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thread-27043
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27043
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In a tenure-track position application; Is it appropriate to ask for recommendation letter from a professor for whom I only served as a TA?
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2014-08-10T18:41:23.440
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# Question
Title: In a tenure-track position application; Is it appropriate to ask for recommendation letter from a professor for whom I only served as a TA?
When applying for a tenure-track academic position in the US right after my PhD (in the US too), is it a good idea to ask for a letter of recommendation from a professor in my graduate school with whom I took a class where I got good grades while showing a strong interest (genuine interest), then later on served as a TA for that class?
I haven't done any research project with him though, but we get along well: he is one of the professors I appreciate the most both intellectually and personally, I would have chosen him without any doubt as advisor if I was in his area. He is well-respected in his field (say in the top 20, if you want some ranking). His area of research is a bit different from mine but useful for my research: he works on database management systems while I do machine learning, so there are some very interesting connections such as large-scale machine learning / data analysis (~aka. "big data"), query optimization, etc.
# Answer
> 18 votes
It depends on the school. At a SLAC (small liberal arts college), the hiring committee members will pay more attention to teaching experience and may be more willing to be impressed by a Big Name®.
At a R1, faculty are not only inoculated against Big Names®, but they have enough experience with individual Big Names® to read between the lines of otherwise blandly positive letters with hermeneutic vigor.
I've been repeatedly surprised by my senior colleagues discussing letters from other Big Names® with "he only wrote two pages of song and praise? He must not have liked that person" or of a fairly damning letter with, "she's a grouch. The fact that she wrote at all means that this person is brilliant." Context is important.
A letter that spoke only of your teaching and not of your research would be seen as faint praise in this milieu.
Note that I'm in the humanistic social sciences at an R1. Your mileage may vary.
TL;DR: save the references from this person for SLACs where the praise for your teaching ability will be seen as a strong positive.
<sub>Also note that at larger R1s, we are familiar with the difference in writing styles between American (where everything is excessively effusive) and European/Asian letters (where a strong letter of recommendation reads: "Jon Smith was a member of my lab from 2005/10/1 to 2012/5/1. His work was perfectively adequate with no complaints. Sincerely, XX"). Smaller institutions may not have that experience and in those circumstances, you may ask one of your American letter writers to include a short paragraph noting that European counterparts thought highly of you but that might not show up in the letters in the hyperbolic form we are used to in the United States. </sub>
# Answer
> 3 votes
Having a recommendation letter that addresses your teaching ability and experience is useful if the search committee cares about teaching. Many advertisements specifically ask for at least one recommendation letter that addresses teaching, and I frequently see such letters when I look at applicant's files. Thus I don't think it would be unusual at all for you to have a letter of recommendation from your TA supervisor even though you haven't taken classes or worked on research with that person.
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Tags: recommendation-letter, tenure-track, faculty-application, teaching-assistant
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thread-23271
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23271
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How is it common that universities provide assistantship positions for their graduate students?
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2014-06-12T00:01:46.240
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# Question
Title: How is it common that universities provide assistantship positions for their graduate students?
Do a lot of graduate programs provide assistantships to their students (e.g. teaching or research assistantships)? How common is it for graduate students to be paid while going to graduate school?
# Answer
> 4 votes
This depends on many factors, including the discipline, the degree, and the institution. Some disciplines have a lot more research dollars to support research assistants. For example, scientifically oriented programs tend to have more money to support students than liberal arts degrees; PhD programs tend to have more money than terminal Master's programs; and, of course, educational institutions exhibit a lot variability in terms of their overall resources.
# Answer
> 0 votes
To answer your first question:
> Do a lot of graduate programs provide assistantships to their students (e.g. teaching or research assistantships)?
In my experience, programs do not provide assistantships -- professors do. When you are applying to a program, whether Master's or PhD, your application is considered in relation to work that the faculty of that department have on the table for the next year or several years. For RAships this is grant-funded projects; for TAships these are large-workload courses.
In my understanding, just about all graduate programs (except not so much in professional degrees like business, law, medicine, and perhaps a couple others - although there are definitely exceptions) provide R/TAships. This is so for simple reasons that there is research and teaching to be done, faculty don't have time to do it all by themselves, and graduate students are the cheapest workforce with post-Bachelor credentials for an institution of higher education.
So, yes, a lot of programs provide these assistantships. You should assume the program you are applying to does. This is easily confirmed by reviewing the websites of current grant-funded projects run by the faculty (research groups/labs/centers) and seeing if they have graduate students on their rosters.
To the second question:
> How common is it for graduate students to be paid while going to graduate school?
This largely depends on the size (for TAships) and/or amount of research activity (for RAships) at the institution and the department in question. The typical heuristic applies: engineering and engineering-like hard sciences tend to be better funded, philosophy and theater tend to be barely scraping by, and the social sciences are somewhere in between. (Of course there are exceptions to every rule, and you might find a truly flourishing social science program here and there, just as you might find a relatively cash-light hard science program.)
Beyond these generalities, it depends on the fit between you (your qualifications and goals) and the on-going projects and needs of the faculty who will be advising you and whose research you are interested in. Most likely you will at times have to reconcile the trade-off between seeking an RAship on a project you are not really interested in, or proudly sticking with doing exactly what you want to be doing while paying out-of-pocket or debt financing your studies. This is the nature of the graduate game, and THAT is indeed common. Good Luck!
# Answer
> 0 votes
Generally, if it's a research degree (i.e., a PhD or a research-focused Masters designed to lead to a PhD), some form of assistantship or fellowship will be provided to cover tuition and a stipend. The details including the nature, requirements, stipend size, and other perks will vary by field, institution, and department and sometimes even by how much a department or professor wants a particular student. The degree to which this funding or these assistantships are guaranteed — and the periods during which they are guaranteed — can vary as well.
If the graduate degree is a non-research masters (e.g., an MBA) assistantships will almost never be offered or guaranteed although they are sometimes possible. Most students are expected to pay.
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Tags: research-assistantship, teaching-assistant
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thread-30758
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30758
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How to build relationships with professors in such a way that results in good letters of recommendation?
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2014-10-28T23:15:25.087
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# Question
Title: How to build relationships with professors in such a way that results in good letters of recommendation?
I know a lot of questions are asked about letters of recommendation, but I was unable to find anything on this site or the internet in general that spoke to the particular issue of how to build the sort of relationship with a professor that results in good letters of recommendation. I get that you should of course do pretty well in the class and participate and go to office hours and be generally easy to work with and stuff (and ideally do research with the professor), but apart from that, is there nothing more you can do?
I know some might be eager to answer that you shouldn't be so mercenary about it (i.e. you should just organically be interested in the material and the professor and the good letter of recommendation will follow), so allow me to provide an example where this did not work out. I got a letter of recommendation from my favorite professor in college, which for some reason I was able to see (it was about a decade ago, so I forget how; I had waived my right to see it). Even though I thought he liked me (I went to office hours multiple times; I had two classes with him, both of which I did well in; he encouraged me to go for a fellowship; he even went out of his way to see a play I was in), the letter was the most basic "this student was in my class" sort of letter you could possibly imagine. It was such an incredible slap in the face.
Maybe he was just a jerk and that's that. Maybe I should have asked for a "strong" letter of recommendation (which I didn't know at the time was what you were supposed to ask). But regardless, given the vagaries of human relationships on top of the limitations of your own abilities, how is it even possible to get a strong letter of recommendation?
# Answer
> 6 votes
Strong recommendation letters come from *professional* relationships, rather than *personal* relationships. Of course, the two are often related, but if a professor hasn't seen much more than getting an A in a class from a professional perspective, then they can't say that they have. A wise and helpful faculty member will warn you of this fact in advance, but faculty are human and many may not be wise enough or helpful enough to give an appropriate warning.
The canonical answer, of course, for getting a good recommendation to grad school is to work with a professor on an actual research project. What you actually need, however, is for a professor to be able to speak to your *potential to become a good researcher*. Even working on a research project will not necessarily demonstrate that, if your role is as a cog in somebody's machine (a friend once worked on a research project as an undergraduate where her job was literally to grind rocks into powder with a mortar and pestle: the project was awesome, the job they wanted done was not).
What does research potential really consist of? In my experience, research potential means:
1. Creativity in approaching difficult or ill-defined problems
2. Initiative enough to accomplish hard work work independently
3. Skill enough to solve complex problems effectively
4. Intelligence and background enough to acquire new skills when needed
5. Social skills enough to do all of these things as part of a team (semi-optional)
There is another excellent way besides actual research projects to demonstrate all of these as an undergraduate: project-centric classes. Many graduate or upper-level undergraduate classes have an large optional or required capstone project. When you take on such a project, it gives you a chance to do something really cool, above and beyond the base minimum. With a good project, you can demonstrate all of these qualities to your professor and provide both the evidence and the motivation to write a really good letter.
# Answer
> 3 votes
1. Do well.
2. Make sure they remember you.
As for (1), take challenging courses with respected professors, and take on research opportunities with professors.
As for (2), just remember to go to office hours at least once or twice. You generally have far greater risk of looking stupid for not asking help when you got less than an A, than for asking help for literally any topic coming from course material (and I'm sure there is a quite difficult thing the professor covered and would be surprised you took interest in at all).
*Anything else and you are overthinking it*.
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Tags: recommendation-letter
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thread-30823
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30823
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should I fight to choose journal my work is submitted to?
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2014-10-29T16:31:42.430
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# Question
Title: should I fight to choose journal my work is submitted to?
I'm a USA grad student in computational biology. Starting 2 years ago, I tried to get paper X published, with very little feedback from my advisor, and after a year (!) in review paper X was rejected. Meanwhile, I was working on other projects, gaining experience, and drawing closer to graduation. My advisor then asked me to submit X to a kind of shady non-journal "proceedings" (he had some hook-up), and he didn't seem happy that I objected. Now, I hope to graduate in a few months, and with the benefit of my improved knowledge of science, I'm trying to get project X published again. My advisor only cares about getting things out the door, not about the projects, and he has a connection to this Chinese journal (jmcb.oxfordjournals.org) that I never heard of. He is impressed by their impact factor because that's how he is (I can tell they are gaming their IF.). He wants me to put it there, while I think a lower IF, less obscure journal would be way better. Additionally, it appears that very few institutions subscribe to this journal (my univ does not).
It's not a spam journal, but I never would want to submit there, and I feel that I should have some control over it as it's my work. But is it worth it to fight him on this, or should I just go along with it because he's the boss? I guess if it's easy to publish there, I should be grateful not to have to keep working on it after graduation? I do want to do a postdoc.
# Answer
Here is what I can say:
1. There are some very respectable people on the editorial board, e.g., Rudolf Jaenisch, Eric Sontheimer, etc. That said, I haven't heard of most of the people who are editors, and editorial boards can be manipulated.
2. Oxford University Journals are (quite) reputable - at least, Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) is looked upon very well in my part of the world.
3. I'm not really sure what you mean by "less obscure, lower impact" journal. Like, PLOS one, or Molecular Biology of the Cell? If the latter, it might be worth fighting for, but I don't think a potential postdoc adviser is really going to split hairs between MBoC and the journal you suggest (neither is Cell, right?) I do not think PLOS One would be a better choice.
4. Do you *know* the reputation of the journal your PI wants to submit to is how you perceive it, or is just your perception upon first glance? It may be that the journal is looked on perfectly fine by other researchers. It might be worth talking to a non-adviser mentor in your field about it.
tl;dr: You could fight it, but you probably have better things to do with your time (i.e., find a postdoc), and it's not an obviously bad journal, so I would say just move one.
> 4 votes
# Answer
If the journal is junk, you should not publish there, period. So, the real question is: Is the journal as bad as you think it is or this journal is just not one of the top journals in your area but still a legit, reputable journal? So, confirm which of the two applies. How to distinguish journals has already been discussed several times in this forum. Check the editors, look their homepages if they mention their editorial work there, see who else publishes there and check some of the published articles.
In case this is actually a legit, reputable journal but still not top of the line, you should really consider if your work is actually as good as you think it is. It already has got a rejection and perhaps your advisor suggests some medium (and not top) journal, since he may believe your work might actually have a chance there. So, be open about this and ask him. What does he actually think about your specific work? Is it not good enough for the top journals? If he believes it is not, perhaps you should reconsider your stance.
> 4 votes
# Answer
If it's true that few libraries subscribe to it, then I would say that's serious enough grounds to choose something else, perhaps an Open Access option.
> -1 votes
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Tags: journals, advisor
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thread-30845
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30845
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How to minimise student's discomfort when suggesting they need to improve his/her English?
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2014-10-30T01:26:59.177
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# Question
Title: How to minimise student's discomfort when suggesting they need to improve his/her English?
The standard of English grammar, spelling and syntax is abysmal in my country. High school students generally learn such things by studying a foreign language.
As a result, the written work I receive from students **whose native tongue is English** frequently has many errors - including the usual:
* Typographical errors
* Apostrophes in the wrong place (its, it's)
* The following fails: their/there/they're; whose/who's
* And, generally, failing to check spelling, grammar and to proof read thoroughly.
The typos and failure to proof read thoroughly I can understand and treat accordingly, namely encourage students to proof read and check their work carefully, or get a friend/colleague/family member to help.
The failures in English grammar, syntax and punctuation - which I suspect arise from a deficient treatment at school - I find hard to forgive.
Our University has extensive support for improving the English for both native and non-native English speakers.
I feel concerned, however, about suggesting to those students who are native English speakers, but who need more training, to attend the help workshops available to them. This is for fear of embarrassing or alienating the students. Is there a sensitive way of dealing with this? Should I even try to spare the students' blushes?
# Answer
One way to approach this is from the perspective of why the quality of prose matters in the first place. After all, why *should* we bother with spelling, grammar, etc? Having good spelling, grammar, etc. is important because *not* having them puts roadblocks in the way of communicating with the reader.
You can minimize a student's embarrassment by emphasizing this aspect. Assuming that student is otherwise doing well, you might can bring up grammar by approaching it from this angle. You can emphasize the pragmatic aspect that, in pretty much any career they choose, written communication will be important, and that it's important to not have others' appreciation of their good work be impeded by problems with grammar and spelling. It's really the linguistic equivalent of keeping yourself clean and well-groomed.
If a student is not doing well with the core material... well, then grammar's not really the key problem to talk to them about anyway...
> 6 votes
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Tags: teaching, language
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thread-29152
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/29152
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Why did my advisor criticize my work for the first time at my Master's Thesis defense?
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2014-09-29T11:23:38.350
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# Question
Title: Why did my advisor criticize my work for the first time at my Master's Thesis defense?
I had two advisors for my master thesis. One, as my first advisor would take the theoretical part to guide me. I have been meeting with my first advisor once every two week and he has been examining each part of the text. During these meetings, he continued to tell me how good I am doing and I should keep writing in this way. There were never real feedback, which could be pointing out my mistakes.
So I developed a full confident in myself and in the work. He offered me that I should consider starting a PhD with him. In short, during the time I have been writing my masters thesis, he gave me all signs that he approves and likes my work.
My presentation took place a week ago, and was pretty much successful in my opinion and in the opinions of other people who came to listen. But at the end of the presentation, I received a totally different attitude from my first advisor. He started to criticize the work in a way he has never done in our meetings.
I was shocked about how my first advisor could not defend me and his own ideas in front of the committee and I am incredibly disappointed. Not only have I lost my belief in him and his judgments but also, I am now doubting my own skill of writing.
I am going to meet my first advisor next week and planning to talk about his twist of judgment and criticism. In this talk, I will question the PhD idea. I'm not sure though, how to put my anger, disappointment in right words, without making him feel that I am attacking to his personality. Also, when I asked him if we can meet earlier than next week, he refused. I have the feeling that he knows what i am going to say and now trying to construct a distance.
I know that trust is a very important issue in between the advisor and the advisee. If we will continue work together, I have to ask him an explanation but as I said, I'm afraid of my own frustration and if I cannot express myself in a right way.
My question is, would it be wise to express my disappointment in him, especially now that we will start to focus on my PhD? On the other hand, I need him to justify his inconsistency, which is quite crucial for me to keep working with him.
# Answer
You cannot go after him for asking questions, that's his prerogative. You can choose to work on your PhD with him, or without him. That's what the conversation ought to be about.
Check out Crucial Confrontations:
http://www.frumi.com/images/uploads/CrucialConfrontations.pdf
With a crucial discussions like that, it is always good to give yourself a pep talk and imagine why would a rational being do something like that. Was is really that bad? Were you his first student, and was he nervous? Could he have had some personal issues to deal with? Perhaps he feels embarrassed for his behavior?
That will help you develop compassion and temper your anger (regardless how justifiable it might be). The goal is really to channel your emotions.
Then you are ready to develop a focus for your discussion. You can pose it as the discussion about your concerns about doing PhD with that advisor. Let's face it, you were not going to do PhD with him, there wouldn't be need for the conversation. Ask questions, at this point.
For example, I was surprised with the level of question received during the defense. I was left doubting the quality of my work, and now I am concerned about proceeding with PhD because my work is not as good as I thought it would be. What is your take? That should be enough to start the conversation without accusations.
Keep in mind, they are supposed to ask you hard questions at the defense, it is an exam. It might even be a compliment - he wouldn't have asked you these questions, if he didn't think you can handle them. My advsor holds practice defenses. The labmates and the adviser ask hard questions then. For my defense practice, I was answering questions for an hour! If it wasn't for the practice, these questions would have come at the defense time.
> 16 votes
# Answer
Concurring with the comments above, I would suggest you:
1. Calm down
2. Consider (on your own, at first) whether you want to do the PhD with this supervisor given how the defence went (do you feel that the questions were valid and having them asked earlier would have made your research MUCH stronger and hence your PI should have asked them before, or were they more tough questions to show how good a student you really are).
3. Prepare for a polite but emotionally challenging meeting. DO NOT criticize or in any way express your "disappointment" in your supervisor - ask him why the questions he brought up were not asked during practice runs. Then consider (again) whether you want to commit to a PhD with him/her, depending on the answer.
Most importantly - understand that a Masters (and *especially* a PhD) is YOUR project, it's not your supervisors job to defend your ideas and results - it's YOURS...
> 6 votes
# Answer
I feel you, I had the exact same experience at larger level, at my PhD proposal defense.
I spoke with most of them individually to understand the issue. My advisor and my chair were very supportive before the defense and all of a sudden they acted as if they have never seen it before. No question wise but suggesting totally something different with unreasonable justification. The fact that you are considering a PhD may have contributed to their response or else they wouldn't care much about a master thesis. That is probably because they are trying to shape the direction of your future work to particular area in their mind.
What I found out is that a Lot of office politics were involved in my committee. My advisor and chair didn't like each other much and my chair is more senior so she cared less to what he think nor he were able to stand for me or risk having a conflict with her for some student. On the other hand, the PI who wanted something else were very influential (I didn't know at the beginning since he is from a different department). My chair listen to everything he says and after the meeting her suggestion was as if it was coming out of his mouth.
Observe them carefully so see what work or grants they are heading to and how they interact with each other. Who is more respected and who have more power in the department structure? Once you find out, I think everything will make sense. Bear in mind that your goal at the meeting is to know, not to complain or express emotions.
> 0 votes
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Tags: thesis, masters, advisor, defense
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thread-30736
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30736
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How not to come off as boasting or arrogant, if you are one of the few active students in a class?
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2014-10-28T17:07:54.373
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# Question
Title: How not to come off as boasting or arrogant, if you are one of the few active students in a class?
**tl;dr:** How not to come off as boasting, arrogant, attention seeking, etc. if you are one of the few students participating in class?
**Some background:**
I am currently attending a Master's level course where in-class participation of students is quite low. Typically, very few questions get asked by the students. When the lecturer asks a question to check if the class is following (or rather: at least not sleeping), the same 2-3 students provide the answers.
I try to participate actively: I'm not afraid of giving a wrong answer or of "looking stupid" by asking a question that can easily be answered. This however sometimes leads to me answering most of the lecturer's questions, which - I think - discourages other students to ask questions in the lecture (after all, who wants to announce that they didn't understand something when there is somebody else in the class who apparently did?) This in turn might lead the lecturer to falsely believe that everyone is following (not really my problem), but it might also lead to me being perceived as boasting, arrogant, attention seeking, disruptive (without ill intentions), etc., which I want to avoid.
I realized a while ago that I do like the attention and since then I try to evaluate whether a question/comment is really helpful before actually asking it. I also avoid answering the lecturer's questions immediately so that other students have a change to answer (or feel pressured to do so because of enduring silence ;)). On the other hand, I do not want to sell myself short and I do not want to be perceived as being arrogant because of not bothering to answer.
# Answer
> 35 votes
One good heuristic that you might use is to discriminate between two types of questions:
1. Questions with a clear "right answer"
2. Questions encouraging discussion
Questions with a clear answer are typically more about polling for whether people are tracking, and answering deprives somebody else of a chance to answer. For a question encouraging discussion, however, your answer instead may break the ice and make it *easier* for other students to join in with answers of their own. Answering discussion questions also benefits you more, since they are where your answers can demonstrate deeper understanding, if you have acquired it.
If you and your instructor both know you are doing well, then why not "step back" and leave most of the "right answer" questions for other students? Especially if you let the instructor know that you have realized you are talking a lot and want to give space for others, it should not reflect badly on you in any way.
# Answer
> 23 votes
Based on this...
> I realized a while ago that I do like the attention and since then I try to evaluate whether a question/comment is really helpful before actually asking it. I also avoid answering the lecturer's questions immediately so that other students have a change to answer (or feel pressured to do so because of enduring silence ;)). On the other hand, I do not want to sell myself short and I do not want to be perceived as being arrogant because of not bothering to answer.
...I think you're already taking appropriate action to avoid the appearance of arrogance. Some additional suggestions:
* Be alert for any "hints" from the instructor that you might be monopolising the conversation. For example, if the instructor says "let's hear from some other people", that's a pretty strong hint.
* After you've answered one or two questions, you might want to stay silent. If no one else speaks up and the silence gets awkward, then briefly make eye contact with the instructor, as if to say "I'm willing to answer this if no one else does". The instructor can then call on you if he or she chooses.
* Try to focus on answering the questions when you're *not* sure of the answer. That way you'll get feedback when you need it.
# Answer
> 4 votes
What you're describing is a disadvantage of your instructor's chosen teaching technique. When a teacher chooses chalk-and-talk, this is what happens: the technique does not invite or reward participation by students. You have no control over this, and no responsibility for the negative outcome. Your non-participating peers likewise have no control or responsibility. They have been deterred from participating, and are responding the way most people respond to that deterrent. Only one person has the power to change the classroom dynamic, and that person is not you.
# Answer
> 4 votes
The answer is to **test**. Testing removes assumptions and you've been making many.
Go silent for a week (or whatever period you deem sufficient). See how the class responsiveness changes. Everyone keeps scratching their heads as usual? Problem solved.
One or two guys/gals start participating more? Give them occasionally some extra time before you respond to help them keep it up. You could also talk to them and say that you're not competing with them and "very glad someone else is participating, keep it up guys!"
The whole class raves, hands constantly fly in the air and even the sun gets hidden in the process? Not going to happen, so no need to worry about that :)
# Answer
> 3 votes
If you are answering most of the questions, it sounds like you *are* speaking too much. If I were your instructor, I *would* think you were dominating discussion in a way that was disruptive. Because other students may want to think more before speaking, my advice is to **sit back and don't be afraid to allow awkward silence as a way of encouraging others in class to speak.**
Ultimately, it is the instructor's job to moderate discussion to maintain an effective participation balance. That said, doing so effectively often requires the cooperation of other students in stepping back — even if this means awkward silence in the room — as a way of ensuring participation balance. In my own classes, I encourage students to maintain balance using a rule of three and one I have adopted from Joseph Reagle at Northeastern University: **I encourage students to limit themselves to three good responses before everybody in the class had an opportunity to speak once.**
Following this advice should give you ample opportunity to have your questions answered and to impress the instructor with your engagement and thoughtfulness. It will also mean that other more timid students speak up in ways that will raise questions you have not considered and will improve your learning in that process. My tendency is, like you, to dominate discussion. In my own experience in workshops and discussions, I've found that following this advice means that I learn much more from my fellow participants. The fact that I come off as less overbearing and arrogant is a nice bonus.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Strictly speaking, from personal experience, I actually like these kinds of people who are hyper-active & ask many questions.
I shied away from actively participating in class at a later stage of high school mostly out of my introvert nature.
During my Masters, I had a guy in the class who used to ask a lot of questions & was the first to answer & generally wanted the teacher to go into more deeper concepts, out of scope for the current exam syllabus. Since the teacher, while answering these questions, address the whole class rather than the one who asked the question, I also gain more or less equal information & knowledge from it.
So its basically two choices for me,
1. Feeling negativity towards you, jealousy & call you names & think about your boastful nature & how I hate you & missing on teachers answer & then going home & having to spend extra time on the same concepts you asked about in class
2. Feeling positive & actually thank you for improving my knowledge as well, when all the effort to analyse the teachers concepts & deducing a question from it was made by you while I was just happy for you to do the work for me.
Also, to add another point, monotonous lectures from teachers are boring & I get distracted fast. Its only because of this hyper activity from you that helps me regain focus on the lecture.
So, I do not consider you as boastful & arrogant. You are a good person for me & another step on the ladder of my success.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Given a set of questions, answer those for which you have answers but that you perceive as the hardest ones only.
This way, you can cut down on your participation rate for the questions. Meanwhile, by giving answers to difficult questions, lecturers will know that by transitivity, you most likely also know the answers to the easier questions.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I had the same problem in college. In many of the classes that I took I was apparently the only one who had the slightest interest in them. I did ask a lot of questions, and generally participated more than most students. It was not a problem. Just make sure that the teacher is comfortable with it by discussing it after class if he has the time and interest. Just don't come off like Eddie Haskell (i.e., a sycophant).
# Answer
> 1 votes
I don't think the question is whether you come across as boasting or arrogant, even though I agree it's good to be cognizant of that possibility. I think the real question is how do you balance your desire to participate with the needs of the rest of the class? In some sense, the lecturer is also responsible for this. In my own classes, it frequently happens that there is one student who is a lot readier to answer than others. If it seems like it is interfering with classroom dynamics, I will purposely solicit answers from other students too.
Since this is a shared responsibility, I would talk with your instructor and mention your concerns. If they feel you are answering too many questions to the detriment of the other students, then perhaps you can scale back. On the other hand, if they think the classroom dynamic is fine, then maybe you don't have to worry.
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Tags: etiquette, coursework
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thread-30863
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30863
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Is it appropriate to copy a drawing from a book in my master thesis?
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2014-10-30T09:40:51.043
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# Question
Title: Is it appropriate to copy a drawing from a book in my master thesis?
I would like to know if it is appropriate to copy a drawing from a book (specifically a directed graph) and develop my theory on that drawing? It is sure that I am going to make a reference for that drawing.
Note: The author of that book I intend to copy the drawing develops his theory based on that figure, but I am going to approach everything it matters more deeply.
# Answer
> -2 votes
Well, to my eye this is a good case of improving the state of the art, of course citing appropiately your sources. It is the same as quoting from a book.
On the other hand, if the *publisher* is especially nitpicking, maybe you could just use a software editor to re-create the drawing (still sourcing!) instead of using the "edited" drawing from a book.
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Tags: thesis, copyright, graphics
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thread-30764
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30764
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What is life like for Western-raised/trained academics who are faculty in countries with extremely tight governmental control?
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2014-10-29T01:03:53.627
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# Question
Title: What is life like for Western-raised/trained academics who are faculty in countries with extremely tight governmental control?
There are a growing number of prominent universities in the world which are based in countries where the government exerts substantial control over its citizens in ways that are not typical in "Western" countries (Europe, US, Canada, etc.). Two examples:
1. KAUST, in Saudi Arabia, where alcohol is illegal and there are extremely strict dress codes.
2. Tsinghua University, in China, where citizens are not typically allowed to protest or congregate, and in general citizens are not entitled to, for example, free speech.
For those who are/were faculty (or postdocs/researchers) at such institutions, and who were raised/trained in Western countries with less restrictive governments, what is life like at such a research institution? In particular:
1. Are you bound by the restrictive laws the govern most citizens (for example, dress codes or alcohol in Saudi Arabia, or speech in China)? (Of course it's assumed that you can't just do whatever you like - I'm mostly interested in the laws that have nothing comparable in Western countries)
2. Did you bring a family or significant other with you? What has their experience been like?
3. Do you expect to stay at this institution for your career, or will you eventually try to return to your home country/a Western country?
Importantly, I am NOT passing judgement/being critical of the government of these countries. I am really just interested in how the institutions/governments of these countries treat researchers who are not citizens (and who, from my experience, have often been recruited from another western institution).
# Answer
> **Disclaimer**: What follows is a combination of openly-available facts and some personal opinions. The opinion parts are my own and I don't claim to speak for anyone else. I did not intend for this to be "the answer" to this question; it deals with only one country/university.
I was born and raised in the United States, and got all my degrees there. I have now been a professor at KAUST for 5 years. I certainly came here by choice; I had good competing offers at some top programs in my field in the US.
> Are you bound by the restrictive laws that govern most citizens?
To a significant degree, yes. For instance, alcohol, pork, and a number of other substances are not permitted anywhere in Saudi Arabia. On-campus housing for single students is in separate buildings for men and for women.
However, KAUST is exempt from a number of the social customs that are in effect throughout the rest of the country. For example:
* KAUST is the only university in the country where males and females learn in the same classroom together.
* Women can drive on the KAUST campus (with a license).
* Women do not need to wear the abaya (burkha) at KAUST, or to cover their hair, etc. They dress as they please, within professional standards of modesty.
KAUST is not completely unique in these respects; the Aramco "compound" (which is really a small city) in the Eastern Province has similar exceptions. The KAUST campus and the Aramco compound are also the only two places in the country with a movie theater.
Of course, we frequently leave the campus to go to Jeddah. My wife can't drive there and wears an abaya. Also, the university culture at KAUST is more top-down than at most US universities, which I believe is a reflection of the local culture. But our current president is changing that to some degree.
> Did you bring a family or significant other with you? What has their experience been like?
I brought a wife and two young children (my third was born here). They are happy here -- if not, we wouldn't have stayed! Frankly, KAUST is an ideal place to raise a family. My children have friends from almost every imaginable culture, religion, and race. They take lessons in things like piano, swimming, and ballet. The schools are excellent and the community is extremely safe (I don't even lock my bike). I'll often bike to my childrens' school and take them to the park for lunch; everything is within five minutes by bicycle here. I live 1 block from the beach and my morning commute is a short bicycle ride through beautiful surroundings.
Life is pretty relaxed and hassle-free because the university essentially manages everything (and manages it well). My wife doesn't work outside the home. She participates in a number of community organizations and has time to devote to friendships, hobbies, and especially to our children.
I'll add (since most westerners find it surprising) that there are many single western women who work here very happily.
> Do you expect to stay at this institution for your career, or will you eventually try to return to your home country/a western country?
I came to KAUST because it was an adventure and chance to build something new and worthwhile. My initial plan was to spend perhaps 3-4 years at KAUST and then go back to the US. However, I have since realized that I have the ideal academic job (by my own criteria, at least):
* **Extremely generous funding** with no need to write grant proposals (KAUST has one of the world's largest endowments and only about 120 faculty).
* **Light teaching load** (1 MS level course and 1 PhD level course per year), which also has allowed me the time to be bit innovative and try things like inquiry-based learning.
* A relatively **light administrative load**, compared to what I hear from colleagues in the US. This is largely due to having excellent and plentiful support staff.
* Long-term job security with the freedom to do research along any direction I wish (university positions generally include this, but other careers I considered do not).
* Essentially unlimited access to a world-class supercomputer (200 Tflops, upgrading to 5 Pflops next spring). This is relevant to my particular field; other researchers here get similar benefits from other exceptional facilities.
Now I suppose the last bit of this post sounds like an advertisement, and I can't really help that. In light of all this, I don't plan to leave any time soon.
I've been planning a series of retrospective posts on this topic for my blog. I will link to that here if I get around to writing it.
**Some updates in response to comments**:
* KAUST is committed to avoiding gender (and other types of) discrimination. There are very many women (married and single) who work at KAUST. There are many families in which both spouses work. I can add that the opportunities for women to work in Saudi Arabia (outside of KAUST) have increased dramatically in the last couple of years. As of 2016, KAUST's student body is 40% female and about 40% Saudi, so I'd guess around 16% are Saudi women. Hundreds of Saudi women work at KAUST. They are treated no differently from foreign (or male) students/employees.
* Because most of us have close ties to groups in the US and Europe, KAUST researchers travel a lot. We also have a large, steady stream of international visitors. For instance, the last three presidents of my professional society have each given a seminar at KAUST.
> 59 votes
# Answer
**This answer is Saudi Arabia specific**
As a native of Saudi Arabia, I thought I should speak about the academic life in the country:
**Life in General**
> Are you bound by the restrictive laws the govern most citizens (for example, dress codes or alcohol in Saudi Arabia, or speech in China)?
The very first thing you need to be aware of: you can do (legally) whatever you want in private. That includes *everything*. I grew up blocks away from U.S. Military campound and I can assure you the life *within* the compound is just like any western lifestyle. However, in public, there are some rules you need to be aware of;
So yes, you need to follow some generic rules in public. In private no one going to question your behaviour.
**Life as an academic**
> how the institutions/governments of these countries treat researchers who are not citizens
In Saudi Arabia, there are public and private universities. The public universities are regulated and funded by Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). Most of the universities rules differentiate between citizens and non-citizens (i.e. foreigners). For western academics, this has the advantage of being able to negotiate the salary and other benefits while for citizens its fixed in advanced (based on the qualifications). Unless you are trying to make a revolution in the country, the government has nothing to do with you/your research. All the decisions related to a faculty member take place within the department/college then get approved by the university president office.
> Do you expect to stay at this institution for your career, or will you eventually try to return to your home country/a western country?
I have never seen a western professor stay for a long term (i.e. 10+ years). Most of the people I have seen at KSU, leave after 5 to 10 years. I believe there are many reasons to this. Most importantly, the research environment, kids going to schools and I have good money by now.
**KAUST**
KAUST has a special consideration (I believe its not even regulated by MOHE) to the extent which makes all the above (about other universities) as incorrect. KAUST is a westernised place more than any other part of Saudi Arabia. KAUST staff, faculty members and students ,unlike most of the other universities in Saudi Arabia, are diverse and came from different cultures, countries and faiths.
That being said, I am not a western academic and I believe @David Ketcheson has a word in this
> 22 votes
# Answer
It's an interesting question and I can give you an answer from personal experience as I studied in China for two semesters at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law.
I do not know if the rules at Tsinghua are that much stricter than there, but I didn't really experience any problems.
They checked daily if all students were in their dorms at 10pm - at least for the Chinese who would be punished upon failing to comply with this regulation (it could mean to fail an entire year or be expelled if being missing too often!). However, missing Westerners were simply ignored. The monitors would sometimes send a message to make sure everything is fine and politely request to be back soon, but that was it. Generally speaking, as a foreigner you can ignore many rules and even some laws without getting in any trouble. It may seem unfair but that's just the reality there.
Also considering other problems like privacy issues and internet censorship you are pretty free as a foreigner. The latter I circumvented by VPN and when I would hang my coat on the security camera in an internet café, nobody cared.
I once didn't register properly (actually it was the police station's fault) and when I wanted to prolongate my visa, I simply had to write down the date and address of my arrival on a slip of paper and sign it - problem solved.
I do not know what experiences others made but China was and still is easy-going in these aspects as long as you are a Westerner.
// Corrigendum: I changed "foreigner" to "Westerner" in the last sentence as the Chinese are easy-going on white foreigners from the West. A total different story is the treatment of Indians and Africans who sadly face strong prejudices by many people (though this is changing at least in the better developed parts of the country).
> 17 votes
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Tags: academic-life, international
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thread-30869
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30869
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Is there a single website where one can get to know about all upcoming international conferences?
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2014-10-30T10:38:55.353
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# Question
Title: Is there a single website where one can get to know about all upcoming international conferences?
It's very important for a research professional (such as a Statistician) who needs to work on multidisciplinary fields to attend international conferences and see what's going around in the field of research. However, sometimes information contained in the websites about the upcoming conferences are too subject specific (e.g. there's so many related to computer science).
Is there any website that 'gathers information' (rather than just providing information from the user submitted ones) on all conferences irrespective of particular subject areas?
If there is any website about conferences that is related to Statistics and the fields which has its use, it'll do for me as well. Thank you for your reading.
# Answer
One possibility is www.conferencealerts.com. It has conferences listed by categories, including one for mathematics and statistics here. You can get periodic alerts in your inbox based on the topics you are interested.
> 1 votes
# Answer
A good website is http://www.wikicfp.com/ (this is the premier outlet for any call for papers that you might need). The best thing about it is that it also comes bundled with a Python API, therefore you might be able with a bit of programming to create your personalized conference schedule by taking into account various factors like: time period, location, field of study, keywords, etc. It contains conferences from all fields, allows you to setup a mail alert, and in general it contains good information about each conference (previous calls, links to their websites, publications, locations, etc).
Another good option, especially if at some point you might look for something else than computing, mathematics, physic is this one: http://www.cfplist.com/ .
Also keep in mind that in any field there are 5 to 10 top publishers. These publishers will also include on their website a list of call for papers. For Mathematics and Statistics on this list you might have SIAM, Springer, Elsevier, IEEE (yes it's a CS outlet but it has a lot of mathematics papers).
> 1 votes
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Tags: conference, international
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thread-30872
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30872
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Is it approriate to point out errors in the literature review in a thesis?
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2014-10-30T11:27:09.977
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# Question
Title: Is it approriate to point out errors in the literature review in a thesis?
In a couple of either books or articles that I have read as part of my research there have been some minor errors (when taken in context of the whole work) when they relate to the area I am researching. My general research area is History.
For example one is, Area A operated as a B. Wherein fact it should have said Area A operated as a C.
The reasoning I was thinking of referring to them is to highlight while there is good literature on the topic I'm researching, sometimes errors can occur in more general histories which (hopefully) my thesis can address.
Is it appropriate to refer to such errors in that context?
# Answer
If such errors in published literature are relevant to the question of your thesis, then yes, it is not only appropriate, but even necessary that you address them.
Otherwise, if the question of your thesis is not affected by these errors, and they are not major problems, I don't think they are important enough to mention in the literature review.
> 8 votes
# Answer
I think as a rule of thumb: you have to consider what those errors mean.
If they are minor errors (maybe a wrong year for the death of a person or some spelling errors) then let it be. If there are errors that point to something else (especially in your field: History), you have to point to the cause. Are they really errors or is it a movement / conspiracy / something else that causes those errors? It often happens that new political regimes in a country rewrite the history (sometimes by deleting things, sometimes by adding errors or rumors so that the interpretation of various historical events is not clear enough - so that those events will be simply not important enough to be considered for future history books, and so and so forth...).
Or perhaps the historians who wrote those books you want to point to were simply not good enough at doing their job and just copy pasted things here and there, thus helping the wrong information to spread.
> 3 votes
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Tags: thesis, writing, literature-review, errors-erratum
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thread-30880
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30880
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Cite paper under review on a paper that is going to double-blind review?
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2014-10-30T12:19:16.560
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# Question
Title: Cite paper under review on a paper that is going to double-blind review?
I wrote a paper to a journal, which is still under review. Now I need to cite it in another paper that is double-blinded. Is this a problem?
# Answer
Typically, there are two ways to cite yourself in a double-blind paper:
1. Cite the paper as though it were written by somebody else
2. Blank the information in the citation (e.g., "Blinded paper currently in review")
You should use the first whenever possible, since it is more informative and allows the reviewer to consult the reference. The second case is used when it cannot apply and maintain blinding, like citing the conference version of a paper in an extended version for a journal. Your case is another good example: the paper is under review and so cannot be read by the reviewers in any case, so blanking the citation is fine. The article formatting guidelines may even give you a specific preferred method for doing so.
