ethnicity, and Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders not shown separately.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"c Includes agricultural sciences/natural resources, biological/biomedical sciences, and health sciences.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
d Includes mathematics and computer and information sciences.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
e Includes psychology.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"f Persons reporting Hispanic ethnicity, whether singly or in combination with one or more races, are included in the respondent-selected Hispanic ethnicity
category.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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"NOTE: Due to rounding, the sum of percentages may not equal to 100. ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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"SOURCE: NSF/NIH/USED/USDA/NEH/NASA, 2009 Survey of Earned Doctorates.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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> 45 votes
# Answer
A guy at my old department had just started his PhD when I left. He retired from his old job, travelled from the USA to New Zealand with his wife, and started his PhD. He is about your age.
Granted, I don't think he intends to try an academic career. That would be difficult. But there's no such thing as *too old* to start your PhD.
A professor who judges you solely on your age *is one you don't want to work for.* If you're in the Arts, funding is always tough so don't be disheartened too quickly. If you are able to fund yourself, you'll probably have the luxury of being able to study for your PhD almost anywhere and under whichever professor you want.
> 36 votes
# Answer
In my opinion, there is no age limit for doing academic research. As far as it seems you have sufficient academic background, so prepare your resume and send your request to the universities. Do not prejudge your application.
By searching the admissions pages of the universities' websites, I found that the only age limit may be that some applicants under a specific age are not accepted, for instance, students younger that 16; but there also some exceptions exist.
Further more, in the application pages, the applicants with disabilities (because of age, accidents, born with disabilities, etc.) still have the chance to apply for their desired programs and their disability does not prevent them from doing his research. In our university, I have seen two or three blind students doing MSc research. So, you see even that these rare problems do not affect applicant chance as they have strong education and research background.
Examine your chance and let the admission committee decide to accept you or not. But first work a little on your research topic which you are interested to work on and prepare a proposal or something expressing the things in your mind. Then prepare your resume and gather all your work and research background in. After all, be realistic and choose the university program which suits you more. If you can provide financial support for your PhD, this may boost your chance up. Furthermore, based on your research proposal; choose the university in which the professors are working in your field. That is why I am saying be realistic. Choose the programs wisely that are not far from your research interest.
There are good answers in this question Will my age affect my chances of finding a funded PhD position?, but I do not think that your question is a duplicate of that one.
Also, in this post, you see that the age may not be the first concern of the admission committee. This is part of the writer's answer to a question which is almost near your concern.
> \[...\] Frankly, though, I don’t think this is a first-order concern for an admissions committee, who are mostly concerned with your raw intellectual potential and ability to produce distinguished research.
In the other part, the writer says:
> \[...\] If someone is 28 **or older**, with a previous career, an admission committee will probably reflect on whether that experience is going to contribute to or detract from the person’s research potential, and what the career switch says about a person’s focus. **So a lot will depend on your specific story and experience.**
Also, in the page Should You Take Time Off Before Applying to Graduate School? you can find good advices on your question.
The only problem you may face because of the age may be the chance of applying for a fund may decrease but I have no citation for this and because of your high level of academic background, you may face no problem for fund or scholarship.
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**I am writing this part after a while:**
I was searching the Academia website and found many questions in which users have talked about the similar questions to yours. I am not saying that yours is a duplicate of them, but I think that reading those questions and answers may help you to better shape an answer for your own question.
> 22 votes
# Answer
I completed my Ph.D. in computer science at UCSD in 2009, when I was 60 years old. I don't think being a few years older than that would have made any difference.
The only problem I had in the application process was a limited space for the statement of purpose that was also required to contain a list of every job I had held since getting my bachelor's degree - in 1970. I was able to use my industry contact network to get to talk with three of the faculty before my application went in. I don't know whether that helped.
I felt a little bit disconnected from the social life of my fellow students, not just directly because of the age difference. Many of them had recently moved to San Diego, and so only knew other students. I had been living in the area since 1975, and had an established network of friends who share my non-technical interests. Most of them were living in dorm rooms or shared apartments, on or near campus. I had a home about 10 miles from campus. I went to a few parties, but mainly continued my pre-student social life.
===============================================
I think I included above most of the information about my experiences that applies to this question.
I had entirely different reasons for doing a Ph.D. I was already doing work of comparable difficulty and creativity to a doctoral dissertation project, but in an environment where the result was patents and products, rather than papers. I had had to choose between an academic and an industry career when I was about 25, and had picked industry. After selling some stock options in 2000, I realized I had the option of trying out the other path.
After completing my doctorate, I took a year off to celebrate, and enjoyed it so much that I decided to retire permanently. I did not seriously consider continuing an academic career. If I had looked for work, it would have been a pure technical job. My industry employers, at least since I moved to California in 1975, had each had a technical promotion track, parallel to but separate from the management track. As far as I can tell, universities require professors to do teaching and administration, as well as research.
Although I picked an entirely different subject for my dissertation, my long term field of interest is the logical design of multiprocessor interconnects. Critical technical work for a large server design cannot be done half-heartedly - it requires an intense commitment to spending whatever time and effort it takes to get the product working and into customers' hands. I'm enjoying luxuries like time for travel, horseback riding a couple of days a week, crafts and hobbies...
> 17 votes
# Answer
I received my PhD last year at 54 years old. It took me eight years part time while I worked full time. I had taken classes in the 1980s at Drexel in Philadelphia and remembered a 60 yr old PhD candidate. So Drexel seemed 100% friendly. I also did not want to be favored and they did that well also. I was in engineering and the main focus was to publish. I suspect various schools will gladly meet with you in info meetings and in person (as they did with me). You are basically offering free hard labor for them. There will be some who will be happy to work with you if you focus on the work and publishing (co-author). If you publish, then you are probably "in" and the work counts. I know little about English and similar majors but I think this applies. BTW: it was very hard.
> 13 votes
# Answer
Platitudes and hope are nice, but the reality is that the outcome of your situation depends on many variables: your field, your experience, your financial situation (can you support yourself?), the institutions to which you are applying, and your current set of skills (which go to your preparedness for a PhD level program). Any one of these factors can significantly impact your chances for admission. Unfortunately, in your case, you have to add to that mix, age discrimination, which does exist. Given the glut of very qualified international students in the sciences and budget cutbacks in this arts, this is something to be aware of going into the admissions process. Because there are not that many +50 yr old adults going back for their PhD, there is not as much data to go on, just a lot of anecdotal evidence (that doesn't contain most of the people who *didn't* make it). But age can be an advantage if you can show that it has translated into maturity, seriousness of purpose, and a true love of your discipline. Proper preparation demonstrates this to the admissions committee.
First, research those schools of interest to you. I'd look at whether they have older grad students and if there is a concentration of profs in your area of interest.
Second, contact the professors personally and talk to them. Making a personal connection can be an important in your application process: you are not just candidate X, but that nice person from so and so who drove all the way out here to get more information and see if they were suitable for our program. Professors higher up on the food chain improve your chances. Are they currently interested in taking on students at this time? Are they still doing research in this field? Do they seem to like you and have an interest in potentially having you as a student?
Third, prepare as much as you can. If you need to get a good GRE score, make sure you put in the time and money you need to prepare sufficiently. Take upper level courses at a local university: you can get references from those profs and this provides evidence that you can endure a PhD program. If you can squeeze in some teaching experience, consider doing so. Volunteering to help tutor or participating in English related activities (like debate team) at a local high school broadens your network,shows you enjoy helping students, and gives you experience on your resume. Even being an online tutor for 5 hrs/week may help.
Fourth, be persistent.If you don't get in this year, do more to prepare yourself better and apply next year. Persistence is a key attribute of a true researcher and does not go unnoticed.
That being said, I'm starting my MS at 52 and will probably go on for a PhD, but I think it takes some planning on your part to insure you will get into a decent program.
Good Luck!
> 9 votes
# Answer
I don't believe that 60 is too old to study for a doctorate - or anything else for that matter. While I don't know your situation personally, I'd suggest that most 60 year olds are better placed in life to commit to a PhD than younger people are because generally a 60 year old is more likely to have the necessary financial wherewithal to do it.
You are unlikely to face ageism in most programs of study in my experience.
> 7 votes
# Answer
I think that is absurd! Age is nothing but a number.
Who is to say that you are too old? The other students? The faculty? Who are they to make that distinction? You are the only one who lives your own life and who makes it out to what you want it to be. If you want to pursue a Ph.D. at 60, that is nothing but honorable and it will only make your life better by allowing you to do what you want.
Hey, maybe you are at just the perfect age, and all the other kids in your program are too young?
Personally, it just pains me very deeply when people limit themselves because of some imaginary "social norms". Some routine self-destructive lifestyle justifications that people love to give, such as
> "I am going to stay in this terrible marriage, because divorce is frowned upon"
>
> "I hate medicine, but I am going to become a doctor anyway, because that will allow me to become a respectable member of this society as well as appease my parents"
>
> "I want to buy a dog, but am unsure how will my neighbors react"
>
> etc.
have no effects on peoples' lives other than wreckage, with the sole purpose of appeasing the opinions of others (with (note!) absolutely no benefit whatsoever for themselves). No one out there will live your life for you (I am sure you understand that by your age). "Social norms" were established to maintain order and create imaginary boundaries; for example, the core historical purpose of politeness (in the form of respect for a person who is of a higher social rank than you) is simply to make sure that the peasantry "knows their place"; self-deprivation measures, such as the all-glorified "self-control" and "moderation" among the wealthy, were also put in place to keep the upper classes on a pedestal (and thus prevent the possibility of them, for example, appearing drunk in public, etc., so that the lower classes would look at them as betters instead of equals). It's nothing but social engineering at its finest (perfected over millennia).
Now, where do you fit into this whole picture? Are you really going to sacrifice your own happiness because someone out there said that you are too old to do what you want? Because you are "too old" to be happy? Who are they to have the authoritative word? Maybe you feel that they are too young to be happy... Why does their word weigh more?
I once read a beautiful story about an 80-something-year-old woman who realized that throughout her entire life, she despised the career that she had. At 80, she decided to forget all social stereotypes, and enrolled into a university to get her bachelor's degree in something that she always wanted to do. She succeeded, and spent a few years doing something she dreamt of since her childhood (I forget what the exact field was, and I forget the name of the woman; I'd be happy to look it up if you are interested, though).
As a matter of fact, there are plenty of 70-year-old hippies and 50-year-old clubbers out there, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that if that is what makes them happy. Society can judge all they want... People will always judge. Because that is what people with too much time on their hands do. They sit, and judge. Because they are so unhappy with their own lives. And frankly, if everyone listened to them, no one would ever be happy and no one would ever achieve anything.
It is absolutely never too late to do anything! Don't let some crowd's musings, let alone something as superficial as some imaginary "social norms", dictate whether you have a right to be happy. You have a right to be happy and pursue any purpose you wish. It is your inalienable right.
You are only given one life. And its yours, no one else's. We all write our own book. Make yours out what you want it to be. After all, it's only the best that any of us can really do. At life's end, all social norms, material wealth, and others' opinions and judgements, will not matter. The only thing that will matter are the memories that you created and the moments of happiness that you enjoyed; that's really the only thing we can take with us to whatever is next (and if there is nothing next, than at least it is something we can cherish it and bask in on our death beds). It's the only thing in this world that is truly ours. Don't ever let anyone take that away from you.
> 6 votes
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Tags: phd, age
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thread-27415
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27415
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What is the equivalent of European "seminar" in US universities?
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2014-08-20T14:43:02.090
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# Question
Title: What is the equivalent of European "seminar" in US universities?
At my Czech university where I study computer science (but I believe math and physics are organized the same way here), most courses have both lectures (professor presenting the topic to a large class) and "seminars" (TA giving exercises and homework to a smaller class).
I believe courses at US universities have different structure and that the term "seminar" has different meaning. But there has to be something like our "seminars", right? What is it called? How does it look like?
# Answer
This is often called a "recitation section".
> 15 votes
# Answer
Generally these are referred to as "labs" or "discussion" sections, as opposed to the "lecture" session.
Giving an example from computer science, it is not uncommon for there to be a lecture session where the instructor (such as the professor) talks about the material, takes questions, etc. Then there is often a lab session, often held in a computer lab, where students can work on hands-on assignments, homework, and course projects. These can be staffed by the instructor/professor or by student teaching assistants, or held as an open lab where the room is reserved but no one conducts the session - students come and go and work as they please.
In fields of communication, philosophy, and history, it is common that this lab session is replaced by a discussion session. The lecture is often of a mass variety, where the professor gives the talk to hundreds of students at a time. During the discussion session the professor or a student teaching assistant holds discussions, readings, gives out assignments, and various other similar tasks.
In physics and biology, again there is often a lecture or mass lecture held by the professor, then sometimes both lab and discussion sessions may be held. Again the staffing and locations vary, but the general theme is the same.
I have personally experienced these in a number of institutions in the US in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, philosophy, history, communications, art, computer science, and psychology...so it certainly seems to be a very common pattern.
These non-lecture sections are almost always of a less-populated variety as well. If the class only has 20-30 students total, then the lab sections are of the same size. If the class is over 30, I have usually experienced lab and discussion sessions to be smaller, with as little as 12-20 students maximum - but this usually varies by room and lab availability and subject, and thus will vary by University, department, and subject.
> 12 votes
# Answer
In the Uk at least there are often tutorials which sound similar to what you describe. They consist of a small group of approx. 4-5 students with one tutor (generally a professor/lecturer/post-doc). The aim is to do exercises and go through problems the students are having with the course. Also you are often set homework for the tutorials.
I don't know how common this system is in other parts of the world.
> 2 votes
# Answer
As a variation on Bill Barth's answer, at my last institution, the local jargon was simply to refer to these class meetings as *section*.
> I can't solve this homework problem, I'll ask my TA about it in section.
It may have been short for *recitation section* but I don't believe I ever heard the longer form.
> 0 votes
# Answer
At the institutions I've attended and taught at, these have been called "section" (I've never heard "recitation section"), "tutorial", "discussion section", "TA session"/"TA section", "lab", "small group", and "studio".
Of these "discussion section" was the most common and, at my BA and PhD institutions, the official title for it.
> 0 votes
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Tags: united-states, europe, seminars
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thread-27465
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27465
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Some advices regarding the first research paper
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2014-08-21T13:14:39.690
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# Question
Title: Some advices regarding the first research paper
I am an undergraduate student in Mathematics and I think that I have discovered something significant in Mathematics. My friends and some professors to whom I have sent my ideas also confirmed its significance. They suggested me to write a paper on it.
But the problem is that being an undergraduate student in Mathematics, I don't know how to write a paper. Besides, the professors to whom I have sent my ideas weren't experts in this field and they have asked me to send my works to some experts in the field. But unfortunately I don't know anyone such and I see no point in assuming that even if my work is significant, they would give time to read it without dismissing it beforehand as a work of some crank.
So what should I do? Can some suggestions be provided?
# Answer
**Ask your professor to introduce you to a suitable expert.**
If some of your professors think that your work is of substantial quality and probably novel, then they are surely fine with introducing you to some suitable researchers in the field. Note that, for example, a postdoc in the respective field may suffice. They should be willing to give your work the "badge" that in their oppinion, your work seems to have potential by writing that to the suitable researcher themselves. This should get rid of the problem that you describe in your second-last sentence:
"*But unfortunately I don't know anyone such and I see no point in assuming that even if my work is significant, they would give time to read it without dismissing it beforehand as a work of some crank.*"
Note that an experienced academic in the respective field can add a lot of value to your paper, including improving the accessibility and providing a more comprehensive literature survey.
> 10 votes
# Answer
First of all, Im not a mathematician but I am in a closely related field (CS)
I work in the machine learning domain and sometimes I read mathematical papers to find hints of my problem so I think I may able to provide a little help.
According to my experience, the most different part in Maths to the other domain is that, their main results, are always a collection of theorems or properties instead of experiments / methods.
In most of the cases I saw people organize their paper in the following way:
* Formulate the problem, provide some minimum facts that is nessasary for the readers to understand your contribution.
* List out your main results in layman terms.
* Write all the necessary lemmas and theorems that finally lead to your main results.
* QED!
* If available, some application examples.
> 0 votes
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Tags: publications, writing, independent-researcher
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thread-27475
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27475
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From whom do prospective grad students get recommendation letters?
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2014-08-21T17:54:38.523
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# Question
Title: From whom do prospective grad students get recommendation letters?
Most top graduate programs require at least 3 recommendation letters. Do students who apply to such programs (and have a reasonable chance to get in) typically have such extensive research experience that they know three professors who can write in detail about their research? Or is it more common for such students to have some recommendation letters from faculty who can confirm that the applicant is competent (for example because they did very well in their class, won an award, ...) but with whom they have not worked much personally?
I understand it would be ideal to get all letters from faculty with whom you have worked closely on a research problem. But I wonder how commonly this actually happens, especially considering the fact that the final undergraduate year typically cannot be taken into account for applications in fall.
If it depends much on the discipline, I'm in physics.
# Answer
> 6 votes
In general, I don't think all that many students have *three* unique reference letters, all of whom can vouch for research ability. Two is quite common, as most undergraduates who pursue graduate degrees (at least in the sciences) do have some research experience at their home universities. Many of them also pursue a summer research project separate from their main undergraduate research project (or projects), providing another reference.
But I do agree that the third letter usually comes from a non-research source. I wouldn't even necessarily expect a third research letter.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I have reviewed PhD applications in Communication, Computer Science, HCI, and Informatics. I'll answer questions first:
* It is not typical, in my experience, for students who apply to programs to have three faculty write letters that speak directly about extensive first-hand experience working on research with the candidate.
* It is most common, in my experience, to have one or two letters from faculty with extensive first hand experience overseeing research (often a coauthor on a paper) and one or two letters from people who know the candidate somewhat less well.
You don't need every letter to give a first hand description of your research experience. If you don't have *anybody* who talks about it, it will be a problem.
You want letters from people that:
* Describe your ability to do excellent research in the area or field you are applying.
* Explain how you are very smart, skilled, hardworking, generous, easy to work with, etc.
* Demonstrates enough history and experience with you that we can trust the opinions expressed in the letters to be informed and accurate.
* Are from colleagues whose opinions the letter recipient will know and respect.
Not every letter needs to do every one of these things. The important that the entire package convinces the reader that they're not taking a risk by accepting the student. Do what you can. If no one person can say everything, it's totally OK to the fact that you're turning in multiple letters to give a more full picture.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Which field are you in? In the humanities and social sciences, we expect letters from faculty you've taken seminars in, not just your thesis advisor.
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Tags: recommendation-letter
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thread-27364
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27364
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Is developing a cheaper method ever considered to be originality in academic research?
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2014-08-19T19:28:35.037
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# Question
Title: Is developing a cheaper method ever considered to be originality in academic research?
Say, in a particular field of science, method A or equipment B are the standard. Now I have invented method X or equipment Y which cost much less than A or B.
What are the necessary conditions, if any, that allow X and Y to be published as a journal paper?
(This question of course is loaded with my own assumption that originality in an academic research *does not* include cheaper price. I have long held this assumption from a simple fact that I have *never* encountered such thing as being cheaper being described in any background/introduction section in any journal articles I've read.)
# Answer
> 33 votes
> What are the necessary conditions, if any, that allow X and Y to be published as a journal paper?
That the method or equipment is new and interesting. It is really as simple as that.
It is completely ok if the improvement or motivation of your technique mostly lies in cost savings - that is common in many research communities. If the way how you achieved these cost savings is by applying simple technical optimisations, you will have problems publishing your results. On the other hand, if you reduced costs by fundamentally changing the way how your technique approaches things, or if you manage to reduce costs by orders of magnitude, journals will presumably be interested in how you achieved these results.
# Answer
> 26 votes
I think that you miss a point in the word *original*: You have to present *original research*, not necessarily *original results*. If you found a cheaper method than anyone before, the research is obviously original, even if you didn't find out anything new.
Example from other sciences: In maths, a new proof of an old theorem is original. In CS, a new algorithm which is just 10% faster than an old one is original. In medicine, a new treatment for the same disease is original. And so on and so forth.
As well, even if your result is not better than the previous ones (slower algorithm, more expensive method), it can of course be original. It's just more questionable whether it's useful, sometimes it is, but you have to be quite convincing usually.
# Answer
> 7 votes
At least in life sciences, this could be publishable, depending on the details. In the end, what matters for publication is whether the paper is of interest to the scientific community.
In some cases, cost can have huge consequences. For example, if you invent a method to easily sequence a human genome for 100 USD, that would greatly advance biomedical research and diagnostics, and you will get a very high-impact publication. You can read more here.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Original, in this context, means significantly different. The motivation of your study can be to develop a cheaper method, no problem with that, but the question of originality nothing to do with this.
Original research only means that you do a non-trivial root that hasn't been explored yet. If you manage to be cheaper because you use a different effect or some non-trivial different element, then it is perfect for publication. If you manage to be cheaper, because you ordered your o-rings and screws from a cheaper online shop, then maybe it is not interesting for publication. Anything between I would try to publish: something that seems trivial for you or a gradual improvement, may be surprising or insightful for others.
Two notes:
* If it is a commercially viable method, you should really think about to **patent it first before publication**. Even a provisional patent is much better than nothing.
* At the end of the day, if your method will be widely used (because it is cheaper and practical), this will be a highly cited publication, even if you think your improvement is not significant from scientific point of view. Some of the most cited papers of all times are publications on software used in X-ray crystallography. 99.9% of people do not read those papers, do not understand those papers, and it may be that they just announce the implementation. Yet everyone who used them, cites them and do it rightly. So it is always better to publish, and then worry about if people like it.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Aluminum used to be more valuable than gold or platinum - it was used<sup>1</sup> to cap the Washington Monument partly because of the rarity and value of aluminum back then (it's worth about $50 today). European monarchs would put out aluminum tableware - silver was for the common rich.
The Hall–Héroult process changed all that and made aluminum one of the cheapest metals on the planet.
Most everyone would agree that Hall and Héroult came up with something original, publishable and patentable.
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Tags: publishability
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thread-27487
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27487
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6-months internship has nothing to do with what was promised
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2014-08-21T18:08:25.167
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# Question
Title: 6-months internship has nothing to do with what was promised
Since sept 2013, I have been doing a Masters in mathematical finance. Our course requires us to do an off-cycle internship of 5 months minimum (typically, from April to September). During this internship, I'm supposed to do something that is at least remotely related to mathematics/finance, and at the end of the internship, I have to give a report of what I have done. The content of that report is supposed to contain actual mathematical researchs / developments / ideas, and is necessary for the obtention of my diploma.
Unfortunately, since my internship started I have been given absolutely no work fitting the requirements. What I've actually been tasked to do is repetitive work consisting in using a software to process tons of record from a database, generating new records as output, and making sure the generated data is consistent. Whenever of these jobs fail I have to debug the software and propose a fix to make the job work. There is roughly ~50 millions records to be processed and the end goal is that all of them were processed correctly. As far as I can tell there is no way this will be done by the end of my internship, which is in 2 months. What's worse is that the team I'm in is facing increasing pressure to have all these records processed soon, while the higher-ups are heavily implying that it is taking so long because we are slacking off. This is pretty annoying because I want to make a good impression and I'm working as good as possible, but at the same time I don't feel like it is worth the effort to work extra-hard on this, given how little recognition I get and given that I will leave before the positive consequences of my work can affect me.
What can I do in my situation ? I haven't started my internship report yet (I don't even know what subject I could do it on), and I know I will to do it on my own time. At the same time the repetitive nature of my work makes me pretty burned out and whenever I never feel like working on maths for several hours.
**TLDR: my 6 months internship that is supposed to be about mathematical finance is actually about doing extremely tedious work, and I have to complete a report by the end about all the mathematical research I'm supposed to have done.**
What would you do in that situation ?
# Answer
> 11 votes
There are two people who can help you
1. Your immediate manager
2. Your advisor (or tutor if you don't have one)
Talk to your manager first about the requirements stated by your university, and how to translate your work into a working paper or report worthy of submission in an academic institute. I am sure he will be of help.
Then try talking to your advisor/tutor on whatever was discussed with your manager. He/She can advise you on planning your report.
I had been into such a situation, and my advisor suggested a way to tweak my working to do some additional tests/work. That extra work made my work eligible for an academic report.
# Answer
> 5 votes
The work you've done, while repetitive, *may well be relevant* to mathematics/finance. In order to answer this, you need to understand what the purpose of the task was, where the input data came from, and how the output is used. Your manager (or work colleagues) should be able to explain this to you, but you need to take the initiative to find out! An internship is a learning experience for you; if you're not asking questions, you're not learning.
Then, if you still feel that this work is not relevant to maths/finance, talk to your advisor at the university. If they agree with your assessment, they will probably take steps to correct the problem. If it is too late to correct the problem, they can at least insure that this doesn't happen again, perhaps by speaking with the company, or even not allowing students to intern at that company again.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Talk to your manager about it again and then your adviser . Perhaps your adviser can suggest to the company that if this doesn't resolve itself they will do what they can to suggest students no longer intern there thus no longer providing free labor.
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Tags: colleagues, ethics, internship
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thread-26947
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26947
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What do these mysterious numbers in the subject line of arXiv mailing list emails mean?
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2014-08-08T09:41:47.743
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# Question
Title: What do these mysterious numbers in the subject line of arXiv mailing list emails mean?
Every day I receive the latest arXiv abstracts via email, with subject lines such as
`physics daily Subj-class mailing a4 1`
`physics daily Subj-class mailing 124 1`
`physics daily Subj-class mailing 490 1`
With new email clients that create "conversations" from an email chain based on the subject line, the disorderly nature of the subject lines makes it a pain to sift through the last week's abstracts if I haven't kept myself up to date.
What do `a4`, `124`, and `490` mean? These identifiers are not unique to each day's listings, but I cannot spot a correlation between them and the date of the email. Is there some hidden way to either include the date in the subject header, or remove these seemingly random strings?
# Answer
Straight from the horse's mouth: there is no fix, but an update is on the list of things that "will be done when they're done".
> You may safely ignore the numbers after the text "class mailing" as they are used for internal audit code and essentially meaningless from a user perspective.
>
> We do have plans to update the mailing code at some stage, but the time-line is unclear due to limited developer time.
> 11 votes
# Answer
They look like hexadecimal. So they may be the beginning of a hash or UUID. This would be similar to what git uses to refer to specific versions in a repository. If this is the case, they are effectively random and you aren't going to find any correlation with the outside world (which is the point).
> -2 votes
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Tags: arxiv
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thread-27525
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27525
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Do students need traditional books?
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2014-08-22T20:03:16.930
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# Question
Title: Do students need traditional books?
Do students need books to learn in courses? For example, I found that books often contain some mistakes and therefore it is better for me to study those things on the Internet where I can concentrate on one thing, learn the best knows methods of that subject and then move to the next. Okay, that course wasn't really advanced.
But if you have to decide whether one should write a traditional book or editable lecture notes like in http://stacks.math.columbia.edu/, which one would a lecturer choose?
# Answer
No, Students don't need a book. They DO need good resources.
Maybe its an eBook or a PDF compiled from your teaching notes or outline/slides (Hopefully cited well) and things like short stories needed for a language class can often be found online in their entirity, for free legally, when copyright has expired.
For a language class, using a Sherlock Holmes story could prevent students from needing to buy a book as they're out of copyright. You can also look for material that is licensed as Creative Commons which allows for free use, such as material from MIT open courseware, Khan Academy, and P2P Univerity. You can learn more about Creative Commons for Education here.
Long story short, make good content, and use it legally, either by using stuff people have given to the public, or under doctrines such as Fair Use.
> 4 votes
# Answer
To answer your title question--**Student do NOT need books, they just need quality resources.**
The best option for this will vary depending on the subject, class size and teaching style (the latter more than the former), and the students' learning ability. For example, in a undergrad intro course filled with students of average ability, a standard textbook may be the best option, perhaps supplemented with a few additional resources (links to videos, papers, etc). However, when you are teaching an advanced course, with students who both know how to learn on their own and have some experience with the subject matter, a textbook may still be a good option (depending on your institution's policy, you may be required to assign on for the course), but students will learn more and better if you provide them with primary sources, seminal papers in the field, and thought-provoking position papers, in addition to the textbook.
As for which a lecturer should do,
> write a traditional book or editable lecture notes
that will depend on all the above factors, as well as individual talent and motivation. Not all faculty members will necesarily want to write a textbook, though almost all will write lecture ntoes.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Depends on the class. I've been in classes where the handouts *were* a book -- a pre-publication version of a textbook that the professor was developing. In those cases, the handouts contained as much detail, and expressed it as clearly, as the final book would -- and luckily these were good instructors AND good writers, so the books were decent ones -- and the chapters were provided sufficiently far in advance of our needing them to permit reading ahead, so I didn't feel a need to consult other textbooks as well.
If any of those requirements is not met -- if the notes cover only the material addressed in the lecture and homework, or if they aren't clear and complete and correct, or if they aren't provided in a more-than-timely manner -- then you probably do need a textbook to back them up.
If in any doubt, you need to specify an alternative textbook or textbooks that students may optionally want to consult (which is good practice even when you do specify a primary text).
> 0 votes
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Tags: coursework
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thread-26038
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26038
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FizzBuzz for Academia, Questions to Gauge Research Understanding
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2014-07-17T16:50:43.653
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# Question
Title: FizzBuzz for Academia, Questions to Gauge Research Understanding
Is there a simple line of questioning which gives an up front indicator as to a persons ability to do research?
FizzBuzz is an interview question which is used to determine whether an applicant knows how to program. It is a simple problem, with a simple solution which can seperate those who can, from those who can't.
Are there common equivalent questions for gauging someones ability to do research?
(Granted, there are a wider variety of perspectives of what research is, especially across disciplines so it is unlikely there is as clean-cut an answer to this question.)
# Answer
> 31 votes
No, there is no useful research analog of FizzBuzz.
FizzBuzz is a rather limited test of programming ability. An incompetent candidate may fail at it, but passing this test in no way qualifies someone to work as a programmer. Some programming jobs attract lots of incompetent applicants, and it's worth filtering them out, but FizzBuzz is just a small step in that direction. The only reason we've heard of it is because it makes a great story when someone applies for a job but can't pass the simplest test.
For faculty hiring, there's no need for such a crude filter. The number of highly qualified candidates is much greater than the number of openings, and filtering out the incompetent is not a big deal. (If you spend a lot of time worrying about whether your candidates are incompetent, then something has gone catastrophically wrong with the search process.) Instead, the hard part is deciding who the very best candidates are, and FizzBuzz-style questions won't help with that.
For graduate student admissions, competence testing is more relevant. However, there's a fundamental difference from hiring a programmer. In that case, you are looking for someone who already has programming experience, and FizzBuzz helps filter out people who are bluffing about how experienced they are. Someone who fails could still learn to be a fine programmer, but you don't care since you're looking for someone who already knows how. On the other hand, most applicants to graduate school have only limited experience with research, and that's OK. You're looking for potential, rather than experience, and that's trickier to evaluate. I'm skeptical that any simple, clear-cut test can reliably predict research potential.
# Answer
> 25 votes
As I've said in another answer, the best predictor of success in research is... success in research.
The interview question for gauging someone's ability to do research is therefore:
> "Tell me about your research."
# Answer
> -2 votes
As an interview question, I like this one:
> "What's the most interesting discovery you have made in your research?"
Answers to this question can show what the researcher thinks is particularly interesting about their work, exposing some of their character.
It can also be useful to hear what they consider to be a "discovery".
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Tags: research-process, interview
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thread-27347
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27347
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Is it common to provide digital notes (slides or handwritten) for students?
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2014-08-19T15:06:59.993
|
# Question
Title: Is it common to provide digital notes (slides or handwritten) for students?
I am preparing a lecture course for this semester and I am planning to teach from slides. I will consider these slides my notes for the course. However, the following points may also apply to handwritten notes that a lecturer might use as a reference.
I can see several advantages and disadvantages associated with providing the students with the notes for a given lecture prior to that lecture:
Advantages:
* Students have to write less (because the core of the material is already present), so more material can be covered;
Disadvantages:
* Students may lose focus more easily when they have digital notes because they do not have to copy everything down (this was my experience as an undergrad);
* Students may choose not to attend class because notes are available elsewhere (of course, they may choose to do so anyways...).
One alternative I have considered is to distribute all of the notes relevant to an exam some suitable time period prior to that exam. However, this may reduce the effectiveness of the advantage, although it will mitigate to a certain extent the disadvantages. So, my question is as in the title: Is it common for professors to distribute digital notes to the class? If so, what methods are common?
# Answer
I used to distribute slides before class, and found that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. I now distribute them shortly after each class. I tell students to jot down important points during the class, but not to worry about things like lists because they'll have the slides available. I also suggest that they merge their classroom notes onto the slides. The ones who listen to me tend to do very well.
I base my decision on the premise that learning should be effortful. I think, hope, and expect that providing slides after class is a compromise between no slides and slides before class.
As an aside, I also record my lectures and make the podcasts available. I do that because I have students for whom English is a second language, and non-traditional students who are sometimes called away for work. I'm a little torn about the recordings because some students *do* try to use those as a substitute for coming to class. I console myself with the thought that they were destined to fail the course anyway and would do even without the recordings.
> 49 votes
# Answer
Different students have different needs. If you make notes available, students who benefit from not having notes have the option of not using them. If you do not make notes available, students who need them have no option.
I write fairly slowly, and do not seem to be able to listen and think at the same time as writing. For me, needing to write notes during a lecture drastically reduces the benefit of being there - the only product is what I manage to write down of whatever was written on the board, with no gain in understanding until I study the notes and text book afterwards.
You may have a student in your class who is not hearing what you are saying whenever they are writing.
> 38 votes
# Answer
To answer the main question, yes it is common.
I guess it's a matter of your personal idea of your role as a teacher. My approach is to do everything I can to make the material easily accessible to the students. Some students don't want/can't attend classes, they have their own priorities.
Of course teachers are by no mean obliged to take these cases into consideration, and I'm perfectly fine with courses taught without anything else than the blackboard.
But if *I create slides anyway*, I see *no sane reason* to restrict access to these before, during or after the courses are taught. I will also mention textbooks, articles and other sources I used to create the content.
> 16 votes
# Answer
I don't know how common it is, but I can tell you that in the classes I teach (general chemistry), I use a combination of lecture slides and writing on the board. Here's a rough breakdown of my approach:
* Approximately one slide per major concept, with very limited text (mostly definitions) and images/graphs to explain the concept. I make these available online (they can print before class if they want to)
* I write quick outline notes of major topics on the board before starting the section or chapter, then back-fill the details during the lecture, and give a review summary at the end.
* For problem-solving, I use one or more slides with an example and outlines of the steps, then demonstrate on the board using the same example. I follow that up with a different example, and finally have the students work through a problem on their own in class.
Using slides in this way works well for me because it allows me to spend less time writing and drawing on the board, and more time engaging students with discussion and question/answers. I think it helps the students as well - they are free to pay attention to what I'm saying, rather than just trying to copy down everything I write. Once they realize that they only need to write down the extra details, the lectures become more fun and I think they get more out of them. Since the slides are always available online, they can print them out whenever they like, or just look at them on their computers/tablets/phones.
Writing the summary notes and outlines on the board helps me organize the lectures, keep things on track, and prepare the students to pay attention. It also gives those with less-well-developed note-taking skills a template to use.
By combining the two, I think this approach addresses both of the disadvantages you brought up:
> Students may lose focus more easily when they have digital notes because they do not have to copy everything down (this was my experience as an undergrad)
Since the outline summary notes are on the board, students have something to write down, and I can use their tendency to automatically copy whatever I write as way of getting their attention if they seem to be "zoning out"
> Students may choose not to attend class because notes are available elsewhere (of course, they may choose to do so anyways...)
Since the slides are mostly graphical illustrations with limited text, there is still an advantage to coming to class. I do want to point out that I believe it's part of my job as a teacher to make coming to class valuable for reasons besides just getting a copy of the notes, but, I recognize that for some students who are good at self-study, that might not be the case. I try to follow the textbook pretty closely, so students who can't make it to class for some reason are still able to catch up pretty easily between the book, my slides, and notes copied from classmates.
> 14 votes
# Answer
Some background: In Finnish universities the mentality usually is\* that student should have the responsibility for their studies and learning (from what and how many courses to take each year to how to study course material). For example, it is very uncommon that attendance at lectures is mandatory, and even mandatory weekly exercises are not very common. In that sense, providing lecture notes has several advantages:
* Students have to write less (because the core of the material is already present), so more material can be covered
* Students may focus \[sic!\] more easily when they have digital notes because they do not have to copy everything down (this was my experience as an undergrad)
* Students may choose not to attend class because notes are available elsewhere (of course, they may choose to do so anyways...)
\*or at least it has been in the recent past; some things seem to be changing
---
Some lecturers provide the notes only after the lectures, because students are very good at pointing out typos and other mistakes in the material during the lectures. Some lecturers provide a preliminary version before the lectures, and a corrected version after the lectures. Some lecturers have completed the material on previous years and give everything at the start of the course. Some lecturers have completed the material on previous years and give material related to each lecture shortly before or after that lecture.
Nowadays, at least in Aalto University, the material is almost always provided as PDF files (or other relevant format) using a web service provided by the university. In the past there was a very complicated system where the lecturer provided the material to a certain company from which a student then ordered the printed material which was then distributed to a folder which was maintained by an association of the students in the degree programme of the student; but for some reason that system was abolished a few years ago.
The contents of the material given by the lecturer varies from a complete set of notes that is almost like a book, to bullet points listing what parts of the course book were covered during that lecture. Nevertheless, I think I've never taken a course where you wouldn't be able to study the material without attending the lectures.
> One alternative I have considered is to distribute all of the notes relevant to an exam just prior to that exam. However, this may reduce the effectiveness of the advantage, although it will mitigate to a certain extent the disadvantages.
I've never seen this happening. Some students have asked lecturers who don't provide extensive material during the course to do that before the exam, but most responses I have heard have the following points: Providing the lecture notes just before exam would encourage bulimic learning - that is, putting a lot of stuff in your head for a few days before the exam and quickly throwing it up during the exam without actually learning anything. Most students who don't want to attend lectures might still not attend if they know they will get the material anyway; by providing the notes so late you'd only harm their learning.
> 10 votes
# Answer
Yes, it is common, at least at the freshman and sophomore level. In my experience, few professors provide digital notes (or digital copies of lecture slides) in the upper levels of undergrad teaching.
I always appreciated those who did so, because I was usually able to take better notes due to not having to write as much. However, recall was usually not quite as good, for the same reason. (FWIW, I almost never skipped lecture, whether or not there were digital notes available).
As for what methods are common, I've seen three main methods, mostly differing as to *when* the notes are made available to the students.
1. Post all slides at the beginning of the course. This has obvious shortcomings if you change your lecture slides in any way--and good teachers almost always do!
2. Post shortly before the class session in which the material is presented. Either immediately before (\< 4 hours) or several sessions in advance. This seems to work best, because students have time to print them out to take notes on, if that's what they prefer. You can also tweak your slides as needed without confusing your students.
3. Post lecture slides immediately after class. This seems to me the least optimal, in that students cannot read the slides ahead of the lecture or use them to take notes on, but could potentially still use this as an excuse to not come to lecture.
> 7 votes
# Answer
I've seen lecturers print out copies of the slides, which the students would pick up as they entered the room, so they could make notes on them.
It requires the students to attend, but you could also say that you can collect copies in your office if people can't make it.
