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2014/07/06 | 1,089 | 4,738 | <issue_start>username_0: I am currently a Senior undergrad at a small school in the US. I have pretty good grades and have yet to take the GRE. I am a double major in Accounting and Business Management. I love economics (all parts I have encountered) but I am not sure if economics programs are for me.
I have heard that PhD/Masters Economics programs are very math intense, and without the proper courses you will be lost. I am not that great at math maybe because I never was that interested in it (I do like numbers if that makes sense). I did take Econometrics this past semester and really loved it and understood it. I do like behavioral economics; I find the psychology side very interesting.
**Summary:** I am not great at math. I love how economists think. I love being able to explain things with data. And I like how psychology can explain irrational acts. I want to further my education.
**Questions:**
What program(s) should I be looking into based on my interests and capabilities?
How math heavy are economics programs (PhD & Masters)?
Is it mostly econometric math?
Is there a similar field without the crazy math but with econometrics?
Is the US the best place for me (where I am now)?<issue_comment>username_1: I'm a little unclear about why you might want the very first, but at least in CS you have a limited history to work with.
The most detailed way to find this is to start with current papers (maybe a good review article) on the subject and to track back the references until you find the first one, paper-by-paper. If you already have a few early papers, obviously looking at their references is a better place to start. You haven't given us the topic area, but you might just ask for the earliest papers on the [CS Theory Stackexchange](https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/). You might also try searching on Google by year if you are certain that you know the right keywords--binary searching the years back to 1900 or so will probably be most efficient.
Finding the right paper might be a little challenging, especially if the topic has changed names a few times since it started.
Edited to add: If you are at a university with a good library system, you might find a research librarian who does this kind of thing for a living and ask them for help.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: While your question was already anwered by username_1, I want to try and answer the question that you should have asked:
>
> How to find the right paper to cite for well established facts / problems / theorems / etc.
>
>
>
If this is what you actually intended, than the first paper ever published on the topic is only one possibility. Often a better option is to look for a good review paper on the topic and cite that. A reader is much more likely to gain knowledge from a good review than a (probably decades old) first publication.
Have a look around, how others cite this specific subject and immitate them if you want to make sure not to violate unwritten etiquette. There are basically three possibilities
* No citation: The subject is assumed common knowledge and can probably be found in any standard textbook.
* citing the original paper: this is what you intended. Even if the first publication on the subject will likely not include all of the knowledge on the subject that you have and the reader might thus need to look at other publications as well, this is often done to acknowledge the work that the original author put into this. Make sure that you reference any further work that is needed to understand your work, e.g. during your own summary of the subject.
* citing a recent paper or review article: a) The subject is likely already well established and almost assumed common knowledge. The citation helps the reader to either catch up on some recent developments (paper) or to get a general overview (review). b) The subject has a long and active history. The subject in the formulation that you use probably has no clear first author. Due to numerous modifications / the natural evolution of notation etc. the original publication on the topic is probably of no use to the reader. In this case either a paper with a good introduction or a review can be cited.
Of course combinations of the above are possible as well. E.g. citing the original paper to acknowledge the first author as well as a review article such that the reader might catch up on any results that are already available prior to your work.
Unless you are currently writing a review though, you are not required to dig through generations of publications to find the first paper on a subject. If nobody in your field cites it, you can safely stick with one of the other two options.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/06 | 994 | 4,130 | <issue_start>username_0: I plan to apply for PhD in Finance/Statistics next semester, and hence searched for potential supervisors.
An issue I have is that many interesting candidates are above age 60, and in Germany Professors retire at 65, such that a subsequent post-doc/habilitation would most likely require a different supervisor after PhD. One Professor just started his position at age 40, but so he has not many notable publications and I am unsure whether he might change university soon (he just changed it from another 4 years position).
Could someone advise me on the importance of age for selecting a PhD supervisor in context of a long-term future academic career?
The time for PhD would be 4-5 years, and PostDoc/Habilitation/AssociateProf usually again 4-6 years, with goal of potentially becoming Full Professor in Finance/Statistics.<issue_comment>username_1: First: a few people commented that thinking about your postdoc/Habilitation before even starting your Ph.D. is premature. I disagree. I have seen too many people coast along during their Ph.D. time without ever knowing what they are going to do afterwards, and certainly not preparing for their post-Ph.D. time, whether in academia or in industry. So I would say you demonstrate good long-term thinking. Already thinking about your academic career will help you prepare to work out a research program, network (more on this below) etc.
Second: there is no problem whatsoever with changing advisors between the Ph.D. and the postdoc period. To the contrary! If you stay at the same place for almost ten years, you will need to explain why you never moved, never checked out other places to work, other approaches to research. Many, many (most?) people will switch advisors at least once, or possibly even do postdocs in two different places.
Incidentally, this is why I think it is a good thing you are already thinking about your long-term future *now*, because it is never too early to start meeting people at conferences with your future in mind. You may just meet someone at your first conference who you could collaborate with or spend your postdoc time with.
So I would definitely recommend that you consider the older potential advisor. He sounds like he could introduce you to lots of people, and you will likely not need to pack up and move somewhere else *during* your Ph.D. period, which seems possible with the younger professor and which could somewhat mess up your personal life.
Of course, these considerations are all not the highest priority. You should definitely keep other aspects in mind in choosing where to do your Ph.D., like the kind of project you would be doing for either of the two professors, or whether the two of you "click" on a personal level, or what financing there is, or [lots of other things you should discuss with your potential advisor ahead of time](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23130/what-should-i-ask-my-potential-ph-d-advisor-in-advance-before-actually-signing).
Finally, there is no Habilitation in Germany any more. Nowadays, Germany has moved to a more American style in academic careers. You will do a Ph.D., then a postdoc, then usually a *Juniorprofessur* (roughly, assistant professorship - not tenured and limited to six years), then get your *Ruf* to a tenured position. It's quite possible to skip the *Juniorprofessur*, though.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As others have mentioned, planning the trajectory of your academic career past your PhD is very premature at this point. (After all, one of the jobs of your PhD advisor is precisely to help you with this.)
Something that -- surprisingly -- has not been mentioned so far: *Talk to the professors*. Taking on a PhD student is a serious commitment no advisor will make lightly, so if they have any doubts whether you can complete the thesis with them (either because they plan on retiring completely from academic life, or moving next year to a different continent), they will tell you so. We can only guess at the likelihood, but they will (hopefully) have a much clearer idea.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/06 | 2,497 | 10,386 | <issue_start>username_0: I am being considered for a job in Germany (W1 junior-professorship) and I was hoping to get some insights regarding the process as I come from the US system and am unfamiliar with how things work in Germany.
1. I notice that the application packages do not require inclusion of recommendation letters. In the US, the typical requirement is that the application package includes at least 3 letters. Will the schools require recommendation letters once selected for an interview or the job? Do letters or references play any significant role at all?
2. Selection: I know this should vary by case, but how many people do they tend to put on their short list?
3. Interviews: I get a feeling that the interview process is brief and a lot less tiring than the American system (for a R1: Typically a 3-day campus visit, job talk, endless meetings with professors, deans, grad students, teaching demonstration, etc, etc). What do they focus on in Germany? (I am asking this as I was invited for an interview, but I was not even asked to do a job talk or teaching demonstration) Are there typically multiple rounds of interviews?
4. Selection committee: That some European departments practically have a one-person decision making body came as a surprise when I first came to Europe. How is the case in Germany? How many people in the department are typically involved in the decision making process?
5. Final decision: How fast do they move with their final decisions? For example, the job I am considering only has about a four month gap between application deadline and position start date. This is significantly shorter than a typical US-Search where many schools begin examining applications a year before the position start date, and tells me that they should be moving fairly fast with the decision. Any inputs?
I know these might be a lot of questions. As someone unfamiliar with the system, I am hoping to gain as much insight as possible.<issue_comment>username_1: I have some hearsay knowledge about the hiring process for W1 positions. I will do my best to answer correctly, but maybe username_2 can chime in later - I think he is currently on such a position.
>
> 1) I notice that the application packages do not require inclusion of recommendation letters. In the US, the typical requirement is that the application package includes at least 3 letters. Will the schools require recommendation letters once selected for an interview or the job? Do letters or references play any significant role at all?
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If they did not ask, they probably don't need / want them. In central Europe, letters of recommendation are not traditionally asked for. Many institutions are now starting to ask for LoRs as they adapt more of an US system, but it is certainly not *that* uncommon that they did not want to see letters.
As Dirk points out in the comments: instead of letters, the committee will often ask experts in your field for "comparing reports", however, this is not under your influence. You cannot select said experts, and you will never see the result.
>
> 2) Selection: I know this should vary by case, but how many people do they tend to put on their short list?
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As you say, it varies by case, but traditionally at least 3. Dirk states that his experience is rather "at most 3", often less. Let's agree on three-ish.
>
> 3) Interviews: I get a feeling that the interview process is brief and a lot less tiring than the American system (for a R1: Typically a 3-day campus visit, job talk, endless meetings with professors, deans, grad students, teaching demonstration, etc, etc). What do they focus on in Germany? (I am asking this as I was invited for an interview, but I was not even asked to do a job talk or teaching demonstration) Are there typically multiple rounds of interviews?
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This varies a lot. I have once applied for a job where they invited people for an entire week. However, a one-day campus visit with a talk, dinner, and some meetings with core faculty seems usual. Again, Dirk says: *"Always a research talk, always a job interview, often a teaching demonstration, seldomly further meetings or campus tours, never a dinner."*.
>
> 4) Selection committee: That some European departments practically have a one-person decision making body came as a surprise when I first came to Europe. How is the case in Germany? How many people in the department are typically involved in the decision making process?
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Again, varies a lot. Formally, the decision is usually a committee decision, but in reality the actual power often lies with a single person (either the dean or the head of the institute / lab that the W1 professor would be assigned to).
>
> 5) Final decision: How fast do they move with their final decisions? For example, the job I am considering only has about a four month gap between application deadline and position start date. This is significantly shorter than a typical US-Search where many schools begin examining applications a year before the position start date, and tells me that they should be moving fairly fast with the decision. Any inputs?
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I have no idea. My impression was so far that the process does often not move very fast, but I am sure there are exceptions. Dirk says that one should be prepared to wait at least a few months, but I guess that is true for every committee decision.
All that being said, I should warn you that the actual job of a W1-Professor in Germany is not very well-defined. Some are actual independent professors with their own group, own money, and own research agenda, but some are little more than glorified postdocs with very little factual independence. My instinct is that if they do not make a lot of fuss about "your" job during the application phase, the position you applied to may fall into the latter category. You would be well served to ask very concretely what your actual working conditions would be.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: As username_1 mentioned in his answer, I do indeed hold such a position, and have also sat in on a search committee (as a non-voting "interested bystander").
>
> 1) I notice that the application packages do not require inclusion of recommendation letters. In the US, the typical requirement is that the application package includes at least 3 letters. Will the schools require recommendation letters once selected for an interview or the job? Do letters or references play any significant role at all?
>
>
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It could go either way, depending on the preferences of the chair of the committee. In my process, my references *were* asked for recommendations; for the committee I observed, they asked "neutral parties" who could comment on all of the finalists.
However, one thing is absolutely certain: your PhD advisor (or *Doktorvater* in German parlance) will **never** be asked to submit a letter of reference on your behalf.
>
> 2) Selection: I know this should vary by case, but how many people do they tend to put on their short list?
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>
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Typically four to six people are put on the list of interviews, while two or three usually make the final "ranked" list to be asked if they are interested in the position.
>
> 3) Interviews: I get a feeling that the interview process is brief and a lot less tiring than the American system (for a R1: Typically a 3-day campus visit, job talk, endless meetings with professors, deans, grad students, teaching demonstration, etc, etc). What do they focus on in Germany? (I am asking this as I was invited for an interview, but I was not even asked to do a job talk or teaching demonstration) Are there typically multiple rounds of interviews?
>
>
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Typically, there is only a single interview, and it is indeed far briefer than a US-based job or faculty search interview. None of the interviews I've had have been longer than two hours in duration, including any teaching presentations.
The focus in such junior positions is almost always on research, with very limited emphasis on teaching. You should plan to talk about what you've already done, and what proposed work you'd want to start. You'd also want to give some thought as to how you would recruit students (always a challenge for junior faculty in Germany).
>
> 4) Selection committee: That some European departments practically have a one-person decision making body came as a surprise when I first came to Europe. How is the case in Germany? How many people in the department are typically involved in the decision making process?
>
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It's not a one-person decision making process, but it's also not a very large group, either. Typically, there will be between five to nine voting members of the selection committee, including the chair, other professors, and possibly students and equal opportunity staff from the university (who can refuse to give permission for the hiring process to go forward if viable underrepresented candidates were not given due consideration).
>
> 5) Final decision: How fast do they move with their final decisions? For example, the job I am considering only has about a four-month gap between application deadline and position start date. This is significantly shorter than a typical US-Search where many schools begin examining applications a year before the position start date, and tells me that they should be moving fairly fast with the decision. Any inputs?
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It took about six months after my interview to receive an "offer" from the university, which I found rather slow, but having had more experience with German academic bureaucracy, I no longer find that surprising. (I find the four-month timetable frankly overly aggressive, and would expect that the actual start date would be substantially later than their target date.) However, every university and faculty within a university has its own way of doing things, so what might take six months in one faculty might take two months in another.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I applied for a similar position, coming from the UK. Here's my experiences to add:
* They didn't require letters of reference
* Interview: 1 day: presentation / teaching / research
* Timeline:
application deadline
* 2 weeks: invitation for interview
* 2 weeks: interview
* 8 weeks: received offer letter
* 8 weeks: start of employment
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/06 | 1,162 | 5,045 | <issue_start>username_0: A model lesson is a usual element in interviews for the faculty level positions. Normally this is not a full lesson but a 15-minute version which is performed in absence of actual students for just a few professors from a hiring committee. It is supposed to demonstrate "your teaching style", but by design this is clearly a different enterprise: you should "act normal" doing "the same" things
1. in a different time-frame,
2. for a different audience,
3. with completely different motivation and
4. under exorbitant cost of failure.
Having said this, I also acknowledge the model lesson as indeed a much needed element of the interview, which helps to assess a candidate's set of relevant skills.
The question is how one can ideally prepare to give such a model lesson. Putting aside obvious things like "structure of the talk," "clear slides," "projection of the voice," and "body language", which normally should be already trained by experience, are there specific things that should be taken into account for the model lesson only? What about techniques like jokes, questions to the audience (e.g. *how many of you are familiar with the definition of the derivative*), work in pairs, which you probably use in a real classroom — is it a good idea to demonstrate them in a room full of senior professors? I am a little confused.<issue_comment>username_1: Having done this, I'd advise:
* Take it really seriously. In places where candidates are judged equally on teaching and research, the model lesson could really make the difference. Strong researchers may neglect it, relying on their publication/citation record.
* Make sure you prepare for the expected audience (in my case, 1st year students), not the actual audience (academics).
* Feel free to use techniques you would use in a classroom, but then use "time jumps" to indicate that the activity has taken place. The problem with this is that if you have follow up questions, there may be no answers and the lecture may fall flat.
* Don't forget "learning objectives" and "lecture structure" up front, and other guidelines for students throughout (though you probably can only show one such thing).
* Practice more than you would practice for an actual lecture.
* No corny jokes. If you cannot tell whether a joke is corny, then assume it is. In fact, beware of jokes. Relying on natural humour is probably better.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I participated to this kind of interviews, as an applicant as well as a committe member. For the exemple, I will assume that you are applying to a position as a maths teacher.
* As username_1 mentioned, prepare for the expected audience. If your are expected to teach to maths major in a very good institution, it is not a big problem to show off your skills by lecturing at a level *a little bit* above the expected audience's level. But avoid this if your expected audience is notoriously weak or non maths majors. I got rejected once because I was "too good" for the position.
* To prepare the lecture, you should study the curriculum of the institution you will be teaching. You usually can find it on the institution's website. It is important since it helps you to do the lecture at right level, but also helps you to connect your lecture to other topics (especially when your expected students are not maths major) studied by your future students. It will make you more comfortable for the questions that usually follow the interview.
* Only do things you usually do in class. An interview is definitely not the place to experiment a new teaching method. Last month, a candidate with an impressive CV failed an interview in my institution by trying to use a computer and videoprojector, thing he obviously never did before. The result was pityful.
* Make sure your connect the lecture to the lectures sequence of a real course. So, take time to tell what students should have studied in the previous lectures, and which problems (related to the current lecture) they will solve in future lectures. This is something you probably already do in a normal lecture, but it is especially important here since the committee wants to know if you can organize a complete course.
* But putting your lecture in context does not mean reviewing the (expected) previous lecture, you have no time for being off-topic.
* I would not prepare a joke, as if it was a stand-up comedy. But, if an opportunity to make a joke, I would take it in order to make a more decontracted atmosphere. Beside hiring the best teacher, the committee wants to hire someone who they feel comfortable to work with. To sum up, your goal is to appear as a reliable, professional, open-minded and with team spirit person.
* Even if I do it in class, I would not prepare any activity where the audience participates -or only a very short one-, since it takes too much time (except for a foreign language teacher interview). But I would try to interact as much as I can with the audience through questions.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/07 | 2,790 | 11,242 | <issue_start>username_0: Recently, someone analyzed [computer science professors at top universities](http://jeffhuang.com/computer_science_professors.html) and found that over half of the professors at the top 51 universities graduated from a top 10 university. [Others](http://chronicle.com/article/What-Are-Low-Ranked-Graduate/136823/) have also brought this up. From my personal observations, most schools do hire graduates from better ranked schools.
1. Is this because of the competitive job market? *We have so many good applicants, we have to narrow it down some how!*
2. Or is it simply that these schools produce the most PhDs?
3. Has this always been the case?
4. How rare are exceptions to this? I know of a few people who graduated from a top 75 school and got hired at a top 50 school. But what about bigger gaps? The top 10 schools seem to just swap graduates, do they ever hire from a 50+ ranked school?
**Update 2018:** I have accepted a tenure-track position at a top 75 department at an R1 university immediately after graduating from an unranked department at an R2 university. It does happen!
This may or may not generalize to other fields and countries.<issue_comment>username_1: The top ranked doctoral programs get the cream of each year's incoming graduate application pool because they can offer access to the top professors, top research libraries, and have tons of money to spend on tuition waivers, stipends, summer research money, etc. They can effectively outbid other programs and choose the people who seem to have the most promise (or are advantaged in having Famous People write for them, etc. etc.).
Graduate students at top ranked programs don't have to spend as much time doing non-research activities such as teaching and waitressing to pay the bills as they're getting most of their living expenses covered. They instead can focus on their research and publications, resulting in a flush CV by the time they graduate.
This leads grant agencies and hiring departments to assume that the graduating students at the top ranked programs are indeed the best of the best. They certainly have the imprimatur of the Best Programs® and Famous People® are writing them letters of support.
This is almost certainly a flawed assumption, but when faced with 200 grant or job applications, it's a shortcut many search committees make. Ideally they should just look at the candidate's qualifications without considering the school or the Famous People® who wrote for them.
But even if we redacted program names in applications, the very fact that having gone to a top-ranked place gives people a huge material difference/advantage in resources available while they are in the program, and this is evident in their CVs which are long with lots of publications and talks in the Right Places®.
In a totally fair world, we'd do what google does and throw away (or at the very least redact) CVs and letters and instead interview people one by one. But try to convince a provost and a search committee to go along with that. It would take too long and cost too much.
Interestingly, as fewer and fewer people get jobs straight out of graduate school and everyone now has to have a post-doc or visiting position, this has served as a slightly equalizing factor as hiring schools can look at performance there as a better indication of inherent ability.
Note 1: People can and do move from lower ranked to higher ranked schools, but usually they don't do it in their first job. Rather, from a low-ranked they get hired at a mid-ranked school, then through publishing and publishing and publishing, they get hired away into a top-ranked (perhaps going through one or two job hops along the way).
Note 2: Top ranked universities (as well as everyone else) have overproduced so many PhDs in pretty much every field that there is market saturation. Even graduates at top-ranked programs are having trouble finding jobs -- even as adjuncts and NTT faculty. In a true market economy, the suppliers would be forced to lower production in the face of oversupply, but academia is not a market economy and having doctoral students is seen as a source of prestige for both faculty and institutions alike. Unless we can increase demand (by forcing schools to hire TT faculty instead of contingents, or other means) or reduce supply, we're all screwed but the folks graduating from mid- and lower-tier schools are screwed the most.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: People are occasionally hired by far more prestigious universities than the ones they studied at. For example, there's a tenured professor in the Princeton math department (unambiguously among the top 5 departments in the U.S.) who received his Ph.D. in 1999 from Kansas State (which wouldn't necessarily make the top 75). Where your degree is from is a negligible factor in hiring decisions compared with how outstanding your research is.
On the other hand, research excellence is highly correlated with which doctoral program you attend. The top programs tend to get the students with the most talent, determination, and preparation, and they usually provide the most support for these students to succeed. Of course this is just a statistical assertion, not an absolute law. However, in mathematics in the U.S., the number of students graduating each year from rank 50-75 universities whose job applications are as impressive in research as those of the average top-5 graduate is tiny. If you're hiring based on research promise, then even the most unbiased search should lead to hiring mainly people from higher-end schools. Of course there's presumably some prejudice as well, but I don't think it's a substantial factor at research universities. (I have no first-hand experience with hiring at teaching-oriented schools. In particular, I don't know how overrepresented graduates of prestigious universities are or which factors are responsible for it.)
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: <NAME> addressed this issue for sociology back in 2004 in the American Sociological Review and the article has now became quite a well-known piece of scholarly work within the discipline.
<http://asr.sagepub.com/content/69/2/239.short>
He basically argues that while departmental prestige is quite loosely correlated with the scholarly productivity of its graduates, being high-prestige school graduate gives one the necessary social and network capital to be placed within the institutionalised system of prestige sustained through the accumulated and "closed" interlinkages between top departments. Although the bulk of his analysis examines sociology placement records, he also provides some comparative data on the hiring of history and political science faculty, and finds that the relationship is quite robust while those latter disciplines tend to reinforce status hierarchies more so than sociology.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Here's a numerical perspective on this. Let's take the position that students graduating from highly-ranked schools have competitive advantage against other students (i.e. they are "better", and will generally be hired when their applications are compared with students of less prestigious schools). Now, consider how many positions are available at each level:
* Undergraduate: Typically, a college will have hundreds if not thousands of students in each year, of varying majors. In my major (math), let's say 5% of the class has it. At my school there were 1000 students graduating, so let's say 50 math majors (actually, it was more like 80).
* Graduate: Typically, a graduate school department will have tens of students per year. A small number of tens; at my undergraduate institution (Chicago), the corresponding graduate school has about 100 *total* students, for about 20 per year. So, with similar figures at other schools, only 0.4 of math majors can go to graduate school. Fortunately, not everyone wants to.
* Post-doctoral: Most math departments only have a handful of postdoc positions; let's say 10 (which is actually on the high end). So only 0.5 of graduating students can get postdocs. Of course, there are teaching jobs available at schools that don't produce PhDs, but those are "lesser universities".
* Tenure-track: In any year, any department might have three of these. Or one, or none. That means that 0.3 of postdocs will go on to a more permanent position.
At each stage the number of people accepted to the next level is a small fraction of the total number of applicants, and so the schools can pick and choose whom they take; of course, they will take the "best" applicants, which (according to my conventions) will generally come from the highly-ranked universities. The alumni of just the top 10 universities are sufficient to fill all positions at all universities that are at all desirable (to researchers, that is).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Universities typically hire the best people they can. And sometimes they can be found as graduates of lesser universities.
One of my favorite professors, who went from Yale to Ohio State, indicated how this could happen. His opinion was that a top 10 percent student at Ohio State was just as good as a top 10 percent student at Yale. So a top 10 percent student from Ohio State who applied to a high level university could be very competitive with a top 10 percent student from Yale, provided that research, letters of recommendation, and other aspects of the application were competitive.
Where the professor saw value in a Yale degree was that an average Yale graduate would be accepted in many places that an average Ohio State graduate would not be.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Look at:
* <NAME> et al., [Career on the Move: Geography, Stratification, and Scientific Impact](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep0477), Scientific Reports 4, Article number: 4770 (2014)
From its abstract:
>
> We find that career movements are not only temporally and spatially localized, but also characterized by a high degree of stratification in institutional ranking. When cross-group movement occurs, we find that while going from elite to lower-rank institutions on average associates with modest decrease in scientific performance, transitioning into elite institutions does not result in subsequent performance gain.
>
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Inside, there are plots quantifying transition from institutions of different rank.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Another statistic: according to Wikipedia the 62 institutions of the [Association of American Universities](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_American_Universities) (AAU) issue 52% of doctoral degrees in the U.S. So, in the U.S. system, even if we discount any effect of institutional ranking, these schools should still account for half of the hiring of doctoral recipients. Of course, there is also an effect of university quality, so the AAU schools should account for more than half of hires. On the other hand, of course there are exceptional faculty who did not attend top-ranked schools. But the statistics suggest we shouldn't be surprised to find many faculty from a relatively small number of schools.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/07 | 1,809 | 7,194 | <issue_start>username_0: I earned my bachelors in Computer Engineering from my home country. I am now enrolled in a Physics masters program in the same university. Next year I plan to find a different university in Europe in which to enroll in a Computer Engineering PhD program.
However I doubt that I'll receive any scholarships from my homeland's government when studying abroad. Can I survive if I start to live out of my own my pocket? Is that enough to live in Europe just for a half year. Are there any available funds that can supplement my income such as a TA/RA's salary?
My main question is:
1. How to survive if I want to study PhD in Europe without any scholarship from my home country?
2. Which country might provide sufficient support for a foreigner to study at graduate level?
*I am interested to Germany and Finland but any European country would be acceptable!*<issue_comment>username_1: As a Ph.D. student in (continental) Europe, you are an employee of the university (or other institution), and so you earn a salary. "Scholarships" are only for undergraduate and Master's students. Normally, the salary will be mentioned in the job postings you apply to ([here](http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/pipermail/types-announce/2014/004695.html)'s a typical one), this answers your question 1.
As for 2, the level of funding varies between positions, depending on available funding at the insitution, etc. This is not country-dependent.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In Norway, and I believe in other Scandinavian countries, a PhD student is considered as a university employee. The salary is more than enough for you to support yourself, and even your family if you have one. In the UK, a PhD studentship is usually restricted only to UK and EU nationals.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I only know the situation in Germany:
In order to get a visa, you are required to show that you can fund your PhD study. Either by scholarship, salary, or your personal means.
Usually, at least in CS, PhD students are employees of the university. You don't sign a contract that you are going to do a PhD, instead, you sign a contract that you will work for the university, "and you will be supported for doing a PhD". Your salary will be more than enough to support yourself (and thus for visa regulations).
However, it is also possible to do an external PhD. In this case you will not be an employee, rather a PhD student. What you need would be to find a professor who is willing to advise your work. In this case, you might get some scholarship from institutions like DAAD.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: In Spain, enrolling in the PhD programme and getting funding are two independent processes (then there might be visa issues which I do not know about). I am going to tell you about my experience a few years ago (roughly 2005-2010).
Tuition fees for PhD are usually low, and any kind of financial support you can find will usually cover them.
In order to receive funding, you usually need to be enrolled, or at least admitted, in a PhD program, with an advisor and a strong research proposal. The typical PhD fellowship/contract used to be around 1000 euros per month, during a maximum of 4 years. This was just enough to live in Madrid, and a decent salary in many small towns. Both salaries and flat rents have gone down in the last few years, although other costs of living have been going up, but it's a good first estimate of how much money you will need. Sadly, with the crisis, the research budgets have been slashed and it's even more difficult to find financial support than it already was.
Cost of living can vary wildly even between Spanish cities, with Madrid and Barcelona among the most expensive, and smaller towns such as Oviedo or Granada much more affordable.
All in all, while Spain is probably not the best bet in terms of receiving financial support for research at the moment, it does have lower costs of living than other European countries. Since I don't know where you're at the moment, I can't compare how much your money will stretch in comparison.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: First of all it would be extremely helpful if you could provide some information about your homeland.
I'll give a general case of steps that you could do, and then a more specific case for Germany.
In general there are different possibilities to get funding for studies in EU.
