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2014/01/25 | 672 | 2,831 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm currently preparing an online tool for scholars, and part of that work involves creating a database with different categories for students at different stages of their college/university education (i.e. freshmen, second-semester juniors, first-year graduate students, etc). I'm struggling to find a standard classification system to use that would allow distinction between all of the stages in an undergraduate and graduate education. I could just use "first-semester senior" and the like, but if there's an existing standard - particularly one that even allows for students that don't use semester classifications - I don't want to complicate things with my own classification scheme.
Is there a convention, especially an international convention, that distinguishes between all or most of these stages in educational progress?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> 1) How hard is this switch going to be? I guess I've all the required
> mathematics background, but will it be hard to pick up the necessary
> computer science skills, even if I work in more theory-oriented
> problems?
>
>
>
**Not a problem**: picking up the math associated with ML. You've got the right background and you'll find it easy to understand the papers after an initial learning phase.
**Potentially a problem**: understanding why certain questions get asked and what's considered interesting. This is where mathematicians and computer scientists tend to diverge, and translating your intuition for questions might take some time. But a more mathematical mindset can also lead you to ask interesting questions that CS folks are NOT asking !
>
> What exactly are the programming knowledge I need to master to work in
> ML?
>
>
>
Depending on how theoretical the postdoc is, anywhere from **none** to R, python and matlab, and maybe even some distributed large-scale learning framework like GraphLab. But you should definitely get some familarity with the first three - ML is a good example of "no problem formulation surviving first contact with the data".
>
> 2) Is there a website/email-list where I can get notifications on jobs
> in machine learning? I'm looking for jobs in Europe mostly, but
> information on the US would also be welcome.
>
>
>
One good mailing list is [`ml-worldwide`](https://mailman.cc.gatech.edu/mailman/listinfo/ml-worldwide). Another is the Google group [`ml-news`](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ml-news).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: If you are a pure mathematician with background in geometric analysis there are interesting problems in the sub area of machine learning called "Manifold Learning" which requires quite a lot of Riemannian Geometry and intuition. Machine Learning is a vast area and it is a question of what suits you the best.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/01/26 | 818 | 3,483 | <issue_start>username_0: I am trying to decide between some math postdoc offers, and I can't decide what is important for a postdoc position. I have talked to several senior mathematicians including my advisor, but they all seem to have different opinions. I just want to hear some more opinions on the following:
* How important is prestige? Suppose that I have an offer from school X, which is fairly prestigious (something like top 10, which isn't a well-defined notion). Also suppose that I have an offer from school Y, which is not as prestigious but a better match research-wise. Suppose that the ranking of school Y is approximately n (again, not a well-defined notion). For which values of n should I choose school X over school Y? My goal is to become a tenure-track professor in a PhD-granting institution.
* What makes a good postdoc supervisor? I can think of the following criteria: compatible research interests, being well-known in one's field, compatible personalities, generous with time, etc. Am I missing anything else?<issue_comment>username_1: At the end of the day, the quality of your research is more important than prestige. I would go with the university that is a better research match.
As for what makes a good postdoc supervisor. I think this depends completely on the individual and how one conducts research. The two extremes are: hands off -- I have plenty of ideas and give me something to work on.
The best is a combination of the two. This shows you are able to work independently and work well with others.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: username_1 is absolutely right that at the end of the day, your results will be much more important than a name on your CV. I think being at a prestigious institution is very useful for getting a first look at your application (which is a f\*\*\*ing valuable thing, as <NAME> would say); if the rest of what's there doesn't stand up, getting that look won't help much.
That said, I would think carefully about how sure you are that institution Y really will provide a better research environment. Prestige tends to correlate (far from perfectly) with having an active department with a lot of seminars and visitors, which can often be more valuable than day-to-day contact with a single advisor. Having higher-quality students and colleagues can make you a better researcher.
I also think there's a lot to be said for the uncertainty of life. Maybe you'll go somewhere and whoever you were going to work with will get a job somewhere else, or have a baby, or go on sabbatical. Maybe you'll start a collaboration with someone you don't even know exists yet. It's all very hard to predict, and on some level you have to go with your gut. You could do a lot worse than just going with the most prestigious option, but if other factors seem to point another direction, I don't think you should just ignore them.
**EDIT:** I wrote this is a bit of hurry last night, and I realize it might be a bit unhelpful. However, it's honestly quite difficult to say anything general, and you indicate that senior mathematicians who know you and know what your options are cannot come to a consensus. To me this indicates that probably you will not be able to conclusively figure out where is the better choice. This is not to say it doesn't matter, but once the uncertainties are sufficiently large, one might as well flip a coin (or at least flip a coin until you get the answer you want).
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/01/26 | 1,580 | 6,430 | <issue_start>username_0: Since University of Alabama offers me full-ride scholarship, I will probably go to this school rather than more competitive schools, not because I'm poor but because it seems silly to me to pay $200,000 for merely an undergrad education, even though I can buy a house by that money. I'm going to get PhD, and the name of undergrad school doesn't matter in my career. I'm worried about research opportunity in the school since I want to excel in admission of PhD program, but I think I can make up for it with my enthusiasm and knowledge. I'm going to major in Biology, and I want to study about regenerative medicine and stem cell in grad school.
Until I will graduate from my high school, I will certainly have about 12 AP scores (mostly 5's) and be able to get about 50 credits, even though the school's graduation requirement is 120. It seems easy to graduate within 3 years (or even possible to do within 2 years), but graduating early seems to put me in a disadvantageous position in grad school admission. I can probably get 70 credits in two years, and then what should I do for the next two years? Can I concentrate on research for this period, or should I take classes to get about 30 credits per year? Should I apply for grad program in the third year and try again in the next year if the admission won't be successful?
If you have some opinion not only related to the topics about college credit but also my choice of school, please tell me that, since I still can change my choice of university. Other schools of my choice are such as Reed, Carleton, U of Michigan, U of Wisconsin, and U of Manchester. I'm an international student.<issue_comment>username_1: First of all, I know nothing about Biology at all. I can't comment on specifics. Instead, I rather say something about the comment:
>
> Do you think double-majoring using the available time gives me a significant advantage in my admission? Or should I just concentrate on the area which I will study in grad school?
>
>
>
You are far away from grad school yet. Undergrad education is for you to build the foundation of your academic career. You need to use it to broaden your knowledge base. Many courses can be benefit for you. You should consider taking the courses about humanities, fine arts, other sciences (math, chemstry, physics, computer science, etc.) and writing, etc.etc. Just don't limit yourself to a specific field. You won't know you're interested in something until you learn it.
The above is from the bottom of my heart. I wish someone would have told me this when I was an undergrad student.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: As a friend of mine once said: "Why you want to finish college early, man? The sooner you finish college, the sooner you face life!" (And he lived this philosophy, spending four years at the community college followed by two at a university.)
Don't worry about grad school just as you begin your undergraduate education. Take classes in things that interest you or that you think might interest you. If you have units from AP classes, great; treat that as opportunity to take a broader range of things that strike your fancy, instead of intro classes that you might have otherwise had to take for general ed requirements.
If by your third year you find you still want to go to grad school doing the same thing you mentioned, you can explore undergraduate research opportunities, etc.
Basically, my advice would be, if you have extra units coming in, use that flexibility to *improve* your undergradate education, not shorten it. If you decide you want to shorten it when the time comes, okay, but don't lock yourself into that plan now.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I think, for admissions purposes, unless you are a prodigy, staying 4 years will be beneficial. Of course, you could get in somewhere after 2 years but the competition for jobs is such that you want to be able to compete with other people in your situation (they do exist, I had a somewhat similar situation in that I came into my undergrad with almost a year of credits). You could take the opportunity to (when you are confident you are ready) take many graduate level courses in and around your field. I think a lot of people are overblown about anti-specialization. I took my upper division math and lower division math at the same time, often taking 3 math courses at the same time and I loved it, miss it now. I think you should pursue your current goal wholeheartedly but take 1, maybe 2 courses a semester outside of it (if your APs don't satisfy all your GENED or your department has weird requirements, this will happen accidentally) at least in the early going. If you decide to switch plans at some point, you will have engrossed yourself in hard material (coursework, labs), the skills of which will transfer to WHATEVER OTHER ACADEMIC PLAN. Of course, because you are in biology not math, your field is not self-contained but this can be adjusted for in course selection to that end. Also, you might consider taking only 4 classes a semester early on (or forever) but make sure they are hard-hitting, if you might have problems with time management incongruous with your intellectual aptitude (depending on financial aid requirements!).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: For an academically talented student likely to complete a Ph.D., the most important life decision will be where you go to graduate school. An undergraduate degree from Alabama, whether in 4 years or 2, is unlikely to lead to a good graduate school for you. I don't know your field, but in mathematics (my field) Alabama is among the worst places.
You should go to Michigan, which is the best choice academically of the ones you've listed. And wherever you are, you need to:
1. Get high grades, and take some graduate classes.
2. Get to know several faculty in your area very well.
3. Engage in research, and publish if possible.
4. Find some way to distinguish yourself, such as teaching experience or academic clubs.
A second major can be an insurance policy, and can open doors to graduate programs straddling the two areas, so is a good idea.
---
Followup: You should go to a Tier I institution, such as what [Carnegie](http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/descriptions/basic.php) classifies as "very high research activity" RU/VH. Alabama is not on that list.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer] |
2014/01/26 | 832 | 3,309 | <issue_start>username_0: How to highlight the changes I made to a text (report, thesis etc) to the supervisor? Red colour/adding bubble comments, you name it. I use Word.<issue_comment>username_1: In Word, you can use the 'track changes' function.
It depends a bit on the amount of changes you're making though. Track changes will mark every cut and paste, every comma and deletion of every double space. This can make it too difficult to read. Personally, I've resorted to just underlining the most important changes so that my supervisor can see them easily, and adding the occasional comment bubble.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If you are writing the paper in latex [use highlight](http://pleasemakeanote.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-highlight-text-in-latex.html) to denote sections that have been changed.
While it might be too technical for most people, I would suggest using Version control if your advisor is okay with it. [Why use version control systems for writing a paper?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5277/why-use-version-control-systems-for-writing-a-paper)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: If you use LaTeX, then, of course, it would be easiest if you and your supervisor would have access to the same versioning tool (e.g. git/mercurial/svn/...) where you both could check changes in the source code.
If you use LaTeX and your supervisor has no access to your versioning system then I suggest to use [latexdiff](http://www.ctan.org/pkg/latexdiff) to produce a pdf that has the changes highlighted in nice way (see e.g. this image  taken from [this blog post](http://crypto.junod.info/2010/07/03/latexdiff/)).
If you don't use versioning then: Start now! If you still haven't started, keep versions by hand and use latexdiff.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: As a starting point have a discussion with your supervisor on how they would like you to present documents with changes in them. Have you own research prepared so as that you can answer any questions they may have on what you are proposing. It may end up that you will us a combination of methods.
I think you would find that using the track change feature in word would be of great benefit to yourself but it does include every change so may not be of the best for your supervisor reviewing. You would have to change the settings to only show the changes that your supervisor requires or requests. Here is a good blog entry on [How track changes works](http://shaunakelly.com/word/sharing/howtrackchangesworks.html) and the feature explained from the [Microsoft office site](http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/track-changes-while-you-edit-HA001218690.aspx).
I know from my own experience I put in the footer of the document version number and date submitted (Draft V.1.0 27/02/2014). This helps you keep track of the documents so if you supervisor gets a new version they know there is significant changes to it. Bubble comments on the document explaining new or major changes to content can inform your supervisor of the major changes since the last draft.
Just as a note I am at the moment using Lireoffice (similar to word) but am considering switching to LaTeX. I am in a Humanities field (history)
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/01/26 | 931 | 4,132 | <issue_start>username_0: I am applying for a research grant which specifies that the proposed research should be novel and innovative. However without previous experience, it is not clear what degree of novelty is required. For academic publications the requirement is generally that the presented results should be non-obvious (novel) and making a significant improvement in understanding about the topic. For this reason straightforward incremental advances are liable to be rejected.
When considering grants, is a similar degree of novelty required, or is it expected that the proposed research is a new departure from what has has been done before? By way of example, say you have done research on a certain sample to investigate physical property A, would a proposal to investigate physical property B qualify as novel?<issue_comment>username_1: The dumb (but maybe best) answer is: It's what the reviewers and the funding agency regard as "novel".
In some cases, this might be true for your example (e.g in medicine, it can be very valuable to investigate just an other aspect), but in most cases you should aim for something which is significantly beyond the current scope of the field (but still reachable). It should not be a straight-forward engineering approach (since this is development, not research).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The purpose of adding words like "novel" and "innovative" is to weed out proposals that may be poorly researched and thus copying others or or involve repeating other works in a slightly different setting (or equivalent). The phrasings makes rejecting proposals easier since it provides a critieria (one among many) against which it can be judged. Funding agencies are also keen to see their funding go to research that can be judged to contribute "significant" results.
My experience says that what constitutes "novel" and "innovative" is difficult to assess in detail. In my field, environmental/earth science, some themes become "fashionable" or hot and signals these aspects, or rather absence means less likelihood to receive funding. These themes include finite element modelling (70s), acid rain(70s/80s) and climate change (currently). This can be seen as a communal will or interest to steer research in certain ways and so showing you can significantly contribute to these goals was/is more or less necessary to provide you with a good chance for obtaining funding.
So to define "novel" and "innovative" will be difficult. And, as a side point, your research either is or is not "novel" or "innovative", there are no degrees. You need to come up with ideas that are truly new (testing new grounds) or which promise results that are significantly advancing science but more importantly, you need to convince the reviewers in the funding agency about your case. This means to avoid "more of the same" proposals, to be sure your idea has not been worked on before (know your field).
A book, I strongly recommend for all is
>
> <NAME>., <NAME>., 2009. Writing Successful Science Proposals, Second Edition. Yale Univ. Press
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Scientific progress can be viewed as a shape something like a star fish, we have a core center of knowledge and some spikes of advancement in certain topics but relative lack of knowledge in other topics. To be novel, you want to have a proposal that exists on the cutting edge of this progress based on the context of your topic of interest. For example, Newton observing a apple falling from a tree and characterizing it as gravity was novel in his time, but someone today observing an orange falling from a tree and calling it gravity is just replicating work or at best an incremental finding, not novel. To be really novel, you integrate multiple topics of scientific progress and create synergy that advances our collective understanding in multiple topics. An example of this is the great polymath <NAME> who seamlessly integrated Science and Art. It is a lofty and somewhat irritating goal to aspire towards, never to be fully achieved.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/01/26 | 377 | 1,546 | <issue_start>username_0: I am applying for Postgraduate degree research but for that I need to submit a Research Proposal with the application and it is very confusing for me because I never did any kind of research before.
I have been a small business owner for the last 7-8 years and I want to do research in the same field (Entrepreneurship or small- or family-business related), but I just don't know how to narrow down and select a specific topic.
Can you suggest some guidelines to select a topic?<issue_comment>username_1: Why do you want to work as a Postdoc in this field? The answer to this question (as long as it's a scientific answer and not reputation etc.) can lead you to a good research topic.
Nonetheless, thechniques like creative writing, brainstorming etc. can be helpful, but this is a bit out of scope for this platform.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> I have been a small business owner for the last 7-8 years
>
>
>
Have you run into issues/problems in those 7-8 years? Are those problems specific to your own business? Could other business owners have the same or similar problems?
Can you **generalize** those problems so that you can conduct research on possible solutions to those problems in **academic** approach?
Can you find the causes of those problems from **academic** perspective? How would you propose to do so? Should the government play a role or not? How could the society as a whole participate? Etc. Etc. There are hundreds of topics out there. Take your pick. Good luck!
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/26 | 400 | 1,655 | <issue_start>username_0: I am trying to figure out if the following article is a primary or secondary source.
<http://genome.cshlp.org/content/20/5/547.full.pdf>
I'm leaning towards secondary but here are my cases for both.
Primary: Published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Secondary: It seems to be mostly a summary of other works so it might not be original research.
Can anyone confirm this for me? Thank you!<issue_comment>username_1: **Primary** source material is "direct evidence." This can include published reports of original research, but also journals, diaries, direct interviews, government records, and other types of "produced" work. (It need not be a research or scholarly work to be a direct source; thus the claim that it's primary because it's published in a peer-reviewed journal carries no weight in this argument.)
On the other hand, a **secondary** source is a source which reports on the work of others, whether it is published or not. Citing a secondary work does **not** make it a primary work; it's the relationship of the cited work *to the original subject* that determines if it's primary or secondary.
In this case, a "Perspective" column that summarizes ongoing work in the field is a *secondary* source, as it is analyzing the original work of others.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In case of review articles, the original sources which were used to create the text are the primary literature. But, if the author draws own conclusions, creates statistics, etc., this would be considered a primary source.
I'm not deep enough in the field to judge that for the article in question.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/01/27 | 551 | 2,399 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm writing a literature review for a project and due to the nature of the project (website and database) I haven't used any books etc. I have used a number of websites to get information on subjects such as hosting a website and a database using Azure, is it acceptable to use websites in a literature review?<issue_comment>username_1: You can definitely put into references the official user documentation of your web server and database engine, as this software have not been just invented by you from scratch.
While websites can also be used in references, it seems to me that you may need more in depth coverage. Try to Google and find some real publications. If the topic seems too broad, it should be some reviews. If there is a Wikipedia article, check which references it uses.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Website or not website is not the point. Printed journal articles are favored over website because i) they are peer-reviewed, carrying some degree of authority, ii) they are archived and retrievable, with payment or free of charge, and iii) once published, the contents do not change until they are formally revised, rebuked, or retracted.
So, it would mean that when citing websites, a few more steps need to be done to increase their worthiness. First, you'd need to assess the credibility of the website and be able to critically evaluate the contents. In journal articles this step is done to some degree but in websites you're on your own. Second, you may need to do most of the archiving (including downloading, dating, and archiving the data sets you may download, or printing and dating website into PDFs, etc.) or use [website archiving](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_archiving) to save a cross-section of the websites. There are free services like <http://perma.cc> and <http://www.webcitation.org> available.
Once they are archived, in your paper, it is a good practice to cite both original link and the archived link as well as the date you accessed the original link. For details, consult the project leader or editor. Some journals specialized in publishing Internet-related research such as [Journal of Medical Internet Research](http://www.jmir.org/cms/view/Instructions_for_Authors%3aInstructions_for_Authors_of_JMIR) may also provide useful format-related examples in their guide to the authors.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer] |
2014/01/27 | 347 | 1,487 | <issue_start>username_0: In the verge of writing up a PhD thesis, is it fine to include the content of the work which is submitted to a conference and is "under review" at the time of writing up. More specifically if the conference has 'double-blind' review process.Or is it advisable to wait till the review decision on publication is out.
Please suggest.
Thanks, KR<issue_comment>username_1: I am sure this may vary but this is standard procedure for our theses since they are based on papers. A student will typically have about four papers/manuscripts in their thesis ranging from published through all stages of revision in a journal to not yet submitted manuscripts.
You will need to check with your local guidelines what is expected from a thesis to figure out the details but it would seem difficult to demand all published papers unless the period to complete a PhD is open ended.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You can do it, but you should clearly label it as "submitted to xyz" to make clear it is not accepted, yet. You should update the status ("accepted for xyz", no additional remarks) according to the progress.
Nonetheless, you can (and should) write about the topics in your thesis since it is your work you are describing. The only difference is that the statments you are making are not peer-reviewed, yet.
In general, it is a good idea to ask your supervisor about it since some can have different opinions on this topic.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/28 | 823 | 3,444 | <issue_start>username_0: I happen to be involved in this project in which my advisor has made such a bad decision that the result turned out to be mediocre/uninteresting. While I am not the lead author, I will be one of the co-author for this. In that case, why should I endorse for my advisor's bad decision, when I don't have any means to change the course of this project? I know I won't look as bad as the first author, but still this will be one of my publication. I doubt my advisor will say something like this in the rec: "Oh yes, the bad publication was my idea, my student just followed my direction." **How can I prevent this from ruining my future career?**<issue_comment>username_1: Personally, I can't imagine that being coauthor on an uninteresting paper could "ruin your future career" or even damage it significantly; a paper is a paper, so I think at worst it has a very small positive value. To actually be a negative, the paper would have to be horrifically wrong or plagiarized or something.
Also, not to question your judgment, but you do probably have a lot less experience in the field than your advisor. It's just possible that the project is more interesting to the community than it seems to you; when you're deep in a project, it's often hard to see the context that it fits in to. Consider discussing the project with other researchers in the field (check with your advisor first to make sure you're not giving away too many details too soon), and see what they think.
Even if the project is really worthless, as I said, I don't see it actively damaging your career. Just wrap it up, get it out the door, and start working on something more interesting!
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: As username_1 wrote in his final sentence, stop worrying about the past project and start thinking about your next project.
You will be judged much more strongly based on your more recent work so just make sure that your upcoming work is more interesting. You cannot change the past so don't spend time worrying about it. You should spend your time on your future.
One uninteresting publication is not going to sink you unless the science is bad. If it shows you do not know how to do research that might hurt you. If the science is really bad, you might consider removing your name from the paper but since you only complain about the results being uninteresting, let it be and move on to something better.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Judging by your past five questions (in fact, every question that you asked on here), you clearly have issues with your advisor.
I doubt that your advisor is actually that bad. No one can be that bad, and survive academia. It is most likely the product of your not actually caring about your advisor's interests (and vice versa), and the lack of communication between the two of you.
If there is still some time left, I recommend that you seek out another advisor instead of ranting about your advisor on academia.SE, which doesn't actually solve your problems in real-life.
If you are close to graduating, I suggest that you "pay your dues" to your advisor; he let you use his lab and equipment, not to mention granting you access to his expertise, for the past 5+ years. The least you can do is to "suck it up" and pretend to care about your advisor's interests (and put some work into it). After all, you'll need your advisor's letter to stay in academia!
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/01/28 | 680 | 3,134 | <issue_start>username_0: The data collected using "*Applicant Confidential Data Form*" will be used by US-based universities to monitor University’s Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity Programs as required by the US government.
I have seen that in (some) cases, faculty job applicant seeking academic job in US-based universities are asked to submit this form *after* they successfully submitted their initial application. The point is that, typically there is no instruction in "call for faculty member note" to fill this form and submit along with application. But the faculty search committee asks after while.
So it raises a question:
Do the faculty search committee sends this form to **ALL** the applicants or particular applicants who are allegedly suitable for the job. Is receiving this notification from the committee can be considered a positive sign in recruitment process?<issue_comment>username_1: I would not read anything into such a form as this. In many cases, the university may require it, but the department doesn't mention it, or only sends it out afterwards. However, the nature of the form is not one that it should only be given out to "suitable" candidates; it's something that everybody who applies could be asked to fill out. So it is unlikely that this means anything, either positive or negative.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I've received this form from hundreds of employers that later rejected me. I think schools that use it will send it to every applicant. So it doesn't mean anything except that your application was received.
I believe the reason for it being a separate form, rather than part of the application, is that it's meant to be for statistical purposes only, and should not affect the hiring procedure. The best way to achieve this is to ensure that the hiring committee never sees it. So they send a separate form, to be returned to a separate office within the institution, which holds it confidential.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Having received these cards from many of the same institutions at Nate I speak from a lot of the same experience. There is a point I want to amplify from his answer though. In the US it is actually illegal for this information to influence the hiring process officially (there is lots of reason to suspect that unofficial ways of using this information still have an effect). But this means that the information, if collected, must not go to the hiring committee or anywhere near it. Some electronic application systems can handle keeping this information separate, but those that can't have to be supplemented with physical cards. Institutions that still allow paper applications also must be supplemented.
The offices which send out and handle these cards are charged with making sure that the institution as a whole is being a Equal Opportunity Employer and complying whatever Affirmative Action requirements they are under. Once you start considering why paperwork related to legal compliance is the way it is the question gets much larger and won't always have a satisfying answer.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/28 | 1,318 | 5,130 | <issue_start>username_0: I am a software developer by profession and was wondering what a professional doctorate (PdEng) would add to my career if I plan to work in the industry.
**EDIT:** I am not talking about a Phd rather a [Professional Doctorate program (PDEng)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Doctorate_in_Engineering).It is a 2 year program and used for getting a job in a very specific sub discipline of a field.<issue_comment>username_1: In general, for software engineering (in the UK), it will not help a lot in my experience - PhDs,PDEngs and EngDs will add to your initial salary over a masters. But probably no more than the extra experience that working in industry would get you.
The main exception is start-ups - if your tech guy(s) have post-graduate degrees then it can help with the early sales (proves you are smarter). Plus there is a valid argument that when you are limited in the number of heads you can get, it is worth getting the smartest ones you can.
The other exception is if it is for a *very* specific field and you want to go into that, it may help you beat out candidates with more experience in nearby fields (or satisfy a requirement of having experience in that field).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You might get different answers for different countries. This answer is for the US.
Speaking as a person who has hired many programmers (both for my own company and for other companies) I feel quite confident that having **a doctorate of any kind will not help you land a job as a programmer**. The simple fact is, people care about what you can produce. What frameworks, models, patterns, languages, etc. are you effective in? This is what people generally care about from a technical perspective. They will care about other things like how committed you are, how many hours you can work, etc. but what you would gain from a doctorate will not be of value to people who hire in industry.
That said, it can be useful for career mobility. For example, I have see people chose one person over another for an IT management position because one had a doctorate. That turned out to be a terrible choice for the company, but I don't think the problems were connected to his doctorate (he simply had no experience managing people). Some people might see the value in the doctorate but only at a higher level (not entry level).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: **TLDR:** It trains you in both technical and soft skills (technical writing, meeting management, etc.), and lets you gain experience with small and large industry projects, using different technologies. It essentially compresses multiple years of industry experience into two.
There seems to be a lot of confusion about what the program actually *is*. The Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) programs offered at Dutch universities have more in common with industry traineeships than with a traditional academic doctorate. As such, most of the [negative effects](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/13191/can-a-ph-d-have-a-negative-impact-on-your-career-in-the-software-industry) of a PhD on job propspects (*trouble actually writing code*, *far less job experience*, etc.) simply do not apply.
For example, Eindhoven University of Technology describes their [Software Technology PDEng program](http://www.tue.nl/en/education/tue-graduate-school/designers-programs/software-technology/) as follows.
>
> The Software Technology program is designed to prepare you for an industrial career as a technological designer, and later on as a software or system architect. It starts with 15 months of advanced training and education, including 4 small, industry driven training projects, followed by a major design project of nine months in a company.
>
>
>
The program is specifically designed to teach MSc students with a good grasp of the theory how to efficiently apply that theory to practical applications. It is presented as a way to "fast-track" your career by gaining a lot of cross-disciplinary experience in only two years.
They write the following [about their graduates](http://www.tue.nl/en/education/tue-graduate-school/designers-programs/software-technology/information-for-industry/):
>
> The Software Technology program has been around for more than 25 years and to date trained more than 370 technological designers. Most designers have joined the companies where they carried out their design assignments and many now fulfill a management position.
>
>
>
Their alumni association [XOOTIC](http://www.xootic.nl/) released a [detailed survey](http://www.xootic.org/images/magazines/201203/mar-2012.pdf) (pages 25-28), stating
>
> Having a job as an XOOTIC is still easy: only
> 1% of the XOOTIC’s is unemployed. [...]
> By far the most XOOTIC’s have an indefinite contract
> (82.6%).
>
>
> The OOTI program is known in the industry according
> to 80% of the answers and is rewarded
> according to 44% of the respondents.
> [...]
> XOOTIC’s, considering what they know now,
> would still do the OOTI program (96.7%).
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer] |
2014/01/28 | 480 | 1,905 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a membership from an organization e.g. ieee.org and I have some options for my email ID which I want to use in academy and professional work. I'm not a native English and I'm not familiar with the culture involved. I have these three options:
*(consider my name as <NAME>, which Serim is my first name and pretty rare, I didn't want make example of <NAME> which is very common name).*
<EMAIL>
<EMAIL>
<EMAIL>
I personally prefer <EMAIL> since it is more concise and shorter, but I want to know if making ID of only the first name is appropriate or not.<issue_comment>username_1: In the US, everthing said in the comments applies (in short: everything goes, it's up to you).
In Europe (and especially in German speaking countries), it is very unsusual to call other people by ther first name, therefore serim@ would be considered inappropriate and people might be confused and think of it as your last name.
Therefore, if you think international, I'd propose <EMAIL>@... or, <EMAIL>@... . Most companies and universities in Germany use the last version since it helps in avoiding name collisions (of course it's no guarantee).
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Using the firstname sends a signal of casualness. If you want to signal professionalism it's not a good strategy.
It's a bit like wearing a suit and a tie. You are sending a signal by wearing those clothes.
There are professional contexts where you have to wear a suit and a tie. If you move mainly in those contexts, <EMAIL> might appear for people to be too casual. But it's not strong and I doubt that it will offend anyone.
The fact that you have an email address @ieee already signals some professionalism.
If you however move in areas where people don't wear suits and ties, <EMAIL> might be entirely okay.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/01/28 | 2,779 | 11,236 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm a TA in several modules and one thing I couldn't find yet is a system to help me manage student lab submissions. Most online collaborative tools I've seen do not allow me to, or make it quite complex to receive files from students and download all of them at once.
Note that in my university, there is not such a strict discipline, in the sense that late submissions are often tolerated; if students forget to send their files, I'd like to gently remind them to do so; etc.
So far, I use e-mail for managing student submissions, but there are several limitations:
* Students forget to send the e-mail, or send it to an incorrect address, or simply quit the course, but since I do not know in which case they are, I have to manually e-mail students from which no submission has been received;
* Students have no guarantee I actually received the email, so I have to ACK them;
* Students sometimes send an e-mail but forget the attachment, so I have to check each of them and notify the student;
* Students sometimes send multiple versions, and if there is a deadline between them, it might change the grading criteria;
So far, I have to manually open each email, download the files to a separate folder, and ACK the student. This is quite boring.
Something that would help me save some time and automate things (like sending reminders, one-click download of all files, etc) would be of great help.
So far I've seen Moodle and Piazza, but none of them seem to actually help much with student file management, or I missed something. Any indications of tools for the job?<issue_comment>username_1: Well, moodle CAN do it (you can define a task "file upload" which has a due date). Give it a try and if you like it you are fine.
I did not like it and wrote my own solution... (but I heard moodle improved the functionality so this might be sufficient).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You can create a dropbox account for assignments and use a tool which allows anyone with a link to submit files without accessing your dropbox account. It will be a browser window where the student uploads the file. Ensure that you communicate to students a 'file naming' format like: StudentName\_AssignmentName.doc
Some ways to upload to dropbox without access: <http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-send-files-dropbox-dropbox/>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: One thing to consider is do you really need student assignments to be downloaded. I say this because I used to but I recently started using TurnItIn. However, I only use this for plagiarism detection, I do not use it for marking (university policy is that I MUST mark the paper copy...yes I know the dangers there, but that's for another day).
Since you didn't mention the larger issue you are trying to solve, I'll continue just with your direct question about how to download many student assignments without a million clicks.
What I did is simply setup an email account for students to email to (not my main email account). I instruct the students to use specific filenames (StudentID\_StudentName\_AssignmentName.docx) and they email me. I use a standalone email client (not webmail) so it all downloads to my computer. My client has a preview pane so I simply drag-drop to my assignment folder, move to the next message, drag-drop, repeat. I do this for 200-500 students per assignment per semester and find it does not lend itself to much more automation than this.
In all, it takes me 2 clicks per student (literally) and I end up with all student assignments in one folder. It handles ACK'ing the student on the server (auto-responder) but I could also use read-receipts but those don't usually work with webmail.
If you want to email students who did not submit, that's more complicated. I handle it during the marking process (let's see the file...ooops, they forgot...time to email them...or fail them for not submitting properly). TurnItIn will tell you which students did not submit.
As for students submitting multiple versions, as long as they submit with the proper naming convention, you will overwrite the older with the newer. I'm not sure if that is what you want or not but I would assume so.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: We use an online tool at my school called Blackboard. I think they host it in house on their servers. There's a teacher - student relationship where the teacher adds students based on their login id to the course they are teaching, and students login to view content. Teachers administer content and can control everything in the course.
It supports (but is not limited to) quizzes and tests (timed, untimed, multiple attempts), storing downloadable files for students, message boards, wikis, and a gradebook that has all previous scores, etc. There's many more options, I've just included some of the important features.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: [Piazza](https://piazza.com/) is a nice tool for this. It's similar to blackboard but without the need to host in on school servers. The interface is also very good. It has built in emailing options and discussion forums. You can have students submit homework from the page you make for the course on the website.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: I am assuming that the OP has checked and found that their university does not have any learning management system, like Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, or Sakai. All universities I am familiar with in the US **do** have these systems, just in case you are visiting from Google and are not the OP. This is why there are few practical answers, and why I can only suggest likely options.
If you are an instructor without an LMS, how can you track student uploads? The equivalent I am familiar with is middle school and high school teachers who want to collect student assignments. The most common tools these teachers use are Google Drive using scripts, and Edmodo. Here is the little info I know on these tools:
Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and scripts/addons like:
* [Doctopus](http://cloudlab.newvisions.org/add-ons/doctopus), which creates folders for students on Google Drive
* [Autocrat](http://cloudlab.newvisions.org/add-ons/autocrat), which makes mail-merge from Sheets and Gmail
* [Goobric](http://www.newvisions.org/blog/entry/drum-roll-please-announcing-the-new-improved-doctopus) for automated grading
I've never used [Edmodo](https://www.edmodo.com/), but it is free, allows you to create groups for students to join, and allows students to upload assignments. I'm guessing it has some sort of messaging function for your emailing needs as well. Here are some vaguely current posts on Edmodo's functionality:
* [15 things you can do](http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/08/15-things-you-can-do-with-edmodo-how-to.html#.U54n4PldUrU) with Edmodo
* [Seven reasons](http://teachbytes.com/2013/10/06/7-reasons-to-use-edmodo-in-your-classroom/) to use Edmodo
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: You could look at simply setting up an FTP sever (File Transfer Protocol) with separate accounts for each student and administrator accounts for faculty, they can use FileZilla (free ftp software with server version too), which is how we upload files in my university... IT professors should have little problem in setting it up and taking care of security issues, and even less in writing a program or script that gathers up all the files with a specific format in the file name.. There probably is someone in the faculty who can take care of this. In the database with the accounts you will also have the e-mail addresses of the students, it's fairly simple to gather every single e-mail in a file, then copy paste them all to the receiver box and send them the same e-mail. I have not looked much into networks, but from my fair programming experience, it's nothing hard to do.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: You did not mention your field of study, but this works pretty well at least in computer science. Most institutions grant their students disk space for a personal university homepage, usually available via address like <http://institution.edu/~username/>. Now, all you need to do is to ask the students to provide each of their weekly/monthly/whatever answers in a zip-file at their personal homepage in a specific format, e.g.
```
http://institution.edu/~username/course/week1.zip
http://institution.edu/~username/course/week2.zip
```
After the deadline for returning the answers has passed, you just run a simple shell script like this
```
for STUDENT in ($cat ./students.txt)
do
mkdir $STUDENT
wget http://institution.edu/~$STUDENT/course/week1.zip
mv week1.zip ./$STUDENT/week1.zip
unzip ./$STUDENT/week1.zip
echo $STUDENT >> returned.txt
end
```
where the file students.txt has one username on a line, e.g.
```
john_smith
mary_jones
```
and you will have the files neatly organized, and a text file "returned.txt" having the names of the students who returned an answer, which can be emailed to the course mailing list.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: I found <http://dropitto.me> is a beautiful app to you with Dropbox account (free 2G). There are also <http://submitittome.com> with many features that you can config as file name, file type allow, deadline of submission, and limit students that can submit for each task. You can try both and choose one.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_10: Can you not set up a rule in your email inbox that takes all emails with a specific term in the subject and puts them in a separate folder? then you only need to download each of them manually, but that takes 10 seconds per email. You can also set up a rule that sends an automatic reply if the student's email adheres to the correct format and has an attachment, and only if received before the deadline.
This takes care of points 2 and 3.
I do not see why point 1 is a problem - if you receive no submission, then you have nothing to do? If the student has dropped the course, nothing happens. If they are still registered, they get the default failing grade with no extra work required from you. Which of the two it is, you can probably see when you have to enter all grades in the online intranet template if your university uses that; or you send an email to the examinations office saying "all grades are attached, if a student is missing, they did not submit".
To take care of point 4: Why would you consider a submission after the deadline? Using the below rules, you do not acknowledge emails received after the deadline (that is what the deadline is for; if you want to be on the safe or kind side, maybe set the cutoff date to 5 minutes after the deadline)
In sum, the only things not covered by this are
* that you only take into account the last submission when a student submits multiple versions
* that you still have to manually download and save the attachments.
But the still-required manual work is minimal, and the cleanliness of the mailbox and reliability of process is fully established, which is very valuable.
Example of the rules in Outlook:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/E0DnT.png)
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/01/28 | 678 | 3,004 | <issue_start>username_0: I have selected a single question for my master's thesis, within my field of Foreign Language Teaching. Most papers I have read contain just short literature reviews providing some background for a research study that occupied most of the writer's time. I think I could understand my question better if I focusing all of my effort on creating a 100-200 page literature review, examining and critiquing all existing literature on the subject, rather than on trying to come up with some new results.
Can a master's thesis be comprised of just a literature review? Do journals publish literature reviews on their own?<issue_comment>username_1: You're asking two different questions here.
* Yes, you can publish a high-quality literature review in some, but not all, journals. However, many journals also *solicit* such reviews rather than take them automatically, and many will have length restrictions associated with them. So check with the journal before you start working!
* As for a master's thesis, that depends a lot on the requirements of your field. In the humanities, you would probably have to do some searches for primary references, but a large-scale literature review is an important part of such a work. In the sciences and engineering, however, you are much less likely to be able to submit such a thesis. The usual standards there require more original work than can typically be accomplished with a literature review.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: At least in my Faculty (of Computer Science), a master thesis can be "just" a literature review. A literature review can be an important contribution, and is part of what is usually called [secondary research](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_research).
However, you should consider performing a [systematic literature review](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematic_review), which is a literature review comprising several analytic and precise steps to enhance the reliability of the study. A systematic literature review is a time consuming research activity but a very useful one. Please verify that such a review has not already been conducted recently, before starting it by your own.
[Systematic reviews are publishable research](http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22systematic+review%22) and often get many citations. As for thesis, I think that any publishable research activity can be a student's master thesis. *However, ask your (potential) advisor*.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: A literature review with well-defined research questions that provides a synthesis of high-quality literature is considered very useful research. Generally, such reviews present a taxonomy of the domain, summarize the contributions and furnish them in an abstract manner from different aspects involved.
A good quality review gets many citations, and it provides a very useful stepping stone for new researchers in a given area.
Thus, it can certainly be considered as an MS thesis.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/01/28 | 5,040 | 20,660 | <issue_start>username_0: How do I handle silly questions? By silly, I mean questions that are unrelated to the material of the course.
First, I am a [TA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_assistant). Recently, a student asked me a very silly question at the end of a lab session. I say silly because:
1. it was not related to the lecture,
2. it was asked at the end of a lecture - and the classroom was already full with the students of the next class, and
3. I have previously talked about this issue.
The student insisted that I answer his question many times. So, I told him: "*It is already late, but let me know about your question*" .. when he asked it, I told him: "*You can't be serious, this is not a question!*"
He got upset, and he told me: "*You are paid to answer my questions!*"
I got angry, but how should I handle similar situations?
"I have previously talked about this issue." -- Yes, I talked about this issue even though it is not part of the course and the lecture. I talked about it to add more applications to the course material.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> "you can't be serious, this is not a question!"
>
>
>
Don't say this. Regardless of the question, this makes it sound like you think the student is either (1) intentionally wasting time or (2) very stupid. You can't make progress from there.
Next, if it's a quick question that's related to the topic of the course, but not the lecture necessarily, then the best thing to do is to take a moment to answer it anyway, since (1) the student might think the two things are related and it'll clarify things if you just explain it now, and (2) it'll be much less hassle that way.
If it requires an in-depth explanation, and you don't have the time for it because you have something else to attend to, tell the student that and also find the student a solution, whether that is telling him/her (1) to email you, (2) to ask you at the next lab, or (3) to ask the lecturer during office hours.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: To add to waiwai's excellent response, a good model to follow for TA's and faculty alike is professionalism. All too often, academics behave in an arrogant and demeaning manner.
How would you feel if your doctor told you "you can't be serious, this is not a question!"? What about your lawyer?
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: First, I'll assume that the student did actually ask a very silly question.
One thing that needs to be always taken into consideration in situations such as this is: Is the student aware of the silliness of the question?
While it may be obvious to you that the question is indeed silly, it may not be obvious to the student. You haven't posted any in-depth information about the whole background of the case, but it could very well be that the student is misunderstanding something extremely fundamental. You claim that the question is not related to the lecture, but at the same time, you say that you have in fact previously talked about the issue. In student's mind, that could somehow relate the issue to the lecture.
One more thing that could be very problematic is if student has a flawed thought process. This can cause the student to relate things that are not actually related and to find cause and effect relationships where there are none.
For example, due to administrative problems at my university, we were required to take an advanced course in one field before taking an introductory course. I already had some experience in that field, so a number of my fellow students asked me questions when they had problems with that exam. Some of them were actually very silly! Often, the silliest were for me the hardest to explain since that required figuratively digging through their brain in order to find the cause of the reasoning that got them to ask me the question in the first place. It often turned out that there was a mistake in reasoning somewhere or that they misunderstood something at a very basic level. One more thing that I noticed is that some people would try to avoid fully understanding the issue. Often, after explaining A for example, I'd have conversation going something like "Is A clear?" "Yes!" "Really?" "Yes, really." "100% clear?" "Yes, crystal clear!" and then it turns out that it wasn't clear.
Just explaining the initial problem and stopping there in cases such as the one I mentioned in the previous paragraph is just treating the symptoms of a disease and not the cause itself.
Another thing I'd like to mention is that (at least in my environment) those who ask questions do actually care about the subject they're learning and in general have a valid problem. It's usually those who don't ask questions that have no idea what's going on.
Next, I'll write a bit about "You're paid" problem itself.
It's commonly repeated that there are no bad questions, only bad answers. In my opinion, whoever produced that piece of wisdom didn't see enough questions.
You need to make a policy explaining what you should do in cases of inappropriate questions. Are you or are you not payed (or for some other reason expected) to answer such questions? What should you do in case you get a student who's too stupid to pass the course you're TA-ing for? What about students who can't form an answerable question in their mind? What about students who ask malicious questions? I was quite surprised to hear from one student at my school that he asks a certain TA senseless questions just because he like to see her struggle to answer them.
Only thing I can advise here is to think hard about what you are and are not expected to do. Talk to your colleagues about that and talk to your superiors about that. Make the limits clear to yourself and to your students. This way, when you come to a similar situation again and you explore all other options, you can honestly and with clear consciousness respond to "You are paid to answer my questions!" with "No, I'm not!"
Finally, I'd like to recommend to you to keep the tension low if at all possible. In this particular case, you mentioned that the student insisted that you answer the question many times. That probably means that the question is important to him. Is it normal that students should ask you more than once to answer a question? Is that expected in your culture? I never had to ask a professor or a TA question more than once in during my whole education so far. You provided an answer that upset the student. Were you aware that the student would be upset by such answer? If you were, think about why you gave that answer. Was that student confrontational before? Does he ask too many questions? Were you having a bad day? Did you give such an answer just because the student asked at an inappropriate time?
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> I got angry, but. . how should I handle similar situations?
>
>
>
Got angry? No good!
You're not necessarily paid to answer his question but you are paid to help advance knowledge and learning.
Unfortunately, the tone of your answer doesn't let us know exactly how "silly" the question was (was it silly because it was personal question that had no bearing on the course? Was it silly because it was not relevant to the course material but possibly relevant to the overall subject? Was it silly because you had already covered the material in class? Was it silly because he was asking at the end of the lab session?) so unfortunately the exact way in which to respond might vary, but you might try:
1. If it's a matter of time and you can't answer it because you have to clear the room, tell him, "Give me a few minutes to pack up my things to get out of the classroom." Clear the room, entertain question.
2. If it's a matter of you having another appointment, then get him to submit the question over email or in writing or before next class.
3. If it's silly because it's not related to the lecture, I usually do my best to entertain these kinds of questions because it sometimes means the student is interested in other topics around the material. If my class is on object-oriented design and programming in Java, but the student asks me about "how can you use design in procedural programming languages like C?" I'd probably give some ideas on how it could apply to that situation.
4. If it's a personal question that you don't want to answer, you can say, "I don't feel comfortable answering that", "It's none of your business", "I can't talk about this", or similar.
5. If it's a stupid question because it's sooooo obvious or because you covered it before, then, sorry, it's not a silly question but is something the student needs explanations for. Get him to visit you over office hours for extra help.
6. If it's a matter of the student talking on and wasting time with questions, then you can ask the student politely to keep questions for after the class. If the student is trolling you with questions and is otherwise being a nuisance this option usually works as well.
Yes, it is rude for him to declare "You are paid to answer my questions!" but it's also rude to say that "Your question is silly". You are the teacher, the role model, the example, so you should be more patient with them than they are with you. Besides, if you tell them you'll answer it later, you can simply say, "Just wait - I haven't answered your question *yet*."
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: Technically the student is wrong regarding the payment part. You are not paid to answer any question at any time. And I'd be more interested in how to handle impolite students/clients, if this is the case, than in the silliness of their questions.
However, I doubt that your account is accurate. At one place you claim that you have already dealt with the issue during the lecture and at another you claim it was not related. Besides that, you find it acceptable to post the reaction of the student, but do not find acceptable to disclose what question he asked, which would have been essential to know how to react towards it.
So:
If the question has a truly obvious answer, or if the student is truly lost, follow a Socratic approach, asking questions to make him realize how easy would have been to him to know the answer. This part is probably somehow related to your job, which is to educate people.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I don't care how smart you are or how much of a rockstar you are in your field. You can be the most brilliant physicist on the planet, but you shouldn't be teaching PHYS 1101 if you can't convey basic information in a professional way to an *uneducated* audience. I emphasize "uneducated", because that's what your audience is. They don't know anything. It's your job to turn someone who knows *nothing* into someone who knows *something*. That's what being a professor is about (and, by extension, what's expected of you as a TA in a teaching position).
It may not be easy all the time to do this. Teaching is a skill just like anything else. Having knowledge doesn't mean having the ability to convey it effectively.
>
> My question is briefly, how to handle silly questions? By silly, I mean questions that are unrelated to the material of the course.
>
>
>
I find it very hard to believe that a student came up to you randomly at the end of a lecture and asked you about something that is utterly unrelated to the course work. If you teach math, I'm fairly confident a student didn't approach you asking about the digestion mechanisms of an African elephant. Let's say you're a TA for MATH 1101 and going over basic calculus, and they ask you a question about geometry. To *you*, who supposedly understands all of this stuff, their question may appear completely unrelated and off-topic. But they *don't know any better*. If the question genuinely is outside the scope of the course, explain to them *why* that's the case. "Well, you see, quadratic formulas are actually only very loosely related to differential calculus, so your question is a bit outside of the scope of this course. You'll learn more about that in MATH 1103."
>
> He got upset, and he told me: "You are paid to answer my questions!" ... I got angry [...]
>
>
>
It's not unreasonable to get angry when people verbally attack you or your profession, but as a teacher in any capacity, like it or not, a big part of your job is essentially *human relations*. You aren't there to sit at a podium and rant about whatever your little heart desires. You're there to *convey information* to people. Human beings. Each of whom has their own ways of learning, their own things they think are important, their own philosophies, their own lives. It's your job to actually *connect* with them and get something you're saying into their skulls. It's a skill of *human interaction*. So while you're free to experience whatever emotion you want, you must always still act in a *professional manner* toward your students. It's part of your responsibilities. It doesn't matter if you think your student is a rotten turd; you degrade yourself, your department, and your entire institution by *treating* him that way. Again, if you don't think you can handle dealing with people on a day-to-day basis, and thus with the inevitable conflict, go back into research or leave academia entirely.
Here's an example of how to handle conflict in a professional manner: "I'm sorry that you're frustrated. I have another lecture to give right now, but why don't you come to my office hours or send me an e-mail so that we can discuss this further? If I can't resolve your issue, you may have to go see Professor So-and-so, as he has more knowledge and experience than I do."
Part of the issue is that you've come here asking for advice and have given absolutely *no* detail about your problem except that a student asked you a question after a lecture which you thought was stupid. So all anyone can do is conjecture and try to make assumptions based on their own experience. If the goal of your question is genuinely to handle these kinds of situations effectively and to become a better teacher (and not just to rant about a student you dislike, as seems to be the case), how could you possibly expect to get a decent answer with the information you've provided? How would *you* answer such a question?
Actually, I think we already have the answer to that; you'd just tell them:
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> "You can't be serious, this is not a question!"
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Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: >
> A student, recently, asked me at the end of a lab session, a very silly question. I say silly because:
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> 1) it is not related to the lecture,
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> 2) it is asked at the end of a lecture - and the class room was already full with the students of the next class, and
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> 3) I have previously talked about this issue.
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I don't see how any of these make the question "silly."
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> 1) It is not related to the lecture
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It might be a silly question if it was not related to the **course material** (I once had a student ask me about my favorite flavor of Jell-O, for example), but not all questions need to be related to the **lecture**. Part of teaching is synthesizing concepts. I hope you don't compartmentalize your lessons so much that you wouldn't answer a question about Lecture 3 during or after Lecture 6.
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> 2) it is asked at the end of a lecture - and the class room was already full with the students of the next class
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I don't see how this makes a question "silly." At worst, the timing is bad. Why not just step into the hallway and answer the question? Or, if you don't have time for that, ask the student to visit during an office hour? Or start your next lecture by answering that question?
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> 3) I have previously talked about this issue.
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This is one is most alarming in my mind. So, you talk about an issue, and you expect every student will understand it completely, the first time through, and never ask for it to be explained a second or third time?
I agree that students can be stubborn and selfish and have a sense of entitlement. But professors can also be arrogant and condescending and not have a very good grasp of pedagogy and andragogy.
Which is the case here? I believe that some standardized tests have an answer that goes something like, "Not enough information given." A student telling an instructor, "You are paid to answer my question!" seems like a naïve view of academia, particularly if the question isn't relevant. However, your definition of a "silly" question leaves plenty of room for the student to be making a valid point. If the question is related to the course, then you *should* answer that question – even if the room is full, and you have talked about it before.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: This strikes me as a poorly titled question since the key issue is not the student's behaviour but yours.
Have you ever wondered why "there are no silly questions" is such a widespread position? It's not because there are no silly questions, we know perfectly well that there are, just as we know that there are students who will ask questions they could answer themselves if they'd simply bothered to listen and some students who are thicker than too short planks.
So why say "there are no silly questions"? Because there's a much bigger problem with students who *should* ask questions not asking those questions and thus not getting the information they need than there is with students asking silly questions. By adopting and respecting the position that "there are no silly questions" you help create an environment in which students feel free to ask their questions and thus create a more positive and helpful learning environment for all.
Your student shouldn't have said that to you; but you behaved badly first and you're the one who is supposed to be a professional not them.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: If a question in itself makes no sense, try to think about the motivation behind the question. Answer the question behind the question.