People sometimes picked up copies for friends, but it generally meant that people attended the lectures. It's really useful to have the slides to make notes on directly.
Kills a lot of trees though.
> 6 votes
# Answer
In my own undergraduate degree, I noticed a distinct positive correlation between professors who didn't make their slides available deliberately ("so that you don't just skip the lectures and read the slides at home") and professors whose teaching I would rate lower-than-average. One of these professors taught so badly that I skipped his lectures anyway and just read standard textbooks on the subject; I ended up with a top grade.
I would speculate that teaching with the attidude that "most students are here to learn with goodwill and I'm here to help them" produces better teaching than the attitude that students are principally lazy and I'm here to force them to learn. I'm a researcher with occasional teaching duties myself now and I'm very strongly in favour of teaching materials always being available to download.
Here are two arguments in favour of making slides available. First, what if a student misses one of your lectures due to illness, injury or because their train broke down on the way? (This is not a lame excuse - we had a cluster of genuine cases one summer when the trains couldn't cope with a heatwave.) Would you rather they were able to revise the lecture themselves with the slides, or not?
Secondly, my experience during revision for exams is that even with notes of my own, slide printouts are incredibly helpful. Partly this is because a printout of a slide is a visual aid to jog your memory and remember how the thing on the slide worked; partly it's because you have two sets of "notes" (your own and the slides) which is better than one, partly it's because making notes on a slide with arrows pointing to the relevant parts is so much more effective when diagrams or pictures are involved than having to copy down the relevant points as text alone. If you have a complex diagram on a slide that you're explaining, do you want your students to be spending your lecture trying to copy it down, or do you want them to be paying attention to your explanation, safe in the knowledge that they can print out the diagram (or have already done so, and can annotate it without having to draw it first)? A rhetorical question, I know, but I think this point is important. Finally, everyone sometimes makes mistakes in their notes and being able to cross-check against the slides is very reassuring.
I'd summarise by saying that for a motivated and good student, having the slides available allows them to use their revision time more effectively, and will lead to better results.
There's one caveat here though. As discused in \[1\] and just about every "how to give an effective presentation" book and talk, the worst kind of slide is simply a list of bullet points with text to copy down; a really effective slide to support your teaching will have very little text and so be of limited use on its own for someone who has not attended your lecture. Some of my best professors had slides like this and provided us with extra "lecture notes" handouts; it's a standard I aim for in my own teaching when time allows. I leave you with the thought that if your slides are this good, and support your own teaching rather than holding a lecture in parallel to yours, you won't need to worry too much about students opting to stay at home and just read your slides in the first place.
\[1\] Good slide design for teaching?
> 6 votes
# Answer
When I last taught big lecture classes, I would distribute pre-class and post-class versions of my slides.
The pre-class versions would go online the night before. They would have fewer steps worked out (I teach math), some solutions left blank for students to ponder in advance, and jokes subtracted. They would be laid out three slideframes to a letter-sized page, with ample space for annotation. So they could print them out and take them to class.
The post-class versions would be the complete slideshow from class, with worked-out solutions, jokes, and errata included. They would go up at the end of the day of class (depending on how much I had to fix). They were not laid out to be printed; it was just one slide per page of PDF.
> 4 votes
# Answer
As a student, I am most comfortable and effective learning lecture notes that are provided in traditional book format (even if it isn't available on paper, but as a PDF).
I have a very strong bad feeling towards slides that double as lecture notes. I believe the requirements for these two are so different, that when people merge the concepts, the result is equally bad as a slideset as lecture notes. When the whole material is crammed into slide format, aiming to provide all information the student has to learn, it has several possible disadvantages (all first hand experience):
* Teacher reads the slides verbatim, rendering his/her presence meaningless.
* Teacher doesn't feel obligated to prepare for the lecture, because everything is on the slides (in extreme cases the slides are made by someone else and the teacher never prepares for the whole course).
* Teacher doesn't feel obligated to put proper effort into making the slides, because *"I'm just making supplementary material"*, resulting in quickly hacked together slides (examples include copy-pasted stuff alternating between first language and English, three complete courses with equations without defining any notations used, two complete courses with equations and no explanatory text at all).
* The slides are inherently not detailed enough to be a complete resource for the course, so students go to Google for additional resources, and sometimes what they find is completely wrong.
* The teacher's line of thinking may be so different from the students, that his/her idea of what should be on a slide results in slidesets that are incomprehensible and of absolutely no information to the students.
* Students are disengaged from the lecture because the slides are available online. Even committed students find it hard to pay attention.
* PowerPoint and similar software makes it easy to place randomly formatted random stuff at random places on the slide. A teacher with no visual/typographical sensitivity and/or proper knowledge of the software may easily create slides that are painful to even look at because of the messy and amateur layout and formatting. (Examples include a complete course in all caps, physics plots handdrawn in PowerPoint/MSPaint style, equations in plain text instead of the equation editor, source code listings in bullet points, etc.)
My suggestion is, take the time needed to type proper lecture notes (maybe next summer) in proper sentences, with all the details etc., and let the slides contain only those pieces of information that you simply cannot present verbally or on the blackboard. An alternative to writing lecture notes is providing pointers to existing (text)books in which the material is already covered (maybe the very books you yourself use to prepare for the course).
> 3 votes
# Answer
As a student, I was more focused when the professor had the slides behind him because the slides were just a summary and he had the details. I was more concentrated because I haven't had to write down every single word so the lesson was more fluent.
> 2 votes
# Answer
I provide my slides. I give them to the bookstore to print as a "course pack" sold for a nominal amount (none of which goes to me) and if I change them during the year, I put them online for download right before (or in some cases, immediately after) class. I typically have a separate small deck with comments and diagrams and such that arise from marking an assignment or test. I don't upload these ever. In the first class I explain all of this to the students along with the following important announcement:
> I can and will test you on material that was only covered verbally in class and is not written on these slides. You can and will lose marks for not knowing something that was only talked about during a lecture.
If I find myself putting the screen up to draw something on the blackboard, I take a note to add that diagram to the deck for next year. I find that drawing diagrams out is a great way to learn, but that most students will not do so - having a predrawn diagram helps them less than having one they drew, but more than having nothing, so I do it. Since I am teaching them how to make design decisions and record those decisions in the form of a diagram, the more examples they have the better.
In over a decade, no student has ever objected to what I'm doing, though there have been some who (wrongly) thought it meant they could pass without coming to class. I also had a few in the early days who objected to my file formats, giving me the extra work of exporting each deck to PDF or HTML or whatever they could handle; that seems to have stopped although I still ask each year if anyone needs a different format.
> 2 votes
# Answer
> Students may lose focus more easily when they have digital notes because they do not have to copy everything down (this was my experience as an undergrad)
I can either be writing down what you just said or I can be *thinking* about what you just said. Your choice.
If you try to force students to scribble down everything while you're talking they're going to be thinking "damn, where's my spare pen, this one is going dry" not "Hm. I wonder how that principle applies to...." when you say something.
You're dealing with adults, if they fail because they're overconfident, have bad judgement and think they don't need to attend class then they made that choice with their eyes open.
By all means, warn them and recommend against doing so but refusing to make slides, handouts or pdfs available is just devaluing your class for the students who do attend.
> 2 votes
# Answer
For large lecture classes I usually present the material on an overhead projector. I make the slides available to the students before the lecture, reduced to quarter size for convenience. Most of my colleagues do something similar.
It's true that this may result in some students cutting lectures. I am usually quite up-front about this, and tell students in the first lecture that while it is up to them, trying to learn the subject from the lecture notes alone is the best way I know for the average student to fail the course: for most students it will be necessary to attend lectures, consider extra comments, explanations and examples which I may give, and most importantly of all, ask questions and engage with the subject.
You can "force" students to attend lectures by withholding the notes, or by leaving gaps in them. I don't do this because I find it to be unacceptable behaviour: in effect, it treats students as children who must be manipulated "for their own good". I make it clear that I expect students to take a responsible, adult attitude towards their studies; the result is that most of them do.
IMO this is so important that I'm going to paraphrase it in bold type: **the vital thing to realise about students is that most of them are extremely cooperative**. They want to learn: if you make it clear what you expect of them, you will usually get it without pulling any tricks like issuing incomplete notes.
Finally we should ask (or perhaps we should have asked initially): what is the purpose of lectures and other classes? It is for the students to learn the subject (of course!). It is not an ego trip for the lecturer. If my students learn the subject then the course has been successful, even if the lectures have been half empty. (But if the lecturer demonstrates a concern for students and a dedication to teaching, then the lectures never will be half empty.)
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BTW, I may soon have to find an alternative for the overhead projector. Apparently my institution believes that such things are too old-fashioned to be tolerated in a modern, forward-thinking institution which never stands still, and is gradually withdrawing support for these ancient devices :-(
> 2 votes
# Answer
The first course I taught, about 15 years ago, was an advanced undergraduate introduction to General Relativity. The way I taught that (and currently teach it again) worked for me and apparently for the students. There are a variety of overlaps with points made in the other answers.
The way it goes is:
1. I've assembled detailed formal lecture notes, which have turned into a what I realise amounts to a short book! (feel free to have a look if you're at all interested). I distribute these in blocks before the relevant lectures. I request/advise the students to read ahead in these notes.
2. The lecture I give is somewhat more informal than the written notes. It goes over the material in the same order, but skips some details, and says ‘it's a bit like...’ more often than the notes would. That is, the lecture itself is significantly distinct from the notes.
3. I don't use powerpoint (or prepared acetate slides, before you ask), but I do use a document projector to display scribbled diagrams and mathematical derivations.
4. I record the lectures, and make this available to the students as well.
So they've got lots of resources.
The points that are relevant to the question here are:
1. This is well-known as a challenging course, but the students generally find the topic interesting and are motivated to work hard at it. That is, they **are cooperating and trying to learn**, and as others have pointed out, this is more important than anything else for the success of a course.
2. This is a notationally intricate course, and I know from being on the opposite side of the lecturn that it's basically impossible to take accurate notes and actually pay attention to what's being said. I still tell them to take notes.
3. I tell them that the topic only makes sense after the second time they do a course in it, but that the printed notes and the oral lecture count as two courses simultaneously! (to an educationalist I'd say something about ‘multi-modal learning ...*blah*... different learning styles ...*wibble*’). That, plus the recorded audio, cues them **to take charge of how they approach the material**, and to take a critical attitude to the available resources.
As far as I'm aware (I don't check) they do all turn up to the lectures. That's nice, as it suggests I do myself have a pedagogical function being in the room. If they don't turn up then either they're going to fail the course, or else they're able enough that they can master it with their own resources – both are fine by me.
The other course where I've used this approach was a pre-honours course, also regarded as somewhat challenging, but also with motivated students; also with a masters-level course which was a bit less interesting, but which could presume motivated students. It *might* not work so well with a service course, or a more bread-and-butter course.
The last point being said, I do have general sympathy with the insistence that undergraduates are adults, who can damn well be given responsibility for their own learning. But that fine attitude might run into difficulties in a different institutional or course, or a different student body, or a different (pecuniary) relationship with the students. There are important factors lurking there.
> 2 votes
# Answer
In the university that I attend, almost all of our professors provide digital notes. I believe this is a good practice because many students can't keep notes and comprehend what the professor says at the same time. As a countermeasure for the second disadvantage you mention, professors often give some extra techniques and explanations that are not included in the digital notes.
> 1 votes
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Tags: teaching, note-taking, presentation
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thread-27440
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27440
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To avoid legal battle, in bussiness world reference letters are written extremely terse. How do academics get away with this?
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2014-08-21T02:22:00.757
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# Question
Title: To avoid legal battle, in bussiness world reference letters are written extremely terse. How do academics get away with this?
**It seems to be accepted wisdom in the business world that reference letters for former employees should be extremely terse.** They should confirm that the employee worked there, and essentially nothing else:
> To whom it may concern: Ellen Ripley was employed by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation from June 2137 to September 2139. Signed, C. Burke, manager."
The standard reasoning is that if the letter contains something unfavorable and the employee is turned down for a future job, they might sue their former company for libel, claiming the unfavorable statement was a lie which damaged their career. In order to avoid the possibility of such a legal battle (which, the reasoning goes, could be very expensive, even if the company wins), the company tells its managers to write letters with no content, so that there's no chance of them containing something actionable.
This question on Workplace Stack Exchange, Is there any evidence that giving references for former employees is inherently risky?, attests to this practice, and the answers provide some suggestion that the company's fears are justified.
**On the other hand, in academia, detailed and informative recommendation letters are the norm.** They often run to multiple pages, and contain specific information about the candidate's history and activities at the institution, as well as the writer's (supposedly honest) subjective assessment of the candidate's strengths, weaknesses, and potential. This is not only common but effectively mandatory; a minimal recommendation letter of the kind described above would immediately consign the candidate's application to the nearest wastebasket.
This would seem to be just the sort of thing that fills corporate counsel with horror, yet we do it every day. No academic employer of mine has ever told me not to do so; for that matter, I can't say that I've ever received any official guidance, one way or the other, on writing recommendations. Nobody in academia seems to be concerned that writing a letter that could be construed as less than favorable could result in legal consequences. **So how are we getting away with it?**
Are universities treated differently under the law, making them less vulnerable to such threats? Or do they willingly accept the legal risks in order to make the world a better place by providing actual information about their former students/employees? Or is everyone ignorant of the risk of trouble? Or is there something I have not thought of?
To forestall a couple of objections: I know that academics usually try to write only positive letters, and decline to write if they have nothing good to say, but that's evidently not enough in the corporate world. Anyway, candidates often end up damned by faint praise. Also, I know that we send letters in confidence, with the understanding that they won't be shown to the candidate, and sometimes this is backed by having the candidate sign a waiver, but I have to believe that a sufficiently determined and litigious candidate could get access anyway.
(I know this question may sound rhetorical, but I ask it in seriousness, and hope to learn something from the answers. My context is the US, but if things are substantially different in other places, that would be interesting to know as well.)
# Answer
My impression is that the difference is largely cultural. The academic community in the U.S. has developed a culture of relying on written letters of recommendation, and this practice has a lot of inherent stability. Someone considering suing knows that a questionable lawsuit would permanently ruin their career, in a way that wouldn't necessarily happen in the business world. (For one thing, academia is a much smaller, more tightly knit, and more philosophically coherent group.) If a student or job applicant did sue frivolously, then it would probably be cheaper to settle, but the university would not do so: proving a point would be a higher priority than saving money. (By contrast, for-profit businesses are less likely to make unnecessary expenditures to try to defend their principles.) University attorneys know that if they advised faculty not to write or require letters, everyone would ignore them and it would just hurt the university's reputation. The culture takes on a life of its own, regardless of the legal context.
However, I believe U.S. legal precedents are actually pretty favorable for academic letters of recommendation. The key phrase is "academic deference," which as I understand it is the theory that academic judgments are not subject to legal review because the courts aren't even capable of evaluating these judgments. (Of course I'm not a lawyer and so I'm probably at least overlooking subtleties.) You can sue for reasons like discrimination, but you can't successfully sue someone who made a good faith effort to judge your academic performance or potential on the grounds that you think they judged it wrong.
The academic deference doctrine is based on a number of precedents, but it's somewhat controversial. For example, people argue that it makes it too easy to get away with discrimination (since it makes courts reluctant to examine evidence), and that lots of non-academic judgments are equally difficult to evaluate but don't have a special doctrine protecting them from review by the courts. See this article by Moss for a review of the precedents and an argument against academic deference.
Depending on the circumstances, there may also be other legal issues. For example, it's much harder to sue someone for libel based on their evaluation of your published scholarly work. In particular, you have to prove actual malice since publishing the work makes you a public figure for this purpose. In other words, it's not enough to prove that the evaluation was wrong; instead, you have to prove that they knew it was wrong or at least had reckless disregard for the truth. (See, for example, Posner's wonderful opinion on whether calling someone a crank is defamatory.) I believe this is much more clear cut and better established than academic deference is, but it is not relevant for unpublished work or other recommendation letter content.
Returning to the cultural theme, it's also worth thinking about psychological factors. If I run a business, then my ex-employees could be applying for jobs at competitors, partners, or companies that are irrelevant to my interests. Among these possibilities, partner companies I'm actively working with are only a small fraction. The generic case is that I won't care about the new employer or will actively harbor ill will towards them. If a lawyer advises me that it's best not to say anything, I may seize on that excuse even aside from the lawsuit potential. By contrast, academia is a world in which we're all partners, and that feels very different. Universities do compete against each other in some ways, of course, but there's a much greater feeling of good will and cooperation than you see between most for-profit companies. It's no surprise that very different norms and practices have developed in a far less competitive environment.
> 61 votes
# Answer
I believe there is a very reasonable misunderstanding here - there is a difference in a "verification of employment", being used as a "reference", and a "recommendation letter". These all have their common uses, but they are handled very, very differently.
## Verification of Employment (present or past)
> To whom it may concern: Ellen Ripley was employed by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation from June 2137 to September 2139. Signed, C. Burke, manager."
This is a perfect example of the proper, commonly accepted response to a request for a verification of employment. This sort of letter is useful in a wide-variety of circumstances, including:
* Proving your work/career history to an employer
* Verifying your job to a government agency or company (think insurance, banks, State benefits, etc)
* Qualifying for corporate discount/membership arrangements (cell phones, computers, credit unions, etc)
This is not at all to be construed as a letter of recommendation - it isn't one!
There are cases where more information is requested, such as:
* Is the employee eligible to be re-hired at the company
* How did the employment end - were they fired, quit, laid off?
* Salary verification (this is not the most common, but it is not unheard of and more commonly requested by banks and government agencies)
## Serving as a Reference
A employer or manager may be asked to serve as a reference, where a prospective employer might wish to call and speak with them personally and ask them various questions. What questions get asked, and any potential for legal action, depends upon what is said, documentation, and consequences. Most of the legal actions revolve around claims of libel or defamation. Note that in the US you are allowed to cherry pick your own reference to provide to a future/prospective employer.
Sometimes this is requested by email or fax, in which case it is common to just treat it as little more than a verification of employment request. However, sometimes this is much more important than a mere verification - it depends upon the position, industry, recruiter, etc.
## Letter of Recommendation
In industry a real letter of recommendation functions much more closely to how it is treated in academia. A person in a position to closely evaluate an employee is asked - almost exclusively by the employee - to provide such a letter. This is almost always requested from an immediate supervisor, manager, directory, or executive with a close working relationship with the employee.
All the same rules apply. These are less common in industry, perhaps at least partly because they are rare and unexpected and because unsolicited opinions tend to be discounted and distrusted much more commonly than in academia. However, they can still come in handy.
Fear of torts really isn't that big of a factor as far as I've seen, because a letter of recommendation is expected solely to be positive. I'm not aware of any case of a company suing another company because "you said this guy was great and it turns out he was useless!" It just isn't done.
And an employee couldn't very successfully sue an employer for saying something nice about them; the USA may have a reputation for being litigious, but that's just ridiculous (not that it hasn't ever happened I'm sure, but it's obviously frivolous and very rare).
> To forestall a couple of objections: I know that academics usually try to write only positive letters, and decline to write if they have nothing good to say, but that's evidently not enough in the corporate world. Anyway, candidates often end up damned by faint praise.
Actually, in the corporate world this is almost exactly what happens. If an employer doesn't want to provide a real recommendation, they just provide a verification of employment.
I've had recruiters contact previous/current bosses of mine (who I talked with in advance to ensure they would provide a useful reference rather than a mere verification of employment), and been told by the recruiter when such contacts were very positive. "They really gave you a glowing review!"
Most good corporate bosses will be more than happy to say good things if they have a good opinion of you, and will accept any request of yours to share their opinion. If they get asked for a reference and they don't know you well or don't have a great opinion of you, they'll probably just not say very much - unless they hate you, in which case you really shouldn't have offered them as a reference!
## How Does Academia Do It?
It's really much like the corporate world does it: they recognize that libel and defamation are in fact illegal, and so avoid even a potential appearance by avoiding saying negative things. They also realize that speaking poorly of others tends to reflect badly on you, too - so "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all".
And yes, you can be damned by faint praise. If you are looking for more than an entry-level job at a company and talk about what great work you did at your last place and how valuable you were, and then they talk to the reference you provided (probably your boss or a colleague) and all they'll say is you worked there, and maybe you were a nice person who was usually punctual? Yeah, that's not going to go well in any sector.
> 29 votes
# Answer
In general, **yes**, there is a major difference in how employees' and students' letters are handled. Applicants to US undergraduate and graduate programs are routinely asked to waive the right to see their letters of recommendation, and therefore the letter writers are free to speak in a much more candid manner and offer a frank appraisal of a candidate's positives and negatives.
It's worth noting that this is often **not** the case outside the US, where students are often directly given letters of recommendation that are exactly of the bland and generic format you described above. These letters, as you can imagine, are essentially useless in describing a student's real qualifications, and consequently we give those letters very little weight in our deliberations.
> 19 votes
# Answer
In Japan, the recommendation letter is a 推薦状 \[*suisenjyou*\] and it will in all but the most Westernized schools be given to the student such that they can read it and stamped with the seal of the professor and possibly an official seal from the school.
The purpose of this is slightly different than an American recommendation letter -- which is more of an appraisal of the student's abilities. By and large, the Japanese recommendation letter serves as an introduction / expression that the professor or teacher vouches for the student as someone trustworthy for the new job or school. It contains little information and not much detail on why the student would be recommended.
It was quite the pain getting letters of this format from some of the Americans less aware of the existence of what to us is such a bizarre practice.
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I believe but cannot vouch that the practices are similar in Korea and China.
> 11 votes
# Answer
I'd guess part of the answer is that academics deal with the risk because they can't afford not to, because a reference serves a different purpose.
In business, my understanding is that people are largely selected for jobs on things that can be measured and compared apart from references (such as formal qualifications, performance in aptitude tests, years of experience), and on things that the hiring committee is able to assess (such as answers at interview).
While some of these play a part in academia, a large factor of hiring decisions is the applicant's research potential/demonstrated performance. This is sufficiently specialized and difficult to compare that the hiring committee cannot do that task entirely alone. They need additional experts to help make the judgements. Part of that can be done by sending papers to experts chosen by the panel, but part of it is done by receiving detailed references from people who are already familiar with the applicant's work (and so hopefully won't need to spend as much time to make a judgement).
> 6 votes
# Answer
I always show a student (or colleague) the letter I've been asked to write - noting that although s/he has (almost always) waived the right to see the letter, I have not waived the right to show it. S/he can suggest edits, or even ask me not to send it (that's never happened).
> 5 votes
# Answer
In academia, publicly grading a student's performance is par for the course. After all, you get a GPA which is a very public (if often somewhat subjective) "evaluation" of your academic strength... Writing a few words that describe, in essence, where that grade came from, is a logical extension. From there, a full letter of recommendation is not much further.
By contrast, employee evaluations are considered highly confidential; so from the outset, there are different approaches to the way a person's performance is evaluated and publicized. That difference seems to carry forward into the culture of recommendations.
I have been a manager of people "in industry" for years, and ran into this problem from time to time. On a handful of occasions I have agreed to be a reference for people who used to work for me. Typically I have done this only for people who had already left my organization, with whom I had remained in touch, and who I would not be afraid to give a good recommendation. Typically those things tend to go hand in hand... and I know that for at least one of them, my recommendation made the difference for him getting his "dream job" (I know this, because 10 minutes after hanging up the phone to the HR department of his future employer, he called me to say he had just received a verbal offer, and that they mentioned that my reference had tipped the scale). For me, doing the right thing on occasions like that is more important than following recommendations of corporate lawyers... call me reckless.
Update (quoting from http://www.aaup.org/issues/academic-freedom/professors-and-institutions):
> The professional standard of academic freedom is defined by the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, which was developed by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Association of American Colleges and Universities. It is the fundamental statement on academic freedom for faculty in higher education. It has been endorsed by over 180 scholarly and professional organizations, and is incorporated into hundreds of college and university faculty handbooks. The 1940 Statement provides:
>
> > College and university teachers are citizens, members of a learned profession, and officers of an educational institution. When they speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their special position in the community imposes special obligations. As scholars and educational officers, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances. Hence they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution. AAUP, Policy Documents & Reports 3-4 (9th ed. 2001) (hereafter "Redbook").
Further down this same (rather long) article, there are numerous instances of case law. I am quoting just one that seems to indicate that academic freedom and "selection of faculty" are intertwined - this would seem to give academics the freedom to write proper detailed references (protected by "academic freedom") since such references are used "for the selection of faculty":
State v. Schmid, 84 N.J. 535 (1980), appeal dismissed sub. nom., Princeton Univ. v. Schmid, 455 U.S. 100 (1982)
> Any direct governmental infringement of the freedom of teaching, learning, and investigation, is an assault upon the autonomy of institutions dedicated to academic freedom. In addition, **universities perform functions, such as the selection of faculty, that are inexorably intertwined with the exercise of academic freedom.**
I think that last sentence is the reason "we are getting away with it".
> 4 votes
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Tags: recommendation-letter, united-states, legal-issues
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thread-27478
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27478
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How does the salary system for faculty in Canadian universities work?
|
2014-08-21T20:01:58.560
|
# Question
Title: How does the salary system for faculty in Canadian universities work?
How does the salary system for faculty members in Canadian universities work? Is it usually 8- or 9-monthly based same as in the USA Or 12-monthly?
Also, what do they mean by Taxable Benefits in their salary database (e.g., Ontario, Ministry of Finance; Public Sector Salary Disclosure for 2013: Universities)?
# Answer
> 4 votes
It's actually very straightforward: the salary they list is the salary you get. No 8- or 9-month shenanigans, just what they quote. You might get extra money for teaching (extra) courses, but you don't have to find a way to pay yourself over the summer (indeed, research grant money never goes into the PI's pocket).
Other Taxable Benefits means non-monetary benefits, which might include free or subsidized stuff like memberships (e.g., to a University fitness centre). Senior administrative types (also appointed as professors in some department or other) might get all kinds of non-monetary benefits like a place to live or the use of a car.
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Tags: professorship, salary, canada
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thread-27542
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27542
|
Possibility of doing PhD in astronomy with only masters in CS
|
2014-08-23T13:26:36.380
|
# Question
Title: Possibility of doing PhD in astronomy with only masters in CS
I have a masters degree in Computer Science & Engineering (and currently employed in s/w industry in India), but have no degree in physics. For long, I've been interested in doing research in physics, especially in astronomy, astrophysics or in particle physics.
1. Are there good institutes or universities in EU, US or India which accept students ***without*** any degree in physics to PhD program in astronomy or astrophysics? If so, do they also offer financial assistance or some form of scholarship to such students to meet at least one's tuition fee expenses?
2. I checked with an institute in Germany that offers PhD in physics but I was told that a masters degree in physics is a mandatory prerequisite. Does this apply to all leading German institutes? What about other leading institutes in EU or in the US?
3. What are the pros and cons, if any, between doing PhD in US versus in EU, especially in the field of physics (in the subdomains I mentioned, if that too matters)?
# Answer
> 2 votes
In Sweden there is no hard requirement. (In Spain, for that matter, there isn't either, but I don't recommend going for a PhD there). You *just* need to convince a professor that you are a good asset for the team. The way it works here (and in some other countries in Europe) is that the PI gets funding and hires whomever he wants, based on whatever criteria. Other countries make the decision at a department level, usually putting stress on the marks. Anyway, the difference is convincing one party or a few.
It is true that all the people I know in the closest related department, are physicist, but they do a lot of programming and data analysis. Your strong points are:
* You can improve code quality. (I have seen code that gives me nightmares.)
* You can implement new algorithms.
* You can learn the physics along the way.
CS backgrounds are, by the way, quite common in Bioinformatics and, to a lesser degree, Biophysics.
**References:**
I am in Sweden working in Biophysics, and my girlfriend is doing a PhD in Astrophysics.
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Tags: phd, masters, computer-science, physics
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thread-27514
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27514
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How to present a model which is based on the result not yet discussed?
|
2014-08-22T12:15:04.580
|
# Question
Title: How to present a model which is based on the result not yet discussed?
I am facing the following problem while writing a paper. I have a model which contains a function whose explicit form I derived empirically from the data presented in the paper itself.
However, I would like to present the model during the introduction and thus before the result. However, to justify the shape of that function, I have no other way than to anticipate the result (saying something like: “Since in the result of the experiment we found X, we empirically assumed X in the model“). I am not completely happy with this, because I would like to present the result directly in the result session, not earlier.
A solution would be to move the explanation of the model *after* the results. I do not like this either because I want to fit the real data with the model itself, and I don’t think it is wise to start fitting something without explaining it first.
So, what it your advice in this matter? What would you do?
Also, any papers with example of something similar are welcome.
# Answer
You have data **S**, and a model **M={H, f(H), g(H)}**, where **H** are the set of assumptions of the model, and **{f(H), g(H)}** are components of the model that of course depend on the assumptions in some way.
Using the data, you estimate a functional form for **f(H)**, for lack of mathjax denote it **empf(S,H)**
Then you apply your model to the data and obtain a measure of fit, expressed here in abstract as a distance measure between model and data
**{M,S}-\>d(M,S)\* or \**{\[H, empf(S,H), g(H)\], S}-\>d(\[H, empf(S,H), g(H)\],S)**
*One* (not all) components of your model had a chance to "fit with the data" *prior* to applying the whole model, and so it has increased the chances of your model *as a whole* to fit the data.
So the "distance" is not purely between model and data -it is a distance between a model that has already come "closer to the data", through **empf(S,H)**, and the data.
In a rather known dialect, "you *trained* (partly) your model, using the same data set on which you are going to *test* it". I would not consider this as scientifically acceptable.
The way out of course, is to estimate **f** by using a *different* data set, a data set that *should*, according to your theory, be able also to be represented by the same model. And this also guides you as to how you could go about writing your paper.
> 1 votes
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Tags: publications, writing
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thread-27554
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27554
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Which journals or conferences have publication accessibility requirements?
|
2014-08-23T23:16:53.980
|
# Question
Title: Which journals or conferences have publication accessibility requirements?
When submitting papers, I often see some elaborate requirements for submission formats, but none pertaining to accessibility. Which journals or conferences have publication accessibility requirements? (put aside accessibility conferences)
I am mostly interested in the field of computer science \> machine learning, and English-speaking venues.
# Answer
Working from the guidelines you linked: http://www.si.edu/Content/Accessibility/Publication-Guidelines.pdf, I think APA style (and probably many others) meet many of the requirements. Most of the accessibility recommendations relate to the final printing (e.g., matte paper) and not to the electronically submit manuscript. APA style recommends 12 pt Times to be used as the font with double spaced lines, 1 inch margins, and a ragged right margin, which seems to tick all the typesetting rules apart from the use of a non-recommended typeface (but as a translational typeface with high quality printing it might still be accessible).
> 1 votes
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Tags: publications
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thread-27562
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27562
|
What should you do when your supervisor is ill?
|
2014-08-24T14:01:31.927
|
# Question
Title: What should you do when your supervisor is ill?
While somewhat related to this recent question but this situation is different in that my supervisor has over the recent months had unspecified health issues. It has not overly effected our relationship other than a bit of a delay in some of our emails. Without knowing exactly what is wrong it was conveyed at one of our meeting that it was not overly serious. In the last email I received it was noted by my advisor that their health was poorly over the summer.
As someone who has previously had a prolonged serious bout of Crohn's, I can understand how poor health can impact on someone's life and would like to be able to make our professional relationship work in a mutually beneficial way.
So in a way my question is two-fold.
1. Is it appropriate for me to sympathize/empathize with my supervisor about their health issue?
2. Should I ask them how they best wish to proceed when they may be ill in relation to submitting work etc.?
# Answer
> 12 votes
Since in a recent email your advisor has told you about the health issue, it is perfectly acceptable for you to sympathize/empathize with them and it would not be out of place to ask if you could do anything regarding your work to accommodate them. That said, if you feel uncomfortable raising the issue, you should be able to depend on your advisor being mature enough to tell you what he/she needs in terms of accommodations.
If your advisor had not mentioned anything to you and you wish to sympathize/empathize with them, then you need to be more delicate.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Depending on how much it slows down your research, how far you are from graduation and how bad the illness is, a common solution is to get a temporary or permanent co-advisor. As StrongBad said, your advisor should be mature enough to tell the students if it is necessary to do so (this actually happened a few weeks ago to a friend of mine), but illness can be treacherous (also happened during this summer...) so more risk-averse people might prefer to start looking for a co-advisor even before they are advised to.
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Tags: advisor, etiquette, communication
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thread-27564
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27564
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How to engage interdisciplinary professors in forming an MS thesis committee and project?
|
2014-08-24T14:05:32.917
|
# Question
Title: How to engage interdisciplinary professors in forming an MS thesis committee and project?
I am sort of stuck in a quagmire. I am just starting out in a 2 yr bio-manufacturing program, which has a thesis component. I was looking to add a minor from an interdisciplinary department biotechnology, which requires a few classes and a person from this area must serve on my thesis committee. My problem arises from the fact that I want my thesis topic to leverage skills from both groups. As of now the projects offered to me are not really all that exciting and would not be as multifaceted as I would like.
I know part of the problem is that I am a masters student, so that limits the scope of what I can do which is a turn off for some. In my initial outreach to professors for the minor component, a common response was I do not have anything for MS students.
The other issue is that since both areas are interdisciplinary, each area is made up of individuals from a number of departments (engineering, microbiology, biology, plant science, animal science, genetics). The dual appointment makes things a challenge. I wanted to ask out there if anyone else needed to do more leg work to form a committee and secure a project.
What are some pitfall I could avoid? What is the best way to engage professor who have no real vested interest? Is it possible to generate a fusion project leverages skills from both programs?
# Answer
I sometimes have the stinking suspicion that "interdisciplinary" is a codeword for "disorganized, incoherent, or train wreck". What you're encountering is precisely the problem man such programs face, there's no central management of what you are working towards or way to corral the cats into working with you.
My suggestion is to save the interdisciplinary until you've mastered one discipline. Otherwise, expect more of the same -- having to convince everyone to be on board and losing focus on a current research topic.
Right now, you're an MS student -- focus on finishing that degree first. If you want to develop research skills outside of that, then take the courses without adding a "minor" to your MS. If after you finish, you want to pursue a PhD that bridges some of the knowledge fields you are working in, make sure that the place you go has a coherent program for bridging them rather than a dream that they can be bridged.
> 1 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, thesis, thesis-committee, interdisciplinary
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thread-27580
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27580
|
Commission an animation to explain a scientific concept?
|
2014-08-24T21:34:20.600
|
# Question
Title: Commission an animation to explain a scientific concept?
I have a particularly difficult scientific concept, which, with the use of an animation, I think I could make very clear. I have some experience making little movies from piecing together figure snapshots, but in this case I lack the skills (and time) to assemble a quality animation. Is anyone aware of a website, resource, or company that will assemble movies for academic purposes? I've looked around but haven't found anything reasonable (in price, or with experience producing scientific-quality movies).
An example: an animation showing an EKG trace, and a diagram of a beating heart. Each beat moves the heart and shows up on the EKG, so you can see how the two are related.
# Answer
> 2 votes
With such a small budget (less than 1000 US dollars), you're unlikely to be able to commission professional work.
You have three options that I can see.
1. You might be able to find someone who's just trying to get established as a provider of such services, who might be willing to do the work in exchange for publicity which you'd have to drum up. Your project, and your department, would have to be seen as endorsing this person's services. That can all be rather tricky. If you're lucky, one of your recently-finishing students might be trying to build their business in this area.
2. You might be able to learn the skills yourself, or get someone in your team to do so. Some data analysis packages do have the means to create animations from sequences of charts - Matlab has this, and I'd expect its peers such as Mathematica to be able to do that too.
3. The sort of thing that's been done in a department closely related to the one I work in, is to hold a competition, with the prize being the funds you've got available. It can be open to anyone, or to staff and students, or just to students: that choice may not make a big difference - most of your submissions might come from students anyway. Be careful with the competition terms and conditions: pay close attention to the ownership of the intellectual property of submissions (to ensure you can use submissions without restriction); and with how the prize is described (because of potential tax implications). Your library staff may be able to help with the first of those two issues, and the finance team should be able to help with the second.
What you're after - the skill of creating high-quality data visualisations - is just the sort of skill that we look to encourage and develop in our students, so I'd have no qualms in running this as a competition for the students. The tricky question is around extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation: should they be doing it for money, or for the intrinsic reward of developing excellent data visualisation. You might want to discuss that with the tutor who takes lead responsibility for the students' academic development. It will depend, to an extent, on how close your subject matter is to their areas of study.
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Tags: graphics
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thread-26220
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26220
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How important is advisor's supervision for a Ph.D. student to be an independent researcher?
|
2014-07-22T03:19:47.430
|
# Question
Title: How important is advisor's supervision for a Ph.D. student to be an independent researcher?
I have seen one extreme of the spectrum, where a person conducts great research without even attending college. For a student to become an independent researcher, how much is on the advisor's shoulder and how much on the student? I know the answers may be all over the map. Just curious what your takes are on this question. Anecdotes and personal examples are welcome.
I have noticed some professors are more successful in supervising students to become independent researchers (approximated by the number/ratio of alumni who land research jobs) than others, even though their research portfolios and student qualities are similar (e.g., in the same department). That's one reason I bring up this question.
# Answer
> 5 votes
There are two major types of advisor approaches which I've encountered during my studies:
1. Hands-off, abstract guidance only. Hint at which areas are interesting or currently active, but do not throw yourself into your student's work. Usually such advisors will gladly proofread the student's work for errors, but they rarely know what to do if a student gets seriously stuck. Advisor sessions may be spent discussing current trends, future work of either the advisor or the student or, in some cases, simply "life advice".
2. Co-worker approach. The advisor treats his student as an equal and tries to immerse himself into the student's work (or vice versa). By having a lot of exposure to the advisor's routine (how he goes around solving problems, how much time he spends doing research, how he prepares for lectures, etc.), the teacher aims to guide the student by example.
These two approaches are often seen in combination (while the student may be treated as a coworker, he still is usually the one to do the typesetting, the programming, and other time-consuming tasks).
Personally, I prefer the second approach, which is likely because I am not that settled in the "theoretical research" routine. Some of my friends, who have known since their Master's studies what they want to do, are very enthusiastic about having a well known professor with the hands-off approach.
To answer the question about either approach fostering independence, I believe the hands-off approach leads to much larger independence as a researcher, but the coworker approach may lead to a much better work ethic (mirroring the professor), which is tremendously important in science.
It seems to me that students have a harder time successfully completing research (asking the right question, having the right insights, etc.) than being independent. Therefore I believe that student/advisor relationship does not need to promote "independence" in any substantial way.
# Answer
> 0 votes
Pairing students and advisers with complementary *goals*, *needs*, and *expectations* is the key. If a student is already self-motivated, capable, independent, and has a fully-funded, well-conceived research project, then they can be paired with an adviser who gives little oversight. However, if a student is lacking in one or more of those areas, then they should be paired with an adviser who can support them and help them improve on their weaker skills.
References
Delany, D. "A Review of the Literature on Effective PhD Supervision" Centre for Academic Practice and Student Learning, Trinity College (2008).
Zhao, F. "Postgraduate Research Supervision: A Process of Knowledge Management." (2001)
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Tags: phd, advisor, independent-researcher
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thread-27594
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27594
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How to quantify the loss in productivity due to time spent on writing proposals
|
2014-08-25T11:49:03.407
|
# Question
Title: How to quantify the loss in productivity due to time spent on writing proposals
During my PhD it bothered me how much time my supervisor had to spend on writing proposals to get funding to do science, which in practice pretty much meant that he had no time to do science because he spent all that time in the time-consuming business of getting money.