> 2 votes
# Answer
When it comes to double-blind review, it's up to everyone in the process to respect the blinding. Internet searches and unblind an article very quickly, so everyone who reviews blinded articles knows their not supposed to do it. As long as you follow the blinding instructions, it should be OK.
> 1 votes
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Tags: paper-submission, preprint
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thread-30878
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30878
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Discovered a serious error in a reviewed paper after submitting the review, what to do?
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2014-10-30T12:05:06.567
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# Question
Title: Discovered a serious error in a reviewed paper after submitting the review, what to do?
I have been reviewing a paper where the authors apply a computational method from an earlier paper they published to a specific system of general relevance. The paper seemed ok, and I recommended major revision in the review.
After submitting the review, I've been working with this computational method myself and discovered that the way the authors applied the method is seriously flawed, so that it makes in general no sense to interpret the result in any way without further tests. If I had noted this problem earlier, I would probably have recommended rejection in my review.
What's the recommended course of action in this situation? Should I notify the editor of this additional discovery, so that the authors can directly take care of it in their (presumably ongoing) revision, or is it better to just wait for a request to review the revised version?
I haven't heard any decision from the journal so far, but I don't think that the paper will be accepted without revisions.
# Answer
> 67 votes
> What's the recommended course of action in this situation? Should I notify the editor of this additional discovery, so that the authors can directly take care of it in their (presumably ongoing) revision,
Yes, I think so. This seems to be in the best interest of all involved: you, the authors and the journal. It may be tempting to feel "embarrassed" about this or feel loathe to hold up the stately train of the editorial process, but you should resist these temptations: part of being a professional academic is being completely willing to change and adjust to new information and/or new insight you've acquired.
> or is it better to just wait for a request to review the revised version?
No, I don't think so. Put yourself in the authors' shoes: wouldn't you like to have this information as soon as possible? Revising a paper without knowing about a serious -- potentially fatal -- error sounds like it could be a waste of their valuable time. Moreover, the longer they think that the paper will be accepted with revisions, the more disappointed they will be when they learn about the true situation.
I would write up carefully your description of the error as though it were part of the original referee report. In effect this does become a new referee report, but you don't necessarily need to edit this into the old referee report: having already submitted that, the matter of it is to convey the new information. Of course, the final decision about in what manner to inform the authors lies with the editor.
# Answer
> 15 votes
You should definitely contact the editor as soon as possible. It is not certain that the editor has provided your review to the authors yet and even if the editor has done so, receiving the additional information allows the editor to make additional decisions concerning additional revisions or even rejecting the paper altogether.
So it is vital that you send your additional information as soon as possible.
# Answer
> 13 votes
It is certainly advisable to notify the editor, so that she/he can pass on the information to the authors. The editor may or may not take this information into account for the decision.
When sending the information, you may want to offer to write a revised version of the review.
# Answer
> 7 votes
In addition to all other excellent recommendations I would just highlight that reporting a flaw in the paper is in your own best interest. Imagine the paper is accepted. Then others will try to reproduce the results or scrutinize the computational methods. If other researchers find flaws in the paper that may force a retraction. Depending on the popularity of the paper that may lead to wonder how it could have been accepted on the first place. In that case the blame usually goes to journals and referees. Although referees are frequently anonymous this hypothetical situation may damage your reputation as a referee in that journal. If referees are not anonymous then your reputation can be even more affected.
On the other side of the coin, if you report a potential flaw and it turns out the flaw does not exists, then probably means the authors needed to give extended explanations- your report will give them the opportunity to do so. That would not affect your reputation- referees' job is to question what its in the manuscript- even when sometimes we may be wrong.
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Tags: publications, peer-review, errors-erratum
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thread-29032
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/29032
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How to deal with an academic 'stalker'?
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2014-09-26T14:14:59.950
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# Question
Title: How to deal with an academic 'stalker'?
Several years ago, my colleagues and I attempted to get a small paper published, it was rejected and we ran out of time - and as it was a 'side-project' type of paper, we left it at that. We thought that was the end of it - this was not the case.
One of the reviewers who made themselves known to us wrote some pretty terse messages to us about his disagreement with what was a relatively minor point. We graciously took his feedback as he is an established (published) researcher in that field. We moved on to different fields - which this reviewer has no published work in.
What has been happening since is that he will write an email questioning every single paper that I get published, not deliberately being insulting - but not offering anything constructive nor asking for clarification of the content etc. He has admitted that what I research is beyond his area of expertise - examples of his questions are (*remember, these papers are collaborative and peer reviewed*):
"Are you sure you know how to use (equipment)?" - when the paper stated a previously published (by a separate author) protocol has been followed.
"Are you sure you did enough trials?" - this would be fine as criticism, except the next email stated "That many trials seems like overkill" referring to the same paper.
One particularly unhelpful comment from him was "Did you actually pass high school English?"
Criticism is fine, and is sought for any and all work that we do, but when the statements do not offer anything substantial, are contradictory or just rude - this is not criticism, it is unhelpful noise -especially when it is posted publicly where we display links to the work (he deletes his comments soon after most of the time)
How do I deal with this persistent 'academic stalking' while at the same time, not make a 'fuss'?
# Answer
A general strategy you can try here is "respond to amateurism with professionalism". Even if it looks like he's being unreasonable (as it currently seems to you that he is), just suspend disbelief, and, in a completely non-confrontational manner, engage his questions as if they were serious:
> I always appreciate constructive criticism \[*true statement! you don't have to say that his was constructive, let him think what he wants...maybe he actually did think it was*\]. I didn't quite understand what led you to wonder whether I did enough testing of X. Did you see something in the results that made you suspect this specifically? Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything.
>
> Thanks for your input!
Treat it exactly as if it were a sincere attempt to help, that you had a question about. It's possible (though I'm thinking you think it unlikely) that he really is sincere and has something to offer you. If so, wonderful! You get useful feedback from someone smart!
If he doesn't actually have a real question, this technique may make that obvious in a relatively non-confrontational way. Part of the value of it is that you are not simply being the victim of stalker-y behavior, but professionally and politely holding your ground. It is to be hoped that this will lessen the feeling of exasperation that would otherwise normally accompany this kind of childish bullying, if that is indeed what it turns out to be.
There are very intelligent and successful people in academia who are nevertheless woefully underdeveloped emotionally; one way this will be manifest is in the need to tear down other people who seem to be having success, or demonstrating skill, or garnering attention comparable to their own. This can catch one off guard when it's coming from a successful and respected person, because you would think that their success would be all they need to feel good about themselves. That, alas, does not turn out to be true. If it's a chronic emotional problem, you are unlikely to get him to change his behavior; hence the advice to concentrate specifically on blunting his ability to make his problem your problem.
If the cerebral approach doesn't work or becomes too time consuming, you can always set up a filter to send email from that address straight to trash....
**Escalation** (adding this section after your clarified and expanded examples indicate that mere polite discussion may not work here)
1. \[Fuss level: zero\] Gather evidence. You don't have to do anything with it yet. Later steps I will describe will talk about possible uses. It's just good to have in case you ever get into a he said/she said situation and need to be able to back yourself up.
2. Note that there is already a "fuss", to some extent. Not your doing. You can't choose to have this situation be "fussless", because the behavior is happening in public. The question is to what extent you wish to participate in the fuss.
3. \[Fuss level: low\] A body of evidence might be useful for you to have handy if you wanted to petition a site administrator to block him from contributing comments. The sites hosting your research results and facilitating discussion don't want their work compromised by trolls.
4. \[Fuss level: medium\] Does he work at an institution with a published policy regarding academic ethics? Spuriously calling into question the validity of your results seems like it would violate ethical standards. It might be enough for you to obtain a copy of the institution's standards, highlight the part that you consider him to be violating, and send that information to him, asking for him to comment on whether he agrees his behavior violates those standards.
5. \[Fuss level: high\] Same as 4, but with more fuss. Contact the institution. Ask to speak to someone about the fact that you feel that one of their employees is violating academic ethics. Do they have a published policy? Can they send you a copy? Can you send them some redacted examples and have them confirm that they would consider that in violation? You would like to resolve the matter with the individual privately if possible, but you want to be sure that you are interpreting their standards correctly. Then, email the stalker and tell them that you've been in contact with the ethics office, not having mentioned any names of course, we can resolve this between ourselves, can we not?, and they agreed that the behavior is in violation of standards. Would he be willing to simply stop commenting on your work altogether in the future? It seems it would be better for both of you if he did. You don't have to threaten exposure--you should be careful *not* to threaten, actually (to avoid any possibility that you could be charged with blackmail or whatever)--just state facts.
6. \[Fuss level: nuclear\] Put all the evidence on the web, unredacted, and send a copy to his boss, his wife, and his students. Let them know you really hate to bother them, but you need to ask them if they can contact his psychiatrist because he apparently needs his meds adjusted. (\<-- not a serious suggestion, but it was cathartic to type!)
**Serenity**
Reflecting on others' answers and comments, I feel that one more section should be added here, because there *are* practical things you can do to help the situation, from your side only, with zero direct interaction. Although I would still gather evidence in any case (since it might be of value later should a dispute come to the surface), it is possible for you to improve your experience here by improving yourself. It's easy and natural to focus on the fact that he is the aggressor and by rights he should be changing his behavior, and to forget that, *completely independent of whether he stops or not* you can choose to become better at not being affected by baseless criticism.
Give yourself a mental picture of a small child attempting to attack an adult who calmly holds himself out of harm's way by virtue of having arms twice as long as his attacker. Your stalker has mastered the art of playing the flailing child--you can grow long arms.
Mentally rearranging your perspective on the whole situation can help. You can say "I am going to end up better for this by learning the valuable skill of ignoring trolls. Think what I would have had to pay a trainer for this, and he's providing me all this learning experience for free." It is, after all, entirely possible that you are going to run into other situations in life where the ability to be calm in the face of baseless or childish criticism helps you out immensely, and this is an opportunity to learn that skill in a relatively risk-free environment (as the stalker really has no actual power over you in this situation).
In short, you have, effectively, been focusing on the question "How can I get him to stop this behavior, without making a fuss?" But you can get an excellent result by instead asking the question "How can I get this behavior to stop bothering me?". The second question can be pretty much entirely in your own hands, and the things you do to work on it will help you in other aspects of your life, even enabling you to help others deal with similar issues, etc.
It's more than just ignoring (which, I think it should be said, is fantastic advice if you can do it--I haven't gotten to that point yet personally)--it's a conscious decision to rise above the behavior of the other party. Rather than "he's attacking me and I feel powerless to stop it without escalations that I am not comfortable getting into" it can be "he's attacking me, but I am using this as an opportunity to practice, and therefore develop the power, to not be affected by this behavior". From the outside it may look the same, but mentally, this kind of approach can make all the difference.
I think this is both the best option and the hardest to execute on. In the times when I have implemented such measures myself, I've found it to be incredibly empowering, and even in some cases ended up with unexpectedly good relationships with people that at one point had occasion (they felt, at the time, at least) to attack me, simply because I consciously decided that I didn't need to fight back. I don't think I've faced exactly the same situation as you are here, but I believe this might help you and sincerely hope it does--best of luck.
> 74 votes
# Answer
Ignore the emails.
The common justification for these kind of situations is a need for attention from that person. By answering his calls you are only reinforcing this need.
> 35 votes
# Answer
You provide your best answer in your final question: "How do I deal with this persistent 'academic stalking' while at the same time, not make a 'fuss'?" Don't deal with him and don't make a fuss. You might be interested in the following 2 links:
Troll (Internet). (2014, September 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:37, September 28, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Troll\_(Internet)&oldid=627020408
Hoy, A. (2014). slash7 with Amy Hoy » Blog Archive » Help Vampires: A Spotter’s Guide. Slash7.com. Retrieved 28 September 2014, from http://slash7.com/2006/12/22/vampires/
Don't waste your time with him.
> 6 votes
# Answer
First off, if its only been going on for a while and nobody takes it seriously, then ignore him and he'll eventually find someone else to antagonize.
Otherwise...
Academic bullying is (sadly) somewhat common in certain fields with considerable popular political influence such as geopolitics, international security, international relations, race relations, climatology, certain forms of economics, etc. Much academic ink is spilt over the color of the bike shed as opposed to the location of it or whether it should even house bikes instead of boats, much less whether or not it should exist. Question anything but the (meaningless) paintjob and risk reputation assassination.
In the case where it is really just a single person who is negatively obsessed with your work you can ignore the person. Invalidating their negative responses is as easy as attacking their credibility in your current area, which appears simple in your case.
In the case where it is not just a single person, or that the detractor is a single person but their attacks resonate with a part of the society aggregated around your field... you have a different problem. In this case you can choose to stand your ground or you can work to mend the situation by changing your stance.
Changing your stance is, of course, totally dishonest, so don't do this unless you are actually playing the "get tenure" game and not the "increase human knowledge" game -- in which case its par for the course in many fields.
If you sincerely feel you have a well supported stance in the field that gained you the ire of this detractor who is negatively influencing the perceptions of those in your current field of study (and if you didn't you wouldn't have gone to the trouble of publishing in the first place, I assume), the only decent defense is a solid offense. This is a bit like a thesis defense, but with a large delay in ping-pong times. If your career is threatened by the problem it is worth it to decompose the argument that got you in trouble, and write an exposition on each point. Use those as point references for those in your current field who are not as well informed about the subject that originally got you into hot water. If you build a solid base of argument you can influence the naysayer, but understand this requires a disproportionate amount of work: calling something into question (especially by a subtle ad hominem attack) is much easier than defending a work that has been "cast into doubt" in the minds of those who haven't taken the time or interest to read it.
Ultimately, my point is that this is a political problem, and sadly this sort of problem has overridden what *should* be the fundamentals of genuine academics since the beginning of time. If you will win it by argument it will have to be an overwhelming one which consumes you in its defense, at least for a time. The alternatives are to either sacrifice your intellectual integrity or play dirty -- both of which are not helpful to humankind, which sort of goes against the whole point of being a true academic (as opposed to the tenure-chasing variety).
\[I now wait for the avalanche of angry comments...\]
> 1 votes
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Tags: interpersonal-issues
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thread-30851
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30851
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Should I dress up for conference banquet/gala dinner?
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2014-10-30T04:30:39.373
|
# Question
Title: Should I dress up for conference banquet/gala dinner?
I am thinking about what should I bring to the conference.
Normally, will people dress up (like full suit) for the dinner?
p.s. I am in CS domain.
# Answer
No. You do not need to wear a suit for presenting at a conference. Most of the times, CS conferences have the typical t-shirt (or shirt), jeans combination of computer / tech guys.
For the dinner, you can dress a little more formally (if you want) but still a suit is not required. In fact, if you are young (\<30) , wearing a suit and a tie would probably seem a little weird.
Bottom line: Wear what you usually wear when you go to work for the presentation and a little more formal (nicer) wear for dinner.
> 25 votes
# Answer
If it's not the first iteration of the conference, chances are that you could see past editions of the conference, including some pictures of the dinner, so you can just do what you see.
> 18 votes
# Answer
Basically, what @Alexandros said. Just wanted to add a specific example: a (CS, European) conference I attended last summer got this fancy place for the gala dinner, and they asked the attendees if they could dress in formal wear.
This wasn't quite well received: most people didn't pack a suit (a lot of them traveled with only hand luggage). The collective decisions was to either *do the best they could* (in the situation) or *not really care*.
Finally, the dinner was a mixture of some suits and dresses (but mostly on older people, I would guess 30+ or even 40+), most people in pants and shirt combination or half-serious summer dresses (instead of standard T-shirt) plus an odd few wearing crazy print T-shirts and jeans. I've seen a few people come in with a tie, look around and then discreetly take it off and tuck it in their pockets :)
So bottom line is: overall, people at the gala dinner will be slightly less casually dressed than your typical day in the office (in European labs, at least) or conference presentations. Also, it's not uncommon to end up in a bar after the gala, and you probably don't want to overdress and look out-of-place if that happens.
> 13 votes
# Answer
I can only tell you my experience at conferences - biomedical in the U.S. - the bio conferences tend to be pretty dressy with most conference goes in sports coats (for guys) and formal pant suits for women.
I would bring a nice shirt/slacks and sports coat, at least you can quickly mold to the situation. I didn't know the conference was that dressy and felt out of place in a polo shirt and slacks (this was again my experience). But every industry is different, it depends on where the conference is (hawaii or chicago), how many people are there, who you want to impress, etc.). Nobody will remember if you overdressed but everyone will remember if you were that guy who showed up to a gala in shorts/t-shirt.
> 3 votes
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Tags: conference, outward-appearance
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thread-29230
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/29230
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Very odd interview/hiring timeline for physical science field
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2014-09-30T17:50:41.803
|
# Question
Title: Very odd interview/hiring timeline for physical science field
Due to the circumstances surrounding my graduation and other factors, I didn't apply in the Fall of 2013 for any jobs. I did happen to see an opening that was still posted in February and applied on a whim. In a short period of time I was asked to do a phone interview followed by campus interview followed by request for more info from my references. At this point it was summer and quite a bit of time went by before I was asked for some start up costs (nothing substantial for my field) at which point the dean said it shouldn't be a problem.
Fast forward 2 months and all I've heard is "you'll hear from us soon" and that the process is moving slowly. Every time I think they must have filled the position they tell me just enough to make me think I am still in the running. At this point we are way off of the normal hiring schedule so I do not know what to think.
Does anyone have any thoughts--is it likely that they have offered the position to someone else and are in negotiations? Why bother getting all of my startup details? Has anyone else had any experiences with a super long, off-schedule hiring timetable?
# Answer
> 1 votes
All I can say is that different universities can take different amounts of time to process things. The process can take even longer when the process drags out over the summer, as many of the key people who need to approve such a hire (and usually there are several) are often out on vacation, which can drag the process out even further.
I know, for instance, that there was nearly a five-month gap between the time I had my interview and was told I'd be getting an offer and actually receiving it. So delays are possible.
However, it may also be possible that you were not the top-ranked candidate after the search, and they are currently waiting to hear back from *that* candidate before deciding whether or not to make you an offer.
# Answer
> 1 votes
This is definitely an unusual schedule and I'm not entirely sure what to think.
My first advice is that if you haven't heard "yes" or "no," then they haven't closed the search. You may be right that they made an offer to someone else, but once an offer is accepted, everyone else is notified "no."
My best guess is that there may be other factors at work in the university. For example, sometimes our Dean will tell us that we can have a search, but he would prefer if the hire arrived a year later. In my department (chemistry), we typically have early searches, but with the University's financial year beginning in July, the Dean will let us post advertisements before there's official approval from the Provost's office. So we include language about the opening "pending budgetary approval."
We have been caught sometimes where the Dean approves, but the Provost wants to postpone for financial reasons. (I don't envy having to balance multi-million budgets.)
As another example, sometimes searches may span more than one year (e.g., an open-rank search for both junior and senior faculty). It may take that long to negotiate with a senior hire. Since the posting was in February, that might be the case here.. the department wants to make a senior hire, needs to post (and interview) publicly, but is stuck negotiating.
I agree with the comment above that it's always fine to contact the chair of the search committee and ask for an update. Particularly with the long delay, this is a good idea.
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Tags: job-search, tenure-track
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thread-30903
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30903
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Modify the page layout of application materials (i.e. A4 vs. Letter) when applying for jobs in multiple countries?
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2014-10-30T22:57:32.007
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# Question
Title: Modify the page layout of application materials (i.e. A4 vs. Letter) when applying for jobs in multiple countries?
Most countries use A4 paper. The US and Canada use letter paper. When applying for jobs across several countries should application materials always be designed to meet the page layout norms for the particular job location? Will materials even be printed?
# Answer
> 5 votes
> **Question 1:** When applying for jobs across several countries should application materials always be designed to meet the page layout norms for the particular job location?
I had never even considered doing this and I would not bother trying to change the paper format. If you do not change it, software will shrink the text to fit when it is printed. It might not look ideal but it is the content that matters. I can't imagine that anybody is going to hold the fact that you come from an A4 using country against you. If you do change it, probably nobody will notice.
> **Question 2:** Will materials even be printed?
I was just on a search committee. Every single member of the committee brought a laptop or tablet to the meeting. No printouts. When the shortlisted candidates were forwarded to the full department, I noticed that some people on the full faculty had printed out application materials. So, maybe?
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Tags: job-search, application, international, formatting
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thread-30904
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30904
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How to find out where a College's Graduates are now?
|
2014-10-30T23:12:13.937
|
# Question
Title: How to find out where a College's Graduates are now?
I am looking at graduate schools and one of the things I would like to know about the schools I'm looking at is where recent graduates are now. I realize that contacting the colleges individually would certainly work. However, there are a lot of colleges out there, and it is untenable to ask them all individually. Is there a place where this kind of thing is available online?
# Answer
If your looking at PhD's who presumably wanted to go on to academic careers, and if you can get a list of the graduates from a particular year, then you can generally track those people down by searching for them using Google. Most people who've remained in academia have at least some presence on the web. Folks who go to work in industry often become invisible.
The hard part is getting a list of graduates from a particular year. This can sometimes be done using commencement programs. I have done this using the mathematics genealogy project at:
```
[http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/][1]
```
Despite the name, this database has records for computer science, mathematics, and statistics graduates from many institutions. You can search by institution name and year of PhD (e.g. I'm Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1992.)
> 4 votes
# Answer
If you're looking for graduates who went to private companies, you may try LinkedIn. In theory, the private companies' keep their list of employees private. With the heavy use of LinkedIn, it's easier to search for people who went to certain schools and work/worked at certain companies. The problem is that the information is not readily available to people who don't have any connections to the schools and the companies.
Of course, there are always people who are so private that they don't sign up for LinkedIn.
> 3 votes
# Answer
> Is there a place where this kind of thing is available online?
No. Not to my knowledge.
Some departments list where (some) of their graduates go after finishing their PhD. Your best source of information is your potential advisor webpage. Some professors mention where his/her PhD students go after finishing their degree while others mention only the names.
In the latter case, one simple way is to Google their names; you may get an idea where are they now. Another is to look for your potential advisor recent publications that are co-authored by his/her graduated students. You may know where are they now by their affiliation.
If you still do not have a potential advisor, a random sample over the faculty members in your department may be sufficient.
> 1 votes
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Tags: graduate-school
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thread-30792
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30792
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Is it a good idea to have a departmental problem database?
|
2014-10-29T12:42:02.150
|
# Question
Title: Is it a good idea to have a departmental problem database?
A departmental problem database will work like this: When a professor gives an exam, quiz etc. they upload the problems into the database. When the grading has been completed, they upload the scores. The software will give back some statistics. The goal is that through the years the database will grow in numbers and in quality. This will minimize the effort to create an assessment and maximize the quality of the questions, as (ideally) the professors will be revising the problems based on the feedback they get.
My target field is Mathematics.
My questions:
1. Is it a good idea to have a departmental problem database?
2. Do you know any examples where a departmental problem database has been implemented? What was the result?
3. Is confidentiality an issue?
# Answer
> 2 votes
I'd consider three key factors.
1. Are there many faculty members who want to use such a database? It's probably not worth the effort unless it reaches critical mass. Taking a survey is a little awkward, since some people may make polite comments that sound more enthusiastic than they really are. One option would be to ask something relatively demanding. For example, how many people would be willing to commit to seeding the database by entering all the problems they assign in suitable courses for the next year or two?
2. Who will serve as system administrator? Unauthorized access is enough of a cheating risk that it's important to take precautions. It could be better not to have such a database than to have one managed by an inexperienced system administrator.
3. Will you be able to work on a scale that doesn't just enable students to cheat by building their own database? Student groups (such as fraternities) sometimes maintain archives of old exams and even problem sets, nominally for use as practice materials but often in the hope that problems will be repeated. If you can build a big enough database, then this sort of cheating will be ineffective, but it will work very well for smaller databases. I think this would be a big problem unless you achieve extraordinary growth, and I'd guess you'd need to work on a far larger scale than a single department.
My take is these are major problems and I'm skeptical about overcoming them. However, perhaps your circumstances differ from mine.
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Tags: assessment, databases
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thread-30871
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30871
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Undergraduate transcript for graduate addmission
|
2014-10-30T10:49:54.167
|
# Question
Title: Undergraduate transcript for graduate addmission
If your undergraduate degree transcript shows that you failed one subject, and in the other you barely passed but still you have a good WAM (say 85) or GPA (say 6.5 out of 7), would those two subjects in your transcript destroy your chances of being admitted?
To be more specific, I graduated last year with a combined degree (Electrical engineering and Mathematics). I got 40 in Digital Fundamentals and 61 in physics. These two subjects were first year, first semester subjects of my undergraduate. All my other grades were greater than 85. My current GPA is 6.8 (out of 7) and my WAM (weighted average mark) is 86 (out of 100). The second time that I did digital fundamentals, I got 96.
I am planning to do a phd in electrical engineering.
# Answer
You're not going to like this, but the answer is, "it depends."
If you flunked computer science, it'll be hard to find a CS program that will take you. If you flunked underwater basket weaving and want admission to a CS program, well, that might work. If "failed one subject" means "failed one course," that might not be too bad. If it means "never passed even one history course, " not so much.
It also depends on how long it's been since you were an undergraduate. Admissions committees understand that people mature and that a poor showing in the distant past doesn't necessarily mean you'll be a poor scholar today.
To be blunt, it also depends on the school to which you apply. Harvard probably won't take you, but there could be schools that might. Pick a couple, visit them in person with a copy of your transcript, and ask. You'll need an appointment for that personal visit; if you just show up, no telling who will talk to you. You're visiting in person to show them you're serious.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I should say it depends to what school you are applying. GPA is considered as an important factor but I should tell you something. GPA is considered as a negative factor meaning that most of graduate schools have a threshold GPA and if your GPA is below that then you are not considered as a competitive and if your GPA is higher than that then they will consider other factors in your application. You see that every graduate school requires you to upload your transcript because transcript shows whether you have have failed the course, have received late drop,have received an incomplete grade and many other things. They also look what course you have taken and what grades you have received in your transcript. Now the answer to your question varies based on your interest.If you want to study electrical Engineering then your Electrical engineering courses are more important for admission and specifically within Electrical Engineering courses those that stress more on your research and your pathway caries more weight. For example, if you are studying communication or control theory physic might not be that big of deal but if you are planning to study solid state or photonics low grade in physic might be a matter of concern. Important point you should consider is that most of graduate schools ask you to upload additional documents such as your personal statement or something similar to that. This lets you explain why you receive a bad grade in your physic and Digital fundamental course and how you improve your grades.
> 0 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, transcript-of-records
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thread-30850
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30850
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When applying for a PhD is it worth mentioning awards received for achievement in final year high school exams?
|
2014-10-30T03:32:28.450
|
# Question
Title: When applying for a PhD is it worth mentioning awards received for achievement in final year high school exams?
I am in the process of applying for a PhD at the univerity where I am currently completing my undergraduate.
The application has a section for awards. I don't have anything to show for my time as a undergraduate (my university doesn't really acknowledge achievements in coursework).
I have several awards from my tertairy entrance exams/subjects completed in highschool. Such as:
* Award from my current univerity for being the highest ranking disabled applicant for undergraduate.
* Award for being one of the highest scoring in my state for a particular tertiary entrance subjects
* Several awards from my highschool for topping the school in particular tertiary entrances subjects
Are achievements/awards gained as a result of actions I undertook in highschool relevant to my application now?
I'm not talking about things like merit certificates in lower years of highschool (Its not impressive to piles of those), just things relating to my tertiary entrance exams/subjects, particularly the first two which are awarded by the university and the state, for achievement in final year of highschool.
# Answer
High school awards are unlikely to help much but they probably won't hurt you either. I think it's fine to include them on a short "early-career" CV but move them to the very end to signal that you understand that these are not important measures of your current qualifications.
Who knows, if they are really awesome, they might might even help. I saw a graduate student CV once that listed being ranked first on a province-level college admissions exam that included many tens of thousands of students. Sure, it was a long time ago, but I was still impressed enough that I remember this now. I think I kept my high school awards on my CV until I started thinking about going on the faculty job market as a PhD student. At point, they just seemed completely irrelevant.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I wouldn't include high school awards because it's really not the same playing field as undergraduate and graduate level study. Were you awarded any scholarships while in school? These can go under awards as well.
Applying to the same institution will likely help your application. If you have no awards, focus on your personal statement which can set you apart. You likely have familiarity with the profs and research happening at your school. Familiarity with those would be impressive in your essay.
Best of luck!
> 0 votes
# Answer
In general I would head into the same direction as Benjamin Mako Hill's answer: They might not help you in the application but they shouldn't do any harm. However, I would restrict that to awards that have at least *some* relevance to your application. This can be either awards for some achievements in the field of your PhD or awards that are about your general skills.
As an example for the first type, if you apply for a position in biology, you might add an award for being among the top 5% of the state in your high school final exams in biology. I maybe wouldn't include the same biology award if I'd apply for a position in economics. By this you can show that you're already interested in that topic for some time.
For the second type, imagine you received some award for some type of ongoing social engagement beyond the "normal" activities during your high school time. By this you could show that you are not just pulling your duties but also are willing to engage in things that are beyond your obligations.
> 0 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, application, awards
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thread-30812
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30812
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Why do research faculty pursue administrative positions, such as dean, provost, president, etc. ? Do such positions spell the end of one's research?
|
2014-10-29T15:04:21.770
|
# Question
Title: Why do research faculty pursue administrative positions, such as dean, provost, president, etc. ? Do such positions spell the end of one's research?
At a recent seminar talk, I was amazed to note that one of the two coauthors (not the presenter) was the president of a large and well-known university, since I had always assumed that taking on such a position would necessarily mean the end of a research career.
* Are there m/any examples of people that continue to do substantial amounts of research when in a senior administrative position, such as dean, provost, president, etc.?
* Do research faculty often become deans, presidents, etc.? Why do faculty usually do this? (I understand that there might be a pay increase, but does it usually indicate that they no longer want to do research as intensely?)
# Answer
> 40 votes
In these positions, one gets to influence the direction of the whole university, rather than the direction of the research of 1 to *n* individuals. At such magnitude, one can effect more change.
Often people get disgruntled with the way things are run at the level they are currently working. The only way to fix things is to move to more managerial positions. Don't like the way the Masters program is run? Become Coordinator of the Masters Programme. Don't like the way the faculty is being run? Become Dean.
# Answer
> 10 votes
In answer to the first half of your titular question, "Why do research faculty pursue administrative positions, such as dean, provost, president, etc. ?"
This was the subject of a study several decades ago:
> Robert A Snyder, Ann Howard, Tove Helland Hammer, Mid-career change in academia: The decision to become an administrator, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Volume 13, Issue 2, October 1978, Pages 229-241, ISSN 0001-8791, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(78)90048-9.
To quote this study on the main reason professors chose to switch or not to switch to an administrative track:
> A predominant finding in this study was that the attraction of an administrative career for a professor was most attributable to its promise of increased power and authority. In contrast, the professorial career had greater appeal because of its relative autonomy and freedom from organizational demands.
Please read the paper for methodology, limitations, etc.
# Answer
> 8 votes
I can imagine that one reason a researcher might want to take on an administrative role is it allows them to become more of an advocate for scholarly research. Instead of doing research themselves, they can empower other researchers by ensuring adequate funding, facilities, equipment, and resources are available to perform research.
Can they convince governments/donors to continue giving funds to the institution in the face of budget cuts? I think these sorts of considerations would be something a researcher would have an interest in the outcome of.
Whether or not academics make for good administrators is another issue, and would depend on one's individual background.
# Answer
> 7 votes
Any professor with a large research group has effectively made the transition to administration already. The realities of managing more than a few people working for you on research projects means that a large chunk of one's time is already consumed by writing reports, pursuing funding, managing personnel, etc. The actual amount of time hands-on with research vs. directing and enabling research to be carried out by others typically rapidly decreases as the size of the group rises. From this perspective, the transition to higher-level administrative positions like center or department head, and from there to wider-scope positions like dean or provost may not be as large as it appears.
# Answer
> 5 votes
Related (in a way): Why do academics write peer reviews? At some point in a researcher's career, it comes down to giving back to the community, and part of what the community requires is not only exciting new research, but also the day-to-day administrativia. Bluntly said: someone needs to wash the dishes.
And while there may be non-academic managerial people (chancellors etc.) to do the day-to-day administration, it should really be academics that set policy for an academic environment. So I'd argue that many academics that move into an administrative position do so out of a sense of duty to academia as a whole.
(Of course, there are also the power-hungry types, or those who like the way an administrative position gets them into the limelight and the press more often.)
Finally, at least in Germany, it is common for professors who take on administrative responsibilities to have their teaching load reduced, so the bite doesn't fully come out of research, but at least to a degree out of teaching. Usually, you will make sure to get relieved of giving the less interesting introductory lectures but keep the more advanced ones, so your pipeline of potential grad and Ph.D. students doesn't dry up.
# Answer
> -5 votes
Some do, some don't. Naturally, administration is different kind of work from that of the scholar. There are only so many hours in the day. But administrators have to come from somewhere, don't they?
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Tags: career-path, professorship, job, administration, service-activities
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thread-30933
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30933
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Should the first letter of the axis label be uppercase?
|
2014-10-31T12:39:06.290
|
# Question
Title: Should the first letter of the axis label be uppercase?
Suppose you have a diagram in a bachelor's thesis (which is written in English) with one axis
"mean stroke count"
and the other
"standard deviation"
Should the first letter of "mean" and "standard" be uppercase?
# Answer
From a general survey of style books, ***yes***, at least the first alphabet should be capitalized:
1. American Medical Association Manual of Style: Title format (e.g. Average Consumption Index, %)
2. Chicago Manual of Style: Sentence format (e.g. Average consumption index, %)
3. Scientific Style and Format (Cambridge): Sentence format
An easy way to see this: axis labels are akin to the row and column titles in a table. If those titles are generally capitalized (which is the norm), then the axis title should also follow. So, I'd recommend at least follow the sentence style capitalization rule. This is not to say lower case titles are absolutely wrong, but I am sure they will raise more eyebrows in a bad way.
> 20 votes
# Answer
There's no fixed rule that applies here. You should check if the style guide the publisher to whom you are submitting the paper has a guideline. If not, feel free to use whichever convention you'd like, but be consistent throughout a given paper. Don't change from one to the other haphazardly.
In the case of a school document (thesis, etc.), your university probably has a recommended style guide; follow those guidelines instead.
> 10 votes
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Tags: writing, graphics
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thread-30923
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30923
|
Can low score in GRE hurt the application with good GPA for top graduate school in US
|
2014-10-31T07:10:06.403
|
# Question
Title: Can low score in GRE hurt the application with good GPA for top graduate school in US
I wonder can poor general GRE exam hurt an application with very strong GPA (about 3.9) and good letter of recommendations for getting an admission to top graduate schools in US? meaning that How strong is effect of GRE ?can you be rejected based on your GRE result?
# Answer
> 3 votes
I am not in engineering, but chemistry, and I suspect the answer is very similar.
I won't lie. This will definitely hurt your chances, depending on how low your score is.
For one, many programs have minimum GRE scores for acceptance - that may or may not be advertised. There are so many highly qualified applicants to top schools that the admissions committee have to do *something* to cut back the pile. While there are advantages and disadvantages to the GRE, it is standardized and using a score level as a filter is helpful to the committee. (Usually this "first cut" is a GRE score well below the average admitted score. We know that some students don't test well, so we'd prefer to look at the whole package.)
Beyond "your score is too low," let's assume you make the first cut. At that point, the GRE matters less, since the committee will read your recommendation letters, look at your transcript etc.
Even then, the GRE matters some. If we're considering a student coming from a school that we don't know, we simply cannot calibrate the GPA and/or the recommendation letters. So the GRE gives us some information on what a 3.9 GPA "means" relative to another student at a school that we know.
Finally, the GRE is a piece of information to the admissions committee. One key thing it tells us is how seriously you took the exam and whether you prepared for it. We know that the GRE is a self-selecting bunch. You only take the exam if you're considering applying to graduate programs. So if someone gets a very low score.. well, that's not a good sign. What do we learn about how serious a student will be in grad school?
All that said, I have talked over the years with colleagues in other departments and other schools. There isn't a huge correlation between GRE scores and success in graduate school. There just isn't really anything better either.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, graduate-school, gre
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thread-30939
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30939
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Is getting a second masters in a different technical field worthwhile?
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2014-10-31T13:48:26.653
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# Question
Title: Is getting a second masters in a different technical field worthwhile?
If a person has a degree in one technical field and sees and opportunity to obtain another from an even higher ranked university in a field that has great synergy with where they are now, is it worth the time and especially money spent? By worth, I mean would having a second masters be a significant benefit for someone working in industry?
That is the general question. In my case I will have an M.E. in Systems Engineering and about 4 years experience programming in an engineering field. I am looking at a Data Science program at a top university, it would be a year and a half and lead to an M.S. The cost of both is considerable, I am unsure that the benefits outweigh the costs.
# Answer
> 2 votes
A Masters degree is fundamentally different than Ph.D. Whereas a Ph.D. teaches the general skill of scientific investigation (in some context), as Masters degree focuses on acquisition of a particular set of skills and knowledge. If it is just the skills and knowledge that you want, it is often possible to acquire them elsewhere as well.
The value of enrolling formally for a second Masters degree thus comes from one of several corollary benefits of formal rather than informal study:
* You want to make a career shift to an area where a Masters in a particular field is a pre-requisite or of high salary value.
* The formal program will allow you to focus more strongly on skill acquisition, either because of the expectations set by classes or because formal enrollment will provide financial benefits (e.g., some employers have degree program benefits).
* The program will give you access to resources (e.g., high-end lab equipment, mentoring by professors) that are useful for acquiring the skills and difficult to get access to otherwise.
Whether the cost/benefit tradeoff is worth it in your particular case is something that only you can judge, but these are good metrics to use for analyzing that tradeoff.
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Tags: masters, second-degree
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thread-30843
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30843
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Easy subjects with high grade vs tough subject with lower grade
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2014-10-30T01:10:03.707
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# Question
Title: Easy subjects with high grade vs tough subject with lower grade
I have about 80% weighted average (years count 1, 3, 5), I am on my third BSc year and I would like to apply for a MSc afterwards in top university.
There are 2 4th year subjects that I really, really would like to take, but they are known to be the most difficult subjects in my university. The alternative is to take the easiest courses and keep the grades up.
I did a calculation that I should have about 64% this year to pass with a first.
Should I risk it? Will anyone really acknowledge this risk I am taking? Is it really worth it?
# Answer
> Should I risk it?
That depends on the particulars: how useful are the easy courses, how hard are the hard courses, ...
> Will anyone really acknowledge this risk I am taking?
Yes, the admissions committee will certainly consider what subjects you studied.
> 2 votes
# Answer
If you really want to get into top programs, the (not) answer is to take the tough classes and excel in them. At top graduate schools, the average course difficulty will almost certainly be above the hardest undergraduate courses that are available to you. This might be a different story if the classes in question are graduate-level classes.
In terms of graduate admissions, one of the most important factors is not your overall GPA, but your GPA in **known-difficult** courses (this is obviously more of a factor if you did your undergraduate at a well-known school). Avoiding difficult classes is a bad signal, but so it getting poor grades in them. Okay grades in the hardest classes will probably be neutral to positive depending on the situation and how well-known your undergraduate program is.
> 0 votes
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Tags: computer-science, undergraduate
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thread-185
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/185
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In practice, how secure is a tenured position in the US?
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2012-02-16T21:05:58.133
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# Question
Title: In practice, how secure is a tenured position in the US?
Coming from France, where any official academic position (i.e. associate professor or full professor, or equivalent positions at public research institutes) is a civil-servant one, and therefore automatically for life, I've been always intrigued by the "tenure" system in the US.