Just because someone is bad at phrasing a good question doesn't mean that he's not worthy of an answer.
There are however cases when you don't want to invest the time to help a particular individual at a particular time.
In that case I would simply say: "I need a moment of rest to be at my mental peak at my next lecture. If the question is important to you, come back at office hours."
In general, if you don't want to answer a question at a particular time don't say: "It is already late, but let me know about your question."
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: >
> “You are paid to answer my questions!”
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Actually, you are paid to do something rather more subtle than that. You see, contrary to common belief, the students are not your customers. Or at least they are not your only customers.
You are paid to help students to learn *and* to evaluate that learning and certify it as acceptable *only* if it meets certain standards (which are set by the customs of your discipline and the expectations of people who will be looking at the credentials that the school does issue and are enforced by the accreditation agencies).
So answering their questions is a part of your job, but so is knowing which question are meaningful or helpful.
None of which really illuminates what you should do when confronted by this student, but it does provide a better framework for understanding your job than the one suggested by the student.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: **never become angry in the class.**
I teach in 13 classes and this is my experiences :
1. the meaning of being angry is your mind does not work at the moment and you can not handle the situation. so better that our mind tell us what to do than our emotions.
2. by being angry we just show students our week point. and that decrees their respect to their teacher.
3. one example :
Once in one of my classes I said something and the student told me "**...that is silly work**" . For the moment all of students become quite to see what is my response . they watch me and my face to find any distortion or loosing my control. they all know he said very bad things but they just wait to see my reaction.
**WHAT I DID ?**
For the moment less than 2 second I become quite and I said "**...OK what is the next part of algorithm ...**"
other students reaction after my word :
1. they all laugh him. because with any word I told him "**Your idea is not so important which I should care about** "
2. I see the other student trust me more. I see that.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/28 | 677 | 3,016 | <issue_start>username_0: With my current major (Medical Lab Science) I am not required to declare a minor at my university. However, the program's supervisor informed me that through taking all of the required courses to complete the program, I will only be one credit in chemistry away from being able to declare a chemistry minor.
Is it worth it? Is there any real positive prospect in declaring a minor if it's not necessary, given my major?<issue_comment>username_1: Why not? What's the disadvantage? An afternoon of paperwork? One extra class you have to take?
Compare that to the advantages: Let's say you are looking for work, can't find any in your chosen field (medicine), and so begin looking to work in a chem lab. Being a "medical lab science" major doesn't necessarily mean you know how to do a lot of chemistry, it may just mean you know things about handling biohazards like blood carefully. A hiring manager who doesn't know your school or that program doesn't know how much or little chem is required for such a major. You can't prove you know any chem unless they ask for a transcript or you have relevant work experience. But having "Minor in Chemistry" on your résumé would show that. So you could potentially land a low-level chem lab job easier that way.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Go for the minor if that one extra class is a class you think you will enjoy taking or are interested in. If there is a different class or academic extra curricular activity (research, internship, etc.) that you'd rather do, you should do that instead.
Double majors and minors are usually not that meaningful to employers and graduate schools as most people think, unless they are in a very unrelated field. You can always make your resume highlight the classes you took in the field most applicable for their job. Very few companies or graduate schools will care that you have a minor, especially in a field as related to medical science as chemistry. Even if taking this chemistry class prevents you from taking a different chemistry class you'd prefer to take, take the more interesting one, and then highlight the things you learned on resumes and interviews. If you'd take the class required for you minor (after reading the course description) even if this minor wasn't offered, definitely do it. However, I suppose you wouldn't have asked the question if this is true.
Personally, I really regret taking the one extra class I did to complete my minor. It blocked me from taking a really interesting project based class in the same field. People came out of that project class with great experiences an exciting line on their resume like "built ...." or "Developed a new theory of ..."
As for when to declare the minor, I really see no advantage or disadvantage for doing it later vs. now. You might as well declare it now, so you don't forget, I guess. Usually no university privileges (like priority registration) are associated with having a declared minor.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/29 | 3,376 | 13,539 | <issue_start>username_0: Where is the money going to?
How can it be that interested students pay so much, but many academic salaries are so low (excluding the obvious full professor in a field where the industry pays for getting research results, like IT).<issue_comment>username_1: An increasing fraction of college budgets is being spent on things [other than instruction](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/education/10education.html). Administration is a big part, including management and special programs like various tutor/counseling centers, compliance officers, legal, IT, etc. Also soaking up money are sports programs, construction costs, scholarships (to raise prestige), advertising, etc.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I believe the answer is a combination of a few things.
1. Easy student loans (as mentioned by nagniemerg in a comment)
2. More demand from employers for higher ed degrees (because of the large, underutilized labor pool)
3. Increasing use of adjuncts, which are paid very little ([see related question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/14729/2692))
So, it's really a combination of more customers being able to afford the product, limited competition due to high barriers of entry, along with teaching labor being cheap because it is abundant.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Supply and demand. The value of something is what people are willing to pay for it.
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> Why is college tuition so high?
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Because students will pay it anyway. If you headed the committee to decide how much tuition to charge, what would you base your decision on? You would probably want to charge as high as possible, since you're trying to bring in money for your school. And you would find (as many current committees do) that you can go pretty high and still have millions of students crawl over each other for the privilege of giving you piles of money.
Why would universities lower tuition? Top schools already dismiss 20 applicants for every one they accept, despite the insane tuition cost. Clearly, either education is an inelastic service, or there is a ridiculous shortage - either way, HYP could probably charge 10 times what they do now and still have no trouble finding students. I would say that the main reason they don't is a combination of concern for their reputation and a fear of being sued.
You may ask why the students are willing to pay so much; but that's an involved matter which is outside of the scope of this question.
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> Why are academic salaries so low?
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Because professors will take the job anyway. If you headed the committee to decide how much salary to pay, what would you base your decision on? You would pay as little as possible.
In many areas, money is the prime motivator. So, at least the top companies will pay top dollar for the best employees, because the best employees have a string of job offers lined up and you have to give them something extra to take up *your* offer over all the other. Unfortunately, it so happens that in academia, money is not a good motivator:
* Most eminent professors are old and content and they couldn't care less if their professorship made them $75k or $85k - they'll still want to work at that one school that they like for the reputation and the work environment (like colleagues and quality of graduate students). The ones that do care about money probably have a side business that brings in huge sums of money which makes their salary look like peanuts in any case.
* Small time professors are either terrified of being fired (if not tenured) or can't get over the conflict between their ego and their lack of recognition, so they will readily take a pay hit to work at a more desirable institution if it means they can increase their own prestige.
* Post-docs and other grunts will take pennies to work for a slightly more famous institution, because they think the association is vital to getting a faculty job after their post-doc. I'm sure many of them would *pay* (if they can afford it) to work like crazy for a guy who is famous enough.
* Grad students are... Well... Grad students. The typical PhD candidate, when told that his job is essentially slavery, smiles and acts like it's a hilarious joke (*even though he acknowledges that it's true*). Many grad students already *do* pay to work like crazy, and not even for famous people.
How do you convince a thrice Nobel prize winner to be professor at *your* institution and not Next Door U? Pay him an extra grand every month? He's got three Nobel prizes, he doesn't care. And since he doesn't care, you might as well pay him a pittance - and as a nice bonus, you can tell all the other wannabes "Look, even *he* gets paid so little! Be content with your salary!".
If you ask why professors don't care, the answer is easy: Most people who care about money realize by the time they leave college that becoming a professor is not an optimal strategy for making money. To be a "greedy" professor, one must essentially wake up on their 30th birthday, and suddenly decide that even though all their life they haven't cared about money at all, from now on, money will be their chief concern. People who are old enough to have earned a PhD rarely have their worldviews change overnight so drastically.
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> Where is the money going?
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Short answer: Admin staff, marketing, sports. Things such as cleaning staff and building maintenance are also factors, but crucially they are less dependent on the school budget. Whereas those three mentioned areas will benefit the most from budget increases (but perversely, academic salaries will be *harmed* the most by budget *decreases*).
For details: Depends on the university, and may be determined by consulting the annual financial report of the university.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: One reason tuition is so high is so that the institution can charge a variable rate. Many people (in absolute terms, though not as a percentage) are able and willing to pay full tuition, and lower tuition loses those dollars. At the same time, many institutions advertise how large their financial aid awards are, which is essentially providing a discount. Variable pricing strategies of this form are quite common. It's not all that different from a lot of fashion companies: set a seemingly outrageous price because the smart shopper won't pay retail.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: There are a few false-assumptions that must be clarified, I feel, to answer this question properly.
Why are academic salaries low?
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Well, in the US, if you compare them to most citizens of the country they simply are not. Naturally if you compare them only to Hollywood Stars they are paid a pittance, but let's get clear on the facts by the numbers:
In the US the lowest ranking full-time faculty professors receive salaries that are in the top 70% of all wage earners in the US. A full professor pulls in a salary that is in the 86% to 97% percentile of all wage earners over the age of 25 in the US. It also does not hurt that "professor" is consistently found to have some of the highest job satisfaction ratings across all jobs in the country, which certainly makes the job all the more desirable.
This has led to there being more people who want to be a Professor than there are positions available both nationally and internationally.
Why is college tuition high?
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Here's the thing, and it isn't always easy to remember this: **college education is a durable, long-term investment**. And for many - though *not all degrees from all institutions* - it is still an incredibly lucrative one.
Indeed, college is perhaps the single most amazing investment pathway available to many Americans; it is one of very, very few that does not require you already possess wealth to take advantage of it.
As [one nice survey points out rather thoroughly](http://chronicle.com/article/Earnings-Gap-Narrows-but/142175/), even a bachelor's degree, on average, cuts your relative risk of unemployment in half (8% to 4%), raises the median earnings over 40 years of work to 65% higher than those who only have a high-school diploma, and many other pleasant benefits. In the worst of economic downturns a person has never, to date, been better off (at least statistically) to not have a college degree.
Further, only 1% of college students take out more than $75,000 in student loans. Now if you are one of those (and one of my friends racked up over $200k)...I'm very sorry, that is one hell of a debt service. But no one suggests that's necessarily financially wise, or at least everyone knows it will be unpleasant.
Fancy Words: Price Discrimination
=================================
Most Universities in the US publish reports on this, but for most places I've considered the percentage stated is that 70% of students receive financial aid, and for 40% of students this aid covers all costs to attend (and often extra which is given back to the student to assist in general living expenses). This includes federal student loans, which are provided by the government at artificially low guaranteed rates - and service on the debt is deferable if you are unable to obtain gainful employment.
Bottom line here: this is price discrimination, where some people pay more than others. But just as with the sticker price on a car lot here, most people do not pay as much as the official tuition posted. Endowment Universities, which often have the highest posted tuitions in the whole world (think Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc) regularly cover 80% or more of costs to attend for selected applicants who do not come from a wealthy family.
Some Universities are just still crazy expensive though, but that's a different subject!
College Isn't Just For Academics
================================
It's probably just a minor artifact of wording, but let's be clear: most people who go through college, even through graduate school, do not become employed as academics. Academics are the minority of the population, even for the graduate population. Therefore there are many, many more market factors at play in between the price of tuition and the salary of a full-time academic.
So Where Does The Money Go?
===========================
Um...well, everything else, basically. A standard metric of business is 20-30% of a budget is salaries/labor, and the rest is...all the other stuff! Buildings, campuses, food, insurance, chemicals, equipment, computers, various and sundry apparatuses for science and art folks. Then add in advertising/marketing, travel and reimbursable expenses, college libraries, IT infrastructure, maintenance, custodial, utilities, "community involvement"...and we still haven't mentioned the other costs of "research" activities not otherwise included. Then there's the extra-curricular, like sports, clubs, and other supported campus organizations, "student life" and entertainment, "campus development" like building yet more buildings and parking lots to allow expanded enrollment, etc etc etc...
For most public institutions the actual charged cost of tuition to students is less than a quarter of the income required to balance a yearly budget. I must admit to ignorance about private institutions, largely because I have never been involved with them and because their budgets aren't usually made public.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Focusing just on "why is tuition so high", remember that not all schools are the same.
It is true that elite private schools have so many candidates that, if they are willing to just admit anyone qualified who can pay, they can set tuition rates very high and still attract students.
The situation is very different for non-elite public schools in the U.S., e.g. the "regional universities" and "directional schools". These schools are controlled by states and have a primary mission to educate students from that state. These institutions do need to worry about raising tuition, because their student body is not able to absorb price increases so easily.
Since the 1970s-1980s, there has been a [significant reduction in state funding for higher education](http://www.acenet.edu/the-presidency/columns-and-features/Pages/state-funding-a-race-to-the-bottom.aspx) in the U.S. This is true even for elite public universities; here is a [quote from the University of Michigan](http://www.vpcomm.umich.edu/pa/key/understandingtuition.html):
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> However in the 1960s, state funding made up 80 percent of the U-M’s general fund budget – the budget that pays for the university’s core academic programs. In the coming year, the state appropriation will be around 16 percent of the general fund budget.
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The first link above shows that quite a few states are on track, if the current pattern of funding cuts were to continue, to have no funding for public education by 2030-2040.
Non-elite public school are usually not in a position to obtain large amounts of grant funding, compared to elite public schools. Other sources of income are also difficult.
**This does not mean that schools must raise tuition** - they could (and do) try to cut costs elsewhere. But at least one factor in rising tuition has been this reduction in state funds. And the state legislators, who must budget for the entire state, are perfectly aware that the schools *can* raise tuition, which is sometimes mentioned to the universities as a partial justification for the budget cuts.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/29 | 1,161 | 4,844 | <issue_start>username_0: I have an undergraduate degree (B.E.) in Biomedical Engineering. Right now, I am working on a M.S. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics and will be done pretty soon. I have very minimal research experience, and no papers published. I will be working in industry for the next year (since I didn't apply for any PhD programs this application season). However, I would like to get into a PhD program as soon as I can.
My interests are in the field of AI and Machine Learning. From the research I have done, most AI/ML research is done by Computer Science departments; so that is where I must head. What are my chances of getting into a good AI/ML program coming from a different background and no relevant research experience (although I have no direct research experience, I follow the literature and learn as much as I can on AI/ML in my free time)? What can I do to best increase my shots of getting into a top CS department known for AI (Stanford, Cornell, etc)?
Instead of working for a year, maybe I should seek a research assistantship at an AI lab (less pay, but if it can get me into a top program then so be it)?
Any advice is appreciated!<issue_comment>username_1: Honestly if you can prove yourself in the field then you should have no problem. I would suggest reaching out to various universities and trying to prove your knowledge. For instance my math advisor has a bachelors in engineering, a masters in economics, and a phd in math. It just depends on how much you know and how much you want it. It is most definitely possible.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: 1. High GRE scores open the door (quantitative reasoning and to a lesser extent analytical writing).
2. Math / Statistics background will raise eyebrows.
3. Creating a portfolio of projects to show the department that you can in fact code, will get you assistantships.
4. Be pro-active but not a pest.
When applying to a university, you might want to peruse the various web pages of faculty to see what fields they are publishing in. If you find a field that piques your interest, or that you've done some similar work in, contact the professor directly and seek advice. Be careful though. I get emails all the time with prospective students phishing for assistantships. I can tell when it's a bulk / canned email that was sent out to a ton of faculty just looking for someone to bite.
I would start with a personal tone:
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> Hello Dr. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ I was looking at your work on \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ and wanted to let you know that I am very interested in this research topic.
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It probably would be even better if you could tell them that you already applied to their university, but I understand that you would go broke with all the application fee's if you applied to every university that peeked your interest.
Briefly explain what your seeking (cool research, with possible assistantship). Be patient, you might not get a fast response, if ever. These guys are busy, and probably getting a bunch of emails as well. Start early. At least a full 12 - 18 months out. This way you can narrow down your choices and not have to worry about application deadlines coming up too quickly.
Communication skills can be big. If your comfortable in front of a classroom, and your english skills are good, maybe looking for a teaching assistant position could increase your chances. This does mean you won't as much research, but at least your getting your foot in the door. This will give you more opportunity to show a particular faculty member what your worth.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Terry has a great answer, so I'll just add a bit more...
The biggest hurdles are your math, logic, and coding skills. If you can prove you have these, then you'll be in good shape. CS, on a theoretical level, is far less coding than you might think. I had professors in CS who didn't even have computers in their office, and made a point to never use/require computers in the classroom. Simply put, there's a lot of thinking, work, and research to be done on paper before you even attempt to program.
Of course, since you're into AI, that means you'll need to code quite a bit. I don't know how much you know about AI, but I would recommend [Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach](http://aima.cs.berkeley.edu/) which, in my experience, is the de-facto entry to AI in academia. It's usually split between two courses, sometimes one of which is undergrad, and the other grad level. It has used various languages over the years, but the two most notable ones are Lisp, which deals with list comprehensions, and Java, which is a typical Object-Oriented language. Having experience in both would be very beneficial for you on your CV as well as when you actually start working/researching.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/29 | 1,164 | 5,093 | <issue_start>username_0: Several questions on this site relate to a situation where someone gets several offers simultaneously: for example, see *[How to choose between multiple math postdocs offers?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/16188/1033)*. But how does this situation arise? In my (limited) experience, offers do not come simultaneously, and need to be replied to almost immediately (within a week or so). For example, position A could have the application deadline 1 February, have interviews mid-February and announcements mid-March, while position B could have everything one month later. To have two open offers at the same time seems very unlikely in a specialised field where positions are not open on a weekly basis. Then how does this happen?<issue_comment>username_1: I would think they happen mostly by having a relationship with the person doing the hiring. That means that the offer isn't made through a tight bureaucratic process but can be more flexible.
Many positions are never publically announced and the only way to access them is through networking. Some position will even be created to be able to hire a specific person.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In mathematics, the answer is easy: most American math postdocs are selected on about the same schedule. There are some variations of 4 to 6 weeks, but that still leaves plenty of room for second round offers from an early school to coincide with first round offers from schools that run later.
Further, there's been a tendency for schools that tend to compete over people to try to race each other to making offers, so the number of simultaneous offers ends up being higher than the number of schools would suggest.
(Also, a one week deadline to respond seems a bit short. What I've seen is more like two, with the ability to ask for an extra week or so which is usually granted if there's a chance of another offer.)
(Just for clarity, by most I mean more than half; there's a big early cluster and then additional positions being considered for months.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: In American sociology, hiring usually happens during the fall and winter months (although the 2nd tier market goes on to the Spring, which is a bit different from the fall/winter markets).
During these months, candidates (PhD Candidates, postdocs, VAPs, lecturers) send out applications for academic positions, usually in large numbers due to the high level of uncertainty and cut throat nature of the market-- Most positions get around 200+ applications (one postdoc competition I applied to last year was interdisciplinary social science and received 780 applications!).
I applied to about 30 jobs this season, which number is actually considered pretty low (I am in a pretty niche field) and I personally know other people who have applied to nearly 100 positions. The fact is, candidates have limited information regarding the hiring (what the department is "actually" looking for- because many things are not noted in the vague job descriptions), and it is believed that, getting an interview, is not only the workings of credentials and qualifications, but also largely due to "fluke." To up the chance, many people apply widely and in large numbers.
Anyways, many candidates do not get anything after months of putting in applications, and a few lucky ones can get multiple interviews, offers, and so forth (interestingly, I find that probability of getting interviews does not correlate too much with publication records either, except for the absolutely top tier market). It is completely possible to have multiple offers and when you do, it definitely gives you more bargaining power in negotiating.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: In faculty hiring, it's not uncommon for the following sequence of events to happen.
1. Candidate interviews at University A and University B
2. Sometime later, University A starts making noises about making an offer (usually over email and on phone)
3. Candidate puts out feelers to University B, hinting that if they were thinking of making an offer, now might be a good time.
4. University B makes offer (email/phone) to candidate
5. Much negotiating merriment ensues.
6. .....
7. Profit (for candidate at least)
Sometimes, there might even be more than two players involved in the bidding.
In short, the candidate can trigger multiple offers if they play their cards right. Or it can happen by fortuitous timing. But the approach described above is quite common.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Do you believe in the "element of luck?" Many people say that if you have this, you'll be able to achieve your life's goals in easier means as compared to others. And relating this to your question, those who receive simultaneous offers are probably "lucky" at that particular point in time. Unfortunate are those who really work hard but are not given such opportunity. Anyway, according to successful people especially those involved in real estate business, "persistence pays" - so never stop chasing what you truly deserve!
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/01/29 | 956 | 3,885 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a question about college education, or more specifically, admittance into college education in the US.
Since as far as I remember, I've always heard that colleges or universities in the US have a sort of special preference for admitting people that are considered "minorities". I would like to know if this is true, and if so, what it entails.
For example, I myself was born elsewhere but moved to the US at an early age, and eventually became a citizen. I don't know where this places me as far as "minority" programs go, if they exist. I imagine there'd be a sort of hierarchy such as scholarships > minority with scholarship > minority, but I really have no clue.
This interests me because I am studying in a university outside the US, and I'm considering applying for a PhD program in the US. I'm aware that schools function differently, but if someone knows of this topic for a specific school it'd help.<issue_comment>username_1: There is a slight preference in the US for what are known as "underrepresented minorities"—that is, people who belong to groups who are not adequately represented in college enrollment relative to their proportion in the general population. That currently includes groups such as Hispanics, African-Americans, and Native Americans, but not groups such as Asian-Americans. So long as someone is a citizen, it does not really matter if one was naturalized or was a "born" citizen.
This does not mean that quotas are used, but it can be used as a "plus" quality in terms of admissions and hiring decisions.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Since as far as I remember, I've always heard that colleges or universities in the US have a sort of special preference for admitting people that are considered "minorities". I would like to know if this is true, and if so, what it entails.
>
>
>
It's sometimes but not always true, and at schools where it is true, the definition of the preferred groups varies. For example, in 1996 Californians passed Proposition 209, which, among other things, requires public schools to have admissions policies that are blind with respect to race, sex, and ethnicity. So, for example, UC Berkeley is not supposed to give preferences for admission to an African-American applicant, but Stanford can (and probably does). It would be up to Stanford to define their preferences.
Many private schools have some admissions policies that, considered by themselves, would tend to *exclude* disadvantaged students. For example, MIT has need-blind admissions, but RPI isn't need-blind and doesn't have a policy of meeting full demonstrated need. This would tend to reduce access to RPI for students who come from working-class families. Many private schools have a practice called "legacy preferences," which means that they are more likely to admit the children of alumni; for example, <NAME> would have benefited from such a policy when he applied to Yale. One of the original purposes of legacy preferences was to exclude Jews. Being Asian is probably a disadvantage in college admissions. A 2004 study by Espenshade et al. puts the admissions penalty for Asians at the equivalent of about -50 on a the old 1600-point SAT scale.
At places like California public universities where there is no longer affirmative action, politicians and administrators have invented a number of ways of trying to preserve "diversity." For example, a certain number of spots are reserved for students who rank high in their high school's graduating class, even if the school's academic standards and offerings are weak. Admissions officers are said to look for whether the student has taken the most challenging curriculum offered at their high school, so, e.g., a student at an elite public high school that has an IB program could be at a disadvantage if s/he didn't do IB.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/29 | 858 | 3,910 | <issue_start>username_0: Is it considered bad practice or unethical to remove some references/citations between the initial paper submission and the final one? I submitted an 8-page conference paper, it got peer-reviewed, it got accepted, and now I have to submit the final **6-page** version. In order to cut down on length, I'm thinking of removing some less important/relevant references that I included in the initial submission.
Are there any general "rules" against that? It's an IEEE paper btw.<issue_comment>username_1: You are of course entitled to add or remove parts of your paper to adhere to length and content guidelines of a conference or journal. If such changes lead to a change in the references being cited, then that is reasonable. Of course, it is also reasonable for the journal or conference to determine if the changes that you've made affect the overall quality of the paper. So it cuts both ways.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Every paper is written with one thing in mind: making a contribution to your field. If, by removing a citation you are impacting the quality of your contribution, then it needs to be left in.
Having said that, I think the section of your paper the reference is in could help you determine if it's making an impact on your contribution. If it's from the related works section, and you have plenty of related work, then no big deal - remove it. But ... if it's directly in support of your contribution, then removing it may have more impact on what your trying to accomplish, and you should find a way to keep it in.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: In general no major changes should be made to a paper after acceptance unless either requested by the editor or, if suggested by you, approved by the editor. There are of course trivial changes and there are major changes that can result from making removing materials in a paper. When a paper becomes accepted, it is considered ready for publication by the editor. If you then make changes to the paper (apart from correcting spelling or grammar) you need to communicate these to the editor and make a good case for why you need to make them and how you can ensure they do not alter the content and more importantly the basis for your conclusions. The reviewers have reviewed the paper with all the information included and in the worst case your paper may not have been accepted were not all of it there.
So making significant changes after acceptance is not to be toyed with and consulting the editor is necessary.
The problem in your case lies, as pointed out by dgraziotin, in that you need to shorten the paper after acceptance which is normally considered too late. On the other hand, if the editor asks you to do so, then I would assume the editor will see to it that the reduction does not significantly influence any vital parts of the logic and reasoning leading to your conclusions. In such a case you will need to follow instructions, the responsibility for accepting the paper with the final revisions still lie with the editor and you have not done anything unethical or wrong. I will, however, say that the order of matters seems jumbled within the organisation of the conference peer review system.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: A paper is not accepted until the editor says it is. Having a glowing referee's report is not the same as an acceptance; at best it is "provisional acceptance". In this case, the editor wants additional changes regarding length. If these changes can be made to the editor's satisfaction (which may include sending the revised version to referees again), only then the paper is accepted.
My advice is to do the best you can, and to address your changes in your cover letter. Honestly, how much space do your references really take up in an 8 page paper? Most likely you can make the cuts you need in the body.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/01/29 | 687 | 3,188 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm currently applying for one "entry-level" faculty position in the UK (CS). Differently from other applications I have seen, in this one they ask the applicant to address each of the items listed in a "Person Specification" section of the job description.
There are 15 points, ranging from simple yes/no questions ("Do you have a PhD?") to more elaborate ones ("Evidence of Teaching excellence"). I've addressed everything I can think of in my document so far. However it is quite long, 3.5 pages.
My question is: how long is a statement of this nature expected to be? There are no page limits that I have seen. Should I try to shorten it?<issue_comment>username_1: I would not refer to what you are writing as a statement. I would say it is a response. Responses should be as long as they need to be, but not longer.
If they have given you a person specification with 15 points, and ask you address every point, then, yes, your response is going to be long. There should be no need to guess on this. They have asked you to be thorough so you should be thorough.
While it is common for companies to use person specifications to ensure they find a proper match for a position it is rare for me to see someone use it in the manner you describe. However, it does not sound crazy, just like they want to really be sure that they are getting all the information they need, and they clearly want to be thorough. In the end, the goal of the person specification is to make sure you eliminate, as early as possible, those people who are very likely to be a poor match for the position/organization. If you can respond appropriately to each point, then you are much more likely to be called for an interview. So don't leave anything out that answers their questions.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In the UK, HR departments are playing an increasing larger role in the hiring process. According to HR departments only applicants that meet all the essential requirements can be considered. If you have an applicant who meets all but one essential requirement and all the desirable requirements and another applicant who meets all the essential requirements and none of the desirable requirements, you must hire the one that meets the essential requirements. If you want to modify the essential requirements and do the search again, you must demonstrate that none of the applicants meet all the essential requirements. You can only hire non-EU applicants if there are no EU applicants that meet all the essential requirements. Further, if any applicant from the redundancy pool can meet all the essential requirements with some additional training (usually under 6 months), then they must be hired over external applicants.
With this in mind, it is absolutely critical that your letter clear address how you meet all the essential requirements and which desirable requirements you meet. You want to provide anything that could be considered evidence to support your application. I would not worry about the statement being too long, although it should not address qualities that are not explicitly mentioned in the job description.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/29 | 1,613 | 6,527 | <issue_start>username_0: This is inspired by the [other question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16265/you-are-paid-to-answer-my-questions-how-to-handle-silly-questions) about dealing with stupid questions. The popular answers all seemed to assume that the student really wants to hear an answer. While this is a reasonable assumption, and the answers are very good, they don't cover trolls.
Imagine that you are teaching a computer science lab and a student asks you why our noses run and our feet smell. I agree that you should act professionally no matter what the student does - but what behavior would be considered "professional" in such a situation?<issue_comment>username_1: There isn't One Right Way, any more than there is one right way to teach or manage a class room as a whole. I've most taken note of a few styles:
1. "Old-school" academic style. They state clearly in the rules/syllabus they will treat everyone professionally, with respect, and they expect the same from all students. They will be more than happy to call you out, right then and there, for inappropriate behavior, and they will call a spade a spade without hesitation. They will, if necessary, be so clear and blunt that it will make you cringe, and if the person will not take direction then they will be shown the door - no one is required to be in their class.
2. Humorist. My dad always use to say, "ask a silly question, get a silly answer." Sometimes its just a fun invitation for a little ad lib comedy. Real smart asses find, if they push it too far, they will quickly end up the focus of the joke in a rather uncomfortable way (some people's version of humor gets very cutting in a hurry). These sorts tend to deal with such people like comics deal with hecklers.
3. Redirection - judo master. This sort of style will take any question, no matter how assinine, and turn it into a good question that relates to the task at hand. "Why do feet smell? Well, neurobiologists studying sensation often utilize specialized applications of neural networks to improve their understanding, but first we'll need to have a good hold on the fundamentals - which brings me to the next slide on genetic algorithms...any other questions on this slide before we continue?"
4. Sweet and simple, KISS. This style would just say, "that's not within the scope of this class, or course. Any other questions about this slide/class/topic?"
5. Tangential. Maybe you just have extra time or enjoy talking about what they asked about. It has nothing to do with the course, or maybe even anything important, but go ahead and answer the question fully, in depth, with citations, if you know it. Go nuts. Have fun with it, and sometimes you can over-load them with so much knowledge and facts about something they didn't actually care about that they will simply reply with a nod and feel sorry they asked. I'm sufficiently good with this that someone once remarked, "never trifle with someone who has a vastly longer attention span than you do." But obviously you'd better not be pressed for time!
6. Troll right back (thanks to Shion). Tell them you'll be happy to cover his question next class if he'd like, you think it would make some nice variety to add to the mid-term and comprehensive final. Tell the student you aren't sure of the answer, but you love to learn something new every semester - why don't they look up the answer and prepare a 5-10 minute presentation? You'll even give them a bonus point! You can ask them to email you after class if they'd be interested in the bonus point. If they take you up on it, schedule it for an office hour.
The thing is, most of the time you just really must assume good intent, because otherwise you will - especially if you are not in a fantastic mood - bite someone who genuinely wasn't trying to be unpleasant, or just wanted to be a touch playful. **Anything you do to that student will ring much more loudly in the ears of the other students than the one you are addressing.**
So be careful to promote a positive environment that encourages other students, rather than one that gets locked in on the one wise-acre who might just be playing a clown for the day.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> a student asks you why our noses run and our feet smell.
>
>
>
My answer would be
>
> Sorry, I don't know the answer to your question. Please ask the experts.
>
>
>
This is the *professional* answer I'll provide. Professional in the sense that I only say what I know.
Be careful if you try to use some sense of humor to answer those questions. You can easily step out of boundry. In particular, the two examples you have may have something to do with health/privacy issues.
If the student keeps asking this kind of questions, you'll know he has other reasons to do so (such as another student has running nose or came to classroom with bare foot). Talk to the student privately or take it to your superiors.
**Edit**
I received comments about part of my answer "Please ask the experts". I'll explain. I am recommending to pretend the trolling question is a serious one. I cannot guess what trolling questions the OP was asked. There are many possibilities. Many trolling questions are of personal type. I give an example here. A young male handsome prof. teaches in a college. He is asked all kinds of questions every new semester. The most frequent one is "Professor, when are you going to get married?" The prof. always replied "Sorry, I don't know the answer. You need to ask my fiancee." In this case, the expert is his fiancee. You can use other serious ways to answer the trolling question. The point is to be **serious (or jokingly serious if you can)** about it so that the troller won't be able to continue the trolling.
**End of edit**
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: [Don't feed the trolls.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29)
The student is most likely looking for attention. If you give it to him/her, then s/he would be encouraged to repeat the disruptive behavior. I recommend that you reply "That question is not within the scope of the course" then quickly continue with the class discussion.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Be a buttface and just stare at them. Stare at them intently, and don't get phased. When they stop looking at you totally, and just stay looking away then turn yourself back to the task at hand. Just remember what it was, and this should put the student in their place.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/29 | 492 | 2,106 | <issue_start>username_0: I am considering taking what should be considered a remedial math class, though is actually credit bearing at my university, so I can spend more time solving monthly problems/ studying graduate level theory on my own. Would subverting the curriculum, and reducing the problem of acquiring credit hours to a problem solved in or before middle school, be looked down upon by graduate schools? I have always heard that graduate schools only care about your math grades, only care about how much math you have studied.<issue_comment>username_1: I assume that you are talking about applying to graduate programs in mathematics, rather than in other disciplines.
To take remedial courses so that you can focus on "graduate level theory" on your own seems like a spectacularly **bad** idea. Why would a grad school take someone whose transcript shows remedial courses instead of accomplishments in upper-level undergraduate and graduate coursework? It also weakens your overall transcript in the process, since the remedial course will stick out like a sore thumb. Moreover, without some mechanism for documenting the work that you've done on your own, you won't easily be able to convince an admissions committee that you've *actually* done the work!
If you want to do graduate-level work, just take the graduate-level courses corresponding to what you want to do.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Taking remedial or lower-level classes in your own discipline/major sounds like a recipe for disaster. At best you'll be seen as lazy, at worst your own competence in your chosen discipline will be suspect.
There is a time-honored tradition of taking easier courses outside of your major/discipline in order to gain some more balance in your life and still earn enough credits for graduation. Ask your peers (or advisor) for the names of these courses -- the time-honored fictional one is called "UWB100: Underwater Basketweaving for Beginners."
While these will still be listed on your transcript, at least they won't cast suspicion on your disciplinary competence.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/29 | 2,294 | 9,474 | <issue_start>username_0: The situation is thus: my institution allows professors to buy out of teaching a class. This semester, my advisor has done so and as a result they needed someone to fill in. After discussion with my advisor, I applied for the position to gain teaching experience (having had none previously).
Thus far, teaching the class has gone smoothly but our department has a huge waitlist problem. When I originally applied for the position, the class had 40 spots. Later, without my input, it was increased to 60, and there were still over 50 people on the waitlist.
Prior to the class starting, my advisor attempted to get the department chair to increase the class size to 90 so that more waitlisted people could get in. However, the chair responded by saying that the department felt that it was important for graduate students, particularly in their first attempt at teaching, to have a good experience, so they didn't want to increase the class size so drastically without my approval. I responded telling them that I didn't feel comfortable taking on so many students when I hadn't taught before and the issue was dropped.
Now, in the second week of classes, my advisor is again pressuring me to admit any waitlisted students that would like to take the course, increasing the class size to 70+. I've told him several times that I am not comfortable with this and thought the issue was closed. However, one of the waitlisted students has gone directly to my advisor and now he's specifically telling me to admit this student.
As it stands, I currently have 62 students in a 60 person class and I understand that taking on one extra student is technically not a big deal. However, I feel uncomfortable for several reasons:
1. It feels like I'm rewarding bad behavior (e.g., the student going to my advisor and forcing entrance into the class)
2. If I admit this student for going to my advisor, I am concerned that every other student on the waitlist will go to my advisor and I'll get similar e-mails about all of them and suddenly my class size will be 70+ students
Technically, I don't have to admit this student, but that would be going directly against what my advisor is telling me to do.
I guess the questions are:
* In the long term, how much control should my advisor have over my class?
* In the short term, should I admit this waitlisted student?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> In the long term, how much control should my advisor have over my class
>
>
>
None, for the duration of this instance. The advisor bought out. You're in charge. End of story. Now you might need some help in standing up to your advisor, and you need to bring in the chair of the department (who's already shown a willingness to help) and/or other senior faculty who manage curriculum activities. Don't do it confrontationally: merely say that you're really uncomfortable expanding the class size and don't feel like it's right to selectively admit students who have access to your advisor, but that you'd feel more comfortable with a faculty intermediary to help mediate.
>
> In the short term, should I admit this waitlisted student?
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No. you're right that this is both setting a bad precedent as well as being unfair. Again, as for how to proceed, see above. You haven't indicated exactly how the advisor is pressuring you, but I think it's fair to point out to them that this undermines your authority as the teacher, and you really need to maintain your independence because you're "only a student". Anyone with teaching experience should understand the importance of establishing authority and presence in the classroom.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You are the captain of that ship. You must never forget this, nor should you ever let anyone else forget this.
I have issues with being asked for special things like this and I generally refuse, for two reasons:
1. The school naturally wants larger class sizes because it means more revenue with less expenses (more students per teacher)
2. The larger the class, the more classroom management work there is to be done which limits the energy I can dedicate to conveying the points I'm trying to convey, which in turn lowers the quality of the experience for my students
While I not a fan of using your power just to show you have power, I do suggest, especially when you are just starting teaching, that you start small and work your way up...and that you push back when others, including your adviser, are trying to get you to do something you are uncomfortable with.
The first semester is always the hardest (my first semester showed me everything I thought about the right way to teach was wrong). You must also set the tone about who is in charge and when it comes to your classroom, you are. You should not admit anyone beyond what you think you can handle and I think a class of 60 is plenty for your first semester.
When negotiating issues like this with your adviser, you must be able to speak from experience. You will have that next semester. For now, stand strong.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Poor thing... Well, I am not going to teach you to say no because after all he is your adviser and you probably don't want to directly upset him over this teaching fiasco. However, I can provide some tips to be less miserable.
First, **refocus**. Don't just look at the enrollment, **look at your mode of teaching**. Some teaching methods, when passing a certain number of students, do not change dramatically even the number of students keeps increasing. For class size less than 20 there may be more group work, interactive discussion... but once it passes 60, upping to 70 should not make you revise the syllabus to any considerable extent. Doing this favor can buy you some brownie points from the department and dean, etc.
Second, once you're over that class size phobia, **use your position to negotiate**. Ask for a pay increase, if the payment is fixed, ask for a couple extra TAs, if there isn't any, ask for a copy of new software, a few books on teaching and engaging students (those suckers are expensive,) a laptop, a set of whiteboard pens, a plane ticket to an upcoming conference, parking reimbursement, publication fee, journal subscription... whatever you can think of. (I actually was in a similar situation once and I got a conference + hotel + air fare paid for.) Get the most support out of it and **don't be shy! Your department needs you and it will do fair things to keep you a happy teacher**.
Third, **stop over induction**. Just because you allowed your adviser to send k more student can never imply he can send k + 1. You're trapped in your little logic maze. **Counter offer** him sincerely. Tell him that you really appreciate the student's desire to join, and you can up the quota, but in turn make your adviser promise making no more of such exception because **the students will be very confused of who is actually in charge, and that will not go well along the semester**. He, besides being a jerk, may just be excited that people actually want to learn a subject that he loves.
Fourth, **learn to deflect**. You can often find a pivotal point to transfer the conflict between you and your supervisor to between someone else and your supervisor. For instance, tell him that you'll think about the 2 extra students, but don't inform the students yet. That way the students will not start broadcasting the trick. Respond yes to the registrar at 4:50 pm of the due date of the add/drop period. Want more in? Your supervisor will have to talk to the registrar, who already seems to be on the side of keeping the size manageable.
In conclusion, excrement like this happens in academia on an hourly base. When you are at the lower end of an intricate power ladder, try to compensate, balance, and leverage. Having taught a big class is a good experience, and judging by the popularity I think the students will be motivated. Do get the most fun out of it, and best wishes to your first course.
---
**Response to comments:**
>
> Negotiations don't normally work once the semester has already
> started. You cannot reasonably expect to get extra teaching staff
> support after the allocations process is complete and courses are
> underway. That's one of the reasons for having registration limits in
> the first place!
>
>
>
I think this comment **further highlights how self-imposed rigidity can limit our options**. First, just because I said TA doesn't mean I won't take a grader, I will even just take a couple more people to move chairs and tables, why not? It depends on OP's needs and I merely provided some examples. Second, tertiary institutions operate in so many different forms and traditions that if we have seen one academic department, we probably have just seen one academic department. Perhaps in our department it won't work, perhaps in OP's it does. I have only worked in two institutions, and this negotiation mechanisms worked in both of them. Once, as I have said, sponsored a conference trip. Another allowed me to up the food budget so that I can have two nights of presentation with refreshment and gave me US$350 budget for course-related expenditure.
The key point, to me, is not if the class has started or not. It's the **OP still has power to say no**. As long as that is in effect, some form of negotiation should be able to take place.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/29 | 751 | 3,326 | <issue_start>username_0: I have one official first name which appears on my ID card. I have another first name which friends call me by. Is it possible to use my unofficial first name and official family name to publish scientific papers? How can I prove to someone that I am one of the authors?<issue_comment>username_1: It depends on the field, and in particular on the venue in which you are publishing. It's possible that some journals and conferences might have policies about this, which would of course override anything you read here. But in general: nobody checks (or cares) whether the name you put on a published paper matches your official name. So if you use an informal variant of your name, e.g. if your name is "Stephen" but you publish as "Steve", nobody will bat an eyelid. If you use a nickname or publish under a pseudonym, it would be a little odd if the nickname is something that sounds very informal, but still, it probably won't cause problems.
What people do care about is building a record of your work, and putting a face to the name if they know your face. So you should (1) be consistent with the name you use to publish, and (2) make sure other people in the field know that it refers to you.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The answer of username_1 covers all important aspects regarding the name choice. In order to prove your authorship to someone, you would have to show **correspondence letters** with the publisher. You will typically receive several of those, the most important one being the acceptance letter stating that the publisher will publish your manuscript. If you show these to anybody, it should be sufficient proof that you are an author, especially if the address on the letter can be clearly linked to you.
Note that this is not just an issue with using pseudonyms. Anybody with a sufficiently common name will face exactly the same problem.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I have a legal (official) transliteration of my **surname** (family name) from the Greek alphabet to the Latin one on all my official documents. I consistently use for many years now another transliteration (just one letter difference) of my surname in all the publications I have produced until now. I have never had a problem with the name tag in my conference badge or the hotel reservation or paying the conference registration or anything. Nobody seems to care until now. The one and only exception was just one time that I needed to issue a travel visa for entering a country; in that case the embassy staff questioned me why my official surname did not match the invitation letter sent by the conference organizers to invite me to present in the conference. The visa was issued without any hassle in the end.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: It is permissable to adapt one's name for publication.
But to avoid the circumstance that you fear, i.e. that you may have difficulty "proving" your publications if your legal name is somewhat different, **you should ensure that your *nom de plume* (assumed name for an author) is unique in your Department at the time of publication**.
Your proof lies in your academic affiliation at the time of publication. Once you are the only person with that name (or assumed name) then you are safe and sound.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/01/30 | 1,119 | 4,586 | <issue_start>username_0: Due to incompatibility with my current advisor, I am currently looking for other advisor on his back. Any advice? I am so scared that what if he discovers that I'm looking around. Now I have tried to set up new email account so I can deny everything if things get ugly. Any people have the same experience, can you share your trick with me please? It is pretty much a very dangerous covert mission.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't see anything dangerous or necessarily covert about looking for another advisor, and I'm puzzled by things like using a new e-mail account you can deny was yours. (Are you planning to make contact under a fake name? Pretend someone was impersonating you if your current advisor finds out?)
You don't need to be nearly so worried. It's completely reasonable to switch advisors, and I know plenty of people who have done it without any trouble at all. You don't owe your current advisor anything, and there are no good grounds for anyone to object.
Of course you could cause offense if you are tactless. Don't tell your advisor "I'm switching because I'd prefer a competent advisor." But there are plenty of reasonable excuses. For example, you could say your interests are developing in ways that are a better fit for an advisor with a somewhat different specialization.
Fair or not, your advisor is probably not happy to be working with you either and may actually be relieved when you switch. In comments on other questions you have expressed a fear that your advisor will badmouth you to other potential advisors. That's possible, but you could also run into the opposite phenomenon: sometimes an advisor who is frustrated with a student will try to convince other faculty to take on the role of advisor, since then the student will be someone else's problem. (The less cynical version is that the student may get along better with an advisor with a different personality.)
I'd recommend keeping two things in mind:
1. You seem very interested in criticizing your advisor. Now is not a good time for that, whether it's addressed to your advisor or to a potential replacement.
2. You seem worried that you are doing something underhanded. If you act nervous and suspicious, people may suspect you are up to no good. Looking for a new advisor is not doing anything wrong, and you may get a better reaction if you treat it straightforwardly and calmly.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: It is better to have a single supervisor than two. Because every time you show some work, there will be two advices and many revisions to your papers,thesis.
Unless you know the professors thoroughly, don't consider having two supervisors.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> Due to incompatibility with my current advisor, I am currently looking for other advisor on his back.
>
>
>
Did you mean "behind his back"? That's okay, people usually don't tell their advisor (or employer, in the business world) when they're looking for another one to switch to.
>
> Any advice? I am so scared that what if he discovers that I'm looking around.
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>
>
If he finds out and confronts you about it just tell him that you don't feel like you are able to contribute to the research that he does.
>
> Now I have tried to set up new email account so I can deny everything if things get ugly. [...] It is pretty much a very dangerous covert mission.
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Nope, that's just paranoid.
>
> Any people have the same experience, can you share your trick with me please?
>
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>
I switched, after a year with my first advisor. The work he was having me do didn't interest me at all, and to be honest, I wasn't doing it as well as I probably could (lack of motivation reduces work quality).
I simply asked about the department for who was looking for graduate students (like I did in the first year to find this advisor in the first place). I didn't tell my current advisor, but I also didn't take any paranoid measures like switching email accounts. I used my official university account for everything. After finding a new advisor, he contacted the old advisor, making sure everyone is good with the switching arrangement, I finished up my semester of work (up to the end of the contract of the funded project) with the old advisor, I had a meeting where I gave an overview of the work to the person who will take it over and answered some questions, and then I started working with the new advisor.
At the end, everyone was fine. I'm even collaborating with the old advisor a little on some research right now.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/30 | 2,066 | 8,109 | <issue_start>username_0: The main troubles in my academic experience can be summarized in two popular (if somewhat cheesy) sayings:
* "Careful what you wish for" and
* "With great power comes great responsibility"
Throughout my high school and undergraduate education I kept (naively, I now reckon) chasing the dream of ultimate [academic freedom](http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1436), where I would be able to study freely and learn at will, unencumbered by artificial constraints like scheduled classes, deadlines, curricula, etc. So I went after it, first getting a master's and now a pursuing PhD, but now that the classes and assignments are finally over, I find myself *unable to handle the freedom I wished for*. It wasn't even a sudden change: at each step, as the external support/control structures grew thinner, I had to rely more and more in self-discipline, but I failed to recognize my ineptitude on time.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that this issue isn't new or unique (indeed, the [two](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/2219/1348) [most](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/5786/1348) voted questions on this site deal with this kind of problem), but here's why I'm *still* asking this question: **what I'm aiming for isn't tools or best practices**;
todo lists, well-defined schedules, website blockers, I've tried pretty much all of those, and I've also read a lot about procrastination, motivation, flow, etc. I've been battling these issues for several years now, and I've been through this cycle many times, attempting new tools and techniques that work for a while, only to find myself back in a self-defeating loop of procrastination. I recently decided to seek psychological counseling precisely because I recognized I wasn't able to deal with this alone.
Essentially, I recognize my dependence on a structured environment to be productive, but also (due to attempting and failing many times) my inability to create and maintain such external structures. I'm therefore looking for strategies to improve my ability to motivate myself to actually follow the rules I try to impose on myself. So rather than creating friction in trying to control my behavior, **I'm seeking strategies that make it the [path of least resistance](http://matt.might.net/articles/productivity-tips-hints-hacks-tricks-for-grad-students-academics/) to be productive and organized.** My hopes, since all else has failed so far, is to use the [fake it till you make it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_it_till_you_make_it) approach to eventually become an actual organized and self-disciplined person.
As an example, I have suppressed all sorts of notifications (a common advice), and don't keep my email or any such pages open in the background, to minimize the chance of interruptions. I also changed the chair in my desk to one that makes it less easy to slouch, based on the principle that [body posture affects mental state](http://books.google.com/books?id=h7NewH-XWgUC&pg=PA82&dq=). Setting defaults such as these essentially "outsources" decisions I would otherwise have to make consciously, thus depleting my willpower. I also use [Beeminder](http://beeminder.com) to "outsource motivation", but it doesn't fit perfectly to every case. I'm interested in hearing how others dealt with the need to gradually develop the ability to self-regulate, particularly in the context of academia.
---
**EDIT:** I think my question was a little more pessimistic than it should (and definitely too verbose, sorry!). To be clear, my previous attempts *did* lead to some long-term improvement, but in a rather slow, two-steps-forward-one-step-backward kind of way. **I'm not claiming those techniques don't work**, but I believe it would be useful for many people to have a compiled list of environmental changes that "outsource" the need to make small decisions that otherwise have to be made each time, since most productivity advice focuses on the latter.<issue_comment>username_1: I recently finished High School and I'm about to start University. I had a similar problem when studying for my final exams. This really helped me so take it or leave it, here's what helped for me:
1) Don't commit to doing huge mountains of work, you will only find procrastinating easier. Only plan to do a small bit and if you don't get into the rhythm of things then that's all you have to do.
2) Go for a jog/run. I would go at a regular pace until I really wanted to stop, then I would go just a bit more, to the post ahead, then to the next post and so on, forcing myself to keep going. Then, with the same attitude in mind, I would study just doing one more paragraph, and the next, and so on. Little Victories.
3) Remember: Every time you fail or feel like stopping, somebody else just gave up and each time you keep on trying, you do better and better than the people who gave up when you didn't.
I hope this helps.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I have only one advice, which was and is the only working solution for me: **change your environment drastically.**
It looks like you tried hard to work in your office, and that you decided to suppress any things that can distract you from work. It also seems that it does not work at all. The problem can be the place instead of the furniture, or the potential distractions.
For me the solution was quite simple, and worked and still work very well : I NEVER work in my office. I think while walking or cycling or doing manual work. I wrote stuff on papers at home, in a bar, in a starbuck, in a public park, etc. And finally, I am going back to the office only for the things that need a computer (e.g. writing papers, grant proposals, and slides for the lectures).
After a while, you will probably have a routine : a walk in the morning, then a coffee in a place where you draft your ideas, then the rest of the day in the office, for the boring stuff.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In order to increase your mental toughness and resilience, a routine is necessary, and it takes time to get used to a higher level of work, some things that may help you out:
1. a walk every day(to clean the melatonin from the bloodstream, it
slows down thinking)
2. a gym membership helps a lot ( you get a good night of sleep and it helps you stay motivated)
3. 2 (coffee/tea) pauses, one in the morning and in the evening
4. a time tracker app or notebook to track time and see how you handle yourself every day, and a timesheet ( i find that more then 40 hours makes you burn out long term )
5. ***a weekend routine to destress (hobby, meeting friends, ...)***
6. a todo list of tasks/shores home related, daily things
7. a community to join so you can help people in your related field, and get motivated doing so, or maybe a personal project
There are still some days you will find your self unmotivated, I try to push through and listen to podcast/show or work in library or outside of home.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I'm going to provide a different perspective: don't worry about it.