As I was finishing my PhD and looked at postdoc opportunities, I wrote myself a project proposal for starting investigators in which I spent overall about one month (literature review, securing collaborators, writing itself, etc). This was very competitive and only one in every 100 applicants got funded - I did not get funding, although I made it to the interviews, which I was told meant I made it to the top 10%. I am not completely unsatisfied about the outcome because I gained experience and contacts, which eventually led me to being offered a postdoc position by one of the people I had included as collaborators. However, the whole process of putting the thing together meant I lost about one month that I could have spent doing science. It also made me realize that even writing a high quality proposal in which I had spent a lot of time working on the details would not necessarily lead to guaranteed success. If only 1% of applicants get funded it means that statistical noise alone is enough to push you out of the winners pool!
Now that I am a postdoc I have to spend some time helping my new boss with his proposals and in the near future (maybe in the next year) I will have to start applying to some competitive project money myself. Again, this means that I will not be doing research during that time and will spend a considerable amount of time trying to get that research funded.
How can this loss of productivity be quantified? Are there studies on how much less research is carried out because of the time spent on competitive hard-to-win grant calls?
# Answer
I think the question is barking up the wrong tree, to mix metaphors.
As you proceed through the researcher lifecycle (Ph.D. student -\> postdoc -\> professor), your responsibilities will change. For instance, one popular criterion for paper authorship in psychology is that one should have contributed to two out of the following four aspects of research:
1. Grant acquisition
2. Data acquisition
3. Data analysis
4. Manuscript preparation
As a Ph.D. student, you will mainly work on 2-4. The postdoc will spend less time in the lab (point 2), more on 3-4... and he will also start working on grants (point 1). Finally, the professor will mainly focus on points 1 and 4, to a degree on 3. However, the bottom line is that all four activities are "doing research", since grants are just the way money is allocated to competing research groups nowadays. (Of course, one could argue that it would be better if funding were just distributed equally among researchers, but that seems to be a different question.)
Similarly, in industry you could wonder how much time, money and energy is spent on marketing, pre-sales and sales activities and how all these resources could be much better spent on R&D, production and actually serving customers. But this would miss the point that without salespeople, there would not be any customers, nor money to spend on all the things the non-salespeople like to do. (And frequently, the conversion rate on business proposals is similar to the 1% you quote.)
So: don't see writing grants as a drain on productivity. Writing (and getting) grants is how you get the money to do everything else in science.
> 22 votes
# Answer
I think this questions presupposes that you could do more research if you didn't have to write the proposals to get the money to fund your time. The reality of the situation is that there are more people that want to do research than can possibly be funded, so some system must be in place to decide. Competing for grants is the least bad system that we've been able to come up with.
That being said, there are studies. I think the bigger concern, however, is how much time is spent on report writing and other post-award administrative activity.
> 7 votes
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Tags: funding, productivity, projects
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thread-27481
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27481
|
Presenting Barely Complete Results
|
2014-08-21T20:50:19.803
|
# Question
Title: Presenting Barely Complete Results
I'm in a bit of a predicament. I was awarded a small grant to pursue a research topic over this summer under the authority of a professor. I had worked with this professor previously (on a research topic that led to my summer research topic) and had great results.
This professor had very specific ideas as to what he wanted me to do and what goals I should accomplish. I was fine with this as previously this method had worked well with us. This is important; I'll explain in a second.
This summer, my professor (for lack of a better phrase) suddenly dropped off the face of the Earth. He stopped responding to my emails, and the few times he did respond (maybe twice in the span of three months) it was merely saying "I'm very busy; we'll speak eventually; I'm working on other things that are much more important".
This put me in a very bad place. I had done what he asked me and had at that point committed a fair amount of time to the direction he had asked me to pursue. I didn't have enough direction to keep going unsupervised, and didn't have enough time to go in a new direction that I could manage by myself.
I need to write up a summary that discusses what I did and my findings. What I have is a methodology that should solve a particular problem faster (in theory) than current methods (To be more specific, it's a faster implementation of an algorithm--unfortunately I couldn't improve the algorithm itself). I did not have enough guidance (or access to my funds for equipment) to actually test my theory.
Part of receiving the funds was a requirement that I present my findings in my school's undergraduate research journal. Is what I have really enough to present? I know it's an undergraduate journal so no one will actually read it, but I feel silly presenting something so small and trying to trump it up as an actual scientific accomplishment.
Do I try to present the small amount I found? Will I look like a giant idiot if I present a methodology that is completely untested as findings?
# Answer
> 3 votes
This question is rather difficult to answer without more information, and I believe one needs to have more details to actually judge things. I will do my best to address several of your concerns:
You are right that "a faster implementation of an algorithm" is not something very remarkable by itself. There are two possible interpretations:
* Your algorithm does the same thing as the previous algorithm, but you have either changed the insides of the algorithm or performed a better analysis and you have got a better time bound on the algorithm. In this case, I believe it should be okay to publish in an undergraduate journal.
* The algorithm is still the same, but you have discovered a flaw in some implementation of the algorithm and corrected this flaw, so the running time actually corresponds to what the original time complexity bound promises. This is more literally "a faster implementation of an algorithm", and by itself is not a large contribution.
The usual methodology in Computer Science for measuring complexity of algorithms is either worst-case complexity, average-case complexity or amortized complexity. You seem to suggest that you have some novel kind of methodology. If that methodology is more useful for some practical problem which you set out to solve, I believe this might be definitely something to include in the publication.
It is difficult for me to estimate the amount of novel work that you actually have, but you seem to suggest that it was a requirement to submit to an undergraduate journal. Therefore, it makes sense to me that you should write up your work regardless and try to submit it.
It is not the end of the world if a grant fails, but you should try and fulfill the requirements regardless. If you do submit, it may happen that your work does not get accepted, but if you fail to submit, this becomes a certainty.
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Tags: research-process, journals, research-undergraduate
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thread-27609
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27609
|
Making a short summary before a set of paragraphs?
|
2014-08-25T14:58:20.733
|
# Question
Title: Making a short summary before a set of paragraphs?
Of late I noticed that recent books or long articles tend to make a short summary before every set of paragraphs. For example, we might have:
**1. Introduction**
We so and so ...
Therefore, so and so ....
**What is so and so:** Let us consider ...
**Properties of so and so:** We notice that ...
where every boldfaced phrases is followed by a set of paragraphs. For a real example: http://modular.math.washington.edu/edu/2011/581g/misc/Darmon-Diamond-Taylor-Fermats\_Last\_Theorem.pdf
My questions are:
1) Is this style of writing really a trend?
2) Is it still a good idea if we are writing an article of moderate length such as a statement of purpose or a short report?
In my opinion, such style seems much more intelligible.
# Answer
Ah, it's just LateX's `\paragraph{}` command.
It's not the most widespread style, but I think it's clearer, too, and I suggest you to go on using it.
What problems could there be? I can only foresee issues with journal articles, if you encounter overzealous copy-editors. A good card to play is "if your house style contains `\paragraph{}`, I am using it".
> 5 votes
# Answer
It's probably not a trend, but if you like the style, your are free to mimic it. There are millions of scientific articles written every year. Tracking or finding trends in style in these articles is probably not worth it. It almost certainly varies among scientific communities and among what journals and conferences prefer.
> 2 votes
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Tags: writing
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thread-27592
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27592
|
Getting into a topic one is barely familiar with?
|
2014-08-25T11:12:32.460
|
# Question
Title: Getting into a topic one is barely familiar with?
**Intro**
For an upcoming project I have to get into a new topic of research which is not similar to anything I have worked so far. Furthermore, this project requires learning new programming language(s) and simulation environments. And in the end a software implementation and a final report has to be written
**About the topic**
The whole topic is about wireless mobile communication, the basics of communication technologies which are used in this topic are the same with the usual mobile wireless technologies I've learned before. However, the dynamics of the mobility are fairly different. The clustering algorithms used are not typical.
**The essential question**
How do I tackle such a situation, where multiple new things have to be learned before the final results are delivered. I separate the things I have to learn into
* Prerequisites: programming languages, simulation environment, relation between them and the topic basics
* Main work: learning the essential elements of the topic and becoming fluent in them
**Past experiences**
In the past I have usually worked on research topics which I have fulfilled the prerequisites for. So, I would tackle the topic following these steps:
1. Read broader literature: Surveys
2. Read literature about the specific problem
3. Implement if there is something to be done
4. Write final report
In this case I am a bit **lost**. *I don't know where should I start from.* That's why I need help from more experienced researchers. Compared to the list I provided above, step 3 is quite more complicated in this case, as I am not familiar with the programming language.
**What I plan to do**
I want to follow the following steps in order to get into this topic
1. Fulfill the prerequisites: get familiar with the required programming languages and simulation environments. Coupling between them etc. Do some exercises until I feel confident.
2. Start reading broad literature: Surveys
3. Focus on the specific problem: Read specific literature
4. Start implementation
5. Write the final report
I am not quite sure if these steps are OK. Sometimes I get confused and I want to move `4 -> 2`, `2 -> 3`, `3 -> 4` and maybe parallelize something there with step `5`.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I feel so overwhelmed by this topic and need urgent help :(.
# Answer
While your concern is perfectly valid (been there myself more than a few times), you should probably consider and accept that this is the way you are going to learn new things for most professional endeavors. This is how things work out of college; e.g. think about this: are you able to foresee what technologies and concepts are going to be required for your next project? And even if you could name them, could you set aside enough time for mastering them to be prepared for the next assignment?
As I see it, you already have a sound plan, I would stick to it. I would, however, recommend that you not get too engaged in just familiarizing yourself with the new environment. Sure, take some time to get some grip on it, but once you are got the basics, I suggest proceeding with your plan. One major asset of your assignment is going to be your new acquired skills, but that mastery will come in small portions along the whole road of the project. I find it unlikely (for students and professionals alike) to be able to learn a new paradigm in a reasonable time, without some means to guide the effort, e.g. class projects, so, instead of trying to get to the bottom immediately, get the basics and learn the rest along the way.
Other than that, as I said before, your plan is sound, just don't let the fear of the unknown overwhelm you into panic.
> 2 votes
# Answer
In my (albeit limited) experience, depending on where you are in your career, you may want to search for a collaborator. When I was graduating, I had a project on the backburner that I didn't know how to tackle, so when I had a certain audience in job talks I'd try to send out dog-whistles about certain aspects of the research project to see if they could give me something back or be interested by the remarks.
In the end, I got a brand-new collaborator (an expert on what I wanted to do) who really started to enjoy the project and is finding new things about the technique in which he's an expert. And the results ended up better than I ever could have hoped! Perhaps your PI may have friends that she/he trusts not to scoop you that you can confide the project in and then consequently have a new collaborator.
Learning this new topic "on the street" as it may be would make this the most efficient way for you to learn and retain what you need for your research. This way you don't have to learn everything from the ground up which would take forever and your collaborator can tell help you figure out what you *need* to learn.
> 0 votes
# Answer
Learning a new programming language is probably the most straightforward part of this. Unless it's a *really* obscure language, there will be tutorials online and books to help you. If you already know one or two programming languages, learning a new one will usually not be difficult, and you can probably estimate for yourself how long it will take. However, if you're coming from a procedural programming background like C/C++, Java, Perl, PHP, VB, or most of the "familiar" languages, it will take more time to learn a functional programming language like Haskell.
Make sure your learning is very focused. Don't try to learn the entire language (unless you want to), just learn enough to accomplish what you need to. I usually read a chapter or two of the book, then try to code up a bit of the functionality I need. When I get stuck, I read a bit more. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Learning about the simulation environment may be easy or hard, depending on how well documented it is. If there isn't much documentation, but you can get a sample bit of code or configuration, then you can try making tiny changes to see what effect they have.
As for learning about mobile/wireless communication, have you considered talking to a company in this field? Large telecomms companies usually have some connection to academia. If what you're doing has business potential for them, they may fund your research, lend you equipment, or at least offer some mentoring. Or if your project isn't relevant to traditional cellular networks, maybe think about what sort of business might benefit from this technology, and then ask them for some support.
> 0 votes
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Tags: research-process, thesis, writing
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thread-27537
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27537
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What incentives do professors have to increase the PhD completion rate in their department?
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2014-08-23T09:28:13.550
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# Question
Title: What incentives do professors have to increase the PhD completion rate in their department?
In other words:
> How do professors profit if a larger (rather than smaller) proportion of entering PhD students in their department complete their degree?
(At my department at least, it seems like the only benefit is "warm-glow altruism". A professor gains no more from having more students at her department complete their PhDs than I do by having fewer stray dogs in my town getting killed by traffic. A professor's career prospects does not seem in any way affected by whether 80% rather than just 50% of PhD students complete their degree. Not surprisingly, the completion rate, at least at my department, is closer to the latter.)
Note: **I am not asking whether it is a good idea to give professors stronger incentives to increase PhD completion rate.** Neither am I asking for suggestions as to how PhD completion rates can be increased. Rather, I am asking what the incentives at present are (granting of course that this varies from place to place).
# Answer
> 11 votes
In the United States, the National Research Council (http://www.nap.edu/rdp/) regularly ranks university departments. One of the criteria by which departments (and thus universities) are ranked is the "Average of Median Time to Degree" with the presumption that lower is better.
In my university, this results in the provost's office putting pressure on us to reduce our time to degree through a number of measures, some coercive and punitive. Most of the time, the coercion and punishment is directed towards the graduate students (i.e., after the sixth year they lose their rights to certain fellowships, they have to pay more for their gym and library memberships, etc.).
But the department as a whole gets some attention. Our chair has been regularly sending out lists of our orphaned and missing ABD candidates (some now in their 12th year) and asking us to find and terminate them (either through graduating them, or formally asking them to leave the program).
I've also been putting some pressure on my peers through the admissions system by suggesting (since they are my colleagues, I have no power) that people with many students on the books should refrain from taking on new students until they clear their backlog more a bit.
I should note that I'm in anthropology where: 1) students tend to go into the field and disappear for quite sometime; 2) doctoral students are mostly useless to faculty for slave labor as most of us work individually and not in labs (with the exception of some of our archaeological / biological colleagues).
# Answer
> 9 votes
If an advisee leaves without completing a Ph.D., then the advisor can end up feeling like the whole process was a waste of time, since the goal of strengthening the research area by training a future contributor was not achieved. That's not fair or reasonable: the education and experience may be useful for the advisee despite not culminating in a Ph.D., and the opportunity to try was itself valuable regardless of how it worked out. However, these feelings are relatively common, and the advisor's investment of time and effort becomes an incentive towards higher completion rates.
This personal investment begins only when the student chooses an advisor, so the corresponding incentive is not relevant before that stage. On the other hand, spaces in graduate school are a limited and therefore valuable resource, so there is still an incentive for faculty not to waste them, even at the coursework stage.
What makes this issue tricky is that nobody can agree on what the ideal completion rate should be. To a first approximation higher is better, but this isn't a universal principle, and a 100% completion rate would arguably mean you're doing something wrong. Over the course of a difficult five-year program aimed at a narrow career, some people will legitimately discover that there's something else they'd rather do instead, and others will be prevented from finishing by factors beyond their or the university's control. The only way to enforce a perfect completion rate would be to refuse to admit anyone who seemed like they might not finish and then bully all the students into finishing regardless of whether or how their circumstances had changed. For example, you would never take a risk by admitting someone who seemed like they deserved a chance, and you would never gracefully accept a student's change of plans. Ultimately, the fundamental difficulty is that we can't necessarily distinguish between reasonable attrition and inappropriate attrition caused by unsupportive practices, and this makes the whole issue contentious.
# Answer
> 8 votes
In France, labs are assessed by the AÉRES (mirror) (~= Department of Evaluation of Research and Higher Education).
The evaluation criteria (mirror) show that the AÉRES prefer labs where PhD students don't drop out too often.
Since the AÉRES evaluation has an important impact, e.g. to get funding, professors have an incentive to increase the PhD completion rate (and they also have an incentive not to turn PhDs into some ever-lasting position: labs typically to try to graduate students in 3-4 years).
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In the US - at least in my university - I'm not aware of any incentive, except that new PhD students will avoid professors who have the reputation of taking a while to graduate their students.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I'm going to answer the opposite question. What disincentives do professors have to increase the PhD completion rate in their department? I'm looking at the opposite of what you asked because I feel it will give us insight into your question.
In some fields, which I can only talk directly about the one I am familiar with - Compute Science, having students complete their PhD in a timely matter isn't a focus unfortunatly. Professors who are already established may already have a little army of PhD grads out there citing their work and growing their PhD empire. Which means that current or recent crops of PhD students under that professor sometimes get stuck. Why? Unfortunately one thing that PhD students are is cheap(ish), reliable labor.
A PhD student is going to work on the tasks or research set before them by their PI. They are going to do their best to complete that research - not just because it benefits their career but because failure in that arena may lead to disfavor or even being removed from their program. A professor can be assured that PhD students working under them will focus on their research of choice and will invariably cite or reference previous work done by the professor. Incidentally the PI is almost always an author on any paper that student publishes.
That's a bit cynical, I'll admit. But even beyond the pure cynicism of authorship farms and indentured servitude is the basic truth that it takes time to train someone to do research work at a high level. If I have been researching creating artificial butterfly wings out of volatile polycarbonates(or whatever) then it's going to take at least a year, if not more, to get a student enough information, enough skill and enough confidence to wind them up and let them go on important research.
Right now some of the other Academic posters are rolling their eyes. This sounds both incredibly cynical and a little bit tin foil hat ish. But the thing is... these are real problems that have been identified in at least a few schools I know of. You get some old, cranky, tenured professor who has dozens of students out in the world and who has gotten used to his or her status as king of the research mountain and all the sudden students start taking longer and longer to graduate. All the sudden that professor forgets what it was like to be a PhD student, trying to make a difference with your research and trying to get the heck out and graduate and only remembers that it's annoying and expensive to train a new PhD student and, btw, this student's producing pretty well and... well it would be more convenient if this trained student would stick around for a while.
What is done about this? Some programs tie tenure positions with completion rates and timelines. This is problematic and, to be honest, I've heard people talk about it but I've never seen or heard of it in action.
Some programs have a soft cap on the length of time a student can remain as a PhD student. I have seen this in action and I'm conflicted about it. On one hand, PhD students need to either graduate or leave the program eventually. But different fields can take different amounts of time to get results. Additionally, sometimes life just happens and the student who is moving along their degree runs into a snag(changes PIs, has a health emergency, just needs more time). The hope is that these soft caps are flexible enough to deal with these situations. The ways I have seen these soft caps(for lack of a better word) implemented is by having a fairly strict timelines for course work completion, having a deadline for committee selection(generally very early in the process) and having regular meetings between advisors(academic style advisors, not research advisors) and students.
Although your answer states that you're not interested in what could or should be done in these situations I think it's valuable to say that: I think low PhD graduation rates are signs of an unhealthy department and unhealthy academic culture. They should be taken very seriously and the fix should never be the 'warm fuzzy glow' of graduating someone.
# Answer
> 5 votes
There's a bit of an inaccurate presumption in the question itself, or anyway ambiguous wording. That is, some assumption of causality...?!?
As a mathematician, I do not think of PhD students individually or collectively as assisting my research program so much as doing teaching work that I don't have to do. Even my own PhD students, while stimulating to talk to, do not "help" my research program. Perhaps this is contrary to mythology. Although more-experienced TAs (teaching assistants, in the U.S.) are generally better at their job due to that experience, that level of proficiency is attained within a year or two of beginning the role. That is, in my sort of situation, there is absolutely no motivation for faculty to delay completion of PhDs. Indeed, as @roboKaren comments, there is some pressure from higher-ups to improve "stats". (That is, in terms of TAs, we cycle them through at a certain rate, so there're always roughly the same number to do the TA work. Shortening or lengthening the cycle time would accomplish nothing, and we have no motivation to do so.)
Is the supposed issue about people leaving the program? This is a very complicated question, considering that it might be entirely reasonable to leave a program if/when one discovers it's not what one thought. Should we brow-beat people to stay? Bribe them? True, being nasty to try to "drive out weaklings" is incivil, but I don't address that possibility.
If the question is about the "drop out rate", then it is probably impossible to answer usefully. If it is about time-to-completion, some useful things can be said.
This simplifies the question to two very different ones: about my interest in *colleagues'* students finishing faster/slower, and about my interest in *my* students finishing faster/slower. Apart from general humanitarian/professional-ethical concerns, I have no interest in the arc of other peoples' students, as it is really not my business. It is true that my perception (based substantially on two stints as Director of Grad Studies in Math) is that some PhD students and their advisors devolve into an unproductive, uncommunicative relationship, with "blame" not clearly assignable, but which creates enormous difficulties in completion. E.g., if either party is naturally non-verbal (despite the seeming ok-ness of this in math, ... which is not the case, actually), there is a potentially fatal problem. If there is a misunderstanding (from either side) about the context, origins, degree, and sense of the alleged "novelty/progress" of a thesis, this can be a huge obstacle.
For my own students, I try to arrange a thesis project that will optimally use the talent, energy, background, etc., in the time fully-funded by the department as TA (not counting on RAs (research assistantships), fellowships, etc). My thinking is that one's clock really, really starts once one is "out the door", so taking a sixth year instead of just five may be well worth it. But if/when someone says they want to finish more quickly, a suitable project can be chosen, up to a point: usually, there is a misunderstanding, a misguided prior belief that, indeed, somehow, faculty or departments are conniving to delay degree completion. :) "If only they'd get out of my way so I could do my research...!?!" ... overlooking the point that all the "required" stuff is meant to assist that (nevermind the common stylizations and distortions and misunderstandings).
So: incentive for *quicker* completion than the funded period? None, on scientific and educational grounds. On bureaucratic grounds, there's an ever-hardening soft cap on funding, which is a good reason to get people out the door... even though this soft funding cap is meant in practice primarily to avoid funding "eternal grad students" who make a bit of progress but either can't finish a PhD-worthy project or who are unhire-able for some reason (e.g., inability to speak in English, in the U.S.).
So, while my experience as Dir Grad Studies in Math made me unhappily aware of others' foibles, I don't think there's much motivation in mathematics for faculty to *delay* PhD graduations, and only a little to accelerate it. But faculty aren't the obstacle, in most cases. It's just that the U.S. undergrad system under-prepares people for grad school, so there're two or so years of basic coursework necessary to be even marginally literate, and then becoming aware of the basics of any fragment of modern mathematics can (obviously... though people in CompSci seem to have a radically different epistemological mythology) take a year or two. Unsurprisingly, quite a few people discover that "math" is not what they thought it was, given that U.S. coursework typically is at best very-early 20th century stuff, giving no inkling of mid-to-late 20th century stuff, apart from the not-really-contemporary-research, somewhat delusional (inevitably fairly contrived) "REU" (research experiences for undergrads) episodes. Given the popularity of REUs in the U.S., I'll not comment further on the alleged virtues-or-not... apart from agreeing that, yes, it is good to spend some time hanging out with other same-age kids who really like math, and not being in the usual stodgy classroom situation...
So, if "completion rate" means completions-per-admission... well, that's a can-of-worms, all the more for programs (such as ours) which try to be imaginative in visualizing the success of some students who do not necessarily have the traditional trappings of "success", but seem to have sufficient interest and talent. Gambles! If we'd be taken to task for not gambling on sure things... ?!? And a similar analysis applies to length of time to completion: pressuring people or limiting them to finish more quickly could induce more "failures", rather than "coerce" faster success.
Again, I feel that the question itself is predicated on a misunderstanding of why it is not so easy to get a PhD... but maybe I'm just old-and-tired. :)
# Answer
> 0 votes
PhD is largely depend on the individual effort and skill of the graduate student, much more than the result of a student in lower educational levels. Therefore it is questionable how much credit should be given to the supervisor and the individual.
Indirect intensives of being a good mentor is numerous from tenure track level, as it is mentioned in the comments. A strong prof-grad students relationship is also a very strong basis of future research networks for both the students and the professors. I saw several examples how a successful former graduate student can raise the reputation of a prof, and help in new cooperation.
Direct incentives (head money? ) to the teacher to improve that rate would be counterproductive. PhD is not elementary school: it is not like pass or fail. Just because someone passed it, the career prospects doesn't get much better if it is not coupled with actually skills, good publications etc. So just pushing someone to pass when it is not deserved doesn't do any good to students neither. Even if the reason of failure is beyond the student, or the prof is unreasonably demanding, changing the lab and / or institutional level of protection of the student is much better solution i believe.
Imagine this scenario: top notch laboratories can (should) have really challenging research topics. Big part of the research is however carried out by graduate students. Do we offer direct intensives to the professor to lower the level and bet on safe projects, just to have higher pass rates for his graduate students? Easy trick, yet at the end the student ends up with poor publication record and the once-prestigious lab lower its quality, too. It is not good to anyone.
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Tags: phd, professorship, degree
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thread-27420
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27420
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How to improve myself as a recitation (discussion,lab,tutorial) teacher?
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2014-08-20T15:27:40.297
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# Question
Title: How to improve myself as a recitation (discussion,lab,tutorial) teacher?
This question is related to How to improve myself as a lecturer?. However, being a PhD student, my main teaching obligation is leading recitations, i.e. sessions for groups of ~20 students that take place each week after a lecture and the content of the lecture should be revised mostly via exercises.
If you do not use the term "recitation session", please see a related question: What is the equivalent of European "seminar" in US universities?
At my university (Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Czech Republic), in the mathematics/theoretical computer science classes, usually you have a 90 minute class where the recitation teacher reminds students of what was said in the lecture, hands out or writes exercises, and then, in shorter blocks, students go through the exercises and one student shows the solutions on a blackboard.
I'm not very fond of this structure and I would like to improve my classes with ideas that I cannot find at my university (where we usually do things the aforementioned way).
Some ideas that I've had in my previous years, which you can judge effectiveness of:
* handing out "cheat sheets" containing the entire course notes (with compact proofs) beforehand: usually useful, as lecturers rarely have such compact notes beforehand, but very time consuming.
* trying to ask each student how he is faring and offer personal advice: when I was a student, I preferred this model, but it takes a lot of time to go around 20 people and shortly talk to each one; my students (in an exit questionnaire) argued that they want more exercises done per class, so time is of the essence.
* allow group work during a class -- this seems natural to me (science is mostly done in groups) but often results in people not being able to perform as well in final exams. Plus I am not yet sure how to allow groupwork so that groups don't delegate the work to the one enthusiastic student in the group.
* use text questionnaires through and after a session to find out what students would like; I am very happy with the information in those and will use those in the future but students of one university tend to suggest improvements which they have noticed at the same university (especially where it is expected to go to one university for the 3-year Bc. and 2-year Master's).
* filming yourself (as was suggested in the lecturer's question) is definitely a valid option but I feel it won't help me as much with recitations, especially since (I believe) there are not many great recitation sessions publicly available on the internet.
# Answer
> 10 votes
I've taught Biology discussion sections, and trained graduate students to teach. I'm a biology education researcher, so I am familiar with studies that measure student learning in different environments. I'd summarize good teaching as follows:
1. Find the student misconceptions. If you are good at your subject, you likely have not struggled to learn it. Your biggest mystery is what do students not understand. Unfortunately, students don't have the meta-awareness to tell you, so you'll need to figure the misconceptions out together, at least for the first run-through of the course.
2. Show students their misconceptions. Because students don't know what they don't know, they often feel like they understand material that they actually do not. When you show them they don't understand, they are more eager to fix the problem.
3. Give students an opportunity to learn. Your class activities will indeed include a lot of group work, because discussing a problem, asking questions and answering them keeps everyone improving right at the sticky points. The big secret to group work so that everyone stays busy? Groups must be only 2 or 3 students. And you'll be walking around and asking the quiet students what they have figured out, so there is no slacking.
Here is an example of how to make this work. It's copied from an earlier answer of mine.
* Look over the problem set the night before, and determine the easy ones from the hard ones.
* When students arrive, tell them to start work on a difficult problem. Plan on giving them 5-10 minutes -- whatever they need until many of them slow down. Walk around as they work and just see how they choose to work.
* After several are stuck, have them get into groups of three and compare their techniques and what they found difficult.
(note: students hate group work because it is more painful than just listening. Most classes will try not getting into groups, or not really talking, just to see if they can get out of it. A cheerful forcefulness works well on American students)
* Walk around again and ask questions like, "Tell me how far you are. Can you show me a part that is difficult? Can you get out your lecture notes and find the section relevant to this problem?"
* Usually at this point you will see a sticky point that more than one student is wrestling with. Now is a great time to pull everyone's attention back to the front of the room and you can work through that problem (or one similar) and answer questions for 5-10 minutes.
* Have students return to the problem and complete it. Then they can do a similar problem on their own to reinforce.
* Move on to the next topic and assign a new, difficult problem.
As you can see, this process shows both you and the students what they don't understand, and provides space and motivation to fix the problem. Because you're visiting the groups, they must produce.
Things I wouldn't recommend for a recitation:
1. Making course notes or a study guide. Students should be making their own.
2. More lecturing
3. Questionnaires are fine, but again, students don't know what they don't know
We've actually posted an example of discussion work for biology here: http://vimeo.com/33801546
# Answer
> 4 votes
I've been leading tutorials (much like your recitation sessions) and studio based learning sessions for 7 years as a TA, and have been teaching as a professor for 2 years. An effective way to improve teaching, at least for me, has been a keen interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Through delving into research I've radically changed my own viewpoint of what it means to be a teacher, and deepened my understanding as to how learning works.
In my own teaching, I try to structure my classes around student centred, active-learning principles. I act more as a facilitator of learning, and have students actively discuss and work to achieve the objectives for a class. Rather than overtly lecture on a principle, I'll prepare readings for the students ahead of time then in the session have students discuss and reinforce the key elements of a principle through a realistic application, usually in small groups. They will all present their work and then discuss their approach and its merits.
The above example is only one small and, to be honest, quite vague example of more active learning. The key is that the focus and effort should be on and from the student. There are many, many more great examples and other evidence-based effective teaching methods out there. One fantastic resource that I routinely read and recommend is:
Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., & Lovett, M. C. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. \[Link to this book on Google Books and Amazon\]
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Tags: teaching, computer-science, mathematics, europe, teaching-assistant
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thread-27632
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27632
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Mentioning placement offer in a curriculum vitae?
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2014-08-26T06:56:03.937
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# Question
Title: Mentioning placement offer in a curriculum vitae?
I have been offered an engineering position from a reputed multinational corporation working broadly in Communications and Microprocessors. Meanwhile I am applying for a MS/PhD position in a different specialization but can still be broadly classified as Electrical Engineering.
Is it advisable to mention a Placement Offer in a curriculum vitae? If so, will it be relevant in the above case?
# Answer
If you are working at the company *while* you are applying to schools, then it should definitely be mentioned. However, if you are choosing between the placement offer and graduate school (in other words, accepting the offer *instead of* graduate school), then I would leave it out. This is because this may give the appearance that you're not really serious about applying to graduate schools, which may lessen your odds of getting an interview or an offer.
If you feel it's absolutely essential to mention it, you should do so in your cover letter; however, for the most part, I would do so only if it became important for you to do so (because there's a deadline for accepting the offer, for instance).
> 3 votes
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Tags: phd, cv
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thread-16852
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16852
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How to phrase the title in a presentation at an academic interview?
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2014-02-12T15:34:04.457
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# Question
Title: How to phrase the title in a presentation at an academic interview?
When delivering a presentation at an academic interview, what are some keywords which should be included in the title of the presentation? Should the title be in the first person? What are some good examples?
The position I am considering is **assistant professor / lecturer**
I imagine some choices to be:
1. The interview presentation for JACK JAY
2. The presentation for lecturer at Uni Awesome by JACK JAY
3. JACK JAY'S presentation as candidate lecturer at Uni Awesome
# Answer
You don't need to include *any* of the proposed titles in your presentation. They all come across as stilted and affected, and are entirely unnecessary.
Instead, if this is a public presentation, treat it as you would any other such presentation: indicate the title of your talk as you normally would have it, and so on.
If this is the "private" presentation to the faculty, then you should give it a title representing your current and future research interests. You don't need to say "what" the presentation is for—again, the location of the talk should be sufficient.
> 5 votes
# Answer
Just throw it out here. Perhaps others can upload their suggested topic slide as well? That would be fun.
I don't like to appear to be overly kissing-up, so I'll opt for toning down the university. My talk would have been broadcasted and posted for a while at the institute so the audience should know why they are here. So I'll just focus on up-playing my topic and who I am.
It'd be prudent to clarify with the hiring committee chair on the format and topics to be covered. But beyond that, just be at ease with the format stuff; focus on the contents. Be very, very certain that you cover just enough background to show you can think in breadth and depth, explain what your research questions are, and present your methods and results in alignment with your questions, and state briefly the implication. For job talk, leave a few minutes to elaborate how your work can grow into your career path, and highlight potential synergistic collaboration with some hot areas that your target institute is good at (e.g. "I'll also love to collaborate with the specialists at your Marine Dietary Assessment Center to cast a more critical look at the diet-obesity association.") You'll need to read their website/reports up on that. Find some friends, colleagues, and mentors to sit in your practice sessions.
Best of luck!
> 8 votes
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Tags: presentation, titles
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thread-27627
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27627
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Can I mention brand names and their products in my research/technical paper?
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2014-08-26T03:21:10.130
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# Question
Title: Can I mention brand names and their products in my research/technical paper?
I want to write a paper on Mobile Screens in HCI, as phones are getting uncomfortably big for users, I want to provide some solution to the big screen phones or how logically state that how small screen phones are suitable for the user.
Coming back to question, for the above-mentioned reason, I was going to make a survey of big phone screen users, and I was going to mention it in my paper, is it okay to mention brand names of phones and their specific products with images?
# Answer
> 1 votes
For cases of the type you mention I would probably recommend not naming the brands. The reason for this is that the manufacturer is unlikely to be happy if you say that their equipment is not very good (and they can't all be good or there is nothing to write about). This is particularly important if they have given you samples/equipment to use for research.
The lab I'm at has done several comparisons of various software and microscopes for surface metrology and in all cases the equipment/software is just referred to as A, B, C etc.
While from my point of view the reasons for doing this are purely maintaining good relations I expect there is a legal aspect too. I know we have received long loans/discounts on some instruments which presumably involves a contract saying we can't publish anything negative about the instrument.
If a company has provided some equipment used in this sort of thing you may wish to put them in the acknowledgements. Although be aware this may de-anomimise you data. If very few people make an instrument of a certain type saying thanks to company X makes it obvious what it is. On the other hand knowledgeable readers could probably make an educated guess anyway.
# Answer
> 8 votes
I don't know about hardware, but in case you feel like mentioning some software (and hardware often comes with software...), beware that the EULA can prohibit researchers and scientists from explicitly using the names of their systems in academic papers.
Oracle is notorious for that, they sued David DeWitt following some benchmarks he had published that mentioned Oracle, see the DeWitt Clause. Luckily the University of Wisconsin supported him, but Oracle banned all Wisconsin alumni for a while.
# Answer
> 7 votes
Although in some fields, this may be a problem, as Franck Dernoncourt has explained, in other fields, it is not only a good idea, but *expected*. For instance, in the laboratory sciences, you would normally list the vendors and suppliers who provided the "raw materials" being used, as well as, in many cases, the experimental apparatuses used to study them.
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Tags: research-process, publications, legal-issues
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thread-27628
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27628
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Using proprietary software to demonstrate work in conference
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2014-08-26T04:32:34.730
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# Question
Title: Using proprietary software to demonstrate work in conference
I am going to conduct a workshop on my research work and for that I need to show how it is done on the software. I want to know,
* Is it ok to display the proprietary software (through TeamViewer) from my university?
* or Should I use screenshots?
# Answer
> 16 votes
Generally speaking it is totally fine to use or demonstrate publicly (at a conference or elsewhere) some proprietary software. Many presenters use Microsoft Windows along with Microsoft PowerPoint, and nobody ever gets into trouble.
That said, if you want to be 100% sure you need to peruse the end-user license agreement (EULA), which is the contract that stipulates under which conditions the program might be used: this is the ultimate reference. For example, the EULA can prohibit researchers and scientists from explicitly using the names of their systems in a benchmark. (Oracle is notorious for that, they sued David DeWitt following some benchmarks he had published that mentioned Oracle, see the DeWitt Clause).
Beyond the EULA, one exception I can think of is if you have signed some confidentiality contract, which can happen when the software hasn't been released yet and the developers give you access to some pre-release version of it.
Another exception is that if by "show how it is done on the software" you mean reverse engineer the software, then you might want to be careful: reverse engineering is borderline. E.g. in the United States, EULA provisions can preempt the reverse engineering rights implied by fair use, c.f. Bowers v. Baystate Technologies.
The last exception I can think of is video games: they can be seen as art, both for the graphic and the music. Just like you can't show a movie or broadcast music publicly in the general case (e.g. Twitch mutes some screencasts), video game publishers might use some similar arguments in court. That's very theoretical.
All in all, if you're having some doubts, you might want to drop by the legal office in your University, because as any law 101 course says, the answer is always "it depends".
# Answer
> 3 votes
Screenshots are much better than a live demonstration.
Too many things can go wrong with a live demonstration: Problems with the Internet connectivity at the conference, at your university, or anywhere between the two points. Servers being down for maintenance. Software crashing unexpectedly. Embarrassing user errors during the presentation. You cannot connect your own laptop to the video projector at the conference, and you need to resort to another computer that does not have the right software installed. Yearly software license expiring the same morning as you are supposed to give the talk. Wrong screen resolution for the software. Etc., etc.
None of these reasons are related to copyrights. Of course *if* you can show screenshots you can also show the software itself.
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Tags: research-process, copyright, presentation, software, workshop
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thread-9003
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9003
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Indicating a name change after publication
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2013-03-30T02:46:38.267
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# Question
Title: Indicating a name change after publication
My wife has publications under both her maiden name and her married name. How should she indicate that this is the case on her CV, if she wants to mention publications from both time periods?
# Answer
> 30 votes
I know 2 female professors personally who clarify this fact very similarly. What they do is this:
1. They cite the relevant publications as they were with her maiden name and her new last name.
2. They add a * at the beginning of the "**Publications**" section in their CV which refers to a footnote to that page which then says something like this "\* Last name changed to Smith from Doe in 1988"
That seems to work very well so far.
# Answer
> 21 votes
A short answer, I think one can write
> "full present name", born "maiden name"
or
> "full present name", formerly "maiden name"
and put this in the top of the CV where you have personal details and/or also as a subheading for the publications list.
I also bold face my name in all publications, This way it should not pass anyone where I am in the publications list.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I am in this situation, too. I site my publications as they appear on PubMed, keeping the outdated last name where it is seen on the original aricles. I then underline my full name in each publication, whether it is the current or former last name, i.e. "Jane M. Doe" and "Jane M. Smith" would be underlined in the Publications section. I also have my full, current name at the top of my CV/Resume (i.e. Jane M. Smith) so it is clear that the underlined person (whether Doe or Smith) is me. I have had job coaches indicate they like this strategy.
# Answer
> -4 votes
Unique ID services for authors like ORCID (http://orcid.org/; non-profit) and ResearcherID (http://www.researcherid.com/; associated with Web of Knowledge) are the way to go. You can list all your previous names on your ORCID profile, as well as alternate spellings. Many publishers (including Nature, PLOS, etc) and funders (both in the US and elsewhere) are starting to use ORCID to help manage authors' identities. ORCID suggests placing your ID prominently on your website, CV, and anywhere else folks might encounter your professional identity, to help with name disambiguation.