While reading the Wikipedia article, I spotted the following paragraph:
> While tenure protects the occupant of an academic position, it does not protect against the elimination of that position. For example, a university that is under financial stress may take the drastic step of eliminating or downsizing some departments.
Does this kind of elimination/downsizing occur a lot in practice? Is it possible to "cheat" and to pretend to cut a position in order to save money just to get rid of a tenured professor? Are there some laws stating that if a position is cut, then another equivalent one cannot be created right after?
# Answer
> 39 votes
I haven't seen any statistics on how many tenure professors have been fired, but most articles on the topic treat tenure as though it's a lifetime position (e.g., this Science article, "Tenure and the Future of the University"). Anecdotally, you will likely never meet someone who *knows someone else* who was fired from a tenure position; it simply doesn't happen.
Note, however, that the number of tenure track positions made available over the past decade been trending downward fairly significantly (see the same article, and simply do a google search on the topic to see more).
# Answer
> 31 votes
In practice, a tenured appointment is one of the safest job positions out there. Essentially, the number of things which can get a tenured professor "sacked" are exceedingly small, and most of these involve criminal actions. (Even in such cases, the university tends to pressure resignations rather than try to fire them, as has happened, for instance, in high-profile cases at Harvard and Yale.)
Outside of that, you need the aforementioned budget catastrophes that lead to elimination of entire departments. Even then, sometimes departments are allowed to "decay" rather than get eliminated—current staff stays as the department gets wound down, without new hires and additional support.
# Answer
> 26 votes
It does happen occasionally that entire departments are shut down. An example I remember being in the news a lot was several language departments at SUNY Albany. But it's an extreme measure and even with the current severe economic situation it did not happen very often.
# Answer
> 13 votes
Even if you don't get fired, the department can still make you miserable enough to want to leave. Tenure contracts often only guarantee a small salary, say 50% of the base salary when you were originally hired. Years later, that could be a pittance due to inflation.
Your department could tell you that your research isn't important or significant, and they could require you to do more teaching and service on committees, leaving you very little time to do any research. You could lose your lab space or access to shared equipment. You might not be allowed to take on new students or to hire technicians.
So you'll want to leave, even if they can't officially fire you. You can read some horror stories on this website.
# Answer
> 6 votes
I've seen one case that almost led to firing a tenured faculty member. The university had found him guilty of misconduct and tried to get him to resign; as far as I can tell this involved incentives more than threats. But when that approach failed, the university began proceedings to revoke his tenure and fire him. The "definition" of tenure at my university amounts to specifying what those procedures must include, and they make the the process so cumbersome that no one would want to invoke them except in extreme cases. In this case, the person finally reached an agreement with the university and resigned, on the day that the Board of Regents was to meet to revoke his tenure. Even so, he apparently got come concessions from the university. In particular, a short time later, the people involved in the tenure revocation hearings, even those like me who were only indirectly involved, were informed by the university's lawyers that, under the resignation agreement, we are not allowed to divulge who this person is. As far as I know, that gag order is still in force.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Thoughts on Academic Tenure by Joseph F. Baugher (August 15, 2014):
> Tenure can only be revoked for valid cause--normally a professor has to do something really wrong or really stupid to lose tenure. Most universities have disciplinary procedures already in place for handling such cases—typically a quasi-judicicial proceeding is provided, surrounded by due-process protections and an opportunity for the accused to provide a defense. Such cases are quite rare--**in the US, according to the Wall Street Journal (Jan 10, 2005), it is estimated that only 50 to 75 tenured professors (out of about 280,000) lose their tenure each year**. Revocation of tenure is usually a lengthy, costly, and tedious procedure, very often resulting in a lawsuit. Grounds for dismissal typically include doing something illegal like embezzling research funds, stealing school property, or conviction of a felony or any offense involving “moral turpitude”. The grounds for tenure revocation can also include things such as professional incompetence, gross academic malfeasance such as plagiarism or the faking of research results, falsification of records or credentials, neglect of duty, unprofessional or confrontational conduct toward colleagues, sleeping with a student, sexual harassment of another faculty member, or other conduct which falls below minimum standards of professional integrity. A tenured faculty member can also be dismissed if they develop a physical or mental disability, one so serious that even with reasonable accommodations the faculty member is no longer able to perform the essential duties of their position.
Carolyn J. Mooney, "Dismissals for Cause", The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 7, 1994, p. A17, as reported by Wikipedia:
> In 1994, a study in The Chronicle of Higher Education found that "about 50 tenured professors \[in the US\] are dismissed each year for cause."
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Tags: job, united-states, tenure-track
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thread-30947
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30947
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In CV, mentioning of a report that summarizes the postdoc research without publications?
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2014-10-31T17:02:49.050
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# Question
Title: In CV, mentioning of a report that summarizes the postdoc research without publications?
During a one year of postdoc of mine in pure mathematics, I didn't publish anything. I definitely did a research report and wrote down the main questions (in the form of conjectures) we were after and some ideas on how they could be solved. I'm now doing a new postdoc in an applied area as my next postdoc, and I was wondering whether it's okay/encouraged/discouraged/harmful to mention that research report in my list of publications/pre-prints. Clearly, it's just an expository report without proving any new results, which will never be published or even put on arXiv, but it does reflect the fact that I was not idle during my postdoc.
What do you think? Thanks!
# Answer
I doesn't sound to me like it should go on the CV. I'd say that if you're applying for jobs you'll probably get to recycle some of that material for your research statement, but it seems weird to put that piece on your CV.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I wouldn't list it under "Publications" as it would detract from actually-published papers, and might even look desperate.
Like @shane, I probably wouldn't put it on the CV at all but possibly you could have a section for technical reports and other manuscripts?
Ideally you'd find time to augment it (with partial proofs, heuristics, or other stuff you've done) to form something that could be published. (In some fields, conjectures with simulation results can form a nice paper.)
> 1 votes
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Tags: publications, postdocs, cv, preprint
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thread-30971
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30971
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Where should I look to see if any funding is available for an industry-based research to attend and present at academic conference?
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2014-10-31T22:45:01.290
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# Question
Title: Where should I look to see if any funding is available for an industry-based research to attend and present at academic conference?
I am an industry-based researcher, which means that that I am **not** attached to any university or school. The research I do is basic and sector-based and some of them (as pointed out to me in this forum) is not even research *per se* (e.g. manuals and codes).
Notwithstanding this, I am always keen to engage in 'formal' research and I submit abstracts/proposals occasionally to conferences organised by universities/others where I can present my work. This is, of course, from a practical point of view which has certain advantages because it tells what works and what doesn't in the real world.
I have been accepted to present at a few conferences but I am discovering (to my surprise) that there is no financial assistance available to speakers (travel, accommodation and even registration). These expenses amount to thousands of dollars and are beyond my reach. It is also outside the scope of my profession so cannot be covered by my employer.
I am wondering what forms of assistance (if any) are available to assist non-academic researchers present their work to a wider audience?
**Note:** I checked with the conference organisers and they said there is no financial assistance available.
# Answer
Unless you are invited to present as a keynote speaker, you're probably out of luck for getting sponsorship from conferences to present. The expected cash-flow is generally in the other direction: conferences ask industry to donate money that supports the travel of academics.
Many companies, however, have internal "professional development" programs that allow employees to apply to use internal money to attend conferences, even if it is not directly connected with their current job responsibilities. Check and see if your employer has an option of that sort: most large high-tech companies have some sort of formal program, and many small companies have informal options.
Another option is to see if you can convince your employer to run a marketing or recruitment booth, if the conference is within the company's general scope of interests (or public relations outreach). Then, even if it's not within the scope of your current duties, you may be able to "pay your way" on the trip by organizing and spending part of your time manning the booth.
> 4 votes
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Tags: conference, funding, presentation
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thread-30975
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30975
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Are there graduate programs available specific to one programming language?
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2014-10-31T23:49:29.493
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# Question
Title: Are there graduate programs available specific to one programming language?
I am a Java enthusiast. I only know Java and its frameworks (like `struts2`, `spring`), and would like to pursue a graduate degree in only Java. Are there any graduate programs that are specific to a single programming language, such as this?
# Answer
> 20 votes
In the early 20th century, MIT faced a crisis: it's graduates, though well trained, were rapidly becoming obsolete. In response, the university launched a long-running series of curriculum reforms that changed it from essentially a training school that taught the *practices* of engineering to instead focus on teaching the *scientific principles* underlying those practices, with knowledge about the specific practices of the day as a byproduct.
I bring this up because there is a close parallel to your question: you ask whether there are any graduate programs dedicated specifically to Java. Maybe there are, but **they would be a waste of time and money.** If you want vocational training in specific things about Java, there are lots of free resources online. If you want an education that will let you use Java at a deeper level, you want a curriculum that is not dedicated to a particular technology du jour. The foundations of computer science cut across programming languages and platforms. Maybe you will happen to find a graduate program where most of the classes happen to use Java, but it might well change tomorrow.
Moreover, you may find it difficult to be taken seriously in either the corporate or academic world if you declare an unwavering loyalty to a single programming language or other technology. There are lots of Java shops out there who will be happy to have people experienced in the language, but when somebody says they know only a single programming language, that is typically a major red flag. Most good programmers have had cause or curiosity enough to at least dabble in many languages, and people who claim to be experts limited to precisely one programming language typically turn out to be Dunning-Kruger victims. Maybe you're different, but you'll likely have quite a bit of well-justified skepticism to overcome.
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Tags: career-path, computer-science
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thread-30982
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30982
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How to cite from a book with more authors?
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2014-11-01T10:13:31.860
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# Question
Title: How to cite from a book with more authors?
Some books start each chapter with a short inspirational quote from some famous person e.g.
> Chapter 1.
>
> "I think, therefore I am"
>
> -René Descartes
I would like to do the same and I found the perfect quote, but the book it is from has three authors. What should I write on the bottom of the quote?
# Answer
> 5 votes
Remember the guiding principle of maximum ease in following a reference. If you don't know which author, cite primarily to the book.
> From "Book title", by x,y, and z
In fact, even if there is only one author, it is good to cite the book.
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Tags: citations, citation-style
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thread-30981
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30981
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How can I get back on track after falling behind on my online courses?
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2014-11-01T08:25:51.540
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# Question
Title: How can I get back on track after falling behind on my online courses?
I need some advice on how to catch up on my online courses. I have gotten really far behind on my work and lack the motivation to keep going. This my second year taking online courses and it seems harder than the first. What should I do to move forward?
# Answer
As Yoda says... "Do or Do not... there is no 'try'"
As both an educator, and a student in online learning I can feel for you on both sides of the coin. Allow me to inject some of my personal tricks... tools to help you.
First off... **contact your teacher/instructor/professor.** This is critical point one and both appropriate, and professional. This reach-out opportunity is your chance to tackle a few serious steps toward getting back on track:
* it allows you to admit that you have lost motivation and that you know you are behind.
* shows you to be accountable for your lost placement and willingness to get back on track.
Next, a mentioned before, start "triage"... an emergency assessment & prioritize a list of what must be completed first. Some projects could be banged out in an hour, but worth only a few % points. Others may take 2 days but have serious weight on final grades. Refer to your syllabus and see what is most important for the final grade. After you have assessed their importance and created a complete list of everything due, estimate their completion times (2 hours, 6 hours, 2 days etc etc)
Once you have a prioritized list of what weighs heaviest, and their estimated times... create a time line with the total number of days/hours/weeks remaining in the class. I use excel as it is easy to navigate and layout the time frame. Pen and paper works just as good though. Hopefully you have weeks and you have enough time to right the ship... but if it is days, you need may need to sequester yourself and focus intently on finishing.
Now that you have a list, and a timeline, inject the items to be done into the time line (create a gantt chart) and you have your plan of action ready to go.
...NOW... All of this is the plan. Only you can physically make the commitment to turn off the tv, step away from the video game, opt to not go out drinking, to the movies, or dinner... and settle in and FOCUS.
I find that I often pull up a neflix/amazon selection and put on a movie or something I have seen a dozen times already so I know what is happening without actually "watching" it. This seems to help to with eliminating that deathly silence in my den.
Only you can find your own motivation, and make the hard decission to actually buckle down and focus. It is hard (and I have done it) to find that once you have lost a few weeks. Perhaps pick a few smaller exercisses or tasks form your plan and finish them first to get that sense of accomplishment to fire off a few points in your direction. That may be just the sense of completion you need to find the next level of commitment.
Last point, and perhaps the most important... DO NOT GIVE UP!
> 5 votes
# Answer
First, you have to assess how much time is left in the semester and how much work you have left, then do some triage. If you've missed assignment deadlines or exams in one or more courses, those may not be salvageable.
The result of your assessment should be a list of those course(s) in which you still stand a chance of earning a satisfactory grade. Work like the devil on those courses.
Communicate with *all* of your professors. For those you're trying to salvage, apologize to the professors for getting behind, tell them you're trying to pull it our, and *ask for help.* Most professors will work with you if you're working with them.
I'm less sure what you say to the professors of the courses you've decided to write off, and maybe someone will comment on that. I think something like, "I realize I've gotten so far behind in your course that I cannot pass. I apologize. I hope you won't hold this against me too much when I repeat the course." I *am* sure that silence in the write-off courses is not the right answer. Do not just disappear.
> 2 votes
# Answer
* First of all it boils down to how far you are curios and passionate about the subject area of the course you are talking
* From question it seems that you were interested to learn but some what distracted with other reasons
* **Remember** **One Thing**
The state/situation/position you are in are the action of your past thoughts and that's this truth will apply for your future too
* **Have a Plane Of Action**
* First prioritize your activities i.e do first things first
* **Remember your goals**
* That doesn't mean that you should have a life time goal but it points that a person with out a goal is as good as kite with out a thread
* Learning something without any purpose doesn't at all interests you
* First of all learn the purpose of what you are learning and history around it and it's evolution and talk about it with you friends who shows interest towards some discussion that gives you little boost of encouragement and interest towards the course
* **If He can then you can**
* Please don't get carried away by peoples judgement about you because they to are humans and it's self implies that humans vulnerable to mistakes work hard and prove them wrong ....I know that's what you will do from now
* **Have a RoleModel**
* We all tend to have role models based on our interests ,having and remembering them from the work they have done will always keep you motivated and forwarded
* **Please Don't get carried away by immaterial ,fragile ,immortal temporary pleasures ,all these can entertain you for a short period of time but they will fade away soon**
* **Every Expert was once a beginner**
* Don't give up at the first attempt that's not the nature of winners
* i.e When you are trying to catch a rabbit out of a folk and you could not get it don't change the rabbit but change the tactics
**-----------Wish you all the Success in you life---------**
**Einstein,Newton,Euler,Madam curie,Martin Luther King ,Columbus,Alexander,....**
> -2 votes
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Tags: online-learning
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thread-30713
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30713
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Why does a UK university need to know my sexual orientation and religion?
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2014-10-28T13:33:25.123
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# Question
Title: Why does a UK university need to know my sexual orientation and religion?
I want to apply to a postdoc position at a UK based University.
They want me to fill a "Equal Opportunities Data" form with questions about my marital status, sexual orientation, religion and race. Why do they need that? Will there be any consequences from not specifying these?
Will the employing professor have access to the data?
# Answer
* The employing professor will not have access to this data.
* You can omit anything in this form.
* The data from this form goes to HR and is aggregated there so they can prove to auditing bodies that the staff distribution is not skewed (i.e. that they are not discriminating on basis of whatever)
> 73 votes
# Answer
No, this information will not be made available to the hiring committee and not filling out this information will not have any negative consequences.
The university uses the data to monitor discrimination - from time to time, it is checked whether the percentage of successful applicants from minorities is roughly the same as the percentage of the respective minorities among the applicants. If the ratio is very off and the number of hirings was sufficient to indicate a "trend for discrimination", the university will take measures to prevent this in the future. And for this, they need to collect the data.
> 38 votes
# Answer
It would be illegal for them to take this type of information into account when making hiring decisions - it would be 'direct discrimination':
> It is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of:
>
> * age
> * being or becoming a transsexual person
> * being married or in a civil partnership
> * being pregnant or having a child
> * disability
> * race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
> * religion, belief or lack of religion/belief
> * sex
> * sexual orientation
>
> These are called ‘protected characteristics’.
>
> You’re protected from discrimination in these situations:
>
> * at work
> * in education
> * as a consumer
> * when using public services
> * when buying or renting property
> * as a member or guest of a private club or association
https://www.gov.uk/discrimination-your-rights/types-of-discrimination
As other people have already said, many employers collect this information (while keeping it secret from the people making the hiring decision) in order to ensure that their recruitment process doesn't contain systemic 'indirect discrimination', which is:
> putting rules or arrangements in place that apply to everyone, but that put someone with a protected characteristic at an unfair disadvantage.
https://www.gov.uk/discrimination-your-rights/how-you-can-be-discriminated-against
If you leave that section of the form blank then it should not count against you in your job application (often the form will say this on it somewhere).
There is an exception in that 'positive discrimination' is (since a change in the law quite recently) allowed in certain, quite limited, circumstances:
> **Employing people with protected characteristics**
>
> You can choose a job candidate who has a protected characteristic over one who doesn’t if they’re as suitable for the job and you think that people with that characteristic:
>
> * are underrepresented in the workforce, profession or industry
> * suffer a disadvantage connected to that characteristic (eg people from a certain ethnic group are not often given jobs in your sector)
>
> You can only do this if you’re trying to address the under-representation or disadvantage for that particular person. You must make decisions on a case by case basis and not because of a certain policy.
>
> You can’t choose a candidate who isn’t as suitable for the job just because they have a protected characteristic.
>
> **Disabled people** When recruiting you can treat a disabled person more favourably than a non-disabled person because of their disability.
https://www.gov.uk/employer-preventing-discrimination/recruitment
See also: The Equality Act 2010 and positive action - Commons Library Standard Note
If you find that an employer is breaking the law in respect of discrimination, then contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (free).
> Some examples of the types of issues we have advised on:
>
> * An individual who was unhappy about the way that the younger clientele at work treated him and spoke to him because he was an older person.
> * A Trans individual, who had transitioned from male to female, who worked for a security company and reapplied for a security pass only to discover that the process for renewing her pass had disclosed the fact she had undergone gender reassignment surgery.
http://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/app/about
> 34 votes
# Answer
Under the equal opportunity act UK employers are not allowed to discriminate on the grounds of race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.
These forms allow them to help check that this is not happening by comparing the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful candidates, as well as the general population.
The data should be treated as confidential, although exact wording varies between forms.
Completing such forms is generally not compulsory and most forms will have a prefer not to say option for most categories.
My advice if you are still concerned would be to contact whowever is running the admissions process and ask them (politely) what the data will be used for. They should be able to tell you (or find out).
> 11 votes
# Answer
As a lecturer and department head, at least in the UK I can tell you this answer is far simpler than those above.
Colleges and universities are able to sell the information gained from the equal opportunities segment of our application forms. There is no legal requirement to include it in the process, but it does generate extra income which every educational establishment is fighting for these days.
You do not have to put anything, and I would actually advise you not to. It does not form any part of the administrative profiling for students, and the majority of the time teachers never even see these forms once you fill them in and any employers would certainly never have access to them.
> 6 votes
# Answer
The general idea behind "equal opportunity" employment is that if two candidates appear *equally suitable* for the job, the candidate with a more favourable "minority status" will be selected.
You may always ask if it's compulsory to give that information. My personal stance is that none of that information is relevant to the job, so the employer has no need to know.
**Edit:** Contrary to the comments suggesting I am wrong, *this does happen*, though not in the UK. For example, see the DESY.de jobs website.
> "Comment on all job offers: Handicapped persons will be given preference to other equally qualified applicants. DESY supports the careers of women and therefore encourages especially women to apply."
NOAO says:
> Preference granted to qualified Native Americans living on or near the Tohono O’odham reservation.
I don't know how widespread this sort of policy is. But if I can find one institute in Germany and another in the USA, surely I can find more.
> 4 votes
# Answer
Some good responses to this question are already supplied (especially to OP's "Why do they need that? Will there be any consequences from not specifying these? Will the employing professor have access to the data?").
What there seems still to be lacking in the answers is any specific data from the UK university sector. This is not hard to find, and here are a couple of representative examples:
* University of Cambridge
> We understand that some applicants may not wish to provide sensitive personal information to us at this stage, which is why we have provided the option to answer each equal opportunities question with ‘Prefer not to say’.
* University of Nottingham
> It is not necessary for you to include personal information in the main body of your application form, e.g. sex, age, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, nationality, country of birth, religion.
A lot more information is found on even those two pages, and many universities put their policies online in PDF form, so not so convenient for linking here. This sort of search also demonstrates that such policies and procedures are found across the sector, and not restricted to a few odd-ball institutions.
> 2 votes
# Answer
So they can prove that they aren't discriminating against non-majority race/sex/orientation individuals. The unfortunate bit is that this means they must prioritize anything in the non-majority r/s/o category (usually something rather specific, depending on the prevailing politics), which has the unfortunate effect of de-prioritizing folks who happen to fall into the category considered "the majority" (which is often a perceived majority and not an actual one, if a majority even exists).
Your professors or whoever else don't have access to individual information of this sort, it is used as an aggregate for central planning authorities. Isn't politics lovely?
> -2 votes
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Tags: application, united-kingdom, privacy
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thread-31001
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31001
|
My supervisor does not believe my abilities
|
2014-11-01T21:39:15.350
|
# Question
Title: My supervisor does not believe my abilities
I am a third year PhD student, I have got a problem with my supervisor, that I think I cannot continue working with him. My problem is that he keeps insisting this fact that I need to switch from PhD to Msc. He thinks always negatively about my personality and my abilities. My supervisor was nearly 1 year on sabbatical, and I had no support during 1 year, and this is only 4 months that he has come back from sabbatical. Although he admits that I had good progress, but he keeps treating me negatively. I have reached to this conclusion that I need to change my supervisor. I cannot work with a supervisor who keeps thinking about me negatively. How should I deal with this?
# Answer
It's may not be in your best interests to continue working with this supervisor. If you can find another supervisor, then it might be wise to switch, but you'll have to consider how changing dissertation topics might slow down your progress.
Of course it's possible that you really are performing poorly. If other faculty in the department are disinterested in supervising you, then that would be a strong indication that you aren't doing well in the program.
> 9 votes
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Tags: phd
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thread-30963
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30963
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What is the weight on the applicant's personality for tenure?
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2014-10-31T20:52:11.673
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# Question
Title: What is the weight on the applicant's personality for tenure?
Assume that someone is an excellent researcher (many awards and at least 7-8 publications a year) and a very good teacher but he is not "liked" by some of the tenured faculty in the department (due to differences in opinions on how things should go or how decisions should be taken regarding different matters in the department).
Shouldn't being an excellent researcher and a very good teacher outweigh any social issues?
# Answer
This is a really contentious issue (typically referred to as "collegiality" in the context of tenure decisions), and there's no clear standard for what to do. There have been a lot of opinions, such as this one from the American Association of University Professors, but there is no universal rule.
On the one hand, it's outrageous to deny someone tenure just because you personally dislike or disagree with them. That's an abuse of the tenure process. The goal is to end up with a good colleague, not a friend or sycophant, and other considerations are not relevant. Furthermore, there's a danger of discrimination if the current faculty prefer to be around people like them, which just compounds the individual unfairness.
On the other hand, how someone acts can be a fine reason to deny tenure, regardless of how good their research and teaching are. For example, it would be a mistake to tenure an abusive jerk. Being a good colleague involves treating people decently and participating successfully in committees or other administrative tasks. If you behave poorly enough that you can't do that, then you shouldn't be a member of the department.
Of course the difficulty lies in distinguishing between these possibilities. What one person sees as courageously standing up for their beliefs in the face of opposition, others can see as being rude and disruptive. It can be difficult to tell whether someone is behaving in a genuinely objectionable way or you just don't like them.
I'd recommend extreme caution in these sorts of cases, since there's great potential for unfairness and poor decisions. (When these issues come up, it's a good time to think about implicit bias. Maybe this behavior wouldn't have bothered you if it had come from someone else?) At the same time I can't endorse a policy that says it doesn't matter how you treat your colleagues, so the best I can say is "it depends."
> 27 votes
# Answer
> Should't being an excellent researcher and being a very good teacher outweigh any social issues?
No. Being a senior professor is to a large extend a management and leadership position in the faculty. Being good at the "technical" parts of your job is not sufficient if you are terrible at the management and role model part. Further, I really cannot think of a good reason why somebody who is actively disruptive to the running of the faculty (such as the one annoying faculty that everybody seems to have, the one that takes a stand on *everything*) needs to be kept in the faculty despite better knowledge.
At the end of the day, tenure is not an individual teaching or research award. It is the department telling an academic "you are really valuable to us - we want to keep you around". Clearly, there will always be cases where somebody is ok at teaching and research, but other (more inter-personal) factors keep them from being "somebody you want to keep around". You may think this is sad, but really it is not much different to the cases where a really likeable person does not get tenure because her/his research isn't great - in both cases, it is just that one integral part of the job that is missing.
> 15 votes
# Answer
At my university (a large private, research-oriented institution in the United States), tenure has several stages.
1. The senior faculty votes on whether to try to pursue tenure for a junior faculty in their tenure year.
2. Outside letters are solicited and the tenure portfolio is put together.
3. On the basis of the portfolio and letters, the senior faculty votes to recommend tenure or not.
4. If the department vote is positive, it goes to the Provost's office. The divisional committee responsible for promotions examines the portfolio (including external letters) and the department chair makes a presentations of the materials. This is the most difficult hurdle to clear.
5. If the divisional committee approves, it then goes to full senior faculty and then to the Board of Trustees. The full senior faculty and BoT rarely decline to offer tenure at this point (c.f. Steven Salaita).
Personality only really plays a role in stages #1 and #3 and only weakly at my R1 institution. And almost everyone receives a positive vote from their own senior faculty -- even though it is not always unanimous.
The real hurdle for tenure is the divisional committee and there it is the scholar's portfolio (which consists entirely of their research output) and the outside letters that matter. In a sense, the evaluation is entirely blind to the personality or character (or amount of service and teaching) the individual made.
I also don't want to downplay the role of the outside letters. These are extremely important. You want to be known as a major player in your field by the time you come up for tenure. In a sense, having an outgoing personality will help tremendously here but only to a limited amount. After all, the external tenure reviewers are also reading your entire portfolio and judging you based on that, rather than on the really great drinking games you played at the last conference.
I like to think that the system is relatively fair. An Evil Chair® can deliberately sabotage a junior scholar in many way before coming up for tenure and in their tenure bid, but absent such malfeasance it's not inherently a bad system.
> 5 votes
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Tags: professorship, tenure-track, academic-life, communication, social-skills
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thread-31003
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31003
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How should I cite 3 images that were used to compose a new image?
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2014-11-01T21:42:12.683
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# Question
Title: How should I cite 3 images that were used to compose a new image?
I used three images from Wikipedia to compose them to a new image. All other images (not that many) are created by myself.
How should I cite them?
The images are:
I currently use the following text below the description (within the caption):
> The image of a desktop computer on the top left is from \url{https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Computer-aj\_aj\_ashton\_01.svg} and was created by an unknown artist, the server image on the top right is from \url{https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Server-multiple.svg} and was created by RRZEicons and the images that was used three times for classification workers is from \url{https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Server\_by\_mimooh.svg} and was created by Mimooh.
# Answer
> 4 votes
The first image is sourced to OpenClipArt.org, which releases images into the public domain specifically to simplify your life in cases like this. OpenClipArt specifically releases under the Creative Commons Zero license to enable this. For such images, as well as anything else in the public domain (e.g., most images published by the US Government), there is no requirement for specific attribution.
It is courteous to add a discrete note on the sourcing, and it would be dishonest for you to claim to be the artist, but the a major part of the reason that people build public domain image repositories is to let people build them into diagrams and other images without dealing with the attribution problem that you face. Since there are lots of these sorts of server diagram images on OpenClipArt.org, I would strongly suggest that you see if you can replace your current images with public domain images.
If you don't do this, then for the attribution-required images the figure caption should include the website references, just as you would reference a paper that you reproduced an image from. For example, you may phrase it: "Server images adapted from \[cite1,cite2\]" where the citations give the appropriate online document citation, just as you would if you were citing any other webpage. This is kind of a pain, and easy to lose track of if you reuse the images in other contexts, which is why I strongly recommend using non-attribution licensed images whenever possible.
# Answer
> 1 votes
For small, relatively generic images like this, it is not typically necessary to cite the full sources directly in the image caption. Rather, you could include a note in the references section of your paper, saying "Figure 1 makes use of these images from Wikimedia Commons..." and then list the URLs and whatever other attribution info is needed. If you wanted, you could also include a brief note in the image caption saying "See references section for image credits". Giving due credit to the creators of these images is the stand-up thing to do, but in practice, it is extremely unlikely that anyone will ever know or care whether you properly cited them in a case like this.
(Of course, I'm not a lawyer and my opinion counts for nothing legally. This is just my impression of common practice among academics who make use of internet images in their own diagrams, slide presentations, etc.)
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Tags: citations, graphics
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thread-30853
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30853
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PhD admissions - Contacting multiple profs from the same university
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2014-10-30T04:47:31.343
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# Question
Title: PhD admissions - Contacting multiple profs from the same university
Presently, I am writing to potential PhD guides in US universities. There are two professors from the same department who work on topics that cannot be considered closely related, but I would be happy to work under either of them.
I have already written to one of them, who has asked me to go ahead with the application process. I am now wondering whether I should mention in my mail that this (contact with first prof) has already been established, while still conveying that I am adequately interested.
Upon a positive reply from the second prof, what would be the best way to talk about both profs in my Statement of Purpose? I want to keep both options open, while not being rejected because the admissions office/the professors thought I wasn't specific enough with my application.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I think there are no answers yet on this question because there is no problem here; being interested in two different research groups is acceptable. In fact, interest in just one group increases your chances of rejection since that group may be full.
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, email
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thread-31024
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31024
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Should the fullstop go inside or outside the brackets for Harvard in-line citations?
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2014-11-02T12:38:54.070
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# Question
Title: Should the fullstop go inside or outside the brackets for Harvard in-line citations?
I was always taught to put the fullstop inside the brackets, but a couple of Harvard in-line citations I'm seeing put the fullstop outside, e.g.
> (Hyvönen, 2007; Joshi, 2001; Kaplan, 1984).
Is this correct, or should it be:
> (Hyvönen, 2007; Joshi, 2001; Kaplan, 1984.)
# Answer
> 5 votes
Full stops and periods should always go **outside** parenthetical references. The only time a stop should be "inside" a citation is when you are using superscript references, in which case the numbers normally appear after punctuation marks (at least in US based journals).
The reason is that the punctuation mark is not part of the citation itself. Therefore it should not be buried "inside" the citation.
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Tags: citations, citation-style
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thread-30924
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30924
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Is it fair for me to drink caffeine during tests?
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2014-10-31T07:11:11.917
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# Question
Title: Is it fair for me to drink caffeine during tests?
For some of my more difficult and early morning tests, I will buy coffee and bring it with me into the exam. My hope is that the caffeine will help me be fully alert, think more clearly, and write answers more quickly.
However, I know that drinking caffeine puts me in a slightly different state of mind physiologically than my classmates. Is it fair for me to drink caffeinated beverages at tests? If it isn't, is it merely something rude that would be nice for me to stop, or a form of mild cheating that I would be wise to admit to and discuss with my professors?
# Answer
I think the salient point in your question can be more explicitly stated as:
> What determines which advantages are fair and which are unfair to have during an exam?
Going to the extreme for fair advantages: Is not being sick on the exam day cheating? Is not being hungry cheating? Is not staying up the night before cheating? Is attending every lecture and study session fair? Is studying for the exam fair? Is being more intelligent than your classmates fair? Is always marking the correct answer fair? Is lucking out and having exam question be on something you happen to be very experienced with (database question for a seasoned database programmer) fair?
All of these are obviously fine. Yet consider the other extreme:
Is smoking during the exam fair? Is taking Adderall fair? Is doing cocaine before the exam fair? Is hacking the instructor's computer to get answers fair? Is manipulating the TA to trick them into revealing answers to you fair? Is bringing a cheatsheet or phone with you fair? Is making someone else take the test with you fair?
These aren't qualitatively different from the previous group. Sure, some are distinguished by being illegal (hacking) but many are accepted ways of improving performance in all but exam contexts (having reference materials at hand, looking up things you don't know online, collaborating with peers).
I posit to resolve this as follows: Exams are not a meritocracy. The point isn't to enforce some sort of egalitarian principle or to "let the best man win". The exam is part of the course, and the aim of the course is to make students proficient with the course material. The exam exists as a target for the students to aim for as they are independently studying and preparing.
If you agree to this point, then the question of what is fair becomes trivial: The instructor allows as "fair" any behavior that they deem conducive to learning.
For example, studying for days on end may be unfair to students who don't have as much time to study, but encouraging students to study benefits learning, so instructors deem it fair and sanction it.
On the other hand, stealing exam questions beforehand is an extremely effective way to do "well" on the exam, but not only do you learn nothing this way, if you get caught and punished there may be severe consequences for your future career. Theft of questions is a mechanism by which the exam is enabled to act as a perverse incentive. The instructor, therefore, tries to remedy this by specifically banning this mechanism. That such banned mechanism are called "unfair" (as if to imply some egalitarian or justicial purpose) is, I think, an artifact of language.
Coming back to your question:
> Is it fair for me to drink caffeine during tests?
Let's accept the premise that drinking coffee increases your performance (I am skeptical of this).
Is this conducive to the learning process? There is a tiny positive effect - your brain performing better during the exam means you will be more likely to experience those moments of really grasping a concept when you are forced to use it during the exam.
Does it facilitate a perverse incentive? Dubious.
* If the caffeine helps mental performance that much, students will probably start drinking it during courses or when they study, which means their learning will be *enhanced*.
* If they drink only during the exam, their score will be slightly inflated compared to other students. But the effect is tiny and self-damping: The more effective coffee proves to be, the more students will start drinking it, and everyone will end up on equal footing anyway.
* The smell of coffee may slightly disadvantage other students, which has a very small positive effect on your grade if the exam is graded on a curve. However, the effect is tiny, and if any student feels otherwise, they can always complain and ask you to remove the offending beverage.
Taken together, it seems like there's a few positive and a few negative effects, but all are very small. The only thing being meaningfully incentivized is the business of the coffee shop - but this does not detract from the learning process.
On the other hand, some people enjoy drinking coffee, it makes them feel more comfortable in the exam, and if it lets them believe they have control over their performance and have "stacked the deck" in their own favor, the psychological motivation may contribute to a more positive attitude towards the course in general. Altogether, when you are trying to teach someone something, it probably works better if they are physically comfortable rather than not. So I don't think it should be considered unfair or banned, unless students are very clumsy and constantly spill the coffee, litter by leaving empty cups around, or otherwise go about it in an unacceptable manner.
As an addendum, with more "hardcore" performance enhancing drugs, this may not be the case. For example, instructors would most likely be against taking drugs like Adderall (although this is very difficult to enforce) because it would incentivize the abuse of these drugs. Adderall abuse has serious harmful consequences, unlike caffeine abuse which is not commonly thought to be harmful.
> 11 votes
# Answer
That would be totally acceptable. Remember, you are also in a totally different state if you went to the toilet right before the exam. If you drank a litre of water in the morning. If you ate something for breakfast that happens to contain lots of short-chained carbohydrates, providing lots of energy for your brain.
You have to draw the line somewere and coffee is definitely acceptable, if not expected.
**Edit:** As several comments suggest, your other question about rudeness because of smelling beverages: that's different from course to course, and you will probably have to employ some degree of common sense there. People are usually not bothered by coffee smell as opposed to french fries or the sounds of eating potato crisps. If in doubt, just ask your TA or fellow students *before* going to the exam.
> 56 votes
# Answer
You might find that your university policy prohibits any beverages except water during exams. Coffee has a strong aroma that can be distracting, especially to the less-awake students who might then crave coffee.
Even if coffee had no aroma, it would still be distracting. A cup of tea or coffee is usually pretty identifiable by sight. If someone walks into my office with a mug of green tea, I usually want a mug of tea myself long before I can smell it. *"That guy 20m away is drinking some unidentified hot beverage. Now I want coffee!"*
Sure, the consumption of coffee *beforehand* should be fair and allowed in any country where it's a legal and commonly consumed drug - chances are many classmates drink it too. You still have to have learned the material in order for the coffee to help you remember it. It's just not fair to be distracting to others during a test.
> 21 votes
# Answer
Working in computer science and looking at the consume of caffeinated beverages in the department I'm wondering: Is it possible to work without? Seriously, you are legally allowed to buy this stuff and as long as it is not forbidden by any rule of your university it is totally fine to do so (**edit:** As long as you fit 'social norms'). Some people will eat dextrose/glucose or do other things they think will help them. Everybody has his/her own ritual I guess.
Taking other drugs to be able to learn better is a whole different story but here I don't see any problem as long as your university allows it. So it is neither rude nor any form of cheating.
> 15 votes
# Answer
In my classes, students bring coffee to my exams all the time. When I have to give early morning exams, *I* often bring a jug of coffee and paper cups, and offer cups of coffee to the students for free, as a way to help their scores.
There are deep philosophical questions about whether it's even possible to "cheat" using drugs. It comes down to whether one views "cheating" as defined by the rules of the institution, or as an ethical violation that goes beyond the written rules.
Most actual cheating policies ban sharing or receiving information during the exam, but make no mention of performance-enhancing drugs (e.g. Adderall). Some universities do have policies about misusing prescription drugs, e.g. the policy at Duke University. But the policies at my university make no mention of performance-enhancing drugs. Although possessing prescription drugs without a prescription may be somewhat illegal, it would not be a violation of any academic "cheating" rules at my school.
I doubt any school has rules against caffeine, however. Note that the Duke statement only refers to *prescription* drugs -- that is surely intentional. In the U.S., apart from a few religious groups, drinking coffee is perfectly acceptable as a way to improve concentration.
Your school is probably more likely to worry about the mess it would make if you spill your coffee than about the benefit you receive by drinking it. So, unless someone asks you to stop, you shouldn't worry about it.
> 11 votes
# Answer
One of my students admitted to me that he took a harmless and side-effect free sugar pill before a stressful exam in order to benefit from the placebo effect, which placed him in a different state of mind to his cohort, unfairly enhancing his cognitive capabilities. Needless to say, he was summarily dismissed.
> 7 votes
# Answer
I am a caffeine abstainer. I don't drink coffee because I can't stand it. The caffeine in the coffee might give you an advantage over me, but it would be the same advantage in the workplace (where I also don't drink coffee). So I think it is fair.
The day I took a standardized test that helped determine my academic career, the weather was really hot. Everyone showed up to the test center wearing summer clothing. I was the only one to bring a jacket in my bag. The test center cranked up the A/C and I put my jacket on. Was my comfort cheating?
> 4 votes
# Answer
At the university I went there where plastic cups available at the entrance and if you wanted coffee or tea you could take a cup and put it on your desk if you wanted coffee and upside down on your desk if you wanted tea. Then when the test started a coffee lady would walk by and fill your cup if you had one. This leads me to think that it is acceptable (if not commonplace) to have coffee in the exam.
> 3 votes
# Answer
This would only be unethical if you'd be gaining an advantage that is unavailable to other students. For example, if coffee would be prohibited, but you'd use it despite of that, or if it were too expensive for others to obtain. But as long as caffeine is socially acceptable, readily available for everybody and allowed at the exams, it's a fair choice for every body to use it or not.
> 3 votes
# Answer
My short answer is **Yes**. You can drink as much coffee as you want.