1. Your government provides scholarships for studies in certain countries
2. The embassy/government of the country which you want to do your studies provides scholarships for foreign students
3. Some 3rd party organization (European Union, European Council, NGO etc)
4. The university itself has a scholarship program for foreign students
So basically what you will have to do, is visit the websites of the entities which I have listed above, and try to find the scholarships.
In the case of Germany that would be
1. (This is related to your government)
2. German Embassy in your country / DAAD
3. Erasmus plus / Erasmus mundus / programme
4. International office of your target univerisity
In general, **do not hesitate to contact all the stakeholders** (people etc.), that could provide you useful information; Also contact the Professor of the group that you would like to work your Phd at. They always have something in their hand.
The last and most obvious solution is getting a job. In the case of Germany as a student you are allowed to work up to 20 hours per week. If the living costs are not very expensive you can survive easily with that money. If you assume that you will be payed at least 9,5 euros per hour (this is really low), so you have the chance to go up to 13 euros per hour.
If you earn up to 450 euros per month, you don't have to pay taxes in Germany, anything more than that is subject to taxing.
Finally, in order to get the student visa in Germany you need to have 8000 eu in Bank upfront, or a documentation which confirms that you have the required funding to have at least 650 eu per month for living costs. 650 is the living cost calculated by the German government.
Have a look at this sites as well:
<http://www.phdportal.eu/>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Cost of living in european countries is extremely variable. E.g. being a student in Kiel, Germany, I was able to live for 500€ per month, living in comfortable single room in 2-3 rooms flat, and eating/drinking outside quite often. A friend of mine is doing her phd in Oulu, Finland. A salary is about 4 times higher, but it is all wasted for living costs. Every country has their own rules for medical insurance and taxes and so on, in some countries it can be very expensive.
My way would be seeking for a funded position, and based on contract decide whether you can live there for such money or not.
I would not recommend Spain for finding a position because you will get into troubles for getting work permit as you are not EU citizen.
Also, according to my own experience, EU countries usually give very limited work permits for PhD students, so funding your studies from other work in EU might be really an issue.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/07 | 354 | 1,516 | <issue_start>username_0: I am writing a master thesis. When must I cite a resource I used ? Most of the time, I read a definition in a given book and express it in my own words: must I mention the book in question for this particular case ?<issue_comment>username_1: If you recall a definition which may be unknown to your users, it is always a good idea to refer to a book/article from which the notion originates. Do this even (actually, especially) if you choose to rephrase the definition in your own words. Remember, references are important to navigate your readers and put your work in a context. Definitions are no exception.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: This requires judgment. You do not generally need to cite things which are considered common or general knowledge.
Example 1: If you are mentioning Brownian motion that you observed in particles on a petri dish, you might not have to cite Brown's original 1828 paper, but if you are discussing the motion of black holes due to macro scale Brownian forces you might want to cite the relevant recent literature.
Example 2: In the social sciences, there are various lineages of even basic concepts such as "resistance." In these cases, it's good to note which intellectual thread you're following.
TL;DR: If you are writing your thesis, you generally want to err on the side of having too many citations rather than too few. It prevents faculty from scribbling "where the hell did you get this from" in the margins.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/07 | 517 | 2,260 | <issue_start>username_0: Quite too many times I have read in a research article claiming that the source code will be made available, and, when I look for it, it turns out that the source code still hasn't been released.
Are there any journals or conferences that take into account the availability of the source code when selecting the papers to publish? By availability I mean present availability, not some vague promise of code release sometime in the future somewhere on Internet.
Now code availability is one thing, clarity is another. I have seen a lot of emphasis on the papers' clarity in the paper selection criteria, do some publication venues pay attention to code clarity during the paper selection process?
Obviously, I have the same issue with datasets, so I am wondering the same for them, i.e. are there any journals or conferences that take into account the availability of the *dataset(s)* when selecting the papers to publish?<issue_comment>username_1: I can confirm the answer given by [amlrg](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15151/amlrg) in comments. I have recently published a paper in [Computer Physics Communications](http://www.journals.elsevier.com/computer-physics-communications/) and the referees pay significant attention to the code. There was no requirement, however, to upload the code as Supplementary Material with the paper — the referees were happy to consider our public github repository. It was probably the first time in my practice when referees have actually bother themselves to reproduce the results claimed. We had a number of comments regarding the clarity of the run files in the code (but not in the rest of it), and even a suggestion on design.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: There exist at least one journal, [Ipol](http://www.ipol.im/), where it is mandatory to provide the source-code related to the paper. In fact, they raise the bar much higher: the authors must implement the code in a given language, so that the algorithm is available for experimentation on line. You can actually test and try the algorithms of all published papers right now, in a few clicks.
It is a specialized journal in image processing, but it could (should) inspire other fields to do the same.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/07 | 3,831 | 10,161 | <issue_start>username_0: In the My Library of Google Scholar, is there a way to export all of the citations, whether to BibTex or something similar?<issue_comment>username_1: As far as I know Google does not offer a user interface to do that. Actually they still do not offer an API to interact with your results.
However, if you can handle code a little or you know someone who does, I found [this](http://www.icir.org/christian/scholar.html).
As they say, you: Can extract publication title, main online URL, number of citations, number of online versions, link to Google Scholar's main cluster for the work, and Google Scholar's cluster of all works referencing the publication.
Since you have this information you can write another script that puts what you need into BibTex.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I can only add that you can download citations *one by one*:
* in **Settings > Bibliography Manager**, check *Show link to import citation into BibTex*.
With that, you can probably write a script (maybe using Scholar.py) that downloads all your citations.
An example URL is:
```
http://scholar.google.com/scholar.bib?scila=u_35RYKgDlwC&output=citation&hl=en&ct=citation&cd=1
```
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: As of August 31, 2016, this functionality has been added! See this blog post: <https://googlescholar.blogspot.com/2016/08/organizing-your-scholar-library.html>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I couldn't find a way to export *all* citations from **My Library** (it seems to only work one page at a time), but it's possible to save all citations from the edit mode of **My Citations**:
* Log in to <https://scholar.google.ca>
* Click [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0tUZT.png)My Citations
* Click the leftmost checkbox on the bar at the top of the list of citations:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nIwUK.png)
* Click **Export > BibTeX** and choose **Export all my articles** then **Export**
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tYroR.png)
You should get a browser window with the BibTeX file of your citations that you can "Save as..." or copy/paste to a text editor and save.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: You can use the [scholar](https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/scholar/index.html) R package. I copied this answer from this [tweet](https://twitter.com/Protohedgehog/status/999023873235537920?s=09), in R
```
install.packages("scholar")
library(scholar)
ID <- "Put your id from pic below in here"
pubs <- get_publications(ID)
write.csv(pubs, file="citations.csv")
```
There may be another package which allows you to write out bibtex.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/OmZag.jpg)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: [Here](https://github.com/leventsagun/scholar-bib-scraper) is a little python script that emulates the copy paste of bib entries of all references in **My Library** and appends them to a file.
It utilizes [Selenium](https://selenium-python.readthedocs.io/) and [chromedriver](http://chromedriver.chromium.org/) to open and navigate the browser. Initial run requires manual login. Then it goes to **My Library**, selects all, clicks on bibtex export, copies and appends the bibtex entries to a file, and goes to the next page until it crashes.
This way, I was able to automatically export all bibtex entries of the starred articles in my account on Google Scholar. Note that the code is far from being clean, many things are hard coded. But it got the job done for me when I needed a solution rather quickly, but there is huge room for improvement!
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_7: **Disclosure: I work at SerpApi.**
---
You can use [`google-search-results`](https://pypi.org/project/google-search-results) package to extract data from Google Scholar citations. [Check a demo at Repl.it](https://repl.it/@username_7/MinorBelovedApplication).
```
from serpapi.google_search_results import GoogleSearchResults
from more_itertools import first_true
client = GoogleSearchResults({
"engine": "google_scholar",
"q": "coffee",
})
data = client.get_dict()
print("Links")
for result in data['organic_results']:
client = GoogleSearchResults({
"api_key":
"demo",
"engine":
"google_scholar_cite",
"q":
result["result_id"],
})
data = client.get_dict()
link = first_true(data['links'], lambda link: link['name'] == 'BibTex',
None)
print(f"""
Name: {link['name']}
Link: {link['link']}""")
```
Output
```
Links
Name: BibTeX
Link: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.bib?q=info:re9ssrU-exUJ:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgUgMydbGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSezaQALOlFVjCLJgcTVUPBVLhAC4P_&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSezSdi7qdJVVpppb0Qjy9URFYAVvDb&scisf=4&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en
Name: BibTeX
Link: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.bib?q=info:9WouRiFbIK4J:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgXJdXzTGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSe_tPBybZ8u8VTSEOl_bwnW6MesS32&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSe_q2vGhtlDC1qD-MUihajS43pIwqJ&scisf=4&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en
Name: BibTeX
Link: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.bib?q=info:xY3q9qnkN54J:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgXhmeGHGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSe_zIPHELNrzNBJx7LANjv2IOpiu0c&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSe_98jnDbvzh1pjf3N-yQyeXjJ2Ymt&scisf=4&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en
Name: BibTeX
Link: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.bib?q=info:fGeQlvu-2_IJ:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgXtSK1OGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfAWesoBxkblC33sy6Mwvap1ZhRO4s&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfAZCH98TGUSWB69hUOtQPECUPTBby&scisf=4&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en
Name: BibTeX
Link: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.bib?q=info:Zu7aKNjvAUwJ:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgXIa_eGGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfArPmBDyaM3SUXrjLBzYMWDMRXpUv&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfAsZ2ayvj7ugoRdygul9ot981uovl&scisf=4&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en
Name: BibTeX
Link: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.bib?q=info:pIjQPO7__AYJ:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgVPosX6GAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfAzmhcfCJHuCELZ7mYASR3OXkOtGR&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfA1gD689aqgRLYIrefzXFAp-b3ohf&scisf=4&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en
Name: BibTeX
Link: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.bib?q=info:UwtLySK5iawJ:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgXEOW-BGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfBUlA7r5lA5aL2yNPviXWq9UMobDz&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfBU6nawZyrVvngRnT_fg9jVsm9aZi&scisf=4&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en
Name: BibTeX
Link: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.bib?q=info:fSVlrXX7dIUJ:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgVO0I1QGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfDLa1ZyBpvtn9R7iHWhtZPp1_5Rdq&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfDEISqsJV_AFPyBcG5RtNOL1rBZsC&scisf=4&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en
Name: BibTeX
Link: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.bib?q=info:_3o-xhuGyg0J:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgUsJS1HGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfDlzXSDxT7NaRePw8LQN5H6FAKj2l&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfDoaKmhM3yJGzMycKG9po8hpOwgQh&scisf=4&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en
Name: BibTeX
Link: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.bib?q=info:VJySkcFsQ1EJ:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgVZmmy9GAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfD1o5xq89bx4YdTidC0oBncMAiLHs&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSfD0LnTMh68lgySxXBcmf0hrJp8bTz&scisf=4&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en
```
JSON Response
```
{
"citations": [
{
"title": "MLA",
"snippet": "<NAME>, and <NAME>. \"Phenolic compounds in coffee.\" Brazilian journal of plant physiology 18.1 (2006): 23-36."
},
{
"title": "APA",
"snippet": "<NAME>., & <NAME>. (2006). Phenolic compounds in coffee. Brazilian journal of plant physiology, 18(1), 23-36."
},
{
"title": "Chicago",
"snippet": "Farah, Adriana, and <NAME>. \"Phenolic compounds in coffee.\" Brazilian journal of plant physiology 18, no. 1 (2006): 23-36."
},
{
"title": "Harvard",
"snippet": "<NAME>. and <NAME>., 2006. Phenolic compounds in coffee. Brazilian journal of plant physiology, 18(1), pp.23-36."
},
{
"title": "Vancouver",
"snippet": "<NAME>, Donangelo CM. Phenolic compounds in coffee. Brazilian journal of plant physiology. 2006 Mar;18(1):23-36."
}
],
"links": [
{
"name": "BibTeX",
"link": "https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.bib?q=info:re9ssrU-exUJ:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgUgMydbGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSezaQALOlFVjCLJgcTVUPBVLhAC4P_&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSezSdi7qdJVVpppb0Qjy9URFYAVvDb&scisf=4&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en"
},
{
"name": "EndNote",
"link": "https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.enw?q=info:re9ssrU-exUJ:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgUgMydbGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSezaQALOlFVjCLJgcTVUPBVLhAC4P_&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSezSdi7qdJVVpppb0Qjy9URFYAVvDb&scisf=3&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en"
},
{
"name": "RefMan",
"link": "https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.ris?q=info:re9ssrU-exUJ:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgUgMydbGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSezaQALOlFVjCLJgcTVUPBVLhAC4P_&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSezSdi7qdJVVpppb0Qjy9URFYAVvDb&scisf=2&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en"
},
{
"name": "RefWorks",
"link": "https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar.rfw?q=info:re9ssrU-exUJ:scholar.google.com/&output=citation&scisdr=CgUgMydbGAA:AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSezaQALOlFVjCLJgcTVUPBVLhAC4P_&scisig=AAGBfm0AAAAAXoSezSdi7qdJVVpppb0Qjy9URFYAVvDb&scisf=1&ct=citation&cd=-1&hl=en"
}
]
}
```
If you want more information, check out [SerpApi documentation](https://serpapi.com/google-scholar-cite-api) or [live playground](https://serpapi.com/playground?engine=google_scholar_cite&q=FDc6HiktlqEJ).
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/809Q2.png)
---
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/07 | 624 | 2,610 | <issue_start>username_0: For a paper with coauthors, what should I do if one coauthor, who I feel has contributed the most among my coauthors, declined to be listed as a coauthor and wished only to be acknowledged in the acknowledgements? The reason he gave for declining was that he did not think he has contributed significantly. The other coauthors knew this, but didn't say anything.
This happened once in the past, and at that time I did as requested by the coauthor, i.e. I removed his name from the list of authors and acknowledged him instead. The other coauthors still had their names as authors of the paper. I felt uneasy about it because I didn't think that it was right. I mean, if my second author did not think that he had contributed enough, why should the third and fourth authors stay? Of course the reader wouldn't know this, but I knew, and my third and fourth authors knew.
Now I am facing the same situation again.<issue_comment>username_1: Publish without him or not at all
---------------------------------
Regardless of reasons, you don't have much of a choice - you can publish it as you did the previous time, simply acknowledging him, or not publish the paper at all.
If you can't get his permission, then you can't sign his name under this paper.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I have previously asserted that a co-author has the right not to be recognized as a co-author, if that is her preference. If she is amenable to publication (as would appear to be the case here), then you may proceed with publication. (If not, then you would need to remove her contributions entirely, and then see if the paper is still salvageable in that form.)
However, you should make sure you have a *written* documentation of the coauthor's declining of credit. You should also make sure that you have explained *clearly* why you feel she should be co-author; perhaps you can include a list of the contributions of the other co-authors.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: That happened with me, and my father (the retired civil engineering professor), when I published this [book.](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0471584150)
He actually did a lot of technical work and editing, but disagreed with its views. So I published "solo" and listed him in the acknowledgements.
Someone once said that "consideration" is really doing what the other person wants you to do. So if the second author declines you be listed, that's what you must do, legally and morally.
The fact that there were third and fourth authors involved in your case has "nothing" to do with it.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/08 | 1,893 | 7,366 | <issue_start>username_0: I intend to include my computational model code(s) in its entirety as an appendix in my dissertation. I've gone through my university's formatting guidelines and haven't seen anything on the proper way to format the code in terms of size of font, text-wrapping, spacing, and so forth. What's the best way to do this?
When I read code, while I'd want it to be a typical font size (12 pt), I'd also want the text-wrapping to be minimal, but given the traditional margin requirements, it can be pretty tough to accomplish this. Having code trail off one line and onto the next is generally distracting.
Also, although comments in code are prevented from execution by using a character sequence like %or // or (\* many compilers color-code this text to make it more easily distinguishable from executable portions of the code. Is there any way to easily make comments distinguishable when putting the code into the text of your thesis/dissertation?<issue_comment>username_1: I would suggest a monospaced font, because that is the traditional method of displaying code. As a matter of putting all of your code into the appendix, I don't see why. Snippets of the relevant parts would be all you need. If you still feel the urge to include the full code, I would suggest referencing a link to the code through a Github repository instead of all of your code.
In addition, ask your advisor who the audience is. Do they have a background in programming? That would be the question to ask. If not, summarize the code, and walk the reader through the logical process of the code. Perhaps a flowchart would be useful.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If you aren't required to do it in a particular format, I'd recommend publishing the code online and using a nice LaTeX code formatting package for the parts you want to share in the print version. My personal favorite is `minted` . Very easy to use, beautiful formatting and coloring and no need to copy and paste anything, just use the `\inputminted` command.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: the best way to *display* the salient code of the key points of your algorithm is to *write* good code.
**“Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.”** -[<NAME>, *Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code*](http://martinfowler.com/books/refactoring.html)
the code itself should be readable with meaningful choice for variable names, sufficiently divided into meaningful functions or subroutines, and with a minimum of arguments passed around. this means writing decent object-oriented or structured code and **making** objects or structures and using them.
i would split the code up into modules with a good comment on the top of the file describing what the callable functions do and who calls them.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: The standard is to use **10 point courier** font for computer code, **[monospaced, single column](http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Source_Code_Listings)**.
You do not have to turn in all code used in your experiment; use your best judgement. You may want to include only relevant sections of code.
**EDIT**
Usage of Courier is of my personal choice from the [list of standard 10pt](http://engineering.cmu.edu/files/documents/graduate_students/policies/UMI_PreparingYourManuscriptGuide.pdf) fonts usable for codes.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: Monospaced with syntax coloring and an appropriate description, see e.g.
from Appendix B of [arXiv:1407.2432](http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.2432).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: There are a number of excellent LaTeX packages for typesetting code, made for just such occasions. The [listings package](http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Source_Code_Listings) is one good example, which includes standardized formatting for a number of languages.
It does not provide a "definitive" way to typeset code (there is no such, since there are a number of competing conventions) but its defaults provide a standard and well-recognized formatting that is entirely appropriate for academic publications. Furthermore, it can be customized to follow any unusual requirements of your institutions thesis format.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: I would argue that there are no real style guidelines, except maybe (the only one I've ever been given) not to drown your audience in lines of code, thus use excerpts and pseudo-code whenever possible.
However, to still put your code full-length on paper, you pretty much should have it readable on-screen already. You might have a little refactoring to do, if you expect people to actually read it.
* Fixed font size are traditional in source code, which is due [according to Joel Spolsky](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/fog0000000249.html) to it being easier to edit (say click on a specific letter) and to distinguish typos (e.g. rn/m vs `rn`/`m`) than when using a variable spaced fonts
* A fixed width so you never scroll horizontally while your code is on screen. This, with a correct font size, will take care of line wrapping when on paper.
* Modular code, so people know where (in which file, for example) they are : similarly to opening the interesting file, you want readers to be able to skip the pages of configuration, I/O and whatnot, to find wherever the core of your code is.
* Be consistent, as you already noted, in all conventions: naming, indentation, comments...
* include syntax Highlighting (maybe even colouring ?)
Your main options (most popular on a subjective scale of googleability) to achieve the latter are
* in LaTeX, use a listing (with a [language that it understands](http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Source_Code_Listings#Supported_languages), hopefully). You can even input code from a file directly `\includecode[asm]{sched.s}`
* in LaTeX, use the [minted](https://github.com/gpoore/minted) package, an alternative whose code highlighting is done with [Pygments](http://pygments.org/)
* in MS Word, insert code in an embedded document as [an "openDocument Text" object](https://stackoverflow.com/a/2653406/1387346), copying your code from your usual IDE
* in any WYSIWYG on Windows, [use the NppExport plugin of Notepad++](https://stackoverflow.com/a/4513646/1387346) to export your code, and then copy it into your document as RTF or HTML.
* With any python interpreter, use [Pygments](http://pygments.org/), e.g. :
`pygmentize -f html main.c > main.c.html`
---
The only guidelines I could find in the wild were on [this random project report page](http://carmaux.cs.gsu.edu/%7Emweeks/project.html), of rather small scale (4-6 pages), and they are rather succinct :
>
> Format: Use [...] 11 point times font for the main text, and use 10 point courier font for computer code. [...]
>
>
> Yes, your code should be in the appendix, monospaced, single column. You do not have to turn in all code used in your experiment; use your best judgement. You may want to include only relevent sections of code. For example, you should not include code that someone else wrote, unless you made major modifications. If your code is 100 pages, you should not print all of it. If your code is 6 pages, then you should print all of it.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/08 | 228 | 1,007 | <issue_start>username_0: The [i-Society conference](http://www.i-society.eu/Important%20Dates.html) calls for Research Papers, Student Papers, and Case Studies.
What is the difference between a "research paper" and a "student paper"?<issue_comment>username_1: I believe that the difference would be in the scope, length and research significance of the paper, basically significant pieces of research compared to smaller pieces of research.
Also research in progress could be submitted as a student paper in some circumstances.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: A research paper is original work and could be written by anyone with the background. A student paper is a research paper written exclusively by student(s). The reality is that faculty will be involved in some way, even if it is only running the research program which made the work possible. In reality, the faculty will be more involved than that: discussing, reading and suggesting. But that's part of the job, in my opinion.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/08 | 551 | 2,407 | <issue_start>username_0: When reviewing a manuscript describing a new software tool, reviewers are often asked to assess its utility, quality, novelty, ...
I was wondering if, in addition to the classic comments on the manuscript, it was appropriate to make suggestion to improve the software functionality in itself (if the code is provided with the manuscript)?
This would be in the case of a software that is not good enough for publication (basically it does not do enough), and for which small additions will make it better. The comment on the code would therefore not be related to the coding "grammar" but ratter to improve the software tool usability for the final user.<issue_comment>username_1: I would suggest **not** to comment on code, unless:
* The code is broken in some way, such that it does not perform what it is supposed to do (e.g., a bug in code changes a critical algorithm)
* The program itself is unstable due to deep-rooted code smell
Commenting on code in a review seems to me akin to commenting on someone's mastery of a given language in a review. If their usage of the language is so poor as to make the paper unreadable, then you can suggest they use a proofreader or translator. However, in most cases, it doesn't affect the paper, it just makes it harder to understand. With code, it may not get them past a interview, but if it works as advertised, it's good enough.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: In my opinion, if the authors emphasise the developed code as one of their research outputs, and make it public, the reviewers not only can, but should consider it as a material for review, and comment on it. There is a delicate balance, though, to strike.
It is important to check that the code does what is promised in a paper (*sanity check*). More importantly, it is essential to check if a typical reader of the journal can do the same, and can benefit from the code made public. This includes basic documentation, compile instructions (if any), well-written run-files for each of the examples from the paper, and clear guidelines how to adjust them for other problems.
On the other side, remember that not all academic researchers are necessarily as brilliant in code-dev, as the guys who read Stack Overflow. It may be not appropriate to request that the code is developed and maintained to the highest standards of the modern IT community.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/08 | 1,213 | 4,737 | <issue_start>username_0: After finishing my PhD in Computer Science (machine learning) and after several years as a university lecturer, I decided to transition from academia to industry. As a result of that, I have been working one year for a company, doing applied research.
In my latest performance review, my supervisor pointed out that my only negative point was that I still had an academic mindset towards research, and that I should be able to get better at what he called "risk analysis". He defined risk analysis as the skill of assessing in advance the potential benefits/drawbacks for the company of a given method/technique/algorithm. The aim of that is to be able to rapidly discard methods that are supposed to not solve the company's problems without having to waste too much time on implementing them.
I was wondering whether any learning resource exists (book, online course/resources) that may help me to acquire such a skill. More generally, any recommended reading about computer science research in industry would be much appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: Here are some links for you
[this blog](http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2009/12/23/academia-vs-industry-an-update/)
[books from Amazon](http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=risk%20analysis%20-marketing%20-market&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3Arisk%20analysis%20-marketing%20-market)
[more books from Amazon](http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_n_4?rh=n%3A266239%2Cn%3A71%2Ck%3Arisk%20assessment%20-marketing%20-market%20-fire&keywords=risk%20assessment%20-marketing%20-market%20-fire&ie=UTF8&qid=1404830490&rnid=1025612)
I am not interested in risk assessment but if I was, would sort the books by customer review, would see what the people who read them think, if possible would look inside the book.
Have to say though that I find strange you didn't do it yourself before posting the question.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: As a researcher in industry, let me first emphasize to you that "industry" is a much broader set of organizations and varies a lot more than most people realize. Thus, the answer to your question may depend quite a bit on the specifics of the company that you are at.
That said, however, in most cases a key animating idea for researchers in industry is a notion that often goes by a name like "customer focus": i.e., who will care about the results of this investigation?
Sometimes this is pretty straightforward (e.g., "if widget-making is 5% more efficient, then profit margins on widgets go up), but in other cases the relation is much more abstract or indirect (e.g., some prior work I did on potential programming languages for quantum computers that don't currently exist, but where the funder wanted to see how thinking about this might affect their goals for other research projects).
In all cases, however, you always have to be aware that somebody is paying the funds to support your salary and the salaries of your team, and they are giving you that money because they want some benefit to come from your research. This is true in academia as well, but professors are typically more insulated from it because their salaries are generally mostly supported by teaching---and even graduate students can be supported by TAships. If you're being paid to teach and expected to do research on the side, then it doesn't really matter what you're researching in the short term---but you will have more impact if you work on more important problems.
So, to the heart your question: how do you actually go about doing that?
I recommend starting by trying to be aware that at all times there is a "frontier" of research problems that you could be working on. Whenever you do a piece of work, you are choosing to prioritize one piece of that frontier over others. Notice this fact and ask yourself questions like:
* Why did I choose this problem over those other ones?
* How will solving this problem affect the other problems on my frontier?
* Who else cares about the solution to this problem?
There can be lots of reasonable answers to these questions, but starting to ask them can be extremely helping in moving to a more conscious evaluation of your research choices and whether they're actually moving you in the direction that you want to go in your career.
For more thoughts and suggestions along these lines, I would recommend the following resources:
1. ["You and Your Research" by <NAME>](https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html), a long-time industrial researcher at Bell Labs.
2. My own talk on ["Surviving Life as a Researcher"](https://username_2.blogspot.com/2016/10/surviving-life-as-researcher-video.html)
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/08 | 7,353 | 32,044 | <issue_start>username_0: My professor of Computer Science has a company (both based in Germany) that promotes an open-source software. Of course the software is free and open-source, but his company generates profits through support, training, etc. and they have a server-version of the software which is commercial and very expensive. The software is very modular, and the area of the software's specialty is growing quickly. So the company needs to implement a lot of modules for it. Each module is a separate algorithm. So what my professor is doing is basically the following:
* Master students come to him asking for master thesis.
* He assigns them to build algorithmic modules for the open-source software.
* The student gets well trained in the software because of that.
* The professor later offers the student to work in his company since he is now highly proficient in the software.
Of course the student gains substantial knowledge, so there is no problem in that aspect. *However,
is it ethical that he is growing his commercial business using his professorship position?*
**Addendum:**
---
My problem is that I believe he is assigning the thesis topics based on what his company needs, not based on what is good for research. I personally believe that professors are given those chairs to advance research. If they are concerned about money, then there is a place called "industry" to make money. I'm not saying that it's wrong to get money by working in academia, rather, what I'm saying that working in academia means doing everything for the sake of improving academia and research, not for other agendas.
In response to the argument "He didn't force it, so just pick a different advisor". Well my problem is that he is the professor that does the research in the field that I like. Other professors all work on different fields. So I might be interested in working on state of the art research or so in his area, but rather he would offer me a topic suitable for his company, then he says I only have these thesis topics. If I didn't like them because I don't like the area of topics that his company needs, then I would be left without any interesting topics. That would be unfair to me, since all other professors work on different fields. So if his focus wasn't promoting the software of his company, then he might find better topics that promote research and science. This is one of my problems with him.