Feeling productive, efficient or organized doesn't really matter in the end. You graduate by producing creative work.
Unfortunately doing creative work meant
* making far less progress than you expected given your effort
* chasing lots of dead ends because no one knows the answer
* spending lots of time iterating on ideas or writing with little guidance (your advisor isn't responsible for the paper or your graduation, you are!)
I believe the above is far worse for other creative endeavors (e.g., math) than my field (CS).
You just need to stay motivated by recognizing that it's not meant to feel a certain way, and grind.
You almost always need some luck. You get lucky by staying in the game. Then you will finally produce something worthy after a long grind. You will feel rewarded. And the cycle starts again, until you graduate.
In fact, if you are doing creative work (e.g., research) in your jobs, it's the same.
You simply get over worrying about things. The reward of creative work will keep you going.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/30 | 1,054 | 4,587 | <issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student studying wireless networks/telecommunications, and I have developed a set of lab exercises related to the field. We have used them with > 100 students so far in B.S. and M.S. classes on computer networks, wireless networks, and wireless communications.
With the first few cohorts, I asked them to rate each exercise with respect to:
* overall rating
* difficulty of lab exercise
* how interesting the material was
* experiment design
and to rate self on knowledge of topic before and after the lab. I also ask for general open-ended feedback ("How can we improve this exercise?" "Any other comments?") and recently introduced automated systems to measure exactly what students are doing in the lab. This gave me a general sense of which exercises were interesting to students, and which they thought were useful. Now I am looking for a way to evaluate how effective the labs are at educating students - not just their popularity.
I've been doing some reading in CS education research (although education research is not my field, so I can't devote too much time to getting up to speed on all the methodology), but I haven't come across a study design that I think would be a good fit for my scenario. I am under some constraints:
* I'm not the instructor for the class.
* I just run the lab exercises via a website. I don't meet the students in person.
* I don't have the ability to set up a "control group" by offering one section of the course with the lab and one section without.
* I can't ask my students to do a lot of work that is only for purposes of methodology assessment (e.g. I can have them fill out a short pre-class survey, but not much more then that). I can ask them to do some things that are also learning assessments (like quizzes on the lab topic).
>
> Given these constraints, how can I effectively evaluate the educational tools I've developed? (specifically, learn whether they actually improve students' understanding of the course material)
>
>
>
**Update:**
I don't have access to a comparable cohort from one year to the next, or between two sections. In the end, I came up with a set of questions that I think will help evaluate the exercises, even across only one group of students, all of whom are participating in the lab; I describe this in my own answer.<issue_comment>username_1: You are adressing a topic which (in my humble opinion) is one of the most difficult ones: How to measure effictivenes of teaching methods.
The only good way is to have a control group (and make sure they are large enough, randomly asigned, subgroups represented equally, et.c). In most practical situations this is just not feasible. (I have the same problem at the moment).
What I plan to do (so it is just an idea, not proven to be correct - fedback is wellcome!):
1. ask students who did the class twice how they liked the new format and whether it helps them in learning
2. Compare outcome.
I think 2.) is the one we should aim for since the ultimate measure of successful teaching is compentent students leaving the university. Since it is hard to measure their competence late in real life situations, the only thing we can do is measure their perfomence by tests / exams. So I'll compare the results of my current group with the one from last year and look for failure rate, attendeance at test, ... Given that your tests are comparable, this gives at least an indication.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In the end I decided to try the following, based on my understanding that lab exercises are particularly suited for repairing misconceptions that students might hold:
* Before students complete the lab procedure, they have to answer an open-ended question about what they think the results will show, based on their knowledge of the course material.
* At the end of the lab, students have to write whether their initial guess was correct. If not, they have to explain why they originally made that guess, what factor they hadn't considered that led the actual results to be different, and what (if anything) they understand now that they misunderstood before.
This serves as both a learning assessment for the students, and a methodology assessment for the lab.
* The students earn a grade based on whether they eventually have a good sense of what's supposed to happen, either before doing the lab procedure or after.
* The pre-lab and post-lab questions together help me quantify to what degree the lab exercises address misconceptions that students have about the content.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/01/30 | 2,252 | 9,753 | <issue_start>username_0: I would like to post an repository on github that includes data and analysis code in R. The analysis and data forms part of a journal article submission. I'm happy for people to view the code and data prior to publication (in particular, it might be an easy way for reviewers to examine the code). However, I do not want anyone publishing analyses of the data prior to acceptance and publication of the journal article. After publication, I want to encourage people to re-analyse, re-use, re-publish (e.g., with a GPL licence with an encouragement to attribute).
Obviously, I could just keep the data and analysis code a secret until after publication, but I thought an appropriately worded licence might be more appropriate. I thought about just writing in plain English that the work is copyrighted at this time, and will be converted to GPL at a later date following publication.
* **Is there a standard way of licensing data and code so that people cannot republish the data and code until the corresponding publication has been published?**
* **Or is it better just to keep the data and code secret until after publication?**
**UPDATE:** I suppose there is a legal perspective to this, but I know that academia has its own norms and conventions regarding attribution and respecting the wishes of authors. So I'd be particularly interested in answers framed in that context. I.e., My broader aim is to be the first to publish my own research, generally get attribution, but also allow others to build on that work. So I'd be interested also in what is considered good practice when you are in the situation of wanting to share data and code while an article is being peer reviewed, but not wanting to lose your right of first publication.<issue_comment>username_1: A1 : The legal department at your university or company should be able to help you out with this type of request.
A2 : This depends on the journal to which you are submitting. Read their rules on copyright of submitted software and publication beforehand.
Other comments / ideas :
I have software freely available that I have submitted to a journal before publication (although, this may not have been the best idea) and software that is also ready and that I use that I could make freely available, but have not as of yet.
An alternative would be to say that interested parties may email you for access to the code before publication happens.
You could always publish the data (or paper explaining the data) on a pre-print server so that you cannot be scooped and then also publish the corresponding code. This will outline clear dates as to who published the research first.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You write that you
>
> do not want anyone publishing analyses of the data prior to acceptance and publication of the journal article.
>
>
>
I am not a lawyer, but I don't think there's any license to enforce that. Once you publish data, other people are free to work with that data, and publish their analyses (although they might not be able to republish the original data, at least not in the same format as you did). As [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#Scope) writes, copyright does not cover information itself, it just protects the way that it is presented, or the verbatim description. If you want to prevent others from publishing analyses of your data, I think the safest way is to keep the data confidential until you publish your paper.
On the other hand, if you don't put a license on the data, you have whatever copyright protects there, so others will not be allowed to re-publish the data in the same format. Therefore, I think the risk that others publish an ernest journal based on your data is not that high, unless it's really spectacular data.
The code is a different issue of course. You hold copyright on that, and if you don't put a license on it, others won't be allowed to republish it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Honestly, I doubt that copyright protection is of any use. The copyright on the code itself does not\* extend to data produced using the code. Similarly, the copyright you would hold on the paper submission covers\* that particular presentation of the data, but not the data itself. So as long as someone is physically able to view your data, I believe there is no *legal* avenue to prohibit them from doing their own analysis on their data.
However, for another researcher to take the output of your code and perform their own analysis in an attempt to scoop you, when they know you have your own paper doing the same analysis pending, is ethically very questionable. If it came to light that something like this happened, I think the academic community would strongly frown on it. That's a very strong incentive for any other researcher not to do this, and so I personally wouldn't worry about it.
Besides, if it does happen, the other researcher will have to cite your code anyway so you still get credit. This can actually be a good thing. I would recommend including in your code a notice of the form
>
> Please cite the following reference if you use the results of this code in a publication:
>
>
> *[reference to paper or code]*
>
>
>
(see [this example](https://github.com/diazona/SOLO) from my own publication history) If you're worried about someone else abandoning all pretense of ethics and just using your results without citing them, rest assured that it is *very* difficult to pull that off, and it constitutes academic fraud, which is a career-ender if it's discovered.
And finally, as a practical matter, you have a very large head start on anyone else who might want to publish an analysis of the outcome of your code. Don't underestimate the time and effort it takes for someone else to go through your code in enough detail to learn what it does and figure out how to use it enough to generate original results, and then to write and submit a paper and have it reviewed, typeset, and published.
One more point worth mentioning:
>
> So I'd be interested also in what is considered good practice when you are in the situation of wanting to share data and code while an article is being peer reviewed, but not wanting to lose your right of first publication.
>
>
>
You *don't* have a right of first publication. Not legally, anyway. If you want to ensure that you are the first one to have an opportunity to publish a paper based on some result, the standard practice is to keep the result private until you are close to publishing the paper yourself. But keep in mind that "publishing" in this context doesn't have to be peer reviewed. For instance, in physics it's very common to put a paper on [arXiv](http://arxiv.org) before submitting it to a journal. That establishes the authors' claim to the result before it enters the peer review process.
\*informed layperson speculation; see a lawyer for a definitive statement
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Your right as a owner of intellectual property, allows you to release and allow reuse of that "property" in any way you feel correct.
The use by a third party of your "property" is not allowed unless the party has a way to demostrate that you have somehow allowed it.
The way you allow it is up to you.
Obviously that creates an enormous exercise for the judge, that could be called to decide on the fact. Essentially there is a big legal hole, because I could decide for example to sell a book and to allow the purchaser to read it ONLY ON NIGHT from 8pm to 11:59pm.
That means that if you use the book in other times you are penaly responsible.
So that is the reason that the legislator should take some decisions because if not a lot of problems may arise.
The limitions that the author may impose, may be illegal etc.
Most important is that fact that licenses may be so long and articulated that no normal person may be able to understand them and so that person shouldn't be liable for the infringement of them.
Any way my opinion is that you may impose any rule you may like. That is a one paty action and the other party should demonstrate that she is legaly using your work.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: Who prevents you from releasing the code under GPL only after the article has been accepted for publication?
In such case, probably you cannot add GPL header to the files in advance but unless it is very large project, this should not be a really big problem (you may write some script to add headers if it is really a lot of files).
If you setup a public repository on GitHub, by doing so you allow to [view and fork](https://help.github.com/articles/github-terms-of-service) it. If this seems not acceptable for you, publish on the university server instead and only publish to GitHub when you open source it. You can add any restrictions you want as long as it is your fully owned code. Just I am not sure if it will be easy to enforce these restrictions if somebody does violate.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: To address your revised question:
>
> My broader aim is to be the first to publish my own research, generally get attribution, but also allow others to build on that work. So I'd be interested also in what is considered good practice when you are in the situation of wanting to share data and code while an article is being peer reviewed, but not wanting to lose your right of first publication.
>
>
>
The usual practice in my field (mathematics) is that when the project is finished, you submit it to a journal, and simultaneously post it to [arXiv](http://arxiv.org), a public preprint server. This establishes your priority in two ways, and lets people start building on it immediately.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/30 | 1,367 | 5,831 | <issue_start>username_0: As we all know, you typically abbreviate something the first time that particular term shows up in a paper. However, I've been told in the past that certain things in a paper should be written in such a way that 'it stands on its own'. One such thing would include the abstract of the paper. So, perhaps a appears in the abstract that I want to abbreviate. Now one of two things can happen.
1.) If appears more than once in the abstract, I could abbreviate the first instance and then just use the abbreviation from that point on.
2.) If appears only ONCE in the abstract, then I shouldn't abbreviate it because then I would have defined an abbreviation that I would not have used again (given the concept of 'the abstract should be able to stand on its own).
The problem with (2) is that people will immediately think that the 'first instance' of should be abbreviated and don't immediately consider the 'stand-alone' idea so I'm either having to revise or try to put up a convincing argument for what I did.
Also, I've been told by some that tables and figures should be able to 'stand on their own'. So, if the abbreviation for appears in the table somewhere (or the caption), then I should explicitly spell out and then define an abbreviation for it right then and there, even if I have already done so earlier on in the text of the paper.
So, my question is, what is the proper way of handling these abbreviations and is the idea of 'this piece must be able to stand on its own' valid (and if its valid, what exactly does this idea apply to)?
---
Additional Information:
I am a computational chemist so we pretty much are forced to use the alphabet-soup of acronyms. MP2 is preferred over "second-order Moller-Plesset perturbation theory" and is commonly used. CCSD(T) is preferred over "The
coupled-cluster method that includes all single and double substitutions as well as a perturbative treatment of the connected triple excitations". The list can go on and on. If this wasn't abbreviated in an abstract, having to 'spell it out' even a few times would make for an incredibly long abstract, figure caption, table, etc.<issue_comment>username_1: The first comment will be, do not abbreviate just because something occurs more than once. Abbreviations other than established ones (within your field) such as DNA, EDTA make reading more difficult. Of course all established abbreviation were new at some point but the message is, be restrictive. I understand your field may be in need of many abbreviations so make adjustments to these general comments accordingly.
Now as for the abstract, I would recommend to not abbreviate anything even if it occurs more than once or twice (again barring established abbreviations). The abstract should be seen as a separable part which is (hopefully read) by a wider audience than the paper itself. If you need to abbreviate something in the paper, do so in the main paper as the "first occurrence".
Tables and figures should be made to stand alone if possible (which probably is 80+% of the time). Often figures and tables may be the parts others take up when they describe your work. To have self-explanatory figures and tables is thus useful. With a table the table caption should be an integral part so I think it is reasonable to have abbreviations in the table body as long as the abbreviations are explained in the table caption. The same could apply to figures as well but I would go further and aim for making the graphics along self-explanatory even without its caption.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In my opinion the general rule is that abbreviations should be used exactly when they make reading easier; in particular, in some circumstances it will be easier to understand a sentence when a long term is abbreviated (provided the abbreviation has been defined of course). The same rule should apply in abstract and captions, except that the cost (in term of reading comfort) of having to look for the meaning of the abbreviation is usually greater.
The problem comes from the fact that we tend to use abbreviations when they make *writing* easier (or quicker), and this does not coincide with reading easiness.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: * If the abbreviation is so common that people use it instead of its real meaning (e.g. I'd call EDTA EDTA, but if I'm asked for the spelled-out name I mentally reconstruct that from the structure of EDTA - as opposed to knowing ethylenediamintetraaceticacid and reconstructing the structure from that) I'd use the abbreviation in the abstract.
* If the abbreviation is really common, but not the "primary name" of the thing in question, I'd spend that one word in the abstract and give both.
* Otherwise, I'm a big fan of a table of abbreviations. That way it is much easier for a reader who is not deeply familiar with the field to find the meaning than to search through the text to where the abbreviation first occurred.
See also: [Shall acronyms in scientific papers be expanded exactly once?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11678/shall-acronyms-in-scientific-papers-be-expanded-exactly-once)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: I would write it out in full the first time that it appears in the abstract, and again the first time that it appears in the main text. This isn't authoritative, however, it's simply what "seems right" to me. The abstract needs to stand on its own, and the introduction should also make sense to somebody who hasn't just read the abstract.
Additionally, as some have said, in some fields there may be abbreviations that are so generally accepted that there is no need to expand them. To pick something that is not field-dependant, nobody would expect an author to spell out LASER or RADAR.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/01/30 | 844 | 3,317 | <issue_start>username_0: I am a student of IT in India. I'm in my fourth semester and want to work on some project during summer. How should I write the email to the professor asking for the same?<issue_comment>username_1: How about something like the following.
>
> Dear Professor X,
>
>
> I enjoyed your course on letter writing and would like to learn more about it. Would it be possible to do a summer project with you?
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Your student of IT in India
>
>
>
If you didn't do a course with him, there must be something that singled him out amongst the other 50 professors at your IT institute (and I don't mean his new glasses).
Alternatives might be:
>
> I enjoy topic X [your professors specialty] and have used it to program a simple program ...
>
>
> I tried to read your paper "Letter writing for IT students" ...
>
>
>
You asked for a letter, but allow me to suggest to go and talk to him directly. Make sure you know why you want to do a project with him. From a short conversation, you should be able to tell, whether he is willing to invest time into guiding you through a summer project. (He might be away on conferences or other business.) If he seems like he might be very busy, you might consider doing a project with someone else. (If your professor is too busy to meet with you every few days, anyone, even me, can give you a research project: "Research about topic X as much as you can and let me know what you found".)
Say that you have never done a summer project before, and ask him how much time he expects you to put in (per day) and how often he might be able to meet with you.
All of this can be settled in a short conversation of 5 minutes. Via email, this all might take well over a week, or the professor might just not care to reply.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I get **many** letters of this kind, and I now summarily delete them without replying. Let me explain why.
1. Money: it's never clear in these letters what kind of support the student wants/expects. The default assumption is that I would pay for them, and as an academic with limited resources, I have very little incentive to pay for an undergraduate to travel from India to the US to work with me, especially when it's unlikely they'll be able to do much in three months. Which brings me to
2. Project timeline: most letters of this kind are of the form "I'm interested in BROAD TOPIC A and want to work with you because you're interested in NARROW TOPIC B". For a three month internship to work, a project has to be very focused, and set from day 1. There's no time to explore.
3. Self-interest: There's very little gain for me here, or at least none that's mentioned in the letters. If I want to hire an undergraduate, I can do it locally. I can even get financial support (sometimes) for doing that. I can't do that with a student from abroad, and I can't even vet them in advance.
So any successful letter needs to address these three issues very effectively and quickly (because I delete these emails without reading more than a few lines).
Having said that, I know of at least one example where a student came from India to work with a colleague and that summer project turned into an application to grad school. The student is now at my university.
Upvotes: 4 |
2014/01/30 | 6,964 | 27,548 | <issue_start>username_0: In the USA, college sports are popular, and colleges [may offer scholarship based on athletic skills](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletic_scholarship). Yet, [universities spend significant money on sports](http://www.floridatoday.com/usatoday/article/1837721), and [nobody earns as well as the head of the sports team](http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1086).
Considering that the universities are losing money on it, and it's not their core task, then *why do they spend big money on sports?* Who benefits, and how? Do all [major universities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment) have commercialised sports teams, or are there major exceptions of universities choosing not to take part?<issue_comment>username_1: The University of Chicago's president (can't remember which one) chose to not have sports teams many decades ago.
I think the practice of having college and university sports teams arose from one of the older functions of "colleges" and "universities", namely, as finishing schools for children of the wealthy, especially young men. (As opposed to theology seminaries, or medical or law schools, or teachers' colleges.) Just one more entertainment for them, but/and obviously the degree of quasi-professionalism was much less.
In any case, it seems that alumni generally are more entertained by sports than by science or literature, say. I think it is believed that maintaining general alumni enthusiasm via sports may spill over into donations for other things. Certainly the box office revenue and alumni donations make sports programs *close* to self-supporting, sometimes running at a profit, depending on how one does the accounting.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: A partial answer is that the proposition that universities lose money on sports is controversial. Some sports bring in large amounts of money, making the athletics department as a whole not lose too much money, and most universities believe that the alumni donations brought in by the existence of sports teams more than make up for any remaining loss. (For public universities this is even more extreme, since the state legislatures that apportion money are often very fond of those athletic programs, to the point that state universities do better in state appropriations in years when their most important teams are doing well.)
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Here is one side effect of a university having a famous sports team as mentioned by <NAME> in a comment: people know your name. This helps recruit new students, it helps alumni impress potential employers with a degree from somewhere they have heard of! I only know that Boise State University is actually a real university (and as it turns out a pretty good one) because their football field has blue turf.
One feature of American colleges and universities that is easy to forget is that they are often in the middle of nowhere. Pennsylvania State University is in a town named State College. You can guess which came first. So imagine you have thousands of young men and women in a place that is barely a town. What do they do on Saturday afternoon? Some will start organizing teams to play sports and then start going to nearby schools to play their teams. This grew greatly since the old days but the idea that a residential university is partly responsible for providing non-academic activities for their students take part in still exists as a real force. At smaller schools which do not have sports scholarships the sports teams are more about playing because the students enjoy it and it is just part of campus life.
Also at many schools the mission statements include character formation such as "building leadership skills." If this is the case you can actually argue that having some level of athletic competition on campus actually is part of the core mission. Maybe not an absolute vital part but one that contributes to the mission.
I am of course ignoring in large part the money and corruption that is part of the NCAA Division I level of college athletics. Of which there is an extraordinary amount of both.
Most schools, except for d3 schools, break even with their athletic programs. Americans want to be proud of something, that something for colleges is athletics. Most people wouldn't want to go to Harvard if they didn't have a good football team. I helps to bring diversity (age, interests, grades, and money) into colleges.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: There are good answers already for why does there continue to be a huge emphasis on sports in American academia but none really answer the question.
The fact is that sports in America were introduced at universities out of necessity. Where in most parts of the world there has been long traditions of clubs or the local handling of games/sports, America had nothing. One small town might play another small town in a "sport" but that didn't satisfy everyone. You had elitist or exceptional athletes that wanted to compete against their equals, not Gary the blacksmith.
So this is mid 19th century and America is boiling. A nation divided on many subjects. So instead of a local rowing club or in today's terms playing for your company team, the easiest thing to gravitate to is a local university. They had the money, organization, place to play the game, and so on.
And back then universities had opinions and power concerning government and policy. So the elite universities (most were in this group at the time) wanted to take their debating and add physicality to it. Races, rowing, simple games. It invoked pride and if Harvard won the rowing competition then they must be right about slavery.
I didn't even ask who has time for games in mid 19th century? Well you are probably a male, somewhere between 20-35, you have lots of money, and no job - you go to school. This is the epitome of sports culture. Where are all of these people stacked at... Universities. So it was just the perfect storm.
Now once it started the early collegiate sports scene really was much like we see today - except it was admittedly like that in the late 19th century and early 20th century. What do I mean? Well players were old. You might not have many players on your football team under 20 and a few in their 30s. Some players student-status was highly questioned. There weren't really any rules at first and when they started the rules in the late 19th century there were ways around them.
Players were paid, sometimes "pros" went back to college, there were boosters... the schools were driven by pride, power, and money. Maybe the only things different were (lack of) media and that they were not preying on teenagers.
And the evolution of sports in the 20th century has gone from we have money and power so we will form the best teams, to we will get money and power from having the best teams. The big D1 schools are the worst. They hide huge huge earnings by allocating costs to sports teams so they can make millions/billions on tuition and licensing - yes everyone buys Texas Longhorns shirts for their Economics department.
Some universities "claim" to be losing money. There have been economic impact studies done showing that almost none that made the claims were even near losing money on sports. When they factored in advertising, enrollment, exterior sales, and so on. Really the only thing that makes sports somewhat costly for universities now is Title IX. Very few women's sports make money and most women wouldn't go to a university because their softball team is good.
So now we have the NCAA, colleges, tied-in businesses getting profits and tax breaks for players that are playing for free. This may change now that there has been talk of unionizing but could be years and years down the road.
Even if this happened and the landscape changed were the big sports went to a club system there would still be sports in American universities. They would function because students expect this now. Things would probably work like they do for club sports at current universities or how things work at most DIII schools. You play local teams, you drive to the game, pay for your equipment, maybe offset a little by entrance fees or a nice booster.
So why are there sports in American colleges? Pride, money, free-time of students, and the fact that there weren't other organizations to handle these things in the new America. Why will sports be played in American colleges in 100 years? Same reason they are played at clubs in France. Tradition.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: Something I couldn't understand in American culture. Last summer, I've read an article - an interview with some south-american novelist (I can't remember his name).
He said, it's a psychological trick. Generally, people going to university are among the best. They were the best, or one of the best in school. Now some of them have to be worst. People dislike being the worst, even if they are the worst among the best, and it's very discouraging. Many talents could get lost because of that.
But if we get sportsmen, they would be usually the worst in the class, and they would be perfectly happy with it, as long as they would get promotion and could concentrate on sport.
It's a logical argument for me.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I am gong to assume that the NCAA is a reasonable proxy for "commercialised sports teams". The [NCAA has 1,200](http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are/membership) members which while large is not every accredited US university. A quick check of your list of major universities reveals Pomona, with an endowment of 1.6 billion, is not a member of the NCAA. Despite its sizeable endowment, with only 1,600 undergraduates I am not sure it qualifies as a major university.
As for the who benefits part, I will just quote the [NCAA](http://www.ncaa.org/about/what-we-do)
>
> The result is that NCAA student-athletes are graduating at a higher rate than other college students. More than eight out of 10 student-athletes will earn a bachelor’s degree.
>
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> Student-athletes work hard throughout the year to be among those who qualify to compete for 89 NCAA championships. That experience teaches them time management, leadership skills and the importance of working toward a common goal. They are the tools for success that last a lifetime.
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Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: In the US, you're less likely to have multiple professional teams in the same sport representing the same city. The number of franchises is set by the professional leagues themselves (with the US government exempting them at different times from [antitrust](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/10/20/DI2009102001567.html) monopoly regulations).
The cities in the US that have two teams have either stolen an existing team from another city, or they've been able to convince the professional leagues to expand the set number of teams (the latter of which very rarely ever happens).
In Europe, there are no such restrictions, if a homegrown team is good enough, it will just start moving up through the ranks even if the city it inhabits already has other teams that are playing at that level. This artificial scarcity is what's providing American Universities with the opportunity to have semi-professional teams.
>
> Unlike major team sports in North America, where franchises are
> awarded to nominated cities, most European teams have grown from small
> clubs formed by groups of individuals before growing rapidly.
>
>
> ...
>
>
> Clubs therefore had an equal chance to grow to become among the
> strongest in their particular sport which has led to a situation where
> many cities are represented by two or even three top class teams in
> the same sport. In the 2011–12 football season, **London has five teams
> playing in the Premier League, while Liverpool and Manchester also
> have double representation.**
>
>
> [[source]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_in_Europe)
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>
If you think about it, in the case of American Football, 32 franchises is not nearly enough for a country like the US (which has way more than 32 cities potentially capable of supporting one or more real football teams at the professional level). And the cities could all battle it out with their own football teams, to see which ones are the better ones that should enter those leagues, but the professional leagues do not want teams selected that way.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: In addition to looking at this from the perspective of universities, it's also worth looking at this from the point of view of professional sports leagues. In Europe soccer is based on a free market system with intense competition for players between leagues and between teams in the same league. As a result, teams sign younger and younger players. Thus top soccer players don't go to college (or even high school). In the US, by contrast, the leagues are strong cartels who collude to keep down the cost of talent. Both football and basketball in the US have strong salary caps (limiting how much a team can spend overall, and in basketball on how much they can spend on each player), revenue sharing (where the richest teams have to give money to the poor ones), etc. In particular, the leagues are able to enforce an age minimum. In basketball they require that americans be one year removed from their high school graduation date, and in football that's 3 years. This means there's a huge pool of future professionals who are barred from working in the professional leagues. In steps the NCAA, which is again a cartel which keeps down labor costs, and who has barred any member schools from paying their athletes. This seriously decreases the costs of running a sports team, and thus makes the cost/benefit analysis more favorable.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: In order to understand why big college sports exists in the US, I think it's important to understand the role that they play. For someone coming from Europe, I think this is the best explanation:
>
> Big conference American Football is the closest U.S. equivalent to international soccer in Europe.
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>
>
The Ohio State-Michigan game is our equivalent of a Netherlands-Germany soccer match. It's what gets millions of people of all ages across a state out wearing team colors and rooting together.
It makes a lot of sense that *states* should be running sports teams to play each other in the US the same way that countries in Europe run sports teams to play each other in Europe. (Remember that many US states are larger than a lot of European countries.) That the states happen to run their teams through their state-run universities is a bit strange, but the underlying concept of state-based sports teams makes a lot of sense.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: Most of these answers address the existence of large sports competing at the highest level, or historical reasons for why sports first appeared. Here, most of the major points have been covered. It's important to note that the effects on alumni donations and new student enrollment (quantity and quality by standard metrics) are not speculative. See this [paper](http://www.nber.org/papers/w18196) and this [paper](http://www.nber.org/papers/w13937). At the college where my dad teaches, when the basketball team makes the NCAA tournament, their applications increase both in quantity and quality. For this reason, the president loved the basketball team despite not caring a whit about sport.
I'd like to address why smaller colleges would choose to have sports programs, despite negligible ticket sales and no TV contracts or media coverage. The rationales they present are typically in the form of character building, and this aspect should not be ignored. As a college athlete, I learned a great deal about social interaction and that awful buzzword 'teamwork'. At our athletics department banquet, someone always quoted the (apocryphal) words of the Duke of Wellington, "The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton." As institutions pride themselves on crafting the whole individual, it makes sense that they provide the opportunity to play sports.
Another important aspect is recruiting. My choice of college was heavily influenced by the opportunity to play volleyball. Since graduating, my alma mater has added six new sports teams, all of which are sports traditionally played by the children of upper-middle class families. This is not coincidental: colleges are competing for students, especially those who can pay full tuition. For an explicit discussion of the economic benefits to the institution, scroll down to the Division III section of this [article](http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/scoring-big-new-football-teams) on why colleges are adding football teams (the first section addresses the financial and aspirational benefits to larger colleges).
Lastly, the role of sports in helping students identify with their college is immense. This is larger at universities with major sports programs, but still non-trivial. When we played our rival, people came out and watched (which they almost never did otherwise). At those competitions, students identified with our college in a visceral way. As seen above, this can significantly influence the student's relationship with the institution.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: >
> Considering that the universities are losing money on it, and it's not their core task, then why do they spend big money on sports? Who benefits, and how?
>
>
>
*Big* money is only really spent on Football, and to a lesser degree, Men's Basketball. Football generally does turn a [profit](http://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciajessop/2013/08/31/the-economics-of-college-football-a-look-at-the-top-25-teams-revenues-and-expenses/), provided you are a successful enough team. Think of it as an investment. Pouring money into your football program is a huge risk. What if the team performs poorly? What if there is a lack of interest from students and the community? Your money could easily be wasted if this were to happen. That being said, if the team wins and the community supports it, there is a great deal of profit to be made.
The money that lost in athletics usually comes from other, less popular sports. College football teams have multi-million dollar TV deals and merchandising rights. Certain programs have helped develop a brand for their university and in turn generate a demand for everything from t-shirts to admissions.
Less popular sports however, do not generate such buzz but still require money to stay afloat. When [Title IX](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_IX) became law in the '70s, it did amazing things for women's athletics and civil rights as a whole. Unfortunately, public interest is not that high for many "Title IX" sports. These teams, by law, must exist and while more popular sports such as football and basketball can generate profits, the less popular sports consume more than they can generate. This is where the losses come into play.
Now, why do colleges and universities bother to host athletic teams if in the end they only cost money? It comes down to branding. Each college and university in America is competing for the best and brightest students. American higher education is a business, and a great majority of these schools exist in order to turn a profit. Why would a student choose to go to the University of Alabama over Harvard if he or she were accepted into both? Because of Alabama's brand. Harvard may offer a better education and hold a more prestigious position in the academic community, but Alabama wins national championships and that appeals to the youth of America. This also entices kids from the opposite of the country to attend school there. Each state hosts multiple colleges and universities, so a popular sports team can be a good reason to lure a kid out of his or her home state.
Plain and simple, college sports teams (as a whole) are [loss-leaders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader). They are investments in marketing and allow the schools to have a national appeal. This appeal allows schools to justify higher admission costs and creates a demand among high school graduates nationwide.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: I'm going to start here with a disclaimer, This is my opinion based on how I think it came about. I have no references except life experience from which to draw this opinion.
To me, sports teams came about because they needed to tire out their students. A large group of young people with nothing to do except study need an outlet. If all they did was sit in their chair and study all day, students would become restless. Restless powder kegs of young people developing world views is not good for stability. Provide a healthy distraction that keeps people fit and active. If you aren't a member of the teams at least you can go out, get some fresh air, watch and play vicariously.
Sports also provide a method by which people goal oriented can be motivated to remain strong and healthy; similar to Shaolin monks developing their exercises to enable them to stay awake during religious lectures(sounds like college to me).
Once these sports teams were in place, a desire for organization and status essentially lead to formation of leagues and regulations. Arms race capitalism happens and here we are today.
Also, above people mention there are places in Europe, far from everyone else that make due without sports teams. To put some sizes in perspective, Penn State, mentioned above, in the city State College, is in the center of Pennsylvania and surrounded by barely populated farm country. Pennsylvania as a "state"(technically, commonwealth), is literally half the size of the United Kingdom. If you were on that campus back when the school was founded back in the 1850s, there was really nothing to do and no where to go.
my 2 cents, thanks for reading.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_12: >
> Do all major universities have commercialised sports teams, or are there major exceptions of universities choosing not to take part?
>
>
>
In the U.S., most major universities have sports teams, but not necessarily "commercialised" sports teams. For the most part, the bigger and more well-known the school, the stronger the commitment to big-time athletic programs, although there are some exceptions – a few very well-known universities do not have major sports programs. For example, MIT and Carnegie-Mellon are known for academics first, and sports teams second, although even these schools field intercollegiate squads in sports such as tennis, track, and volleyball.
As for why they have sports teams, that is rooted in **tradition**. [Collegiate sports rivalries go back into 1800s, and grew from there](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_athletics_in_the_United_States). It's part of campus life, in the same way other extracurricular activities are. The U.S. is a sports-obsessed society, and, to some extent or another, sports programs attract a rather strong spotlight in both high school and college.
>
> Why do they spend big money on sports?
>
>
>
Not every school spends big money on sports, and not every school spends big money across all sports equally. In the U.S., universities form athletic conferences. Some of the more well-known athletic conferences include the [Pac 12](http://pac-12.com/), the [SEC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeastern_Conference), and the [Big 10](http://www.bigten.org/). (The Big 10 so rooted in tradition that it still calls itself "The Big 10" even though there are presently 12 teams in the conference). Other conferences, such as the [Mid-American Conference](http://www.mac-sports.com/), are comprised of teams that would not be considered athletic powerhouses. Teams in the same conference compete against each other in several sports. The Ivy League consists of some of the oldest and most prestigious schools in the U.S., and they compete against each other in both major sports (football and basketball), as well as other sports (such as volleyball, golf, and ice hockey).
A key thing to understand is that not all schools devote the same amount of resources to their athletic programs. Conferences are generally made up of universities of comparable size, in roughly the same geographic region, with a commitment to athletics commensurate with other schools in that conference. Moreover, some schools might be known for having a very strong team in just one or two particular sports (for example, Wichita State University usually fields a very strong baseball team).
Joining a major conference means a major commitment to athletics – you wouldn't see Eastern Texas Baptist University trying to join the [Big 12](http://www.big12sports.com/) unless they were prepared to dedicate the resources needed to field competitive teams in that conference, and the conference wouldn't let them join without that commitment, either.
As for why a vast amount of money is spent on sports teams, that is rooted in **prestige**. In a sports-obsessed culture, a well-known sports team can put your university on the map. The average person on the street couldn't tell you much about the chemistry program at USC, or the computer science courses offered at Notre Dame, or the economics department at Michigan State, but five men in a barber shop could talk about their football teams all afternoon.
There are hundreds if not thousands of universities in the U.S. The state of Georgia, for example, has about [six dozen](http://www.50states.com/college/georgia.htm#.Uu2gaPb6yR4) places where a student could obtain a degree. Most of these schools probably have sports teams, but only about four or so have have big-time, big-money commitments and nationally-recognized sports teams. The rest of the schools have athletic teams with everyday students who just happen to be on the diving team, or the wrestling team, or the softball team, participating in what amounts to an extracurricular activity, rarely playing their sport in front of more than 50 fans.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_13: We shouldn't forget that most American universities were founded at a time when there was great admiration for classical culture. Academics in the mid 1800's would have been well aware of the Athenian ideal of "A Perfect Mind In A Perfect Body". The Apollonian and Dionysian ideals were very alive for these people.
It was only the demands for a relevant education in WWII and the 1960's that ended the classical educational curriculum with it's requirement that all students learn Latin or Greek. American universities remain a forest of Ionic columns.
You can get a good sense of the position of 'sport' in the culture of the upper class in the 1920's by watching <NAME>'s 'Metropolis'.
I'd remind that one criterion for Rhodes scholarships is that of athletic prowess.
Even as late as my own adolescence in the 1970's there was an assumption that the 'best' [male] students were the athletes. The ideal was Tommy, the quarterback of the high school team, and Suzy the cheerleader.
Also remember that many universities in the US were training grounds for the military.
In Europe, universities were more likely to have grown from the church.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/01/30 | 789 | 3,384 | <issue_start>username_0: Things that make multiple research projects different and single project:
1. Inertia that sets in once I have spent a few weeks on single one of them. The 'switching cost' seems too high to me, and it leads to not much being done first few days of switching to the other project.
2. Pressure of producing 'visible' results every few months to keep manager/sponsors happy.
3. Pressure of keeping up with literature related to multiple topics.
What can I do optimize my work productivity?<issue_comment>username_1: There is no easy solution to the "task switching" problem; it really is a strong function of how you work.
In my previous job, I had a rather distressingly large number of projects to work on—as many as eight or nine, depending on how you define a project—at any one time (oddly enough, my academic position requires me to work on just as many projects, but in a supervisory capacity). For me, what helped to have to "task switch" was the fact that I had to provide regular progress updates at team meetings, and meet deadlines for the project. I couldn't spend weeks on a single project, because then I'd have to scramble to meet the approaching deadlines for everything else I was working on. So deadlines and meetings where you have to talk about your progress are good ways to make sure you keep on top of things.
With respect to literature, I'd suggest setting aside some time each week for literature searches and literature reviews. I'd also use this as a chance to "switch gears" for a bit—use this time to keep up to date on the project that *isn't* taking up the majority of your time.
Finally, if you're going to put away a project for several weeks or more, then you should *definitely* keep good records before switching your focus. Make sure you leave yourself a note of what you just finished working on, where you left things off, and what you think the next steps for the project should be after you return to it. That way, you're not figuring out where you left off—you've told yourself how to get yourself back on track.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: So you have highlighted some of the negatives of switching between topics, but you should also consider some positives:
* These projects open up different journals/conferences/spaces/collaborators to work with, which is always nice.
* It can help prevent burnout. If you're sick and tired of working on the same thing day in, day out, you can switch for a little while to freshen things up.
* It can actually boost productivity. If you've hit a wall with something, or it's just going to take a long time for the first project to finish, you can switch for a little while and let the previous project cook on the back burner while you get something else done.
There's definitely a time management problem, and it is occasionally a hard one, but working on a single project puts all your eggs in one potentially failure prone, potentially exhausting basket.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Research assistants. I really don't understand why someone would spend an hour tediously filling numerous arrays of vials with cell-growth solution when they could just pay some high schooler $12/hour to do the same. Or even unpaid volunteers/interns.
Think of all the new research we could do if every researcher used at least one research assistant.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/01/30 | 1,995 | 7,851 | <issue_start>username_0: I am a German PhD student in South America and am worried about whether my PhD title will be accepted in Germany (as Dr.) and internationally in general.
If you successfully complete a PhD in the EU, you are allowed to carry the title "Dr.", as any PhD in Germany does.
I am working in a faculty with a professor with international experience, who, for research reasons, left a reasonably strong department in Europe for the position in South America, which is incidentally one of the strongest two departments in South America.
I am attending international conferences every now and then, have two papers published in international journals (one jointly, one alone) and two more papers in preparation.
For all I know, I can reasonably expect that my research performance (and eventually, my PhD thesis) is not below the European standard.
The default format for PhDs from a non-EU country is something like "<NAME> (Doutorado, Universidade de Ipanema)", which looks like I should just use my self-confidence instead and not mention that I did a PhD unless someone asks.
I don't know if it's off-topic, because this might just be "too localized", but of course I am wondering if it is possible to have my PhD accredited to use my PhD title in Germany like any "normal" PhD.
I'm also wondering, whether the international community is as strict as German law, or whether I should just call myself "<NAME>, PhD" on job applications, my professional webpage, etc. (where the place will be listed somewhere), and hope nobody tells me it should be "<NAME> (Doutorado, Universidade de Ipanema)" instead.
Did I make a mistake in my career planning in that the only title that is worth carrying (until full tenure, I guess) I can't carry without a large number of not-so-fancy accessories?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Did I make a mistake in my career planning in that the only title that is worth carrying (until full tenure, I guess) I can’t carry without a large number of not-so-fancy accessories?
>
>
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No. You make the good old German mistake of thinking that ‘carrying’ the title has any relevance whatsoever. You will have the equivalent of a doctoral degree from a respectable university (presumably) backed with a reasonable publication record. This is what’s going to matter. Whether it will be called a doctorate or a PhD does not matter to any employer (that you would actually want to work for). Also, for practical purposes, the people that care about such things *will* be calling you Dr. <NAME> anyway, even if you technically have a slightly different title. It’s close enough.
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> The default format for PhDs from a non-EU country is something like “<NAME> (Doutorado, Universidade de Ipanema)”, which looks like I should just use my self-confidence instead and not mention that I did a PhD unless someone asks.
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I don’t quite understand. You don’t want to mention your PhD because of ... what exactly?
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> I’m also wondering whether the international community is as strict as German law, or whether I should just call myself “<NAME>, PhD” on job applications, my professional webpage, etc. (where the place will be listed somewhere), and hope nobody tells me it should be “<NAME> (Doutorado, Universidade de Ipanema)” instead.
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Practically, on anything but the most formal documents, I have seen people in similar situations call themselves anything out of: Dr. <NAME>; <NAME>, PhD; or <NAME>, PhD (Universidade de Ipanema). All of those mean essentially the same thing to the pragmatic observer.
Clarifications
--------------
First off, I am not German myself, but Austrian with strong ties to Germany (and Austria is *the place that Germans make fun of because we are presumably so fond of our academic titles*), so I do think I am able to comment on this issue.
Second, I think it is required to distinguish a few things which are somewhat mangled up in my above response as well as the questions:
### Will the OP formally be allowed to carry the title Dr. <NAME>?
No, not without going through nostrification, as indicated in other answers.
### Will people informally still refer to him as they would to the holder of a European PhD? (e.g., put a Dr. <NAME> on his door in the office?). Basically, would people in their day-to-day life consider the difference to be a technicality?
Yes, I am convinced that would be the case in most places. If non-EU people were treated as “not really doctors at all”, we would not have any foreign faculty or postdocs. In Vienna, while I did my postdoc there, we had people who had received PhDs from Austria, Germany, the US, and China, and they all were uniformly referred to as “Drs.” by peers and university administration alike. It may not be formally correct, but people are also not stupid (in general).
### Will it make a difference in his professional life?
Assuming the university is indeed excellent (I have personally never heard of it, but my knowledge of African universities is very limited), it should really not make a difference. I guess the main problem is that if the university is not very well-known, a hiring committee might not go through the trouble of actually finding out whether or not the university is good. However, at least in academic posts, I would not assume that the OP will have any disadvantage in comparison to a holder of a German PhD. International experience is usually considered a big plus. The examples provided by [username_3](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/16377) and [username_2](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/16376) are completely opposed to every personal experience I’ve ever had.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: To address your last question: the international community is *not* as strict as Germany. Here in the US, there are no formal regulations on the use of the title. If you hold an earned doctorate from a reasonable university somewhere in the world, nobody is going to complain about your use of "Dr." or "Ph.D." or both. Even holders of honorary doctorates, or those from non-accredited universities, usually get away with it. On the other hand, we typically don't use those titles as universally as Germans do.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: How your PhD is counted depends a lot on from which country you obtained it. Currently, degrees from Australia, Canada, Japan, Israel, and most doctoral-granting American universities are recognized as fully equivalent to "Dr." Beyond that, however, the PhD is listed as a PhD, so long as it's been granted by an institution accredited to give out doctoral degrees. (It has to be legitimately "earned.") You just would not technically be allowed to call yourself "<NAME>. <NAME>"; you'd be "<NAME>, Ph.D." (or whatever the formal name of your degree is).
Unfortunately, the classification of the degree *does* matter in Germany. Someone who holds a *Dr. rer. nat.* (sciences), for instance, will have a harder time getting a position in an engineering faculty than someone who holds a *Dr.-Ing.* (engineering). PhD's may or may not count as being equivalent to either degree, unless the specific regulations of the universities allow for this. (This can make a difference in setting up thesis committees, depending upon the regulations of the faculty in question. Yes, it's really annoying, but that's the way the system is set up.)
Fortunately, as Nate says in his answer, the rest of the world is nowhere near as strict as German law (even the modified version now in effect).
Also, you can apply to the [Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen](http://www.kmk.org/zab.html) (Central Authority for Foreign Education) for recognition of a foreign-obtained degree as equivalent to the corresponding German degree.
Upvotes: 5 |
2014/01/31 | 1,162 | 5,147 | <issue_start>username_0: I have been thinking about a second PhD for the last year. I am currently a doctoral candidate in civil engineering at University of Texas at Austin (ranked 6th in my discipline) and working as a student statistical consultant at the university consulting center. I am working on spatio-temporal modeling of count data using Bayesian hierarchical models, with computationally efficient techniques for my dissertation. (I will have publications on this very soon; two of them are in review). I do have 2 publications in my area but their topic is the application of statistical models. I am also going to get a Masters in statistics next semester along with my PhD in civil engineering. I have done many courses related to Bayesian statistics including graduate level mathematical statistics, theoretical MCMC, stochastic volatility and time series models, statistical consulting, advanced econometrics (non-Bayesian), discrete choice modeling and one course on data mining (graduate level). In my field, I see massive datasets but very minimal statistical expertise, particularly on the big data side. This has motivated me to pursue something beyond my Phd and beyond my discipline.
I am very interested in handling large datasets and perhaps, machine learning applications. I would like to know whether a PhD in machine learning is going to help me realise my dreams. I do not have any formal research experience in data mining or machine learning. But, I do a lot of Bayesian hierarchical modeling on smaller datasets. Given my experience, I am not sure whether I can secure admission to a good program in the machine learning area. I appreciate any suggestions and advice on whether to pursue another PhD and the feasibility of securing admission to a good program in a PhD machine learning track. I am assuming basic financial assistance for any PhD program.
Thanks much in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: This site has had such questions come up before. Usually (as in this case), I think the correct answer is that doing a second PhD is not necessary, and not a good use of your time. In my opinion, shared by many (most?), multiple PhDs are very rarely a good idea. As people have remarked elsewhere, a big part of a PhD is learning how to do research (hopefully) under supervision and guidance. The supervision and guidance do not necessarily happen in practice, anyway. Usually much of a PhD is deadwood and bureaucracy, like required courses.
My personal opinion are that PhDs are not a necessary qualification in any case. Before they existed people did just fine. Check out the history of the PhD on Wikipedia
If you know enough statistics to write research papers, you just go ahead and write papers. Once you know enough to do so, it is not rocket science. Machine learning is just statistics done by computer scientists for some reason, maybe because the statisticians are not interested in doing it.
I think your general aims and perspective are sensible. Knowing things like Bayesian statistics and modelling is useful when working with data.
>
> In my field, I see massive datasets but very minimal statistical expertise, particularly on the big data side.
>
>
>
Yes, this sounds accurate. Statistical expertise is not very commonly available or applied by non-statisticians, but it would be useful to them if they knew how to do it correctly.
A couple of suggestions wrt things you could usefully focus on:
1. English language skills. Very important for a researcher. This is
particularly important if one does not speak English natively.
2. Computational skills. This is getting to be also a truism, but
people in academia don't usually know what they are doing re
programming and software development. A better understanding in
these areas will probably pay dividends for researchers in the applied
sciences, though there are differences of opinion as to how much.
Neither of these skill sets would be usefully served by getting a second PhD.
I have a PhD in Statistics, but I don't think I need to have one to offer the preceding opinions. Mostly they are just common sense.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: As other people already stated, multiple PhD's is almost certainly not a good idea. How to transition into machine learning depends on where you want to work:
* academia, you can try to get a postdoc position in machine learning, in that way you can build your career by writing publications and get up to speed with machine learning during your postdoc research. This could be problematic as you might have to compete with people that have a PhD in machine learning. But this can be overcome during the interview stage.
* industry, you can simply apply to entry level machine learning positions (look for data science positions) and take it from there. Once you convince a company that you are a worthwhile addition, you can learn the ropes on the job.
In general, I would recommend already getting up-to-speed a bit in machine learning, try some online tutorials, etc. This can really help in securing a new position in either academia or industry.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/01/31 | 1,411 | 6,053 | <issue_start>username_0: I talked with a professor for possible thesis guidance and mentioned that I aim to publish papers at top venues as soon as possible. The Professor got somewhat offended and said publication is not an aim and that I should aim to be problem oriented.
Maybe true, but I did not understand why that prof got offended and felt so bad about publishing. Do you have any ideas?<issue_comment>username_1: The traditions of writing a monograph as a thesis vs. writing a thesis based on a number of papers/manuscripts and a cover paper to tie everything together vary between university systems (academic cultures). Because many aspects of academia including evaluations for positions and grants to a large extent is based on published papers, the latter system is gaining interest. In my country, Sweden, it has always (in modern times) been the norm. So in your case the reaction can be caused by one or both of tradition and local academic culture.
The professor has a good point in that the aim of writing a thesis should not primarily be to publish papers. Graduate school is about learning both practical and philosophical knowledge of how to conduct research properly with the aim to become a functioning research individual. At the same time, writing papers is a vital skill that must be included in such education so one does not preclude the other and my guess is that the response, hence, mostly is the result of tradition and culture rather than right or wrong. To be offended seems a bit over the top in terms of a reaction but I do not know the person to judge where such a reaction might originate.
I know of many who have defended a monograph but written and published papers on the material included in the thesis. A monograph allows inclusion of much more details on experiments and results than the paper format does. This can be seen as an advantage of the monograph. On the other hand, a thesis consisting of papers usually also contains a cover paper in which the same type of details can be included.
In the end the thesis you write will follow the local traditions or rules and my suggestion is to follow these but to aim to think about papers in parallel. Hopefully you will have an advisor that agrees.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> I talked with a professor for possible thesis guidance and mentioned that I aim to publish papers at top venues as soon as possible.
>
>
>
One can only speculate, but maybe the professor was annoyed by your usage of *as soon as possible* more than by your intention to publish (if this was indeed what you said to him in verbatim). Maybe he inferred from this wording that, to you, PhD school is an unnecessary nuissance that you expect to leave behind you quickly, so that you can go on to greater glory.
I think in general a professor **should really not** be opposed to you publishing in good venues on principle, as this would mean that his students are basically locked out of an academic career for good - and which advisor would want that?
**Edit:**
To answer your titular question *Is being publication oriented bad?*:
Yes, if it means you do only "easy" incremental research in order to minimize risk. No, if you just mean that you do not only want to do any research, but are actively looking for topics that are publishable and which will have an impact on the scientific community or, in some cases, industrial practice.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: There is nothing wrong with wanting to publish, and wanting to publish more and better. The fact that you are goal-driven can only be a plus, from my and many others' point of view.
**BUT** the question arises when you start thinking about the implications of wanting to publish more and better. I will be a bit crass here and give a somewhat unconventional metaphor. I guess no one can deny that having sex is a good thing, in a way like publishing. If you go around telling people (especially those who are supposed to be your seniors) that you intend to get laid **as often** and **as soon as possible** with the as hot girls/guys as possible... Well let's say they might start questioning your motives and personality.