I've studied in 4 universities and had many exams in my academic life. I've systematically experimented different ways to boost my performance in exams. I've experimented with sugar-rich snacks, coffee, prayers, meditation, and a few more. I know my experiments would not stand scientific scrutiny and you should take them with a grain of salt but they gave me an insight into what actually matters.
The difference coffee made in my exams was insignificant. I can assert the same thing about effects of chocolate, sugary drinks, meditation, and prayer. The only thing that seemed to be directly correlated to my performance was amount of practice before exam. Whenever I locked myself in the library and studied the course material hard, I did well in the exams regardless of anything else. I also did poorly in easy exams when I didn't prepare.
So drink coffee with no guilt because you are not manipulating your performance.
> 2 votes
# Answer
EDIT:
Just openly bring your coffee mug and you'll see on the faces of the staff and students if it's a good idea or not. Simple as that.
\*It's not unfair because (1) anyone can do it and (2) it's not a competition.
\*It's not cheating if it's allowed, and the effects are surely minimal anyway.
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Why would fairness enter the equation at all? You will be graded according to *your* performance, not relative to others. It's not a competition, it's an individual appraisal. Besides, anyone is free to drink coffee if they want to.
In any case, I don't think coffee or any other drug taken during the exam would have much of an effect.
> 1 votes
# Answer
When there are thousands of ways to be proficient at any given subject, hundreds of ways to learn and execute the skills required to be successful at any given subject, and a million ways to fail... Is it fair to measure a student's proficiency with only a narrow sliver of a window into said student's ability provided by a paper test in the first place?
I say absolutely not; And limiting the student's scope of success to what one person (or few people) think is the 'correct' application of a concept is setting education back hundreds of years, and is entirely unfair to the students and society at large.
That being said, do what you have to do to get out of that trap so you can move on to the real world where you're going to be applying those skills and concepts as a matter of survival-- where you're free to drink as much coffee as you want, and use as many calculators and references as you need to get the job done. Don't ignore the lessons! Just get through the tests without worrying about fairness- the world isn't a fair place anyway, and you're the only one responsible for being good at what you do; Not the education system; So who cares if it's fair that you drink coffee? As long as you pass your tests and enter the professional world as a reliable quality producer of goods and services.
> -1 votes
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Tags: ethics, exams, drugs
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thread-26048
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26048
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References/resources on problems surrounding peer review in physics?
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2014-07-17T15:05:47.507
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# Question
Title: References/resources on problems surrounding peer review in physics?
I was watching this video on YouTube (this is the second part of it) and it motivated me to ask this question.
**From the videos:**
> *....that's the good aspect of peer review. It should work to sift out problems with the interpretation, problems with the results. It should work to improve a paper. The problem is ..... there is a huge volume of stuff and we are increasingly getting swamped. .... here is one of the worst examples of where peer review has entirely failed. ....*
The examples he talks about is discussed in this blog post.
When you zoom in, you can clearly see that it is photo-shopped.
> ...this is one of the top ranking journals in the fields...
>
> *Now here is the really troublesome aspect... if they had done it better (you can see a much better photo-shopped image in the blog), how would we know. Not only is money spent in that lab, other groups would chase this up and that's the worrying aspect and it builds and builds. Science is like that.*
>
> *In the past if the referees didn't pick it up, that was the end of the story. We now have something called the post publication peer review. There are sites ( PubPeer) and there are blogs (ChemBark, Chemistry Blog) where people upload paper and say well this looks like a great paper or in many cases they go "there is something I don't quite get here" and that leads to lots of comments from people in the field and I think this is where we are evolving to... away from the traditional peer review system. The publication is seen to be the start of the scientific process and not the end, where you generate debate.*
**My questions:**
Are there other such examples in physics? Can you point me towards a blog/site or something of the sort that goes through these things?
Are there any blogs, articles or essays that discuss problems surrounding the peer-review process (in relation to physics). How it can improved, where alternative methods like post-publication review are discussed ? I know ChemBark for chemistry, I am looking for it's "equivalent" in physics.
# Answer
> 1 votes
The methods of scientific misconduct in physics are not different from what you see on chembark (photoshopping, data creation and so on). This years nobel prize in chemisty went to a physicist as it happened often. The methodogical overlap is huge, mostly the topical focus is different, collaboration is frequent as interdiffusion of scholars between both branches. Also physics is such a broad field that the role of peer-review in different subfields has different importance.
Jan Hendrik Schön was an exceptional case, from which one can deduce the differences in revealing scientific misconduct and the role of peer review in physics vs. other scientific branches. **There are not much cases like Jan Hendrik Schön in physics, as we have a very strong post-publication review system in physics/chemistry many scientific branches lack: the industry and the mathematical and experimental interdependence and overlap of most theories in neighboring subfields**. It's stronger than the peer-rewiew system at the journal level and one of the reasons why physics is called a "hard science". This is really the crucial difference to other scientific branches and the reason why you will not find much important scientific misconduct by physicists in top journals. Hiring of top researchers by industry and patents are a strong incentive to avoid scientific misconduct. **And top research in physics is correct, reproducable and valuable research, in branches like psychology or philosophy you really have problems to identify and judge good research by clear criterions.** This is due to the nature of the topics. Jan Hendrik Schöns research career was finished, he will never do fundamental research again or wright a paper. He probably knew that is was just a matter of time considering the importance of his results that someone in academia or industry would reveal his misconduct, probably career obsessed and blind.
The case of Schön started in the physics community an open-ended discussion wether peer-review at the level of the journal is the place to detect such cases, there were not much widespread cases like this before (I can't remember). From the discussions I had it seems most physicists agreed that not peer review at the journal level was the problem in this case, but lack of review of his collaborators before submission. Unfortunately in the aftermath he was the only one sentenced and losing his PhD 2013. Take a look how much co-authors he had on most papers. Schön's other collaborators were cleared of all wrongdoing by an committee appointed by Bell Labs. They are nowadays professors at ETH Zürich and Stanford. They could not identify the fraudulent data or would have to invest to much effort?
**To this it boils down, how much effort do you have to invest in peer review and what is the status quo of trust and mistrust in your subfield?** Is mistrust prevailing? For some branches the status quo is problematic. In physics we can tolerate such a case of imperfect peer review at the journal level from time to time due to much stronger other inherent mechanisms other scientific branches lack. The subfield of priming in psychology for instance had to undergo rather exceptional processes to regain credibility and will have to do so on.
Of course, also other branches develop technological relevant ideas, prototypes, patents and are funded by industry, **but the crucial point is that often published results in physics journals turn into an product within a decade. This time scale is important, as it has strong implications on the quality of work of experimental physicists as the case of Jan Hendrik Schön has shown.** In other scientific branches, e.g. psychology, you nearly never have to fear this kind of very strong post-publication review (where experimentalists in industry and academia will try to analyze and rebuild your experiment bit by bit, much stronger than any review by an editor or collaborators) or discovery-idea-patent-product will last several decades (e.g. drug development in medicine), so nearly as long as the career of most scholars and some decide to take this risk. **In physics/chemistry, for widely studied and interesting research topics, your chance is zero, misconduct in the long term (which means 10, max. 20 years) is scientific kamikaze.**
Please don't interpret my words as an underestimation of peer-review done at the journal level (in non-industry relevant fields it is the most important level), I'm a strong advocate of open access and open data and in my opinion the best hindrance of scientific misconduct would be if search engines like google scholar would directly link comments on arxiv to specific papers in the search results. If a bunch of co-authors decide to falsify data professionally (not like a school kid in the picture above), then only other research groups trying to reproduce this results can reveal the misconduct, post-publication review. In physics this will happen for sure. On retractionwatch you can read stories about journals that are not inclined to publish comments of other authors proving the bad quality of their peer-review. In physics comments have always been a vital part for public discussion of competing theoretical models and experimental data. But nowadays the publishers rely more on a more profit oriented model than decades ago. So central uncensored websites like pubpeer are really necessary from my point of view seeing a rise of plagiarism and misconduct, although their importance may vary strongly from branch to branch. Physics, in my opinion, is not in trouble, actually the time scale described above has become even shorter since the rise of the internet due to better and faster access to software, data and knowledge. Unfortunately in humanities the phenomenon of "copy, shake, paste" vice versa seems to have risen.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I would like to slightly disagree with the Hauser's answer regarding the possible *methods* of scientific misconduct in physics.
Unfortunately, in more theoretical parts of physics some people can manage to pretend that some complete and utter nonsense represents a new result well enough to fool the referees and editors and thus beat the peer review system.
A prominent example of this (to our luck, very rare, at least AFAIK) phenomenon is **the Bogdanov affair**, see also e.g. the web page by John Baez on this and the Nature article on the ensuing scandal; a sample of the works involved is available through this Google Scholar query. The Bogdanov (a.k.a. Bogdanoff) brothers got their Ph.D.s using the papers in question, one in physics and one in mathematics, and in early 2000s have published a number of strange -- to put it *very* mildly -- papers in a number of reputed physics journals, including Classical and Quantum Gravity and Annals of Physics (and e.g. the Annals of Physics paper is still there -- it is not withdrawn until today). The papers were not just wrong -- they turned out to be downright gibberish.
In the light of the Bogdanov affair it is not a big surprise that sometimes peer review also fails to detect even a really large-scale plagiarism, as in the infamous case of more than 60 works by a group of Turkish physicists who plagiarized earlier work, see e.g. the Nature article and this post at Peter Woit's blog for details.
Unlike the Jan Hendrik Schön case, AFAIK the papers by Bogdanov brothers did not involve experimental data or predict outcomes of reasonably doable experiments, so their case is pretty much a *pure* **peer review failure** at the level of the referees and editors (and of course a failure of their thesis advisors too).
IMHO, the Bogdanov affair shows that the argument regarding *going to production* and *post-publication review* from the Hauser's answer does not seem to work well in the more theoretical parts of physics, especially when the authors make no readily verifiable experimental predictions.
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Tags: peer-review, physics, reference-request
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thread-31019
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31019
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How detailed should one be in writing the referee's report?
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2014-11-02T08:27:30.693
|
# Question
Title: How detailed should one be in writing the referee's report?
When writing a referee's report for an editor of a journal, does one always aim and try to be as brief as possible, saying yes or no to the publication (giving a couple of sentences in support of one's decision regarding the reasons for recommending/rejecting the paper)? Is it ever appropriate for the referee to write about finer details of the work they are reporting on, in their report to the editor?
After doing a fair bit of research to figure out whether to recommend a paper for publication or not, it can still be a hard decision to make. Is it then appropriate to share the finer details with the editor or does one have to make the decision and write only in support of that decision?
# Answer
A review is supposed to provide the view of a peer on the manuscript submitted for publication. An editor needs to take one or several, usually two, reviews to form the basis on deciding on the fate of the submitted manuscript and to form the basis for revisions by the authors. There are very few instances, I have yet to see one, where a paper is publishable as is. There is, however, no clear correlation between usefulness and length of a review.
The key is to provide feedback for improvements to ensure the manuscript becomes as good a contribution as possible. Some reviewers spend much time correcting language or other formal aspects of manuscripts. These sorts of comments are always welcome but the core issues are focussing on the science itself and the clarity with which it is disseminated.
So a shorter form of report contains the core scientific and clarity issues encountered and perhaps general comments on other shortcomings, a longer report details also the detailed issues. The size of the reports obviously depend on the quality of the manuscript but also on your expertise. Some times editors appoint reviewers to cover a narrower but vital aspect of the manuscript. The good review should be critical, fair and objective and provide both the editor and authors with suggestions for improvement. By necessity this will be more than just a few paragraphs of comments
> 5 votes
# Answer
When I write a report I try to be as detailed as possible in my response to the authors. This is important as they will need my comments to improve the manuscript, and if the comments are vague they will fail to do so. However, many of the journals I have experience with in my field (life sciences and bioinformatics) ask referees to avoid including comments regarding the suitability for publication in the letter to the authors. For that purpose they provide the score sheet that needs to be filled when submitting the report (at least for journals using electronic systems).
However, those score sheets cannot convey all the information about the impressions of the referee after reading the paper. Therefore, there is always a section with comments to the editors. In this section you should add any relevant information that is not clearly represented in the score sheet. Personally, I always try to add specific comments to the editors. For example, I may have complained in my report about the poor description of the statistical methods. Then I will let know the editor that that is, in my opinion, a mandatory change for the suitability of the manuscript for publication. Finally, when writing my comments to the editor, I try to be as brief as possible (but never just 'yes' or 'no'), so that I do not overwhelm the editor's likely busy inbox with unnecessary comments.
In summary, the comments to the editor should include any information that is not properly represented in the score sheet, cannot go into the response to the authors, and may be relevant for the editor in order to make an appropriate decision on the manuscript.
> 13 votes
# Answer
Reviewing is a "Golden Rule" situation: "Treat others as you would like to be treated." The authors have (probably) invested a lot of time and effort in the paper, and being accepted or dismissed with a terse couple of sentences is neither helpful nor particularly respectful. Even if the paper is terrible, the authors deserve a thorough explanation of why you think that it is terrible, so that they can understand the fairness of the decision---remember, many papers that you encounter will come from young authors or authors from institutions without a very strong scientific research culture, and your feedback is critical to helping them improve.
Furthermore, as a referee, your job is not to make the final judgement (even if you have a form that says "reject" or "accept"), but to provide the editor or program chair evidence in support of their decision. I thus find the following template useful for organizing my reviews, to make sure that I convey the right information:
1. Start with a few sentences summarizing what you think the main idea and impact of the paper is.
2. Give a general feeling about whether you think the paper is ready for publication or not.
3. If not, explain what are the biggest general problems that have to be dealt with.
4. Major issues list: all significant scientific issues that have to be addressed before publication
5. Minor issues list: all the scientific side-issues, nitpicks, typos, nice-to-haves, etc.
The distinction between 3, 4, and 5 is one of triage and communication, and should be made very clear in a review. #3 is the main reason for your judgement. #4 is for all of the rest of the problems that impact the scientific content of the paper. #5 is for all the little stuff: I always appreciate it when a reviewer reads carefully enough to provide nitpicks and notice typos, but it's also important that it be clear (to the editor, as well as the authors) that such minor problems are, in fact, not the basis of judgement.
A place that this distinction is particularly critical is regarding requests for additional experiments. Many reviewers seem to feel that it is their job to assign "homework" for the authors, and this is seriously problematic. You should only request new experiments if the work as presented will not stand scientifically without it. If you have suggestions for experiments that you think would be cool or would strengthen the point, put them in "minor issues" and clearly label them as suggestions not required for publication. It doesn't matter if you would have done it differently or if you think the new experiment wouldn't be too much work: your job is to evaluate whether the paper is scientifically sound, not to pretend that you are the authors' Ph.D. advisor.
Another important point, with regards to structure and grammar: remember that many papers you read will not be written in the authors' native language. Difficult as it may be, it is critical to try to separate language and presentation problems from scientific problems. I always remind myself that I would be writing much worse prose in the authors' native language. Thus, my section #5 may often contain a comment like, "The paper has many problems with English grammar and needs attention from a proof-reader," but unless the problems are so bad that they impair my ability to understand the scientific meat, it stays as a "minor issue."
In addition to the textual feedback, there are often numerical or qualitative ratings to select. I view the textual feedback as the meat, and always prepare it first, especially since writing up the textual feedback often changes my opinions of what the numbers should be. Moreover, numbers are not very informative, because different people interpret them differently: the text is the only opportunity you have to clearly communicate your reasons for liking or disliking a paper.
Finally, there is one case where all of this goes out the window: if I find that I am dealing with a plagiarized or multiply submitted paper, then the authors are wasting everybody's time and I have no problem giving a short and harsh rejection, e.g., "I didn't like this paper the last time we rejected it, and the authors haven't changed anything since then."
> 12 votes
# Answer
> does one always aim and try to be as brief as possible, saying yes or no to the publication?
Each reviewer has his or her own style. Some deliver a very brief report, others provide rather long lists of questions and suggestions.
In general, you might not want to spend too much time writing a response if the paper is generally bad with evident blunders. If, instead, the paper is good but needs a number of amendments, you might be willing to write a detailed response giving advice on how to improve the paper.
> 4 votes
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Tags: publications, writing, peer-review, editors
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thread-31035
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31035
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Which tables should be put in the appendix?
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2014-11-02T18:41:24.743
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# Question
Title: Which tables should be put in the appendix?
I am currently writing my bachelor's thesis. I made a lot of experiments and I describe them as well as their result in the text. Currently, I have most tables with the results of the experiments within the main part. However, I am thinking about putting at least the bigger tables in the appendix as they make the text hard to read.
What should I put in the appendix and what should be in the main part?
# Answer
I like to think of appendices (or supporting information, which is the same thing for a journal paper) in terms of the narrative structure of a text. The main text should contain everything that makes up the "story" of the work. In it, a reader who basically trusts that your methods are sound should find everything that they need to understand the work.
There are often, however, places where it is important to show your work, but that are not particularly interesting. If they are lengthy enough that they start feeling like a major detour in the flow of the narrative, then they are a good candidate for moving to an appendix.
Some examples from my own recent papers:
* Theorem and proof sketch in main text, boring exhaustive proof with lots of slightly different cases in appendix.
* Graph summarizing results plus an example of result detail in main text, all the rest of the results in appendix.
* Data from method presented in main text, data showing that plausible alternatives didn't work in appendix.
* Intuitive description of method and key mathematical concepts in main text, exhaustive mathematical details in appendix.
Exactly where to draw the line is somewhat subjective, but fortunately doesn't matter all that much unless you are dealing with format or length restrictions.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Put the more important data in the main part of your thesis and less important tables which should be reported in your report in the appendix.
As an instance, if you have 10 tests in your thesis, you may put results of 5 more important tests in the main part and 5 less important tests in the appendix of your thesis.
Don't put extra information and tables in your thesis as they make the reader of your thesis a little bored.
If you can, turn some of your tables in to plots and graphs, as seeing repeated tables in a text makes it boring and having some plots in your text makes it easier for reader to understand what you are talking about.
> 0 votes
# Answer
As a rule, the appendixes should be ignorable. That is, if you rip them off, the thesis is still valid and understandable.
Appendixes are good for side discussions or extra supporting materials.
> -3 votes
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Tags: thesis, writing, tables
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thread-30797
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30797
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Does putting an article I wrote on university site conflict with IEEE publishing rights?
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2014-10-29T13:25:00.430
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# Question
Title: Does putting an article I wrote on university site conflict with IEEE publishing rights?
I have published a few months ago a paper for an IEEE Conference, the paper got published and it is indexed in the IEEEXplore. I have received an email from a research coordinator at the university that I am currently working on, asking for the online printed version of it. In the affiliation of the article was written the name of this institution, but I wonder if they are going to put in to be available online for free at the university webpage. In that case, that would not cause a problem with the publishing rights of IEEE?
# Answer
Whether your institution plans to put it online is a question you have to ask them.
Whether they are allowed to put it online depends on the policies of the journal where it was published. You will need to read the copyright transfer agreement that you accepted when the paper was published.
> 3 votes
# Answer
IEEE policy explicitly allows the author, their institution, or other pre-print repository such as arXiv to distribute the *final preprint version* of any document, but not the version from IEEE Xplore. Scientifically, there is no reason to differentiate between the two, so as long as you send the final preprint version, it accomplishes the task of spreading information and there is no conflict with IEEE policy.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Many universities now have an open-access policy that reserves a **prior non-exclusive license** to distribute any research done at their institution. It is likely that your university has such a policy, and that is the reason for the request. You should check with your university (or look at this list).
If such a policy is involved, the natural legal question is then
> What happens if an author at such a university then signs an agreement transferring copyright to the publisher?
This has been considered in great detail by Eric Priest in a study published in the Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, Vol. 10, p. 377, 2012. This seems to be the most authoritative work available on the matter. His conclusion is that **the non-exclusive license granted by Harvard-style open access policies will remain in effect in such cases, at least under US law**. This is based on a careful analysis of section 205(e) of the US Copyright Act, which reads:
> (e) Priority Between Conflicting Transfer of Ownership and Nonexclusive License.— A nonexclusive license, whether recorded or not, prevails over a conflicting transfer of copyright ownership if the license is evidenced by a written instrument signed by the owner of the rights licensed or such owner’s duly authorized agent, and if— (1) the license was taken before execution of the transfer; or (2) the license was taken in good faith before recordation of the transfer and without notice of it.
> 1 votes
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Tags: publications, copyright, online-publication, ieee
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thread-31045
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31045
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What is the relative prestige conferred by an invited review article vs a research article?
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2014-11-03T01:57:31.143
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# Question
Title: What is the relative prestige conferred by an invited review article vs a research article?
What exactly is an "invited review article"? I have the opportunity to be an author on one of these, but I have no clue how this looks in comparison to research articles. (I am referring to invited review articles for reputable journals well-known in the field only.)
# Answer
> What exactly is an "invited review article"?
It is an article that appears in one issue of a journal. The article goal is to review the recent development of a specific topic (sometimes it goes with a special journal issue in that topic).
> how this looks in comparison to research articles.
Research articles contain original ideas and contributions to the field done by the authors. In contrast, a review article usually has no absolute *originality* in a sense that the authors are not coming up with something totally new. They are nicely summarizing what is happening in the field and identifying possible challenges.
The benefits you get out of publishing a review article in your field (specially when you are at an early stage of your research career and with a reputable journal) are numerous
**1. You get to know your topic.**
This has the advantage of organizing your thoughts and identifying possible contributions into the field.
**2. A Good Critical Review = High Citations.**
Good review articles tend to have many many citations. This means many people going to know your name (and possibly look for your other publications).
> 7 votes
# Answer
Journals accept different types of articles apart from regular articles such as for example, short communications, letter to the Editor, Correspondence etc. The definition of these vary. Journals publishing regular research articles may have guidelines that state that they do not accept review articles. There are also journals that focus on review articles. The reason for not accepting review articles probably vary substantially between journals but clearly review articles are usually very extensive and require much more work from reviewers and editors and so may be disrupting the regular flow of articles.
So, in the cases, I know of, including "my own" journal, Invited reviews is a way for a journal that focuses on publishing regular research articles to put strict limits on what is submitted as a review article. The "Invited" meaning that there is no point in submitting in a review article to the journal in the hope of getting it published. Instead the journal will in some way invite the reviews they will accept for review. By "invite" the journal can consider receiving suggestions for a review by an author or by having editors identify and suggest authors to write a review, I am sure the processes vary. In this way, the review becomes a more exclusive entry in the journal focussing on a topic that is considered of key interest to the journal and its audience. The main difference from reviews in a review article journal is thus the selection method of the manuscripts.
So, for what it is worth, an invited review, given the points provided above, will be slightly more prestigious than an ordinary review article in a review journal. In the end, however, it will be the usefulness of the article that provides the real value of the publication.
> 1 votes
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Tags: publications, journals, review-articles
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thread-31046
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31046
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Should I mention a magazine article written about my research in my CV?
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2014-11-03T01:58:55.350
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# Question
Title: Should I mention a magazine article written about my research in my CV?
How does getting into non-submission based magazines appear? For instance, if R&D magazine took an article about my work (NOT an actual research paper) and published it in their magazine, would this be something I would want to mention on my CV/résumé or would I even bother listing it at all?
# Answer
> 4 votes
I saw some researcher having "media coverage" or "general impact" columns in their CVs, see e.g. this example.
Other way to go (which I do) is to append to the respective publications "featured by \[The Economist/Technology Review/2014 Highlights of \[this journal\]/John Smith's blog\]".
IMHO as long you are not overdoing it, it should be a plus.
# Answer
> 2 votes
An article about your research in a broad, application-oriented journal certainly highlights the application potential of your research, and this would be something that you want to show in most applications also for academic positions.
However, I'm not sure how this could be integrated well within an academic CV. Usually you also have a research statement that describes your research activities, and I think it might fit better there. You could generally discuss the (potential) practical impact of your research, and then cite such an article to support your statement.
If such an article would refer to a specific research paper you published, it may also be an option to mention it in your publication list as "*featured by ...*".
# Answer
> 2 votes
I think the key lies in what you mean by "your CV". I personally have a master file for my CV which includes all kinds of information I consider is useful to highlight my person and my work in a wide sense. I then pick and chose from this file to tailor for the specific use and limitations that come up.
So my answer to you will be: *it depends*. You need to consider what may be useful for each time you are required to provide a CV. In many cases, publications in a popular science context can be considered quite valuable whereas they may not be in other cases. I therefore recommend you to consider keeping a master file where you add the sort of publications you refer to under some appropriate heading. You can then decide if you want to add these in the particular case. If you end up with lots of low impact reports etc. you can consider shortening a list to a sentence stating, for example, that you have written X articles in popular science for the following journals: Journal , Journal Y etc.
So, make sure you save all kinds of positive outcomes you have from your work and carefully select what you submit in the end. A single popular science article may not excite many (depending on publishing venue) but if you aggregate a more substantial list over time, it shows your interest to share science with the general public which is sought after with, particularly, (public) funding agencies.
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Tags: research-process, cv, online-publication, research-dissemination
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thread-30995
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30995
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What to do when you spend several months working on an idea that fails in a masters thesis?
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2014-11-01T16:22:33.980
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# Question
Title: What to do when you spend several months working on an idea that fails in a masters thesis?
How shall a masters student deal with the complete failure to meet the expected results when working on a master's thesis?
For example, in the field of machine learning a masters student might spend 4-5 months developing a method that turns out not be useful, not even being comparable to benchmark datasets.
Should the student quit it? Should you at least take a break from academia to avoid harming your career ? Or should you work on a different idea and risk another few months which is also not guaranteed? Given the fact that the advisor is simply asking you to try new things
# Answer
Step 1: Don't panic
I was in a similar situation halfway through my MSc. I was in a panic, sure that my academic career was in ruins. My supervisor calmed me down, reminded that a negative result was still a result, and and told me that a for a master's degree, it was not strictly required that I make a scientific contribution or have a publication. In the worst case, in my thesis I would present my negative results, explain why this technique didn't work, and suggest what could be done differently by future researchers. (Once I was relaxed enough to think clearly, I came up with new things to try, and everything worked out grand.)
I suggest you discuss the "worst case scenario" with your supervisor; you'll probably find out it's not as bad as you think. Remember that this is research: positive results are not guaranteed.
Step 2: Think about why this technique isn't working.
I'm sure you've learned something about why your technique isn't working. That should give you some ideas for what to try next. If you're out of ideas, sit a friend down and explain everything to them. The friend doesn't need to know anything about machine learning; they're just a sounding board. The naive questions they ask may give you ideas. Maybe you need a week off to recharge your batteries.
Step 3: Try something new.
Take those new ideas you got in step 2, and apply them. But now that you're more experienced, think about how you could find out more quickly if the idea is feasible, so you can change tack again if needed.
> 104 votes
# Answer
Years ago Marguerite Lehr, a colleague of mine at Bryn Mawr College, told me of a conversation she'd had years before that with Oscar Zariski, a brilliant algebraic geometer then at Johns Hopkins. She told him about a failed attempt to solve a particular problem. He said "you must publish this." She asked why, since it had failed. He replied that it was a natural way to attack the problem and people should know that it wouldn't work.
> 40 votes
# Answer
Just a general answer, more to the overall issue than to your specific case: "Failure" to get the expected results isn't necessarily "failure" in the sense of not producing a good thesis. Although in the specific case you mentioned (machine learning) there is often a desire to produce something usable, in many cases a thesis topic is motivated by prior research. A negative finding can still be significant if it adds to the overall knowledge total in the area (for instance, by showing that predictions from earlier research are not confirmed by yours).
For my PhD, I spent over a year conducting a series of experiments to test a certain hypothesis derived from earlier research. I found no evidence in support of the hypothesis. Nonetheless, I wrote it up as a negative result, and framed it as placing limits on the theoretical proposals that motivated the project (i.e., "people suggested things might work like this, but I checked and apparently it's not so"). My committee thought it was a useful contribution and I got the PhD.
A lot depends on your field and your committee. It is easier to do what I described in a field where there is a lot of speculative theorizing relative to the amount of hard data. I can imagine it'd be a lot harder to do that in machine learning. Also, the bias against negative results (the so-called "file-drawer problem") can create pressure to produce a positive finding. In the broadest sense, though, if you had a good reason to go looking for something, not finding it can be as informative as finding it, and that's part of science.
> 32 votes
# Answer
I concur with the above answers. I spent a year working on a topic for a PhD dissertation, before I decided that I lacked the qualifications to do it. So I went to my advisor, and said, "What now?" Two weeks later I was starting the work that got me my PhD. Leaving academia will probably be a mistake; you may find that you never have the right time to go back. As pointed out, negative results can have value. I think of Gödel and the Completeness Theorem, wherein the concept of unsolvable problems was formalized. Instead of proving that first-order predicate calculus was complete, just the opposite was proven: it is possible to create theorems that can never be proven (see also Alan Turing, Church, Post, and for that matter, Heisenberg).
So take a look at your work. Proving that some idea cannot work is a contribution. And if not, try another topic. That's what advisors are for.
> 5 votes
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Tags: research-process, thesis, masters, negative-results
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thread-31085
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31085
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Should an abstract make an argument about why an experiment is important?
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2014-11-03T14:26:32.713
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# Question
Title: Should an abstract make an argument about why an experiment is important?
I am submitting my first academic paper (in computer science). It is a short paper for a conference. In my abstract, I state what my empirical research uncovers. Is it appropriate to then explain why that empirical result is important? Or does that argument belong in a different part of the paper?
# Answer
> 5 votes
Yes it is generally better when the abstract indicates why the experiment is important, since it's key to hook the readers (otherwise why bother reading the paper if it brings no "important" results?), but succinctly as anything else in the abstract. There are typically 2 parts in the abstract where you can explain why the experiment is important:
* when explaining why the problem it addresses is important (somewhere in the first half of the abstract)
* when summarizing the implication of your results (at the end of the abstract).
I love the following abstract for a paper on how to write an abstract written by Steve Easterbrook; I italicized the two parts I mentioned above:
> The first sentence of an abstract should clearly introduce the topic of the paper so that readers can relate it to other work they are familiar with. However, an analysis of abstracts across a range of fields show that few follow this advice, nor do they take the opportunity to summarize previous work in their second sentence. *A central issue is the lack of structure in standard advice on abstract writing, so most authors don’t realize the third sentence should point out the deficiencies of this existing research.* To solve this problem, we describe a technique that structures the entire abstract around a set of six sentences, each of which has a specific role, so that by the end of the first four sentences you have introduced the idea fully. This structure then allows you to use the fifth sentence to elaborate a little on the research, explain how it works, and talk about the various ways that you have applied it, for example to teach generations of new graduate students how to write clearly. *This technique is helpful because it clarifies your thinking and leads to a final sentence that summarizes why your research matters.*
That said, to make sure your in the same tone as the conference, reading abstracts of papers published in the same conference in the last years is the ultimate reference.
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Tags: writing, conference, abstract
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thread-31049
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31049
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Can I publish a paper on my PhD work without informing my old supervisor?
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2014-11-03T03:24:12.193
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# Question
Title: Can I publish a paper on my PhD work without informing my old supervisor?
I was a PhD student and working on a paper. My adviser told me that he could not support me anymore so I left him. Now I am wondering if I could publish that paper on my own. There were 3 other coauthors on that paper but I was the first author and main idea was from me.
# Answer
Your paper had other authors. Generally, if you want to publish it, you have to communicate with the other co-authors (whether they were your supervisor or not).
Regardless of who the *first* author on a paper is, if other individuals made authorship-worthy contributions to the work, you can't publish it without communicating with them first.
> 26 votes
# Answer
When an academic paper is produced, the copyright generally belongs primarily to the institution at which the work was done and secondarily to the author(s) of the work.
Therefore you must seek and obtain the permission of the institution at which you were enrolled before disseminating the work in any form, whether electronic or otherwise or presenting it at a meeting or conference. Failure to do this would represent a breach of academic ethics and could leave you open to legal proceedings from the institution in question.
> -5 votes
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Tags: publications, phd, ethics, advisor, authorship
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thread-31069
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31069
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Should departments have a policy regarding updating online resources?
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2014-11-03T11:55:26.427
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# Question
Title: Should departments have a policy regarding updating online resources?
My department has gone paperless and uses Moodle to provide all information to students in an electronic format. With a paper based syllabus the expectations were cast in stone (okay ink on paper). Now that we are on Moodle, we can change the syllabus whenever we want. Today, we had a staff member change the word count on an essay, that is due in two days, from a 1500 word maximum with a 10% allowance, whatever that means, to a strict 1500 word maximum. The students are confused and screaming about it. What type of departmental policy should be in place to prevent changes.
# Answer
> 11 votes
Fundamentally, I don't think this problem has to do with the shift to a paperless format. Even with a syllabus on paper, my experience has been that a professor may well change it, often for good reason (e.g., shifting to make room for an excellent guest speaker, extending a deadline on a lab that many people are having problems with).
I think that the real problem here is that the faculty member has made a last-minute change that makes life harder for the students. Student who thought they were done with the assignment have just discovered that they have more work to do, it may be interfering with their other plans, class or non-class, and it just plain doesn't feel fair. Perhaps a good policy for that would be that no assignment can be made more restrictive once it has "started"?
There is also a place where the electronic aspect can enflame or mitigate the issue, and that may also address your original question. Online documents offer the potential for making a "sneaky" change that is not announced directly to the students. That seems to me to be something that should definitely be prohibited, and might be handled automatically by having the system send an announcement to all of the students whenever a course document changes. I don't know Moodle, so I don't know how hard or easy it would be to set up automatic notification; even without automation, however, you could certainly regulate that all non-trivial changes must have a notification sent to students.
# Answer
> 5 votes
I agree with jakebeal that "online resources" is a red herring. The issue is simply that the instructor has made a last-minute change to the expectations for an assignment.
I think it's a pretty basic principle of teaching that expectations for assignments need to be provided to students in plenty of time for them to create the assignment. If expectations are to be changed after they are communicated to students:
* There should be a compelling reason for the change. (I can't imagine a compelling reason for 1650 words to suddenly be unacceptable.)
* Students should have a reasonable amount of time to take the changes into account.
* Changes that may invalidate work that students are likely to have already done should be avoided if at all possible.
* Students should be notified by some "push" method (email, announcement in class, etc).
However, I *don't* think that you need to turn this into a departmental policy. It sounds to me like you have one person who needs to be counseled about their teaching practices - take the matter up with that person. Imposing a department-wide policy for something that should be common sense is passive-agressive, wastes the time of those developing the policy, and places an unnecessary burden on everyone else who now has to check whether they are complying.
(I made the same point here.)
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Tags: online-learning
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thread-30774
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30774
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How likely is it that PhD application is not reviewed by professors if TOEFL minimum isn't met?
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2014-10-29T05:17:50.460
|
# Question
Title: How likely is it that PhD application is not reviewed by professors if TOEFL minimum isn't met?
I am applying to doctoral programs and I have a worry about the application.
Since I found that my TOEFL score does not meet the minimal requirement set by a school that I am applying to, I am wondering if it is likely for me to be screened out before my whole application is reviewed by the professors?
# Answer
I do not know about US schools, but for my UK university the IELTS requirements are non-negotiable. Most of the time we see this right away. Sometimes we screw up and read and evaluate the entire application before noticing. In all cases the student is not offered a place. Other UK universities, especially ones that struggle to fill their spots, sometimes will argue with the administration that an exception should be made. From my understanding, they almost always lose.
> 3 votes
# Answer
I think it is depends on the program. For instance I have applied to the program where my TOEFL score was below the required minimum, but I still got a interview with this university and I had a feeling that I probably would get in. I did not wait for an offer because a better graduate school admitted me the next day.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Depends on many factors.
**Who is the decision Maker?**
If the decision-maker is a Professor who at the same time is the head of the research group where you ought to work, then its up to him. And I see some space for tolerance there, given that all the other parameters are OK.
**You fitting exactly to the needs**
On top of that, if all the other parameters (minimal admission requirements) are already met, and you have even more than the Head of the Research Group expects, then he/she might be willing to take a risk and make a trade-off, especially if you fill completely to what he needs in the group.
**University Administration :(**
On the other hand if the admission is handled by an administrative office of the University, then they will not care much about your scientific background, and will most probably dismiss the application.
> 3 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, toefl, language-exams
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thread-31098
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31098
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Is it possible to be admitted to an astrophysics graduate program with a finance background?
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2014-11-03T17:21:41.323
|
# Question
Title: Is it possible to be admitted to an astrophysics graduate program with a finance background?
Does anyone know if any of the US universities (or European universities that teach classes in english) enrol students into their Masters program for Astronomy/Astrophysics without having a science background? I am a 2nd yr graduate student about to finish my MBA in finance and info sys mngt. I work as a Business Analyst. However my dream has always been to pursue Astrophysics but was never able to, due to various circumstances. I am however at a point in my life that I feel burnt out being on this auto-pilot mode (mindlessly working a stable job to pay my bills) and wish to go back to school to study Astrophysics. Do I have to thus start back from a Bachelors level and major in Physics in order to apply at a Masters program or are there universities that enroll candidates like me? Any advice will be helpful - thanks in advance!
# Answer
> 1 votes
*I have no direct experience with Europe, so this will be US-based.*
A graduate program in astrophysics will definitely assume a lot of background in undergraduate physics (classical mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, relativity) not to mention all the math (calculus, linear algebra, differential equations). It simply takes too many years to teach everything up to the masters level from scratch. Note that unlike some professional schools, grad schools in the natural sciences generally assume you spent a good deal of your undergrad studying the subject in question (or something close to it).
Also one thing to keep in mind is that in the US (unlike much of Europe) astrophysics graduate programs are mostly PhD programs: the first couple years focus more on coursework and give you a masters at the end, and the remaining 3-4 years focus mostly on research and conclude with your thesis defense. One generally has to apply to the full PhD program -- very few programs admit students just for the masters. Thus in most cases you have to be judged ready/willing/able to do a PhD to be admitted. And since natural science PhD's pay you money to be a student, they do really want to make sure they're getting committed people.
All this said, the thing to do is look up schools that have astro programs -- there are actually fewer of them than you might think -- and see what they say. Some might have more flexibility for students getting a late start in the field, and some might have alternate compromises available, especially for people who have a good deal of education already.<sup>1</sup>
In any event I would recommend dabbling a bit in astrophysics before taking the plunge into doing it full time, based on how little experience you say you have with it. Skim some undergrad level textbooks, or take a free online course. It may be just like you imagined, but it may very well be different from your expectations. Or you may find your interest in the subject is satisfied by such self-learning without dealing with making a living from it.
Finally, I'll leave you with an example of an alternate career choice to mull over, just to show that the broad field of astrophysics takes a broad range of talent and backgrounds. Bill Paxton, after doing quite well at Adobe, retired and went into computational astrophysics, using his CS knowledge to help write one of the most widely used stellar evolution codes, among other things. The lesson is that astrophysics isn't intentionally exclusive, but you may have to work hard to get into it.
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<sup>1</sup> My department, for example, is experimenting with a post-baccalaureate program that runs separately from its main PhD program.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, physics, changing-fields
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thread-31096
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31096
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Financial aid sources for dependent, disabled student?
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2014-11-03T16:48:55.170
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# Question
Title: Financial aid sources for dependent, disabled student?
I am disabled and have to live with my family. I don't want to go into detail about my condition.My experience in the public education system here was less than happy, including being used as a pawn to fill roles in programs that needed funding. My education history is confusing, but essentially has left me with no chance to qualify for scholarships.
I've applied for financial aid at a local university. In response, they offer only loans, telling me that I do not qualify for anything else due to being claimed as a dependent. However, a loan would be financial suicide for me. Their disability counselors just shrug their shoulders or basically tell me to go die somewhere.
I've been finishing prerequisites here and there, though most of my learning has been done independently. I can easily test out of these classes (and most of their "graduate" curriculum as well, in fact), but they don't offer credit for doing this.