Masters students fund themselves during their studies in Germany, so we get no funding at all. The problem is that when you do your master project and master thesis in our university, there is no predefined deadline for it. This is because it is assumed that you don't know what you want to do for your thesis. You go to the professor and he gives you a topic to work on. But he never tells you what your contribution is or anything else. So basically you have to do "research" to find contributions, i.e. you need to contribute to the state-of-the-art in this topic somehow. Basically you spend almost 5 months just reading papers to find out finally what you want to do. Now because of this, then you can't put a deadline for the thesis, since you don't know what to do! Once you know what to do, then you go and register your thesis and you then get a 6-month deadline, which you use 2 months to write the thesis and then submit. But you never register until you know what you want to do, otherwise it is very risky because you might fail the thesis defense! I don't want to make this much longer, but because of this procedure then professors are taking advantage of the students. So suppose that you go to this professor, then he will keep you working by saying (this is not enough yet for the thesis, we want to program algorithm X and Y as well). In this case the student is working on building this professor's company modules AND *personally* funding himself. Of course if the professor never says that this is enough, you will keep working... and working... and spending money on rent and so on...
I'm not doing my thesis at this professor's chair. Actually one of my friends did his thesis there and he finished much faster than me. I personally believe he was given a detailed plan to what to do so that is why he finished faster. He even did his master project there and I think it is the same topic/project. I spent nine months in another chair just for doing my master project, then switched to another chair for doing my thesis. It has been eleven months just working on my thesis and will soon finish the writing portion. So it took me almost two years just for working on my project and thesis and I didn't include the time for courses! Actually one of my friends because of this problem finished his masters in almost four years! I personally feel that I completed a PhD program not a masters! I actually can think about original research contributions because of the way I did my masters, but I doubt the students who do their thesis/projects at that professors will learn the same *research mentality* that I have now. But at the same time, it is good that they finished earlier than I did, because I'm from a poor country and I have been funding myself the entire time in a very expensive city. Sometimes I regret doing this master, because it really drained me. Every time I meet people and tell them that it is taking me this long to finish my master, I get very embarrassed. I also fear that because of taking this long, my chances will be lower when trying to find a job, because they will see that it took me so much time to finish the masters program. They will never understand that the system in our university for the masters is somehow different from others! So I probably think that doing a thesis at that professor's chair is a good idea to at least escape the misery that I went through!<issue_comment>username_1: If the thesis is on an academic topic, and the student later agrees to work at a company, there is nothing wrong with that.
But the professor must not exert pressure on the student for example that the thesis grade would depend on accepting a work contract, and if some of the work is not directly related to the thesis it should be compensated like normal work. It appears that here the student works out a thesis based on an industry-topic, and later decides where to work. The fact that the professor who assigns the topic also owns a company has no direct ethical consequences as such, because the student is free to choose from any possible company or supervisor out there.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: In many countries, universities are allowed to have spin-off companies. Many of them are run by successful professors. In contrast to the universities, all companies' purpose is to make money and not work simply to promote knowledge and science. In that regard, your professor has done nothing wrong or (most importantly) illegal. He is using his unquestionable know-how to make a successful company and more money for himself. But along with him, several good students get the opportunity to be hired on a promising job, once they finish their studies. And this is not only good for the professor, but it is also good for the university, the students and the country's economy in general. In that sense, you should stop seeing the whole thing as a corporate conspiracy.
The fact that science sometimes provides exceptionally good consumer products (from TVs to mobile phones and electric lamps) should not be considered evil in itself. Yes, many times companies use technological advances for evil purposes but providing support and extending open-source CS projects, is surely not one of those cases. The only questionable thing your professor might have done, is if he has used his students as free workforce (without any compensation), during the master's thesis when they were working on extending his product. But even then, this is sometimes how internships work on many companies.
So, I would not worry too much. Having a spin-off is not really an ethical issue, nor does it make your professor a horrible person. Of course you have the right to disagree with this practice and avoid participating in his business endeavors. So, finish your studies, minimizing contact with this professor and do things differently the way you see ethical and fit when you enter the job market.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm with Marc. There's no issue at all here... In fact, under this arrangement, he needs not worry about securing public grant funding which means he's more free to do ***any kind of research work he wants...*** which can certainly filter back to you.
You might even be able to strike up an arrangement where you'll do work for him and you can use his lab for whatever research topic you want... There are multiple ways to look at this, and to me, all of them are positive. The community gets source, the public doesn't have to fund his research (though he probably still has students write grants for new ideas), for-profit businesses pay for top-tier service.
Let's not also forget, that in the non-academic world, practical experience is valued more than your education (especially in the USA). Your time working in the professor's company while at the same time getting BOTH thesis research AND "real-world" experience puts you in a much better position come graduation than peers who go the traditional route.
I'd be more inclined to hire someone who has dealt with source-code management + a good thesis ahead of someone who only had a superb thesis topic. (The more things you can be measured with, the better for you.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Spin-offs normally are not allowed to stay inside the university forever, they move away and become independent companies. Staying permanently in a state-owned building, with free access to the laboratory equipment, Internet, library, etc, probably would not be very fair. However the "spinning-off" process usually lasts for several years.
Creating a successful commercial product on the base of research is an important process that is usually allowed, supported and encouraged. Spin-offs receive support from the parent institution in the early stages when they are not yet capable of self-sustaining.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Contradictory to the other posters here, I fully understand OP's ethical concerns. Although I'm all in favor of commercialization of research output, I witnessed the same behavior in my previous university and I'm not comfortable about it.
Although the difference between the study systems in Germany and the Anglo-Saxon countries have been discussed many times on this site, it's important to note that the Master degree in Germany is the 'undergraduate' degree, that students pay almost no tuition but are expected to fund their expenses by themselves (they rarely if ever get a stipend). Professors positions and laboratories are typically state-funded, that is with taxpayer money.
What bothers me most in OP's description is the *systematic* aspect of it. The main purpose of a Master project is for the student to develop a rather general set of skills (problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, thoroughness, etc.), and to be tested on the ability to achieve a research project, although modest in scope. It is *not* to write commercial-grade software in a state-sponsored trainee program for a Professor's spinoff company. Professors have a teaching and mentoring responsibility towards the Master students they supervise, and it's not waived by offering them a job when they graduate.
The other issue I see is the unsound hierarchical relationship. Master students are at the mercy of not getting their degrees if they do not perform according to the Professor's commercial requirements. This very often results in students being exploited.
I have seen professors use (state/university-funded) PhD students as free R&D, technical support and sales employees for their spinoff company, and I think it's dishonest towards the students, the funding agencies and the taxpayers. I even think it borderlines embezzlement of public funds, as the sole person really benefiting from the scheme is the owner of the spinoff.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: I see two issues:
One, it *sounds* like the students just get a programming assignment -- "here, make this". That alone wouldn't make it Master level research fit for a thesis.
Second, the student is the author of the software he writes and holds copyright over it, so he should decide under which license he wants to release it, if he wants to release it at all. Forcing him to release it under a specific license that happens to work well for the company is a clear conflict of interest.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: I am going to back a bit Jigg's point of view.
I believe it is not ethical to pressure students into master thesis which is a module of some software for which the student will not be able to set license and more of that which is used for profits of the professor.
I also should say that it fine if student signs some kind of contract if he chooses to go this way and if not he still has a choice to do masters thesis with this professor that is not anyhow connected to the professor's company or that software.
I was myself in the similar situation (German style education system, but not in Germany) however it wasn't a masters thesis but just a semester final thesis for one of the subjects.
In my case professor was taking the best of the software students developed as a thesis in whole or as a part to the product of his profit making company (no attribution to student at all). I don't claim that the OP's professor does the same but I believe OP can still have the issues I had:
1. I couldn't determine the actual theme of thesis.
2. The subject final mark was decided not by the standards of university thesis but rather by the commercial standards which are obviously higher.
3. I was under pressure to agree with everything professor wishes for the product even if it was out of the thesis scope.
4. I was under extreme pressure to deliver commercial quality product in restricted time having other subjects to study.
Because of this situation I ended up almost failing this and another subject and with a very bad relationship with that professor since I wasn't able to deliver what he wanted(although it was perfectly fine for the scope of the semester thesis). I could get a very bad reputation but fortunately for me quite a lot of other professors/stuff knew how he does things so the damage was not that big.
What I am trying to say is that by dealing with such people OP puts himself in the situation when he is totally dependent of them and people tend to be quite cruel.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Yes, it's ethical to have students work on your research interests
------------------------------------------------------------------
The core idea of research mentorship is that it's useful for people to collaborate, and for professors to 'split off' interesting, manageable chunks of research directions for others to handle - either as part of study projects or research grants. Pretty much always it will be related to topics that interest the professor personally, and it's okay.
I believe that most researchers have a list of subproblems that they aren't going to do themselves, but for which they'd like a solution and a student research project could [attempt to] to solve it. I have such a list myself, students are happy that it exists, but most of them do have some use case where the thesis outcome (data/tool/method/etc) would be directly useful to me personally in my research.
If the student wants to work on X, and the professor says "you must do topic Y", then that would be unethical unless there's funding/employment agreement for the student to do Y. However, if student "needs" a thesis topic and is okay with doing Y, then it's ethical to recommend topics that aren't "neutral"(which would that be?) but are of personal interest to you.
Yes, it's ethical for your research interests to benefit you commercially
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turning academic research into commercial spinoffs isn't an unwanted exploitation - in fact, it generally is the explicit wish of the universities, funding agencies and government research policies to facilitate commercialization and implementation of research.
If a professor has ideas on how particular research topics can be applied commercially, then it's a good thing - it estabilishes that the topic is meaningful and provides a real world context to otherwise abstract notions.
Having the research benefit your business *as such* is okay, given the university approval for that spinoff, but there may be ethical concerns with ***how*** it's done.
Is he coercing students to work in that direction?
--------------------------------------------------
Are there signs of coercion - i.e., do students feel threatened that if they choose an unrelated topic then they'd be treated differently, get different grading, etc?
Is he recommending students to work on bad / non-research topics?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Are the recommended projects ("algorithmic modules for the open-source software") a good fit for the master thesis requirements of your university?
If software engineering and algorithmic implementation are valid and recommended goals for thesis in your particular master's program (it often is), then it's ethical.
If that study program expects students to focus on academic research during the thesis, but in those projects students spend 90% time on software engineering and thus either produce poor thesis or have to spend huge work that's not beneficial to the thesis, then that would be giving misleading and hurtful advice and it's not ethical.
Is he stealing intellectual property?
-------------------------------------
If copyrighted or patentable items are created by the students (such as software) as part of their academic work, are they either (a) freely available to the public; (b) clearly owned by the student; or (c) purchased as a separate agreement or through an employment contract for the time of developing it?
Publishing work results on an open source project would be ethical; a company using *public and published* results of student's work is also clearly okay.
Publishing work results on a dual-licenced project where the student's code is available, say, as GPL to the public and also the same student's code as a closed source licence for a fee from the company raises the question on how does the student licenced the code to that company. A scenario where work is done on "university time", and the company simply takes the *not-public* work without compensating the author would be unethical.
Is he hiding his vested interest in that particular project?
------------------------------------------------------------
Is he disclosing that he has a commercial interest in this open source project to the students? If he's not telling them it when offering the topics, then it would be unethical.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_9: **Bottom line:**
Studying a university is more about how you use opportunities available to you than about how much do you learn from the baseline 'forced upon' everyone. I presume there is a free choice available to you and other students whether to take the master thesis assignment from the professor in question or from other. That means, that 'working for free for a commercial company' (this is how I understand your concern) is not the only possibility to finish your studies. Every student, you included, have the choice to do what they find right and beneficial. That means, that you can do whatever you can with the opportunity - get some hands on experience, or, for example, train your inner sense for what *you* find right and what wrong. Which is equally as important!
**The professor is giving you opportunity, not forcing something on you.**
Personally, I would rather work on a demanding task from a high flying professor with a prospect of a nice job in the open-source world than do some mundane task that has been repeated over and over just because the latter may seem more fit for academia.
If you plan to get a job in a commercial company (rather than staying in academic field for your PhD and further career), having done your thesis in the described setting may very well give you a noticeable advantage over competing job-seekers.
(The first paragraph edited to reflect on Jigg's comment)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: IANAL, and I guess that the question cannot be completely answered as some details are missing, but:
* Doing a thesis in a company or on a subject that is suggested by a company is perfectly fine. This is called "Externe Abschlussarbeit" (external thesis). There can also be contracts between the student and the company. But in oder to be legally valid, the contracts **must not abuse the fact that the student has to do the exam and is therefore not an equal party to the contract but dependent**.
* Many universities actually have rules (and/or even a contact person) for related questions. Here are some examples
+ [TU Berlin/ dt. Hochschulverband](https://www.eecs.tu-berlin.de/fileadmin/f4/fkIVdokumente/studium/externe_diplomarbeiten.pdf)
+ [TU Darmstadt](http://www.study.ce.tu-darmstadt.de/media/study_ce/sandra/Info_externeAbschlussarbeiten-1.pdf)
* However, the usual setup is that the supervisor from the company and the professor are two different persons, and it is the professor's task to ensure that the thesis consists of the proper amount of research.
With this I do see a **conflict of interest in the OP's scenario.**
* In Germany, a master's thesis is a "Prüfungsleistung" (part of the final exam). The **Prüfungsleistung must be produced *solely* by the candidate**.
This implies that the master's thesis (not only the written thesis, but all ideas, software etc) **is IP of the student**.
* Highly relevant lecture: [<NAME>: Rechtsgrundsätze zu Diplomarbeiten](https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/Medien-DB/datenschutz/messer-helmut-rechtsgrundsaetze-zu-diplomarbeiten-vortrag-2005-11-10.pdf)
rough translation of a scenario on page 7:
>
> Professor tells student that he has 2 kinds of thesis subjects: nothing-special subjects and highly interesting very innovative external thesis subjects which will practically lead to immedate job offers. For the external theses, however, the transferrable IP rights need to be tranfered in advance (either to the prof. or to the company).
>
>
>
The text then goes on explaining that this constitutes at least Vorteilsannahme (acceptance of benefits by a public official) by the professor, and that depending on the pressure and the exact situation also blackmailing is close by. Basically, the professor *must not* ask any more than the exam regulations say.
So **the ethic problems in question are not only of the "does not behave well"-kind but can actually constitute criminal offenses.** And IIRC, public officials already have to avoid the *appearance* of Vorteilsannahme (and of course blackmailing).
+ However, ***after* the thesis is finished (and the mark is given) the company (or university) can negotiate to buy the transferrable rights**, because then both parties of the contract are in an equal position, and the student can say no, or ask for compensation. Obviously, the student can decide on his own to release the product Open Source.
Somehow I doubt that "we will hire you if you give us your previously written code" is a legal contract, but again IANAL.
+ The lecture explains that the professor has a certain responsibility also concerning abusive contracts between student and company (in general, not only in the OP's scenario) because the student depends on the professor.
---
I commented to @Steffen Winkler that software copyright is somewhat special and different from other copyrighted works. According to [Urhg §69b](http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/urhg/__69b.html) the (transferrable economic) rights are automatically assigned to the employer. Court cases apply this automatism to a rather wide range of software (i.e. as soon as it is related / useful for the employer, e.g. regardless of whether the development took place in free time at home), and state that the wages are already the proper compensation.
However, AFAIK it is non-trivial to formulate a legal contract that has the student employed for the subject of the thesis. The linked lecture gives scenarios that work and scenarios that do not work.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_11: My first impulse is crying out loud, but I see that it must be explained.
What is the goal of academic instituitions / science / humanities ?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The goal is to collect and reserve the current knowledge, give it to the
next generations and gain further knowledge. We want to find good
explanations for phenomena and refine them further und further until
ideally we can explain them fully (The explanation need not to be
identical with the "real" cause, it should only give the correct
predictions).
What we *do not want* is to consolidate our prejudices or fall victim
to wishful thinking. The key is *honesty*: Do not fool yourself to believe
you know something which you are not absolutely sure of. You are able
to give convincing reasons to other people.
You are completely convinced that astrology is truthful because an astrologer
described you correctly and you pay a study which confirms your impression ?
*This is not science*.
You are completely convinced that astrology is baloney because it seems to
be old and it violates what you think is correct knowledge ? *This is not science either* !
You write down the logical inconsistencies of astrology, put up a study to test the conclusions and the tests repeatedly and consistently failed ? *This is science*.
What is the goal of businesses ?
--------------------------------
A key concept of a business is to gain revenue by fulfilling a demand. Because in private
enterprise you have competitors you must also apply strategy to
keep your business and use that to increase your influence. That means
* Having unique or better knowledge. If your competitors do not know how you achieved your desired results, it would be stupid to tell them. Or you protect your invention with patents.
* Propagate your influence by using your revenue to spread out. Gain power from important persons (friendships, franchises and working together).
* Protect yourself and hold your competitors down. You can do that defensively (lawsuits, patents) or offensively (buying them off, spread bad rumors, outpace them in quality and quantity).
Both goals are perfectly ok.
If you leave university and begin a startup, no problem. If a firm buys your invention, no problem. It starts to be trouble if you have a *conflict of interest* and the professor has a *severe conflict of interest*.
If you did not see it, *honesty* is not a business goal.
Let's say the professor gives you a task to improve a specific software module. You are starting to analyze the module...and you find that it has a flaw. It does not work or even *causes harm*, you can scientifically prove it. You have found out that the prospering company your professor leads has sold a defective software. Revelation of this could harm the reputation of the university, the software company and even your economy of your country. Or, on the other hand, it does nothing, but the professor wants to improve the user experience so that the customers are happy even if sold junk.
Do you feel still perfectly ok with *that* scenario ?
Because for this reason research and business should have distinct areas because you cannot honestly find a scientific answer if you are under constant pressure to modify your findings in a specific direction (or to be punished if you insist on honesty). The law of reciprocity always kicks in, I have supported you, why don't you support me.
I mean, we see the problem everywhere. "Think tanks" are buying old academics to support "research" in environmental issues. Politicians and companies are buying supportive studies. Consumer products are called back and almost always the problem was known long before. Academic fraud for research grants is a known problem. etc.
The problem is not that the professor is a horrible person or that business is evil or science must be pure and idealistic. The problem is that many universities are dependent on private funding and try to give students the impression that it is absolutely no problem to mix business and scientific research. Guess what: It is a *lie*.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_12: I would say that the best advice is to make sure that there is a clear partition between the open source parts of the software vs. the business parts and that the students are informed of this.
Many professors get students to work on research that is (or becomes) commercial in nature (e.g. biology). The key ethical issue is that the students are informed and are educated to make proper decisions about it.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_13: I think that it depends on several factors. If the supervisor is offering you some grants from the company to do your research work than he may expect something back that he may commercializes. But in any case, it would be better to have a discussion about that before the project starts. It is always important to makes things clear before starting a project. If things are not made clear than it may cause some conflicts afterwards. If things are made clear and a student is not satisfied, he may also just work with another professor.
Besides, I think that the job of a master degree student should be to do research, not to do unrelated software development tasks (unless he is getting paid or if he wants to). But participating in a company project can also have several benefits. Besides, from what I understand, you are also publishing your research as open-source. I believe that publishing research as open-source is very beneficial. Personally, I do research in the field of data mining and publish all my research as open-source (data mining algorithms and datasets) as part of a data mining library/software, and I don't earn any money from that. But this has increased the visibility of my research. Thus, perhaps that you should see it from this perspective. If your new algorithms is included in a commercial software or large open-source project, it will probably gives a lot of visibility to your algorithms, and your research will be probably used and cited by more researchers.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_14: We can split this problem to two:
From Professors perspective it would be unethical to assign students a project that does not support the objectives (ie. research or education) of the academic organization by which he is currently employed. If this condition is met, the project can as well be open sourced. He can not, in general, force the student to open the source, but this may vary from one country to another and depends on who holds the copyright of the original work, student or the organization.
From student perspective, only question is (if you really hold the copyright) whether you allow the source to be opened. Either you allow, or you do not.
If these conditions are met, and the work is released as open source under a proper license, *anyone* may try to make legally money with it as long as the license terms are not violated. Including the professor. It is inherent nature of open source: someone may benefit from it also financially, and you can try to do that too.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/09 | 6,239 | 27,117 | <issue_start>username_0: I am Performance and Automation Testing engineer who recently moved into IT Security in Singapore. I hold a BSc in software system (full-time) and MSc in IT (distance learning program). I have 9+ years experience working in Testing projects where major contribution was into Performance and Automaton testing.
I wish to get into research jobs (specifically, academic research). I am looking for opportunities any place however my preference will be Germany, Singapore and USA. However whenever I have approached universities they aren't willing to consider me, stating that I don't have any research experience.
Can anyone help me with path to get into IT Security Research. I guess attending a part-time/full-time masters program (IT/INFOSEC) followed by PhD (INFOSEC) program should help. Is this an appropriate path? Will this suffice to give me a chance at getting hired into an academic research job?<issue_comment>username_1: If the thesis is on an academic topic, and the student later agrees to work at a company, there is nothing wrong with that.
But the professor must not exert pressure on the student for example that the thesis grade would depend on accepting a work contract, and if some of the work is not directly related to the thesis it should be compensated like normal work. It appears that here the student works out a thesis based on an industry-topic, and later decides where to work. The fact that the professor who assigns the topic also owns a company has no direct ethical consequences as such, because the student is free to choose from any possible company or supervisor out there.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: In many countries, universities are allowed to have spin-off companies. Many of them are run by successful professors. In contrast to the universities, all companies' purpose is to make money and not work simply to promote knowledge and science. In that regard, your professor has done nothing wrong or (most importantly) illegal. He is using his unquestionable know-how to make a successful company and more money for himself. But along with him, several good students get the opportunity to be hired on a promising job, once they finish their studies. And this is not only good for the professor, but it is also good for the university, the students and the country's economy in general. In that sense, you should stop seeing the whole thing as a corporate conspiracy.
The fact that science sometimes provides exceptionally good consumer products (from TVs to mobile phones and electric lamps) should not be considered evil in itself. Yes, many times companies use technological advances for evil purposes but providing support and extending open-source CS projects, is surely not one of those cases. The only questionable thing your professor might have done, is if he has used his students as free workforce (without any compensation), during the master's thesis when they were working on extending his product. But even then, this is sometimes how internships work on many companies.
So, I would not worry too much. Having a spin-off is not really an ethical issue, nor does it make your professor a horrible person. Of course you have the right to disagree with this practice and avoid participating in his business endeavors. So, finish your studies, minimizing contact with this professor and do things differently the way you see ethical and fit when you enter the job market.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm with Marc. There's no issue at all here... In fact, under this arrangement, he needs not worry about securing public grant funding which means he's more free to do ***any kind of research work he wants...*** which can certainly filter back to you.
You might even be able to strike up an arrangement where you'll do work for him and you can use his lab for whatever research topic you want... There are multiple ways to look at this, and to me, all of them are positive. The community gets source, the public doesn't have to fund his research (though he probably still has students write grants for new ideas), for-profit businesses pay for top-tier service.
Let's not also forget, that in the non-academic world, practical experience is valued more than your education (especially in the USA). Your time working in the professor's company while at the same time getting BOTH thesis research AND "real-world" experience puts you in a much better position come graduation than peers who go the traditional route.
I'd be more inclined to hire someone who has dealt with source-code management + a good thesis ahead of someone who only had a superb thesis topic. (The more things you can be measured with, the better for you.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Spin-offs normally are not allowed to stay inside the university forever, they move away and become independent companies. Staying permanently in a state-owned building, with free access to the laboratory equipment, Internet, library, etc, probably would not be very fair. However the "spinning-off" process usually lasts for several years.
Creating a successful commercial product on the base of research is an important process that is usually allowed, supported and encouraged. Spin-offs receive support from the parent institution in the early stages when they are not yet capable of self-sustaining.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Contradictory to the other posters here, I fully understand OP's ethical concerns. Although I'm all in favor of commercialization of research output, I witnessed the same behavior in my previous university and I'm not comfortable about it.
Although the difference between the study systems in Germany and the Anglo-Saxon countries have been discussed many times on this site, it's important to note that the Master degree in Germany is the 'undergraduate' degree, that students pay almost no tuition but are expected to fund their expenses by themselves (they rarely if ever get a stipend). Professors positions and laboratories are typically state-funded, that is with taxpayer money.
What bothers me most in OP's description is the *systematic* aspect of it. The main purpose of a Master project is for the student to develop a rather general set of skills (problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, thoroughness, etc.), and to be tested on the ability to achieve a research project, although modest in scope. It is *not* to write commercial-grade software in a state-sponsored trainee program for a Professor's spinoff company. Professors have a teaching and mentoring responsibility towards the Master students they supervise, and it's not waived by offering them a job when they graduate.
The other issue I see is the unsound hierarchical relationship. Master students are at the mercy of not getting their degrees if they do not perform according to the Professor's commercial requirements. This very often results in students being exploited.
I have seen professors use (state/university-funded) PhD students as free R&D, technical support and sales employees for their spinoff company, and I think it's dishonest towards the students, the funding agencies and the taxpayers. I even think it borderlines embezzlement of public funds, as the sole person really benefiting from the scheme is the owner of the spinoff.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: I see two issues:
One, it *sounds* like the students just get a programming assignment -- "here, make this". That alone wouldn't make it Master level research fit for a thesis.
Second, the student is the author of the software he writes and holds copyright over it, so he should decide under which license he wants to release it, if he wants to release it at all. Forcing him to release it under a specific license that happens to work well for the company is a clear conflict of interest.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: I am going to back a bit Jigg's point of view.
I believe it is not ethical to pressure students into master thesis which is a module of some software for which the student will not be able to set license and more of that which is used for profits of the professor.
I also should say that it fine if student signs some kind of contract if he chooses to go this way and if not he still has a choice to do masters thesis with this professor that is not anyhow connected to the professor's company or that software.
I was myself in the similar situation (German style education system, but not in Germany) however it wasn't a masters thesis but just a semester final thesis for one of the subjects.
In my case professor was taking the best of the software students developed as a thesis in whole or as a part to the product of his profit making company (no attribution to student at all). I don't claim that the OP's professor does the same but I believe OP can still have the issues I had:
1. I couldn't determine the actual theme of thesis.
2. The subject final mark was decided not by the standards of university thesis but rather by the commercial standards which are obviously higher.
3. I was under pressure to agree with everything professor wishes for the product even if it was out of the thesis scope.
4. I was under extreme pressure to deliver commercial quality product in restricted time having other subjects to study.
Because of this situation I ended up almost failing this and another subject and with a very bad relationship with that professor since I wasn't able to deliver what he wanted(although it was perfectly fine for the scope of the semester thesis). I could get a very bad reputation but fortunately for me quite a lot of other professors/stuff knew how he does things so the damage was not that big.
What I am trying to say is that by dealing with such people OP puts himself in the situation when he is totally dependent of them and people tend to be quite cruel.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Yes, it's ethical to have students work on your research interests
------------------------------------------------------------------
The core idea of research mentorship is that it's useful for people to collaborate, and for professors to 'split off' interesting, manageable chunks of research directions for others to handle - either as part of study projects or research grants. Pretty much always it will be related to topics that interest the professor personally, and it's okay.
I believe that most researchers have a list of subproblems that they aren't going to do themselves, but for which they'd like a solution and a student research project could [attempt to] to solve it. I have such a list myself, students are happy that it exists, but most of them do have some use case where the thesis outcome (data/tool/method/etc) would be directly useful to me personally in my research.
If the student wants to work on X, and the professor says "you must do topic Y", then that would be unethical unless there's funding/employment agreement for the student to do Y. However, if student "needs" a thesis topic and is okay with doing Y, then it's ethical to recommend topics that aren't "neutral"(which would that be?) but are of personal interest to you.
Yes, it's ethical for your research interests to benefit you commercially
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turning academic research into commercial spinoffs isn't an unwanted exploitation - in fact, it generally is the explicit wish of the universities, funding agencies and government research policies to facilitate commercialization and implementation of research.
If a professor has ideas on how particular research topics can be applied commercially, then it's a good thing - it estabilishes that the topic is meaningful and provides a real world context to otherwise abstract notions.
Having the research benefit your business *as such* is okay, given the university approval for that spinoff, but there may be ethical concerns with ***how*** it's done.
Is he coercing students to work in that direction?
--------------------------------------------------
Are there signs of coercion - i.e., do students feel threatened that if they choose an unrelated topic then they'd be treated differently, get different grading, etc?
Is he recommending students to work on bad / non-research topics?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Are the recommended projects ("algorithmic modules for the open-source software") a good fit for the master thesis requirements of your university?
