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thread-28495
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28495
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Should I put my résumé on LinkedIn when applying for a PhD?
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2014-09-14T10:36:50.970
|
# Question
Title: Should I put my résumé on LinkedIn when applying for a PhD?
When I apply to a university for acceptance to their PhD program, I send my résumé with the application. When I want to apply for a job outside of academia, I also send my résumé to them. In both cases they also read my résumé at the interview stage.
But I am not sure whether it is advantageous to also upload my résumé to LinkedIn. Will people visit my LinkedIn profile and read it? Is it likely to help?
# Answer
> 9 votes
I don't think it really makes any difference.
Admissions committees are not in the habit of doing social media searches for applicants. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard an academic talk about using LinkedIn at all. (Maybe it is more commonly used in certain fields that are more closely related to business.) Even if they did, there's no particular reason they should come across your profile, and no particular reason why finding a resume there or not would influence anyone's decision.
The only possible benefit of posting I can imagine is that if, somehow, one of the admissions committee happened to see it and form some favorable impression of you, that might help their opinion when they read your application. But that seems like an unlikely coincidence to hope for.
On the other hand, I can't imagine any possible way in which having your resume on LinkedIn could be a disadvantage in the application process. So from that point of view, you probably might as well post it.
On a related note, I would *not* recommend trying to add LinkedIn connections to faculty members at the university where you are applying. Since most probably don't use LinkedIn, this will just result in them getting annoying emails. And you don't want them to read your application and think "Hey, I remember that name - this is the guy who's sending me all that LinkedIn spam. What a jerk."
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, cv, social-media
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thread-28496
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28496
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What is the etiquette for asking a professor I don't know to suggest universities for me?
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2014-09-14T10:41:13.287
|
# Question
Title: What is the etiquette for asking a professor I don't know to suggest universities for me?
Because of the current political situation, I cannot apply for a PhD in the USA. There is a very remarkable professor on a U.S. university and I want to ask him to suggest for me other universities that are good to be considered.
I want to know your opinion about this.
And, if you agree, how can I state my request?
# Answer
I would advise against it.
I don't think most people have in their heads a list of "good universities in my field". When advising students who they know on where to apply for grad school, they try to recommend schools based on everything they know about the student, their interests, talents, constraints, etc. For a student who they don't know and have never met, this would be hard to do effectively, and I don't think most people would really be interested in trying.
If you send such an email, I suspect you will either get no response, or a brief "Sorry, I can't help".
Instead, I would suggest that you talk to a faculty member in your field at your own university, someone who knows you well and whose opinion you respect. They would be a much better source of advice for you.
> 13 votes
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Tags: etiquette, email
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thread-28483
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28483
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Asking for a recommendation from a professor who I did bad in his courses
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2014-09-14T00:28:40.443
|
# Question
Title: Asking for a recommendation from a professor who I did bad in his courses
I am applying for a PhD and I am asked for 3 recommendation letters. I have 2 which I think are good letters. I am looking for someone to provide the third. I had 4 courses with a certain professor in my undergrad. I scored B+ (3.25/4) in two courses and an A (3.75/4) in the other two. Long story short, I know and the professor knows that I deserve a much higher grade in the two courses which I scored B+ in. I am thinking of asking him for his reference letter as I think they might help in making the effect of these two B+s less sever. I think I have gained a lot of respect from him in last year or two which made me think that his recommendation might be positive, but I am not sure about what he will write.
Is it logical to ask him or should I ask someone else ? I don't have many other option; The other professors only taught me one or two courses and I am not sure if I can get good recommendations from them. Additionally, that professor was at the committee for my final project presentation in my undergrad. I scored very high in that too.
I am little confused on which is better, a recommendation from this professor, or from a professor who taught me one course and I scored an A+, or from a professional referee since my other two referees are academics.
# Answer
If they were genuinely bad grades, I would advise against using this professor. But a B+ is not "really" a bad grade, even though you might have done better.
Some professors are stricter than average, and a B+ from them is the equivalent of an A- or even an A from most others. This could well be the case here. One of my friends was told that he was in the "top 5" of his class. But there were only two A's, which explains his B+. If this is the case with you, this professor is in the best position to vouch for the quality of your work, and the fact that it would be worth an A elsewhere.
In your shoes, I would schedule a meeting with the professor to find out how he feels about your work, and about recommending you. It could be that you were one of his best students that he'd recommend above most others (one student on another post reported being the "best student" in a class where he got the highest grade, 90%). On the other hand, he may think that you are "nothing special" in which case you should go another way.
Up to now, everything I've written is "speculation," so you need to find out what the "facts" are before making a decision.
> 9 votes
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Tags: recommendation-letter
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thread-10621
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10621
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Will one 'C' grade due to health issues ruin my chances of admission into a top grad school?
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2013-06-15T04:51:10.793
|
# Question
Title: Will one 'C' grade due to health issues ruin my chances of admission into a top grad school?
I am in the third year of my undergraduate degree now, and in the process of applying for Graduate schools and Med schools. I have a burning questions about a creepy "C" in my transcript.
To summarize my story: I was recovering from a biopsy operation back then. Though I was advised to take one semester off to rest physically and mentally (I was extremely paranoid waiting for the pathology report, and luckily it came back benign), I still decided to take all the courses and the heavy research that I had started before. I performed so badly that semester that I received a C. That is like the most embarrassing element in my transcript.
Some told me that such a bad grade is a disadvantage for admissions. Do I still have a chance to make it to top grad and med schools? With extra effort (I have managed to pull up my GPA to 3.8 now, I have been on the Dean's list for some semesters, have 3 publications, and 2 poster presentations at symposium, my GRE and MCAT are good too), can I cover that ugly spot?
# Answer
You have shown that you have overcome great adversity and still achieved great results - this says a lot of positives about your character - of resilience and perseverance - two attributes that are critical for any graduate studies. You had a cancer scare and still passed the subject despite the medical tests and the very justified anxiety.
Maybe, it is not an "ugly spot", but that C, and subsequent successes are a reminder of how much strength and tenacity you have shown.
> 14 votes
# Answer
Your final GPA already shows that you have done well in your study and a bad grade in one of the semester or subject wouldn't matter much. Even if you are concerned about your grade affecting the admission chances, you can include in your *Statement of Purpose* why you performed badly, what did you learn from that and how did you managed to improvise upon it. Failure is also a learning experience, and if you are applying to a sane school, the admission committee are usually intelligent enough to understand it. Moreover, by describing how you improvised after a bad grade, would reflect your commitment and seriousness.
> 8 votes
# Answer
In your shoes, I would include a letter explaining the biopsy operation, the date of it, and its "correlation" with the "creepy C." This letter should probably come from a professor familiar with the situation, if possible, or maybe a doctor.
You've come a long way since then. You've got several publications/presentations, and a cumulative GPA of 3.8 that includes the C. Most schools would be happy let you in. They'd wonder about the C, but would also be looking for an "excuse" to overlook it.
This is something you don't want to let "pass" but you also don't want to make a "big deal" of it. A letter or two should be just about right
> 3 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, grades, health
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thread-28482
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28482
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Should a research statement for a faculty job have references in it?
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2014-09-14T00:28:07.133
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# Question
Title: Should a research statement for a faculty job have references in it?
If you are applying for a faculty job in computer science in a US university, should your research statement have references to research papers in it?
# Answer
> 24 votes
**Yes. Definitely.** This gives the reader an indication of how your work fits into the larger body of research in the field.
Without references, it may appear that you are working in an area that is so obscure that nobody cares about it.
# Answer
> 7 votes
One very important function of a research statement is to demonstrate that you know what you want to do from day 1. No one wants to hire a new faculty who have only vague ideas about what to do, since everyone is supposed to be productive as soon as possible.
From that perspective, a research proposal without specifics can be a huge red flag, and evaluators may fear that you just made up something fast. On the other hand, you can give an impression that you already researched the literature, thought through details and specifics, i.e. have concrete details in your proposals with bibliography, people may have more confidence in you. Note, that majority of the people who filter and judge your CV have no clue about your field, so such superficial impressions can be important.
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Tags: faculty-application, research-statement
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thread-28336
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28336
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What productive academic work can you do with minimal attention in a small (<30 minutes) block of time?
|
2014-09-11T00:17:58.043
|
# Question
Title: What productive academic work can you do with minimal attention in a small (<30 minutes) block of time?
Ok, here is a major issue I have with much of my work (which is experimental/computational research): I am a graduate student, and spend much of my day doing 5, 10, 20 and 30 minute experiments (both biological and computational), which require set up and monitoring, but result in small to medium size hunks of time when I'm really not doing much (essentially just checking every 1-2 minutes to make sure everything is still working). During these periods of time I either a) attempt to do other work or b) procrastinate. Both are not great, since either a) I'm constantly shifting my focus from the latter project and end up making mistakes in it or b) I'm procrastinate (usually by reading articles, twitter, etc.)
Does anyone have advice for how to deal with these small, awkward period of times (\< 30 minutes) - is there something which you find useful to do that you can also shift your focus from incessantly?
As an example: http://xkcd.com/303/
# Answer
ff524's answer is awesome as usual, but the core problem for you may be that most of these suggestions are not, or at least not directly, useful to your research. If, as you say, **most of your day** is spent in this way, even "productive procrastination" may be too much procrastination and too little actual progress.
In that case, you have two options:
1. **Learn how to get actual work done in those short chunks.** Being able to context-switch without getting thrown off completely is definitely a skill that can be learned. You will probably never get as efficient as when you can devote your full attention to the task, and you will likely need to double-check what you did while multi-tasking, but getting things done slower than usual is much better than not getting anything done at all.
2. **Automate better** (and, hence, increase the time between needing to check up on your results). In my experience, if you need to actually check every other minute or so what your experiments are doing, then your tooling is not good enough. Many things can be scripted so that they basically run from beginning to end on their own. Further, you can configure a system monitoring tool so that it (for instance) sends you an email when something abnormal happens. Of course this requires non-trivial IT skills, but in my experience most students working in experimental sciences are able to grok these things quite quickly if they devote a few days to it (believe me, the time necessary to learn how to automate pays off manifold in the long run).
In practice, you probably want to go for a combination of both of these options. Try to increase the time your experiments are chugging along on their own. In parallel, train making the best use out of this time.
**Edit:** This question has been added by the OP in a comment. I think it is interesting, hence I added it to my answer:
> what can you do in the case of active code development? For example, when I am actively developing a piece of code to analyze data, that code may take a few minutes (up to 10) to run, after which I assess if it is working. How do you automate that process?
This has actually more to do with standard software engineering practices than the sciences, but I think it is a helpful concept nonetheless. When you are trying out different implementations, with a large possibility of error, make sure that your application **fails fast**. That is, make it so that your application does *not* take ten minutes to fail, but does the complex, error-prone stuff directly in the beginning. Two simple examples from my own research:
**Example 1:** Say you do research in Machine Learning. Your application first trains an artificial neural network (ANN) on your data (easy as you are using an external library, but takes ~15 minutes due to algorithmic complexity), after which you do some postprocessing (trivial, executes fast) and a statistical analysis of the results (executes fast as well, but relatively complex, error-prone code). If you now always run the entire application and have the code fail during the statistical analysis, you are always losing 15 minutes for every run for a step that you already know works. A better solution would be to train the model once, and store it to disk. Then write code that only loads the ANN from disk and *fails directly after that*. Almost no dead time anymore. When the statistical analysis is working, you can revert to do everything in the expected order.
**Example 2:** You have written a complex, multi-threaded testbed, which is running distributed over multiple physical servers. You know you have a synchronization issue somewhere, as your application non-deterministically dies every couple of minutes. You have no idea where exactly. Hence, you repeatedly execute the entire application, wait for the error to happen, and then debug from there in different directions. Given that the error only happens every few minutes, you spend most of your time waiting. A better way is to take a page out of good software engineering practices. Make sure to unit test all components in isolation before throwing everything together. Specifically try to cover exceptional cases. Learn how to write good mock objects. Some amount of debugging of the integration system will still be necessary, but you will not spend hours debugging components that are fundamentally broken.
> 39 votes
# Answer
Given that you can't do something that requires your full attention during this time, I would at least advise to follow Matt Might's advice to *procrastinate productively* on meta-work:
* Read articles (or answers on Academia.SE!) about how to be more productive as a grad student.
* Read a few pages of a book on data analysis, visualization, academic writing, or some other research skill.
* Use the time to review your schedule, make to-do lists, schedule a meeting, etc.
* Try a relevant Coursera course that has video lectures broken into small bits
* Put some thought into a tiny bite-sized aspect of your research or research presentation: How should I organize this manuscript? What is the best way to visualize this data?
* Unfocused literature search: check in on your favorite journals or conferences and identify interesting papers (to read later, when you can give them your full attention)
* Do a favor for someone else: Even if you're not teaching or grading this semester, I'm sure *someone* in your department is, and would be happy to give you a pile of quizzes to grade.
* Update your CV and/or web page.
* Start preparing a presentation on your current work. You'll present it to someone, somewhere sooner or later, right?
* Think about your ultimate career goals.
* Use the Internet to look for promising potential collaborators at other institutions.
* Try out a new programming trick, LaTeX package, or software tool.
> 95 votes
# Answer
A great deal of things we have already learnt are slowly being lost by our brains. **Small chunks of time like this are ideal for a bit of memory consolidation**. I would suggest a quick revision session on things you want to know better.
It's best to select knowledge that will be **most useful if remembered**. Ignore any knowledge that is easier to just look up on Google (e.g. 5 Biggest Cities) and focus on knowledge that will help in your day-to-day (e.g. Chrome Keyboard Shortcuts).
**How to create a summary of key information for learning**
* Keep the 'bits' of information small and 'easily learnable'
* Write a dot-point summary of a topic you wish to understand better
* Highlight favourite passages on your Kindle then download them from kindle.com
* Look up book summaries from websites like getabstract.com
* Use Evernote to collect information you wish to learn in notebooks (their Web Clipper is awesome)
**Once you have a summary**
* Use small chunks of time to review the material
+ Don't spend too long or your brain will switch off
* Use Spaced Repetition methods
+ Material you find **hard** to learn should be repeated more often
+ Material you find **easy** should be repeated less
+ You need to wait between sessions to allow it to sink in
Good luck!
**Disclaimer/Self-Promotion:**
I am the creator of www.revisy.com \- a tool that helps automate all of these steps.
> 7 votes
# Answer
I'd like to add a point of view from experimental science. I do spectroscopy of biological samples and I have experiments like that as well.
Abstract:
* do not underestimate how strenuous experiments can be: if done well they often require you to keep up a high level of concentration. This is exhausting, and particularly if awkward timing is involved.
* Decide your priorities: do experiments only or start an experiment whenever that fits your other work schedule.
---
My experience is that there are some people who cope with such situations relatively calmly: they vanish into the lab, do their experiments, don't go into fits because of the lost time, and reappear after the experiments are done. Other people (e.g. I) absolutely hate the situation, because tons of other stuff needs to be done, and don't get done while you are there waiting for the experiments in minute time chunks that don't relly let you do anything.
Personally, I found 2 feasible ways of dealing with these situations, and the big idea is to decide beforehand where the priority is.
* Experiments have high priority: In that case, I consider the time and concentration being reserved for the experiments. Any other things that happen to get done are a surplus. I find that most items from @ff's list shift my focus too much. Which in the end leads to chaos in the experimental data (e.g. slightly differing names of files which require manual adjusting afterwards etc.) But setting up the measurement schedule for the next experiment, getting the notes and the samples ready for the next experiment, etc. is OK. (Though many of my experiments are in the dark, so preparations to be done in the same lab are not really feasible). Other than that, I do things like checking (e)mail, schedule meetings, preparing TODO lists and working off tiny tasks. If the waiting time is more like half an hour I may clean up my desk/the lab, but e.g.
I don't like reading papers or doing a literature search on an alarm-clock schedule. Such work I do only when
* Experiments have lower priority: I often have experiments where I need to change samples after measurements are finished after, say 30 min, but nothing really bad happens if I change the sample 30 min or 1 h later. In that case, I often decide to run the experiments on a lower priority, while reading or writing papers, doing literature search, etc. So I do something, and when a natural break occurs after a chunk of work is done, I go and change samples before I start the next chunk of work.
This way, I get maybe only a third or a quarter of the experiments done compared with the "high priority" experiment situation, but other work is possible as well.
All in all, the first scenario is the more emotionally exhausting the more you dislike the breaks and fret about all the work that doesn't get done. It is the more feasible the better you can arrive also mentally in a state where you concentrate on the experiment *only*. Experiments are serious and exhausting work as well. One reason is that you have to be far more concentrated than at the computer\*: If I make a typo, there's backspace. If I type an awkward sentence I can change it later. If I pipette wrong, I have to start from the beginning or even take out everything and clean my instrument. And this is the more strenuous if awkward schedules are involved. And weird little waiting times are in my experience as exhausting as an experimental schedule you can barely keep up with.
* most times: obviously, data analyses need to be set up correctly. But even there, e.g. literate programming allows to double-check later that everything was done correctly. This is not possible for the experiments - there I have to be concentrated so I'm sure afterwards that I did everything correctly even though I have at most very limited possibilties for double checking.
If you have to do your experiments in that way, then the best way to deal with it is to also mentally accept this and make it your task. Make sure that the experiments really stay top priority if you decided that way: don't read SX if you realize that this in fact leads to the experiment waiting for you when you decided that you should wait for the experiment.
The second way is of course only possible if if the experiments allow this. And if the lab has low enough use so your colleagues don't kill you for not making fullest use of the vaulable lab time you reserved.
---
In terms of automatization of (biological) lab experiments, I for example print out "experiment forms" that have a predefined structure for my note taking so don't forget any of the parameters. This helps me to make fewer mistakes.
In some cases I even write custom measurement programs, but this effort is usually only worth while if you know that large series of experiments follow (for totally non-scientific and awkward reasons: the instrument software often allows only very restricted programmed interaction, and if there are not many experiments following, it is not worth while to go down to the low-level control the SDK offers - if there is an SDK available at all).
> 3 votes
# Answer
If you are
* a) Constantly shifting your focus from the latter project you overcharge your brain with additional tasks in the moment and possibly what your brain really needs from you is some rest, that's why you end up making mistakes because by the time you get to the lab projects your brain is already preoccupied with new tasks and have used up a lot of memory doing new operational memory tasks
* b) If you procrastinate by reading NY Times and Twitter you are also overloading your brain with new information that requires some analytical work(although it is of course incommensurate with the amount of work you need for academic journals, but precisely because the Times loves using such words as *incommensurate* on its pages you have to constantly query your memory and thus, keep your brain busy), so here we are, getting back again to the same problem-you are using your operational memory, the brain gets tired and by the time you get back to the lab work it is nearly impossible to focus.
* c) I hate to suggest that...but...is there a possibility of a short nap or just sitting quietly in your office and not exposing your brain to any additional flow of information? Plus, Twitter, email checking, Facebook, are all good examples of instant stimulation but that's a topic for another conversation.
* d) In a nutshell, trivial things like smells, sounds from the street, someone's voice etc. are all examples of additional information that you are exposing yourself to that inadvertently bombard our brains on a daily basis and they make it even harder to focus and get back to the actual projects.
> 2 votes
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Tags: productivity, time-management, working-time
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thread-19181
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19181
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Is the PhD thesis needed for a faculty appointment?
|
2014-04-10T16:28:36.083
|
# Question
Title: Is the PhD thesis needed for a faculty appointment?
I applied for a full professor position, and after the interview, I was asked for a copy of my PhD thesis.
I was confused and want to know if it is the common and normal procedure or happened for me based on a specific reason?
Because, my strong works were done after my PhD, and I didn't know that my PhD project would be used for judging me (frankly, I'm not proud of that project).
# Answer
One of the general prerequisites in this day and age for a faculty appointment is an earned (as opposed to honorary) PhD from a (typically accredited) degree-granting institution.
Consequently, asking to see either a PhD thesis, a transcript, or the degree certificate is would be ways of ascertaining that you do, in fact, have a valid degree. This by no means implies that only your PhD matters in the hiring process; just that it's part of the process to ensure you're eligible. I wouldn't read too much into this beyond that.
> 9 votes
# Answer
I assume you are applying to a junior faculty line (your use of "full professor" would suggest senior faculty but this is belied by the rest of your post).
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After they make the short list, we commonly ask junior faculty who do not yet have a research monograph to submit their dissertations. We do this for several reasons: * If they are ABD, it is an easy way to ascertain whether they will complete. If it is March and they say they are submitting in April and they only have 3 chapters, then we know to be cautious.
* If they are recent PhDs, then often the PhD is the only piece of research writing that they have in their dossier. It remains one of the best gauges of their research competence until they complete more publications.
After responding, I looked at your profile and it seems that you might indeed be applying to senior positions. In that case, I'd be puzzled too -- unless you don't have many publications and/or your dissertation was at a university that is not well known. Or, alternately, the institution you are applying to has not had much experience with senior hires, and is defaulting to the junior practice.
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Personal Aside: I'm a tenured associate. If I applied for a full position and they asked for my dissertation, I would be puzzled but not be offended **IF** they had also asked for **everything** on my CV. I would assume they are just being extremely meticulous in making my case to the Provost for the senior line. But if they asked for just a few of my publications **and** my dissertation, I might tend to becoming annoyed (by the insinuation that my PhD was suspect).
> 7 votes
# Answer
It depends on the field. What they generally want to see is a Terminal Degree, or exceptional achievement in lieu thereof. But in some fields no widely recognized PhD level really exists, and the Masters -- plus professional experience -- is as close to a terminal degree as it gets.
> 1 votes
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Tags: job, faculty-application
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thread-28500
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28500
|
Are faculty job applications evaluated on a computer or on a paper?
|
2014-09-14T14:09:44.447
|
# Question
Title: Are faculty job applications evaluated on a computer or on a paper?
How are faculty job positions in a US university evaluated? Do the committee members get to view (and discuss) electronic copies of a candidate's application before the hiring meeting (and possibly filter out some applications before the formal meeting), or is everything done in the meeting? I am asking because I think one needs to prepare the application differently in the two circumstances. If electronic copy of the application is emailed to the faculty members, then one can insert hyperlinks in the research statement E.g.:
> "blah blah blah \[1\]"
where clicking on "\[1\]" would take you to a website. But if a printout is given to the committee members, one needs to make sure all the info you want to convey is in the printout e.g. web addresses will need to be spelled out instead of being embedded.
# Answer
> 10 votes
We've had a variety of practices. Some of it depends on the computer literacy of the admin assistant doing the application file processing. We've had cases of electronic material (PDFs) being printed out and then rescanned back in as the staff person did not know how to collate multiple PDFs into a single document.
\[HEAD PALM\] Sigh...
To be entirely fair, some of our faculty are also very visual-tactile and will prefer print out the dossier and read it there, rather than online.
In other words, you can't assume anything about how the files will be handled. You should be explicit in the URLs. If you have media files on disk or thumb drive (photographs, video, source code, simulations, etc.), then you should also post a visible link to an archive location.
# Answer
> 8 votes
I was (twice) on a hiring committee for a tenure-track math professor. Applicants uploaded their applications via a central repository (MathJobs) and we evaluated them asynchronously. I read a lot of applications at 11:00 pm on my laptop; one of my colleagues printed everything out. We only met to discuss candidates we thought highly of.
You should write a self-contained research statement that does not require hyperlinks. It is probably harmless to include them; for example, your bibliography might be hyperlinked, or your research statement might say, e.g. "A visual demonstration of this phenomenon can be found on my web site at \[URL\]", where \[URL\] gives the full URL and is a hyperlink. This probably won't help you, but it might, and I can't imagine it hurting you.
One thing you should also do is to update your personal web page. Preprints of all of your publications, teaching materials (e.g. syllabi for past classes), slides for talks you've given, etc., etc. -- anything you hope a hiring committee might look at should be there. Ensure that googling your name, together with either the name of your university or of your subject area, will lead to the searcher finding these materials within three seconds.
Fields other than math might vary. Good luck!
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Tags: faculty-application
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thread-28276
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28276
|
Finding non-REU funding for my undergrad math students
|
2014-09-09T23:15:10.367
|
# Question
Title: Finding non-REU funding for my undergrad math students
As a professor, I am sometimes asked to help undergrads (I'm currently at the University of Michigan) find funding for math research during the summer. In the past I have seen some get funding from the NSF REU program. The only problem with this is that it is only 8 weeks (At least at my school). Are there any other research grants that are given to undergrads that could last the entire summer?
# Answer
I'd also ask around your department. Many universities have various summer research fellowships available. For example, one enterprising student in my lab found money through NASA that was administered through the physics department but also funded math, science, engineering, etc.
Also, most funding organizations are happy to "pad" a research grant with 1-2 undergrad research positions. I usually add these to my budget when submitting. While other areas get trimmed, the undergrad positions have never been a problem.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Probably you are asking about programs, rather than grants. Typically only faculty receive grants. There are a variety of search tools available for these programs. Typically the most flexible situations undergrads can get come from the undergraduate's university office of undergraduate research or from a faculty member the student knows who is willing to hire undergraduates using grant money. Most of the government research funding agencies offer a summer research program. These typically range from 8 to 12 weeks in duration and are not usually flexible, though I have heard of accommodations being made for students whose classes end late.
> 2 votes
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Tags: research-process, undergraduate, funding
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thread-28524
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28524
|
Corporate branding of chair professorship
|
2014-09-15T01:46:30.917
|
# Question
Title: Corporate branding of chair professorship
For obvious reasons I will not be too specific, but I am aware of a situation (at a private research university) where a company with a somewhat less-than-stellar public reputation has endowed a chair professorship. The concerned department and dean want one of their current professors to accept the chair (though some of the faculty would much prefer a new search to fill the position). There is some reluctance to accept this offer, in large part because the professor being offered the chair balks at becoming a "brand ambassador" for the company making the endowment while getting no explicit benefit (the chair would cover only the salary that is paid anyway). This professor (who is evidently preferred as having the best research profile in the department) and some colleagues also claim that an endowment named after some individual(s) would have been more acceptable.
So my questions are:
1. Is it generally the norm that any academic offered a chair professorship will accept it, for collegiality?
2. Is it standard for such an endowment to cover only the professor's salary but not offer any grants, etc.?
3. Also, is there a real difference in perception between an endowment named after a person/family vs. one named after a company?
# Answer
You are asking too many questions in one post and most ask for opinion! Brief responses to each:
1. Usually faculty accept named professorships because of the increase in prestige (named-professorships are a scarce commodity and operate as such) as well as the increase in salary or research funds that usually attaches to these. Cynical people would say the latter is more important.
2. Usually (almost always?) the endowment would carry an increased salary at the very least and typically additional research funds but I have not found any statistics on the average and sd of this delta. One way to explore this is to look at the public salary data available at state-run universities in the United States and compare named vs. non-named professors at the same rank in the same department. This is left as an exercise for the reader and doesn’t account for research fund deltas.
3. Yes, in that most person-based named-professorships are named after a person who most people do not know whereas corporate names are more familiar (for example: Prof. Mark C. Elliott, the Mark Schwartz Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History at Harvard versus Prof Sheldon Garon, the Nissan Professor in Japanese Studies at Princeton). And thus while neither Mark Schwartz nor Nissan Motors influence the work of either faculty person, the perception is worse in the second in that we've heard of Nissan and can attribute ulterior motives to it. And as dmckee notes in the comments, humans are mortal -- while corporations are immortal.
4. Note that there is a third category of alumn-class-named professorships: Cornel West, the Class of 1943 University Professor in the Center for African American Studies. These are essentially crowdfunded by a class cohort. I should note that some named fellowships are also crowdfunded — they are named *in honor of* so-and-so. Often the benefactor is the spouse or children, but occasionally the departure of a very-loved professor motivates students to donate. There is also a fourth category where a named professorship is created by the trustees of the university (or by the state or national government) in honor of or recognition of someone or something.
> 9 votes
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Tags: professorship, funding
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thread-28527
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28527
|
How should one interpret a rejection on the grounds that a paper "has no added value to the existing state of the art"?
|
2014-09-15T03:44:35.053
|
# Question
Title: How should one interpret a rejection on the grounds that a paper "has no added value to the existing state of the art"?
I've got a rejection for my paper that was submitted to a high impact journal; after waiting 6 weeks instead of 4 normally it was rejected with only one referee comment 4 lines:
> This study seems to be well done and the results are properly and concisely described. But, the paper is also nothing more than that...It is just the determination of some basic properties and a comparison of the calculated and measured ones. As such, the paper presents no new insights, new methodologies, or whatsoever... Hence, it must be concluded that the current study applies current measurement protocols in a correct way, but has no added value to the existing state of the art. Therefore, although I have hardly any small remarks on the paper, it does not meet the standards of the journal.
How should one react to such a review? Submit to another journal? The paper is about new material, so I don't agree the referee about the fact it has no added value to the existing state of art!!!!
# Answer
Journals and conferences tend to have a particular standard for novelty. Some (especially high-impact journals) have a very high bar for novelty, and will only accept papers that have exceptionally high significance and novelty. Others have a low standard for novelty; they'll accept most original papers, as long as they are within the scope of the journal and present solid work. And of course, there is a whole range in between.
From this review, it sounds like you "overshot" a little bit; that is, your paper (as submitted) was not up to this particular journal's standards for novelty. This isn't an accusation that you didn't submit new material; it just means that it didn't contribute enough new insight, new techniques, etc. to meet this journal's standards.
For example, it may be an application of an existing technique to a well-studied problem, that didn't offer any surprising findings - new, possibly valuable, but not very novel.
Your choices are then:
* If possible: Make some major improvements to your paper. Highlight the novel and impactful aspects of it. Ask others in your field to read your revised paper and give you feedback on where they think it belongs. ("What journal would you expect to see this paper published in?") If they suggest that this revised manuscript is suitable for a high-impact journal, then go ahead and submit to such a journal.
* Maybe you can't do much more than you already did, or the feedback you get suggests that this work isn't suitable for a journal with high standards for novelty. In that case, find a journal that publishes papers like yours, and submit your paper there.
> 39 votes
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Tags: publications, peer-review, rejection
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thread-17727
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17727
|
Is there a mathematics journal that publishes colour diagrams for free?
|
2014-03-04T22:10:23.553
|
# Question
Title: Is there a mathematics journal that publishes colour diagrams for free?
I have a paper with colour diagrams that I wouldn't like to convert to grayscale for publication. I think colour greatly helps to understand some complicated patterns. I know most journals accept colour pictures upon payment, but I'm not willing to pay for letting others publish my own work and get benefit out of it. Forum Mathematicum is a nice journal which publishes colour pictures for free, but I recently published a paper there and wouldn't like to repeat. Do you know of any other nice options? The paper is on algebraic topology bordering with quantum algebra.
# Answer
> -11 votes
I would recommend you to publish on `arXiv.org` (http://arxiv.org). It's a very solid online publication outlet, free, **open access** and especially popular in mathematics and other hard science disciplines. Liberal guidelines with no mentioning of restrictions in terms of color.
---
Tags: publications, mathematics
---
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thread-28530
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28530
|
Is it ethical for an instructor to "hack" my system as part of the evaluation for my thesis defense?
|
2014-09-15T05:44:24.557
|
# Question
Title: Is it ethical for an instructor to "hack" my system as part of the evaluation for my thesis defense?
**Background**: I remember when I was still in college here in the Philippines, one of the member of the school thesis committee tries to hack my system by injecting some kind of code (*I am not sure but I think this is SQL injection*). Now that I am working I realized that it is illegal to just hack and get inside of the system. This hacking includes breaking into the security of the system then extracting the datas (some are dummies only and some are original). He said that he do this to prove that our system has not enough security and therefore concluded that it is not safe to use, due to this my team has been subjected to re-defense. Also, there are no proper discussions whether he has the authority to get inside the system, I also don't know the privileges of the panelist.
Please take note that the computer we are using is ours (students) then the panelist are obliged to test the system for certain minutes only (maybe 5 minutes). Also, we didn't use any ISP because it is only a system together with it's database and therefore can be use offline.
During that time we've been subjected to re-defense simply because our system is not secured.
**Question**: Does hacking the system just to prove that it lacks security and therefore not safe to use, still ethical? Considering that we are on a thesis-defense and are still a learner. Our knowledge cannot be compared to a professional that is expert in system developing.
# Answer
> 12 votes
Rather than discussing whether or not this is legal(which, as has been pointed out, is beyond the scope of the Academia board and would depend on your local laws) let's discuss whether it was right or expected or not.
As mentioned by Nicholas, this, to some extent, depends on what you actually *did*. And, as I see it, this can be broken down into two categories.
If your work involved a database that is not manipulated by outsiders at any point then attempting to 'hack' it would be inappropriate. By this I mean if the database was secondary to the research you were presenting. An example might be a database of Face images used to train or test facial recognition algorithms. In such a case the database iteself is not the product or research being presented. It should be stable and reasonably secure(depending on the data it contains of course) but should not be the focus of 'testing' or inquiry in a defense.
However if your work involved a database that is manipulated by the user or researcher, particularly as a primary focus of the research/work then yes, 'hacking' this database is a reasonable thing for someone to try to do. If the work presented is a complete project, a proposed solution to a real world problem or in another situation where, yes, you are proposing that the system you created could be placed in the real world then attempting to 'hack' the system is not only reasonable but expected.
Let's take a moment, though, to discuss what 'hack' might mean in this situation. You mentioned a SQL Injection. For some folks 'hacking' brings to mind serious people wearing sunglasses indoors yelling "Hack the MAINFRAME!" as they use telephones, bits of wire and evil to do nasty things to computers. But, especially in this particular case, this 'hacking' would have been something as innocent as entering something into a data field. In the early days of speed cameras some clever motorists found a way to do such an attack. The cameras 'read' the license plates and automatically submitted speeding tickets. Clever if unethical motorists could put a sql string on their bumper, the camera would 'read' the string and, since the string wasn't properly sanitized, it would cause nasty things like deleting the entire database. SQL Injections are something that you should *not* be confused about what there are at graduation, that you are both unsure if that's what the instructor did AND indignant that they would do so would be a signal to me that you did need to re-defend your thesis. SQL (or just plain code) injection attacks are almost laughably easy to minimize, someone being able to 'hack' your database in the few minutes you described is a serious quality concern for a graduate in computer science perhaps especially in graduate level work(you are unclear about your level at the time of this issue).
Finally allow me to point out that all respectable software companies hire people whose job it is to attempt to hack into their own servers, software and, yes, databases. Additionally white hat hackers often attempt to hack software and environments and report it to said companies(black hat hackers will skip the reporting and go straight to exploiting.) No one wants to hear that their baby is ugly or that their code has a problem. I'm hearing a lot of indignation in your question related to that and I understand it but I'm going to respectfully advise you to both get over it and welcome such things - that is how you will become better at development.
# Answer
> 28 votes
It sounds like as part of the defense, you gave the examiners access to the system for purposes of evaluating it.
If you gave consent for them to evaluate the system, and didn't place any restrictions on what they can do with it, I don't see any problem with what they did.
You are correct that is generally illegal to just "hack" into a system, but that refers to gaining *unauthorized* access to a system. That doesn't seem to be what happened here.
# Answer
> 4 votes
It depends on whether it is a reasonable expectation that your evaluators would test your work in this way. You don't give the details of what you have created, so it is hard to assess whether the assessor's actions were reasonable.
If you had created a database with an interface that could be accessible publicly, and that the majority of your work was on the creation and/or operation of that interface, then I think that security issues are indeed important, and an acid test of your work would be to attempt to hack in.
However, if the majority of your work was on looking at the inter-relationships between elements of the database - i.e. you were looking for correlations between database parameters - and not on the interface, then I don't think that the security of your system warrants a hacking attempt to test its security. In this case, a lack of security is indeed a concern, and one which you might have to address in a defence, but not one which justifies an attack on the system to test it.
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Tags: thesis, ethics, defense
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thread-1200
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1200
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Free web hosting for academics
|
2012-04-19T14:13:26.320
|
# Question
Title: Free web hosting for academics
I would like to have a professional academic webpage, and for different reasons, I don't want to use the website of my current workplace (mostly because due to some external factors, it's not currently possible where I work, but also because I consider changing affiliation in the future, and I'd like to avoid moving my webpage).