My parents make a comfortable income, but are not very intelligent with money and getting on in age. They will not be able to support me when they retire. They have to keep claiming me, otherwise I would no longer be classified as disabled and would lose my only pathetic source of income (disability pay requires that I am dependent, or so the SSA tells me).
**I want to transfer my credits *somewhere* and get the hell out, but I'll basically need to be funded entirely by financial aid. What can I do?**
# Answer
*This response is US-centric*.
It is most unfortunate that the local university was unwilling to provide any kind of financial aid except for loans. However, this need not spell the end of your academic journey. Here are several avenues you should explore before giving up.
* Begin your higher education journey at a community college. They offer lower tuition rates than almost any other institution is able to do.
* Apply for federal financial aid using the free FAFSA application.
* Investigate other financial assistance and scholarship opportunities. As a disabled person, you should be eligible for various scholarships. There are various free scholarship websites which will permit you to find scholarships suited to your specific situation and interests. Scholarships.com and Scholarship Experts are among my favorites, but there are many other free services available, including this comprehensive list of external scholarships provided gratis by the University of Phoenix.
* Make friends of the folks in the financial aid office. They are usually more than happy to walk you through the process of applying for federal, state, and local financial aid and may help you find other sources you hadn't considered or were unaware of.
* Find out where the community college Foundation Office (or similar office) is located and make a special effort to meet these people. Their job is to match students with sponsors and the rewards for your efforts can be substantial. (For example, they once put in my application for a scholarship I didn't know existed, and gave me half-a-semester's worth of tuition without any effort on my part!)
* Finally, contact a counsellor or other mental health professional. Depression is a serious illness. Get help!
> 4 votes
# Answer
Your problem is that you did not get enough financial aid from your local university. I think the solution is to apply to some other institutions. Many institutions think it is important to help students with disabilities. If you look around, you can find one that 1. Cares. 2. Has money to do something. 3. Has time to consider special cases. I suggest applying to smaller higher educational institutions because they are better able to adjust to special cases.
> 1 votes
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Tags: funding, rejection
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thread-31118
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31118
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How will an application for graduate admissions be affected if psychological issues prevent student from getting strong recommendations?
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2014-11-04T01:34:08.330
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# Question
Title: How will an application for graduate admissions be affected if psychological issues prevent student from getting strong recommendations?
What if a student is unable to or has difficulty getting strong recommendation letters (for graduate admissions in mathematics) due to psychological factors, such as autism?
Will graduate schools even consider these problems?
# Answer
A graduate school probably will not make any exceptions for psychological issues: by the time that you are at the level of graduate school, people are generally evaluating you as a "whole package." If a person has cognitive or psychological issues (and many successful people do), what will likely matter is whether those impair them to the degree that they will have trouble succeeding.
For example, consider a person on the autism spectrum: this covers a huge range of different issues and many different levels of functionality and types of coping strategy. One person might have a strong focus and coping strategies that cause others to feel just that they are "socially awkward" and get strong recommendations regardless. Another with less adaptive coping strategies might instead find themselves perceived as argumentative and hard to work with and have a hard time getting good recommendations.
In the end it boils down to this: a person has to have people willing to advocate for them. If they can't get advocates, then it doesn't matter whether it's because of bad grades, bad attitude, mental illness, or anything else (unless you are dealing with a clear case of discrimination against a specially protected category, e.g., in the U.S., religion, race, or gender).
> 11 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, mathematics, recommendation-letter, health
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thread-31117
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31117
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Is that a good idea to send an errata list to a professor whose class I'm currently enrolled in?
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2014-11-04T01:02:28.403
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# Question
Title: Is that a good idea to send an errata list to a professor whose class I'm currently enrolled in?
There is a professor at our school whose textbook I was using in class A (not taught by the professor). I've studied the textbook from cover to cover and have spotted about twenty typos (many of which are quite serious, e.g. make an exercise unsolvable). I wanted to TeX them into a list and send it to the professor yet the following two aspects concern me:
* I'm currently enrolled in his class B (not the book's subject). It's a rather small class and he knows me by name. Wouldn't it look as if I'm trying to improve my standing in his class by submitting the list?
* It's known to me that the professor is aware about some typos (since he commented on a couple of them while teaching from the book two years ago). Yet for some puzzling reason there is no errata list on his website. It gives me an impression that he might be somewhat unhappy to see the extended list of typos.
The professor is working in the field I'm interested in, so I'd definitely like to make a good impression (and more importantly not to make a bad one). So is there a way that sending the list could harm me?
# Answer
Unless the professor is a total jerk, I don't see any way this could hurt. My experience has been that academics in general are quite happy to hear from people who are interested enough in their work to offer corrections. (This has been the case even with authors who, for whatever reason, don't post errata.)
I wouldn't worry about being seen as kissing up. But if you are concerned you could always wait to send it until after the end of the term.
Before sending it, you may want to casually mention: "I've been reading your book which I really like. I did notice a few typos though. Is there an errata list posted somewhere? If not, I could make a list of the ones I found and send them to you."
If there is any chance that a given typo is not really an error, but something you have misunderstood, you can be more delicate by phrasing it as a question. Instead of "On page 34 you forgot to require that X is compact" you could say "Are you sure the argument on page 34 works without assuming that X is compact? Isn't the punctured plane a counterexample?"
> 36 votes
# Answer
Yes, if your professor is a decent human being and good at his/her job, you should definitely do so – though it's nicest to ask “Would you like me to send you any corrections I find?” first, rather than baldly pointing out the mistake. It's also much easier for the professor if you accumulate them yourself and give a **detailed, consolidated list** rather than mention them at random times during the class. Unless the typo might hinder the class's understanding at a particular point in the class, it's also probably best to mention it **privately** (and let the teacher mention it as he/she feels appropriate).
I had one professor in particular who would give a tiny amount of extra credit to those who spotted typos – enough to add up if one was quite helpful! Another professor gave me a printed copy of the new edition of lecture notes after I had gone through it and pointed out a substantial number of potential improvements.
Academicians, perhaps more so than others, have an interest in making sure that their printed materials are as good as they can be. As long as you are friendly and non-confrontational in pointing out typos, they should appreciate the opportunity of making these materials better while saving time.
> 15 votes
# Answer
In my experience, most textbook authors are happy to receive errata reports. I've sent many off over the years, and as a textbook author I'm happy to receive them. However, many of the reports of errata that I receive as an author are actually cases where the reader has a fundamental misunderstanding of the material.
So, when you submit your corrections to the author, please be polite and friendly about it, and be prepared to find out in some cases that the book is right and that you've misunderstood something.
> 11 votes
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Tags: teaching, books, errors-erratum
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thread-31131
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31131
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Can the tutor test for plagiarism under these circumstances?
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2014-11-04T10:52:17.080
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# Question
Title: Can the tutor test for plagiarism under these circumstances?
I have been trying to get into college, but there has been a lot to catch up on. I told the tutor that my friend, who is already doing the course, would be able to help me with my work if I was stuck.
> I am often at Anon's house or he is at mine, so we could always work together and I could catch up at home.
However, he replied with this:
> I also have grave concerns that you believe you could get information from another current student, this is clearly an issue of plagiarism. Anon's work will now be fully scrutinised due to your noted comments
I have trust in my friend and know he will not ever plagiarise.
I am in the UK, and I am not in the college (I am in a Level 3 apprenticeship for Software Development, he is doing Engineering). Is the tutor still allowed to scrutinise my friends work under these circumstances? And what is there I could do to prevent this?
I accept full responsibility for my actions, but I want to set things right and I just don't know if I can.
**Update:** This has now been solved with thanks to Maarten Buis.
# Answer
If a tutor decides that (s)he will look extra carefully at the work of a specific student because (s)he believes that that student might plagiarise, then there is nothing you can do to prevent it. However, as long as your friend does not plagiarise, there is no problem (other than the time wasted by the tutor).
> 12 votes
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Tags: plagiarism, coursework, engineering
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thread-31133
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31133
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Behavioral finance PhD multi-departmental, which field to apply to?
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2014-11-04T11:13:23.090
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# Question
Title: Behavioral finance PhD multi-departmental, which field to apply to?
I am interested in behavioral finance, but could tackle it from various perspectives. I assume that it would be easier to enter through some departments than others, and shouldn’t matter much in the end.
Specifically I am interested in better understanding traders and their strategies. My background is a finance BBA and MBA, but I could research this area from various povs. The obvious path is to do a financial or management track at a business school; however I could approach it from other fields:
* Finance: behavioral finance obvious, (but most finance programs want a very quantitative approach)
* Management: usually less quant, the obvious choice for business school grads but i am not convinced it is the best field
* Psychology: or a sub-field like behavioral or cognitive psychology
* Sociology: mass-phenomena and herd behavior
* Ethnology: cultural differences in trade decisions, belief systems
* Economy: or behavioral economics but econometrics based, and most do not accept non-quant backgrounds and dislike challenges to the efficient market spurious supposition.
* Operation research or computer science, like developing non-linear algorithms, neural networks, or a computer “game theory” agent-based model to forecast investor decisions.
Those are just a few of the possible approaches. I can think of a lot others if I twist the subject a little. Furtherelore in behavioral finance i need a working knowlege of most of the surmentioned subjects anyways, whatever my department is.
My question is if it can be worth it to apply to different departments to maximize chances to get accepted? For instance, assuming that the ethnology department is less impacted at a top university than the business school; do you think it would be better to attend there rather than at a less prestigious school?
Is there a way to find which departmental programs are easier to get to?
Am I wrong in assuming that I may learn more, and generate more original papers, by applying research methods from an adjacent fields rather than stick to the behavioral finance field. Finally, am I correct to assume that the department of the PhD doesn’t mater and that as long as I publish and specialize in behavioral finance whether I hold a Statistics, Philosophy or Biology PhD doesn’t matter?
# Answer
> 1 votes
I am writing this answer under the assumption that your intention is to use your PhD to launch an academic career (if not, I think this decision will matter a lot less). In that case, my advice would be not to underestimate the extent to which academia is divides along disciplinary boundaries. As a new grad student, this will affect you in a number of ways:
* The faculty on your program will have strong links with others from the same discipline. You will have a hard time finding, for example, an economist who has good contacts in sociology departments. In contrast, most established economists will have good contacts throughout the economics profession. This matters because the faculty will be writing recommendation letters and making informal phone calls that will help you to get a job, and may also be able to introduce you to potential collaborators in the field.
* Teaching and research seminars in a department will typically have a fairly strong disciplinary bias. You may be able to access resources from other departments, but you will have to work hard to be regarded as anything other than an outsider there.
* When applying for an academic job, your employer is likely to be an academic department with a particular identity. You will need to convince them that you are a good fit in terms of being able to teach the right kinds of courses, being a potential collaborator for the faculty already in place, etc. This is easier if your degree title matches the name of the department you are applying to.
* In some disciplines (e.g. economics) the publication process is slow and torturous. The majority of new econ PhDs enter the job market with no publications (but a few working papers). This means that, depending on the field you want to target, you might not be able to rely on journal publications as a signal of your area of interest.
* Not all academic disciplines compensate their faculty equally. In the US, many states make the salaries of their public employees public. Compare how much professors in business schools are paid to those in, for example, sociology, and you will see that the disipline you end up in can have a significant effect on your lifetime income.
* Departments will specialize in different kinds of methods. Econ/CS will be far more quantitative than sociology or ethnology. If you think that learning these quantitative skills will be important, now is the time to do it because it will become exponentially harder post PhD.
With these points in mind, I would advise you to think about where you want to end up after the PhD and what the most important focus of your doctoral project will be and target departments accordingly.
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, business-school, multidisciplinary, finance
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thread-31137
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31137
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What is the difference between a concentration and a track within the major?
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2014-11-04T14:11:57.170
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# Question
Title: What is the difference between a concentration and a track within the major?
We want to improve our undergraduate curriculum in my department by offering new concentration. Looking at many different programs in the US, the following questions came to mind:
1. If there is a difference between a concentration and a track within a certain major (I am talking about science major such as major in physics or maths or chemistry or computer science)? Or is there no difference?
2. If there is a difference between the word track and concentration, then is it possible to have both track and concentration offered within a certain major or it is uncommon?
3. If a department offers tracks/and or concentrations, is it possible for a student to graduate just with the major without any tracks or concentration?
# Answer
> 3 votes
> 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'
>
> 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
>
> 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'
>
> -*Through the Looking Glass*
## "We don't have majors, you see..."
First, some institutions don't have "majors", they have "concentrations". This doesn't seem to be what you are interested in specifically, but I include it to avoid confusion. And it's also a good example of just how much definitions of these terms can vary between places.
## Track
A "track" usually means there are two (or more) relatively independent paths of study within a single program (major), especially when the goal is to be ready for a certain end-goal (such as for a certain profession or field of research). These usually have suggested courses to take in a certain order, and while they may have a common core at the beginning, by later years people on different tracks will likely have completely different courses to satisfy their graduation requirements.
A very common use of track is to cater to those who are planning to go on to graduate school vs those who want to go directly into industry, or even to cater to different professional requirements. This is perhaps heavily influenced by many high schools in the US having "college track" and "job track" offerings/programs.
## Focus
Similar to a track but with less differentiation between tracks, many institutions will offer a "focus". This usually means that all focus areas have most of the same basic courses and electives, but that just a few select higher-level courses and electives are in a certain direction and have maybe additional lower-level requirements. A Computer Information Systems program might offer a focus for software development vs networking/infrastructure, for instance. Focus options might only differ by 3-4 classes, and often have all other classes in common.
## Concentration
A concentration (when it isn't a synonym for a major) is often just a more extensive and directed version of a focus. A concentration at an undergraduate level will usually have 4+ courses to satisfy a specific concentration, and often have additional special requirements. A psychology program might offer a general psychology major and a human services concentration for those who have a particular interest in being a clinician, for instance. Using my example programs, a concentration might have preset options for core classes (a choice to take a class in personality vs abnormal psychology is made for you if you want to concentrate in human services), electives are replaced with required classes or must be chosen from a restricted list, and some have special requirements for a final course or internship/residence experience.
So just at my one present institution the words concentration, track, and focus are all used and they all mean different (yet relatively consistent) things. Other colleges in the US often use similar definitions, but the range on this is pretty wide; as I pointed out above, some colleges use completely different meanings for these terms.
## Minor Details
I've heard some programs even replace the idea of a "focus" or "concentration" with having a minor program to be chosen, for instance. As a small taste of diversity even within a mid-size institution, over in our History department they offer a minor in Peace Studies, yet its requirements are not very different than a "concentration" offered in our Psychology department.
## Typical Physicists
This is to say nothing of our Physics department, which offers no less than five versions of a bachelor's degree - plus a pre-engineering two-year option and a tight relationship to Astronomy - and they don't call them a track, concentration, focus, or minor: it's an "emphasis"!
## YMMV
My list here highlights meanings and differences within just a single mid-sized institution, and I've pointed out at least one place where the words mean something completely different, and shown a small taste of variation between programs.
For any specific case of actually deciding what your department would offer, I'd suggest looking up a few hand-fulls of 'competing' departments from a variety of US institutions and comparing how they handle the officially listed tracks and meanings - I suspect they will be all over the place, but I think this general idea will be a common theme. It might also be wise to compare your department to others within your specific institution, under the assumption that there will be more interaction within campus than between far-flung US campuses (though your recruitment/admissions office might not agree with that).
If nothing else it will 'feel' more scientific and professional than handing out darts at a faculty meeting (and perhaps less dangerous).
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Tags: university, undergraduate, degree
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thread-30588
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30588
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What to do if most of the students did badly in the 1st midterm?
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2014-10-26T07:22:39.737
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# Question
Title: What to do if most of the students did badly in the 1st midterm?
What to do if the average of the 1st midterm is like 35%? Should I repeat the exam? should I ask them to redo the problems in which most of them did poorly in the exam and average the old score and the new score? Other suggestions?
(The level of the exam is not different from past exams, where the average was around 60%. Same learning outcomes, same everything as past semesters. The only difference I made this semester was to break each question into sub questions, each of which will target certain concept in the main question. Students usually have the habit of asking for partial credits for writing relevant equations without knowing how to use them properly. I made that change to see how clear they understand things and to make grading scheme less ambiguous. I have already trained them on similar problems and concept questions in class, but it seems that they did not take it seriously or they are not used to that, I am not sure)
An Update: I regraded some papers using the same way I graded papers in past semesters (just by looking at the overall solution of each question) and the average became slightly higher (~40)
# Answer
> 13 votes
What I usually do, and this would also apply in this situation: I tell the students that if their performance improves **significantly** in the final exam, and if any of the remaining exams/quizes, I am willing to ignore the grade for the first midterm when I calculate their grades.
But they have to prove that the first midterm was an accident.
This usually motivates them to work harder for the remaining of the class, and for some students a poor first midterm is a good wake up call.
# Answer
> 11 votes
Just play a bit of devil's advocate here (actually, students' advocate.)
I feel it's unfair to say if a student just put down some relevant answers, then he/she is just trying to slide by. To lecturers all these appropriate answers are like a well organized wardrobe. We can immediately tell if the answer is spot on or is beating the surrounding bush. However, for students, their wardrobe is their whole dorm room. New information is being incorporated on a daily basis and students may not have enough time and experience in applying the information to make the organization happen before the exam date.
Just because the concept of "you should meticulously answer the questions" was demonstrated and stressed in class does not mean it can be successfully applied in exam because there are a lot more stress and a lot less sleep the night before in an exam condition.
Because the expectations are different in both entities, once you have delivered the exam back, I believe the immediate reaction from them will not be "I should pay more attention in class," but more like "this lecturer is a very unreasonable grader (or anything more profane/derogatory.)" A 35% average is not unheard of; a 35% average plus a group of eager students who want to make their final exam right is something I've definitely never heard of. They will hate you and the atmosphere in class will deteriorate.
All these are to say, if you're going to unleash this chaos, you must be 100% sure you don't bear any problem or fault. From all the related posts of yours, I couldn't help but wonder why this change (from granting partial credit to everything has to be right on or you'll get a zero?) To make sure there is at least some reliability, I'd suggest picking a few papers from the low, medium, and high tiers and give them to a couple colleagues with your new grading scheme and ask them to grade in their own privacy. Check with them and see if their scores are different and discuss why.
I also love the idea of @earthling about interviewing with some students or class representatives.
In future tests, I'd suggest instead of using the new strict marking scheme all across, use a separate system to denote questions that will be marked strictly (for instance, with a \*** in front of the question or dedicate a subsection for them.) This is to allow you to phase into this new scheme slowly. The information you gain in the process will also help you refine your questions. Students will not take such a big blunt, and they will have a chance to see these questions as a challenge rather than a threat.
To conclude, I'd like to share this inspiring quote (which I unfortunately don't know to whom I should attribute):
> Teach the students that you have, not the students that you want to have.
While I fully embrace the idea of teaching the students to be serious and meticulous, I'd still consider an overall positive learning environment takes priority. And if I have to relax my criteria somewhat, I will do that within reason. This 35% ordeal is an unfortunate event; I am really sorry that happens but can't help to also think that this is tainted with some overly zealous expectations, and I do hope you'll fine an optimal decision soon.
# Answer
> 6 votes
**If you are confident that the students did not take things seriously, then I believe you only have one option: Fail them and leave it at that.** If you allow the students to "slide by" without putting in even the minimum effort then you will see even more of that in the future (and so will other teachers, until someone allows the students to fail).
**Of course, you need to be sure of this. I would interview some of the stronger students and see what they thought the problem was.**
As a point of personal experience, I had one student who failed a subject I teach (he took it from another teacher whom I replaced). When he retook the class, he got me. I failed him because he put in no work. He took the class a third time (second time from me) and I failed him again because, again, he put in no work. Then he took the class a third time and I failed him again. Finally, he did put in the work. What he produced was still quite weak but it was enough to justify a minimum passing grade. I am confident that he would have never learned the need to actually put in effort if I did not take a hard stand like this.
Now, your case is a bit different because you are talking about a whole class and not a single student. I also had a case like this where the students thought they could "outsmart" their teachers. I failed 50% of the class that semester. Some of those dropped out of school (not only because of their performance in my subject) and others re-took the subject. I actually thought the school would complain about me failing so many students but there was not one word (and years have passed since then).
**Don't let them slack off but do make sure it is really them slacking and that the problem does not lie elsewhere. If they deserve a 35%, then give them a 35%.**
# Answer
> 6 votes
You have two issues:
1. how to make sure that student's final marks in this course represent their true understanding of the material
2. how to fix whatever has caused a generally low level of understanding so far in this course.
For the first one, I have once or twice given this speech:
> Some of you feel that this year's midterm was \[too hard, not enough time provided, unfairly weighted to one set of topics, held on a day you couldn't think properly\] and does not represent your true knowledge in this course. If you think so too, then send me an email **within the next week** and I will replace your midterm mark with \[your mark on the next midterm, your mark on the final exam\] when calculating your overall mark in this course. You **may not wait** to make this decision until after you have written another test or seen your mark on another test. Tell me right now **that's not me** and the mark won't count.
Surprisingly, some people who failed the midterm do not take this offer. "What if I do even worse on the final?" they ask me. I tell them, "then you'll fail the course no matter how I calculate your mark," but they hold back anyway. People who take the offer usually do extraordinarily well on the final. I think they crank their studying up dramatically.
That stops all the "but I am going to lose my scholarship!" "My parents will disown me!" responses. They can set this mark aside if they need to. But you need to address the fact they haven't really learned the material, they are just scribbling down some equations they hope are related. This may mean extra tutorial hours, taking two or three times the length of the midterm to walk through solutions slowly and carefully, taking questions. It may mean offering practice questions so that they can see if they get it now. (Have them mark their own work with the textbook as a guide, to keep your workload manageable.)
Once they are actually learning the material, you won't feel bad about giving them a final mark that is not pulled down by their initial difficulties. And you'll have solved the underlying problem for both yourself and for them.
# Answer
> 1 votes
In my experience, when an entire class does that badly, it's almost always the professor's fault, although they will usually never admit it, not even when the faculty commission just gave them a rap on the knuckles for it.
In all my years as a student I came across only one such situation where it wasn't the professor's fault: the courses were planned unreasonably close together and the contact time (lectures, lab work, and so on) was greatly reduced compared to the previous year. One day the class realised that considering we would all fail some course anyway, we would be able to help out each other a lot better if we all failed the same course.
But most of the time an entire class does bad, the professor simply was an inept teacher. Other causes of situations like this have included: exam drawn up by a different professor than the one who taught the class, exam unreasonably hard compared to exercises, exam covered different subject matter than the lectures, lecturer tried to cram too much material in a short course, and bad comprehension due to bad study materials.
It is possible for a student to overcome these problems by self-study (I got through some of those massive failures unscathed myself) but only to some extent and not consistently so.
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Tags: teaching, exams, assessment
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thread-31086
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31086
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Is it a good idea for a nonnative English speaker to have native speakers help make the English in statement of purpose perfect?
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2014-11-03T14:36:16.933
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# Question
Title: Is it a good idea for a nonnative English speaker to have native speakers help make the English in statement of purpose perfect?
I am applying to doctoral programs in the US.
Since I am not an English native speaker, I am wondering if it is okay to have native speakers help make my English perfect in my statement of purpose?
I ask so because I am concerned with that, since the committee definitely knows that I am not a native speaker in English, my perfect English in statement of purpose could lead them to suspect. By "suspect" I mean the argument: If this person's writing is this good, then this person's TOEFL scores must be almost perfect.
# Answer
It's definitely a good idea (in fact anyone in your situation should do so), I have seen plenty of people around me in my graduate school who had done so. There even exist professional services specialized for this task (it's a pretty big business in some countries).
Regarding your concern that the jury might think that you have been "cheating", forget about it:
* by providing a flawless statement of purpose despite being non-native, you are showing the jury a lot of motivation;
* if the statement of purpose was used to assess your true level of English, they wouldn't ask for TOEFL/IELTS;
* when writing research articles later on, you will still often have a native speaker around to answer questions.
> 31 votes
# Answer
I think about English grammar and prose like personal grooming. If you are going to a big event where you need to make a good impression, it's fine to ask people to help make sure your clothing is well-chosen and being worn perfectly. Likewise, it's fine to ask people to help make sure your words are well chosen and don't have any distracting errors. A committee should not think any worse of you for asking for help making sure that your words are clean and clear. Rather, they should think better of you for caring enough to make sure you are presenting yourself well.
> 26 votes
# Answer
Of course this is a good idea. Plenty of non-natives write excellent English, and getting your work proofread by a native English speaker is always a good idea, if possible.
It's not as if you are asking the native English speaker to write the text for you?
> 18 votes
# Answer
Whether you're writing a statement of purpose, an application essay, a novel, a grant application, or even a research paper for publication, I think it's a pretty widely accepted "rule" that the *ideas* involved should be yours, but the exact way in which they are expressed does not have to be. After all, the goal of all these forms of communication is to convey your ideas to the reader. So it makes sense to take your ideas and express them in the best way possible. If you are not particularly good at expressing ideas (in a manner suitable for the readers) yourself, that means getting someone else to help you out.
People will not assume the writing style in a statement of purpose is necessarily representative of how you would write. If they want to know about your own writing abilities, they will ask about that specifically, for example by asking for a writing sample or by using something like the TOEFL. Now, there is some limit to this; for example, if you could not write or understand English at all, I think it would be misleading to have a friend completely *translate* your statement into English. But just having someone proofread your writing to improve the quality of the English is fine, and in fact is something even native speakers do all the time.
I would also note that the English doesn't have to be literally *perfect*. There are many small errors in English that very few native speakers can identify, and even fewer actually care about.
> 4 votes
# Answer
Do have somebody to look at the language/grammar you are using. But be aware of letting them write too much.
I have seen applications (for academic programs, but also for jobs) being tossed because of looking "too perfect", especially for non-native speakers. It is not a matter of the grammar being very good, it was a matter of the content "fitting too well", using all the expected buzzwords, and displaying a cultural sensitivity for the German job market/academic milieu a person with this biography could not have. This looks like it has been written by a ghostwriter, or copied from a "how to submit applications" book.
I guess that a person sending such an application still has the chance to get invited for an interview, if the running is not close. But when a prof is paring down a list, a person with this kind of application can get thrown out early, because the information he provides is disregarded as "he is telling me what he thinks I want to hear, and it might or might not be really true".
So, there is indeed a case of an application being too perfect to be regarded as real. And if you are a non native speaker, you are more likely to hit such a barrier than a native speaker, because the professor expects a bit less proficiency from you.
But this barrier comes long after the case which you are describing here. We are talking about the kind of application that can be written by somebody with knowledge not only of the language, but with the whole selection process and the country's and organisation type culture. If you express what you want to say in your best English, and somebody corrects your grammar and a few word choices, the chances that you come close to being regarded as "so perfect he must be fake" are astronomically small. So do let somebody edit your writing, it has advantages (described in the other answers) and it won't become good enough to disqualify you.
> 3 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, writing, statement-of-purpose, language
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thread-31065
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31065
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What should I let students do when they finish exams early?
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2014-11-03T10:50:50.850
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# Question
Title: What should I let students do when they finish exams early?
I organized my students to take their exams in the school’s computer labs. Some students finished well before others. In each section, I tried different policies for what students should do in this situation, but none worked very well.
1. I let one section of students leave when they finished, but make much noise while moving their chairs and gathering their things. Furthermore, I am concerned that students will find ways to cheat, e.g. leave and access the Web-based testing system from their iPod.
2. I let one section do as they like on the computers when they finished, but this made it difficult to determine who was finished and who was using resources to cheat on the exams.
3. I gave one section some extra credit work to do if they finished early, but many students did other homework instead, which led to similar difficulty in determining who was finished or cheating.
What is a good policy that does not cause interruption to other students but also does not hinder proctoring efforts?
# Answer
> 50 votes
Why were the students leaving early disruptive? Under the rules of every institution that I've been at you are under exam conditions until you leave the room. They should be utterly silent and respectful to other students or face the usual penalties for breaking the rules of exam conditions.
If you're not happy with them leaving early I'm not sure why you would do anything to occupy them. Make them sit in silence and wait for the the exam to finish. Boredom never killed anyone.
# Answer
> 21 votes
I would suggest perhaps letting them leave in a more constructive way - when finished, the student raises their hand and waits for a tutor to come to them. They state they've finished and are escorted, quietly, from the room. Add a minimum time at the start and end during which they can't leave, to avoid disruption at the important settling in and final rush times, but during the bulk of the exam, people will barely notice.
Alternately if they aren't allowed to leave by the faculty, I'd arrange something whereby the student has a marker (eg a red cone of paper) on their monitor during the exam. When they finish, they raise their hand again and you come to remove the cone, at which point they're allowed to browse and do homework etc. that way you can differentiate between those finished and those attempting to cheat.
# Answer
> 16 votes
I had one teacher, that put crossword or sudoku at the end of each test sheet. I think it is much better to give students something to do in the spare time. You should choose something that you can easily differentiate from cheating.
# Answer
> 5 votes
This is from personal experience as a student and proctor.
1. A student's "stuff" -- The best rule to have is that students are not permitted to bring anything to the testing site. If this is just not possible, you can ask students to put what they bring along a wall or up front, on the floor, near the teacher's desk. This rule alone can result in students bringing less stuff to the exam.
2. Phones and electronic devices -- Ask all students to pull their phones out before the exam starts and ask them to either put them on silent or simply turn them off. At this time, tell them to put them away and inform them that if a cell phone or other electronic device is seen in the open before the student leaves the exam room, they receive a zero on their exam. They can wait until they are in the hallway before looking at their missed calls/messages.
3. Computer monitor -- Tell students that after they have completed their computer-based exam to turn their monitor off. This can be optional based upon circumstances. You could also ask the students to close all open programs and return to the desktop.
4. Permit students to leave upon finishing their exam -- Tell students that they are in "exam mode" until they leave the room. Any spoken words that are not directed at a proctor or the instructor will result in a zero on their exam. They can retrieve their belongings from along the wall or from the area near the teacher's desk. You can even go so far as escorting students to the door and opening and closing it behind them.
5. DO NOT assume that students who finish last are weak students -- I am a graduate student and am usually one of the last to complete an exam. I am also one of the highest grades in the class. Some students have text anxiety or concentration problems that cause them to take longer on their exam. You can even offer to allow students who know that they take longer on an exam or have concentration issues to sit in desks that are furthest from the door or locations that are prone to disruption from students leaving.
I hope you find this useful.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I simply make an announcement with, say, 30 minutes to go requesting that, to respect the concentration of the students still working, students finishing early remain quietly seated until time is up.
This usually has the intended effect. The worst thing that's happened is that some students get up and try to leave immediately after that announcement. I meet them in the aisle and quietly repeat my request.
# Answer
> 3 votes
You did not specify what grade level these students are at. I tutor third-graders, and if they are let go early, they are definitely disruptive. But if this is college level, you are nominally dealing with legal adults. Forcing them to stay in the room until class is over sounds like unlawful restraint. I didn't even require that my students show up, except for the major exams. But they would lose all possible points for class participation, and hand-in assignments were always due. But, I explained, their chances of passing one of the exams were very close to zero unless they managed good study habits. A couple students tried this each term. Some got A+ and some got F. I finished one of my 3-hour PhD exams in 20 minutes, handed it in, and walked out of the room. It never occurred to me to ask permission, and if I had, the exam proctor would have thought it bizarre. (I passed with a perfect score).
If you have college students who are "disruptive" if they are not in class, your school has deeper problems than whether or not students can leave exams early, and they are not your problem. Even as an undergrad, we were treated as responsible adults, and such grade-school silliness as I've been reading here would never have happened.
I'm amazed that college-age students even tolerate such treatment. Or need it.
Note: if the students are disruptive, one way to control them is have them line up, buddy-to-buddy, and hold hands while walking in the halls. Like I did in pre-K.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I do see the general concerns of allowing students to leave early; after all, they might meet up with whoever leaves for the bathroom while still taking the exam and provide them with information specific to the exam.
Now, of course that could happen as long as no-one has left, too. Someone could hide information in the bathrooms, or someone could meet up with someone not taking part in the exam at all, or that latter person could hide some information in the bathrooms after the exam has started. These issues could be mitigated in the following cases:
* **Only students taking part in the exam can enter the bathrooms.** This depends a lot on the architecture; unless the lecture hall is extremely large (\> 500 seats maybe, from what I could observe so far in universities?), the average number of required toilets at any moment during lectures generally does not warrant an extra set of bathrooms reserved for a single lecture hall. And even then, those bathrooms seem to be more often than not accessible in a way that one does *not* have to cross the lecture hall (and thus can enter and leave the bathrooms without anyone in the lecture hall noticing), for the very purpose of allowing outside people to use the bathrooms without disturbing whatever is going on in the lecture hall.
* **Students need to be accompanied to the bathroom door.** Depending on how many proctors were assigned, and the size of the room/number of students, this may or may not be feasible. And even then, it would not totally prevent the exchange of information to take place *in* the bathrooms themselves.
* **The inside of the bathrooms needs to be checked whenever a student is brought there.** This would require to have at least one male and one female proctor around. Highly unlikely to happen in gender-unequal disciplines such as computer science.
Those cases of cheating would be somewhat undirected, anyway. It may depend on the exams, but we generally try to not ask for any knowledge that needs to be memorized (in some cases, notes are even allowed during the exam). Our exams are usually designed in a way to test whether some knowledge can be applied in scenarios that are described on the exam sheets. Hence, **the major concern is not cheating by accessing the course material or other references; the major concern is having someone else specifically solve one's particular tasks from the exam at hand**. Therefore, what needs to be prevented is the contact between someone who is still taking the exam with someone *who also knows the exam tasks*. The straightforward solution to this is asking students to wait until everyone has finished.
Another point is that no matter how quiet students *try* to be, when they get up, they will make at least some noise:
* Walking around creates some noises on non-carpeted floor, so that should generally be minimized. Leaving for the bathroom is allowed as there are medical reasons for that, but there are usually no such reasons that would warrant the impatience of having to leave right away.
* Students who leave need to pack their stuff (writing utensils, drinks/food, other objects they needed to have around such as watches and their student IDs), which again will create some (more than just from writing) sounds.
* In case of "lecture hall" type rooms, that do not have single chairs, but folding seats mounted to the next row of tables, students who do not sit right next to an aisle can only leave by making everyone else between themselves and the aisle get up. It is annoying when that happens in a cinema, and it is downright antisocial to disrupt someone's concentration like that who is taking an exam.
Some students may complain that they are wasting time, and - from an egoistical point of view - they may be right. However, unless we can provide a single room and a single proctor for every single student, that is not how exams realistically work:
* **They do not have to stay for an unexpected amount of time.** If the exam was scheduled to take place between 2 PM and 4:30 PM, they can expect to leave by 4:30 PM. The time was known beforehand, and they will have arranged their schedule accordingly.
* **They are not the only ones taking the exam.** Indeed, they (think they) have finished their own exam. But that doesn't mean they can stop caring about their environment at that moment, as the world still isn't centered around them; once they have stopped writing, it is their obligation to allow the other students to finish the exam without any further disruptions. I do not believe in punishing students who take longer by giving them an even harder time. Proctors need to guarantee avoidable disruptions are avoided, and giving in to someone's impatience is definitely avoidable.
* **The time is only wasted if they decide to waste it.** There are plenty of things to do while waiting in a silent environment; from thinking - to get one's thoughts away from the exam topic - to sleeping. All of those are much less counterproductive with respect to the other students than insisting on creating more noise by leaving immediately.
* **Some overhead is to be expected.** Reading out the exam rules and checking attendance in the beginning takes quite some time (in large exams, often more than 20 minutes). That is expected when taking an exam, and likewise, students should expect that there will be some time after they have finished writing that they still need to spend in the exam room.
Therefore, my general preference is to simply ask them to wait till the time is over. They can use some of that time to make sure they completed everything correctly (when do you ever get the chance/time to check what you wrote in an exam? You should use that opportunity!), and other than that, **they are adults**. They should be able to show a little patience on a few occasions.
*EDITED to further address some more specific points that were brought up in various of the comments in this thread.*
# Answer
> 1 votes
It depends a lot on the class and on the age of the students, which the original poster did not share. University students are expected to behave like adults, secondary school students may need a bit more supervision, especially if the school is not set up to accommodate students with no particular assigned place to be.
If a lot of students are going to be finishing early it may not be possible to give them a place where they can sit separately and use materials that contain possible exam help (even their class textbook may be inappropriate to read within view of students who are still working on the exam); in this case it may be best to provide reading material on the exam computer that will allow them to get an early start on future work, such as a reading assignment from a later chapter of the coursework.
Extra credit questions on the exam may also provide a way to keep all students occupied for the full exam time.
(As an illustrative example, I finished my final exam in a university economics class in 20 minutes, checked my work three times, and still walked out in less than a third of the allotted time. Telling students to spend the extra time to check their work may not be helpful.)
# Answer
> 0 votes
Based on your question, it sounds like several students may be asked to sit quietly for 30+ minutes. I don't know the specific policies of your university, but here are a few suggestions.
1. If you have an empty back row, allow any student who has turned in his exam to take a seat behind currently working students and use phone, laptop etc.
2. Have a TA offer student escorts outside the building every 10-15 minutes. This will be the way students can leave before the exam is up.
3. Double check policies. Universities in America (and likely Europe) generally count the exam done when the student gets up from the chair. The students are not generally disruptive as they leave the building, and the no in and out policy prevents students from colluding in the bathroom.
# Answer
> 0 votes
I'm going to agree with Jack on a couple points (why is students stepping out disruptive?) - with few exceptions and on major difference I think:
**Test is over, class is not over**
The main difference I'd like to point out is that in my limited experience (as a student) the test being over doesn't mean the class is over - normally that means you start lecture on the next chapter/section/subject... After a test students are free too:
* sit at their computer - visible to staff and clearly not involved in test taking activities
* run to the store (nearby, in building, snack shack)
* just meander outside in the hallways until everyone is done - being respectful of our class AND neighboring classes.
* etc
* be back in your seat at X-time for further lecture
Either at a predetermined time (Test is 45 minutes) or as soon as all students are done taking the test, a 15 minute break commences that is then followed by further class time.
`Test starts at 11 in the computer lab. You have until 12:15 to be finished (60 minutes for test, 15 minutes for break) and seated in the normal class room. Be respectful of those taking test, and those in nearby class rooms` is more than reasonable if you are doing it outside of the normal classroom (computer lab).
**What do you consider disruptive?**
I think all of these suggestions to "Raise your hand to get permission" reeks of grade school and isn't something you do with responsible adults. I would find THAT more disruptive than *Be quiet, respect others and wait or step outside until the test+break is over*
But I think a major unanswered part is what are YOU calling disruptive? Students weaving through packed seats? Students saying "I'm done"? Students simply moving? Doing cartwheels through the isles due to the joy of finishing a test?
If you need to put up a guide, and treat it like every other disclaimer -
* Don't eat the Chiclets included with your hard drive.
* don't use hair dryer while in the shower.
* Don't do cartwheels after the test.
... because SOME idiot had to eat the Chiclets or use a hair dryer in the shower, then do so. But I think those kinds of situations are probably covered in the generic "Don't do that" information you get when you start college.
# Answer
> -2 votes
Among the three policies you suggested, only **Policy 1 - Let them leave when they're done** is good - or rather, it's the only morally acceptable one.
The reason is that you have *no right* to keep people in their seats doing nothing when they're done with their exam. That would be treating them like *prisoners*. You can and should make an effort to arrange things so that their leaving will be less disruptive (e.g. chairs which don't make a scratching noise when pulled...) - but nothing beyond that.
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Tags: teaching, exams
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thread-31127
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31127
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Is it possible for a grad school applicant to cancel a letter of recommendation once it is submitted?
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2014-11-04T05:30:30.410
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# Question
Title: Is it possible for a grad school applicant to cancel a letter of recommendation once it is submitted?