If software engineering and algorithmic implementation are valid and recommended goals for thesis in your particular master's program (it often is), then it's ethical.
If that study program expects students to focus on academic research during the thesis, but in those projects students spend 90% time on software engineering and thus either produce poor thesis or have to spend huge work that's not beneficial to the thesis, then that would be giving misleading and hurtful advice and it's not ethical.
Is he stealing intellectual property?
-------------------------------------
If copyrighted or patentable items are created by the students (such as software) as part of their academic work, are they either (a) freely available to the public; (b) clearly owned by the student; or (c) purchased as a separate agreement or through an employment contract for the time of developing it?
Publishing work results on an open source project would be ethical; a company using *public and published* results of student's work is also clearly okay.
Publishing work results on a dual-licenced project where the student's code is available, say, as GPL to the public and also the same student's code as a closed source licence for a fee from the company raises the question on how does the student licenced the code to that company. A scenario where work is done on "university time", and the company simply takes the *not-public* work without compensating the author would be unethical.
Is he hiding his vested interest in that particular project?
------------------------------------------------------------
Is he disclosing that he has a commercial interest in this open source project to the students? If he's not telling them it when offering the topics, then it would be unethical.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_9: **Bottom line:**
Studying a university is more about how you use opportunities available to you than about how much do you learn from the baseline 'forced upon' everyone. I presume there is a free choice available to you and other students whether to take the master thesis assignment from the professor in question or from other. That means, that 'working for free for a commercial company' (this is how I understand your concern) is not the only possibility to finish your studies. Every student, you included, have the choice to do what they find right and beneficial. That means, that you can do whatever you can with the opportunity - get some hands on experience, or, for example, train your inner sense for what *you* find right and what wrong. Which is equally as important!
**The professor is giving you opportunity, not forcing something on you.**
Personally, I would rather work on a demanding task from a high flying professor with a prospect of a nice job in the open-source world than do some mundane task that has been repeated over and over just because the latter may seem more fit for academia.
If you plan to get a job in a commercial company (rather than staying in academic field for your PhD and further career), having done your thesis in the described setting may very well give you a noticeable advantage over competing job-seekers.
(The first paragraph edited to reflect on Jigg's comment)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: IANAL, and I guess that the question cannot be completely answered as some details are missing, but:
* Doing a thesis in a company or on a subject that is suggested by a company is perfectly fine. This is called "Externe Abschlussarbeit" (external thesis). There can also be contracts between the student and the company. But in oder to be legally valid, the contracts **must not abuse the fact that the student has to do the exam and is therefore not an equal party to the contract but dependent**.
* Many universities actually have rules (and/or even a contact person) for related questions. Here are some examples
+ [TU Berlin/ dt. Hochschulverband](https://www.eecs.tu-berlin.de/fileadmin/f4/fkIVdokumente/studium/externe_diplomarbeiten.pdf)
+ [TU Darmstadt](http://www.study.ce.tu-darmstadt.de/media/study_ce/sandra/Info_externeAbschlussarbeiten-1.pdf)
* However, the usual setup is that the supervisor from the company and the professor are two different persons, and it is the professor's task to ensure that the thesis consists of the proper amount of research.
With this I do see a **conflict of interest in the OP's scenario.**
* In Germany, a master's thesis is a "Prüfungsleistung" (part of the final exam). The **Prüfungsleistung must be produced *solely* by the candidate**.
This implies that the master's thesis (not only the written thesis, but all ideas, software etc) **is IP of the student**.
* Highly relevant lecture: [<NAME>: Rechtsgrundsätze zu Diplomarbeiten](https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/Medien-DB/datenschutz/messer-helmut-rechtsgrundsaetze-zu-diplomarbeiten-vortrag-2005-11-10.pdf)
rough translation of a scenario on page 7:
>
> Professor tells student that he has 2 kinds of thesis subjects: nothing-special subjects and highly interesting very innovative external thesis subjects which will practically lead to immedate job offers. For the external theses, however, the transferrable IP rights need to be tranfered in advance (either to the prof. or to the company).
>
>
>
The text then goes on explaining that this constitutes at least Vorteilsannahme (acceptance of benefits by a public official) by the professor, and that depending on the pressure and the exact situation also blackmailing is close by. Basically, the professor *must not* ask any more than the exam regulations say.
So **the ethic problems in question are not only of the "does not behave well"-kind but can actually constitute criminal offenses.** And IIRC, public officials already have to avoid the *appearance* of Vorteilsannahme (and of course blackmailing).
+ However, ***after* the thesis is finished (and the mark is given) the company (or university) can negotiate to buy the transferrable rights**, because then both parties of the contract are in an equal position, and the student can say no, or ask for compensation. Obviously, the student can decide on his own to release the product Open Source.
Somehow I doubt that "we will hire you if you give us your previously written code" is a legal contract, but again IANAL.
+ The lecture explains that the professor has a certain responsibility also concerning abusive contracts between student and company (in general, not only in the OP's scenario) because the student depends on the professor.
---
I commented to @Steffen Winkler that software copyright is somewhat special and different from other copyrighted works. According to [Urhg §69b](http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/urhg/__69b.html) the (transferrable economic) rights are automatically assigned to the employer. Court cases apply this automatism to a rather wide range of software (i.e. as soon as it is related / useful for the employer, e.g. regardless of whether the development took place in free time at home), and state that the wages are already the proper compensation.
However, AFAIK it is non-trivial to formulate a legal contract that has the student employed for the subject of the thesis. The linked lecture gives scenarios that work and scenarios that do not work.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_11: My first impulse is crying out loud, but I see that it must be explained.
What is the goal of academic instituitions / science / humanities ?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The goal is to collect and reserve the current knowledge, give it to the
next generations and gain further knowledge. We want to find good
explanations for phenomena and refine them further und further until
ideally we can explain them fully (The explanation need not to be
identical with the "real" cause, it should only give the correct
predictions).
What we *do not want* is to consolidate our prejudices or fall victim
to wishful thinking. The key is *honesty*: Do not fool yourself to believe
you know something which you are not absolutely sure of. You are able
to give convincing reasons to other people.
You are completely convinced that astrology is truthful because an astrologer
described you correctly and you pay a study which confirms your impression ?
*This is not science*.
You are completely convinced that astrology is baloney because it seems to
be old and it violates what you think is correct knowledge ? *This is not science either* !
You write down the logical inconsistencies of astrology, put up a study to test the conclusions and the tests repeatedly and consistently failed ? *This is science*.
What is the goal of businesses ?
--------------------------------
A key concept of a business is to gain revenue by fulfilling a demand. Because in private
enterprise you have competitors you must also apply strategy to
keep your business and use that to increase your influence. That means
* Having unique or better knowledge. If your competitors do not know how you achieved your desired results, it would be stupid to tell them. Or you protect your invention with patents.
* Propagate your influence by using your revenue to spread out. Gain power from important persons (friendships, franchises and working together).
* Protect yourself and hold your competitors down. You can do that defensively (lawsuits, patents) or offensively (buying them off, spread bad rumors, outpace them in quality and quantity).
Both goals are perfectly ok.
If you leave university and begin a startup, no problem. If a firm buys your invention, no problem. It starts to be trouble if you have a *conflict of interest* and the professor has a *severe conflict of interest*.
If you did not see it, *honesty* is not a business goal.
Let's say the professor gives you a task to improve a specific software module. You are starting to analyze the module...and you find that it has a flaw. It does not work or even *causes harm*, you can scientifically prove it. You have found out that the prospering company your professor leads has sold a defective software. Revelation of this could harm the reputation of the university, the software company and even your economy of your country. Or, on the other hand, it does nothing, but the professor wants to improve the user experience so that the customers are happy even if sold junk.
Do you feel still perfectly ok with *that* scenario ?
Because for this reason research and business should have distinct areas because you cannot honestly find a scientific answer if you are under constant pressure to modify your findings in a specific direction (or to be punished if you insist on honesty). The law of reciprocity always kicks in, I have supported you, why don't you support me.
I mean, we see the problem everywhere. "Think tanks" are buying old academics to support "research" in environmental issues. Politicians and companies are buying supportive studies. Consumer products are called back and almost always the problem was known long before. Academic fraud for research grants is a known problem. etc.
The problem is not that the professor is a horrible person or that business is evil or science must be pure and idealistic. The problem is that many universities are dependent on private funding and try to give students the impression that it is absolutely no problem to mix business and scientific research. Guess what: It is a *lie*.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_12: I would say that the best advice is to make sure that there is a clear partition between the open source parts of the software vs. the business parts and that the students are informed of this.
Many professors get students to work on research that is (or becomes) commercial in nature (e.g. biology). The key ethical issue is that the students are informed and are educated to make proper decisions about it.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_13: I think that it depends on several factors. If the supervisor is offering you some grants from the company to do your research work than he may expect something back that he may commercializes. But in any case, it would be better to have a discussion about that before the project starts. It is always important to makes things clear before starting a project. If things are not made clear than it may cause some conflicts afterwards. If things are made clear and a student is not satisfied, he may also just work with another professor.
Besides, I think that the job of a master degree student should be to do research, not to do unrelated software development tasks (unless he is getting paid or if he wants to). But participating in a company project can also have several benefits. Besides, from what I understand, you are also publishing your research as open-source. I believe that publishing research as open-source is very beneficial. Personally, I do research in the field of data mining and publish all my research as open-source (data mining algorithms and datasets) as part of a data mining library/software, and I don't earn any money from that. But this has increased the visibility of my research. Thus, perhaps that you should see it from this perspective. If your new algorithms is included in a commercial software or large open-source project, it will probably gives a lot of visibility to your algorithms, and your research will be probably used and cited by more researchers.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_14: We can split this problem to two:
From Professors perspective it would be unethical to assign students a project that does not support the objectives (ie. research or education) of the academic organization by which he is currently employed. If this condition is met, the project can as well be open sourced. He can not, in general, force the student to open the source, but this may vary from one country to another and depends on who holds the copyright of the original work, student or the organization.
From student perspective, only question is (if you really hold the copyright) whether you allow the source to be opened. Either you allow, or you do not.
If these conditions are met, and the work is released as open source under a proper license, *anyone* may try to make legally money with it as long as the license terms are not violated. Including the professor. It is inherent nature of open source: someone may benefit from it also financially, and you can try to do that too.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/09 | 1,063 | 4,445 | <issue_start>username_0: I am a prospective phd student. I wish to know if it is fine to contact the phd students of my target schools?
If answering this question requires more information, please feel free to state that.<issue_comment>username_1: It is absolutely fine to contact current PhD students of programs and departments that you are interested in. On an average, I get about 1 email of this sort everyday and I make my best effort to reply intelligently.
Keep in mind though that many PhD students will simply not reply to your email. Sometimes folks are inundated by too many emails and commitments to respond to any additional emails and sometimes people just have bad emailing tendencies in general.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: We had great success when we extensively supported a PhD student who asked for a contact:
While doing my PhD we had a last year undergraduate student, who contacted my supervisor and asked if he can meet some of the PhD students. We decided to organize some shadowing for him, so he spent several days with me in the university.
I told him all I could think of in relation to my PhD experience, answered all his questions, and he did some real work - helped finding research publications in a specific area. At the end we asked him to write a short report about his shadowing experience - was it useful, pros and cons from his point of view, etc.
The experiment was so successful that the department decided to extend it and provide similar opportunities for other prospective PhD students.
So, by all means, do it - contact the supervisor or the PhD student. The worst thing that could happen is that they will say 'no'
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I never ever got this kind of email during my Ph.D. program, but when we had some prospective students visiting the campus, I was eager to answer any questions they might have. Nobody asked me, though.
We are all in this life together. If you want to know something, just ask. If you are sincere, it is fine to ask.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I have received tens of such e-mails so far in the first two years of the PhD program. 70% from India, 20% from other parts of Asia, 10% other.
Since I hate when people ignore my emails, or even reply unnecessarily late, I was trying at first to give some customized advice. After the first dozen of e-mails, I realized that I was being asked almost the same type of questions over and over, so I now simply reply with a template e-mails pointing to the main resources.
To answer your question, I would say it is totally fine but:
1. The more specific questions, the more likely you are to receive an interesting answer.
2. It is hard to be 100% frank with people we don't know. As a result, the answers you get are likely to be biased (typically "how good is the advisor?" kind of questions). As <NAME> said, where there is no freedom of blaming, there can be no genuine praise. The only solution is to know people personally or be referred by some common friend. Talking face-to-face can help reducing the bias.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I am a PhD student in a really small department, and the only student in my particular research group. When we have students interviewing for a PhD in my group, I always spend some time with them answering questions about what it is like in the department and group, and what it is like working with my supervisor (very important!). I always give them my email address so they can ask me any other questions they may not have thought of at the time.
If anyone was to email me directly before applying, I would take time to answer their questions, but only if they genuinely seem interested in the specific PhD topic on offer. If it seemed like a really generic email that had been sent out to loads of people (obvious give away is if it isn't actually addressed to me!), then I wouldn't take time out of my busy schedule to respond.
In my research group, PhDs are offered based on a specific topic that we have got funding for. I know other big departments in the UK interview for PhD students generically and then they get to choose their topic from scratch, pick one from a list, or they are matched with a specific topic after their interview depending on their skills. I don't know how it works in other countries or other fields (I am in the climate/meteorology field).
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/09 | 1,269 | 5,054 | <issue_start>username_0: *Disclaimer - I'm neither in favor of, nor endorsing plagiarism with the following question. I'm only hitting on the fact that sometimes, the interpretation of self-plagiarism can be quite stupid*.
Given the well-deserved emphasis on controlling the menace of plagiarism these days, various journals and even academic institutions have insisted on various cross-check measures. Mostly, this amounts to necessitating a clean chit from some anti-plagiarism software, which (I imagine) works by comparing string lengths of some x-words in the article, with its existing database. So, if some dumb guy didn't rephrase himself, there would be common sentences, which earns him disrepute and he gets tagged as a self-plagiarist.
Now, as a ''responsible'' author, I would try to minimize such overlaps, ideally to zero. But sometimes, you can't help it. Take this context for example. (*Sidenote - I'm [basically a Physics.SE user](https://physics.stackexchange.com/users/46399/new-new-newbie).*) We have used one model in two different contexts, so there is no question of overlapping content between two articles. But, since it is the same model, when I describe it, in one place I write -
>
> The free parameters of the *wawa* model, p1, p2 and p3 are fitted to baryon masses and vacuum characteristics in the *wawa* limit.
>
>
>
(*''wawa'' = whatever*)
Now, I don't see any self-plagiarism in repeating this one sentence in the second article, but if I don't, maybe I'm being the ''dumb guy'' in the previous paragraph. So, I'll try to work around this, finding synonyms, trying alternative descriptions, but even with all my maneuvering, that sentence was the best way to describe it.
My opinion is that, even though I'm not plagiarizing anywhere in the above context, this process is turning out to be a nuisance for me. Am I supposed to sit down and waste so much time rephrasing my sentences, when I have some meaningful information to communicate to the scientific world? (Worst still, I could've been investigating some hot problem in my discipline, where urgently communicating is invaluable.)
Also, as @mhwombat hit on in a comment, am I not compromising on the best way of putting it across, when I deliberately rephrase it, just because there is a ''plagiarism'' checker in place? That's surely not what the purpose of plagiarism check was?<issue_comment>username_1: Just because two sentences are identical does not mean that the person who wrote the sentence second plagiarized the person who wrote it first. For your example sentence:
>
> The free parameters of the wawa model, p1, p2 and p3 are fitted to baryon masses and vacuum characteristics in the wawa limit.
>
>
>
If you copy and paste that sentence from a previous publication (it doesn't matter who wrote it originally), that is a clear case of plagiarism. If you thought about the model and how the parameters were fitted and you happen to come up with the identical wording, it is not plagiarism. If you don't want to think about the best way of saying something and you want to use the words/ideas of someone else, then you need to provide proper credit (i.e., quote them).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I think the focus on self-plagiarism here is overwrought when it comes to describing a methodology that may be reused from paper to paper. You are going to cite the first place you wrote that sentence, and you shouldn't need to worry about changing the wording in the series of papers that use the same methodology.
Methodology descriptions should be clear and exactly the same when the underlying methodology is exactly the same from work to work. Any editor who used software to flag your words should see your self-reference/citation and give you a pass. "Self-plagiarism" of this sort is a bad label and no crime.
Edited to add: *At most,* you may need an prefatory clause to the effect "Following our prior methodology described in [1], the free parameters of the wawa model, p1, p2 and p3 are fitted to baryon masses and vacuum characteristics in the wawa limit." Or something similar. But that won't fool the detector software. You need to trust that an editor will understand this for what it is.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: What username_1 says about it not being plagiarism if you come up with the same wording independently is technically right, I suppose, but what you really have to worry about is whether certain other people (e.g. editors) *think* you've plagiarized, and those people are probably not going to be receptive to the argument that you came up with the same sentence twice. At least in theory, a sentence which is long enough to count as plagiarism is long enough that you can find a different way to phrase it. So I would say yes, you have to rephrase the sentence.
At least, this is standard practise in my field, theoretical particle physics, and I've been told that expectations are the same in other branches of physics and other hard sciences.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/09 | 907 | 4,087 | <issue_start>username_0: I am a new PhD student, almost one year into the program. I was in theoretical research in my Master's program and switched to experimental research for my PhD. During my studies I have used a programming language but I do not have any expertise with it. I immediately started to working with this language, but still have great difficulty working efficiently it. I don't have any positive contribution and my supervisor doesn't seem to be happy.
I don't want to just quit and go back to theory. I really want to continue with experimental study, but not in my current university. When I talked to my supervisor about this he just told me to quit and find something else but I don't believe this is the proper way to motivate a student.
I've applied for other positions which are of a different topic but also experimental. The people who I contacted were very interested in my studies I have done before. But at the end, these people will contact with my supervisor about my progress and I think he will not say good things about me.
I think I behaved very honest for my new application. One of them knew my supervisor and he wanted me to ask about my current performance and I told him to ask if he wants, but I also explained that this talk wouldn't be a glowing recommendation since I have been unable to meet objectives in my current program. Now I think being honest didn't work for me since I didn't get any response back...
*What should I say to those people to get accepted into a different program, since I really want to continue in this experimental field?*<issue_comment>username_1: Honesty is always the best choice.
Supervisors are genuinely interested in your background and in what you did. They have lots of experience and they know well enough that the success of a PhD candidate doesn't depend exclusively on him/her.
Supervisors' opinion about you won't be affected as much as you expect by the recommendation letter or by a chat with your current supervisor. Be honest with them, talk openly about what went wrong during your previous experience (don't hide it from your CV). Be confident. :)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: If your relation with your current advisor is not good, you probably don't want to cite him/her as reference or ask them for recommendation. Usually one ask recommendation only from people we are sure they have a good opinion. Maybe someone else from your Master can give a better opinion of you. Or colleagues/postdoc/teaching assistant in your current position.
This does not mean you need to hide the current situation. It is better to introduce the problem when you say why you want to change position. And be super clear with the situation, if they ask you what was the problem, be open with it. If you are hesitant to speak, they will feel there is something shady and might become suspicious. Also you should not try to discredit your current supervisor, but you can try to explain why his/her expectations were not met.
If they still insist on contacting your current advisor, then let it be, there is not much more you can do.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Have you considered finding another advisor at your current university? It sounds like your current advisor is not a good fit for you. You'd be surprised the number of PhD students who decide to switch concentrations after one year in the program.
I would arrange a 1-one-1 meeting with your current advisor and explain what you've said here - you don't feel you are able to make him happy with your work. In my experience, these meetings are generally a relief for both the student and the prof. as the problem is in the open, and both parties can work towards a resolution.
There may be another experimental prof that needs your background in theory, and will be willing to work with you to improve your skills in more applied fields. Just because one prof. didn't work well with you doesn't mean none of them will. If you cannot find another prof at your current university, then consider applying elsewhere.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/09 | 372 | 1,672 | <issue_start>username_0: During my leisure time, I used to prepare some pamphlets in the topic of courses I always wanted to teach. Each, full of examples and solved problems which I designed and solved myself, not photocopying from books and papers; that are so helpful to the engineering students.
If one day, I have the chance to teach in a TA class, is it ethical to ask the students to read my prepared materials too? Or the teaching assistant should only solve the problems of the reference book which is told by the professor of the course?<issue_comment>username_1: Your role as a teaching assistant is to further the educational goals of the course (as determined by the instructor and/or the department).
If encouraging your students to read these materials furthers the educational goals of the course, then you should do so. If not, then you shouldn't.
Since the instructor and/or the department determines what the educational goals of the class *are*, you should check with them first, and use your extra material only with their approval. (Besides for the issue of making sure your material is consistent with the goals of the course, it also makes sense for them to be aware of what is going on.)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The above answer is good but I would like to add one thing. If you are a TA in one section of a larger class make sure that you are being fair. Your students should not be receiving significantly more work than students in other sections, especially when one curve is applied to all sections. That being said, optional material is also helpful (although not as much as required meterial).
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/09 | 1,489 | 6,366 | <issue_start>username_0: Recently, our group is trying to reproduce the result reported by a paper whose authors are from an Ivy league university. We are unable to reproduce the results because there are several implementation details are not mentioned in the paper. Hence, we decide to write the first author, who is now already a faculty member in another university, an email.
At first, we asked for the code, which we consider is perfectly fine, as the paper has been published. We feel the code in a published paper is no longer a secret in this transparent research era where reproducibility is highly valued. However, he simply ignored our email (3+ weeks, no response).
Then, we thought, OK, seems that he is reluctant to share the code, so let's just ask him to clarify several implementation details so that we can implement the thing ourselves and hopefully, we can reproduce the result. So, we sent a second email which very clearly asks for clarifications. Again, he ignored the email (1.5 weeks+, no response).
We now feel angry and start suspecting the authenticity of their reported results. However, we cannot accuse them of anything, since we are not able to prove that they cheated, which would be a felony if they really did.
We always feel that upon the publication of a paper, its authors, or at least the correspondence author, hold responsible for any inquiries regarding the paper, especially when the authenticity is being doubted. What they chose to do - ignoring our email - is really irresponsible.
What can we do?
Disclaimer
==========
Thanks for the answers and comments! It is interesting that many start besieging me on my "bad" attitude in the email.
Just to clarify,
1. I wrote perfectly polite emails to the correspondence author;
2. I have **NOT** questioned his results or whatsoever.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> We always feel that upon the publication of a paper, its authors, or
> at least the correspondence author, hold responsible for any inquiries
> regarding the paper, especially when the authenticity is being
> doubted.
>
>
>
Did you actually state that you do not believe in the results of the paper? If yes, this is disrespectful and plain rude. And most people ignore rude remarks from strangers in the internet. When requesting the help of any other human being, you should be polite and cautious. Also, in Academia you must be very careful when you refer to someone's work. Especially his PUBLISHED work. Because that means that the scientific community has already accepted his claims and you are the one who must prove that his results are wrong and not the other way around (if you ever get published on this subject which be hard to do without his help). So, acknowledge the fact that he has nothing to prove and he will be doing you a favor if he accepts to share his code.
Also, think of the possibility that he does not want to share his code. It is his code after all (and not public domain) and he still has the right to keep it for his personal use. He may also plan to expand on his work and sharing the code prematurely deprives him of the 3 months - 1 year time-advantage over you, since you still have to implement it yourself before expanding on the current state-of-the-art, i.e., his work. In this case, provide him with an alternative. Say that you are willing to send him your datasets and if he agrees to do the experiments for you and report to you his results, it should be good enough for 90% of the cases and everyone is happy. You have the necessary data to compare against your method and he did not have to share his code, which is a logical compromise.
Also, academia is a place that you need to use your social skills. You need collaborators and not enemies / antagonists. In that sense, ask for help politely and expect that NO is a very possible answer on the other party. Also, if he is an established researcher and you are not (perhaps you are famous too - I do not know) there is the case that he ignored the email, because he simply does not even know who you are, what you do and how you will use his code. Usually, telling little things about yourself in the introductory email, sending a link to your personal homepage and google scholar profile, suffices not to consider you a crank and reply to you.
Also, sometimes the first author is a graduate student and the student might not want to share his code because he feels threatened. So, check all the authors profiles. See who is the most senior in the paper and CC him as well in your emails. In that case, the senior professor might encourage the student to share his code despite his objections. Either way, it cannot do you any harm.
As you see, there are multiple reasons why he did not reply to your email. Also a little flattery works on most of the cases. Note that in a sense you find this work fascinating because otherwise you would not struggle to improve it. It is not bad to say so and usually this kind of politeness opens more doors and is more useful in the long term.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: How do you know he ignored the email?
Maybe he never received it because it was filtered before he had a chance to see it. Maybe he hasn't read his email this month because he's on vacation. Maybe that email address was good when the paper is published but not good now, but it's also not bouncing.
If one channel of communication doesn't work, try a different one. Call his office phone or send a letter to him. Write to a different author saying you've been trying to reach the corresponding author without success and you want to check the email address. Don't assume anything when you have no information.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I just want to address one minor point:
>
> At first, we asked for the code, which we consider is perfectly fine, as the paper has been published. We feel the code in a published paper is no longer a secret in this transparent research era where reproducibility is highly valued.
>
>
>
It does not matter what your feelings are but rather what is the policy of the journal the article was published. Some journals require disclosure of data or source code but others do not. Also if the research was funded by the NSF there maybe mandatory disclosures policy. I suggest you to see if this is the case.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/09 | 7,215 | 31,092 | <issue_start>username_0: I really love research. I started a research project in graduate school for my M.A. in English. My research topic is a very viable and interesting topic for a dissertation. I'll be 60 on my next birthday and I know that many Ph.D programs are traditionally geared toward younger students.I was wondering are there any programs that I can continue this research in without facing the issues of ageism in academia?<issue_comment>username_1: My father got his Ph.D. (from a highly respected department at a major university) in his late fifties. I brought my regalia to his graduation. There were also two grad students in their fifties in the same program I was in. One was puttering along at his own pace and on his own funds, but the other had a funded position and was working under the same time pressure as the rest of us.
Some departments may effectively limit funded positions to younger applicants, but there is no magic number after which people won't accept you.
If that is what you want to do, then do it.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: In my opinion, there is no age limit for doing academic research. As far as it seems you have sufficient academic background, so prepare your resume and send your request to the universities. Do not prejudge your application.
By searching the admissions pages of the universities' websites, I found that the only age limit may be that some applicants under a specific age are not accepted, for instance, students younger that 16; but there also some exceptions exist.
Further more, in the application pages, the applicants with disabilities (because of age, accidents, born with disabilities, etc.) still have the chance to apply for their desired programs and their disability does not prevent them from doing his research. In our university, I have seen two or three blind students doing MSc research. So, you see even that these rare problems do not affect applicant chance as they have strong education and research background.
Examine your chance and let the admission committee decide to accept you or not. But first work a little on your research topic which you are interested to work on and prepare a proposal or something expressing the things in your mind. Then prepare your resume and gather all your work and research background in. After all, be realistic and choose the university program which suits you more. If you can provide financial support for your PhD, this may boost your chance up. Furthermore, based on your research proposal; choose the university in which the professors are working in your field. That is why I am saying be realistic. Choose the programs wisely that are not far from your research interest.
There are good answers in this question [Will my age affect my chances of finding a funded PhD position?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17430/will-my-age-affect-my-chances-of-finding-a-funded-phd-position), but I do not think that your question is a duplicate of that one.
Also, [in this post](http://chrisblattman.com/2013/06/12/when-are-you-too-old-for-a-phd/), you see that the age may not be the first concern of the admission committee. This is part of the writer's answer to a question which is almost near your concern.
>
> [...] Frankly, though, I don’t think this is a first-order concern for an admissions committee, who are mostly concerned with your raw intellectual potential and ability to produce distinguished research.
>
>
>
In the other part, the writer says:
>
> [...] If someone is 28 **or older**, with a previous career, an admission committee will probably reflect on whether that experience is going to contribute to or detract from the person’s research potential, and what the career switch says about a person’s focus. **So a lot will depend on your specific story and experience.**
>
>
>
Also, in the page [Should You Take Time Off Before Applying to Graduate School?](http://gradschool.about.com/cs/shouldyougo/a/now.htm) you can find good advices on your question.