Putting the metaphor aside, being an academic is mostly about doing research and from time to time communicating your work, primarily (but **not exclusively**) in the form of publications. Unfortunately the academic society has evolved in a way that how much you publish and where you publish often gets more attention than the quality, originality or the usefulness of the work you do. While I will not go on to claim that the two are not correlated, I personally do not believe how often and in which journals you publish your work is a *definitive* and *descriptive* indicator of *how good of a scientist* you are (anyone is of course entitled to disagree with me).
I believe the professor in question, might have gotten offended by the fact that your primary concern/ambition does not come across as doing good science, but rather solely being successful within the current norms of academic environment.
Hope that helps
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: There is nothing wrong in what you said to the Professor. You stated your concrete end goals as clearly as you thought you could. However, its not in your Professors control as to whether you will be published in top journals quickly. Even if he is the best Professor in the world, he cannot make that happen for you. So, what you need to look for is a Professor who is willing to support you in your goals and help you help yourself to get there. In addition, you may want to define some other qualities you are looking for that are not strictly in line with your stated goal.
A Professor is a coach and a mentor.
Here are some qualities of a good coach : <http://home.earthlink.net/~tfakehany/point.html> and <http://www.mentalgamecoach.com/articles/CoachingQualities.html>
The main thing is you dont want a judgmental Professor because judgment is the antithesis of research.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/01/31 | 903 | 4,071 | <issue_start>username_0: I had recently submitted a paper to an IEEE conference and got accepted, but for poster presentation. This is the very first time I have written a paper. Although it is a great achievement for me given my inexperience in the field, my goal is to get it published.
* Does IEEE publish papers accepted for posters presentations?
* Should I pass on the poster presentation and send my paper to a journal?<issue_comment>username_1: It depends on the conference. Many conferences publish the one page abstract that you're sometimes required to submit with the poster, but not all of them. If you didn't have to write the 1-page summary as part of the submission, don't expect it to be published. The poster itself is almost never published (I personally recommend that you make the poster available on the web).
Despite that, you CAN still list it as a publication on your CV, but posters are generally not worth very much and it's good to compartmentalize them to their own section of the CV so that your (eventual) journal and conference papers get priority.
A bit more description about "weight" and whether you should pass or not:
Generally, the weight of a publication (all else being equal, like let's assume for a moment that every paper's research content is the same) depends on the venue it's in and the type of publication it is. Posters are on the bottom, then short papers, then full conference papers. Usually, you get a poster because the work isn't developed enough to fill up a full paper. One thing to note is that if you "compartmentalize" your work well enough, you should be able to get the poster out and then later extend it to the journal without any issues - that is, if your journal builds upon your poster (quite often by adding more results, more interpretations/implications from the data, more analysis, etc.) then you'll have no problem with having both the poster and the later journal paper/conference paper.
I would like to take a moment to say that while this usually is okay for posters (poster to journal/conference paper), taking this path from a short paper/note to conference paper is often wrought with more problems. Because short papers already present an approach and sometimes results, you need to ensure that the full paper builds SIGNIFICANTLY on the short paper for it to be a real contribution. I've been seeing more recently people highlighting differences between short papers and long papers as a result (ex: "This paper builds upon the work presented in [1] by adding a thorough evaluation through two lab studies and one industrial field study"). You need to do this because if you don't, and someone does a web search for the topic of the paper, they might find your short paper and then be all like, "So it looks like someone has done this before". Unlike in a poster, where you really don't get that much space to talk about much of anything, you can usually discuss something of substance in a short paper.
Anyway, in general, it's usually okay to present posters and then later expand them into journals or conference papers. Poster presentations are healthy in that they are a quick and easy way to get yourself "out there", solicit feedback from the community, and get further ideas for what you want to do with your work. You can usually use the feedback from the poster session to build upon what you have and get a stronger research direction in the future. But do be aware that you're not "self-scooping" yourself by putting super-important results in a poster, because posters have low impact.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It depends on the particular conference and the field. In computer science (where the main publication venue is conferences), many conferences divide the published papers into "talks" and "posters" (eg NIPS, AISTATS, ...), and there's no difference in terms of publication.
In most other fields, however, acceptance at a conference means nothing, and you have to get published in a journal.
TL;DR: ask your advisor.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer] |
2014/01/31 | 1,549 | 6,362 | <issue_start>username_0: Currently I am applying for a LLM programme at SOAS and am having certain difficulties while writing the required personal statement. According to their guidance, the statement should be "describing your ambitions, suitability and interest for the programme you have chosen. This should be around 1,000 words in length", but I simply can't even fall under 2,000 words.
So my question is should I post the longer version that describes me better and for which I believe gives me a greater chance to be accepted, or should I simply delete half the text so I could manage their quota?<issue_comment>username_1: There's some variability about how strict people are about word limits, so if you have any kind of inside knowledge (like someone who knows the culture at SOAS), they may be able to give you better guidance for this specific case.
In the absence of reason to think they don't care about the word limit, I'd worry about going over, especially about going *way* over, like double the suggested length. You should consider that if you're that far over the limit, your personal statement may not actually be quite what they're looking for. Perhaps it's overly detailed, or trying to make too many separate points at once. In other words, you should at least consider that this indicates a problem with your statement of purpose that you're not seeing. (And you should try to get input from someone else who could give you a fresh eye on it.)
The risks are:
* It's possible they count words and ignore/mark applications that don't follow directions.
* Even if they don't count words, people reading your application are likely to notice that you're statement is double (!) the length of most others. At a minimum, they'll probably discount your statement of purpose on the grounds that you had a lot more space than everyone else, which might take away much of the benefit of the longer statement.
* Worse, they might be annoyed at having to read twice as much or upset that you didn't follow directions.
* And, they might take it as an indication that you're not that serious about the application: it could mean that you weren't paying attention, or that you're recycling a statement you wrote for someone else without much effort.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It depends a bit on the programme, but the general answer is "stick to the 1000". Here are some good reasons for a committee enforcing such policies:
1. Someone has to read it. All of it. From everyone.
2. It would be unfair, if everyone stays within the limit and you don't. Some people just stop reading after 1000 words
3. Most things which can not be described in 1000 words are not better described using 2000 words.
Some tipps:
* Try to be focused
* Avoid empty phrases
Best luck
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Look at it from the point of view of the person who has to read 200 of these things.
* 1,000 words: expected;
* 1,100 words: not noticeably different;
* 1,200 words: looks maybe a touch long but whatever;
* 2,000 words: "wow, long [turns the page] blah, blah, blah [turns over again without even reading] why does this idiot think I want to read all of this?"
You're applying for an advanced degree in law. A critical skill in law is getting your point across concisely and simply, without extraneous waffle and without going on so long that the jury gets bored and the judge gets annoyed. If your personal statement is twice as long as it should be, the person reviewing applications can see that you lack a key skill without even reading the words.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: If the writing style in your statement matches the writing style in your question, you should just do some creative revising. Cut the fluff and write more concisely; for example:
>
> Currently I am applying for a LLM programme at SOAS and am having certain difficulties while writing the required personal statement. According to their guidance, the statement should be "describing your ambitions, suitability and interest for the programme you have chosen. This should be around 1,000 words in length", but I simply can't even fall under 2,000 words.
>
>
> So my question is should I post the longer version that describes me better and for which I believe gives me a greater chance to be accepted, or should I simply delete half the text so I could manage their quota?
>
>
>
**Much of that is extraneous and overly wordy:**
*Currently I am applying for a LLM programme at SOAS and am having certain difficulties while writing the required **my** personal statement. According to their guidance, the statement should be "describing your describe your "ambitions, suitability and interest" for the **chosen** programme you have chosen. This should be in "around 1,000 words in length", but I simply can't even fall under **I'm over** 2,000 words.*
*So my question is should I post the longer version that describes me better and for which I believe gives me a greater chance to be accepted, or should I simply delete half the text so I could manage **and meet** their quota?*
yields:
>
> *I am applying for a programme and am having difficulties writing my personal statement. The statement should describe "ambitions, suitability and interest" for the chosen programme in "around 1,000 words in length", but I'm over 2,000 words.*
>
>
> *Should I post the longer version that describes me better, or should I delete half the text and meet their quota?*
>
>
>
Original version: **99 words**. Revised version: **58 words**. I've cut your word count almost in half but I believe there is minimal loss in content.
Maybe you've done this already, but I thought this was worth mentioning, in case you haven't. By the way, in the past, when I've had to meet word count ceilings, I've usually been able to do it **without** eliminating core information.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Part of assigning a word count limit is to determine if you can be concise AND follow directions AND still get your message across to the reader. For example, if you are asked to drive someone across town but in an effort to impress you take them to the next state that isn't accomplishing the assigned task. If you can't get your message across within the word limit then you are failing the assignment.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/01/31 | 957 | 3,868 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm TAing a class that uses Piazza (an online student forum), in addition to the traditional office hours. A student made a (private) post, where he uploaded a MATLAB figure and asked whether it is correct. The figure is what the first question of the homework assignment asks for.
Am I supposed to tell him whether his answer is correct/wrong? Especially over an online forum?
I don't think so, because that would be giving out the solution. How do I reply without sounding "mean"? Do I tell him to come to office hours instead?
(It's my first time TAing ever...)<issue_comment>username_1: Welcome to the most standard "trick" students use to get answers out of professors/TAs.
My answer is as a professor, but I think the basic principle works for TAs as well. What I usually do is turn the question back to them. Something like:
>
> S: Is this answer correct?
>
>
> Me: Well, what do you think?
>
>
>
Now things can go in different ways:
* case 1: S says "well I'm not sure". In which case you can say, "well how might you go about verifying that your answer is correct?". This might then lead to a discussion of how to check answers without you having to commit to commenting on their particular answer.
* case 2: S says "Well I think it's correct". Then you can say "Ok then. I understand that you think it's correct" and leave it at that.
They might persist and say "can you tell me if you think it's correct". At which point you can say "No, but how would you go about checking its correctness?", taking you back to case 1 and the "methodology" of checking.
The underlying pedagogical point is this: you don't want students checking answer correctness with you ahead of time because
* a) learning to check your own answers is an important part of learning. It allows you to diagnose problems and identify the correct path to an answer.
* b) it's unfair to those who don't ask, and it's a waste of your time
* c) using this Socratic approach allows you to assess how **they** are approaching the problem, and allows you to guide them in **their** approach, rather than spoonfeeding a prescribed answer. Everyone approaches problems differently.
P.S. Students often also ask for hints. The material I teach is usually mathematical, so they're asking for hints for a proof. There you have some more leeway, but the trick is to draw them out into explaining their thought process, and then trying to gently nudge them without revealing the answer. It takes some practice and a lot of Socratic dialogue.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You can make an explicit policy or a little FAQ page saying that you won't answer if the results are correct, students will find out after you grade it.
The more general problem is that the student's question is just not a good question, it's not specific enough and there is not enough information about what the student's concerns are. So you can include in your FAQ that you are going to answer good questions, with examples of good and bad questions. If the student sends you a bad question anyway, don't just sent them a link to <https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask> but also be specific with your feedback.
E.g.,
>
> Dear student, it's not easy to answer your question, since it's not
> clear what are your specific concerns. Please specify why do you think
> your answer might not be correct, and what did you try so far. See
> also the link in the syllabus on how to ask good questions.
>
>
>
You don't only want students to learn how to write good questions but also how to write useful answers, here you should mainly teach by example. These students might be your peers one day, and you will be asking them a question in order to solve your academic problem. I am sure you wouldn't want them to answer "Well, what do you think?"
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/02/01 | 349 | 1,534 | <issue_start>username_0: Specifically, is it possible to apply for a second masters degree in **MS&E** (management science and engineering) or statistics (**MS in statistics**) after a masters degree in **computer science**?
How will my application be treated compared to other applicants? (with a bachelors degree)<issue_comment>username_1: I do not know about your school, but in my school, the title of your degree doesn't really matter much PROVIDING THAT YOU HAVE SUFFICIENT ACADEMIC BACKGROUND in the discipline that you are interested in. For instance, if I am a BSc in Statistics grad, and if I have taken significant number of Computing Science courses, then given that my GPA is high enough, I will be admitted to the Computing Science department for their MSc program.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: It's always possible to *apply*, whether you will be *accepted* is a different matter. The best thing to do is to speak to the academic who is the programme director (or similar title), explain that you are interested in applying for the course and see what they say. They will know what the general rules are as well as being able to provide specific guidance. The fact that your current masters degree is in a related subject (different department, but probably the same faculty) means it should be considered relevant.
I applied for a MA in Classics & Ancient History after getting a BSc in Computer Science, and then went back to do an MPhil in Computer Science, so it is possible to move subjects.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/01 | 730 | 3,074 | <issue_start>username_0: There are some good answers [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/12237/7921) on how to find an masters thesis topic, but I am looking for advice on how to advise undergrad students who are looking for a thesis topic. Finding a thesis topic is a little bit different at undergrad level because it is the first time. How can I best help a student find a good thesis topic at undergrad level which will help them to get into a good university for masters and/or PhD?<issue_comment>username_1: I did not read the answers regarding master thesis topic search, but at least in Germany I see no difference in search strategies.
My personal opinion is: Look for something which is in the field you want to go into, find something which is challenging but manageable, and get a good advisor who helps you if you struggle.
If you manage to find all three, you did a very good job.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: An undergrad thesis is not expected to be mind-blowing or even necessarily that original (see [@username_3's response](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/16470/42498) about Lit Reviews, often a great option). Look to make some incremental improvements on a paper you've read that really interests you. Maybe you did a project for a class that you did very well on and would like to explore a bit more deeply. Starting from scratch is quite daunting for an undergrad (even a grad student or professor).
The least successful undergrad theses are often the ones that tried to be too groundbreaking and in the end the author had nothing because they couldn't make significant progress. Most theses are good enough to be accepted, if you get the work done. They do not have to be publishable. You usually only have about 1 year to finish an undergrad thesis, while completing a full load of courses. This is way different from a PhD or even a masters thesis where usually more time can be devoted. This is your first time at research, so have fun with it and don't worry too much about the consequences.
Often an advisor might hand you a project to work on, but you should come to him/her with general interests and having already read some of their papers and personal website.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There is always the option of asking for a thorough, methodologically sound, literature review on a given subject. Especially if you have too many students to allow them to do experiments in you lab for example. By allowing a certain freedom in the subject to pick, you give the personalized aspect without the risk of choosing a broad or unfeasible practical project.
Literature reviews have the advantage of teaching the undergrad how people usually do research. It can also confront them to the diversity of scientific opinion or the large variation in paper quality and thus develop a critical approach to literature reading.
I find these skills to be of great value at the undergrad level. And hey, the result might actually be useful to your research, which will be gratifying to the student.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/01 | 1,268 | 4,931 | <issue_start>username_0: Please refer to this previous question of mine:
>
> [As someone with low grades how can I prepare myself to study MSc in CS in USA?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8970/as-someone-with-low-grades-how-can-i-prepare-myself-to-study-msc-in-cs-in-usa)
>
>
> [Would it be a good idea to quit my job to prepare for the GRE and TOEFL?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/15760/would-it-be-a-good-idea-to-quit-my-job-to-prepare-for-the-gre-and-toefl)
>
>
>
I live in [Bangladesh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh). With a background in IT, I am doing a job in a bank. I am 32. Honestly speaking I am done with my job. With an ambition to do a PhD from a USA/Canadian/German university, I have understood that my current job is actually going to get me nowhere.
Some answerers of the previous questions pointed out the importance of having a job in the related discipline, proving research capability, involving in research activity, being a part of a research group and so on.
After considering all these points, I am actually strongly planning to quit my job and get enrolled in a "Masters with thesis" program in CSE in a local university. My previous degree was in Information Technology which is, I guess, considered a professional discipline. So, I am going for a CSE degree. As far as I know, Information Technology degree is not considered a fundamental discipline.
My plan is this: (1) I shall complete a masters degree in CSE with a thesis, (2) write and publish one/two research articles and finally (3) complete GRE+TOEFL, if required.
And one more thing, I want to secure a funding either in the form of Assistant, Teaching Assistant(TA), Research Assistant, Research Fellow or anything else.
Please tell me about my prospect as a Masters-by-thesis candidate along with a funding after completing this series of actions.
Is the risk of quitting the job worth taken?<issue_comment>username_1: You're going to need to prove to admissions that you are better than the other candidates. Why should you be picked over all the other applicants who also have completed a masters degree and published a paper or two?
The people I know who have been accepted to PhD programs have a passion for their field which drives them to do something extraordinary. Go ahead and get a masters, publish some papers, but make sure you have something to prove that you're worth a universities investment in your education.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: PhD positions in universities are limited and given to outstanding students who have a potential for research. If your aim is to pursue your PhD in USA/Germany/Canada etc., I'd highly suggest applying for a Master's in those countries UNLESS your local university is well-known, with good professors and coursework. Your application will be evaluated on:
1. Your GPA & Test scores
2. Reputation of university you're graduating from (Master's, undergrad) // And as username_1 says, the researchers you work with
3. Research aptitude
4. Reputation of the journals you're published in
5. Your statement of purpose
6. Letters of recommendation
7. Previous work experience
Also ask yourself, "Why a PhD?" What is your career trajectory and will a PhD help you? What about an MBA? How many years can you invest in this?
To be honest, no one here can tell you your chances of getting into a University for a PhD apart from the admissions committee itself. Spend some more time reading up the requirements of the colleges you're keen on and then arrive at a well informed decision.
Best of luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I can't comment yet, so I decided to post another answer in case you end up missing the edit.
Officially, there are no age limits when it comes to pursuing any degree. However, the main purpose of a degree is to enhance skills or gain experience in a different area. This requires a lot of commitment- both personally and in terms of time and money. That's why most people finish their studies early on. The more you're out of the habit of studying, the harder it is to keep up with the class too. It's also difficult to support your studies when you have a family to take care of. Note: I'm not saying it's impossible, just that it requires a lot of planning.
With regards to MS by research/ PhD- again, the universities look at your fit for the program. If you have 10 years of working in marketing or accounts they **might** not consider you to be the best fit for a CS program.
Again, ask yourself- "Why?" Make a list of courses that align with your previous education, your current job and your intended career. Then look at the universities that offer it and what their requirements are. That will give you a better idea. If a PhD is what you want, go to a research center in your area and ask if there are any openings for RAs or start thinking about your Master's.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/02/01 | 1,171 | 4,913 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm a math Ph.D student in the US who has just accepted a four year postdoc--NSF postdoc at a US school interrupted by a year in Europe. For better or for worse, I am only slated to teach for two semesters in those four years--likely during the second semester of my 3rd year and 1st semester of my 4th.
I am planning to apply for tenure track positions in the US afterwards and am wondering whether the relative lack of teaching as a postdoc will adversely affect my application.
Should I be looking for volunteer teaching opportunities?
If it matters as a graduate student I had fairly extensive teaching experience, serving as sole instructor for courses in various levels of calculus, multi-variable calculus, and linear algebra for four years in addition to mentoring REU students and grading/TA-ing graduate and advanced undergraduate courses.<issue_comment>username_1: Two semesters of teaching in four years sounds almost ideal for a postdoc, so I would not be worried about that -- if you are aspiring to be a mathemagician rather than teaching-focused mathematician.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I won't answer your question because I am in France and not aware of the practice in the US; but a similar question can be asked everywhere, so let me give an answer to the equivalent question in France.
From my experience in a few hiring committees, teaching is secondary to research in the assessment of applicants, if considered at all. More precisely, an excellent research record seems to compensate almost any other consideration, and a very good research record leads hiring committees to barely look at teaching to see if it seems ok. I have seen a candidate be ranked very high (and be recruited elsewhere) without *any* kind of teaching experience (and a quite limited skill in French). So, for the sake of one's career, I would say that focusing on research is the winning move.
In my opinion, this situation is very unfortunate, and I guess and hope that many other departments consider teaching more seriously. Also, for one's own sake, one should try itself at teaching and get regular practice before applying to jobs that will involve a significant amount of teaching. This need not be intensive though.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It depends on the type of job you are going for. If you want a job at a R1, then not having teaching experience hardly matters. If you are applying for regional universities or liberal arts colleges they will place much more importance on teaching (and since these job entail a much heavier teaching load, usually 3-3, but I've seen up to 5-5s compared to say, 2-2 at research Unis). Many of these schools will ask for a teaching portfolio as part of the job application instead of a teaching statement. You will have to submit past teaching evaluations, syllabi, and also the standard statement of your teaching philosophy. If this is what you are going for, you will want to have some of these material ready before you go on the job market.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Given your level of grad student experience, I wouldn't worry a lot. I think it will hurt you when it comes to jobs at liberal arts schools, but for a research university, it sounds like you already have a reasonable amount of teaching experience. Make sure you save any evaluations you have from grad school, as those could be useful if there's any question about your teaching. Similarly, with your teaching during the postdoc, make sure someone actually comes and observes one of your classes and can write a letter based on it.
As general advice, I would be more worried about starting a TT job as an inexperienced teacher than not getting a job because of it. I personally had a relatively low level of teaching experience when I started my first TT position (one lecture course and 3 semesters of TAing) and I think it would have been beneficial for me to have a bit more, but I don't think it ever hurt me with a hiring committee. I think it doesn't matter a tremendous amount whether you get the teaching experience you do get as a grad student or as a postdoc.
It is worth seeking out volunteer teaching/outreach projects assuming they don't consume too much time. They're often a lot more fun than teaching normal classes and they're helpful for NSF grants, etc.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: My understanding is that at R1 US universities, for better or for worse, the reality is that pretty much nobody will even read your teaching statement. Unless your letters explicitly talk about how terrible a teacher you are, you should be fine.
Anecdotal evidence: In my three years of postdoc-ing, I only taught the last semester (and only for fun), so it didn't even make it onto my applications which were due before that. It didn't stop me from getting a tenure track job at a math department.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/01 | 1,122 | 3,838 | <issue_start>username_0: Can someone corroborate the fact above? If it’s true, how did it come to such a high number, do they have some slots reserved, or is it easy to enter German PhD programs? Would it also be easy for foreign graduates (in my case chemistry) to join a German PhD program?
Source 1 ([German Wikipedia](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemiestudium)):
>
> Rund 91 % der frisch diplomierten Chemiker begannen nach ihrem Abschluss mit der Promotion.
>
>
> 91 % of the recent chemistry graduates enrolled in a PhD program. [This does not imply they completed it.]
>
>
>
Source 2 ([Universität Duisburg–Essen](https://www.uni-due.de/isa/fg_naturwiss/chemie/chemie_hs_frm.htm)):
>
> Wie jährlich durchgeführte Erhebungen der Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) zeigen, begannen in den letzten Jahren über 80 % der Absolventen nach dem Diplom bzw. Master mit einer Promotion.
>
>
> According to yearly inquiries by the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) [Society of German chemists], 80 % of diploma or master graduates enrolled in a PhD program in the last years.
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: According to the [German Chemical Society](https://www.gdch.de/index.php?eID=tx_nawsecuredl&u=0&file=fileadmin/downloads/Ausbildung_und_Karriere/Karriere/PDF/gdch-2012chemie.pdf&t=1391970038&hash=1df38456259e085387965d2b422d35ce4e0bf339), apparently 90% of master's recipients in chemistry **do** start doctoral studies afterwards.
Partly this is because PhD "admission" is largely not an admissions process at all in Germany. Individual faculty members who receive grants can hire master's recipients as "Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter" (literally "scientific worker," but "research assistant" is a better translation). They can do this without recourse to going through a department-level admissions process, and can skip outside advertising altogether if they have an internal candidate they can appoint instead. And, since many students follow the rule of "Was der Bauer nicht kennt, isst er nicht"—"What the farmer doesn't know, he doesn't eat"), many students do their entire education at one school.
So yes, it's much easier to get a PhD position if you're already in Germany.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The system in Germany differs from the PhD system in some points:
* Usually there are no (or very little) courses you have to take.
* One assumes, you are capable of doing your own research projects (at least after a year or so)
* You are mainly involved in projects running at one institute - and it's up to the chairperson to select the person.
* You might have to do some work which is not (or just slightly) related to your PhD, like teaching courses, taking over part of the administrative work, etc. (this strongly depends on the group you are in).
* Often it is requested that you write one or more grant poropsals (and be successful so that the person coming after you is financed). This also depends on the group you are in.
I know of several proessors who say "you are employee of the institute and you have the opportunity to use some of the time to work on your PhD". You should make sure, your "work for the institute" overlaps significantly with your PhD-topic, otherwise you won't succeed.
One reason why so many people in Chemistry have a PhD is, there are so many students and industry can just select the ones with the best qualification. I'm not very familiar with the situation in Chemistry, but I now some biologists and there is the same mechanism working.
In other fields, it is quite different, e.g. in engineering, computer science, etc. the PhD-rates are significantly lower (I don't have numbers, but my guess would be <15%).
One tipp at the end: If you can bring some money (e.g. a DAAD-scholarship), I expect your chances to be quite good.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/02/02 | 1,095 | 4,804 | <issue_start>username_0: I would like to apply for many math PhD programs in order to maximize my chance of success.
My main question is how should I ask for recommendation letters. In particular, should I ask for a generic letter (in the sense that it's addressed to "the admission committee") to use for all my applications? Or should I ask for multiple letters from the same person for every university I want to apply to (presumably the letters have the same content, except maybe in who it is addressed to)?
Also, most PhD application deadlines are in December. But I finished undergrad at the end of last year. Should I ask for these letters now so as to not increase the time between when the professors know me and when they write the letter (this may mean I'm sending a letter dated February in November), or should I ask closer to the deadline around November this year?<issue_comment>username_1: I like the idea of asking now, while you are still fresh in the minds of your professors.
If you already know where you'll be applying, and the number of schools is relatively low (say, three or less), then there's no harm in asking for three letters. Once you get much more than that, though, it might be better to ask for a generic letter from each professor. I know I wouldn't want to write six different versions of essentially the same letter.
I would think that admissions committees are used to seeing fairly generic letters. So long as the content speaks well of you, I don't think it'll be counted against you if the letter is generic. (If that assumption is wrong, though, hopefully some folks will chime in here and let us know.)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm going to give an answer based on my experience in the US, so it may not be applicable in other countries but:
1. Whether your recommenders use a generic letter is not a decision you get to make. You tell them where to send the letter, but at least in the US, you do not get to see it, and all you know about it's content is what they tell you. I would let them use their judgement about how to personalize it, though if there is something you think would particularly important at one school vs. another, it's a good idea to mention this to them.
2. Similarly, when they write the letter is not something you have control over. In all grad school applications I've seen, the application is electronic and the recommender directly submits via a link that's generated when you fill out your application. They'll know when the deadline is, and will probably be annoyed if you try to insist that they write their letter months before the deadline. If you're applying to a place that still uses paper, submitting the application months before the deadline when your paper application isn't there is just asking for trouble.
What *does* make sense is to write your recommenders now, and say "I wanted to let you know that I'll be applying for graduate school in November, and I was hoping you would be willing to write me a recommendation. I wanted to let you know relatively early since I know that by fall it will have been a while since I graduated." Don't hesitate to remind them about interactions you've had, or about anything you think would look good in the letter. Professors often have to write many such letters, and if you put your good qualities at their fingertips, they're more likely to end up in the letter.
**EDIT:** Looking this over, I think I could have been a little more concise. Providing your recommenders with info is a *very* good idea; that's why I suggest that you do email them now. They can write a better letter if they know what you plan to do and if you remind/tell them about your accomplishments, etc. But when you ask someone for a recommendation, you can't really micromanage. You need to say where the letter needs to go and when the deadline is, but there's not much else you have control over. It is unfortunate that memories fade (though they'll fade less if you give a reminder of your existence now), but that's how it goes. That's just the price you pay if you don't apply to a Ph.D. right as you finish your degree.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Get a generic letter starting with "To Whom it May Concern", and send copies of that with your applications.
I think in many universities, you need to apply early. So you may start applying and see if the university accepts those recommendation letters, because as told by username_2, some universities may send the professor an electronic letter with a link or it may be a pre-formatted form of recommendation letter, which should be filled by the professor.
But even if you apply a few months later, professors will not forget you and give you the recommendation letter in the way it is required.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/02/02 | 1,273 | 5,422 | <issue_start>username_0: I would like to attend some conferences this year, but we are running out of funding until 2015, so I need to look for other options. For instance, I organized a special session in a conference, and attained 12 speakers, so accommodation was free and also registration but not travel expenses. So my question is, if you do not have funding, which other options you know for attending conferences?
P.S. Given my position (PI of a research group), I can not ask for student travel grants, etc<issue_comment>username_1: I know your question is based around the assumption that "funding cannot be found" but I write my answer as a challenge to this assumption.
**Short answer:** Sometimes you can go out and find funding in odd places.
**Long anecdote:** I was working in a research lab as an undergraduate. We had very little funds pretty much all the time being in an undergraduate-only institution (with respect to my field of study which is chemistry). We had some great work that we wanted to take to a fairly prestigious conference halfway across the country but we had no money to go. Myself and a co-worker knew how much this conference would mean to our boss so we decided to go on a crusade to find money to make this happen. We marched out of the lab with all pertinent information in hand and took it straight to the top. We literally walked into the president's office (of the Uni) and asked the secretary if we could meet with him. She was immediately concerned and amused at what we were trying to do. Of course we weren't able to see him straightaway, if at all, for our shenanigans. But she did allow us to make our case to her to see if she could help us out any.
This turned out to be a very profitable and endearing experience. She dropped some contacts in various departments and suggested we go talk to them. She even left us with some business cards to take with us. We immediately contacted every single person on her list and, much to our surprise, we received some very positive responses. I remember one office in general, "Undergraduate Enrichment", which dealt directly with the promotion and advancement of undergraduates. They were nearing the end of the fiscal year and they had money lying around in some accounts that had not been used. Well, long story short, they gave it to us. All of it. We managed to pick up a little bit here, a little bit there, through a few departments, and were able to come up with all the funds we needed. It wasn't a cakewalk though. My friend and I went as far as to appear before Student Government where we asked for funds and had to present our case to, for all intents and purposes, a group of dimwits who were not only apart of Greek life, but ran Student Government strictly around the idea of advancing Greek life (i.e. they didn't give two squats about anything we had to say) and it was one of the most painful and grueling 40 minutes of my life standing before them. We managed to squeak about $500 from them which topped us off.
**Summary:** My friend and I dove in feet first and asked around for money. Found the funds in some of the oddest places. We went on the trip and were able to present our research in a prestigious conference.
Don't give up my friend. Be proactive and think outside the box. You may walk away being quite surprised.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If you don't have funding from your research group's resources, you obviously have to find someone else to cover the costs of your conference visits. It's not easy to achieve, but there's a number of options to pay for at least part of the costs, and if you can combine some of those, you might even be able to make this trip without stressing your own purse too much.
* I'm not sure whether that applies to you, but in some fields, there's conferences where invited speakers get paid everything, including registration, accommodation, and travel. Usually you have to be well connected and famous to get such an invitation.
* As you note in your question already, there may be ways to get a registration waiver and maybe even accomodation paid, for example by taking part in the conference organisation. That leaves to pay for travel, for example by the following:
* It is usually much easier to get travel costs reimbursed when giving a seminar talk at another research institution than for a conference. If you can arrange an invitation to a research institution close to the conference location, they may be able to cover your travel costs. It would be difficult for intercontinental travel, but for national or continental trips it could be a good opportunity to get part of the costs paid.
The base line is to be creative, to use your academic network, and to try to cover different types of costs from different sources.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I do not have ideas on how to obtain funding other than personal money. However, if using personal funds, you may have some options to decrease your overall costs.
First note that I am not a tax professional. Attending conferences is normal for this type of business. You should be able to deduct travel expenses to any conferences you attend. This includes airfare, lodging, and, depending on distance, food. Because these are expenses not reimbursed by your employer, you should be able to write them off. Consult your tax professional.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/02/02 | 588 | 2,556 | <issue_start>username_0: Things you should know:
* It was not a dream school.
* It was considered "safe/moderate" i.e. the kind of students who get in
have more or less similar profiles like mine.
* From graduate school student discussion forums , seems like no one else got
rejected.
* This really hurts. If this school rejects me, what hope do I have with others?<issue_comment>username_1: Speaking from purely personal experience, I wouldn't necessarily worry about it. Of course it's possible that your application was weak and that generally the other schools will feel the same way. On the other hand, it's also possible that something you wrote just didn't appeal to someone working on the applications at this particular school and you were looked over. In my own experience applying to graduate school I actually got rejected from some of my 'backup' schools but was accepted (and was given extra incentive to come to) one of my 'dream' schools.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: (I would have merely posted this as a comment in response to username_1 but my lowly reputation will not permit me.)
I was accepted by every program I applied to *except* my safety school.
My experience when applying to undergrad schools was pretty much the opposite: I only got in to one non-safety school.
My guess as to why something like this might happen is that sample sizes are a lot smaller (fewer applicants to a given grad program in a given year than to the undergraduate school), so your results are more likely to differ from what you expect.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Graduate admissions are very different than undergraduate admissions. In undergraduate admissions, you can generally predict where you'll be accepted and where you won't. But graduate admissions - particularly PhD programs - are significantly more complicated. Because of quotas and financial obligations, they have to try to pick, on the first round, students that they actually think will attend. The reason for this is because, once they make a financial offer, they know you can hold on to it until April 15 or something, and during that time, they can't allocate that money for anyone else.
So, if they see someone who is easily qualified for the school, but they suspect will get other, better offers, they'll likely just pass on that person in the first place, since they don't want to commit money to someone who won't end up attending. If they are mistaken about this, they may end up with a small and/or weak incoming cohort.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/02 | 584 | 2,535 | <issue_start>username_0: I've recently applied for PhD programs in mathematics. I received an offer not long ago, and in light of this offer, there are only a few schools that I would consider an offer from. From past years results (and this year's), I expect to get results from two of them in the coming week, but another of them usually only sends out their final decisions three or so weeks from now (though they do, and have, sent decisions already to some applicants). I would like to make a decision fairly soon, and knowing about the status of my application at this final school would indeed make a difference in any decisions I make. When is it acceptable to ask them about the status of my application? Should I simply wait until they send me the result, or is it OK to ask earlier?
In more generality, so that this question might be useful to somebody that's not me: in general, when is it acceptable to ask schools about their admissions decision if they've not notified you yet?<issue_comment>username_1: If there's a specific reason, such as a deadline at another school, that it would be helpful to know your status, then I think its very reasonable to send a message to the graduate director at a program you're considering. Asking just because you're curious is generally discouraged, but if you have new information, then its reasonable to ask for an update.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would say that in general it is OK to ask if you haven't heard from the program in a long time or if you, say, see decisions being posted on The Grad Cafe. Sure, you don't want to be e-mailing them every week, but a short e-mail to the graduate department (not necessarily the graduate director, but the person listed under who to contact for graduate admissions) shouldn't hurt and they shouldn't be offended or annoyed by it. If they are getting swamped by such e-mails, it is not hard for them to just ignore them and not reply. If they only get a couple, however, they might actually give you a better estimate of the timeline.
Personally, I also consider answering e-mails asking such questions to be a part of the job description of whoever is the contact person for graduate admissions. Yes, the graduate director should not deal with such questions, but that is why I also think the graduate director shouldn't be listed as the contact person.
To sum it up, I only think it's "inappropriate" to constantly bugger them, but not to send a polite e-mail asking about your status.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/02 | 2,275 | 9,778 | <issue_start>username_0: Is it common and acceptable for a postdoc to leave before his/her contract ends, for whatever reason? How early should a prior notice be submitted in this case?<issue_comment>username_1: In math, it's reasonably common for people to leave a 3 year postdoc after 2 years to take a tenure track job (or rather, it was reasonably common before the job market crashed). But fields which have postdocs attached to particular grants may be quite different.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In my experience (I'm a postdoc now, and hence also know a few other postdocs) leaving before the end of a contract is perfectly normal. The nature of postdoctoral work is that you have to be ready to take the next opportunity when it arises - other people certainly aren't going to make sure the timing lines up nicely for you! Of course if you leave very early in the contract, that might annoy people, but assuming you're reasonably sensible, everything should be fine. Remember that the people employing you have either been through the same process, or observed it over the years1.
As for how early the notice should be, that depends on the contract and the labour laws where you are. There may be certain legal minimums that have to be observed, but the figure seems to normally be 2-3 weeks. Of course your employer may let you out early by agreement, but as your employer is probably technically the University, don't expect a bureaucracy to be particularly flexible.
1. Little side note, I gather this might be a bit different in the US, though currently in the process of changing (perhaps someone who went through the US system can add to this). A postdoc in the US has lower status that it does in Europe/Australia/New Zealand/..., so it might be the case that your employers *haven't* been postdocs at all.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Usually, a postdoc is a normal contract between an employer and an employee, and as such, terminating it earlier than its date depends on the contract and/or the country. It should be normally specified on the contract, otherwise the laws of the country should apply. For instance, in the UK, I have had a notice of 1 month, in Italy, it was 3 months.
It is normally acceptable for a postdoc to leave before the end of the contract, although it depends on the situation. If the employer does not provide any guarantee for further employment, and if the postdoc has found another offer, starting earlier than the end of the current contract, then that's the rule of the game. If the postdoc has found a much better offer (for instance, a permanent position), then that's also the rule of the game. If personal reasons are involved (going with a partner, going back to home country, etc), that's quite fair.
By acceptable, I mean that the employer should normally not make any problem (assuming the legal obligations are fulfilled), and might even be supportive in the end of the contract. A case that might not be acceptable is to leave in the middle of a contract, breaking some work commitment (e.g., an experiment to run) for a reason that might not appear very strong. But in the end, it depends a lot on the relationship between the postdoc and the employer. The point to remember is that Academia is a small world, and that in general, it is worth keeping good relationship with former employers. In doubt, talk with your current employer, or with a mentor at the place you're working at to know what the rule normally is.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: To add to previous answers: if your postdoc includes teaching, you should finish out the academic year, or at the very least finish the current term, and give your department chair as much notice as possible, so that they can find a replacement or adjust teaching assignments.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I am currently a Computer Science postdoc in Europe. I have the understanding (and full support) with my professor that I will be gone if a faculty position presents itself. I guess, given that postdocs are really just researchers in queue for a faculty position, I am assuming other postdocs will have similar arrangements.
Other than that, I am assuming whether your professor is annoyed by you leaving depends on how much he depends on you, how much time you give him, and how valid your reasons are.
Before my current job I did postdoc at the university where I also received my PhD. I told my old advisor many months in advance that it would be good for me and my CV to leave my almer mater and home country, and he was fully supportive (== good reason, many months of changeover time). On the other hand, the same professor was pretty pissed when another postdoc quit his position to work in industry more or less without prior warning. **Circumstances matter.**
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: If either or both parties are miserable, then this is not indentured service and therefore the contract should be terminated. However, the termination shouldn't be to the detriment of the lab i.e. if the PI needs time to hire a replacement, then the postdoc terminating the contract should stay on until the new hire is made and trained.
Sometimes it's better to let a toxic person leave rather than remain for their technical skills. I hired a very unpleasant postdoc in 2012 and luckily she resigned while I was still trying to figure out how to work with her. Now she is probably making her new boss miserable. She never asked for a recommendation from me so perhaps her 5 month stint in my lab was overlooked when she was recruited.
Postdocs out there take note:
1. Your boss is not your mum or dad, so if you hate either or both of your parents, punishing your boss is just psycho behavior
2. Your boss is not your mum or dad, so if either or both dote on you and spoil you, consider that your boss is not obligated to treat you that way. A postdoc is a trainee position but it's also a JOB. There are expectations and you are being evaluated by your boss/mentor and colleagues in your field. You are not a student anymore, so time is precious and is not to be wasted with drama and procrastination.
3. If you regularly got 'A' grades as an undergrad and graduate student, beware that these top grades may have been due to grade inflation. You will now need to get used to the idea that there is grade deflation for academic professionals and faculty. Peer review (journals, grant applications) is harsh and often brutal and you have to deal with it. Your postdoc mentor is not your enemy and can help guide you through that process.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: It should be indicating in the contract, and as long as you are following the written contract, the professor should not take it against you. It is like any other job.
Although, in my experience I have found professors who are not professional enough to respect that. It kind of questions the recruitment process for faculty positions, a mere PhD or some publications should not be the only factor when choosing a faculty member, it should also consider the moral ground, leadership skill and ability to motivate. The same way the professor is not your mom or dad, the student is not your maid.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I am a postdoc and I believe that it is right of the postdoc fellow where ever he wants to go though he/she should tell professor few months in advance so that professor can arrange some other postdoc. And if possible, it is better to finish your current project. Professors usually have funding and therefore it is not difficult to find the postdoc replacement for them. However, the postdocs are struggling for a permanent position that is quite competitive now a days specially in some high ranked universities.
There are normally two situations I have observed from the research point of view that a postdoc likes to leave. One is that the professor does not provide good feedback to his progress due to either he has no time since he is more interested in applying for funding or he is not capable answering postdoc questions (it does happens). In both cases, postdoc should leave and make his career better somewhere. The second reason of leaving the postdoc is when the promises that professor did at the time of hiring are not fulfilled. For example, if professor tells you that we are doing empirical as well as theoretical study of such such things and postdoc job will be to make such and such models and analysis, however when you start working, you come to know that they don't have any data and they will get it right in the middle of your postdoc when half of your time will be elapsed.
Sometimes you really feel that your research philosophy is not matching with the research objectives of your group. In such situations, it is beneficial for both to set apart as soon as possible so that professor's funding and postdoc's time can be better utilised.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_9: In the USA, postdocs don't have a contract. Instead, there is an informal agreement between the postdoc and the advisor, that
a project be completed. If the project proves to be a dead end,
then another project is agreed upon. Leaving a project is viewed
negatively, because in the USA, the advisor typically must invest
at least $300, 000 on salary and supplies for the project. If the postdoc leaves - that investment is lost. For the advisor, the
failure of completion of the project could jeopardize the success of future funding for their laboratory. In the USA, in addition
advisors must maintain a certain level of laboratory funding to
keep their laboratory space. So, no leaving the lab without finishing the project is not viewed favorably.
Upvotes: -1 |
2014/02/02 | 892 | 3,887 | <issue_start>username_0: 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?<issue_comment>username_1: 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.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Just to complement username_1'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.](http://www.esrc.ac.uk/_images/ESRC-Postgraduate-Funding-Guide-DTCs_tcm8-28310.pdf)
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.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/02 | 1,231 | 5,144 | <issue_start>username_0: There has been quite a few questions about how to dress to an academic interview. However, no answer to these questions addresses what one should use to carry their things in. For example, is it acceptable to carry your things in a backpack, cheap shoulder/messenger bag made of synthetic materials, briefcase, expensive leather bag, purse etc? A backpack with a suit would look awfully strange. Maybe a cheap messenger bag would still look OK. Links to photos of acceptable/preferred bags would be nice. Is the etiquette different for post-docs vs. faculty positions?<issue_comment>username_1: Bags, shoes, hats, it's all the same answer as for clothes. Post-docs vs faculty positions, it's the same answer. If you've any specific instructions from the panel who will interview you, follow them. Otherwise, follow local customs for smart professional attire. Err on the side of looking smarter and more professional.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I have seen them in all in faculty job talks in our department for the last few years. I have seen messenger bags, backpacks and briefcases; some of them have been made of expensive leather and looked really classy/professional and I have even seen them made of cheap, fraying materials.
Either way, it does not matter - except maybe in incredibly conservative departments. We hired one of the folks who had a pretty cheap looking backpack. The fact that they had multiple publications in the top journals and conferences in their area probably mattered more. They were all wearing suits though.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think, at least in the UK (I couldn't be sure about other countries), this probably matters a lot less in academia than it would for a corporate job. The most important thing is probably that you feel comfortable with your choice. It's extremely unlikely that you would fail to get the job simply because of your choice of bag, but if you are feeling uncomfortable all day about, say, wearing a backpack with a suit, then that could end up having a negative effect on your interview performance.
When I interviewed for my current job, I carried my larger items in my backpack, and I did feel a bit silly wearing a backpack with a suit, but fortunately I was offered to leave my backpack in the secretaries' office for the day, and I had all the things I really needed to keep with me in a small leather handbag. I think I would have felt uncomfortable carrying the backpack around with me all day (even though it was a good-quality and quite new one), especially as the other candidates were quite smartly dressed and didn't have backpacks.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: If you wear a backpack on both shoulders with a suit jacket, it will make the suit bunch up in front and the sleeves look too short. Also, you will probably pop the button(s) if you wear the jacket closed. If you don't need to bring anything heavy to the interview and strongly prefer your backpack, then wear it on one shoulder only.
As someone else said, choose to bring what you are most comfortable with. By comfortable, I am referring to the ability to quickly find whatever you might need during the interview. It is awful to be dredging through a bag or purse, trying to find something while one or more potential employers are waiting! I have done that, and it was flustering, distracting. The same is true about latches on a briefcase or satchel, if you choose that.
An academic interview is so important. Even if you don't wear a suit, or don't have one, make sure that your shoes fit well, hair is combed, and your socks match. No one is likely to notice or care, but doing so costs you nothing and will minimize self-consciousness, especially if you need to stand to write something on a whiteboard.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Borrow a professional looking bag or briefcase. I borrowed a nice black (synthetic material) shoulder bag for my interviews that looked better than my Chrome bag I use for commuting on my bike. Even as they say it should not matter, other answers suggests that faculty remember how professional or non-professional the bag a interviewee brought was for long periods of time afterward.
In a job interview, you are trying to communicate that (a) you are professional and competent, (b) that you are taking the interview process seriously, and (c) that you the kind of person that faculty can imagine as their colleague (as opposed to their student). Looking professional and professorial is one way you can do all three things.
Keep in mind that the way you appear is a sort of a package deal. If you have an less than professional backpack that looks like something a student would bring, it's probably not going to tip the scale either way, but it's not going to help and it probably will be noticed. If you are a student or a post-doc, people understand that you don't have the cash for a fancy bag. That said, if there's any way you can borrow a nicer looking bag from somebody for your interviews, the downside is low enough that I don't see why you wouldn't.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/03 | 663 | 2,608 | <issue_start>username_0: I have seen several articles in internet about a general bias against hiring long term unemployed people in non-necessarily academic jobs, see for example [here](http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/08/18/its-true-long-term-unemployment-can-make-you-unemp.aspx) and [here](http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/02/the-long-term-unemployment-crisis-is-out-of-contro.aspx#.Uu9lePvT5sU). **I was wondering if there is such an unwritten rule in academia as well?**
I am sure someone might say it is not the case and according to the rules X and Y, it is considered a discrimination and it is forbidden by law and so on. I am not asking what the written laws say. **I would like to know if there is such a bias in hiring committees or not? And if there is such a thing how can a long term unemployed academic do to overcome this obstacle?**<issue_comment>username_1: In any case (academic or not), you always have to account for any hole on your CV. The main idea here is that someone always loses skills when he doesn't have any activity.
However, holes in CV can have many different root causes (disease, looking for a job in a country struck by the economic crisis, humanitarian work, taking care of children at home...). It is usually best to either write it down explicitly (disease for example) or to turn it into some positive, meaningful experience (humanitarian work, etc.). For example, someone who took care of children at home can have learned some organization skills, done some scientific blogging or contributed to some scientific tool on spare time.
This will not always be accepted by a recruiter, but it's better than holes in the CV that just raise suspicion about one's commitment.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't think there is an unwritten rule, precisely, but I think once you are not employed in academia (even if you have a job somewhere else), your chances of getting a position in academia decrease extremely rapidly. Competition for positions is so massive, and there are so many well qualified applicants that I think someone who is not currently in an academic or research position is unlikely to be taken seriously. Not to mention that you typically aren't doing the kind of research and networking you need to get a position if you are unemployed (not always, but often). I think some fields where it's very hard to get work are a bit more forgiving (though, of course there there is even more competition), but this is part of what keeps people in adjunct positions, since it is a way of staying "in the game."
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/03 | 542 | 2,369 | <issue_start>username_0: I have submitted a paper more than a year ago, but still I haven't heard anything back from the editor. As of today I have no idea whether my paper has been accepted/rejected or is in a review stage. Only thing I know is that it has been received, for a got a confirmation of this soon after the submission. Needless to say that I've tried several times to get in contact with the editor to find out about my paper's fate, but I got not a single reply to my status update requests. What should you do in a case like this? I was thinking of writing to the editor again to let him know that I'm withdrawing the paper from him and submitting to someone else? Is this a good idea? Are there other paths one might walk down to?<issue_comment>username_1: Can you get hold of the editor's phone number? I've sometimes found it very effective to call someone when they haven't been replying to emails. However, I've only done this with academics I knew personally. But it still might be worth trying, before you take the fairly major step of withdrawing your paper after more than a year (the advantage of eventually having the paper accepted by the journal you currently have it submitted to is that the date of submission will be on the published paper, and of course this date will be much later if you submit it somewhere else now).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If the editor isn't responding, it's time to escalate. The journal's web page should give contact info for an editor-in-chief and/or a managing editor. Contact one or both of them and let them know that you would like an update on the status of your paper, but cannot get a response from the handling editor (include dates of submission, dates you sent emails, etc). They should take care of the situation.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: (It's an old question yes but would like to give another answer) I would seek to withdraw the paper from the journal with a letter to the editor stating the reasons so. I think there needs to be a time where you've 'waited enough'. For me 1 year is too much but for others, perhaps they have more patience and I think for you to be so patient with your to-and-fro to the journal speaks volumes about your character but it may not be so good for your manuscript.
P.S. What was the final outcome of this?
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/03 | 1,570 | 5,615 | <issue_start>username_0: The following question was posted on Math SE, but seems to be more related to Academia SE:
Next year I will start studying maths at university. I'm highly interested in biomathematics, but in my country there aren't specific courses for students. At least there are very few Ph.D. programs. So I'm thinking of taking a 3-years degree course here and then a Master degree and Ph.D. in another country. Are there such courses in UK or US? If so, which are the entry requirements (in terms of, say, English language certificates, couses taken, etc)? How can I prepare to such courses? Are there any suggested readings?<issue_comment>username_1: I believe `Coursera.org` has a few MOOCs in biomathematics (or at least courses very closely related to it).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In Sweden there are many universities strong in bioinformatics. The requirements are not very high (they depend on the program), and everything is in English and free for UE citiziens.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I know that pretty much every credited and decently reputable university has some sort of bioinformatics or biomathematics program. Even the school I currently attend, Indiana State University, which by the way is an absolutely shit school for ANYTHING except business adminstration, aviation and education, have a masters level bioinformatics degree, though I'm unsure about any PhD program. However, I know that Purdue has a program for it's computer science BA students to have what is called a "focus" (very common in majors like CS because of the breadth of where you can take it- also, criminology is very common to have 5 or 6 focuses as well) in bioinformatic data systems, and you can then pursue a masters or PhD with said focus.
Basically, even though none of that really answered your question, pretty much every university you go to will have some sort of bioinformatics / biomathematics (which by the way, I don't know if they're the same thing because I've always heard it called bioinformatics, which is the math behind biology... so I'm assuming there the same thing) program, and if they don't, they will DEFINITELY have CS / Math programs that are completely relevant to the study and very easy to get you into grad school on the basis of the only thing you didn't learn about bioinformatics was the application of principles you learned from your math classes to said field.