I asked my professor to send a letter of recommendation for me because I worked for him and I did great in his course. He submitted his LOR and I receive the confirmation email from the graduate school.
However now I am afraid that he might not write a good letter or I could ask a more reliable person to do that.
Therefore, I am wondering is there any way to cancel your letter of recommendation once it is submitted?
# Answer
It probably is not possible. If it were possible, you should not do it because making such a request will imply the letter is negative.
> 8 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, recommendation-letter
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thread-31030
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31030
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How to comfortably interact with famous professors?
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2014-11-02T16:22:21.190
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# Question
Title: How to comfortably interact with famous professors?
I know that they are "just as human as we are", but I feel somewhat uncomfortable to talk nonchalantly with the top-notch math researchers and professors in my department because of their social position, their extremely superior knowledge and talent, and also because of their age.
Still, I feel that it is like a waste to have such interesting mind-expanding people around and not to interact properly and talk about maths when I meet them in the department (outside the lecture hall).
So my question is: according to your experience, what is the best (where best means: most polite, appropriate, acceptable, but also profitable) way to interact and make the most of the presence of such awesome professors? Can I discuss "lower" \[mathematical and non-mathematical\] subjects with them even though their actual (research) interests lie in much more abstruse topics?
Any suggestion (even in the form of a comment) is really appreciated.
# Answer
From a student's point of view, here is how I tackle the situation. You can break it down by the circumstances in which you meet, and thus guesstimate how much time the professor has for you.
Asking "may I talk to / email you later about...?" can be useful if it's not the right time and place for a useful discussion.
DTK's answer has good points about how you should approach a conversation.
Of course there will be some variations depending on the culture and environment of your department, and how well you know the prof you're talking to.
**Hallway / elevator encounters**
If they look busy or rushed, perhaps best save it till later. Otherwise, keep questions very brief, concisely answerable, and related to something you know they're interested in (i.e. their own research field).
**Discussions at semi-social occasions, such as at a gathering after a seminar, or breaks at a conference**
Here, the professor probably has no immediate obligations or things urgently pressing on his or her mind (or else they'd have disappeared by now). This is a better opportunity to ask broader or more complicated questions, or if they work in a related field you could ask for an opinion on a problem you've been thinking about.
**Social occasions such as at lunchtime, conference dinner, etc.**
As above, but they may even prefer to talk about something *other* than their own field of expertise -- sports, politics, an interesting paper from a completely unrelated discipline that you read whilst procrastinating, etc. If you don't know the professor very well, you might want to wait for him or her to initiate steering the conversation in that direction.
> 23 votes
# Answer
Find out their other interests (often on book-jackets they authored or on their profile page on the department webpage), engage them in those.
Be respectful of their time. Ask "I heard you are active in *topic*. Do you have a few minutes to discuss?". If they say no, drop it. If they offer another time, follow their lead.
Do not be obsequious or servile; speak respectfully, but as an adult to an adult. Do not act as a peer, until invited to do so.
Respect the individual and the rank. Keep the values and priorities of the professor in mind. If invited to address the professor by name, do so. If not, address the professor as "Doctor *such-and-so*" or "Professor *such-and-so*".
Lastly, always be polite, be kind and listen.
> 14 votes
# Answer
While I am not a "famous professor" I am famous in my field, enough that people routinely want their picture taken with me at conferences. At the same time I get a little starstruck by folks more famous than I am (for example having dinner with the single person who invented the language I'm now considered an expert in, or having him plop himself down next to me while I'm watching a session at a conference.) So I can see both sides of this particular dynamic.
My suggestion to you is this: you have an access to this person that outsiders do not. If you have a Nobel-winner in the same building as you, who lines up for coffee with you or is sitting next to you at a meeting, you can talk about **anything nontechnical at all.** You can admire an item of clothing (what a cool tie! I love that ring!) or similar accessory (oh, you got the new phone/band/watch - is it good?) or comment on the weather, or how much you're looking forward to the presentation by the visitor, or just about anything other than the professor's research. I can't do that. How incredibly creepy would it be for me to email a Nobel-winner complimenting them on a tie or ring or watch worn in a press release picture?
They are indeed "just as human as we are" and because of that, your first interactions with them should be on that basis. Talk to them about the same things you would talk to anyone about. Don't burst out with a technical question you've been dying to ask. Just relax and be someone who while not a peer, has that inside access. Interacting properly with these people will include technical stuff - I can't so much as go to lunch without talking about technical stuff - but it will also include normal human stuff like "did you watch that game last night" or "were you stuck in that giant traffic jam yesterday" and the like.
I don't mind when people I've never met want to start conversations with me by asking my technical opinion, or sharing theirs. I love what I do. But if you want to form a true connection with your famous colleague, do it by emphasizing the colleague part first and letting the technical conversations arise a little more naturally. While I was thrilled to have Stroustrup tell me I should definitely write the "C++ as a first language" course for Pluralsight (I hesitated, because it's hard, but he encouraged me to do it and he was right, it's a great course in the end) it was actually slightly more fun to discuss the importance of caffeine to programmers and the sadly-neglected role of chocolate in that :-).
> 13 votes
# Answer
To enhance on some of the other answers here: I, like many other scientists, used to have a very limited tolerance or appreciation for small-talk. My feeling was essentially: why waste time talking about boring things like weather or sports when we could be talking about *SCIENCE!*
Something that helped me overcome this, however, was realizing small-talk actually has a high indirect value as a signaling strategy. Small-talk allows you to actively signal to another person that you have recognized them as a human being, rather than as a resource to be exploited. It also gives a number of opportunities for the other person to signal to you whether they are currently interested in a serious conversation or whether they are feeling too busy / burned out / cranky, etc to have one. Small-talk thus lets you discretely negotiate reasonable bounds for an interaction.
Not starting by engaging in small-talk, however, is a good way to set off many people's crazy-filters, since many highly problematic people are not capable of engaging in small-talk.
> 6 votes
# Answer
I would say treat them as a fellow human being. Just that they are famous in there fields doesn't mean that they are 'handled with care, and need special procedures to communicate with them'.
Try not assume too much, and just be yourself. Be genuine about it, because *any* human being knows when it's all fake and pre-constructed.. :)
That would be my advice in a nutshell.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I took a class with a Nobel Prize-winning economist. He was pretty laid back. Usually the older these people are, the more open they are to talking.
My tips.
Be prepared for lectures - do the required reading and assigned work.
Ask them about things that they'd have an interest in talking about. For instance, the economist who taught my class was married to a woman from a country I had lived in for a while. I asked him how he liked that country. We talked for 30 minutes, and he gave me his personal e-mail.
Think of interesting things you have done and talk to them about those things. Travel, how you applied coursework to another subject, your career plans - pretty much anything interesting. Catch them in office hours - they're usually more laid back.
> 3 votes
# Answer
I used to be an Academic Advisor at a university. The others here are correct in both these are people just like you and me, and, they are busy people, so you don't want to "waste" their time.
However, professors LOVE, and I do mean LOVE (at least the good ones) students who are interested in the coursework. One of the primary complaints I heard from the ones I knew was that students didn't respond/interact enough during class, nor did they show any genuine interest in the material. If you're a particular professor's current student.
As a college student, this is the one time in your life when you'll have seemingly unlimited access to such minds. I was always, and still am as a graduate student, blown away at the knowledge and skill some professors have. Take advantage of this now. You never know where it may lead you in the future.
These professors were also undergraduate students at some point in their life. They too may have struggled with some concepts you are struggling with, if you're seeking assistance. While working as an Advisor, I was their peer. I was on a first name basis with them, and had great conversations. I remember one professor tell me that he struggled with a particular concept as an undergraduate. Rather than give up, he worked hard to not only gain an understanding of that concept, but went on to master that concept. If you ask questions about math lower than their PhD level expertise, you may strike a cord with them. If they see that you're interested in something, whether struggling or not, they may offer insight into how better to understand or learn the topic. Or, since they may have a deeper understanding of the topic, they can offer an understanding that you didn't know possible.
Again, don't be shy. You may even ask a particular professor if they have office hours during which to discuss a particular topic. If the professor has student or graduate assistants helping them, ask an assistant how best to meet with the professor.
Again, take advantage of these opportunities while they exist.
Good luck!!
> 3 votes
# Answer
Most aspects have been alredy dealt with, I'll just add this one: Take care to watch for signs that tell you whether the Professor does not mind talking to you or whether he just answers in order to be polite.
Most famous (in their field) academics I have talked to are extremely social animals, some aren't, and some would like to be but never find the time. So most know how to terminate an unwanted (or untimely) conversation, although few will want to look arrogant, so it's good to exercise a little more care than usual to gauge how your dialogue partner likes the conversation; not necessarily because missing the queue might make someone important angry but because it helps them to not feel bad for telling an interested student off.
I.e.: Don't feel guilty if you miss a clue -- they're used to students only understanding half of what they say :)
> 1 votes
# Answer
As some of the answers suggested, those profs are humans, too. How they react to some lowly academics, such as students, differs. All really depends on his personality. Don't be offended if he ignores you. In all cases, don't be pushy. Let me share my two stories.
*Story #1*: A famous prof shows up for the conference at my school. He knows a lot of faculty members reasonably well. He's highly respected in his field and has strong, controversial opinions. My advisor asked me not to approach this famous prof during the conference under any circumstances. Surprisingly, he approached me during lunch and started to engage some small talks. His wife is in the same ethnic background as I do and he's interested in a second opinion on the food from that area of the world. At the same time, I felt the uncomfortable gaze from my advisor...
*Story #2*: A person (let's call him "A") would like to visit my advisor during his business trip. My advisor refused to meet "A", but "A" insisted to drop by. I don't know the relationship between "A" and my advisor. My advisor stayed home on that day. To make "A" satisfied, my advisor asked his students to engage in useless small talks if he drops by. "A" did drop by and I turned him away to my best abilities. My advisor called my lab extension later in the afternoon making sure that "A" was gone before he drove to campus.
> 1 votes
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Tags: professorship, university, interpersonal-issues, emotional-responses
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thread-31143
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31143
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Do the results of evaluating cutting-edge methods in an industrial setting constitute new knowledge?
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2014-11-04T15:58:21.763
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# Question
Title: Do the results of evaluating cutting-edge methods in an industrial setting constitute new knowledge?
For example, suppose a new programming language is invented and some research regarding it is published, containing small, "toy" examples of its application. Suppose then that someone else takes this language and evaluates it in a real industrial case study, and reports on its usefulness and/or shortcomings.
My question about this second report is twofold:
1. Is it novel research (I suspect it probably is)
2. Would this kind of work be appropriate for a PhD thesis?
# Answer
> 4 votes
Science focuses on the acquisition of new knowledge. "Does this really work outside the lab?" is a valid question on which to acquire knowledge. Industry usage of a method often requires changes in scale and context which pose fundamentally new challenges to overcome.
Not all industrial evaluations, however, would be meaningful science. The distinction is whether the information acquired by the evaluation constitutes a contribution to human knowledge or if it is just a recommendation for a decision by the company.
For example, I saw a talk yesterday which included future work to evaluate a new membrane material in an industrial water-treatment facility. Let's see some examples of how this evaluation might be science or not:
* **Science:** When used at scale, is water quality maintained to appropriate standards? How well does the material hold up over time?
* **Not Science:** Will this be easy to integrate into the current procedures of this particular plant? What business and legal contracts will be necessary to switch suppliers?
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Tags: phd, thesis, industry
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thread-30104
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30104
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Team work at Masters level
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2014-10-17T02:51:22.717
|
# Question
Title: Team work at Masters level
Ok so first off a bit of background. I've been working professionally three years in a software engineer position after my BSc. in Mathematics and Physics. At some point I realized I missed doing true research so I enrolled in Masters in Financial Mathematics, which seemed to me the ideal trade off between maths, programming and well finance which is quite interesting.
So now, here I am, first year, with full time lectures. My first reaction was to be disappointed by the amount of team work, since in my BSc days all homeworks were individually graded. For some mathematics courses it's fine, since there's a single good answer. However, there are some instances where it's definitely more research-like, almost like a lab report actually.
What however is unnerving is that I'm stuck with teammates with whom I don't exactly share the same work ethic. For instance, I had to insist on writing formal proofs. Anyway, I just feel that if it wasn't for me we'd keep to the bare minimum. AFAIK this is quite different from the industry where, if a team screws up, then either someone is going to get fired or at least the team is going to be split by the management. Here, the prof just won't care and will assign a global grade and go on to the next team.
So I'm not sure what's the right path. On one side, I really want to make sure our team performs well, this is quite a big move I made here, but on the other side, I just don't want be *bossy* with them, yet here I am writing emails where I detail clearly what I'm awaiting from each of us. Also, well, I haven't talked openly with them about this issue, I'm not certain how I can bring it.
# Answer
As scaaahu commented: This happens ALL the time in industry (one could say it is the rule, not the exception). We do not always get to pick our teams and it is common for high-performers to be stuck with those who do not really care about the quality of their work. Will someone get fired in industry? Maybe...maybe not (complex issue).
The thing you must understand is the difference between management, where someone has formal authority based on their position in the organization, and leadership, where someone's authority basically comes from the followers.
If your team is fill with under-performers you need to figure out if you can use some leadership skills to motivate them to do better. This is the same when studying and when working. If you cannot motivate them then you must decide if someone else can (perhaps you need to encourage someone else to act as the leader). If it seems the team simply cannot be motivated, then you should do your best to find another team.
A team can only be successful if the team feels like a team and that means, in part, that everyone believes in the same goal and are willing to sacrifice to achieve that goal.
The solution is to develop some leadership skills and have a direct talk with the team about what they hope to achieve.
> 2 votes
# Answer
I had the same thing happen to me during my MBA; it was heavy in group projects.
I was trying to keep a perfect GPA and my team mates just cared about passing. There is no really way to complain or rant. I just couldn’t trust them to do anything. I would take over the project, assign them a BS part and do the lion work and writing and editing and all.
Yes it is not fair to do the work of 6 and letting others profit from your work but you do get something from it. Besides you can’t teach a donkey to fly.
You do learn a lot more than your classmates. You get more out of your degree. You learn to handle bigger multipart projects. You learn to manage a group effort by pretending that everyone is contributing. You learn to bypass sponges by pretending they don’t exist. You learn to bite the bullet. Etc.
Also, at the end of the day, they do know who did the real work and most likely the teacher does too.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I've faced the same situation in the past. And that was during a semester-long project. At the time I was stuck in a team of 4, where I ended-up doing over 70% of the work.
The problem in such setup is that, no matter that you try to voice your concerns, the other party will only hear what is convenient to them and not more. So to say, they may nod their head as if they care about your concerns but it is hardly that something else will be done in practice. If you are lucky in your team might be another person who barely shares the same work ethic with you, and that person may show some effort to provide some help.
My situation was different from yours in the sense that the grades were assigned individually and there were supervisors who monitored the situation actively. They could tell who has done what by the style of writing and the activity during meetings.
I don't know if you have a supervisor, or if you have a flat hierarchy in the group. First talk to the other members of the team and make a separation of concerns by assigning tasks. In this stage do not tell explicitly that you expect each one of them to work hard, but say it implicitly that everyone is thrilled for this group-work and you are all looking for great results. Also it would be nice if you establish a hierarchy since the beginning. Assuming you are the "best" make yourself the head of the group.
During the separation of tasks, do not assign tasks to the others, let them choose themselves, so they don't blame later that the task was too hard for them.
Establish weekly meetings where everyone will tell about the progress he has done with his task.
At some point (lets say 3-4 weeks) you will see that things aren't going as expected (assuming from the description you provided). In that case make a new emergency meeting where you will voice your concerns explicitly. Also make sure to have a mild talk with your supervisor (if you have one) about this problem.
In 1-2 weeks if you see no improvement overall, have a serious talk with the supervisor, and consider if you should stay in such a group (for many reasons). Eventually, you will be investing much more time that you are supposed to on that group (both for organizational overhead and completing the tasks), on top of that you might be frustrated all the time and even worse have health-issues afterwards.
Bear in mind that I have made some hard assumptions in this answer, however I believe you are smart enough to modify the suggestions to fit your situation. Also, do not forget that studies are meant to teach you scientific stuff but also intangibles, such as learning when to say "I'm not going to do this anymore", raise your voice nicely etc.
If you wonder what happened with my case, well I got the top grade, but my supervisors blamed me for not raising the concerns much earlier. I learned the hard way...
> 1 votes
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Tags: masters, collaboration
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thread-1834
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1834
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Is it useful to do an MBA after PhD?
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2012-06-01T08:15:28.943
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# Question
Title: Is it useful to do an MBA after PhD?
I have heard of people who have gone on to pursue an MBA after their doctorates. What are the advantages/downsides of this?
Wouldn't the companies recruiting them after MBA value their doctorate experience less compared to the experience gained at an MNC? Is there a risk of them being valued as "failed" doctorates?
# Answer
There are several cases where PhDs do an MBA. Some of them are:
1. Bored of research as a whole.
2. Irritation with academia and poor scope in Industry.
3. Want to earn money.
4. For furthering responsibilities at the university where one is a professor. If you do some looking around, a high amount of Deans to have an MBA along with a PhD.
> 13 votes
# Answer
No degree ever goes waste. Most people with PhD and MBA acquire director positions in companies.
> 1 votes
# Answer
A qualification regardless of level and field of study is never a waste, one needs to realize how to use it wisely and appropriately. As we navigate life we shift perspective and interests, our education choices therefore need to reflect this. Ph.D provides sound research focus, MBA provides sound business and leadership focus. The two combined is a great and electrifying combination.
> 1 votes
# Answer
PhD = specialist in a subject, research skills, critical mind MBA = Broad generalist, management, problem solving
The focus and scope is not the same. Also like it was said most researchers who want to climb the ladder need to take the management track which often require an MBA. Put simply an MD is an MD but a hospital manager needs to be an MD and MBA.
Also to teach at a business school other than math or economics you normally need an MBA. Best is a Phd/MBA but while a lowly MBA can teach that is not usually the case for a PhD.
> 1 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-school, masters, business-school
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thread-1260
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1260
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Is it better to do an MBA with some work experience?
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2012-04-24T07:11:56.263
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# Question
Title: Is it better to do an MBA with some work experience?
I wish to pursue my MBA in a premier business school. Is it better to go straight from my graduation (B.Tech in CS) or get some work experience and then go on with MBA?
# Answer
Usually, MBA is something that you do when you have significant work experience. There is a good reason for that. If you go straight from your graduation into the program, you will learn a few thing on the theoretical side of business administration. But if you already have encountered troubles in management, you will learn a lot from the numerous case studies (because most of the learning in a MBA is through case studies) and exchanges with other "students". Moreover, the main advantage of a MBA, besides the few things you learn, is the network that you will acquire, and only a few fellow students will be ready to network with somebody without experience.
> 14 votes
# Answer
I agree that the more practical working experience you have, the more useful your MBA studies will be. That being said, the purpose of the MBA and the related timing will also be important. I assume you want this MBA to further your career (move outside of the technical/engineering side of your work and into management, marketing, etc.). If you think the MBA is going to help you do that and you want to move into the business side sooner rather than later in your career then it might be advantageous start the MBA sooner, especially since your undergraduate degree is non-business.
It depends on the school I imagine, but when I did an MBA all of the students with non-business undergraduate degrees had to take a set of core business courses before being allowed to proceed on with MBA courses. If you were working during the day and going to school at night I imagine this would add some time to your total time in the program, so getting started early might be a good idea.
Additionally, if you have to pass a test to get into the MBA program (GMAT, etc.) then taking that soon after you graduate might be advantageous as you are still kind of in the "study mode" of school and preparing for the test will be simpler than if you let years go by without having taken an exam. You should check, but I believe the GMAT is good for X number of years after you take it so if you pass it early after graduating you can still wait a while before actually applying. You say you want to go to a top level school as well, so I imagine a high score on this test will also be important. Starting early if you think it will take a few tries to get that high mark would also be smart.
Good luck!
> 5 votes
# Answer
If you want to get headhunted or an “MBA salary” after you graduate you need work experience, at least 5 years. However if you want to build your company or move up the ladder later you can do it now.
The MBA is in no way theoretical, you may get more out of it with previous work experience, but you will acquire “real” work experience through study by cases and simulations. You get to solve real world problems, and that gives you experience. Also, a Business School is a microcosm of the working world and you have teachers/bosses to please, team-members/colleagues to manage, bureaucratese/paperwork to deal with, etc.
Many programs do accept MBA students straight from undergrad.
Networking? Vaguely heard of it but never experienced it, especially as a foreign student. Maybe that was real in the dark ages when there where 20 MBA programs in the world. Now when there is a B school behind every bush and corner I do not believe in such think as networking. Though I may be wrong especially at top universities MBA programs.
> 2 votes
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Tags: masters, business-school
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thread-31079
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31079
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Should I explain to the graduate admission committee why I am older than most prospective PhD students?
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2014-11-03T12:55:24.457
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# Question
Title: Should I explain to the graduate admission committee why I am older than most prospective PhD students?
Firstly, I know that there are plenty of questions here like this one but hopefully this is not a duplicate.
I was born and grown up in Iran and belong to a religious minority (Bahai faith). As you know Bahais are not allowed to attend universities in Iran because of their faith. I was no exception and so could not study at university because of my religious beliefs. Between the age of 18 (when I finished my highschool in Iran) and 24, I worked as a construction laborer. At the age of 24, I together with my family (my parents and sister) travelled to Turkey and became refugees in UNHCR and two years later UNHCR sent us to Australia. I studied English for two years and after that I repeated year 11 and 12 because Australian universities did not accept my Iranian qualifications. At age 30, I started my undergraduate studies in Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and I will graduate very soon. I am now 35 years of age and would like to apply to be a PhD student in the first 5 or 10 top engineering schools in the world. I have maintained a GPA of 6.9, a WAM of 93 and was on Dean's merit list every year except the first year of my undergraduate studies. There is a possibility that I also get university medal but that is not certain yet.
Should I explain these details to the graduate admission committee explaining why I started my undergraduate studies very late at the age of 30? and what I was doing before that?
# Answer
> 72 votes
Such information would be relevant. The real trick would be to keep such a paragraph short and to the point. As such the question would be a good draft of such a section. I have two comments:
I would not start the second sentence with "as you know". If a committee member did not know, you make her or him feel ignorant. It is good to avoid invoking negative emotions in such a letter. Especially since leaving that part out does not change the meaning of the sentence.
It was not clear from the text whether it was the Bahai faith that prohibited it's members from going to university or whether it was the Iranian government that prohibited people with the Bahai religion to enter university.
# Answer
> 30 votes
I wish scaaahu had put that comment in an answer so that I could up-vote it.
Perhaps it will help you to know that I started the Ph.D. at age 56. It wasn't in a top ten university, but neither am I ashamed of my *alma mater*. Admissions committees are interested in potential for research and teaching. Show those and, with your background, you will get offers.
Do include a very brief explanation in either your cover letter or statement of purpose as scaaahu has suggested. It need not be as extensive as what you posted here. Just address the committee member who is thinking, "I wonder why...?" Something as simple as, "People of my faith are not allowed to study in university in my native Iran, so I got a late start."
# Answer
> 24 votes
I recommend that you put the information you gave us in your statement of purpose for a PhD application. At least for a US-style statement of purpose (which is usually about two pages) I *would not suggest* abridging the story you told us. Rather I agree with @scaaahu that your story is extremely compelling, much more so than what one normally reads in these kinds of statements.
If you can craft this as a narrative of the triumph of your intellectual interest and academic success over the adversities you've faced over a period of many years: look, that's awesome. If I saw that in a PhD application to my program (mathematics, UGA) then I would be passing your statement around for the entire admissions committee to read. If the other parts of your application were reasonably competitive, I would be well on my way to pushing strongly for your admission.
Let me end my saying that I was personally touched by your story. You have a lot to be proud of and will certainly serve as an inspiration to many others. Academia needs people like you.
# Answer
> 7 votes
DEFINITELY include information on what you describe. More importantly, though, you are a more mature student, and at your age you should show a very solid understanding of why you need a PhD to pursue your career goals.
"Atypical" students can be great additions for departments, but if I were the one doing the choosing, I would be looking for more than your history, academic or otherwise -- I'd be looking to see whether you understand why you want the degree, and what you intend to do with it. Give your admissions committee your whole picture.
# Answer
> 4 votes
There are some people that probably should "dodge" this issue. You are NOT one of them. So an explanation will help you, with very little risk.
You come from what most Western institutions would consider a "disadvantaged" background. You have succeeded in spite of that fact. You got a later start in university life because you got a lot of life experience in what we Americans would call "the school of hard knocks." That's very much to your credit. Most western universities would give a positive weight to "maturity" and sense of purpose in evaluating an application. You have both.
The kind of person who might have something to fear regarding age is someone from a (probably) rich family who had a "wasted" (or misspent) youth. You are not that person.
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, statement-of-purpose
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thread-30650
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30650
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If I don't participate in research in first couple of years of PhD , how much am I losing?
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2014-10-27T10:18:22.377
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# Question
Title: If I don't participate in research in first couple of years of PhD , how much am I losing?
I completed my MS in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and was planning to do an PhD in Operations Research. But after first few weeks in program , I decided it was not what I wanted to do in long term and dropped out.
There is a background to this- my untenured MS advisor refused to sponsor my PhD . Another well known professor in the department came forward and offered me a good stipend but I dropped out from his lab after couple of weeks.
Things had become too caustic even before I joined his lab. The PhD professor wanted me to help him with some algorithms in the final month of my MS, but my MS advisor shooed him multiple times saying that I was very busy, when in fact I was free all the time. My MS advisor wanted me to make her a co advisor and get her a piece of the tenured professor's project, it didn't work out and since then she has become pretty vengeful towards me. She rejected job offers from our research sponsors after MS saying I was doing PhD and was not interested in working for them.
I think at this point I have lot of ill will against me in my department mainly due to active efforts to undermine me by my MS advisor.
In my university ,we need to take around 30-40 credit hours of subjects and pass candidacy and continue the dissertation.
I am taking an completely different route to PhD. I am taking 9 credit hours every semester (full time course load is 6 credit hours) and at same time working full time as Data warehouse SW developer.
It's very strenuous(My long commute, job and courses and assignments occupy at least 17-18 hours of my day) but I am able to manage them and it's working pretty well as I get paid around 135K at my job.
*Is this is an ideal approach until I finish my subjects and then see if any HCI lab in my department can take me in? Can I expect things to calm down in 2 years time.or what can i do right now to improve on this situation?*
Or am I really hurting myself here. My concern at this point is after my candidacy, no lab will take me back because of no recent research work. By the way, I don't need to finalize an advisor for the dissertation right now, I can take candidacy exam in dept. by forming a temporary committee .
One advantage I may have is I will have enough money by that time to volunteer in a lab for around an year to prove my worth. But again I am afraid my MS advisor may actively sabotage any of those efforts. I have been afraid and tensed for past few days thinking about this.
Edit : I am from Midwest US
# Answer
> 8 votes
I think it's better to be involved in research from the beginning of a PhD program, but I've seen plenty of programs *designed* to discourage starting research until the student has passed the qualifying exams. Both models can lead to good PhDs and good careers afterward. You appear to be in the enviable position, assuming you can sustain it, of being able to save a substantial portion of the salary from your day job so that when it comes time to start some research, you can do so with your own funding. If the project goes well, and you are good at research, you may be able to complete your dissertation more quickly than someone who has to work on a funded grant which has deliverables other than your thesis.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Where is the department Chair in this situation? Depending upon the structure of your college within the university, that is generally the individual with whom you can discuss both your questions regarding research and your situation with your MS advisor. It sounds as if you need someone who can deal with the administrative aspects of the situation - the person who signs your MS advisor's annual review.
If that doesn't work, you can go to the Dean of your college, or perhaps the Dean of Students. In my years working in Academia, the Dean of Students was always a powerful individual within the university. You shouldn't have to deal with the petty issues that you're experiencing. You should be able to focus on your degree and its associated research.
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Tags: phd, research-process, masters, advisor
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thread-9299
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9299
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What factors should I consider when deciding between a general MBA vs. a specialized MBA?
|
2013-04-11T15:43:55.977
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# Question
Title: What factors should I consider when deciding between a general MBA vs. a specialized MBA?
I'm currently in the process of applying to business schools and I notice that nearly all of them have general MBA degrees and MBA degrees with different areas of concentration or specialization. I currently work in the IT industry doing some project management and customer support, though I'm on the fence about whether the IT industry is where I'd like to stay.
I'm going back and forth between the general MBA and something like an MBA in IT Management, but I'm having trouble deciding. What are some things I can consider during this process so that I can make a good decision and not get a degree that's either too general to be useful or too specific to give me options?
# Answer
Because you already have real world experience in IT but are unsure it is where you want to stay, a general MBA should be fine.
If you want to stay in IT, what most companies care about is actual experience - and it seems you have that. Having an MBA and experience in IT is a great combination and having experience in IT is far more useful than having a specialist MBA in IT.
Another issue is that IT management is usually not a challenging place to get to if you are interested. I've worked with quite a few people in IT and it was the rare one who wanted to be in management. Most wanted to keep their hands in the technology. For this reason, IT management is different from many other fields in business.
> 4 votes
# Answer
You are saying that you have working experience in project management and customer support in the IT sector, in that case you can choose MBA specialization, that means MBA in IT. This specialization will give more fruit.
But for non working person I want to suggest to all go for general MBA
> 0 votes
# Answer
I think a general MBA is much better.
The course load is about the same; to qualify for a specialist MBA you often only need a few specialized classes.
The MBA general or specific is still a very broad based super-generalist degree. Uninformed employers may believe that a specialized MBA makes you a specialist and not someone for the management track.
A general MBA will allow you to progress through many changes of industry and jobs. Yesterday a banker, today a quality control supervisor, tomorrow a head of strategic management, that is an MBA. Specializing is for undergrad and msc.
When I did my BBA in finance, my main professor allowed me to sit in his finance MBA classes, they knew less than undergrads. It is quite understandable a BBA needs nearly 2 years of finance courses, an MBA like 3-4 courses. So when I did my MBA I chose General but elected to do a thesis in finance.
> 0 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, masters, business-school
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thread-16480
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16480
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Why are many funded PhD programmes in the UK not open for non-EU applicants?
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2014-02-02T21:38:05.760
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# Question
Title: Why are many funded PhD programmes in the UK not open for non-EU applicants?
I once wanted to do a PhD in the UK, but found out that the opportunities were limited for those coming from outside Europe (I did my PhD in Norway instead). I think it is still the case today. I am wondering why this is so.
EDIT:
Additional thought: I am wondering, for instance, if the vacancy were open to anyone in the world, would it not increase the chance of getting the best applicants? Also, what differences are there in the UK system compared to other countries (e.g. Norway) which open their PhD vacancies to anyone?
# Answer
Most PhD funding in the UK comes from Government run research councils, for instance the ESRC, who allocate funds to groups of Universities known as Doctoral Training Centres. Given the restricted level of funding available applications are only open to students who are citizens of an EU member state. Funding may also be available directly from individual University departments but this is so limited in availability that they tend to prefer their own graduates or current students. In either case a requirement for funding is to have a Master's level degree from a recognised University, which is often interpreted as being a UK institution. Basically it's a very small pot of money that's available so applications have to be restricted.
To answer your edit: to get research funding in the UK (certainly for Psychology, and I assume for other subjects as well) you must demonstrate that your research falls into the national research plan. In other words, the UK government is only interested in certain areas of research which will be of long term benefit to the UK economy. While I accept that opening up funding to everyone irrespective of nationality would attract the best of the best, from the Government's point of view there would seem to be little point to spend money helping non-nationals get PhDs if, ultimately, the knowledge and skill sets which they have paid for are then lost from the country due to people returning home once the degree has been completed.
> 4 votes
# Answer
Just to complement rachaelbe's comprehensive answer, the issue for the UK research councils is not so much the nationality of the applicant, but whether the applicant fulfils the residency requirement.
In the case of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the other research councils are likely to have similar rules, in order to receive both payment of fees and a stipend, **everybody** needs to: 1) have settled status in the UK, meaning that there are no restrictions on how long they can stay, 2) have been been 'ordinarily resident' in the UK for three years prior to the start of the studentship grant, and 3) have not been residing in the UK wholly or mainly for the purpose of full-time education. This last is waived in the case of UK and EU nationals. Interestingly therefore, being a British citizen is not enough to qualify; British citizens must be ordinarily resident in the UK. For the ESRC, where there are shortages of suitable students (in advanced quantitative methods and economics), these rules have been relaxed in certain doctoral training centres. The full rules are available.
I guess the reason for the residency rules is that the government wishes to fund students who already have a strong connection to the UK, i.e. those who are likely to want to remain in the UK after completion of their PhD studies.... I absolutely would agree that if the vacancies were available to everyone in the world, the quality of applicants would be higher. In advanced quantitative methods, it is difficult to find students who satisfy the residency criteria who would be suitable for the PhD programme and fully funded posts often end up being re-advertized.
> 2 votes
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Tags: phd, funding, united-kingdom
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thread-31061
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31061
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Pure mathematics graduate scholarships in Europe for international students with a bachelor degree only in engineering?
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2014-11-03T09:11:31.180
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# Question
Title: Pure mathematics graduate scholarships in Europe for international students with a bachelor degree only in engineering?
**Short Question**: Are there any graduate (PHD or masters) pure math scholarships available in Europe for international (non-European) engineering students ? I would like to get examples.
**Long Question:** I am a mechanical engineering major who wants to study mathematics at a graduate level. Due to extreme circumstances, I wasn't able to get a bachelor degree in mathematics. However, I self studied lots of mathematics. I self studied graduate math topics as well. Some mathematicians at my university were following some of my mathematical progress for 2-3 years. I expect to get excellent recommendation letters from them. I also coauthored a paper with one of these mathematicians (not published yet). I also participated in a national math competition held at my country four times and achieved first position. Thus, I believe the only thing I am lacking is a bachelor in mathematics. Another problem is that my GPA in engineering isn't too high (because I lacked interest in my engineering courses), it lies in the open interval \]3.3,3.35\[.
Specifically, I would like to know about scholarship opportunities in Europe where a person with a strong math background but without an undergraduate degree in mathematics is likely to be accepted.
---
An example of a scholarship that I know of is this one :
https://diploma.ictp.it/application-admission/diploma-programme
However, it doesn't meet the criteria for this question since it requires applicants to have a bachelor degree in mathematics.
# Answer
> 4 votes
In the nordic countries the funding is provided by the PI, and the hard criteria are very relaxed. From a random PhD offer in one Swedish university:
> **Entry requirements**
>
> To meet the general entry requirements for third-cycle studies, an applicant must have
>
> 1. taken a second-cycle qualification
> 2. completed course requirements for at least 240 higher education credits, including at least 60 second-cycle higher education credits, or
> 3. otherwise acquired essentially the same knowledge in or outside Sweden.
(As Dave Clark points out, second cycle qualification is a masters degree.)
Other universities I have checked require the equivalent of four years of course work, with a project of at least 15 credits ECTS or equivalent. And I remember some just require three years (but good luck proving you are ready for a PhD with that!).
This is only the hard requirements imposed by the university. Then, you just need to show your future supervisor that you have the necessary knowledge, and convince him you are the best candidate.
The best thing? Application is free, you just need to spend a few hours composing good letters.
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Tags: funding, mathematics, europe, changing-fields, international-students
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thread-31184
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31184
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Good idea to name the keynote speaker of a local conference at which my paper was accepted to be presented?
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2014-11-05T11:50:05.087
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# Question
Title: Good idea to name the keynote speaker of a local conference at which my paper was accepted to be presented?
I am applying to doctoral programs in the US, and I am wondering:
Is it advisable to name the keynote speaker of the local conference where I presented a paper recently?
The keynote speaker is a well-respected expert in my field, and I thought of mentioning his participation in order to highlight the merit of this conference in my statement of purpose. It seems to me that only a conference with a certain level of importance would be able to get such a reputable expert as a keynote speaker.
# Answer
> 37 votes
If the conference is well-known enough, then it isn't necessary to name the keynote speaker, because the conference will be recognized regardless. If the conference isn't well-known in the field, name-dropping is going to come across crass and not very helpful.
So in either case, I don't see any advantage to name-dropping.
# Answer
> 30 votes
In addition to aeismail's answer, and to stress his point a bit further, you should probably *not* do this. There are a number of reasons:
* It provides only *very weak* support for the story you are trying to sell ("This conference was really quite good, because ... at least one important person attended when they paid all costs for her/him."). Really, there are way too many reasons why a famous person might attend a meeting. Maybe the conference organiser is an old friend of the famous person? Maybe the meeting is at a nice location, and the famous person just wanted to have a nice beach vacation, all expenses paid? Maybe the famous person simply was unaware that the meeting was in fact terrible until it was too late?
* It sounds like you are absolutely *desperately* fishing for something good to say about this conference. A reader will wonder why you found this typically irrelevant tidbit of information so important that it had to be mentioned specifically. Is this really a train of thought that you want to invoke?
* It is just not something that is typically done, and doing something against convention in your CV / application material always has at least a small risk in itself that it will not be looked favourably upon, for reasons that you cannot always predict. A good example for this is the h-index. Two or so years ago, I would always report my h-index, basically assuming that people would either ignore the info (if they don't believe in bibliometrics) or value the information (if they do). In the meantime, I figured out that there is a significant group of people that I would really *anger* just by mentioning the h-index, and so implying that it has any relevance whatsoever. I am not saying that mentioning the keynote speaker of a conference is the same, but it is sometimes hard to know in advance who will be annoyed by what.
And, most importantly, I think the chance of this information having any *positive* impact is so small that it is not worth the paper space, even aside from the reasons above.
# Answer
> 10 votes
Do not add the keynote speaker to a listing. Unfortunately, the quality of a keynote speaker has *nothing* to do with the quality of a conference. The problem is that even top people are often willing to lend their name to a dubious venture for money. Low quality or predatory conferences often attempt to puff themselves up by trying to bring in famous keynote speakers, especially ones who are well known but past their prime. In fact, you should be very suspicious of a conference if it has good keynotes but unknowns on its program committee.
If the readers respect the conference, it will stand on its own. If it is not good, nothing will save their opinion.
# Answer
> 6 votes
If you had a nice conversation with this speaker at the conference and admire her work, that might be worthwhile to include on an application in a section where you're explaining your interest in the research topic.
However, it's probably better to be extra careful about naming the keynote speaker or other prominent researchers that you haven't been directly involved with. Depending on how you write your application, you run the risk of *implying that you are connected to their work*. This is something people hiring PhD students pay attention to and will check up on. If they contact this person and they haven't even met you, that is not going to reflect well on you as a prospective hire.
The fact that a respected individual attends a conference or agrees to speak at a meeting is not a tacit endorsement of everyone else that attends the conference.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, conference, statement-of-purpose
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thread-31200
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31200
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Is there a potential problem where supervisor is close to someone working in similar area?
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2014-11-05T16:10:46.220
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# Question
Title: Is there a potential problem where supervisor is close to someone working in similar area?
Is there a potential problem when an academic supervises a Ph.D. student in a very specific area in which someone close to them is *also* active and working (and supervising Ph.D. students who are publishing in that area) at a *different institution*? What if the two students are producing very similar work, at the same time? Is it right that my alarm bells are ringing?
# Answer
I can think of multiple sane reasons not to publicly state romantic or marital involvement with a fellow researcher. There surely is no obligation to do otherwise.
Now, in the situation you described in your comments, you mention the possibility that one adviser is leaking unpublished results of her/his students to her/his spouse's students without the consent of the person who did the work. This is indeed problematic, regardless of their marital status.
If you are worried about this situation, **discuss confidentiality** with your adviser, make sure you are on the same line and consider sealing **an informal agreement of non-disclosure** with her/him if deemed necessary. This can be independent of the spouse situation.