A possible solution I'm considering would be to rent a server somewhere, and to manage it myself, but I was wondering if it existed some dedicated solutions for academics, ideally coming for free (after all, I can archive my papers on arXiv for free, I have a free academic licence for Bitbucket, I use Dropbox with the free version, I can also use Mendeley and academia.edu for free, I currently have a free wordpress.com blog), with the constraint that I'd like to be able to write my own scripts (for instance to publish my personal list of publications Tool to manage and/or make available a list of my publications on the web?, or to manage a list of conferences I'm interested in).
# Answer
> 11 votes
I personally use altervista.org and I am satisfied with it. They give me 500MB space and 10Gb bandwidth for free, an address of the form `yourname.altervista.org`, run php 4 and 5 and a database service (with low performance in the free version), and allow a custom `.htaccess`. They offer paid upgrades and the option of putting banners for a revenue, but you can say no without any disadvantage.
They allow file upload only via (unencrypted) ftp, but you can automate that part easily.
It's not academics-specific, but as far as I can see neither is any other answer given up to now.
# Answer
> 23 votes
Both bitbucket and github allow you to publish a static website, which is handled under the same version control policies as everything else that you publish there.
You get no php/database support, but for academic web sites a static website generator such as Jekyll, which they both use, is more than enough.
Note added after reading @RebeccaJ.Stones comment to another answer: github is currently blocked in China, while bitbucket is not, so you may want to go for the latter, to make sure that everyone can access your website.
# Answer
> 16 votes
I recently created a website with Google Sites (https://sites.google.com/site/hadanylab/) and I think it was a good experience and a nice result. Easy to use, editing is the same as in Google Docs which is nice. Customization can be a pain, but that is expected. You can get around some of the difficulties using widgets, though.
# Answer
> 7 votes
To my knowledge, **Google Sites** with a custom domain is the best solution here. Google sites gives 100MB space with unlimited bandwidth. Also, you can keep your pre-prints on Google docs and make them public. Additionally, you can use some widget like writing a blog.
Edit: Link to my website removed as it's no longer available.
# Answer
> 5 votes
You could look into a cloud application platform like Heroku.
Essentially, you can deploy web applications for free (with or without a custom domain name). You only pay if you need more power or more database storage. They also have addons, some free and some paid. You don't manage the details of the server, you only worry about your application.
For example, you can instantly deploy a rails app with a git push command. If you need to run a periodic tasks, you can enable a cron addon: free for a daily task or a fee for a more frequent task.
# Answer
> 4 votes
One possibility is Wikidot; its main version is free plus has some additional features for researchers and teachers.
Another one is WordPress.com, which you already have mentioned. If you have a server, WordPress.org may be even a better option (as it is much more adjustable).
However, for papers/conferences/etc it may be better to use widget from a dedicated server (or add by hand).
# Answer
> 4 votes
It's not academic specific, but Amazon.com has instructions for setting up a free web server using their free Micro EC2 instance type. As specific academic websites are fairly low traffic, generally speaking, that might be an option that gives you the scripting flexibility you're hoping for.
# Answer
> 3 votes
What about google sites? I have a "website" on it. I don't quite remember the amount of data you can have on it.
# Answer
> 2 votes
As you are looking for free online services, you should seek a free web hosting service as stated in this answer \[ and \] by which you can make your own website or you can make use of separate free services and make a free webpage to list all your accounts there.
Recently, I have visited about.me website and I really liked the domain, it's interface and it's services.
This is my suggestion:
1. **Files Hosting:** host your files on a dropbox, google drive or any other free hosting service;
2. **Publications List:** list your publications in a google scholar account or academia.edu;
3. **Free domain and URL:** build your page on about.me website;
4. **Weblog:** If you like to write something; make a wordpress.com or blogger weblog;
5. **Social Media:** You may have some facebook or twitter accounts too;
---
**HOW TO MAKE YOUR WEBSITE?**
Present a short biography and list of those links above in a single about.me webpage. You can have this website anywhere and anytime; even if you change your affiliation, simply change your info on your about.me website.
Also, in your institute's page, you can easily put your about.me link and by opening it, the user will have access to you publications, files you want to share with, social media sites, personal weblog, etc.
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Tags: website
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thread-23508
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23508
|
Why do some papers not have a DOI?
|
2014-06-17T13:35:36.963
|
# Question
Title: Why do some papers not have a DOI?
When I cite papers online, especially in Wikipedia pages, it is very convenient to use their DOI. However, some papers which I would like to cite (like this and that) have no DOI. Or at least, I haven't been able to find their DOI in the crossref search form.
Why isn't a DOI assigned to all papers? Is there something I can do to change this?
EDIT: I now found out that in ResearchGate, I can upload my paper and it automatically receives a DOI. So practically, my problem is solved.
# Answer
A process exists for obtaining DOI's, including the submission of meta-data and fees. Thus, it is time and cost prohibitive for some authors / publishers to obtain DOI's for their published works.
You can find information about DOI's here: http://www.doi.org/faq.html
> 21 votes
# Answer
DOIs are assigned by CrossRef on behalf of members. CrossRef is an association of scholarly publishers, so the members are therefore publishers rather than authors.
DOIs were introduce because of "link-rot": citing a paper by URL and within 6 months the URL doesn't work. When a publisher joins CrossRef they make a commitment to keep the DOI link metadata updated, so the DOI always points to the paper if, for example, the publisher is bought out and all the URLs change. This agreement is an important part of the DOI system and explains why publishers are members rather than authors.
Assigning a DOI is normally done during the process of publication, and will normally be done automatically. That's not to say that DOIs can't be assigned after publication: DOI 10.1098/rstl.1672.0051 is for a paper published in 1672. Publishers generally assign DOIs to new content but not to back files because new content is more likely to be cited.
It's not free to register a DOI, off the top of my head, around a dollar per DOI. It's normal (and cheaper) for publishers to deposit back-files, i.e. for publications older than 2 years (again, off the top of my head).
So, if you want to get a DOI assigned you can go to the publisher and request that they register a CrossRef DOI.
STM (Science Technology and Medicine) is a very fast-moving field with lots of papers published and cited. Humanities publishing tends to move at a different pace and tends to have different priorities. Therefore you may find STM publishers more likely to assign (and to need to assign) DOIs than in other fields.
The alternative is that you get a DOI from another organisation, for example FigShare. There are examples of people registering FigShare DOIs for their publications.
CrossRef was created to solve the problems of assigning persistent identifiers (DOIs) and linking between papers (one DOI cites another DOI). CrossRef also has lots of other infrastructure, such as bibliographic metadata, FundRef, CrossMark, metadata API etc so it's the best place to register scholarly publications.
---
Disclaimer: I work for CrossRef
> 23 votes
# Answer
A DOI is registered by a so-called *Registration Agency* (see FAQ 1 and 2 at DOI). Since there is a cost associated with the service, it may not be feasible for all to add such identifiers.
> 14 votes
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Tags: citations, doi
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thread-28545
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28545
|
How long should it take a potential PhD supervisor to evaluate proposal?
|
2014-09-15T16:15:42.623
|
# Question
Title: How long should it take a potential PhD supervisor to evaluate proposal?
I've contacted a potential PhD supervisor last month and gave him my PhD proposal. about a week after that I've got a response from the professor, acknowledging the receipt of my proposal and saying that he will respond as quickly as possible. I haven't received any other response since last month and I'm getting kind of anxious.
1. Should I write him an email again or let him contact me first with a reply?
2. How long does this process of proposal evaluation take?
# Answer
> 13 votes
Many academics are flooded with email from students (undergraduate and graduate), administrators, coworkers, colleagues, editors, etc. What you've asked him to do for you takes more than two minutes and he may not have available time to do it, or the energy to set aside the available time in the near future. There are enough small things to deal with that they can can easily bury the larger things.
If one method of communication is not effective you can, after a suitable delay, try another. A phone call or visit to office hours might bump your earlier email to the top of his mind. He may already have some preliminary feedback, or he may apologetically say that he still hasn't gotten to it, but he does plan to do it soon. Either way this can move the process towards resolution.
On the other hand, you're considering this person for one of the most important roles of your academic career. If he does not show enthusiasm about working with you, you may want to consider other options.
# Answer
> 6 votes
## Don't run, Walk!
May be your *as quick as possible* is one month and his *as quick as possible* is two months or more (who knows?).
Professors have their own personal/academic/career responsibilities and usually suffer from lack of time problem. Let him review your proposal and he will respond you when he is done.
In my opinion one month is not that much that you are becoming anxious, but it maybe a good idea if you don't receive any email from him in the following weeks, send him an email and remind your proposal politely. Also, if you are going very near to the university deadlines and it is affecting your application, it may worth it to include those deadlines in your reminder too.
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Tags: phd, professorship
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thread-28553
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28553
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How to structure a presentation for a Post Doctoral Research Fellowship
|
2014-09-15T19:45:56.723
|
# Question
Title: How to structure a presentation for a Post Doctoral Research Fellowship
After the initial peer review stage, most research fellowships (for example RCUK or ERC grants) have a final interview stage primarily assessing the qualities of the candidate. Alongside the interview it is typical to give a short talk around 10 minutes in length. What points should the talk focus on to give the best chances for success?
# Answer
Firstly, your host institution might offer some advice on this, possibly also including the opportunity to practice your interview before a panel of people who have sat on grant assessment boards.
Otherwise, take the hint from the time allocated to you. There is little point in going into any details of your proposed research. When I went through the interview for a similar grant, I posed and answered the following questions:
**What?**
Very briefly, and for a general audience, describe the proposed research.
**Why You?**
Express why you are the right person for the job. Your background, skills, networks.
**Why Now?**
Why should this research be done now?
**Why Here?**
Why should you be doing the research at *insert host institution*, in particular?
> 2 votes
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Tags: research-process, funding
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thread-28511
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28511
|
Has the DeWitt Clause, which prevents publication of named DBMS benchmarks, ever been successfully defended in court?
|
2014-09-14T17:29:15.467
|
# Question
Title: Has the DeWitt Clause, which prevents publication of named DBMS benchmarks, ever been successfully defended in court?
Several commercial database vendors include an end-user license agreement provision, known as the DeWitt Clause, that prohibits researchers and scientists from explicitly using the names of their systems in academic papers.
Has the DeWitt Clause ever been successfully defended in court?
# Answer
> 9 votes
Several users have suggested *People of the State of New York vs. Network Associates* as an instance of a DeWitt Clause being challenged, and struck down, in court. However, this case is *hugely* misunderstood by the media, and so these answers have been very misleading.
This case *was* an instance of a DeWitt Clause being challenged in court. However, the court's ruling did *not* directly address the issue of whether such a clause is enforceable. The court ruled on the basis of the *specific wording* of the Network Associates clause, and so did not generally rule on the enforceability of all such clauses.
### Arguments of the Attorney General
Source: Attorney General's Argument in People v. Network Associates
Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York, mentions two claims in his preliminary statement for this case. The first relates to the general enforceability of a DeWitt Clause, and the second does not.
1. Violation of free speech and fair use:
> Under New York law, a restriction that broadly chills or restricts important rights -- here, of free speech and fair use -- without a legitimate purpose, will be struck down. This Censorship Clause restricts consumers and the media alike from reviewing the software or disclosing important design or product flaws. Yet it serves no legitimate purpose, such as protecting trade secrets or confidential material.
2. Deception:
> Specifically, it misinforms consumers that the company’s prohibition against publication of reviews or benchmark tests (itself an illegal restriction) reflects existing “rules and regulations.” Of course, no “rules and regulations” actually exist, under federal or state law -- a fact that most attorneys, including those who drafted the Censorship Clause, surely know.
>
> ...
>
> Finally, the Censorship Clause is also void and deceptive because it conflicts with the License Agreement contained with the company’s boxed software. The boxed License Agreement, which is by its own terms the “entire Agreement between the parties,” omits the Censorship Clause. Yet the company then places that very Clause on the face of the software diskette -- even though it is by the very terms of the License Agreement void and unenforceable.
I'll elaborate a little bit on the latter point, regarding deception. The specific text that is the subject of the lawsuit is:
> Installing this software constitutes acceptance of the terms and conditions of the license agreement in the box. Please read the license agreement before installation. Other rules and regulations of installing the software are:
>
> a. The product can not be rented, loaned, or leased—you are the sole owner of this product.
>
> b. The customer shall not disclose the result of any benchmark test to any third party without Network Associates' prior written approval.
>
> c. The customer will not publish reviews of this product without prior consent from Network Associates, Inc.
This text was *outside* of the license agreement. The license agreement itself did not contain clauses (b) and (c). Furthermore, the license agreement contained a clause specifying that it (the license) constitutes the entire agreement between the consumer and Network Associates, and supersedes any prior communications related to the software.
The major claim of the deception argument was as follows: Consumers - having read the license agreement, with its clause that the entire contract between parties is contained in that license agreement, and without the "gag" clauses - will then read this text. They may reasonably conclude that the restrictions on publishing reviews and benchmarks are *not* part of the contractual agreement between the consumer and Network Associates, and are instead made and enforced by some other entity.
That is, the text deceptively implies that the restrictions on reviews and benchmarking are imposed not by Network Associates, but by someone else - such as the state or federal government.
Furthermore, the clauses restricting publishing reviews and benchmarking are not enforceable at all in this case (regardless of the general enforceability or legality of such clauses), because they conflict with the actual license agreement. Thus, consumers are deceived into believing that they have no right to publish reviews and benchmarks, when in this case, because of the way it is written, these clauses are not a valid contractual agreement.
### Opinion of the Court
Source: PEOPLE v. NETWORK ASSOC., INC
The court rules against Network Associates. However, the ruling states that the Attorney General's claims of *deception* are valid. It does not directly address the first claim, of violation of free speech and fair use.
Furthermore, the ruling explicitly states that Network Associates is
> enjoined from including any language restricting the right to publish the results of testing and review without notifying the Attorney General at least 30 days prior to such inclusion
which suggests that language restricting publishing of benchmarks is not necessarily prohibited. That is, Network Associates is *not* generally forbidden from writing a license in the future that restricts consumers' rights to publish reviews and benchmarks.
# Answer
> 0 votes
The New York Attorney General got a judge to ban Network Associates' licensing terms that prevented customers from reviewing their software without permission from NA. I think this started as a consumer protection suit by the AG's office instead of a customer defending themselves after violating such a licensing term. This was in New York state court, so who knows what would happen if a database vendor tried to sue someone in a different state.
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Tags: publications, software, legal-issues
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thread-28562
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28562
|
What to write in CV when transferring between schools?
|
2014-09-15T20:52:47.480
|
# Question
Title: What to write in CV when transferring between schools?
I'm transferring between two PhD programs, same program two different schools. I have done 4 years of study in the first school but have not (and will not) receive any degrees and I need to complete 1-2 years of study in the new school to get my PhD. Assume that the new school is more prestigious. I wrote this piece in my CV.
> 2010-Expected 2016 **PhD in Compute Science** from New University
>
> * PhD Student at Old University (2010-2014)
>
> 2007-2010 **MS in Computer Engineering** from Another university
>
> ...
However, the second line is kind of small and doesn't catch eye but if someone wants to read my CV it's there. The problem is I have not been student at New University since 2010 and I don't want to say that I'm a first year student. Also since I didn't get any degree from Old University I cannot have a separate entry for it.
# Answer
> The problem is I have not been student at New University since 2010 and I don't want to say that I'm a first year student. Also since I didn't get any degree from Old University I cannot have a separate entry for it.
Why does it matter whether you got a degree from Old University? There's no rule that says the education section of your CV can only be organized by degree. You just need to be clear and honest.
What you propose doesn't seem inappropriate, but I think this might be slightly clearer:
2014-2016 (expected) **PhD in Computer Science** from New University
2010-2014 PhD student at Old University (transferred to New University)
2007-2010 **MS in Computer Engineering** from Another University
> 4 votes
# Answer
May this format help you:
If "university major" is the university which is going to give you your degree and "university minor" is the one in which you have studied about four years;
> 2010 - 2016 (expected) **PhD in Computer Science**; university major
>
> \[some space here\] 2014 - 2016 university major
>
> \[some space here\] 2010 - 2014 university minor
However, I think that as you are not receiving any degree from your minor university, *and* its name is not going to be mentioned anywhere in your certificates; there is no need to bring it's name in your CV too, because you don't have any proof that you have studied there.
> 0 votes
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Tags: phd, cv
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thread-11091
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11091
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When applying to grad school with a mediocre past how can you make yourself stand out
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2013-07-11T23:52:57.533
|
# Question
Title: When applying to grad school with a mediocre past how can you make yourself stand out
So the title question is not real clear so let me try to elaborate. I am currently 30 and a senior in college. I will be graduating this spring with a BS in Computer Engineering. The way my school is set up the Comp-Sci and Computer Engineering departments are together and the Electrical Engineering department is separate. I expect to graduate with over a 3.5 gpa (not wonderful) but have no research or intern/on the job experiences. I am looking at continuing on at this same institution with their phd program. My gre scores verbal 165, Quantitative 158. Their cut off is 146 verbal and 156 quantitative. I still need to talk with them and see how they utilize the gre scores and see if I need to retake the gre and up my quantitative score.
So from that mediocre beginnings I come to the grand finale. When talking with professors and otherwise looking/learning in my field. How do you find those areas that are new and pushing into the frontier. When I write a letter of intent and they want me to tell them what I want to be doing. Where do I go read up on the new stuff for my major. What are some all around objectives and methods that people use and then specific to computer engineering what are people reading or procuring their resources from.
What other things could I do in this last year that may help my chances of being picked?
As an additional question, Letters of recommendation would be coming from professors from within the department that will be doing the selection. Some of these Professors would be the ones heading my thesis committee(i think that's right). Does anyone have any experience they can relate where they went to grad school at the same institution that they go their BS degree from. I will have one outside reference as a peer mentor for our freshman engineering program but otherwise most of the professors have seen me go over the top in my work for their classes.
# Answer
> 7 votes
*Why do you think you should be admitted?*
The admissions committee will ask themselves: if this applicant has mediocre qualifications, why should we admit them? Why should we believe they will be successful? So, you should be asking yourself that question, and thinking about what your answer would be.
If you have a good answer to that question, that might tell you how to make yourself stand out: emphasize the parts that make you think you are well-qualified to succeed. Your application is a chance to tell your story and answer that question for the admissions committee.
# Answer
> 2 votes
There are a number of other things that could be included in an application, assuming of course you have done these:
* Any and all publications, conference proceedings and seminars.
* Any tutoring you may have performed.
* Any other activities that demonstrate your work ethic and capacity to learn.
This is not an exhaustive list, but may be a start. Having said all this, my undergraduate grades were ordinary and I had no problem getting into postgraduate courses.
One thing that you need to do is speak with the admissions, professors etc of the institution you are intending to study postgraduate studies with.
I hope this helps.
# Answer
> 2 votes
A 3.5 GPA is a good, but from your post, it sounds like you may need to focus on your letters of recommendation.
I would focus on my letters of recommendation. Three good letters of recommendation will likely remedy a good (but not steller) GPA, and average GRE scores. Especially if you are applying to the university you are currently attending, I'd focus on forging relationships with profs that you like, and getting as involved as possible in your department.
If you already are involved, kudos. Go to the profs that are your faculty contacts for the clubs/organizations you are involved in, and get 3 great letters of recommendation.
If you are in the US, you should also consider applying for a masters degree if you feel your application will not be strong enough. This will give you extra years to build your PhD application, and will set the bar a little lower for acceptance.
# Answer
> 1 votes
About your last question about moving from the undergraduate to the graduate programs at the same university. I have known well three people who did this. The first two, in a math program, had had mediocre grades/test scores but had very strong relationships with faculty members and were admitted to the graduate programs because the admissions committee knew the students beyond their grades/test scores. The third was in an engineering program and he was accepted at multiple graduate programs and chose for personal and some academic reasons to stay put.
Long story short, if the committee knows you personally and not just as an application folder that can make a huge difference in your chances. So take advantage of the fact that you know the faculty who are making this decision and talk to them.
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions
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thread-28548
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28548
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In a research statement for PhD admissions, should I start with the context, or directly with the idea for my research?
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2014-09-15T17:27:06.400
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# Question
Title: In a research statement for PhD admissions, should I start with the context, or directly with the idea for my research?
I'm applying for a PhD in engineering and I was asked by the advisor I have chosen to write down a short program (~10 pages) about the "research" I will conduct if I get into the PhD program.
The advisor provided ten choices where the future PhD program will lay. The topics are very large and well studied in the literature. Our "task" is to choose one of them, find out something "new" inside of this big sea and write it down. I did a lot of research on Scholar and downloaded more or less 20 free papers I found interesting. I collected data and results, thought a bit about the problem and found a ( maybe ) new application that fits my interests and past studies and I think it could bring some novelty in the field I'm applying.
Now my question is, which is the best way to format the proposal?
1. Should I start with the context of the research, point where previous studies went and what kind of results yielded and now focus on my brand new idea?
2. Should I skip 1) and start *in medias res* with the heart of the matter?
# Answer
> Now my question is, which is the best way to format the proposal?
Different writers could balance these issues in different ways. The key is moderation: you have to give enough context to make your proposal understandable, but you also shouldn't go overboard (it's a terrible idea to start a research proposal by saying "Since the dawn of history, transportation has been one of humanity's greatest challenges. The wheel and axle were a great advance..."). If you never mention until page 5 that you even have new ideas, then readers may give up in disgust before reaching that point. On the other hand, too little context can be just as bad, since the proposal will do you no good if it's not understandable. Unfortunately, there's no universal rule to decide the right amount.
One strategy is to look at the introductions to the research papers you've found. If your introduction is briefer or more abrupt, then it's not reasonable to expect anyone to follow it. If anything, a research statement should generally be accessible to a broader audience, and that may mean somewhat more background and explanation.
It can also be useful to cycle between background and new material. For example: brief introduction, brief description of your new idea, longer account of context, more details on new idea.
Given that you are writing this for a specific professor, it's worth asking him/her for more guidance. If you phrase it too generally ("How do I do this?") it might give a poor impression, but I think it would be safe to ask a question that shows you are seriously working on it. For example, "I'm thinking of organizing my proposal like this: \[Insert one or two paragraphs about your topic and how you plan to arrange the proposal.\] Does that sound like what you had in mind? If not, I'd be happy to rethink the organization."
> 4 votes
# Answer
Indeed, choosing the right balance of deep background, more-contemporary context, and promotion of tentative new ideas is part of the "test" involved in peoples' appraisals of your proposal... incidentally testing your judgement about other peoples' contexts and professional criteria.
That is, do not belabor anything which an experienced professional would take for granted... the problem is that you may not know, with certainty, what that would be... or you may not know the audience you're addressing.
Do *not*, in any case, imitate the pedantic and long-winded tone of a textbook, no matter how much context you may imagine is appropriate.
Absolutely *do* get endorsement from your sponsor-professor before "going public", both because you don't want to (in effect) embarrass them, and because they should have a very good idea of "the audience" you're addressing.
> 1 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, writing, statement-of-purpose
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thread-28572
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28572
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At the beginning of PhD research, how to balance independence with satisfying my advisor's expectations?
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2014-09-16T03:12:51.353
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# Question
Title: At the beginning of PhD research, how to balance independence with satisfying my advisor's expectations?
I am at the beginning of the research portion of my PhD program and as is standard in this department, I am to begin my research by writing a small literature review of some relevant papers in my field, chosen by me and approved by my advisor. This includes replicating and tweaking/improving the experiments ( which boils down to code ) in the chosen papers along with discussion in the results comparing mine to the original papers, etc. Note that this paper is not directly to be published; it is part of my qualifying exam. I am given about a month of time to do this (along with other research related things I must do...).
The problem:
When sitting down to write, I am constantly blocked by the fear that the work I am doing is not quite what my advisor wants. My advisor casts a wider net with his research interests than most professors I have seen, so his students seem to do projects in various areas within engineering. That said, the research summary I am doing is largely on clustering in machine learning, and I fear my advisor has little interest in this topic, or worse.... that I am, in a sense, *not doing what I'm supposed to be doing*?
If I were doing this very same research or a class, a clustering report in machine learning, I feel I would have no problem at all just working contently and developing my ideas and trying to come up with as interesting an experiment as I could and generally adapting to wherever the project took me and doing what needed to be done to finish it, but the game is changed since I feel I am working on this problem *for* someone rather than just for myself. Additionally, in my undergraduate research, I was given very straightforward instructions so there was no ability for me to choose papers on my own ( e.g., "Replicate the results in *this* paper", "Write an abstract mentioning X, Y, and Z" ). The freedom I'm given in this research review experience is somewhat confusing, I suppose.
Is this concern a normal feeling? What do I think/do about it? The reason I ask is that i precisely am afraid to be working on the wrong thing, and I am frozen in my writing and am struggling dearly. It is an incredibly nagging feeling to think that that my report isn't focused correctly. For the purpose of this literature review, should I just follow where the research takes me or should I change the focus of it and just try to please my advisor?
To be clear, my question is of **how to balance being independent and satisfying my supervisor?**
# Answer
> 4 votes
> Is this concern a normal feeling?
YES.
> For the purpose of this literature review, should I just follow where the research takes me or should I change the focus of it and just try to please my advisor?
The correct answer is *neither*.
Given that this is the beginning of your PhD research, you haven't yet developed much of a collaborative relationship with your advisor. This is the time to start.
Consider your advisor's initial suggestions as you would any advice from someone more experienced than you. (Even if your advisor is not an expert in machine learning, he/she *does* have more experience than you in developing promising research ideas that are suitable in scope for a qualifying exam - don't underestimate that expertise.)
That means you should definitely *start out* along the path your advisor set out for you. (Unless you hate it - in which case, go set up a meeting with him RIGHT NOW and tell him your concerns.)
But, that doesn't mean you need to follow his instructions to the letter. If, somewhere along the way, you are inspired to follow up on a particular idea, don't reject it just because it's not exactly what your advisor told you to do. Part of what's expected of you is to come up with ideas of your own.
If you have an idea you'd like to follow up on, do a little bit of work to verify that it's not a complete waste of time, and then *bring it to your advisor and ask for his advice*. He/she may explain to you why it's not advisable to pursue it (e.g., maybe it's not appropriate in scope), or suggest pursuing it further after your qualifying exam, or maybe your advisor will be as excited about it as you are.
Whatever the end result, make sure to communicate honestly and often with your advisor. Especially at this early stage, it's a good idea to check in now and then with your progress and make sure you're on a path that's heading somewhere good.
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Tags: research-process, advisor, literature-review
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thread-28575
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28575
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Can international students study via distance without applying for a visa?
|
2014-09-16T04:12:03.267
|
# Question
Title: Can international students study via distance without applying for a visa?
If an international student wants to study in a US degree program (AA, BA, MA, PhD, etc.), but entirely on-line while living in their home country, and without ever entering the US, can they skip all of the visa-related paperwork?
# Answer
> 4 votes
Distance learning students who will not enter the United States are not required to get a U.S. visa. In fact, by federal law, online-only students are not eligible for a student visa.
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Tags: united-states, international-students, distance-learning, visa
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thread-28366
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28366
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Should I do an MBBS before/after taking a doctoral program in neuroscience?
|
2014-09-11T13:15:49.517
|
# Question
Title: Should I do an MBBS before/after taking a doctoral program in neuroscience?
My goal is to become a professor in neuroscience. At the moment I have a master's degree in computer science. During my studies, I did research in neuroscience but from a computational aspect. I succeeded in publishing two papers during the program. I am mostly interested in clinical neuroscience. Therefore, there are two questions I would need an answer to:
* Does the degree MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) allow me work as a doctor? Treat patients? And, most importantly, *run clinical studies as the person in charge*?
* Should I get the medical degree before or after doing a science PhD?
It seems there are some PhD/MD programs (I don't understand the difference between MD and MBBS) but they would take +9 years in most places. Doing a PhD and medical degree separately seems to be a faster route (3 year PhD and 4 year MBBS, if this MBBS is sufficient).
I would really appreciate any help, there's a huge amount of variation in information I can find from the web.
# Answer
> 4 votes
The distinction between an MD and MBBS is the US versus the British system of medical training. Both allow you to practice medicine in countries that support each system. Confusingly, it appears the MD degree in the UK is also a post-MBBS research degree most similar to the US PhD, though you must have already obtained an MBBS to train for an MD (source: Wikipedia).
A quick google scholar search for MBBS reveals many published clinical trial studies where authors have MBBS degrees. For example,
Article 1 \- Article 2 \- Article 3 (in Lancet)
So the answer to your first question is yes. Perhaps the only thing to consider is *where* you ultimately want to practice. Ideally, you'll want to do your training in the same country. There are lots of crappy things about training in one country then moving to another--mainly, many places will make you retake the country-specific licensing boards.
I'm a little skeptical of your proposed number of years of training. In the UK (where MBBS originates), training is 5 to 6 years in length, generally two years pre-clinical followed by 3-4 practicing in the hospital. As for the PhD, Europe and the US have different expectations. I encourage you to check out this concise comparison from a different post. Essentially.. time to get a PhD is often fixed in Europe, while more open ended here in the US. But, as is emphasized above, training should be about learning the key skills necessary to succeed in academia, which is your stated objective.
In regard to which to obtain first.. I would argue for a PhD followed by medical training. Clinical skills are easily forgotten. I recommend once you've done medical training, it's best to start your clinical/research practice. This is especially important in any country with regular maintenance of licensure exams. This would be much harder if you primarily did your PhD rather than practice medicine in the intervening years.
The truly best order though is probably what is done in MD/PhD programs in the US. It is widely considered optimal to observe the following order (US medical system): 2 years didactic training (medical school), entire PhD (3-5 years), second two years of clinical training (medical school).
The reasoning behind this order is that the first two years of medical school are essentially pathology and basic science classes that will give you a broad introduction to how a body works at a gross and microscopic level. This will give you a biomedical background that *no PhD student gets*. You also won't use 99% of what you learn in the lab... but in principle, you might draw connections outside your own field that others would have no background to make.
PhD training is much more focused on a particular field, with the emphasis being depth rather than breadth. In your PhD years, you will master a remote niche of science, hopefully while learning how to be a good scientist, how to write, and how to obtain funding for your ideas.
Empowered by this, you then return to the clinic, where you realize most everything we do in medicine is empirical! Ideally going through the clinic you think about all the biomedical questions for which we have no answer. After graduating, you continue on in residency training. In the US, there are research-oriented residency programs that cut out a year or two of training in place of pseudo-postdoctoral research fellowships.
The length at most US MD/PhD programs is 8 to 9 years, which is *definitely faster* than obtaining an MD and PhD separately in the United States. The main reason is that the cross-training allows some MD courses to count towards the PhD, and because lab rotations are done in the summers before the first MD year, and between the first and second, when normal MD students are free to do what they like.
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Tags: phd, science, medicine, sweden
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thread-28580
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28580
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How familiar should you be with a topic before assigning it as a thesis to an undergraduate?
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2014-09-16T09:34:01.527
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# Question
Title: How familiar should you be with a topic before assigning it as a thesis to an undergraduate?
I am a postdoctoral researcher in a university where undergraduates have to undertake a diploma thesis in order to finish their studies. My professor says we should put in our lab page some short descriptions of 2-3 topics and let interested undergraduates come to us, as it usually happens.
Now, I am expanding my horizons to promising technologies, following the buzz in my domain, and I am confident I will have some personal progress in the following weeks but at the time being I am still relatively a newcomer to these latest technologies.
The question is: should I put out there a diploma thesis description in these new fields, or should I be conservative and go for the things I know pretty deeply? How do you usually come up with diploma thesis topics?
# Answer
Here is *one* rule of thumb: **You should be sufficiently confident with the topic to be able to guide your student to success.**
This means in particular that you should know the topic in which the student is supposed to work in well enough such that:
* You are certain that the workload is manageable in the time outlined by the examination regulations.
* You know that there is enough low hanging fruit in the topic such that it is clear that even a mediocre student should be able to write a thesis that is good enough for the standards of your field and school.
* There are some types of results that a student may obtain during the thesis work that would suffice for the student to write a great thesis, possibly leading to a subsequent publication (given interest by the student).
* You think that you can advise the student with the problems that you expect to occur in the scope of the project.
* You have sufficient time to actually advise the student and in particular have the time to read into the details of the subject in case the student needs some guidance on them.
Depending on the field, it is debatable whether it is OK to hand out topics of which the advisor has comparably little knowledge, given that all requirements from the list above are fulfilled. Also, the list above focuses on the minimum requirements. Again, it is debatable whether satisfying all points on the list is enough already (unless I forgot something important).
As far as coming up with new thesis topics is concerned: probably everyone has their own approach for this. One way is to collect the ideas that you have in your own research into idea lists, and after some time filtering them by the criteria above.
> 28 votes
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Tags: thesis, undergraduate, mentoring
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thread-28581
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28581
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How to develop experiment to justify construction of a prototype system?
|
2014-09-16T12:01:43.013
|
# Question
Title: How to develop experiment to justify construction of a prototype system?
I have worked hard for my master thesis project to build a system that uses an already existing algorithm, just in a mobile setting, which hasn't been done before. Because the algorithm is complex, it required a client-server infrastructure. Now, as I said most, of my efforts until now went into building the system of already existing components rather than contributing to knowledge.
Now my question is, how can I use my system and efforts to go more in the direction of a scientific contribution? The problem is if I, for example, simulate data loss over the network, I could have done that without even building the system. So I somehow want to include my real system in the experiment rather than doing a simulation. What would be a good approach that justifies also the construction of my real system?
# Answer
You might think of it in terms of the research question(s), which might look something like this:
1. Is it possible/feasible to use algorithm X in a mobile setting? (Presumably the answer is yes, because you've already built it.)
2. What challenges are there in applying algorithm X in a mobile setting? How can those challenges be met?
3. How does the efficiency/accuracy/data loss compare between the "regular" implementation of algorithm X and the implementation in a mobile setting?
---
Edited to add:
4. What are the advantages & disadvantages of using your implementation over a simulation? I'm guessing that your implementation gives more realistic results than a simulation would.
Obviously I don't know your field, or how novel a contribution your implementation is. But in principle, I think that answering the kinds of questions I've listed above could lead to publishable papers, and could justify your having built this system.
> 2 votes
# Answer
> What would be a good approach that justifies also the construction of my real system?
I don't have a crystal ball, so I can't say anything other than: in some fields, in addition to showing that your approach works well in a simulated environment, it is a *really good idea* to also show that your approach works well in practice.
If your peers value such "real world" results, then you don't need to justify it any further than that.
> 2 votes
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Tags: computer-science, experiment-design
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thread-28552
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28552
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In mathematics in the USA, is it appropriate for your teaching letter of recommendation to be from a previous university?
|
2014-09-15T19:17:46.597
|
# Question
Title: In mathematics in the USA, is it appropriate for your teaching letter of recommendation to be from a previous university?
I am finishing a 3-year postdoc, and will be applying to many universities for positions, including teaching colleges and research universities. I have 4 good research letters, but none discuss my teaching. I had excellent teaching letters from my previous university where I received my PhD, but I am not as close to the professors in this university.
Would it be better to obtain a teaching letter of recommendation from my previous university that I know is very positive, or to obtain a potentially less positive letter from my current university?
# Answer
> 6 votes
I think it depends on what kind of job you are looking for. For research universities, I suspect you can get away with it; I actually used a teaching letter based on recitation teaching from graduate school when applying for TT positions 4 years after graduating, because for a variety of reasons, there wasn't anyone else I felt comfortable asking for one from. Honestly, I don't think job search committees put much stock in teaching letters just based on classroom observation. Any value they had has been inflated away by the fact that they are always positive, and to be honest, most mathematicians at research universities don't worry very much about teaching skill when looking at hiring, beyond not wanting to hire someone notably incompetent. If they do, they're much more likely to try to judge from your interview or from student evaluations rather than a teaching letter.
If you're looking into more teaching focused schools, it's harder for me to say. Maybe I'll just leave that hanging and let someone else answer.