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Tags: publications, cv, personal-name
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thread-27596
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27596
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What skills can I get during a PhD to be competitive on the job market against non-PhD holders?
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2014-08-25T12:12:16.613
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# Question
Title: What skills can I get during a PhD to be competitive on the job market against non-PhD holders?
Earning a PhD help you learn tools and techniques in your field, and lets you become an expert in a very specific field of science. However, once you get your degree and try to enter the labor market, you're competing against people who are younger than you (i.e. recently graduated non-phd engineers) and may have actual work experience (i.e. non-phd engineers with a few years in the market).
There are, of course, some positions in which they cannot compete, including research and teaching position. Those are the minority, though... in most other fields it seems that holding a PhD is not as important as (for example) work experience.
So, I would like to know:
* Is work experience more important than having a PhD in the many work environments?
* What skills can I acquire/demonstrate during my PhD to become more "valuable" than a non-PhD candidate for the same job?
# Answer
> 17 votes
This question is too broad, but I have a feeling it's a commonly asked one, so I'm going to try to answer it anyways.
To address (what used to be) your second question first: holding a PhD does not make a job candidate any more desirable for the vast majority of positions. Indeed, it can be a factor against the candidate, as they will be perceived as more expensive. For positions where a less-qualified candidate could also fill the role, being overqualified is rarely a good thing. Jobs that are specifically looking for a PhD will typically state that in the requirements. For example, "Masters required, PhD preferred" is a common one in certain parts of the banking sector. However, for entry-level positions (data entry, lower-level analyst roles, etc), you may be at a disadvantage.
Regarding your first question, though, you're being overly harsh on yourself. The process of earning a PhD is *significant* work experience; indeed, that's your main selling point when looking for your first job. Depending on what you did, you will have some or all of the following experience:
* Identifying, clearly stating, and figuring out how to address a problem - this alone qualifies you to be a consultant at any large firm; this is all they do, all the time, for different clients
* Project management
* Advanced technical writing - your thesis, academic publications
* Communication skills - working through the peer-review process
* Public speaking - presenting at conferences
* Experimental design - your research project
* The art of researching - the simple knowledge of how to properly find articles, sources, etc
* ...
Even better, you've been doing all that for four years. You should be selling every single one of those points as hard as you can when you move to industry.
---
EDIT: The above answer stands for the edited second question as well; as a graduate student, you will want to learn all of the above if you wish to enter the workforce. More specifically, though, almost industry positions seeking PhD candidates will apply to value the following three above most else:
* **Self-starter** \- shown in that you got your work done
* **Collaborative** \- demonstrated through *successful* collaborations with other researchers (successful = researched together, published together)
* **Good communication** \- demonstrated through publications, public speaking, conference presentations, teaching, etc.
During the PhD, aim to do those things, and during your job search, emphasize all those traits in your resume and during interviews.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I think the answer in large part depends on the kind of job you want to work when you have completed your degree. You mention that you do not know the kind of job that you want to work when you get out of a the program. This is unfortunate. A Ph.D. = specialization, a mistake many Ph.D. students make is to assume specialization = job. In fact, specialization can make it harder to find a job. If you're goal is to enter into industry than I think you have an interesting road to navigate. The job market will be kinder to you if you have a range of skills that you are really good at, the Ph.D. program is going to pull you in the opposite direction. You're wise to want to understand better what it is about getting a Ph.D. that will make you standout in the workforce, but you'd also be wise to look at some skills for your desired positions that you might not develop while in the Ph.D. program, and look to develop those too while you are in the program. For me these skills are computer science skills. For you these skills might be something different.
Unfortunately, unless you are in the hard sciences, and even then specialization can be a demon, having a Ph.D. might not mean all that much when stacked against someone with a Master's, wider breadth of skills and more industry experience when looking for industry job.
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Tags: phd, job, engineering
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thread-27528
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27528
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Is teaching a graduate course with 30 students an unreasonable expectation for a PhD student with a TA contract?
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2014-08-23T02:24:46.623
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# Question
Title: Is teaching a graduate course with 30 students an unreasonable expectation for a PhD student with a TA contract?
I am a PhD student in a social science field, and am on a teaching assistantship. My contract stipulates that TAs are to work no more than an average of 15 hours per week.
For my particular department, the past protocol was that 10 hours were devoted to teaching duties (class time, office hours, prepping, and grading), while the remaining five hours are devoted to research with an assigned faculty member. Overall, I do not think that is unreasonable.
However, that setup was determined when the PhD students mostly taught undergraduate courses. I have been assigned a graduate course, and have been told to expect an enrollment of "at least 30 students."
I have never taught before, at any level. I am also still taking a full-time course load of my own.
Does this seem like an unreasonably high expectation from the Dean and program director? Or am I just being a wimp?
I definitely want to teach, and I want to make sure that my students receive the best quality education from me that I can provide. And I would like to do this without sacrificing my own academic progress, nor what is remaining of my sanity.
Just curious to know what other people's experiences in this area have been.
# Answer
It is incredibly common for the number of hours devoted to teaching be woefully inadequate to deliver good instruction except possibly for highly seasoned instructors teaching the exact same course multiple times.
Unfortunately, I don't know any fair solution to this. You'll probably spend two or three times longer than the expected number of hours in order to do even an adequate job. From what I observe, people cope either by working far more than they're supposed to, or by delivering not-very-good instruction. It's a difficult spot to be in. (Alas, not the only difficult spot in academia.)
The bright side is that if you're really interested in teaching and put in way more time than you're "supposed" to, next time it won't be as bad (you'll only have to put in somewhat more than you're supposed to), and if you do well you will both help your students and be known as someone who is a good teacher (good if you want to do more teaching).
> 14 votes
# Answer
I'm actually kind of shocked by the other answers saying this is normal. Maybe math and the social sciences are somehow different in this regard, but this sounds like an insane situation. I'm sure you're a wonderful person, and it sounds like you're trying your best, but it's totally unfair to the graduate students in your class to have them taught by someone with zero teaching experience. To me this seems like an enormous red flag about your department that they would do this. Where the hell are the faculty who should be teaching these courses?
That said, I'm not sure I have a course of action to suggest beyond doing your best in the assigned class (especially since it's presumably starting up quite soon), but I agree with you that it's unreasonable.
> 10 votes
# Answer
It is unusual, and probably disserves all parties, for a grad student to be assigned to teach a grad course, apart from considerations of alleged competence or not. For an advanced grad student to fill in for their advisor while the advisor goes to a conference is somewhat common in mathematics, in my experience, but that's not the same.
I don't have a good sense of the situation for other disciplines, but in mathematics at my research university (and other places I've been) grad students might be assigned full responsibility for lower-division courses, but never for upper-division, much less graduate-level.
It's not only the workload, and perhaps not even the issue of competence in the material, but of *mastery* of the material, so that reasonable questions from students could be answered authoritatively, instantly, etc. A grad student's opinion might be harder to consider "authoritative", not because one would presume that they don't know, but because they lack a track record and credentials to allow people to effortlessly trust their expertise. One *should* be able to effortlessly trust the expertise of people giving graduate-level courses, in my opinion.
(And, yes, unfortunately, being "on the faculty", being "old", etc., are no guarantees of competence, much less expertise... I know...)
> 5 votes
# Answer
It varies but what you've described does not sound unusual.
In my social science department at a state research university, it's standard for graduate students without other support to have teaching and/or research responsibilities that include 20 hours a week of work and that can often involve teaching. This is in addition to taking classes on their own and/or doing research.
In my own graduate studies at a business school, all students started with two years of full fellowship that meant no TA/RA requirements at all for the first two years.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I also believe this is not unusual (depends on your discipline though). Moreover, graduate classes have certain advantages, other than the ones already mentioned in the comments (such as more disciplined and capable students). The first one is, that you encounter a new pool of possible collaborators. You are a PHD student and those are possibly MSc students, so they may need to write a MSc thesis. By teaching this class (and doing it well) some of the students will be interested to work with you (on their MSc thesis), so you get to have collaborators / workforce basically for free. So, if you have some spare ideas that you cannot work at the moment, perhaps proposing a new MSc thesis is the way to go. Also, some times graduate courses may be graded strictly based on assignments, so you may recommend assignments helpful to your work, such as proposing to your students to write detailed literature overviews on the subjects that interest you.
The other advantage of teaching in general, is this is something you need to master anyway if you want a job in Academia. So, the sooner the better. It is better to do it in a more protected environment (you are still a student so some mistakes due to inexperience are expected), instead of having to do it later. So, although the task assigned to you might seem overwhelming at first, it is best to do it, as soon as possible. Also you will realize that the second year you need to teach the same class (many times the same graduate student teaches the same course for more than one year) things will be much easier, since you will already have done the bulk of the work, in terms of preparation. Also, doing it while you still have course-work is a valuable learning experience, since you get to compare your teaching methods with the methods of the course you are enrolled in, so you may improve accordingly.
Another subject that is not clear from your question is whether this course you are teaching is for one semester or an entire year. If it is for one semester and the next semester you do not get any other TA duties, it is very reasonable that for this semester you must devote more hours than the "10 hours devoted to teaching" that you are required to do.
> 4 votes
# Answer
Doesn't seem unusual to me. Did you sign a contract? More importantly did someone in your department sign the contract. I find the term "contract" to be kind of meaningless in graduate school. We aren't unionized, so we're in the unfortunate position of needing to take the term contract to mean "loose policy."
Some students in my department were successful in the past in lobbying the chair for more pay due to more time spent working. Of course, this solution precludes that you'd be fine working that many hours for more pay. This doesn't seem to be the case? Therefore, the only reasonable thing to do is to adjust your mental and physical deliverables in accordance with the 15 hours.
I'd be more upset about the 15 hours. That seems like a nice way for the University to get cheaper labor in terms of teaching the courses and for your advisor also to throw money your way for 5 hours, which unfortunately means you have expectations to deliver on that front. 5 hours for research I would imagine ends up being more like 10 or 15, most unpaid?
> 2 votes
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Tags: phd, research-process, teaching, teaching-assistant, working-time
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thread-27677
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27677
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verbal agreement to convert masters to PhD but reconsidering
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2014-08-27T01:51:14.750
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# Question
Title: verbal agreement to convert masters to PhD but reconsidering
I am currently doing a Masters of Philosophy, with my key interests being ecology and evolution.
When I enrolled earlier this year, I had an agreement with my professor that I would continue to a PhD. Unfortunately in the first two months, my first project fell through to lack of funding. My professor then showed me another project I could do. This project is very similar to my honours research...in fact, it is almost exactly the same, with very few new techniques included. I had a few weeks to think about if I wanted this project, but did feel a bit of pressure to make a decision. I decided to continue with this project despite my reservations.
My main issue now is that I have realised (at 5 months) that this project, while interesting, isn't going to get me a job when I finish. While I am doing some lab based work and doing some phylogenetic analyses, I'm not doing any of the field work or statistical experience that I need to be competitive for post-docs.
I've considered reworking my project, however I've had a number of concerns about it. First of all is that my supervisor doesn't seem keen to rework it to a large extent and doesn't seem to understand the time it takes for me to read and analyse papers to determine how to change my project. The second issue is that no one in my lab is an ecologist, statistician or evolutionary biologist (primarily genetics and bioinformatics) and I will not be able to get the support I'll inevitably need down the track. The final issue is that I am getting no funding. My supervisor is paying for my labwork, but I am not able to conduct more field studies or more complex genetic analyses because we can't afford it.
I've sort of come to the realisation that this isn't what I want from a PhD. The only issue is I have a verbal agreement to change to a PhD at 1 year into my masters. I love my supervisor and the lab, so don't want to burn bridges by changing my mind on them. I also feel guilty as my supervisor is paying for my lab work, and I don't want to put him out. I am just stuck as to what to do in this situation, and how to bring this up with my professor without ruining my chances of working with them later or affecting my relationships with them.
Basically, this can be summarised as: I don't want to do this PhD project and would like to keep it as a masters, but am not sure how to go about discussing this with my supervisor, and am not sure how it would impact me if I decide to do a PhD in the future.
Has anyone been in a similar situation and can offer advice? Is there a way to do this without impacting my career as a researcher, or my relationships with my lab mates and supervisor?
I would love any advice you have on this because it's really distressing me!
Thanks
# Answer
> 11 votes
> I don't want to do this PhD project
If you don't want to do this project, DON'T DO IT. PhD is not everyday fun and it is sometime harsh to keep motivation through the ups and downs.
About your adviser, I will not be too worried for him/her burning bridge. How many PhD student actually drop during the PhD. As Nate Eldredge said, It is quite bad for an adviser/group to have an unmotivated student. Moreover you haven't yet start the PhD. It will be much worse for you adviser if you start and quit after 2 years because you cannot stand it anymore.
As often, you should just be frank with your adviser. Explain this is not the project you are ready to invest 4 years in your life and if he/she has a minimum understanding, it should be fine. If you are not at ease, do it in several discussions, where first you express your doubts on the current project. I think any adviser hearing that should actually advise you to not continue with a PhD.
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Tags: phd, masters, career-path
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thread-27669
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27669
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Should I post a response to reviewers online?
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2014-08-26T22:52:53.563
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# Question
Title: Should I post a response to reviewers online?
I usually spent an incredible amount of time answering the questions raised by reviewers when submitting research manuscripts to a journal. The length of the response is often longer than the paper itself. Such a process, albeit time consuming, has significantly improved the quality of the work.
Since there are many thoughts that can not be delivered in the paper, which are elaborated in the response of the reviewers, I am wondering whether it is good to upload the response online along with the paper? (e.g., research profile page) I think this will benefit the readers but am not sure what might be the consequences resulting from that? Do note that I don't have any clue as to the reviewers' identities.
# Answer
You are free to post your response as you see fit, If you know who the reviewer(s) is/are then you may need to think twice about mentioning their name(s) since. I am not sure how you may be thinking of posting such comments but I assume you will rewrite them into some form of self-contained text. As such it would not be very different from a blog entry and so one suggestion would be to use a blog type web to add comments around your publications. You may also provide means for commenting on your papers and associated posts.
But, in short, no problem posting your own thoughts but stay clear of adding the thoughts of others that may be given in a context other than open posts.
> 9 votes
# Answer
*(I request that this answer may be viewed as an addendum to Pete's nice answer here, in light of Nate's comment above.)*
As Nate pointed out, most of the typical referee responses would be concerned with stuff that should enter the manuscript. So, assuming that all his useful suggestions were incorporated in the text itself, there isn't generally more meat from that conversation that could warrant a separate 'response log' to be uploaded anywhere (I'm assuming on arXiv, for example).
But the impression that I get from the question is that, OP is inquiring about suggestions that go deeper than the above paragraph. In some cases, it is possible that referee queries stuff on the lines of
> How is *\[a fact that you established on the basis of your calculation in the manuscript\]* consistent with *\[a sacred tenet, or a well-established or experimentally verified result\]* ? Aren't the two incompatible because of *\[some qualitative reasoning, devised by the referee\]*?
The reasoning looks valid to you, so you sit down and calculate the implications of your calculation on the established fact, and find that the two are indeed compatible. Then, you identify a weakness in the qualitative reasoning, and let the referee know about this. Now, all this isn't worthy of being included in the text of your manuscript, since it is off-track from the overall theme of the work. Yet, this is a valuable piece of information, and is likely to help future readers because they may also reason this apparent contradiction. Responses of this kind are worthy of being put up. Occasionally, one encounters those one-page or two-page ''Comment on \[a paper\]'' sort of things on arXiv, so these can definitely be put up too. It doesn't necessarily have to be journal article manuscript always.
Lastly, regarding acknowledging the referee, there are two options - either take their permission (ref - Pete's answer), or you simply acknowledge ''the anonymous referee'' for pointing it out, in case option 1 doesn't work out. I know some instances where this has been done in my field, but one example that I can find is over here. Sorry, there isn't any corresponding arXiv version for this, so if you can't access it directly, here's the relevant excerpt:
> The author would like to thank the anonymous referee for making insightful comments which have been helpful in improving and updating the manuscript.
But seriously, option 1 is the better option (why strip the poor guy of his due credit!).
Hope that helps.
> 5 votes
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Tags: publications, peer-review
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thread-27647
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27647
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What are the benefits of organizing a conference?
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2014-08-26T12:01:00.980
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# Question
Title: What are the benefits of organizing a conference?
Organizing a conference is very **difficult** for a scientist, you have to have the right collaborators, to find the right venue, to spread the word, to advertise it, to send the call for papers, to receive the papers, to check them, to organize the lunchs and dinners, etc etc.
**All these tasks are very time-consuming**, and stressful, and they will steal precious time to your scientific research activity, and also to your family/friends time.
So, why do people decide to organize conferences?
**What are the main benefits and advantages of running this complex and time-consuming activity?**
# Answer
> 21 votes
**If everyone refused to organize conferences, we would have no conferences.**
Yes, it's that obvious. The same goes for editing journals, refereeing papers, and most other *service* activities.
The main result of a research conference is that it helps attendees do better research, to find and understand new ideas, and to disseminate their own research, etc. By organizing the conference, you are the facilitator of all that. Furthermore, you get to influence the direction of the conference -- what it will focus on, who the invited speakers will be, how it will be run, and so forth.
Additionally, I would argue that academics are paid to organize conferences in the same way that we are paid to referee papers.
Finally, there are fringe benefits to you personally, including the prestige mentioned by @user3209815 -- you can list it on your CV under service activities. Frankly, this is not going to make or break your career, and you probably shouldn't be doing it early in your career, since (as you point out) it takes time away from things that may be more essential.
# Answer
> 12 votes
Arranging conferences is very hard work. You need to be prepared to organize a meeting place, be a "travel agent" for visitors seeking information on how to get there etc. and then make sure things runs smoothly during the meeting. Of course more individuals will be involved in arranging a meeting, how many depends on the size. So unless you are a despot and can order people to work for you, I would say that arranging a meeting is not for prestige and honour without being well-deserved through sweat and tears (I am assuming you want the guests to enjoy a productive and comfortable meeting atmosphere).
Arranging a meetings, from small workshops for tens of people to conferences for hundreds can be really rewarding. If you arrange for thousands you need to run things through a professional organizer, such as a conference centre. Even that can be rewarding but no less a lot of work. To be able to cope with the work load, which will likely start half a year to years before the meeting (depends on the size and format of the meeting), you need to have a good idea of what goals your meeting will have. For smaller meetings where all visitors are assembled for the entire meeting, you probably have a personal interest in the topics to be covered. In a larger meeting with many separate sessions, you and others in the organizing committee probably have invested interests in several different ones. In the end, successful meetings come from a deep interest from the organizers in having the meeting and its themes covered. At least in my field, I have never encountered anyone doing a conference just for glory and filling a CV. The benefits will definitely be there after a successful meeting but then, you have really deserved them.
So, in my experience, organising meetings is really rewarding, it is hard work, but pays of scientifically and socially if the organisation is done well and visitors return with a sense of value from the experience.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I'd say the main benefits are prestige and honor. To be able to organize a serious conference, you got to, as you pointed out, have a non-trivial amount of connections and be a respectable and accomplished member of the scientific community. At that point in ones life, some people may decide to use their status to promote their scientific community. In my experience, conferences are connected with the institution the leading scientist is from. So that also may be a significant amount of finances the institution will receive from organizing a conference on a regular basis. So, by contributing so much to the institution, the scientist will certainly hold a more favorable position among his colleagues and the institution itself. Besides, there might as well be a financial compensation for the scientist's efforts, which I (perhaps naively) think is a rare occurrence, since I know of only one such practice. Finally, many conferences are inclined to naming an award in honor of their founder, usually posthumously. Therefore, when/if the prestige of the conference rises, so does the importance of the award, and that is generally a nice way to be remembered and honored once you pass away.
So in a way, you organize a conference, because you can/want do demonstrate your ability to do so, i.e. proving the influential collaborators and accomplishments you acquired during your career. As awards you expect to be remembered and honored and to get satisfaction by the fact that you contributed significantly to your community.
# Answer
> 5 votes
## It fills an acute need
Organizing a conference takes significant effort, but it also usually fills a need within a community. New conferences generally arise when some subfield or a geographic community within a field has a critical mass of research that they want to exchange, but that is poorly served by the existing options.
If ten years ago the FooBar conference occasionally got papers like "FooBaz is a nice new thing" but now there are many FooBaz papers that get rejected with reason "The paper is okay but outside the scope of FooBar" then everyone in the FooBaz community would benefit from a specialized conference on FooBaz - and if it is a success, then it often gets repeated and turns into a \[semi\]yearly tradition.
If you want to make progress in an emerging field, you are motivated to invest personal effort in making the field a success, to advertise your research and the related research that's growing out of it. If it's an estabilished field, then often you form some organization that unites the relevant scientists and is able to get funding and administrative resources for the explicit purpose of advancing that field - which involves organizing conferences.
## It's a shared effort
I've actually never seen ***a*** scientist organizing a conference. Usually it would get managed by some university, institute or other organization (though through active initiative of their scientists) - it would piggyback on their existing administrative capacity. Similarly, organizing the papers and organizing the event is usually split among separate people so that the workload is manageable.
Also, I've seen many conferences that get 'rotated' among the community. If a conference makes sense, then multiple research centres are interested, otherwise you can just make a local seminar. If organizing a conference requires your \[institution\] involvement only, say, every 6 years, then it's not so tedious to make it intractable.
# Answer
> 3 votes
One benefit that I haven't seen mentioned yet, and one of the major reasons I organised a conference:
Once you've organised one, for the next few years after that, you have a good way to defend yourself against substantial pressure from colleagues to organise the next conference, on the grounds of it not being your turn, because you did it recently.
How long your immunity lasts will depend on the size and frequency of the conferences you usually attend.
# Answer
> 2 votes
## Preamble
Having organized 3 different small-scale (~60 participants) events with international speakers on a variety of topics (one of which evolved into semi-annually workshop series), these are my personal rules of thumb for keeping it enjoyable (**when done right it really is enjoyable!**):
## Separate the logistics from the contents
This is the hard part, and you are right to be dreadful about it. The solution: ask for help! For anything beyond 100 participants, you should consider hiring a professional conference organizer and forming a multi-person programm committee etc. For small-scale stuff, this is what I usally try to do.
1. Start **on time**: 6-12 months is a good range. Remember that academic speakers have teaching loads they need to navigate in their schedules.
2. Secure a **budget** from your manager (professer of your research group, or dean of your department)
* it should cover speaker's travel reimbursements, catering and accomodation
* optionally: speaker's gifts (bottle of wine, book etc.), after-conference dinner
* for my events, $2K turned to be plenty (and there was no admission fee for participants!), and typically management won't think twice about it
3. find a good **office manager** / secretary to take care of the practicalities:
* beforehand: managing the mailinglist of participants, travel arrangements of speakers
* during the day: name badges, coffee during breaks, drinks afterwards, printing handouts
4. find support in the **IT department** for website related stuff:
* announcements, registration, publication of presentations
* live feed video is a whole different ball game (I have no experience with it, best left to the pros)
5. find at least **one colleague** willing to share the burden with you:
* this really helps to cover each other's workload peaks (teaching, papers etc.)
In my experience, asking people for help with such events is usually enthusiastically supplied. Especially office managers relish at the chance to break their daily routine and they will work wonders to get things done. Make sure to properly and publicly praise them at the closing of the event (e.g. give them flowers / small gift in front of the audience. Also invite them to the after-conference dinner).
## Concentrate on the contents
The logistics out of the way (okay, you will need to periodically monitor people for their progress and potential hiccups, but that's no big deal), you can concentrate on what you do best: content!
1. Find your **niche**: which unique gap in the world of conferences (both geographically and topic-wise) does your event fill?
2. Define your **audience**: which people should attend and with what knowledge would you like them to return afterwards?
3. Find good **speakers**
* they should be **familiar with** -but not necessarily known to- the niche/audience that you are targetting (this depends a bit on your goal: getting the state-of-the-art from a world expert is different from getting an interesting and intellectually stimulating view on a topic from a relative outsider)
* you should have **witnessed them present at least once** (either on video or live)
* you would like to **pick their brains** afterwards (which is why after-conference dinners for speakers/organizers are so great: you get priviliged access to experts in the field, and they are usually in a great mood over a good meal / glass of wine)
* this is really the main benefit: **close interaction with experts**. If you are professionally competent and nice to talk to, they will form a good opinion of you and this might give you career opportunities (speaking invitations, job offers based on word-of-mouth etc.)
4. Find a good **conference chair**:
* should be **knowledgeable** of the nice/audience
* should be **firm but not a dominant** personality so as to get a focussed but also lively discussion between audience and speakers
* you should have **witnessed this person perform in that role** at least once
* if you yourself fit the bill on all three accounts above, just put yourself into that role. It will give you great exposure to an audience and will be a rewarding experience. But don't force yourself into it for the exposure alone (e.g. because you are too shy or too dominant to facilitate discussions).
5. **Mingle with the audience**: apart from the speakers, talking to people in the audience is also very rewarding.
* Obviously you will have to check up some of the logistics but with good support there is usually enough time to talk to a few people during the coffee breaks or at the drinks afterwards.
* Even if you have no other role at the event, the fact that you are the organizer will register in people's minds and they will associate you to the topic of the day and this can lead to interesting future career opportunities (mostly small, like speaking invitations).
The worst two things that ever happened to me were:
* a disappointing speaker (great-looking resume, nice phone interview before, but I had never watched that person speak and it was terrible, so now that's on the checklist)
* a last-minute cancellation by a speaker (you cannot really plan against it because no-one would like to be a reserve-speaker, luckily the speaker enlisted a co-author as a substitute and that turned out to be a good experience)
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Tags: career-path, conference, service-activities
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thread-27688
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27688
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Explanation needed for university program titles (MScDiplomaCertificate)
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2014-08-27T08:51:31.270
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# Question
Title: Explanation needed for university program titles (MScDiplomaCertificate)
What does it mean when a university has a program which title is **'program name' MSc/Diploma (MScDiploma)**.
When a person graduates, does he/she get MSc or Diploma (MScDiploma). What is the difference between these two?
There are also variations like **MScDiplomaCertificate**
*Noticed that UK universities use such titles*
# Answer
> 3 votes
I am not sure it is consistent across all departments, but my UK Psychology department offers an MSc/Diploma in Psychology that can result in an MSc, a diploma, or a certificate. The course is designed to allow students who currently have a degree that does not meet the requirements for accreditation by the British Psychology Society, to get an accredited degree in one year of study. Many BSc degrees in Psychology are not accredited by the BPS since they lack, or don't require students to take or pass, a critical component (e.g., modules on statistics or biological aspects of Psychology).
Even though all students take the same modules, due to differences in the requirements between the university and BPS, the final degree a student gets depends on how well they did. The course offers both undergraduate and graduate modules. If you pass everything, you get an MSc. If you pass enough credits, you may qualify for a certificate from the university, but not meet the BPS requirements depending on which combination of modules you failed.
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Tags: university, education, titles
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thread-27659
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27659
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Do mathematics researchers regularly solve problems like the ones from Project Euler?
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2014-08-26T18:33:36.947
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# Question
Title: Do mathematics researchers regularly solve problems like the ones from Project Euler?
*I'm not sure that this is the right exchange for this question. It asks about the possibilities of research in mathematics and computer science.*
## Extended Background
I am very interested in mathematics and theoretical computer science. Over the past few years I've gained lots of experience from math competitions, programming competitions, software development internships, and talking to professors, and I've learned that I do not enjoy writing code; I enjoy writing "beautiful" and elegant code in practice, just as I enjoy beautiful and elegant proofs in mathematics, but I do *not* enjoy writing hundreds of trivial imperative lines of code to make some company money. I've learned that I like to think critically about problems, and I like finding the quickest, most efficient, most elegant solutions. I enjoy the mathematical (or theoretical) side of computer science.
So, recently, after coding only with imperative languages my whole life, I discovered Haskell, a functional programming language. It is extremely close to mathematics: Everything is a function. Ideas are defined rather than executed; instead of giving a computer step-by-step instructions, the computer is given a definition. This discovery reaffirmed my passion for mathematics and the mathematical and theoretical side of computer science.
## Minimal Background/Question
I've also been frequenting a website called Project Euler, which is filled with 450+ mathematics-based programming problems. This is essentially the epitome of my passion. I love solving these problems with Haskell (and sometimes, when I'm clever enough, with merely a pen and paper).
I know that many of the questions (if not all of them) have already been solved and researched in both the field of mathematics and the field of computer science, and hundreds of their variants have been as well. However, many of these problems were initially proposed and solved hundreds of years ago by mathematicians (such as Euler and Gauss), and most of the relatively newer problems were all proposed and solved by the 1980s.
So my question is, are there still problems like this that I can think about for a living? If so, which field and sub-field is closest to this type of research? If not, would I be involved in these problems by teaching and then introducing them to students of mine, or hosting competitions?
## TL;DR
* Can I solve problems like this one as a career?
* If this research isn't viable, would I be more involved with this type of problems by teaching and hosting competitions, etc?
# Answer
This may be a better question for Math.SE. That said...
These sorts of problems fall in the category of **contest math**. Sometimes they are related to active areas of mathematical research (most often number theory, combinatorics, and geometry), but more often, current research deals with problems that are considerably more complex and can't be solved (or even stated) in a page or two.
Note also that, at least in the US, there are very few people who get paid to do mathematics research full-time and exclusively. Most professional mathematics researchers are professors at colleges and universities, and their duties also include teaching and administration (to varying degrees).
There is a recognized subculture of mathematicians interested in contest math. They may get involved in creating problems, organizing contests, and coaching students. At some universities, such activities may be considered a significant part of their research or "scholarship" duties, but they would normally be teaching regular math classes as well.
**Edit:** Actually, there is a category of careers I had forgotten: intelligence. The NSA and its counterparts (GCHQ, etc) employ many thousands of mathematicians. Of course, it's hard for an outsider to know what goes on there, but it could be that their activities have more of a problem-solving flavor. At least they are not bound by the requirement that their work be publishable! The NSA has a well-known (and highly competitive) summer internship program for undergrads, the Director's Summer Program, so that could be one way of testing those waters relatively early on.
> 37 votes
# Answer
I believe @Mangara's comment is very relevant here:
> Number theory, combinatorics and geometry (the areas Project Euler mainly draws from) actually have lots of accessible problems that are still unresolved.
Accessible here means that the problem can be easily explained. However, unresolved problems that anyone can understand tend to be **extremely difficult**. If they weren't, then someone would have solved them!
Get a copy of Richard Guy's Unsolved Problems in Number Theory. There you can find some problems that constitute "real mathematical research" but are more or less in the vein you describe.
You can usually only (get paid to) do this research in a university, you have to be very talented to get a tenured job in these areas, and it's a long road. Also, due to the highly interconnected nature of mathematics, the techniques used to solve these problems are often vastly different from what you might expect -- for a famous example, see the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem via algebraic curves. So if you want to work in (say) number theory, you'll still need to learn deeply about and use other areas of mathematics.
> 14 votes
# Answer
As @NateEldredge already explained, such easily-apprisable questions, most often arising in math contests, or as puzzles, are mostly not what could allow a person to make a living as an academic mathematician, except in cases of ultimate-extreme talent, perhaps.
At least as idealized, academic mathematics aims to develop and validate viewpoints that clarify fundamental issues. "Problem solving" is significant, but is at the extreme end of the phenomenological aspects of the business. As Nate E. noted, most "active" questions in mathematics will not be easily understood by amateurs, or perhaps even by non-specialists. These questions are mostly not of the easily-apprisable sort...
> 9 votes
# Answer
Here's the view from my vantage point:
* The kind of interesting problems you can solve in 30 minutes to 7 days each (as found in mathematics olympiads, competitive programming contests, and which, by the way, have tremendous value by being fun for whoever gets into them and being accessible to large numbers of high-school students, as well as developing their mental capacities and practical skills), are typically not of interest to most professional mathematicians because they are considered too trivial. Research publications require more substance than a couple of observations and a direct application of some 100-year-old theorem. Also, you would drown in the task of citing the relevant literature.
* Therefore, as a professional research mathematician, if you want to keep your job, you will be effectively forced to find a frontier somewhere in some field and publish results which are very likely to be novel and well-received by journals. You can expect to meet lots of interesting sub-problems, but also lots of questions that frustratingly don't have easy answers. Also, the chances of this type of work making impact on some field external to mathematics are not great.
* Interesting sub-problems come up all the time in all sorts of other research, not just in mathematics. Even in programming jobs that are not considered research — sometimes a requirement says that certain aspects have to behave in a certain way and meet certain constraints, and naïve solutions turn out to not be good enough.
## Putting it all together
To alter the question a bit, I think there is a wide selection of jobs where 10-30% of your time will be spent on solving interesting sub-problems. These are not restricted to research in mathematics. Very few jobs where this figure will be 100% (people do this on a volunteering basis, verifying problems for Codeforces, TopCoder, etc., not to mention actually competing just for the fun of it).
> 5 votes
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Tags: research-process, professorship, computer-science, mathematics
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thread-27700
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27700
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How to know the full name of paper authors?
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2014-08-27T13:53:00.140
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# Question
Title: How to know the full name of paper authors?
I have the following citation:
> M. Hama and T, Imahashi. Periodic β-expansions for certain classes of Pisot numbers. *Comment. Math. Univ. St. Paul.* **46**(2):103–116, 1997.
I prefer citing the full names of the authors, however, I'm unable to find them. I tried googling their names, finding what is their affiliation, but I did not succeed. Is there any standard way how to find scientists' full names?
# Answer
> 11 votes
First go to the original journal web page for the paper in question. That might have more information. It may have their full names, links to other papers by them, and will almost always have their affiliation at the time of submission of the paper.
You can also search the usual literature databases for other papers in the same field by the same author: other journals may have the author' full names; furthermore, more recent papers will have their most recent affiliation.
Once you've got their most recent affiliation, you can then search that institution's website for the authors' home pages.
In this particular case, the paper is listed here. By clicking on the author names, I find that Hama Masaki is one of the names you are after: by using the distinctive "Pisot" from the paper title, I can narrow down to an individual. A bit of searching for the full name and Pisot gets me what I think is a different form of the same name: 浜, 正樹 ; searching for that with Pisot gets me what looks like the author's home page. This should be enough to enable you to contact that author.
And for goodness sake, don't go directly citing a paper that you haven't read. I'm grateful to Peteris for the comment on the original question that deserves higher profile than a comment: indirect citations are one of the ways in which myths are born and are spread: see this excellent read on "Academic urban legends" from Ole Bjørn Rekdal. (full text here)
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Tags: citations, online-resource, personal-name
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thread-8246
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8246
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How do "lecturers" differ from "professors" in large universities?
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2013-02-26T17:01:43.127
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# Question
Title: How do "lecturers" differ from "professors" in large universities?
I notice that some universities have academic positions known as lecturers. Are these positions different from professors? Are transitions from instructors to the professor track relatively easy. This position seems similar to the adjunct professor position.
Note that I am talking about universities in the USA.
# Answer
> 31 votes
I used to be a lecturer at a university in the southwest USA. As a lecturer, I was charged with only teaching lower division undergraduate courses (freshman & sophomore level). In general, research and service is not a requirement for lecturers (unlike professors), but we are required to teach a larger load than professors. And we were generally yearly appointments with no chance of tenure.
# Answer
> 19 votes
In the US, I've mostly seen the title "Lecturer" applied to non-tenure-track, mostly non-research teaching positions. For what it's worth, wikipedia agrees with me on this.
# Answer
> 13 votes
In many places in the US, thinking of research-oriented universities, "lecturer" or "instructor" is not at all like assistant, associate, or full prof, and is not tenure track. "Lecturer" and "instructor" are closer to "adjunct", and are teaching-oriented. Sometimes the positions are effectively long term, but most often just year-by-year, or even term-by-term. Any transition from these positions to tenure track would be unusual, although in the more recent economic upheaval, sometimes people take such positions just to be employed for a year, waiting out the job market.
# Answer
> 11 votes
I can give the Australian context.
"Lecturer" is a rank in Australia. The typical hierarchy is "Associate Lecturer", "Lecturer", "Senior Lecturer", "Associate Professor", "Professor" (see this discussion). Thus, on the academic ranking scale from A to E, lecturer is B.
However, it is also common for anyone who gives lectures in a university to describe their job in terms of "being a lecturer". In this sense "lecturer" is an often informal job title that may be used by an academic at any academic rank. For example, someone might ask you what you do for a living and you might answer "I'm a lecturer at a university". Such a response could be given by someone at any academic rank.
# Answer
> 9 votes
Agreeing with the other answers, "Lecturer" is often the title given to full-time non-tenure track (i.e. contractual) faculty who typically only have instructional duties. Depending on the style of the institution, it may or may not be possible to move into the tenure-track. Lecturer, however, is not always a "dead-end". Some schools have a separate promotion system to reward and promote their non-tenure track faculty (similar to the way you would reward and promote staff). At these institutions there might be ranks, like Lecturer I, Lecturer II, Senior Lecturer, etc.
Disagreeing with the other answers, the term "adjunct" usually refers to a part-time instructor. Adjuncts usually have few if any opportunities for advancement. At many institutions, adjuncts may be distinct from Lectures (as a Lecturer is a full time appointment). My institution confusingly calls full-time and part-time instructors "Lecturer", but then proceeds to treat them as very different types of employee.
# Answer
> 7 votes
The terminology of positions differ from country to country. Lecturer has its origins in the British system. I know that when positions in other (non-English speaking) countries are announced internationally they may use this terminology. This is of course because each language have their own words for different positions. There is no straight translation between these systems including the system used in for example the US consisting of Assistant, Associate and Full Professors. The form of the employment also varies from country to country for historical reasons. A Lecturer is probably similar to an Assitant Professor, whether it is a permanent position or not probably varies.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I am teaching in University (Mongolia). In our country calling every person who is teaching in university, first "Lecturer". We are starting from assistant lecturer, lecturer, senior lecturer going on. If you have PhD degree you can go to next level: Associate Professor and Professor. But in generally all calling like lecturer. If you are already in Professor position your teaching hours is reducing and increasing hours for research and projects. Different between Lecturers and Professors in our meaning sounding like, have academic degree or not. But not every body can become Professor who have PhD degree. You have to be lead some main research direction or field, you have to write books about your field. Big difference from European countries Professor position in our university is not lifelong. After every 3 years you have to be accredited. If you are enough good by this process you can keep your position, if not your level is reducing. I am agree that Professor have to concentrate more to research and Lecturers can be focused for teaching.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I'm a staff member at an American university. Lecturers here don't take on graduate students (Research Assistants) to advise for their thesis, guiding their research, etc. which is a major component of a professor's duties and legacy.
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Tags: professorship
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thread-27690
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27690
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Should I take the TOEFL exam if I have graduated from a high school in the U.S.?
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2014-08-27T10:25:39.443
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# Question
Title: Should I take the TOEFL exam if I have graduated from a high school in the U.S.?
I am currently a B.Tech. student in India, and am applying for Master's courses in the U.S. I took the GRE exam a week ago.
Does having graduated from high school in the U.S., where English is the native language, count as certification that my English is good enough? Should I still take the TOEFL exam?
# Answer
> -4 votes
If you are applying as an international student, you need TOEFL. It does not depend on you high school education. For international students, you will be considered as a non-native english speaker, so toefl is necessary. If you are applying as a domestic student (meanign you have citizenship/greencard), you dont need toefl.