One potential conflict of interest is if both were acting as reviewers for papers or grants submitted by each other, or if they were members of the hiring committee that evaluated each other's application. Since married couples have a reciprocal interest in their spouse's employment and wealth, there would be a quite probable conflict of interest.
> 2 votes
# Answer
It's not considered a conflict of interest for an advisor to personally work in a field similar to his/her students' - it's expected.
It's also not a conflict of interest for an advisor to have friends working in a field similar to his/her students' - it's likely.
Similarly, it's not a conflict of interest for an advisor to have a spouse, child, or immediate family member working in a field similar to his/her students'.
The exception to the above would be if the advisor actually *does* something that harms his/her student in order to favor him/herself, a friend, or a family member.
> 7 votes
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Tags: phd, ethics, advisor, conflict-of-interest
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thread-14439
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/14439
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What resources are available for clarifying academic and scientific terminology?
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2013-11-28T13:31:21.463
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# Question
Title: What resources are available for clarifying academic and scientific terminology?
I have found that wikipedia is not a coherent, exhaustive, or detailed reference. I would like to find a similar resource that explains academic/scientific terms and methodologies clearly, briefly, and in a detailed manner. Ideally, this resource would be freely available on the Internet and provide descriptions that clarify these sorts of terms e.g: theory, theorem, hypothesis, assumption, conjecture, lemma, corollary, law, rule, principle, etc.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Here is a short list of resources, for different fields, which I frequently use for reference:
1. Springer, Encyclopedia of mathematics
2. IEC, Electropedia: The World's Online Electrotechnical Vocabulary
3. IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology - The Gold book
4. IUPAC, Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry (pdf)
5. JCGM, International Vocabulary of Metrology
6. IEEE, The Authoritative Dictionary of IEEE Standards Terms (requires subscription)
# Answer
> 1 votes
If you find wikipedia not clear and brief enough, try wiktionary instead. Instead of a full scale encyclopedia type site, wiktionary only provides definition and examples.
# Answer
> -2 votes
Here is the result for entering "theorem" into Wolfram alpha:
> A theorem is a statement that can be demonstrated to be true by accepted mathematical operations and arguments. In general, a theorem is an embodiment of some general principle that makes it part of a larger theory. The process of showing a theorem to be correct is called a proof.
>
> Although not absolutely standard, the Greeks distinguished between "problems" (roughly, the construction of various figures) and "theorems" (establishing the properties of said figures; Heath 1956, pp. 252, 262, and 264).
>
> According to the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, any theorem, no matter how difficult to prove in the first place, is viewed as "trivial" by mathematicians once it has been proven. Therefore, there are exactly two types of mathematical objects: trivial ones, and those which have not yet been proven.
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Tags: online-resource, terminology
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thread-31176
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31176
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In reviewing papers for journals or conferences, what should one do if one is not fully knowledgeable in the specific area the paper addresses?
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2014-11-05T09:14:43.743
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# Question
Title: In reviewing papers for journals or conferences, what should one do if one is not fully knowledgeable in the specific area the paper addresses?
This is a question from a newbie doing reviews for journals/conference papers.
What should one do if they are among the panel of reviewers for papers for a specific journal / conference, and you get a paper whose subject material you are not an expert in, or are not fully aware of, all the details around which the paper focuses on?
Is it the norm to state that you are not versed well enough in the particular area, thus you cannot make a qualified opinion, or should you just do as best as you can to review what you understand of the paper, and hope that the other reviewers will do a better job, compensating for your weakness? Are there any other options?
# Answer
First off, "fully" is a very relative word, somewhere between expert and novice which makes a specific answer difficult at best. Editors try to identify persons they believe can provide a good constructive review of the manuscript in question. If that is the case, you are viewed as having that expertise. Note that it is not uncommon that an editor appoints experts with different specialities to cover different aspects of a manuscript. It is the responsibility of an editor to select reviewers with care to make sure a manuscript is scrutinized fairly and by peer "experts".
Now this system is not fool-proof and it is therefore the responsibility of a reviewer to decline to review if they think they are not in a position to take on such a review. There are of course many other reasons to decline but that is a different story. So in your case, you need to figure out based on the information you have received, if you have the background to provide input on all or significant parts of the manuscript in the request. When taking on the first reviews in a career, you may ask your advisor or peers about the task but remember, the fact that you have been asked is not necessarily something that is open information (in for example double-blind reviews where anonymity is requested).
So, think about how you can contribute. If you do not see that you can provide input, decline. Otherwise, take on the review. Reviewing is an integral part of academia and getting started is necessary at some point. It can also be quite rewarding since you can gain insights ito new science as well as ways to (or not to) disseminate science.
> 10 votes
# Answer
For a multidisciplinary journal or conference, I will sometimes deliberately assign a paper one reviewer who knows significantly less about the subject. The intention is to have a slightly more detached perspective who can say whether this paper is interesting and intelligible to anybody outside of its narrow sub-sub-sub-field. It's also rare to review a paper that you are perfectly knowledgeable about, since science has so many different aspects.
What you should do when you do not perfectly understand a paper:
1. Be extremely clear on which parts you are confident that you understand and which you don't.
2. Do not assume the authors are wrong if you don't understand. It may be one of the gaps in your knowledge.
3. Do not assume the authors are right if you don't understand. They may be blowing smoke in your eyes.
4. Explain what, if anything, you found of value in the paper despite your lack of knowledge.
If your review, in combination with the others, is not sufficient, it is the responsibility of the editor or chair to obtain another. It is not your job to determine how the reviewers are distributed.
That said, if you are completely and totally lost, contact the editor / chair who assigned the paper to you and check with them. Depending on their intent, they may take you off the paper, or they may tell you that this is exactly what they want you to write down. *If you need to do this do it soon*---it's terrible form to screw up somebody's reviewing schedule and either create a last-minute crisis or an extra delay for the authors.
> 3 votes
# Answer
An editor making a review assignment will usually make sure that you are an expert in the field before requesting you to do the review. However, many times the editor will not know your work personally and will rely on a data base where your set of skills and areas of expertise are listed.
For regular journals, you are given the opportunity to decline the review. You can do this for a number of reasons, most commonly you're too busy or not an expert in the field (if I get a review request from a crappy "predatory" journal I just ignore the email). The editor will usually then ask you to propose alternative reviewers that might be interested in acting as referees.
In special cases, such as conferences, authors might be *expected* to act as referees for the other attendees. This is an ethical commitment since you should correspond to other authors who spend their valuable time reviewing your paper. The editor will again try to ensure the paper sent to you falls within your field of expertise. However, if you are not an expert and feel that you will do a bad job, it is not fair to the authors that you accept the review. Contact the editor instead to point out the issue and ask him/her to get another paper more within the area in which you're knowledgeable.
> 0 votes
# Answer
For most journals and conferences that I've reviewed for, I had to give at least two grades: one for overall (something like 1=clear reject up to 5=clear accept) and one for how well I would rate my own expertise of the subject. Sometimes there's also other grades like how well is the paper written etc. In this case, the question answers itself. Otherwise, there's usually a "notes to reviewers" section where you can comment that you're not an expert in the area.
I would only decline a review due to not being an expert if it is a journal or conference specifically aimed at people who are experts in the area - in which case, whoever asked me to do the review has made a mistake in nominating me.
Otherwise, I think one of the things a journal is deliberately looking for is how well the authors can explain and present their work to a non-expert in the area. Even if you don't get all the details, you should judge how well the paper gives you a general idea of what the authors are doing, how it relates to previous work, what the novelty of this particular paper is and why the subject is important etc. In my opinion, the best review panels contain at least one expert (who will be able to comment on details) and at least one non-expert (who can focus on the bigger picture).
> 0 votes
# Answer
Virtually all review forms that I have come across so far featured a field such as *Reviewer confidence* or *Knowledgeability of reviewer*, which was meant for exactly that purpose - to state how confident you feel in the respective topic.
What will be done upon that field will be up to the program committee:
* With too low a confidence, the program committee may decide to give your review a lower (or, in extreme cases, a very low, down to zero) weight.
* On the other hand, the goal might be to intentionally involve a mixture of differently knowledgeable reviewers.
* Based upon the reviewers' self-assessed expertise, the program committee might also decide to involve another, possibly more knowledgeable, reviewer.
Your self-assessed confidence level will often be cross-checked by a question asking you to explain the contents of the submission in your own words. That helps further to determine how and what parts of the submission you understood.
So, in short: Expressing how knowledgeable you are in the field of the submission is expected by program committees, to a point that often, a dedicated form field is provided for that information.
> 0 votes
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Tags: journals, conference, peer-review
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thread-31116
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31116
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If someone conducts unethical research unbeknownst to anybody, but produces positive results, what would happen to the research once discovered?
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2014-11-04T00:04:57.257
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# Question
Title: If someone conducts unethical research unbeknownst to anybody, but produces positive results, what would happen to the research once discovered?
I was just wondering about this specific scenario.
Say someone was researching nature vs. nurture, but his experiments involved keeping babies in a controlled environment for the first 10 years of their life. His research is secret and he has ways to smuggle children for his research (don't ask how).
After 15 years, he publishes a paper and confirms that there is a set amount of characteristics that can be transferred via genes.
What would become of the researcher and his research? Will the researcher be jailed, but the research results recognized?
---
This question is about unethical research in general, not just ones involving human subjects.
P.S. No babies were harmed in the making of this post
# Answer
> 63 votes
Unfortunately, history has already forced this question upon us, and the answers are not entirely clear. The Nazis inflicted widespread and breathtakingly horrifying human medical experiments on their victims during the Holocaust. These yielded quite a bit of medical data, that some want to unearth and apply today.
This has ignited quite a bit of debate on the ethics of using this most obviously and supremely unethical research. The science may be dubious as well, given the circumstances under which it was performed. An excellent discussion of the dilemma may be found in the article "The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments" by Baruch Cohen. In essence, Cohen argues that in certain extreme cases it may be possible to use the data, but only when accompanied by strong condemnation of the methods and only when it concerns information that is both otherwise impossible to obtain and of life-saving importance.
Nazi medicine is an extreme case, but unfortunately by no means isolated, and the judgement of history and science on these studies contains less uniform condemnation than we might like. The modern consensus, however, seems to be that except in very unusual circumstances, unethical studies should not be rewarded in any way by recognition.
# Answer
> 7 votes
The problem here is that ethics change with time, location, education and religion.
Piotr Migdal in his answer points out that unethical research would never be validated; then I would rebut "What about animal dissection?" It has been banned as unethical by many countries, but many papers still use findings from it.
The same is for much research by Nazis; they are highly unethical NOW, but at the time, for a large number of scientist it was ethical; the well-known Bayer at the time "engaged in human experimentation on Auschwitz prisoners, often with fatal results." Some researchers at "IG Farben" even got a (still valid) Nobel prize "for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil" and many more.
So I would say that actually ethical studies may be based easily on unethical papers, if those papers are valid. And new unethical papers will need more time to be recognized (and probably the author will be imprisoned) but this is because it will be harder to fact-check the experiment in an ethical way.
# Answer
> 5 votes
There is a situation in which the exact situation described in the title regularly happened and (most likely) still happens: **military research**.
There are multiple example of knowledge acquired by the military of several nations and regimes during secret and ethically problematic (euphemism intended) investigations and experiments.
Some of the results from these are a part of our everyday life: aviation (and transportation in general), nuclear fission, some aspects of medicine and surgery, telecommunication, geolocalization, etc.
It seems like the results of these experiments are not disregarded, although contradictory to the example you mentioned, most can *also* be investigated and validated with ethical approaches.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Supplementing jakebeal's great answer on current research (not - digging old).
> ...but the research results recognized?
It seems "unlikely", perhaps unless the result is so evident, one cannot ignore it.
First, most journals have statements disallowing publishing unethical research. And without journal publication it is hard to get academic credit.
Second, if you managed to publish it somewhere, I bet that the reaction to its ethics will influence the evaluation of its scientific value. (Look at the reaction to any research results related to emotionally-charged topics. In this case it would be harder, because the reaction would be almost all-negative.)
Third, many people can think that if you are OK with one breach of ethics, you may be OK with breach of scientific procedures, or any other fraud (to support one's view of world, for fame, etc...).
> After 15 years, he publishes a paper and confirms that there is a set amount of characteristics that can be transferred via genes.
I bet:
* if you show that some traits are genetic, it won't be recognized (claiming that you are a racist),
* if you show that certain genes are responsible for certain traits, this result may be recognized (as it is easy to test it, and in more ethical way).
My personal stance is that all data should be used. (All in all, we use historical data from wars and atrocities, rather than forgetting the history; we can't change the past, but we can change the future.) However, creating lack of incentives to pursue highly unethical research might be worth it.
# Answer
> 0 votes
I think Jacob Krall's comment is worthy of an answer:
> here's also the question of reproducibility: where on earth will you find a second evil scientist who also happens to share research interests with the first?
Setting aside any legal consequences that may happen to the researcher, any study that doesn't have reproducible results is not going to alter the opinions of many. If the results are interesting enough, perhaps someone will find a way of testing it legally (perhaps with non-human subjects?), and so an and so forth, just like any other study.
There have been quite a few "studies" performed that would be illegal under today's law, yet the results from them have not been discarded. I see no difference in this case (with regards to the research).
# Answer
> -3 votes
To get some perspective, what if this doesn't happen in academia but in "real life"? If the person "conducting unethical research" is a police officer searching your home without a warrant, and the "positive result" is that he or she finds conclusive evidence that you committed a crime?
In that case, the rule is that this "positive result" cannot be used in any way whatsoever. Not only can the conclusive evidence not be used in court, it cannot even be used as a reason to investigate you further.
That seems to be the correct way to handle the situation in academia as well: The results of unethical research should be completely ignored, so there is no motivation to conduct unethical research at all.
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Tags: research-process, ethics, research-misconduct
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thread-31216
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31216
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Can I get into a top 50 school with a bachelors degree from an unknown state college?
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2014-11-05T19:35:32.077
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# Question
Title: Can I get into a top 50 school with a bachelors degree from an unknown state college?
I went to a relatively unknown state college for my Bachelor's degree. I've been working in the field for about 5 years now, but I'm interested in going back for a PhD.
Would it be nearly impossible to get into say, MIT or Carnegie Mellon given where my Bachelor's degree is from?
Also, how much does work experience account for in the selection process? For example work related patents or product development work.
**Edit**
Some of this question is duplicated see How handicapped am I in graduate admissions if I graduated from a lower tier university?
I would like to focus more on how relevant work experience can aid in the selection process.
# Answer
The answers to these questions are very dependent on the field of study. My perspective is mostly from economics and some statistics, so things might be different in other fields.
From an unknown school, it will be very difficult, but not impossible, to get into a really top program. Top programs tend to be risk-adverse, and you're facing pretty stiff competition in the applicant pool.
The biggest issue is that they are going to have a difficult time evaluating the difficulty of your coursework. Assuming you get that far, you're often going to be compared to a second-tier candidate from a top university. They know exactly how to evaluate the latter's grades and can even compare him/her to past students from that school. You will be much more of an unknown, which is not a good thing.
To make up for this, you're going to need exemplary letters. But that's the second issue, your access to great recommenders is more limited than someone at a top program. Letters of recommendation are often put in context by comparing them to previous letters from the same person, and here you might run into the same issue as evaluating your grades. Personal and professional relationships can also come into play, and your recommenders are less likely to be well-known in the field. Letters from people who aren't active researchers are much less valuable as well, and depending on the college you might not even have good access to active researchers.
At minimum, you'll need near-perfect grades in the most difficult courses offered. This probably means being one of the "superstar" students at your school, easily the best in your class. You'll also need fantastic letters from the top *researchers* that you have access to, and, for econ at least, significant research experience.
For your second question, general work experience is worth almost nothing in economics. All that matters is *research* experience. If the work you're doing isn't contributing to something that will eventually be published in a peer-reviewed journal, then it's extremely unlikely that it will be helpful.
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I should also mention an option that is often available in economics, though I don't know if other fields have analogues. And that is to take a job as a research assistant for a professor or research group. These are often 2-3 year jobs that offer a chance to do real research with just a BA. Ideally, you could apply to graduate schools in two years with a coauthored paper on the way and a fantastic letter of rec from an active researcher.
Classic examples in econ are working for the Federal Reserve or for a professor's research group (example).
> 6 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions
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thread-31195
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31195
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How should a teaching-assistant calm his anxious student down in an exam?
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2014-11-05T14:41:01.253
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# Question
Title: How should a teaching-assistant calm his anxious student down in an exam?
At the class quizzes or at the mid- or final exams, I can see that some students are too anxious and nervous. They are not really weak students but too much anxiousness brings their efficiency down and they even may fail their important exams. In one of our important exams I could see that a student was so nervous that he could not really sit on his chair, another one was so sick that needed to go to the bathroom or see a doctor. This may happen once per year but seeing such uncomfortable students is so sad. I really feel that I have to help them as I am their teaching-assistant.
As a teaching-assistant, when I see that there are one or two nervous students at my class; if they feel they need to consult about their anxiety I try to calm them down before the exam by talking to them privately after the class and if they are good students, remind them that they are perfect students and should not allow nervousness to ruin their exam's mark; and explain their academic potentials and their perfect progress to the professor. Of course I don't have any knowledge about anxiety, so I don't talk about their nervousness problems and I ask them to see a doctor who can help them. I only try to talk and help them with their problems in the course I am teaching. If the student does not have good academic progress and I see that his anxiety is because of his academic performance, I spend more time answering their questions in the office hours when I am at the university.
At the exam session, when I see such students; If they need and ask for something to eat to relieve their anxiety I try to bring them a bottle of water and some sugar to help them feel more comfortable and answer their questions more relaxed.
However, I can not really give them extra time to solve their questions as it may be not fair to other students sitting the same exam or help them giving some clues over questions. Also, I can not give them some extra mark because of their nervousness because I think it is not fair at all.
As lecturers, teachers or even TAs who may have experience about this; could you please share me your experience and what you did about such anxious students?
What do you do about such nervous students to calm down and feel better at the exam session?
# Answer
> 29 votes
I appreciate the gestures but I don't generally agree with the stated actions:
> I try to calm them down before the exam by talking to them privately after the class and ***reminding them that they are perfect students*** and should not allow nervousness to ruin their exam's mark
I would avoid doing that because it's borderline patronizing. It's impossible that all of them are perfect students and if you just talk to some of them who are nervous, that would not reflect well on the instructor from the angle of being objective and fair.
> At the exam hour, ***when I see such students; I try to bring them some water and sugar*** to help them feel more comfortable and answer their questions more relaxed.
Also awkward. By doing so you're singling out the seemingly nervous students. I don't oppose distributing some candies/snacks before hand but I don't agree with delivering food and drink to students who look like nervous.
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Here are what I usually do to lower their anxiety:
1. Evaluate if examination is the best way of approaching the assessment, and if there are alternatives. Can the exam be distributed as three smaller tests? Weekly quizzes? Final project? I often use the students' likely career settings as a benchmark: Will they be more likely asked to write an analysis report with access to information, or trapped in a room to recite formula? etc.
2. Allow a one-page, self-prepared notes. It's a good compromise between closed-book and open-book. The actual benefit, however, happens when they were preparing for this piece of notes, as they have to actively digest and evaluate the information.
3. Incorporate questions that do have an absolute answer, but focus on showcasing thought process. Emphasize that there are some questions that have no absolute right or wrong answer, but merely to test the reasoning skills of the candidates.
4. Play some soothing classical music in the background prior to the start of the exam, and then fade it down before the starting time. Bach's work well... Vivaldi's four seasons work nicely as well.
5. Make some past questions available, or at least provide some mock example questions. This is to get rid of anxiety caused by unfamiliar format and types of questions.
6. Progress from basic, memory-based questions to more elaborated questions. Try not to strike too hard at the beginning. Build up their confidence through recalling some facts/definitions.
7. Clearly delineate the points allocated for each question. This is to ensure that they know they should stop before writing the 5th sentence for the 1/2 point.
8. Lower the proportion of final grade attributed to exams. Avoid having final exams bearing too much weight.
9. Invite seemingly collapsing students for a short break, and let them make up for the time afterwards. I have only done it once. The student was in serious distress: panting, red and teary eyes, heavy patches of sweat soaking through the shirt (room has AC.) I invited the student to go out for a chat, and the student immediately broke into loud crying once I closed the door. I and another TA gave the student some prep talk (aka, try your best, the past homework has shown that you can deal with the questions, etc.) and a 10-minute calm down. We let the student have 10 more minutes at the end. The student did manage to pass.
# Answer
> 6 votes
*I'm writing as someone who is very nervous in exam conditions - though I'm e.g. perfectly fine giving a conference talk with a large audience and answering their questions. Also, you'd hopefully not be able to identify me as being nervous: I try very hard at least not to show it, and I'm told that I'm generally successful at that.*
My recommendations have less to do with dealing with particular students but with general guidelines that I'd summarize as:
**Be (or become) a good examiner, and get known for being professional and fair in your exams**. Lots of nervousness is caused by the examiner having a reputation to be unpredictable, arbitrary or unfair
* To put it drastically, make sure what you examine are the students' professional capabilities and only those: unless it is a practical course on psychological warfare, the exam should not measure the students' resistance to psychological attacks\*.
Counter example: I've been asked in one of my final oral exams "Now I have a question that I got in my PhD defense and also couldn't answer: ..."
* Make sure your questions are well posed.
+ Do not ask questions that not only require the student to have the "professional knowledge" but also to be able to guess what piece of knowlege the examiner could possibly be driving at.
Big alarm bells would be students asking back "Are you driving at XXX?" or the like - though you'd probably never get such a feed back from timid students. In written exams, an (also late) alarm sign would be if you encounter correct answers about different topics.
However, knowing that such a problem exists already allows you to re-examine your questions.
+ Try very hard to avoid wrong or misleading questions. This will happen once in a while, but really try to catch such questions.
As TA I once had to correct a question "Should *this-and-that* be done *this way* or *that way*?" where in fact each way was correct for different subgroups of *this-and-that*. Such a question has several undesirable consequences. One is: students who have at least an intermediate level of knowledge (e.g. who could correctly give examples for "When should *this way* be used?" and "When should *that way* be used?") would typically expect that the "or" is actually a XOR from the way this form of questions works in my culture (written answers, not multiple-choice). Unless they are so confident in their knowledge that they dare to answer "both" or "it depends", such a question causes unneccessary stress because students start questioning their (correct) knowledge during the exam.
(As for the concrete situation, none of the \> 100 students answered "both" or "depends", but a large number did not answer at all. The answer to "What answer does the professor want to hear?" was *this way*, which was also the predominant answer the students gave.)
Having a buch of TAs doing the exam beforehand would probably have caught the problem.
* Refrain from jokes and surprises.
+ I once had an important oral exam where the professor sat facing me across the table and an assistant sat beside me writing minutes. At some point the professor suddenly said that now they're changing roles and the assistant is going on with questioning me. IMHO that was a totally unnecessary cross questioning situation.
Side note: I'd also avoid having examiner and minute writer sitting at 90° one right one left of the student. IMHO the "sitting at 90° relieves tension" advise doesn't hold for being "surrounded" at 90°.
+ Another counter-example: Oral exam about some legal stuff. Examiner declares at the beginning that he'll accept only answers as correct that literally cite the respective portion of the law. Explanations in own words will be counted as wrong. He'll give an allowance for the number of words that can be used for each answer (order of magnitude was 10).\**
(Just to be clear: this turned out *not* to be a joke)
+ I'd even be cautious with @Penguin\_knight's classic music and at least tell them beforehand that you'll do that and for what purpose. People do get nervous also by what is meant to be a *nice* surprise.
+ Here's the one exam surprise I liked so far: typewriting class leading up to a certificate. The teacher explained that in her experience people are so nervous in the exam that the results are considerably worse than normal excercises (of the same form). She'd therefore "smuggle" the exam in someday without telling us so we'd think it was an excercise - and that's what she did: at some point she collected the excercises with "congratulations, you've just done the first part of your exam".
* Be reasonably predictable in what you ask, i.e. keep inside the curriculum with the topics. This doesn't mean that you cannot or should not test the reasoning and transfer abilities of the students, but it should clearly be connected to the topic of the exam.
Counter-example: one of the examiners for our 2nd year oral exams had a reputation that he'd e.g. ask about thermodynamics and chemistry of a supernova if his morning newspaper wrote something about supernovae. While his research focus was on astro-physico-chemistry, I still don't think that this was covered by the physical chemistry 101 curriculum.
* I'd also consider it good to explain to the students what to expect.
One of my final oral exams had reliably left anything that had been covered in the courses after ca. 5 min. Since then I know how a lemon must feel after squeezing, and I had no idea whether I had passed or not (gave lots of wrong answers, most of which I was able to correct at a second attempt, though). I got a mark a fraction below the best possible mark and the examiner *afterwards* told me that he examined me for the best mark due to my record and that he was sure I know what was covered in the courses so he needn't examine that. I'm not entirely sure, but I think it likely that having this explanation been at the beginning of the exam would have made the experience somewhat less unpleasant.
* However, I don't see anything wrong with unusual (more realistic) exam settings *if they are trained before*:
I once had a teacher who explained that she wants to train us for real life situations and that she'd therefore include lots of irrelevant information alongside with the relevant information so we could not guesstimate the correct calculation from the given values and that part of our exam was to extract the relevant information (this usually came in the form of a general purpose collection of tables we used for 2 years of courses). We did use the same material in the lecture.
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* another type of course where I'd consider psychological stress (particularly as to answering *fast*) as adequate would be practical exams dealing with emergency situations. But then the course should have practically trained corresponding situations.
\** This was not in a university setting but a certificate course with a kind of once-off customer situation: if you need the certificate you have to take one of these, but basically noone will ever have an occasion to go back there again.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Your actions are well intentioned and I appreciate your nurturing nature. I wish academics were more like this sometimes. I think the way you attempt to ease students' nervousness may not lead to your desired outcome for all students.
> "talking to them privately after the class and reminding them that they are perfect students and should not allow nervousness to ruin their exam's mark"
This can increase stress and anxiety. Anxiety is a complex phenomenon which is not usually solved by telling people to be less anxious. In fact, by pointing out that their nervousness can hurt their grade, you are giving them one more thing to be anxious about (their nervousness). In my personal experience, deemphasizing the grade improves anxiety more than telling them how harmful their anxiety is. Mention that college is about learning and that a little bit of anxiety is healthy and that in the long run grades don't matter too much. Just study hard and do your best.
> when I see such students; I try to bring them some water and sugar to help them feel more comfortable and answer their questions more relaxed
This may be helpful for some but you again might be increasing some student's anxiety here. I get anxious before tests and I know that I would be embarrassed if the TA brought me water and candy and didn't do that for every other student. I'd feel singled out. In addition, it really isn't clear to me that sugar would decrease anxiety for students. Like anxiety, nutrition is complicated and others may react differently to sugar than you do. Also, you have to be concerned about allergies. You mention in your comment that the students ask for this. That definitely changes things, but I would avoid giving out anything to students who don't ask for it.
Talking with students who appear nervous after class is great, but I would shy away from lecturing them about anything related to how their anxiety affects their grade. Instead ask them how they feel before an exam? If they respond with something that concerns you, you can ask them if they have considered inquiring with student services about special exam accommodations (common in the USA). Remember that you are not a healthcare professional and it is potentially harmful for you to act too much like one. It is great that you show that you care about your students, but sometimes it is best to let the student talk to people who are more qualified to address these issues. You should be able to direct them to these people if they need it. Sometimes there are people in charge of "study skills", or "disability services" or a "learning skills center". Contact your department and seek these people out so you have the appropriate contacts available.
Note that some people have a lot of anxiety and don't visibly show it and others who look extremely anxious may actually be fine. I'd announce to the whole class "If you feel you get very anxious before exams and it affects your performance, feel free to schedule an appointment with me so we can talk about it."
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Tags: teaching, exams, teaching-assistant, health
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thread-18637
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18637
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Do admissions care how close a TOEFL score is to the minimum?
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2014-03-28T11:16:36.290
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# Question
Title: Do admissions care how close a TOEFL score is to the minimum?
I work with some students who will attend graduate school in the US. The schools they are applying for list minimum required TOEFL scores. Some have just reached the minimum scores required for admission to their schools of choice. Do admissions departments ever care about how close this number is to the minimum? In other words, will the students be at any greater advantage if they retake the test and get a higher score, or is the "score level met" simply a "met" or "not met" variable that goes into deciding whether or not the students are accepted?
# Answer
The answer is "sometimes."
Some schools will not care what the score is, as long as you have the minimum requirement that they advertise publicly.
Some schools won't care, even if you *don't* have the minimum requirement (they may "waive" this requirement routinely).
Some schools will care: they may have one public requirement, and a higher (unpublicized) threshold that they *really* use in most cases. (Or: the school has one minimum and the department has a higher, unpublicized one.)
Some schools will care: the minimum is required to get your application looked at, but even if it is met they still consider the score in admissions decisions.
> 22 votes
# Answer
In addition to other useful remarks made: in my university, a minimum TOEFL score is considered a problem, to the extent that it drags down everything of the file. Partly this is based on our past experiences with such scores (statistically, over 30+ years) and the subsequent improvements-or-not. Specifically, minimal TOEFL score people seem not to usually improve much at all, even after a few years. Oof. Of course this says nothing about any individual, but we predict based on the statistical aggregate...
The minimum set by the umbrella "graduate school" body that imagines it oversees graduate education and degrees across the university has lower expectations than our math dept. I cannot speak for other depts.
And, indeed, both higher and lower TOEFL-score kids who associate almost entirely with their home-language population outside of teaching and classes simply do not improve, do not learn finer points of colloquial English, etc. On one hand, I'm somewhat sympathetic to cultural dislocation... but if the issue is job performance, then we can see the obvious issue: cultural extraterrestrials are rarely effective in teaching.
> 10 votes
# Answer
Almost 20 years ago, I was in charge of graduate admissions for my department, and TOEFL scores were among my biggest headaches. They just didn't provide the information I really needed: Can the applicant succeed not only as a student but also as a TA in first-year calculus or pre-calculus? (TA positions were essentially the only financial support we could offer foreign graduate students.) I remember two students in particular. One had the highest TOEFL score I had ever seen, but I had great difficulty understanding her, and I'm confident that I can understand "foreign English" significantly better than our calculus students. The other student had a TOEFL score barely above the university's minimum, and she was admitted only because one of our faculty vouched for the reliability of a professor who had worked with this student and vouched for her ability to speak English well. This student was, despite her TOEFL score, indeed able to speak English well, and she even served as an intermediary between some of the department staff and some of her fellow students whose English was not so good (though their TOEFL scores were better than hers).
My department also requires applicants to provide a letter from a native speaker of English, attesting to the applicant's ability to teach. (We sometimes stretch the meaning of "native" a bit, for example to include me.) These letters are often more useful than TOEFL scores, though sometimes the language of the letter sounds so foreign that I get suspicious.
Returning to the actual question, unfortunately what departments do with TOEFL scores depends not only on the particular university and the particular department, but even on the particular person or committee that happens to be handling graduate applications. I can easily imagine that my successor as associate chair for graduate studies treated TOEFL scores differently than I did and thereby avoided some headaches).
> 7 votes
# Answer
What ff524 said, but I will add that if you are interviewed they will judge you by that. It's reasonable since if you have the TOEFL with good marks but have already forgotten half your English, you are deemed unreliable, if you failed it on the other hand, but are at ease with English, it is easy to understand that you probably failed the essay or had a bad day. What they see with their own eyes is more important than an exam taken some time ago under who knows what circumstances.
> 6 votes
# Answer
I would agree with "sometimes." Usually departments will set these criteria, not schools, based on the success of students who have a given score. But once that bottom is set you meet it or you don't.
> 3 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, language-exams, toefl
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thread-31197
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31197
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Is it safe to give all the papers mentioned in my statement of purpose in my writing samples?
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2014-11-05T15:19:36.713
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# Question
Title: Is it safe to give all the papers mentioned in my statement of purpose in my writing samples?
I am applying to US doctoral programs.
I have decided to mention especially four papers in my statement of purpose, so I have to present them in my writing samples. As a consequence, my writing samples take almost a hundred pages. Nevertheless, I make them into one pdf file.
Then my concern is if lengthy writing samples would instead hurt my application?
# Answer
> 2 votes
To point to a specific program at a top ranked school (whose requirement I happened to know off the top of my head), Stanford's Political Science admission requirements specifically state that the writing sample should be 20-35 pages (double spaced). Additionally, you can submit more than one sample if you don't have a longer essay to submit. For example, two 10-15 page papers instead of one 20-35 pager.
https://politicalscience.stanford.edu/graduate-program/prospective-students/phd-admissions
I don't know how strict they are about the 35 page upper limit, but I think 100 pages is going to be far more than any department will want. Of course, this will depend on the program, but Stanford is a good example of a top-tier school with top-tier expectations.
Also, Stanford is the only program I've seen that even suggests submitting more than one writing sample. Most application forms will likely only accept one document, so unless you condense multiple documents into one, you're not going to be able to submit multiple samples anyway. I would suggest just picking your favorite and submitting that.
# Answer
> 2 votes
The writing sample is to show a *sample* of your research. Just because you mention multiple papers or projects in your statement of purpose does not mean you need to include them all in your writing sample. Pick what you think is the single best paper and include that. (As jonescb suggests, if the application guidelines give a page limit, and you have several short samples, you could consider including more than one, but only if their total length is less than the stated page limit.)
Do not (as you suggest in your comment) "exploit" the writing sample to stuff in as much of your research as possible. If you have published, that will show up in your CV. If your samples are not published but were, for instance, written as class papers, that will show on your transcript in the list of classes you've taken and how well you did in them. The writing sample is not supposed to be "proof" that you've done everything you talked about your SOP; it's just a sample of one thing you've done.
Even if the ocmmittee does look at your overlong writing sample, it will probably be perceived negatively. A person who tries to stuff the sample may be perceived as unable to focus on a single topic, or as trying to show off how much they've done. At the least, you will probably be perceived as someone who did not pay attention to the application directions (which, in my experience, usually use the world "sample" in the singular and give a rough page range), which never helps.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I would not put more than one in a writing sample, and I would even attempt to avoid that at all costs. If they are published or are working papers available online, then you should include citations and/or links in your statement of purpose and resume/CV. Otherwise, I would not include them in your application at all.
Though this is with the usual disclaimer that the answer probably varies by field. This is mostly from an economics perspective.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, writing, united-states, statement-of-purpose
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thread-31236
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31236
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Number of months a year that faculty get paid in UK and Australia?
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2014-11-06T01:15:29.707
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# Question
Title: Number of months a year that faculty get paid in UK and Australia?
I've heard that faculty usually gets paid for 9 months in the US and you need to use your own funding to pay for the missing 3 months.
Is this situation different in the UK and Australia?
# Answer
In the UK, you get paid 12 months a year. I'm not actually aware of any other country that uses the US 9-month system.
> 10 votes
# Answer
In **Australia**, if you have a permanent position as an academic at a University, you would typically earn an annual salary. This would typically be paid fortnightly, every fortnight of the year. This assumes you are working for the entire year (except of course for annual leave, public holidays, etc.).
Of course, there are plenty of causal academic roles such as research assistants, teachers and so on. These are often linked to the completion of specific roles. For example, if you tutor a unit, then you'll typically be paid for the amount of teaching you do and only for the weeks that teaching is occurring.
While we don't use the term "faculty" as much in Australia, I imagine when we do, it would typically apply to those academic staff on salary.
As a side note, Australian academics are typically allowed to earn additional income doing external work if their supervisor provides approval.
> 8 votes
# Answer
I don't know of anywhere other than the US that the 9 month contract system is used.
Under the US system you can (and many faculty do) typically arrange to have your nine month salary paid out in equal installments over the whole year. If you do this then any summer salary you can arrange (e.g. from research grants, teaching summer school classes, or administrative work) is "extra" money. Most faculty that I know budget to live off of their nine month salaries and then use the summer salary to invest into their retirement funds or to pay down their home mortgage or whatever.
There are some advantages to the faculty member in having a nine month contract. For example, you're free to use the summer to go on vacation or work for some other employer (lots of consulting work gets done over the summer.) Working on research contracts and summer school teaching are optional. The down side to this system from the point of view of faculty members is that there is no guarantee that you'll be able to get a full three months of summer salary.
From the point of view of university administrators, the advantage of the 9 month contract is that it helps to keep salaries down in comparison with 12 month salaries in industry. Universities don't need faculty to teach much during the summer, so why pay unneeded employees?
Note that fringe benefits (like health insurance, life insurance, etc.) cover the entire year including the summer when the faculty member is not on contract.
> 5 votes
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Tags: professorship, salary, united-kingdom, working-time
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thread-31224
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31224
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Assessing students in exams with negative points?
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2014-11-05T21:30:49.620
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# Question
Title: Assessing students in exams with negative points?
I've seen that some math teachers design tests which punish errors with negative points.
Why do they assign negative points? What are some pedagogical reasons why teachers might do this?
# Answer
> Grade that goes below zero doesn't make sense.
What makes you say that? In some real-world scenarios, thinking you know the answer and being wrong is worse than realizing you don't know. For example, I'd rather have my doctor or lawyer recognize when something goes beyond their expertise, so I can consult a specialist rather than following mistaken advice. I imagine the same is true for most professionals, such as engineers.
If not answering at all yields a grade of zero, then it's reasonable to award negative points for a truly bad answer. (Of course an insightful but flawed answer may still deserve a positive score, just not as high as the correct answer.)
In practice the most common case I've seen negative scores used is multiple choice exams, for the reason given by GeneMachine, but one can make a philosophical case for applying them much more broadly.
> 60 votes
# Answer
It's to discourage guessing, and to avoid mark inflation.
There are many discussions of negative marking available; here is one:
http://teach.southwales.ac.uk/assessment/negativemarking/
> 19 votes
# Answer
To give an (imperfect) analogy, on Stack Exchange posts can get negative points, thus making the poster *lose* reputation. The reason is to prevent users from posting low-quality posts in the hopes of getting a few upvotes. Downvotes force the user to only post if he's confident it's a good idea.
Similarly, giving points for correct answers on a test, while ignoring incorrect answers, encourages random guessing. Taking away points for wrong answers forces the students to be sure they really know the answer.
> 19 votes
# Answer
There are many positives and drawbacks to negative grading, even for free response tests. It encourages academic honesty and self assessment which are important for learning and discourages "BS" answers where the student knows the answer is wrong but is trying to confuse the grader into awarding some points. Some view "BS" answers as cheating. Unfortunately, negative points for wrong answers can punish students who are under-confident, and choose not to write an answer when they actually can demonstrate some understanding. It can also reward students for not even showing up to the exam if the test is hard enough.
> 8 votes
# Answer
I see two parts in this question,
> Why negative points? Grade that goes below zero doesn't make sense.
Negative Points can make sense, as a punishment. Grades below zero not so much IMO.
I have a lecturer, who gives us assignments before the exam, we hand them in and get some points for it. You then start your exam with that score, but if you fail a question you get negative points. This is for the reason that the exam only tests for topics we dealt with in the assignments. But you don't drop below zero.
This method prevents people from coping assignments from other students beforehand.
> 6 votes
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Tags: teaching, grading
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thread-31253
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31253
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What is the US style to list the advisor's name of a master's thesis?
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2014-11-06T09:05:00.157
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# Question
Title: What is the US style to list the advisor's name of a master's thesis?
In listing my master's thesis in CV I came across this problem: Should I put the name of my advisor in front of my name or should I put only my name (I have my advisor's name printed in my thesis) according to the US style?
# Answer
> 4 votes
I don't think you need to be too formal here. Just include whatever information you believe is relevant, for example:
> Master's Thesis: "Topic", at University X, supervised by Prof. Y.
Theses are different from regular publications anyway.