**EDIT:** To address the question of getting two letters, I agree with Noah. I want to be clear that this advice only applies to research universities, but I think getting two teaching letters completely gets wrong the risk/reward calculus for teaching letters. They cannot get you a job, they can only lose one for you. Probably they won't even look at teaching letters until they get to the short list, but if they do, it will be to sort out bad teachers, not to separate competent and good. By far the most important thing about a teaching letter is that it doesn't say anything bad. By getting two, you are doubling this (small) probability for absolutely zero benefit.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I don't know whether it's better, but you may have more opportunities for a teaching letter from your current institution that you realize. Especially if your postdoc is in the US, there may be someone in the department (for instance, the deputy chair in charge of undergraduate teaching, whatever the position is called) who is supposed to help arrange the writing of such letters as part of their job. You could ask this person to sit in, or ask someone to sit in, on your class and write a letter based on that and department data about your teaching.
If you have excellent teaching letters from your PhD, you may even want to include that *as well as* a more cursory letter from your current school.
# Answer
> 4 votes
In your situation (where you had serious teaching experience in grad school), I would probably get a letter from your old writer, but send that person and updated list of what you've taught and your student evaluations from your postdoc. That way their letter can make it clear that your teaching continues to be strong.
I agree with Henry's point that you're probably overestimating how hard it is to get a letter from someone at your new place. However, only consider two teaching letters *if and only if* you're applying to a job with a strong teaching focus. Don't send two teaching letters for a research-focused job.
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Tags: mathematics, recommendation-letter, united-states
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thread-28602
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28602
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How to complete homework more efficiently?
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2014-09-17T00:04:53.170
|
# Question
Title: How to complete homework more efficiently?
I spend way too much time on homework. I find that I eventually get the material, but this goes after perhaps 7-8 hours wasted daily. I tend to get bogged down by the details of readings, etc.
What is a way to stay consistently on track, moving quickly, and finishing homework ruthlessly and efficiently?
I know some people simply do not do homework that is not graded, and I don't see how it is possible to do well in a course if you don't keep up with the concepts presented in class and reinforced by the homework. Therefore, not doing it is not an option for me.
Any suggestions?
# Answer
> 6 votes
I have to disagree the first couple comments, "7-8 hours wasted daily" certainly does not sound normal. The amount of time is not necessarily an issue, but it is far longer than I ever spent on homework and if you feel that you are being inefficient you're most likely correct. It sounds to me like you are indeed getting bogged down in unnecessary things or (perhaps more likely) just struggling to piece all the little things together into the big picture.
**A big part of higher education is learning how to learn efficiently. In your career and in life, this will most likely be much more useful than the actual material you cover in your courses.**
I think there are a few things you can do that might help:
1. When reading a textbook focus on items that are formatted in a way that stands out. Textbook authors format material to emphasize critical and major points. A good lecturer will also make an effort to highlight the big picture topics and build up the details around them.
2. You might try studying or reviewing notes with a classmate before starting homework assignments. Ask for their insights on what the most important things are and try to formulate your own judgments as well.
3. Visit office hours. Ask conceptual questions about the topic at hand. You might also consider explaining to the TA or professor that you're having a hard time picking out the crucial material from the details and ask if they can help you focus in on the key topics.
It has been my experience that many students get bogged down in peripheral details when learning new topics, not seeing the forest for the trees. It has always helped me to ask myself what the most critical concepts are and then be sure to understand the details as they support these concepts. Hopefully, with practice, you will soon improve at picking out the key concepts and building a mental framework around them rather than getting bogged down in all the details from the start.
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Tags: homework
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thread-26427
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26427
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How are best reviewer awards given (in a computer science conference)?
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2014-07-26T17:00:41.057
|
# Question
Title: How are best reviewer awards given (in a computer science conference)?
I have often seen people(postdoc, etc.) listing in their CV or webpage that they were awarded best reviewer for conference X. I have recently been invited to become a reviewer for a conference, which has made me ponder over what are the criteria for giving such awards? (My field is computer science if that makes a difference.)
# Answer
Here are the criteria used by the ACM 2012 International Conference on Multimedia Retrieval (ICMR) for the "best reviewer" award:
> The criteria are that the reviewer should have demonstrated the expertise to provide insightful and knowledgeable feedback, should have provided quality reviews which are helpful to the authors of papers, should have displayed collegiality and constructive feedback, and should have completed reviews on time. The award is selected after examining all of the 400+ reviews from the 101 reviewers.
Conferences with an author response phase may use the authors' replies to help choose the best reviewer. For example, the CFP for the 2014 Conference on Software Language Engineering says:
> Authors will be given a brief opportunity for a reply to the reviews. The replies will be considered in the PC's discussions, and considered in the selection of the best reviewer.
> 4 votes
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Tags: peer-review, conference, computer-science, awards
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thread-28573
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28573
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Can an international student gain admission to medical school in the USA?
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2014-09-16T03:27:55.477
|
# Question
Title: Can an international student gain admission to medical school in the USA?
I have been an international student in the US for quite a few years now (since 11th grade, 4 years to be exact), and I have always been interested in studying medicine in order to become a doctor. Since I am currently a college junior I feel the need to start preparing for the MCAT and Grad school. Alas, med school for international student in the US is pretty much impossible, every institution I've looked up required at least having the green card.
My question is, can I realistically aspire to become a doctor studying in the states as an international student ? or will I categorically need a green card ?
Is there a way designed for someone involved in my academic pursuits to get a green card (excluding the lottery due to statistics)? I've heard of program such as the DREAM act?
# Answer
> 6 votes
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), in 2013, 1,088 of 48,014 applicants to U.S. medical schools in 2013 were not residents of the U.S. Of these, 115 matriculated (10.6%, compared to 41.8% of applicants overall).
So it *is* possible to gain admission to medical school in the U.S. as an international student; however, it is more difficult since (as you have noted), there is a very small number of schools that will admit international students.
The National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions has an article, "Medical School Admission Policies Towards Non-US Citizens", that lists all the medical schools in the United States and their policies on accepting international students, as well information on how many international students they have accepted historically. While it's a bit dated (from 2008), you should still find it helpful as a starting point. For example, it points out that George Washington University has an M.D. program specifically for international students.
Note that international students are generally not eligible for federal aid, which can make it very expensive to pursue a medical degree in the United States. Many schools will require applicants to submit documentation showing that they will be able to fulfill their financial obligations to the school if they matriculate.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, united-states, international-students, medicine, visa
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thread-28583
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28583
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Do I need to wait for a journal to "consent" to paper withdrawal before submitting elsewhere?
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2014-09-16T14:17:49.917
|
# Question
Title: Do I need to wait for a journal to "consent" to paper withdrawal before submitting elsewhere?
I have a question about submission elsewhere and journal's "consent" of paper withdrawing.
Recently I have withdrawn a paper of mine from a journal, which I want to submit elsewhere. Since I knew that the journal had received my email (by read receipt device) on withdrawing the paper and since I am just in the stage of being notified that the paper has been accepted for publication, the problem is: In order to submit the paper elsewhere, do I have to wait for the journal to consent to the withdrawal?
I am looking for some ethical advice.
# Answer
> 18 votes
I'd recommend waiting a week or two to see whether you get a response to your withdrawal. At this stage it can't be urgent to resubmit immediately, and having their reply would guarantee that they are aware that you have withdrawn the paper. (By contrast, I don't think an e-mail read receipt means much. For all you know, an administrative assistant opened the e-mail and then mistakenly deleted it without realizing what it said.) I wouldn't go so far as to say you are required to wait for a response, but better safe than sorry.
I think you've got a much bigger issue to worry about, though, and that's why you withdrew the paper after acceptance. At least in mathematics, withdrawing an accepted paper is extremely unusual. To a first approximation, it typically means there's something seriously wrong with either the paper or the journal. You can certainly do it, but given the effort that has gone into handling and refereeing the paper, you will cause offense if you don't have a very good reason.
If you inadvertently submitted the paper to a junk or predatory journal, then you don't need to worry about causing offense. (Offending the editors of predatory journals is not a bad thing.) In that case, withdrawing the paper is certainly the right decision.
If you dreadfully screwed up in your choice of journal, for example by submitting a brilliant breakthrough to a respectable but not impressive journal without realizing how good the paper was, then you should apologize profusely for wasting everyone's time. Hopefully they'll understand that it was a genuine mistake on your part, and they'll sympathize with the awkward position you are in and give their blessing to resubmitting elsewhere.
If the paper is seriously flawed, then that's a respectable reason to withdraw it. You might look bad for having submitted it, but then again, the referee didn't find the mistake either. But this isn't a compelling reason to submit elsewhere soon: if you don't check whether the original journal is willing to publish the revised paper, then it looks like the changes were just an excuse to withdraw the paper.
Under normal circumstances, it will cause offense if people think you are withdrawing an accepted paper just to try your luck at a more prestigious journal. In particular, this is a dangerous impression to leave if you ever hope to submit to this journal again. As an editor, I would certainly not be happy to see a new submission from an author who had previously withdrawn an accepted paper without a compelling excuse.
All this gives you another reason to move slowly and wait for a reply. If you have a good reason for withdrawal, then it's worth making sure you have communicated it clearly. In any case, you are doing something rather unusual and serious, and it's best not to give the impression you are treating it lightly or casually.
# Answer
> 10 votes
In general, yes, if by consent you mean you have written to say you wish to withdraw the paper for further review. Doing so, is in my mind and field, not something you should do light-heartedly. Waiting for a reply is also a good strategy, or etiquette, since you then know that the paper has been formally withdrawn (usually a click away in electronic submission systems). It is better to be 100% clear on what is going on. A return receipt in an E-mail is to me not sufficient and it can also be considered a bit arrogant.
In a request, you may want to add a few words to describe the reason why you wish to do so although it is your right. It all boils down to being courteous to the journal editors and reviewers, depending on how much work they have put into the journal paper.
Some authors seem to do this systematically just to get a sense of whether the manuscript will stand and to see if they can send it to a "better" journal. Such behaviour is of course not good etiquette and a slap in the face to those who do a fair amount of unpaid work on a manuscript.
requests for withdrawal should be easy and if you do not get a reply within, say, a couple of weeks, I think a reminder can be sent without hesitation. You may then also state that you will go along with the submission to another journal.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Yes, one should wait to get the permission.
Edited: Journal's editors may have spent significant time and energy to contact potential referees. The same for the referees. So it seems unfair to withdraw the paper without a permission.
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Tags: journals, ethics, etiquette, paper-submission, withdraw
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thread-28579
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28579
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Effect of passing management courses on research career
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2014-09-16T08:37:44.033
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# Question
Title: Effect of passing management courses on research career
By reviewing syllabus of a MBA course, and its entry requirements such as some years of industry job experience; it comes to mind that these type of management courses are designed only for the people seeking jobs in industry and studying management sciences does not have any positive impact on a person's career aiming to do research.
In my opinion, having knowledge of management, will help researchers in many aspects; such as if they are managing a laboratory, by having management knowledge, they will better manage their labs and be more effective in their scientific contracts, managing human resources, etc. Also, having project management knowledge may help the students or people in academia better organize their projects, whether academic or industry projects.
1. How does studying management short-time courses or degrees help a researcher?
2. How does these type of courses help research students improve their effectiveness in academia?
Please focus your answers specifically on MBA, project-management courses and short time classes or workshops on management sciences.
# Answer
> 3 votes
It clearly depends on what kind of future research you want to do but a lot of MBA content will not be relevant to anyone who will manage a non-profit lab, although it might help with the business of running a lab (e.g., a for-profit lab).
Here are just some examples:
* business environment: Here you are going to learn about international trade, competition, etc. and how those impact competitiveness of a company. I don't see how this will help you run a lab unless your lab is operating in competition with other labs for customers (or other constrained resources).
* accounting: Here you will learn about *creative* ways to maximize your organization's profit leveraging tax law. I believe most labs are non-profit and, thus, I do not think creative accounting is an important skill (but I might be wrong here).
* business law: Here you will learn national and international laws which can impact trade. You would naturally learn about contracts, negligence, and other related topics. This might help you understand what makes a valid contract or what the impact is of leaking private data but I am not sure it will help you much other than avoiding being tricked when someone says 'I will fund you if you just sign here.'
* human resource management: Here you will learn about how human resources add to a company's profitability and how to plan for them. The focus will generally be more strategic in nature and could help you do some strategic planning. One such issue is 'employer branding' and clearly you do want people to *want* to come to work for you. This might help you but as you are smaller, the benefit will be smaller.
* finance: Like other modules, the focus here will be on strategy. How do different funding sources, and different balances between sources, impact profitability by minimizing your cost of capital. Non-profits have a much more limited choice in their sources of capital so this will be of very limited use for you.
Normally, MBA programs do include a thesis which includes research. This clearly can tell someone if they want to do more research and it will give them some research skills.
Now, there is (hopefully) going to be a change in the way the student thinks. That is, students should think more strategically. This skill (strategic thinking) should give you a benefit in most things you do in life by encouraging you to think more long-term.
All this said, if you want to start a for-profit venture which focuses on research (selling your output) then, yes, an MBA would be quite helpful. However, you should not think an MBA is about managing people better. It is about that but it is much more about how to maximize your profits through maximizing your revenue, minimizing your expenses.
If someone is going to run an academic lab, I would encourage them not to take an entire MBA (unless they really want to think like business people) but rather take a class on a subject where they want to be stronger (e.g., human resource management).
**EDIT:** I think Edward's answer is good but to go a bit further about project management courses, this might actually help a researcher, especially if that research is managing a team.
In project management courses, you would learn about different topics than an MBA. For example:
* Feasibility studies
* Planning, organizing, controlling (general management issues)
* Reporting progress on your project
* Risk management
* Change management
* Leadership, motivation, human resource management
* Several others
Because most research is a project (has a start date and an end date, has resources including people and money, etc.) this could be much more suitable (than an MBA) to someone leading a lab. I would recommend starting with a single project management class (which will generally give you an overview of each topic) then, if you want to really dig into more detail, consider getting a master in project management or perhaps an industry certification like PMP.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Some of the management methodologies (e.g. PMP - Project Management Professional) have a strong process (think of it like an algorithm) for defining a vague task.
Most research problems are, by definition, vague. No one has ever done it before, and so no one knows exactly how to do it. This leads to common problems like poorly defined scope, shifting requirements, and poor time-management. Some of those things are actually desired; they are what give unexpectedly great research. It's just you don't know when you are doing great research or just screwing around. It's actually quite fast and easy to generate a basic list of requirements, scope, and timelines. That way you know when you are done and can publish. It doesn't mean that you can't go further, only that you now know that you did what you initially wanted to do.
In other words, business management techniques are not a perfect fit for academic work because they assume more clearly defined tasks and shorter time-frames. Nevertheless, you can steal those techniques to give you some imprecise measures of what you want. They are good, formalized ways of defining weird research tasks.
Compare and contrast software development methodologies like Rational-Unified-Process vs. Agile. The RUP is a very document-heavy, very formalized thing; meanwhile, Agile / SCRUM has virtually no documents. Also check out the Project-Management-Professional body of knowledge.
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Tags: research-process, career-path, management
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thread-28594
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28594
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What is the appropriate length and specificity for a teaching statement?
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2014-09-16T21:08:34.903
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# Question
Title: What is the appropriate length and specificity for a teaching statement?
A colleague and friend has been approached by another institution (a state university in the U.S.) seeking to fill a position. My friend, who is putting a package together, has asked me to review his teaching statement. Evidently, this was a good idea.
I read the statement, and, quite frankly, I wasn't too impressed. He and I are quite candid with each other, so I'm not too worried about what might otherwise be a delicate issue: me telling him how much it needs to be polished.
That said, I'll admit: I have very little experience with teaching statements (either writing them, or reading them). I'm not usually on faculty hiring committees; I don't want to give him bad advice out of ignorance.
My questions are:
1) What is an ideal length? (So far, I've narrowed it down to half a page is too little, and three pages is too much.) Would a single page be considered too thin?
2) How detailed should it be? My friend talked about different courses he has taught, even mentioning one course by its catalog number. I initially thought that generalities would be better. In other words, instead of saying something along the lines of:
> Teaching styles should be adaptable, based on the student demographics in the class. For example, in my Intro to Programming course at Urbandale College, I taught had mostly freshman, but the Programming Languages course I taught at Westerville University, CSCI 352, was a more advanced course with juniors and seniors...
my gut instinct tells me it would be better to say something more general, such as:
> Teaching styles should be adaptable, based on the student demographics in the class. For example, I've taught some courses with mostly freshman, and other more advanced courses with juniors and seniors...
but perhaps I'd be dishing out out some bad advice if I recommended a more general wording; maybe applicants are expected to weave such details into their teaching statements.
# Answer
My answer comes from Mathematics, but probably it's quite similar.
1) 1-2 pages is pretty typical.
2) My general advice is to include details and concrete examples where possible (though course numbers are not necessary). One problem with just being general is such statements feel very generic, and lack any real content in the sense that they don't distinguish you, in the same way many political speeches turn out.
> 5 votes
# Answer
A teaching statement should go into your personal experiences and ideas about teaching. But the included details need to be relevant to someone who is interested in your teaching experience and teaching philosophy.
For instance, I would venture that:
1. Mentioning the course number is probably not interesting.
2. Mentioning that the freshman course was called "Intro to Programming" is interesting.
> 1 votes
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Tags: faculty-application, teaching-statement
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thread-28623
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28623
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How to find someone online to collaborate on a joint paper?
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2014-09-17T13:04:54.433
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# Question
Title: How to find someone online to collaborate on a joint paper?
I would like to know where (a website) I can find anyone to publish some joint papers?
I thought such cooperation can be shaped as the following:
* We could share some ideas for papers through email or a web tool and ask the opinions about them (in fact if the person is an expert on a field who could transfer his knowledge and experience to me and direct me in the right way would be a plus :) )
* I would try to prepare a draft of the paper
Somethings that I wish the other one can guide or help me on are:
* I don't know much journals to publish a paper in, in this regard one could send the article to the journal
* My English is not perfect and the other one could modify the paper or guide me for some modification
**Update:** it seems the way I wrote it, the relation could be like two keen researchers with common field of interest or like an expert who guide a PhD student.
# Answer
The things you seek from a coauthor (advice on journal selection and English usage) are not in themselves a sufficient basis for coauthorship, but rather just being thanked in the acknowledgments. A coauthor on a scholarly publication needs to make a substantial intellectual contribution by being seriously involved in the research.
I do not know of any website designed for academics seeking coauthors, and I wouldn't recommend approaching it from the perspective of "I'd like to publish a paper and am looking for someone to help clean it up and submit it." That's not likely to find you the sort of intellectual connection that would lead to genuine coauthors. Instead, you may get no responses, or you may get unscrupulous coauthors who just want an easy way to get their names on papers. (And even if that doesn't bother you, think about it this way: if someone's willing to put their name on your ideas, could you really trust them not to add some plagiarized text to the paper?)
Instead, research collaboration should come before coauthorship, so the question becomes how to find collaborators. That can come in all sorts of ways: you can talk with people at conferences about common interests, you can write to people whose papers are on similar topics, etc. Sometimes collaborators meet through participation in websites where they discover a common interest. (They aren't necessarily collaborating on the website, but they may start to correspond after interacting through the website, and the correspondence may turn into a collaboration.) Once you are actively working on research with someone, writing a paper together will come naturally.
> 18 votes
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Tags: publications, paper-submission
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thread-28626
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28626
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Should citations be as detailed as possible?
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2014-09-17T15:15:14.350
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# Question
Title: Should citations be as detailed as possible?
While writing my thesis (computer science), I was wondering how detailed citations have to be.
Let's assume I want to cite an article of a conference and have full information on author, editor, title, year, booktitle, subtitle, eventtitle, volume, location, DOI, ISBN, arXiv ID, ... you get the point.
**Do I actually provide every piece of information in the citation or are some left out? Does any style guide (like IEEE, APA, MLA) address this topic?**
Similar questions \[1\] cover only URLs, but my question is more general.
\[1\] Should I include a DOI/website URL for a publication in dissertation bibliography?
# Answer
Generally the citation styles for your field, and thus for your thesis, will dictate this. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) website is a nice and popular resource to refer to what the most possible information would be desired for APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian - but you ultimately should refer to the exact, up-to-date published version of the style guide itself.
As an example, for APA when citing a Journal or Conference paper/article, you would at most provide (formatting stripped):
> Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy
If something doesn't have a DOI, the style guides say how to cite each type of resource. A book might be cited by ISBN, and if there is no DOI you might cite the arXiv in place of the DOI website - but you are never citing all of these things!
*Cite only that which the style guide says you should*, in keeping with the common tradition of papers in your field - no more, and no less.
When using reference management tools they often help do this for you, but they do not absolve the author of responsibility for ensuring that the citation matches the appropriate style of their field and that the data and style is followed accurately.
## When You Don't Know Your Style
If you are unsure of what style applies to your field, a search for "{field name} style" can be helpful, but the Purdue OWL site linked above also provides further guidance on their Complete Discipline Listing. If you are unsure an adviser or your department office can provide further verification, and checking in with the department (whether that be the department office, chair, or secretary) is often a helpful technique.
## Special Case: IEEE
I would note that the IEEE is somewhat of a special case (and is very common in computer, engineering, and various technology fields) in that there is a IEEE Citation Reference and IEEE Editorial Style Manual. However, they both specify that when the guides don't provide a specific answer to your question that you should consult the Chicago style guides. Thus the IEEE style may be considered a specialized version of Chicago style.
So in the case of this style you should first consult the IEEE guides, and if and only if they do not provide sufficient guidance you can consult the far more comprehensive Chicago guides.
## Summation
So in conclusion: if you have 100 fields of information available, you don't include them all in the citation - just the ones that your field's style says you should. Any good style guide (all the ones I've had to read) gives rules of precedence and fall-back plans when certain information is unobtainable, with the information requested varying by the source being cited itself.
> 5 votes
# Answer
The goal of the citation text (as opposed to citing in general) is to make it as easy as possible for your readers to find the works you cite. It cannot hurt to include as much information as you have. You are using a bibliography/citation management system like Zotero or BibTeX, right? So, once you've put this into your database, the formatting and typing out of all the relevant information should be automated. If there are constraints or unwanted information, the formatting package should eliminate them from the text it produces making your document compliant with the standards of your publishing venue.
> 3 votes
# Answer
There are style guides for IEEE, APA, and MLS (also known as MLA), although IEEE style is slightly different from the others in that it is based on the Chicago style guide. Many publishers provide information in their online citation downloads that are not required for the citation. In these cases you do not include the extra information. This seems a bit strange given that this extra information could be helpful, put most journals stick rigidly to their style guidelines and do not want extra information.
I think the most obvious example of excluding useful information is related to issue numbers and APA sytle:
> Per APA Style, when formatting periodical references (which include journals, magazines, and newsletters), include the issue number (immediately following the volume number in parentheses) when the periodical is paginated by issue (i.e., begins each issue with page 1). Otherwise, include only the volume number
It is often easier to find an article on a publisher's website if you have the issue number, even if the journal is paginated continuously. That said, journals that stick to APA style will remove issue numbers if you include them.
> 1 votes
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Tags: citations, thesis, writing-style
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thread-28617
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28617
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Why would a tenure-track job posting ask for an undergraduate transcript?
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2014-09-17T09:25:22.943
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# Question
Title: Why would a tenure-track job posting ask for an undergraduate transcript?
Recently I came across a job posting for a (mathematics) tenure-track position that asks for both graduate and undergraduate transcripts to be submitted. While this is the first time I've had anyone ask to see my undergraduate transcript for such a position, from a previous question here, it appears to not quite be unheard of.
What I haven't seen addressed is the question of why, generally, would a hiring committee ask for undergraduate transcripts? Are they really going to judge my application based on an errant C in a course unrelated to my field, or do they simply want proof that I have the degree from University X that I claim to have obtained?
The reason for my question is that I am hoping to gain insight into any issues that might appear in my own transcript in order to address them in the cover letter.
# Answer
I had to submit undergraduate and graduate transcripts to several schools each time I applied for jobs in mathematics. I believe the main reason is simply to allow the school to verify that you really have the credentials you claim.
There have been examples where faculty and administrators were caught claiming credentials that they did not possess, so schools are more cautious about such things now. The same is true for background checks - many schools now run a background check before they make an official job offer.
At my institution, when we have a mathematics job search we don't really look at the grades on the transcripts. The cover letter, reference letters, teaching statement, and research statement are scrutinized, but the transcripts just get a cursory glance to make sure the person has the right coursework (e.g. if we want to hire someone in a specific subfield, we might check that they have coursework in that subfield).
> 20 votes
# Answer
I think they ask for two main reasons:
1. Course requirements vary from university to university, and this will give them a good understanding of how well your formal education background aligns with what their own program offers. i.e. did your core requirements match their own? Will you have vastly different expectations of the students in their program from when you went to college?
It will also give them a good idea of what your GPA in your transcript really means. For example, if you took all advanced classes, and even dabbled in some upper-level courses in other subjects which were not required, your GPA may not be as high as someone who took all the easiest courses and very few advanced ones. Also, some people have GPA's which are deceiving, i.e. they took many 'easy' classes in yoga and theater to even out C's in their major. This makes their over-all GPA seem acceptable, but their GPA in their major is low. This could be a red flag, for the hiring team, (not only is the candidate ill suited in this field, they are cunning)! This leads to point #2:
2. You may be expected to teach some of those courses/subjects you took in undergrad/grad school. They need to know that you have taken similar courses before and that you received acceptable grades in them. Usually a department already has a general idea of what courses they want the person in this position to teach. They need to know if that will be a problem, i.e. if you got a C in every Calculus class you ever took, and they are specifically looking for someone to teach that, you may not fit the bill in that regards. But, if they really like your other skills, they might just end up having you teach a different subject, such as complex analysis, etc. I do not think it would immediately disqualify you as a candidate.
However, I would not be discouraged by a few low marks in your transcripts, if overall you have good ones that outweigh those. Everyone has been through a time in their studies when they had a professor who they just could not learn from, or get a handle on their testing style... or had a semester when something personal interfered with their studies. The most important point is to provide correct transcripts, and please know that the people reading them are human, are educators, and have seen it all already! Personally, I do not think a person's transcripts will be the main factor in the decision making process. But it is additional information that allows the job search committee to understand the candidate's educational background better.
> 3 votes
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Tags: job-search, transcript-of-records
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thread-28633
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28633
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How to find out the terms used for a topic, so that I can find the appropriate literature on it?
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2014-09-17T18:15:02.683
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# Question
Title: How to find out the terms used for a topic, so that I can find the appropriate literature on it?
My English is not perfect, moreover I am not familiar with the exact phrases for a topic of research or a technical term in the literature
I have some ideas or projects done, if I knew the exact word for the topic to which my idea belongs I could search better and find more appropriate resources and write better papers
For example suppose I have done an image processing projects which detects damages of an equipment in a manufacture, I thought its belong to the fault detection area but then I found the **fault detection** could be something more general or a different area ..... and **defect detection** is more close to the topic
As you see I need a website where I can mention what I have done or what is my idea and get the research area where I can find the proper resources
# Answer
As Aleksandar says, you do need to learn the terminology in order to search effectively for articles. And in fact, you'll need to know the terminology in order to *understand* those articles. When I'm exploring a new subject area, I don't start with the journal articles; I start with books, web tutorials, etc., to get the basics.
For learning the terminology, I also suggest reading the relevant articles in Wikipedia or Scholarpedia. They will also have links to journal articles; get hold of *those* articles and see what keywords they use. Anytime you find a useful article, note the keywords, and what journal it's in. This will help you find other useful articles, and places where you might submit your own articles in future.
Also, your college librarian may be able to help you figure out some of the keywords to use. They usually know a little about a wide variety of topics, at least enough to have some ideas of what search terms might be useful. If you set up an appointment, they may be able to spend some time with you, helping you find some sample articles and working with you to figure out a good search strategy.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I don't think you can find a place where someone will tell you what you need to search for, i.e. you have to know what you want to find in order to find it. If you are not familiar with the terminology of your field, I suggest reading a couple of standard textbooks; while reading them, you will encounter most of the terms that are relevant to the field.
You should also keep in mind that many fields (fault detection being one of them) are quite broad, so you usually have to spend some time refining your search keywords in order to find what you are looking for.
Anyway, the bottom line is that you have to master the terminology before reading and writing papers.
> 2 votes
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Tags: research-process, literature-search, terminology
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thread-28591
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28591
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How to find book titles in other languages?
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2014-09-16T20:22:33.650
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# Question
Title: How to find book titles in other languages?
I received a major task from my professor and I was wondering what approach is academic custom to take in such a case.
My supervisor wrote an article on a certain topic (I prepared already some source material for him). Now he asked me to check which of the (mostly German or French) books in his list of literature are available in English. For those I can't find a translation, he asked for "equivalents".
Doing this my way round would be to check the major library catalogue (like WorldCat) for the authors. This is extremely time consuming even when limiting the languages of the works searched for and I have explicitly been forbidden to exceed the allotted time for my job (it's a financial issue of the university... I will exceed a bit for no payment, but I can't work like 50% over the limit, people would also notice at some point).
Is there anything like a catalogue listing authors' works and their translated equivalents?
# Answer
Arguably the most complete resource would be the UNESCO's Index Translationum, a database of translation from 1979 onward.
There you should be able to search more easily, selecting desired language and inputting a keyword from the title or an author.
There is also a list of references hosted by Michigan State University's Library Guides, which offers a few hard-copy guides for consultation, however these are more restricted by field (mostly having to do with works of literature).
> 7 votes
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Tags: language, literature-search
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thread-28471
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28471
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What can you do to supplement low grades for admission into masters programs that don't use GRE or GMAT?
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2014-09-13T15:12:08.493
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# Question
Title: What can you do to supplement low grades for admission into masters programs that don't use GRE or GMAT?
To study in the USA, low grades can be supplemented by GRE or GMAT.
What can you do to supplement low grades to study in Europe (UK, Germany, France, Scandinavia), Oceania and South Africa?
# Answer
> 3 votes
As far as I know, such programs will consider your GPA, GRE (general and/or subject test) or some equivalent tests, letters of recommendation, research experience and personal statement, or a subset of this list. Thus, it is really more precise to say that all of these factors supplement each other, rather than simply saying that only GRE and GPA supplement each other. Unless your GPA is lower than the cut-off line, which some programs impose, then it follows that good letters of recommendation, research experience and personal statement will help with your application. This will especially be true if you have exceptional academic achievement that is not reflected by the GPA, in which case the admission committee will likely overlook the low GPA.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, grades
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thread-28016
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28016
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What are the repercussions of a "vote of no confidence" made by faculty?
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2014-09-04T09:45:44.380
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# Question
Title: What are the repercussions of a "vote of no confidence" made by faculty?
As an example of a vote of no confidence, recently, the academic world has been shocked by the Salaita case at the University of Illinois. I happen to be a UIUC alumnus, so I guess I'm more concerned about the current state of affairs in my Alma Mater. So I just read an article on the web about the case: More Votes of No Confidence, a Weird Ad, and a Declaration of a Non-Emergency. The article states that
> Tonight, the major news out of the University of Illinois is that two more departments have taken votes of no confidence in the leadership of the UIUC: the department of history (nearly unanimous, I’m told) and the department of Latino and Latina Studies. The latter’s announcement reads:
>
> The faculty of the Department of Latina/Latino Studies (LLS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign met on Wednesday, September 3, 2014 to discuss the University’s revocation of an offer of employment to Dr. Steven Salaita. We concluded that this revocation and the subsequent public statements by Chancellor Phyllis Wise, President Robert Easter, and the Board of Trustees about Dr. Salaita’s appointment demonstrate a clear disregard for the principles of academic freedom, free speech, and shared governance, as well as for established protocols for hiring, tenure, and promotion. The faculty of LLS therefore declares that we have no confidence in the leadership of the current Chancellor, President, and Board of Trustees.
>
> That means that six departments have now voted no confidence, two of them fairly large departments, representing a significant number of faculty in the humanities. Word is that we should be expecting at least four more votes of no confidence by the end of the week, for a total of ten.
I know the best thing that can happen in the current state of affairs is that UIUC's own faculty boycott the Board of Trustees and Chancellor Phyllis Wise.
So my general question is, what are the implications of such a vote? What does a "vote of no confidence" really mean?
**EDIT**
As suggested by @MadJack, here's the New York Times article on the case of Salaita.
# Answer
> 12 votes
A "vote of no confidence" is much like a "resolution" passed by a parliamentary body—it's a statement of approved opinion, with very little legal impact. The only exception to this would occur if the voting body is in some way responsible for the appointment of the official in question, in which case such a vote could lead to removal.
However, at the departmental level, such a vote has very little impact on the university as a whole.
# Answer
> 10 votes
A vote of no confidence is an entirely political move. It has no force on its own, but it may influence the opinion or behavior of others.
When used effectively, votes of no confidence can influence the person in question to apologize or change their ways, or influence more powerful people (e.g. the board of governors/regents) to address the issue.
When used ineffectively, votes of no confidence have no effect at all. (Well, they can still allow the people who voted to express their opinion.)
# Answer
> 4 votes
The repercussions of a department's vote of no confidence hold no legal authority. They simply publicly voice the majority opinion of the faculty of the department.
To further analyze in the context of the example you gave: These votes of no confidence are likely to embarrass the departments who publicly supported hiring this man whose public discourse can most nicely only be described as unprofessorial and unacademic.
The Chicago Tribune's take on the administration's position said:
> In June and July, Salaita posted prolifically about the situation in Gaza, particularly about the children killed in the conflict. On June 20, soon after three Israelis were kidnapped and killed, he wrote: "You may be too refined to say it, but I'm not: I wish all the (expletive) West Bank settlers would go missing." On July 22 he wrote: "#Israel kills civilians faster than the speed of 4G."
Salaita's hateful words are not confined to Twitter. He has found it prudent to scrub some of his online works, but they are still available via the Wayback machine.
We grant that academic freedom means that one can take nearly any position so long as one is respectful of others who disagree. His manner of speech and disrespect would have been quite a distraction for the entire university. Would he be respectful to the students under his instruction? Given his public record, would you take responsibility for placing him in this position?
These comments are certainly against our principles for allowed commentary on Academia StackExchange.
Some may disagree with the way the decision was made. Perhaps the decision could have reached out to more stakeholders for consensus. The administration apparently didn't do that. Many university administrations have come under fire by stakeholder groups in the past for similar actions. It would have been better if the administration had more support. But they had made the decision and moved forward with it, and I don't see how they could have taken another path in a timely fashion.
These votes of no confidence reflect the indignation by these departments in not being included in the decision making process. However, most bystanders will also (correctly) interpret them as a disagreement with the conclusion of the decision. If the departments agreed with the conclusion, this issue would not be raised.
I personally think these votes are likely to lower the public's view of the departments just as much or more so than they lower the public's views on the administration. I also think the views of individuals will largely be colored by personal preferences in backing the interests of the parties that Salaita has been coarsely commenting on.
# Answer
> 2 votes
The other answers noted that a vote of no confidence is generally not binding, but may have other outcomes.
I would like to point out that even if an outcome that is desired by the faculty *is* achieved, it is generally impossible to show causality (i.e., that the outcome was a direct result of the vote).
As an example, the end of the 2012-2013 academic year saw a series of no confidence votes by faculty against New York University President John Sexton. The outcomes were as follows:
* The College of Arts and Sciences; Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; Gallatin School of Individualized Study; Tisch Asia; and Tisch School of the Arts passed votes of no confidence against the president.
* At the Silver School of Social Work, a vote was held but not passed
* The School of Law passed a vote of confidence in favor of the president
A few months later, in August 2013, the university's Board of Trustees announced that Sexton would not continue beyond the end of his current contract.
However, it's impossible to tell whether this is the result of the no-confidence votes, two lawsuits, negative media articles about the university and its president, or (almost certainly) a combination of these and other factors.
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Tags: university, governance
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thread-28652
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28652
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Found an error in a paper that I already presented at a student engineering conference; what should I do now?