Also, most universities here in the US don't have specific requirements for transfer students beyond language certification. I.e., if you can speak decent English, which you can, then you'll be fine. Most of the Arabs in my Econ & CS classes right now can't speak a word of english at all and they're here so you'll be fine
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Yes there are MSc as well as PhD programs in Biomathematics. You should look for programs in *Biomathematics* and/or *Mathematical Biology*; this field of study is also branded as *Systems Biology* quite often. A quick Google search returns quite a few hits both in UK and US. The Society for Mathematical Biology has a good (but I would say somewhat US-centric) list of such programs available [here](http://www.smb.org/resources/education/degree.shtml).
Entry requirements usually depend on the program. Generally speaking good Maths and Stats (eg. Network/Graph Theory, Stochastics, PDEs) help a lot, as well as showing an interdisciplinary approach to your training. My best advice to prepare for such a course would be to be a great student. It is too early in your academic journey to focus exclusive in one area (eg. Stochastic Processes) and hope it will carry you through graduate school. Besides it will be very unlikely that a star-pupil in Maths will be denied entry to a graduate Biomathematics programme.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Bioinformatics is a bit of a collective name for many different cross disciplinary research fields. Essentially it's biology, mathematics, statistics and programming blended into a dough, and baked together. Consider bread, using the same ingredients you can make many different types of bread in the end.
It's more or less the same with bioinformatics/biomathematics. I am a last year bioinformatics PhD with less than 6 months to dissertation. So far the people I have met that do similar work as I do, I could probably count with fingers on one hand. :)
Instead of considering fields, and courses and programmes, consider which **skills** you want to acquire and what ***subjects*** you want to work on. Essentially, the question boils down to *what do you think is cool*? Are you interested in [RNAseq](https://www.google.se/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRNA-Seq&ei=5B0-VcvzL4SvsAHc3YGgBg&usg=AFQjCNGbWeK5EWAfayAfyIxVlgd7nMP2WQ&sig2=FtRbiSQRLPy4jKzijsHLYw&bvm=bv.91665533,d.bGg), or [GWAS](https://www.google.se/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CDUQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGenome-wide_association_study&ei=_x0-Var6JYeuswHju4D4Bg&usg=AFQjCNH9y6Mqwjh1jVb47Il7FMQkVL2g2g&sig2=-IBqb2Q00mwCUThbSC_LiA&bvm=bv.91665533,d.bGg)? Are you interested in doing [SAM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significance_analysis_of_microarrays), or pathway dynamics? Perhaps signal processing for MS-based proteomics?
There are literally thousands of interesting problems out there that require serious bioinformatics efforts. Which program you studied is a bit irrelevant as long as you have the right toolset of skills.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/02/03 | 2,909 | 12,633 | <issue_start>username_0: I teach at a large R1 state university, and I just received my teaching evaluations for Fall 2013. Usually I get excellent evaluations, but this time my evaluations for Calculus II were an unpleasant surprise. My numerical scores were mediocre, and representative student comments included: "Answers were obscure"; "can sometimes be cryptic when answering questions"; "didn't really answer questions".
These comments do *not* appear to be sour grapes, as the same students didn't complain heavily about the workload or grading of the exams. Moreover, I got excellent teaching evaluations when I taught Calc I a year ago, at the same university, with the same philosophy and style, with similar course policies, and with a comparable workload. Clearly, I did something wrong with regard to this course in particular.
I e-mailed both of my TAs, and only got encouraging comments ("I thought you did a good job"). I then e-mailed the class, and explained that my teaching evaluations were poorer than I expected, and asked students to offer criticism and suggestions for the benefit of future Calc II students. No responses.
So, apparently my teaching left room for improvement but I have no idea what to improve. This is quite uncomfortable -- is there anything useful I can do here?<issue_comment>username_1: Here are two things you can do:
>
> 1) Since the comments you mention have to do with the way you answer questions in class, perhaps it is time to explain your approach.
>
>
>
Sometimes all you need to do is explain at the beginning of a course why you are doing certain things. For example, if you do not like giving full answers to questions so that your students still need to work out part of the answer (and it sounds like that is perhaps the case), explain on the first day of class why you think this approach is beneficial. Perhaps you noticed that your students were more engaged and did better on exams after you started this approach. Let your students know that! It will help them buy in to the strategy. Explaining potential peculiarities of your instructional approach is especially useful if you are teaching the **second or third** course in a sequence, and you did not teach the earlier courses (this is the case). The students are used to different styles. If they were used to an instructor telling them the complete answer all the time, then they will not like what you do unless they understand it. You probably had fewer objections when you taught calculus I, since **you** set the expectations for those students on how a calculus class would go.
>
> 2) Ask some of your colleagues to periodically sit in on your class.
>
>
>
This is a good way to catch negative behaviors that you might be unaware of. The other benefit is appearing open to constructive criticism about your teaching. Having colleagues sit in on your courses also helps separate "students did not like what I did" from "what I did was bad". Just because students did not like, does not mean that it is a poor method of instruction (see point #1 above).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: There are several ways this can happen. scaaahu provides one good reason, that students found Calc II harder than Calc I and was not prepared for it. Another reason could be that some person or group of persons in the student group infect the others with a sentiment. I have seen this happen and it only takes one dominant person to get others on the train.
Your description of the evaluations and your digging into them, with no response form the students, should tell you that the problem primarily is not yours in terms of teaching etc. The only thing you may consider thinking about is how you introduced the class. Setting the tone at the beginning of the course (or earlier if that is possible in your system) and thereby preparing them for the course can be a powerful tool to reduce complaints. This is all about the expectations and if expectations are wrong, it may lead to discontent.
As I was writing this a good response from username_1 was posted so I can only agree with that reply and let my anwser add to his.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: username_1's answer is excellent but I would add one additional point to it. When you are asking for constructive feedback from the students, you must do so in a way that students feel completely comfortable that their honesty is not going to come back to bite them.
At the end of every semester, I email all of my students a web-based survey with some open and some closed questions specifically so I can get their honest opinion. Again, the key is that all responses are anonymous. I believe if I asked them to email me (not anonymous) I would get nothing but praise, which does not help me improve at all. While I do still get many positive comments, there are usually some small gems in there which help me improve.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> "Answers were obscure"; "can sometimes be cryptic when answering
> questions"; "didn't really answer questions".
>
>
>
This makes it sound to me that students never really understood the core content of Calc II. It was a problem I personally struggled with and needed a tutor to solve. Often students will be able to complete homework and quizzes of Calc II content (especially tougher content of sequences and series), even though they don't fundamentally understand what is going on. Calc II is quite a course, as many students test out of Calc I and their first college math course is Calc II. With often a new way of thinking, and representations of problems that students have never seen, Calc II is extremely difficult. I'd suggest (especially with like Power, Maclaurin series, etc.) that you take extra time to explain to students at the most basic level what is going on and move forward. Relate it to real life scenarios if possible, and give a few examples of where such problems are used in real life. I think they're missing key connections which make understanding the course a lot easier.
While I don't think you're a bad teacher, I think there is a slight disconnect here between you and your students. Obviously your level of understanding at the content is much higher than theirs, and what you may think is an easy subject to understand, could be the complete opposite to your students. While your students probably understand how to complete many of the problems in Calc II, from what you've said I doubt they have a true understanding of the content.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: In my experience, the noise in course evaluations is around 1 point out of 5. My evidence for that is that I once taught the same course twice at the same time with the same book, the same syllabus, the same homework, and very similar exams. Not only was the evaluation rating on my teaching different by almost one point out of 5, but the ratings of how appropriate the book/homework/exam was were also different by around 1 point out of 5. I had another similar experience TAing two sections of the same course (where the quizzes and exams were set by the professor) and where the class got rated 6/7 in one and 5/7 in the other. Students' expected grades have a huge impact on the ratings. So although you should definitely pay attention to your student ratings, it's also very important to smooth out the noise.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Don't wait for the end-of-semester evaluation. It does not give us a chance to improve the students' experience. And it usually causes the teachers a lot of remorse and confusion. Instead, **incorporate a mid-term evaluation**. Send online questionnaire to students and solicit their comments on aspects like i) if their expectations are met, ii) if the objectives are fulfilled in a regular base, iii) challenges they face, iv) and suggested improvements. Address their concerns and lay out your revision right after you have checked the results.
Use anonymous channels such as online questionnaires (Qualtrics or SurveyMonkey) or forum (TodaysMeet, which works like Twitter.) Compared to getting students' criticism from their e-mail, I think I will have better luck to talk a tiger into giving me its hide.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Not only have I taught engineering courses for 10+ years and had to have students (corporate students) fill out evals after every 2-4 day class but I also built/run the company's evaluation system. In my opinion the following are things that heavily influence evaluations:
1. The student's view of the topic. If students don't want to take your class because they hate math but yet have to fulfill a requirement then your evaluation will be lower - for sure. This is the #1 factor. You can easily see this if you add questions to your survey like "What is your interest in CLASS\_FIELD?" (1-5) or "Why did you take this class?" (choices being part of major, liked topic, whatever, other).
2. Students want learning to be easy. If you made them do a lot of nonsense work for little payoff they will not be happy. I had a teacher make us write these essays once a week and the 15 essays were 10% of our grade. Just a ton of work and it mattered very little to our grade. "How would you rate the workload (I don't like that word but you get it) of the class taken?"
3. Be clear about your goals of the class. Make sure you discuss at the beginning what you will cover and a brief outline of chapters in a book, other materials covered, and if there will be class discussion questions not found in those. You do not have to tell them exactly what topics are on the test but there needs to be a happy medium between "Know Everything" and "Here are the exact topics". Your survey should have a question that says something like "Were the tests and assignments reflective our your expectations from the syllabus?"
4. As a teacher you need to make sure that your goals are aligned with the school's goals. Is your goals to have happy students after your class? Seems like the easier classes would rise to the top then or the classes that are more topical at least. The way to truly evaluate you as a teacher is to test their retention of the materials at 3-6 months. Not a flat out test, but do they still understand the concepts of the class? Even this can have a lot of noise because batches of students will fluctuate (but you could fix this with a pretest).
5. Culture and individualism. Nothing you can do in an anonymous survey to get around this. Basically there are certain cultures and groups that feel like a 3 out of 5 is really really good. While others may think that is horrible. You can label whatever but you cannot account for this noise in numbers. However you can figure out if this is the issue with blank essay boxes - at least one that is mandatory. If you really want a good mandatory feedback question (which is negative) "What about this class would you change?"
6. Knowledge of the instructor and comprehension level of topic. You are teaching Calculus I and II right? Moderate level of difficulty. So you probably get some brownie points with students if you know your stuff well AND more importantly you can explain the difficult points in an easy to understand way. I see instructors at my company get good scores because they are an expert (maybe the only expert) in a field. Some of these people can barely form a coherent thought but still good scores. But still that is the expectation of some students - they want the best/smartest teaching them. So... "What was your instructor's skill level on the classroom topics?" (1-5) "How well did your instructor explain classroom topics?" (1-5)
Now how do you make students fill out an eval. Well in my company (100 instructors) we tell them the eval is used to do attendance so they don't get credit without it. If your school cares they would do the same. If you want to know what range of questions get people to respond, I gave some hints but that is a different question.
Also we tend to call our evaluations the "happy forms". This is because generally the instructors act all happy before giving the online surveys out (they are fully anonymous and they generally follow Kirkpatrick I). I have witnessed instructors saying all kinds of positive things to their class and even some passing out treats during the eval/survey. Of course students will give the instructor better scores. Your variance from one class to another could have had just as much to do with your attitude and mood the 30 mins leading up to your survey than compared to the entire semester.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/03 | 1,199 | 4,967 | <issue_start>username_0: * 5.0 credits/year describes a full-time undergraduate course load at my school.
* 5.0 credits/2 years describes a full-time graduate course load at my school.
* Students may not enroll in more than 3 credits/term (6/year or 1 extra class/term).
* 400 level courses at my school can count as a 0.5 credit toward either an undergraduate degree or toward a master's degree.
* An undergraduate student may take a full course load of 400 level courses.
My attempt to answer my question:
* Perhaps graduate courses require twice the work that undergraduate courses do.
* But if that were the case, then one could take mostly 400 level courses and do nearly half as much work as she would do if she took graduate courses.
* Perhaps 400 level courses require the same amount of work (say twice as much) as lower level graduate courses require.
* But if that were the case, then an undergraduate student who enrolled in a full course load of 400 level courses would have enrolled in a course load equivalent to 5 credits/term when the university calls 3 credits/term an overload and prohibits students from enrolling in more than 3 credits/term.
So why would a full-time master's program require a half-time course load?<issue_comment>username_1: It's not clear here if you think a 'half-load' of courses is too high, or too low for a Master's.
Here's a perspective from my university. Here, your course work serves two purposes in your masters:
1. Course work is there to rectify gaps in your background. As a school with a huge international student population, we have a huge amount of variance in skill-sets. As a result courses are there partially in order to help make up for missing background, or to get the students onto more common footing.
2. Introduction to topics. Here you're admitted without having to declare a supervisor or a topic. The first year of courses serves to introduce students to topics and professors-- possible supervisors.
After two semesters, most students have paired off with supervisors, and have started their research, which will dominate their time for the subsequent 16+ months, until they defend their thesis.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I cannot speak for your program specifically, but at my university, each hour of class a week represents one credit.(There are a few classes that are different, but for the bulk this is true.) As an undergraduate, full time is considered to be 12-16 credits.
I am now working on my PhD, and full-time is 6-8 credits, so half the number of credits that I was taking, but the amount of time I have to spend outside of these classes is much higher than the classes I took in my undergrad. Couple that with the fact that I'm also teaching classes and doing research, and I am rather busy.
Now, I took some grad classes in my undergrad at an undergrad course load. In general, the professors would grade things differently for the undergrads in grad classes to compensate for the fact that they have more classes to worry about.
That explains a little bit of the difference between grad and undergrad, but also, (I can't say for sure this is the case for your university as I don't know what university you are at, but...) in most grad programs, student's cant just "choose" to take 400 level courses. At my university, 400 level is considered undergraduate, so most graduate programs require courses at the 500-800 level(in which the workload increases quite significantly) You might take one or two lower level courses at the beginning of your grad work if they are prereqs for the higher level courses, but even then, sometimes those don't even count towards your credit requirements.
In my case, all my required courses are 600+, so I don't really have the luxury of taking easy 400 level undergraduate courses.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: At my university (in California), graduate classes require more work for the same number of units. This is in addition to our research and other activities. Our university counts 2 units of grad level as equivalent to 3 units of undergrad.
In areas where enrollment is low, the university often has mixed undergrad/grad classes (my current class in cryptography is just such a class). In these classes, the graduate students do all the undergrad work as well as additional work. In this class, we have to read extra (higher level) papers, do extra reports, do extra presentations, etc. In other mixed classes, there have been more difficult tests or extra chapters assigned. I will receive 3 grad level units for this extra work, while the undergrads will receive 3 undergrad level units for their lower level of work. There's no incentive for them to enroll in the grad level class because they won't get their degree any faster. (For financial aid and work/study, the university looks at the student's grade level for determining full time, not the level of the classes they are taking.)
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/02/04 | 2,686 | 10,905 | <issue_start>username_0: I work in the mathematics department of a university that has a new, small, mathematics bachelor's degree program, and no graduate mathematics programs. Some of our students are looking for advice on how to successfully apply for graduate school. I don't know what to tell them. Everyone in my department (myself included) applied to graduate school so long ago that I think our advice may not be relevant. I don't think anyone else who works for my university knows more than my department colleagues do.
What are good things for students at a small school to do to get into graduate school in mathematics? In particular, what are some things that might not be obvious to mathematics professors who've been out of graduate school for a few decades?
EDIT: In response to this question being put on hold for being "too broad", here is my modified question: **What advice would you give students applying for graduate school in mathematics in 2014 that you would not have given them a decade or two ago?** In other words, how would the advice differ? I am thinking both about what students have to do as undergrads and about the application process itself (which I assume is done online nowadays).<issue_comment>username_1: This is too short for an answer. However, I do think it is worth an answer.
Tell your students to get on this site ! There are plenty of questions and answers about graduate school admission. If they don't find their questions answered, then ask their own questions to get useful advices.
Your students may have the same general questions as how to apply for admission. They may also have specific questions regarding their individual situations. The best advice is, get on an excellent, informative and reliable Q&A site and that's us!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I personally had the experience of applying to graduate school from [a very small college](https://simons-rock.edu) that has not produced many math Ph.D.s (though oddly enough, I'm not [the only 2002 BA graduate](http://www.math.toronto.edu/~ryoung/) working at an R1 university in North America) not *so* far in the misty depths of time. Of course, I only have a couple of data points, but let me try to give my thoughts.
I think one thing is you've really got to get the basic stuff right: take the hardest classes available to you from the selections you have (and you should note in your letters that the student did this!) and ace them. Do well on the general and subject GREs. I assume you could have told them those.
I think the biggest non-obvious thing is that it's essential to seek out experiences outside your small program. If you're at a large school with its own graduate program, probably you have all the resources you'll need at your fingertips, but in a smaller program, I don't think you really have the ability to fully prepare someone for graduate school. Study abroad is good for this (I went to [BSM](https://www.budapestsemesters.com) in Budapest, but there are other programs). So are REU's (I did the one at [LSU](https://www.math.lsu.edu/reu)). On a smaller scale, you might be able to take more advanced courses at a nearby college (for example, students at Smith and Amherst can take graduate courses at UMass), or do a guest semester somewhere in the US (like at the Penn State [MASS](https://www.math.psu.edu/mass/) program).
These will, of course, be generally enriching experiences, but they also help by giving some real points of comparison. Graduate schools know what an A at BSM means (where they might not know it for your school); a professor who supervised you at an REU can speak with authority about having supervised many talented young people, and having some experience with which of them succeed in grad school.
Another possibility is working at summer mathematics program like [PROMYS](http://promys.org/program/counselors) or [Canada/USA Mathcamp](http://www.mathcamp.org/index.php) (there are many other) though I think you should give some weight to activities like REU which are more likely to result in letters.
**EDIT:** I'll just note that what I've written about is still advice from the Web 1.0 world, but it's not so clear to me what Web 2.0 has changed about the admission process. I think it has made communicating with other people going through the process easier (for example, you can see in essentially [real time](http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=math%2a&t=a&o=&pp=25) which schools are sending out acceptances and rejections. This seems more likely to drive you insane than help though). I think for students at a smaller school this can be a boon (for example, the applicant profiles in [this thread](http://www.mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1523) could be helpful for understanding where they might get in, though it's worth a reminder to take things with a grain of salt).
I think one thing I didn't know was that it's very reasonable to contact the Director of Graduate Studies at programs that interest you if you have questions. Don't be a pest about it (only email if you have a real question), but communicating with applicants is part of the job, though my DGS may not appreciate me telling the internet that (sorry, Tom).
The Web, of course, has also changed research about grad schools a lot. In theory, you can know a lot more about individual professors now than it would have been easy to figure out even 10, but especially 20 years ago. It's not super clear to me that this will help very much though. I generally feel like researching individual professors before starting grad school is a mug's game, since you're so likely to shift interests. I think it's much wiser to choose based on the program, and then worry about getting an advisor after a year or so of grad school when you know a bit more.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: username_2 has already wrote a great answer about how to get into a good math grad school, so I will not repeat that answer here. I do, however, want to interpret your question more broadly (what advice would I give to seniors applying for grad school?) and give you some advice. In particular, most of the things that I am about to talk about were not so much of problems back in the 70s, I think.
No one tells you about the darker side of academia when you are an undergraduate student. But academia is really, really hard. Here are some cons of becoming an academic.
* the most serious problem by far is the fact that you do not have any choice on where you live. You just go to the best grad school that you got into, then after that, you apply to around 60 institutions for your postdoc job, and cross your fingers. Most schools give you two weeks to decide on your position, then off you go to some random city that you have never thought of. The same deal repeats for your second postdoc (if you are unlucky), or tenure-track. If you fail to obtain tenure, you might have to do another postdoc or tenure-track. So you are actively changing cities every 2-3 years for the next 10-15 years of your life. As an undergraduate student, this is not a serious problem, but when you have a significant other, and you are past 30, you really do want to settle down.
* academia is an extremely hierarchical society. Whether you get a job or not depends on your letter writers, one of which must be your advisor. As you obtain letters from people senior to you, it is often very difficult to express your opinions, as it is very easy to burn bridges. Academia is also very small; words travel fast. If you mess up in one place, chances are, everyone knows about it. Sometimes, it's not even your fault, but people can get very, very upset at you.
* the job market is very tight these days. The schools that I consider to be the top grad school are Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan and Chicago. These schools alone produce about 100 PhDs a year. I think that there are around 300 research postdocs available each year in the US (if you apply to every PhD producing institution, I think that you would send out around 80-90 applications; let's assume each school hires around 3 people, which I think is being generous). You can do the math.
These are only the universal issues that apply to practically every PhD student. Then there are issues that apply more strongly to some people than others (elitism displayed by some mathematicians, competition among peers, difficult advisor, your thesis problem being scooped, etc.)
So I advise that you need to be very, very sure that you really love math. I have been through many of these issues, and honestly, your love for the subject is the only thing that will keep you going. If you don't have the passion, you will regret your decision very quickly.
There are also perks of being a mathematician, of course. I do enjoy the flexible schedule (aside from teaching and committee work, research can be done any time, anywhere), being able to travel to conferences, and the job security that follows, if you make it to the ranks of a tenured professor.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: [<NAME>'s advice page here](http://matt.might.net/articles/how-to-apply-and-get-in-to-graduate-school-in-science-mathematics-engineering-or-computer-science/) provides some really useful tips of the kind you're looking for. The three of his tips that I found really useful for when I applied to graduate school two years ago (that weren't mentioned above) are as follows:
1. Consider *emailing* professors whose research interests you with a brief statement asking them about their work. As Might states on the linked page above,
>
> Tell them you were considering applying, and you're curious about the research opportunities available in the field. Comment intelligently on some research that faculty member has done. Attach any research you've done, and briefly summarize your research interests. That faculty member can then make sure your application receives a thorough review. Bear in mind that professors receive lots of form-letter spam from prospective students. It's painfully obvious when the email is form-letter spam, and most professors will summarily discard it.
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He suggests to email a month before the application deadline, but I emailed maybe 2-3 weeks before and it was still fine. He also has tips on how to send professors emails [here](http://matt.might.net/articles/how-to-email/).
2. Consider writing your essays in **LaTeX**. You'd need to learn how to use it in graduate school anyway, and it makes you look more like a mathematician, so to speak.
3. In your essays, put really important words in **bold**. I used this to emphasize the names of the faculty I was interested in working with, awards I had received, and my particular research interests (**partial differential equations** for example).
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/02/04 | 4,501 | 18,791 | <issue_start>username_0: If a student needs a reference letter for graduate admissions or that sort of thing, some profs will ask the student to write a reference letter for themself before sending it off to the prof for minor edits and finalization. This seems to be a somewhat common practice given that some graduate schools ask for several letters of recommendation even when it is not reasonable for the student to have developed deep connections with that many professors, and that most professors are just too busy to write quality letters for all the students that ask them to.
Is it acceptable to write most of the reference letter and have the prof make minor edits? Do academic institutions frown upon this practice? Would it be considered an academic offense if a student wrote a reference letter for themselves and had a prof sign it?<issue_comment>username_1: The question is clearly a grey-zone in that a range of scenarios exist from a self-written letter uncritically signed by someone and sent off to using the self-written text as a base for expansion and critical rewriting by the signee. The former devalues the whole idea of recommendation letters whereas the latter may not be too different from verbally asking about the purpose of the letter. I ask students to provide a text that contains information they think should be in the letter (based on, for example, what information is requested in the application) and then make the changes I see necessary to put my name on the letter. this means I add my valuation of their academic traits. I do this when students apply for money from minor funds but never if they apply for an academic job. A key aspect for me is that the letter will carry my name and I therefore need to stand behind it.
The text I ask a student to provide provides me with details bout the project that I can consider and reject if I deem it not to be possible to support.
Where this becomes problematic, to say the least, is if one would simply sign off on a letter, edits or not and don not even care what it contains. This will be contributing to inflation in the meaning of such letters. I happened to have a very strict advisor in this sense, and as graduate students we always considered whether or not it was useful to get a letter from (in this case ) him. But, the positive in the letter was a real positive. The problem was of course you never knew what sort of letters the "competition" provided in applications. Hence not taking letters of recommendation seriously causes inflation and reduces the worth of them. This is probably why personal references (in the case of job searches) who you contact over conference phone become more important.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: There are certainly different degrees of flagrancy here. I know some good professors who will ask for a short paragraph just to "get the juices flowing", but will then modify and expand it into a full letter. I don't think that is wrong, although I wouldn't do it myself.
If the professor signs a letter written by the student without making any modifications, or if the final letter consists mostly of the student's words, I consider that fraudulent -- but it is primarily the professor's fraud. After all, the professor is the one signing his name.
When I write letters, I require the student to give me all the relevant records as well as a description of what they think I should emphasize in the letter. Not a single word of their description would ever be pasted into the letter, and I don't use it as a starting point for the text. It is simply their opportunity to remind me of the impressive things they have done, which I will then write about if I agree.
If I can't write a letter for them in my own words -- for whatever reason -- I will decline to write one at all.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> If a student needs a reference letter for graduate admissions or that sort of thing, some profs will ask the student to write a reference letter for themself before sending it off to the prof for minor edits and finalization.
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Some profs lie, cheat and steal as well... occasionally in their professional life. Just because a practice is common does not make it right.
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> This seems to be a somewhat common practice given that some graduate schools ask for several letters of recommendation even when it is not reasonable for the student to have developed deep connections with that many professors, and that most professors are just too busy to write quality letters for all the students that ask them to.
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It is certainly "reasonable" to ask for several letters of recommendation for graduate admissions. That many students will not have had substantial personal contact with faculty is something to keep in mind as one progresses through an undergraduate program. Also connections need not be especially deep in order to result in a good letter: if the writer can be confident that the student will succeed in the graduate program she is applying for, that is enough. Often a truly outstanding performance in a single course is sufficient.
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> Is it acceptable to write most of the reference letter and have the prof make minor edits?
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No, this is a form of plagiarism and academic fraud. What you pass off as your written word must actually be yours except where you explicitly document to the contrary.
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Many of them do, yes.
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> Would it be considered an academic offense if a student wrote a reference letter for themselves and had a prof sign it?
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It depends on the institution and probably the nation in question but in the United States: yes, it certainly could be. If I found out that this happened in an application that I read, I would at the very least throw out the entire letter; I would probably be inclined to dismiss the entire application. I would probably not contact the faculty member because in my view they are equally culpable (if not more so because they should know better), but I would be much more skeptical of letters coming from that person and even that institution in the future.
---
The above takes a hard ethical line, as I am very frustrated with other answers to this and related questions that seem resigned that one must accept unethical behavior in this situation. But here is a different kind of answer:
A graduate admissions letter that a student writes for herself is going to be a bad letter compared to a "real" letter written by a qualified faculty member. A graduate admissions letter is a communication between one mature academic and another: how would a 22 year-old young adult know how to write such a letter in a convincing way? Without having read hundreds or thousands of other similar letters, how would she know what the faculty want to hear? She wouldn't. If you write your own letter, you are at best forging an ineffectively written letter. Surely you deserve a better one?
As for faculty being very busy: yes, we are. As for having lots of letters to write: yes, we do. But writing such letters is **part of our job**, so a faculty member who does not take time out to write a good letter is not a good faculty member, at least not in this aspect. Writing a good recommendation letter usually takes several hours and often more than one sitting.
How can you help your professor write a good letter (on their own!):
1. Give them *lots* of time to write the letter.
Academics are busy, and our schedules are uneven. If you give me something to do six weeks in advance, then maybe in week three I'll find a spare afternoon and be able to do it. Leaving much less than a month for someone to write a letter is getting off on the wrong foot and already implicitly asking for less than the best possible letter.
2. Provide information about yourself rather than waiting for the faculty member to ask.
You should not write the letter yourself, but you should certainly include all information that you think might be pertinent, and you are well within your rights to highlight certain information that you think might be especially pertinent. Preparing something like a CV but tailored for a good letter rather than a job would be ideal.
3. Do everything in your power to minimize the attendant clerical work in submitting the letter.
Faculty members are busy and also, honestly, a bit lazy/snooty about routine work. If you tell me to mail a letter to a certain address, then there is going to be a whole day in which I print out the letter and don't get around to correctly putting it in an envelope. If the letters still need to be mailed (fewer and fewer do, and most but not all faculty members prefer to do things electronically), it would be wise to provide a self-addressed stamped envelope. If the submission is electronic, again try to ensure that the faculty member needs to do as little as possible. Ideally we get a website and a password, we enter those in, and we immediately upload the letter. Much more than that is asking for trouble. My own university makes faculty members jump through many more hoops to submit a letter, and this worries the hell out of me.
* 3'. If your letter needs to be sent to multiple locations in a way which requires the faculty member to do something multiple times, see if you can figure out a way for the faculty member to submit the letter only once. E.g., perhaps there is an administrative assistant (AA) at your institution that will agree to receive the letter and take care of the nitty gritty of sending it to various places. You may have to ask for this, and you should ask, as nicely as you possibly can. Given the choice between getting a faculty member to do this clerical work and getting an AA to do it, you want the AA to do it: they are superior in every way. Always remember to be extra nice to the AA's: you want in fact to be nicer to them than the average person they have to interact with, as then they will notice and do better work for you than the average person they have to interact with. If you're asking an AA to do something which it is not absolutely clearly part of their job description, go ahead and ask but be extra extra nice: a small gift at the end is a classy move.
4. Don't be shy about checking up on the faculty member to see whether the letter has been written.
I frankly expect this, to the extent that if you ask me for a letter (including giving me all the information) and *never* check back again, I almost believe that you changed your mind and didn't really need it after all. It is totally acceptable to ask multiple times for the faculty to turn in the letter. I'm afraid that there has been "email alert inflation" in recent years, to the extent that if I only get one email about something, it feels almost optional. Really important things have a way of resulting in multiple emails coming at shorter and shorter intervals. Even to get me to write my grant reports they are not shy about sending several. You should always be nice about this – at any point the faculty member could in theory change their mind – but we are grateful if it is your mental energy which is being spent on making sure it gets done.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: I don't think this is a grey zone at all. Senior professionals in all domains, not just acadaemia, routinely sign letters that they did not pen:
* Directors signing press releases written by communications managers
* Vice-chancellors signing letters to government officials written by deputy vice chancellors
* Academics submitting journal articles that were *written* by a co-author, although the research is shared.
It's completely irrelevant who actually put the words together, unless there is a question over the copyright of the text - which there clearly isn't here. All that matters is that the person signing the letter stands by its content and takes responsibility for it.
If you write a reference letter for yourself that is over the top, they won't sign it. No ethical issues here whatsoever.
(I can't answer whether other institutions would frown on the practice for other reasons though.)
---
Ok, some research.
Guidance from p. 3 of ["Writing a Letter of Recommendation"](https://www.hhmi.org/sites/default/files/Educational%20Materials/Lab%20Management/letter.pdf) (an addendum to *Making the Right Moves*, published by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Burroughs Wellcome Fund):
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> Tip: Don’t ask the candidate to write a draft of the letter for you. Most heads of labs say this rarely saves time and sometimes leads to a weaker letter. It is better for the candidate to provide you with all the necessary information, from which you can then pick and choose as you write your letter.
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...and from p. 9, guidance for the applicant:
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> You may be asked to write a draft of the letter. As mentioned on page 1, many heads of laboratories say this is not a good idea. However, if you are asked to do it, do it!
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From ["Letter of Recommendation: Writing One Yourself" on the Peterson's website](https://www.petersons.com/blog/letter-of-recommendation-writing-one-yourself/):
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> When requesting a letter of recommendation, don't be surprised if your instructor or supervisor hands the forms back to you and says, "Sure, why don't you go ahead and write the first draft yourself, and I'll revise it and sign at the bottom."
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From ["Writing Your Own Letter of Recommendation" on StudentBranding.com](https://web.archive.org/web/20181125183303/http://studentbranding.com/writing-your-own-letter-of-recommendation/):
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> * The “draft” that you provide to the recommender to sign shouldn’t be a draft at all – it should be a perfectly polished letter ready to be signed, sealed and delivered.
> * Don’t be insulted when your supervisor decides to edit. They’ll want to apply their own language and voice to your content.
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> [...]
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> #### In my experience as a supervisor . . .
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> I’ve been asked to write lots of letters of recommendations for students, but I’ve never felt strongly enough to throw the responsibility back at someone. That’s not to say I haven’t managed some phenomenal students; I just haven’t had someone come along who I think is up to the task. So, when he or she does come along, that person will really be top notch.
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From ["How to Write Your Own Recommendation Letter" on Firsthand.co](https://firsthand.co/blogs/job-search/how-to-write-your-own-recommendation-letter):
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> [...] While the standard practice is for references to write their own recommendation letters, it’s becoming increasingly common for time-strapped individuals to ask you to pen the first draft of a letter yourself. [...]
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From ["Is it OK to Write My Own Letter of Recommendation?" in BusinessMajors.About.com's Recommendation Letter FAQ](https://web.archive.org/web/20150906140114/http://businessmajors.about.com/od/recommendationletterfaq/f/WritOwnRecLet.htm):
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> **Question:** Is it OK to Write My Own Letter of Recommendation?
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> **Answer:** The only time it is acceptable to write your own letter of recommendation is when the person you requested the letter from asks you to do it. Even then, it is important to be honest in the letter. Don't write anything the other person wouldn't have written. When you have finished, ask the person to look over the letter, verify the information, and sign. You should never forge someone else's signature.
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I don't see much (any) evidence of any ethical quandaries in a professor requesting and submitting a letter of recommendation directly from the student. These examples aren't cherry-picked - they're the first few hits that came up when searching for phrases like "own letter of recommendation" or "letter of recommendation myself".
In summary:
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> *Is it acceptable to write most of the reference letter and have the prof make minor edits?*
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Clearly, yes - if requested to do so.
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> *Do academic institutions frown upon this practice?*
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No.
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> *Would it be considered an academic offense if a student wrote a reference letter for themselves and had a prof sign it?*
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Hell no.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_5: While I can believe that some unscrupulous professors would simply take the student's letter and sign it, the one prof that have asked me to write a reference letter have mostly done it as an exercise for me to evaluate myself. I wrote a letter and brought it to him and then he gave me feedback about the letter and what I said about it, and then showed me the entirely different letter that he ended up writing himself.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: In my field, because students often end up going many different directions (academia, industry, government, etc.) and occasionally come from different fields entirely, it's fairly common to ask for a first draft of the letter essentially to make sure that the tone and "message" of the letter reflects what the candidate wants.
For example, one of my letter writers was a clinician, but the positions I was applying for had a large theoretical component. They could have written the type of letter they would for a medical student, but it would have been off-target, and likely would have caused the group reading the letter to go "Wait, what?" Instead, by drafting a letter for them, I could focus on the somewhat subtler point of the translational aspects of my work with them, which *was* relevant.
The assumption is, no matter how well they know you, that *you* know you - and what you want/need - better than they do. It's especially helpful for pulling in things they don't know about. For example, do you have a particular publication that's in a journal that's a big deal for the people you're applying to, but less so for them?
A draft allows for such a broad-strokes framework they can then work off of. I would be hesitant if they then don't put their own personal touches in.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Even if you don't think it's unethical to write your own draft letter, it can be dangerous:
Most such applications require several letters. If two or more letter-writers all ask you for a first draft, and you send them the same draft document, you don't know which parts they will choose to edit. It's possible that two writers will leave the same paragraph unedited, because they both stand by it... which means their letters will contain *identical wording*. This will raise serious red flags when the admissions committee notices!
It's much safer to send the letter-writers your CV and perhaps a bulleted list of items or traits you'd like the writers to highlight.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/02/04 | 1,954 | 8,770 | <issue_start>username_0: Throughout my life, I have always had some issues with what I, my peers and my teachers referred to colloquially as "paying attention". By this I mean a very specific ability to not make mistakes. Some very good examples are:
* A mathematically competent adult getting a calculus question wrong because of a simple arithmetic mistake, such as 5+3=15.
* A well-prepared student getting a multiple choice question wrong because it was asking "which of the above are not true", but he mistakenly selected the ones that *are* true.
* A skilled roboticist damaging an expensive circuit because he accidentally wired the components incorrectly.
* Mixing up two terms which refer to different things, despite understanding very well the concept that either term refers to.
* Typos and simple grammar errors.
Note that I do not mean attention in the sense of being able to concentrate on and pay attention to a topic. I am specifically talking about the ability to not make mistakes (where mistakes are simple errors, which you know are wrong but do not notice at the time - **not** errors you committed because you lacked understanding of a key concept or because you didn't know any better).
While this "attention" obviously influences ability to do well on tests, it also affects my day-to-day work in 2 key ways:
1. When performing an involved experiment, things such as mixing up samples, accidentally skipping a step of the procedure, forgetting to clearly label the samples and so on may ruin the whole experiment - either because the experiment no longer works when that simple mistake is made, or because the mistake has made the results uninterpretable.
2. When working with a tool that does not provide much automated error checking, I can end up producing data or programs that are incorrect due to some mistakes I made. It may take me a very long time to detect these bugs - and until I do, all conclusions I draw from my results are unreliable (and I am not aware of this!). Even after I discover the bug, the work done up to that point is still wasted.
**So, my question: Is "attention" in this sense (ability to make few mistakes) a skill, or innate? Is there any way for me to improve this skill? Can it be trained, or is it an invariant quality of a person that they can only accept and accommodate?**
---
Note that, for the "making mistakes when doing something complicated" problem, there exist the solutions of
* "break it down into simpler chunks which you are less likely to make mistakes with"
* "restructure your complicated activity such that mistakes are rendered obvious".
I'm not very interested in these sorts of solutions, because restructuring the task is not always possible, feasible and efficient. Some things simply cannot be made any less complicated than they are.
Also, while I welcome discussions of the physiology of this problem, it is very unlikely that my problem is ADD or a similar disorder. As the saying goes, to err is human - but some humans err more than others, and I am interested in understanding why (and more precisely, what strategies are available to make oneself err less).<issue_comment>username_1: I was unfortunate enough to grow up in an academic upbringing (almost from pre-school up until university) that is a) purely competitive and b) relies solely on multiple-choice exams.
We were drilled for years to try and avoid such small mistakes, since they prove to be extremely costly when millions of people take the same test.
My only advice to you is to **make a habit** of checking your work, with *a clear set of mind*. I know it's not always possible (usually due to lack of time) but it's a **very** important skill to keep in mind that such mistakes do happen from time to time, and having some time at the end of a test/experiment **entirely dedicated** to checking your work is "money".
To my knowledge there is no fail-safe way to avoid such mistakes. Humans aren't really designed (from an evolutionary point of view) to stay focused for extended periods of time, especially when implicit calculations occur. Which brings me to a "corollary" advice; **make a habit** of writing out all your thoughts/calculations **explicitly**. The benefit with that is that it allows you to immediately spot irregularities in your work when you go back and check your work later prior to the point-of-no-return (i.e. you hand in your exam, or turn on the electricity switch or whatever).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: My experience comes from theoretical physics and I do not know how well that can apply to you but I will anyway post my experience.
When dealing with calculations, one should evolve certain intuition for what can be right. For example, if you are calculating temperature of a gas in a problem from thermodynamics and you get a value of -20 kelvin, you must have done something wrong. Most of the time, it will be more difficult to know if one did an error in the calculation but one can still check if a given calculation scales with given parameters in an expected way or not. Such an approach is usually much faster than going through the whole calculation step by step (you just need to look at the result). On the other hand, it requires a good understanding of the problem you are solving (so that you know what you should expect) and some practice. Moreover, it can be used to find incorrect trends only; if you overlook a prefactor of two or three, you won't find it in this way.
This approach also works with any numerical problems. By varying parameters of the calculation, you can check if you get the expected behaviour. The time requirements there might be worse, though; If you have a complicated calculation, running it several times with different parameters can be very time consuming.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I agree with the earlier answer, but I disagree with the questioner's non-acceptance of "restructuring problems".
There are two main classes of checks I employ: plausibility checks mentioned above (which give you a high-level sanity check of what you could hope to expect) and self-imposing structural constraints which limit your ability to make undetected mistakes.
You talk about tools with error checking. In programming, there are many ways of organising code in such a way that will make it difficult to fit together parts which should not go together. It is similar to putting in a special plug that will go only into the correct corresponding socket, and thus will avoid a short-circuit.
In programming, apart from using strongly typed languages, for internal software, I am so paranoid that I litter my code with "assert" statements for any nontrivial assumption I make. This catches many bugs in the making. There are many tricks of that kind. When organising activities, developing a check list and following it, ideally with some kind of physical "cursor", can avoid mistakes. Generally, externalising your activity status can help, such as marking all terms you have operated on in a calculation.
For highly critical processes, I usually create a parallel checking line, such as an independent line of computation or estimate. I'll give a more detailed concrete example of such a parallel check:
I once had to use a formula from literature to estimate a quantity known from literature, but using my own experimental data. I didn't trust it, and did the recomputation from scratch, which took me two weeks of intense work. It paid off, though, as my computation resulted in a factor 2 discrepancy from the original publication. Then I plugged in my experimental data and everything fit beautifully with what was known till then. Had I tried the experimental data first, I probably would have wasted weeks on trying to uncover where the wrong factor 2 would have come from.
Note that I intentionally did the theoretical computation first, without knowing that my experimental data would have given the factor 2 wrong value with the literature formula. This, to avoid temptation to fine tune the factor post hoc. However, in all likelihood, I would probably not have done that, either, and rather would have dropped the whole line of investigation as inconclusive.
This checking procedure was very time-consuming, but the payoff was that it prevented sloppy work and erroneously dropping the hard-won experimental results as useless. I detest debugging after the fact, and generally find it easier to submit to a rigorous discipline to build up my results systematically. I specifically mention this strategy of mine, because the popular "debugging after every substep" (aka "test-driven design") may violate the questioner's constraints about how problems can be structured.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/04 | 1,866 | 8,443 | <issue_start>username_0: Inspired by the question [Is it acceptable to write a reference letter for yourself?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/16529/546)
I have a related but somewhat different question: Given no choice, is it acceptable to write a recommendation letter for self?
This question is based on real cases. In non-English speaking countries, many professors don't know how to write good recommendation letters in English. The professor may know how to write papers in English in his field. But, when writing recommendation letters, he has limited vocabulary to write about his students. In other words, his English is not proficient. To make the matter worse, some professors may only be able to write simple English sentences. The professor may tell the student the contents of the letter in his native language and ask the student to translate it into English and then signs it.
The student may want somebody else to write the letter because he does not want the professor to do this unethical thing. But, the professor just happens to be his advisor (undergraduate or master). The student may want to suggest that his professor ask the professor's colleagues for help to write the letter. The professor may say no. Therefore, the student writes the recommendation letter for himself by translating the professor's draft in their native language into English.
Is it acceptable? If not, what should the student do?<issue_comment>username_1: Thanks for asking this question.
In light of recent strong comments I have made on closely related issues elsewhere, let me say that I think that getting a letter *translated* from one language to another is an absolutely kosher academic practice. The classy thing to do would be to also include the original (e.g. how do you know that the readers will not speak that language?) and also indicate who the translator was.
However, the translator should not be the student. That is a problem because:
(i) It is an obvious conflict of interest.
(ii) Recommendation letters are often meant to be confidential, and this violates confidentiality.
If you absolutely cannot get anyone other than the student to translate the letter then you should clearly indicate "translated by the student" and expect to have your honesty applauded and the letter largely dismissed.
I must say that my heart opens up for a student who is living in a context where there is no qualified third party to translate a letter into English. I have been to academic departments in several non-anglophone countries and never encountered such a situation...but of course I have not been everywhere, nor to a random sampling, nor to any academic department in a "third world" country. That's a tough situation. Translating the letter yourself does not seem like the best answer.
Let me also say the following: if you are a non-anglophone student whose English skills are far superior to those of the faculty at your university [and assuming that you are applying to anglophone graduate programs, of course!], then you might try to cultivate relationships with anglophone professors elsewhere in the world. Twenty years ago that would have been preposterous advice, but due to the proliferation of mathematical interaction via the internet, it seems very viable today. For instance there is a small but positive number of students with whom I have had sufficiently substantial interaction on MathOverflow and (more often) math.SE so that I would be glad to write them a strong recommendation letter. If you are a math student, you can always try writing to any professor and having mathematical interactions with them. They are not obligated to respond (I certainly do not always respond...), but they often do (I often do...) especially if you show them something truly promising.
[At some point in the previous paragraph I forgot that I was supposed to be writing for a general academic audience rather than an academic *mathematical* audience. But since I am not sure how far my advice extends outside of mathematics, I will leave the m-word in.]
Among US students applying to US graduate programs, it is increasingly frequent for at least one of three recommendation letters to come from the director of a summer undergraduate research experience (REU) than a faculty member at the university. Such letters are not necessarily the most penetrating -- they read very similarly, perhaps because of the implicit motivation to paint one's summer research experience in a positive light -- but they often get the job done, i.e., they lead to admissions.
Let me also say that a letter of recommendation for graduate admission is not always the most important part of the application. If I get an application from a university that I have not heard of, and letters from faculty that I have not heard of and whose reputations I do not know, I can only take the letters so seriously no matter what they say. (And it is quite true that not everyone knows how to write a good "American-style recommendation letter". This does not necessarily get counted against the student; it just doesn't get counted for them.) If you are coming from an "obscure program" then your goal is to convince the readers of the applications that your training is equal to (or superior than!) the training that students in more familiar programs get. So it can be helpful to include very specific information about coursework: e.g. not just the title of the course and the course grade but the textbooks used. If you wrote a paper which does not make any research contribution but shows a solid understanding of graduate-level material, by all means include that as part of the application. Also be sure to take all the applicable standardized tests and do your best on them (and don't cheat on them!!).
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: **No.**
* It is a breach of confidentiality.
* If the recipient of the letter is not informed that the student translated it, then that is (at the least) unethical.
* If the recipient of the letter *is* informed that the student translated it, then I see no immediate breach of ethics. But it's no longer a confidential opinion, may have been subtly altered by the student, and likely won't carry much weight as a result.
* In either case, how can the recipient be sure that the student's translation is true and unbiased?
The proper way forward, as I see it, would be to get the professor to write the letter himself and then get the letter professionally translated. Enclose copies of both the original letter and the translation, declaring that the letter has been translated into English (by either a professional translator or another professor).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I'd like to suggest instead of asking if you could self write the letter, send your advisor an email that says something like this. "Thank you so much for agreeing to write this letter for me. We have done a lot of great work together over a long period of time and I'd like to highlight some things that you may wish to talk about in your letter (of course feel free to choose not to use any of these examples if you so desire):
* Example 1
* Example 2
* ...
This will allow your letter writer to at least have some phrases he/she could say in relatively good English, but you aren't actually writing the letter. The advisor will likely edit them and add more phrases, but at least it is a good starting point. This way, no confidentiality is breached because the advisor can still ignore all of your examples and you have no idea whether he/she chose to do so or not. I also like <NAME>'s idea of sending in an untranslated letter if it is in a language that can be easily translated in most English speaking institutions.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Send the original and a translated version, both electronic. Then the recipient can copy-past the content of the original letter into Google Translate and get something meaningful out to confirm the content of the translated letter.
Slightly dodgier: write the recommendation letter yourself, in English, then translate that into your native language, have the professor read/sign that and the English version, and send both copies. Dodgier because you could be writing one thing in one language and a nicer version of the other, but I'll bet your recommender reads more English than they write.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/02/04 | 1,989 | 8,178 | <issue_start>username_0: I am a postdoc at a university in the UK. Before I came here, a friend warned me that racism is common in the UK. True enough, during my first few months here, I have already received a couple of racist gestures and jeers, including one instance inside the university campus, possibly from a student.
What I would like to ask is this: what part can we play, as academics and students, to reduce such instances of racism in the academic settings?
---
I come from Indonesia, and being Chinese, racism has been a part of my life. I have seen signs of improvement, but when I grew up, I still remember how it was. I am not complaining about UK, although I must admit that during my study in Norway, I experienced hardly any instances of racism or discrimination whatsoever. I am not asking which country is the worst. I share my experience just to show that it is real. I am not asking how to cope with racism, either. I am asking if there is anything I can do, or we can do, as academic community, to reduce instances of racism in academia, to make it a better environment for an increasingly international academic population. I am citing UK, because that's where I am now; it could have been another country. But wherever I am, I have a part to play in making it a better place.<issue_comment>username_1: **Do unto others as you would have them do unto you**
I believe that this is really the only thing that is in your control.
As the popular song goes, "[Everybody's a Little Racist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovF1zsDoeM)". :D
You cannot change minds of people forcefully but you can only change the way in which you behave.
Having said this, I don't think that I have faced any instance of racism inside the ivory tower in the US. Socially, yes. Academically, no.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Recognize that you may or may not have an implicit bias, and examine your own actions accordingly. This also goes for sexism. For example, rather than simply assuming "I'm not a racist!", sit down with something like the list of invited speakers for a conference and genuinely ask "Did we include people of color? Did we include women? Were they more than tokens?"
Like all things in academia, reducing bias benefits from rigorous, systematic thought.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: One of the forms of racism that UK universities suffer from is that they use unfiltered student opinion to inform hiring as well as evaluation of academics. Academics with foreign accents or unfamiliar (or particularly formal) appearances that the students don't like then suffer.
Interestingly this form of racism is widely understood and largely eliminated in the retail sector where no one would be allowed to choose the race of an employee based on the preferences of their customers. It is also a form of racism we could easily eliminate from academia if we honestly faced up to it.
---
I think the point of my answer has been slightly lost (see comments below). The point is that the students are not asked "Can you understand what the academic says clearly?". They are merely asked to rate the academic using a number and are not required to give any reasoning. This hides any prejudices they have and allows the hiring/evaluation committee to use racial preferences without having explicitly to admit they are doing it. The committee just says "They got low student evaluation scores".
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: There are many things we can do, here are some that I have been doing as a foreign student in the US and now an edcuator. And hopefully it would help sparking some more new thoughts.
**Aim for promoting diversity, NOT eliminating racism**
Politically, you will have a lot more buy-in in organizing a "diversity week" than an "anti-racism week." Racism is not something we can eradicate because it stems from the sense of superiority and difference in power, which will always exist in various degree. And in a personal level, given the same race/ethnicity, one person may think a certain treatment is totally fine while the other one may show a strong sign of being offended because the treatment promotes racism. You cannot win.
In most cases, the more one tries very hard not to be a "racist," the more difficult situations one can get into. A fun example: an African American colleague of mine went to watch *12 Years a Slave* with her husband and after the movie ended, a white couple came up and said, sorrowfully, "You people really had it hard, didn't you?" I found that attitude of "We had treated your ancestors so badly that now I am going to make up for it," a bit of, well, racist.
Instead, promote diversity. Diversity is less "silo," it incorporates many other aspects like religions, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, etc. What's more, it gives us some goal to achieve, something to build instead of some infinite amount of pests to destroy. This new goal will certainly improve your mental health and open up a lot more possibilities in improving the situation.