# Answer
> 2 votes
At least with the APA style, the advisor's name is not included. The example from the fifth edition of APA (my 6th edition is lent out) is:
Almeida, D. M. (1990) *Fathers' participation in family work: Consequences for fathers' stress and father-child relations.* Unpublished master's thesis, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
With a hanging indent that I can't figure out how to do here.
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Tags: thesis, cv, united-states
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thread-29506
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/29506
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How do you find interdisciplinary collaborators for your research?
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2014-10-06T22:34:58.277
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# Question
Title: How do you find interdisciplinary collaborators for your research?
I would like to know if someone knows whether there are IT solutions (websites etc) that help with meeting interdisciplinary researchers from local academic institutions (socal).
# Answer
If you really want them local, the best social network is actually being social.
You can either attend conferences and university events in your city, attend seminars at other departments (some are announced in their webpages), or just send a series of polite emails to researchers working in thins you want. Just list the departments that may be doing something you like, browse their personnel, and skim their last publications to see if your research interests may be aligned.
> 2 votes
# Answer
In my case, through my universities intramural cricket league! Seriously, getting to know academics in a social context not directly related to work is an excellent way to find people to work with, and if they are people you get on well with, that makes the academic collaboration more enjoyable and productive. Most universities have social clubs and societies (and e.g. language courses) that are open to staff.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I would suggest you try finding researchers on Academia.edu. Generally, you will find a whole host of researchers who have similar research interests and who are willing to collaborate. You also might try to find email or snail mail addresses of researchers you are already familiar with in order to establish links with them. If you don't attend conferences and network, I believe the above are viable options you should consider.
> 0 votes
# Answer
Attend a hackathon or tech event, or atleast attend the last day (presentation) of these events, you are bound to connect with people various background and research area.
> 0 votes
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Tags: phd, research-process, collaboration, interdisciplinary
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thread-31209
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31209
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Ignored Requests Open-Source Software from a Research Group
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2014-11-05T17:49:53.613
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# Question
Title: Ignored Requests Open-Source Software from a Research Group
For more than 6 weeks now, I have been attempting to contact a post-doc or their (former?) PI to request access to *either the source code or software* of a tool that was published in BMC Bioinformatics. The authors did not provide the source as a supplemental file, but assure the reader in the article that it will be made available upon request. This is the first time requesting source code of a research group, but I have yet to receive any kind of reply to my polite requests.
**I am unsure how to proceed.** Pursuant to the guidelines for publication in the journal, "\[i\]f published, software applications/tools must be freely available to any researcher wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without restrictions such as the need for a material transfer agreement." This group is located in Europe, and it is highly likely that they should have a working knowledge of English, after all, the publication and their websites are in English, so I don't think there a language barrier exists.
Possible actions that I am considering:
1. Contacting the managing editor for the publication to explain the situation, and see if his/her email attracts more of a response.
2. Contacting any granting agencies who have provided supporting funding for the project to determine whether they have stipulations about providing source code.
3. A phone call to the corresponding author.
# Answer
> 24 votes
I think contacting the editor of the journal is your best bet. Contacting grant agencies will most likely not warrant a reply, and I don't imagine many of them have stipulations for sharing code (yet).
That said, I have been in a similar position numerous times, and I have had very little luck every obtaining the code. The editor will most likely not be willing to retract a paper because the author's won't share, and they have little incentive to do so, since it will at most garner a single citation, but could lead to more problems down the road (e.g., the code is buggy and you can't reproduce their results, etc.)
Another tip would be that senior people (i.e., PIs) usually have more luck at this kind of thing because they are harder to ignore and/or have contacts, but it can be harder to get the to actually do it, because it can become political.
# Answer
> 9 votes
Stop. Do not do any of the things you are thinking of doing.
> The authors did not provide the source as a supplemental file, but assure the reader in the article that it will be made available upon request.
Have you thought that they need to polish the code before releasing it? The fact that I am planning to release my source code does not mean that I have to do it now or whenever suits you.
> Pursuant to the guidelines for publication in the journal, "\[i\]f published, software applications/tools must be freely available to any researcher wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without restrictions such as the need for a material transfer agreement."
I have seen journals like that in my area (CS). Still, this initial rule proposed when those journals came out, might atone through the years. Since in certain areas, conferences are the main publishing venue, journals sometimes "relax" their original rules to get enough submissions to get them going. So, I would not count towards this rule to pressure the journal or the authors of this work. Check out some other works on this journal. Do they actually released the code? If not, then releasing the code is the exception and not the rule.
Also, "software applications/tools must be freely available to any researcher wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without restrictions such as the need for a material transfer agreement." does not necessarily mean releasing the source code but just the binary or a web-application created from the code. Where did you make the assumption that they should give their source code to you? The word "tool" refers to full apps and not original uncompiled source code.
> Contacting the managing editor for the publication to explain the situation....
And what do you think the editor would do? Punish the authors because a random stranger on the internet tells him something bad about them? You can rest assure, this action will have little effect on the authors and only reflect bad on you.
> Contacting any granting agencies who have provided...
Why do you assume that under the rules of their funding agency they should release everything as open source? I have worked in many research projects in Europe and I have never heard of such a strict rule. Perhaps there are some projects or agencies demanding that but I do not think it is the norm as you suggest it is. In many projects, participants are commercial companies and they are usually not interested in sharing their work with anyone else (except the project partners and only during the project's duration). Enforcing such a rule would make all commercial companies to not want to participate and that is against the policy of funding agencies.
Have you ever stopped to consider that the PI perhaps relocated and did not get those emails? Are you 100% sure that the authors did not reply your emails on purpose? And even if they do, are you sure that they broke some rule as you assume they did? In your shoes, I would not be too sure. And starting a full-scale war, will do more harm to you than them.
Also if you want something, be nice. Sometimes it does not work. OK. Bullying people into doing what you want is not an efficient long-term policy.
# Answer
> 5 votes
It's perfectly possible that your polite request is sat in a queue of jobs behind several others. If you mailed them six weeks ago, then that would just about coincide with the start of the teaching term at many institutions (such as my own). That time of year is quite crazy, so it might just be that they haven't got around to it yet.
Failing that, do you know of anyone else who might need to use the software, and might also send a request? If people feel that their "product" is actually in demand, that might act as a spur to further action...
And, to reiterate the points already made, do not contact the journal - at this stage - and *absolutely* do not contact the funders until all other possibilities have been tried (and, even then, think very carefully about taking this action).
# Answer
> -1 votes
Do you absolutely need the source code or the tool they created to reproduce their work? If so, then I think them coughing up the code would be paramount for you and any other group wanting to pursue or validate their work. If not.. then try coding your own solution.
I know, I know, your logic may be that it would be easier to start with their source code and build from there. IE: see how they did it. But, what programmers since the dawn of time have learned is it's easier to start and build your own code then it is to take on and learn someone elses. That's why programmers love to go into new things saying "we need to start from scratch". It can be a royal hairball trying to untangle someone elses' code.
If their research provides a basic process that their code simply helps expedite, then try coding your own solution and see if it also works. If they said they would provide code-upon-request, contact them again, but remain friendly. This isn't something to burn a bridge over. Research teams can sometimes get pulled different directions (esp. depending on who they work for), and a past project may get filed away and all the resources they used for it (hard drives, email addy's, etc) may get mothballed. So, asking for the code may require someone spending time digging through archives and such. (In retrospect, if they say the code is available they should have tossed it on a publicaly available repo, so folks like you could grab-n-go without having to pester them). Research goals also change over time. The person writing up the thing you read may have though the code would be available upon request.. but, the folks that funded the research may have changed their minds ... perhaps they want to patent the code as a tool to sell later?
I think you should contact them again, and simply ask that you requested the code, haven't heard from them, could someone please let you know if the code availability has changed, and if so, why? Be polite about it. At this point you just want a response saying whether you might get the code or not.
# Answer
> -2 votes
I think you need to forget about how you do things on the internet and remember how you do them in the real world. The fact that you do not think they have treated you with the courtesy and respect you believe you deserve does not justify you treating them any worse then you would hope to be treated.
You have asked for something, you didn't get it. Move on.
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Tags: software, reproducible-research
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thread-31268
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31268
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Appropriate topics over lunch with an invited speaker
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2014-11-06T17:35:34.637
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# Question
Title: Appropriate topics over lunch with an invited speaker
There's a speaker coming to my university to give a lecture that all students and faculty are invited to. My department is especially interested in the speaker because he will be talking about a field that is closely-related to us. Students in my department were invited to join the speaker for lunch (which is before his talk). Given that we're all socially-awkward academics and that we haven't heard his talk yet (but we do have the abstract and his background), what are some appropriate lunch conversations? Do we discuss what he'll be talking about later that day or avoid the topic? While I am interested in his work, I don't know enough about it to start an intelligent conversation about something related to his topic.
# Answer
> 5 votes
There's always plenty of questions to ask. If you knew as much, or more than your speaker, you wouldn't need to ask it!
Questions that do not require a lot of experience in the field to be able to ask or understand and provide a higher volume of response. In addition, a lunch setting is less formal than a lecture, so you can use more open-ended questions not necessarily related to his talking point.
Here are some example questions that would apply to most fields.
* What do you think is the most promising research in \[the field\] you've seen recently?
* How did you come up with the idea behind \[topic\]?
* Can you explain the \[concept\] as it was related to \[the paper\]?
* I am a member of the \[department\] which is similar to your field. What have you seen in interdisciplinary topics that you find interesting?
With a specific field, you can also ask the speaker his opinion on \[new concept XYZ\] that you've learned about or read about.
Questions I've seen that are more "awkward" typically involve accidentally eliciting a direct yes/no answer along the way. Avoid "Do you think..." in favor of "*Why* do you think..."
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Tags: etiquette, seminars, social-skills, lecturer
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thread-31283
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31283
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How can professionals vet research ideas (and potentially collaborate) with academics?
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2014-11-06T20:55:50.513
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# Question
Title: How can professionals vet research ideas (and potentially collaborate) with academics?
I am a professional software engineer. In my downtime, I enjoy following some of the informal streams about advances in my field (Lambda the Ultimate for example, academic email lists, etc.) as well as more practical practices to keep myself up to date. Some of those practical aspects involve playing around at the edge of my knowledge/skill to try and advance it.
Recently I've had a particularly good idea that I've been able to turn into a workable prototype for something a little novel (as far as I can tell looking into past research). Normally, I would pat myself on the back and go about my life - or maybe post it to a blog. But this one falls into a realm that is almost entirely academic (Type Theory and Parsing). Nobody reading a random blog would understand or be able to extend/expand it into anything greater. On the other hand, I've read enough papers to know that I wouldn't be taken seriously by academics (or even skilled amateurs) without a boatload of formalism, that I honestly don't have (and may be beyond me).
It's been 20 years (and 2000 miles) since college, so contacting my alma mater's CS department seems to be not an option. These questions ask about how to get into doing research somewhat full-time, and their answers recommend actually entering a degree program at a research university. That certainly seems premature when I'm not particularly interested in doing research full time, and odds are heavily against this idea *actually* being novel or non-trivial to someone with more formal training.
This question is similar, but is asking more of "is it possible? how is it possible?". I know the options, but I also am pretty sure they won't do much, or I can't effectively do them. The answers point out the difficulty of being a solo outsider, which I readily acknowledge, even if I don't well understand how little I know about the difficulties.
So as someone well removed from university, how would I find someone to vet this idea - and in the best of scenarios, help form it into something respectable?
# Answer
> 3 votes
> odds are heavily against this idea actually being novel or non-trivial to someone with more formal training
That last line puts you way ahead of most amateur researchers. In my personal experience most of them follow this line of thought. If you're interested in talking about your idea with researchers, look up a prof in the field at a local college and write something like
> I'm John, a software engineer with an interest in research in your field. I've come up with an idea I think is interesting and would like to know more about it. I was wondering if you or a knowledgeable student might be interested in helping me understand it better. I know you and your students time is valuable, and I can offer some money if someone would be willing to help me understand this better. (Be sure to attached an explanation of your idea)
I've never had someone offer me money for help in an unsolicited email, but if I did, I would likely find a grad student who would really appreciate an extra $100 for explaining it. There may also be scholarly meet-ups a grad-student could direct you to.
Although it sounds like your expectations are not sky high, don't expect to have discovered anything revolutionary, and please be nice to whomever ends up helping you, and don't try to convince them you are an unrecognized genius toiling away in your basement.
EDIT: You might find math.stackexchange.com or codegolf.stackexchange.com to be useful.
EDIT 2: Any prof you send an email to will likely measure it against this scale for crack-pot ideas.
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Tags: research-process, independent-researcher
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thread-31286
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31286
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Why are 31.8% of retracted papers not noted as retracted?
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2014-11-06T22:45:09.200
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# Question
Title: Why are 31.8% of retracted papers not noted as retracted?
I read on *STEEN, RG. Retractions in the scientific literature: is the incidence of research fraud increasing?. Journal Of Medical Ethics. England, 37, 4, 249-253, Apr. 2011. ISSN: 1473-4257.* that:
> Journals do not do a careful job of alerting the naïve reader to a retraction notice (table 2). The most common way to alert readers about a retraction is with a watermark on the pdf (41.1% of retracted papers). A total of 149 papers were given such a watermark and noted as retracted at the website as well. Among 305 watermarked papers, 48.9% were also retracted at the website; of 248 papers retracted at the website, 60.1% were also watermarked. However, **31.8% of retracted papers were not noted as retracted in any way at all so the naïve reader would not be alerted to the fact that retraction had happened.**
How comes 31.8% of retracted papers are not noted as retracted?
# Answer
The only reasonable answer I can think of is "laziness".
In particular, when journals existed only in print, the only thing a journal could do when it retracted an article was to print a notice in a new issue. There was no way to modify or recall issues that had already been sent to subscribers. Some journals may still have retraction policies from that era, which don't contemplate trying to actually do anything to the original article.
Note that the article you quote is almost four years old, so matters may have improved in the meantime.
> 4 votes
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Tags: publications, journals, retraction
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thread-31310
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31310
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Impact of parameters in experimental results of paper
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2014-11-07T08:28:13.220
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# Question
Title: Impact of parameters in experimental results of paper
I am writing a paper in computer science literature. I have a method that has two main parameters. It turns out that one of these parameters does not have a significant impact on the quality of the results, but it has a big impact on the efficiency of the method. I have a question:
* How should I explain this in my experimental results section? Should I draw some plots and show that for different variation of this parameter the result is the same (this seems numb to draw some plots that all overlap) or I should write a paragraph and explain this phenomenon?
# Answer
> 5 votes
Actually, I had a programming part in my masters thesis in which I wanted to show that some parameters do not have significant impact on the results. This is what I did which seems to be a combination of your methods:
I drew a plot with all the parameter remaining the same except one parameter that I want to study on. Even if the variation of the parameter does not show any significant change in the results, it does worth to show the results in a plot. It is not important that all the lines overlap. At least the reader sees that the results are the same. But, in a paragraph or at least one sentence following the graph I would talk about this. You may write that all the plots overlap, because of this and because of that; and talk about why such results happen. Also, in the caption of the plot, write something that directly says something about such insignificance.
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Tags: computer-science, experiment-design
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thread-31316
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31316
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Vetenskapsrådet (the Swedish Research Council) international post doc - criteria
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2014-11-07T10:41:26.080
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# Question
Title: Vetenskapsrådet (the Swedish Research Council) international post doc - criteria
I'm currently working on finding some funding opportunities for a post doc project. I'm currently in my final (4th) year of my PhD in Uppsala (Sweden) studying evolutionary biology. I'm looking to do a post-doctoral project (in the UK).
Vetenskapsrådet - the Swedish Research Council - offers a fund for International Post Doctoral positions of two years abroad and one year repatriation in Sweden.
I am struggling to find any information about qualifying criteria, can anyone offer some insights about who can apply and what can be applied for? I have two questions right now...
1) Is it required that the PhD must be attained before applications are made or can I apply before being awarded my PhD?
2) Is the fund open to people without Swedish citizenship?
# Answer
> 3 votes
It appears this information is made available on the webpage once each call for applications has been issued.
On this webpage here you can find this year's call for applications. Or you can visit vr.se/inenglish and follow the links to Research Funding \> Apply for Grants \> Call for proposals \> Closed call for proposals, all past funding rounds are listed.
The last round of applications closed on 2 September, so you'll have to wait until next year. It looks like you need your PhD before the closing date. I can't see a specific mention of citizenship as a requirement (you can always email the research council).
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Tags: funding, postdocs, sweden
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thread-31315
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31315
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What is the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement?
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2014-11-07T10:07:46.383
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# Question
Title: What is the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement?
In this several times up-voted answer, it is suggested, among other things, that 'if someone using an image \[...\] that they do not own (it) is inappropriate and should be first reported to the PI of the paper and, potentially, the publisher if no action is taken.'
In my understanding, using images you do not own is not a good idea, it's *illegal* in many countries and the *owners of the copyrights* might react and claim their rights, but it's not plagiarism per se.
Let's consider the authors of an image processing paper who use a copyright-protected stock photograph to test their algorithm. They can cite the source of the image, in which case they would still be infringing copyright. But let's say they don't: they are not claiming that the photograph is their own, they just figure the readers won't care.
**Edit:** I recently came across a paper where it was written that images were from a commercially available CD of example images, without saying which one. In this case it's clear that they do not claim that they generated the images themselves but they didn't give any reference.
Is this academic misconduct that should be reported?
# Answer
To the best of my understanding the two differ in the following way:
* **Plagiarism is primarily an ethical issue:** it refers to a false claim of creative work.
* **Copyright is primarily a legal issue:** is refers to use of a work without a legal right to do so.
They can be confusing to differentiate because a person committing one is also often committing the other as well. However, it is possible to violate copyright without plagiarizing and to plagiarize without violating copyright. For example:
* Darwin's "Origin of Species" text is old enough that it has entered the public domain, and thus is no longer protected by copyright. A person who claimed chunks of it as their own would be plagiarizing, but not violating copyright.
* If a person reproduces an image in a new paper with appropriate citation to its original but fails to pay the publisher of the original paper a $35 fee that publisher demands, then they have not plagiarized, but are in violation of copyright.
From a scientific perspective, plagiarism is a major problem, since it is a deliberate ethical violation that significantly undermines the credibility of the author. Copyright violations, on their own, are much less of a big deal, since they may well be caused by legitimate misunderstanding or disagreement about the interpretation of a minor unclear point in a gigantic wall of legalese.
Thus, in the example given of image processing being applied to an unattributed image: if the contents of the image are not of scientific significance, I would interpret it as primarily an issue of copyright and thus not a significant violation worth reporting (as a scientist).
> 15 votes
# Answer
The concepts of plagiarism and copyright are largely orthogonal.
Plagiarism is about taking credit for somebody else's work. You could copy and paste an entire book, and so long as you made it clear whose work it was, it would not be plagiarism. (although it would be a bad idea for other reasons!)
Copyright is about using a copyrighted work without permission. Briefly, any work that somebody creates is automatically covered by copyright, held by its creator. The copyright holder may sign that copyright over to another party (this is common when submitting to journals), or they may place a work in the public domain, but otherwise, any use of that work without a license can constitute copyright infringement (There are various exceptions to this, such as Fair Use, that depend on national laws in specific countries). Some works are licensed under broad licenses such as Creative Commons, which allows anybody to use the work for certain purposes. Others are not, and a specific license for a specific use must be obtained from the copyright holder.
Two examples: Imagine that I am building a presentation for an upcoming conference. For slide one I find a great image that is in the public domain, and I put it into my presentation and claim that it is my own work. In this case I have plagiarised, but not violated copyright. For slide two, I find another suitable image, but one that is not in the public domain and does not have any permissive license attached. I use it, crediting the photographer. In this case I have not plagiarised, but I have infringed the creator's copyright.
EDIT: Just realised that I answered the question in the title, rather than the (different) question in the question body. Strictly speaking I think that the authors of your hypothetical paper have both plagiarised the image and violated copyright with it. Whether this constitutes academic misconduct is a question that I shall leave for those with more experience in such matters.
> 2 votes
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Tags: publications, ethics, plagiarism, copyright, legal-issues
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thread-31302
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31302
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Editor indicated that if minor changes are made, paper could be published: what are the chances of publication?
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2014-11-07T04:40:54.980
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# Question
Title: Editor indicated that if minor changes are made, paper could be published: what are the chances of publication?
I am trying to publish a paper. This was the result of a summer's work in my spare time while working 40 hour weeks in a non-math related job. I received an email response from the journal that neither said the paper was rejected or accepted: I have been asked to revise and resubmit. I was given feedback by a reviewer to make some minor changes and the editor used VERY positive language and remarked that if the changes are made then it could be published in the latest issue.
However, at first I took this as great news, since this is my first real work. But, thinking about it more I started to worry that I had gotten my hopes up too soon.
Do I still stand a good chance of it being published?
Edit: Thanks for the answers.
# Answer
> 29 votes
Yes, if you've only been asked to make minor changes, the paper stands a very good job of being published.
Now you've got to work methodically, and be meticulous with the detail.
Go through each required change one by one. If it's not an unacceptable change, make it; and in a new, separate document - a log of the changes = write one or two sentences to describe how you've made the change (sometimes, a word or two, e.g. "spelling corrected" might be sufficient). If it would be an unacceptable change, write a few sentences in your log of changes about the basis on which you're sure it doesn't need changing.
Work through all these with any co-authors.
When you send the changed paper, add a covering note. In that, copy and paste each of their requests for a change, and after each one, add your sentences from your log of changes about either how you've done the revision, or why you haven't. Your editor may have sent you a proforma or template to fill in, that would do the equivalent job: if they have, use it.
# Answer
> 17 votes
In the journals that I deal with, even a request for major revisions usually means that a manuscript is on its way to acceptance: it is just a question of whether you are able to put in the time and additional work necessary to address the issues raised by the reviewers.
"Revise and resubmit," by contrast, generally means that the editor sees potential, but that there are too many problems to expect the manuscript to be able to move forward on the tight time schedule of a request for revision. It's a kind of (faint) compliment, actually, and you should take it as it sounds. I recommend treating a "revise and resubmit" as a request for *really* major revisions. If you get a request to revise and resubmit, take the reviewers seriously, and take your time revising until you and your advisor feel you have well addressed all of the issues that they raised. When you resubmit, your cover letter should explicitly mention the prior version and how you have addressed key issues raised.
# Answer
> 12 votes
Being asked to revise and resubmit is very common and you should not be discouraged by this but rather make the requested revisions and resubmit your paper.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I am a peer reviewer for a journal and have more than 10 publications myself. There is very high chance your paper would be published if you address the reviewers' questions and request. Make your points more explanatory where you do not want to change; sometimes the reviewers are not directly in your field of study and this is done so that a layman can at least understand your paper. Good luck with your publication hustle.
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Tags: publications, peer-review, editors, publishability
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thread-1980
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1980
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Should I do a second PhD in Canada or the US?
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2012-06-11T12:07:34.297
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# Question
Title: Should I do a second PhD in Canada or the US?
I am three years into a PhD in Germany in an interdisciplinary social sciences field (Global Integration/Global Studies), but I am quite disillusioned with the faculty and the quality of guidance here. Moreover, the academic job prospects are not very good after the PhD, and any other job, given EU regulations, is hard to get (I am non EU). Going back to my country, given the corruption in academics, is also not an option. I am thinking of dropping this, and applying for PhDs in Canada or the US.
Is this a good option? I would apply for single discipline such as political science. I am thinking of international business too, because my work is a policy relevant field.
# Answer
As a general rule, if your current degree program is not serving your needs/goals, then yes, you absolutely should look for other options. Hopefully the research experience you've gained in your current program will prove helpful in the future.
That said, you need to be careful in applying to a new program. A PhD application from a student already in a PhD program raises a red flag, especially if they are already fairly far into the program. Obviously the current program isn't working out for the student, but does that indicate a problem with the student (uh-oh), a problem with their advisor (but then why not change advisors?), a problem with the program as a whole (but then do we really want a student that was admitted to a dysfunctional program?), or something else? And even if there isn't a problem, why should we give a slot to someone who already has one elsewhere, instead of giving a new student a chance?
The best way to ameliorate these concerns, in my experience, is to get strong and supportive recommendation letters from the faculty in your current department. You also need to tell a convincing and *positive* story about why you want to move (for example: a shift in research interests that does not match the strengths of your current program). One thing you absolutely *cannot* write is "I want to move because my current program just isn't good enough."
> 12 votes
# Answer
I think as a bio PhD there is no shame to saying that "gee this journey is not going to end well", early into the journey (or even late). I discovered after a very long (which is normal) time as a grad student, when I finally did get out with my PhD, the job prospects were pretty bad and getting worse, and this is from a top institution. So after a long period of post-docing i finally gave up on the field alltogether, after sinking 13 or 14 years into it. I am now in IT and making far more, doing far more, and I get to see my family far more. I have done much more in 5 years than I could have done in a lifetime in academia. It just wasn't for me.
> 0 votes
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Tags: phd, united-states, second-degree, canada
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thread-31323
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31323
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Fine to put as an appendix to my statement of purpose the paragraph explaining the gaps in my transcripts?
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2014-11-07T12:27:56.403
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# Question
Title: Fine to put as an appendix to my statement of purpose the paragraph explaining the gaps in my transcripts?
I am applying to doctoral programs in the US, and, because I have two breaks in my studies as what shown in my transcripts, I want to find somewhere to explain these.
But I am concerned with that if I simply put this short paragraph explaining my breaks in studies somewhere in my application package as a supplemental material, then it may be ignored (would it?)! Thus I decided to include it in my statement of purpose as an appendix.
The number of the words in my statement of purpose is not a problem, for even when the paragraph is included, my statement of purpose still contains less than 800 words.
So would such deed of mine have any chances to annoy any member of the committees?
# Answer
Is there any way to turn the gaps into strengths as part of your narrative in the statement of purpose? If so, that is likely better than separating them in an appendix. For example, if you spent time in industry, did it give you a better appreciation of why you wanted to return to studies? If you took time off for personal or family reasons, did it give you time to reflect or experiences that have shaped why you want to return to graduate school? More mature students who are in a graduate program because they really understand what they want out of it are often highly appreciated by professors. If that is you, then embrace the gaps in your transcript and let them be (a small) part of your main narrative.
> 1 votes
# Answer
This would be fine. One fundamental point of the personal statement is to allow you to comment on anything unusual in your records (gaps in education, a semester when you got sick and had low grades, etc.)
In general, you can format the statement of purpose however you like. Using clear signposts (such as section headings) can make it much easier to follow.
Remember that the person reading your personal statement probably has a large stack of them to read, so making their job easier can only help you.
> 3 votes
# Answer
I would put such gaps in the diversity statement. That's what that optional portion is for -- showing how you are different from the norm. Many faculty prefer students who have had experience outside of school -- or who have left and then recommitted to coming back. So don't view this as just a negative.
When I read applications, I want the statement of purpose to be about the research you want to do. I do not like biographies -- the one's that start out with "When I was a little boy, I always wanted to be an \______" (or some similar iteration) get tossed out.
> 2 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions, statement-of-purpose
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thread-31371
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31371
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Required items for undergraduate's CV who is applying to grad school
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2014-11-07T20:02:04.137
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# Question
Title: Required items for undergraduate's CV who is applying to grad school
There are many guides for writing an academic CV available online, but nearly all of them are not clearly addressing undergraduates who are applying to graduate school. This group obviously need to include different items on their CV than those applying for a post-doc or a job.
I wanted to know the specific requirements of this kind of CV in addition to the general guidelines of writing an academic CV. specifically, I wanted to know that:
* **Should I include my *research interests*?** I understand that many senior undergraduates may not have specific research interests, but there are many others who *have*, and I think this can be a positive point in their application to research based programs.
* **Should I list courses I've taken in addition to my main courses**, that are important for the program? For example, during my undergraduate I have taken many graduate pure math courses (voluntarily), that are very important in the discipline I'm applying to. Should I list them under *Education* section?
* Should an *activities* section be included, in which my favorite, *relevant* activities are listed? As an example, I have written many *bots* in Python for daily repetitive Wikipedia tasks, and this shows my proficiency in Python (a positive point). Can I list under *activities* that I have written many scripts for Wikipedia?
* Should an *Objective* section be added at the beginning? (I will write and submit a statement of purpose separately)
* Is a *References* section required at the end of the CV? (I've already made all of the mentioned names in the CV a link pointing to their homepages)
# Answer
> 3 votes
From what I've heard, CVs/resumes do not get a lot of weight in application decisions. The vital information is available elsewhere (particularly in the recommendation letters and statement of purpose), and the rest is almost always fluff and/or unverifiable.
There's a few things that you should definitely do. Focus heavily on research experience and any tangible evidence of research potential. Provide citations/links to publications or working papers. Include academic honors, especially national ones, mostly because they are unlikely to show up anywhere else. Depending on the field, there might be other relevant information (e.g. patents in engineering).
> Should I include my research interests? I understand that many senior undergraduates may not have specific research interests, but there are many others who have, and I think this can be a positive point in their application to research based programs.
No. That's what your statement of purpose is for. There's no need to duplicate it here.
> Should I list courses I've taken in addition to my main courses, that are important for the program?
You can, but I wouldn't. That's what your transcript is for. Some programs will also ask for lists/descriptions of classes. If a specific class is particularly important, you should consider mentioning it in your SOP or getting the professor to write you a recommendation letter; putting it in your CV is unlikely to draw attention to it.
> Should an activities section be included, in which my favorite, relevant activities are listed? As an example, I have written many bots in Python for daily repetitive Wikipedia tasks, and this shows my proficiency in Python (a positive point). Can I list under activities that I have written many scripts for Wikipedia?
Will almost certainly be viewed as fluff. If you an activity is important enough to mention, then include it in your SOP.
> Should an Objective section be added at the beginning? (I will write and submit a statement of purpose separately)
No. Again, this is what your SOP is for.
> Is a References section required at the end of the CV? (I've already made all of the mentioned names in the CV a link pointing to their homepages)
No. Generally there will be a separate section for entering your recommenders and their contact information, so it is unnecessary.
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An exception might be when applying to fellowships. I suspect that some fellowships will consider leadership experiences, community service, and other factors that graduate schools generally ignore. Including these activities (e.g. varsity sports, student government, eagle scout, volunteering) might be helpful depending on the evaluation criteria.
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Tags: graduate-admissions, cv, undergraduate
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thread-26246
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26246
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Recruiting process time for assistant professor position in Japan?
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2014-07-22T14:42:21.407
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# Question
Title: Recruiting process time for assistant professor position in Japan?
What time scale is typical for the evaluation of applications for an assistant professorship in Japan?
# Answer
It depends on the position, but couple of month is a reasonable scale. If you go through the first round (your resume is picked, which itself easily a month), you are contacted for an interview generally at least a month before the interview. However I have seen cases when it took months just to appoint an interview.
Note that many assistant professors are getting jobs by internal promotions and not through public advertisement.
> 3 votes
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Tags: assistant-professor, recruiting, japan
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thread-31374
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31374
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How can I cite my dissertation in a paper that will be double-blind reviewed?
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2014-11-07T20:34:26.807
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# Question
Title: How can I cite my dissertation in a paper that will be double-blind reviewed?
A chapter in my dissertation has not been published in an archival conference. I am writing a paper based on the chapter for a conference that does double-blind paper review.
The paper will include pretty much the entire chapter, which presents a method, and will perform additional analysis of the method. The analysis on its own, without the method, is not enough to merit a paper. In the interest of the full disclosure, I should cite my dissertation. How do I do that without revealing my identity?
Is citing my dissertation without name and institution, just the title, appropriate or not?
I know there were similar questions recently, but none asking about the dissertation. The dissertation is different because it is a publication, a literature search will return a hit, but does not count as one, and is considered OK to publish chapter from in conferences and journals. The field is Computer Science.
# Answer
The challenge here is seems to be to ensure that if the reviewers *do* stumble across your thesis, then the failure mode will be penetrating blinding rather than accusations of plagiarism.
It is my belief that with an "extract" paper like this, the thesis should be cited in any case. In most cases, there will be some connection to other portions of the thesis that could motivate such a citation (e.g., a motivation or an application). I also think that it is good to explicitly acknowledge the relationship to the thesis, e.g., "This manuscript is based on work also presented in \[cite\]", though the customs of your field may differ.
Then you can appropriately blind the citation to the thesis, e.g., "Ph.D. thesis, blinded for review." This makes the relationship clear without violating blinding. At that point, you are preserving blinding to the best of your ability, and while a reviewer can certainly try to penetrate blinding if they want, you certainly won't run into any problems with misunderstanding about plagiarism.
> 16 votes
# Answer
Your goal is to publish. The conference apparently requires that review be double blind. I do not see any reason why you should care if the reviewer figures out who you are; simply cite your own work in the normal way. Then you will have complied with the conference's requirements because you have not explicitly identified yourself.
In my experience reviewers do not like incomplete citations.
> 2 votes
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Tags: citations, thesis, peer-review, anonymity
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thread-31364
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31364
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After long time without, three review invitations in two weeks. Coincidence, or do editors share lists of helpful reviewer names?
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2014-11-07T19:09:32.233
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# Question
Title: After long time without, three review invitations in two weeks. Coincidence, or do editors share lists of helpful reviewer names?
Being early in my academic career, I don't yet get many paper reviews. Until recently, I had reviewed two papers in two years, and rejected one invitation to review. My last review was completed some 10 months ago.
Two weeks ago, I agreed to review a paper. Since then, I have received two more invitations. In total, in the past two weeks, I have received as many invitations to review as in the two *years* prior to that. All are from different editors, but the latest request is from a journal for which I reviewed 2 weeks ago, and comes 2 *days* after submitting a review to a different journal.
Although I have not calculated the probability, I guess it is unlikely that the sudden string of reviews is a coincidence. I have the impression that accepting and quickly submitting a helpful review has *caused* the additional review invitations. Which brings me to the question.
Do editors within the same journal typically share with each other names of people who have written helpful reviews in the (recent) past? How about editors of different journals, that may or may not have the same publisher?
# Answer
> 14 votes
The journal editor (in chief) may not, but boards of editors have overlap and word does often spread that "X@Y is prompt, conscientious and fair."
Or it could be random entropy.
I wouldn't give it much thought. At best, you are being thought of as a good reviewer. At worst, it's a random quirk. Choose the interpretation that makes you happiest.
-- p.s. If you're feeling overwhelmed, it's entirely ok to tell a journal that you have to decline. Respond as soon as you can so that they can move on. Quick declinations (and referrals to potential other reviewers when possible) are also signs of good, conscientious colleagues. And I'm a strong believer that the good karma from these unrenumerated acts of conscientiousness will help in the long run.
# Answer
> 6 votes
In addition to possible sharing by editors, if the journals are by the same publisher or reviewing system, they may be sharing a database of reviewers and their expertise. Some journal management software lets you search for reviewers with related expertise, and also allows editors to give ratings to their reviewers. Thus, if you give a good review, the software may begin recommending you to editors in the same "family" of publications.
Between being a good reviewer and general growing notability in your field, within the next couple of years you may find yourself getting *many* review requests. It's important to set a boundary for yourself of how much time you want to invest in professional service, so that you can strike an appropriate balance between service and the rest of your responsibilities.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I guess it depends on the platform that manages the submission and review, but within the ScholarOne system as an editor or an associate editor there are additional filters that help you see when was the last time someone was invited for review, how many he has accepted/rejected, what is the average review turnaround time etc.
There are also two additional stats, the timeliness of the review and the relevance of the review that allow editors to essentially mark reviewers (rather simple system of 1-2-3) for a given review and which appear next to each reviewer. High averages, a good turnaround time and matching keywords in your profile make you a good candidate for a reviewer.
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Tags: peer-review, editors
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thread-31376
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31376
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Is it possible to find a PhD position in social sciences without having letters of recommendation?
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2014-11-07T21:48:53.643
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# Question
Title: Is it possible to find a PhD position in social sciences without having letters of recommendation?
I am a European scholar. I would like to do a PhD dissertation in USA on an original and unpopular subject from a social science standpoint. I would like to empirically investigate the subject, which means I need a not-very-rich grant for this research.
I would like to know if I can get a PhD position in social sciences with a scholarship/grants in USA based on my research proposal and with no references.
Also, could you point me to resources to find potential american advisers and possible equip of research just digiting keywords of the topic I am interested in, please?
# Answer
> 3 votes
It really does not matter where you come from. In general, to apply for a PhD program in the U.S., you need: application letter, resume, reference letters (usually 3), master's degree (mostly required), transcripts from bachelor's and master's program, and GRE score (many programs require it). In addition, TOEFL score if your native language is not English.
Most of the time, if you are admitted to a PhD program in social sciences, you will be granted with assistantship / scholarship at the same time. Mostly, it's an assistantship, which means you will teach or do something else for the department. The stipend of the assistantship usually is only enough for you to live, not for your research study. If you need funding for your research study, you have to invest your own savings, or get research funding from the department or other grant institutions, which is not easy to get.
For the resources, use Google or Google Scholar to look for related publications or scholars. Actually, it is a good strategy to contact professors for the research topic first. If a professor is interested in your research topic or finds you competent during the discussion, it will increase the possibility for the professor to accept you to his/her program. But, be carefully prepared, don't send email before digging into the literature.
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Tags: phd, recommendation-letter, united-states, social-science
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thread-31375
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https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31375
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PhD supervisor is not willing to co-supervise?
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2014-11-07T21:26:38.107
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# Question
Title: PhD supervisor is not willing to co-supervise?
I started my PhD two years ago on a specific problem. The problem is to **study** a given computer science structure **from one specific perspective**. My current advisor is an expert in that perspective and I got some results and publications with him.
However, during the last 6 months, I started to worry about my PhD thesis as there are no more room for *novel* results in that direction (several people tackled it recently). There are still some room for minor results and my advisor urged me to tackle them for my PhD thesis.
**I am no longer interested** in pursuing that direction **and** **shifted towards the other perspectives** of the problem as I believe there are still major results to come out of them. My advisor has no objection on pursuing these directions by myself (at the end he will put his name in whatever comes out of it!). Recently, I took a class with another professor and tackled one of the important directions of the problem as a class project and had incomplete but interesting results. The class professor was very happy with my work and advised me really well during the class semester to start tackling the problem. After couple of months of working, it seems I can really get something nice out of this.
*I started to believe that, for my PhD thesis, the best thing is to have the class professor as a co-advisor. This will allow me to put in action and test rigorously several ideas I have in the other direction and make my PhD thesis more valuable.*
I spoke with my current supervisor about the co-supervision but he insisted to make it as a *collaboration* instead of co-supervision. He has good relation with the other professor. And if it matters, I have my own external funding with no financial obligation from the current supervisor.
> What should I do in such case?
**EDIT on the collaborator vs co-advisor thing:** Because I had a specific problem and had a class with him (which makes it easy to work on the other direction) and the results were almost ready couple of months later, there was a collaboration. *My advisor is not willing to collaborate again* and urging me to do the minor results instead of pursuing the other direction. The reason I look for co-supervision is
1. Consult him in many scientific results I am not good at (neither my current advisor).
2. No commitment *in advance* for collaborations/ papers.
3. co-advisor may suggest a new perspective to the problem instead of accepting/rejecting what me and my advisor suggest.
# Answer
> 7 votes
I think @BobBrown summarized everything that needs to be said.
> Brown's Rule for finishing the Ph.D.: Listen closely to what your supervisor tells you to do and do it. You can do the other research later.
In detail:
* You have some publications from your cooperation with your main supervisor. Excellent.
* Publish another paper with your new collaborator, if you have not done already.
* Then do another paper (those minor results) with your advisor. Finish everything there is to be done on this direction fast.
* Finish PhD.
* Do whatever you want afterwards.
This is by far the easiest route to your PhD.
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Tags: phd, thesis, advisor, supervision
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