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2014-09-18T05:30:43.320
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# Question
Title: Found an error in a paper that I already presented at a student engineering conference; what should I do now?
I completed my undergraduate (in engineering) earlier this year and I am working in a company now.
My senior design project involved me developing a different and cost-effective method for something. So I decided to document everything in a research paper.
I ended up submitting the paper to a national level student engineering conference. The paper was accepted. I presented it. And in fact ended up getting the award for the 2nd best paper.
However I was going over my paper the other day and I found out a mistake in my algorithm. My concept (discussed in the paper) and actual code are both correct. But since I didn't put the code in the paper and just the algorithm I made an error in converting my code to the algorithm for the paper.
The error can be easily corrected however the algorithm in its current state will cause the device to not work properly. The paper also discusses 2 other algorithms for 2 other tasks; both of them are correct but everything is interdependent.
The paper hasn't been published (and can't be found online) but it is printed in the conference proceedings. I am also ashamed to have won the 2nd prize with an error in my paper.
My question is, how do I approach this?
# Answer
> 4 votes
For a paper published in a journal you would go for errata if the mistake is minor and does not invalidate the conclusions of the paper, or for retraction if the mistake invalidates the conclusions. In your case I would contact the organizers of the conference and ask what you should do.
You may feel ashamed about making a mistake that goes into publication (I talk from experience) but acknowledging it and trying to fix it is laudable (not everyone does it), is the ethical alternative and it will give you some peace of mind afterwards.
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Tags: publications, conference, errors-erratum
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thread-26458
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26458
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How to react to a reviewer’s comment when he is completely right, but you do not like the consequences?
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2014-07-27T19:15:37.407
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# Question
Title: How to react to a reviewer’s comment when he is completely right, but you do not like the consequences?
One of the reviewers of my conference paper (computer science), which got a *revise & resubmit,* criticized that my conclusions are not well founded in my experiment and that they don’t show my hypothesis. (In detail, there was no control variable, which he correctly remarked.)
The point is, I wanted to use this experiment to give an idea for the direction of the work following my results and to generalize my previous findings.
My question is, how could I respond to this comment, as deleting my discussion would cut out a huge part of my work?
# Answer
First of all, I *love* the title of your question. What an open, honest way of phrasing things, which makes for a question which just about every academic I know can identify with.
Whenever you get a "revise and resubmit" referee report, the two key questions are:
* How many of the revisions do you want to make? How many can you make in a reasonable amount of time?
* Almost certainly you will resubmit, yes, but: to the same journal or to a different journal?
I take it that by "completely correct" you mean that you agree that all of the suggested revisions would improve the paper. That still does not imply that you want to make all of them: if the revisions ask for significant further work, then it may well be that, yes, you are in the midst of this work / planning to do it in the future but nevertheless you are seeking to publish what you have done so far.
Of course if you agree with all of the suggested revisions and you feel that you can do them in a reasonable amount of time -- e.g., in time to meet the deadline for a conference -- then it seems pretty clear that's the way to go.
I take it though that in your case it is not practical to complete all the suggested revisions in the given amount of time. Your remaining choices are then: (i) complete only some of the revisions, explain very carefully in your reply why you considered the other proposed revisions but did not make them, and hope for the best; (ii) indeed resubmit, but elsewhere; and (iii) withdraw the paper until you can complete the suggested work. Then resubmit (possibly to the same place, if applicable, but starting over again in the formal submission process).
These are tough choices, and obviously they cannot be made globally. All I'll say is that the more (!!) "completely correct" you feel the reviewer's suggested changes are, the more likely it is that if you do not satisfactorily incorporate these changes then the paper will not be accepted. This still does not mean that revising and resubmitting is a poor choice: you have to do an expected value computation (e.g. if you can respond to 2/3 of the suggested revisions within a few days, maybe give resubmission to the same conference a whirl: why not?) to decide what is your best option. This decision also includes how important it is to you that the paper be published sooner rather than later and how important that it be published in this specific venue. Ideally speaking, you should take the necessary time to publish a "complete" version of your work rather than an unsatisfactorily partial preliminary version...but in reality, many academics do not have the luxury of fully indulging this ideal.
> 46 votes
# Answer
Let me first recapture your situation as I understood it and based my answer on:
* You have essentially three Papers, let’s call them *Paper A, B* and *C.* Paper A has already been published, Paper B is the one you are currently working on and Paper C is a planned future publication.
* You drew conclusions in Paper B, which are not based on the research of Paper B alone but also require results from Papers A and C.
* The reviewer correctly remarked that your conclusions were not supported by your research in Paper B.
First of all, as your conclusions are not supported by published research yet, you cannot make these conclusions and there is no (ethical) way to leave them as conclusions. Rather from the situation at the end of Paper B, they are an outlook or speculations and thus should be marked as such.
E.g., you could write something along the lines of the following in your conclusions:
> Our results confirm the findings of \[Paper A\], which suggests \[general hypothesis\]. This could be confirmed by \[ansatz for research of Paper C\].
To the reviewer’s comment you could reply along the lines of the following:
> The reviewer is indeed correct that \[general hypothesis\] is not supported by our current findings. Rather, \[general hypothesis\] is something suggested by our results from our findings and \[Paper A\] and should be investigated in future research. We have insufficiently described this point and amended our manuscript such that this aspect is now made clear.
> 18 votes
# Answer
I think the solution for the problem in the title is to revise the paper so that the undesirable consequences are no longer consequences. As I understand it, the reviewer correctly pointed out that your conclusion is not adequately supported by your experiment; the undesirable consequence is that this conclusion should be removed; it's undesirable because that would mean removing a big part of the paper. Fortunately, the undesirable consequence would no longer be a consequence at all if the conclusion were relabeled to match what you wrote in the second paragraph of your question --- for example along the lines of Wrzlprmft's suggestion. More generally, instead of saying (incorrectly) that something is a conclusion from your experiment, say what it really is, as accurately as you can.
> 10 votes
# Answer
> My question is, how could I respond to this comment, as deleting my discussion would cut out a huge part of my work?
Trust me. I have been there.
Remove the questionable part, and even the whole paper if necessary. (Well, unless the reviewer is a well-known idiot :-) )
In the future, you will regret anything you published that is not perfectly fine and relevant.
PS. Also, in the future, you may be involved in some competition or conflictual circumstance where a "competitor" or opponent may use a "scientific weakness" against you. And in this case you may "pay" a high price.
> 9 votes
# Answer
Firstly, I'm not totally clear about the exact situation. Here's how I understand it:
* some experiments have been done and analysed
* some conclustion *can* be drawn
* some control experiment that would allow far more general conclusions is planned but has not yet been done.
This is what the reviewer is worried about.
## Author point of view:
I'd say that the decision what to do depends on whether the conclusions that can be drawn are important enough to write a paper about them. Alternatively, the other way round: whether a paper written about both the already performed and the control experiments would be too long for a good paper.
In these situations, I'd
* agree with the reviewer (in the answer to the reviewers)
* but point out that after careful consideration you decided that the control experiments are out of the scope of the present (preliminary? feasibility? case?) study.
* In addition, I'd spell out the limitations of the present study very clearly
* while outlining the follow-up experiment as a solution. This needs some care in order to convince readers (and reviewer) that the follow-up experiment is really taking place: the literature is full of ongoing experiments that never went on.
* In the answer to the reviewers, state explicitly that you took care to clearly outline the limitatins of the present study due to the lack of control experiments.
Obviously, this approach can only work if the lack of control experiments has some sensible reason and doesn't appear to be lazyness. Spell out the reasons (careful with non-scientific reasons like feasibility \[vs. laziness\]).
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## Reviewer point of view
When reviewing a paper, I find it quite OK if experiments have limitations\* if the authors are clearly aware of these limitations. I tend to be worried if the conclusion that the world is rescued is based on 3 dead mice.
* Experiments will always have limitations. It is IMHO perfectly right to look at science as an iterative process of refining knowledge. It doesn't make sense to get thousands of patients for a preliminary study. But the preliminary study should spell out the limitations. And in practice, the preliminary study is (and should be) needed in order to get the thousands of patients, and/or better meta information, or other other labs joining the efforts etc. for follow-up studies. But also this will work only if the preliminary study is honest about limitations. Otherwise the topic will be perceived as "solved".
> 2 votes
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Tags: peer-review
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thread-28661
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28661
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How do I get editing help for technical (mathematic/statistic) paper publishing?
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2014-09-18T12:11:30.160
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# Question
Title: How do I get editing help for technical (mathematic/statistic) paper publishing?
I have several topics that I would like to publish. While I can get a paper, in technical terms, 100% of the way done I am not an English major. I don't do great at speaking human, or dotting my "i"'s. I could be much more productive if I had help.
I am currently not affiliated with a university or academic institution. I work and on the side I sometimes do some thinking or work on (statistically) fun problems. I would like to share the results in an approved and excellent forum.
How does one go about finding someone with that strength to help edit (or is it co-author) articles with the intention of publishing them in decent to great peer-reviewed publications? Are there any culture-known "best known methods"? Are there negative repercussions of having non-mathematical technical help? If so, what?
# Answer
> 2 votes
I suggest these four steps:
1. **Identify your research community.** The problems you are working on should have some connections with previous works. If not, it will be hard to publish your work anywhere, because it is harder to draw the attention of other researchers on your topic. You can use search engines such as Google Scholar for this purpose.
2. It is likely that the authors of these papers use the same notations, publish in the same journals and use a similar article structure to describe their work. **Become familiar with the format** by reading related articles.
3. **Write down a draft**, following the usual format of your field. If your English is weak, you can ask someone to fix your mistakes (he/she should not need to be familiar with your work, but it is easier if he/she has some scientific background).
4. **Contact a researcher** working on close topics, asking him/her for feedback on your draft. If the feedback is positive, a collaboration might be possible.
I have followed these steps and this has lead me to my first research paper (co-authored with my "mentor"). It takes a lot of time but it is worth the effort.
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Tags: publications, independent-researcher, proofreading, copy-editing
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thread-28504
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28504
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What to do about students who ask for help too often?
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2014-09-14T14:53:44.487
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# Question
Title: What to do about students who ask for help too often?
For my writing courses, about 5% of students will come to me prior to deadlines asking for help with their paper. I see no problem advising students, as I often similarly came for help when I was an undergraduate. Recently, though, I found an increase in students who apparently just want to abuse this:
* Students will bring me some plagiarized work, showing it to me early, as a sort of test if I will notice. It seems difficult to punish plagiarism when the paper is not yet submitted.
* Students will bring in papers again and again, with little changes put in at each stage, hoping their minimal effort each time will be sufficient to reach their goal of a "D".
I've tried stopping students, but then they are angry when they see the "F" that they hoped I would help them get away from. While most of these students are probably just incredibly lazy, there is a chance that some among them are genuinely trying to improve, but just struggling a great deal, and I can't see it.
How might I go about blocking such abuses?
# Answer
> 37 votes
Here is one strategy:
1. Specify the level of changes the student needs to make before they can come back again.
2. Request that the student shows you what changes have been made by comparing the old and new versions of the assignment.
3. If student has failed to reach the level suggested or fails to show you the differences, simply tell them to go away until they have made the requested changes. Simply state that your previous comments still apply.
Adding a time delay between when they ask and when you give feedback or when you give feedback and when they can come again might also help.
# Answer
> 30 votes
While there are some good answers here, I will just add a few thoughts from my own experiences.
I also have plenty of students who try for minimal work just to get a pass. I used to explain to them what their grade would be and why but in the end, all they heard was what their grade would be. If it was pass they stopped listening. Of course, this is quite unhealthy for their longer-term success.
I have since changed to not telling them what grade I would give them before they submit, partially because of JeffE's comment to this question. **Now, I focus ONLY on showing the students how to judge their own papers**. I explain that I will mark when they submit but if they want to understand how to mark their own papers, I will help them.
I do not check for plagiarism on drafts (though some students do ask me to). If I see something which looks like plagiarism, like the level of English goes from very poor to perfect, I do let the students know that this looks like plagiarism and, if it is, they should fix it with proper citation before submitting.
**In short, focus on teaching them how to grade their own papers.** This helps a lot if you provide a rubric. Do not tell them "I will give you a 'D' if you submit this." Instead, tell them "Tell me what you think this paper deserves and explain to me why you believe that." Then help them develop that skill.
They should become independent learners, even if they don't want to.
# Answer
> 5 votes
Another strategy is to provide more guidance about what sort of help you'll provide and how they should ask for it. Possibilities:
* The first time you bring your paper to my office \[or during specific dates\], we will focus only on whether you have answered the question.
* I will be happy to discuss aspects X and Y, but never Z.
* Bring the rubric with you. Be prepared to explain which part of the rubric you most need to address in your draft, and why. We'll focus on that part of the rubric during our meeting.
* Before you bring your paper to me, prepare a list of specific questions you would like me to answer. Bring two copies of the list, one for each of us.
* Before you bring your paper to me, show it to someone at the writing center. Bring with you your notes from that visit and the draft you showed to them, along with the draft where you implemented those suggestions.
* Always bring two copies of your draft--one for each of us. Be prepared to write detailed notes on your copy. (Then you can keep your copy and you'll be able to bring it out the next time and say--ok, what did you change? Or you can compare it to the draft they turn in to see if they made significant changes. And if they plagiarised it, you'll have a record.)
* Each time you show me your paper, I will expect you to create a checklist of things you will address. The next visit, you need to demonstrate that you have completed those things by bringing a draft with changes marked and annotated.
Another thing you can do is assign "draft" deadlines as well as final deadlines for everyone, then give the feedback you think is important on the drafts (maybe using a rubric) and not meet incessantly with a few students.
Another thing you can do--particularly with very structured papers that you have assigned before--is provide to the class a list of the common problems students have. Then when a student shows you a draft, you can initiate a discussion about which common problem the student thinks it illustrates and what can the student do to address it?
Another thing you can do is limit the number of times you will look at a draft, or the period of time during which you will look at a draft.
I have had a similar problem with students wanting me to grade work before they turn it in for a grade--not just on writing, but with all kinds of assignments. Sometimes they are so lost they are completely stuck. Other times, they seem to be trying to minimize their workload by increasing mine. ("Just tell me in exacting detail what to do, I'll do that and no more, you'll give me an A.") But what I want is for them to learn how to assess their own writing!
Whatever strategy you use, when you meet with students, try to elicit their comments. If you give a suggestion, and they nod, then ask them how they expect to apply it. What changes will they make to a particular sentence or paragraph? Are there any other places in the text they should also make that change to--which ones, and why? If they are to provide more evidence, ask them where they intend to search and how. Then you can better assess whether they understand what you've told them and whether they can actually do it.
I often ask students about how they produced the draft. Which parts were the easiest and which parts were the hardest, and why? Which parts do they like best? Which parts do they think need the most revision? Sometimes I ask them to imagine a reader--if they were to show their paper to (mom, roommate, employer, etc.), which part would be the most controversial? What would need the most explanation? If their reader disagrees, what would that person likely argue back? The more they talk about their writing, the more opportunity you have to say, "Yes! What you just said--write that down. Now do that!"
Another benefit of getting students to talk about their draft is that it is tough to talk about something you didn't write. If they let you know they copied passages, you can remind them (or explain how) to cite them properly. If they pretend they wrote every word, you have a different problem to address.
# Answer
> 3 votes
From what I have read in your question, it appears that you are **enabling** the students. I have had the same issue and it happens not only in academia but in all professions. Stick with the facts and the mechanics of writing, do not answer their questions directly, use an indirect method and point them to the source, allow the students to do the work. As an enabler you are in essence doing the work for your students(or so they hope). When you are enabling "people" to take advantage of you, it is very difficult to see and hard to admit. Your students are adding monkeys on your back, they are smarter than you think.
* Stick to the facts
* Give direction of where to find answers
* Do not provide answers, provide guidance
It took a few semesters for students to push you along into this trap. It will take a few more for the message to circulate that you are no longer a mark.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Having taught in similar situations, I have to agree with Dave Clarke on requiring a demonstration of significant incremental improvement.
You can't let plagiarism on the first draft pass silently, either. If you see evidence of such on the first draft, you need to report it to the proper authority as evidence that the student body needs better training on what plagiarism is and how to properly use other works.
Hold firm to standards. You should have a rubric distributed stating the qualities of a paper at each grade level. If a paper is clearly an F paper, you should be able to point to your rubric and tell them that if no clear improvement is made, an F will be the grade they receive.
You must grade them, the non-recursive definition of which, as Merriam Webster puts it:
> to separate (things) into groups or classes according to a particular quality
# Answer
> 1 votes
It looks like you have two different issues, it's easiest to discuss each of these separately.
* Students will bring me some plagiarized work, showing it to me early, as a sort of test if I will notice. It seems difficult to punish plagiarism when the paper is not yet submitted.
This one is rough. You can't punish someone due to plagiarism before they submit work. The best policy, in my opinion, is twofold.
First - if a student brings plagiarized work then you should simply say "I'm sorry, I cannot help you with work that is not your own." and point to you university's policy regarding academic dishonesty. Repeat offenders should be put on notice.
Second - If you grade the final assignments or are involved consider spending a bit more time plagiarize-checking these particular student's submissions. These students have shown that they were willing to claim other's work as their own, being a bit more stringent in checking their work for originality is, in my opinion, completely fair.
* Students will bring in papers again and again, with little changes put in at each stage, hoping their minimal effort each time will be sufficient to reach their goal of a "D".
This sounds like a communication problem. After meeting with a student there should be no confusion about what will improve the student's work. For something like a paper it should be *"In order to improve this paper you should: extend the intro, go into more detail here, etc"* Students returning for additional assistance should have some sort of checklist that they should complete prior to returning for more assistance. Make this clear and obvious and, if there are multiple tutors a student could work with, something that is kept in some sort of notes system.
# Answer
> -2 votes
If you see something definitely plagiarized, you could try to get them to claim it as theirs when they consult you and fail them on the spot for making the claim whether it's in class or not.
I do agree with @DaveClarke that on this *or* the other issue, announcing a policy at the start of the term (no more than N consults per assignment/per term, and plagiarism is an automatic F and will also be referred to the school's academic conduct team) would help set expectations, cut down on abuse, and give you grounds to say "No, it wouldn't be fair to others if I helped you again before you turn it in."
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Tags: teaching, feedback
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thread-28708
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28708
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Is the knowledge gained from a masters conversion course suitable for pursuing a PhD?
|
2014-09-18T21:09:02.973
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# Question
Title: Is the knowledge gained from a masters conversion course suitable for pursuing a PhD?
I am looking for advice on applying for a Phd in Software Engineering/ Human-Computer Interaction. I am currently working as a software developer and interested in pursuing an academic career in Computing at university level. I have recently completed a Masters degree in Computing with a Pass last year, however I have a 2:1 undergraduate degree in Graphic Design.
I feel that the subject knowledge I have only gained on my Masters may be less adequate compared to a 3 year undergraduate degree to pursue a Phd. Would my current knowledge and experience be suitable to apply for a Phd in Computing or would it be beneficial to undertake another/ specific course before applying?
# Answer
I am in Psychology and not CS, but what we find is that students with a three year BSc are rarely competitive for a funded PhD and most must do a MSc course first in order to be competitive. We ran a MSc conversion course last year for the first time. These students faired better than undergrads, but not as well as the students on our straight MSc course. A number have continued on to the regular MSc course with the hopes of getting a funded PhD the next year. I think you would probably need a distinction on a conversion course in order to be really competitive for a PhD. That said, you can always apply and see what happens. Some places might offer you a 1+3 type program.
> 3 votes
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Tags: phd, masters, computer-science
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thread-28693
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28693
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Is ProQuest a reputable company?
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2014-09-18T17:56:53.173
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# Question
Title: Is ProQuest a reputable company?
What are the possible benefits or consequences of submitting my dissertation to ProQuest?
My university recommends submitting dissertations to ProQuest. I am wondering about the practices and academic reputation of this company, and whether or not it is in my best interests to follow the recommendation of my institution.
Does ProQuest support academic work? Do they charge exorbitant fees to access their content?
# Answer
> 7 votes
I don't think Proquest is really a publisher so much as just a repository. They don't make any editorial choices about the material they host.
I don't have any information about their financials, but accessing dissertations through them is moderately difficult and expensive. (I think getting a copy of a thesis from them is on the order of US$50.) I think of them as the dissertation archive of last resort - I would only order from them after exhausting all other options (author's website, university's library, etc).
My feeling is that you might as well submit your thesis to them, since it is good to know that future researchers looking for your thesis would always have Proquest as a fallback option. However, you should make an effort to make your thesis available through more convenient (and free) means as well. Post it on your professional web page. If your field uses arXiv or a similar open access repository, upload it there as well. (Since you will presumably be publishing papers and/or books based on your thesis, check first that the relevant publishers are okay with having your thesis available for free online. Probably the major journals/publishers in your field will have similar policies.)
# Answer
> 5 votes
The role of ProQuest for dissertations is not a "publisher". Even if you "publish" your dissertation with them, it is still considered "unpublished" work in many fields. And you can go on to publish exactly the same content in other forms, e.g. as a book or divided into papers. In this sense, they are like a preprint server.
For dissertations, ProQuest is a *repository*. The main service they provide is giving access to dissertations that would otherwise be very difficult to locate. Traditionally, they did this by keeping huge archives of microfilm; now I suspect it is more digital.
In my experience, there are only two long-term archive systems commonly used for unpublished theses in the U.S.:
1) The institution itself usually keeps a copy in the library, perhaps on microfilm. More recently, institutions have begun moving to an electronic model, often called "ETD".
2) ProQuest, which has gone through many name changes but was founded in 1938.
Personal webpages are great, but they are not really a long-term solution: who can guarantee an academic's work will be available on a personal web page after they retire? A few fields have sites such as arxiv.org which have a potential to be long-term repositories. But otherwise the options above are about it.
So, why send your thesis to ProQuest? It's a personal choice. But doing so does help ensure that the thesis will be available if someone wants to read it in 50 years' time, when you plan to be retired on a tropical island without email.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Proquest is not a traditional publisher. I would compare them more to a vanity press than a predatory journal, but since they do not do any binding or even ISBN registering, it is not even fair to call them a vanity press.
While it is likely they make large profits, although I don't know, I would say they are fully reputable. Their copyright transfer is very permissive
> Authors enter into a non-exclusive publishing agreement with ProQuest, where the author keeps the copyright in their graduate work. Authors are paid a 10% royalty for sales in all formats.
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Tags: publishers, reputation
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thread-28728
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28728
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How should I describe my country's volatile situation in a letter for a scholarship application?
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2014-09-19T02:26:10.847
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# Question
Title: How should I describe my country's volatile situation in a letter for a scholarship application?
I'm writing a letter of motivation to apply for a master degree scholarship. However, my marks in final years of study weren't the highest possible due to the effect of the ongoing crisis in my country, Syria, on me.
In this question, I asked whether I should mention this in my letter, and the answer was that I should.
Now I want to know, what is the *best way* to mention this in my letter? Is one paragraph about it too much?
# Answer
> 15 votes
Something along the lines that you persisted and managed to graduate despite that the life as you know it was being destroyed in a war-torn county. The hardships of war, hunger, constant fear for safety (or whatever you feel like sharing) gave priority to the survival. As the result your grades in the final years suffered. You are eager to continue your education in the safety of whereever you are applying, and ready to give it your all without the distractions of the war.
The point you want to make is that you graduated during the whole crisis, which is truly impressive. Congratulations on that. It shows the character and persistence. Grades you can fix.
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Tags: application, funding
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thread-28733
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28733
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Is it unusual for a collaborator to ask for funding for a very short project?
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2014-09-19T05:23:45.787
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# Question
Title: Is it unusual for a collaborator to ask for funding for a very short project?
I am working on a paper that requires a comparison method to be implemented. The method of choice is not in my discipline. I asked a collaborator, who is an expert in the area and with whom I have several papers published, if he could implement it. It is about a week worth of work, most likely less. Both the collaborator and his professor would get an authorship on the paper.
His professor said that the project can be only done if I had funding for him. The collaborator is already funded through an external fellowship. The project does not require any purchases. Is this an unusual request?
# Answer
> 14 votes
Seems to me like that's their way of saying "no". One week of work in exchange for authorship is a great deal -- and you'd give authorship to the professor, too, in exchange for nothing? Why would the professor say no? I'm guessing that the professor doesn't think your research will succeed, or get published, and therefore doesn't want to invest the time.
I'd recommend just working with the student in his "spare time". I'm sure it's worth his time in exchange for authorship.
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Tags: funding, collaboration
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thread-26654
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26654
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IRB guidelines for secure online data storage, backup, and syncing?
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2014-07-31T21:08:19.803
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# Question
Title: IRB guidelines for secure online data storage, backup, and syncing?
I am asking to get people's success stories in presenting a data management case for secure data backup using remote online services, rather than the antiquated "server in a locked room" model of security.
In general, I have gotten the impression that most IRB's think that a server on-campus in a locked room is safer than a cloud server in a mysterious data center. It's an argument that doesn't hold much water to me. In the business world, vital data is stored in cloud data centers all the time. However, given that IRB boards tend to not have many data-security specialists (if any), I am not sure what kinds of guarantees are typically requested.
For those who have gone down this road, what kinds of services and guarantees were required to meet the requirements of an IRB panel (and for what level of vulnerability of subjects and disclosure risks)? For example, for medical data, I would assume that a HIPAA-compliant data service (e.g., Carbonite's Pro version) would usually be sufficient (but possibly not always). I am most interested in slightly lower-risk data (e.g., sociological or cognitive), but would be interested in any reports on reasonable and IRB-approved service requirements for storing, syncing, and sharing data on a project. Is a HIPAA-compliant storage usually sufficient? Is it sometimes sufficient to have a non-HIPAA-compliant one, but with some other types of certification or privacy guarantees? How important are guarantees that data will be fully-stored in a same-country (e.g., US) data center or on a discrete server? In short, I'm hoping to figure out the guidelines that are generally used for matching a remote data service to an IRB data management plan.
# Answer
While this solution will likely be only a drop in the bucket for your request, I did write a paper covering security issues related to health information and HIPAA while finishing up my Master's. Section 6 has a case study on Amazon Web Services as a "HIPAA-compliant" cloud storage solution, including both its positives and its negatives.
Since this was a review paper, I feel the need to point out that I don't have any personal experience with Amazon Web Services or with setting it up for HIPAA compliance, so don't take it as an endorsement either for or against its use.
It's important to evaluate exactly what any proposed service you select actually provides. AWS, for example, supports basically the creation of the HIPAA-compliant environment. That being said, that's the creation of one, not one provided out of box. You'd have to implement a variety of features normally associated with data storage such as backing up data, auditing all changes, and so on.
Basically, you're asking what you need to do to satisfy the IRB, I guess. What you should probably be asking is what you can do to satisfy HIPAA regulations, and using that, justify that it is a viable solution to the IRB.
I can't really provide you a concrete example of an actual cloud data storage plan (the one I was involved in is non-disclosure and I'm also not an IS guy) but I might be able to answer some more conceptual questions.
> 3 votes
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Tags: data, privacy, irb, backup-archiving
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thread-28713
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28713
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What limits the number of PhD students in universities with and without PhD tution fee?
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2014-09-18T23:07:01.717
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# Question
Title: What limits the number of PhD students in universities with and without PhD tution fee?
Universities normally (as far as I know) do not limit the number of PhD students a research-active professor can have as long as he secure the funding for his PhD students. For example, if a professor have enough research fund can get 10 PhD students (instead of research associates) and pay them directly. Then, they pay their tution fees, and university/department can increase its capacty for PhD enrolment.
In fact, the university/department can increase its capacity as long as they are paying students, but I don't understand how this scheme works when PhD study is free (in some European countries).
In the latter case, the professor provide research funding for the PhD projects and their wages, but the university should invest for courseworks (pay more teachers for these unexpected students).
*What limits the number of PhD students in universities without PhD tution fee?*
*And when there is normal tution fee, isn't there any limitation for the number of PhD students as long as there are good candidates?*
**EXAMPLE:** A department arranges the admission of 10 PhD students (assigned appropriate professor for the courses). Now, a professor fund 10 more PhD students for himself. *Now, the department head should plan new classes/courses (this needs budget). He may need more resources, which is normally approved by the Dean.*
I understand that more PhD students fuels the engines of an academic unit, but the department head is not bothered with overload of PhD coursework. In other words, *does the department head encourage professor to get more funded PhD students, and saying "don't worry, I will take care of coursework"?*
# Answer
> What limits the number of PhD students in universities without PhD tution fee?
I'm not sure countries exist without a PhD tuition fee. Rather there is a scholarship system in place to cover the cost of tuition. The limiting factor here is the number of scholarships allocated by the government. So the answer is the government.
> And when there is normal tution fee, isn't there any limitation for the number of PhD students as long as there are good candidates?
This would be dependant upon the institution. There may be a hard limit imposed by the faculty. Otherwise there is a soft limit in the number of students one professor can reasonably manage.
> 3 votes
# Answer
There is no hard limit. The soft limits are what you would expect: availability of funding, availability of excellent students who are interested in doing a PhD with you, how much time it takes to supervise a PhD student, etc.
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The question seems to be based on the premise that more PhD students is somehow "bad" for the university in a system without tuition fees. However, this is not the case. (In this answer I will try to explain the system that we have here in Finland, but I do not think the situation is that different e.g. in other Scandinavian countries.)
Let us compare two cases:
1. A professor gets a small research grant and hires 1 PhD student.
2. A professor gets a large research grant and hires 10 PhD students.
Let us assume that all else is equal, these are excellent students, all of them finish their PhDs on time, each of them produces the same amount of high-quality research, and in both cases the professors still have enough time for their other duties (teaching, administration, etc.).
Now case 2 is actually fairly attractive for the university and for the department. There are two main reasons:
* The basic funding of the university depends on how well the university does. This is measured with numerous indicators, but producing lots of PhD, producing lots of excellent research, and attracting large research grants are among the important indicators. Hence in the long run, the university will get more funding, and the university will also reward the department.
* Research grants do not cover just the salary of the PhD student. All the money goes through the university budget, and the university always takes part of it for all kinds of "overheads", which cover in part the costs of running the university (facilities, administration, IT, libraries, etc.).
Furthermore, PhD students will also serve as teaching assistants (e.g., 5–10 % of their time is allocated for teaching activities), so a fraction of the grant also goes to support the teaching activities of the university.
(That said, there are some corner cases that may be a bit more difficult. If the students are not hired by the professor but they fund their own studies with e.g. personal research grants, then it is not as clear that having lots of such PhD students is a win-win for everyone. The universities do not get their "overhead" share from the grants, yet the students would expect the universities to provide office space for them.)
> 2 votes
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Tags: phd, funding, tuition
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thread-28743
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28743
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Is a Double Degree equivalent to 2 single degrees?
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2014-09-19T08:44:06.050
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# Question
Title: Is a Double Degree equivalent to 2 single degrees?
I want to study Bachelor of Mathematics at university in Australia. While I was surfing the various courses, I came across something interesting. It was Bachelor of Mathematics and Bachelor of Computer Science at University pf Wollongong (which takes 4.5 years to complete). I was like wow how does this work, Same qualification, and two degrees for 4.5 years. A single degree alone takes 4 years. But then I started to think, wait a minute this seems too good to be true.
(Note that my intention is to study Mathematics and do a PhD in Mathematics, I don't want to get some limited mathematics knowledge if double degree has half of both. At the same time I would love if this is full of both, so in that case I will apply to this.
Please help me on how this works , what are the limitations, will I get the same recognition and knowledge as students studying Math alone?
# Answer
> 3 votes
The best way to understand how this can work is to look at a degree plan. Most schools publish plans outlining approximately which courses you will need to take each year.
Many degrees are not simply comprised of just the departmental courses within your major. I cannot answer for Australian schools, but in the US at least, many students require students generally take approximately 40 courses to graduate, but quite a number of those courses might fall outside of the students' majors:
* A significant fraction of courses a student takes might be general education requirements, such as world history and English. Some schools require students to choose electrics that expose them to a wide range of topics outside of their major and help them to develop skills that the planners hope all college educated students can learn.
* Additionally, within the university, specific schools will require students to take courses that may not fall within a students major.
For some majors, this structure might mean that a student will take ~15 courses in their major, and another 25 courses outside of their major. So, it should not be difficult to see how one might be able to fit in an extra major, as one would have no need to repeat all of these electives.
Some schools permit students with a bachelors to transfer in, waiving a significant portion of the degree requirements, to quickly earn a second degree.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I took a double degree in Electronic Engineering and IT (Computer Science) from QUT. It required more time than either of the single degrees, and the course load was considerably higher per semester. At graduation, I received two separate degree certificates from QUT — I have two Bachelor degrees. There were some restrictions in the number of elective subjects we could take, since the core course load was higher.
Of course you need to check the course content and course load (and duration — a Bachelors degree without honours in Australia is usually three years, not four), to be certain it's right for you.
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Tags: computer-science, mathematics, degree
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thread-28756
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28756
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Reusing material from thesis proposal in final thesis
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2014-09-19T15:18:43.963
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# Question
Title: Reusing material from thesis proposal in final thesis
I'm writing my final thesis and there's a lot of material I would like to reuse from my proposal -- introductions, motivations, etc. -- and it would be nice to just copy-paste (and update a bit) entire chapters from the proposal.
But then I started to wonder what the technical status of a proposal really is. It's not archived anywhere, it's not "published" in any traditional sense. Is it a sort of first draft of the final thesis? Is it possible/legal/acceptable to reuse portions of it in the final thesis? Or is that plagiarism?
# Answer
> 9 votes
Your advisor should be able to provide you with the guidance.
In general, it is not plagiarism, and you can reuse the material. As you pointed out the proposal is not published. It is a confidential document outlining what you intended to do and is to be shared only with your committee.
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Tags: thesis, plagiarism, self-plagiarism
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thread-28670
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28670
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How do you choose a textbook for a new class
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2014-09-18T14:46:40.227
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# Question
Title: How do you choose a textbook for a new class
I am teaching a new class next term and I need to choose a text book (or create a reading list) for it. The class is a hands on introduction to programming with MATLAB. A quick search of my library's catalogue returns nearly 300 titles, 100 of which are on-line books. When you are creating a new class from scratch how do you go about choose the text book?
# Answer
These are some criteria I usually use:
1. Published within last 5-10 years, preferably in 2nd edition or beyond: This ensures the materials are reasonably up-to-date and major errors had been cleaned up.
2. Have physical and e-book versions: To tailor different types of readers.
3. The e-book version should be freely available through the institute's subscription: This is to lower the barrier for acquiring the book.
4. The titles have been commonly adopted by other syllabi: Perform a search using your course title or subject plus "syllabus" and "filetype:pdf" or "filetype:doc" will get some nice results. Sift through them and get some ideas.
5. For software book, I would also check if the publishers provide all codes and data sets online. In additions, I'd make sure the book's examples use the software with the same version that my institute has or the students have.
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Some other thoughts:
From my experience in teaching statistical software, I found that books are really not that popular. Online workshops and support websites seem to be a lot more welcomed by the students. If you can identify any of online resources, I'd at least suggest that as a secondary option.
I elaborate to students in the first class on why I chose this particular title. When I teach a class with very diverse backgrounds I also suggest some secondary books that are more specific to their interests. For instance, if I have medical and veterinarian students in my class, I may pick one software book on medical data analysis and another one on analyzing zoological/ecological data, etc.
Another thing I do to show that I am serious about the text: I often put footnotes on my notes or slides pointing students to the relevant section if they'd like to learn more and try that particular analysis/function.
Once you have found a few candidates, read the forewords. All else equal, I often prefer books that were written with a syllabus in mind. The authors usually explain that in the forewords.
Isolate the "must learn" techniques in your syllabus and make sure they are all included in the chosen text. That would make sure the texts and your teaching are coherent, and lower the chance of getting evaluation comments like "the text has nothing related to what was covered in the class."
One format that always thrills me is inclusion of self-assessments and case studies. Even I don't end up using those titles, I often borrow the case studies to make all the codes that I teach relevant to the contents.