The only problem you may face because of the age may be the chance of applying for a fund may decrease but I have no citation for this and because of your high level of academic background, you may face no problem for fund or scholarship.
---
**I am writing this part after a while:**
I was searching the Academia website and found many questions in which users have talked about the similar questions to yours. I am not saying that yours is a duplicate of them, but I think that reading those questions and answers may help you to better shape an answer for your own question.
* [Age and Graduate school](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/902/age-and-graduate-school)
* [Am I too old for academia after a PhD?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10396/am-i-too-old-for-academia-after-a-phd?lq=1)
* [How old is too old for a PhD?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3426/how-old-is-too-old-for-a-phd?lq=1)
* [How important is age in CS phd admissions?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5082/how-important-is-age-in-cs-phd-admissions?lq=1)
* [Will my age affect my chances of finding a funded PhD position?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17430/will-my-age-affect-my-chances-of-finding-a-funded-phd-position?lq=1)
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: A guy at my old department had just started his PhD when I left. He retired from his old job, travelled from the USA to New Zealand with his wife, and started his PhD. He is about your age.
Granted, I don't think he intends to try an academic career. That would be difficult. But there's no such thing as *too old* to start your PhD.
A professor who judges you solely on your age *is one you don't want to work for.* If you're in the Arts, funding is always tough so don't be disheartened too quickly. If you are able to fund yourself, you'll probably have the luxury of being able to study for your PhD almost anywhere and under whichever professor you want.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: I received my PhD last year at 54 years old. It took me eight years part time while I worked full time. I had taken classes in the 1980s at Drexel in Philadelphia and remembered a 60 yr old PhD candidate. So Drexel seemed 100% friendly. I also did not want to be favored and they did that well also. I was in engineering and the main focus was to publish. I suspect various schools will gladly meet with you in info meetings and in person (as they did with me).
You are basically offering free hard labor for them. There will be some who will be happy to work with you if you focus on the work and publishing (co-author). If you publish, then you are probably "in" and the work counts. I know little about English and similar majors but I think this applies. BTW: it was very hard.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I completed my Ph.D. in computer science at UCSD in 2009, when I was 60 years old. I don't think being a few years older than that would have made any difference.
The only problem I had in the application process was a limited space for the statement of purpose that was also required to contain a list of every job I had held since getting my bachelor's degree - in 1970. I was able to use my industry contact network to get to talk with three of the faculty before my application went in. I don't know whether that helped.
I felt a little bit disconnected from the social life of my fellow students, not just directly because of the age difference. Many of them had recently moved to San Diego, and so only knew other students. I had been living in the area since 1975, and had an established network of friends who share my non-technical interests. Most of them were living in dorm rooms or shared apartments, on or near campus. I had a home about 10 miles from campus. I went to a few parties, but mainly continued my pre-student social life.
===============================================
I think I included above most of the information about my experiences that applies to this question.
I had entirely different reasons for doing a Ph.D. I was already doing work of comparable difficulty and creativity to a doctoral dissertation project, but in an environment where the result was patents and products, rather than papers. I had had to choose between an academic and an industry career when I was about 25, and had picked industry. After selling some stock options in 2000, I realized I had the option of trying out the other path.
After completing my doctorate, I took a year off to celebrate, and enjoyed it so much that I decided to retire permanently. I did not seriously consider continuing an academic career. If I had looked for work, it would have been a pure technical job. My industry employers, at least since I moved to California in 1975, had each had a technical promotion track, parallel to but separate from the management track. As far as I can tell, universities require professors to do teaching and administration, as well as research.
Although I picked an entirely different subject for my dissertation, my long term field of interest is the logical design of multiprocessor interconnects. Critical technical work for a large server design cannot be done half-heartedly - it requires an intense commitment to spending whatever time and effort it takes to get the product working and into customers' hands. I'm enjoying luxuries like time for travel, horseback riding a couple of days a week, crafts and hobbies...
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: I think that is absurd! Age is nothing but a number.
Who is to say that you are too old? The other students? The faculty? Who are they to make that distinction? You are the only one who lives your own life and who makes it out to what you want it to be. If you want to pursue a Ph.D. at 60, that is nothing but honorable and it will only make your life better by allowing you to do what you want.
Hey, maybe you are at just the perfect age, and all the other kids in your program are too young?
Personally, it just pains me very deeply when people limit themselves because of some imaginary "social norms". Some routine self-destructive lifestyle justifications that people love to give, such as
>
> "I am going to stay in this terrible marriage, because divorce is frowned upon"
>
>
> "I hate medicine, but I am going to become a doctor anyway, because that will allow me to become a respectable member of this society as well as appease my parents"
>
>
> "I want to buy a dog, but am unsure how will my neighbors react"
>
>
> etc.
>
>
>
have no effects on peoples' lives other than wreckage, with the sole purpose of appeasing the opinions of others (with (note!) absolutely no benefit whatsoever for themselves). No one out there will live your life for you (I am sure you understand that by your age). "Social norms" were established to maintain order and create imaginary boundaries; for example, the core historical purpose of politeness (in the form of respect for a person who is of a higher social rank than you) is simply to make sure that the peasantry "knows their place"; self-deprivation measures, such as the all-glorified "self-control" and "moderation" among the wealthy, were also put in place to keep the upper classes on a pedestal (and thus prevent the possibility of them, for example, appearing drunk in public, etc., so that the lower classes would look at them as betters instead of equals). It's nothing but social engineering at its finest (perfected over millennia).
Now, where do you fit into this whole picture? Are you really going to sacrifice your own happiness because someone out there said that you are too old to do what you want? Because you are "too old" to be happy? Who are they to have the authoritative word? Maybe you feel that they are too young to be happy... Why does their word weigh more?
I once read a beautiful story about an 80-something-year-old woman who realized that throughout her entire life, she despised the career that she had. At 80, she decided to forget all social stereotypes, and enrolled into a university to get her bachelor's degree in something that she always wanted to do. She succeeded, and spent a few years doing something she dreamt of since her childhood (I forget what the exact field was, and I forget the name of the woman; I'd be happy to look it up if you are interested, though).
As a matter of fact, there are plenty of 70-year-old hippies and 50-year-old clubbers out there, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that if that is what makes them happy. Society can judge all they want... People will always judge. Because that is what people with too much time on their hands do. They sit, and judge. Because they are so unhappy with their own lives. And frankly, if everyone listened to them, no one would ever be happy and no one would ever achieve anything.
It is absolutely never too late to do anything! Don't let some crowd's musings, let alone something as superficial as some imaginary "social norms", dictate whether you have a right to be happy. You have a right to be happy and pursue any purpose you wish. It is your inalienable right.
You are only given one life. And its yours, no one else's. We all write our own book. Make yours out what you want it to be. After all, it's only the best that any of us can really do. At life's end, all social norms, material wealth, and others' opinions and judgements, will not matter. The only thing that will matter are the memories that you created and the moments of happiness that you enjoyed; that's really the only thing we can take with us to whatever is next (and if there is nothing next, than at least it is something we can cherish it and bask in on our death beds). It's the only thing in this world that is truly ours. Don't ever let anyone take that away from you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Platitudes and hope are nice, but the reality is that the outcome of your situation depends on many variables: your field, your experience, your financial situation (can you support yourself?), the institutions to which you are applying, and your current set of skills (which go to your preparedness for a PhD level program). Any one of these factors can significantly impact your chances for admission. Unfortunately, in your case, you have to add to that mix, age discrimination, which does exist. Given the glut of very qualified international students in the sciences and budget cutbacks in this arts, this is something to be aware of going into the admissions process. Because there are not that many +50 yr old adults going back for their PhD, there is not as much data to go on, just a lot of anecdotal evidence (that doesn't contain most of the people who *didn't* make it). But age can be an advantage if you can show that it has translated into maturity, seriousness of purpose, and a true love of your discipline. Proper preparation demonstrates this to the admissions committee.
First, research those schools of interest to you. I'd look at whether they have older grad students and if there is a concentration of profs in your area of interest.
Second, contact the professors personally and talk to them. Making a personal connection can be an important in your application process: you are not just candidate X, but that nice person from so and so who drove all the way out here to get more information and see if they were suitable for our program. Professors higher up on the food chain improve your chances. Are they currently interested in taking on students at this time? Are they still doing research in this field? Do they seem to like you and have an interest in potentially having you as a student?
Third, prepare as much as you can. If you need to get a good GRE score, make sure you put in the time and money you need to prepare sufficiently. Take upper level courses at a local university: you can get references from those profs and this provides evidence that you can endure a PhD program. If you can squeeze in some teaching experience, consider doing so. Volunteering to help tutor or participating in English related activities (like debate team) at a local high school broadens your network,shows you enjoy helping students, and gives you experience on your resume. Even being an online tutor for 5 hrs/week may help.
Fourth, be persistent.If you don't get in this year, do more to prepare yourself better and apply next year. Persistence is a key attribute of a true researcher and does not go unnoticed.
That being said, I'm starting my MS at 52 and will probably go on for a PhD, but I think it takes some planning on your part to insure you will get into a decent program.
Good Luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Here are some statistics on Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities in 2009:
from [Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: 2009](http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/doctorates/):
>
> Data presented in *Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: 2009*
> were collected by the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED). The survey is
> sponsored by six federal agencies: the National Science Foundation
> (NSF), U.S. Department of Education (USED), National Aeronautics and
> Space Administration (NASA), National Endowment for the Humanities
> (NEH), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and U.S. Department of
> Agriculture (USDA). This year's edition of the report presents the
> summary of these survey data in new online and print formats, and the
> report title has changed slightly. Previous reports were titled in the
> series *Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: Summary Report*
>
>
>
[./SED\_2009/data/tab24.xls](http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf11306/).
Since the NSF often blow their links, data back up as CSV:
```
"TABLE 24. Median age of doctorate recipients, by broad field of study, sex, citizenship, and race/ethnicity: 2009",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"Field of study and
demographic characteristics","Median age
at doctoratea (years)",,% distribution (in age),,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,All,25 and under,26–30,31–35,36–40,41–45,Over 45,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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All fieldsb,32.2, ,100.0,0.6,38.9,30.4,13.5,6.0,10.5,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Life sciencesc,31.3, ,100.0,0.4,45.9,32.0,11.1,3.9,6.7,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Physical sciencesd,30.2, ,100.0,1.3,56.7,29.0,8.2,2.6,2.2,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Social sciencese,32.4, ,100.0,0.4,37.5,32.6,15.1,6.0,8.4,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Engineering,30.5, ,100.0,1.2,54.0,30.3,9.1,2.6,2.7,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Education,40.5, ,100.0,0.1,10.1,21.4,20.2,13.6,34.6,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Humanities,34.5, ,100.0,D,21.0,37.7,19.1,9.0,13.0,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Other non-S&E fields,36.1, ,100.0,D,18.0,31.2,20.7,11.6,18.1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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Sex,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Male,32.0, ,100.0,0.7,40.5,31.9,13.8,5.7,7.4,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Female,32.6, ,100.0,0.5,37.2,28.7,13.1,6.4,14.1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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Citizenship,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
U.S. citizen or permanent resident,32.7, ,100.0,0.6,38.0,26.3,13.6,7.1,14.4,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Temporary visa holder,31.7, ,100.0,0.7,41.0,39.7,13.2,3.6,1.8,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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"Race/ethnicity (U.S. citizens and
permanent residents)",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
American Indian/Alaska Native,38.0, ,100.0,D,23.6,20.8,17.4,8.3,29.2,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Asian,31.8, ,100.0,1.1,40.6,32.0,14.0,5.9,6.4,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Black,36.7, ,100.0,D,24.3,22.6,18.5,10.7,23.7,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Hispanicf,34.1, ,100.0,0.3,29.3,30.9,15.2,7.7,16.6,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
White,32.3, ,100.0,0.5,39.7,25.6,12.9,6.8,14.3,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Two or more races,32.3, ,100.0,0.8,40.8,27.9,13.3,6.2,11.0,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
D = suppressed to avoid disclosure of confidential information. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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a Includes only doctorate recipients with a valid year of birth.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"b Includes those of unknown citizenship, unknown race/ethnicity, and Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders not shown separately.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"c Includes agricultural sciences/natural resources, biological/biomedical sciences, and health sciences.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
d Includes mathematics and computer and information sciences.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
e Includes psychology.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"f Persons reporting Hispanic ethnicity, whether singly or in combination with one or more races, are included in the respondent-selected Hispanic ethnicity
category.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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"NOTE: Due to rounding, the sum of percentages may not equal to 100. ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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"SOURCE: NSF/NIH/USED/USDA/NEH/NASA, 2009 Survey of Earned Doctorates.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_9: I don't believe that 60 is too old to study for a doctorate - or anything else for that matter. While I don't know your situation personally, I'd suggest that most 60 year olds are better placed in life to commit to a PhD than younger people are because generally a 60 year old is more likely to have the necessary financial wherewithal to do it.
You are unlikely to face ageism in most programs of study in my experience.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/10 | 1,246 | 5,320 | <issue_start>username_0: I did my bachelor at university A in which Prof. X supervised my graduation project. I asked him for a recommendation when I was applying to university B for masters and he wrote me a great one. That was a year and a half ago, and now I am applying for PhD at university C. I need his recommendation again but I feel bad for not emailing him for a long time. I don't know how to write my email. I don't want to jump directly for the recommendation. Could you share your suggestions on what to write ??<issue_comment>username_1: After a decade of teaching, I get these quite often. While people use a variety of styles, the one that I am most responsive to is:
* Initial formal e-mail asking me if I remember them (with hints such as "I was the student who wrote the thesis on faster-than-light dog walking"), then telling me what they've been doing for the past X years (with a recent CV or resume as an attachment), and transitioning to their desire to move on to a new career or grad school and asking me if I could write a letter of recc for them. Close with an offer to talk on the phone (or come up to campus) to help refresh their memory of them.
Once you get the ok, make it as easy as possible for me to write the letter. If there are things you want me to emphasize, be blunt about saying it ("Please don't mention the folly of FTL dog-walking" or "Please emphasize my familiarity with temporal dilation and astrophysics").
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If someone has already written you a recommendation letter in the past and you want them to write another one, the key question is: has the old letter become obsolete, or can it (in essential content, anyway) still be used?
If the answer to the above question is *yes*, I think you're golden: just thank the professor for writing the recommendation before and ask them if they are willing to write an updated copy. They will have the same question as above, so be clear to them that you are not looking for them to say anything they haven't already said.
If the answer is *no* -- significant updating is required -- then it becomes a "bigger ask". If the additional information is something that you feel like you can faithfully supply to them in the form of written documents -- e.g. updated CV, new papers -- then you should enclose them along with your email request. If you really need a qualitatively different letter, then an in-person visit is probably in order, and if that seems impractical and/or doesn't go well, then perhaps you should really be looking for someone more *au courant* to be writing your letter.
In your case, I suspect that the affirmative is more likely to apply: at least in my field and location (mathematics in the United States) applying for a master's program is essentially identical to applying for a PhD program. Even assuming you did a master's degree, getting a letter from someone who only interacted with you as an undergrad and who only addresses your undergraduate career would be totally appropriate. (You should however try to get at least one letter from your most recent program or job, if at all possible.) In this case, the letter is likely to begin by mentioning that the professor's interactions with you were limited to the undergraduate program at his university and mention that he can't speak to your master's program but that someone else will. After that he can really cut and paste the former letter, if he likes.
>
> I don't know how to write my email. I don't want to jump directly for the recommendation. Could you share your suggestions on what to write ??
>
>
>
If I have learned one thing in my time on this site, it is that the world is a big place and there are relatively few universal tenets of academic culture. But in the part of academia I am familiar with (again, mathematics in the United States), your request for an additional letter is absolutely standard. I would not view a year and a half as a "long time" -- as I mentioned above, the determining factor is not the number of years that have passed but to what extent the letter needs / is desired to be updated: that's what takes up the professor's time and effort -- nor do I see lack of contact in the interim as anything to be embarrassed about in the slightest. By not jumping directly to the recommendation request you risk taking up a busy person's valuable time by giving them more text to read. I would begin with a short paragraph of the "Hello there? Remember me? I hope you are well" variety -- two or three sentences would be sufficient. And then yes -- jump to the recommendation request. Writing these letters -- and rewriting them in the intervening years -- is part of our job, after all.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: How about (drum roll) the truth?
Paraphrasing you:
"Thanks for the recommendation letter you wrote me when I was applying to university B for masters. [Tell him how it went and what you did.]
Now I am applying for PhD at university C, and I want to ask your recommendation again, but I feel bad for not emailing you for a long time."
Continue from then on. He may be good people and help you out. What's the big deal? Piece of advice: stop thinking of (lowercase) professors as the aristocrats of knowledge.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/10 | 1,094 | 4,169 | <issue_start>username_0: How does one address a doctoral candidate who completed all his/here requirements except the dissertation? Would they be referred to as Doctor? Or is there another title?
In the past, I believe I've seen "ABD" added as a postnominal in a signature. For example, "<NAME>, ABD". But I don't believe I recall reading how to address such an individual.
Related discussions (thanks Nate (or is it Doctor?)):
* [When can you call yourself doctor?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9925/when-can-you-call-yourself-doctor)
* [Proper way to address yourself](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8291/proper-way-to-address-yourself)<issue_comment>username_1: Address them the same way you would address any other person without a doctorate: e.g. in many English-speaking cultures, "Mr. Smith", "<NAME>", "<NAME>", or if you are on friendly terms, by their first name.
If they have *successfully defended* their dissertation but not actually received the degree, this is a bit of a gray area (see [When can you call yourself doctor?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9925/when-can-you-call-yourself-doctor)) but I think "Dr. Brown" is reasonable.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: [Such a person is entitled to be recognized as a "PhD Candidate"](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/10972/8705), which would follow the name and probably mention the department or emphasis ("PhD Candidate in Electrical Engineering" in my case). This might be used in a signature block or a biographical sketch.
There is no special honorific to use antecedent to the name, as Nate has already told you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Before I post my comment I strongly caution one to review the institutional policy regarding this topic. In some program and student code of conduct policies credentialing and use of titles prior to the awarding of the full degree is grounds for dismissal from the program.
Having been ABD for longer than I should have been I can tell you it is not something I wanted to advertise. It was more like an albatross when I was required to report annually on my progress.
In an earlier post the term “candidate” was discussed. This would be appropriate when presented in a vitae or resume in the educational section for degree not yet completed along with the anticipated completion date.
Example:
XYZ University City, State
Ph.D. Management (Candidate, 2016)
My advice is to finish the dissertation and earn the degree. The satisfaction of being called Dr. or adding the letters in your signature is far less important than the actual work.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: "ABD" is just silly, IMO, and I'd avoid using it like the plague. To me, it carries nothing but negative connotation.
First, defending a dissertation is too big to be an "all but". It's the culmination of a serious academic experience. I've seen plenty of students get to that point only to have the degree disappear.
Next, the dissertation and the defense is a big step. Not being able to get your act together to write and defend when you're at the "all but" stage is a sign to academics that something is not quite right.
Finally, even if everything is going perfectly, and you've completed the research and writing it up will take the normal amount of time, then using an artificial title makes it look like you're anxious to have a title.
Long story short, when you start, use "Ph.D. student". When you've been advanced to candidacy, use "Ph.D. candidate", because that's what you are. I'll stick my neck out and say that when you've successfully defended and dealt with any corrections and revisions your committee wants handled, but you're just waiting for a ceremony, it might be OK to use Ph.D., but I'd leave it out, and on my CV I'd list Ph.D., with the date defended and the date the degree will be conferred.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: in "real life" you'd refer to that person with an honorarium of "ABD" as "hey, you over there!" "yeah...you with the funny hair."
i.e. almost really really is only valid in horse shoes and hand-grenades.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/10 | 1,375 | 5,301 | <issue_start>username_0: Is it better to wear formal clothes for a PhD or MSc thesis defense or can we wear something as simple as a T-shirt?<issue_comment>username_1: Almost anything will be fine, provided you feel comfortable on them. The clothes you are wearing will influence the first impression, but you are going to be talking about your project for at least 20 min, and the confidence and clarity will wipe whatever the first idea was. Make sure they are you feel good on them, and don't use them for the first time this day in case they itch or something (specially important for underwear!).
The *right* level of formalism is very dependent on the culture and setting, but it is probably not so important. It will also depend on whether the event is public or not: if the audience are going to be the people that have been seeing you in normal clothes all year round, or if the public is going to attend and the University wants to shine.
Of course, a frock and a top hat or just a swimming suit will look ridiculous, but anywhere in the middle would work.
For reference,
I have been present to two PhD defences in Sweden (where they are quite lax in formalities). In one, the doctorand was wearing plain business-like clothes, slightly more formal than a normal day; in the other, he was wearing a normal shirt, quite *less* formal than his normal attire. And, for the record, both passed.
**Edit:**
Jigg is right in pointing that some universities do require a certain dress code. In this case, it will probably be clearly stated by the centre. Being rejected is possible, but extremely unlikely, as it can get the university in all sorts of legal troubles. Also, these regulations can get to [absurd levels](http://www.toytowngermany.com/lofi/index.php/t98957.html) (the story seems to be a legend, but the third comment may be legit).
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Think of it as a job interview, but actually much more important than that. There is such a thing as unconscious bias - first impressions count and you should therefore aim to make a good one. If you look professional, then they will think you are professional, and are more likely to trust and believe in you. It may not be fair, but that is how it is. I recommend being smartly dressed.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: You *can* wear something as informal as a t-shirt and, as others have said, it probably won't swing the decision one way or another. I've seen very informal defense dress from passing students. That said, **most people dress up *at least* slightly more formally than normal and many wear business attire.** If you're extremely uncomfortable or resistant to dressing up, don't worry too much. Otherwise: Why not?
Showing up wearing a suit and tie or similarly formal business attire is a strong signal that you are taking the defense seriously. Although they're not everything, first impressions matter and formal dress can also help you look (and feel) authoritative, knowledgeable, and a way you can show that you've taken the time to be prepared.
I am extremely casual on a day-to-day basis but I wore a suit for my defense. Although my own advisor teased me that my defense was the first time he'd seen me dressed up, the fact that he knew that I rarely dressed that way made it very clear how seriously I took the process. Would I have passed anyway? Sure. But even if the effect is one person challenges you a little bit less in the Q&A, that could be worth it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: In job interviews it's actually a mistake to dress up fully formally for jobs (like software) that don't require it. Your grad student culture has a range probably from t-shirts to business casual.
I do think it's important to say, "Hey, I'm taking this seriously, this is a serious occasion, and I'm prepared." Comfort is the other important thing.
In one sentence, wear something in the top third of your wardrobe, but not in the top tenth. Smarter/sharper is good, fancy pants dinner or gala attire is bad.
That being said, here's my attempt at male fashion advice (sorry, I can't really help the women here too much) if you really do feel like a more detailed breakdown will help you.
* Street shoes (c.f. sneakers)
* dark wash jeans or slacks
* collared shirt tucked in, or similar such as nice sweater
* belt
* neatly shaven to your level of grooming (beard or clean okay, just whatever
you wear)
* not looking like you "need a haircut" but don't get a fancy or special haircut. Wear your normal accessories, whether it be watch or necklace.
* If tattoos are part of your look they've got you this far, don't worry about covering them or not ("within reason").
* Try not to look like a sloppy student who *never* dresses up: wear clothes straight from the cleaner.
* A tie if you like, in my mind I picture that as a nice addition but not necessary.
I think a jacket is too much: it will make you look too "other" compared to the professors. If you over-dress you will make yourself look "on the spot" more than you already are, and who wants that?
This might sound too analytical for fashion (unless you're really into fashion in which case it sounds fun!), but this shouldn't sound daunting. Just dress normal, normal, normal, nice.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/10 | 756 | 3,185 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm looking for PhD positions and I just recently came across an option in Germany. This team is working on a subject that is very really truly interesting for me. I want to write to the head of the team to express my interest and ask if there is a chance for me to do my PhD in their team.
Now here is the issue: Should I mention the fact that what they are doing is my dream? In all honesty, I like my current field and what they are doing is where my field and my dream intersect. But should I express this fact?
I'm afraid if I mention that this program is my *dream PhD* it will be interpreted as a gesture of hypocrisy, while at the same time I think it is important to emphasis on my passion for the subject.
If adding my feelings regarding the field of research is *not* a bad practice, how far should go with it? It would be great if you support your answers with some examples.
---
P.S. To add to the dilemma, they have just won a very big grant and this increases the fear of wrong interpretation of my statements.<issue_comment>username_1: To express that you are motivated is a good thing. The difficulty is getting the "tone" right. This is in part a cultural problem. If you are not German and you happen to know someone who is, then you could ask her or him to read your letter and see if you get the right message across. It would be even better if that person is also from the same discipline, as cultures also tend to differ between disciplines.
In general I would keep this part short and to the point. If you have a specific reason why this is your dream (and it is not too personal) than it might help to mention that.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Keep it short and to the point (following advice in similar questions on this site). In particular, since you want to move into a different (sub-)field, state the work you did in your current field (especially published work, if any), and point toward key courses you have taken that would be advantageous.
Say you did computer vision with a published paper, state that, but also state that you have taken courses in biology if you want to do a PhD in bioinformatics.
I wouldn't care that it is your 'dream', I suppose that every potential student is strongly motivated to do their PhD. So don't 'waste' precious space stating it.
(The last line is my personal opinion, obviously, but at least I'm german ;-) )
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Just having strong interest in a specific topic wouldn't justify your application in Germany. It is a norm in Germany that one's interest in a specific field is judged by his/her previous achievements in that particular field.
My sincere suggestion is that don't waste your precious space in the application letter/email, by boasting about the interest. Rather, try to sell your previous achievements.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: It may be good to express positive personal feelings, just keep it short and do not make the main argument why would they need you in their team.
It is better to avoid negative feelings of any kind in applications (about your current position, etc).
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/10 | 1,706 | 7,058 | <issue_start>username_0: Is it advisable to do a short (2-3months) visit to a different lab at a different university while doing a PhD? I would think that it would be good for setting up collaborations, but would a PhD supervisor be against this due to the time that would be lost doing so?<issue_comment>username_1: I did several months over summer and winter breaks at a US Department of Energy national lab during my PhD. It was my advisor's idea. I worked on things of mutual interest to us and the lab. It certainly didn't slow me down. I didn't end up working for the lab, but I keep those connections to this day.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I am actually currently just preparing for such a collaboration/internship/exchange (leaving after summer). From day 1 of my PhD (both) my supervisors said that we should definitely look for such an opportunity during my second year.
Both of my supervisor think it is not a bad idea, moreover, they both think it is something **very important given several restrictions**:
* that you do it around the middle of your PhD.
This is important because in the beginning, you're still new to the topic and trying to get a grip on everything important. You can not "give" almost anything back to the lab you are visiting, so it is not a fair exchange.
* the project (3 months in my case), is something directly related to my PhD
Not just "has similarities", but maybe a sub-problem of the research direction I am currently on anyway due to my PhD. It is also important (mostly, for the grants), that it is something that the target laboratory is better suited for/equipped/has more experts than your own institution.
* that it is around 3-4 months
The point is, much shorter than that, and it becomes a purely social / networking visit where you can possibly present your research in person and have other people present theirs, but not much more. On the other hand, more than 4 months will indeed be too long, as I am not expected to spend much more than that on a single idea even when I am working in my lab.
So, these were the restrictions. The **benefits**, however, are much more numerous:
* obviously, **networking**. Especially if you plan to stay in academia, developing your own network of contacts as soon as possible is very important.
* **exchanging ideas**. In addition to papers, presenting your own (and your labs) work in person is another way to disseminate ideas. Also, being exposed to different people, different approaches and different ideas might just jog some clogs that would otherwise take much longer to click in place.
* strengthening the **collaboration (between the participating laboratories)**: in a sense, you became an "ambassador" from your own institution to the host institution. A successful internship will be good for you, but it can also hold a lot of benefits for both institutions (that includes your supervisors) as if it goes well, they will be more likely to collaborate (more) in the future.
* **international experience**. Where I am (France), people who plan to stay in academia and reach a permanent position are *more than strongly encouraged* to have an international experience. Basically, at least a few months internship abroad is a must for a permanent position, a year-long post-doc position or two abroad are much better. It is not a requirement, but always a person with international experience will get picked over the person with none.