Anyways, toefl is a very easy exam!
# Answer
> 10 votes
Every school words the requirements, if any, for the TOEFL a little differently. For example, Harvard GSAS:
> Applicants whose native language is other than English and who do not hold the equivalent of a US Bachelor's degree from an institution at which English is the language of instruction must submit scores from the Internet based test (IBT) of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)
A quick look suggests that in general native language and the language of your Bachelor's degree is what matters and not the language of your high school.
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Tags: toefl, language-exams
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thread-27695
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27695
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Recommendation Letter from a non-PhD referee
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2014-08-27T11:55:49.020
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# Question
Title: Recommendation Letter from a non-PhD referee
I am applying for a PhD program and I am in the process of choosing people for recommendation letters. Being someone in the final year of master's program (and not been involved with many people in research), one of my potential referee is my internship guide. I had worked with him closely for 3 months and a paper came out of the work.
He does not hold a PhD. He is not involved with research in a big way. He holds a Senior Manager post and possesses 20 years of experience. Although he can write a good recommendation letter, will it carry weight considering his background?
# Answer
> 7 votes
I would think at least twice about getting a letter of recommendation for admission to a PhD program in X from someone who does not themselves have a PhD in X or some closely related field. (No PhD at all is to my mind no worse than a PhD in a totally unrelated field.) The reason is that a grad school admission letter makes an argument that you (i) are a strong candidate for the program compared to the stream of candidates known to both the recommender and the readers in the department and (ii) will succeed in the program. Someone who does not have a PhD in a closely related field to X is simply much less convincing with regard to (ii) than the majority of people who do. One also worries about (i).
In my experience, *all the letters* you get for admission to a PhD program should address (i) and (ii) and not too much else. Thus getting a letter from someone who directed a corporate internship you did or non-academic job you had or volunteer experience you have is a poor choice *unless* these experiences are directly, intimately related to (i) and (ii) above. For instance if you are applying to a PhD program in chemical engineering then if you worked for a chemical engineering firm and did research that academic chemical engineers find significant (so especially if you published any academic papers), then great: get a letter from someone there, whether they have a PhD in that field or not. Also, qualifications are correlated with credentials but not perfectly: everyone has their own example of a famous academic who happens not to have this or or that academic degree. If you are interested in a program on the border of mathematics and philosophy and can get a recommendation letter from Saul Kripke, do it! Don't be deterred by the fact that he doesn't have a PhD: that would be ridiculous.
Back to your situation. About your potential recommender, you write:
> He does not hold a PhD. He is not involved with research in a big way. He holds a Senior Manager post and possesses 20 years of experience.
This does not sound like a good choice. By "not being involved in research in a big way", he cannot speak to your research potential as well as someone who is. Since he does not have a PhD, the readers will probably wonder about how trustworthy he is (relative to other writers) when he insists that you will be successful in a PhD program. Unless you have a good reason to believe that the faculty doing admissions will know this person personally and esteem him highly, I would avoid getting a letter from him. However, if you feel like he is uniquely well qualified to speak to issues (i) and (ii), then it might be worth trying to have him give information to a more traditionally appropriate letter writer.
# Answer
> 6 votes
When I am evaluating prospective PhD students I am looking for evidence of research potential. While someone might write a postive letter, unless it provides evidence of research potential (or in rare situations addresses a weak aspect of your application) it is not going to be a helpful letter.
In general admission committees are going to question the ability of someone who has never been involved in research to assess research potential. So even if the letter talks about you research potential it may be discounted. The more of an unknown quantity the letter writer is, the more effort he/she is going to have to spend explaining how he/she can evaluate the person. Is is almost independent of the actual experience. Admissions committees often have hundreds of applications to look through and don't always spend the time they should evaluating everything.
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Tags: phd, recommendation-letter
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thread-27686
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27686
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What to do if I cannot complete my Masters dissertation tasks?
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2014-08-27T08:33:19.173
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# Question
Title: What to do if I cannot complete my Masters dissertation tasks?
I am doing my masters in the UK and at final stage of my dissertation. First I will have to confess that I regret that I selected this dissertation as it is something which I failed to get a clear idea about. I don't know if it is because I cannot understand the ideas that my supervisor is trying to communicate with me.
First my target was to implement an algorithm (I was given only a specific field and asked me to select an algorithm) using a language that I had never used before. I used to meet regularly and given research papers to read to clarify any doubt I had. There was no support in the implementation other than the research papers. Also no one to guide on the computer language I needed to use for the implementation. By June, I was stuck a little bit in the implementation and when I expressed some doubts, I was told there is not enough time for implementation now as I am not able to understand it so take an existing software which implemented the said algorithm and create some performance improvements.
I spent a lot of time, more than a month for just setting up the work environment and understanding how that software works. I am not very confident to speak out so I thought I will eventually get a hang of it. After a thorough research I realised that the said software is widely used all over the world and has been optimised in all possible ways already. But it was already too late and at the end I am left with almost nothing but some failed trials. Now the deadline to submit my masters dissertation is in a week and when I spoke to my supervisor about the limitations of the software and why I cannot optimise it last week, I was given a new research paper to read and asked to try their approach.
I learned a lot in this research, many algorithms, some new software, computer languages etc, but it was not focussed. I don't know what I will write in my report as the project is supposed to be a study with evaluation and testing to show as a proof to my conclusions. I have already written a literature review of 35 pages and about 10 pages about the software I am trying to optimise. I cannot submit just that and I don't think it is a good idea to continue new trials now as I may not be able to complete writing my report (which needs to be around 60-65 pages) with just one week left. I have distinction from the marks for my course units and all of the effort I took for an year will go in vain if I fail the dissertation as it has 50% weighting. What can I do to make sure I will pass my dissertation? Please advise.
NB: I know it is a long question, sorry about that. I felt I need to write the context to explain my situation.
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# Postscript:
I continued and completed my thesis with all the failed trials. Added some sections in the thesis comparing the different approaches I tried, findings based the trials and some suggestions for future work. Even though I was paranoid till the results came out, I passed with distinction.
# Answer
> 5 votes
The unpleasant reality is that it is entirely possible that you may not pass your dissertation. In fact, given what you've written here, I would be surprised if you did as of right now.
Graduate level work is hard. I mean if research were easy everyone would be doing it right? And so some of the things Graduate students need to learn early in their career is time management, planning and asking for help as needed. In an ideal world your advisor would have caught your floundering much earlier in the process but academia, as life, isn't always ideal. A good rule of thumb is if, by the halfway point of your timeline(so 1 year into a 2 year Masters for example) you don't have a solid plan for accomplishing your goal that includes timelines, goalposts and a plan to catch up on additional material you need... then you have a problem.
By June, then, warning bells should have been going off in your head. I have some sympathy(everyone has to learn this stuff on their own at some point) but not too much. Part of graduate level Computer Science work, at least, means figuring out languages and implementations on your own. It sounds like you were looking for something a little more guided, more like undergraduate courses, but that's not how it works for Graduate level research. That you are a week out and just now casting about for a solution, that you, after running into the exact same problem when asking for help too late in June, just now found out that you could not implement improvements on a preexisting software suite... these are massively problematic. Ideally after the issues in June you should have chosen low hanging fruit for your last ditch effort of improving someone elses' suite. The first thing your lit review on that software suite should have contained is a list of potential pitfalls or limitations of the software and rough ideas on improvements.
Now that's all rather negative. I've written it because, from what you've written, you seem to not *get* what the fundamental problem has been for your research experience. All that being said there may still be solutions but it's going to be hard work.
It sounds like these implementations(different softwares) are focused on a particular field or topic. An option, a hard to do going to take overnights for the next week, option would be to do benchmarks and comparisons of currently available software. A study of the limitations and weaknesses(and strengths) of currently available software can be a viable topic. That it took you a month to set up the environment to run the software you were trying to improve means that this would potentially be very hard for you to do in a week. An option is to take the software you have now and run exhaustive benchmarks and analysis on that specific software.
I'm not suggesting this as a 'run out and do it now!' sort of thing. Honestly even the most on-the-ball student who has had no issues would be hard pressed to write a decent dissertation in a week. That's a student who has all of their data. But a passing dissertation is a possiblity. Your first step is to go talk to your advisor as soon as possible. Explain the current situation, explain a potential solution(exhaustive benchmarks on a particular software or comparative benchmarks between different software implementations) and, finally, explain what you are going to do to make sure that the day before the dissertation is due you won't have another emergency situation like you have right now.
# Answer
> 5 votes
First of all, I fully agree with the points Nahkki made \- take some time to reflect those points! From a practical standpoint I see different options (some depending on your university's regulations:
1. Ask for an extension. But honestly, I would not expect a very good outcome. I would say you'd need at least 2-3 additional month to create something worthy.
2. Fail and restart. Sounds bad, but in most institutions you are having a second chance and you can start from scratch. Look for a topic which is better aligned to your interest and maybe look for a different advisor. It might be better to study a bit longer, but have a good thesis.
3. Try to get through with it. In my optinion the worst option, but if you just want to graduate quickly, it is an option. Make it a literature work, compare existing approaches, ... Many advisors are not willing to let their students fail (they fear legal issues, personal disappointment, bad reviews, ...), so it might work.
But one thought on option 1 & 3: When I employ someone, I just briefly read the marks and the general bla bla. I usually want to talk about their thesis, what they did and why it was great. This gives the best impression on the future performance of the person.
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Tags: thesis, masters, computer-science
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thread-27681
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27681
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Progression through Computer Science Path
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2014-08-27T04:37:02.737
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# Question
Title: Progression through Computer Science Path
I am currently in undergraduate studies, and currently participating in computer related studies (mainly security focused). I wish to (as an end goal) pursue a MS and PhD.
I am not sure exactly the experience in graduate level programs as far as focus. Is there a possible focus on Network Security/Infrastructure built into graduate programs or would curriculum be more of a wide range (albeit focused in the realm of computer science)?
If not is there a path which would end at a doctoral level involving information security?
# Answer
This is a bit of a snarky answer to your question but... did you try Googling "PhD in Computer Science Security"? Perhaps even more useful have you looked at the offerings of your own university to see what a Masters or PhD entails?
To be a bit less snarky in PhD programs, at least, it's less about what the degree is called and more about the research and lab you become involved with. If you are interested in focusing on security, which is a broad field, in Computer Science you will often get a degree in 'Computer Science' but you will work in a lab focused on security.
With that in mind my first recommendation to you is to do some research. Find out what folks are researching at your current institution, see if you find it interesting. If you can, get involved! This is probably the best way to find out what programs exist out there for your interests.
Even beyond your local school - do some digging. I was about to do a quick Google search and find that there are a couple of schools that are considered to have the 'best'(subjectively of course) Security Information programs. You should be able to find this out as well! Start looking into other schools, see what they offer and also what their researchers are researching. See if anything seems interesting. Start reading papers. Do some research into what you want to do.
So, in short, do:
1. Figure out what research is happening at your school. Try to get involved.
2. Figure out what are the 'best' programs for the topics you are interested in. Who is the 'big name' in the field? Read those papers!
3. Find 1 person who you want to be when you 'grow up'. In other words find one person whose job you want to have one day. Research how they got there! See if you can build a road map to your own success based on how they got to where they are.
> 4 votes
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Tags: computer-science
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thread-27680
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27680
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How can I identify research opportunities I am qualified for, and position myself as a competitive candidate, in a different field from my degree?
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2014-08-27T03:53:36.123
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# Question
Title: How can I identify research opportunities I am qualified for, and position myself as a competitive candidate, in a different field from my degree?
I currently have a BSc. in Environmental Science and would like to go back for a biology focused PhD in the next few years. I keep seeing the recommendation that having a good research fit will be important to potentially being admitted.
My question is, how do I go about getting research experience in biology when my degree is in something unrelated?
Answers to the question on How to gain research experience after master program? suggest various possible research opportunities. I've looked at jobs and volunteer opportunities like those, but I'm not sure I'm qualified for them. Even when I find a job that says ‘no experience necessary’, they are still asking for a biology degree. Presumably anyone with one would have had some experience in a biology lab, whereas most of my lab experience is in geology labs.
I don't understand why they would take someone without a relevant degree or experience (even if it's in-class experience) over interns, under/grad students, various types of volunteers with relevant degrees. Without understanding that, I'm not sure how to approach people about these potential opportunities.
How can I identify research opportunities I am qualified for, and position myself as a competitive candidate for these positions, when I don't have a relevant degree or experience in the field?
# Answer
> 2 votes
Frankly, most undergraduate students (and new graduates) are under-qualified to do research in any field, including their own. For various altruistic and non-altruistic reasons, we're often willing to take them on anyways.
When I hire an undergraduate or M.S. student to work in my research group, I look for qualities that tell me they'll be train-able, and also a good investment for me. Things like:
* motivation (as demonstrated by showing that they actually know what we are currently working on, have looked at our publications before asking for a job, etc.)
* interest in pursuing graduate studies related to my field of research
* soft skills (oral and written communication, organization, note-taking, etc.)
* ability to learn new concepts and skills quickly and somewhat independently
* basic quantitative and technical ability
I don't expect *anybody* I hire at this level to have relevant experience or experimental skills specific to my lab, whether they have a degree in the field or not.
So, keep pursuing opportunities like these, be honest about your lack of a biology degree, but highlight your eagerness to learn and your "transferable" abilities.
You might also look for research opportunities in cross-disciplinary labs that combine your new interest (biology) with your previous degree (environmental science). For these opportunities, your degree might actually give you a competitive advantage over biology students.
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Tags: research-process, graduate-admissions, job, biology
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thread-27691
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27691
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Can a 3 years PhD make an independent researcher ? Or how many post-docs after PhD to be an independent researcher?
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2014-08-27T10:48:19.530
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# Question
Title: Can a 3 years PhD make an independent researcher ? Or how many post-docs after PhD to be an independent researcher?
I am doing research more than 3 years. I was admitted in a 3 years program, now in the last months of the program. I fell I have a long way in the field to be an independent researcher. But most of the post-docs in my department and in my group don't seem to be in the direction of a independent research. Many of us PhD students and post-docs look like more high level technical staff.
# Answer
> 0 votes
As a PhD student, I think you are doing an original research, so should be developing a new method, model, formulation, etc so that you can solve many other problems or cases by means of your own formulation. Even, by your model, you should be doing some verifications and find results others found in their publications. So, during your PhD you are being prepared to do independent research.
I think becoming independent in every phase of life should be assessed based on the person's abilities and the outcome of his activities.
If the person can find/understand the things he has to do without help of others, consult his problems with others, does what he has to do to reach his goals and finally finish his jobs/projects and has an income; then he can be considered an independent person.
In academic world, the case does not change so much. If the student can review literature, read books and papers and understand them, find a new problem to solve, start to work on the problem and consult his problems with another person; and finally submit and publish his paper in a journal; then he should be considered an independent researcher.
Despite the thing in your question that you mentioned *how many post-docs is needed to become independent researcher?*; I don't believe a person need many post-docs. Even, some researchers do not have any PhDs and they do perfect researches. The **important part of doing independent research** is **the art of problem solving**. And this may be gained by no PhDs or by hundreds of post-docs! So, I encourage you to successfully finish your PhD, and try to learn how to solve your academic problems and how to get them published. After you graduate, you will be able to do research by your own too.
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Tags: phd, research-process, career-path, postdocs, independent-researcher
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thread-27728
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27728
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Journal publishing timetables
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2014-08-28T08:03:29.517
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# Question
Title: Journal publishing timetables
I am about to submit my first article to a peer-reviewed journal. I have basically already decided which one, but I have a shortlist and am still in principle considering my options. One of the questions I have is about the timetable for eventual publication. What should I expect? (In the long run, it probably won't make a large difference, but for me, right now, it would be nice to get something out the door this side of New Year if it is at all possible.)
I am puzzled by the lack of information about timetables and deadlines on the sites of these journals. I have looked at journals from related fields in the past and they all seem to be very secretive (or undecided?) about these things. Is this on purpose?
I guess I can infer something from previous publication dates -- a biannual which was last published in May might be slated for a next issue in November and probably have a deadline several weeks before that, which I probably won't make (it is now late August and the review process would apparently take several months). But why don't they simply put a date up front so authors won't have to fret?
Would it be out of line to email the editor of the journal and ask about the planned deadlines for the next couple of issues?
# Answer
In most fields and for most journals, there is no time-table because **it takes as long as it takes.**
This means that after they receive your paper, they will send it out to a few referees, which have to be found first. How long finding referees takes is not under the control of the journal editors - they have to ask people until three of them said "yes".
Then, the referees have to write the review. Typically, they have about 3 months of time for that, and a request for extension is almost always granted. So think of it more like 6 months. Exceptions apply here (e.g., for the journal "Science", who manage to enforce shorter reviewing times).
Then your paper maybe accepted only conditional to changes. You do the changes within a month or so, and then reviewing starts again. So there goes another 3-6 months in addition to the time that the editor needs for organizing the process.
This means that for most reputable journals, there is a long pipeline of papers in-progress and whenever they make a new issue that is not a special issue, they take some papers that already went through the process and publish them. There can be a substatial "out-queue" of these papers, which is why some publishers came up with the concept of already publishing "done" papers before the paper has a journal issue assigned (e.g., for Springer, this is called "Online First").
As an example, in computer science, an overall time span of 1-3 years is common.
As a bottom line, the time to publish can only be influenced by the journal editors up to a certain, small, degree, e.g., how swiftly the editor performs actions whenever there is something that she can do at the respective point in time. So publishing a time line would make little sense.
> 7 votes
# Answer
This will depend significantly on what your field is. For me, there would be no way anything other than a very short (and preferably very significant) paper would appear this year. For others a paper will be bordering on out-of-date by then (I'm told).
> 3 votes
# Answer
I personally use the information given in published papers (i.e. Elsevier journals provide dates for submission/submission after revision/acceptance or publication ). This can be somehow indicative yet I've personally experienced both ends of the spectrum (later/earlier than the average turnaround).
> 2 votes
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Tags: journals, time-management, deadlines
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thread-27734
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27734
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Will preparing for the mathematics GRE help me towards my goal of doing research in applied mathematics?
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2014-08-28T10:59:30.163
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# Question
Title: Will preparing for the mathematics GRE help me towards my goal of doing research in applied mathematics?
I did my graduation in electronics engineering from India, and an M.Sc. that concentrated on certain "sub-specializations" (communication, DSP and control engineering) from a UK university.
I was reading for a Ph.D. in the areas of machine learning and computer vision (also at a UK university), however due to a number of factors I was unable to complete it. These factors include health problems (addictions, hormonal imbalances, depression, etc.) and trying to work in a topic that was too mathematical for my background, in addition to having too much leeway (and consequently not enough support) in my research from my supervisors. (Evidently my supervisors thought me as sufficiently capable at the beginning of my research to let me do what I wanted, but eventually I proved them wrong! :P )
A few years have passed since I terminated my Ph.D. programme. I feel I have worked through most of my health problems now (not all the way there, but I feel better now than I remember being in a very long time).
---
I did develop an appreciation for "pure" mathematics during my time doing Ph.D. research (the lack of sufficient knowledge and skill notwithstanding). Nowadays I spend some time studying undergraduate-level mathematics textbooks on my own.
Basically I'm examining options that would prepare me to do research in mathematics applied to the area of machine learning, preferably in a professional or academic context (rather than just at a personal level).
Studying on one's own is all very well, but I feel I need to impose more structure and have better focus.
I recently found out about GRE subject tests. I was wondering if preparing for (and taking) the GRE mathematics test might be helpful? I'm looking at it from these angles: (a) having a study "syllabus" to help concentrate my effort, rather than jumping about subjects and topics haphazardly (b) getting an idea of where I stand compared to other students, and (c) strengthening my case in case there's a possibility of going back to university (at the postgraduate level, that is; while I might seriously consider doing an M.Sc. or M.Phil in applied mathematics in the US or the UK, I don't think it's practical to start afresh at the undergraduate level now.)
So, is preparing for the GRE mathematics test a good idea? Any other suggestions (alternatively, or alongside)? And - so as not to put the cart before the horse - how likely is it for someone from my background to be considered for admission to a postgraduate mathematics programme (at a decent university) in the first place?
# Answer
> 9 votes
The mathematics subject GRE covers roughly the first half of the content that one would learn in a good undergraduate math program. Much of it (calculus, linear algebra, differential equations) is material that an engineering student would likely be familiar with already.
I think that the only good reason to study for the GRE is if you need to take the GRE, i.e. if you want to apply to a school that requires it. In that case, it is probably best to spend a limited amount of time studying in the few months or weeks before you take it. Otherwise, I think your time would be better spent on more advanced topics.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, mathematics, gre
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thread-27713
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27713
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Why is salary inversion a problem?
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2014-08-28T02:15:38.827
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# Question
Title: Why is salary inversion a problem?
I've heard that salary inversion is a problem in academia, and it happens when Universities continue to hire new and highly qualified people at higher and higher salaries, but they don't increase the salaries of the existing faculty at the same rates.
I want to ask - why is this actually a problem? Shouldn't salary be based on merit and qualifications, not how long you've sat at a particular desk?
# Answer
> I want to ask - why is this actually a problem? Shouldn't salary be based on merit and qualifications, not how long you've sat at a particular desk?
Yes, it should. But consider what happens if I've been sitting at a desk for ten years, doing hard work and feeling good about it, and one day you arrive, take the next desk, and have a higher salary than I do. It is hard for me not to feel:
1) That my employer is less than grateful for my ten years of desk sitting, given that I (apparently; as you point out this does not logically follow) am being paid less than if I hadn't done any of it whatsoever.
2) That maybe I have been sitting at the same desk for too long. It gives me the idea to follow your lead and earn more money by starting fresh at a new desk.
Thus: although one can say that the market is the market and its invisible hand is totally amoral, in reality this amoral practice is bad for *morale*. And if you as an employer do happen to value the person who has been sitting there for ten years as much as the new guy you would hire -- or even if replacing the 10 year veteran would be disruptive to the workforce -- then you may have some interest in pushing back against this market force. The desk-sitters certainly will, and depending on their mobility, you may want to take their feelings into account. (In a sufficiently bad economy, maybe you can persuade them that they're looking at it wrong, and that instead they should be very happy about having ten years of steady employment.)
> 43 votes
# Answer
I think there are several issues.
You might argue that salary "should" be based on merit and qualifications, but these are highly subjective and often evaluated by people within the university who have other vested interests, so there's a substantial risk that internal politics or other factors may not measure merit in a fair way. Given this, existing faculty may prefer a system that puts more weight on objective measures like seniority, and faculty have a lot of say in the administration of a university.
On the other hand, new hires are not really paid based on their merit and qualifications either: they're paid their market price. The dean may not think that Assistant Professor A's qualifications really "deserve" a salary of $X, but if the job market is strong and that's what other institutions are paying similar candidates, she either pays him $X or she doesn't get to hire anyone this year.
Then, suppose Assistant Professor B has been with the department for 3 years. Her qualifications are comparable to those of A, but she was hired in a year when the job market was weak, so she accepted a low salary offer $Y \< $X. Since then has received a standard raise of a few percent per year, so her salary is still below A's. She could probably go back on the job market and find a job paying $X, but here she is well on her way to tenure, she has settled in the city with her family, her spouse has a job in the area, and they are disinclined to make another (possibly long-distance) move. Moreover, changing tenure-track jobs is always challenging (she would have to get letters from within her department, but if too many colleagues find out she is thinking about leaving, it will hurt her standing within the department). So she has limited mobility and no real leverage to negotiate for a higher salary.
If she finds out A is making more than her, despite being similarly qualified, she will not be happy. Unhappy faculty who nonetheless have no interest in leaving is not a recipe for a well-functioning institution. And a dean who's in favor of correcting salary inversions will probably get Professor B's vote.
> 25 votes
# Answer
Salary inversions are mostly a problem at public schools, where the state budget situation and state legislature have some control over whether there will be any raises at all. Due to inflation, this means that often all state employee salaries are shrinking in real terms. So, the longer you have the job the less you're paid no matter how much merit your work has. Hence salary inversions are not typically a result of younger profs having more merit, but rather the budget realities of working for a state government. Of course, there are other affects that can counteract this: many schools have funds specifically intended for reversing inversions, and many schools have automatic raises at tenure and/or promotion so that there are at least some raises that the state can't block.
To summarize: salary inversions are a problem *precisely* because "salary \[should\] be based on merit and qualifications, not how long you've sat at a particular desk." Inversions happen because given equal qualifications the person who has been at the job *less* time will be paid *more*.
> 7 votes
# Answer
I think the main issue in that is that you will drive your talent away and keep the left over if you do not make the correction.
If the market is higher than a few years ago, if you do not correct the salaries, basically you encourage all the one that have salaries below market to look for new position. The best ones will succeed while the less good ones will fail. Results: you lose your best element and keeps the less good.
Since academia has very little 'fixed' position the phenomena is less striking, but in a company (particularly in country where laying off is frowned upon) you get a concentration of some 'that cannot go somewhere else'. This is definitely not what you want.
> 4 votes
# Answer
Besides all the other great answers here, there is another reason that merit does not entirely govern salaries. Many universities have an annual period for "merit" raises which require little justification, saving raises for "equity" reasons for special cases. Since everyone is eligible for these so-called merit raises, almost everyone gets one (management being what it is). As such, institutions impose caps on departments that may limit merit raises to 2-3% per year over the department. Coupling that to the public nature of government employee salaries, you can see how these raises become little more than cost-of-living adjustments. On the other hand, departments have to recruit new hires against a competitive background market that may cause a new salary to be higher than a 2% annually compounded salary from 10 years ago. Thus, an inversion.
> 4 votes
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Tags: university, salary
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thread-27748
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27748
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Is it unusual to apply for a degree without finishing your current one?
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2014-08-28T16:10:46.637
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# Question
Title: Is it unusual to apply for a degree without finishing your current one?
Consider the following situation: a student has started a bachelor's/master's/PhD at a lesser-known university program but feels that he would benefit from a more prestigious institution with better professors, equipment, and learning environment.
He decides to apply for a bachelor's/master's/PhD (the same degree as his previous level) program at top schools, planning to abandon his current program if he is accepted.
Is this unusual or frowned upon? Is the fact that the applicant has already started a program likely to hurt the applicant's chances? (Do the answers to the above questions depend on the current level of the applicant?)
# Answer
Speaking strictly from the US, this is defined as a being a "transfer student" and is extremely common. How common? Well, it's a federally reported statistic called "Transfer-Out Rate". I am fond of the CollegeResults.org tool, which defines this stat nicely (emphasis mine):
> The percentage of students who began in the 2006 cohort of first-time, full-time, bachelor's or equivalent degree-seeking freshmen at the institution and transferred to another school without earning a degree at the initial institution. **Reporting of transfer data is optional for colleges and universities that do not consider preparing students for transfer as part of their mission.** (IPEDS)
For instance, The University of South Alabama is reported as having about 16% of students transfer out to another institution before receiving a degree. The University at Buffalo (New York) posts about a 20% transfer rate.
So, as the write-up for the statistic suggests, some schools even offer specific degree tracks designed to transfer. In the state of Wisconsin, the entire "technical college" offers such programs. In Florida, these are called "junior colleges" and offer similar tracks.
Even at Universities designed without this as their intent, there is always a percentage of people who transfer in and out at an undergraduate level. As Nate Eldredge points out, this is not nearly so common at higher levels, but it happens often enough and is hardly taboo.
## The Upsides
Sometimes it is desirable to plan to transfer, such as getting started at a nearby location while you make preparations/plans to go elsewhere (I did this myself, starting in a tech school and applying to my target University just the next semester once I had family/work preparations in place). Many people spend 2-3 years at such colleges, taking all the classes they can towards their higher target degree (usually called "general degree requirements") - usually because it is more convenient and often vastly cheaper (a person can easily save tens of thousands of dollars in tuition this way). Class sizes are often smaller. The difficulty level of the material varies, but most "introduction" classes look a lot an awful lot alike after a while.
## The Downsides
If you are looking to go onto higher degrees, especially to a PhD or competitive Masters program, recommendation letters and research experience (when possible) are highly desirable if not absolutely necessary. If you will only be at an institution for 2 years instead of 4-5, then you have a lot less time to find and build these connections! Surely you can do it, but I know I've personally found it took me about 2 years to find the right connections that seem to have "stuck" and suit me and what I want to do (after figuring out what I actually want to do, naturally). If I had completed most of the degree before coming to my present institution, this might mean I'd have missed out on such opportunities to do some real work with these people.
Most institutions have requirements of "credits done in residence", so you can't just do 4/5ths of a degree at Podunk Clown School Of Higher Learning and transfer into Harvard for a semester and get your diploma. Which is unfortunate, because that sounds like it would make for a great B-movie.
Some administrative complications can come into play too. If you decide to retake a course you did poorly on or failed in a previous semester, the rules about how to do this and whether or not it's possible vary depending on where you took the class. Retaking a class you took originally at School A is not always possible or straight-forward once you are in School B.
How GPA is calculated also differs in this same way, as some institutions only calculate grades earned in residence, others combine them, some don't transfer 0 credit classes (like if you failed a class) and others transfer all grades even if they don't give you credit for the course towards your degree!
The complexity can be a real head-ache sometimes, but they are generally annoyances to be overcome rather than deal-breakers.
## Big Warning
Credits earned at one institution aren't automatically accepted anywhere else! Indeed, at some colleges they offer two versions of a class - one that is likely to transfer, and one that isn't; the one that can transfer costs more but is otherwise the same course! This can be a minefield, so if you want to make plans or consider transferring, talk with your target school's Admissions/Registration/Records and whoever would be in charge of a transcript evaluation first!
This process varies hugely by US State and even between institutions within the state (even when they are State schools in the same system!), but suffice it to say that this is an extremely common problem in America and you have to be careful and plan accordingly.
## Admissions Considerations
Finally, you asked about how this might effect perceptions of you in terms of admissions or otherwise. The most important thing I've seen is that once you've had a semester or two at any college, most colleges no longer put much weight into your high school grades, SAT scores, etc - if they even require them at all. So it is very common that people will not do great in high school, go to a local or otherwise non-competitive college for a few semesters, get really get good grades, and then apply to more competitive institutions. Most Universities understand that proven experience in a college setting is a far better predictor of academic success than any high school transcript or standardized test can possibly be, and then put little weight into anything they have to say. This can backfire on you, of course, if you didn't do well at your last program but did better in the past.
> 11 votes
# Answer
In the US this is generally known as "transferring".
At the undergraduate level it is very common, and institutions usually have standard procedures for admission, awarding credit for equivalent courses already taken, and so on. Students may transfer for a variety of reasons: to attend a more prestigious place, or to find a program that's a better fit for their interests, or just because they'd rather live in a different city. Transfer applicants are not necessarily advantaged or disadvantaged compared to new freshmen, though the applicant's record at their current institution will be taken into account.
At the graduate level, it is less common, and tends to happen when a student is actively unhappy with their current program. It tends to be handled on a more *ad hoc* basis and it's hard to say whether such applicants are generally at an advantage or a disadvantage.
> 5 votes
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Tags: application, degree
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thread-23757
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23757
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What should I do if the first author wants me to write the whole paper?
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2014-06-21T15:12:49.037
|
# Question
Title: What should I do if the first author wants me to write the whole paper?
I have finished three years of work in a Ph.D. program. I've published one conference paper as sole author, and have recently sent out another paper to a prestigious conference.
I started a project last October with a professor who does not have anything to do with my dissertation. He asked me early on to do a lot of work so I asked him who is the first author, and he said he would be. I've already written the full literature review for this journal paper, and came up with the framework by myself. He has only advised me on it.
Now, I have a clear idea about my dissertation, and I have to write my proposal and defend it this fall. So, the work with this professor is rather burdensome to me right now. So far, he has not worked on it at all. I've written six or seven out of the 15 pages of the journal paper. The main thing left is data analysis. He wants me to do the data analysis and write it up as well, and recently he also asked me to write introduction of the paper. At this point, I thought, he wants me to write the whole paper, which he can edit at the last moment and become first author.
Since this paper does not have anything to do with my dissertation, I do not want to work with this paper anymore. I told him I am busy with my own research, it seems like that he will wait until I finish writing the paper.
What should I do? I do not want to cut the relationship but he is asking too much which I think is unethical. Any strategic advice will be appreciated.
---
**UPDATE:**
I talked to the professor and said there must have been misunderstanding about the responsibilities as a second author in my part and as a first author in his part. I said that I understood that writing literature review will meet the responsibility as a second author.
His brief comment on the e-mail was that he wrote a conference paper already, and this journal paper (that I'm working on) is a developed version of the conference paper. So, he did the major work already for the conference paper that is why he is the first author. And he stated that I am supposed to write a literature review and to do the data analysis for this journal paper.
OK. He has integrity in his position. I remember that he said something like this when we started this paper 10 months ago. But the problem was that his position was not re-enforced again, and the lit review I've done took off to a different terain. That means, I did a lot of creative interpretation of the framework. (Sorry, to technical folks. This is social science study using business management theories. The upfront literature review is very significant. My dissertation uses machine learning and NLP stuff. yes, this paper is unrelated with my dissertation).
Anyway, the reason I'm writing this update is to provide the professor's perspective that I've got to learn recently. So the major lesson I've learn through this experience is to keep reinforcing (in emails) about my understanding of my and his responsibilities on this project.
# Answer
First of all: Good call to talk about authorship issues at the beginning, rather than only once troubles started! Now authorship issues do occasionally have to be re-negotiated depending on the course the project takes.
There do seem to be potentially two separate aspects in your question:
A. What to do if I have contributed as much as I am willing as a secondary author, yet the first author keeps asking for more? \- Point out that you have done X, Y and Z, and that you are only willing to do significantly more if you are the first author (fundamental reading + commenting remain unaffected of course).
B. I started a side-project, and I no longer want to work on this AT ALL. \- Make clear to your co-author that you have no intention to work on this project anymore, and that this pertains to the future, too. Either give them free rein to continue the project without you (either with you on the author list or not, depending on your preferences); OR make sure you are still available for basic reading/commenting, but simply nothing more extensive.
In both cases, if the coauthor shows a significantly stronger reaction than "medium annoyance", then maintaining a positive relationship to them is futile anyway.
> 30 votes
# Answer
Since I suppose bad language is not allowed here, I'll be restrained. Suffice to say, as an academic I think that is a basic professional principle is lacking here: if you, with existing career, wage and pedagogical duties, are writing with a student, they should be first author. Always. Every time. No matter what.
Two reasons: first, you already have all the power and privileges. Students are not there to be consumed. Second, you don't want to be seen to be exploiting someone who is vulnerable to your power over them.
Short answer: this person sounds like a dick. Put them off, finish your PhD, get a job, then tell anyone following on after you to avoid writing with them.
> 10 votes
# Answer
The professor is putting it off until you present your dissertation. What happens then? Are you still employed by your institution?
If you have an position somewhere else, congratulations! Just tell him that you have other obligations, and that you will be available for comments and discussion, but your new employer would want you to work on their projects.
If you are going to remain at your institution, and don't have anything else that will pay your bills, you could use this project to improve your CV. I don't know in your field, but only two conference publications sounds on the weaker end (in technical fields in Sweden people usually finish with four first author journal papers after four years). If you don't have anything else (yet), you can ask him to hire you. If funding is not available, you may decide to work with him anyway, but letting him know that your main priority is finding a new job, and you will leave as soon as someone offers to pay you. You may also decide not to work for free, and you could tell him that.
In the case that you decide to actually continue with the project, you should discuss authorship again. You have done most of the job so far, and you have the work he wants you to do as a leverage. You could appeal to his humanity (~~as if professors had any!~~) and say that you are in a critical point in your career and need to strengthen your CV.
> 5 votes
# Answer
Practical question: How important is it to you that this paper be published?
If you don't do it, will it be?
If the answer to the first is "very" and the answer to the second is 'no", you're sorta stuck. What's right, and what will achieve the desired outcome, are different things.
> 2 votes
# Answer
I suppose this will have been dealt with in other threads, but the meanings of "first" and "second" authors do vary with discipline. For instance, in theoretical CS it is most common for authors to be listed in strict alphabetical order by last name, regardless of level or type of contribution. In the sciences it is more common for the "senior author" (who is primarily a mentor and may have conceived of the problem and the solution framework, but probably hasn't done as much hands-on work or writing) to be named last. In engineering it can be a bit arbitrary, reflecting the authors' perceived order of importance or some other understanding. (Though I work in engineering and applied CS, I personally follow the sciences' style, so I am almost always the last-named author in my papers, with my students or other junior co-author(s) being named first even if I have done a lot of hand-holding.)
On the main issue, I find it quite surprising that your professor wrote a conference paper which he now says has been extended, but you knew nothing about it. How could you not have known? In most cases the conference paper would be the first point of departure while extending for a journal, and I'm sure this is true across disciplines.
> 1 votes
# Answer
In all this mess you are suffering, I am trying to put myself at your position as I am also a researcher. As you said you don't want to cut the relationship so we will have to be polite as well as have to refuse his work also. Unfortunately I have to ask this - how much will it take to end up all his work? (Sorry to ask but what if, just be strong and complete it and end up with all mess). Next, can't you show you cannot do it efficiently now because you busy in your work. (You can do this by asking some questions about data analysis related to his work again and again and again and again.)
And if we can't do anything with him, do you have any friend/colleague who can help you with his work or what you can do is say your professor to provide you a helping source as you have your work also (say politely) and assign most of the work to source provided by guiding him/her.
If nothing actually working - than just do your work! Only your work will make your profile strong, once you done with the degree from there - nobody can do anything. If you had decided to be in this research field - you will occasionally come across these type of problems or worse. Don't worry! Just take it as a lesson for your future.
And the most important thing - when you are a professor never ever let anything like this happen to your student. I know it's not your problem's solution but this will help any other student in same trap.
> 0 votes
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Tags: research-process, publications, authorship
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thread-27743
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27743
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How to review a major revision of a paper?
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2014-08-28T15:18:20.837
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# Question
Title: How to review a major revision of a paper?
A few months ago I reviewed my first paper. The authors submitted a major revision and I am asked to review the paper again. I received a long cover letter where my comments and the comments of two other anonymous reviewers have been answered.
The paper is relatively long (40 pages) so I am trying to avoid unnecessary work. Should I:
1. Re-review the **entire paper** as if I saw it the first time,
2. Just check if **all** comments have been addressed, or
3. Just check if **my** comments have been addressed?
I am afraid that if I just check the comments, it is possible that the authors have made some other changes, or that their changes might have broken the integrity of the paper as a whole. On the other hand if I re-review the entire paper it might be unfair to the authors.
# Answer
> 29 votes
When a major review has been requested, I think you really do need to go through the whole paper, for exactly the reasons you cite—the changes *you've* requested may conflict with the changes another reviewer has requested, and therefore the authors may have had to exercise significant discretion on which one to formally include in their revisions. Similarly, there may have been other changes that arose from your comments or those of your fellow reviewers.
Minor reviews require a lower level of commitment, unless the authors have indicated more substantial changes have been made.
# Answer
> 9 votes
Anytime you are asked to review a paper, that is what you should do. If the editor asks you to provide feedback on how your own comments have been dealt with, then that is what you do. As aeismail states, the comments from several reviewers have been considered by the authors which means the paper is at least partially new. An example: it is not uncommon that reviewers opinions differ, which means authors have to decide what they believe is their preferred direction forward, following all points proposed by all reviewers may be impossible. As a reviewer you may then need to re-argue your view point and possibly find other ways to make these view points count. There are hence good reasons for making a second thorough review of a paper that has been given a major revision by the editors.