**Promote critical thinking**
Embrace critical thinking in both study and teaching. A lot of racism-related phenomena wouldn't pass the most fundamental critical evaluations. Equipping students with this invaluable skill will help them dissect the situation with higher clarity and certainty. Racism itself is very biasing, to the extent that it's nearly hilarious. For instance, if a member of Purple race commits an atrocious crime, the members of Green race tend to attribute the blame to the whole Purple race. While among the Purple race they tend to attribute the blame to the very criminal as a "bad seed," outlier, or isolated incidence. A simple thinking exercise on situations like this one opens up discussion among students quite well.
An additional benefit of being able to critically think on your feet is that you can instantly downgrade an intense racism argument to a logic-based, evidence-based discussion, pointing out the pitfall in their thought process rather than pointing out that they are a racist.
**Know your history well, and be ready to listen to other's history**
I found myself somehow have become the go-to person when someone has questions about my country. It is, to some degree, a polymorphic racism. Just because some girl is born in Japan doesn't mean she can dance like a geisha, just because some guy is from China doesn't mean he can recite all the characters in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. However, I do take this consultant role seriously, and try my best to be an ambassador. I tell them the good, the bad, and the disgusting, no reservation.
**Don't check your identity tags too soon**
This is somewhat similar to that poor answer with like 10 down votes. Sorry to say that but I do agree with that answer to a certain extent. I have never sorted out a clear list of identities for myself. It's not like I am in denial, my identities are always somewhere but I don't tend to flaunt them right at the beginning of an interaction. I feel that in a lot of the times, conflicts happen because we decided that the action or treatment has clashed with our identity a little bit too soon: You said something against penguins, and I am a penguin, so I have to be upset now and punch you in the face. I would, instead, opt for understanding where they come from first. If the situation is non-hostile, I would proceed to explain (with critical thinking and evidence) that it's not always the case, and move on. You can correct the information, you can never correct a person's attitude, they have to do that bit by themselves.
**Find an optimal environment**
Lastly, it's important that you are promoting diversity in a place that you feel reasonably tolerable and accepting. This whole process of achieving understanding is going to be very long, and it's not worth risking your happiness or even life just because you want to make a statement in a hostile place. In conclusion, don't cave in, be present and remind others of our existence. They don't need to like us, but they do need to know we are here to stay, with a strong will.
Upvotes: 4 |
2014/02/04 | 1,591 | 6,298 | <issue_start>username_0: I am in the process of leaving my PhD programme in life sciences at a top university in the UK. A PhD is simply not for me and I find the work/life balance to be intolerable; in addition, my PhD so far has included an industrial placement at a Fortune 500 company that was very eye opening and enjoyable. I am looking to leave academia permanently and apply for graduate schemes.
My question is whether it is better to leave the fact that I quit a PhD off my CV, or to have the failed PhD / MPhil on there, or to mask it as '18 months of lab experience' or something similar. Is it possible to make the fact I left a PhD sound good?<issue_comment>username_1: I guess it depends on the reason for leaving, e.g. I know several people who did not finish their PhD because
* they got good jobs just before finishing the PhD. One may say that their next employers hired them just before they got into the official postdoc market.
(The offers were clearly based also on the expertise they gained during their work at the PhD project)
* the company they founded as side job (same profession) went well so they more or less gradually switched over to work at that full time.
Both are IMHO perfectly good reasons for not finishing the PhD.
So e.g. if based on your experience at IBM you end up as their employee IMHO that is a perfectly good and also nice looking explanation for leaving the PhD.
But I'd not leave the PhD formally before the next working contract starts - this way the CV will not have a gap. And after all, even if you don't like the PhD work that much, I think it is better to go on with that than to be unemployed: quitting PhD followed by being unemployed may leave a completely different impression from the situations I described above.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In my discipline (computer science), almost all of the people I know who declined to finish the Ph.D kept it listed on their professional profiles with a "not complete" note under it.
They did list their experience though under "work experience", as "Research assistant" or similar and continue to keep their accomplishments listed.
Overall, I think keeping it there, even if unfinished, is better than having a long gap of 2-3 years, because big gaps of nothing are going to look worse than employment in that period that you decided (for varying reasons) to not complete. You can explain away "I decided not to do a Ph.D" in a phone screen but it's harder to tell someone "Well, I actually tried to get a Ph.D but didn't finish, sorry I didn't list it on my resume".
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: My suggestion:
* If you earned a degree along the way, certainly list that in the
education section.
* If you were a research assistant, put that in
your work experience.
I wouldn't add "failed PhD" or "or incomplete" or anything.
Nobody will judge you for quitting a Ph.D. program if you decided you don't want to do research.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: If you're no longer interested in working in academia or research, having a PhD is often a strike *against* you in a job search. I regularly encounter negative bias against a PhD in professional and social situations. So unless you're applying for a job in a field that requires, or at least explicitly values PhD training, I'd list your 18 months as 'lab experience' of some kind. You don't want a gap on your CV, but you also don't want to trigger the negativity that too many people associate with the term "PhD".
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Here is my answer to [this similar question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30254/how-to-make-leaving-a-phd-program-seem-like-a-positive-thing-on-a-resume), where the OP was leaving after 4 years not 18 months. 4 years is more into ABD territory so I think it was wrongly marked as duplicate. Anyway:
Ok, this touches on multiple points:
* people who leave before completing PhDs (so-called 'PhD dropouts', which is *not* a disparaging term) tend to be either significantly better or worse than average PhD students (depending whether the cause was financial, lack of motivation, immaturity, departmental politics, failure to define topic, realizing your field or topic was not worth it/dead/useless/bad career prospects, or (shock horror!) a better opportunity arriving).
* your job is to help the reader understand which one you are
* but as you figured, the resume is not the place to overexplain. You also have the cover letter, the phonescreen, and the interview for that. So be succinct and upbeat, list specific skills, tasks completed.
* "I figure that the 4 years of MA/PhD work on research projects gives me skills that are valid to most employers". But you still need to list them succinctly. (You might have multiple resumes for different employers: one for publishers, one for CS, one for finance, etc etc.) Show us a sample of what you're saying? Also, state specific accomplishments or tangible results you delivered, especially since you're leaving. Any publications? or at least research reports? After four years, I'd expect several. If you list no accomplishments and no publications, then your resume will rightly get propelled into the trashcan/shredder at Mach 10.0
* "All of my dissertation research was funded by a fellowship, and all of my various other research projects (where I wasn't principal investigator) were the result of competitions funded by N grants totaling $X. I have always designed my own research projects". That's gold-dust. Authoring and winning grant proposals is highly valued.
* "I guess I should qualify this by mentioning that my PhD studies were in the social sciences, and there seems to be a bit more leeway in terms of describing what we do." This is a cultural US vs European difference. Hence you see very different opinions [in responses to that question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30254/how-to-make-leaving-a-phd-program-seem-like-a-positive-thing-on-a-resume). Use whatever job description is correct in your country. Just don't get caught obfuscating that you were an MA/PhD research student.
* Will you list your supervisor(s) as references? If yes, will they generally corroborate what you say? If no, why not, and who will you use?
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/05 | 1,015 | 4,183 | <issue_start>username_0: In Australia we follow something known as the ERA ranking, when submitting papers to journals and conferences. My lab stresses publication in venues which are graded as only A or A(star), as per this system ( ERA-A increases possibilities of funding). In the area of biomedical engineering there is a specific conference which I found is ranked as ERA-A. Not a lot of international biomedical conferences are ERA A-ranked.
The problem is I found a lot of negative reviews about the conference organizers online and therefore am skeptical about sending my paper there. Yet, I also know that an ERA-A rank publication very early in my doctoral program can make a good impact on the committee, when my doctoral assessment review comes up later this year. Moreover, this will release some pressure/tension in terms of the doctoral review and I could go on to work on larger targets without worrying about the doctoral assessment ( since it would be considered good progress if I can show an ERA-A paper in the first year of my program).
However much I try, I have failed to understand how this conference gets a top australian rank, when there are so many negative things said online about these conference organizers. One possibility, is that this particular conference is the only one which may be famous. The other is a lot australian academics might have been ranking it as ERA-A. But if so, why only Australia? What does the rest of the world say? The third possibility is that the online reviews are dubious claims made to malign the organisation.
How to evaluate the quality of a conference like this?<issue_comment>username_1: After taking a look at some of the feedback online, I would say your third possibility is correct. The websites speaking against IASTED sound as if they were all created by the same person/people, and they appear to be using keyword spamming to defame IASTED conferences. Actually, the malicious websites I saw were attacking not only IASTED, but the IEEE, WORLDCOMP, and several other major conferences.
The BioMed series is in its eleventh year, and is technically cosponsored by the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. In fact, the IEEE EMB has been involved in many of the past iterations as well. Just a quick look at the information from last year’s conference (<http://www.iasted.org/conferences/pastinfo-791.html>) shows established speakers from credible universities, including the chair, Prof. <NAME>. I have colleagues who have worked on IASTED conferences, and they will attest to the double-blind peer review and plagiarism checks in place.
I would trust the ERA rating; agencies like this are very careful as to which conferences they will endorse. Hope that helps!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You shouldn't take the ERA rankings too seriously. Ranking ten of thousands of journals was an enormous job, and they did amazingly well given the size of the task. However, in the process they made a few questionable judgment calls and every once in a while an [outright mistake](http://symomega.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/the-arc-the-era-and-the-ejc/).
For example, in my field of mathematics, the list of A-rated journals looks rather good overall, but there are a few surprises and at least one journal I am convinced doesn't remotely deserve an A (Fuzzy Sets and Systems).
I'd recommend asking your advisor or other faculty members for their opinion about the IASTED biomedical engineering conference (rather than relying on opinions from random people on the internet). If they are familiar with it, then they should have an opinion about whether the ERA A rating is well deserved. If they aren't familiar with it, then that is itself a bad sign. Not being familiar with a C journal in your specialty is understandable, but not being familiar with a genuine A journal would be more surprising.
You can also investigate it yourself. Have they published any papers you've read or seen cited? Can you find any papers in their proceedings that impress or excite you? If so, then at least your paper would be in good company. If not, then that's another bad sign.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/05 | 1,356 | 5,247 | <issue_start>username_0: Looking around online, there are some statistics that foretell doom for PhD students; some examples of this:
* the number of faculty to retire in the next 10 years is at the lowest in 30 years.
* the number of PhDs awarded is around 100,000, while the number of professor positions open is around 16,000.
* there has been approximately 40% budget cut for math between 2008-2011 (but there was a hiring freeze put on most state universities in 2009-2010, if I remember correctly, so this may not be entirely accurate).
For more statistics, see this:
<http://marccortez.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/phd-job-crisis-640x4627.gif>
The creator of this argues that the number of grad students and postdocs is way too high, while the number of professors is on the decline.
I think that this is not true for math. Postdocs are considered to be a mandatory part in our career (and postdoc positions are quite competitive!), and while many people do a second postdoc, I rarely see people with more than two postdoc experiences. Also, there aren't so many adjunct positions; some postdoc positions are called adjuncts, but these usually expire in 1-3 years. So I would like to know the real statistics. In particular, I want to know these figures for last year (percentages with respect to the number of PhDs will also do):
* the number of PhDs awarded (all figures from here onwards applying just to the US)
* the number of PhDs hired as postdocs at PhD-producing institutions
* the number of PhDs hired as tenure-track professors at liberal arts colleges
* the number of postdocs finishing
* the number of postdocs hired as tenure-track professors at PhD-producing institutions
* the number of postdocs hired as tenure-track professors at liberal arts colleges
* the number of postdocs hired as postdocs at PhD-producing institutions
To summarize, I would like to know how harsh the funneling process is in math; I know from experience that many grad students leave academia without obtaining a job as a postdoc. Is the same true of postdocs? How about the tenure-track level?<issue_comment>username_1: Almost certainly the best information you'll find is from the AMS Annual Survey: <http://www.ams.org/profession/data/annual-survey/annual-survey>. I don't know that it will answer all your questions (in particular, it's mostly focused on newly graduating Ph.D.'s; it doesn't track where people end up after postdocs), but if the data isn't in there, probably nobody has it.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: This isn't an answer, but it's too lengthy to fit in the margin...
I'm going to adopt a deliberately contrarian point of view here and criticize the assumptions underlying the question from a quantitative perspective. Since we're both mathematicians, I hope you won't mind.
Just to make the point, you might go a step further back and compare the ratio
(# of Master's graduates each year)/(# of admitted Doctoral students each year)
to see how "harsh" the funneling process is at that step. But that's clearly ludicrous, since the majority of students getting master's degrees don't want to get a Ph.D.
I think the analysis you're proposing has the same problem. A very large fraction of graduating Ph.D.'s don't want a university post-doc position. Many of them want industry jobs -- a mathematician friend of mine from grad school chose a position at Google over academic opportunities and is very happy. Others take government research jobs -- in applied math, named DOE lab post-docs can be much more competitive than university post-docs.
The other big issue is that the academic job market is a global one, and increasingly so with each new year. Very many of the positions within the US are filled by foreigners, and very many individuals from the US happily take jobs in other countries. I know one individual who was offered an NSF post-doc *and* a named term assistant professorship at a top-three US university in his field, but turned them both down (along with multiple other offers) to take his dream job -- outside of the US. Your analysis would count all of these people as failure stories.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: To add to username_1's answer, the most recent Notices of the AMS issue has a [Report on Academic Recruitment and Hiring](http://www.ams.org/notices/201505/rnoti-p533.pdf). It doesn't exactly answer your questions either, but it provides information on how many tenure-track versus non-tenure-track positions were listed and filled, which I believe is not in the Annual Survey (last I checked, this does tell you how many new PhDs get hired as postdocs versus tenure-tracks).
Putting this data together with what's in the Annual Survey suggests that if you get a PhD in math, you have a good chance of getting an academic job (immediate from the Annual Survey), and eventually if not immediately a tenure-track job. (Note these surveys don't tell you how many tenure-track positions are filled by foreign candidates or new PhDs, or how many US PhDs get permanent foreign academic positions--so there's not enough information to get precise estimates for some of the things you asked about, but I think enough to be comforting.)
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/02/05 | 923 | 3,764 | <issue_start>username_0: I want to cite a paper which was published online (Open Access) in 2012 and later published in a printed journal issue in 2013. Which publication year should be used in the citation?<issue_comment>username_1: As StrongBad said, the general rule is to follow the guidelines outlines by the publication venue.
If there is none, then as a rule of thumb, **cite the journal version**. The reason depends on the type of online publication:
1. When the paper was an early access version of the later journal paper and
thus identical, the journal paper in some sense replace the online access
version.
2. When the 2012 paper was posted at arXiv.org or the like, then the later
journal version went through peer reviewing, whereas the earlier version did
not. So the journal version can easily be more mature.
Note that one role of citations is to assign academic credit. Credit towards a paper that appeared in a reputable journal counts a bit more, so citing the journal version is also a courtesy to the author(s).
If for some reason, for your paper, it is of importance who had an idea first (e.g., when you give a chronological overview of related work), you can just add a note like "An earlier version of the paper appeared in XYZ in 2012" to the bibliography entry of the journal version to make that clear.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Each article, to be properly indexed, is assigned some **minimum information:**
* Journal name given in a correct way. However, this can be 3 of more different things for one journal, e.g. "JAir" = "J Aircraft" = "Journal Aircraft" (randomly chosen journal that has 3 proper names); you can choose any, but usually the middle form is prefered (i.e., basic abbreviations, but not the shortest ones, those are known as "astro. abbrv.")
* Journal volume. Starts at one when the journal is introduced, and counts one by one in a way that is basically decided by the publisher, with some rules.
* (a) Article's first page, or (b) in cases of per-article page numbering, article code, or (c) in cases of per-issue/number page numbering, number of the issue in the volume (usually called just "number") and the article's firts page.
There are two more bits of information that are **usually required:**
* At least one author's name
* Publication year
And there is one more thing that is more then welcome, but **not necessary:**
* Article's title.
Every volume is published throughout only one calendar year (but multiple volumes can be published in the same year). **The year of the publication of the article is the year of the volume in which it appeared.** No matter if it appeared as "e-first" one year before, or if it appeared on arXiv 2 years before, or whatever.
However, if you cite a paper that has appeared as an e-first on the journal's webpage, but has no volume assigned yet, you cite it as *"To appear in Journal of Beer Drinking, 2013"*, even if it's obvious now that it won't be in a volume in year 2013 (since it's already 2014 and the previous volumes are closed). In this case, it's necessary to provide more information to make the citation unique: advised is to provide the article title, which is usually unique in a reasonable time scope.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: You should cite the final article where possible. If the article is online but not yet in print, you should cite the DOI which is a permanent resource and will be updated by the publisher when the print volume is announced, so anyone linking to the online version will get the published version. I have noticed some journals taking up to 9 months to assign a print volume to an epub so the DOI is the only sure way to ensure that epub and print citations match up in the end.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/05 | 921 | 4,089 | <issue_start>username_0: I work at a university at an Information Technology department. My colleagues claim we are 'computer scientists'. However, from what I observed, most of our work is pure implementation and often follows the Engineering Method, not the Scientific Method (see this [page](http://www.sciencebuddies.org/engineering-design-process/engineering-design-compare-scientific-method.shtml)). What is the proper scientific output for research on a real life problem (how to transform a data model encoded in XML Schema into a useful web form for entering/editing data) that involves implementation of a new software (a new data model annotation language and a web form generator software)? Is the resulting software a scientific or an engineering result? What would constitute a proper scientific result?<issue_comment>username_1: Coming from a similar research area myself, I can say that in practice the borders between **science** and **engineering** are often not clear-cut in applied computer science.
That being said, usually, the starting point of our research is indeed a hypothesis, but more of the style *it is possible to build a system that does X using Y in order to achieve Z.* (and, consequently, *this new way is better in some meaningful regards than the traditional way of doing it via X^*\*). Naturally, the way to falsify such an hypothesis is to set out and do a proof-of-concept, optimally in a realistic setting, and compare it against the traditional way.
Note that the proof-of-concept implementation here is **not the scientific output**. It is a vehicle for scientific validation. The **scientific output is the knowledge that X can indeed be usefully done via Y to achieve Z**. Maybe, the proof-of-concept can be improved into an open source tool or product (either by the researchers directly or by partner companies), but this **productization** is not science anymore - this is pure engineering (we know that it can be done, but now it needs to be done **properly**, which takes time, effort, and domain knowledge - all things that researchers often don't have in spades).
As such, to answer your question:
>
> Is the resulting software a scientific or an engineering result?
>
>
>
It is not the scientific result, but it was used to validate the scientific result. It may be considered an engineering result (depending on the quality of the proof-of-concept).
>
> What would constitute a proper scientific result?
>
>
>
I strongly dislike the term *proper* in this context, as it implies an ordering of value between science and engineering.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It depends on what area of Computer Science you're in. However, I think where things are getting confused for you may be in what you do with the thing that you built.
In a "scientific" perspective, particularly for Computer Science, the key lies in explaining why. After building the system, your goal is not only to have accomplished the construction but to either:
1. Compare it with existing solutions to "prove" your unstated hypothesis that your system is better while explaining -why/what makes- it better; or
2. If no solution exists, tie your solution in with previous work and explain not only how it solves this problem, but why it works.
If what you do is you build a solution to a problem and stop there, without trying to explain the why or testing it against the often unstated hypothesis of "my approach will be better than other approaches", then that may be what you're referring to as an engineering method.
The "science" or "research" method that you seem to be looking for is in the aftermath of building the system and seeking to add to the theoretical knowledge of the field by testing and explaining why your approach is faster/more efficient/easier to use/etc.
This is, of course, in addition to the big two factors of reliability (is it reproduceable?) and validity (is this a problem people care about, does this move the field forward, are you using the correct measures to prove your hypothesis, etc.).
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/02/05 | 619 | 2,553 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a habit of using two styles of in-text citation: with and without author name(s). The two examples below describe what I mean: (# here represents a bibliography index)
"...which is in agreement with simulations presented in **Lastname et al. [#]**."
and just
"...the X method **[#]** was here used to model..."
(in the latter case, reference # might contain an in-depth description of the X method).
I mix these styles freely, depending on what I deem to be appropriate in each individual case. Am I correct to do this or would you consider it to be bad style?<issue_comment>username_1: There is absolutely nothing wrong with using different sentence patterns to introduce a citation. In fact, it gets quite tedious to read the same sentence structure over and over again. So, feel free, as you suggested, to use the style which is most appropriate for a given need in a given situation.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: To your title question
>
> Is consistency in citation style important?
>
>
>
**Yes!**
On first reading this, it sounded as though you were planning to mix two citation styles such as APA and Chicago. Obviously, this would be unacceptable.
***However***, in your example, you are using two entirely compatible forms for your in-text citations, which is perfectly acceptable. I would strongly prefer this over the awkward and boring alternative of using exactly the same form for every citation. Continue to use the form that is most appropriate for the situation. Variety is acceptable, even commendable, as long as you are not violating the standards for your documentation style.
**Edit**: To clarify the point above; mixing the *in-text* citation style **Lastname et al. [#]** and **[#]** is OK! What is not OK is using two separate documentation styles, for example, also using the in-text citation **(Last name, year, page)**, which is proper is APA documentation style, but not in Chicago documentation style!
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Yes, this is fine, as long as you make sure that the names of the authors are part of the sentence.
In general, mixing citation styles is not recommended. However, your examples both reference the citations in the same way: **[#]**. The other thing you should keep in mind is that sentences should still make perfect sense if all citations are omitted. To this end, I would change your first example to
>
> "...which is in agreement with simulations presented **by** Lastname et al. [#]."
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 |
2014/02/05 | 766 | 3,410 | <issue_start>username_0: The normal case is that students should obtain a recommendation letter for graduate school from the professor under whom the student has performed research.
Currently, I am taking a course conducted by a field-famous professor, from whom I wish to obtain a recommendation letter for my grad school application. However, due to some reasons, **I am not able to do research under him, which implies that our only connection is that course that I am currently taking.**
If so, maybe one year later, he may refuse to write me a letter, because he does not know me well, or even has forgotten me. Even if he is willing to write me a letter, being not familiar with me, he may not be able to write a decent letter for me.
(By "decent", I mean a letter that actually can help. I know that as long as he is willing to write me one, he can simply say "the student obtained a good grade from my course". I don't think this kind of letter will actually help, IMHO.)
So besides obtaining a good grade for this course and frequently asking valuable questions, **what can I do to impress him so that I can obtain a decent recommendation letter for my future grad school application? How to make him understand me better?**<issue_comment>username_1: Visit the professor and explain your plans and your wish to have him provide a letter in a brief but structured way. Slip in some of your (positive) thoughts concerning his course and, if you were inspired by it, the importance of the course for your current interest. I do not think you can do more. If the person is not interested, I doubt you can do anything to change the view that would not be annoying in the end. It is possible the person has forgotten you but if you stood out even a little in the class, my bet would be the opposite. As I see it you only risk getting a no, and not much could be done to change that.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I would suggest the following, but it all depends on the situation at your university, how much time and effort you are willing to exert for this, and how complicated are the reasons that make you unable to do research under him.
* **Unpaid research**: Suggest to do some work under his supervision without a return (without being paid)
* **Teaching Assistantship**: Try to be his teaching assistant in one of his courses, this will open a lot of doors for opportunities to approach him and give him a good impression about you.
* **Approach his students**: If he has PhD students try to approach them and suggest helping out in something just for the sake of learning, by time you'll get in close contact with your guy.
* **Show off**: the basic approach of all, drop at his office and brag about yourself, and ask him for a recommendation letter based on your relation during the course and your grades. Although I don't see this very meaningful, but I see some recommendation letters where the referees say how much the student has learnt during an internship that the referee had nothing to do with.. But it works and some universities accept such recommendation letters.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It is very good to let the recommendation to show you are very good at learning new things.
Although it is not directly upvote your research skills, the strong learning ability helps find new research topics, and master the research-required skills fast.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/02/06 | 2,322 | 8,403 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm a non-EU citizen, currently doing a postdoc in mathematics in Europe, and I'm thinking of doing a habilitation. Since my google search didn't yield much, I'd appreciate if you could please answer my following questions regarding habilitation:
1) If I understand correctly, habilitation is the highest academic degree you can receive and people do it for getting a permanent academic position in Europe.
How many years or how much/many publication does it normally take to obtain a habilitation degree?
2) Since you could be admitted as a PhD candidate, but not as a 'habilitation candidate' (but instead, say, as a postdoc) can you publish in your postdoc and write the paper(s) as a book and submit it for the defense of habilitation?
3) Suppose you do a one year postdoc in university A, and a second in university B, can you apply to university B for habilitation? How about university A?
4) If you do your PhD and postdoc in unrelated areas, or say even if you switch from pure to applied math, would that be a problem for getting the degree?
5) (Kind of vague question, somewhat opinion-based too) How much does the chance of getting a European tenure increase if you do a successful habilitation?<issue_comment>username_1: I'm starting this by answering some questions for **Germany**:
>
> 1) people do it for getting a permanent academic position in Europe.
>
>
>
Note that even being a professor does not imply a permanent position:
* junior professorships run 6 years, and according to [Wikipedia](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniorprofessur) only 8% of the junior professorships can be considered proper tenure track (applying for a permanent position at the same university without a public job advertisement), for another 4-10% of the junior professorships it is possible to apply for a permanent position at the same university, the remaining majority will not be considered for a permanent position.
"Hausberufungen" ("in house appointments" = offering the professorship to someone from the same university) are somewhere between extremely uncommon (having a fishy taste) and forbidden.
* Also regular professors can have a probation period before getting a permanent position.
>
> How many years or how much/many publication does it normally take to obtain a habilitation degree?
>
>
>
A junior professorship is 6 years and is supposed to be an equivalent alternative to the habilitation, I think that gives a first rough estimate. Besides, I'd recommend that you look into habilitations in your field: they are published in the respecive university libraries and nowadays usually available electronically.
>
> 2) Since you could be admitted as a PhD candidate, but not as a 'habilitation candidate' (but instead, say, as a postdoc) can you publish in your postdoc and write the paper(s) as a book and submit it for the defense of habilitation?
>
>
>
Cumulative habilitations are very common. Again, look at some in your field.
>
> 3) Suppose you do a one year postdoc in university A, and a second in university B, can you apply to university B for habilitation? How about university A?
>
>
>
No idea. But the habilitation is supposed to show that you can teach the whole field and one distinguishing criterion (from dissertation) is that also the presented research must cover some breadth.
>
> 4) If you do your PhD and postdoc in unrelated areas, or say even if you switch from pure to applied math, would that be a problem for getting the degree?
>
>
>
Not sure, but as a habilitation in maths means that you are allowed to teach all kinds of maths I guess that would not be a problem. I know physicists and engineers who habilitated in chemistry (though doing the scientific work in a chemical institute).
>
> 5) How much does the chance of getting a European tenure increase if you do a successful habilitation?
>
>
>
Well, in practice in order to become a professor you either need a habilitation or become junior professor (for 6 years) and then successfully apply for a professorship.
* number of habilitations / year is about 1600. Approximately 650 professors are pensioned / year, so [approximately 1/3 of the people who habilitate actually become professor](http://www.sueddeutsche.de/bildung/weniger-habilitationen-in-deutschland-keine-lust-auf-dicke-waelzer-1.1387701)
Update for maths & natural sciences: ca. 160 profs pensioned / ca. 260 habilitations per year => would correspond roughly to a 60 % chance.
* roughly 3% (total: 1439) of all professors (43 862) are junior professors, that is aproximately 240 new per year.
Maths & natural sciences: 305 of 7500 = 4%, corresponding to ca. 50 / year.
* [Wikipedia](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniorprofessur) says that somewher between 1/3 and 2/3 of the junior professors work at their habilitation despite being junior professors.
[Here's what the Statistische Bundesamt says about these subjects.](https://www.destatis.de/DE/Publikationen/Thematisch/BildungForschungKultur/Hochschulen/PersonalHochschulen.html)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: As for France, you should rather google for the whole name ("habilitation à diriger des recherches") and look e.g. here for starters:
<http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habilitation_universitaire>
(note that the contents is quite different from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habilitation> ).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I'll answer for France, but some answers may be field-dependent (I am in mathematics).
>
> 1) If I understand correctly, habilitation is the highest academic
> degree you can receive and people do it for getting a permanent
> academic position in Europe. How many years or how much/many
> publication does it normally take to obtain a habilitation degree?
>
>
>
It is the highest academic degree, but in France permanent positions are available earlier: "maître de conférence" (a kind of associate professor) and "chargé de recherche" (same but without any teaching duty) are tenured positions that only needs a PhD. Also In mathematics, I'd say that nowadays people are usually hired within 2 to 4 years after their defense.
Habilitation is need for Professors positions, which are more or less equivalent to full professor positions.
It takes usually from 6 to 12 years to complete a Habilitation (this is probably field dependent, and mathematics are certainly on the junior side).
>
> 2) Since you could be admitted as a PhD candidate, but not as a
> 'habilitation candidate' (but instead, say, as a postdoc) can you
> publish in your postdoc and write the paper(s) as a book and submit it
> for the defense of habilitation?
>
>
>
Yes, this is common. In fact, usually one even only write a survey of their results and quote the articles. May be strongly field dependent, I do not know.
>
> 3) Suppose you do a one year postdoc in university A, and a second in
> university B, can you apply to university B for habilitation? How
> about university A?
>
>
>
I would say that you would apply to university B. Most people apply when "maître de conférence" or "chargé de recherche" rather than postdocs, but it is not impossible to apply as a postdoc, there are famous examples.
>
> 4) If you do your PhD and postdoc in unrelated areas, or say even if
> you switch from pure to applied math, would that be a problem for
> getting the degree?
>
>
>
Probably not an issue. You'll need to find referees and a jury that complements well if you want to present everything, but usually you do not include your PhD work. I chose not to present my earlier post-PhD work to get a more consistent Habilitation.
>
> 5) (Kind of vague question, somewhat opinion-based too) How much does
> the chance of getting a European tenure increase if you do a
> successful habilitation?
>
>
>
In France, it would help to get a professor position; if you work abroad I do not think it is mandatory, but good referees report and the composition of the jury can help an application. It would actually *hurt* an application to a Maître de conférence position, as you would be seen as too senior for the job.
Beware that Professor position are rather rare these years, and that Maître de conférence position do not have an internationally competitive salary (but outside the region of Paris, one lives quite well on it).
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/06 | 2,690 | 11,358 | <issue_start>username_0: I joined a new lab a while ago, and am having an issue with keeping the credit for my work. Two instances so far:
* I co-authored a series of papers with the professor and a senior graduate student. I was always the first author, and it'd be fair to say that I contributed 95% of the research work and 70% of the writing. Somehow the other student was invited to give several talks on our work at various department seminars. I hadn't known until recently when I accidentally discovered his slides in our shared repository. The problem is that, in his slides, he only put his name, and there was no mention of my name/no credit given to me.
* Before joining the lab, I developed a research software, which was quite successful and widely used. When I joined the lab, I transferred the development to the lab, and a graduate student helped me to extend the software a bit. When programming, I always sign my code with my name: (C) 2010-2013 by My Name (Email). Just today, when I looked at the code (publicly shared on github), I discovered that the student had deleted my name from all the files and replaced with his name: (C) 2010-2013 by His Name (Email). He even hadn't joined the development until 2012. If people just look at the code, they would think he were the sole author.
Of course I want to keep the credit for my work. But I don't know what I should do. I feel that there is a culture in the lab that people just don't respect the credit for shared work. I don't want to cause heat in the lab. Both those students have been in the lab for longer than me.<issue_comment>username_1: Ask him, politely, like if you were interested to compare your slides (maybe you also participate in seminars) or if you don't, pretend to be really interested in his slides to learn. Again, politely, tell him that you are happy that he used your work ("oh, you did well showing our work" something like this) and force him to include your name.
About second issue, talk to him about it openly. But think about the long-therm consequences and short term consequences. Is it really important to keep that credit? Which are the colateral damages of putting this issue on the table? Are you leaving soon the department? Or, on the contrary, are you in tenure track?
Anyway, if he is not cooperating, think about stealing his girlfriend :D (he'll learn how you felt about your software) And, at the end, you're lucky to be first author, you could be 2nd or 3rd author even doing everything.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Regarding the first point, the only conceivable reason for omitting your name is that the student was under the mistaken impression that in a presentation you only need the name of the speaker. It's not an uncommon mistake that students make when they're starting to present work.
But the usual way to fix this is to have a big "Joint work with X and Y" just below the name of the speaker. And there's absolutely no reason not to do that. I think it's perfectly reasonable to ask the student to include your name on all presentations and even on abstracts announcing the presentations (again, using the 'Joint work with..' formulation. If the student resists, then it's time to go to the advisor. There is **no reason** your name should not be on the presentation if you've contributed to the work.
Separately, how come this other student is giving all the talks if you're the primary author ? Maybe you should ask your advisor if you can give a talk on this at the next opportunity.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: ### Talks with one name only
Here I think that customs vary between having a long list of authors and a long list of collaborators\* and only the *speaker* spelled out on the title, possibly including a long list of *authors* on the abstract.
\* e.g. a slide listing the contributions of all the collaborators.
I'd recommend having a look how other people in the department handle this, and then maybe expressing astonishment (semi)publicly because where you came from it was handled differently. I think it is preferable to have a public discussion and the customs/style of the lab developing in some way than to offend everyone just because your previous lab put authors and not the speaker on the front slide.
Related issue: I like to know who tells what about my work. But OTOH, I think it is quite usual that you don't recognize your own work when a collaborator presents it... There are also drawbacks to being spelled out on the first page of a talk.
### Only student's name in code
I think this is much clearer. And, as you say the code is in a git repo, it is still easy to sort out things now.
As a first step, talk to the student privately and request that he rolls back these changes and adds "Contributions by " (ideally a contributions line for each logical step in the development with date and name - but the git messages can do that as well) only where he actually contributed code. Of course, if he is the sole author of new files, those stay "his".
I'm in a field where software isn't (yet) really a category of publication in the mind of most researchers. However, the usual result of not thinking about that is that there is no statement of authorship nor of a license. In contrast to that, deleting author lines is an active step.
As a second step, I'd explain that deleting the authorship lines from source code is as serious as taking a colleague's manuscript and submitting it under his own name without even mentioning the collaborator.
As a next level of pressure, you could explain to him that you talk to him privately as you do not want to unneccessarily endanger his graduation: from a legal point of view this is a clear violation of your author's moral rights (not necessarily copyright - although also the terms of the license could have been violated). Violation of author's moral rights is an offense that is extremely relevant for academia and thus may put him onto the fast lane to being thrown out of his programme without graduation.
Which you also should keep in mind if you need to go to your boss with the problem: be careful not to destroy more than absolutely necessary here.
(Always assuming of course that the copyright is actually yours as opposed to your previous employer's. But, if you find out that you just have author's (moral) rights, but not the copyright that is a point that makes it necessary right now to "heal" the legal issues by putting the proper copyright and authorship lines into the code ;-) )
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Let's be real. They (well at least the grad student) are going behind your back on both of the issues to make themselves look better.
Either they feel they have contributed much more to the project than you believe or they are just really unethical.
When you say that you did 70% of the writing - is that the real writing or does that involve formatting and proofreading? I just know that a person in my field (tech engineer) who acts as an "editor" would not necessarily be credited on the discussions about the topic or paper but would certainly be credited in the paper itself.
Need to handle this swiftly but show restraint. You first need to figure out if this is a problem with the lab or the person. You need to figure where you relationship is with the grad student and professor and whether you wish to continue either.
If you want to stay on good terms with the grad student it is simple. You go to them and say - "I know you switched my name on code, I know you are presenting these things as yours, please change these things or I will take the next steps." If this person wonders what the next steps are - and needs the threat as motivation - then they should be done to you. Then you move on to professor.
If you talk to the professor about these things and he/she seems astonished and takes action see where that goes. If the professor doesn't offer an opinion you may need to go to the next level.
I know for a fact that students have been expelled from universities that I have had affiliation with for removing copy-write/author information. This isn't an "ooops" case by the student. The git stuff is borderline dumb/illegal but the presentations are just the icing on the cake.
Personally I wouldn't trust the student again. I don't know enough about the situation to comment on the professor. The other student could have easily conned the professor into thinking the stuff was theirs. I think some of the other answers are a little too conservative. If it were just the presentations I might agree with them but changing author info on code is blatant. I would not start ambiguous conversations acting like what this person is doing might/might not be "incorrect". They are in the wrong. Confront them or professor and follow chain of commands at school and git.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I'm an undergraduate student, so I'm not particularly knowledgable about these issues. I had a thought I think is worth bringing up, though: Both of the incidents you brought up involve students. Is it possible that the students are simply unaware of what's expected or otherwise made simple mistakes? If so, talking to them in person would quickly resolve the issues.
I bring this up because it seems to me that you're in a position to get the students in question in serious trouble if you want to, possibly putting their academic futures in jeopardy. If they aren't being willfully antagonistic, it would be cruel to rake them over the coals (although it doesn't sound like you want to do so). Please take a gentler approach to start unless it is clear that they are deliberately acting selfishly.
EDIT: @username_4 made me think about my answer some more. The students' unethical behavior might be bad enough to warrant some kind of punishment, regardless of how aware they are of it, not just a heart-to-heart talk. My biggest concern is that it also seems unethical (or at least cruel) to me to try to have the students expelled, subject to legal action, or something similarly extreme when they're relatively new to academia unless it's clear that they were deliberate.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: **Presenting Your work**
It depends on *how* the student was presenting your work. Was he presenting it as something he researched by himself, or was he presenting on some work that the lab had been working on. It can be valuable to present research results to other labs and even across disciplines. If he phrased it as just a discussion of the latest work in the field that should be fine. If it was phrased as "this is what I did", then there's a problem.
**Copyright of software**
What license was the software released under? Did you transfer the copyright to the university? Did you work on the software on university time?
If you worked on it during university time this could be tricky question. Normally software is protected under copyright, but this could be seen as *individual works for hire*. Either way he shouldn't have removed your name and added his. The software should probably contain the universities/lab name for copyright with you AND him listed as contributors. You're an academic, so here's a paper to read on the topic. <http://www.ifosslr.org/ifosslr/article/view/30>
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/02/06 | 623 | 2,378 | <issue_start>username_0: I've read the following in a description of a workshop:
>
> We have about 15 participants and seek an “Oberwolfach style” with a relatively low density of talks.
>
>
>
I couldn't find anything about this style in Internet. But I found out that there is The Mathematical Research Institute of Oberwolfach, and according to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Research_Institute_of_Oberwolfach)
>
> It organizes weekly workshops on diverse topics where mathematicians and scientists from all over the world come to do collaborative research.
>
>
>
But the sense of this “Oberwolfach style” is still vague to me.<issue_comment>username_1: This is indeed a reference to the [Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach](http://www.mfo.de/) (Oberwolfach Mathematics Research Institute), a conference center in the small German town of Oberwolfach.
The Institute has developed a rather idiosyncratic style of meetings. The most common events are weeklong workshops on specific topics, whose participants are invited by the organizers. Speakers are chosen from among the participants on just one or two days' notice. The talks are indeed relatively "low density", perhaps 4 or 5 x 45-minute talks per day, so not all participants will give talks. Long periods are left unscheduled to encourage informal discussion and collaboration.
The conference center is isolated and so most people don't leave the campus during the week. Participants are housed and fed onsite and meals are communal. As Aru says, there are also measures to "encourage" a more social atmosphere: seating is assigned and changes from meal to meal, and Internet access is not available in the guest rooms until 10pm or so (edit: <NAME>'s comment below suggests that this policy has changed).
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I have been to Oberwolfach several times. Oberwolfach's schedule is something like two or three talks in the morning, followed by lunch and free time until around 3 or 4 (I don't remember exactly). Then they serve you cake, and you go to a couple of more talks before dinner.
As there is no wi-fi in your rooms (until 10pm or so -- new addition!) you are expected to socialize and discuss mathematics with your colleagues during the free time, which often leads to fruitful collaborations.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/06 | 1,800 | 7,469 | <issue_start>username_0: [Ten Simple Rules for Getting Published](http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3adoi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0010057) states:
>
> Rule 7: Start writing the paper the day you have the idea of what questions to pursue.
>
>
>
This sounds like very good advice, not just because you would pace out the act of writing your paper over the entire duration of your research, but it would also help you stay focused and keep track of your progress.
However, in practice, how is this possible? To start writing a paper, I must first know what format and style it should be written in. To know that, I would consult the guidelines of the journal in which I want publish. But the choice of journal depends on the quality of the research and notability of findings. But if I start writing on the day that I start my research, how can I know what journal the research will be good enough for?
For instance, if I shoot high and assume I am going to have a Nature paper, what do I do if a year down the line, it turns out that I was unable to succeed in reaching my goals and Nature would not possibly accept my research? Now I have to rewrite from scratch for another journal, and the time I spent slowly building up my Nature manuscript is wasted. I might as well have focused on research only at first, and left the writing part for last.
What journal's submission guidelines do I pick to follow this *Rule 7*? The most prestigious journal? The humblest journal? Some generic set of guidelines for "no journal"?
Rule 9 from the same text says:
>
> Rule 9: Decide early on where to try to publish your paper.
>
>
>
But how can you know ahead of time where you will be able to publish, especially if you don't have much experience publishing?<issue_comment>username_1: * Format and style should rarely, if ever, be your first concern in writing a paper. Your top objective should be describing good research to your readers. You need not worry about how to cite a paper or if you should use British or American English spellings at first. (Or at least not until you complete Rule 9!)
Instead, what this is rule is advising you to do are tasks such as organizing your thoughts, collect references, write up your methodologies, and think about the graphics you will want to use to help illustrate your points. This is more or less the same advice given by people like <NAME> in [talks](http://pubs.acs.org/userimages/ContentEditor/1305035664639/Whitesides-ACS-Writing-a-Scientific-Paper.pdf) and as a ["editorial column."](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.200400767/abstract)
* Knowing where to publish is not that difficult. Look for where the work you're drawing from is currently being published. If many of the papers you are citing are from journals X and Y, one of those will likely be a good home for your paper. Which one to select might be a matter of which audience you're trying to reach: for instance, *The Journal of Physical Chemistry* and *The Journal of Chemical Physics* cover very similar sets of areas. However, the former journal is mainly a chemistry journal, and the latter is primarily for physicists. (There is, as you might imagine, a lot of crossover.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: A good indicator of where to publish and who is more likely to publish your work is to look at your citations. Its a good bet that a journal that you cite heavily has an audience interested in your work.
As far as having an adaptable, journal independent formatting for your paper, you may want to write your paper in LaTeX. You can easily switch formats by changing the .sty files particular your journal of interest. These usually include predefined reference templates so that you can simply include a separate .bib file with your reference information and the necessary formatting will be automatically be generated.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I was provided this advice by a few successful professors (in computer science): keep a track for a "small pond" and a track for a "big pond". A small pond is a yearly conference that has a pretty small community, is reasonably specialized in its area, and is often accessible as far as acceptance rate goes. Every year, you should aim to have a paper here and get known in the community over time. A big pond is a yearly conference that is large, has good impact and reputation, and is more general to the field rather than to your specialization. Again, aim for this conference every year, but keep in mind that because it's bigger and more prestigious, it's also more difficult to get in.
What ends up happening is that, almost by default, you get at least two yearly targets for publishing - and as a result you know where you're writing every year.
This advice isn't exactly the same when it comes to journal writing, but the general principle can still apply. Pick a couple of journals that are well-known in your field: a specialized one and a more general one, and use them as your main targets.
How do you select targets? Well, as suggested, the places that you cite are pretty good places to go to. Your advisor is likely to have a few favorite publication venues (and it's usually a good idea to publish with your advisor). When you read and write often, you will start recognizing which journals and conferences have respected papers in them, and what the bar is for getting accepted is.
Overall: start writing early. Research questions, for example, are generally going to be similar no matter what venue you submit to. Your methods are not going to change based on the venue you write for. Your results are not going to change based on the venue you write for. It's safe to write these things down early.
What does change with venue is the style guidelines (easy enough to just use a new LaTeX or Word template, or even to copy and paste) and the audience (mostly with respect to Introduction/Motivation and Implications/Discussion of results). It's important to choose the venue for these reasons - I personally consider it a bad idea to not customize the intro and the discussion sections to tailor it toward what a particular community expects.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I write while I do the research, but I don't attempt to write the text of the journal paper from the get-go. What I write at the start is essentially a set of research notes, which often gradually evolves into a lengthy technical report. The journal article is written by extracting the most valuable and interesting parts of the report and adding some expository elements (introduction and transitions).
It's possible and sometimes worthwhile to "publish" the technical report as well, for instance on the arXiv or sometimes in an institutional series. In that case you may want to spend more time polishing the report itself. [Here's an example of a 47-page report that's much too long for a journal article](http://arxiv.org/abs/1309.1317) -- at least, for most journals in my field.
Sometimes it makes sense to submit all or most of the report to a journal with no page limits; for instance, [this lengthy report](http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.6651) will soon appear in the [LMS Journal of Computation and Mathematics](http://www.lms.ac.uk/publications/jcm).
As <NAME> says in the comments, I find that the most valuable effect of writing as I go is that writing things down carefully clarifies my own understanding.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/06 | 997 | 4,250 | <issue_start>username_0: What is the longest gap of unemployment that will likely not affect your chance of getting an academic position (post-doc or faculty)?
For example if you graduate from your PhD in December or January but most post-doctoral/faculty positions in your field don't start until May-Sept, is a partial year's worth of unemployment looked down upon in future job applications? If not, what is the longest gap that won't look so negative while applying to future jobs?<issue_comment>username_1: Form a corporation. That can keep you employed until you get the position you want. Who knows, you might even figure out a way to make money in the process!
For example, I am a software engineer. I have had a C-Corporation for the last 20 years. Whenever I'm between contracts / jobs, I work on something I've wanted to pursue personally. It could be writing an iPhone app, or integrating a PC into my home theater system. If it takes me long enough to find another gig, I'll list my experience doing whatever it was I accomplished as an entry in my resume. It keeps me from having unusually long gaps, and occasionally, I'll even generate revenue doing it.
For another example, a friend of mine is a research chemist. Together, we designed a gas chromatograph that was accurate enough to be useful, yet inexpensive enough to be available to even high schools. This was a number of years ago and we were using a Commodore-64 to control the temperature of the oven containing the stationary phase coil, as well as collecting the detector data in real time. As we never brought this product to market, I would classify it as either an R&D effort, or a proof of concept project. Either way, it was useful from a resume perspective.
I actually thought this was a helpful and viable idea and I would not have mentioned it if I didn't.
Regardless, a little evaluation of a potential business opportunity probably wouldn't hurt most career academics.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I am not sure how you are using the term unemployed. Clearly someone with a paid academic position (e.g., adjunct teaching or lab tech) would not be considered unemployed. I am not sure if you consider an unpaid lab tech or a paid burger flipper as being employed. To me the real issue is being out of the field.
If you cannot get a relevant paid position and but can afford to be without income for a few months, then a year gap, and probably longer, isn't problematic. In fact many labs will hire unpaid researchers. In this case you could continue to conduct new research, publish, apply for grants, and gain new contacts. You could likely stay in an unpaid position as long as you could afford it without any affects on future job prospects. If you cannot get an unpaid research position then it really depends on how long you can milk publications from your past research and produce new research without any affiliation to a research group.
If you cannot get a relevant paid position and cannot afford to be without income for a few months you can sometimes find paid work in a related field. Working as a paid lab tech (e.g., washing test tubes) or adjunct teaching. These types of jobs won't help you publish more or get grants and in fact take time away from publishing, research, and getting grants. That said they can provide a limited set of new skills and cotnacts so are probably sustainable for a year or so.
In the absence of getting even a peripherally related job taking an unrelated job (e.g., burger flipper) even for a short period (i.e., months) gap can be problematic. Not only will it slow down publishing, research, and grants it may make you less flexible about being able to take up a new related position (e.g., how much notice would you have to give). You are also not building new skills or contacts.
A lot of the impact will depend on how important publication speed is in your field. If a few month delay in publishing will result in you being scooped, any gap is probably bad. Similarly the ability to do research without any resources will help you weather a gap. Similarly, if your field has new instigator grants with a clock that starts ticking upon graduation then gaps are bad.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer] |
2014/02/07 | 968 | 3,897 | <issue_start>username_0: While researching career opportunities, I have stumbled upon an alumnus of the school I am currently at, who is a relatively new faculty member there. In a sense, this person's career is what I want *my* career to be like. It seems like they could offer me very valuable advice.
However, I do not know this person and do not know anyone they know. I thought I might write a polite email to them asking for advice, but I'm not sure what the prudent way to phrase it would be. And on that note, whether prudence would preclude even doing such a thing.
What's the polite way to ask a professor how to get a job like theirs (specifically, at an institution such as theirs)?<issue_comment>username_1: Send this person a brief e-mail, explaining the followings:
1. How you found out about him/her, and give a 2-sentence introduction of yourself.
2. That his/her career path and/or research interests overlaps with or inspires yours very much.
3. Ask if you can have a phone conversation for 15 minutes to answer some questions. You can also ask for a meeting if he/she is nearby.
4. List the brief questions that you plan to cover. Don't be too broad. Think if these 15 minutes are really the only time that he/she will be willing to talk to you, what would you like to get out from this?
5. Provide 4-5 dates/times for him/her to pick, and invite them to suggest some dates if none of them works.
Avoid asking for reference letter, inside contacts, or any kind of favor beyond just formal career advices. He/she may not feel vested enough to do that, and if you push, he/she may close up. Also, don't attach any CV/resume; that would look like you're looking for a position.
And also don't ask "How did you get a job at an institution like this one?" Zoom out and ask for the job search process he/she went through. Ask him/her to elaborate on the thought process and how the pros and cons were weighed. Once the topic gets going, you can probe a bit further, but the focus should be on the faculty member, not the institution.
On the date, be on time, and honor the 15 minutes (or whatever you both agree upon) limit. At the end of the meeting, ask if you may ask for his/her opinion very occasionally through e-mail in future, and then establish the mentoring relationship from there.
When you got home, follow up with a thank you e-mail.
---
The tricks are:
1. Don't ask them to write back. Replying e-mail on this kind of issues takes a lot of time and thought, plus he/she may not know you well enough to know if the recommendations are suitable for you.
2. Make it low stake. At most they'll lose are 15 minutes.
3. Make it thoughtful by listing highly relevant questions. This shows that you really did look at their work and know something about it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: If your question is of the form "how do I become a professor at the prestigious university X?", then I don't think that it is worth contacting this professor. But if this professor has an interesting career that no one else has, then I suggest that you follow the steps that the others have suggested.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I've received emails from students before soliciting advice, or even sending me resumes asking to work in the lab. More often than not they had spent very little time even becoming familiar with our research or looking into the university. If you want a busy professor to give you advice, you need to earn it by proving that you're serious.
* Get familiar with the research
* Look at the professors CV (this can show you the path they took)
* Know exactly what you want to ask, and make sure it's clear.
* Consider asking a student in their lab what they did (presumably they have a similar goal)
* EDIT: As a general rule, if English is not your native language have someone look over your email for grammar mistakes.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/07 | 1,155 | 4,890 | <issue_start>username_0: I have applied for PhD scholarship in Computer science at a European university. My master is from Malaysia. Unfortunately, my application has not been selected (only 9 has been chosen among 116 applicants).