> 10 votes
# Answer
Start with the learning outcomes, which should have been defined when the course was approved. Write a rough time line of how you would approach those learning outcomes, *i.e.* in what order would you teach things. Then begin checking the tables of contents of books that look most promising.
See Penguin\_Knight's criteria, request evaluation copies of the three that look most promising, and pick one.
> 5 votes
# Answer
Listed textbooks from other syllabus may be useful... Always check what other Prof.s have been using...
> 0 votes
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Tags: books, teaching
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thread-11737
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11737
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Hiring academics for very large industrial consulting projects - how to find an arrangement without full-time employees?
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2013-08-08T01:36:43.863
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# Question
Title: Hiring academics for very large industrial consulting projects - how to find an arrangement without full-time employees?
As described in Hiring a faculty consultant, we need to hire a faculty consultant. The initial stages are perhaps only 100 hours, but subsequent stages may blossom to ten times that.
Will good professors be able to deliver that much consulting time? Would I be better off with a grad student or postdoc - could they deliver that much time? Or with a less accomplished professor with more time on their hands?
One alternative we've considered is to hire a fresh Ph.D. looking to enter industry. The problem is that we are not ready to commit to a full time employee - it's only if we get good results in the initial stages (and our investors agree!). Is there a solution for this?
One last alternative is to work out a research arrangement, where the professor would direct some of their research towards our needs. They'd get to publish the papers (with the application details removed, but the algorithms there) and we'd get ownership of the IP and control over the research agenda. Is that an option?
# Answer
> 6 votes
Professors at *all* levels of seniority and accomplishment are very busy.
They have courses to teach, institutional committee service, and their own research programs. Neglecting any of these for any length of time can have a permanent impact on their career. Professors who are less accomplished or have fewer duties in one of these areas will typically have more in the others.
Even a professor who is very motivated to work on your project may only have a few hours per week to devote to it. One day per week would probably be a maximum. Teaching schedules are often inflexible, so it may be particularly hard for them to visit your site, especially if it is far away from their home.
Senior people (tenured full professors) may be more likely to be able to make time for your project, but they also have lots of other interests.
One thought: you might consider approaching an expert who has recently retired. They should have the time available, and may be interested in your project as a way to continue their work in the field and earn some extra income. But they also may not be interested in working a lot of hours per week, and they may demand a fairly high hourly rate (as they're probably not in desperate need of money).
Keep in mind, also, that research by its nature is very hard to predict. It may be difficult or impossible for your consultant to accurately estimate how much time they will need to solve your problem, unless it is so straightforward that they can solve it almost at once.
As far as fresh PhDs, note that a new PhD has just spent several years working long hours for low wages. It may be hard to entice them with an offer of unstable, part-time work, unless you can offer some other perks like stock options or an unusually enjoyable work environment; startups are a dime a dozen. Of course, a lot will depend on the overall strength of the job market in your industry.
Your third option ("research arrangement") doesn't strike me as particularly feasible. A major reason for being in academia is the ability to choose the direction of one's own work. I don't think you'll find many professors amenable to being told how to direct their personal research program. They not only have to publish papers, they have to publish *good* papers which are novel, interesting to the research community, and spur further work in the area. If your project doesn't lend itself to that, in the professor's view, then the right to write papers about it is useless to their career and won't be seen as a benefit. Moreover, if they're going to work on your project as part of their own research, which is on their institution's time, then you can expect the institution to get involved in any IP issues, and they often have lots of lawyers. Not to mention outside funding agencies.
# Answer
> 6 votes
Foreword: I smell a contradiction… you talk about *“very large industrial projects”*, but *“we are not ready to commit to a full time employee”*.
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You need to hire a consultant… but **why a *faculty* consultant?** In pretty much any field of science, you can find decent consultants outside academia, working in, well… **consulting firms**. From what you describe, it seems than you need a rather large amount of work done, rather rapidly, and the benefits for the academic would not be immediately clear. That doesn't align well with the constraints and career goals of most academics, as Nate Eldredge explains very nicely. However, **consultants from outside academia do not have such constraints**, and it seems like a better fit for your specific case.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Let's deal with the 'easy' part first: hiring someone for ~100 hours of consulting.
How easy or difficult this will be is going to be based on what answers you need to the questions "When can you start?" and "For how many hours are you available per week?" If you need them to be available during set hours, this will also effect the situation.
## When can you start?
Most busy/qualified/established professionals book their time out in advance, very often 3-6 months out or more. I'm not some super-in-demand expert or a professor, and yet I've turned down four offers in the last few months because I have already dedicated myself to things that would make my first availability to be summer of next year - unless it was just an amazing offer with triple the money, at which point I'd still only be available a fraction of the time for the next 3+ months.
Especially with teaching, grants, budgets, and research schedules, finding someone who could dedicate more than a few hours a week within 3-12 months will not be common.
If you only need someone for a few hours a week spread out over the next 3-4 months, you will likely have a much easier time of finding someone who is at least available and potentially interested.
## Sabbaticals, Summers, Internships, and Finding the Time
If the initial stages go well and you need hundreds of hours of consulting or extensive research, this will not fit into the schedule of a professor under normal circumstances. It's not to say it can't be done, but if the person is really interested - both by the project and by how much money they stand to make - there are a few ways to make it work.
One way is for academics who have flexibility in the summer. While senior faculty will often direct labs, summer research, and some even have teaching duties 4-5 days a week over the summer, there is still often more time that can be squeezed out for consulting than other times. If this has been arranged a year in advance, or if the person happens to have already arranged for a light/no summer load, they would potentially be available for consulting for this larger work load.
Once you start needing more than 20-40 hours a week of consulting, it is reasonable to start considering having more than one person. It would not be unheard of for a professor - especially in fields that are highly tied to industry like in technology/computer fields - to arrange for a summer internship/research project where they and their hand-chosen grad students might be available to do work.
This sort of arrangement would allow sufficient time and expertise, and allow a faculty member to get a sufficient return for their invested time - teaching, helping students, conducting applied research/work, and bringing in some extra personal wealth.
## Approach a Prospect and Be Open, Honest, and Straightforward
You have a situation where the industry lags behind the state of the art research, and you feel you have a great financial opportunity if you can close the gap - and need an expert to help you do it. That's great!
Professors and researchers are humans too, and are interested in things like making money (especially when it brings the potential for even more money), working on interesting problems, etc. If it is applying existing knowledge/research to a problem it might not result in interesting research, but this is very field-dependent as case-studies and applied techniques are standard in some fields and unpublishable in others.
Most people who have any experience in industry also understand the funding cycles are surprisingly similar to academics - you have a little bit of funding available to invest into exploration, and what happens from there depends on the results you get. So be open about this - if you know you have budget and money to pay them for the exploration phase, say so. If that phase doesn't work out then it will mean you don't expect to have any more immediate work - say so. And if it works out and you get the funding you are shooting for and will need a lot more work done - again, just say so.
Start a conversation and see where it leads. As with most professional tasks, it is not uncommon to have an offer come across your desk that just isn't something you are interested in, but perhaps you know someone who you might refer the opportunity to. Perhaps you'll find the professor who wrote the papers that attracted you to them in the first place will say that they actually don't feel they are the expert, and that actually the student they were working with would be better able to help you. Maybe they'll insist they are a package deal - you hire them and their collaborator. Perhaps they just aren't interested. Perhaps they already had a sabbatical planned and haven't 100% decided what they wanted to do, but this would fit the bill nicely...etc.
With a clear plan, seed funding in hand, and an open and honest discussion about your situation, goals, and what you can offer, most professors will be happy to take a meeting with you and discuss the matter! Few people are so busy as not to be able to talk about extra money, and most higher-level professors reserve a portion of their schedule for consulting gigs anyway (again though, this varies by field).
# Answer
> 1 votes
I think hiring a new Ph.D. to a full-time job is the best approach. For the initial consult you may be able to hire a current Ph.D. student or two to a temporary summer job. They would both be able to help you sort out if the idea is likely to pan out, and let you determine whether that person would make a good hire.
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Tags: professorship, computer-science, industry, intellectual-property, consulting
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thread-28718
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28718
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Why do principal investigators not hire grant writers?
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2014-09-19T00:23:18.877
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# Question
Title: Why do principal investigators not hire grant writers?
The success of a research-active professor is related to his successful proposals for securing research funds. For this purpose, he should spend something like half of his time for writing proposals, but still he misses several possible calls for proposals due to the lack of time while the current proposals are not idea.
To resolve this problem, many people have this idea to hire a grant writer to perfectly and quickly write/re-write proposals. I personally heard this from many junior and senior professors, but in practice I have not seen any example.
*This plan seems reasonable (the salary of a grant writer should be less than a postdoc), **but why it is not common?***
Researchers pay much more money to patent attorneys to have legally ideal text, then, why not investing on the text of proposals, which can directly enhance the chance of winning?
# Answer
Most research staff and many students are paid by grants, but most grant terms do not allow for you to pay for administrative staff or proposal writing time. So the funding has to come from the universities or departments. Most of them don't have the funds to hire a grant writer, though some do. I think most departments would rather have half the funding for another professor than a grant writer. I also think your estimate of the salary of a good grant writer in the sciences is off by large margin. The good ones, employed by institutes with large enough institutional budgets make as much as full-time researchers or professors.
> 20 votes
# Answer
To expand a bit on my comment:
* In central europe, proposal writing is one of the core jobs of **postdocs**. In that sense, we do have "professional grant writers". Postdocs write proposals sometimes in their own name, but more often they actually do it in the name of their professor, so they actually come pretty close to what you envision above.
That being said, I have never heard somebody talk in honesty about hiring an actual, dedicated full-time non-scientific employee for writing down grant proposals in the name of the professor. I would see the following problems with this model:
* **Funding.** How do you pay for this guy? The university will likely not be overly happy if you hire somebody from their budget to basically do your job, and funding agencies certainly don't cover these posts.
* **Qualifications.** Writing grant proposals is *damn hard*. Even assuming that all the ideas come from the professor, you still need to be an experienced writer. You need to know the content field to write down things technically correctly. You need to stay up to date with funding agency policies and politics. You need to have connections in the field. And asking for all of that for, as you say, a salary less than a postdoc seems very ambitious, especially if combined with the next point.
* **Perspectives.** What is the career outlook of a professional grant writer? What can you offer her/him in compensation for a relatively meager salary? This is a general problem with these kinds of "non-academic" positions at universities - there is usually no career track at all for such people.
* **Incentives.** Junior professors or postdocs are *very* motivated to write successful grant proposals, as quite literally their own professional well-being depends on them. This would be much less, or at least much less directly, the case for a professional grant writer. If you disconnect the process of writing the proposal from actually benefitting from an accepted proposal, I would assume the quality of the proposals to drop significantly.
That being said, none of these problems are unsolvable. Indeed, the big industrial players in the european funding circuit (FP7, now H2020) actually employ staff that are basically full-time proposal writers, similar to patent lawyers. However, those people are certainly not cheap clerks.
> 18 votes
# Answer
I know of a few instances of people who have been hired to handle and facilitate the grant writing process but they are hired with the title and salary of postdocs. Despite their postdoctural role, they have very few laboratory roles but serve as super lab managers who handle the finances and long-term strategy of the lab. As mentioned, the sources of funding to pay for these non-laboratory staff are limited but for larger and wealthy labs, they can typically siphon enough funds to pay for these positions.
> 1 votes
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Tags: research-process, funding
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thread-28761
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28761
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Are PhD students enrolled or hired?
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2014-09-19T16:31:08.143
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# Question
Title: Are PhD students enrolled or hired?
In most universities, PhD students are literally students similar to master students. Fellowships and scholarships only support them financially, but officially they are students.
Some European university advertise PhD open positions like a contract job (similar to research associates or postdoc). It is understandable that these funded PhD students provide some services for the university, but in the first case too, PhD students regularly provide TA and RA services, but they are still students.
Are these two schemes different in action, or difference is only in words on paper?
Do European PhD students (mentioned in the second case) have more rights or flexibility?
# Answer
At least in Germany, doctoral candidates are either employed as *Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter* (research assistants) or given stipends as "doctoral fellows."
However, regardless of how they are paid for their efforts, they must "enroll" as doctoral candidates with one of the faculties if they are to receive a degree. So, to a certain extent, they are treated like students as well, and have many of the same privileges (for instance, they are entitled to the same student benefits when they register).
So, to a certain extent, they are both; however, their employment contract, rather than student regulations, tends to be the "controlling factor" in their treatment.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Yes, the schemes are different in action. All law related to employment (e.g. taxes, eligibility for retirement and unemployment benefits) do depend on the actual status of a PhD student. It depends as well on a country, obviously.
Source: in my program (Spain) first two years are being a student and the second two - an employed researcher. Set of duties do not change (or the effective salary), but the official status (with respect to employment laws) - does.
> 2 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions
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thread-28768
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28768
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How does Erasmus programme work?
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2014-09-19T18:24:30.650
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# Question
Title: How does Erasmus programme work?
I read several documents about student/staff exchange of European Union, Erasmus, but I do not fully understand how it is in practice.
When an undergraduate student go from his university to a host university, who pays the fee? Home university or host university or European Commission?
How the limits are set? Many students are interested to go to Oxford or Cambridge (generally famous university), but a few wants to go to small universities.
# Answer
> 7 votes
First of all: there should be an Erasmus coordinator in your home institution. He or she will be able to answer these questions in more detail.
I'll try to answer your questions. However, I am not an expert, so please somebody correct me if I got something wrong.
> When an undergraduate student go from his university to a host university, who pays the fee?
I think the Erasmus programme, that is, essentially the European Union. That being said, for you as participant it should make little practical difference who actually pays for your grant in the end.
> How the limits are set? Many students are interested to go to Oxford or Cambridge (generally famous university), but a few wants to go to small universities.
I think you misunderstand how Erasmus works. First of all, your home university needs to have a specific partnership with the host university. If your university does not have a partnership with Oxford, well, then you can't go there via Erasmus. Those partnerships are usually bi-directional, so if you are at a very bad university, there is a chance that Oxford has little interest in associating with (and, consequently, sending their students to) your place. Secondly, each of those partnership agreements defines quotas (in both directions). Not everybody can go to Oxford simply because there are only a finite number of places for Oxford available. Afaik, the host institution decides who can go if there are more interested students than places available for any given period. In most places, assignment of students to places seems to be more or less on a first-come-first-served basis. However, I heard that at least in my alma mater most partnerships had more places than interested students, so in the end everybody could go.
That being said, in reality it's not places like Oxford that end up being more popular. Generally speaking, most students don't seem to select host universities based on the esteem of their academics, but rather based on weather and perceived coolness of the country.
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Tags: europe, student-exchange
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thread-28764
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28764
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help needed for contacting a supervisor for PhD
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2014-09-19T16:49:37.323
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# Question
Title: help needed for contacting a supervisor for PhD
I have done my Masters research in Microbial ecology. I am interested in stem cell research but I belong to a developing country where we don't have cutting edge research opportunities to gain hand-on experience. I have a good academic background but no research experience except undergraduate and postgraduate research. I am really willing to learn new techniques and want to change my research field to stem cell research. I am not good at convincing and presenting my point to convince a potential supervisor and show my motivation and interest.
Do I have to explain all this to the supervisor I am about to contact to make a point or straight away show my interest? I have obtained a scholarship just need acceptance and secure admission.
# Answer
> 1 votes
If you have funding, you might email him:
> Hello Professor X,
>
> I am interested in researching stem cells, and see you are an expert at researching stem cells. I am wondering if you are accepting new graduate student this application cycle?
>
> My background is QRS and also have some interests in TRV. Your paper on "MMMMM" is interesting, and wonder if your group is going to expand on that paper and if there are any opportunities in this field for graduate students if you are accepting students?
>
> It is also important to note that I have a scholarship that will fully fund my education, and thus, am looking for a place to spend this scholarship money.
>
> Thank you for your time,
>
> Marviii
Your actual email should probably be more specific and formal, but keep it brief. You are essentially a free graduate student (except time), so potential supervisors should be interested in you. Don't be modest about mentioning it.
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, advisor
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thread-28753
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28753
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What is a reasonable rate to charge for editing someone else's thesis?
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2014-09-19T13:53:58.663
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# Question
Title: What is a reasonable rate to charge for editing someone else's thesis?
I'm a PhD student in engineering. My supervisor would like to pay me to edit a colleague's thesis for grammar and form. He asked me to look around for the going rate and let him know, but I'm not really sure of what figure to go by. Some thesis editing services are run by people with PhDs in literature and charge a lot, and others are run by upper year undergraduates and only ask for a small fee. What would be a reasonable rate to charge for such service in North America?
# Answer
> 6 votes
I don't have a better estimate than http://www.the-efa.org/res/rates.php whose rates work out to about 2 cents a word for basic copy editing or about 40 dollars an hour. For a thesis which is going to be very technical, I would expect someone with relevant expertise to get more. Grammar and form, probably is close to basic copy editing, but is probably more involved than that.
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Tags: thesis, copy-editing, fees
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thread-28726
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28726
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What must one do if the time at which a conference talk was to be presented is assigned to someone else?
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2014-09-19T01:32:04.200
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# Question
Title: What must one do if the time at which a conference talk was to be presented is assigned to someone else?
I recently submitted an abstract to a talk as a contributed paper. I was informed, through email, that the paper was scheduled to be presented *in person* on XXX date. The email also said that I could look for my name on a link mentioned in the email; going to the link, I found that my name was not on the list at all. I checked it multiple times, but my name was simply not there.
I found that the time at which I was assigned to give my presentation was on the list, but with someone else's name and paper title. I assumed that this was a timing and/or update problem, and left it at that for some time. However, this was not resolved even after two days. Thus I sent an email regarding this situation to the email address that was in the email, saying that if I had any questions I could email that address. I still have not received any email, and the conference/talk is coming up in about a month. This is the very first presentation that I will be giving, and I am not sure what to do in this situation. My questions are as follows:
> * Did I deal with this situation correctly, sending an email to the "query'' email address?
> * What must I do if I do not receive an email in a few days?
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**P.S.** As it was inquired in the question, the conference that I submitted this to is the AMS Fall Sectional Meeting in San Francisco.
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**Edit:** It looks like the situation has been fixed and my name is now on the list. Thank you to all who offered me advice!
# Answer
> 5 votes
Now that you've identified the conference as the AMS Western Section meeting in San Francisco, I looked at the conference's program web site and your talk is definitely listed. It's in the Session for Contributed Papers I, Saturday October 25 at 10:30 AM in Thorton Hall room 325. (If you don't see it, try searching the web page for your name.)
Perhaps you overlooked it the first time? Or else they originally omitted it, and it has since been fixed.
# Answer
> 5 votes
I do not think this usual. How big is the conference? If it is small, it is possible that the organizers made a mistake without realizing it. Inquiring over the email was absolutely the right thing to do. I would follow up a week from your original inquiry if you don't hear back from them sooner.
# Answer
> 4 votes
## Don't run! Walk!
Keep in mind that organizing conferences usually involves a huge amount of work including organizing the received abstracts and papers, managing their reviewers, managing the conference place and preparing packages, etc. They have to solve your problem but don't expect them to answer you instantly, they may have other emails to answer. Be patient for another two or three days (if this does not disturb your deadlines and schedules).
> Did I deal with this situation correctly, sending an email to the "query'' email address?
Yes, sending the email was your only way to contact the conference. Could you travel to the city of the conference sooner to ask your question? No!
> What must I do if I do not receive an email in a few days?
I suggest you to do these things;
* Send them another email and ask your questions again;
* Search the website of the conference to see if there is another email address provided in the webpages and forward your email to them too;
* If they have any fax number, send them a fax and ask your problem;
* If there is a phone number provided, call that number too.
However, I usually do not trust a conference which does not answers it's emails and do not care about their participant's problems. At least, it's your right to contact them and consult them such problems.
Once it happened to me that I had some questions about the conference deadlines and schedule and I sent an email to the conference's contact person's email address; but they did not answer my email. They did not even answered my phone calls or another emails too (even after one or two months).
I did not send them my full paper and did not continue my application process for that conference. I simply brought out my paper from that conference. After that, I learn a very good lesson from this: I never send my papers to the conferences which are not well-known in my field.
# Answer
> 1 votes
You should definitely call the Conference organizing committee three days after sending an e-mail. They have to clarify this situation.
Be sure to have the e-mail in front of you when calling.
Your message could be lost in tons of those other complain emails from other members.
I have organized a few congresses myself and this is definitely a technical problem that the organizer has to address.
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Tags: conference
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thread-28769
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28769
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How to best start offering consulting services as a Ph.D. student?
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2014-09-19T18:38:01.207
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# Question
Title: How to best start offering consulting services as a Ph.D. student?
I'm wondering how to best start offering consulting services as a Ph.D. student? In particular, how to think about stating a consulting business while in graduate school.
A potential partner and I have skills that fill a market need. Both of us are adamant about pursuing non-academic work after the Ph.D. We both are wondering, what are we waiting for? In addition, both of us had has smaller consulting opportunities thus far (these fell in our lap), but would be looking to take this to the next level, and essentially replace our research assistantships with this work. Actually, there's no guarantee that either of us will have research assistantships next year, so it might even be a necessity.
Graduate school seems like a great time to start doing this work. Frankly, I'm unsure about how much a Ph.D. would change this opportunity for us down the road.
How would people go about navigating this while in graduate school?
In advance of the "check with your advisor or department" responses I should add two more things.
1) There's nothing in our agreement with the department or student handbook that stipulates that we can't work outside of the department while a student. It's not encouraged when you are getting a research assistantship. This would replace the assistantship.
2) We both don't feel like our advisors are adequately preparing us for non-academic careers (frankly because they have never worked outside of academia) and are fine with what this might mean for those relationships. It's more likely that they would be supportive of us stepping out of the lab and taking an untraditional route to finishing the Ph.D.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I experienced working as a consultant during a year in a PhD program.
On the upside, I earned more than my cohort was in our fully funded program.
On the downside, stepping out of a lecture to take a client's phone call was one of my experiences. Having to handle the fallout of another client's death during finals was another, when one client suddenly became several smaller ones.
I found I was losing the support of the head of the department, and I didn't like my grades.
I had confounding issues: one was that my clients and wife were in a town a 3 hour drive away from my program and another was that I was scrambling to catch up with the math required, as I underestimated the preparation required. I found the workload to be unsustainable and withdrew, enrolling in a local Masters program instead.
I'm now likely earning more than the majority of my former cohort, while not facing the stress of the publish or perish monster or dealing with undergraduates trying to understand why you gave them an F for lazy slapdash work. However, I would consider mine a cautionary tale.
I assume you want to complete your degree. To do so, you'll want the support of your department. You may underestimate their desire to see you become a hugely successful academic eventually rising to tenure at an Ivy. They may become dismayed by your desire to work in consulting.
On the other hand, there are hugely successful academics who are also very entrepreneurial consultants.
That said, you don't want your advisor or department chair to think of you as a consultant, unless that's already expected of you. Ideally, you want them to think of you first and foremost as a successful academic. I would avoid loudly publicizing your services until you finish your dissertation (which you should probably finish sooner rather than better, in alignment with this strategy).
Instead, you might profile your ideal client-type and ask your current clients that best fit that profile for introductions to similar ones, or at least to identify them for you. Then, like any sales pitch, you should do your homework on the potential clients, and go put yourself in front of them.
I wouldn't rule out the assistantship either. It likely means high quality time with a great scholar. That should align with your values, considering your current efforts at education. Don't be dishonest about your intentions, but do be discrete. I hope my advice helps.
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Tags: consulting
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thread-28771
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28771
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Is an automatic copyright transfer clause in publisher's instructions to authors typically enforced/enforceable?
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2014-09-19T18:48:26.100
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# Question
Title: Is an automatic copyright transfer clause in publisher's instructions to authors typically enforced/enforceable?
Some publishers have a clause like the following in their author instructions:
> Submission of a manuscript implies... that if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to automatic transfer of the copyright to the publisher.
I found many instances of this among disreputable publishers. But I was surprised to also see this policy at more than one Springer journal and a handful of other, reasonably reputable, venues.
I was also surprised, because we occasionally get questions here about withdrawing a paper after acceptance. The first thing we ask them is generally, "Have you signed a copyright transfer yet?" with the implication that before signing anything, you still hold the copyright to the submitted work.
So, what exactly *is* the automatic transfer of copyright referred to above?
Has this been enforced, traditionally? Is it even enforceable, generally speaking?
Or is it just a clause that some sketchy publishers put in there to deceive authors into believing that they don't have the right to withdraw their paper from the journal after acceptance?
# Answer
> 5 votes
A lawyer would be best suited to answer this, but as I have had several business law classes as part of my business education, I'll hold forth based on my understanding of intellectual property and contract law in an educational context.
The answer would be yes, that it should be generally enforceable.
Laws vary by state even in the United States, but in general, qualities that can make a contract unenforceable are:
* Lack of capacity of the parties (legal age, sound minds, etc.)
* Fraud or misrepresentation
* Violation of public policy
None of the above apply to our situation (unless, for example, we have a precocious or senile scholar).
Enforceable contracts also require:
* Consideration (exchange of something of value)
* Meeting of the Minds (mutual agreement of terms)
* Offer and Acceptance
Now let's analyze these requirements. Is there mutual exchange of value? The journal appears to offer that in exchange for copyright, the author gets to be published in a prestigious journal. Does the author agree at the time of offer and acceptance? Then we have an enforceable contract.
So this brings to light a strategy for attempting to retain copyrights of your work. Insist by striking through such language in a contract and make a statement that you, the author, retain copyright, and put your initials by the alteration. If the contract is in electronic form, communicate this through email just prior to and just after submitting your request electronically.
If they do not object, and rather, accept your submission, I would assert that you have established that any possible claim by them to your work is either completely unenforceable (certainly, in the case of a written contract) or (in either case) liable to cost them a great deal in legal fees to pursue.
# Answer
> 1 votes
To my knowledge, in the US, copyright transfers must be specific to the work in question and in writing in order to be legitimate. The hard part is whether the language covers your submission and is included in some terms of service to which you agreed. I have my doubts that a general statement saying that anything you submit automatically implies transfer would hold up in court. Such a statement doesn't properly identify the work being transferred, and "I agree" in this case probably doesn't count as a signature. I'm not saying that electronic signatures can't be done, but go look at the IEEE Copyright Form (PDF) for an example of one that's been created in good faith by a professional society.
# Answer
> -4 votes
My personal opinion only here. It is a problem that has arisen in the last few years as publishers have started to realize that nobody reads printed journals. They want to be able to charge for access to the online versions, and seem to think the only way to do this is by taking copyright from the authors. This is an issue at, e.g., US National Labs, where the US government owns the copyright and has no intention of signing it over to a publisher (US or not).
I view it as a particularly irritating, but ultimately temporary, problem. The moment any publisher goes after an author for hosting a copy of their own publication it will be widely known and the publisher will suffer. But until the lawyers figure it all out we will have to fight back.
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Tags: paper-submission, copyright, disreputable-publishers, legal-issues
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thread-28784
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28784
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How do graduate schools evaluate GPA?
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2014-09-20T07:00:04.440
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# Question
Title: How do graduate schools evaluate GPA?
I am wondering how graduate schools like Stanford, Berkeley, Caltech, and MIT evaluate the GPA?
Because you can boost your GPA by taking easy classes and in the application it only says enter your GPA. Do they consider classes students have taken? Do they consider whether course are challenging or not?
# Answer
> 6 votes
## As a filter.
The main purpose of asking for GPA in grad school admissions is to quickly weed out people (like me) who have actually low GPAs. Nobody is admitted to top PhD programs solely on the basis of their GPA, or even primarily on the basis of their GPA. Other factors, including which classes you took, are more important.
If you have a high GPA, but no evidence of research potential, you will not be admitted.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, gpa
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thread-28792
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28792
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Statement of purpose: One-for-all or one-to-one?
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2014-09-20T12:30:53.043
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# Question
Title: Statement of purpose: One-for-all or one-to-one?
This question is about statement of purpose (s.o.p).
I am not sure that whether it is advisable to write exactly one s.o.p. for all the schools or to write for each school exactly one s.o.p.? Does this really matter? Would the reviewers of a school judge applicants by their understanding of the school?
I really need judicious suggestions.
# Answer
I assume you are talking about a document that is part of your application to universities (e.g. for a PhD), which would be called a research statement here in the UK. Then the answer is simple: you want to maximise your chances of each application. So invest the extra effort and make individual documents to maximise your chances.
Different departments have different priorities, so you want to emphasise how your plans fit to the research agenda of each place you are applying to. While it may be convenient to send the same SOP to each place, you can show that you have researched the place you are applying to and at least modify the SOP to fit to the place you are applying to.
> 2 votes
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Tags: phd, application, statement-of-purpose
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thread-28715
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28715
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Can a department disallow a student-advisor pairing in order to distribute PhD students evenly among faculty?
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2014-09-18T23:32:49.227
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# Question
Title: Can a department disallow a student-advisor pairing in order to distribute PhD students evenly among faculty?
When a department enrolls x number of students based on the capacity of the department and its professors, the ideal desire is fair distribution of PhD students among faculty members. However, students are attracted to attractive professors (by different factors such as fame, personality, etc), and there should be less or no request for some faculty members.
Assuming a student and advisor mutually agree that they would like to work together, but the department would rather have the student work with another faculty member who is short on PhD students. Can the department limit the number of students that may work with each faculty member, so that new PhD students will be distributed among faculty?
In a hypothetical situation, there are 10 PhD students, and 10 faculty members. Can the department set the limit of one PhD student per faculty to ideally distribute the students among faculty members?
*Note:* This question is not about the cases in which a candidate specifically apply for working under supervision of a specific professor (due to the admission system or funding source).
# Answer
> 6 votes
Questions like this show the importance of understanding the perspective of faculty members.
**Can** a department tell a student and advisor not to work together? Who knows. It will come down to the department.
But it is much more likely the other faculty would try (in private) to convince a "greedy" faculty member not to accept so many students. Faculty have a longer perspective than students - students graduate in a few years, but tenured faculty usually stay at their institution far longer, with the same colleagues. So there is usually more risk for a faculty member who harms their relationship with their colleagues, compared to just turning down possible students. There will always be new PhD students next year... At the same time, if a faculty member *really* wants to work with a particular student, no other faculty member is likely to want to "steal" the student.
What about the hypothetical situation from the question?
* It would be extremely unusual for a department with 10 PhD students and 10 faculty to tell the 10 faculty that they each have to find one student, and none of them can take 2 students.
* It would also be unusual for one faculty member of the 10 to work with all 10 students.
What happens in most cases is that the students naturally gravitate towards faculty they like, and faculty who don't feel they have enough students will make more effort to be friendly and reach out to possible students. If a faculty member doesn't want to work with a student, or a student doesn't want to work with a faculty member, they don't work together. In the end, the students all find mentors, although it may take some students more than one attempt.
The situation is different, of course, when students are required to select an advisor while applying to the university, because then there is no doubt who each student will work with.
# Answer
> 3 votes
My graduate department had exactly such a policy. In part, this was because they had a few "really big names" who would be able to grab a number of students each year. The basic rule was that no advisor could take more than two sole-advised students in a given year.
There were some exceptions made to this rule. First, new faculty advisors could get three students, and co-advised students were exempted. From the students' perspective, faculty members could not formally commit to specific students. Instead, students submitted ranked lists of projects and advisors submitted ranked preferences of students. The department then tried to match people and projects within the above constraints.
This seemed to work well enough, as I never heard of anyone who got less than their second-ranked project.
# Answer
> 1 votes
This unfortunately happens in many institutions, and not just to distribute students evenly among faculty (sometimes it may be to distribute students evenly among areas covered by the department, or to get enough students to run research projects/labs that are cash cows for the department). I have known numerous cases of students leaving without a PhD because they could not work with the advisors they were assigned.
One issue is funding: a professor with funding will automatically get a student if that funding is the (only) source of support for that student. However, office politics and biases/preconceptions on the part of grad program administrators, department heads, or deans does play a part. Another issue is that students' interests do evolve over time, but not every department/institution respects this. Sometimes the policy is that a student is paired with an advisor early on (before the student is mature enough), with no scope for change later.
In general, it is good to ask of an institution or department if it has a formal and well-defined procedure for a change of advisor. If not, the chances are that students are locked-in, probably from the beginning, possibly without their own wishes being considered.
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Tags: phd, advisor
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thread-28797
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28797
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Same data, new method, same outcome – can I publish it?
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2014-09-20T13:45:49.720
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# Question
Title: Same data, new method, same outcome – can I publish it?
I applied a new method to a data set, which had already been analyzed in a research paper. My method is generally considered better, but it only slightly modifies the results and does not affect the conclusion of the paper aside from improving the accuracy of results by a small amount. The paper is about a classification problem.
Is it possible to write a research paper about this?
# Answer
> 8 votes
I'd say it is difficult to answer this question in general. You should ask yourself if you are contributing something significantly novel to the academic discussion. For example, if you reanalyse the dataset and get completely different or new results, then it is probably worth publishing. On the other hand, if you only slightly modify the statistical method and arrive at the same results, it is probably not worth it. Before beginning the analysis, you could ask yourself if this dataset is particularly big or of good quality or if there are other, better datasets out there (in which case a reanalysis of this particular one might be unproductive).
To give an example, in the UK there have been many papers on the effectiveness of breast cancer screening that essentially analysed the same dataset using different methods. These methods were fairly complex and the various approaches have significantly advances our understanding of the advantages and possible detriments of breast cancer screening. In this case, publishing multiple papers was justified.
# Answer
> 8 votes
In the bioinformatics field, for example, it is perfectly acceptable to use the same dataset for a publication demonstrating the analysis using a different method. There are (at least) two possibilities:
* Both the dataset and the method are not novel, but applying the new method on the dataset results in novel insight about the studied system. An example could be two recent papers in PNAS. In one a dataset and some statistical analysis approach was used to demonstrate divergent inflammatory responses in mouse and human. In the second paper other group used the same dataset with some other (not novel) methods to demonstrate the contrary.
* The dataset is not new but the method is novel. This case is very common in Bioinformatics and aims to use a dataset for which the outcome is relatively well known. It could also be used to demonstrate how the new method leads to novel insight.
I would stress that in the first case the *new insight* aspect has more weight as neither the dataset or the method are novel. In the second case this is not so important, as far as the new method results in some other advantage.
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Tags: data, publishability
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thread-28665
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28665
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Walk up and talk to random people at academic conferences - is that appropriate?
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2014-09-18T14:04:47.830
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# Question
Title: Walk up and talk to random people at academic conferences - is that appropriate?
As a graduate student, I am relatively new to my community. From my point of view, the best approach to get to know new people is randomly walking around and start conversations (with anyone, no matter what age or known/unknown). But is that appropriate at academic conferences? How do established researchers think about that?
I am asking because in my previous conference visits, I often felt that people are annoyed or not interested when I just walked up and started a conversation. What would be better approaches for getting to know the community?
# Answer
Absolutely. It helps, though, to be a little context sensitive.
If you've just come from an amazing presentation and want to talk about it to someone else, then "did you just hear that great talk by/about X?" is a good way to start the conversation, better than just "Hello" or "Great conference, eh?"
If you know who the person is (they're speaking, you recognize them, etc), then greeting them ("Hi Kate," or "good morning, Dr. Gregory," according to your industry norms) and introducing yourself with context ("I'm Susan, I really enjoyed your book") is a fine first sentence but please, *have a second sentence ready.* After the person says "thankyou, that's very kind," what will happen next? A question is good here - perhaps there's something you've always wanted to ask - or you could go back to your opener for a complete stranger, "did you just hear that great talk by/about X?"
Never open with something negative - "were you in that stinker of a session? Wasn't it the most boring thing ever?" - is right up there with the friend of mine who asked someone at a wedding "who is that obnoxious fat woman in the flowered dress and why is she even here?" only to be told "that's my mother."
My biggest problem with conference conversations is when someone wants to have a conversation with me but doesn't actually have anything to say. That puts all the conversational effort on me and it's hard work. Should you find yourself in this situation, have a selection of questions you can ask:
* is this your first time at \[this conference\]? (don't ask an industry luminary, or a speaker, this question)
* are you enjoying the conference so far?