# Answer
> 6 votes
This is difficult and, to some extent, a matter of opinion. So, my opinion is this: Your job as reviewer is to identify problems and make critical comments that will improve a paper. In the first round, hopefully this is what you did. The editor then looks at these comments to decide whether to offer an opportunity for revision. In many (most?) journals, an offer of revision is a 85%+ chance of the paper eventually being published. So, when the paper comes back to you, it has already received a round of review and has already been deemed nearly ready for publication. You need to check to make sure that your comments and concerns have been adequately address. Particularly with major revisions, you also need to make sure that no significant new errors have been introduced. This can be a lot of work, but that is precisely your job; you put in effort now in hopes that others reviewing your paper given the same level of effort. If a paper addresses your concerns and introduces no new errors, your job is to recommend to the editor to publish the paper (possibly with minimal additional revisions to address new or lingering concerns).
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Tags: publications, peer-review
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thread-27731
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27731
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Public accountability for academic work
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2014-08-28T09:07:16.143
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# Question
Title: Public accountability for academic work
I have realised that my performance improves when I make my progress publicly accountable. For example, my jogging times improve and I lose more weight when I enter myself onto a public rankings list. I would imagine that my academic progress would also improve if I make my progress publicly visible.
I'm wondering what online rankings or any other publicly visible progress reports might be available in academia? I've heard of impact factors, but is there anything else? I'm sure there are people against turning academia into a competition, but I find some sort of competitive element really improves my performance.
# Answer
> 6 votes
You can always compare the length of publication lists, e.g., using Google Scholar, ResearchGate or even your colleagues' homepages.
Summaries of publications and their impact are (attempted to be) provided by the h-index and similar measures. (Impact factors really pertain to journals, not researchers... but indices for researchers may take into account whether the researcher publishes in a low- or high-impact journal.)
There can be, uh, *lively* discussions about the merits or not of such measures, especially in the context of hiring and remuneration decisions.
One problem with using such measures for short- and medium-term motivation as you propose is the lag between the work and the publication \- feedback is *far* too slow. If you are looking for motivation, you may want to check Productivity.SE.com.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Some more ideas to complement StephanKolassa's answer.
Another possible idea that crossed my mind multiple times in the past is making a Trello board showing my papers in different columns according to their progress status, with a scale such as:
* 0: preliminary idea, not clear if it will even work
* 1: some experiments or theoretical work done, seems promising; will likely lead to a publication but lots of work needed
* 2: most of the experiments/proofs ready, still to write down in coherent form
* 3 draft mainly ready
* 4 published as preprint and submitted
* 5 first round of positive reviews, awaits modifications or already resubmitted
* 6 published; congratulations!
Other random ideas: if you are writing a long document such as a thesis or a book, you may want to publish online a graph tracking the number of pages written vs. time. Similarly with lines of code. If you are using git you can gather lots of statistics using GitStats (example)
# Answer
> 2 votes
Microsoft Academic Search maintains top-something lists of researchers in different fields (e.g., top-100 researchers in software engineering, top-20 researchers in WWW in the last 5 years, etc.). Clearly, you will only start showing up in these rankings after you already had some number of cited publications, so it is probably not useful for your PhD research. Also, as I have experienced myself, the ranking is weird, so I wouldn't say it is exactly a reliable way to measure your progress. Finally, it should be noted that the feedback achieved by these rankings is going to be **very slow**. In fact, you will (theoretically) see improvements in these rankings **years** after you wrote high-impact papers. It is not exactly that you can use it to track how good your last week was.
You could also use Google Scholar and compare your profile against profiles of other people of similar academic age or standing. The good thing here is that you should at least show up as soon as you have co-authored something. However, similar restrictions to above apply - progress will be very slow, and any comparison based on e.g., Google Scholar h-index will be a noisy heuristic at best.
# Answer
> 1 votes
As many answers already pointed out, academic progress is slow. Changes in comprehensive rankings will take their time. I assume this is the reason why people say that a person in academia must endure frustration and have tons of patience. On the other hand, humans seem to usually need a much more frequent feedback in order to actually motivate yourself.
**I find one little trick particularly helpful: find colleagues that work on closely related topics. Share information and work together on the same project.** Seeing someone else having success on his or her share of the work will surely make you want to contribute as well (if not more). I must admit, that this will only work, if everyone involved aims toward the success of the project. There are various ways of measuring, publishing, and rewarding progress in this case: the tool can be as simple as a progress bar on an intranet's webpage that steps along as milestones are reached, money for visiting a conference on the condition of a publication, or the already mentioned Trello board that just visualizes how the contributions of different people in your group help a project advance.
Sharing information in a small study or work group breaks down the long-term progress into the small steps that academia actually enforces: idea, thinking, trial, and finally success or failure. Adding *discussion* at any state of this progress will help to uncover misunderstandings and sure failures faster than if you would work on your own. Linearizing your thoughts to actually tell them so someone enforces a clear picture in your head, again ruling out possibly overlooked details.
Furthermore, swapping ideas will help everyone in your group gain insight and see the same world with different eyes. To every topic (how old and worn out it may be) there is a perspective or context that has not been considered yet. Finding out about these is something I found particularly motivating during my time of study. Keeping the discussion with colleagues and friends alive will surely help you with this.
**My approach to answer your question is: choose a method of feedback that suits you and try to shorten the intervals. The method of feedback does not matter as much as the time you have to spend without.**
Lastly, a small excursus: We have some source code for numerical computations that we share among the PhDs in our work group. It is always a bit frustrating to find oneself spending hours of debugging someone else's mess.. Recently, we started offering bounties (you know those coconut-chocolate-bars?) for bugs someone would find in someone else's source code. Now one has one more reason to watch out bugs on your own (to avoid spending a "bounty"). Moreover, the frustration is somewhat mitigated in case a bug is found since one receives a (small) compensation.
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Tags: motivation, ranking, feedback
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thread-27769
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27769
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Is there a standard dictionary for referencing English words?
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2014-08-29T04:55:51.027
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# Question
Title: Is there a standard dictionary for referencing English words?
I am working on a paper in which we need to reference the meaning of english words as foundation for the analysis in the paper (we are categorizing situations using these words, and there is no method of categorizing these items, so no precedent).
Before internet, using the encyclopedia Britannica or merriam-webster dictionary was easy for referencing the book itself. These days, words and meanings change and are sometimes updated. Even more, looking online for a dictionary for finding a word returns many results.
When searching for oxford dictionary there are three results http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/ http://www.oed.com/ http://oaadonline.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/
Merriam webster: http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Cambridge: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
The online dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
And of course wikipedia usually has some definition.
For example, if we categorize something as 'multi-' , In this dictionary: http://oaadonline.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/multi multi is "More than one". However, in this http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/multi , multi is "More than two". That is a huge difference in terminology.
Is there an academic standard for the age of online dictionaries? Have words just begun to mean different things and its futile to use dictionaries in this way?
# Answer
* www.oed.com is the online version of the full, *official* Oxford English Dictionary. Requires a subscription (institutional or personal) to access. This is the site you should use whenever possible.
* http://www.oxforddictionaries.com is an ad-supported version with some features cut. Avoid if you have subscription access to the full site (as any university should).
* http://oaadonline.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ is, clearly, for learners of the English language. Use it as a guide for learning, sure - but not as a guide for writing papers.
The OED is *the* English dictionary to use. Other dictionaries are probably fine in all but the weirdest corner cases, but it helps to have some standardization.
Your journal probably specifies its own preferences in this regard. Every publisher's "guide for authors" that I have seen tells you to defer to the OED. Sometimes you'll see specific instructions to use either British or American spellings, and you may specifically be told how to spell words that don't have a British or American "standard" spelling, such as *parametrize*.
> 5 votes
# Answer
onelook.com is a nice resource; it links to several online dictionaries from one convenient place. (Although it does not link to the OED, and I agree that the OED is both authoritative and reputable – more on that in a bit.)
Still, words often have fuzzy meanings, and it's often good to cite a couple of reputable sources when establishing definitions.
Your *multi-* example is a good one. When you find dictionaries have conflicting meanings of a word, it might be best to provide multiple definitions, and then declare which meaning you intend to use throughout your paper or thesis.
Collins has an interesting listing for *multi-*, in that it lists both of the meanings you allude to:
> **multi-**
> 1 many or much ⇒ *multiflorous*, *multimillion*
> 2 more than one ⇒ *multiparous*, *multistorey*
It's also important to know what kind of dictionary you are citing, and what that dictionary's goal is. For example, some dictionaries list what they deem as primary meanings first, while others order a word's definitions based on how the word evolved. Others, like Cambridge Dictionary Online, are designed to be a learner's dictionary; CDO's definitions are relatively basic, and geared more toward those who are learning English as a second language. Some online dictionaries are wikis, like Wiktionary, which might be good for finding the most up-to-date slang usages, but are probably not the best sources to cite in scholarly works.
The goal of the OED is a comprehensive, exhaustive list of usages, starting from the very early usages, and going to more contemporary. For example, looking up *multi-* in the OED yields 10 results; one of them begins with:
> 1. Forming parasynthetic adjectives, with the sense ‘more than one, several, many’. From the adjectives are formed adverbs (e.g. *multiserially*) and nouns (e.g. *multicellularity*). Some formations of this kind acquire a noun sense, as *multicore*, *multiengine*.
It then goes on to list dozens of examples, many of them rare or obsolete, along with references that stretch back as far as the 1700s, such as:
> **multinodal** adj. having many nodes.
> 1839 J. Lindley Introd. Bot. (ed. 3) i. ii. 160 *The multinodal cyme offers no fixed rule in the spirals of its nodes*.
> 1902 Biometrika 1 264 *These maxima must arise from the mortality curve itself being multinodal*.
> 1979 Cell & Tissue Res. 199 225 *Probit frequency analysis, a graphic method for determining whether a population is normally distributed, skewed, or multinodal*.
>
> **multinodate** adj. rare = multinodal adj.
> 1840 B. H. Smart Walker's Crit. Pronouncing Dict., *Multinodate, or Multinodous, many-knotted*.
> 1979 Proc. Linn. Soc. New S. Wales 102 194 *Most often, on multinodate axes and particularly in large inflorescences, reduction in degree of branching does not occur alone*.
>
> **multinodous** adj. \[ \< classical Latin multinōdus ( \< multi- multi- comb. form + nōdus knot: see node n.) + -ous suffix\] Obs. rare—0 = multinodal adj.
> 1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II., *Multinodous, full of Knots*.
> 1840 B. H. Smart Walker's Crit. Pronouncing Dict., *Multinodate, or Multinodous, many-knotted*.
>
> **multinodular** adj. Med. characterized by or composed of a number of nodules.
> 1900 W. A. N. Dorland Illustr. Med. Dict. 399/2 *Multinodular, composed of many nodules*.
> 1924 F. de Quervain Goitre 33 *The fourth type is represented by the multinodular goitre with large nodules*.
In other words, it's one thing to say that the OED is the "best" dictionary to use, but it may be overkill in some instances.
I'm active in some of the SE's English forums; I've found Macmillan and Collins to be reputable, and I would trust them for scholarly work. Miriam-Webster is often regarded as reputable, too, but I tend to avoid their online edition, owing to the number of ads they splash on a screen (my computer often starts running slower as soon as I go to one of their pages).
> 2 votes
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Tags: publications, citations, language
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thread-27776
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27776
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Is it okay to let body text follow immediately after intermediate level headings?
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2014-08-29T09:11:28.157
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# Question
Title: Is it okay to let body text follow immediately after intermediate level headings?
Let's say we have a thesis/scientific paper with a sectioning depth of three \[chapter, section, subsection\]. I already often wondered:
**Is it okay to have text outside of the lowest level, i. e. subsections?**
For instance giving the introduction to / overview of a chapter is that done right after the chapters headline (or sections headline) or in the first subsection appearing in the same chapter?
# Answer
> 6 votes
**In my view, it is perfectly acceptable**. It often helps readability, and logically it makes sense (a good example is the "introduction before subsections" that you cited).
That said, **some people hate it**, and I have already encountered referees who wanted me to change it. I haven't been able to infer a reasonable motivation up to now, so I would be interested in reading arguments in its favor.
Academic papers typically have no table of contents, so there is even less motivation for enforcing a strict tree-like structure.
# Answer
> 5 votes
From my point of view, the answer to your question depends on the content that you refer to by *introduction* and *overview* as well as the actual number of *sub-sections* to a respective level. I consider a *sub-section* to be an actual subsection as stated in your question as well as a section within a chapter.
The actual content should always be placed within the respective sub-section. Sectioning is supposed to help a reader finding content of interest fast.
**Kind of Introduction**
Depending what you aim to introduce (specialties of a method vs. a rather general field of study), the introduction should be placed within or outside of the sub-section.
**Kind of Overview**
Usually, I would expect an overview to be outside of the specific sub-sections of content. One may say, that an *overview* works out to be the same as an introduction to a rather general field of study, cf. *Kind of Introduction*.
**Number of Sub-sections**
The more different sub-sections you have with regard to a level, the more important I find an overview to interrelate these. Since I do not know which sub-sections to read a-priori, I expected an overview that sketches and relates the entire content right after the chapter/section heading. Depending on how interrelated the topics in your sub-sections actually are, this introduction/overview may be longer or shorter.
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Tags: publications, thesis, writing
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thread-27785
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27785
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How to start writing my statement of purpose?
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2014-08-29T11:31:14.907
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# Question
Title: How to start writing my statement of purpose?
I completed my undergraduate studies(B. Tech in Computer Science and Engineering) in 2012, and have been working in a tech start-up since then. I am planning to go for MS in Computer for fall 2015, I wanted to know what all material should I collect, before I start jolting down the initial draft(s) for my statement of purpose,
# Answer
> 3 votes
While this will depend partly on the formal requirements of the course for which you are applying, here are some general things that I look for in reading these statements as admissions tutor for our department:
* Demonstrated enthusiasm for the subject. Your CV and transcript will provide basic factual information about your technical skills and ability to succeed in an academic environment, but the statement of purpose lets you round out that profile with memorable detail. Be specific. If you've worked at a tech start-up, how did that inform your decision to pursue further study? What new skills did you learn, new challenges faced and overcome, etc?
* Demonstrated awareness of the programme. I've read essays that clearly had no understanding of what our programme covered and how we taught it. Be familiar with the prospectus and don't be afraid to contact the admissions tutors to clarify anything. How does the style of teaching at your target university relate to your interests?
* Ability to write coherently. Regardless of the subject, you will need to be able to communicate clearly. A poorly structured essay, full of grammar and spelling mistakes, is a sure-fire way to end up on the 'no' pile.
Good luck!
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Tags: statement-of-purpose
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thread-27789
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27789
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How to become committee member of a conference workshop?
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2014-08-29T11:55:52.557
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# Question
Title: How to become committee member of a conference workshop?
Is there a formal process behind deciding who should be the members of a workshop committee? Or is it more about the organizers contacting people based on their experience within that particular field?
# Answer
> 5 votes
1. Organize that workshop
2. Be invited by the organizers to be on the commitee
3. Ask the organizers while the committee is still being formed (and be known and respected by them)
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Tags: conference, workshop, program-committee
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thread-27782
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27782
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How do international PhD students typically obtain health insurance in the United States?
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2014-08-29T10:56:40.447
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# Question
Title: How do international PhD students typically obtain health insurance in the United States?
Could anyone kindly provide me with information about how *PhD international students* can be covered by health insurance in the US? :
Is it often granted by the University?
How much does it cost, on average (for the student and possibly spouse/children) and what does it cover?
Does "Obamacare" reform affect it anyhow?
I would appreciate any information. Thanks in advance.
# Answer
This is very university-specific. My university pays the health insurance for students who are appointed to a graduate research assistantship or TA-ship at the half-time (20 hours/week) level. Half-time is the minimum to get the insurance paid, the maximum time allowed for a graduate student to work, and the usual appointment for the vast majority of graduate students. To add a spouse is about $450/mo. I do not know how much children cost to add. The coverage varies all over the map because insurance varies so much by state, institution, and plan in the US. The plan at my institution is for medical care only. Vision and dental are separate and funded entirely by the employee (though they're pretty cheap).
The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) may have changed this for some institutions which did not provide insurance options to grad students, but mine has for the last 20 years or so, so I don't really know.
All of this information should be on the website of the university you want to attend. You may have to look in the section for employees rather than students, but it's usually there. Look for "benefits" as well as "insurance".
> 18 votes
# Answer
A lot of universities do provide health insurance to enrolled students.
For example:
* Princeton University's student health plan is extended by default to all enrolled graduate students (the line about tuition payment is pro forma: if you are on a fellowship or on a teaching assistant/research assistant position your tuition is covered automatically and so the insurance costs you nothing out of pocket). One can also enroll dependents (spouse and children) as long as certain requirements are met. Dental insurance is not covered by default, as far as I know.
* A similar provision is offered by UC Berkeley.
The coverage offered are specific to the insurance plans, and thus entirely dependent on the University. The Google search phrase "\< university name \> graduate student health insurance" is pretty good at returning the results for the universities you are interested in.
> 13 votes
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Tags: phd, funding, united-states, international-students, health
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thread-26711
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26711
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What is life as "Head of Department ____" like?
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2014-08-02T08:17:24.987
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# Question
Title: What is life as "Head of Department ____" like?
In the past few years, I've become very interested in staying in academia for as long as possible. I really wanted to be a professor, and I still do. Using the internet and meeting with a few professors, I've researched various aspects of life as a professor, including daily schedules, salaries, etc. While trying to get an idea of what a typical professor's salary might look like, I always stumbled upon "Head of Department" salaries, which were considerably greater than other professor salaries. I liked the idea of being paid more, but I always dismissed the idea of becoming a "Head of Department" because I thought that their work was more related to administration than teaching or talking about the field of their department. (One of the main reasons I want to be a professor is the opportunity to be directly involved in the fields I'm passionate about every single day.) However, I recently traveled to a university in my state with the company I am interning at, and I met the head of the department of mechanical engineering. Though that is not my field of interest, I was very glad to have the chance to meet with her. I learned all about her day-to-day life as head of department: I learned that she is quite actively involved in many PhD students' projects, and oversees many research projects. There is also an administrative aspect in her job, but it isn't nearly as overwhelming or burdensome as I thought. Since the visit, I've become very interested in a job like hers.
Is my perception of "Head of Department" skewed? What can I do to be involved in my field like she is in hers?
I would love to learn about and teach my passions for a living.
Side question: How involved are deans of \__ in their respective fields?
# Answer
I had the great (mis)fortune of being a department chair for four years. This was at a small, not prestigious, liberal arts college. We use the "weak" chair model as mentioned by Bill Barth (which I think compromises such things as chair evaluations of faculty: pan someone, even fairly, and they will get the chance to return the favor). I was an associate professor when I took the position, it was my turn. I did get a course reduction, from four to three courses per semester, along with a minor stipend (I could have made more, with less time commitment, teaching five courses). There were the expected administrative duties: making schedules each semester, purchase orders, budget, etc. Since the position had no real power, I was a glorified secretary to the department. All but one of my facult were former chairs, but they all came to me with every little problem as if they had no idea of what to do. Finally, I reminded them they were former chairs and if they had some request that needed my approval. then they should get the necessary forms, fill them out, and bring them to me for signature. This solved that problem.
However, it always seemes there was something to take care of. As an example of how frustrating things can be, I arrived at my office one day at 8:00AM with three things I wanted to do. I left for home at 6:00PM having done none of them.
I was just beginning to solidify a research program when I took the job. When I was done, I seriously considered leaving academia. After a few years of decompression, I revived my enthusiasm for research and am getting back to speed, but those several years off, complicated by some family issues, really hurt me from a professional standpoint.
Now that I've related my horror story, I should point out that there are some people at my school who honestly enjoy being chair. Nonetheless, I would caution anyone to think long and hard before taking the plunge.
> 25 votes
# Answer
Another factor to consider is that at least at US universities there seem to be two extremes for how departments are run. At one end, the Department Head or Department Chair is strong and has considerable influence over the direction of the department as a whole. In such places, the Chair can direct the research direction of the department, make faculty hiring decisions, and steer the department as though it were their larger research group. At the other extreme, the departmental committees really have the power. There, the Chair is more of a rubber stamp for the committee decisions and represents their wishes to outside entities. In these models, the Dean or Head of School or whoever the Chair reports to also has a lot of power over the department.
In the weak Chair model, department insiders usually take turns being Chair and then return to being regular faculty after their turn is up. In the strong Chair model, a national or international search will be done to find a top candidate to come in and lead the department to glory. Such a Chair might run the department for much of the rest of their career.
All of the above are caricatures of the way departments work, but they give you an idea of much of the range of what is possible. In either model, the Chair may be involved to a greater or lesser degree in teaching and research depending on their preference and local culture.
> 13 votes
# Answer
I think this varies a lot depending on the field, the department and it's size. In my experience department chairs/head of departments (US/UK terminology respectively, on the whole) spend the majority of their working time on administration, but will remain involved in research and teaching, though at a reduced level. I think the degree to which they do this depends on their preferences. Those who are ready to stop or take a break from teaching and research can and people generally don't blame them; those who are still excited about it will find a way to continue them. It all just depends.
However, I feel like there's a fallacy underlying your question. You seem to think (forgive me if I'm wrong; I am reading a bit between the lines) that "Head of Department" is a separate career track or something. In fact, I've never heard of a department head who wasn't a "normal" professor for 15 to 20 years before becoming head of department. It's not something I have a special interest in doing, but I have every reason to think I'll probably do a stint or two as department chair 20 or so years from now. So, at this stage in your life (your profile says you are 17), there's no reason to worry about whether you want to do it. Assuming you go into academia, become a professor, and stick with for a couple of decades, then you can think about whether it's something that makes sense for you, in the context of your department or one doing an external search at that time.
> 11 votes
# Answer
The simple answer to your question "What is life as “Head of Department \____” like?" in one word is: difficult. Other words I can think of include thankless and masochistic. Perhaps I am being too cynical (after having had the role for four years). It all depends on which country you are in, what type of institution, the stage at which you are in your career and your overall aspirations. You talk about money, but the reality is that the remuneration is unlikely to equate to the workload and pressure, so I would never do it for the money alone. If that is what you want, go into industry or commerce.
Head of Dept. is the description used in the UK. In the UK system, it is a powerful role and you will have a lot of influence on the direction and strategy of the department. This can make it very rewarding, but it is also a potential minefield. Don't expect to be friends with everybody; getting a group of academics to agree is rather like herding cats. There is also the stress associated with all manner of problems, such as difficult student issues, difficult staff issues, dealing with higher and lower levels of admin, not to mention the time required for all of this and the countless meetings you have to attend. This is a job only for those with a thick skin, lots of stamina, a sense of humour, good management and diplomatic skills. Also bear in mind that unless you have a reasonably sized research team, you will find it hard to produce any research in reasonable volume.
Having said all that, there are people who relish academic management, and if you are in the right place at the right time, it can be the first step on a career path in the university management system. Someone who is Head of Dept. in their late 40's, for example, might well spend the rest of their career in senior university management as long as they don't screw up. At the end of the day, someone has to manage the system and if you are OK with it, go for it. But as someone else said, think long and hard about it.
> 4 votes
# Answer
"Department heads" come in different types. Some are like the kind that you say, basically faculty members with some administrative duties. Others are more "political" types, who are better noted for their administrative, than academic abilities. These two archtypes will fulfill the role at different times and situations.
I'm writing about the experience of my father, a retired civil engineering professor, who spent a year and a half as the Acting Department Head. It was an "interim" position, held after a "political" type left, in which the priority was to restore the confidence of the faculty. My father participated heavily in PhD thesis supervision (a favorite activity of his), and worked closely with the Faculty Senate (which would be his next destination). All this was made possible by the "temporary" nature of the position.
All this changed when there was a new dean, who wanted a Department Head to "kick the asses of the full professors." My father's successor was a tough minded man (a Holocaust survivor, for starters), who did just that. But the pressures of that role were too much, even for him, and he had to step down after several years. While he was there, he relied on my father, who had been a department head, while being a good link to the Faculty Senate.
It sounds like you could do well as one type of Department Head but maybe not the other. So you need to keep your eyes out on the institution to determine which is more likely to be the case. Bear in mind that is analysis could be complicated by the fact that the institution's needs may change from time to time as well.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I don't have exact knowledge about what the life of a Head of Department Professor is, but looking at the Professors who act as heads of departments in my university, I can tell that they are equally involved in teaching as the other Professors.
Simply if you want to deduce if a particular head of department is involved in teaching and research, look at the number of his publications after he became head of department (I know, this information can be misleading), also look at the courses they teach. I have not noticed any change in those numbers (in my University) after a given Professor became head of a department.
It is true that they are more involved in administrative/managerial tasks. But, I think that is something that comes with experience. I assume you are a young scholar and eager to do teaching, but do you think you will have the same amount of desire after 20+ years on the field? Some managerial experience might look interesting then, right?
> 0 votes
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Tags: professorship
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thread-27781
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27781
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Undergraduate research in mathematics
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2014-08-29T10:49:57.977
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# Question
Title: Undergraduate research in mathematics
I am a European student applying for a PhD in mathematics in the US. Browsing the internet, I have come across quite a lot of American PhD applicants claiming that they have several years of research experience, or even publications. I am rather astonished because in Europe first research attempts normally begin when a student is writing his or her Master's thesis. On the other hand the level of mathematics taught in European undergrad programmes is typically higher than in the US an normally involves courses which are classed as graduate courses in the US. Therefore I would like to ask the following questions:
1. What does "undergraduate research" really mean in most cases? Original research, contribution to a senior mathematician's original research through some calculations/programming work, independent study of a difficult topic + a paper/report but without any original findings?
2. Am I right being skeptical that someone who has only taken some courses in linear algebra, real analysis, etc. is ready to do research?
3. US PhD programmes typically involve 2 years of taught courses and a qualifying exam prior to beginning the work on one's thesis, i.e. research proper. Is undergraduate research really an important prerequisite in the eyes of the admissions committee?
4. How common is it to have publications as an undergraduate in the US?
5. As a student coming from Europe, where there is little opportunity for undergrad research and it is generally not encouraged, is my application at an disadvantage? While I have not done any "undergrad research", I have done a lot of independent work. I have written a Bachelor's thesis, given talks at many seminars, and am now working on a Master's thesis which will hopefully contain some original results. Can this experience be regarded on a par with a US applicant's research experience?
# Answer
To address a few of your points.
1. There is no standard definition of undergraduate research. In many US universities one can graduate with a degree *without* doing an independent thesis, so in effect it is possible to obtain a bachelor's degree without having anything resembling "research experience". Therefore some people would be generous and count the research for bachelor's theses as "undergraduate research". For some people the phrase excludes theses but includes REU experiences, and for some only original research leading to publications count.
It is not too unreasonable to expect that the work put into independent projects, even an undergraduate thesis that basically is just a review of existing results, can be beneficial to graduate research.
2. Yes; but where did you get the idea that undergraduates only learn some linear algebra and real analysis? Combinatorics is a field in which the barrier to entry is somewhat lower, and is especially approachable to the Math Olympiad types; and discrete mathematics is certainly on the rise in the past decade or so in terms of undergraduate education. And many undergraduates do have quite a bit more under their belt than you seem to believe.
Having worked in Europe for the past 5 years, I feel comfortable asserting that the claim
> the level of mathematics taught in European undergrad programmes is typically higher than in the US an normally involves courses which are classed as graduate courses in the US.
is not quite true. What is true is that the mathematics in European undergraduate programs often *start out* at a higher level and with more rigour, but at the advanced undergraduate level the US schools usually have caught up. (Note also that the US degrees are usually 4 years compared to 3 years in Europe, so they have a bit more time to build.) Couple that with the liberal arts tradition you'll often find elective classes at the top level of undergraduate education in the US which have no analogue at all in Europe.
While it is certainly true that good European universities offer undergraduate courses that are at the level of graduate courses in mediocre US universities, the reverse swapping European/US is also true.
3. It depends on the answer to (1). The rare individual who actually did original research and obtained publishable results will likely get some bonus points when the admission committee deliberates, but it is certainly not a norm and one is not expected to have done such necessarily.
4. I don't have any statistics. Hearsay suggests that original research leading to something published in a research journal is somewhat rare. (Publications resulting from REU or similar programs, or publications in undergraduate journals are less rare.)
5. If your master's thesis contains original results, then you are likely more than on par with the typical applicant to US PhD programs, in terms of research experience.
> 8 votes
# Answer
> Is undergraduate research really an important prerequisite in the eyes of the admissions committee?
It's certainly not mandatory: every US graduate program in mathematics is willing to admit students who have not done original research or published a paper. On the other hand, having impressive accomplishments helps, and it's important to have letters of recommendation from faculty who have seen you engage deeply with something difficult. It's easier to get such a letter from a supervisor on a substantial independent project, but it doesn't have to be a research project. Your background as described in the question sounds strong, and I don't think you need to worry about a lack of research experience.
The worrisome scenario is someone who has never focused on any question for more than a few hours. This is entirely possible for an undergraduate who hasn't written a thesis or worked on any comparable project. The problem is that doing mathematics on a long time scale is qualitatively different from short-term problem solving. It's psychologically different: you need to be patient and flexible, while still maintaining focus over months or years. Some people are effective and enthusiastic over short time scales but aren't temperamentally suited to research, and it can be a heavy blow to discover in graduate school that you don't enjoy this sort of work or have trouble focusing. Other people are intimidated by the idea of research and assume they would be worse at it than at short-term problem solving, while in fact they might be much better.
So the key advantage of undergraduate research is that it gives students a chance to discover their preferences and talents, with faculty mentors who can judge their performance and vouch for it. On the other hand, there are other ways to achieve the same goals, and it's the goals that matter.
Historically, the initial push for undergraduate research in the US was actually as a recruiting tool. The idea was that encouraging students to do research would help uncover people who should go to graduate school but might not have realized it (either from being underconfident or from not having had the opportunity to shine). REUs were not intended as a prerequisite for graduate school, but this view has become more common among applicants as the programs have become more popular.
> What does "undergraduate research" really mean in most cases? Original research, contribution to a senior mathematician's original research through some calculations/programming work, independent study of a difficult topic + a paper/report but without any original findings?
Preferably one of the first two, and ideally the first, but it is sometimes used to refer to the third as well. Both applicants and supervisors have incentives to describe work as "undergraduate research" regardless of whether they intended or tried to do original research, in the hope that it will sound more impressive than just saying it was an independent project. This broader usage gets on my nerves, so I'd recommend against it, but it's widespread enough that there's not much risk of standing out as being misleading or manipulative.
> How common is it to have publications as an undergraduate in the US?
It's relatively common among those who attend an REU or similar research program, although the publications are not necessarily impressive in absolute terms (i.e., not taking into account that the authors are undergraduates). Publishing is rare among undergraduate students who have not participated in such a program.
> 5 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, mathematics, research-undergraduate
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thread-19710
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19710
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What to put in "affiliation" field when submitting paper without affiliation?
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2014-04-23T18:26:52.863
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# Question
Title: What to put in "affiliation" field when submitting paper without affiliation?
Recently my paper is reviewed (by a professor from independent third party) and accepted by a journal. But, my employer allows me to publish this paper only without its name there.
Publishing house is expecting affiliation for each author, i.e. I can not leave affiliation as blank.
What should I write as the affiliation?
# Answer
As noted by @mankoff in a comment on Does one need to be affiliated with a university to publish papers?, you can use "Independent Scholar":
> Here is a recent paper published by someone affiliated as "Independent Scholar": dx.doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00171.1
> 35 votes
# Answer
For completeness’ sake, I mention that another option would be to give your private address as an affiliation. Here is an example for this. Here is another one (affiliations are at the end of the paper)¹. This one only lists the city and country part of the address².
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<sup>
¹ Credits to Jessica B for pointing this one out.
² Credits to Cheersmate for pointing this one out.
</sup>
> 9 votes
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Tags: publications, independent-researcher, affiliation
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thread-9463
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9463
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Would transferring to a better school in the middle of a graduate program irreparably hurt my professional connections and academic reputation?
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2013-04-18T16:34:13.733
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# Question
Title: Would transferring to a better school in the middle of a graduate program irreparably hurt my professional connections and academic reputation?
I did not get accepted into any good graduate programs. For various reasons, I feel I could do much better if I reapplied next year. This question isn't about the *feasibility* of doing so, but of the affect on my professional reputation and network.
It is an investment for the university to give me funding, so it would be a jerk move to transfer simply for the increase in prestige. But **how much** of a jerk move would it be? Would it burn my colleagues and advisors so hard that I would scar my reputation for the rest of my career? Would I simply lose these people as connections, but have no lasting affect other than that? Or would everyone be understanding that this is a professional choice, that I am looking out for my future? (If so, could I request recommendations from professors in the program?)
> If I transfer to a better school either at the end of my first or second year as a graduate student, how much will this piss people off?
To be clear, I am talking about transferring from a mid-ranked state school to somewhere good, at least top 20 hopefully top 10. And since I am sure this matters, the discipline is mathematics.
# Answer
> 13 votes
This is fine. Don't feel guilty at all. I say this as a math professor at a mid-ranked state school, who has written rec letters for students who, for various reasons, wanted to transfer out.
Be sure not to speak ill of the place you're leaving, but you owe it to yourself to seek out the best opportunities available. Good luck!
# Answer
> 13 votes
## No.
It's *your* degree. As long as you are honest with *everyone* about your intentions and your motivations, and you don't speak ill of your old department in your application, nobody has cause to label you a jerk. I recommend asking your current advisor for a recommendation letter, so that the program you're applying to knows (1) that you're not trying to sneak out, and (2) that your current department isn't kicking you out.
Moreover, changing departments is no reason to stop collaborating with your old advisor; that collaboration can pay off handsomely later. Strong recommendation letters from faculty *outside* your PhD institution are *extremely* helpful for the post-PhD job search.
**I did this. Some of my former students have done this. We're all fine.**
# Answer
> 1 votes
Provided you are cordial and tread cautiously, no, it won't. (I know this is a late answer, but since people think of doing this fairly often, I figured I might give my two cents. While I am not a professor, I figured it might help to have a current graduate student's perspective.)
I myself have transferred between math graduate programs at different schools. Furthermore, I know three or four others who have transferred between math programs at different schools, two people who have transferred from a math program to a non-math program at a different school, and two people who have left math programs for a non-math program at the same university. (And no, these people weren't all transferring to or from the same university.) I know many others who have changed advisors or left graduate school entirely. And people often transfer for reasons other than the reputation of the schools, myself included. (Such reasons may include moving to be closer to significant others, dissatisfaction with the geographical location of the school, changing research interests, advisors switching schools and bringing their students with them, advisors ceasing to work with students, and interest in a specific advisor at a different school, among others.) As much as it would be ideal for all graduate students to arrive precisely where they belong and know exactly what they will do over the next four years, it's probably an understatement to say that this doesn't always happen. And many professors are sympathetic and understanding.
I would, however, caution you about the following. Keep in mind that if you don't get accepted into any transfer schools, you probably want to still get good funding and work with an advisor that fits you at your current school. You may indeed later find that you want to stay at your current school, even if you've been accepted to other places! So, informing those who determine your funding that you're thinking of transferring before you actually have been accepted into another school doesn't necessarily seem like a good idea to me. Depending on the perspective of the department, it can be like telling your romantic partner that you're thinking of breaking up well before you make the actual decision. (On the other hand, they might appreciate being informed early and may be very kind and understanding. It's tough to judge, since it all depends on the people involved.)
But if you *do* get accepted into a transfer institution and decide to go there, you should make sure to have a conversation with the heads of your current graduate program and department, to notify them that you are leaving, and to politely express why you are making this change. I'd recommend being brief (you don't need to tell them your life story), but clear, and always polite. It may be a good idea not to hold off the decision until the last minute (i.e. the April 15th deadline) like I did. Keep in mind that they need to find someone to replace you, and the closer to the deadline, the harder it is for the school to find qualified candidates.
And I agree that you should be sure not to denigrate your current institution in any of your applications, or when you tell people at your current institution why you're leaving. I also agree that when you apply to other institutions, you should very honestly express why you're making this switch (without denigration, of course).
Edit: Also, regarding Anonymous Mathematician's comment under the question: I transferred after my second year and it's worked out fine, but certainly it is best to be actively pursuing a backup plan for research at your current institution if you're attempting to transfer any later than your first year. That is, keep looking for possible advisors and research projects at your current university even after you've submitted your transfer applications.
# Answer
> -2 votes
In my field, which is not mathematics, externally funded studentships are quite common. Leaving an externally funded studentship is completely unprofessional and very bad form. If a student withdraws the PI will generally lose the remainder of the funding and potentially be band from applying in the future.
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Tags: graduate-school, mathematics, networking
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thread-16526
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16526
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What advice would you give students applying for graduate school in mathematics?
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2014-02-04T03:04:03.800
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# Question
Title: What advice would you give students applying for graduate school in mathematics?
I work in the mathematics department of a university that has a new, small, mathematics bachelor's degree program, and no graduate mathematics programs. Some of our students are looking for advice on how to successfully apply for graduate school. I don't know what to tell them. Everyone in my department (myself included) applied to graduate school so long ago that I think our advice may not be relevant. I don't think anyone else who works for my university knows more than my department colleagues do.
What are good things for students at a small school to do to get into graduate school in mathematics? In particular, what are some things that might not be obvious to mathematics professors who've been out of graduate school for a few decades?
EDIT: In response to this question being put on hold for being "too broad", here is my modified question: **What advice would you give students applying for graduate school in mathematics in 2014 that you would not have given them a decade or two ago?** In other words, how would the advice differ? I am thinking both about what students have to do as undergrads and about the application process itself (which I assume is done online nowadays).
# Answer
I personally had the experience of applying to graduate school from a very small college that has not produced many math Ph.D.s (though oddly enough, I'm not the only 2002 BA graduate working at an R1 university in North America) not *so* far in the misty depths of time. Of course, I only have a couple of data points, but let me try to give my thoughts.
I think one thing is you've really got to get the basic stuff right: take the hardest classes available to you from the selections you have (and you should note in your letters that the student did this!) and ace them. Do well on the general and subject GREs. I assume you could have told them those.
I think the biggest non-obvious thing is that it's essential to seek out experiences outside your small program. If you're at a large school with its own graduate program, probably you have all the resources you'll need at your fingertips, but in a smaller program, I don't think you really have the ability to fully prepare someone for graduate school. Study abroad is good for this (I went to BSM in Budapest, but there are other programs). So are REU's (I did the one at LSU). On a smaller scale, you might be able to take more advanced courses at a nearby college (for example, students at Smith and Amherst can take graduate courses at UMass), or do a guest semester somewhere in the US (like at the Penn State MASS program).
These will, of course, be generally enriching experiences, but they also help by giving some real points of comparison. Graduate schools know what an A at BSM means (where they might not know it for your school); a professor who supervised you at an REU can speak with authority about having supervised many talented young people, and having some experience with which of them succeed in grad school.
Another possibility is working at summer mathematics program like PROMYS or Canada/USA Mathcamp (there are many other) though I think you should give some weight to activities like REU which are more likely to result in letters.