* both of these boil down to: **post-doc**. If is not unheard of that such an internship might actually be "vetting" the place for a post-doc. And this goes both ways: your host institution/professor sees if he likes working with you, and you see if you like it there.
* **specific benefit of the hosting lab**. I have mentioned that there is many benefits of generally working in a different research environment and with different people for a while. But, specifically, there might be equipment, or test data, or an expert in the hosting lab that you just do not have in your institution.
* **diversity experience**. If you have decided to stay in academia only on the basis of your PhD environment (as I have), you might not see the whole picture yet. Seeing different research labs, different environments, can only be a benefit.
* **publication** While 3 months is not always enough to make a publication, you do want to get the most of the internship. Thus, most people get a publication out of it because they put a little bit extra effort (maybe not even consciously). And, your new publication will have a name of somebody other than your supervisor on it, which speaks to your ability to be able to work with different people successfully.
Now, of course, funding might be one obstacle. But other than that, if adequate funding is found, I see no reason for supervisors to object to such an idea.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The purpose of a PhD is to prepare you for doing independent research, and this will usually not be at the same place you did your PhD.
As such, having seen how they do things other places will better prepare you for how they might do things where ever you end up, so visiting another lab (or just another university if you are in a subject that does not use labs) will likely have a very positive effect on your PhD.
In fact, in Denmark, it is not just encouraged to visit another university as part of your PhD, it is mandatory (I am not quite sure what the minimum duration is, but 6 months is the most common).
At a recent study of the quality of the PhD programs at Aarhus University (<http://www.au.dk/fileadmin/www.au.dk/kvalitetiphd/KVALITET_I_PHD__UK_.pdf>), 60% answered that their stay abroad had strengthened their research project to a high degree, and 24% answered that it had to some degree. Essentially the same percentages answered that it had been worth the effort compared to their professional benefits (the part about the stay abroad starts at page 45).
Personally, I spend 6 months at UGA as part of my PhD (I do mathematics), and that stay has netted me a collaborator with whom I have recently submitted a paper, and with whom I will certainly do a lot more research in the future.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: The other answers are already very good. I'll add just one aspect that I haven't seen. I agree that visiting other labs for a couple of months is *very* useful... *for people who plan on staying in academia*. If you already plan on leaving academia after your Ph.D., the benefits that, e.g., [Penelope lists](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/25624/4140) are much less convincing compared to losing time - after all, what will you do with your improved academic network you will likely never use again?
Of course, that doesn't mean that such an external stay can't be productive even for people who leave for industry after their Ph.D. I'd just say that they might be better advised to either finish their Ph.D. quicker, or even try to spend some time in industry instead.
Upvotes: -1 |
2014/07/10 | 698 | 2,757 | <issue_start>username_0: Coming from a different schooling/grading system, I have very little feeling about what actually is considered a good grade for studies in Germany.
Here the passing grades are given in the range of 1.0 to 4.0 and there are non-passing (failing) grades, which basically tell how hard you failed.
Needless to say, 1.0 is the best possible and tells that the student performed perfectly, but what about the other grades. What does 2.0 mean? It is translated as "good" but is that average actually. How does the teacher/professor "see" that grade.
Moreover, what is the typical GPA average which gives a student a chance to be considered for a Phd position? Of course, the higher the better, but what gpa (in the german grading system) would be considered OK-ish for a phd application?<issue_comment>username_1: Given that "grade inflation" is often much less rampant in Germany than in other nations (it is not unusual, for instance, for the *majority* of students to fail an exam in a core subject), the standards inside of Germany tend not to be as stringent as in other places I've seen. For instance, anything better than 2.0 (on a 5.0 scale, not a 4.0 scale!) would generally be considered "competitive."
Obviously, there are limitations—if you get a 2.0 because you've gotten 1.0's in the general courses and 3.0 in the courses in your subdiscipline, you're not likely going to be an attractive candidate to an outside group.
However, I think much more important than the exact GPA is the quality of the master's thesis. If you have a very strong master's thesis, you will likely get some interest from the group in which you did the thesis work to continue on for a PhD, if there is an open position available. A weak grade on the thesis (anything below a 1.3) usually is a sign of substandard performance, which is likely to result in *not* being considered for a position, even if your GPA is a 1.1 or 1.2 (it's unlikely to be a 1.0 under such circumstances).
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I am doing a PhD in a graduate school funded by the German Research Foundation and I was graded 2.0 in my master's thesis (mainly because it was written in English and my grammer was not 100% perfect). What I am trying to say, is, that beyond just the grade of your master's, it can be important to have some kind of experience in the respetive field of your desired PhD. In my case, I was holding several positions as a student assistant in my former university. Also first publication experience might come handy (even though I would not like to support this ongoing trend). It would likely not help you, to score very high on your GPA but having no (work/research) experience beyond studying.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/10 | 674 | 2,940 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm writing up a paper for an upcoming CS conference. The problem is my paper is 1 page shorter than the conference's page limit. This conference doesn't have any workshop to accept a short paper.
Someone told me that submitting the paper shorter than the page limit was a very bad idea as it guaranteed rejection. Is it true?<issue_comment>username_1: First I should mention that good conferences and journals logically do not pay much attention the the amount of pages of the papers. The **quality** of the paper and subject of it besides to the discussions and how much the topic is new seems to be **more important than the quantity** of the papers.
Check the conference's website to see if they policies on this issue or not. You may also ask your question from their office by email or phone.
>
> The problem is my paper is 1 page shorter than the conference's page limit.
>
>
>
It is unclear that their page limit is a maximum number of pages or is a minimum number of pages. In the first case, I have seen some conferences which had a maximum limit of eight pages but some papers were accepted which were organized in nine pages. If there is a maximum limitation, then you have no problem as you are not passing the limit on maximum number of pages, your paper is in the safe side.
But if they "accept papers with no less than a number of pages", you should check this with the conference management. But still I think that there is no problem with shorter papers, specially your case which is inly one page.
By the way, you should also talk to the co-authors of your paper as they may have suggestion on your paper and may help you to extend your academic paper.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I have seen papers rejected because it was shorter than the maximum allowed pages. But this was not the only reason for rejection; rather it was supporting that the paper didn't have enough contribution/content. If you don't want to give the reviewers any excuses to reject, then you might want to fill up the pages, but I think that's silly.
The answer would depend on the field and the page limit. If the page limit is 4, you probably want to fill all 4 pages, because 4 pages is usually not enough. But if the page limit is 12 pages, I see no problem for accepting a **high-quality** 11-page paper.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: If you can anticipate what the readers expectations, then you should be OK. If your audience is busy and looking for a concise communication, then you may be better off with a shorter paper. On the hand if it is an student academic exercise, then the instructor probably has an expectation to conform to the pre-defined standard length. The OP is in the best position to understand and decide, with the possible exception he/she publishes the paper here for everyone and defines the context. Best of luck with the good paper.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/10 | 1,202 | 4,482 | <issue_start>username_0: How should I address a knighted academic in a letter or in an email? The person in question is a chancellor of a university, so the odds are that he has at least a PhD. He is a CEO of a multinational company, too, so it is difficult to guess whether he has been a professor at any given time (at least there's no search results for "prof. [name]").<issue_comment>username_1: In Britain, the usual form is "Professor Sir {calling name} {family name}", e.g. "Professor <NAME>".
So to start a letter or email use:
Dear Professor <NAME>
or, alternately,
Dear Professor <NAME>
if you're already acquainted.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In the UK, for Knighted Professors, it seems the professor title is often dropped. For example, the [<NAME> Centre](http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/magres/index.aspx) drops the professor title. Both the knightly title and the professor title can be used, for example [Professor Dame <NAME>](https://www.gov.uk/government/people/sally-davies), but it can also be omitted (<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Davies_(doctor)>)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Within my university, knighted professors tend to use the Professor Sir {calling name} {family name} form as given by EnergyNumbers but I think that it is down to personal preference.
Just to add that the Sir / Dame is associated with the first name while Professor / Dr is associated with the surname. As you asked about a letter, if you would normally put 'Dear Professor {surname}' then that would still be correct. In order to use Sir / Dame you would need to also include the first name, or only use the first name.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: The canonical reference for this subject is [Debrett's](https://web.archive.org/web/20160528222528/http://www.debretts.com/forms-address/titles/knight) (via the Wayback Machine). They recommend that a letter to a knight should begin "Dear Sir [given name]," regardless of whether they have other titles such as "professor".
In fact, they advise against mixing titles granted by the sovereign (such as knighthoods and ranks in the armed forces) with titles not granted by the sovereign (such as professor) but, as others have observed, "Professor Sir [Given name] [Surname]" is common usage.
In an academic context, your alternative option for a salutation is "Dear Professor [Surname]". However, as I noted in a comment to the question, it's unlikely that somebody who's the CEO of a multinational company would, in fact, be a professor.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: Personally, I would always address business communications to persons based on context. If I were writing to 'Sir <NAME>' on a personal level, I would address my email 'Dear <NAME>'. If however, the learned gentleman was a professor at my University, I would switch to his academic title, and write 'Dear Prof<NAME>'.
Context is key here folks.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: Some of the answers and comments above are just plain wrong. In my professional career in the UK I have written hundreds of official letters from the highest branches of the UK government to academics who have been knighted. The correct form of salutation to a knighted professor, with the sole exception of a letter to one who is also a personal friend, is: 'Dear Sir [given name]'.
It is a quite separate question as to how such a person should be described, for example on the address of the letter. Whatever Debrett's might say, the predominant practice is "Professor Sir [given name][family name]".
There are various types of knighthood and it would be discourteous in a formal letter to omit such post-nominals as apply. So, for example, a letter to the late <NAME>-Dyer would have been addressed to "Professor Sir <NAME>-<NAME>." after he inherited the baronetcy in 1975, but after he was knighted for his own services in 1987 you would need to add 'KBE' after the 'Bart.'
If anyone reading this thinks that the previous paragraph is ridiculously pedantic, I can only say that experience has taught me that some of the recipients of knighthoods are very proud of their honours and take offence if they are not properly recognised. If you are writing to a knighted professor you do not know, it is wiser to err on the side of formality until you are told clearly that he does not care about such things.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/10 | 1,159 | 4,368 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm currently attending an accredited university which provides an online BSc CIS program. Is an online degree considered lowly in compared to a traditional education, and can it affect admissions into masters programs offered abroad?<issue_comment>username_1: In Britain, the usual form is "Professor Sir {calling name} {family name}", e.g. "Professor <NAME>".
So to start a letter or email use:
Dear Professor <NAME>
or, alternately,
Dear Professor <NAME>
if you're already acquainted.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In the UK, for Knighted Professors, it seems the professor title is often dropped. For example, the [S<NAME> Mansfield Centre](http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/magres/index.aspx) drops the professor title. Both the knightly title and the professor title can be used, for example [Professor Dame <NAME>](https://www.gov.uk/government/people/sally-davies), but it can also be omitted (<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Davies_(doctor)>)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Within my university, knighted professors tend to use the Professor Sir {calling name} {family name} form as given by EnergyNumbers but I think that it is down to personal preference.
Just to add that the Sir / Dame is associated with the first name while Professor / Dr is associated with the surname. As you asked about a letter, if you would normally put 'Dear Professor {surname}' then that would still be correct. In order to use Sir / Dame you would need to also include the first name, or only use the first name.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: The canonical reference for this subject is [Debrett's](https://web.archive.org/web/20160528222528/http://www.debretts.com/forms-address/titles/knight) (via the Wayback Machine). They recommend that a letter to a knight should begin "Dear Sir [given name]," regardless of whether they have other titles such as "professor".
In fact, they advise against mixing titles granted by the sovereign (such as knighthoods and ranks in the armed forces) with titles not granted by the sovereign (such as professor) but, as others have observed, "Professor Sir [Given name] [Surname]" is common usage.
In an academic context, your alternative option for a salutation is "Dear Professor [Surname]". However, as I noted in a comment to the question, it's unlikely that somebody who's the CEO of a multinational company would, in fact, be a professor.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: Personally, I would always address business communications to persons based on context. If I were writing to 'Sir <NAME>' on a personal level, I would address my email 'Dear <NAME>'. If however, the learned gentleman was a professor at my University, I would switch to his academic title, and write 'Dear Professor Hall'.
Context is key here folks.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: Some of the answers and comments above are just plain wrong. In my professional career in the UK I have written hundreds of official letters from the highest branches of the UK government to academics who have been knighted. The correct form of salutation to a knighted professor, with the sole exception of a letter to one who is also a personal friend, is: 'Dear Sir [given name]'.
It is a quite separate question as to how such a person should be described, for example on the address of the letter. Whatever Debrett's might say, the predominant practice is "Professor Sir [given name][family name]".
There are various types of knighthood and it would be discourteous in a formal letter to omit such post-nominals as apply. So, for example, a letter to the late Peter Swinnerton-Dyer would have been addressed to "Professor Sir <NAME>-<NAME>." after he inherited the baronetcy in 1975, but after he was knighted for his own services in 1987 you would need to add 'KBE' after the 'Bart.'
If anyone reading this thinks that the previous paragraph is ridiculously pedantic, I can only say that experience has taught me that some of the recipients of knighthoods are very proud of their honours and take offence if they are not properly recognised. If you are writing to a knighted professor you do not know, it is wiser to err on the side of formality until you are told clearly that he does not care about such things.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/11 | 1,407 | 4,875 | <issue_start>username_0: Some publishers like Springer appear variously with different addresses. Sometimes (in the case of Springer) it's "Berlin, Heidelberg", sometimes it's "Heidelberg, New York", or even ["Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo"](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bimj.4710300514/abstract).
Should I, eg. in a thesis, just settle for one address per publisher and stick to it, or is there a different correct address for each publication?<issue_comment>username_1: It's better to put what is on the copyright page of the book in question. If you don't have it, then you may have to punt, but wherever you can use the full reference, you should.
Edited to add: The goal in a citation is to allow your reader to find the *exact* work that you used, so you need to be as precise as you can. If there are different editions, etc, they may have different publication locations, so make sure you described the physical volume you have precisely. If you don't have the physical version, then be sure to give your reader 50 years from now the ability, as best you can, to track it down.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It depends on what style guide you are working with. In MLA, for example, you use only the first city listed on the title page. If no city is listed there, then you look at the copyright page. Other style guides may vary, so check with a handbook for your specific style guide.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: As username_2 noted, this depends on which style guide you are using. True, in the case of a thesis or a dissertation, the style manual of the institution1 is rarely detailed enough to specify a particular citation style, so candidates normally default to the standards of their field.2
1The University or whatever is the relevant subdivision of it. In the US, the relevant authority within a university is often something called the 'Graduate School' or the 'School of Graduate Studies'.
2In fact, at least in the US, the style guides of many graduate schools explicitly say that this is what should be done. Just make sure your Thesis/Dissertation Committee, in particular the Chair of it (who is probably also your thesis/dissertation advisor), is OK with your choice.
The MLA style was covered by username_2, above.
Another major style is the [*Chicago Manual of Style*](https://www-chicagomanualofstyle-org.ezproxy.lib.umb.edu/home.html) (CMOS). Students and researchers often use the Turabian style, which is nowadays identical to CMOS (see [here](https://web.archive.org/web/20200601185130/https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/turabian/citation-guide.html) and [here](https://web.archive.org/web/20200601185304/https://www.bibme.org/blog/updates/turabian-or-chicago/)). In its 17th edition (which is the most recent, as of 2020), CMOS says this:
>
> **14: Notes and Bibliography**
>
>
> **14.129: Place of publication—city**
>
>
> The place to be included is the one that usually appears on the title page but sometimes on the copyright page of the book cited—the city where the publisher’s main editorial offices are located. Where two or more cities are given (“Chicago and London,” for example, appears on the title page of the print edition of this manual), only the first is normally included in the citation.
>
>
>
> ```
> Oakland: University of California Press
> Los Angeles: Getty Publications
> New York: Macmillan
> New York: Oxford University Press
> Oxford: Clarendon Press
>
> ```
>
> **14.130: When to specify state, province, or country of publication**
>
>
> If the city of publication may be unknown to readers or may be confused with another city of the same name, the abbreviation of the state, province, or (sometimes) country is usually added. Washington is traditionally followed by DC, but other major cities, such as Los Angeles and Baltimore, need no state abbreviation. (For countries not easily abbreviated, spell out the name.) Chicago’s preference is for the two-letter postal codes (IL, MA, etc.), but some publishers prefer the conventional state abbreviations (Ill., Mass., etc.). See 10.4, 10.27. For Canadian provinces and territories, see 10.28.
>
>
>
> ```
> Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
> Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
> Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press
> Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
> Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books
> Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
> New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
> Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
> Reading, MA: Perseus Books
> Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press
> Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
> *but*
> Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
>
> ```
>
> When the publisher’s name includes the state name, the abbreviation is not needed.
>
>
>
> ```
> Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
>
> ```
>
>
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/11 | 875 | 3,754 | <issue_start>username_0: Many of the journal references in the bibliography of my thesis contain bird names. Journals use birds names in the titles of papers in at least four different ways:
1. Titlecase, eg Teal
2. Titlecase plus scientific name, eg <NAME>cca
3. Lowercase, eg teal
4. Lowercase plus scientific name, eg <NAME> crecca
These different ways of using bird names makes my bibliography look untidy and inconsistent.
Should I adjust the titles of the papers in my bibliography so all bird names are used in a consistent way? Or should I use paper titles exactly as how they are given?<issue_comment>username_1: As a general academic principle you should *not* adjust the titles -- or other essential bibliographic data\*, e.g. the form and ordering of the authors' names -- of papers that you reference in any way, with the possible exception of necessary typographical concessions for "exotic" characters.
(For instance, in my branch of mathematics is it common to use the cyrillic letter [Sha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sha) for something named after a Russian mathematician whose name begins with this character. If you simply don't have cyrllic characters available, you have to do something else. But even in this case it would be better to try to take a little trouble to "get cyrillic characters".)
So my answer to your question is **no**: it is obviously not your fault that different papers you cite refer to teals in different ways. So if there is any untidiness and/or inconsistency, you are simply faithfully replicating it, as you are obliged to do.
This answer comes from someone with precisely zero avian-specific academic knowledge. So it couldn't hurt to get a second opinion from someone in your field.
\*: I confess that I sometimes mess with "inessential" bibliographic data. For instance, most journals come with a volume number followed by a number of the issue within that volume, and I usually omit the second number: you simply don't need it to access the paper. I don't specifically endorse this practice and mention it only for "professional honesty", but in my defense I just checked around and I am far from the only one who does this.
Moreover in some fields there are different formats for referencing. In my field (mathematics), on the one hand we are not too picky about the format, and on the other hand we have standard repositories of all papers: MathReviews/MathSciNet and Zentralblatt, from which I assume that most contemporary authors simply copy the bibliographic data (and then the philistines among us delete the number of the journal within the volume). It *is* a good idea to choose a consistent format throughout all your bibliographic references: e.g. put last names first always or never, and so forth. But still: the title is not yours to monkey with, as far as I know.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You should never add or remove words from the title of papers you cite. The reason you add citations is so that your readers can find these papers, and the title is one of the most important pieces of information. While it might be obvious to you that "Teal" and "Teal Anas crecca" mean the same thing, this might not be the case for others, e.g. scientists outside your field.
The issue of capitalization is a little less cut and dry. Different citation styles treat titles in different ways (title case, sentence case, or even all-caps), so you have more freedom here to be internally consistent. In addition, some automated reference systems mess up capitalization, so in my experience this is frequently something you have to fix by hand. If there is no semantic difference between "Teal" and "teal", I would pick one and apply it consistently.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/11 | 302 | 1,319 | <issue_start>username_0: I have submitted a paper to a conference with a scientific error in it.
Essentially I have a concept and I have claimed it works in two conditions. Actually it only works in one of them. Technically, my experimental results are correct, but its only a small test and when extrapolated to full scale the error can be found and also actually predicted theoretically. The overall concept is still correct however for the other condition and I am still working on it in future research.
Should I ask for the paper to be changed? The conference isn't until 25th August but the submission deadline has passed.
I don't want a public document where people will repeat my experiments and find that some of what I have claimed is incorrect.<issue_comment>username_1: In my opinion you have enough days, to change your paper.
But, before contacting read about the policy the conference have on erratum. If not, available, you should just write directly ask the organizing committee about it.
International conferences are very respected (and mostly filled with critics), this kind of error can hamper your credibility in future endeavors. It's better left unsaid.
Best of Luck.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes!
Better to get it corrected than to be questioned/rejected later.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/11 | 1,039 | 4,210 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm a second-year undergrad, and I've always been on a first-name basis with anyone in academia or in a research setting. I first worked in a laboratory in high school, and since everyone was on a first-name basis with everyone else there, I sort of just applied that logic to other labs and to my college professors.
But when I was talking to a researcher (my "supervisor", if that's relevant) at the lab I'm currently interning at this summer, one of my fellow interns told me afterwards she thought it was "odd" and "unprofessional" to call him by his first name. I understand where she's coming from, but if this were any other type of environment (say a business office), I think it would be awkward to call my boss anything but his first name (Mr. X seems a bit too formal for the boss-employee relationship).
For what it's worth, my boss doesn't seem put off by the way I address him, and I don't think my professors are, either. Maybe my perspective's a bit skewed because of how I was introduced to the scientific/academic culture. Am I out of line here? What did you call your professors/advisors/bosses as an undergrad?<issue_comment>username_1: This question is very hard to answer in a general way because it heavily depends on the country, culture and specific persons involved. For example:
* During my PhD and postdoc I was on the first name basis with my professor and supervisor.
* A postdoc from Austria I worked with could use his professors first name, but only when no other staff members of their institute where present.
It is important to get a feel for the general atmosphere of your institute, do other people use first names for example. And you can simply ask your supervisor/professor.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In all the years at the university, I only called the professors and lecturers by their last name and a doctor prefix. I also used to call them **`Professor + Last Name`**.
But never by their first names as far as they were older than me, they were professors and more important, it was not a custom in the universities I studied to call professors by their first names only (it was somehow impolite to call a professor by his first name only, even by other professors or colleagues).
It usually goes back to the custom. Sometimes the professors themselves prefer to be called by their first names. See how others call professors and see if it is polite or not. But my prefer is always **`Doctor + Last Name`**.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It depends on the institution and departmental/lab culture. At my current university, most undergraduates refer to faculty as Prof. Lastname.
I dislike formalities, but it had been very difficult to break the students of this habit. Furthermore, I wonder if I am doing them a disservice as most faculty are VERY adamant that undergrads use their titles, even the point of telling TAs to use title and last name when talking to or about them in front of students.
Doctoral students are generally on a first name basis with faculty. Master students seem to be split.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: It is the intersection of the professor's preference and what you are comfortable with. My dissertation advisor asked me to call him by his first name long before **I** was comfortable with that. But he asked me to call him George, so I did. On the other hand, when one of my former students joined our faculty a couple of years ago, she kept referring to me as "<NAME>". I told her, "I'm username_4."
I'm comfortable with whatever my students are comfortable with. Like username_3, I don't like to stand on formalities, and just like everyone else, I have preferences. I'm old enough now that my undergrad students (especially) are not my peers and are not usually trying to become a peer. I prefer that they use my surname, but I don't require it. One thing that does grate (on me, and I am not sure why) is students referring to me as "<NAME>". I earned that doctorate, and in academia the title is relevant. In academia, if you are using the surname, please use the title. Truthfully, though, I cherish the title "Professor" more than "Doctor".
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/11 | 2,960 | 12,077 | <issue_start>username_0: I am going into the fourth year of a PhD program and my research, which is in a [STEM field](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEM_fields), has clear applications in the tech industry.
I have my Master's degree, but have decided not to finish the PhD.
**Is it important to be enrolled while applying for jobs rather than be unemployed?** Will the people hiring view me differently?
Note: being enrolled brings some significant demands on my time.<issue_comment>username_1: I would apply for jobs now, while you are enrolled in the PhD program. Talk to your professors and develop a network. Ask for contact information of any of the individuals they know in industry. Send an cover letter with your CV and application, and be sure to mention your research's specific application to the job in the cover letter. Through this, companies sense that you are very meticulous and detail-oriented, and see how your skill in research could carry over to its products.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It probably will depend on where you interview in terms of how your status will be received, and what that would mean for a job offer. My fiancé works in a STEM startup that has been taking off, and I've had the luxury of chatting with many of the senior scientists about hiring whenever they are looking for people (it's a fun work culture where everyone and their SOs go out for drinks after work and chat). Anyways, in two instances a Ph.D. student working at the company on their internship was so talented that they tried to make each a job offer before they left. In one instance the conversation turned to what it would take to get that individual to leave their program and come work. In the other instance, and before the internship started, the University made the student and company sign a legal document that essentially said, "whatever said student works on in the lab during internship period becomes is owned by the University" (this was one of the top 5 schools in the US, you can imagine what one). Therefore, the company backed off because of patents.
In other instances students have applied for open positions at the company and if their resume garnered a look they then got an interview. However, if they weren't rock stars the company was not willing to lure them away from being a grad student by giving them a higher salary. Therefore, there was the perception by the company that they needed someone who could work now, and a student didn't seem to cut it.
Do you have an internship period at all? That's when I plan to explore offers to see what my skills are worth.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> Is it important to be enrolled while applying for jobs rather than be unemployed?
>
>
>
I'll answer this question from different point of views: your potential employers and yourself.
From your potential employers’ point of view, it does not matter. What matters is your **immediate availability**. Most companies prefer their new hires to start to work immediately. Once they make a job offer, they would like to see you in the office like today so that they can start to train you. They don't like to hear excuses like: I have some unfinished project, I am in the middle of writing a paper, I need to go to a conference next month, etc.
So, you need to indicate on somewhere such as your resume, cover letter or during the interview that you'll be immediately available. This will increase your chances to be hired. If you cannot be immediately available for some reason, you need to provide a definite time frame when you'll be able to start.
From your own point of view, you'd better keep enrolled. Job hunting can be a long shot. It can be only a few weeks if you are lucky. It can be a year or even longer if you are not lucky. Waiting for job interview and job offer can drive you crazy. You'll have things to do while you are waiting. You also can change your mind on finishing PhD if you still have some uncertainty about going to industry.
If you are **absolutely** sure you want to go to industry, then you should take username_2's idea, do internship. You can get into industry faster this way.
Good luck on job hunting. Academia will miss you!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I think Scaahu has given a very nice overview of the situation, but to easy your mind: job search takes time, but you have to eat every day. Thus, no company can expect you to be unemployed to be eligible for hiring.
The only reason I can think of why not having a job would make you more desirable is your full availability; but if you have decided to leave, you can just do it (please, talk with your advisor well in advance, so they are ready, though).
And lastly, if you have a job, you have a leverage point. For a starter, you can ask for a salary that is, at least, as much as you are getting now. Another disadvantage of quitting is that you will have to live on your savings or benefits, and they are limited; thus you will have pressure to accept whatever job you can find in that time. If you keep your present job, you can wait longer until you find something you really want to work with.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: @Zephyrus: This answer will be too long to comment. A lot will depend on your history.
Some context for you to make sure I'm not just blowing wind: My fiancés company: Biotech, fast growing, successful rounds of funding have brought a product to market, turned down offers to sell. My fiancé: Decade of experience in STEM industry.
Here's what I've seen matter in all my conversations with he Senior Scientist there, as well as my fiancé:
* It's about the match of your skills with the needs of the company. I've seen them let 4 people go in the last year who were super competent, but had very specific skill-sets that were no longer needed by the company. If there is a clear match between your skills and the company's needs then +1. However, if you have very specific skills that can be a detriment in your marketability.
* Advanced degrees aren't always an asset. In startups a really smart person with a B.S. and years of industry experience can become a staff scientist. It's better for the company. Same can be said for and M.S. In fact, most of the senior scientist have advised junior staff who are looking at grad school to just get their M.S. and get back into industry. If you're the highest paid person at a startup you better be value added on all fronts. So, depending on your degree this could all matter.
* Length of unemployment matters. If you are living in an area where there is a vibrant STE community and you've been unemployed a long time people will wonder. It's always a necessity to make sure people can vouch for you within the community, and this might help. Hopefully you aren't jumping ship from grad school without contacts in industry.