The email I received informs me that I can file an appeal form attached against the decision made by the committee. Although having a form is supposed to be helpful, I have not written such an appeal before and am not sure what to write. The form is one page (A4) and five lines of it starts with
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> I expose
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and I have to fill the five lines and other five lines start with
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> And therefore, Kindly ask you for.
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>
>
The question is, what should I write here? I have no idea about appeals and their justifications and consequences. The only thing I can add since my original application is that another paper has been published. I really believe I am very strong candidate for the program as it conforms exactly to my research area (which I had published two conference paper in).
My question is therefore, **what and how to write in the two sections of the form if I decide to write an appeal?**<issue_comment>username_1: I don't understand.
Are you certain that you would have been better than at least 107 other applicants? Are you able to demonstrate it? Or do you have strong evidence that somehow your application was discriminated against/overlooked? (Information of this kind is what should be in an appeal form)
I also don't understand the format of your appeal form. The appeal form already have the words "I expose"? If you are writing it, it sounds very accusatory, and it probably won't win any extra points for you.
Having two conference papers is pretty good, but I don't think that it is exceptional in computer science. Which conferences were they published in?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: You don't say why you are appealing the decision. If only 9 out of 116 applicants got a scholarship, then it is overwhelmingly likely that they turned down many strong applicants. Do you have a good reason to believe that your application is stronger than the 9 who received the scholarship?
I hope you're not under the impression that simply not having received an award is grounds for appealing the decision. What if all 107 unsuccessful applicants appealed the decision? The program would surely have to reconsider having an appeals process or perhaps even giving out the scholarships at all.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The appeal form is likely for situations when you feel that your application had strongly misrepresented your abilities. For example, you had some examinations recently re-graded and your grades were notably increased. Or you had previously been accused of academic dishonesty but have been cleared of blame.
You cannot expect the admissions committee to thoughtfully reconsider all the other 106 unsuccessful candidates as well, as I'm willing to bet most of them feel rather hard done by as well.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Here's what I would ask: is there anything you could include in the appeal that you didn't already include in your application?
You mentioned that you have published two papers. Did you mention that in your application? If so, that you don't really have any new information to give them – that is, you have nothing to "expose."
However, if that information was not included in the application for some reason (perhaps because you applied before the papers got accepted, or because there was no place on the application form to mention such accomplishments), then I would advise you to go ahead and file an appeal. Mind you, I'm not saying that your chances of success would be very high, but this might be one of those situations where you wouldn't have much to lose.
If you decide to appeal, I would recommend keeping the appeal short and too the point. Too much rambling might come across as quibbling, and probably not help your case. Simply mention that you have something new to mention, and that you would appreciate it if they would kindly reconsider. Don't say, "I think I'm a strong candidate;" let your academic record speak for itself. And only inclide information that was not part of your original application; otherwise, you risk irking the committee. (I can imagine three folks in a room, looking at your paperwork with ire and disbelief, saying to each other, "There's nothing new here – why is he wasting our time?", or, "Which part of ‘No’ does this fellow not understand?")
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I would say, do not waste time on the appeal. There is no shame to loose the competition when only 9 from 116 applications are selected.
Learn that you can from this rejection (maybe some feedback have been provided) and write the next application. And one more later.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/07 | 1,057 | 4,496 | <issue_start>username_0: In the book [*Doing research in the real world*](http://www.sagepub.com/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book239646) by <NAME>, there is a section on experiment design. When discussing validity and reliability, the author defines “criterion validity” as
>
> This is where we compare how people have answered a new measure of a concept, with existing, widely accepted measures of a concept.
>
>
>
and a little later, in the “Reliability” part, there is a subheading “Equivalence”, which says
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> Another way of testing the reliability of an instrument is by comparing the
> responses of a set of subjects with responses made by the same set of subjects on another instrument (preferably on the same day).
>
>
>
So if I got this right, we are both times measuring if there is a difference between the answer on our new instrument and another, existing instrument.
Is there a practical difference between the two concepts, or only a philosophical one? And whether practical or philosophical, what *is* the actual difference?
**Update** The author discusses validity and reliability in general, then lists 7 different aspects of validity and 5 different aspects of reliability. "Criterion validity" and "reliability equivalence" are only one type of each, respectively. Please consider in your answer that this question is not about validity vs. reliability in general, but only about these two specific aspects.<issue_comment>username_1: `Validity` is comparing the new results with the existing literature, without doing extra experiments.
`Reliability` is comparing the new results with some extra experiments that you carry on with some other settings/devices.
*I agree with @StrongBad that this question is off-topic, but there is no SE site on research in general and I think this question is quite interesting.*
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: **Criterion validity** concerns with *measuring the right thing*. For instance, GPA is likely to have criterion validity to measure a student's academic understanding. While the change in weight in the last semester has much less criterion validity to measure the same trait. Basically, if the measurement you use and the trait you want to measure has a high correlation, then there is likely criterion validity.
**Reliability** concerns mostly with *measuring the thing right*. For instance, if GPA can measure a student's academic understanding, and percent attendance can also measure a student's academic understanding, then GPA and percent attendance should correlate, aka, they are reliable. Before subjected to reliability assessment, the tests are usually checked if they are criterion-valid. However, it's possible to have two tests that are highly correlated (reliable) but invalid. Such as using dietary fat intake and serum lipid to predict a college graduate's earning potential.
Notice that there a few different types of reliabilities, the one you cited is more about *alternate forms reliability,* there are also *test-retest reliability* and *inter-rater reliability*, etc.
Practically, they are not interchangeable. Validity happens between the true trait (or behavior) and the measurements. Reliability happens between two measurements (or modes/instances of measurement.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Slightly off-topic as the terms you ask for are more specific, but:
Unfortunately, there is some ambiguity as to what exactly is meant by different terms in this quality control/validation/method context.
E.g.
* in machine learning the "validation set" is often used to optimize parameters - as opposed to proving whether or not the model "does its job" (a shortened version of one definition of validity). The latter is measured with the "test set" (again, in my opinion, a rather ambiguous name).
* [The Handbook of validation in analytical chemistry](http://books.google.de/books?id=2iTNOip-scYC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de&source=gbs_ge_summary_r#v=onepage&q&f=false) spends several pages to compare and discuss differences between several definitions given in literature and norms specific to the field of analytical chemistry. The bottom line of these definitions is that in analytical chemistry, validity is not only about measuring the right thing (as @Penguin\_Knight nicely explained), but also about measuring the right thing *right*.
I'd therefore recommend that you state what you are speaking about rather than relying on these terms.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/02/07 | 1,826 | 7,917 | <issue_start>username_0: I would like to apply for graduate school to become a mathematics professor.
However, given that the opportunity cost of grad school is high and that I already have a stable, good paying job, I would like to know whether I have the talent and ability to be a math professor before I start. This is obviously a very difficult question to answer, but I'll explain my situation.
I believe I have above-average math talent, although I wouldn't consider myself a genius and I've had people in my classes smarter than me. However, I've gotten high marks in nearly all math courses and I've written a honors thesis which has also received very high marks. I've also worked as a research assistant. Basically, I think I've done pretty well and perform competently in all the mathematical challenges that has come my way so far.
But being a math professor requires original ideas and lots of publishing. I haven't had any significant original ideas, but it's probably true that most people at my level of education also haven't (correct me if I'm wrong here). My main concern is how do I know if I would be able to generate enough original ideas to keep publishing and maintain a successful academic career? Unlike working in mathematical modeling in the private sector, where one cannot really get "stuck" in the same way, it seems like a risk to be a professor since it's really hard to guarantee that you'll always be able to produce new research.
Do any mathematicians working in academia have any comments about how one knows if they'll be able to continually generate new ideas to produce publishable research?<issue_comment>username_1: I was in the same situation as you.
By good fortune, I lived in a city with an excellent mathematics department. I chose a graduate course that looked interesting and asked the professor if I could sit in on his course. He kindly agreed, and I did so -- including all the homework and a term project. He was impressed, wrote me a rec letter for grad school, and I had the good fortune to succeed -- I am now working as a math professor. So it's possible!
I would definitely advise the same to you if practical.
Also, I recommend that you ask this question to whoever will be writing your rec letters, as they are familiar with what it takes to succeed in mathematics graduate school. (If they are not, then you probably don't want to get letters from them.) If they believe you are strong enough to get accepted to, and succeed in, top programs, then that's a very good sign.
You might consider hedging your bets by only applying to top (say, top 25) graduate programs. You can also get an excellent graduate education at second-tier schools -- indeed, I am a professor at such a school -- but you face longer odds if you graduate from such a school, and if you don't mind the prospect of being admitted nowhere, then being very selective is one way of partially mitigating your long-term risk.
Finally, you might investigate what it is like to work at a not very prestigious institution, such as a regional branch campus of a state university. Would you prefer such a job to your current one? The answer to that question should inform how much of a risk you are willing to take.
Good luck to you!
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Do any mathematicians working in academia have any comments about how one knows if they'll be able to continually generate new ideas to produce publishable research?
>
>
>
I can remember freaking out about this as I was writing my first paper. It was the only publishable work I had ever done, and I remember thinking to myself "What if this is the only idea I have in me? Or what if, instead of getting easier, generating ideas gets even harder as I have to scrounge around in deeper recesses of my brain?"
Fortunately, generating ideas turns out not to be as intimidating as it sounds. In practice, it's very rare to sit down in a chair and say "I shall now think deep thoughts." Instead, any depth comes as a spin-off from much more mundane activities. You read papers, you idly wonder about things, you come up with questions you care about, you figure out how to investigate them, you grapple with technical obstacles, you study things you hadn't realized you needed to know, you chat with colleagues and ask them questions, you work with collaborators, etc. Each of these activities is pretty natural, and they all feed into each other in a complicated web. At any stage you may come up with or run across new ideas, but they are generated organically rather than being something you have to worry about explicitly.
You can expect that a strong graduate program will bring you to the point where you can do this reliably. Of course some people will be faster or more prolific, some will have more striking or creative ideas, some will work on more important questions, etc. You can still improve many of these factors through practice and mentoring, but at that point the question is a little different. Not whether you can do research, but rather how to reach your full potential as a researcher.
So I'd recommend not worrying about this too much. Doing research is a skill that most undergraduates don't have but that graduate schools can teach. Once you get up to speed, generating ideas doesn't end up being a bottleneck. [In fact, you'll end up having more ideas than you have time or energy to investigate yourself. This lets you suggest some to students to help them get started with research, without worrying that you are giving away a limited resource you need for your own research.]
>
> However, given that the opportunity cost of grad school is high and that I already have a stable, good paying job, I would like to know whether I have the talent and ability to be a math professor before I start.
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>
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Doing good research is necessary but not sufficient for getting a job in a research university. It's difficult to assess talent and predict career success, but one way to get a crude approximation is by looking at what happened to past students in your position. When you are admitted to graduate school, you can look up former students of advisors you are considering and see what happened to them. For example, you can find lists of students using the [Mathematics Genealogy Project](http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/), and then you can search for them on the web. This is certainly not perfect: some advisors don't have many students yet, job markets change over time, some former students are just not representative of your situation (if a potential advisor used to be at a less prestigious school, then placement records from that school are not so relevant), etc., and of course there's always random variance. However, it will give you a crude picture. If the advisors you are considering have had many students who got jobs you would like, then maybe you will too. If very few of them got jobs you would find acceptable, then you are taking a much bigger risk.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: One aspect of the question is whether you are willing to move. Even targeting "only" low-mid tier research universities, there are many more good applicants than positions, and if you want to end up in particular area then the risk not to find a job is very high. So, to get higher odds you should be ready to get a PhD somewhere, do a couple post-docs at different places, and then (hopefully) be hired in yet another place.
Concerning your fear with the long-term ability to do math research, I would say that if you manage to find such a job, then you most certainly have what it takes. Sure, some of us loose their way, but it is usually because of particular events and possibly the way they handled it. In all cases I know, at the time of their tenure no one could see a difference between them and ultimately more successful colleagues.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/07 | 2,990 | 12,256 | <issue_start>username_0: Currently I am in the last semester of my Master studies in computer science in Germany. I am further contemplating about the possibility of applying for PhD position somewhere in Germany, Switzerland, (and maybe Austria). There are other candidate countries as well, but these are the main ones.
In a year or so I should be done with this studies. I wonder what is the PhD application process for Germany and Switzerland. Are there scholarships offered? Is there a need for scholarship at all, or do you get paid as an researched directly from the institution where you get the PhD position?
**question added after edit:**
Is there a need to search and find for a supervisor (or professor), and explain him the idea for the research that you are planning to work on... or do you get the position and work on the topics which are treated in that research group. my question is both for Swiss and DE?
Can someone with similar experience tell me how these things work?<issue_comment>username_1: A good place to look for open positions in academia in CH is the [ETH-gethired](http://www.eth-gethired.ch) website. In Switzerland, you will usually be hired by the university or research institute and receive a salary (about 3.6 to 4.5k CHF/month). In exchange you typically have to do TA work (assisting with practical sessions in courses, correcting assignments, etc.) and sometimes technical tasks (taking care of lab equipment). In some universities (like the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, ETH and EPFL) and for some programs, a formal application to a competitive graduate school is also required.
In some cases, you can get funded directly by the [Swiss National Science Fund](http://www.snf.ch/en/Pages/default.aspx) which leads typically to a lower pay but less or no teaching tasks. But it is seldom the grad student's task to secure funding.
Scout the lab websites for positions not listed in my link, and don't be afraid to apply spontaneously as well, if a place sounds particularly interesting to you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: *In general,* doctoral studies in both Germany and Switzerland are paid research employees. In Germany, for instance, *Doktoranden* (doctoral students) are formally called *Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter* ["scientific (or academic) workers"]. They are paid as government employees according to a fixed scale, and have a contract outlining their duties.
Now, for these programs, you apply as if you were applying to a job outside of academia, except you send a CV in place of a résumé. The hiring is done directly by the group of the professor who has the open position.
There *are* some exceptions, primarily related to American-style doctoral programs. For these, your application is in a style similar to that of a graduate school in the US (form, letters of recommendation, statement of purpose, etc.). These are typically fellowship-based positions that carry a stipend. They usually also have a reduction in teaching and supervisory duties.
In any case, however, you should never have to pay (or get an outside scholarship) to do doctoral studies in a scientific field in Germany or Switzerland.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I can speak for Austria (place where I did my PhD) and Switzerland (current place of employment), but my answer should be applicable for Germany as well.
>
> I wonder what is the Phd application process for Germany and Switzerland. Are there scholarships offered? Is there a need for scholarship at all, or do you get paid as an researched directly from the institution where you get the Phd postion?
>
>
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Both models exist, but the far more common one is that you are just employed as a researcher while doing your PhD. This has advantages and disadvantages. Typically these positions are financially rather attractive (at least as far as PhD student salaries go), currently at about 2400 EUR 14 times a year in Austria for full-time employment, a bit more in Germany, significantly more (around 5000 CHF 12 times a year) in Switzerland. All of these salaries allow you to conveniently live (no need for a diet of [Ramen noodles](http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=12)) in the respective places. On the other hand, as a researcher you are not "just" working on your thesis. In addition, teaching has to be handled, support in administrative matters will be part of your job, and you will need to work on matters of your research project that you find neither interesting nor advance your thesis work in any way.
The application process is generally as for any other job - find out what jobs are offered, contact the person per mail, send in CV, (usually) do an interview via Skype, wait for an offer. The hardest part is probably finding out what research groups currently have job openings. Positions are generally not announced very widely (if at all). However, just because you cannot find an ad for an open position with a specific professor does not necessarily mean that he does not have a position available. Both places that I worked at had open positions **almost at all times** for a really qualified student. What **really** helps here are connections - do you know somebody who is already an "insider" in academic circles, maybe a PhD student or postdoc? If so, ask him to put you in contact with some faculty.
If not, look for universities that you might consider joining, find out from their web page what faculty there handles your topic, and send them a **short** mail. Keep it crisp - both of my professors so far have been insanely busy, and any mail from an unknown person with more than one short paragraph will never be read carefully. Just tell who you are, what your current university is, and that you would like to talk about the possibility of doing a PhD. Give them a week to answer and then send a quick and friendly reminder (my current prof is the dean of the faculty, and given the size of his inbox mails sometimes do get lost - that does not mean that he is necessarily not interested). Maybe, the professor will put you in contact with one of this postdocs or PhD students to "chat" via Skype or in person (if possible) - consider this the technical interview, because afterwards the prof will ask the person that you talked to whether they think that you have the technical skills that are required for the selected field. What you should not do is send an overly long formal application - most professors get many of those from rather dubios applicants from the far east, hence formal blind applications are generally discarded unread. Don't be one of those.
>
> is there a need to search and find for a supervisor (or professor), and explain him the idea for the research that you are planning to work on... or do you get the position and work on the topics which are treated in that research group. my question is both for Swiss and DE?
>
>
>
You are generally not expected to "come" with your own topic. Your broad overall theme will be defined by whatever project / position pays your salary, and on top of that you are expected to define your concrete research project together with a postdoc and/or the professor some time into your PhD (say, about a year after starting). What you **should** know is roughly what interests you research-wise and contact only professors that **really do this research**. This sounds like a given, but I work in services and software engineering, and I have lost track of many applicants interested in robotics, AI, formal methods, etc. I have already discarded. Don't be one of those, either.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: In an ideal world, you would have already an interest in a particular research topic that you'd like to learn more about. I think that's the first crucial step before you do anything else.
Assuming that you have selected your research area, you can look for researchers/professors that are defining the frontiers in that area and live in DE or CH. Once you shortlisted the names, which could take some time since you might need to visit each lab's website to find out more about its research, you should apply for *all* positions that you find interesting. Try to arrange interviews with the professors or group leaders and try to get an idea how your PhD life under his/her supervision would look like. Of course, it may be quite hard to extrapolate from a single interview but *it is better than pure email conversation*. Don't forget: PhD is kinda like a marriage with your supervisor. You need to get along with him/her really well.
By doing the interviews, you can narrow down possible destinations for your PhD. I would then look for other issues: salary, city, culture etc.
I know the salaries in Zurich and in DE since I lived and worked in both places as PhD student. In Zurich, the salaries are well above the average PhD salaries. With 60% employment (e.g., biology PhDs or some first year CS PhDs) you get ca. 3'000 CHF after taxes. For a 100% employment your salary becomes ca. 4'500 CHF after taxes, which is around triple the money you can make as a PhD in DE. Of course, the city is more expensive but you end up having more money in your back account compared to a PhD in DE.
However, as I said above, your PhD topic and your supervisor's personality are much more important than your income. You should never forget about that.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I can speak for Germany universities and, with a good approximation, for Max Planck Institutes: Usually, you can apply for a Ph.D. position whenever you want (typically, with a CV) but you will be hired if and only if your favorite supervisor has by chance some unallocated funds. Unlike in other countries (say, France or Italy) there are no regular rounds of openings that allow a large number of graduate students, funded by the University or Institute as a whole, to simultaneously begin their doctoral studies.
There are essentially two exceptions:
1) You apply to a graduate schools, mostly funded by the DFG (German Research Council): Again, you can only be admitted if there are some unallocated funds, but it is often the School that accepts your application, and you might be able to switch from one supervisor to another one once you're in.
2) You receive a grant from a third party, typically a foundation: there are many, mostly linked to political parties or religious institutions (and in that case you will have to prove that you are close to the political/social/religious vision of that specific foundation) or to companies. Once you bring your own funds and sometimes a small overhead, it is likely that most professors will be willing to supervise your studies.
In any case, you will be usually hired as a wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter (in bureaucratic language, the corresponding code is TV-L E13), whose net wage will oscillate between 1.600€ and 2.200€/month. CAUTION! In many fields (e.g. in mine: Maths) it is very usual (and sometimes even *required* by the DFG) that graduate students are hired only on a part time basis, you may see opening for something like "TV-L E13 (66%)". Even if you have a part-time position, very strict rules determine whether you can have a side job.
(In most German universities you *may* enrol as a Ph.D. student: this will cost you little money (~120€/term) but will get you some benefits - cheaper meals in the university restaurant, cheaper bus/metro tickets and so on.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: In Switzerland, the application is quite straightforward: you have to contact the research group that you are interested to work with. There is no national selection or competition.
PhD in Switzerland are usually better paid than in Germany but the salary may vary from nothing or CHF 2000 up to CHF 7000 per month. I mean, in Switzerland working conditions are very liberal and depends more on the competition with the market. Typically computer scientists or engineers will get more than archaeologists or biologists. More resources like open positions and careers tips are available at [myScience.ch a national website dedicated to researchers and engineers](https://www.myscience.ch)
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/07 | 1,759 | 7,379 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm a first-year undergraduate student in physics. Since starting my studies I've tried to get involved in research as much as possible. Recently, the team I work with encouraged me to submit an abstract about my current project (which is the first serious one that I've taken on) for an upcoming conference. I did and I got accepted with a poster.
Now my question is: **How should I approach this to benefit the most? Or maybe there isn't even a point in me going at all?**
I'm under the impression that most of the typical advantages of attending a conference such as networking, or keeping up-to-date with recent advances aren't really applicable to me as I simply lack the necessary knowledge. So far I've only taken a basic mechanics course and I have some working knowledge that I've acquired while working at the lab but nothing beyond that.
Additional information: the conference is obviously not a high-tier one. Judging by previous editions, about 150 attendees are expected, around 1/3-1/2 of that international (this is all in Europe by the way). Travel funding is provided by our department [active participation, in form of a poster, was part of the requirements to get that funding].<issue_comment>username_1: >
> "keeping up-to-date with recent advances aren't really applicable to me..."
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>
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Not so; that's a myth. Your poster got accepted, and that means **you** are now **part of** the "recent advances" in the field.
So, go. Tell people what you are doing. No, people won't flock to your poster and ask for your autograph; however, chances are, someone there will find your work interesting. You might get to talk with people who have done similar work. You might get a few pointers. You might get some affirmation that you're working on an interesting problem.
I went to a conference once where I was just starting out in the field. One of the world's most renowned experts attended my talk. Imagine my surprise when, a year later, my advisor returned from the same conference, he told me that this same expert approached him, and asked, "Where is that student of yours? I really liked his idea..."
You never know what kind of benefit you might get over the course of a few days when everyone there shares expertise in some common interest. Sometimes it's someone who can help you out, or nudge you in the right direction, or motivate you, or challenge you (hopefully in a constructive way), or merely encourage you by nodding their head as you speak, seemingly interested in what you are doing. Maybe you'll end up with a business card and a contact number of someone who can help you down the road as your research progresses.
Likewise, you stand to learn a lot from them, too. Who knows? Maybe someone will light a spark that will ignite a passion later.
By the way, most people like talking about their own research. So, if you attend a session that interests you, but a lot of it goes over your head, try to sit with that speaker at the lunch table. I'd bet that, more often than not, he wouldn't mind explaining some of the fundamentals to a bright and curious student.
Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I'd bet you'll come back a bit more rejuvenated, somewhat more enlightened, and a lot more encouraged.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: **Before the conference**
* Usually the organization will release a conference directory. Read that before hand and highlight the sessions you'd like to attend. Have one primary and a secondary in case if the primary is a total bomb you have a second choice.
* Gather maps, travel apps or travel guide of the city you'll be visiting. Draft a few places for sightseeing. For guidebook, just a little one should be fine.
* Double check the dimension of the poster boards.
* Have your poster printed earlier. Don't wait till the last day. I usually opt for fabric posters because they can be folded and stuffed into the luggage.
* Sometimes you can reuse your posters (e.g. internal research day in your university, etc.) So, don't print any conference name or date on your poster directly. If the organizer requires you to display abstract number, print that on a separate piece of paper, and display that next to your poster.
* Pre-print some returning labels if you want to do some sightseeing around the city after the conference, you can mail the poster tube and conference materials back to home.
* Try to talk and see if any of your friends have friends in the city. It's easier to get a closer non-touristy look of the place if you have some local guiding you.
* Bring some push pins for your poster just in case.
* If you're planning to give out an A4 version of your poster, it's time to print some as well.
* Bring some business cards (or print some in case someone would like to contact you.)
* Work on a 1-2 minutes speech that summarizes your poster.
**Once you're there**
* Try going to the conference center the day before and weed out all the transportation problems.
* Identify the room and board for your poster before hand.
* When you are free to join presentations and look at posters, follow your previous chosen options. **Don't be too greedy,** if you aimlessly take in everything you will get overwhelmed and tired very soon.
* Some conferences organize local tours and dinner parties. Take advantages of those.
* Have some note-taking device ready for main points, resources or references. Also bring your phone w/ camera or digital camera with you in case you want to take a picture of a poster (with permission of the presenter.) **Focus on comprehension, not recording.** I have seen some conference attendants just walking around taking picture of every single poster as if they are rare birds. Meanwhile, they didn't even greet or talk to the presenters who were right there; it was sad to look at.
* It's absolutely okay that you don't know their subject. Just be straightforward: "I study [whatever] so am not too familiar with this, could you tell me what are the implications or applications of your findings to the field/my field?"
* Try challenge yourself by asking at least one question in each session or on each day.
* When manning your poster, ask any viewer if they'd like a summary, and give that 1-2 minutes talk that you prepared. Ask them to ask you any questions. Sometimes conversations take off, sometimes not. Don't feel awkward if nothing is said.
* Befriend the poster presenters around you, as they probably share the same research area as you do.
* During the off-conference time, do some sightseeing.
* Save all the receipts, boarding passes, etc. for reimbursement.
**After the conference**
* Continue to travel if you have developed a travel plan.
* Evaluate what you learned, assess what interested you in the process, and what kind of techniques or information you can incorporate into your research.
---
Generally, don't confine what to learn. Because sometimes we don't know enough to know what should or should not be learned. Just be open, pick a good mix of topics that are about 50% that you are familiar with, 30% somewhat but not sure what they are, and 20% completely over your head.
Also, don't just look at the academic side. Connect with people and learn something about how they craft their research, or how they speak eloquently, etc. It's not all about the contents.
Upvotes: 4 |
2014/02/08 | 1,276 | 5,769 | <issue_start>username_0: I am currently applying for a mid-range private school that teaches the career I want primarily (software engineering) and a prestigious public school for computer science (it doesn't have software engineering). So if I make it into the public university, I would evaluate between the specific career of the private one and the economic help of the public one, and choose the most appropriate one.
However, reading their entrance rules, I saw that if I decline the offer of admission in the public one, I could not apply to it again for the next two admission cycles (at two per year, that means a year and a half). What is the philosophy behind this? Applying to several schools benefits students, giving them more schools to choose from. And it also raises the funding because of the payment that is done to give the entrance exam (which is not one of the things public schools in my country can brag about). And it doesn't harm anyone, because the next one in the list would enter. The only collateral damage I can think of is extra administrative effort, but a year and a half vetted from applying to the university because of that seems too much for me. So, why? Is there some extra side effect that they are accounting for?
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The information @<NAME> requested: I am living in Peru, and here the admission process in public universities is pretty simple: You just present your legal and education papers, pay for the entrace exam, take it, and see if you are admitted or not. So, everything boils down to that 3-days exam. But once it is finished, you are in.<issue_comment>username_1: I believe the issue here is that if a student has already been offered admission and turned it down, then the school has already given that student due consideration in reviewing the application. Reapplying in the following year means that the candidate was apparently unsatisfied with any of the offers of admission received, which included the school in question. So what would have changed in such a short period of time that meant the offer wasn't good enough *then*, but is good enough *now*?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Programs don't like to be used as a "backup", because offers to people using them in this way delay offers to others, sometimes to the point that the other people give up and accept offers from yet-other places. Thus, making offers that fail tends to degrade the quality of candidates who will accept offers. Thus, since you declined once, obviously chances are good that you'd decline again, thus again somewhat-lowering the quality of candidates that will be made an offer early enough to accept.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I guess whether backup applications (and re-applications next time) are or are not a problem depends very much on how many prospective students do how many backup applications.
No problem if a small percentage of prospective students apply for one other university.
But if lots of the people who want to study apply at several places, you end up in a situation where the administrative part of the whole process runs into chaos because one or two more rounds acceptance letters and waiting whether the student accepts are needed. And of course, the chances that a student who ended up on the waiting list with you accepted somewhere else or meanwhile took a job because they thought it unlikely to get a place to study would be high. Thus, administration has *a lot* of additional work and also stress. You cannot start the application process too early (e.g. the final exam of the schools is needed). But you need to allow a reasonable amount of time for the student to accept or decline the offer of the univerity and students will tend to send the refusal late (or forget to send it at all) because they wait for acceptance of another university. If you are too late sending out the acceptance (for those on the waiting list), this is anywhere between stressful and impossible for the students to accept: they have to find housing and move, and if courses already started they also have to catch up with the learning.
Also, universities cannot overbook like airlines.
In other words, the situation becomes highly stressful for everyone involved:
* the university has a high unnecessary workload (n "backup exams" have to be graded for each student),
* university administration also has a high workload and pressure: they need to react *immediately* on the refusal letters of the students and may need several rounds of acceptance.
* Students who do not get accepted immedately at the university of their dreams have to stay ready for moving immeditaly without knowing where. Also the prospective student may "hang in the air" because they don't apply for a "regular" job / training while there is still a substantial chance of getting a late acceptance.
I'm wondering whether the fact that you have to pay for the exam is just another symptom of this same problem (or the univiersities' fear of that): both rules may be designed to keep down the number of backup applications.
There are other ways to try avoiding this administrative mess: In my country (Germany) the most overrun fields of study have a central application: you file your *one* appliation including a statement of backup universities (and backup subjects) and then get an offer according to this. If you end up at a university that was not your first choice, you can anyways start there and try to change later on.
Nevertheless, the last letters of acceptance are usually sent out when the semester has already started (to fill in places of students who accepted but didn't show up or because this is round 3 of the acceptance: the student on the waiting list declined).
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/09 | 2,074 | 8,293 | <issue_start>username_0: First, I must mention that I found these questions helpful:
* [Prospective PhD contacts potential supervisor but receives no answer after 2-3 emails, what to do?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/5330/14341)
* [What to do when emails to a potential advisor are not replied?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/9644/14341)
* [Should résumés be attached in a mail to a professor?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/1450/14341)
Yet, I am looking for more precise answers to the questions below.
I plan to apply for a PhD in Computer Science this year in several countries, mainly Europe, Australia and Canada. I am looking for a PhD with funding. As far as I know, I should contact potential supervisor as a first step. However, I am not sure about how much detail should be included in this first email. Specifically, with regards to the first email, I would like to hear advice on on the following:
* Generally, how much detail should I provide?
* Should I ask about the chance of getting funding?
* Should I send documents or only if s/he asks for?
* Statement of purpose/motivation, what is the right length? Is s/he ready to read two pages about every applicant sends him/her email?
Taking into account that this is the first email to the potential supervisor and he might spend only 10 seconds scanning it, What is right answers for the questions above that make the supervisor starts a discussion rather than sending negative response or even ignore the email?<issue_comment>username_1: At most write an email about 6-8 lines long; people are busy. You should introduce yourself, explain what kind of research you want to do, ask he/she if she is taking on a student, and reference a few of their recent papers that you are interested and why. Include a small CV attached in the email.
If the professor responds, and offers to answer questions, then ask about funding. Statement of purpose length should be specified in the application process. Don't send your statement of purpose unless they specifically ask for it on their website.
It really depends on the field, but using these general guidelines almost every potential advisor responded this application season. Just because they respond doesn't mean you will get in, but it should improve your chances if you come off in a positive light.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: My answer is going to extend up [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/16700/10094) earlier answer to a similar, although broader, question.
Some background: I have worked with two pretty well-known professors in Austria and Switzerland, and can provide some insight into how they tend to hire. I assume other professors have similar MOs, but not every person is the same, so your milage may vary.
Indeed, for both of them, the first step towards starting a PhD is to send them a **short** informal mail stating your interest in joining their group. Your challenge is to get the professor interested despite him reading maybe a 100 mails a day. You can already see why a two-page text has a 0% chance of being read, same is true for an attached CV or an elaborate research proposal - you need to convince in maybe 10 seconds. Your second challenge is to separate yourself from the **dozen or so other people** that are trying the same every week, mainly coming from universities in the far east.
In that light, here are answers to your questions
>
> Generally, how much and deep details should I provide?
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I would go for *none*, honestly. Discuss concrete research ideas at a later point, when the professor has shown interest.
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> Should I mention anything about fund chances?
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God no.
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> Should I send documents or only if s/he asks for.
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Yes.
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> Statement of purpose/motivation, what is the right length? Is s/he ready to read two pages about every applicant sends him/her email?
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Forget it. None of the professors that I worked with is interested in those *formal* application documents at any point during the process. They will either want to skype with you or have one of their senior staff skype with you, and then you would explain the things you would write into a SOP. To be clear - I have received a PhD student, a postdoc, and a senior postdoc position without ever being asked for a SOP or letter of motivation. Those are required only if hiring is done by a committee, e.g., for faculty staff.
Here is an example of a mail that *might* work on the people that I know.
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Dear FIRST-NAME,
I am currently looking into options for getting a PhD. I have looked into your work on IMPORTANT-THING-PROF-IS-WORKING-ON, and I would be really interested in joining you on this line of work.
I have recently graduated from XY with a degree in YZ, and I have a background in SOMETHING-RELATED-TO-THE-ABOVE. I have done internships at BIG-NAME-A and BIG-NAME-B and already published X papers on SOMETHING-RELATED-TO-THE-ABOVE during my masters.
I would be happy if we could discuss matters further via Skype.
thank you in advance,
YOUR-FIRST-NAME
YOUR-WEB-PAGE
---
Note the informal tone. This might be a personal preference of the people I know, but an informal mail is significantly more likely to be read by both of my professors than a very formal one. Further, note that it will be required that you have some measure of achievements that the professor can relate to - graduating from a university that the professor maybe has never heard of alone will not be enough to get him interested. Already having published and/or having done internships at well-known companies (well-known also to the professor!), especially those that are known to have competitive selection schemes (e.g., IBM), helps a lot here. Do not bother sending your GPA etc. - people in Europe tend to not be interested in grades in my experience.
Another thing that might help with the people I know is work on open source projects (e.g., being a committer or committee member to one or more Apache projects, having a well-maintained Github page with interesting tools and Gists, etc.), but this may be mostly because I work in software engineering (and people that know how software is built in real-life are very valuable to us).
Another important topic is english language - if you cannot speak / write english well, **let the mail be proof-read by somebody who can** (according to the way the question is written, this should not be an issue for the OP, but this may be relevant to other readers). Mails in terrible english are almost always discarded immediately.
Finally, the above sample contains a link to a web page. **Have a personal academic web page**. This is the place where you would put a **good** picture of you and all your academic achievements (papers, CVs, research interests, internships, links to open source projects you contributed to, industry projects that you worked on, whatever). Make it look professional and pretty.
Note that this mail still has a high chance of being ignored. In that case, give the professor a week or so and then write a a one-line reminder as a reply or forward of the original mail. If he does not respond after that, **move on**. *Then he is just not that into you*.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I spoke to many supervisors in my applications for Computational Biology PhD's in the UK and got very enthusiastic and positive responses and lots of offers. They pretty all went something along the lines of:
*Dear X,*
*I am a X student at X and I've been looking at your work in X and I'm very interested in doing a PhD in this area, do you have any positions available? Also do you have any time to Skype so we can talk about your work? I have done X which is why I am interested in X and my experience is detailed further in my CV (attached).*
*Best wishes, X*
Obviously omitting/changing details if they have advertisements for positions out etc which you can then say you have seen, I recommend making your CV as strong as possible and also offering to Skype shows you are willing to spend time talking to them! I also sometimes asked them whether they would consider me or checked whether they felt I was complementary to the group/had the right skills.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/09 | 966 | 4,181 | <issue_start>username_0: I have written a couple of articles for two different daily newspapers. In them, I have discussed the issues of my academic field. Should I include these articles in my CV?
If so, under what title? Is press release appropriate? What is the most common and accepted term?<issue_comment>username_1: I do not think there is a standard ,unless such articles are commonplace in the specific field (e.g. journalism). I definitely think it is worth adding such materials to a CV since they indicate activity. You need to think twice, however, whether or not they provide a positive aspect when you use your CV. Suggestions for appropriate headers could be many. your suggestion sounds good., you could consider something like "Scientific debate articles" or something more descriptive that encapsulates their contents.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> I have written a couple of articles for 2 different daily newspapers. In them, I have discussed the issues of my academic field. Should I include them in my CV?
>
>
>
Yes, certainly, as long as you clearly separate them from your academic publications. Strictly speaking, they are form of publication, so it wouldn't be lying to list them together with your research papers under a vague enough title, but this would be a very bad idea. It would come across like you are trying to make your publication list look longer by inflating it with non-academic publications.
[If the newspaper articles had nothing at all to do with your academic work, then mentioning them probably wouldn't make sense. However, it sounds like they do.]
>
> If so, under what title? Is press release appropriate? What is the most common and accepted term?
>
>
>
Definitely not press release, since a press release is something else: it's a document given to journalists to inform them about a possible story they could write about. Occasionally newspapers publish lightly edited versions of press releases, without gathering much more information, but this is considered bad reporting.
I don't think there's a clear standard for how to list this information. You could list it in several ways: outreach, other publications (if you have a "scholarly publications" section, say), writing for the general public, etc.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I am very impressed that you wrote articles about academia that got published by daily newspapers. I think that information is well worth including on your CV.
In terms of what to call it: I don't think there are any codewords here, at least none that will be reliably decoded by your entire intended audience. Rather, just clearly identify what you've done, e.g.:
**Articles published in *Daily Xer:*** Title1, date1; Title 2, date 2;
**Articles published in *City Y Times***: Title3, date3
If you feel like your readers might not know that the Daily Xer or the City Y Times is a daily periodical, you should include that information as well.
In terms of where to put it on your CV: well, think about in what way writing these articles will be impressive and valuable to readers of your CV. Does it show off your high quality writing skills? Does it show your willingness and ability to communicate technical or insider issues to a very broad audience? And so forth. Once you figure out what is the "primary virtue" demonstrated by this activity, you will know where to put it in your CV (perhaps with a section of its own title, but the title should indicate to the reader how you answered the above question).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I definately think that you should add them to your CV, but, as other have mentioned, under a separate heading from you academic publications. My suggestion is to use the heading **Popular science articles** for these (if all of them are indeed science), or **Newspaper articles** for something more general. I've seen both of these used on CVs. "Press release" would not be suitable to use.
The ability to express scientific results in layman's language is clearly valuable (both inside and outside of academia), so generally I see such an addition as a plus on the CV.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/09 | 709 | 3,011 | <issue_start>username_0: My general question is; let's say that you are PI and apply individually or jointly with other research groups to a grant, and you get it. After some months, you move to another institution; can you generally "move" all the money and resources you were awarded with or should you abandon them?
The question goes for [H2020](http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/) projects or any other national or international funding schemes (NIH, NSF, UK, etc)<issue_comment>username_1: What is allowed depends on a number of factors. For example the funding agency may not allow you to move the grant. This is especially true if it is an international move or if the grant requires a resource that is not available at the new institution. It also depends on your current institution. They may not allow you to take equipment that was previously purchased on the grant with you. You new institution may also not allow you to bring the grant over if it does not provide sufficient overhead. If the time remaining on the grant is short, the two institutions may decide to not formally transfer the grant and work off of a sub contract instead. That said, generally for non-international moves you will be allowed to bring over the unspent money.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> And in particular this goes for H2020 projects.
>
>
>
This happened to a colleague of mine for FP7, I assume H2020 will be pretty much the same. Essentially, you have two options:
(1) Find a *proxy* to formally finish the project on your behalf. That is, find somebody at your current institution with a high enough status that he is allowed to take over the project without much administrative quabbles (e.g., a senior professor), and formally hand over the project to him when you leave. You will of course still do the actual work - the handover is just a formality. Of course this requires a significant amount of trust and goodwill (on both sides), so you better be good friends with the person that proxies for you. As long as you both are at the same institution, the administrative effort of this solution is not too high.
(2) Officially *transfer* the project to your new institution. This requires an amendment of your DOW (description of work), and the sanctus of your new institution, all partners of the project, and the european commission (i.e., of the PO and the responsible lawyers on EC side). This will take **long** - expect the entire process to take possibly a year or so. Additionally, there is a chance that some negotiations between you, your old institution, and your new institution are required (e.g., to answer the question to what percentage the overheads should be transferred to the new institution). H2020 proposals are good money for universities, and you should not expect your old institution to let go of such a project easily.
**Edit:** Clearly, option 2 is only available if your new institution is also eligible for H2020 funding.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer] |
2014/02/09 | 1,301 | 5,581 | <issue_start>username_0: I am a self funded PhD student and have been told by my supervisor that her name should be first on any future journal I will be publishing during my studies under her supervision as "this is the only thing she gets from her PhD students".
I am just wondering if the ordering of author names matter? She is going to help me only by proof writing my article. All research will be done by myself.
Is she legally allowed to say it? Should I accept it?<issue_comment>username_1: In many fields first authorship signals who has contributed the most, scientifically, to the paper. Included in this is not only efforts to do experiments and drawing conclusions from the experiments but also to originate the ideas on which the paper is built as well as writing the paper. It is quite normal that the first paper a graduate student writes may have the main advisor as first author because of the wealth of input an inexperienced student may need. As time progresses, I would say the student should move to the first author position as the work becomes more and more independent. The goal is, after all, to train you to become an independent researcher. So the statement that the advisor should be first author on all you produce would not be considered reasonable in many disciplines.
Should you accept it? From an ethical point, no. In reality, you need to think of your future and assess what effects such actions would result in. Not knowing the way publications normally look in your field it is difficult to say anything specific but when considering general authorship guidelines as detailed in, for example, the Vancouver protocol (do a search on Academia.se to see details) the person who fulfil all criteria should be an author and the person who contributes most should e first author.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> I am just wondering if the ordering of author names matter?
>
>
>
In a small number of academic fields -- like mathematics -- the overwhelmingly majority of jointly authored papers list the authors' names in alphabetical order. In these fields, a non-alphabetical ordering of the authors stands out like a sore thumb: the average mathematician knows it is meant to look bad for the latter-listed author but is not sure exactly what it means. In a field like this, if you hear a potential advisor say this, you should say "Thank you, I'll look for someone else" and walk out the door.
In most other academic fields, the ordering of the authors conveys important meaning in a manner which can be subtle and vary from field to field. There are some academic fields where being the *last* named author carries a lot of prestige, but in my understanding this is the kind of prestige awarded a very senior person. I don't know of any academic field in which putting the junior author at the end looks good for them.
But anyway, here is another kind of answer to your question: the ordering of names must matter *to your potential advisor* or she wouldn't have brought it up! Therefore if you yourself are not sure what rights you are signing away in such an agreement, you should be especially skeptical. I think the first thing that you should do is look around to see how common this practice is among other faculty and students in your department. (If you are in an academic context far from the American one, it would be more prudent to do this even if you are in a field like mathematics than to immediately walk out of the office like I suggested above. I don't know what the standard arrangement is at every math department in the world...obviously.) This will be easy to check just by looking at the publications of the faculty members. Also asking the other students can help.
>
> She is going to help me only by proof writing my article. All research will be done by myself.
>
>
>
Proofreading is not the same as advising. An agreement where your advisor guarantees in advance not to advise you in most meaningful ways *and* that she will insist on first coauthorship sounds like an especially bad one. It also sounds unethical to me by the general standards of academic ethics, although subfield ethics may have a role to play.
>
> Is she legally allowed to say it?
>
>
>
Not every form of bad behavior is illegal (thank goodness). I can't speak to the law over the entire surface of the earth, but in the US there are certainly no laws pertaining to this kind of thing.
>
> Should I accept it?
>
>
>
I think that what potential advisor is really trying to say is that she does not want to be your potential advisor. Sometimes people have trouble saying "no" outright; this happens in academia (where the tenure process takes a good shot at making "yes-men" and "yes-women" out of academics) but also in life generally. A lot of times I have seen academics offer to do things for students only under quite unreasonable conditions that they clearly (to me) expect the students to turn down...only to have the student not know so clearly that the conditions are unreasonable and accept them. Of course both parties end up unhappy.
In your case I feel reasonably confident that your advisor is trying to tell you to go away. What I am unsure of is whether she's telling it to *you* specifically or to all students generally: the rather oafish "this is the only thing she gets from her PhD students" seems to indicate that this professor is simply not onboard with the practice of having PhD students at all. But either way, I advise you to look around: probably you can do better.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/09 | 445 | 2,029 | <issue_start>username_0: I want to translate an English book, but before translating it, I want to be sure if the author will permit me to do so.
I am not doing this for financial gain. Since it is a book about a new subject, my professor asked me to translate it, so that students in my country become better familiar with the topic.
Would you please provide me a good text to email it to the author?<issue_comment>username_1: In most cases books are published through a publisher and certain copyright laws apply that may be shared between the publisher and the author. Exactly where the right to decide on translations lie may vary. You therefore need to contact both the author and the publisher to look into what might apply and to what extent they are interested in such translation. My suspicion is that it will not be as easy as just getting permission to translate. When a book (or any publication) is translated, there will be a need to get a translation that properly represents the original content. A publisher may not be content with "anybody" translating the work, they may request some form of review etc. So, the bottom line is that you need to contact publisher and author to see what is possible and under what conditions. It is possible they accept translation into a different language for different reasons but they will most likely want to retain some form of copyright.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: While there may be lots of copyright issues and the publisher will likely need to be contacted. I think starting with the author is the way to go. The email can be rather simple and the content of your question is a good starting point:
>
> Dear X,
>
>
> I would like to translate your book. I am not doing this for financial gain. I want students in my country become better familiar with the topic.
>
>
>
You may want to include a little about yourself so the author realizes you are familiar enough with the material to translate it and have a use for the translated book.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/09 | 552 | 2,336 | <issue_start>username_0: I have an undergraduate degree, and I do some of independent research on my own, so I was thinking if universities have some kind of offer where I can use it, and I mean in exchange for my research I'll get the master degree without following the course, or anything that looks like that, any resources or references where I can look ?<issue_comment>username_1: There is the possiblitity to get a research-oriented Master, which is the thing closest to what you asked for. Here is the link to one example course that I found during a quick search:
<http://www.findamasters.com/search/masters-degree.aspx?course=15956>
You didn't state which field of study you are interested in and in which area of the world, so this is probably not precisely what you are looking for. However, as <NAME> already wrote, you can't expect to spend only a single day at your Master's University. They will want to make sure that you meet their standards, and typically, this involves at least a moderate course load for a Master's degree. Also, the degree of independence in research that you are asking for is probably not the same than the one that you get there.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Well, not exactly a Master but a PhD. In Norway, there's an option at University of Oslo called "Dr.Philos. degree" which may be awarded to academics who have qualified for a doctoral degree on their own, without formal supervision. Such candidates have no formal affiliation to the University of Oslo until their application for the doctoral examination has been approved and shall be an independent scientific work. It shall contribute to the development of new scientific knowledge and must be of sufficiently high quality to merit publication as part of the scientific literature in the field.
Source: <http://www.uio.no/english/research/phd/drphilos/>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In Canada, many Master's programs are research based, and in general act as miniature PhDs. In addition, they are also often funded. There is usually a course requirement, but at least your second year will be primarily research.
So while this isn't exactly what you're looking for, if you're wanting to do research, get paid for it, and get a Master's degree, you might consider a Canadian Master's program.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/09 | 595 | 2,515 | <issue_start>username_0: I am getting ready to submit a method paper which describes a dataset that I had created. However, I was late getting the paper ready, and a couple of other colleagues used the dataset in their own papers, and those papers are already online (I am coauthor in them).
The other papers do not describe in detail how the dataset was constructed. I am afraid that if cite them, it might harm my chances of getting my own paper on the dataset published. Any suggestions on what would be the right thing to do?
thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: There is the possiblitity to get a research-oriented Master, which is the thing closest to what you asked for. Here is the link to one example course that I found during a quick search:
<http://www.findamasters.com/search/masters-degree.aspx?course=15956>
You didn't state which field of study you are interested in and in which area of the world, so this is probably not precisely what you are looking for. However, as <NAME> already wrote, you can't expect to spend only a single day at your Master's University. They will want to make sure that you meet their standards, and typically, this involves at least a moderate course load for a Master's degree. Also, the degree of independence in research that you are asking for is probably not the same than the one that you get there.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Well, not exactly a Master but a PhD. In Norway, there's an option at University of Oslo called "Dr.Philos. degree" which may be awarded to academics who have qualified for a doctoral degree on their own, without formal supervision. Such candidates have no formal affiliation to the University of Oslo until their application for the doctoral examination has been approved and shall be an independent scientific work. It shall contribute to the development of new scientific knowledge and must be of sufficiently high quality to merit publication as part of the scientific literature in the field.
Source: <http://www.uio.no/english/research/phd/drphilos/>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In Canada, many Master's programs are research based, and in general act as miniature PhDs. In addition, they are also often funded. There is usually a course requirement, but at least your second year will be primarily research.
So while this isn't exactly what you're looking for, if you're wanting to do research, get paid for it, and get a Master's degree, you might consider a Canadian Master's program.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/10 | 5,002 | 18,432 | <issue_start>username_0: In most (or at least many) fields of academia, peer-reviewed publications are essential. For a compilation thesis, no papers means no PhD. For tenure, you need papers. To get grants, you need papers. Universities may distribute internal funds based on the number of papers per group. In short: *publish or perish*.
On the other hand, it is quite cheap to offer someone co-authorship. Send a nearly finished manuscript to a colleague/friend at another university for review... colleague reads it, offers some advice, perhaps just minor. First author offers co-authorship in return, and colleague has another co-authored paper for possibly less than a day of work. One can discuss if it is the right thing to do, but that is not my question here. It happens. *(NB: I am* ***not*** *suggesting such has happened in the examples listed below!*)
Criteria for co-authorship differ per field, but some papers have *a lot* of co-authors. Perhaps due to having an instrument that was used in an inter-comparison/validation study. Some examples of papers with lots of co-authors, not particularly extreme:
<NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., and <NAME>.: Validation of stratospheric and mesospheric ozone observed by SMILES from International Space Station, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 2311-2338, doi:10.5194/amt-6-2311-2013, 2013.
<NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., and <NAME>.: Validation of water vapour profiles (version 13) retrieved by the IMK/IAA scientific retrieval processor based on full resolution spectra measured by MIPAS on board Envisat, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 2, 379-399, doi:10.5194/amt-2-379-2009, 2009.
*(Again, I would like to stress than I am absolutely not implying that there is anything inappropriate about these two examples!)*
On the other hand, I rarely see papers written by sole authors, and I have the *impression* that such papers were more common in the past — but I have no evidence thereof.
Is there an inflation in the number of authors per paper? In other words, is the number of authors per paper increasing and if so, does this reduce the value of a co-authored publication?
*Related: [What is the average number of articles written per author in a year and has it increased recently?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/3108/1033)*<issue_comment>username_1: There are two types of dangers when it comes to publishing as a basis for evaluations. One is certainly as you mention more authors included although they have not fulfilled the basic criteria as for example outlined by the Vancouver protocol. A second effect is so-called salami-slicing where the results are sliced to produce as many publications as possible. There are tendencies such as these and journals have started to act against the by requesting disclosure of contributions by the authors. Salami-slicing should be corrected through the review process and may be more difficult to identify since reviewers and editors do not know the full extent of any particular project.