**EDIT:** I'll just note that what I've written about is still advice from the Web 1.0 world, but it's not so clear to me what Web 2.0 has changed about the admission process. I think it has made communicating with other people going through the process easier (for example, you can see in essentially real time which schools are sending out acceptances and rejections. This seems more likely to drive you insane than help though). I think for students at a smaller school this can be a boon (for example, the applicant profiles in this thread could be helpful for understanding where they might get in, though it's worth a reminder to take things with a grain of salt).
I think one thing I didn't know was that it's very reasonable to contact the Director of Graduate Studies at programs that interest you if you have questions. Don't be a pest about it (only email if you have a real question), but communicating with applicants is part of the job, though my DGS may not appreciate me telling the internet that (sorry, Tom).
The Web, of course, has also changed research about grad schools a lot. In theory, you can know a lot more about individual professors now than it would have been easy to figure out even 10, but especially 20 years ago. It's not super clear to me that this will help very much though. I generally feel like researching individual professors before starting grad school is a mug's game, since you're so likely to shift interests. I think it's much wiser to choose based on the program, and then worry about getting an advisor after a year or so of grad school when you know a bit more.
> 17 votes
# Answer
Ben Webster has already wrote a great answer about how to get into a good math grad school, so I will not repeat that answer here. I do, however, want to interpret your question more broadly (what advice would I give to seniors applying for grad school?) and give you some advice. In particular, most of the things that I am about to talk about were not so much of problems back in the 70s, I think.
No one tells you about the darker side of academia when you are an undergraduate student. But academia is really, really hard. Here are some cons of becoming an academic.
* the most serious problem by far is the fact that you do not have any choice on where you live. You just go to the best grad school that you got into, then after that, you apply to around 60 institutions for your postdoc job, and cross your fingers. Most schools give you two weeks to decide on your position, then off you go to some random city that you have never thought of. The same deal repeats for your second postdoc (if you are unlucky), or tenure-track. If you fail to obtain tenure, you might have to do another postdoc or tenure-track. So you are actively changing cities every 2-3 years for the next 10-15 years of your life. As an undergraduate student, this is not a serious problem, but when you have a significant other, and you are past 30, you really do want to settle down.
* academia is an extremely hierarchical society. Whether you get a job or not depends on your letter writers, one of which must be your advisor. As you obtain letters from people senior to you, it is often very difficult to express your opinions, as it is very easy to burn bridges. Academia is also very small; words travel fast. If you mess up in one place, chances are, everyone knows about it. Sometimes, it's not even your fault, but people can get very, very upset at you.
* the job market is very tight these days. The schools that I consider to be the top grad school are Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan and Chicago. These schools alone produce about 100 PhDs a year. I think that there are around 300 research postdocs available each year in the US (if you apply to every PhD producing institution, I think that you would send out around 80-90 applications; let's assume each school hires around 3 people, which I think is being generous). You can do the math.
These are only the universal issues that apply to practically every PhD student. Then there are issues that apply more strongly to some people than others (elitism displayed by some mathematicians, competition among peers, difficult advisor, your thesis problem being scooped, etc.)
So I advise that you need to be very, very sure that you really love math. I have been through many of these issues, and honestly, your love for the subject is the only thing that will keep you going. If you don't have the passion, you will regret your decision very quickly.
There are also perks of being a mathematician, of course. I do enjoy the flexible schedule (aside from teaching and committee work, research can be done any time, anywhere), being able to travel to conferences, and the job security that follows, if you make it to the ranks of a tenured professor.
> 10 votes
# Answer
This is too short for an answer. However, I do think it is worth an answer.
Tell your students to get on this site ! There are plenty of questions and answers about graduate school admission. If they don't find their questions answered, then ask their own questions to get useful advices.
Your students may have the same general questions as how to apply for admission. They may also have specific questions regarding their individual situations. The best advice is, get on an excellent, informative and reliable Q&A site and that's us!
> 2 votes
# Answer
Matt Might's advice page here provides some really useful tips of the kind you're looking for. The three of his tips that I found really useful for when I applied to graduate school two years ago (that weren't mentioned above) are as follows:
1. Consider *emailing* professors whose research interests you with a brief statement asking them about their work. As Might states on the linked page above,
> Tell them you were considering applying, and you're curious about the research opportunities available in the field. Comment intelligently on some research that faculty member has done. Attach any research you've done, and briefly summarize your research interests. That faculty member can then make sure your application receives a thorough review. Bear in mind that professors receive lots of form-letter spam from prospective students. It's painfully obvious when the email is form-letter spam, and most professors will summarily discard it.
He suggests to email a month before the application deadline, but I emailed maybe 2-3 weeks before and it was still fine. He also has tips on how to send professors emails here.
2. Consider writing your essays in **LaTeX**. You'd need to learn how to use it in graduate school anyway, and it makes you look more like a mathematician, so to speak.
3. In your essays, put really important words in **bold**. I used this to emphasize the names of the faculty I was interested in working with, awards I had received, and my particular research interests (**partial differential equations** for example).
> 1 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions, mathematics
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thread-27807
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27807
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Is a second bachelors degree worth it?
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2014-08-29T23:59:21.163
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# Question
Title: Is a second bachelors degree worth it?
I'm about to finish up a BA in linguistics and am looking at some interdisciplinary options for grad school (specifically in cognitive science).
I have a competitive GPA in my last two academic years, though my first year was a bit of a wash to say the least.
I was thinking that it would be a good idea to go back for a second degree for the following reasons:
1. to boost my cumulative gpa (my academic performance in first year was a pretty big blow to my cgpa)
2. to gain a better understanding of my research interests. (There are certain science courses that I haven't taken that make me feel downright incompetent without, such as first year physics and math.)
However, I'm acutely aware that I know nothing when it comes to grad school admissions, especially when it comes to interdisciplinary programs such as cognitive science. Is a second degree worth it?
# Answer
> 3 votes
Unless you have in mind a second degree in a completely different field, I think you'd be spinning your wheels. You can probably take those physics and math courses in post-baccalaureate status; check with the institution from which you got your degree.
If you are thinking of a second bachelor's degree in a field similar to your first, go for the master's degree in that field instead. Your freshman year GPA will probably not keep you out of most programs since you have a solid record in your final years. Presumably you'd get good recommendations from your upper division professors.
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Tags: graduate-school, university, undergraduate, degree, bachelor
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thread-27817
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27817
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Link which explains how to format a letter to Nature
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2014-08-30T13:05:05.160
|
# Question
Title: Link which explains how to format a letter to Nature
I need to write a letter to Nature and a friend of mine said that Nature wants the Author to follow a very precise format.
He said that the explanation of the structure of the format is an example of a letter in which: there were different colours for the different sections, it also explained what to write in each section and which words use/don't use etc
Does anybody know the link where I can find such information?
# Answer
> 8 votes
Such information is invariably posted on a journal's website, and *Nature* is no exception. Go to Nature's current issue website, click "For Authors" and "Manuscript Formatting Guide". Under "Letters" there is an "annotated example" which looks like what you are describing.
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Tags: publications, writing, formatting
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thread-23947
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23947
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If I upload a draft of my paper to arXiv, will I still be able to publish in an IEEE or ACM publication?
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2014-06-25T09:10:58.400
|
# Question
Title: If I upload a draft of my paper to arXiv, will I still be able to publish in an IEEE or ACM publication?
Since IEEE/ACM will eventually own the copyright of the papers they publish, and since they charge for access to papers, if I have a paper on arXiv is that a problem for them?
# Answer
As @Jukka Suomela has indicated in the comments, **yes, you will**.
The relevant policy for IEEE (from http://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecopyrightform.pdf) is:
> 8 . Electronic Preprints. Before submitting an article to an IEEE publication, authors frequently post their manuscripts to their own web site, their employer’s site, or to another server that invites constructive comment from colleagues. Upon submission of an article to IEEE, an author is required to transfer copyright in the article to IEEE, and the author must update any previously posted version of the article with a prominently displayed IEEE copyright notice. Upon publication of an article by the IEEE, the author must replace any previously posted electronic versions of the article with either (1) the full citation to the IEEE work with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or link to the article abstract in IEEE Xplore, or (2) the accepted version only (not the IEEE-published version), including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with a link to the final, published article in IEEE Xplore.
For ACM, from http://www.acm.org/publications/ACM-PubLicenseAgreement.pdf:
> (b) Furthermore, notwithstanding the exclusive rights the Owner has granted to ACM pursuant to Paragraph 2 (a), Owner shall have the right to do the following: \[...\] (v) Prior to commencement of the ACM peer review process, post the version of the Work as submitted to ACM (“Submitted Version”) to non-peer reviewed servers...
This answer is current as of August, 2014.
> 10 votes
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Tags: publications, arxiv, ieee, acm
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thread-27779
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27779
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I found out my master's thesis topic has already been done (exactly), and my advisor didn't mention this when suggesting it to me - how to proceed?
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2014-08-29T10:09:14.347
|
# Question
Title: I found out my master's thesis topic has already been done (exactly), and my advisor didn't mention this when suggesting it to me - how to proceed?
I am really frustrated, I have started my research for my master thesis 6 months ago and I have to submit the final draft after 2 months.
I was interested in a specific topic and I looked for a supervisor with the same research interests.
I was looking for something related to internet security (Botnet Detection); luckily, my supervisor gave me a research plan exactly about what I wanted to do. However, a month later and after I submitted the proposal and started to read deeply about the topic; I found that exactly the same research had already done by another two PhD students and what I was supposed to do was 100% repeating what they already had done 2 years ago.
I directly contacted my supervisor explaining to him the situation. I discovered that my research plan is exactly the same (word by word, someone copied from other). Moreover, the topic itself is very specific and is not easy to build or modify on it, he said "No problem, you just repeat it and we will try to slightly modify something.", then he added "If you can not do that, it is enough to repeat it." and I just agreed (trying to be positive and avoiding problems).
Now, after I started my writing I found myself repeating the same ideas and the same experiments, the same statements and the same conclusions. Later on, I discovered that this research supposed to be done by adviser with the group who already published the work and for some reasons they excluded him.
In short, the supervisor did not mention that this work is already published and did not mention that he was team member with them.
What I shall do?
Now I feel this work is 100% not original and I will not add and contribute anything. I am not feeling happy by wasting my time doing something like that.
Shall I escalate the story to the general adviser for master's students? Should I change the topic or should I continue and defend others work claiming that this is my own work?
I am not scared of rejecting my thesis, I am totally not satisfied about what I do write now. I am doing my masters to add something to my knowledge, experience and to feel really I will be one step a head.
Note: I work in industry field and I have no experience in academic and research fields.
# Answer
> 17 votes
Note that there is no way anyone knows about your precise situation, except you and your advisor, so I am making some wild guesses on what actually happened.
Perhaps your advisor is hoping to have an efficient implementation of the ideas / algorithms already expressed on the past paper, with the notion that he (or you and him) may later build on your implementation to create something new. In order to create anything new, you have to compare with existing approaches and therefore you still have to implement previous methods. He has given you two options a) Try to expand the ideas of the past paper b) If you cannot do that, just creating a NEW implementation of the original paper is enough for him. This is a MSc thesis and not all MSc theses lead to publishable results. But it still seems like an important project and as such, it seems it could still turn out to be a good MSc thesis and you will have a lot to learn from it.
So, your main problem is that you think that you cannot expand the original paper to new directions. But if you want to do research this is exactly what you are going to have to do. You should find a topic that interests you ("*my supervisor gave a research plan exactly about what i want to do*"), study previous literature (which you should have done before choosing the topic) and then expand on previous ideas. Note that since you have worked in industry, you may as well be a better programmer than those 2 PHD students and therefore your implementation might be much more efficient than theirs. This is still a significant contribution which may eventually be published.
My advice:
* Talk to your advisor and state your doubts and clarify the situation.
* Implement the paper's ideas as fast and efficient as possible
* Compare your implementation with the paper's results. You should at least aim for a more efficient implementation
* Check related literature that cites this paper. Is this paper, still state-of-the-art? **Is this paper cited by anyone?** This will show if this project has been picked up by anyone. If it is not, it is reasonable that your advisor wants to build upon the previous paper to further expand it. If someone has extended it or applied it to other use-cases, your assumption that it cannot be improved is wrong and you should think what you can do to further expand it. Either way, you will have an answer about how to proceed.
* Think of any other possible improvements, what else could be done better, in a more efficient way or how this idea could be used in other use-cases.
Also, you have learnt a valuable lesson. What you want to do in research should correlate with what is already been done. You should study previous research very carefully and exhaustively. If you believe that previous works have already done everything to perfection (which BTW is rarely the case) then you should choose a new topic. Otherwise you are the one that should think what can be improved. I think you pretty much expected that your advisor had a new research idea waiting just for you and all you needed to do was just to implement it. But this was really an unrealistic expectation on your part.
# Answer
> 12 votes
For a master's thesis it is nice but not completely essential to do something original. I'm sorry that it feels like you're rediscovering what is already known.
Now that you're in that situation, though, the best option is likely to write your results as a *test* of the published results or a *comparison* between the published results and something else. For example, you can use different data, compare some aspect that wasn't covered before (resource usage?), write more of a review or try to get different other partial/possible solutions running to compare against. Is the other code open source? If not, open-source yours (assuming your advisor is okay with it). Are there missing steps that are important? Describe them well.
Also, although it feels like a waste of time to repeat the same stuff (and often it is), there is a benefit to thoroughly testing out and verifying what is supposedly known. Just because something's published it isn't necessarily true or useful or accurate. In this case from what you've said it sounds like it is--but if you believe this was useful work for someone to have done, it is also useful for it to be independently verified, which you have done. I wish this were done more in academia, honestly. Too much poorly-verified and over-hyped stuff gets through. But it's hard to publish a paper saying, "I checked important result X and yep!...it was right on target."
It's harder to know what precisely to do about the academic honesty issue. You may wish to discreetly contact whoever is in charge of administrative ethics at your school (preferably some sort of grad student ethics advisor, so they can advise *you* on whether this sounds like a big problem). But if it's a problem it's a problem for your professor; I wouldn't let it derail your thesis unless absolutely necessary.
# Answer
> 6 votes
In mathematics it's often OK to have a master's thesis be expository, of course as long as it is clearly indicated that it is expository, and it is (of course) written in one's own words, well-referenced, etc. Usually in this case it's better if the expository work provides either a new proof of a known result, or a new perspective on the old result.
I'm sorry if this doesn't answer the academic honesty concerns, but is there any way you can take this spin?
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Tags: research-process, thesis, advisor
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thread-27047
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27047
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What are the available non-academic careers to a newly-minted PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics?
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2014-08-10T20:28:36.020
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# Question
Title: What are the available non-academic careers to a newly-minted PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics?
Prior to completing my PhD degree, I used to hear, rather very often, that working in finance is the most non-academic viable career option for newly-minted PhDs in theoretical physics. But, now that I am actively searching for such jobs (any job, to be precise), it appears that employers in finance expect qualifications that practically all newly graduates like me lack. I might be wrong on this, but I don't know of anyone using SAS or R in their PhD research in theoretical physics. So, I was wondering what else is out there available to a newly graduated PhD with mostly a pen-and-paper background in theoretical condensed matter physics.
# Answer
> 5 votes
Regarding Finance, perhaps you should instead look for Quantitative/Mathematical Finance (quant) jobs. I think non-mathematical finance jobs do require different skills (though I don't imagine them being more difficult than QF jobs).
Many physicists become quants. You may want to try looking up Emanuel Derman to see his books if you might be interested in reading them and the Wiki pages on mathematical finance to see what kind of math is involved.
I am a grad student of QF now and we are learning SAS, R, Brownian motion and Feynman-Kac theorem. (at least the latter 2 are) Basic for you (theoretical) Physics people, I presume?
Edit: Regarding the mathemagician's comment, I've read some job openings for quants. There's no specific mention of having a degree in QF. They are just looking for master's/PhD's in quantitative disciplines. I recall one mentioning master's in Math, Physics or Engineering as a prerequisite.
Finance is relatively easy to learn. You don't need a QF degree to be a quant. Try checking out Hull's Options, Futures and Other Derivatives or Bjork's Arbitrage Theory in Continuous Time, but please be patient with the cute math you may see.
Other sites to check out are the quant stackexchange (save it from beta please) and quantstart.com
Edit 1: Regarding guest's answer, why don't you work a technology company or something?
Edit 2: teaching highschool/secondary school?
My knowledge of Physics is only up to Vector Calculus (or Partial Differential Equations if you want) and basic Analytical Physics so that's all I got haha
# Answer
> 4 votes
Two options I am aware of:
* The electronics industry. Sometimes they hire condensed matter theorists who can help them design better products. I know one theorist at Segate who works on better hard drive designs.
* Finance. Most, but not all, jobs will require programming experience. If you have not gotten any programming experience in a theory PhD I would consider your research strategy highly unusual. Theorists probably lack experience with R and statistics, but if you understand basic computer science concepts it should not be hard to learn these things on your own.
Finally, consider academic/education positions.
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Tags: career-path, physics
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thread-27840
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27840
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Is it worthwhile to cite documentaries in personal statements?
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2014-08-31T06:55:35.343
|
# Question
Title: Is it worthwhile to cite documentaries in personal statements?
When writing something to be read and scrutinized by academics, like a personal statement, will academics appreciate, respect, and value references to factual documentaries?
For example, I'd like to write about how a documentary on the criminal justice system motivated my interest in law. I'll also cite books, but words fail to describe the influence of this audiovisual documentary on deciding to study law.
# Answer
> 2 votes
While this may vary somewhat by discipline, I would think that the faculty would be more interested in what you took away from this source of inspiration and how it shaped your perspective/career interests, rather than the actual source itself. (This assumes the documentary is somewhat mainstream and not endorsing fringe ideas that would seem extreme to academics in your field.) Many students and professionals are drawn to study a particular field not because they read a brilliant academic book or paper, but because they read a lay book on the topic or saw a documentary or television program that introduced them to certain issues. These less formal forms of media can be excellent gateways to academic study.
Personally, it was Pete Earley's book "Crazy" that sparked my interest in mental health policy. I referenced this in my graduate school applications, describing how it helped me connect my macro-scale interests in health interventions with my micro-scale interests in the pathology and treatment of severe mental illness. When I interviewed with programs, several faculty discussed this, and they seemed more interested in how I had connected to the ideas in the book then the fact that it wasn't a formal academic text.
Be careful with simply stating that "X had a huge influence on me and made me want to study y or fight injustice"; avoid generic statements. If you feel you are able to clearly state how the documentary impacted your career interests intellectually as well as emotionally, I see no reason not to include it. I also agree with the earlier comment - you might mention the name of the documentary or cite one particularly influential paper, but I'm not sure you need to cite works throughout the statement. (Of course, this may differ by discipline as well).
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Tags: citations, writing, statement-of-purpose
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thread-26570
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26570
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What is the standard way to include introduction and references parts to a masters thesis?
|
2014-07-30T12:43:21.037
|
# Question
Title: What is the standard way to include introduction and references parts to a masters thesis?
I have seen that students have two ways to write their thesis,
1. They have a separate chapter to write an introduction to their thesis. This chapter usually consists of a literature review of their research topic.
2. They have an introduction section at the beginning of each chapter and they write a separate introduction to each chapter and they don't have any introduction chapter for literature review.
Also, I have seen such behaviour in references part;
1. some prefer that each chapter having its own references part;
2. some other prefer all the references come at the end of the thesis report.
Could you please help me know which of these are standard and if any official guide to each exists, I will be happy to know and read them.
---
**EDIT:**
Thanks to the answers to this question of mine, I read the writing guide for masters thesis at my university and consulted my question with my advisor, and looked at the previously submitted theses, I wrote the introduction and literature review of my thesis in the very first chapter exactly after printing the abstract of my thesis and brought all the references at the very end just before the final page of my thesis.
# Answer
> 2 votes
You mix up two things: **Thesis introduction** and **Chapter introduction**.
From what I observe, every thesis has to have an introduction. It makes sense after all: You need to introduce the topic of the thesis etc. You can't simply start a math thesis by **Theorem. For all X ...** -- you need to start somewhere, and that's the thesis introduction.
The chapter introduction is a nice thing to do, and there are more options. It can be a short text before the first section, a separate section, some people even provide short (3-or-so-sentence) abstracts to each chapter. However, this is mostly part of your writing style, and it can't be so much enforced (well, it can, but that is IMHO ridiculous).
---
As for references, there should be guidelines for them. If there's no, then I advise to include full list of references at the very end, since that's what people expect by default, but it's only an advice, not a rule.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Standards and common practices vary widely between fields, regions, and institutions. There are no general rules or official guides.
If it is similar to what previous students have done, your advisor says it is okay, and it doesn't violate any style guide that your university may have, it is fine.
(This answer applies to a lot of the "thesis style" questions we've seen recently on this site.)
# Answer
> 0 votes
Well, I think there is no specific answer as if which is the "best" way of writing the Introduction chapter. I believe it boils down to preference. Sometimes it is possible to have both of them.
I prefer,having an introduction chapter which talks about the topic overall and provides the basics to the reader, and then for each chapter you provide an introduction paragraph or section which tell the reader what is going to be solved in that chapter of the thesis.
However, in most of the universities i.e. research groups, the student gets a template which he has to respect when writing the thesis. It is rather interesting that you have the freedom to choose that what type of template you will use for your own thesis.
In any case before you start wasting time on considering which template you should choose, make sure that the research group where you will be writing your thesis does not provide a thesis template of its own.
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Tags: thesis, masters, writing, citations
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thread-27819
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27819
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How difficult is it to get an academic position in applied mathematics when your PhD is in electrical engineering?
|
2014-08-30T14:03:46.343
|
# Question
Title: How difficult is it to get an academic position in applied mathematics when your PhD is in electrical engineering?
How difficult is it to get an assistant professor position in a department (e.g., applied math) while you have a PhD degree from another area (e.g., electrical engineering)? Particularly, when you target only relatively good departments (top 20~30).
If it makes any difference, I am particularly thinking of becoming professor of applied math with an EE degree.
**update:** I don't know exactly what constitutes *mathematical research* in the eyes of mathematicians, but I can say there are some really theoretical subjects needed in my research. For example random matrix theory and empirical processes are prevalent in my research area. However, in spite of my great interest, I haven't been able to (or prohibited from doing) work on purely theoretical part of the problems. So I mostly have applied the existing theoretical results. Developing optimization algorithms with provable convergence guarantees, perhaps in statistical sense of it, are also important in the area I worked in. However, I don't think optimization is considered an interesting area for mathematicians.
# Answer
> 8 votes
How difficult it is to get a position in another field depends enormously on your specific interests and background. Moving from electrical engineering to applied mathematics may be pretty reasonable, since there are some research areas that are widely considered part of both fields, such as control theory. If you already work in the intersection, then you'll have some flexibility in your job search. You'll have a much tougher time if you're proposing to change your research interests, or if you work on a topic that is not commonly studied in applied math departments, even if it could be.
A first test is whether you can find anyone with your background and interests in an applied math department. If you can't find anyone, then it may be difficult to become the first. (It could still be worth a try, but you shouldn't get your heart set on doing something unprecedented.) If you can find such people, then you have role models. At that point, you can start looking at the web pages and CVs of people who have made the transition. Where do they publish? How do they present themselves and their work? Can you see any differences from people working in electrical engineering? Of course you don't need to imitate these people too closely, but at least you'll have examples of what has been well received by applied math departments. Some things can be adjusted on short notice, while others take time. If you're a little further from fitting in, doing a postdoc in applied math may help bridge the gap.
# Answer
> 4 votes
The comments and the other answer have mainly addressed whether your research area would be a fit in an applied math department. Let's assume it is. **There's another, equally important side to the equation. The willingness of a department to hire faculty with doctorates in other fields varies dramatically by the department and university**, at least in my limited experience. This is more a question of culture than of science.
First, at many universities applied math is just an unofficial group of faculty within a mathematics department. I think that your chances of getting hired into a mathematics department are very slim.
Applied mathematics is a more interdisciplinary field, and is generally more open-minded culturally with respect to disciplinary boundaries, especially since many universities don't offer a degree in applied mathematics. But applied math is a small field and it's still true that in many departments your application is likely to be tossed out because of the name of your degree. I was a grad student during a faculty search at a prominent applied math department in the US, and I don't think they would ever have considered hiring someone with a degree outside of applied mathematics. In the University where I work now, departmental boundaries are very thin and we have hired multiple faculty whose doctorate is in another field (though there was certainly resistance from some faculty).
One way you can help yourself a lot is to get a recommendation letter from someone who is on the inside of the applied mathematics community. If, say, a SIAM fellow says that you're truly an applied mathematician, you will immediately have street cred.
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Tags: career-path, professorship, job, faculty-application, changing-fields
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thread-27865
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27865
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What should be emphasised in a statement of purpose when applying for STEM PhD programs in the United States?
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2014-09-01T05:29:08.203
|
# Question
Title: What should be emphasised in a statement of purpose when applying for STEM PhD programs in the United States?
This question might be more suitable for they who are or were application reviewers of STEM ph.D. programs in U.S. universities.
I want to know what kinds of s.o.p. do catch reviewers' attention? Should I emphasize more at biography or more at research experience and intention or more at introducing past works? May I make my s.o.p. concentrated solely on research?
# Answer
> 5 votes
As the name implies, a *statement of purpose* should be forward-looking as much as possible. The "biographical" element of a statement of purpose should be included only to the extent that it helps to explain what you want to do as a graduate student. You most certainly do **not** want to start off with recollections of early childhood and the first time you realized you want to be a researcher.
Instead, spend your efforts explaining why you want to be a graduate student *in the department to which you're applying*. You should make specific reference to how your research will fit into the department's interests. (For instance, don't propose a project in area X if the department doesn't have a specialist in X.)
If you're in a field where the advisor selection is made after matriculation, then you likely want to present a somewhat broader profile. If you show interest in only one professor's work, then you are dependent on the decision of that single advisor (who may or may not be on the admissions committee!).
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, united-states, statement-of-purpose, stem
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thread-27861
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27861
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How to cite the same source multiple times in a row IEEE
|
2014-08-31T22:39:59.527
|
# Question
Title: How to cite the same source multiple times in a row IEEE
I have several sentences in a row that that cite the same source. For example,
```
Here is question one [1]. Here is question two [1]. Here is question three [1][myOriginalWork]. Here is question four [1].
```
What is the proper way to cite this using IEEE? Do I cite my use of the source each time or do I cite it just once at the end of all my references to this source? I don't think that citing each of my references to this one source is the way to go, but at the same time I have other sources mixed in and I want to make sure that credit is given where its due.
This is somewhat of an open ended question about citing the same source multiple times using IEEE. I am just learning the style and want to make sure that I am using it correctly
Thanks in advance for any help.
# Answer
> 5 votes
According to this guidance document (See page 7) on the IEEE website it appears that you do should the following when citing the same source multiple times in a row.
> **References Within a Reference:**
>
> Check the reference list for ibid. or op. cit. These refer to a previous reference and should be eliminated from the reference section. In text, repeat the earlier reference number and renumber the reference section accordingly. If the ibid. gives a new page number, or other information, use the following forms:
>
> \[3, Th. 1\]; \[3, Lemma 2\]; \[3, pp. 5-10\]; \[3, eq. (2)\]; \[3, Fig. 1\]; \[3, Appendix I\]; \[3, Sec. 4.5\]; \[3, Ch. 2, pp. 5-10\]; \[3, Algorithm 5\].
>
> NOTE: Editing of references may entail careful renumbering of references, as well as the citations in text.
On the same page (7) of the document in the section referring to references it states that;
> ... they appear on the line, in square brackets *inside the punctuation*
It would appear from this guidance note that the example that gave is correct unless you are referring to different pages of the same document then you need to reference as per form above.
Also the IEEE document says that you may refer to The Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press, for anything not covered in their own guide.
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Tags: writing, citations, ieee
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thread-16729
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16729
|
Is there a way to get a complete name bibliography from Scopus? How can I set my scrape, in that case?
|
2014-02-09T15:22:28.643
|
# Question
Title: Is there a way to get a complete name bibliography from Scopus? How can I set my scrape, in that case?
I need a complete name bibliography from a search but I'm only allowed to have the surname and then the names'initals. Is there a way to get them?
# Answer
You just need to click on the author and it will take you to the author details page. There you will find the complete name of the author.
The bibliography you are exporting should be in the form as it is. While you can follow the above description for complete names.
> 1 votes
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Tags: citations, scopus
---
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thread-27862
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27862
|
How best to present publications in different areas on a CV?
|
2014-09-01T02:58:58.950
|
# Question
Title: How best to present publications in different areas on a CV?
I am trying to list my publications in my curriculum vitae. But, because I have publications in three fields *x, y, z* of study such that *x* is my major and *y, z* are not, I am looking for how to best display them so that it can be emphasized that I have works in different areas.
# Answer
Why not just make three lists of publications (one for each field) and place each with its own subheading under the general heading "Publications"?
i.e.:
# Publications
### Biology
* pub 1
* pub 2
### Astronomy
* pub 1
### Mathematics
* pub 1
* pub 2
> 11 votes
# Answer
I agree with David Ketchesons answer. One alternative is to keep a standard method such as by year, and create tags at the end.
> My Publication 1, Journal of Biology, 2013 **\[Biology\]**
>
> My Publication 2, Journal of Mathematics, 2012 **\[Mathematics\]**
This will make it easy to see your publications and may give faster accessibility to your career. For example, if you started in field X, and then went to field Y, and now you are at field Z, the chronological order will show tags at earlier publications with field X, and more recent at field Z. In the same way, if you want to show how you publish in different fields throughout your career, it will show the mix of fields through the chronological order.
> 4 votes
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Tags: publications, cv
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thread-17659
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17659
|
Should a sessional instructor applicant submit a teaching statement?
|
2014-03-03T06:20:40.967
|
# Question
Title: Should a sessional instructor applicant submit a teaching statement?
I'm currently a grad student and I was wondering if it is common (or good practice) for applicants to sessional instructor positions to submit teaching statements. The positions I'm looking to apply for do not specifically ask for one (instead asking for a letter of application, listing courses of interest), and it might seem like a good opportunity to also develop a teaching statement, but only if it necessary as I haven't yet taught a course and I'm not entirely sure what I would write about (I do have considerable TA experience).
# Answer
I'm giving this answer from the point of view of philosophy, in the USA. I'd say that you should include a teaching statement in the packet, unless you are specifically directed to include only the materials they explicitly ask for. Don't bother with a research statement or some of the other junk that comes in a tenure-track packet. But this is a teaching job, and if I'm reading the above correctly, you don't have any experience as the instructor of record. So, what I would try to do is to write a short (1 page) statement that shows a committee looking at your packet that you are ready to walk into your own classroom and do your thing.
It is really hard to write a good teaching statement. It's going to be even harder without a lot of first-hand experience. Fortunately, there's no end of advice out there on the web. For example, this, and this are both helpful.
> 3 votes
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Tags: teaching, application
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thread-27871
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27871
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Are Identical Make-up Exams Fair?
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2014-09-01T09:59:10.593
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# Question
Title: Are Identical Make-up Exams Fair?
I recently took an exam, and our professor told us that we should submit our question sheets since 2 other students in our class are going to take a make-up exam. We were also told that we were not allowed to talk about our exam while the other 2 are around. I presume this means that their exams are going to be identical to ours (For the sake of argument, let us assume that this is the case, and it is not in fact a strategy or something of our professor).
Our class is on weekdays (MWF for 1 section and TTh for another), but we had our exam on Saturday afternoon. Since we all have class on Saturday morning, it is okay to have an exam on Saturday afternoon since we would already be on campus. Apparently those doing the make-up exam have conflicts with their plans for Saturday afternoon which the professor accepts.
Essentially, we can't tell them the contents of the exam. Our professor claims that this is so as to not compromise the integrity of the exam.
So here's my first question:
**Is it fair to the students taking the exam earlier that the make-up exams are identical to the original?**
Expansion:
It seems to me that the fact that it is too easy for the two others to find out the exam questions should be reason enough for our professor to give a different and possibly even harder exam and that doing otherwise is in itself compromising the integrity of the exam.
If it's not compromising the integrity of the exam, why not just have the same exam every year and collect the question sheet from students (which, cmiiw, actually doesn't really do anything since we can just copy the questions on a bond paper and bring the bond paper home)?
**See possibly related question.**
Second question:
**I seem to recall that department policy is that make-up exams are "generally" (exact word in undergrad syllabuses but not in our grad syllabuses which makes no mention of such) more difficult. If the answer to the first question above is yes, then does it follow that the "generally" should be removed?**
P.S. I truly cannot imagine how difficult it must be to a academic: research, teaching, consultation, conferences, etc. Thus, I am aware that it is no easy task for a teacher to just come up with a make-up exam, but nevertheless for the sake of maintaining the integrity (maintain is not compromise?) of exams, I believe this should be done.
# Answer
> 17 votes
Whether identical make-up exams are fair depends on the circumstances. The key point is that you can't eliminate all potential for cheating: there are too many ways to cheat, and you can't even try to rule them all out without brutal and expensive oversight. Ultimately, you have to make a trade-off, in which you take some anti-cheating steps but stop focusing on cheating once you reach the point of diminishing returns. \[For example, if you are really concerned about cheating, then you can't use take-home exams, and you'll have to police restroom visits very carefully for in-class exams. These steps might be sensible under some circumstances, but counterproductive in others.\]
So how does this apply to identical make-up exams? If you're teaching a required, low-level class to a large group of unenthusiastic students who desperately want good grades, then cheating sounds like a real worry, and giving the same exam twice would be a foolish decision. If you're teaching an advanced class to a small group of students you know and trust, then there may be no issue at all. Reasonable people could differ as to where to draw the line between these scenarios, and it depends on their judgment of the likelihood and consequences of cheating.
There's more to this than laziness, although writing a second exam is certainly a pain. Instead, there's a trade-off between several effects. If you write a new exam, then you've eliminated the possibility of learning the questions from a classmate. However, there's no way to calibrate the exams perfectly, so you've introduced the possibility that the make-up exam was inadvertently easier or harder, and the students may feel stress or bitterness over this. Both the cheating and the differing difficulty are bad, and there's no way to completely eliminate them both, so you have to decide how much they worry you and balance between them.
There are also matters of educational philosophy. I'm not fond of any approach that tells students I don't trust them or that challenges them to see if they can slip anything by me. That doesn't mean I won't take countermeasures against cheating, but it means I consider the countermeasures to be problematic in and of themselves, so I try to use them as sparingly as I reasonably can.
In practice, how I design make-up exams differs from course to course. Sometimes I write a new exam from scratch (while allowing some possibility of overlap with the previous exam, so students can't be sure something *won't* be on the make-up just because it was on the original exam). In other cases, I just fiddle with some of the details or replace a few questions, while warning students not to discuss the exam until after the make-up exam.
Regarding outcomes, I find that students who take similar make-up exams rarely do surprisingly well, and on average they do a little worse than I would have expected. Of course I don't know what's happening behind the scenes, and perhaps cheating saved them from scoring even lower. However, I'm at least confident that students aren't using this as an opportunity to rack up lots of undeserved points.
> If it's not compromising the integrity of the exam, why not just have the same exam every year and collect the question sheet from students?
It's not a matter of absolutes, but rather of how much the integrity is compromised and what the consequences are. Re-using the same exams every year offers much more scope and temptation for cheating than a single make-up exam does. The longer you re-use an exam, the more likely it is that unscrupulous students will piece together and circulate a list of questions, even if you collect the question sheets. If you do this for all the exams in the course, then the potential benefits of cheating are quite a bit higher than in just one make-up exam. (If I saw the same student repeatedly requesting make-up exams, I would wonder why and might become suspicious.) If the ease of cheating in every exam is known, then the course will attract dishonest students who might never have taken it otherwise. There's a big difference between possibly being able to learn about one exam if you convince someone else to help you cheat, and being able to learn about every exam by downloading a file from the internet. It's reasonable to draw a distinction between these scenarios.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Assuming that your professor is *really* going to put forward the same questions in the re-exam (which I doubt he will), he's only saving his labor. There is no way he can ensure that out of all people who took the exam, not even a single person will disclose the contents to the two gentlemen. That's why, most sensible people in this situation would prefer to have a different set of questions over for exam no. 2.
As regards the difficulty level, the reason why we have these kinds of exams is the following: suppose they missed on the original exam because of genuine medical circumstances - that can happen to anyone. There is generally a provision for this at most universities, i.e. show medical records and you can appear in a repeat exam. You might argue that if the record-demand (or the verification of record part) isn't too firm, there will always be people who will use this rule to buy some extra time to prepare. Assuming someone's not genuinely unwell, he would have gone half-prepared into the exam and would have fared badly. But because he 'bought' more time, he may be better prepared now, and therefore may fare better than what he would have originally. Perhaps, this reasoning prompts your comment, and I reckon you would expect your instructor to make the re-exam tougher than the original. But, you see, all possibilities need to be covered here. If someone was genuinely unwell, and hence missed out on the exam, there is a possibility that he may be well prepared for the exam, and would have done as well as you, if he could appear in the exam. But he couldn't, for reasons beyond his control. In this situation, if the instructor is deliberately increasing the difficulty level for the exam, it is unfair to the ill guy. Here, he certainly did not have the benefit of extra time, as the detractors were imagining.
For this reason, sensible instructors will generally go for nearly the same difficulty level only - just to ensure that genuine cases don't get wronged. But of course, there has to be a different set of questions. Identical paper is absolutely wrong.
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Tags: ethics, exams
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thread-27895
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27895
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When should you not report plagiarism?
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2014-09-01T21:50:11.057
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# Question
Title: When should you not report plagiarism?
It seems that most of the and questions follow the same basic archetype:
> Q: I think there's some plagiarism going on, and I don't really want to report it, but I think I should. Should I?
>
> A: It'll be tricky, but yes, of course you should report it. Consult your institution for more details.
My question: **is there any case of academic dishonesty (including plagiarism) that a student/TA should almost certainly not report?**
# Answer
When you're not sure is probably one situation. You're accusing someone of dishonesty so you'd better be able to prove it.
> 5 votes
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Tags: ethics, plagiarism
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thread-27891
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27891
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Must one state min/max values in addition to mean(+-std) when writing a publication?
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2014-09-01T19:13:55.440
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# Question
Title: Must one state min/max values in addition to mean(+-std) when writing a publication?
Is it 'a must' to state min/max values in addition to mean(+-std) when writing a publication?
# Answer
No, SD and min/max are not bound to be reported together.
If the variable is *normally distributed*, -3SD and 3SD will include about 99.7% of the readings, indirectly giving an approximate value for minimum and maximum.
A concerning bad habit is reporting mean and SD without carefully checking if the distribution is approximately normal. For instance, if the variable is highly skewed (long tailed to either end,) then that interesting feature of -3SD and 3SD will disappear. In those cases, reporting median and inter-quartile range may be better if *you want to describe the central tendency*.
Reporting minimum and maximum has its merit if you wish to highlight the presence or absence of extreme values. In most of the analytical scenarios, min and max don't share as much spot light as mean; whether to report them is really context-specific.
There are a couple situations in which reporting min and max may be helpful:
1. You reported mean and SD already, but the variable is not normally distributed. (or alternately, report non-parametric summary such as median.)
2. You use a measurement tool that is rather unfamiliar to the readers. For instance, you developed a life quality scale and the mean and SD of the sample is 17.2 (+/- 3.6)... but out of what range? In that case, reporting both sample min/max (the min/max you actually observed) and possible min/max (the min/max score the instrument can actually give) will be helpful.
> 6 votes
# Answer
No, it's not a universal "must."