* If you were competent but not a rock-star, skills that fit, unemployed for a short period, had some people that could vouch for you then they'd contract you for 6 months. Show your worth and you'll get a salaried position and options (but stock options aren't alway what they are cracked up to be). You'd be in a good position to negotiate that offer if you have shown value added. However, point also depends on the phase of the startup. Now that this startup has grown and has a product shipping they contract everyone first. My fiancé came in after series B and had the perfect experience that fit with the job requirements, some heavies that vouched for her, and passed the interview with flying colors. She was contracted shorter than 6 months, and I think offered a full-time position after a month. So, get ready for the potential that you are working a contract, which obviously lacks security.
* Now if you took the same situation outlined above, were still a student but had demonstrated that you would be a real rockstar with the perfect match of skills to the job then they might make you a better offer to try and lure you out, but the offer would never be as good as what a scientist with proven industry would receive.
This might all be different for a massive industry conglomerate.
I hope that helps.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: [Being unemployed can **significantly** decrease your likelihood of successfully landing a job](http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/long-term-unemployed-struggle-to-find--and-keep--jobs/2014/04/18/134c48f6-c4ad-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html). The preceeding link is one of many stories covering that angle. The best graph describing how bad it is comes from [this Atlantic article](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-terrifying-reality-of-long-term-unemployment/274957/):
[](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-terrifying-reality-of-long-term-unemployment/274957/)
The upshot of most of these is that employers have a psychological bias towards employed people. Whether this is "fair" or "appropriate" or even "smart" not is really not the question, the finding is pretty difficult to refute: you are far more likely to land a job if you are currently gainfully employed.
To bring this back to your original question, I would strongly recommend you begin your job search before you leave the program.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: Well, to address the part where you want a comparison on enrolled vs. unemployed. It is always better to not to have to answer the questions about being unemployed. You don't want to look like you were doing nothing for quite some time. Interviewers usually aren't impressed enough by candidates that have a few years that weren't mentioned on the resume anywhere, be prepared to reason that effectively. And you don't know how soon you are going to find a job. If you continue your PhD and look for a job in the meantime, you have an excuse "I got a good job and hence left the PhD", which brings us to yet another point to ponder upon...
Let's say you quit your PhD(which you could actually officially finish in a year or two), apply for some jobs, interview and finally land into one. You work there for some time, but your progress starts plateauing. Now you realize that for a higher position they require a PhD(which you quit, remember?). At that stage, you might wish that you hadn't quit but you did, and now it might be the bane of your professional progress.
Think of these things in the long run... no one knows what the future holds...
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Here's what you do. You request a "leave of absence" from the University for personal reasons. That way you can say you're still a student, but not obligated to take classes during that period.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I was in a similar situation. In my case, I wanted to have some/full break from academia. My ph.d is almost done, only public defence is pending. I had to decide whether to stay in the academia or move to the industry?
Here is my approach; I personally like building stuff and therefore biased towards the industry. I have enjoyed the time in academia but might not be able to keep myself motivated for long. Thus, I thought, either I move now or otherwise it will be too late. I am already 31 and its now or never kind of situation for me. So, I decided to move out as I found a job. The search still in progress for like 4 months now, had few interviews and perhaps land on a job in a month.
First rule, be honest to your university and supervisor. I informed my supervisor right away that I am looking for opportunities outside the university and will leave as I get one. He was very supportive and also offered to help me in making CV etc. It is quite normal to take this path, academia to industry, for a ph.d student.
You should ask yourself, "Do I like industry?" if Yes then go for it, in a reasonable fashion. Stay at the university, find a job and then move out :)
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/12 | 826 | 3,599 | <issue_start>username_0: By a *scientific work* I mean any work of mine that either belongs to my field or belongs to some related fields of my field. A work that is not a scientific work is called *off-topic*.
Since I occasionally (but seriously) compose poems and popular songs, I am wondering whether it is suitable to integrate these off-topic works into the collection of my scientific works that is prepared for application to phd programs.
My principal concern is that I am unsure about how this act would look like from the reviewers' angle? Would it be deemed an affectation? Indeed, my wish is merely to present more of me.
Hope ladies and gentlemen (preferably with experience as a reviewer for phd admission) would share me your thoughts, much appreciated.
If answering this question requires more information, please feel free to state that.<issue_comment>username_1: Being a mathematician, I must address a logical loophole: I will assume that your field is a STEM field and thus poetry and songs are *actually* off-topic (and not just *called* off-topic).
>
> How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
> -- <NAME>
>
>
>
Assuming this: no, I would not submit such creative materials as part of an application to a STEM PhD program. I wouldn't go so far as to say that submitting such things would be deemed an "affectation": however, unless you make a clear connection to your chosen field, they are simply not relevant. Including irrelevant things is not a disaster, but it does indicate that you don't have a clear understanding of what is relevant information in the consideration of your own prospects in that program, which is not great.
Most such applications have a personal statement. *Mentioning* somewhere in the personal statement that you write poetry and songs sounds about right to me: from one human being to another, that is interesting, and personal statements are often not so interesting. But be careful here: a "personal statement" is not a statement about you *as a person*! It is really an essay explaining why you would be a strong candidate for the program, so things which are not relevant to that should not be dwelled upon.
Many programs do look at the personal statement as a writing sample -- and good writing skills are very relevant in any PhD program, probably more so than any other single quality -- so if you are an unusually good writer the personal statement would be a good opportunity to show your superior skills. However, trying to do that *in the genre of either poetry or song* would be so risky and open to negative reactions based on personal taste that I wouldn't recommend it: after all, in most STEM programs you need to be able to write prose, not poetry, and you are not really permitted to burst into song. This is probably a "color between the lines" situation.
**Added**: I spent four (recent) years on the committee in charge of graduate admissions in the UGA mathematics department, and I still read some PhD applications every year.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Admissions people are looking for deep thinkers, hard workers, well-rounded individuals, who can collaborate well and communicate effectively. You can send them a CV that has a section containing secondary things that you're proud of, but which aren't directly relevant to the studies you propose to do.
My experience going to grad school as a returning student leads me to believe that good graduate programs look at the whole person.
Upvotes: -1 |
2014/07/12 | 863 | 3,504 | <issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate working on a research project that is going to be published. My research adviser wasn't completely able to help with a certain portion of the research, so I contacted another professor (in a completely different department) at my university who was more than willing to help.
It seems that this other professor is going to be providing a huge amount of help. Should I offer inclusion in the paper? Should I bring this up with my main adviser and/or should I be upfront with the secondary adviser?<issue_comment>username_1: You should discuss the issue with both faculty members. I would bring it up with your primary advisor first...if only for linguistic reasons (i.e., the meaning of the word "primary").
When you say that the project is "going to be published", do you mean that it has already been written and accepted for publication? (If not, how do you know?) In general it is a good idea to discuss issues of coauthorship as early as possible. If you are already writing the paper it is on the later side, and if you have already submitted it then it is very late (but maybe not too late).
That's all I can think to say on general principles. It depends a lot on the field and what kind of work has been done.
**tl;dr**: As an undergraduate, you can't know the subtle expectations regarding coauthorship in your discipline. So err on the side of graciousness and inclusivity. The worst that can happen is that you get a "Aw, how cute: he thinks I want to publish with him" type of reaction. If so, you will definitely *not* have offended the faculty member and you'll probably engender a lesson about how publication culture works in your field: no problem there.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: A good starting point is to consider the points set up in the Vancouver protocol and augmented by, for example the [ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal editors)](http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html) stated as
>
> * Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
>
>
> AND
>
>
> * Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
>
>
> AND
>
>
> * Final approval of the version to be published;
>
>
> AND
>
>
> * Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
>
>
>
Note the *AND* in this list. It is well worth noting that these points indicate how things *should be* but some field-related traditions and, more commonly, personal opinions differ.
I think the above should make for a good basis for assessing whether or not anyone, the professor you have solicited included, should be on the paper. A gut feeling from your explanation says he should be asked. Not to discourage you, but authorship questions can be among the hardest questions you encounter in academia since authorship is such an important aspect for assessing *excellence*, *success*, or whatever you want to call it. This is also why the list quoted above has been assembled so that inflation in authorship can be combated. Please look at other posts under the [authorship](/questions/tagged/authorship "show questions tagged 'authorship'") tag to get more aspects of this issue.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/12 | 1,458 | 5,882 | <issue_start>username_0: I've just defended my PhD in mathematics and started a postdoc. While working on an improvement of one of the results of my thesis, I realized that there are several minor mistakes and a big bug in a proof that invalids a minor result in the thesis (about 3-4 pages out of 110). Unfortunately neither I nor my advisor or referees figured it out the mistake. Though the result is minor, it is announced in the introduction and the manuscript is on-line on an ArXiv-like server, so that I could publish a new version but not cancel the one on-line.
What is the best thing to do? Upload an errata? Upload a "revised" version of the thesis? Publish a "revised version" of the thesis on my web-page?
Can this damage my future career, making me look not "reliable" as a researcher?<issue_comment>username_1: This question actually reminded me that I had made some (minor) addenda/errata notes on my own thesis but somehow forgot to ever post them. I should get to that!
Anyway, you definitely should correct the error; it's bad for mathematics if serious errors propagate. It's a little embarrassing, yes, but it's not at all uncommon. It will be more embarrassing if someone else finds the error first, and extremely embarrassing (and maybe starting to be career-damaging) if you have to say "Oh yeah, I knew about that, but never corrected it because I was embarrassed."
Before doing anything, I would suggest you spend a few days seeing if you can fix the error. Maybe you can find a way to work around the gap in the proof. Maybe you can adjust the hypotheses so that you still have a theorem, though a weaker one. (Or maybe you can find a counterexample.) Figure out what other parts of the thesis are affected by this error, and if they need fixing as well.
It can get confusing if there are multiple versions of your thesis floating around, so rather than trying to revise it, I would write up a short erratum note, explaining whatever you have learned about the error and its fix (if any). You might as well also list any other typos or errata that you have found, references to relevant work that's been published (or discovered by you) since your thesis was written, and anything else you would like to add.
Post the addendum on arXiv. Then, wherever your thesis is posted (your web site, the alternative preprint server you mention, the university's official site if possible), post a note saying "Addendum posted at arXiv:1234.5678". If you can't add notes or comments on the site itself, but can upload a revised version of the thesis, just add a page at the beginning with a reference to the addendum.
(And I'll echo JeffE's suggestion: it would be nice to post your thesis on arXiv itself as well. The "Comments" field would be a good place to reference the addendum.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Though I am not in mathematics (I'm a philosopher), I would only add that generally speaking, the PhD dissertation should be one of the worst papers you ever publish. That doesn't mean it should be terrible...it only means that it's the start of your career, and your writing--and your research--will get better with experience.
You could still go ahead and submit a correction, but at the same time, don't stress yourself out over it. So many doctorandi today think the dissertation has to be flawless, and that they have to make some ground-breaking, Nobel-prize-worthy advancement in their field for the thesis to be any good. This is simply not true. Look--you have a postdoc, the results of which will no doubt be more influential on your future than your dissertation.
Again, I'm not saying to *not* submit the errata. Rather, I just don't want you to lose sleep over the mistake. Don't be too hard on yourself.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Mathematics has a great tradition of [making mistakes and then fixing them yourself](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0821803670). Having other people find your mistake is a little embarrassing, but fixing them yourself shows that you are dilligent, so stop worrying.
Whether you upload an erratum or a revised thesis doesn't really matter, as long as both the old and new versions are available. (It's useful to see how things have been corrected, since mistakes are a good source of learning.)
Before you upload the new content, please double check that you really got it right this time. If it is wrong a second time (or was right and now you made it wrong), you can start to look a little foolish.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: If anyone would care, there would be a mechanism for erratas...
Even now, majority of the thesises is not available for the public. It is true for most science and most (even prestigious) universities. In short: no one reads them and no one cares.
If the mistake is something you published, I would care more about fixing the actual paper.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I had at least one error in my thesis (that I know of). As with yours, it was minor and affected even less of the paper. I found it when I was preparing a paper for publication. Fortunately, I was able to correct it, and the correct version was actually more interesting than the original erroneous one. I never corrected my thesis because the correct result was actually put in a journal article.
I've also had errors in print, a much more embarrassing affair. The mathematician who corrected it was very kind about it. I have not yet issued a correction, but it will appear in a forthcoming article, and quite a while after the initial error.
In my opinion, shared by some other responders, your publication record is more important than your thesis (unless you're a stratospheric talent). So don't sweat it too much. And, don't be reluctant to ask your advisor for advice (that's one of the reasons why he's called an advisor).
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/13 | 782 | 3,271 | <issue_start>username_0: I am a young academic in a scientific field and, in the process of updating my CV, I've realized I'm unsure exactly what is appropriate to list with regard to grant applications/funded grants. Specifically, a few types of ambiguities have arisen:
1) If you receive funding from a grant but were not part of the project until after the application was funded (say your role is "Consultant" or "Statistician"), can you list this on your CV?
2) If you are listing non-funded grants that you had at least some hand in writing (say, an NIH grant that received an impact score but was not funded), but you were not the PI (say you're a co-Investigator), can you list it? Is the answer different if you had a non-investigator role such as "Statistician"?
3) Closely related to #2-- if you help with a grant that ultimately does get funded but you are not the PI or a co-I (again, suppose you're a consultant or statistician), can this be listed on your CV? Does it depend on how great of a hand you had in writing the grant?
Thanks for any input.<issue_comment>username_1: My philosophy about such issues is that you *can* list everything on a CV, as long as you make clear what your actual role was, i.e., you may list any project or grant that officially recognizes you in some function, but of course you cannot imply that you were the PI in all of these projects if this was not the case.
Further, make sure that you list only "official" responsibilities on the CV - it may be true that you are doing *all* the work for a project, but that does not make you the official PI. Saying or implying otherwise is not good.
Finally, note that different roles in a project can be used to illustrate different things for you as a researcher. Personally, I have two different sections for projetcs on my CV:
* **Projects**, which lists all funded projects I was ever involved with, plus my official role. This shows that I am experienced in working in different roles in different national and international research teams.
* **Successful grant proposals**, which lists all successful project proposals that I was officially recognized as an author, i.e., either coordinator, PI, or co-investigator. This shows that I am able to get funding for my research.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I like your approach, more or less.
As someone who looks at lots of CVs in a non-academic research unit at a university, I don't really care to see grants listed on which you only worked. I want to see grants that you were a PI or co-PI on, mostly, and perhaps any that you were a significant part of the writing team on. The purpose of listing these grants is to show that you can be part of the writing and winning team for funded work.
In another section, I might be interested in short summaries of your participation in projects (funded or otherwise). What I don't want to have to do is spend a lot of time figuring out whether you were instrumental in thew writing of a proposal or just did the work after the money was won.
The key here is whether your qualifications and background were considered by the funding agency when approving the proposal. If not, then it's not worth implying that you had any role in winning the money.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/13 | 1,013 | 4,345 | <issue_start>username_0: When I was doing my PhD project, I got an idea to solve a different but related problem. However, my supervisor said neither the motivation nor the initial result were interesting, and so he refused to offer me help on this topic. Then, I did a paper on my own with a lot of work afterwards, and submitted it to a high standard journal, and it was accepted.
My supervisor knew this, and he commanded me to add his name to the paper, otherwise he would write to the editor. I asked him what his contribution was. He had nothing to say, but insisted he had spent time to discuss the result with me.
So, if he writes to the editor, what would happen? Or if the paper has been published, then he has nothing to do with it? I am pretty much sure he can almost show nothing about the evidence of the contribution.<issue_comment>username_1: The short answer is that the editor will likely ask for more information from you and the adviser in response to a letter such as your adviser apparently plan to write. I doubt any action will be taken immediately and without some research if the editor is taking the task seriously.
As an editor, I would find this sort of case very difficult since I would (most likely) receive two conflicting pictures of the story. Editors have the power to take whatever action they find appropriate. Their decisions may of course be disputed and the story could go on. In a case that is relatively similar in parts ([case link](http://publicationethics.org/case/authorship-issue)), an editor has turned to the [Committee on Publication ethics](http://publicationethics.org/) to get support in a decision. Their case portfolio can also be of help to editors.
Obviously, following the linked case, an editor will try to have you and your adviser fix the problem yourself, it is after all primarily your problem. Hopefully the editor will come up with a plan for further actions, perhaps, as in the case, bring in a mediator and finally, if all fails, make a decision based on the existing facts that will be final. Some similar line of action seems appropriate and was also deemed appropriate by COPE. What route an editor will take may of course differ depending on the case but the aim will be to try to resolve what is right or wrong will be the aim and if all fails a suggestion on how the journal will proceed will follow.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Further to Ben's comment: I'd say that your advisor has burned bridges with you, which is unfortunate. There is a lesson in this for doctoral students. Choosing an advisor is a life-altering decision. Personal compatibility and reputation are as important as professional reputation.
The filial obligations run in both directions: whatever you do in your field will reflect in some degree on your advisor. It's in your advisor's interest to help you along professionally. It is unfortunate that your advisor has chosen to take this sort of action. He (She?) apparently wants the hit in an "A" journal.
What can the editor do? Anything she wants to do, actually. You don't say if the paper is in print yet. The best case for you is that it is not in print yet. Adding your advisor as co-author is still possible, and this whole mess can remain relatively closely held to you, your advisor and the editor. If the paper has appeared already, the editor could do anything from withdrawing the paper (very bad, as that action reeks of plagiarism or other academic dishonesty) to issuing a corrigendum note (not as bad as withdrawing the paper, but bad). In the short run, the best case for you would be for the editor to do nothing. I'm not sure that is in your long-run best interest, however.
What should you do? Someone has to be the bigger, better person. Your advisor has already (to the extent that your version of the story reflects the actual history) revealed him(her?)self to be a rather petty person. I'd say to add your advisor as co-author. The power dynamics are pretty asymmetric here and you are on the weak side. Unless you care to go to your University's research ethics system with a complaint (and you'd better have irrefutable proof the situation is precisely as you say if you choose this route) and ruin your advisor's career, there isn't much you can do. Whistleblowers often do not fare well.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/13 | 2,652 | 11,645 | <issue_start>username_0: From the perspective of a Ph.D. student, how much of an added value is it to have your own presentation slides layout, that is used consistently throughout your Ph.D. conference presentations and other talks (and possibly throughout your academic career afterwards)?
[Here](http://www.slideshare.net/dgleich/presentations) is one such example from the Computer Science community.
This as as opposed to using existing Beamer templates with LaTeX, or built-in PowerPoint templates, or simply preparing each presentation on its own (without a specific layout).
A couple of axes I can think along:
1. Creating a signature layout that distinguishes one in their community
2. Ease of preparation of presentations (especially over time), maybe overcoming constraints with existing templates.
Note that I am not concerned with the question of **content**, but just **design** and layout.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think there's any inherent value in having your own "signature" presentation layout.
Generally, you want to keep the focus on the content of your talk. If people are noticing your layout, they are paying less attention to your science. Would you rather stick in their minds as "the speaker with the cool result" or "the speaker with all those weird colors on their slides"?
If you really dislike the usual templates, or you can make your own workflow more efficient by creating your own, then go ahead and do it. But I would suggest keeping your (visible) changes conservative; if your layout is radically different from what people are used to seeing, it may become distracting.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: `If you are presenting in a classroom` it is an advantage to have same templates because students do not prefer to see a new template each session. `But in the conferences` the audience is not aware you are always using the same template. The only thing he sees is the `content` you are presenting. Moreover, some conferences have their own template and all the speakers have to use the conference template not their own.
P.S. If you have the best designed slides and you have nothing to talk about, your audience will get bored soon.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: First of all, I do not think that having a signature layout is any good for its own sake. In most fields, few people (apart from your workgroup) will attend more than one of your talks and even those who will, will likely not notice the consistency of your layout¹ – unless it’s particularly memorable, which is almost certainly not a good thing². And even if somebody notices, they will likely (and hopefully) value the quality of your design more, let alone the quality of your content.
Considering the required work, there are two aspects: (1) Creating (or choosing) a layout and (2) Using the layout throughout your presentations.
Aspect 1 takes a few hours, if you are sufficiently apt with your presentation program (and it does not suck) and know some basics of graphic design (which I suppose you do, if you are asking such a question).
Mostly it’s selecting a colour scheme, one or two fonts and a default arrangement of your slides as well as realising them in your presentation program and in the programs you use to generate your figures.
Regarding the constraints of existing templates, remember that (unless your problems are very individual) if no templates are the way you want them, it is very likely that you should be careful what you are wishing for.
Also beware that the fact that you have to rely on (usually unknown) projectors imposes some constraints on your font and colour selections.
Aspect 2 will usually save you some time, whether you are using a prebuilt design or your own: For example, you are very likely to reuse some material – in particular figures. And if you care about your slides being consistent (which I suppose you do), you avoid spending some time in adapting colour schemes, for example. In particular, there is usually no benefit in switching designs.
From personal experience, I have spent some time in working out a design and have not regretted it yet.
¹ Just think about, how few people give horribly designed presentations and thus can be assumed not even to notice the flaws in their own presentations, let alone the qualities of yours.
² As you should not notice good design that much.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Yes. If you're like me you'll never like everything about a standard layout, and you want your tools to disappear as quickly as possible when creating content.
Noticing something in your slides that you want to change (bullet type, or title colour, or whatever) is the easiest way to get distracted from doing so.
Having a standard layout for your own work means you have to spend the least amount of time worrying about the formatting.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Standardising layouts have three advantages:
1. You can reuse slides across presentation without changing the styling.
2. When you create presentations, you don't need to think about styling; the templates are already set up for you.
3. Creating templates and styling can be delegated to someone with design skills, and everyone else gets to use them.
The first two points are applicable whether you have your own signature style, or you follow a team or corporate style.
The last point is different. In theory, having a corporate style is a really good idea because everyone gets the benefit of using templates created by the design genius in the marketing department. In practice, corporate templates are almost universally awful.
So, if a corporate template exists, and you are lucky enough to like it, then use that. There's no point in reinventing the wheel.
If there is no template, or it is dreadful, then create one for yourself and stick to that.
Either way, you don't want to have to keep deciding on new fonts to use for every presentation that you make.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I see pros and cons; which ends up winning out depends on your skill mix.
First - designing a good layout takes effort and expertise. Graphics designers study many years to get good at it. Just because tools are provided to make it easy doesn't mean everyone is suddenly a graphical designer. The right blend of colors, fonts, space etc is not an easy thing to achieve. 99% of "I can do better" layouts look horrid.
Having said that, I have at times come across layouts that made me go "wow". This is where the layout really supported the flow of the presentation, and while I was not getting distracted by the details, I came away more impressed. This was mostly because the presentation itself was very good - the contents were impressive, the speaker was very clear, and the layout of the presentation supported the spoken words.
In those cases, the personal layout was the icing on the cake - not a substitute for good work. There is a lot you can do to improve your presentation without spending any time on the layout. Fiddling with layouts (like fiddling with LaTex) can become an easy distraction from the real issues with your presentation. I urge you to consider whether your interest in the "look" is coming at the right time: in other words, is every other aspect of your presentation skills (content, pacing, connecting with the audience) so good that layout is the only thing left to play with?
If the answer is "yes", then my answer to your question is "yes". Otherwise, I think it's a bit early to work on creating your brand through a custom layout. Many people in the scientific community - especially at the PhD level - could do with honing their presentation skills. They could learn not to confuse slides with notes. They could learn to connect with their audience. They could learn to speak at an appropriate pace, and project their voice. They could learn to focus on the essentials and not bombard the audience with details. They could learn to use slides as visual aids - not "the main course" of the presentation.
While I don't know you or your skills, I would say that I have statistics (based on 25+ years of empirical evidence) on my side when I answer "probably not" to your original title question.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: What you're describing in your question is called [good branding](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand).
Branding is a major part of marketing, as it allows companies to craft a particular image for consumers. It's important for brands to be distinguished from one another, and focus on a target audience, which is why you've probably heard of brands such as "Arm & Hammer" and "Oxi Clean", but probably don't know "Church & Dwight" which owns both of those brands.
Establishing a brand takes a lot of time and effort, and is difficult to measure. How can you objectively tell whether a sponsor chose to give you money because they liked your science or because they trusted your brand? It's always a mix, but it's important to remember that good branding will help open doors that otherwise would have been closed to you.
If you approach your presentations as part of your brand (which they are) then any marketer will tell you how important it is to have a clear consistent message. Simply using a consistent theme for presentation material, business cards, and any and all academic communication is one way to develop your brand. That way, when someone watches your presentation it might remind them of the friendly email that you sent.
The contents of your presentations is certainly important, and I think the other answers speak to that a great deal, so I'm going to **explicitly ignore** the contents of your presentation beyond a reminder that if your presentation is good, it will help your brand, and if your presentation is bad, it will harm your brand.
I highly recommend discussing your brand with a marketer or designer and investing in yourself.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: I always appreciate when someone cares about their presentation. There are some things that are just inexcusable (e.g., tables that are left aligned on one slide and centered on another), and make you look lazy, so to the extent a consistent template would mitigate those then it can't hurt.
My presentations tend to look the same and stand out against my peers. I do all of my writing in Markdown, analyses in R, and create dynamic presentations with some available R packages. Therefore, all of my graphs tend to have a style (ggplot2), tables look the same in HTML, fonts (and related consistencies between headings and body text) work together nicely. It's not just about the style of the presentation, as I know a few people who give presentations and have a very distinctive voice in their text, and a welcomed minimalism in slide content.
I never thought too much about it, but I do have a "style" or "brand" in my presentations that most people who have met me and seen me present a few times recognize as clearly a presentation I crafted. However, this "brand" is really just me using a specific set of tools that most people don't use. What's the standard for most fields? Unfortunately Powerpoint, and some use the Mac Office Suite, while a few others use Prezi (and most use that tool poorly).
There's a range of tools out there that you can utilize that might help develop a consistent "style" for you, but also will help to vastly improve your workflow, and also make your scholarship better (i.e., tools with an emphasis on reproducibility).
Whatever you do just do it well and make sure it works for you and our audiences.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/13 | 2,551 | 11,216 | <issue_start>username_0: The question is related to the trend of research and focus on different disciplines.
Is there some trend assesment which shows the number of articles or conferences on a specific disciplines?
If someone would like to see the trend of research on let's say Nano Technology or Semantic Technology is there some source of information which shows the number of conferences related to the discipline and the number of articles tagged for these disciplines?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think there's any inherent value in having your own "signature" presentation layout.
Generally, you want to keep the focus on the content of your talk. If people are noticing your layout, they are paying less attention to your science. Would you rather stick in their minds as "the speaker with the cool result" or "the speaker with all those weird colors on their slides"?
If you really dislike the usual templates, or you can make your own workflow more efficient by creating your own, then go ahead and do it. But I would suggest keeping your (visible) changes conservative; if your layout is radically different from what people are used to seeing, it may become distracting.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: `If you are presenting in a classroom` it is an advantage to have same templates because students do not prefer to see a new template each session. `But in the conferences` the audience is not aware you are always using the same template. The only thing he sees is the `content` you are presenting. Moreover, some conferences have their own template and all the speakers have to use the conference template not their own.
P.S. If you have the best designed slides and you have nothing to talk about, your audience will get bored soon.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: First of all, I do not think that having a signature layout is any good for its own sake. In most fields, few people (apart from your workgroup) will attend more than one of your talks and even those who will, will likely not notice the consistency of your layout¹ – unless it’s particularly memorable, which is almost certainly not a good thing². And even if somebody notices, they will likely (and hopefully) value the quality of your design more, let alone the quality of your content.
Considering the required work, there are two aspects: (1) Creating (or choosing) a layout and (2) Using the layout throughout your presentations.
Aspect 1 takes a few hours, if you are sufficiently apt with your presentation program (and it does not suck) and know some basics of graphic design (which I suppose you do, if you are asking such a question).
Mostly it’s selecting a colour scheme, one or two fonts and a default arrangement of your slides as well as realising them in your presentation program and in the programs you use to generate your figures.
Regarding the constraints of existing templates, remember that (unless your problems are very individual) if no templates are the way you want them, it is very likely that you should be careful what you are wishing for.
Also beware that the fact that you have to rely on (usually unknown) projectors imposes some constraints on your font and colour selections.