* what is your favourite talk so far? (not good the morning of Day 1)
* is there a particular session you're really looking forward to?
It's a little trickier to ask questions outside the scope of the conference, like "where are you from" or "where do you work?" because they often contain assumptions - you might assume someone is a student who has graduated, or is a prof when they aren't yet, or is in a lab when they are not, and it's possible to offend someone. So don't lead off with these. Often, stating your own circumstances is a way to prompt the other person to respond in kind: "I flew here from just outside Toronto. You?" or "I'm doing/finishing a Ph.D/postdoc/intership at ABC. You?" though again be careful if the person thinks you should know this thing about them, or if it's on their badge. You usually want to get a paragraph or two into conversation before discussing "real life" rather than the conference.
Well chosen questions not only move the conversation along, they can meet your other goals. Maybe you'll decide to attend a session you hadn't planned to. Maybe you'll learn about a great book or other resource related to something you enjoyed. Maybe you'll be invited to something, or exchange business cards, or al those other benefits of networking at conferences. None of those things can happen if you just say "hi" and leave it at that, the other person says "hi" and then the two of you stand there awkwardly, wondering why you're not having a conversation.
I read and enjoyed a book called How to Work a Room that emphasizes knowing what you want from encounters like this. Are you trying to find a job? Hire someone? Learn more about something? Tell people what you've discovered? For every want you bring to that conference, someone else brings the matching one and if you two find each other you will both be happy - but only if you tell them what you're looking for and what you have to offer. This is a skill you can learn, and marching up to strangers and saying "hi" is only the first step.
> 124 votes
# Answer
In general, this is perfectly appropriate behavior at a conference.
However, people differ. Not everybody wants to small-talk with people they do not know. Some people see no "value" in talking to younger students (clearly, this is a short-sighted view). As such, you should not take it personally if somebody does not want to talk to you. Maybe it is in fact them, and not you.
That being said, it also depends a bit on (a) what the person you are chatting up is currently doing, and (b) what you actually say after starting to talk. Most people will be annoyed when you interrupt them while doing something else. Also, clearly, most people will have little interest in talking to you when what you say isn't very interesting.
> 24 votes
# Answer
Yes, it is appropriate to walk to random people at a conference. (At least I do it often; all in all, conferences are to learn new people / network in the same field.)
Of course, you cannot expect everyone wanting to talk with you: there are personal preferences, some people are waiting to discuss with someone else (or just want to rest from talking :)), some want to "climb" and are more interested in talking with superiors, sometimes the conversations do not "clicks" for them.
> 19 votes
# Answer
If the conference is quite small, then accosting random strangers is probably appropriate. For larger conferences, I'd recommend a more targeted approach: have a specific question or reason why you're interested in talking with this person.
> 9 votes
# Answer
As most of the others have said, talking to new faces is not only appropriate, it should even be encouraged. After all, that's one of the main reasons for holding and attending conferences: to network, mingle, and meet new people.
However, you said that people you've talked to seem "annoyed," which made me wonder if something else is at work here. I've never been to a conference that discouraged people from meeting new acquaintances or exchanging business cards, so why would you be having trouble?
Remember, there's a right way and a wrong way to do just about anything. Timing is key. I don't start conversations with "random" people, but I do initiate plenty of conversations with people I haven't met before. The difference is subtle; I left out the word "random," because "random" could mean I'm not being receptive to when it's a good time or place to start a conversation, and when it might not be.
For example, one good place to start a cold turkey conversation with a stranger is at a conference lunch. I often start conversations when I'm sitting at one of those round tables that seat about 10. Look for a table that doesn't have people who seem to be from the same university already engaged in a lively conversation. Instead, find a quieter table where people are just staring silently at the centerpiece.
Another thing that should be said – this may not apply to you, but it may apply to someone in your same situation – is to practice good hygiene. Even the most amiable social butterflies at the conference may give you the cold shoulder if you have bad breath or body odor. (Take advantage of the vendors in the exhibit hall who are passing out mints for conference swag.)
Practice good manners as well. Make a good first impression. Be positive, curious, polite, and friendly; don't come across as someone lonely in the field seeking a mentor. I'm not sure why you put this quote in your question:
> *I am not famous so there is no value for others in getting to know me*
but it's not a very positive attitude for starting a conversation. (It also devalues the work of anyone at the conference who isn't famous – which is probably about 90% of the conferencegoers).
Lastly, manage your expectations. Don't expect every conversation to go into a lot of depth. Some people may have other things on their mind.
> 9 votes
# Answer
If you're trying to meet people, one good approach is to go to the poster session and talk to poster authors. Assuming it's a good conference for your specialization, you will likely find some posters that are interesting: then you can strike up a conversation with the poster author. You can also talk to other people looking at the same poster, if they look interested in one you're also interested in.
> 7 votes
# Answer
If anyone you know is also attending the conference, and has been there or otherwise interacted with the community before, ask them to introduce you to some other attendees. My advisor makes a point of doing this for new students at one of our biggest annual conferences, so that we recognize the big names of the field in person, and so that they have some idea who we are if we interact with them later on.
> 6 votes
# Answer
It's appropriate, although you have to be a bit careful about how you go about it.
If you're junior, one way is to walk up to more senior people and let *them* start talking to you (instead of you to them).
Another point is "not to change the subject." So if everyone is talking about the subject matter, you might not want to talk about the conference, and vice-versa.
Basically, you want to be a good "audience" until you are accepted into the group. Then you can start worrying about being a good "talker," or about what to say.
> 4 votes
# Answer
The prior answers are fine as far as they go, but maybe address substance as well as form? You are putting yourself out there for a reason and it is not for the small talk or facial recognition. You are there to network and protect your future or you would just soak up the academic content of the presentations and go back to planning your first IPO. This is a total package we are discussing.
Before approaching anyone, know what are you asking for and what you have to offer in return? When starting a career you are beginning a long-haul cold-calling sales job and the product is you. Times are tough and new grad working cash register to make ends meet (or even abandoning a career) has become a sick cliche now that technical jobs can be instantly exported to the lowest bidder overseas regardless of which continent you happen to be standing on.
Your opening salvo is a crowbar to get your foot in the door. Your crowbar will be seen as such so keep it friendly and subtle. Be prepared with a business card and a thirty-second speech, or a C.V. (and maybe a thesis) on a USB stick for a good prospect, or a short discussion of your interests and the potential business venture you are considering, or the current football score if all else fails. You want them to have a good impression of your professionalism and you want them to relate their own experiences to yours.
Professional conferences can be fun but not like the more casual atmosphere college students experience on campus, not even at an academic conference on campus. Professional decorum is mandatory (even in Silicon Valley).
As you work the room, track your performance mentally in real time, or better yet, also in a notebook offline, and hone your networking tactics and strategy based on your results. If you are not paying attention you could repeat the same mistakes forever. For best results you want people to like, respect, and maybe fear you as a potential competitor a little in order to capture their attention, and what you want them to remember about you is how they can benefit from knowing you.
In this modern era of the revolving door through government and rampant legal corruption of politics with corporate money, the 'little guy' is a splat waiting to happen (even in academia). Be aware that powerful hidden forces are moving through the room. The higher up the ladder those you reach out to, the more powerful those forces, and they might not have your welfare at heart. Think Hollywood drama on steroids without the fiction.
The way people respond is highly dependent upon your personal appearance. This affects everyone regardless of sex or attractiveness. If your appearance has built-in clash due to poor sense of image, you will not be taken seriously no matter how good your pitch is or how much your clothes cost. Think frumpy little old lady in bright red lipstick and flowered hat with a bow versus sleek professional model. Tart yourself up appropriately and people will respond better to you. Your investment will pay off as you avoid wasting money on apparel that hang in your closet forever unused.
You can buy your way into a professional look with an image consultant, but you can also learn it for free from books. In this discipline people are classified by 'season' (spring, summer, fall, winter) according to bone structure, geometry, coloring, and personality etc. It is purely an abstract concept that has nothing to do with the weather but rather how people as products of nature tend to reflect the traits found in nature. Everyone has a unique set of colors, textures, shapes, patterns, and style that 'harmonize' with their body and personality. For example, a 'spring' has small symmetrical geometrical patters such as circles squares and triangles with small bone structure versus a 'fall' that has large irregular shapes and a strong bone structure and both tend toward greens and yellows as opposed to reds and blues. Image consultants are trained to recognize such characteristics and advise you on how to take advantage of your personal attributes.
If you develop a personal interest in someone, well, be careful. It could be the best time of your life or it could ruin you. Be sure you know the risks you are taking, and why, before committing yourself. Times change. Tomorrow your suspended sentence for drunk driving her home might force you out of your profession and your nude pictures on the Internet could ruin your life forever.
I know of no one who got anywhere without some rough patches. Dare to be bold and maybe it will pay off. Happy hunting.
> -3 votes
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Tags: conference, etiquette, networking
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thread-26235
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26235
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Is there an affordable way for non-students to subscribe to multi-journals/archives?
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2014-07-22T13:32:34.323
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# Question
Title: Is there an affordable way for non-students to subscribe to multi-journals/archives?
As a student I had free access to thousands of scholarly articles through my universities in databases/archives such as JSTOR, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, Econlit, PubMed, etc, etc.
With no subscription, glancing at the full text of any 1 article costs anywhere from $20 to $60.
For any one project or paper I'd use at least five to ten papers and I'd skim over the full text of many more. For a meta-analysis of the literature, I'd go over dozens and perhaps even over a hundred papers.
As a non-student the cost is extremely prohibitive to continue reading past the free abstracts. I don't want to pirate the papers or give up reading them, but I can't find any reasonable alternatives.
Does anyone know of any monthly subscription I could sign up for to give me student-like/institutional access to papers?
> **Note:**
> A community wiki answer has been added to this question to provide a list of solutions to the problem.
# Answer
A month after asking this question I randomly stumbled onto the type of solution which I was originally seeking -- open-market subscription based access to multiple journals and full-text article links from sources such as Google Scholar, PubMed, EconLit, etc.
While searching for full text access to an article on Manufactured Environmental Toxins in umbilical cords I noticed that one of the full text options was through a service called DeepDyve.
It claims to be the "Spotify of Academic articles" (Spotify is a popular Internet radio app that lets you download and play music at will if you subscribe). Here is a somewhat dated review from Ohio State's TechTip a la 2009. It's a $40/mo subscription plan for non-students like the institutional access you get within academia. I'm on a 2-week trial of it now.
Of course, I'm still going to continue to make use of many of the other good suggestions and I'm on the lookout for other services like this to select from.
**USE WITH ADDITIONAL SOLUTIONS**
In addition to the service I found, I'm taking advantage of several other solutions offered. Even with the subscription-based service there are many papers and journals to which I do not have access and the follow suggestions remain vital:
* Many papers are freely available on authors' websites, and pre-print servers (use search engine to find those).
* Write to the authors, asking for copies. Majority of academics are happy when their work is read, and will send you a copy.
* Your public library might subscribe to more than you suspect. Check it out.
* Many institutions grant library privileges to alumni, which might include remote access to the university's online subscriptions. You might get in touch with the librarian at your alma mater and ask if they offer such a thing. (In some cases you might be required to join the alumni association and pay dues, but this would probably be on the order of US$10-$100 per year.)
* Many universities open their libraries to the public. If you live near any university or college that has appropriate subscriptions, you may be able to just walk into their library, sit down at a computer, and download the articles you want. Then just put them on a USB drive, upload them to a cloud storage account, or email them to yourself. For older articles that aren't online, the library may have them in bound volumes; they may not let you check them out, but you can photocopy or scan any article you want.
**LIMITATIONS OF THIS SOLUTION**
The subscription-based service isn't a perfect solution. @J.Zimmerman points out that, unlike institutional access, you do not have the right to print or download papers. It's "read-only" access.
The selection of journals is quite large, but still limited. My feeling is that it directly provides access to about the same selection you'd have with most universities, but unlike universities there's no inter-library loan or other work-around for when you do not have access.
**AFTERWORD**
As I use this solution more over the course of the next few days I'll update this solution with further limitations and I'll better integrate it with the other useful solutions which have been posted. I will also take a suggestion from the comments to make this a Community Wiki solution.
Finally, I will also be on the look-out for any competing services like DeepDyve. Please update this solution if you know of any, so that we're not inadvertantly providing an advertisement for one arbitrary commercial service.
> 18 votes
# Answer
* Many papers are freely available on authors' websites, and preprint servers (use search engine to find those).
* Write to the authors, asking for copies. Majority of academics are happy when their work is read, and will send you a copy.
* Your public library might subscribe to more than you suspect. Check it out. When I was a student in a community college, my local public library subscribed to JSTOR for example.
* Become a student or an academic again :-)
> 66 votes
# Answer
To add to Boris Bukh's suggestions:
* Many institutions grant library privileges to alumni, which might include remote access to the university's online subscriptions. You might get in touch with the librarian at your alma mater and ask if they offer such a thing. (In some cases you might be required to join the alumni association and pay dues, but this would probably be on the order of US$10-$100 per year.)
* Many universities open their libraries to the public. If you live near any university or college that has appropriate subscriptions, you may be able to just walk into their library, sit down at a computer, and download the articles you want. Then just put them on a USB drive, upload them to a cloud storage account, or email them to yourself. For older articles that aren't online, the library may have them in bound volumes; they may not let you check them out, but you can photocopy or scan any article you want.
* Institutional access to subscriptions is usually based on IP address - all computers on the campus's network have access. So if you still have a computer account at your alma mater, you may be able to log into it and fetch articles through there. You may even be able to set up a proxy/tunnel/VPN or something similar to let you browse from your own computer but have requests routed through your university account. For instance, if you have a Unix shell account, this is easily done with an ssh tunnel (but the details are beyond the scope of this site).
* If you have a friend who's still a student or faculty at your alma mater or elsewhere, you could ask them to download the occasional article for you. (This is probably not helpful for your 100-paper meta-analysis, unless they're a really good friend.)
Unfortunately, as you've probably discovered, personal subscriptions are usually prohibitively expensive, and may have to be purchased individually for each journal, or at least each publisher.
> 59 votes
# Answer
* Depending on where you are, you may have access through government-funded agencies (similar to public libraries).
E.g. in Germany, the DFG purchases national licenses for quite a number of journals, and you can register for that as individual (technically, it works via the university library of Frankfurt)
* Your library may be able to get the paper via inter-library loan for less than the direct purchase costs.
* Not only universities, but also research instutes have libraries. These are often connected to library networks and may have access to quite a number of journals. In my experience, even if you cannot become member of that library, it is often possible to go there and read journals they have (including making a copy) as well as download papers they have electronic access to.
> 7 votes
# Answer
If you are in the UK, then you may be able to get access through your local public library.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I believe the answer is fairly simple here. The subscription that you may be looking for may not be a specialized article service, but rather the university itself.
Just find a university that has a good network, and register to do a course there. I believe some universities allow you to sign up for a single course, evening school or for a parttime scholarship, significantly reducing the costs.
Of course you will need to check the legal requirements, but as long as you use your access for academic research I think you should be ok.
> 3 votes
# Answer
It turns out that a related survey was posted this week in this PLOS blog post on how paleontologists access the (non-open access) literature:
> I put together an informal, non-scientific survey. The survey asked questions about how people access the literature, the kinds of journals they can access most easily, and basic demographics. I advertised the survey via Twitter and Facebook. I wouldn’t count it as a scientific sample by any means, but I do feel that I got reasonably good coverage of various types of paleontologists at various types of institutions (as well as non-paleontologists who follow the literature). 115 individuals responded, during the course of about a week.
> 3 votes
# Answer
You could also check out Academia.edu which encourages users to upload papers that are then made available for free to that community.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Depending on your field, the answer can also be to join a professional organization and subscribe to their digital library. As an example from my field, members of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) can purchase an annual subscription to the digital library, with access to every paper ever published in any of their publications, for $99. I imagine other fields may have similar deals.
> 2 votes
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Tags: publications, journals, literature, digital-libraries
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thread-28787
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28787
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Is it popular to request TA presence in the classroom for all lectures & is it right?
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2014-09-20T09:08:23.563
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# Question
Title: Is it popular to request TA presence in the classroom for all lectures & is it right?
A Professor normally send his TA to conduct some sessions of his course (e.g., for problem solving).
It is also possible to ask the TA to attend all sessions to keep the track of the course. This is helpful if the TA is responsible for reading the essays of students, as he can be aware of discussions in the class.
*How much the second scheme is popular?*
Is it right to force a TA to stay and listen to the basic topics? When someone provide TA service for a course, he knows that topic well, and it is boring to sit and listen it again.
# Answer
> 18 votes
Yes, attending lectures or other class sessions is a reasonable duty for a TA. Of course, if your contract specifies a maximum number of weekly hours to work, time spent attending the lectures would count toward those hours.
Keep in mind that even though you may be familiar with the basic material, the professor may feel it would be helpful for you to see the same presentation that the students are getting, so that your teaching will be consistent with his.
If you don't agree that this is the best use of your time, and there are more productive ways you could spend that time, then you could certainly suggest to the professor that you try something else. (Be polite about it - I would avoid using the word "force".) But ultimately it is his decision - he is the boss and you are being paid to work under his direction.
# Answer
> 3 votes
This is institution-dependent, at least in the US.
When I was a grad TA, it was written into our union contract that we would attend the lecture. Some people didn't, but it was generally expected that the TA's would go, and I went.
My first occasion supervising TA's, at a different university, I asked them "You'll be attending my lectures, right?" I may as well have asked them to bring me coffee every morning and shine my shoes.
I'd recommend finding out what the norm is at your institution, and following it. In particular, don't try to require lecture attendance of your TA's if the graduate director won't back you up.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I see the TAing as a time of apprenticeship and learning how to be a professional scholar. I require my TAs to attend all of my lectures -- and I also require them to visibly take notes.
The undergraduates often want to address issues raised in lecture. I do not go strictly by the book and on occasion deviate considerably into a tangential area. Without knowing what is going on, how will the TAs handle the students' questions in section?
And the reason I require the TAs to take notes and not to noodle around on their computer is that they are setting an example of professional behavior in the classroom. If the undergrads see the TA wasting time on StackExchange the entire class period, the students will also feel free to go to FaceBook, etc.
If a TA has an issue with this, I would suggest that they talk with the department registrar and find another TA assignment more to their liking.
# Answer
> 0 votes
I think it's best to leave this to the TA's discretion in many cases. Professors ought to respect the fact that TAs may be deeply immersed in their thesis research, and really need to have enough time for that.
This may depend a lot on the academic field, though.
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Tags: teaching-assistant
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thread-28820
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28820
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Do publications in machine learning help for admissions into a statistics PhD program?
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2014-09-21T01:45:08.197
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# Question
Title: Do publications in machine learning help for admissions into a statistics PhD program?
I am an undergraduate mathematics student who is looking to apply to a Statistics Phd program. I am published, however, my publication is in applied machine learning. While the paper does not contain any theoretical developments, the foundations of machine learning are very statistical in nature. I posed this question to a two professors the responses were the following:
> The fact you are published is excellent, this shows ability to do research. This is an important factor when applying to a program.
and
> They won't care at all. If someone is applying to a stat program, would I care if they have publication in say, History? or Literature? The publication will not hurt, but they likely won't even care. If it were in a statistics journal, they would.
To clarify both professors knew that the publication was in machine learning and that I am applying to a stat program.
**Which answer seems more accurate? Would the publication be a big plus or just ignored?**
# Answer
> 5 votes
**It is difficult to give a "global" answer to this question.**
There is a very wide variety of PhD programs in statistics throughout the world, so much so that the overlap between two given programs can end up being surprisingly small.
The closest thing to a short answer is: **Yes, it helps.** (Or, should!)
Now, for some nuances.
**Any scholarly peer-reviewed publication should be viewed favorably**. Obviously, the closer your publications are to the field that you're applying to, the more weight they are likely to receive. People – even academics – tend to go with what they know and are familiar with. If the journal/conference is recognizable to them, then that will help, but it's not a prerequisite.
If, for example, you apply to any top-tier PhD programs in statistics, you'll mostly be competing against other applicants with undergraduate degrees in mathematics, so a publication in a reputable journal/conference can help set you apart.
Personally, I disagree with your second professor: I'd be very happy to see a publication in history or literature (or whatever) *if accompanied by an otherwise strong application*. But, I may also be in the minority there.
**It depends on the departments you apply to.** Many statistics departments in the US, e.g., have become increasingly attuned to the overlap in statistics, machine learning, and computer science, in general, over the last many years. Some have very active research groups in this area and regularly interact (and collaborate) with machine-learning researchers from other departments and publish in NIPS, ICML, JMLR and other like venues. And, some departments simply have more active research programs, generally speaking, than others.
Applying to departments that have focused research programs in statistical machine learning will improve the chance that your publication will be given greater weight, especially if it is published in a high-profile venue. Other departments that are either more traditional or have different research foci may weigh such a publication differently. In any event, you should try to be aware of how well aligned your interests are to those of the departments you're applying to, assuming your interests are at all well-defined at this stage.
**Talk about your research**. If your application includes a personal research statement of some sort, discuss your work and describe the statistical content in a concise, matter-of-fact way. If it genuinely led to your interest in applying to PhD programs in statistics, then you can describe this as well, but it should be natural and not forced.
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Tags: publications, phd, graduate-admissions, mathematics
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thread-28790
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28790
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How would a collective recommendation letter from co-workers be perceived for admissions to MFA requiring work experience?
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2014-09-20T11:37:53.510
|
# Question
Title: How would a collective recommendation letter from co-workers be perceived for admissions to MFA requiring work experience?
I am planning to apply to an MFA program in product design, and one of the admissions requirements is having at least 1 year of work experience.
My office is structured pretty horizontally (so, nobody is nobody's boss and we're all equals). We also do all our work collaboratively, in the open. I'm wondering if submitting a letter of recommendation written collectively by my entire team would make a statement to the admissions committee of this type of program.
Have any of you seen this? If any of you have been in charge of admitting students, what's your reaction?
# Answer
> 1 votes
I had a "co-written" letter of recommendation when I was applying to graduate schools. I thought it was fine, and it was also somewhat unique, as did the people reviewing the application. The interviewer for one of the programs to which I was applying said that in two decades, he had never gotten such a letter before. So your letter will definitely stand out. However, there was also the comment that the letter was a bit strange and came across a bit "gimmicky."
I might recommend instead that you have one of your colleagues "officially" write the letter, and have the letter state that his co-workers (and name them!) also contributed to the content of the letter.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, masters, recommendation-letter
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thread-28840
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28840
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Can I take a year off during a masters program?
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2014-09-21T17:02:22.713
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# Question
Title: Can I take a year off during a masters program?
I am a second year part-time masters degree student at NYU, with a full time job. My life is pretty simple and boring in NY. I was looking for opportunities, and yesterday it happened. I was accepted as an "intern" for one of Hillary Clinton's organizations in some other state. And there is this other organization that will be financially supporting me for 6 month. Later, I am expected to get a part/full time job there. This is life time opportunity, big adventure, lots of sacrifice and commitment..
My question is: Can I take a year off during grad school in order to be able to work full time in some other state?
# Answer
> 3 votes
As Bill Barth suggests, you really need to check with your department and institutional policies. Every school, and often departments in the same school, can have very different policies.
The fact that you're a master's student, and therefore presumably enrolled in classes rather than actively conducting research, probably will make things easier, as leaves of absence are less disruptive during coursework than in research (for instance, it's harder to "postpone" a grant for a project to enable a student to take a semester or year off).
# Answer
> 1 votes
Ask, then trust but verify. There are schools, including mine, that assume you've "dropped out" if you fail to register for a relatively small number of consecutive terms.
So, there are two considerations. The program has to be willing to let you take the time off *and also* you have to fulfill the policies of the institution with regard to consecutive terms in residence.
Get it all in writing. (For the latter consideration, it's probably in the catalog.)
# Answer
> 1 votes
Regarding the *should you* that Moriarty stated, what is the likelihood that you'll return should you take the year off? If this great opportunity that you are talking extends into the next school year, your chances of returning to school diminish greatly. It is likely that more, and perhaps better opportunities will await you once you complete your degree.
Another question to ask is does this experience with this opportunity outweigh the benefits of your master's degree?
It might seem like an inviting opportunity now, but ask yourself if it is risking your education over.
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Tags: graduate-school, time-off
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thread-28854
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28854
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Is it ok for one of your letters of recommendation to come from someone in the department/program to which you are applying?
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2014-09-22T01:45:54.463
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# Question
Title: Is it ok for one of your letters of recommendation to come from someone in the department/program to which you are applying?
\[See title.\] It seems ok, but one might consider it unfair in some sense? I just wanted to make sure this is acceptable. (I am specifically talking about graduate school applications.)
---
Edit: I apologize for previously withholding some information. Here are some more details.
* I am majoring in math and will have two letters from math professors at my undergrad institution.
* I also have a letter from a professor in a different department ("probability/statistics") in the same institution and am applying to this department's graduate program.
# Answer
Yes, this is fine. On the whole, a letter from someone in the department is better than a random one, in that the writer is well-known to the people on the committee. So, certainly this isn't something you should go to trouble to avoid.
**EDIT**: It seems from comments that the OP is applying to their own undergraduate institution. That's it's own can of worms (many schools heavily discourage this, for good reasons, I think), but I think there's no question that you must get at least one letter from the institution you attended as an undergraduate. It would look really problematic if you didn't (committees would assume no one there would write you a good recommendation, and thus wonder what you did to ruin your reputation).
**EDIT 2:** Just to comment further, given that the OP *also* left out that they are changing to a different department from their undergraduate degree. In that case, having a letter from someone in the department is a big help. I don't think the jump from math to statistics is so big, but generally it's very good to have letters from someone who knows the program and what it takes to succeed in it well, which is always tricky when shifting between fields.
> 19 votes
# Answer
Yes, although there are some caveats.
The best letters come from people who know you for an extended period of time under a variety of circumstances that would reflect the entirety of the qualifications you'd need in graduate school.
Presuming that you weren't an undergraduate at that university, then how well would the letter writer know you? One scenario would be that the letter writer had been a faculty member at your previous college and who had transferred to the new one. In this case, they could make a strong argument for why you would be a good candidate.
But if the letter writer simply knew you from a summer program or other short relationship, then their letter would not be as strong as someone who knew you for four years.
**Addendum**: The OP clarified that he is applying to the same institution that he graduated from as an undergraduate. In this instance, I agree with Ben Webster that it is critical that at least one of his letters should be from a faculty member at that institution.
> 3 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, recommendation-letter
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thread-28862
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28862
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Is there a way to get the complete proceedings for an ACM conference?
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2014-09-22T06:19:10.380
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# Question
Title: Is there a way to get the complete proceedings for an ACM conference?
Do you know any way to get the complete proceedings for ACM conferences? I know that I can go to the ACM digital library and see the table of contents for a conference and then get the pdf for individual papers.
But is there a way to get the whole proceedings for a conference in a single pdf?
# Answer
As far as I know, NO. In the ACM conferences I have attended, I got one USB stick that has a single html file (page) that links to the individual PDFs of the papers of the conference. It is not like a conference with Springer proceedings, that provides a single PDF with the entire proceedings grouped together as a book.
So, as far as I know, there is not a official book-PDF with the entire conference papers for an ACM conference. I do not know if this applies to all ACM conferences, though.
> 3 votes
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Tags: acm, digital-libraries
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thread-28819
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28819
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Are there tools to prevent students from cheating on a programming exam administered on computers?
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2014-09-21T01:44:07.680
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# Question
Title: Are there tools to prevent students from cheating on a programming exam administered on computers?
I'm teaching an Introduction to Computer Science Course, where we mainly do C programming. I've been assigned a lab for teaching the course, but there are more students than available computers. Also, I have no control over those PCs there, and almost every student has admin rights to them. It is also common that students bring their laptop to the classroom and connect to campus Wi-Fi, which I don't have control at all.
Exams are small algorithms to solve, and initially I was planning - as do other teachers in the course - to allow using a computer (from the lab or their own) for the students to verify the correctness of their algorithms. However, in the current state of things I think is pretty easy for students to cheat: They could use Facebook, e-mail, or any Internet tool to exchange source code or information.
Are there software tools that can help to allow use of a computer but still prevent unauthorized collaboration?
# Answer
At my university in the UK we have two kinds of assessment for programming courses. Pass/fail 'practicals' where students are given programming tasks, and are explicitly allowed to discuss them with each other and search online. When the student is ready to submit their solution a demonstrator will look it over and ask questions etc to make sure the student understands why they wrote the code they wrote. Students don't get a grade for this that counts towards their overall mark for the year, but they are required to 'pass' the practicals in order to pass the year.
Then there are written exams with no computer access. There are questions along the lines of 'write some code that will solve this problem', and also more conceptual 'why is this the case? When would you use that?' questions. For the 'write code' bits, the markers will deduct very few points for simple syntax errors and things like that. The question is not so much 'can the student write a program that will compile on the first try?' as 'can the student come up with a good algorithm which solves the problem and give a reasonable expression of it in code?'. Note that these courses (at my uni) are never for specific languages; they are courses like 'functional programming' or 'object oriented programming' or 'machine learning', which will each use a particular language, but we care more that the student understands the concepts than learns the intricacies of the course's language.
This also encourages students to learn ways of designing and writing provably correct programs: if they can reason about programs on a deeper level than intuition, then writing programs on paper is a better test of this than allowing them to experiment and test until the output 'looks right' for the inputs they've given it.
This seems like a good way to avoid cheating on grades that matter and encourage solid understanding of the important course material. That said, many students hate having to write code on paper without access to S.O. or a compiler!
> 38 votes
# Answer
Consider two things that are (almost) unique to computer science:
* researching programming methods on the internet is standard practice, with stackexchange.com being the #1 hit for many searches. Requiring someone to memorize the details is not industry practice. I would not consider accepting a programming job anywhere that said "no internet access". And I hit the function references 10 times a day to verify things like function\_name vs. functionName or replace(needle, haystack) / replace(haystack, needle) headaches.
* It is quite likely that 10 students will return nearly-identical results for simple algorithms. There just aren't too many ways to answer "write a function to average the values in an array". Lets see: loop, sum, count. vars i, s, c. If you taught standard code formatting it's quite possible you might get 8/10 absolutely identical responses yet zero cheating. This is a common problem for cheat/plagiarism processors that are not tweaked for CS.
Good luck, and do come back with whatever solution worked out for you.
> 32 votes
# Answer
In one of my programming subjects, we were allowed the class notes, our own solved exercises, and internet; but no communication with other students (email, facebook...). There was nothing really blocking them, just the lecturer wandering around.
Really, it is not that difficult to check: a student should be most of the time working on the IDE, and only sporadically browsing. If anyone seems to browse too much, you can do a closer inspection. GMail or Facebook will blatantly shine on the screen.
You can of course be more sneaky, like using Lynx to enter your mail. But really, if you can do that, you can probably write a simple algorithm without cheating.
> 14 votes
# Answer
Though you may not count this as a *software tool:* A custom Linux live distribution, which is directly booted from a removable medium, and contains just the necessary development tools (no browser, maybe even remove the ethernet/wifi drivers) would do it; just make them boot that for the exam.
(If anyone is able – within the time limit and with the tools provided – to write the drivers and a browser he not only gets a passing grade but a job offer.)
> 10 votes
# Answer
The solution employed by my professor is to allow the textbook in the classroom (or any other sheet of paper), but no internet access; not even computer access. The whole exam was on paper.
The exam itself was to develop some algorithms, or maybe creating some classes; stuff for which the textbook is useless , but it still gives you the opportunity to look up names and basic concepts.
As a student, I think there is nothing wrong with this method. Of course others may disagree.
> 7 votes
# Answer
Law schools have been solving this problem for many years by making students buy software for exams that locks their systems down and only allows them to use the exam-taking software during the examination time. However, there have been problems. Also, law school exams are generally essays or other non-functional questions, whereas a programming exam could also require a compiler. I'm not aware of a version of this that exists to allow a text-editor, terminal, and compiler.
> 5 votes
# Answer
> Are there Software Tools that can help to use a Computer and avoid plagiarism?
I can't answer the above question and I'd be surprised by the effectiveness of such a tool. So, I suggest another solution: do the exams on paper, scan the papers at the end of the exams, send the copies back to the students and give them a couple of days to debug their programs. The differences between the paper version and the working one can thus be taken into account to decide the final mark.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Well, I haven't checked whether there are actual software tools for that, but I'll tell you what I used to do. The number of approaches to a correct solution are quite limited; if it's an exam-type problem, you should expect to receive many almost-identical, or even actually-identical, replies - as @Peter points out. But
**the ingenuity of error is infinite, and the creativity of the misguided is boundless...**
So mistakes + copying = easy to catch. If you want to mechanize, check for the same or similar parsing/compilation errors, or identical choices of identifiers of programs which fail to compile or run as expected.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Two such programs are MOSS and JPlag:
http://theory.stanford.edu/~aiken/moss/
> Moss (for a Measure Of Software Similarity) is an automatic system for determining the similarity of programs. To date, the main application of Moss has been in detecting plagiarism in programming classes. Since its development in 1994, Moss has been very effective in this role. The algorithm behind moss is a significant improvement over other cheating detection algorithms (at least, over those known to us).
http://jplag.ipd.kit.edu/
> JPlag is a system that finds similarities among multiple sets of source code files. This way it can detect software plagiarism. JPlag does not merely compare bytes of text, but is aware of programming language syntax and program structure and hence is robust against many kinds of attempts to disguise similarities between plagiarized files. JPlag currently supports Java, C#, C, C++, Scheme and natural language text.
Tools similar to these (not sure exactly which) were used at both the schools I've been to. Students were caught and penalized even after they had renamed variables and changed order of functions in the file.
> 2 votes
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Tags: teaching, exams, tools, code, cheating
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thread-28800
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28800
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Is it possible to download magazines as single PDF in IEEE Xplore with an institutional subscription?
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2014-09-20T15:15:45.143
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# Question
Title: Is it possible to download magazines as single PDF in IEEE Xplore with an institutional subscription?
In the past, as a subscriber of IEEE Security & Privacy, I was able to download the entire magazine as a single PDF.
Since I started using IEEE Xplore from the university, however, I can only download an article at a time which is quite annoying. Is there a way to download a full magazine as a single PDF using an institutional subscription?
# Answer
> 3 votes
No, this is not possible, at least not with IEEE Xplore.
In fact, they explicitly disallow this. See http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/termsOfUse.jsp (Point 4 of the "Do Not"s for Institutional Subscribers). So it is not surprising that there is no technical support for doing that.
As an individual former subscriber of "IEEE Security & Privacy", they may have granted you that right. Interestingly, under the "Do Not"s for IEEE Member access to IEEE Xplore, the point about downloading whole issues is missing. So that may be part of the reason.
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Tags: online-publication, ieee, digital-libraries
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thread-28878
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28878
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What should be included in a support letter?
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2014-09-22T10:44:22.193
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# Question
Title: What should be included in a support letter?
I would like to know is there any format or things have to be aware when writing a support letter?
The letter is to support the application of a student to an award.
# Answer
> 1 votes
A great letter of support for a student will include the standard elements of a recommendation.
* Your relation to the student (lecturer, lab supervisor, academic mentor, etc.)
* The student's significant contributions to the school, the community, and the specific program.
* The student's academic excellence
* Other important factors. (Why are you being asked for this letter of support? What do you know about this student that supports their suitability for this award?)
In all of these, be specific. Don't just say "X is an excellent student". Say "X is an excellent student, as evidenced by their insightful participation in class, their strong paper (won an award at \[student conference in field\]), and their continued dedication to learning. I was impressed most by x, y and z."
# Answer
> -1 votes
If you work with them, write about how good they were in the office, how they did work and how it helped the company.
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Tags: recommendation-letter
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thread-27309
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27309
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What should I do when images in a publication appear to have been faked?
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2014-08-18T13:25:20.877
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# Question
Title: What should I do when images in a publication appear to have been faked?