The statistics you should report in your publication depend on conventions in your discipline, the kind of data you are describing, your experimental methodology, and many, many other factors.
Consult your advisor and/or similar publications in your discipline to find out more about what's expected for the kind of research *you* are doing.
> 8 votes
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Tags: publications
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thread-27901
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27901
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How to prove that papers were presented when conference programs are not in English?
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2014-09-02T02:10:41.570
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# Question
Title: How to prove that papers were presented when conference programs are not in English?
In preparing my application to PhD programs I have the following question:
I have presented papers in two distinct large-scale local conferences. However, I am not sure how to list these on my CV in a verifiable way, since the conferences' websites and programs are not in English.
For journal papers I can simply provide the corresponding links, while for conference papers I have not come up with something helpful.
The difficulty thus lies in: How to convince the reader of my vita that these papers are conference papers?
# Answer
Not everything on your CV needs to be verifiable via an Internet link.
I have many items on my CV that would require some interaction with a human to verify: degrees I've earned, summer research students I've mentored, seminar talks I've given, classes I've taught, etc.
As long as you can, on demand, provide contact information for someone who can confirm your presentation (e.g. conference organizer), I don't see why this is a concern.
If you want to provide a link to the non-English conference program, go ahead; someone who is sufficiently motivated can surely get it translated.
(I'm sure this goes without saying, but since I've seen a shocking number of CVs that say "Presented at Conference X" without further information I'll say it anyways: you must include the full details of each presentation, including its title, co-authors if there were any, full name of conference, date, and city.)
> 26 votes
# Answer
This is a non-issue. Apart from anything else, almost none of the conference talks I've ever given is verifiable by following an internet link. The conference programmes invariably give the full author list of each paper and I don't recall any that has indicated which of them gave the talk.
> 4 votes
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Tags: conference, cv, language
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thread-27882
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27882
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A potential PhD supervisor declined to accept me as a student; can I ask a second time?
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2014-09-01T12:53:55.273
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# Question
Title: A potential PhD supervisor declined to accept me as a student; can I ask a second time?
I found a relevant PhD supervisor who refused to supervise my PhD project by saying that he has no open position in his research group. Is it OK to mail him again and request to accept me as a student, because the work he is doing in his research group is extremely relevant for my research interests. I have received funding and just need space in a research group.
# Answer
**You can always ask.**
However, be prepared that the answer may easily be still "no". Direct funding is by no means the only resource that an advisor has to pour into a student. There is also the time investment of actually advising a student, assorted costs for overheads and utilities, as well as presumably some money to fund conference trips. This isn't even to speak of simple inter-personal matters, such as that the professor may feel that you are not a good fit for the lab culture.
> 22 votes
# Answer
**If** you had already obtained funding prior to the first request, and the professor was aware of this, you have to seriously question why you were refused a position. Possible reasons are:
* The professor feels you won't fit in to the group or get along well with him as a supervisor.
* The professor doesn't have enough time to supervise another student. You don't want a supervisor that has no time for you.
* The professor doesn't want *another* student doing the stuff that you're doing. Maybe he wants to diversify into some different areas of your field.
Sure, you could ask him again (and perhaps you *should*, if you have only obtained funding after the first request). But you should also ask why you were rejected in the first place, because the answer to that question could tell you whether or not you are likely to enjoy your time in his research group.
> 14 votes
# Answer
Assuming the funding is new information, I would ask for an appointment to discuss your situation and any concerns/hesitations the professor might have. Face-to-face meeting has advantage of a dialog that email lacks. You can ask for professor's concerns, express your enthusiasm, and perhaps come up with a partial solution.
Some faculty is hesitant accepting students that they haven't worked with before (from a class), for example. If that is the case, you can either take a class, or ask to be admitted on a trial basis. Other times, faculty might not accept new students because they plan on leaving their current job or retiring.
The solution for you will depend on the specific circumstances that you can only find out through a face-to-face, honest discussion.
> 4 votes
# Answer
In this case I think it's best to first ask for permission to ask. Now, I don't mean to break your request into multiple communications; that wastes everyone's time.
But do start off with mentioning the additional funding and asking whether having funding makes any difference. That way you don't show a lack of respect for his earlier refusal. And if he can give you an answer just from that, he needn't waste his time reading further.
Farther down you can lay out any other arguments, pleading, etc.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Yes you can and you should. Although the group may be full (which can be a good sign) showing persistence and motivation is a good sign for the group leader: they are often very much interested in a motivated student - after all, having groups from which no one finishes the PhD (as may happen with non-motivated students) is not a good thing for their personal results evaluation.
I have a recent story for you: Päivi Rissanen - a former *psychiatry closed ward inmate* got finally, after a LOT of convincing a place under professor Antti Karisto (http://blogs.helsinki.fi/akaristo/in-english/) in the Department of Social Policy in University of Helsinki and will soon be a PhD, according to Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.
A strong will may meld the world around it to its liking. Do it.
> 0 votes
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Tags: phd, advisor, job-search
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thread-27897
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27897
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Referencing a board game rule book
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2014-09-01T22:15:10.547
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# Question
Title: Referencing a board game rule book
I'm writing a paper on a board game, Labyrinth, and I need to use some parts of the rule book. How should I reference this? I'm using Harvard reference style.
EDIT: I hadn't notice this earlier.
What can be found in the start of the rule book is this:
> Author: Max J. Kobbert
And in the end, this:
> © 2007 Ravensburger Spieleverlag
EDIT 2: I found a link to the rule book. The real one contains for several more languages but the content is the same.
Link to rule book
# Answer
> 4 votes
The point of referencing is to allow others to determine what you've referenced and to look it up in turn.
Harvard has tools for citing multi-media formats, such as board games.
Inline: (\[Rulebook\] 1986).
Biblio: \[Rulebook\] 1986 *Labyrinth* (boardgame), Ravensburger.
Consult a full style guide and model off the nearest multi media work, for example, album liners to a CD.
Are you sure 2007 is really the date of the edition and not the printing?
(Kobbert 2007).
Kobbert, MJ 2007 '\[Rulebook\]' *Labyrinth* (boardgame), Ravensburger Spieleverlag.
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Tags: citations
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thread-27872
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27872
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When is it wrong to look at previous exams?
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2014-09-01T10:15:44.743
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# Question
Title: When is it wrong to look at previous exams?
It is clear that if I study for an exam in 2014, then it should be okay to look at previous exams from the previous semester of 2014, exams from 2013, 2012, etc.
**First question: Is it wrong, however, to look at previous exams within the same semester?**
Example:
Let's say there are two classes (9:30-10:30 MWF and 12-1:30 TTh) for a subject (S101). Say I am in the TTh class and I have a friend in the MWF class. My friend takes the S101 exam on Monday. I am to take the S101 exam on Tuesday.
Is it wrong for my friend and I to discuss the S101 exam after e takes the S101 exam and before I take the S101 exam?
Here is what I am thinking:
It should NOT be wrong because the S101 exam on Tuesday should be different from the S101 exam on Monday since professors should expect that students will discuss it among themselves. If the professor makes identical exams, then this is unfair to the MWF class who do not have as much information as the TTh class who easily obtain information from the ones in the MWF class who tell them.
**Second question**:
Some of my friends say it is cheating while others do not. Our "Code of Academic Integrity" handbook makes no mention of such behavior or perhaps I misread it.
**If the CoAI in fact fails to mention it while doing such is wrong, can students be faulted for doing such?**
---
Related:
1. Are Identical Make-up Exams Fair?
2. When is it wrong for students to ask about previous exams known to change?
3. Why is it unethical to share the contents of an exam with students who haven't taken it yet?
4. Make Up Tests: Should I alter the questions?
# Answer
> 28 votes
A major principle of academic integrity is **when in doubt, ask the professor**. Academic integrity codes cannot cover all possible cases, and it's expected that all parties will act reasonably and request clarification when it is needed. You should **not** assume that "everything not explicitly forbidden is permitted", nor that "it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission." The answer to your second question is **absolutely yes**.
The case you describe in your first question is sufficiently questionable that I don't think you should proceed without explicitly checking. There is certainly the potential for this to be unfair to the Monday students who don't have the option of talking to anyone before taking the exam. If several of your friends consider that this may be cheating, that's a clear warning sign.
There are a few possibilities:
1. The professor hasn't thought of this issue.
2. The professor has thought of it, and doesn't want students to do it, but is afraid that mentioning it will only encourage students who wouldn't otherwise have thought of it.
3. The professor has thought of it, but thinks it goes without saying that this is inappropriate.
4. The professor has thought of it, and has taken other steps to ensure that students can discuss the exam without inequity (e.g. giving completely different exams).
In case 1, it would be inappropriate for you to take advantage of the professor's oversight. If you ask her about it, you might suggest that she make a policy and announce it explicitly.
Case 2 is perhaps a questionable decision on the professor's part, but in any case, by asking, you protect yourself from inadvertently running afoul of integrity rules. See also Case 3.
In Case 3, you also protect yourself by asking. Note that the university bodies that enforce academic integrity codes usually have no problem prosecuting students for doing things that they consider "obviously" inappropriate, even if no written rules explicitly forbid them. And since they are usually composed in large part of professors, they are likely to have a similar sense of what is "obvious" to your professor.
In case 4, when you ask, you'll be told to go right ahead.
My own practice in such cases is to write on the Monday exam "You may not discuss this exam with anyone, not even to say whether it was easy or hard, until Tuesday at 1:30". (In some cases I might weaken this to "anyone who has not yet taken it".) I do this even if the exams will be significantly different, partly because I feel that any differential in available information is a potential inequity, and partly so as not to tip my hand as to whether the exams will be similar or not. But as I said, you should not interpret the absence of such a warning as permission.
# Answer
> 6 votes
Do you have access to the exam in question? If you can "legally", e.g. download it from the subject's site, obtain it, then I see no reason why this would be wrong. On the other hand, you could have personal issues with it, i.e. personally consider it wrong, in which case you shouldn't look at it, even if you had the opportunity. I find this and similar kinds of dogmatically forced moral dilemmas in most cases very counterproductive, as I find it hard to believe that the staff would undermine the subject. So, if the staff is ok with it, i.e. makes it available and the CoAI makes no explicit mention of it, it isn't wrong.
Finally, I'd like to advise you not to impose obstacles on yourself where none should exist by overthinking it, it wastes your time and energy.
# Answer
> 1 votes
If the prof. hasn't set any rules explicitly, I think it's safe to say you can use a past exam if and only if it has been graded and the grades have been released.
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### Edit:
This was just a rule of thumb based on the premise that you won't see grades given until everyone has taken the exam. If your professor distributes grades before that then you need to wait until everyone has taken the exam.
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Tags: ethics, exams
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thread-27892
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27892
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Does translating an article for a magazine require permission from the author?
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2014-09-01T19:15:10.623
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# Question
Title: Does translating an article for a magazine require permission from the author?
Is translating an article (that could be found written in a popular science magazine or online in a science blog or personal webpage say) for a public newspaper or an online blog ...etc, requires permission from the author?
# Answer
> 36 votes
Translations are considered a "derivative work." Preparation of a derivative work is one of the exclusive rights attached to the copyright holder.
If the article you wish to publish is *not* in the public domain or under a license that allows preparation of derivative work, you must get permission from the copyright holder to translate it. (Unless one of the copyright exceptions applies.)
# Answer
> 11 votes
Besides the very good answer given by ff524 it's noteworthy that national laws apply and that those differ significantly. No matter what - it's always a good idea to get permission from the copyright holder (most likely the author or the publisher).
To give an example. German copyright law states the copyright as non transferable. So no matter how much the publisher would like to they cannot get the copyright from the author. However the publisher is usually granted an exclusive right of publication (at least for a limited amount of time). This license agreement between copyright holder and publisher might contain a clause concerning translations. So again the request for permission is necessary.
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Tags: publications, copyright, online-publication, translations
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thread-27904
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27904
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In a publications list, how to categorize paper from conference whose proceedings are published in a peer-reviewed journal?
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2014-09-02T04:03:51.383
|
# Question
Title: In a publications list, how to categorize paper from conference whose proceedings are published in a peer-reviewed journal?
In a "list of publications" (e.g. for a PhD thesis), should a conference paper which is published as "proceedings" in a peer-reviewed journal be categorized as a "journal article"?
(I'm from Liquid Crystals field.)
# Answer
> 4 votes
Allow me to disagree with @xLeitix.
## No. It's a conference paper.
A paper qualifies as a "journal publication" if (and only if) it passes through the standard peer-review process for the journal in which the paper is published. If a paper is reviewed only by the program committee for a conference, it's a conference paper, even if the proceedings are published in a journal.
As a particularly confusing example, consider SIGGRAPH, the flagship conference in computer graphics. For many many years, SIGGRAPH has published its proceedings as a standard issue of the journal *ACM Transactions on Graphics* (aka "*TOG*").
SIGGRAPH accepts two types of papers: (1) direct submissions to the conference in response to the call for papers and (2) papers published in *TOG* in the last 12 months. Papers accepted from *TOG* are clearly journal publications, because they went through the standard *TOG* refereeing process. (Those papers are not republished in the proceedings issue of *TOG*, but they are listed in the "table of contents".) But direct submissions accepted by the program committee are *not* journal publications, because they did *not* go through the standard *TOG* refereeing process, even though they are published in *TOG*.
The distinction is all the more confused by the facts that in the graphics community, "SIGGRAPH paper" is a *considerably* more valuable label than "journal paper", in part because the reviewing process for SIGGRAPH is (or has been historically) considered *more* rigorous than the refereeing process for graphics journals.
Of course, the rest of the world doesn't share this preference—or perhaps more accurately, doesn't believe that anyone sane could have such a preference—which is *precisely* why SIGGRAPH publishes their proceedings in a journal. Put bluntly, the graphics community chose to defend itself against lazy scholars who value the imprimatur of a journal above the quality and impact of the work through deception. Or if you prefer a slightly less inflammatory term: camouflage.
It's worth noting that ACM now explicitly forbids conferences from publishing proceedings in an ACM journal. (SIGGRAPH's practice is grandfathered.) But this doesn't stop non-ACM conferences like VLDB from wearing similar camouflage.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Unless I'm missing something here, you mean the conference proceedings were published in the *conference series* of some journal. If this is the case, what is published is certainly peer-reviewed, but is certainly not a journal publication. A classic example in my field (Physics) is the *Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics*. But there is a clear line of demarcation here - whenever the proceedings of any conference get published with J. Phys., they are in the *Journal of Physics :Conference Proceedings*. This leaves no ambiguity - what is published in the latter in certainly a conference proceeding and can't be classified as a journal article. (Actually, articles in the latter carry that identifier. e.g. have a look at this one.)
I appreciate your concern - the only precaution that one has to take here is, not to mention an article in a manner that gives a wrong impression. This is because the rigor of reviewing process is different for a journal article and a conference proceeding (in general). For example, if the same article gets loosely mentioned as a ''Journal of Physics article'', it is inappropriate because it gives the impression that it is a journal article. That's why people divide generally divide into categories - journal articles, conference proceedings, conference talks, ''poster presented and abstract published'' sort of a thing.
But of course, if you clearly mention/ the same gets clearly mentioned via some identifier that the article in question is a conference article, there is no harm in putting it under the heading of peer-reviewed articles. It certainly *is* peer-reviewed.
Hope that helps.
# Answer
> 1 votes
As counter-intuitive as it sounds, there is no absolute rule for what is considered a "journal" and what is considered "conference proceedings". In most cases the distinction is trivial. Most journals are not associated with a specific event, and paper submission and review are entirely unrelated from any conference or meeting. Contrary, most events have dedicated proceedings, which contain all and only the accompanying papers to the presented talks.
However, there are curious cases where the line blurs. Some conference proceedings have self-styled themselves as "journals", presumably in an attempt to make their publications seem more important. A slightly different case is VLDB, which basically does not do actual peer-review of conference submissions anymore. Instead, you submit to the VLDB journal, your submission gets the traditional journal peer-review process, and once a year the authors of all papers accepted in this year for the journal are invited to present their paper at the annual meeting.
This is all to say that I think the "clear line of demarcation" isn't quite as clear as New\_new\_newbie says.
> In a "list of publications" (e.g. for a PhD thesis), should a conference paper which is published as "proceedings" in a peer-reviewed journal be categorized as a "journal article"?
If it is called "proceedings", I would put it to the other conference papers. However, to be on the safe side, you can always just check how other authors of this conference are referring to their paper. Are they treating it as a conference talk, or a journal submission?
# Answer
> 0 votes
As long as you don't say anything that is not true, and do not go against your university's regulations, you can use the layout that you like the best.
In my thesis I categorized publications into:
* Peer-reviewed articles
* Conference talks
* Conference posters
In "Peer-reviewed articles" I included any papers, including proceedings, that had been peer reviewed (i.e. I received an anonymous referee report for them). Anyone interested in reading my thesis will be familiar enough with the journals to know which ones are a conference proceedings venue. Certainly my thesis examiners were.
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Tags: publications, journals, conference
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thread-27919
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27919
|
Should repeated course grades be included in GPA calculations for reporting to institutions in the U.S.?
|
2014-09-02T15:42:53.740
|
# Question
Title: Should repeated course grades be included in GPA calculations for reporting to institutions in the U.S.?
I'm from Iran and planning to apply for a master in CS in USA. I'm trying to figure out how should I report my GPA, but I'm confused about courses that I have failed and repeated. Should I include both failing and repeated grades when calculating my GPA or just my last grade in that course?
The Iranian grading system is based on a 20-point grading scale, the passing grade is 10 (for undergrads) and both failing and repeated grades are included in GPA calculation. As it is mentioned in Wikipedia link, Iranian GPA is not directly converted to USA grading system: instead each course grade is converted individually and then GPA is recalculated for converted grades.
But as far as I have researched online and offline I have found different answers about repeated grades when converting.
# Answer
> 2 votes
> Should I include both failing and repeated grades when calculating my GPA or just my last grade in that course?
If all your failings and repeated courses are reported in your transcripts, then you should report them too.
You should report all your official documents *as they are* and the applicant should never edit them or report them partially (by his own favor).
PS:
When you have your transcripts, your cGPA and also GPAs of each semester (including your passed, repeating and failed courses) is reported in the transcripts.
You can check whether the marks of your failed and repeating courses are calculated in your GPA or not. You should translate/report/recalculate your GPA exactly the same as they appear in your original transcripts.
Also, as you can see in one comment's liked question, the GPA calculation method differs from one country to another; so you don't need to re-calculate anything yourself (even, I think that by translating your GPA to another GPA-system by *mistake* may disturb your admissions opportunities); just officially translate your transcripts and send it to the admission office of the university you are aiming to study in. The admission office will recalculate your GPA based on their methods or they may then ask you for more supporting documents. Read the following quotation from the accepted answer to the question: **How to convert from one grading scheme to another**
> Most countries have their own system which doesn't really make sense as you try to "translate" them to some other system.
even, in this answer it is mentioned:
> Don't convert between different grading schemes unless it is explicitly mentioned what minimum grades you need for your own country. Just apply and hope for the best.
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Tags: united-states, grades, gpa
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thread-27581
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27581
|
Improve learning skills
|
2014-08-25T00:28:08.543
|
# Question
Title: Improve learning skills
I want to improve my learning skills. Is there any advice or a good method for that? For example, I want to read an article or book and retain as much information possible. But sometimes I read and lose focus, or when I read I can't remember everything as well as I'd like to.
# Answer
**Short answer**
Practice!
**Long answer** Practice (smart)! The more time you spend being a student (studying, reading, summarizing, asking questions, taking notes, and pursuing answers) the better you will become at being a student. For more specific tips, check out this article by Scott Young. He focuses on methods that allow you to study smarter rather than harder. The key to this is to recognize that all knowledge is interrelated; everything connects to everything else, and therefore no learning is wasted. I find his tips and hints to be useful, though I cannot learn quite as efficiently as Young claims one should be able to.
> 1 votes
# Answer
Something to look into is style of learning. For example, I'm a haptic learner, which means I learn best through doing. 'Doing' in this case can be a simple as making flashcards. On the other hand, I can try and read a text book all day, and I won't retain much at all. Therefore, 30 minutes of making and drilling flashcards is a much more efficient use of my time instead of an hour spent reading.
Everyone learns slightly differently. If you learn best when you hear something, try recording the lectures and playing them back. If you are a visual learner, maybe look into plotting out lecture points on a white board. Honestly this is just something that you need play around with, though you'll find many ideas to get you started on the internet.
> 0 votes
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Tags: learning
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thread-11760
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11760
|
Swiss cheese holes in my education. Do I go back and fill them?
|
2013-08-08T20:46:24.560
|
# Question
Title: Swiss cheese holes in my education. Do I go back and fill them?
In this recent blog post the author lists several interesting concepts he has discovered pertaining to learning. One thing he mentions is the following:
> Mastery is more important than passing grades. You will reach limits in learning when you have a "Swiss cheese" foundation full of misconception holes. Master each concept before building on top. ~Salman Khan
(This is actually from Salman's TED talk which you can view here.) My questions is as follows: I graduated about a year ago with a Master's in Applied Physics from a reputable university. I've been a B student throughout my academic career and I feel like I started building on un-mastered concepts somewhere towards the end of *high school*. Despite obtaining a relatively *tough* engineering degree, I cut corners whenever possible. If I could pass an exam by being able to do all the exercises, I would get to that level and stop there. I would rarely - if ever - go for complete mastery. As a result I feel like I have Swiss cheese holes in my understanding that date back to high school.
If Albert Einstein's quote is anything to go by:
> If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
I'm afraid I can't *simply* explain a whole lot. For instance I would not be able to explain simply:
1. What is the proof of Euler's identity?
2. Why can you express a wave as an imaginary exponential?
3. How does a photon have momentum, but not mass?
4. What is the intuitive understanding of eigenfunctions, eigenvalues and their physical manifestations?
With the wealth of knowledge available today on the internet, I could look up any one of my knowledge gaps, and with some effort I feel confident I would be able to fill them. My question is, would that be worth it?
# Answer
> 37 votes
First, for context, I'd disagree strongly with a too strict notion that "mastery" is required before "moving forward", for several reasons. It is easier to understand the purpose of something *after* one sees how it is used. It is all too easy to acquire a fake mastery that is not *functional*, but only refers to some artificial tasks created for a textbook, and, all the worse, may be wastes of time. And, finally, the kind of "mastery" we are often led to think we should attain is basically unattainable... That is, unless one keeps ones list of things-to-master really short, very elementary, and uncomplicated, this "mastery" is just unreachable on the terms a novice or even journeyman conceives.
So... don't over-interpret "mastery".
On the other hand, \_of\_course\_ it is good to go back and fill in. And one will find oneself doing this many times, as one discovers, upon "stressing" one's knowledge, that what one thought one knew "well enough" was not quite good enough.
For that matter, even with an excellent memory, things slip out of a person's head.
My bottom line recommendation is to maintain (at least) two "threads", one to review and backfill, the other to move forward.
The latter is surprisingly useful at helping review make more sense! :)
# Answer
> 17 votes
The ancient Hebrew wisdom of Solomon applies here: "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh." (Ecclesiastes 12:12b) There is no end of making books, so we can never completely master anything. Mastery is an ideal that no one ever really reaches; it is more like a compass to steer by. So if those holes are bothering you, why not fill them in as you run into them? You'll never reach a place where there are no holes left, as paul garret implied in his answer. This fact should not stop us from trying, though. Enjoy the journey....
# Answer
> 4 votes
When you have collected discouraging quotes from authorities, it is a good idea to find other authorities who have held the opposite point of view. I suggest that the arch-experimentalist Oliver Heaviside would be a good match for you.
> Mathematics is of two kinds, Rigorous and Physical. The former is Narrow: the latter Bold and Broad. To have to stop to formulate rigorous demonstrations would put a stop to most physico-mathematical inquiries. Am I to refuse to eat because I do not fully understand the mechanism of digestion?
Or:
> The prevalent idea of mathematical works is that you must understand the reason why first, before you proceed to practice. That is fudg e and fiddlesticks. I know mathematical processes that I have used with success for a very long time, of which neither I nor any one else understands the scholastic logic. I have grown into them, and so understand them that way .
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Tags: learning
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thread-27940
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27940
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How do I cite a mathematical definition replicated verbatim?
|
2014-09-02T21:13:06.470
|
# Question
Title: How do I cite a mathematical definition replicated verbatim?
I am writing a paper, in which I must include a definition of a particular mathematical structure. It's a structure with which very few people would be familiar, thus I wish to include it verbatim, as opposed to citing it. Rewriting it in my own words would only obscure the meaning. Putting a long mathematical definition (perhaps half a page) in quotes looks bizarre and messes up the type setting. Is there a standard way to indicate the definition is cited, whilst avoiding any appearance of plagiarism?
# Answer
> 12 votes
Immediately before the definition, you could say "Quoting verbatim from \[source\], we define a \[whatever-it-is\] as follows:"
That is, in general, thinking in terms of honesty/forthrightness is an excellent guide.
# Answer
> 15 votes
This is common practice in mathematics. Definitions are not normally thought of as containing creative content, and if you need to use exactly the same definition as the previous paper, you use the same words. As far as I know, no mathematician considers this to be plagiarism of any kind, provided an appropriate citation is given. Quotation marks or block quotes are not used, because, as you say, it would look weird.
Some phrases you might use:
> We define, as in \[4\]:
>
> The following definition is taken from \[4\]:
>
> We follow \[4\] by defining:
>
> We use the definition from \[4\], which we include here for the reader's convenience:
Then format the definition as you normally would. Minor paraphrases and spelling/grammar fixes that do not change the meaning are also fine. If you fix a typo that makes a mathematical difference (e.g. the original author wrote 2 but from context obviously meant 4) then you should point it out explicitly, but this is more for mathematical correctness than citation practice.
Note that if you are publishing in a non-mathematics journal, standards might vary, and you might have to use quotes or otherwise format in some way that would look weird to a mathematician.
# Answer
> 11 votes
If you define terms in a "Definition" environment, then you may state the reference after the heading. For example:
**Definition 2** (Noche, 2014). A real number *x* is said to be *small* if 0 \< *x* \< 1.
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Tags: citations, writing, mathematics, plagiarism
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thread-27960
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27960
|
Should I submit an expression of interest for another position although I still have 1.5 years left in my current contract?
|
2014-09-03T06:23:56.753
|
# Question
Title: Should I submit an expression of interest for another position although I still have 1.5 years left in my current contract?
I am a postdoc with slightly more than 1.5 out of 3 years left in my contract. Recently I have received an email about a postdoctoral position in another country, which interests me. The position is not yet formally advertised, but potential candidates are invited to submit a brief expression of interest, and to indicate the date they will be available.
Is it a common practice to submit an expression of interest although I will only be available 1.5 years from now?
# Answer
> Is it a common practice to submit an expression of interest although I will only be available 1.5 years from now?
I wouldn't say it is "common practice", simply because it seems relatively pointless. While starting dates for academic jobs are usually flexible, 1.5 years of delay for a postdoc seems like a stretch. Many postdocs are hired on specific projects, and the project in question would be half-over before you even begin. Even for postdocs paid by some sort of fellowship, the start date usually isn't *that* flexible. Of course this does not stop you from asking, but I would not get my hopes up too high.
> 4 votes
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Tags: postdocs, job-search
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thread-27956
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27956
|
Do research laboratories hire international students with a Bachelor's Degree?
|
2014-09-03T05:21:24.103
|
# Question
Title: Do research laboratories hire international students with a Bachelor's Degree?
I intend to increase my research experience in a field not very closely related to mine (I am a chemical engineer and want to pursue Tissue Engineering). I a currently a 4th year undergraduate. I have some research experience in the field. Do I have a shot a securing a research job in a european or american research Lab or a University?
# Answer
> 3 votes
I am not sure you can call it a job, but if somehow you put it nicely as a internship, or unpaid internship, you might be lucky enough to find someone that would like to invest some time on you.
Keep in mind that apart from your will, there must be some supervisor that would be willing to guide you along the process. For that to happen, either there must a be an open position, or you have to convince them that you are worth it.
One thing you could do is not to as for income, since you mention your main goal is to upgrade research experience. If you need income at any case, then you can as for student-job positions which are common in Europe (especially in Germany). But, still the Professor will need to spend some of his funds on you.
Prepare a good motivation letter to convince the Professor, get quality recommendation letters, show some proof that you have the potential to conduct research "independently" (if you have some publications in the field that would help you), make sure you find a research group that fits you (more precisely you fit them, in the sense that you know the field they are working on, you know the tools they use for the specific research)
But since you are a Bachelor student, and I assume you don't have much to offer you should keep your demands as low as possible. Alternately, check if your university has cooperation with other universities, maybe you can go to a university that could fit you as an exchange student?!
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Tags: research-process, job, research-undergraduate, bachelor
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thread-27949
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27949
|
How do you tactfully inquire why a person wants your reprint?
|
2014-09-03T00:36:47.673
|
# Question
Title: How do you tactfully inquire why a person wants your reprint?
My boss is first author on several papers, and doesn't want to give a reprint to anyone unless he knows and approves the reason they want it. I know, I know. These reprint requests fall to me. How do I inquire why they want it, with an appearance of collegiality?
EDIT: By "reprint", I mean the PDF of a paper, requested from the author by someone who doesn't want to have to buy it at the journal website.
# Answer
> 12 votes
To the requester, you could say something like:
> For my records, may I ask why you are requesting a reprint?
<sub> Though, I think a good follow-up question to ask here would be "how do I tactfully tell my boss to field these reprint requests for themselves?" :^) </sub>
# Answer
> 6 votes
A longish comment with a bit of answer near the end:
Note that the sharing of actual journal-produced PDFs of the article may fall under the constraints of the Copyright Transfer Notice that you guys signed when you published the paper. Now, publishers often do not like it when you post the *published* version on your website, though most seem to be okay if you e-mail it to a few people here and there. But it is possible that your boss has been burned by an experience before.
For example, if I were to send the e-print that I got from the publisher, which is watermarked with *my name and institution on it*, to a random Joe Schmoe, who then puts it into a BitTorrent collection and uploads to The Pirate Bay, whom do you think will be blamed by the Journal?
So while I think your boss maybe slightly paranoid, I do not see it as more so than the healthy kind of paranoia that keeps non-profits like the EFF functioning: somebody has to think about the worst case scenario.
---
All this is to say:
1. Check your copyright transfer agreement to make sure that you are allowed to share what the person is asking for.
2. Check with your boss to see whether his reservations about sending digital reprints also extends to a pre-print (original manuscript before peer-review) or a post-print (the accepted manuscript after the peer-review rounds but before the proofs were prepared). It is quite possible that his policy is based on a quite literal reading of the copyright transfer agreement, and he just wants to prevent commercial use of the reprint. (If yes, go here.) If not....
3. ... check whether the person sending the request is happy with a pre/post-print and if so, everyone is happy. If not, the ball is now in the court of the person making the request to explain why he or she wants the version of record and that only.
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Tags: publications, etiquette
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thread-27962
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27962
|
Should I inform my thesis adviser about current situation
|
2014-09-03T07:50:04.277
|
# Question
Title: Should I inform my thesis adviser about current situation
I had unofficially agreed to start working on my thesis during September, with no concrete date being mentioned.
However there are two factors which might delay this date:
1. Me not being available due to travelling until the end of the month
2. I don't feel confident about the programming task that has to be done during the thesis, so I want to take a little bit more time to work on some exercises
The problem is that in case that I go there, they might request me to sign for the official thesis registration, which then will impose the deadline when I have to be completely done with all the thesis stuff. I don't want to do this, before being confident that I can proceed easily with the programming, because otherwise the period that I will spend doing some extra programming exercises will be eating from timeslot limited with the deadline.
My question is, should I inform the adviser about these developments, or should I shut up until I come back (and use another 10 days to do some extra exercises) and then go to his office and talk about the official thesis start? Which situation would reflect best on me? I'm afraid I am causing too much communication overhead unnecessarily and somehow not respecting the time-frames I have agreed myself.
Reason to go to the advisor: I have already verbally promised that I will be around once September comes
Reason not to go: They may require me to sign the official thesis start.
# Answer
As a rule of thumb, if you tell someone you'll be doing stuff with them at time X, and then change your mind, let them know!
More specifically, I would recommend an email such as:
"Dear Advisor,
we had planned for me to start my thesis in September, but because of REASONS I'll only be able to start on October. I apologize bla bla In the meantime, I'm planning to do EXERCISES. Please let me know if you have any other suggestions on how to prepare."
I don't see a point in telling this to your advisor in person anyway, and this should keep you safe from being made to sign stuff.
> 7 votes
# Answer
This depends a lot on the personal stance of the advisor. Does he or she readily accommodate wishes by students, especially if they are comparably insignificant (delaying the start date by some 10 days) and seldom (it's not a perfect start to bring such an issue up right at the beginning of the thesis already, but if you don't come up with such requests every week, that may be fine).
I would definitely suggest contacting the advisor, as just ignoring him or her and disappearing for some 10 days does certainly not make a good initial impression.
As for the "danger" of being made to sign the start, I am not sure as to how realistic that is, given that you have concrete reasons (physical absence while travelling) for a (rather limited, less than two weeks!) delay - and I think it is unlikely the department or the advisor could be eager to force students that do not feel ready into starting their thesis (and thus provoke bad results). One issue *might* be that they have a certain rule concerning the maximum duration of preparation time before the official start, but if that is the case, that is all the more reason to talk to your advisor.
Beside just telling the advisor about your wish for a slight delay, I suggest you go see him or her in person, as just writing an e-mail may express a rather lackadaisical attitude towards your thesis. At least, you could write an e-mail to the advisor, utter your wish to slightly delay the official start, and express that you're ready for a meeting where you can discuss that in detail. That should make it clear that you're not willing to sign the official start yet.
One extra thing you might do to make your advisor extra-receptive about your request is being concrete about what you want to do in the additional ten days. Do not just mention "some extra programming exercises", but provide a concrete link or book title (or whatever else) that denotes a set of exercises you are planning to work through. Convey to your advisor that you really care, and that you don't just want 10 more days for idling, but that you have a concrete plan in mind, based upon which those 10 days would realistically make any difference concerning your current worries.
---
As a side-note, if we abstract your question to what you asked in the title, "Should I inform my thesis adviser about current situation?", the answer should invariably be an unanimous **YES**.
> 4 votes
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Tags: thesis, advisor, code
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thread-27957
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27957
|
If a journal publishing an article about a software tool requires the software to be freely available, must the article be open access?
|
2014-09-03T05:22:46.543
|
# Question
Title: If a journal publishing an article about a software tool requires the software to be freely available, must the article be open access?
I am interesting in publishing a Bioinformatics software as a paid access article in a journal where they have open access as well as paid access options (Oxford's *Bioinformatics*).
But it stated at the journal's website that
> **Software** If the manuscript describes new software tools or the implementation of novel algorithms the software must be freely available to non-commercial users at the time of submission, and appropriate test data should be made available. Availability must be clearly stated in the article. Authors must also ensure that the software and test data is available for a full TWO YEARS following publication. The editors of Bioinformatics encourage authors to make their source code available and, if possible, to provide access through an open source license (see www.opensource.org for examples). Authors should make every effort to use URLs that will remain stable. At the minimum, authors must provide one of: webserver, source code or binary. The name of the software should be included in the title of the paper wherever possible.
Does that mean the article publishing that software must be an open access article? or can it be a paid access article?
# Answer
The two are entirely independent.
1. The journal does *not* require you to make the software open source. It merely requires you to make it **free for non-commercial use** for at least **two full years** from the day of submission of the article.
It however *recommends* that you make the source available, *preferably* via an open source license. But it states that it is even acceptable to simply provide the compiled binary to the editors. (Presumably to verify that the software does what you report it to do.)
2. The requirement is only applied to a software if you wish to publish a paper describing a new software tool or a new implementation or algorithm. (Which seems to be your case as you want to write about a new bioinformatics software.)
3. The OA publishing option is something else entirely. The default publishing format in the journal is *subscriber pays*. With payment of additional fees you can purchase the option to make your paper open access, but that is not a requirement.
4. I note that the condition described in point 1 would be evaluated at the time of submission by the editorial board, whereas the possibility of publishing the article open access will not generally be discussed at all until *after* the paper is accepted.
> 7 votes
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Tags: publications, software, open-access
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thread-27943
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27943
|
When is it prudent to argue against a suggested revision to a journal paper?
|
2014-09-02T22:08:24.187
|
# Question
Title: When is it prudent to argue against a suggested revision to a journal paper?
Most journals have a peer review process, where there are several rounds of reviews and modifications over a single paper.
In my particular case, one of these reviews was, in my opinion, a bit over the top. In this case, the reviewer asked me to expand a set of equations that are explained in any undergrad numerical analysis book. It even has a very well described Wikipedia page. And the set of equations took an entire page of my paper.
Yet, my PI at the moment told me it was just better to comply and get the paper ready (it had already been accepted subject to these changes).
My new PI told me it seemed wrong to him, since it is a very basic set of equations and the fact that one reviewer is not familiarized with it, is not an excuse to break the rhythm of the paper, since suddenly a whole page of equations can do that for you in a paper.
He told me he would have fought it back.
What is the overall opinion in different fields with respect to this?
# Answer
From what I know (I am a mathematician with some publishing experience), it is perfectly okay to argue against a referee's demand, as soon as
1. you do it politely, and you explain your arguments in a non-conflictual way;
2. you are ready to delay the final acceptance of your paper;
3. you are ready to either ultimately accept the demand if the referee does not change her mind and the editor backs her up, or to get your paper ultimately rejected.
In the case you describe, I do not think that explaining your point of view would have turn the editor's mind right away. In a similar situation (a referee asked for some terminology to be changed into something more standard), with my coauthor we argued with success (our argument was that to date, no terminology existed for what we discussed, let alone standard terminology).
**Added in edit:** I forgot an important point; in many situation, including yours, you can find a middle ground that may be considered an acceptable answer to her query by the referee, and that avoid departing too much from your initial intention. For example, in your case, you can propose to add a precise reference giving the derivation.
> 15 votes
# Answer
My experience in this regard, being in Epidemiology as a field and having both successfully and unsuccessfully pushed back against reviewers:
You are best served arguing against a reviewers requests when you have clear, definitive case. This does not necessarily have to be "the reviewer is wrong" but can be "This was done deliberately, and here is why..."
In my experience, this appears mostly in either the generation or interpretation of results. Stylistic arguments, such as the one you're currently considering, have less of a defensible "Here is why this was the way it was..."
In your particular case, consider the following:
* While you might think the expansion of the equations is trivial, at least one person who is both sufficiently qualified and interested to agree to review your paper thinks it is better served fully fleshed out. For most papers, this actually represents a fair fraction of the total lifetime number of readers of the paper.
* A reader needing to expand your set of equations, and do so without error, also breaks the flow of the paper.
The fundamental question you should ask yourself is "If I say 'No', and the editor replies with 'Thanks, but no thanks...' was it worth it?"
> 9 votes
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Tags: publications, journals, peer-review, paper-submission
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thread-27983
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27983
|
Is it advisable to apply to more than one PhD program?
|
2014-09-03T17:25:04.627
|
# Question
Title: Is it advisable to apply to more than one PhD program?
Is it good to apply for more than one PhD program and accept ( the best case, obviously ) the most interesting/best paid/best outlooks one?
# Answer
> 7 votes
Yes it is common to send multiple PhD applications to multiple schools. I am doing this now, I would RECOMMEND it actually because getting into PhD programs is difficult.
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, application
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