Against all this is the fact that science has over roughly the past century (different in different disciplines) steadily moved towards larger groups and consortia performing research. This results in many co-authors, particularly on papers synthesizing results from the larger projects. The number of authors have therefore increased but due o several and opposing reasons.
The value of co-authorship has therefore also changed over time. I believe the view of co-authorship varies between disciplines, maybe even a lot. In the disciplines with which I am familiar authorship alone is not sufficient to value a paper. For better or worse, we also look at the impact factor to try to assess the value of co-authorship. This means it may be possible to value a co-authorship of one key paper as more valuable than first authorship of another more run-of-the-mill paper. What this implies is that valuations are not necessarily simple arithmetic although that is certainly how it is often treated. In terms of a thesis, there was a time, not too long ago (when I finished my PhD), when single authorship was looked as the only acceptable form but now, it is a rarity. we do however, require all papers to be listed with a detailed author contribution.
Clearly the main problem is different kinds of free authorships. as this becomes common so will actions to reduce the problem. Top journals have started this and I am sure many others will follow. At the same time the reasons for "cheating" must also be reduced which puts responsibility on persons evaluating applications where publications constitute a basis for decisions.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I take *inflation* to mean that the number of co-authors grows faster than what the content/effort of the research merits: that would imply that if there is a non-negligible amount of such an inflation, it does affect the value of the authorship.
* Number of co-authors per paper is increasing
* Co-authorship inflation is perceived as a problem
* Perceived amount of contribution depends greatly on the position in the author list: first, last and corresponding author are perceived as contributing much, middle authors are perceived as contributing only a bit.
---
Long version:
First of all, the number of coauthors per paper is clearly increasing, e.g. [pubmed provides statics about such questions](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/authors1.html):
Let me mainly take the optimistic position and list sensible valid reasons for increasing numbers of coauthors.
Some are well known and widely discussed
* large combined scientific efforts like big instrumentation, the practical implementation of such long author lists widely and somewhat controversely discussed.
* Increasingly interdisciplinary research
* But I think that also the density of researchers has increased, which greatly facilitates collaboration.
E.g. I'm in a 100 000 inhabitant university town. The university has about 20 000 students and 7 000 employees (incl. professors - not sure whether this count includes technical personnel or only research staff). That alone is more than the whole town had inhabitants in 1900. PLus we also have a university of applied sciences and a number of non-university research institutes. I'm in of those reseach institutes, with about 300 employees. So there are several thousand researchers with whom I can collaborate even person to person by bicycle/foot.
This high concentration of researchers facilitates intra- as well as interdisciplinary collaboration. These papers then naturally have more co-authors. Say, an "instrumentation" group develops a customized sensor for a group tackeling some application and yet other people develop the data analysis for the paper.
* In addition, email, skype and cheap travel (plus I'm in the luxirous position that there are basically no legal travel restrictions as I'm German and EU citizen) makes it much easier than, say, 30 years ago to know, meet and collaborate with colleagues from all over the world.
* Specialization, particularly now that I'm at such a big institute.
E.g. where I'm now I usually receive readily prepared samples for measurements. Actually, being specialized on data analysis I often receive just the measured data (and I'm very lucky if people bother to have a chat beforehand on the design of experiments with me). Someone else prepares the samples and someone who mainly works on instrument development does the measurements. On contrast, where I was before everyone did all of that for their own topic and samples (of course also having emphasis on some part of this work flow). Of course all these people here contribute significantly to the paper.
But it also means that there *is* a continuous distribution size of contributions. I've somewhere seen a notion that weights the papers by 1/total no. of authors.
Of course, also abuse of co-authorship, such as honorary authorship, does happen, and maybe the specialization can become a salami-slicing of contributions.
I very much like the possibility of including a "contributions" section and decided to do that whenever possible. I think it can help checking against the abuse. At the moment (in my field), I think the existence of such a paragraph alone is a quite strong sign of no abuse of co-authorship.
But I think there are also valid reasons that mean that nowadays more authors are on a paper without the amount of work of the different persons involved having changed:
* Nowadays, sometimes technicians who did a lot of the work (and often also contribute to the development of the lab methodology) are mentioned.
* Also I believe that students who do research nowadays have a far better chance to end up on the author list.
* Maybe a gray zone, which also depends on customs/tradition is how to deal with the higher-up levels of supervision:
+ [Vancouver](http://www.icmje.org/ethical_1author.html) says: providing funding alone is not sufficient (and of course the [DFG goes along the same lines](http://www.dfg.de/download/pdf/dfg_im_profil/reden_stellungnahmen/download/empfehlung_wiss_praxis_1310.pdf))
+ German tradition says: head of the institute is responsible for all that is going on in his/her institute, and thus is always included.
To be clear here: this does *not* mean (and AFAIK has never meant) only an organizational responsibility, but a scientific responibility, i.e. supervision of the project. The gray zone IMHO comes from the fact that the proper contribution can superficially *look* similar to improper (i.e. no proper contribution) -- it is difficult to judge from the outside: A very good supervisor may guide in a way that is hardly perceived. If this good supervisor is looking after a good student, after putting his intellectual facilities to the project may find that the good student does well, and not many changes are needed. This is a proper contribution. Yet it superficially can look very similar to a bad supervisor who does not contribute his intellect to the project or paper and just waves everything through - regardless of whether the input is good or not.
---
I think this paper is interesting:
[Wren *et al.*: The write position. A survey of perceived contributions to papers based on byline position and number of authors,
EMBO Rep. 2007, 8(11), 988–991.
DOI: 10.1038/sj.embor.7401095
PMCID: PMC2247376](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2247376/)
>
> In addition, we also asked respondents for their perception of general trends and attitudes towards authorship of scientific publications. **Forty per cent of the respondents (35/87), for example, agreed that granting authorship to someone who does not meet journal authorship criteria was a common occurrence. Half of the respondents also agreed that author inflation makes it significantly harder to judge whether or not a candidate merits promotion.**
>
>
>
While this does not answer the question whether there objectively is an inflation in co-authorship, it means that this is at the very least widely suspected and perceived as a problem.
Also, the outcome of that paper IMHO boils down to: perceived as authors are the first, last and corresponding authors, the middle authors are generally perceived far less.
Personally, I share the suspicion that a significant amount of co-authorship abuse happens. However, my field is small and I think I have a reasonably good overview of what is going on. This includes a (subjective) idea of where I'd suspect honorary authorship or small contributions and on the other hand also some idea of who likely contributed what (specializations) to the paper. In addition, of course the listing of the instituions makes a lot of that clear (e.g. if someone from a statistics department, someone from a clinic and someone from a spectroscopy lab is listed that gives me a very good guess who
did what).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: "On the other hand, I rarely see papers written by sole authors"
A lot depends on the field you are researching. In the sciences you'll often find papers written by 6+ authors - probably because they're a collaborative effort between a team which might be spread across several institutions. In the arts, however, it's not uncommon to find single author articles - especially in fields such as classics and ancient history. If you look at the publications by staff in that department at the University of Manchester you'll find many single author papers:
<http://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/subjects/classicsancienthistory/people/>
Looking through the 100+ publications I cited in my ancient history articles, I can find only one which had more than one author, whereas in my computer science thesis there were only 12 with one author - most of which were unreviewed technical reports.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> Is there an inflation in the number of authors per paper? In other words, is the number of authors per paper increasing and if so, does this reduce the value of a co-authored publication?
>
>
>
Bit late but somewhat inspired by this question I did some research on author inflation within PLOS journals (due to their nice API).
The full write-up is [here](http://benjaminlmoore.wordpress.com/2014/04/06/author-inflation-in-academic-literature/), should you be interested, but the TL;DR is that author inflation does indeed appear to be happening, at least in this selection of journals mostly from the life sciences in recent years.
Here are linear regressions per journal of yearly mean number of authors per paper:
In one of the comments I was linked to a much [longer-term study](http://blog.coudert.name/post/2014/02/21/Evolution-of-chemistry-writing-over-5-decades) which revealed the same trend in a prominent chemistry journal.
The second part of your question is harder to answer but cbeleites has given some good insight and references. +1 for a very interesting question.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: After reading [the following article](http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.17555!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/521263f.pdf), your count does not bring much of a surprise.
>
> The paper, published in the journal
> *G3: Genes Genomes Genetics*, names 1,014 authors, with more
> than 900 undergraduate students among them.
>
>
>
The corresponding author was questioned as to whether everyone did make sufficient contribution.
>
> The paper’s senior author,
> geneticist <NAME> at Washington University in St. Louis,
> Missouri, says that large collaborations with correspondingly
> large author lists have become a fact of life
> in genomics research. “Putting together
> the efforts of many people allows you to
> do good projects,” she says.
>
>
>
If you really want a look at the paper, it is available here:
[*<NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., ... & <NAME>. (2015). Drosophila Muller F elements maintain a distinct set of genomic properties over 40 million years of evolution. G3: Genes| Genomes| Genetics, 5(5), 719-740.*](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4426361/)
Well, if 1014 isn't enough, then how about 5000+ authors:
>
> Only the first nine pages in the 33-page article, published on 14 May in Physical Review Letters1, describe the research itself — including references. The other 24 pages list the authors and their institutions. ([Ref.](http://www.nature.com/news/physics-paper-sets-record-with-more-than-5-000-authors-1.17567))
>
>
>
The paper has exactly 5,154 authors and is the paper to have the largest number of authors ever known. You can find that paper here:
[*<NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., ... & <NAME>. (2015). Combined Measurement of the Higgs Boson Mass in p p Collisions at √s= 7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS and CMS Experiments. Physical Review Letters, 114(19), 191803.*](http://journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.191803)
Back to the question, *does increase in the number of authors decrease the value of the co-authored publication?*
The honest answer would be, *it depends*. It depends on the field of publication as well the impact of the research produced along with so many other factors.
Scientists are trying to popularise the word *['hyperauthorship'](http://archive.sciencewatch.com/newsletter/2012/201207/multiauthor_papers/)* as an umbrella term to cover such papers.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: As one of the authors of one of the two shown examples I can definitely say
that the long authors list is the result of a large cooperation, 19 of the
over 30 authors listed come from more than 10 internationally distributed
institutions. Validations are always large undertakings involving many data
sources from other groups, and each group has to do some work for such a
publication. Especially, in the space/satellite segment, data acquisition and
result retrievals cannot be done by a few persons, these are dekade long
processes with many people involved.
So the trend to many authors is just a reflection of the fact that research
is getting much more complex in effort, money, and material involved, the
times when sole researchers can produce scientific results of large impact
in their ebony towers are long gone. No surprise at all, and surely, not a
sign of some "science fraud"...
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/10 | 1,741 | 7,273 | <issue_start>username_0: In German, as well as in other languages, people have Non-English characters in their names. e.g. ß, the umlauts etc..
I frequently face problems when flying, opening bank accounts, etc., particularly abroad, since replacing the ß with ss changes more more than 25% of my family name as compared to how it's written in my passport.
Obviously it is desirable to write one's name for submissions, the way one's name is written correctly. Can one expect to run into problems, and will sooner or later end up with different publications being published under different spellings of the name, or is it safe to go for the correct spelling?<issue_comment>username_1: First of all, always *be consistent*. Whatever you decide, that is what you will always have to use.
Considering the first point, might be better to strive and use your real name as it is with the non-english characters. You will have less problems in the future to prove your authorship in case questions rise. Complain to systems who do not accept your non-english characters...
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Unfortunately. this is a very real problem for many people. Any major "irregularities" in the name of an author—particularly the *first* author—can cause problems. You don't even need to use non-English characters.
I know this from first-hand experience. I have very little problems with most of my papers—except for those I have published with two colleagues as first authors, one of whom has a hyphenated last name and the other whose name contains an apostrophe (compound Dutch name). On a regular basis, I need to write places like Web of Science to correct the publication records (e.g., the paper is listed as a cited reference, but somehow they can't seem to connect it to the original record, depriving us unfairly of citations). This has actually been a bigger problem with the hyphenated last name—the paper has about six or seven citations (provable!), but only one is listed in Web of Science. (Google Scholar seems to find them all, though.)
Other problems will also crop up in attendance lists, email accounts, registration for conferences, and other things where Unicode acceptance in databases is limited.
Note, however, that your *professional* name does not need to match up with your *legal* name. For instance, many female academics keep their maiden name if they started publishing under it when they were graduate students. This is the case even if they've legally changed their name after getting married. And I agree with username_1 that it is more important that you use a *consistent* name—once you decide which version you want to use, stick with it!
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: To make less problems with computer search and indexing tools of various perfectness, I would suggest to use consistently English characters only in your English publications. If the non English character is basically an English character with extra crown or something the like, probably it will not be any problems with the proof of the authorship.
While of course keyboards can be easily configured to support national characters as well, think about the foreign users. Would they be capable of typing your special character into search box? Most likely, they will type the Latin equivalent instead. Smart search engines will treat it as the same, others may just not find the results. Various specialized sites with own databases may be important to you yet have less search capabilities than Google or Yahoo.
The possible alternative is to use the widely known several letter Latin alternative of that character that may exists (sch, zh, etc). However search tools are even less likely to treat special character and its multi letter alternative as the same. Also, doubts if it is the same name are much more likelty.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: For the given problem which I assume to be "Heß", I'd go with the ß spelling:
* For me the most important reason for this recommendation is that in German "Heß" and "Hess" two different last names, and both rather common ones. Thus using the transliteration not only creates confusion whether or not the name was transliterated, but also roughly doubles the basis of people who could possibly be meant (e.g. inside Germany ca. [20000 Heß](http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/he%25C3%259F.html) + [18500 Hess](http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/hess.html))
* Over the last decade or so, there has been a tremendous improvement of dealing online with characters outside the absolute standard latin character set. I think this will continue, so using the ß will become less and less of a problem. As you say, google already knows how to deal with it.
* Worst thing that happens in addition to maybe sometimes being transliterated to "ss" or even "sz" (which is *very* uncommon in German, so while Germans would be aware of the possibility that Hess could be a transliterated version of Heß, Hesz would be considered something really different) would be that you find your name misspelled with a β (beta instead of s-zett). However I don't think that this will happen much more frequently than people misspelling my "natively pure ASCII" last name by exchanging the last "e" by an "i" - and having a common problem means that scientific data bases know better how to correct it.
* People may not know how to pronounce it, but that is very common with any kind of foreign name.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I'm strongly advocating for keeping your name unchanged, as far as:
1. most software can write it down (software = Word, HTML and LaTeX probably);
2. it's based on latin alphabet (that is, to every character you can assign a character on the English alphabet).
If you follow the Rule 2, you should be safe since most indexing software strips off all "decorations" from the letters.
For me, I hate when my name is written without diacritics, because it's simply not me. And heavens, we're living in 21st century and we have unicode and stuff!
Actually, `ß` is a true nutshell, since it has a unique transcription to English (`ss`), but it's not based on stripping diacritics. I'm not aware of how big difference is `ß` and `ss` in German.
*With my journal typesetter hat on:* I would allow `ß` in your name in an article. I wouldn't allow a cyrillic name, for instance, if the author insisted, I would keep both forms -- cyrillic and transcribed.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: eventually the web will be internationalized and yes, by all means, no worries...
unfortunately we still have work to do, so yes, by all means, be yourself...but be wary of compatibility issues: be they server, browser, ua, country-specific, etc., you're more than likely to run into an issue here or there trying to implement a non-english character in your name across the web...
one example: i'm fairly sure that while approved for urls, the double german s in your name is not supported by iso-159, which unfortunately, seems to be the charset flavor of the month...i bet you can't have it in a twitter handle, per se; and even this example is going to widely vary, as each service is going to have its own details, and implementations....
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/02/10 | 813 | 3,426 | <issue_start>username_0: I am currently working on a paper in the field of image reconstruction, or computational biology if you will. Now matter how I slice or dice it, it is one of these stories that cannot be told in 3500 words or so. Not only are there several equally important methodological points that need to be discussed to get a complete story, there is also quite a bit of background required to point out the subtle flaws in the currently popular ways of approaching this particular problem; and it takes some words to clearly point out what may appear to be a subtle problem from a distance, especially while making sure to be fair to everyone.
I don't intend to butcher what I feel is a solid and profound story for the sake of cramming it into some word budget. I am no fan of needless verbosity, but I really am going to need about 20 pages to do this right. I strongly prefer to publish in an open access journal. And I would imagine that an open access online journal does not have as much of an incentive to be stingy with word counts, no? PLOS computational biology would be a logical choice, yet they do have a restrictive word count. I can't find any open access journals that appear to be sympathetic to my plight.
Am I missing something? Or should I just write the whole article first, make that into the supplement, and then write a 3000 word teaser with nonstop references to the supplement to substantiate my claims? I am somewhat afraid that people will actually miss the point without an explicit disclaimer at the start of the 'article', along the lines of 'hey, if you want to read the actual story with a good flow to it, you need to start reading the supplement. this is basically just a drawn out abstract.'. If you are referring to the supplement, the convention is to refer to a figure of secondary importance; not to three pages of text you kind of have to read first to understand the rest of the article.
Does anyone have a helpful perspective on such a situation?<issue_comment>username_1: Have you considered [arXiv](http://arXiv.org)? They are open-access and handle quantitative biology e-prints. Here's an excerpt that may interest you from [their "Oversized Submissions" help page](http://arxiv.org/help/sizes):
>
> If you have trouble submitting a very long paper, such as a long review article with many small figures, or a thesis, AND you are sure that you have efficient figures, then contact the archive administrators to ask for an exception (be sure to quote the automatic rejection identifier and to explain the large size).
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: *Plos One* do not have an explicit word count limit, and computational biology should be on-topic for them:
>
> There are no explicit restrictions for the number of words, figures, or the length of the supporting information, although we encourage a concise and accessible writing style.
>
>
>
For further info see <http://plosone.org/static/guidelines>
Also, have you seen that *Plos Computational Biology* has two types of articles, Research articles and Software articles, and that the 3500 word limit only applies to the latter (see <http://www.ploscompbiol.org/static/guidelines>). For Research articles they only say:
>
> Although we have no firm length restrictions for the entire manuscript, we urge authors to present and discuss their findings concisely.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/02/10 | 4,101 | 16,767 | <issue_start>username_0: I am writing a paper with my adviser.
Some of the key contributions of our paper include:
1. A computer simulation model of an inventory system
2. A set of simulation experiments and results to validate the simulation model
3. An implementation of an inventory policy which we propose
4. Simulation results of our proposed inventory policy and inventory policies which are currently used in practice
We want to make our computer code freely available to others.
The simulation model was written in the Java programming language so other researchers should be able to run the code on their own computers fairly easily.
By sharing our computer code, we hope that other researchers will develop inventory policies which they can test using our simulation model.
(Of course, it would be beneficial for us if they would do so and cite us in their paper!)
**Question:** What is a good way to go about sharing our computer code?
1. Where do I host the code?
2. Which software license should we "publish" the code under?
3. How do I make it easy for other people to run the code?<issue_comment>username_1: In my opinion, It is related to the specific code you want to share.
I just want to give an example, for JavaScript code you can share it on <http://jsfiddle.net/>
We can test our JavaScript, CSS, HTML or CoffeeScript online in the web. There is also an option for inviting people to collaborate in developing our code.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: To some extent, the answer will depend on what you wish to accomplish with this release. There was a fantastic [blog post recently](http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~asampson/blog/sociallicenses.html) on that precise topic.
If the code is of great shape, and you hope others will build on it, then choosing the licence is going to reflect your philosophy. A BSD style license if you just want the algorithm and code out there, or perhaps a Copyleft (GPL) style licence if you want to make sure improvements return to the commons.
If the code isn't in such great shape, but for transparency's sake needs to be out there, consider something along the lines of the [CRAPL](http://matt.might.net/articles/crapl/), which acknowledges the messy nature of modern computational sciences. I think the preamble is worth quoting:
```
I. Preamble
Science thrives on openness.
In modern science, it is often infeasible to replicate claims without
access to the software underlying those claims.
Let's all be honest: when scientists write code, aesthetics and
software engineering principles take a back seat to having running,
working code before a deadline.
So, let's release the ugly. And, let's be proud of that.
```
As far as the actual mechanics of putting the code up, use [GitHub](https://github.com/) or [Bitbucket](https://bitbucket.org). These services are going to give you code hosting, a home for the project, the ability to manage contribution, and the ability to track bugs and issues.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Answer to 1: Where should I host my code?
-----------------------------------------
Depending on what your University offers you, you could choose to host it with the University, or perhaps with an open-source repository such as Github, Bitbucket, SourceForge, or similar.
Many of these services have a "paid" subscription option for private repositories if those are required.
Answer to 2: What open-source license should I choose?
------------------------------------------------------
This question is relevant because we're having this discussion right now within one of our own research projects. I happen to know a little about open source software, having researched it in the past and having taught a few courses on it.
Though there are a lot of open-source licenses out there, they really end up coming in two main families. They're either permissive open licenses (ex: MIT, BSD, Apache) or they are Free (GNU Public License v2 or GPLv3). Here's a brief lowdown by the [Open Source Initiative](http://opensource.org/licenses)
*Permissive open licenses* These licenses generally allow you to release your code and anyone can do anything with them that they want as long as they retain certain copyright information with the code. In reality, this has a number of implications.
1. Someone could take your entire code base, create a product with it, and sell it.
2. Someone could take parts of your code, put it in their own project (commercial or not).
3. Because the license is more permissive, you yourself could take the code, close it, and then keep under wraps any future releases so you can make money off of the code or hide it from the public.
4. Because the license is more permissive, you might generate more interest as a result. People may take code from other projects and use it to improve yours. On the flip-side, they could also make improvements for your source code and never share them back with you.
On the flip-side, the GNU GPL is a Free Software License that disallows you from doing certain things. In that sense, it's more restrictive, but does so for a number of ideological reasons.
1. If you release software under the GPL, you can't close-source it. Ever. It's going to remain in the open, and if someone asks you for the source code you are obligated by the terms of the license to provide it (if you host it on Github or another public repository, then you have already satisfied this requirement).
2. A company could take the code and make products with it and sell it (it's their right to do so), but they would have to do so under the condition that any source code that they write for the project is also released under the GPL. Because of this, a lot of companies who make a lot of money writing software don't like this because they have to continually release code to the public. On the flip-side, any cool stuff that they do gets put into the public under the GPL, so you could fold it back into your project and improve it. They can't take your code, improve it, and then never share it again.
3. If you happen to have used any GPL code in your project (let's say you took a few lines out of the Linux kernel or Git version control or whatever) then you'll have to release your code as GPL as well.
In the end, the choice of license affects more about how you want the software to be used (and the eventual community it might bring in). If you plan to commercialize the software, (and implicitly allow others to do the same), then you might want to lean BSD. If you don't want people to take your hard work and profit off of it without showing you the results, then you want to go GPL. If you don't care either way, then you could probably just choose one. I think BSD is popular in academia precisely because of the commercialization aspect (for example LLVM is gaining a lot of traction because of its permissive license).
Answer for 3: How do I make it easy for others to run the code?
---------------------------------------------------------------
You make it easy to run code by engineering it to be easy to run and by being extremely detailed with your documentation.
Packaging/distribution can actually be pretty hard and usually take more effort than most people would think. A good way to make the software easy to run is to test it on multiple machines. Make sure that you're not forgetting any of the libraries that you're using in your software project, for example, and when possible, try to use software libraries that are common and well-maintained. Use mainstream languages with easy-to-manage package repositories.
When appropriate, use installers, installer scripts, Makefiles (distutils, which uses automake/autoconf is better), etc. Even shell scripts are better than nothing. If you can provide binaries and/or an installer, that will make things even easier. The problem is that this is a LOT of work!
Accompany it with documentation. Ideally, the documentation will contain a description of how to set it up and run it, with descriptions of necessary packages/libraries, data that you might have to get, and what to type or click on. Usually, something called README or INSTALL will attract attention. Put the instructions on the web page as well, most of the hosting solutions also allow you to have web pages.
Hope this all helps. The hardest part of the process is by far Step #3 and most people don't get as far as to use good techniques like installers, automake/autoconf, and so forth because it's a LOT of work and development often moves faster than you can write documents. However, no one is grading you on your style so it's often easier to get it out than it is to clean it up and prettify it first.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: username_2 and username_3 have given great answers, but I'd like to provide some additional
resources and references for those interested.
First, take a look at answers to this similar question on scicomp.SE:
>
> [What material should I include with a journal article (or post online) in order to make my computational research reproducible?](https://scicomp.stackexchange.com/questions/1879/what-material-should-i-include-with-a-journal-article-or-post-online-in-order)
>
>
>
Reproducibility was the subject of a [2012 workshop at ICERM](http://icerm.brown.edu/tw12-5-rcem); you'll find a lot of useful material on [the wiki](http://wiki.stodden.net/ICERM_Reproducibility_in_Computational_and_Experimental_Mathematics:_Readings_and_References) and in [the final report](http://icerm.brown.edu/html/programs/topical/tw12_5_rcem/icerm_report.pdf) (see especially appendices D, E, and F).
Archival/hosting
----------------
**Update**:You can get a DOI and permanent hosting for a snapshot of your code via [Figshare](http://mozillascience.github.io/code-research-object/) or [Zenodo](http://zenodo.org).
Licensing
---------
See [this section of the wiki for an extensive list of resources](http://wiki.stodden.net/ICERM_Reproducibility_in_Computational_and_Experimental_Mathematics:_Readings_and_References#Licenses_and_copyright.2C_citation).
Making it easy to run the code
------------------------------
There are some sites and tools out there aimed specifically at this. These also solve the hosting issue:
* [ActivePapers](https://bitbucket.org/khinsen/active_papers_py/wiki/Home): An ActivePaper is a single file containing all the software and datasets related to a research project.
* [RunMyCode](http://www.runmycode.org/): This service is based on the innovative concept of a companion
website associated with a scientific publication.
A major hurdle is often re-creating the correct environment (including libraries and such) necessary to run the code. To overcome this, you could
* [distribute a virtual machine](http://wiki.stodden.net/ICERM_Reproducibility_in_Computational_and_Experimental_Mathematics:_Readings_and_References#Tools_that_capture_and_preserve_a_software_environment) or use Vagrant or CDE
* ensure that your code runs on some cloud platform, like
+ [Wakari](http://wakari.io)
+ [SageMathCloud](http://cloud.sagemath.org/)
+ Amazon web services
+ Windows Azure
It can be useful to put your code in a [worksheet format](http://wiki.stodden.net/ICERM_Reproducibility_in_Computational_and_Experimental_Mathematics:_Readings_and_References#Notebooks.2FPublishing_Tools), where you can intersperse comments and even mathematical formulas (for instance, using the [IPython notebook](http://ipython.org/notebook.html) or a Sage worksheet. [Here is an example](http://nbviewer.ipython.org/gist/ketch/8554686).
Examples
--------
Finally, [here](https://github.com/ketch/effective_dispersion_RR) [are](https://github.com/ketch/optimized-erk-sd-rr) [some](https://github.com/ketch/diffractons_RR) [examples](https://github.com/ketch/downwind_IRK_RR) of my own efforts. They're far from perfect, but may still be helpful.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I recommend github.
The other answers given are well detailed and include it but given a bunch of other choices. Choice is obviously good. Without specific advantages listed though I am suggesting you just go with github.
My rationale is that I feel that github has become a clear leader in the field of code storing and sharing. It's underlying technology of git as a modern dvcs system has largely replaced older technologies such as svn. It now has over 2.8 million users which is quite impressive.
Github is also great for code collaboration, allowing for multiple people to edit and merge their changes in in a controlled but decentralized fashion.
Github allows you to have both public (anyone can view) as well as private repositories that you control view access to. For updating, you add the requested users ssh keys to grant update access.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: For my graduation paper I shared my code by printing it all out as a companion volume to the main research paper.
Mind this was pre-internet, and the paper (and code) was classified so very few people would ever read it.
I did put it all on floppy and included copies of that with the printed paper as well.
These days, you'd likely put it on a server somewhere where all those who have access to the paper can access the code, and nobody else.
Of course you will need to figure out who that will be. Most research papers are considered company secrets (or department secrets) and not for public distribution. Your code would fall under the same restrictions.
Just throwing it out there on github, google code, or source forge without prior permission from your employers/coordinators isn't going to make you many friends, in fact you could end up with a rather hefty claim for damages and/or prison time for doing so.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: All the answers above are great. I would just like to add that, if you plan to publish it on your lab's website or any personal website, you should also copy it somewhere else.
In [many fields](http://www.designntrend.com/articles/9739/20131220/significant-scientific-data-disappearing-alarming-rate-researchers.htm), it appears that data ([including original programs](http://gettinggeneticsdone.blogspot.fr/2013/01/stop-hosting-data-and-code-on-your-lab.html)) is disappearing all the time. When a lab moves to another University, closes, or undergoes any kind of restructuration, its website is likely to change, and data stored there can be lost. So, unless your University has a centralised repository, you should put your code where it can stay for decades, for instance on Github.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: There's lots of good advice in the various answers; I'm going to address only point 3, "How do I make it easy for other people to run the code?"
The answer here is to automate as much as possible. This will have the added benefit of making your life easier, too, as you'll spend less time typing (and retyping) magic incantations and checking output.
Start, as early as possible, with a top-level script (I usually call it `Test`) that builds and tests all your code. (This is always the first thing I write.) In your case it sounds like it's too late to start with it, but add it now and grow it in the same way.
Every time you do a new checkout or clone of your repository, start by running the Test script. When it reaches the first error of any kind, consider how you could tweak the script to get rid of that error (if that's easy to do) or detect the error condition and give some informative message to the user. For example, if you depend on `libfrozzit` and its header files being present for you to compile, you may not be able to install it, but you can at least try to check for its presence and, if absent, fail with, "libfrozzit not found. Install with apt-get frozzit-dev or yum install frozzit-devel?"
Write tests of any kind, whether basic unit tests or functional tests, for your code. Even picking the simplest function and sending one value through it, or running `myprogram --help` and ensuring it prints any message whatsoever, means you've started a test framework and makes it much, much easier for someone else to come along and add a test. If you can get up to, say, 5% test coverage of your code that's a significant benefit because even that much will be a great help to someone who's wondering if the code was built properly.
Making code easy for others to build and run isn't magic, and can't be done by waving a wand or running a special tool. It's a matter of saying, every time you find yourself doing a manual tweak to get things to work, no matter how simple, asking yourself "how would I automate away the need for that manual tweak"?
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/02/11 | 917 | 3,405 | <issue_start>username_0: We recently submitted a paper, and now I'm creating some slides about it for future presentation. There are papers that we have cited in our paper and I need to cite them in slides too because they are directly related to our work. What I would like to do is inline citing when you just mention author's name, or conference name, or the year. I have seen works in which what is mentioned is the first author's family name, e.g. *(Patterson, 2013)*. And I've seen those who just mention conference name and year, e.g. *(PPoPP, 2012)*.
I want to know which one is more appropriate, or actually correct? Where to use one, and where to use the other? Or should I use something different?<issue_comment>username_1: As an applied mathematician, I like to go for the format [Author1, Author2 JST '99], where "JST" is an abbreviation for the journal. I truncate longer author lists with *et al*, and add initials in some cases to reduce ambiguity [Li RC, Guo CH, LAA '05]. With the help of a macro, I put the citations in square brackets (following the LaTeX usage), in a different color (dark grey) and font (`\small`/`\footnotesize`).
Of course every solution to this problem is a compromise between brevity, readability and googleability, but it seems to me that this one works well in my field.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Well, in my field, it's certainly the habit to mention only the authors and the year, unless it's really old. So I would have
>
> **Theorem [Doe, Soe, 2010; Smith 1997]** There is ...
>
>
>
The reasons are:
* If someone needs the full citation, he has the proceedings / book of abstracts.
* The only interesting things in the citation are:
1. It's not *your* result, you borrow it from elsewhere
2. Which people did it -- quite likely you have some of them in the auditorium, they can get upset if you don't credit them, and they'll be pleased if you point them out.
3. How old is it -- is it something known for years, or is it a "hot result"?
If you publish the presentation online after the conference, it might be a good habit to add the whole bibliography of the proceedings as a last slide. It can be in a small font since it's only for people to read it on the computer.
*The key of a talk is not to be precise, but to show the most relevant information!*
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: My suggestion is probably not applicable to presentations using *a lot* of citations, or using them on a lot of pages (but then, I think a good presentation shouldn't cite too much, so it's okay).
In addition to using whichever citation style best works for you ( (Smith, 1995), [Smith et. al., CSJ, 2007]\*, or even just [1] ), plus changing the text color sounds like a good idea, why don't you **add the expanded citation in the slide footnote in a smaller font?** If it's not more than 1-2 or maybe 3 cites per slide, on no more than a few slides, it could work nicely and even allow you to use the basic [1], [2,3] citation style.
Also it could be a good idea to **include the list of most important citations on the last slide** (maybe not showing it in the presentation, but useful for possible questions).
---
Something like this: **:)**
\* Smith, Jones and Doe: *"Very important article"*, Cool Science Journal, 2007
or:
[1] Jones and Smith: *"Yet another important article"*, 2000
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/11 | 1,060 | 4,911 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm applying to PhD programs in two fields and I am interested in the space between two fields, where one is applied to the other.
In my particular case I'm interested in researching Software Engineering as applied to Robotics. I will use a similar but slightly different case as an illustrative example between the fields of Software Engineering and Machine Learning, which I am also interested in. Software Engineering applied to Machine Learning could incorporate better ways, such as new language syntax, to design and implement Machine Learning Algorithms. The opposite would be using machine learning to solve Software Engineering problems, such as automatically discovering database regularities in a data mining application.
Essentially, I see understanding, researching, and being able to apply software engineering to robotics as an area that will expand enormously in the next 10-15 years, much like how software engineering research has expanded as applied to mobile devices and data centers.
I am very interested in both fields, but ideally I would be studying how to apply software engineering to robotics.
* **How do I explain my interests to both Robotics and Software Engineering professors, respectively?**
* **How do I communicate why this matters at all, and more importantly why it matters to them?**
* **Should I focus primarily on Software Engineering programs, Robotics programs, or both to reach my goal?**
Answers based on analogous situations from other fields are welcome.<issue_comment>username_1: I know little about either of these fields, but will try to give a generally applicable answer.
I think your best bet is to **find an advisor who already has some appreciation for the intersection of these two topics**. Convincing someone who only works on one of them that they are important together -- and that he/she should supervise a thesis involving both -- may be difficult. However, since the fields you mention can often be found within the same university department (computer science), the latter approach is also possible.
To decide which type of programs you should look at, ask yourself **in which field will I innovate**? If you will apply standard software engineering techniques to do something new in robotics, focus on robotics. If you will devise novel software engineering ideas that are useful with respect to existing robotics applications, then focus on software engineering. Of course, the answer is rarely clear cut.
**Important**: if you're not substantially innovating within either field, it may be difficult to convince a committee that you deserve a Ph.D. (even though the combination may be innovative). You can't usually get away with work that is worth half of a Ph.D. in each field.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Bridging two topics is more complex than a simple PhD devoted to a single topic. You must be lead by a professor who is also highly interested in and *actually helps* with your research plan, not just "allows". Professor should take care to make a plan of the suitable PhD research project from this idea.
So start from finding such a supervisor and drop the idea if you cannot.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I think username_1's answer is the right way to approach it.
One thing that I'd like to add to it is that you might not be that original: there are plenty of interdisciplinary programs that do this sort of heavy collaboration between fields, there could already be a program that focuses on what you want (or something close to it).
Example: Machine Learning is the intersection of Statistics and Computer Science. There are Statistics departments that do ML research, there are CS departments that do ML research, and Carnegie Mellon University has and entire Machine Learning department.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: As username_1 suggested, **the ideal scenario** would be to find an advisor who works in both fields. But even if you find one, he/she will probably have preferences on one topic or the other. Both fields are extremely wide and highly *"trendy"*.
So, I believe it comes down to which field you would like to go more in-depth. Either find a highly specialized advisor in Robotics with some knowledge/applications in Software Engineering, or the opposite.
From my perspective (as a Mechanical Engineer), I would suggest to go for in-depth research in Robotics, which has quite sophisticated dynamics, control and solid mechanics, and couple your research to Software Engineering, with for example the design of an efficient graphical interfaces for control purposes or advanced image processing techniques for trajectories planning.
These are just examples, as I said before, both fields are extremely wide in terms of possibilities, so it is up to you and your advisor to find a middle-ground that suits you both.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/02/11 | 1,351 | 5,263 | <issue_start>username_0: I am looking to apply for a PhD in the CS realm in the next cycle, particularly something with an AI flavor like Machine Learning or NLP. I am a bit of an anomaly in CS as I have undergraduate majors in a very different area (one was history...). I am finishing up a Masters focusing in signal processing at a well-renowned school and have a good GPA and top GREs. I was a CS minor undergrad, but started too late into college so I couldn't have gotten the major, although I took the core courses.
Although I finished undergrad with plenty of accolades (and I TAed in CS for 3 semesters), and I have excelled in the engineering courses at the Masters level, I am really concerned about my chances to get into a great PhD program. (There are a number of reasons why I want to pursue PhD, but at the same time, **\**for me*\***, the time commitment doesn't feel warranted if I'm not working with great faculty at a great institution.)
I have some research experience (an undergrad honor thesis in my majors--I know it's not exactly related--and I'm a co-author on a couple non-CS papers published in IEEE journals from some summer work), but nothing really in depth I've done on my own. My Masters is a non-thesis program so I've had trouble finding an adviser who'll take me on (I want to do a thesis anyway). I've also had trouble finding (and being accepted) to worthwhile summer research opportunities (academic settings related to my interests). I have actually really enjoyed my previous research opportunities, and I know that for PhD admissions it's research, research, research (and some recs). So here are my questions:
1. How do I find my way into substantive research endeavors?
2. With my eclectic background, how can I rise above the thousands of CS undergrads with plenty of relevant research during the admission process?
3. Any suggestions how to sell my academic background as a positive?
NOTE: Of course I think I'm qualified (every applicant does or else they wouldn't apply). I also think that my unique background is a bonus. I'm concerned that those making hiring/admission decisions will feel differently. (edited since first posting)
Thanks in advance for the advice!<issue_comment>username_1: Unless I am mistaken, "next cycle" is half a year from now. There are many ways to enhance one's PhD prospects, but many big ones are no longer available to you due to timing.
<NAME> in *Getting What You Came For* cites an ETS study about how important various parts of the PhD application are considered by committees, on a scale from 1 to 5:
* 3.9 Undergrad GPA in major field
* 3.8 Recommendations from faculty known by committee
* 3.7 Undegrad GPA in last 2 years
* 3.6 GRE verbal score
* 3.6 whether undergrad major is related
* 3.5 Undergrad GPA
* 3.0 Educational or career aspirations
* 3.0 Recommendations from faculty unknown by committee
* 3.0 Whether applicant is known to the committee
* 2.9 Academic achievements (papers, projects)
* 2.9 Quality of undergraduate school
* 2.7 Personal statement
* 2.7 Interview
* 2.6 Work experience
* 2.6 GRE analytical score
* 2.5 Non-faculty recommendations
* 2.5 GRE Subject score (related to program)
* 1.9 Other test scores
* 1.9 GRE Subject score (related to undergrad major)
* 1.6 Particular subscores on GRE Subject
You have half a year. Some of these things, like your GPA, obviously cannot be changed. What you can do is:
* Try to publish or present at a conference
* Make sure you don't get low grades from any classes you are taking
* Make sure you get strong recommendations
* Study for the GRE, especially the verbal part
* Make contact with faculty at the programs you think of applying to
* Research thoroughly the programs you are interested in
* Start working on your Statement of Purpose so you have time to edit it
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This depends in which country or "world" you live in.
PhD programs and similar are very different around the world.
You have:
- U.S.
- Uk
- Countries like Sweden
- Switzerland
- Central Europe like Germany/Austria
- India
- etc.
Each country has a very different culture in general and a different university culture in turn, and also different resources.
Just one example: in India PhD positions are hard to get, in Germany/Austria there are sometimes 5 applications for a single job, so just by chance it is easy to get a position.
In research in technical disciplines (computer science, electrical engineering), my option is that the most important thing is mathematics. It is the hardest and most gerneral applicable topic. This is also, in my eyes, the most important topic for applied research.
If you don't know mathematics it is hard to do functional programming. You need Category theory to use Monads, Functors, etc., to write programs in functional languages like haskell. There are state of the art programming languages based on Higher Order Logic and others that are based on Martin Löw type theory. Without an excellent mathematical background one is helpless.
If you want to analyze and predict signals in electrical engineering, this is comparably easy if you know how to do harmonic analysis and state of the art statistics.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/02/11 | 502 | 2,179 | <issue_start>username_0: If a journal is not indexed this way, is it an academically honorable one?<issue_comment>username_1: If we momentarily disregard from discussions regarding the cons of ISI and Thomson-Reuters who run the service etc. and focus on the usefulness of ISI indexed journals for ones career, the answer is yes, it is important at least to some extent. The importance is in part depending on your discipline since ISI indexing is not evenly distributed over disciplines. But generally speaking the ISI listing means the journal publishes papers that are referenced, which is an indication that it is research of some quality and importance.
This does not mean non-ISI-listed journals are not "honourable". But, when choosing a journal in which to publish, you need to make sure it is read by other in your field so that your research is seen and your ideas known by others. You should make a survey of journals that are of reference and if you find ISI-listed journals there is a reason to consider them if your papers fulfill their quality criteria because they will be seen as prestigeous references when you are evaluated for a position etc.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I don't think "honourable" is the correct framework to think about. My general understanding is that most reputable journals will be ISI indexed, and so if you are considering publishing in a journal which is not, you should look hard at whether it is legitimate, and whether people in your field will respect publications in it. You should look at the same thing for ISI-indexed journals.
There are many journals which **are** ISI-indexed, and I have no reason to believe are not run legitimately, which I have never heard of, and which I would never recommend to someone I know as a place to publish (I don't want to pick on any particular one, but if you go to Web of Science and search for the name of your field, you will find plenty of them). An article in a journal I have never heard of makes a very poor impression to me on a CV, so it is worth researching more carefully what the "word of mouth" reputation of journals is in your field.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/11 | 1,119 | 4,638 | <issue_start>username_0: What is the best way to approach professors when looking for a Post-Doc position ? Are there any particular search tools for this type of position ?
I found a similar question on this website: [How to maximise one's chances of getting a good postdoc position?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/15052/how-to-maximise-ones-chances-of-getting-a-good-postdoc-position)
My question is more directed towards the way one should contact potential advisors, specially if they are in foreign countries and a face-to-face meeting is not possible. Is it better to contact directly the Professor or rather contact fellow PhD/PostDocs of that laboratory ? Is an e-mail sufficient or should you try to contact that person through tools like LinkedIn or ResearchGate ?
What would be a good time to do so ? 3 months, 6 months, a year before finishing the PhD ?
Should one be specific on what you would like to work on or rather general so that more possibilities are available ?
I guess this is a really open discussion topic where there is not a "correct" answer, so feel free to share your personal views and experience.<issue_comment>username_1: Context: *I'm not in mechanical engineering, but am a potential post doc advisor.*
Remember: ootential advisors are (almost) always on the lookout for good people, even when they don't have money to hire them, because they always have grants submitted, so any time soon they may receive another grant.
It is fine to contact potential advisors directly, but beware that they will receive many such emails, including many that are easily considered as SPAM, due to their impersonal and indirect nature. This means that your emails need to be personal, and they need to quickly establish what you do and what value you could be to the potential advisor, for instance by finding a real connection with their research.
Having a concrete research proposal is also a valuable idea, but beware that a potential advisor may not be interested in supervising a topic that is outside their core research focus.
Contacting a potential advisor 3 months in advance would put you in the running for any positions that the advisor may have open.
Contacting a potential advisor 6 months in advance might be a way of putting your name in the advisor's mind, but it would probably be too early to actually get a position. That said, the advisor may have applied for some funding, and this may come available after those 6 months. Then having your name in the advisor's mind would be a good thing.
Contacting a potential advisor 12 months before you finish might be useful if there is a funding opportunity that you both could apply for.
Of course, contacting the potential advisor 3 months before you finish might lead to an opportunity 12 months down the track, and so on.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Nicholas, I am a mechanical engineering PhD and have had success applying for post-doc positions. Here is my profile (which may be relevant):
* Not the best publication record in peer reviewed journals
* High throughput of papers at peer reviewed conferences (ASME-IMECE, ASME-HTC, APS DFD) and some allied niche meetings (Wolfram conferences, Suborbital researchers conferences)
* Significant teaching experience (teaching labs, undergraduate courses and graduate level courses since the opportunity presented itself).
Now with my profile in mind, I applied to Post doc positions **more than 12 months in advance of my graduation date**. I applied for post doc positions in early to mid 2012 in anticipation that I would join or receive a positive job offer for early 2013 and mid/late 2013.
When approaching professors through their emails or through post doc adverts, this is what I focused on:
* **All** my applications were via email to either the Professor/PI or through post doc websites such as academicKeys, MathJobs or [CFD Jobs](http://www.cfd-online.com/Jobs/) and similar others.
* **All** my applications leveraged my ability to churn out conference worthy results and my teaching skills and how they related to time management.
* In all cases, if I thought that my research was particularly relevant to the position I was applying to, I included a "snippet" of a figure or plot from my research in the cover letter and described it's applicability to the job.
* In some cases I also included that I was available to have a conversation via a telecon/videocon/skype meeting and a good 10-15% of the PIs responded to it by having a chat with me.
The last two bullet points resulted in a 100% success rate for **me**.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/02/11 | 524 | 2,228 | <issue_start>username_0: I would like to apply to a PhD program in France, but I am having trouble understanding the admission process. How should/could I submit my application?
Is it proper to contact the Professor I would like to work with and ask about any openings? If yes, what should I include in my mail?
I am only familiar with the admission process in US institutions.<issue_comment>username_1: I'm a PhD candidate in France (economics) and yes, you can (and, in fact, must) contact a professor first. He or she will then direct you to source for funding and through the whole administrative process (the funniest part...).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: TL;DR: in France you have to find first the supervisor, then you apply for a funding. If you have a funding of your own, you have to find a supervisor to be admitted. In both cases : you need the supervisor first.
There is various things to know when you apply for a PhD in France :
* It is forbidden to be a PhD without having funding. In France a PhD student is considered both as a student and an employee.
* The funding can be a state funding, an industrial funding, a funding on a research contract (either from a national funding agency or a company), or you can also do your PhD while working elsewhere (some teachers in secondary schools are doing their PhD this way).
Industrial funding and research contract are basically given to the supervisor, who can choose alone amongst all candidates. So for PhD with those fundings you have to contact directly the targeted supervisors.
State funding is given by a committee to a bundle (candidate, subject), this means that a professor, with a subject, has to find a candidate and then propose to the committe this candidate on his subject. Then the candidate is on his own : (s)he will generally have to send an application letter, with a reference letter from the supervisor, and if (s)he is shortlisted, (s)he will have to make a short presentation (either on location or using skype or a similar service).
Last case: you are funded on your own (job, external funding for foreigners). Even in this case, the procedure is that you find the supervisor, then you apply.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer] |
2014/02/11 | 1,292 | 5,586 | <issue_start>username_0: * Are PhD students generally invited for such reviews? I was under the impression they would prefer someone with a Doctorate degree or more experience in the field.
* What are the advantages/disadvantages of accepting to review?
* The general discipline that the paper treats is related to my field of study but my active research is not necessarily related. Is it still OK to accept the invitation to review?<issue_comment>username_1: It is not unusual that PhD students get invited as reviewers, after all a PhD student will likely be a true expert in the field of the PhD. If you are a student during your first years of study, the request may be a little premature, generally speaking but if your are in your final year then it will be a good experience. What you need to consider is whether you can provide an insightful review of parts of or preferably the entire paper. You should have a sense of why you were invited, i.e. why your expertise may have been asked for.
Peer review is a vital part of the publishing process so getting experience of reviewing other's material is very worthwhile. If you continue in academia this will be expected of you so you will have to start sometime. You can definitely add reviewing for journals in your CV, not mentioning what you reviewed but certainly for what journal you have reviewed.
If yo have not done a review before you should probably ask someone (or preferable more than one) more experienced within your field for a brief outline of what should be included in the review and how to formulate the review.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would just add to Peter's answer couple more remarks:
* It is **important to write reviews**. I can tell you that the list of names of people who don't do reviews is, at least amongst people I know, a "public secret". I mean, people who don't do reviews are known for it and it's certainly a negative thing.1 On the other hand, if you reject because you don't feel strong enough to do it, that's fine. Still, there has to be "first" once.
* If it's your first review, **tell that to the editor** once you decide to do it. Just a brief mail: *I have recieved the preprint and I will review it. However, I would like to bring to your attention that this is the first review I am writing.*2 After all, in many cases (especially at conference reviews), you have to choose a "confidentality score" from 1 to 5, which exactly says how strong do you as a reviewer feel considering the review.
* Discuss with your supervisor. It's surely ethical to ask someone close to you for opinion/help, so don't hesitate to approach him if you feel so. You may agree with him that you read the article yourself, mark what things you consider problematic, and then he helps you classify which things are crucial and which are not, and how much positive or negative the review should be. After all, **your supervisor** is not only your research director, he **is there to help you** (but not to do your job) with all parts of the scientific work.
---
1 There're people who reject reviews in Elsevier and Springer and some other publishers' journals, because they don't like the fact that these companies profit from it a lot. That's probably fine, too.
2 It's in general good practice to reply to the editor and say whether you accept. Unfortunately, not many people do it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: 1. Yes, PhD student often have more time available than Faculty and they are actively keeping up with the literature themselves.
2. Disadvantages - a good review takes quite a bit of time. Advantages - it's useful experience, you can add it to your CV, you will learn a little bit more about active work in your field.
3. Yes, that's fine.
In terms of writing a good review, you will find a lot of helpful advice from any Google search. The one thing I would add to that is that (at least in Computer Science) it is sometimes quite easy to spot reviews from PhD students as they tend to be harsh and unhelpful. As a student yourself you are probably used to getting a lot of feedback on your work, and that is good. Don't be tempted to take your frustration out on the poor person who has written the paper you are reviewing.
Remember that at least part of the purpose of reviewing is to **increase** the quality of work in the field. If you review a paper which is rejected, likely it will be submitted elsewhere. If you accept the paper, the authors will improve it before final submission. So the purpose of the review, apart from quality control, is to tell the authors specifically how to improve their work. Avoid being vague in your criticism and avoid taking an unprofessional tone. Even if reviews are "blind", write as if the authors know you (and chances are that at some point you will meet them). Think about how you would wish your supervisors to give you feedback, and take your own advice.
By far the best reviews I have ever had have not been the most complimentary ones, or reviews from the best places I have submitted to, but they have certainly been the most helpful. They contained comments like "X is a poor presentation of the data, use the technique mentioned in paper Y". Or, "the author has used technique Z, this is outdated and should be replaced with W". The worst reviews I have had may well have been correct in what they said, but they have also been rude and unhelpful. For example, "X is not novel" is a fine criticism to make, but to be *useful* you need to say where X has been done before.
Upvotes: 3 |
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