I just came across a paper published in a journal (IF \< 2), which has used a couple of images without mentioning the source. This itself is not necessarily a problem. But they seem to be from a commercial software product I'm familiar with (they haven't mentioned even the name of the software, though it generated the image), and based on my experience with this software, the image looks to me like it has been tampered with.
Specifically, it is an image where the software predicts properties of a compound which is used to verify the result. Now, let's say some parameter have a cutoff at 0.5% and they are getting 10.3%. To conform to their result they removed the '1', and it become '0.3%'.
Emails to the corresponding author came back empty.
Should I report that to the journal or leave it as it is (may ruin someone's career)?
**They have used the image to prove the result of the experiment.**
# Answer
> 20 votes
This could be a big deal and something you should report and, alternatively, it might not be a big deal or reportable. The difference comes in the context.
Are the editted images presented as legitimate data or results that are the raw output of the experiments/research? By which do they say something like "In image blah taken by an electron microscope you can see that the magical unicorn bonds have been created by our process." (Keeping in mind that I know nothing about bio-chem and 'magical unicorn bonds' is a stand in for some actual process). Or in CS something like "Here you can see the robot we built" Statements like this imply or outright state that the object or information in the image is not just representative data but actual results or output. Data like this should not be manipulated or edited except for clarity(circling a targeted area or adding minor labeling).
The other kind of image is a bit rougher. These images can demonstrate what was expected to be seen, abstract output from the research, conceptual information. These kinds of images often are edited or manipulated. Sometimes as a demonstration of what was expected("We would expect magical unicorn bonds to appear after our procedure but instead....") or as an explanation of something more abstract("the robot should follow the optimal path as shown here when it uses the stairs instead of running repeatedly into a wall"). These are things that are no reportable. They can be in poor taste and they absolutely should be caught by reviewers if they imply results beyond the scope of the actual research. But, in some fields, these are the best way to demonstrate expectations, abstract information or background information.
All that being said - when you say the image is from a "commercial software" that makes me wonder if you mean not that it was created with "commercial software" but is actually an image from some commercial source. In this case the image may be copyrighted and it may not be appropriate, at all, to use in this research. This will depend on the image, the source and the 'tampering'. As a counter example to this in the realm of computer vision every uses the standford bunny model in their publication. It's a thing. This is not inappropriate. Someone using an image from a text book, however, or a Google search that they do not own is inappropriate and should be first reported to the PI of the paper and, potentially, the publisher if no action is taken.
# Answer
> 28 votes
Manual alteration of figures aimed at deceiving readers (by fabricating, obfuscating, 'cherry picking' results, etc.) is a **serious matter**. It surprises me that people still try because it's very often quite easy to spot (other types of data fabrication are harder to catch). But it's sadly not uncommon, even in highly regarded journals and from researchers from reputable institutions.
For life sciences, according to one of pubpeer's moderators in a comment: 'Most of the life science reports involve image manipulation - a good majority are gels, with a bunch of duplicated specimen images as well. \[…\] we see sometimes on PubPeer \[…\] things like doctored NMR spectra in chemistry.' The latest seems to be related to your observation, although it's outside my area of expertise.
You can get a sense of the type of things that are reported on PubPeer reading this thread among many others. As an example, a close examination of this figure shows the use of copy paste to fabricate data:
Or this one, initially published, not in your average pay-for-publish shady 'open access' journal, but in *Nature*, that has a rather obvious copy-pasted middle panel:
(both the articles where retracted).
In your position, your first reaction is totally appropriate. Here is what I think is the best course of action:
1. **Contact the author(s)** it is a good way of showing that you are concerned but not necessarily interested in public shaming. If the authors do not react, then:
2. **Contact the publisher** (mentioning that you already contacted the authors to no avail) as suggested by @alarge in a comment. If it's a reputable publisher, the issue will be taken very seriously.
3. If all fails, you are left with public reporting of the issue, anonymously or not, via social media or the website listed above. Note that you are always at risk of putting yourself in trouble when reporting misconduct, the same as in any other field, so weight this risk if you intend to associate your name with the complaint.
EDIT:
> Should I report that to the journal or leave it as it is (may ruin someone's career)?
I think that, as a scientist, you have a responsibility to report that sort of misconduct when you see it. What *may* ruin someone's career is their sloppy ethics, not your concern for integrity.
# Answer
> 5 votes
it may not be as bad as it seems. I often have to edit images from commercial software packages because the text is too small (or blurred) to read in the print version. Usually it's the axes that I have to fix because many packages make the fonts too small. The authors in this case may have simply overwritten with the same values, just in a larger text or (different/emphasizing font or color).
# Answer
> 4 votes
First you should discuss the matter with a trusted colleague or two to check that they agree with you. This is a heavy accusation and before doing anything you should check that you haven't missed anything and that there aren't other plausible explanations. You may very well be right, but it's also easy for one person to make an error without outside feedback.
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Tags: publications, ethics, graphics, research-misconduct
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thread-17368
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17368
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What arXiv CC licenses are compatible with American Physical Society publishing?
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2014-02-24T19:07:02.957
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# Question
Title: What arXiv CC licenses are compatible with American Physical Society publishing?
I'm having some trouble understanding exactly what the American Physical Society (APS) transfer of copyright agreement does and does not permit, and I was wondering whether someone here may have a clearer insight or previous contact with them to know exactly what their position is. Their copyright FAQ is, I feel, not clear enough on the subject, and it's not quite clear how I should contact them about this.
The relevant paragraphs from the copyright transfer agreement are, I think
> 2. The nonexclusive right, after publication by APS, to give permission to third parties to republish print versions of the Article or a translation thereof, or excerpts therefrom, without obtaining permission from APS, provided the APS-prepared version is not used for this purpose, the Article is not republished in another journal, and the third party does not charge a fee. If the APS version is used, or the third party republishes in a publication or product charging a fee for use, permission from APS must be obtained.
and
> 4. The right to post and update the Article on free-access e-print servers as long as files prepared and/or formatted by APS or its vendors are not used for that purpose. Any such posting made or updated after acceptance of the Article for publication shall include a link to the online abstract in the APS journal or to the entry page of the journal. If the author wishes the APS-prepared version to be used for an online posting other than on the author(s)’ or employer’s website, APS permission is required; if permission is granted, APS will provide the Article as it was published in the journal, and use will be subject to APS terms and conditions.
The latter one looks pretty inclusive, but it does not specify whether all licensing schemes for e-print servers are acceptable or not. Similarly, in their I am worried, in particular, by a note in the arXiv license help page:
> The Creative Commons Attribution license in particular, permits commercial reuse and thus conflicts with many journal agreements.
In particular, posting to an e-print server may be construed as overstepping the rights granted by point 2 of the agreement, since it can be used by a third party as permission to republish it in print and charge a fee for it. If that is the only objection, then choosing a CC Noncommercial-ShareAlike license would be compatible with the above.
I have two specific questions about this.
* **Is my reading of these publicly available documents correct?** Did I miss important information either on these or other publicly available resources?
* Does anyone have specific experience with them regarding this question? Is there some specific contact for these matters?
(I believe the non-exclusive license to distribute, which is the most restrictive arXiv license, is definitely compatible. This question is mostly about the Creative Commons licenses.)
# Answer
I don't think you can use any CC license with such a publishing agreement.
Point 4 allows you to post the article to preprint servers. This covers the non-exclusive distribution license that Mangara mentioned in a comment: You permit arxiv.org to reproduce the article on their website. Importantly, you don't grant any rights to anybody else with this license.
If you put your article under a CC license, you would grant **anybody** the right to reproduce it (under conditions depending on the exact type of the license). Whether it is published on arxiv.org or not doesn't really matter here – arxiv.org will just be one of the potentially many users of this license. Looking at the arxiv help page, this is hidden behind the specific wording they use. For the non-exclusive distribution license:
> grant arXiv.org a non-exclusive and irrevocable license to distribute the article
which makes it clear that you are giving permission to arxiv.org and *not anybody else*.
For the CC license, they say instead:
> certify that the work is available under either the Creative Commons Attribution license, or the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license
that is, you don't give a license to arxiv.org specifically, but to the general public, and arxiv.org is just going to make use of that general license.
I don't think your publishing agreement allows you to issue a CC license, even the noncommercial one. The publisher does not allow you to grant a license to anybody, just specifically to "free-access e-print servers".
> 5 votes
# Answer
## CC licences are incompatible with arbitrary restrictions
Paragraph 2. of the copyright transfer agreement that you cite allows you "... to give permission to third parties to republish \[...\] provided the APS-prepared version is not used for this purpose, the Article is not republished in another journal, and the third party does not charge a fee."
Offering the content under a CC licence means that you're giving permission to third parties to republish that content, period. Even if they would republish it in another journal or charge a fee.
You can't give those permissions according to the APS agreement; and you can't require those restrictions under a CC licence; so that doesn't work out.
> 3 votes
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Tags: publications, copyright, arxiv, creative-commons
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thread-5793
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5793
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How much time should I spend on reviewing a paper?
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2012-12-16T19:22:49.757
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# Question
Title: How much time should I spend on reviewing a paper?
I never tried to avoid becoming a sub-reviewer, and still, this question made me wonder. How much time should I, as a PhD student, spend on a review of a paper that my advisor gave me to do? Does the answer depend on whether I'm getting credit for the review or not, that is whether I'm a sub-reviewer or not?
# Answer
> 40 votes
You should do slightly more reviewing work for the community than the community does for you. So, as a rough estimate, assuming every paper you write and submit needs three reviews and your average paper has three authors, you should review slightly more papers than you submit.
There is no way to predict in the abstract how long a paper takes to review; that varies from field to field, subfield to subfield, and even paper to paper. Answering a similar question in Theoretical Computer Science Stack Exchange, I wrote:
> Expect to spend about an hour per page, mostly on internalizing the paper's results and techniques. Be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't actually take that long. (If it takes significantly less time than that, either the paper is either exceedingly elegant and well-written, you know the area extremely well, or the paper is technically shallow. Don't confuse these three possibilities.)
No, the answer does not depend on whether you get credit for the review. If you're not going to write a thorough, professional review, just say no.
# Answer
> 12 votes
Read the entire paper in one go. For a 12 page\* paper, that should take you an hour at most. This is the first pass. From this you can now decide how to proceed, now that you have (quickly) covered all the sections. (edit: The goal on this first pass is not to understand all the details, but rather get an overall feeling of the paper, quality and organization of ideas)
If a paper is terribly written and difficult to understand you should reject it outright for being so. It should not take a reader 12 hours to read a 12 page paper - and indeed, many papers are badly written and do take this much time - and you are still left wondering because it was not clear.
If the basic claims seem sound and sufficiently interesting/important and the idea is clear enough to understand, then you need to dig in. Depending on the type of paper this means looking at definitions, proofs, or experimental design, hypothesis testing and the analysis of the results. Likewise for any related work you know of that should be cited (and not just your own - that is too cliche! - if you do recommend your work as a citation at least include some others!).
All along, help people out with typos and readability. As a reviewer, you are the last chance to make this a good read before it is published.
And even if you reject it, don't just shoot people down. Give them ideas about how to make the paper stronger, suggestions for different directions, etc. Remember that it is most likely some other student who will receive your review back - so try and help them make the next paper better.
(\* 12 single column pages. A 6 page paper with two columns can often contain the same amount of text as a 12 page single column paper)
# Answer
> 9 votes
There is no clearcut answer to how long a review takes. I would say that the amount of time spent on it is the time you need to understand the paper and provide good advice on wether or not it is a paper that can be accepted, with some changes or as is. In general, this should take you around a full working day. How long this exactly becomes depends on:
* The level and clarity of the paper (very bad paper takes less time, mediocre paper takes more time, very good paper takes less time).
* Your familiarity with the subject (less familiar more time).
* The requirements of the journal/conference you are reviewing for, is it a full review, or just a go/no go.
# Answer
> 5 votes
It depends on how many reviews you've done and what your experience is. If you're just starting out and have never reviewed a paper before, you should expect it to take a minimum of several hours to do a decent to good review.
Your mileage may vary depending on what discipline you're in, but a good review generally will consist of:
* a summary of what the contribution of the paper was
* a brief list of 1-3 strengths and 1-3 weaknesses that the paper had
* several paragraphs explaining those strengths and weaknesses in greater detail along with constructive suggestions of what would be needed to improve the weaknesses
* a brief listing of any related work that you feel is missing from the paper
* a recommendation to the reviewing committee of whether or not you believe the paper should be accepted
* usually there is a part for a numerical evaluation of your expertise and whether or not it should be accepted
The more reviews that you do, the less time that you should need to spend on doing the review. It seems like many professors can knock out a review in an hour or less, but most of the graduate students I've seen will tend to spend at least 1-2 hours per review if they're doing a good job.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Take enough time to find most (~80%) of the important strengths and weaknesses of the paper and to describe and explain the weaknesses thoroughly and clearly **but** if you encounter one particular non-core aspect or section of the paper that would take excessively long to do this, just skip it and be frank: *"I have not reviewed ((aspect X)) thoroughly, because my expertise in this area is too shallow."*
If the editor is worth her salt, this will actually *increase* her confidence in the rest of your review.
All of your reviews should be careful but none of them need to be perfect.
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Tags: peer-review, working-time
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thread-28904
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28904
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Is it unethical to interview at a more prestigious program while currently enrolled in a PhD somewhere else?
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2014-09-22T22:29:35.893
|
# Question
Title: Is it unethical to interview at a more prestigious program while currently enrolled in a PhD somewhere else?
I applied at two different PhD positions at universities X & Y a while back (both in EU, I prefer not to disclose identity for specific reasons, sorry).
I got into X and have been here for about 2 months, and I heard from Y a few days ago inviting me to interview with them. Y is more prestigious, and also many of my friends are there. (Note: Both positions had different starting dates, X was more of a start-earliest program, Y is for 2015 admits)
Considering I am more interested in studying at University of Y, would it be unethical for me to take up the interview with Y, after I am here for 2 months? (I am at X as a RA presently)
# Answer
**No, there are no ethical issues.** There is nothing unethical neither in keeping it confidential until you are officially admitted at University Y (and I think it's advisable).
The only not-so-good thing could be that if you built a relationship of trust with your current supervisor (but I suspect you haven't since it hasn't been long), this person might get disappointed to hear you leave. But generally, people understand the argument of higher reputation of the program.
Consider however, that University X might not reimburse the tuition you already paid and that you might encounter other administrative inconveniences.
> 7 votes
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Tags: phd, ethics, interview
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thread-28884
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28884
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Why are recommendation letters crucial for scholarships or graduate admissions?
|
2014-09-22T11:48:05.587
|
# Question
Title: Why are recommendation letters crucial for scholarships or graduate admissions?
I saw a question asking how to write recommendation letters and I wonder why this is so important? Why are recommendation letters crucial for scholarship applications for studying in Masters or research ? They should be more interested in the student willing to work hard and be loyal to the studies, not cheat, or plagarise or use unfair means to win. What will a recommendation do instead?
# Answer
> 10 votes
Your question seems to present the use of letters of recommendation as being orthogonal to the goals of selecting hard-working and dedicated students. **This is simply a false assumption.**
The purpose of letters of recommendation is to ensure the person making the selections that they are choosing qualified candidates who will satisfy the needs of the program. Anybody can claim to be hard-working, but how do you know this is *actually* the case? If you have several people, well-versed in the needs of research or advanced study in a given topic, telling you that candidate X has all the prerequisites and character traits needed to ensure success, you're a lot more likely to believe it than just to take someone's word about himself or herself.
# Answer
> 1 votes
> "They should be \[more\] interested in the student willing to work hard and be loyal to the studies, not cheat, or plagiarize or use unfair means to win."
True enough. But letters of recommendation are the best way to "find out."
Grades and test scores certainly count, but they do not "testify" to a student's ethics or his/her ability to "game" the system. Only human beings know what was really behind someone's record. The way to get that kind of information is to have students submit letters of recommendation.
What people **don't** say is often has important as what people say. In a litigious American society, not everyone will point out someone's negatives. But a letter to the effect of "s/he did okay in my class as far as I remember" is not exactly a ringing endorsement but rather a red flag, especially if that person has a high grade.
The classic example of "damning with faint praise" was cited by my father, a retired professor. "If you knew him as well as we do, you would appreciate him as much."
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Tags: graduate-admissions, funding, recommendation-letter
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thread-28705
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28705
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Must I credit others' published research when using it in a proprietary product, if doing so would be bad for business?
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2014-09-18T20:28:00.540
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# Question
Title: Must I credit others' published research when using it in a proprietary product, if doing so would be bad for business?
If a company was building a product that uses methods designed and outlined in a published research paper, should credit be given? If crediting them would be a bad business decision, is it OK not to?
I am building a product that builds on research published by a university research group. The research outlines a quicker, cheaper and more efficient method of doing something that usually can cost much more. So it is basically just a small part of my overall project, although it allows me to cut costs drastically. The method is not patented, and the group most likely does not plan on getting a patent as they make it clear that their research is in no way related to any company or products.
I do believe in giving credit where due, but publicly disclosing the research method that is allowing me to cut costs and release an existing product a lot cheaper than competitors would be shooting myself in the foot.
My original idea was to make the hardware opensource, and then just sell prebuilt versions for a good price, although after seeing what is going on in the 3D printing industry - like MakerBot filing patents on their 3D printer and scanning - I am not sure if it is a good idea.
So without opensourcing the hardware, it puts me in a difficult situation. I would like to credit the researchers, but doing so would be a bad business decision. Would it be considered acceptable practice to use their method without crediting them?
# Answer
Since business is on your mind, before ethics, you should first check whether there are any legal restrictions on the use of the published research, or obligations arising from such use, issues that may depend on the applicable laws of some specific country. For example, it may be the case that you may not need consent to use the research results, since they have been openly published, but you may have some financial obligations if you are to use it for profit (and not necessarily towards only the research team), patent or no patent. So make certain where you stand.
As for ethics: it is rare for businesses to credit researchers. Instead they usually contract them either for royalties or to secure further development, if there is such potential, and not leave it to fall into the hands of competitors. "Credit due" may be one of the currencies in academia, but "money" is the currency that businesses understand.
By contacting and maybe contracting the research team (*after* doing your legal due diligence first), you may even be able to secure such exclusive use of their results, or some even more efficient version of them. Again, this will depend on the legal framework applicable.
> 2 votes
# Answer
absolutely:
so your coworkers can recreate your work...
more importantly: because its the right thing to do...
proprietary typically never opens the hood, so don't let "bad for business" ward you off...
on that note: if you are worried about shooting yourself in the foot, etc., how do you think the authors of the work that you built yours on feel?
there are trade secrets, and there's being honest and open: make a judgement call where to stop revealing facts, but don't withhold information because of the unwarranted fear that it'll be bad for business......openness is good for business. and the betterment of all
> -1 votes
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Tags: research-process, ethics, intellectual-property
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thread-16770
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16770
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Special (non-english) character in name. What to do as author? Internationalize or not?
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2014-02-10T14:56:32.093
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# Question
Title: Special (non-english) character in name. What to do as author? Internationalize or not?
In German, as well as in other languages, people have Non-English characters in their names. e.g. ß, the umlauts etc..
I frequently face problems when flying, opening bank accounts, etc., particularly abroad, since replacing the ß with ss changes more more than 25% of my family name as compared to how it's written in my passport.
Obviously it is desirable to write one's name for submissions, the way one's name is written correctly. Can one expect to run into problems, and will sooner or later end up with different publications being published under different spellings of the name, or is it safe to go for the correct spelling?
# Answer
> 28 votes
First of all, always *be consistent*. Whatever you decide, that is what you will always have to use.
Considering the first point, might be better to strive and use your real name as it is with the non-english characters. You will have less problems in the future to prove your authorship in case questions rise. Complain to systems who do not accept your non-english characters...
# Answer
> 25 votes
Unfortunately. this is a very real problem for many people. Any major "irregularities" in the name of an author—particularly the *first* author—can cause problems. You don't even need to use non-English characters.
I know this from first-hand experience. I have very little problems with most of my papers—except for those I have published with two colleagues as first authors, one of whom has a hyphenated last name and the other whose name contains an apostrophe (compound Dutch name). On a regular basis, I need to write places like Web of Science to correct the publication records (e.g., the paper is listed as a cited reference, but somehow they can't seem to connect it to the original record, depriving us unfairly of citations). This has actually been a bigger problem with the hyphenated last name—the paper has about six or seven citations (provable!), but only one is listed in Web of Science. (Google Scholar seems to find them all, though.)
Other problems will also crop up in attendance lists, email accounts, registration for conferences, and other things where Unicode acceptance in databases is limited.
Note, however, that your *professional* name does not need to match up with your *legal* name. For instance, many female academics keep their maiden name if they started publishing under it when they were graduate students. This is the case even if they've legally changed their name after getting married. And I agree with Armand that it is more important that you use a *consistent* name—once you decide which version you want to use, stick with it!
# Answer
> 9 votes
For the given problem which I assume to be "Heß", I'd go with the ß spelling:
* For me the most important reason for this recommendation is that in German "Heß" and "Hess" two different last names, and both rather common ones. Thus using the transliteration not only creates confusion whether or not the name was transliterated, but also roughly doubles the basis of people who could possibly be meant (e.g. inside Germany ca. 20000 Heß \+ 18500 Hess)
* Over the last decade or so, there has been a tremendous improvement of dealing online with characters outside the absolute standard latin character set. I think this will continue, so using the ß will become less and less of a problem. As you say, google already knows how to deal with it.
* Worst thing that happens in addition to maybe sometimes being transliterated to "ss" or even "sz" (which is *very* uncommon in German, so while Germans would be aware of the possibility that Hess could be a transliterated version of Heß, Hesz would be considered something really different) would be that you find your name misspelled with a β (beta instead of s-zett). However I don't think that this will happen much more frequently than people misspelling my "natively pure ASCII" last name by exchanging the last "e" by an "i" - and having a common problem means that scientific data bases know better how to correct it.
* People may not know how to pronounce it, but that is very common with any kind of foreign name.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I'm strongly advocating for keeping your name unchanged, as far as:
1. most software can write it down (software = Word, HTML and LaTeX probably);
2. it's based on latin alphabet (that is, to every character you can assign a character on the English alphabet).
If you follow the Rule 2, you should be safe since most indexing software strips off all "decorations" from the letters.
For me, I hate when my name is written without diacritics, because it's simply not me. And heavens, we're living in 21st century and we have unicode and stuff!
Actually, `ß` is a true nutshell, since it has a unique transcription to English (`ss`), but it's not based on stripping diacritics. I'm not aware of how big difference is `ß` and `ss` in German.
*With my journal typesetter hat on:* I would allow `ß` in your name in an article. I wouldn't allow a cyrillic name, for instance, if the author insisted, I would keep both forms -- cyrillic and transcribed.
# Answer
> 2 votes
To make less problems with computer search and indexing tools of various perfectness, I would suggest to use consistently English characters only in your English publications. If the non English character is basically an English character with extra crown or something the like, probably it will not be any problems with the proof of the authorship.
While of course keyboards can be easily configured to support national characters as well, think about the foreign users. Would they be capable of typing your special character into search box? Most likely, they will type the Latin equivalent instead. Smart search engines will treat it as the same, others may just not find the results. Various specialized sites with own databases may be important to you yet have less search capabilities than Google or Yahoo.
The possible alternative is to use the widely known several letter Latin alternative of that character that may exists (sch, zh, etc). However search tools are even less likely to treat special character and its multi letter alternative as the same. Also, doubts if it is the same name are much more likelty.
# Answer
> 0 votes
eventually the web will be internationalized and yes, by all means, no worries...
unfortunately we still have work to do, so yes, by all means, be yourself...but be wary of compatibility issues: be they server, browser, ua, country-specific, etc., you're more than likely to run into an issue here or there trying to implement a non-english character in your name across the web...
one example: i'm fairly sure that while approved for urls, the double german s in your name is not supported by iso-159, which unfortunately, seems to be the charset flavor of the month...i bet you can't have it in a twitter handle, per se; and even this example is going to widely vary, as each service is going to have its own details, and implementations....
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Tags: publications, language, international, personal-name
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thread-18357
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18357
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Are there any guidelines for labeling axes in plots/graphs?
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2014-03-20T14:18:31.030
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# Question
Title: Are there any guidelines for labeling axes in plots/graphs?
What are best practices (if any exist) for labeling axes in plots/graphs for academic documents, such as theses, publications, or presentations?
Possible options are to use the variable, spell out the variable, or a combination of both. For example, to label a time axis, we could write: ***t* (s)** or **Time (s)** or **Time, *t* (s)**.
Are there any objective reasons to prefer one style over another, assuming the publisher does not specify which to use? Or sources suggesting a particular format?
I have browsed many journal requirements, but haven't found any that specifically address this.
# Answer
The recommended way, according to the International System of Units (SI), is to write *t*/s (SI brochure, §5.3; see also this guide, §7.1). And the SI is the only system of units that should be used to report experimental results.
The rationale behind this notation is the following: a quantity is the product of a numerical value and a unit, so that the ratio of a quantity (e.g. time) and the corresponding unit (e.g second) is a numerical value (a pure number), which can be used to label axes, tables, etc.
In any case, don't use brackets around the unit, like in "*t* \[s\]". The reason is that in quantity calculus brackets represent an operator which means "unit of" (not "dimension of") and should only be used around quantities, not around units. So, for instance, you can write:
\[*t*\] = s
but not \[s\]. For completeness, I also mention that braces are also used to denote the numerical value of a quantity. So, in *L* = 5 m, we have \[*L*\] = m and {*L*} = 5.
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## References
For those interested in learning more about quantities, units, their typographical conventions, and quantity calculus, here is a list of references with a few notes:
1. J C Maxwell, "A treatise on electricity and magnetism", vol. I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1873. Online. **Note:** Here Maxwell introduces the concept of quantity and the bracket notation.
2. International Vocabulary of Metrology - Basic and general concepts and associated terms VIM, 3rd edition, JCGM 200:2008. Online. **Note:** This is the official dictionary of metrological terms where it is possible to find definition for terms like quantity, system of quantities, system of units, etc. On p. 13 there is note which explains the bracket/braces notation.
3. I M Mills, "The language of science", Metrologia 34, pp. 101-109, 1997.
4. B W Petley, The fundamental physical constants and the frontier of measurement, Adam Hilger, Bristol, 1988.
5. I M Mills, "Physical quantities and units" in Recent advances in metrology and fundamental constants, Proceedings of the International School of Physics E. Fermi, Varenna, 2000. Online.
6. J de Boer, "On the history of quantity calculus and the International System", Metrologia 31, pp. 405-429, 1995.
7. M J ten Hoor, "Quantity calculus for chemists", Chemistry in action n. 57, 1999. Online
8. M L McGlashan, "Physicochemical quantities and units: The grammar and spelling of physical chemistry", Royal Institute of Chemistry, London, 1971.
9. E R Cohen *et al.*, "Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry", IUPAC Green Book, 3rd Edition, 2nd Printing, IUPAC & RSC Publishing, Cambridge, 2008 Online
10. Nayuki, Handling physical quantities in math formulas. This article is a lively little gem on quantity calculus with lots of practical examples.
> 32 votes
# Answer
Good practise is to make sure the graph is understandable even when taken out of its context (the paper). Hence spelling out the label helps to avoid misunderstandings. There is, however, nothing formally wrong with the other forms you mention although the label including both variable and variable abbreviation is not common in my field. On the other hand, it serves to couple the variable name with its abbreviation so it has its merits.
> 18 votes
# Answer
I am very particular about figures in my papers, as when I skim a paper the first thing I do after reading the abstract is look at the figures to determine whether the results are interesting or not, and on that basis whether to read the paper in more detail. Hence I always make sure the data is clearly presented through an appropriate use of symbols, colours and typeface, as well as a detailed stand alone caption describing what the data is and what it shows. As part of this I always label the axes in the form "quantity (unit)". In my opinion a variable name 't' is insufficiently descriptive to make figures stand alone, and so doesn't communicate to the casual reader what the figure shows. Units are of course essential, and in the case of dimensionless quantities I usually include the variable name as the unit, eg t/t0.
> 3 votes
# Answer
There is nothing technically incorrect about any of those forms. In journal submissions, there will be typesetters to check that your figures adhere to their style guidelines.
In general:
The name of the quantity (e.g. `time`) and its units (e.g. `s`) are needed for clarity. It is generally better to add some concise descriptor to the quantity (e.g. Is it reaction time? geological time? etc.)
Preferences for how the units are displayed are somewhat subjective as well. An alternative format is using `/` as a separator (e.g. `Time / s`), though I personally think this format lends itself to confusion with derived quantities that contain division (e.g. `Dimensionless Time, t/tc`, as another user mentioned, will also have a `/`)
Adding the variable name (e.g. t) is often redundant in formal publications, unless equations figure extensively into the written portion and/or the naming is non-obvious or unconventional (say you used τ). Italicization will often be used to improve clarity.
Above all, consistency is critical. Choose a format, and use it for *all* graphs in the same manuscript. Doing otherwise just appears sloppy.
> 3 votes
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Tags: graphics, writing-style, formatting
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thread-28900
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28900
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PhD in GIS after Bachelor Degree in Computer Science
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2014-09-22T18:08:03.523
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# Question
Title: PhD in GIS after Bachelor Degree in Computer Science
I have a bachelors degree in Computer Science & Engineering and have specific experience in geographic information systems (GIS). I am planning to enroll in a GIS PhD program and have searched for United States universities with GIS PhD programs. However, none of these PhD programs are offered from a Computer Science department: all programs are in either a Geography department or Civil Engineering department or Earth Science department. Should I apply to these other departments even though I come from a Computer Science background?
*Can a student complete his PhD program in a university department other then the department of his undergraduate work?*
# Answer
> 2 votes
When you go to a mainly geographic department, you will have to study courses for projections, spatial databases, geo-servers and mapping frameworks, which you already probably know through your job. Geographic departments have people without a programming background and therefore these people have to be trained almost from scratch, so they can do this type of research. On the other hand, many of these departments have some relatively young professors with a CS background who are really looking forward to work with CS people like you (instead of geographers) to mainly progress their research. In that sense, I am sure you can be accepted at such a program but prepare to have to take courses on things you are already familiar with.
On the other hand there are many "pure" CS professors, working on "pure" CS departments, who also do GIS related research. If you look at more CS focused GIS conferences, like ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS you will find many papers by mainly CS people on GIS related subjects. So, you can search for possible advisors there, by looking at the papers that get published in such venues in the last 2-3 years. If you find some papers that deal with subjects that you are interested in, you can find out in what universities the authors work, perhaps contact them (advice on how to approach potential advisors is scattered everywhere on this site) and take it from there. It does not always matter the "title" of the PHD (if it says GIS or not) but IHMO it is more important to work with people that do interesting things, close to your interests. So, do not exclude the possibility to do GIS research on a pure CS department.
# Answer
> 1 votes
> "Should I apply to these other departments even though I come from a Computer Science background?"
Absolutely! Degree programs vary per institution in scope and means, but the ends are often the same, after completing the program you will have a PhD in GIS. You can use this to your advantage to tailor a degree to your strengths, providing its offered at the institution(s) of your choice.
> "Can a student complete his PhD program in a university department other then the department of his undergraduate work?"
Yes, a student accepted to a GIS PhD program could complete it in a department other than Computer Science, provided the institution attending offered such a degree program.
I'm sure some schools want certain backgrounds, similar to how most seek out a certain GPA. This will vary for each university you are interested in as each university is unique and offers unique programs and opportunities.
Open data driven via GIS maps is going to rise in demand astronomically. As well as the rest of the tenets of openness shall; but in your case, I think you are tailored for a gig in open journalism, and you should focus on web development while not pursuing your PhD.
Learn web development with your GIS PhD. Your Computer Science background should make learning web development relatively effortless.
This is not a great answer in terms of a definitive answer, but your possibilities are endless:
**Further resources:**
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, changing-fields
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thread-12255
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12255
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Prospects with a Computational Social Science degree
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2013-08-28T13:43:31.347
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# Question
Title: Prospects with a Computational Social Science degree
During college, I decided to use my free electives to pursue a second major I had an interest in (Sociology) besides my main focus on computer science.
I am contemplating applying to some phD programs that intersect both of these fields. However, I know these are new programs.
I have e-mailed a few departments but I get the vibe that they are more focused in getting people to apply to these new programs rather than necessarily being honest about prospects.
So my question is essentially, are there tenure track professorships that are interested in applicants with these kinds of backgrounds? And if so is it only a very small group of institutions?
Example of one of the programs I am referring to: Ph.D Program in Computational Social Sciences
# Answer
> 5 votes
Generally, if this is a relatively new cross-disciplinary area, this will start as a very small group of institutions. If it's a fruitful area, that number will grow quickly, and among the early adopters might well be some of the best universities.
And yes, to set up these programmes in the first place, does indeed require buy-in from professors and top-level university administrators, so there are tenure-track professorships interested in applicants with those sort of cross-disciplinary backgrounds
## What is it like to study in a new cross-disciplinary area?
There are a few things that make it different.
You might find yourself building the foundations. A lot of the work might be much more exploratory. It can be the wild west, with few established paths and no signposts; and you may end up making up the rules as you go along.
That is to say, established fields tend to have well-defined protocols for things like data collection; and a proven set of tools to work with. Whereas in a new cross-disciplinary area, you're more likely to be building the basic toolkit from scratch: writing your own protocols starting from bare bones. There will be things you can take from each of the disciplines that you span, but combining them will be untested ground.
Some of the papers you write may end up being foundational for the new cross-disciplinary area, and highly-cited for years to come. Even though the work they contain, might seem fairly basic to you.
It can be lonelier. Scarier. More exciting. Harder to get funding. Or easier to get funding. Your reading will be broader, as it will span journals across more than one discipline, and you won't find enough journals or conferences that are closely-enough targeted at your field. You might end up starting your own conference, just to help build the platform.
<sub>disclaimer: I do work in a new cross-disciplinary institute, but I do not work in computational social sciences (though one or two of my colleagues are indeed computational social scientists)</sub>
# Answer
> 3 votes
I lead the semantic technologies and cultural heritage research line at Incipit CSIC (www.incipit.csic.es) in Spain. We are right in the cross between software engineering, philosophy of language and cultural heritage.
To answer your question, we *desperately* seek people with a profile like yours. We just had a vacancy for a PhD position and it was (as usually is) extremely difficult to find suitable candidates. When we find them, we treat them with much care and respect, and our aim is to have tenured positions in the future for these people.
Having said that, I must admit that this is a quite uncommon situation. Most research institutes in Spainand Europe tend to align their research lines along more conventional paths, and recruit people with more conventional backgrounds.
I guess your will need to work hard to find a place that needs people with your hybrid profile. There are few, but you will be gold to them.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I'm in the CSS department at George Mason University, just starting my dissertation. Though I'm not primarily aimed at tenure-track academic jobs after graduating, I have some insights regarding the questions you have asked.
First, you should know that CSS at GMU (and most other places similar to it) are not solely focused on placing their graduates into academic jobs. There's a wide diversity of career paths, both prior to entering and after graduating. To me, that creates a looseness and openness among the students. This is in contrast to discipline-focused departments where *everyone* is expected to prepare for and compete for top academic jobs. In those situations, there seems to be a strong emphasis on things other than just learning and doing good research (competition, prizes/awards, getting into the 'in crowd', elitism, etc.)
Second, CSS would be a poor fit for many academic jobs (research or teaching) that really want depth and credentials in a single discipline -- Economics, Sociology, Business, or Computer Science.
Finally, there is significant growth in the number of departments and jobs (internationally and in the US) that specifically call for Computational Social Science or similar interdisciplinary degree. This is driven in part by funding agencies who have become very enthusiastic for CSS and similar types of programs and projects. It's also driven by market demand -- especially for social network analysis, Big Data in social science, and programmatic research (e.g. public health, international development, conflict studies, cyber security). While the number of these jobs may not be large in absolute terms, CSS graduates could be extremely well-qualified to fill them, compared to single-discipline graduates.
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Tags: phd, job-search
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thread-28929
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28929
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What is the difference between volume editors and series editors?
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2014-09-23T14:50:38.333
|
# Question
Title: What is the difference between volume editors and series editors?
I am filling out a **"Consent to Publish"** form and I need to fill out the **Volume Editor(s) field**. I tried to find out who these editors are, but all I found was the **series editors** and the **main editor**.
For example for the Lecture Notes In Computer Science there are 12 series editors. I doubt that I should list all 12 of them. Are the volume editors a subset of series editors, or are these two concepts unrelated?
# Answer
> 2 votes
I guess this is a paper in conference proceedings that are published in the LNCS series?
Usually volume editors = programme committee chairs (or at least the PC chairs are a subset of volume editors).
Just put the names of the PC chairs; it is close enough. The series editors are something completely different (related to the entire LNCS series, not this particular volume).
# Answer
> 1 votes
You should ask the person who sent you this form (PC chair?) what to write there. Springer does advise them to send the form pre-filled. Volume editors are people preparing proceedings for the publications - but essentially, it is up to the conference organizers who will be listed there (e.g., whether to include BIG-SHOT-WHO-IS-EMERITUS-PCCHAIR and/or POOR-PHD-STUDENT-WHO-PROOFREAD-EVERY-PAPER). Thus, it is not easy for you as an author to guess... P.S. Or may be you googled for LncS copyright form?;) P.P.S. Series editors supervise the series - i.e., they approve the proposals for publication in the series. They should not be listed in the copyright form
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Tags: publications, editors
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thread-28938
|
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28938
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When do you italicize the name of a book, article or website in APA style citations and references?
|
2014-09-23T23:27:40.153
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# Question
Title: When do you italicize the name of a book, article or website in APA style citations and references?
I am writing a paper that is using APA Citation and I'm confused on how the in text citations are supposed to go. Do you italizize the name of the website, book, article in which you are citing? Or can it be left normal?
# Answer
> 4 votes
APA style does not include the website, book, or article title in the in-text citations. You would use the (Author, year) format. The only exception is when there is no author listed. In that case, you include enough of the title to enable to reader to find the relevant entry in the references.
For example, if your article by an anonymous author is titled *Evidence of influences of Eurasian mythology in Charles Darwin's unpublished works*, published in 2010, your in-text citation might look like this; (Evidence of..., 2010). **You do not italicize the in-text citation, even when using a title which is \[correctly\] italicized in your reference list.**
For more information on the correct use of APA style, consult the *Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association*, Sixth edition, (2010), or check online at the APA website. For quick reference, the APA blog is also useful.
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Tags: citations, writing
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thread-28858
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28858
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How does the PhD thesis examination result impact academic job success?
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2014-09-22T05:43:58.270
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# Question
Title: How does the PhD thesis examination result impact academic job success?
In majority of universities around the world, the PhD examining committee should meet and allow PhD student to defend his/her thesis. Based on the thesis content and student performance in the viva, the committee decides whether to grant PhD to the candidate or not.
In most of the cases that I have seen, there are 4 types of decisions
1. Accept as it is (Distinction in some universities)
2. Accept with Minor Revisions (without re-examination of thesis)
3. Accept with Major Revisions (without re-examination of thesis)
4. Major Revisions with re-examination
5. Reject (No PhD; some universities grant MSc instead of PhD if the work is fine but its contribution is small).
**Now my questions are:**
1. How often do employers ask for PhD examination Committee decision report at the time of application/interview?
2. Considering the PhD requirement by almost all universities for the professorship positions, how the decision by the committee members impacts employment. My main concern is about the first three decisions of "accept." Can a PhD graduate who has "accept with major revision" never gets job in good places"?
# Answer
At least in the US context, I've never heard of such a report being asked for.
In fact, in the case of my own PhD (at MIT) no report ever existed. In the major US research universities I've been at, PhDs are ungraded. You either get one or you don't.
For sure, the outcomes on your list are all possible. Where I've been though, there is a sheet of paper that has to be signed by the faculty committee members saying that the thesis was successfully defended and accepted. The details of what needed to happen to convince the faculty that the thesis or its defense was good enough were the criteria that the committee used to decided when to sign the sheet (your cases #1-4) or when to tell a student that they never would (your case #5) but they were never part of a formal report.
Perhaps in countries where the specifics of the examination process are more clear, this might be asked for? It's still hard for me to imagine.
If you're going into academic jobs, the letters from the committee members, and the dissertation itself, will tell folks much more than any formal report on the first draft of a dissertation will. If you're heading into academia, you *will* be asked for those things.
> 11 votes
# Answer
Most faculty know that dissertation defenses can be capricious. A single holdout can ask for unreasonable changes.
If there's any doubt in my mind (as a member of a search committee) as to the quality of the dissertation, I'll read the dissertation.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I've never seen the decision asked for in job applications. I don't know whether it is something that could reasonably be asked for (that might depend on what country you are in, or what subject).
Personally, I suspect there might be more of an indirect effect. Minor revisions I would expect to be pretty much the same as no revisions, but a request of major revisions might indicate that the thesis isn't so good, which could correlate with chances in job applications. On the other hand, it may well be that the meaning of 'major revisions' varies considerably by university, so no meaningful comparison could be made.
> 1 votes
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Tags: faculty-application, thesis-committee
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thread-28161
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28161
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How to transfer or delete a Google Scholar profile from my own account?
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2014-09-07T21:03:22.703
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# Question
Title: How to transfer or delete a Google Scholar profile from my own account?
I accidentally created my advisor's Google scholar profile using my personal Gmail. Now I can't find a way to transfer the profile to him, nor can I delete his profile in my account.
Does anyone have any idea what to do?
This is almost a tech support question, but since it's so unique to academics I figure I should ask here.
I tried to look at the Google product forum, but there is no forum for Google Scholar. They don't have a support line for Google Scholar either. I have not found a way even after posting on the Google product forum. I'm truly stuck.
# Answer
Google Scholar profiles are not transferable. But you *can* delete the Google Scholar profile from your own account. Then create a new profile while signed in to your advisor's account.
To delete the Scholar profile from your own account, go to Google Scholar and click on "Settings":
then click on "Account":
then click on "Delete or recover your Scholar account."
There, you'll have to affirm that you are sure you'd like to delete the account, and that you understand you have 30 days to change your mind. Check all the boxes, then click "Delete account":
> 25 votes
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Tags: website, google-scholar
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thread-28930
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28930
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Does significant editing of a paper with the possibility of minor contributions to its scientific content warrant co-authorship?
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2014-09-23T15:11:06.303
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# Question
Title: Does significant editing of a paper with the possibility of minor contributions to its scientific content warrant co-authorship?
The question of whether writing/editing *alone* merits authorship is already addressed here. This question is about writing and editing *with the possibility of minor scientific contributions.*
I have been asked to review a draft paper written by a colleague (a more senior PhD student in the same research group), whose native language is not English. The main purpose is to improve the style and grammar of the paper, rather than make substantial comments to the scientific content.
It is possible that I will be able to contribute some science to the paper, however not likely of the "pedagogical oversight" variety that is normally the domain of the last several authors on a ten-author paper.
**Should I approach my colleague with the request that I be placed on the author list, *only if* I can make a reasonable contribution to the science (by way of some substantial comments or extra data analysis)?**
# Answer
> 17 votes
The short answer is: it should not. But the reality is some think it should. Since there is no law that dictates authorship the closest to an answer is to look at the Vancouver Protocol and derivatives here exemplified by the ICMJE (Internationa l Committee of Medical Journal Editors) which defines an *author* as follows:
* Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
* Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
* Final approval of the version to be published; AND
* Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
With these guidelines in mind many co-authorships would disappear but it becomes quite clear that help with language simply is not enough for co-authorship.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I have the feeling this may be field dependent. In my field/experience (biological science/bioinformatics) people that are asked to help with English do not get co-authorship. Indeed, in many journals where the contribution to the manuscript has to be stated, editing of manuscripts is not considered as enough contribution to warrant co-authorship. Most of the time the person that edited the manuscript ends up in the acknowledgements. That being said, I know also of cases in this field where the person editing the English would get systematically a place in the list of authors.
Personally, if I ask someone to check the English, I would not feel comfortable if the changes are substantial. The manuscript writing is critical for the work to stand a chance of being published and in such case I would most likely offer co-authorship. If the changes are minor then I will just include him/her in the acknowledgements section. At any rate, it is an important thing to discuss with your colleague before accepting the task of editing the manuscript.
# Answer
> 5 votes
You don't say (here) what field you're in. I suppose that by doing this you intend to invite answers from different fields.
In my own field of mathematics, it would be quite strange for someone to be added as a coauthor primarily for their editing work.
Nevertheless I had a situation recently where I did substantially edit and rewrite a paper in which I was not an author. (I think this is already a bit unusual, but it's hard to know for sure.) In addition to the writing I included a small amount of content: "minor scientific contributions" covers it rather well, actually. Towards the end of the process I was offered coauthorship on the paper. I appreciated the offer but turned it down immediately: though I had contributed to the writing of the paper and contributed *some* mathematical content, the amount of mathematical content I had contributed was much less than that of the named authors. My perspective was, honestly, that they had already done the work but were having trouble writing it up in a way that would make it publishable in a good journal in a reasonable amount of time. To me, a good rule of thumb is that if subtracting your contribution would result in a paper which (i) still exists and (ii) could -- with additional routine work -- be submitted to the same journal, then your contribution was not sufficiently substantial to warrant coauthorship. In the case at hand, a description my contributions to the paper appears in the acknowledgments...written by me!
There is another way to look at it that in my case made me even more convinced that I did the right thing. When contemplating adding an author, ask yourself what that person would gain by being added versus what the other authors would lose. In my case I would gain at most one more publication -- in fact, the third of a series in which I was a coauthor (the most senior one) on the first two. The two student coauthors would lose the prestige of having written a nice paper which does not have a faculty coauthor....as they deserve, because they did more than 95% of the mathematics of the paper on their own, without any guidance or direction from me. Adding myself as a coauthor would be undermining my own future plans, as I have and will again in the future talk about this work when recommending these students. But even if I was just a postdoc or a more senior grad student, fundamentally speaking how much credit can I get by being an author of a paper when as soon as anyone asks me about it I will feel honorbound to describe the minimal nature of my contributions?
I hope that by the end I have waded back into a point which is relevant to your question. Academics should not be in the business of maximizing the number of papers which appear with our name on them. I don't know of any academic field where this is really the route to substantial academic success: you get hired for the actual strength of your work, not the number of your papers. Adding yourself as an author to a paper that you mostly just copyedited and then made some minor comments from a position of lesser insight/expertise than some of the named authors: in so doing you're not **actually** adding strength to you research program, are you? Anyone who might have been impressed with the paper is going to be distinctly disappointed when they learn what you actually did, right? I know that in some fields (much more than mine...) the quantitative standards for publication are very high: in some branches of engineering and the sciences you most certainly want to ensure that you are writing a lot of papers rapidly. But then you want to *really* be involved in the work of those papers, right? We've seen on this site how easy it is to publish papers in the absence of actual academic content. It's **too easy** to be a plausible route to legitimate academic success in most parts of the world.
As I mentioned in a comment, you said that the one coauthor who is a native English speaker is the most junior author on the paper (a master's student). Well, that confluence of *lightness* of intellectual contribution and superior skill in this other domain makes that student the perfect person to do the copyediting, it seems to me. If their understanding is so limited that they can't even be trusted to edit the paper for non-content related issues, then I am worried about their being listed as an author at all: what could they have done?
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Tags: publications, writing, authorship
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thread-28942
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28942
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Can I research and publish in my Masters field when my PhD is in an unrelated field?
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2014-09-24T04:30:49.887
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# Question
Title: Can I research and publish in my Masters field when my PhD is in an unrelated field?
I have a PhD in Business with an emphasis in Political Marketing and a Masters in Linguistics.
Now due to some personal and life circumstances, I would like to start collaborating in research about Linguistics and second language acquisition.
My question is, can I initiate or collaborate on research and publish my work in a completely different field than my PhD?
# Answer
> 3 votes
If you can perform some research and write it up with the result that a journal wants to publish it, then it doesn't matter what qualifications you have, if any at all! Many journals do blind reviews which means their reviewers don't know the qualifications of *any* of the papers they review.
# Answer
> 1 votes
There is no reason why not. Consider this - you have already qualified in the field of linguistics to a Masters level, and presumably passed final examination/defense, therefore have already shown that you have knowledge and experience in that particular field - this can potentially help in generating research projects and collaborations
I am in a very similar situation, my PhD is in Physics, my Masters is in Digital Education - I have been able to contribute published research to both - the published research in both has been the most assistance in my case.
The main thing is to contribute robust and new research to the field, this is the main way that research collaborations can be initiated and generated.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Why not?
Unless you are an already recognized person in a given field (to which you write this paper), reviewers don't care what is your main field. (Of course, you need to meet the same standards to the quality of research and writing.)
You affiliation *may* bias reviewers (but I would guess that people would be more biased by prestige of the univ./institute/department than other factors). Moreover, it is not uncommon to:
* have people working in more than one field,
* official names of affiliation being not directly related to their actual specialization,
so I don't think it is a big factor.
# Answer
> 0 votes
You certainly can. Just consider the example of Professor Scott E. Page (University of Michigan) who has published in the following fields:
* Economics
* Political science
* Psychology
* Physics
* Management
* Public health
* Computer science
He has an MA in Math, MS in Business, and a PhD Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences.
So you can not only publish in the area of your masters but even in areas unrelated to either your masters or PhD.
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Tags: research-process, changing-fields
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thread-28946
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28946
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When applying to graduate school, is it a good idea to email professors to express interest in joining their research labs?
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2014-09-24T07:16:34.487
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# Question
Title: When applying to graduate school, is it a good idea to email professors to express interest in joining their research labs?
I live in US and I am applying to graduate school.I wonder if it is a good idea to send an email to graduate school professors and mention that you like their research and would like to join their research labs?
# Answer
While you *live* in the US, you didn't specify whether you are applying to schools only in the US. And the answer depends.
**Outside the US, especially Europe**, quite frequently PhD positions are funded by individual professors. In these cases the hiring/admission decisions are made almost entirely by the professor in charge of the "group", and so the answer to your question is an "Of course!" There simply is no way to get your foot in the door otherwise.
**In the US, or in countries where a US-style system is the norm**, the admission of graduate students are made in committee, and it is *not* necessary to contact specific professors in the application process. This, however, is not to say that establishing a faculty contact won't help: sometimes it will at least earn your application a more detailed look, and sometimes you will find a person willing to advocate on your behalf during the committee meeting.
In either case, **be thoughtful when you craft your e-mail**. In the US and elsewhere alike, professors often get e-mails exploring the possibility of doing a PhD. So make sure to do your homework! If you write a letter to Professor X asking about studying Subject A with him, and he has in fact left Subject A and had been working on Project B for the past 5 years, at best he would politely decline and at worst you may have created a bad first impression. Same thing goes for a bland letter stating "I like your research". By default academics are suspicious of empty platitudes: make sure to discuss your background (to show that you are making a somewhat informed judgment) and state what it is particularly that you like about her research.
Furthermore, note that in some/many US schools, incoming graduate students for PhD programs do not formally choose an advisor until one or two years into the program. This has to do in part with the belief that the students should be allowed to see all the opportunities available to them, and the professors have some time to assess the students, to mutually make educated decisions about their partnerships. So you should also **weigh your own feelings**: are they strong enough that you absolutely must work with this one professor? Or do you have broad enough interests that you may want to hold off deciding until you learn more about the subjects?
Lastly, if geography is not a barrier, instead of just an e-mail expressing interest, you can also consider writing and asking to schedule a face-to-face appointment. Even if you end up not working with the professors, more often than not you will learn something and get some very good advice from the discussion.
> 4 votes
# Answer
Its a very good idea to write to the professor you are interested in working with. However, its very important to do your research and find out everything about them. Do use formal language. And show some insight into their work... "I read your research paper on..., I think it has many applications, and we can expand the research to include.... and my background in... will be helpful". But don't be critical of the work.
> 1 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, email
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thread-28872
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28872
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Is it bad to ask the editor about the status of a submission on seeing that referees' reports were submitted a week ago?
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2014-09-22T09:06:24.980
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# Question
Title: Is it bad to ask the editor about the status of a submission on seeing that referees' reports were submitted a week ago?
This question is about inquiring regarding paper status.
I had submitted a paper, and recently I just discovered that the manuscript tracking system shows that the editorial committee has received the referee's report. But, this status has remained for over a week and I still have not heard from the editor handling my paper.
Should I then email the editor as a reminder? Would this act instead be taken as urging?
# Answer
Once reviewers reports have been returned, the editor has to assess the reviews in light of the paper and provide the author with indications on how to proceed. Exactly how this come through will differ between fields and editors. The main point, however, is that a certain amount of work is usually needed to process the reviews before passing the manuscript with comments back to the author. Since editors also handle, sometimes, quite large volumes of papers in parallel, your manuscript will be placed in a queue and the editor will likely take each manuscript in order. In addition, many, if not most, editors do their editing in parallel to ordinary faculty jobs which may at times further limit their available time. It is thus reasonable that this process may take several weeks. In "my" journal we as editors have three weeks for this process before being reminded by the electronic submission system that the manuscript is "due". We often make this deadline, but not always depending n workload.
So, one week is definitely too short a time to expect a response. Three weeks seems to be reasonable in my field but I would maybe allow even additional time to pass. It is probably good to talk to your peers who may have experience with the particular journal and also your field to get feedback on what is considered reasonable.
Added to clarify a comment: it is never "bad" to contact anyone, but it is only fair to allow a a "reasonable" (in the sense of the field and specific journal) amount of time to pass since the early contact will not likely yield anything productive. What, on the other hand, is bad is rather the attitude with which some contacts are made. Insights into appropriate time frames will help to keep communications as fruitful as possible.
> 33 votes
# Answer
A week is not a long time for an editor to take a decision. He might need to go through the paper in more detail than previously, in order to check on the reviewers' criticism. It might even be that the reviewers have diverging opinions or brought up some points that need further clarification, so that the editor needs to seek further advice.
If the overall time since the paper has been submitted is still reasonable, I wouldn't inquire at all for the moment. If the paper has also been under review for a long time already, it may be reasonable to wait for another week or two and then inquire about the status of the submission.
An inquiry might be perceived as urging by the editor if he has the feeling that everything is in time with the paper. If the paper has been in review relatively long and you make a general inquiry, it shouldn't leave any bad feelings.
In professionally managed journals, the professional editorial staff would take care of such inquiries without involving the scientific editor at all, so you don't need to really worry in these cases. Just make sure to address the contact point where you got the submission receipt from, and not the editor from the general journal information page.
> 20 votes
# Answer
No, there is absolutely no need to send a reminder after one week. The editor might be busy or on vacation or whatever or, maybe, he is deciding that he needs further reviews to decide.
> 12 votes
# Answer
When thinking about contacting an editor you need to consider the costs and benefits. In all but the most extreme circumstances (where the editor has completely lost track of your submission), the the editor is not going to be happy about a request for a status update. Responding to status update requests are in general not a huge deal, but they essentially are saying "you are behind and my time is more important than yours". In terms of the benefit, a few more days delay until publication usually has little cost (accept the anxiety knowing a decision is coming). In rare circumstances, a few days can matter a lot. For example, a resubmission where there is a high likelihood that it will be accepted and therefore "in press" and you have a grant deadline (or job application) in the next few days, would have a potentially large payoff. Similarly, a submission that has been stuck in the same state for too long (whatever that means), and there is real worry that the manuscript has gotten lost. It is not unheard of for electronic systems to have bugs or editors to leave or get sick. I would say a week in the final decision stage does not qualify as anywhere near "too long".
> 4 votes
# Answer
Echoing other responses, one week is really not all that much time for a paper to be sitting on an editor's desk, and it's not worth sending a query.
The only exception to this is if the paper is expressly on a fast-track publication schedule or some sort of deadline that might matter to the journal is rapidly approaching (for example, the publication of an article on the same day the results are presented at a major conference).
> 2 votes
# Answer
The editor has to decipher what the reviewers mean. Few publications use a check-list system, which the most comprehensive and clearest way to handle reviews, so the editor has to figure out whether the reviewers are saying "publish", "modify and resubmit" or "reject completely - unsalavageable".
If you don't hear anything in another week then email the editor saying that you apologise for the intrusion but you've been having problems with your email system and were wondering if an email to you has gone missing.
> 1 votes
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Tags: publications, etiquette, paper-submission, editors
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thread-27472
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27472
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Is there any research on the prevalence of academic theft?
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2014-08-21T14:53:18.847
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# Question
Title: Is there any research on the prevalence of academic theft?
Some — perhaps many — academics seem to be very careful in keeping unpublished work secret. It is not difficult to find anecdotes where academic ideas are stolen, such as in this post by @Markus. Others, such as @NateEldredge in this post write that *It seems to be pretty common for people starting out in academia to overestimate the risks of people stealing their work*. Personally, I'm rather at the other end of the spectrum, and I don't feel afraid that my ideas would be stolen. Perhaps I'm naïve.
Is there any research on the question: how common is academic theft, really? Such as surveys of people having experienced (or committed!) such theft according to an appropriate definition, possibly compared to peoples' perception as to the risks. It would be interesting to see if there are some facts to refer to. Perhaps it is field dependent?
*(By academic theft, I am* not *talking about plagiarism, but rather about stealing research ideas before anything is published)*
# Answer
> Is there any research on the question: how common is academic theft, really? Such as surveys of people having experienced (or committed!) such theft according to an appropriate definition, possibly compared to peoples perception as to the risks.
See the related articles:
> De Vries, Raymond, Melissa S. Anderson, and Brian C. Martinson. "Normal misbehavior: Scientists talk about the ethics of research." *Journal of empirical research on human research ethics: JERHRE* 1.1 (2006): 43.
and
> Martinson, Brian C., Melissa S. Anderson, and Raymond De Vries. "Scientists behaving badly." *Nature* 435.7043 (2005): 737-738.
Among a sample of 3,247 NIH-funded scientists in the United States, asked about the behavior "Using another's ideas without permission or giving due credit":
* 1.4% said they themselves have engaged in this behavior within the last three years
* 45.7% agreed with the statement, "I have observed or had other direct evidence of this behavior among my professional colleagues including postdoctoral associates, within the last three years."
Please read the article for methodology, limitations, etc.
> 13 votes
# Answer
Stealing ideas is difficult because you have a victim you have stolen from and presumably they know (or will know) that you stole from them.
Fraud is much more common, much easier to do, and much harder to prove—unless you do something really stupid like re-use the same image multiple times in various unrelated papers, something the people who get caught always seem to do. (Note 1)
Also common, as Yiuin states, is people (notably PIs and supervisors) taking the credit for their underlings'/minions' work.
Note 1: This means that the either all the frauds are stupid and re-use images and get caught, or that the frauds who don't re-use images are rarely caught.
> 8 votes
# Answer
Not quite an answer, but too long for a comment. In order to quantify how common academic theft is, one needs to define theft. You attempt to define it as:
> By academic theft, I am not talking about plagiarism, but rather about stealing research ideas before anything is published
Now consider the following scenario. Alice has been carrying out research on topic X on and off for years. She has a number of nice research findings that she hasn't gotten around to publishing and hasn't shared the findings with anyone. Alice finally decides to start focusing on topic X and publish her existing results. Unbeknownst to Alice, Bob has just started working on topic X as she begin trying to publish her results. I don't think anyone would argue that Alice has engaged in academic theft. The issue becomes what would have to change for Alice to have engaged in academic theft.
What if Alice found out about Bob's intentions from Carol (or maybe Bob himself) and that changed Alice's research direction?
What if Alice only starts doing the research after she hears about what Bob is doing?
What if Bob presents a novel approach to topic X and Alice runs with the approach faster/further than Bob, but Alice is careful to always credit Bob with the new approach? What if Bob presented the new approach N years ago (choose your N)?
In order to quantify how often academic theft occurs, one needs to define what theft is.
> 8 votes
# Answer
I've been a graduate student (Masters at one school and PhD at another) and I have never seen the sort of thing you are describing. I am afraid `The Social Network` has made everyone paranoid about their ideas being stolen. The reality is that most ideas are difficult to steal, because implementing them might be time-consuming enough that the original person has a huge head start. The only time you should worry is if you think you have a GREAT idea that you think is easy to do once you think of it. You will probably know if this is possible.
In reality though, there are a lot of smart people out there and if you are thinking of it, at least 1 other person has probably considered it. Its much more likely that you are recreating (or attempting something that doesn't work), but that might just be in my field (Neuroscience/Imaging).
On the other hand, I have found that it is pretty common for people to take credit for other peoples work, or use other peoples software without crediting, especially for grant applications. Again though, this might be unique to my field.
> 5 votes
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Tags: research-process, ethics, intellectual-property, reference-request, research-misconduct
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thread-28892
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28892
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Who pays for TAs?
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2014-09-22T14:36:36.167
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# Question
Title: Who pays for TAs?
A TA normally has a hourly contract for working with a professor. Who pays for this contract? The professor's external funding is for research, not education.
If the department pays for that, how the budget is distributed among professors, as every professor (almost any) would appreciate having TA.
# Answer
Your question makes assumptions that are not necessarily valid.
For instance, in the US (where I studied), the contracts for TA's are normally paid for at the departmental level. The department gets a budget from the university to cover a certain amount of TA's, which it allocates to the different courses taught in the department, usually based on the expected enrollment. Courses that have traditionally enrolled more students (usually intro classes) as well as lab courses tend to have more TA's than smaller, more specialized courses.
By contrast, in Germany, the expectation is that the individual professors' research groups are responsible for providing the funding for teaching assistants. In part, this is done through the contribution of faculty-wide teaching resources, as well as having permanent positions called *Planstelle* which have teaching duties associated with them. So the money in large part still comes from the faculty, but the organization process is at the scale of an individual group.
> 7 votes
# Answer
In the schools with which I am familiar,the *department* pays for all teaching activities, including Teaching Assistants.
> 3 votes
# Answer
In Sweden, PhD students and Post docs are paid with the PI research money for doing research. Teaching is optional (but in some departments it is expected or strongly encouraged), in which case it is paid from the department's teaching budget.
> 1 votes
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Tags: funding, teaching-assistant
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thread-28687
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28687
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What is an effective means to educate non-academic colleagues of the importance and time needed for Adjunct Lecturing research?
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2014-09-18T16:43:48.263
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# Question
Title: What is an effective means to educate non-academic colleagues of the importance and time needed for Adjunct Lecturing research?
My situation is, I am an Adjunct Lecturer (Physics); however, to support myself, I work full-time as a high school teacher. Essentially, the situation is that an Adjunct Lecturer is working amongst non-academic colleagues, who unfortunately see the research as nothing more than a 'hobby'.
What is an effective means of helping these non-academic colleagues comprehend the importance and time-needed for the research involved with being an Adjunct Lecturer?
# Answer
> 1 votes
As @NateEldredge mentioned, technically research is probably not part of the duties of an Adjunct Lecturer.
That being said, you could explain that as an adjunct it is natural for you to develop your CV further so that you may be considered for teaching higher-level courses, increase in rank, service on interesting committees, etc., in which case research will be important.
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Tags: independent-researcher, adjunct-faculty
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thread-6170
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/6170
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Teaching classmates who don't put much effort in
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2013-01-11T20:41:13.963
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# Question
Title: Teaching classmates who don't put much effort in
I'm not sure where to ask this so I thought I'd ask you here.
I'm in my 3rd year at university doing maths and some of the modules are a bit tricky. I know this and I know the way that I need to work in order to understand the material and pass the exams well. Due to this, I try and spend a lot of time learning the theory (and recently its been through loads of questions on here). However, what I noticed with some of my friends is that they don't put in the same amount of effort as me (quality wise).
Let's take the example on semidirect products. A lot of us have been struggling with constructing SDP's, however I've tried very hard to learn the theory on them and what the answer's are looking for and what the methods I need to do (and why I'm doing them) to try and learn how to construct them. A lot of that has been on Math.SE but I've been referring to online PDF's and lecture notes as well. Now, my friends know that I put this in and try and learn it and so I can do the work properly, so I think they're trying to take advantage of that.
Today I showed one person how to do a question regarding compositions on Möbius transforms and they just refused to think for themselves. I said "think about it, because I'm not going to tell you what the answer is" and they still wouldn't think (just kept saying "I don't know"), so I didn't tell them the answer. Eventually, after some BIG hints, they got what to do. Now I've noticed people are relying on me to tell them how to construct SDP's (as this is a main question in the exam). From my history, you can see that I've struggled a lot with this and I think I'm close to solving this problem now, but at the same time I can tell that my friends aren't going to learn it themselves. Mentally they've given up and so won't even bother learning it.
My question is this: **Should I tell them the answer, when (it is when and not if because I WILL get it!) I figure out how to do it?**
I feel bad because obviously I don't want to lie and say "I don't know how to do it" or mess up their exam, but at the same time, I feel like they had the exact same time as me to do this, and the same resources (online, books, notes, ask the lecturer, etc.) yet they still didn't do it. So it's their own fault. Plus, the time it'd take me to teach and explain it to them, I could spend that couple of hours doing my own work. Other examples, revise another module, etc.
What should I do? Do you academics have any tips?
I'm sure you feel like this sometimes when people ask questions on here clearly without thinking about and just expect you to answer it.
# Answer
> 25 votes
In my experience, undergraduate students are a lot like children. They will be as lazy as you allow them to be. They will resist learning. They will resist doing the work and putting in the time. It's human nature...and it is something we, as teachers, must get the students to change.
Were I in your shoes, I would make it clear how to do something (as any teacher should) but I would certainly NOT do the work for them. If they keep saying "I don't know" then you should tell them "It's OK. Not everybody gets it their first time. Perhaps you get it when you take this class for a second time." I usually see my students' eyes open a bit on this one as they see that you are being so compassionate and understanding while still being refused to be manipulated. They also get the clear understanding that they will fail if they don't do the work.
We need to help students. That includes helping them to not be so lazy.
# Answer
> 13 votes
I've run into this situation far too many times. You're right to be frustrated, and you shouldn't have to devote your precious time to endeavors that bring you no benefit.
Be honest and say something like "I'd really like to help you, but I just don't have the time. If you'd like, I can share with you the resources that helped me understand it, but I have enough on my plate already."
# Answer
> 10 votes
If you have found certain resources useful in your quest to teach yourself then create a zip file containing the most useful to pass out to anyone who asks you for help. This is YOUR qualification and if you feel that you need to spend more time on your own studies in order to get the grade you deserve then don't waste that time spoon feeding others that are unlikely to be a part of your life 2 days after graduation.
Your facility should have some form of online discussion forum so if you really feel responsible for the outcome of your cohorts exam then create a potted version of your findings on there so that everyone can benefit and you can just direct any people with further queries there - the added bonus to this is that your tutor may well add some clarification to what you write so if you have misunderstood something you also gain from doing this.
# Answer
> 8 votes
I do agree partially with Paul, when he says that you can feel frustrated and you shouldn't feel forced to answer every question for them.
Although, I've noticed to be able to explain something, you need to understand them quite well. Even some times, you are forced to attack a problem from different point of views depending on who asks, since the same explanation won't be convincing to everyone. By doing so, you might make a new link between different part of the material, and increase your own understanding. In my experience, helping other students has almost always a net benefice and is a really good way to improve yourself.
Also, as you continue, having only the answer will not get you much further and especially in math where concepts build upon each others, you will have a net advantage over all the others.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I suggest repressing the natural urge of "*They don't deserve this, I put in the work. They didn't, I deserve this.*" as while it may feel good, it won't get you anywhere. You might like to keep enjoying the fact that you have shown you are a hard working independent learner, to feel satisfaction (that you deserve).
Look at if from a Advantages and Costs of teaching
**Advantages:**
* Teaching is a fantastic way to cement your knowledge. (Many say it is the best way.)
* This gains you friends, or at least positive acquaintances. These people become your colleges, and industry contacts once you graduate.
* Gaining a reputation as a self-less helpful person, can open up doors to you.
* Teaching is a valuable life skill, that will help you rise through your chosen career
* Improving the quality and reputation of your institution. Obviously this is only a small step, but a journey of a thousand miles begins that way. If it becomes known that "Graduates from X, really know there stuff." then you have increased the value of your degree, wrt getting jobs etc.
**Costs:**
* Time (this is a big one)
* Boredom, repeating stuff over an over, one you have completely got it, gets you no where.
* Grade Scaling: If your university scales the final grade, so that only your position relative to class average matters, letting other people fail will improve your score (by driving the average down). However you really have to cripple someone (or many people) especially in larger classes, to see any really benefit. It's a pretty cold strategy.
**Actions:**
Look at the costs vs benefits, and be honest with your fellows, if it is not to your benefit to help them .
* if you don't have time, tell them (that you don't have time).
* If you have got bord, tell them you can't keep going over the same stuff, you've move on the other things.
* If you are a harsh enough person to be motivated by Grade Scaling, tell them "We're in direct competition, helping you is only hindering myself."
# Answer
> 1 votes
Students who don't put much effort in, do so usually because the material does not interest them. If you can make the material interesting enough to get them excited about it, they will begin to put in more effort.
And to answer your question, should you tell them the answer? In most cases, no, you should not. No one learns by being told the answer. People only learn by coming to an answer using their own mind.
On the other hand, if YOU don't know the answer, then you should first find the answer yourself, and THEN still don't tell them the answer but use the fact you now know the answer to help them reach the same conclusion (without telling them the answer).
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Tags: teaching
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thread-2022
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2022
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Can I show my co-author the final version of an accepted publication I reviewed?
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2012-06-15T13:16:07.650
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# Question
Title: Can I show my co-author the final version of an accepted publication I reviewed?
I was reviewing a journal paper recently that is closely related to work a colleague and I are doing. We are currently in the process of writing up our paper, and I plan to cite the paper I reviewed in ours. The paper I reviewed has been accepted after two rounds, but has not appeared in print yet. The author does not have a preprint on their website (or other preprint services). We don't build on the reviewed paper I want to cite directly, but our work is closely related. In the future we will probably start building on the reviewed paper, so I want my co-author to be aware of it as soon as possible.
Can I send the last version of the reviewed paper (that I saw) to my colleague? Can I cite the paper as "(in press)" if I submit our paper before the reviewed paper finally appears in print?
# Answer
> 27 votes
No, you cannot. Until the paper is publicly available you cannot show it to anyone nor even acknowledge its existence. The only slight exception I would make is that if a colleague was going to pursue similar/identical research, I would tell them they might want to contact the author. I would assume that this would result in my identity as a reviewer being revealed.
Your options are:
1. Submit your manuscript as is, but add the citation as soon as it become public.
2. Reveal your identity as a reviewer and ask the author for a preprint.
Option 1 is reasonable since you believe the existence of the paper is not critical to your paper. Option 2 is okay, but remember the reviewers of you manuscript will not have easy access to the cited material.
# Answer
> 7 votes
You can't cite the paper till it's in print or somewhere publicly available. As for sharing with your colleague, I think there are degrees. If the colleague is sitting in your office and you show them a hard copy, that's less of a problem than emailing a copy to a colleague (remote or local) which I would not do.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Since the paper will appear soon (it's been accepted!) and it is not essential for the *present* article, why not follow StrongBads' advice, namely submit your article as is, and add the citation in the proofs. Discussing the future with your collaborator can wait a couple of weeks.
Since you sound in a big hurry, I will elaborate in another direction now.
I have always been very adamant about keeping reviewer information confidential. Other people... not: in my discipline (theoretical physics) people have told me that they reviewed my paper or (worse) the paper of somebody else. In short, it is not unheard of to reveal such information, especially when the outcome is acceptance. Is it good for the trade? That's another topic for discussion.
So if you are in a HUGE hurry to discuss with your colleague you may follow Suresh above: if your colleague is not in a different city and you trust each other, you may decide to share the confidential information *confidentially*, which is to say, just show them the article which you in fact judged positively, discuss it, destroy the evidence. (I've seen that too, and without the destruction-of-the-evidence part.)
Though I personally would just wait...
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Tags: publications, research-process, ethics, peer-review
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