Aspect 2 will usually save you some time, whether you are using a prebuilt design or your own: For example, you are very likely to reuse some material – in particular figures. And if you care about your slides being consistent (which I suppose you do), you avoid spending some time in adapting colour schemes, for example. In particular, there is usually no benefit in switching designs.
From personal experience, I have spent some time in working out a design and have not regretted it yet.
¹ Just think about, how few people give horribly designed presentations and thus can be assumed not even to notice the flaws in their own presentations, let alone the qualities of yours.
² As you should not notice good design that much.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Yes. If you're like me you'll never like everything about a standard layout, and you want your tools to disappear as quickly as possible when creating content.
Noticing something in your slides that you want to change (bullet type, or title colour, or whatever) is the easiest way to get distracted from doing so.
Having a standard layout for your own work means you have to spend the least amount of time worrying about the formatting.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Standardising layouts have three advantages:
1. You can reuse slides across presentation without changing the styling.
2. When you create presentations, you don't need to think about styling; the templates are already set up for you.
3. Creating templates and styling can be delegated to someone with design skills, and everyone else gets to use them.
The first two points are applicable whether you have your own signature style, or you follow a team or corporate style.
The last point is different. In theory, having a corporate style is a really good idea because everyone gets the benefit of using templates created by the design genius in the marketing department. In practice, corporate templates are almost universally awful.
So, if a corporate template exists, and you are lucky enough to like it, then use that. There's no point in reinventing the wheel.
If there is no template, or it is dreadful, then create one for yourself and stick to that.
Either way, you don't want to have to keep deciding on new fonts to use for every presentation that you make.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I see pros and cons; which ends up winning out depends on your skill mix.
First - designing a good layout takes effort and expertise. Graphics designers study many years to get good at it. Just because tools are provided to make it easy doesn't mean everyone is suddenly a graphical designer. The right blend of colors, fonts, space etc is not an easy thing to achieve. 99% of "I can do better" layouts look horrid.
Having said that, I have at times come across layouts that made me go "wow". This is where the layout really supported the flow of the presentation, and while I was not getting distracted by the details, I came away more impressed. This was mostly because the presentation itself was very good - the contents were impressive, the speaker was very clear, and the layout of the presentation supported the spoken words.
In those cases, the personal layout was the icing on the cake - not a substitute for good work. There is a lot you can do to improve your presentation without spending any time on the layout. Fiddling with layouts (like fiddling with LaTex) can become an easy distraction from the real issues with your presentation. I urge you to consider whether your interest in the "look" is coming at the right time: in other words, is every other aspect of your presentation skills (content, pacing, connecting with the audience) so good that layout is the only thing left to play with?
If the answer is "yes", then my answer to your question is "yes". Otherwise, I think it's a bit early to work on creating your brand through a custom layout. Many people in the scientific community - especially at the PhD level - could do with honing their presentation skills. They could learn not to confuse slides with notes. They could learn to connect with their audience. They could learn to speak at an appropriate pace, and project their voice. They could learn to focus on the essentials and not bombard the audience with details. They could learn to use slides as visual aids - not "the main course" of the presentation.
While I don't know you or your skills, I would say that I have statistics (based on 25+ years of empirical evidence) on my side when I answer "probably not" to your original title question.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: What you're describing in your question is called [good branding](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand).
Branding is a major part of marketing, as it allows companies to craft a particular image for consumers. It's important for brands to be distinguished from one another, and focus on a target audience, which is why you've probably heard of brands such as "Arm & Hammer" and "Oxi Clean", but probably don't know "Church & Dwight" which owns both of those brands.
Establishing a brand takes a lot of time and effort, and is difficult to measure. How can you objectively tell whether a sponsor chose to give you money because they liked your science or because they trusted your brand? It's always a mix, but it's important to remember that good branding will help open doors that otherwise would have been closed to you.
If you approach your presentations as part of your brand (which they are) then any marketer will tell you how important it is to have a clear consistent message. Simply using a consistent theme for presentation material, business cards, and any and all academic communication is one way to develop your brand. That way, when someone watches your presentation it might remind them of the friendly email that you sent.
The contents of your presentations is certainly important, and I think the other answers speak to that a great deal, so I'm going to **explicitly ignore** the contents of your presentation beyond a reminder that if your presentation is good, it will help your brand, and if your presentation is bad, it will harm your brand.
I highly recommend discussing your brand with a marketer or designer and investing in yourself.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: I always appreciate when someone cares about their presentation. There are some things that are just inexcusable (e.g., tables that are left aligned on one slide and centered on another), and make you look lazy, so to the extent a consistent template would mitigate those then it can't hurt.
My presentations tend to look the same and stand out against my peers. I do all of my writing in Markdown, analyses in R, and create dynamic presentations with some available R packages. Therefore, all of my graphs tend to have a style (ggplot2), tables look the same in HTML, fonts (and related consistencies between headings and body text) work together nicely. It's not just about the style of the presentation, as I know a few people who give presentations and have a very distinctive voice in their text, and a welcomed minimalism in slide content.
I never thought too much about it, but I do have a "style" or "brand" in my presentations that most people who have met me and seen me present a few times recognize as clearly a presentation I crafted. However, this "brand" is really just me using a specific set of tools that most people don't use. What's the standard for most fields? Unfortunately Powerpoint, and some use the Mac Office Suite, while a few others use Prezi (and most use that tool poorly).
There's a range of tools out there that you can utilize that might help develop a consistent "style" for you, but also will help to vastly improve your workflow, and also make your scholarship better (i.e., tools with an emphasis on reproducibility).
Whatever you do just do it well and make sure it works for you and our audiences.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/13 | 486 | 1,980 | <issue_start>username_0: Some of my colleagues and I got offers from employees of some reputed journal (not from journal itself), to publish our research paper for free, if:
* We include their name as co-author
* We use 60%+ citation of their journal (Doesn't it add up to IF??)
In return:
* It will be published completely free
* They will give us discount of some sort for next publication
Is it may be some kind of scam?<issue_comment>username_1: Whether or not this is a scam, it is **completely unethical**.
Under no circumstances is someone entitled to a publication credit in exchange for "free" publication of a paper. Don't forget that many reputable journals do **not** charge publication fees. It may be entirely possible for you to get your paper published without such an arrangement, which will be better for you, largely because any journal whose employees operate in such a manner isn't worth publishing in.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: This is a scam.
---------------
You are not the ones being scammed, however. The editors are proposing to scam your readers, with your assistance, making you scammers as well. Walk away before you damage your reputation.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Although this question has fully answered, just hear my point of view.
Have you ever asked yourself:
* What obligations those people have to fulfill their promises? After all they have not committed to the basic ethic matters.
* How are you going to claim the discount for your next publication?
* What kind of publication this journal hase made, that you want to cite 60%+ of them in your work?
If *you* claim anything after this, they easily ignore the whole deal. The only thing that they have in their mind is to rise up their reputation, by any means. Charging people for publishing and then offering them discounts with this method, is just a **scam**. It's more like paper-cooking.
Don't let yourself to be used.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/13 | 1,728 | 7,072 | <issue_start>username_0: Recruiting "bad" PhD students who only become emotional, temporal, and financial drag is not good for anybody. I was listening to the [recent freakonomics podcast episode](http://freakonomics.com/2014/07/10/what-do-king-solomon-and-david-lee-roth-have-in-common-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/), and thought it would be great to use tricks for testing the candidates before hiring them. Interviewing only can tell you so much, but unlike industry, PI's have more time to test the students before committing to seriously bring them into their research program.
In a [related question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/17621/386), some qualities of successful students were discussed. Specifically, I want to test for
* persistence/focus
* creativity
* logical/systematic thinking
* communication
* teamwork
* "smartness"
* some basic skills (programming, computer skills, writing, etc.)
At the same time I do not want to punish for lack of knowledge or experience. Also, I'm okay with eccentric personalities to a certain degree.
I've seen PIs testing their candidates by giving them **mini research problems** before hiring them (or while they are rotating in the lab). Some students will quickly finish the task and further explore the science on their own write fantastic reports/papers, while some students never finish the simplest first step. This seems to work fine (but some students might think it is not fair). I would like to learn if there are some quick tests that would reveal the quality of the candidate.
What tricks/procedures do you use?
P.S. I am in a computation/theory heavy science in US.
**EDIT**: I am especially looking forward to King Solomon's cutting the baby in half type of creative solutions. Perhaps PI can ask the student to do an impossible task and see how long it takes before the student says he/she thinks it is impossible.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think it is fair to judge a person by tests. People have ups and downs. Look on their overall profile. Have they done something creative even once, in their career? Some students are exam-phobic and do not get A grades all the time, but if you look at their research and thesis in the past, those are very creative and novel. Those kind of people are the ones, that succeed, not always the ones who run after a 4.0 gpa(on a 4.0 scale).
If the person doesn't has any novelty to show in their past projects, ask them the reason. What was the idea behind the work they have done, what did they learn from it, and what do they intend to learn from their PhD. Why are they pursuing a PhD? Why do they want to join your lab? Tell them what are you looking for, in the candidate and ask them to do a self-evaluation. Tell them to be frank, if they do not know something that you want them to know, and that you'll be willing to work with them if you really see them as the right candidate.
Keep your expectations real. You might never find a student with 100% qualities matching your requirement, but if you find that right candidate who is willing to give his 100%, you can make their 70% match better than anything else you'd ever get.
At the end of the day, a good student is the reflection of a good teacher.
Oh and by the way I'm also a Bioinformatics major and it is not always possible to know everything on the computer skills side. They might be excellent in one programming language but know nothing in others or they might be average good in a number of languages being the master of none. At the end, the thing that matters is, if they can get the job done, using whatever technique, whatever approach!
Correct me if I'm wrong. :)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> What tricks/procedures do you use?
>
>
> I am especially looking forward to <NAME>'s cutting the baby in half type of creative solutions. Perhaps PI can ask the student to do an impossible task and see how long it takes before the student says he/she thinks it is impossible.
>
>
>
You're contemplating starting out a long-term, intense professional relationship with this person. "Tricks" like this are dishonest. Dishonesty is not a good way to begin such a relationship.
The situation is similar to an ordinary job interview. In a job interview, it's not just the employer who is judging the candidate. The candidate is also judging whether the employer is someone they'd want to work for. Manipulative interview techniques are a flashing red light telling the candidate that this is not an employer who respects his employees.
Another thing that a job candidate is looking for is an employer who will support him in his long-term professional growth, rather than treating him as a labor commodity who needs to be productive from day one. This holds even more for a student getting started in a PhD program; the reason universities claim that grad students are not employees is that they're supposed to be focused on learning, not on acting as cheap labor.
In the usual case where the student does a rotation in your group, that's the opportunity for each of you to see if you're a good fit for the other. It's meant to be an experience that helps the student to learn and grow, not one that produces a lot of research. Part of what the university is paying you to do is to provide these opportunities for these students to learn and grow. If, by the end of the rotation, the student has shown a lack of aptitude, then you've provided the service you're being paid to provide.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> What tricks/procedures do you use?
>
>
>
I work with each student as a potential colleague. I meet with them regularly, monitor their progress, offer what feedback and advice I can on what classes to take, papers to read, problems to work on, techniques to apply, people to work with, conferences to submit to, writing, presentations, and so on.
If they show sufficient promise/progress after a semester or two, I offer to continue working with them in an official capacity as their advisor. If they don't show sufficient promise/progress, I offer to help them find another advisor who better matches their interests, background, and working style. If necessary, I help the student navigate a change in degree programs, departments, or universities.
Finally, if I don't have enough time to effectively evaluate and/or advise a student, I just say no at the beginning.
In other words, I don't have any tricks. I just do my job.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Not to sound facetious, but have you ever considered your role as the mentor in understanding why these collaborations don't work out? Relationships are bidirectional. As such, I am struck that in your initial post the issue is the deficit of the student.
I'm a grad student. I've worked with many professors on different projects. In every instance you get what you give. Most normal people will do their job (i.e., the grad student meeting expectations) if you do your job, at least in the context of a collaboration across time.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/14 | 753 | 3,325 | <issue_start>username_0: As I understand it, in the engineering field, the person who has research money and/or a project that leads to the collection of data, is put on research papers that directly use that data. I guess the most common of this is for PHD students whose advisors funding or project is the reason they have data.
I am curious about when this ends in regards to collaboration. If one person gets a project and funding and collaborates with a different lab/department/professor/researcher and through this, gives a portion of the funding to that person or place, what is the convention for authorship? Does the PI of the project go on all papers that use the data, or only papers they directly do with their own staff/students?<issue_comment>username_1: The German research foundation (DFG) has some [guidelines](http://www.dfg.de/download/pdf/dfg_im_profil/reden_stellungnahmen/download/empfehlung_wiss_praxis_1310.pdf) on authorship for research publications (including an English translation towards the end) which put specific criteria for being named as an author. Among others, it says that those "who have made significant contributions to the conception of studies or experiments" should be listed as authors.
In my understanding, getting funding for a project requires describing the conception of the data collection in quite some detail, so anybody who contributed to that part of the proposal should be included as an author of the resulting publication. Importantly, the criterium is not having brought in the money, but having contributed (significantly) to the conception of the study.
The only exception to that rule would be if the paper under discussion does not "publish" the data, but "uses" it in some other way and can include a citation to the original publication of the data.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> If one person gets a project and funding and collaborates with a different lab/department/professor/researcher and through this, gives a portion of the funding to that person or place, what is the convention for authorship?
>
>
>
If you collaborate with someone, they usually get co-authorship on papers resulting from the collaboration. **Not** because money changed hands, but because they were involved in the work that the paper describes.
If two PIs on a funded proposal work independently on research described in the proposal, such that they are **not** collaborators, then they won't be author on one another's papers. Again, the reason they won't merit co-authorship is because they did not collaborate on the work.
For example, suppose I write a proposal together with a colleague to explore some problem domain both from a theoretical standpoint (his area of expertise) and through practical experimentation (mine). He develops the conception of the theoretical part, while I develop the experimental part. The proposal is funded. My colleague proceeds to develop a very nice theoretical framework, while I independently go ahead and do some experimental work. I didn't participate in his work and he didn't participate in mine. We are **not** going to be co-authors on one another's papers.
It's irrelevant whether money changed hands. It's also not relevant whether we are in the same lab/department/university or different ones.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/14 | 994 | 4,293 | <issue_start>username_0: I want to pursue a PhD in Financial Economics in USA/Canada. I am a software engineer and going to Canada to pursue an MBA in Finance in September from an average public university.
I have studied a lot of high level math courses in Engineering (Undergrad). I will study many Finance and Econ courses in the MBA program.
I am interested in a PhD from a US university (average public university, not targeting top level).
I am really crazy about this subject. I know that I wasted a lots of time on other things but I still have time and I am very interested in teaching.
What opportunities can I take advantage of during the MBA to maximize my chances of PhD admission?<issue_comment>username_1: PhD programs exist to produce researchers, so an admissions committee would like to see that you will be able to produce original research. (In economics, that means journal articles.) So, what would help immensely would be to gain actual research experience. The best way to do that would be to work as a research assistant for someone who is actively publishing research.
It would be fantastic, of course, if you could co-author a paper and get it published in a top journal. But don't worry so much about that. What you're looking for is a chance to work with someone who can then write a letter of recommendation that says they are confident that you will go on to produce quality research of your own, and whose opinion will matter because they have a good track record of publishing their own work.
Add some statistics coursework to your programming experience and you'll be well-positioned to work as an RA. (Even without a stats background, being able to wield Perl or R or some other tool to collect and clean data is valuable.) Or find someone working with agent-based modelling who needs a code jockey. Then, of course, work hard and ask lots of questions.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I am doing something similar right now. It really depends on the sub-field of your interests. As mentioned by Szarka most of the finance/economics research statistics is often used, but not at a very high level. You could have a shot in many of the RA positions because you are fluent in R or Stata, but those data analyst positions will not likely to yield a coauthorship in top departments. On the other hand, there are a lot of subfields in Econ/Fin researches, for examples:
1. Contract theories, insurances: you need rigorous measure theories, probability theories, and sometimes non-linear functional analysis (convex optimization) in graduate level
2. Decision theories (behavioral fin-econ): you need measure theories, probability theories, functional analysis, optimization, and sometimes Lipschitz analysis in graduate level
3. DSGE, GE theories in Fin Econ, incomplete equilibriums (closely connected to 2), evolutionary dynamic game theories: You need measure theories in graduate level, stochastic differential equations, abstract algebra (advanced linear algebras in graduate level), stochastic optimizations on different types of manifolds, and sometimes methods of perturbations, Lipschitz analysis, and differential topologies.
4. Auction theories, multi-agent models: usually you need a very strong CS background, DNN, graph theories, discrete analysis, dynamic optimizations and controls, etc. Sometimes linked to dynamic game theories.
5. Corp-Fin, principle agent theories: This is very closely connected to contract theories and sometimes, decision theories
6. Derivative pricing theories and applications: measure theories, stochastic differential equations, and non-linear functional analysis are the minimum. Sometimes connected to contract theories and decision theories.
Each of the "subfields" that I classified has many subsubfields, and the subsubfields have their subsubsubfields. For example, despite of being mathematically intensive, some recent advances in decision sciences are closely linked to not only psychology, but also neuro sciences, physiology, and cell biology. MBA courses are usually focus on the practical uses. As a general advice, you could take more theoretical courses (like microeconomics theories in PhD level), and most importantly, find your field of interests and find the proper advisor.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/14 | 1,175 | 4,979 | <issue_start>username_0: Can you give me advice, how can I publish easily and quickly in a number of papers?
I'm not really a scientist, I'm a web developer, but I really need to build a publication list. I need to publish at least 10 papers or maybe 20.
I want to build a publication list because if you publish (and you meet some other criteria - which I do meet) you can get an uncapped visa to the USA. I'm currently being interviewed by top firms in the Silicon Valley, but even they are not able to guarantee the visa. The researcher visa seems to be the most flexible one and the only thing I miss is the publication list. The number 10 is because I consulted with an immigration lawyer and they have a 98% success chance with researcher visas.
I wrote a thesis for my Masters last year in an interesting and not really researched topic related to Web Usability and Search Engines and I think I can put together some articles in this topic. I'm also working on a second Masters in another university to investigate the problem's business/user behaviour aspects. Both are in the top 200 according to the Times ranking and Sanghai ranking, too. I'm planning a PhD, too, hopefully on Stanford, where I work with a professor.
I don't need to publish in Nature or Science, I just have to build a publication list.<issue_comment>username_1: If you want to publish your Master's results, have a chat to your supervisor about writing a paper. You should not try to publish them without involving your supervisor(s)!
It's certainly feasible that a Master's thesis will produce publishable results, but more than one or two papers? No way, no how. It could easily take well over a decade of research to publish 10 or 20 first-authored papers in a respected conference or a reputable peer-reviewed journal.
In the eyes of a scrupulous employer, writing a large volume of low-quality papers simply to bulk up your CV will reflect very poorly on you. Having one good paper published from the results of a Master's thesis is a good achievement. Having 10 or 20 poor quality papers will just raise suspicious eyebrows.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Ten or twenty papers in reputable journals is hard, and will take years. So how do you get started?
Something that may appeal to you as a software developer is creating or contributing to open source software and writing a paper about the software. An example from my field is the [Journal of Statistical Software](http://www.jstatsoft.org/). It's very reputable, and the many of the articles are essentially introductory guides to software that the author has created. I'm sure there must be a web development equivalent.
You could also consider making friends with scientists and contributing to their research. For example, if you can help scrape some data from the internet, or help social scientists run a questionnaire (and then write what you did in the methods section of the resulting paper) then you can get your name on a paper without too much work. You won't be first author, but that may not matter. (As a statistician, I'm resigned to permanently being second or third author on papers.)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The rules for publishing articles vary by discipline. Many of the people on here are in scientific fields, and the rules for scientific publication is much more strict. What you find in many of the IT fields might be considered a 'white paper' than a 'scientific article'.
As you're in web development, I'd recommend looking at [web development blogs](http://www.designyourway.net/blog/resources/25-web-development-blogs-you-should-be-reading/) that accept external contributions and cover the specific sub-topic you want to write about. (eg, A List Apart got slammed after their first article on JavaScript, because they didn't have the expertise to peer review it properly, so they accepted some less than ideal code).
If your work involves building websites for a specific community, you might look to see if there are journals or newsletters in that community that accept short papers describing new tools & software. (there's a growing push for [software citation](http://software.ac.uk/so-exactly-what-software-did-you-use)) You might also consider if your topics cover other aspects outside of software development, such as psychology or design, and look for journals in that field.
I'd also consider who it is that has decided that you 'need' to publish; if it's a professor or boss telling you this, then can likely tell you where you should be publishing. If you're just trying to bulk up for CV because of a percieved need, then try to find CVs of people with a similar background and see where they're publishing. I've heard of people getting consideration when hiring for running blogs in their field (scientific field, even ... the blog handles outreach to the general public), or even for writing good answers on stack exchange sites.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/14 | 536 | 2,234 | <issue_start>username_0: I am planning to attend a prestigious conference in the near future, and I was wondering if a certain professor who I wish to meet and I would love to do my phd degree and research under his supervision will be attending this conference. So is it appropriate to ask him (by email) if he plans to attend or participate in this specific conference? Or are there other ways to know this information?
P.S. My research interests are an exact match to his research interests.<issue_comment>username_1: Of course it is OK if you ask him politely; but, if I were you, I would add a little about what I am going to talk to him when I see him at the conference. I do not think it is a good idea to say that you want to talk about your PhD supervision; write to him that you are a researcher, like his research background and want to discuss mutual research interests and ask your questions.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: My two favourite techniques for stalking potential business contacts (including professors):
1. Email them asking questions about their work. Once you've built up a bit of rapport, then you can move on to asking about meeting in person.
2. Check conference programmes to see if they are giving a talk/seminar/poster, and visit them in person then.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Absolutely! Go for it. Just send an email briefly introducing yourself and your research interests. Say that you're interested in doing a Ph.D. with him. If possible, ask a question or two about his work to show that you've done your homework and aren't just emailing people blindly. (How feasible this is depends on your field; in mine, ecology, it was pretty easy.) Then, mention that you're going to be at the conference and would like to meet in person if he also plans to be there.
I know this is nervewracking, but really, professors don't bite. The worst that can happen is he might say that he doesn't have funding or time for more grad students now. That's disappointing but not the end of the world (and there may be an opening next year). I used this approach, minus the conference part, when emailing prospective graduate advisors and it always went over well.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/14 | 2,863 | 12,477 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm starting a master's degree in the autumn, and I recently received an email from the university inviting me to join the Facebook page for the course.
However, I don't currently have an active Facebook account -- I deleted my account several years ago due to concerns about privacy as well as its overall usefulness. (Mostly a case of "so why am I spending time on this site?")
Is there any explicit advantage I would get by joining the course's Facebook page, or equivalently, is there any disadvantage of not joining?
EDIT: I understand there is not likely to be an explicit requirement to join the group as official communication will be via email and university websites. I'm asking more from the point of view of networking, socializing, etc. Would the lack of Facebook be a handicap?
EDIT: Clarification: By "course" I mean the UK definition: The course is the entire year-long degree program. In this instance, the department has created a Facebook page for everybody who is doing the same degree program starting this year, and that's what they invited me to. However, my question applies to other possible applications of Facebook as well.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Is there any explicit advantage I would get by joining the course's Facebook page
>
>
>
If you want to interact with your classmates on Facebook before starting the course, then joining the page would enable this.
>
> or equivalently, is there any disadvantage of not joining?
>
>
>
If you don't feel a need to do the above, then no. There is no reason to expect this to be any kind of handicap. You will have plenty of chances to interact with your classmates face to face, when the course starts.
Facebook is a useful marketing tool for universities, which is why they invited you to join the page. If you personally don't want to interact with others on Facebook (for very understandable reasons), then there is no need to join the page.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, there is an advantage besides the normal socializing one.
There will probably be a group for your year or the years before.
In this group people will share experiences with courses, questions&answers, solutions to homework and various other stuff.
Also, it could be that there might even be some teachings assistants in these groups which can help during homework and/or before the exam preparations.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Without knowing how Facebook will be used by the instructor and fellow students in *this* course it is impossible to predict if you will be at a disadvantage for not signing up.
My school had some basic communication tools built into its course management software that were clunky and difficult to use, not to mention completely unavailable on mobile devices. This lead to many students turning to other more accessible, more widely used means (like Facebook groups) to manage communications within their study groups.
You should contact the instructor directly before the class starts and ask how or if they intend the class to use the group. If they plan to rely on the group, that will be your answer. If they do not, keep hold of the reply. It may be useful to produce it at a later date if you do miss some important Facebook related communication from her.
Even if the group is not used in an official capacity, if a significant portion of your classmates use Facebook, you may miss out on a lot without the others even realizing they are excluding you. Or it may be that like yourself most of your classmates are disengaged from Facebook, and there will be no loss.
In either case, unless as username_1 suggests, you want to engage in networking with your classmates before the course starts, you can put off making the decision on joining until you know more.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I actually find this requirement a bit odd. Kids are leaving Facebook *en masse* for other, more private forms of communication (namely, tools their parents can't join and subsequently see what they've been posting). So assuming the whole class will actively use Facebook for extracurricular communication is almost old fashioned.
**Edit:** The moment your kids hear you say "I've set up a Facebook group for this class..." they will silently groan and think "This is why I quit using Facebook." To them, we are the uncool crowd. Just use your school's Moodle/Blackboard/whatever forum for that. It's kludgy and they hate it, but they have to use it for all their other classes anyway. That solution is already in place for just this purpose.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I don't see a big advantage to joining facebook. Not joining facebook is probably better on the longer term. Employers are looking at facebook pages of the people applying for work. So, unless you use your facebook account in a way that makes you look like a nerd who no one wants to socialize with, there are no points to be earned here.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: I would rather say there is nothing in the world which do not have disadvantages or advantages.Its up to you how are using it. Take an example of a Computer , you can use it for programming,studies and hell lot of advantageous activities \at the same time u can it to waste your time by playing games and watching movies etc(Look playing game or watching movies etc are not bad at all but if this kind activities will not appreciated if you are doing them by ignoring the priority work).If You see it in a positive way Facebook is one the best way to stay connected with society but if we don't know value of time or have self control then I thinks its our fault.
"Use the advantages and ignore the disadvantages."
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: Facebook pages for Courses offered by Universities are a advantageous for the University since
1. This a indirect mass media publicity.
2. This helps build a connected medium of students.
3. Opinions can come in a velocity not achievable by normal methods.
It is also advantageous for you
1. You get to meet your crowd.
2. There will be enough people to collaborate that you don't need another medium
About the privacy fear that we all have, it should be taken care if you only add people you know. Also there are options to share things only to people you specifically mention. Privacy is a great option which lesser amount of people use, but my personal advice is that since its a University just let it flow.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: I think there are some terms which should be defined in order to understand the question:
* By *course* do you mean a semester-long sequence of lectures and exams in one subject? This is the US usage, while in other places *module* is used. In those places *course* means what in the US is called a *degree program*: the set of courses/modules taken to complete the degree.
* Are you asked to "like" a Facebook *page* or "join" a Facebook *group*? Both have been used interchangeably in this discussion but they are not the same. A Facebook page is used by an organization for self-promotion and broadcasting username_2ormation. It's mainly a one-way tool, though likers can comment and (sometimes, depending on settings) post. A Facebook group can be official or unofficial but is used for multi-way communication among its members.
If a course-as-in-degree-program is asking you to like their Facebook page, it's probably just to open up another line of communication to you. For instance, they might use it to broadcast that the university is closed for bad weather, and you can get that username_2ormation before checking your email. You can do this without using Facebook for anything else; you don't have to interact with the other fans of the page. I believe fans aren't privy to who is and isn't a fellow fan.
If a course-as-in-degree-program is asking you to join a Facebook group, it might be more for discussion as for a group, but would still be non-academic. Perhaps they want to collect opinions about services. Group members are able to see the list of group members, so you would be known. But you don't have to be (Facebook) friends with the fellow group members, so you can interact with the group and keep the other members at arm's length.
If a course-as-in-module is asking you to like their Facebook page, it's going to be academic but still mainly broadcast. I've done this in my large lecture courses to announce when slides are posted or reminders about due dates. These are useful to get extra communication to the students, but they should not be used to publish anything that's not also on a university website. If you find that there is original course material published on Facebook, you might want to raise concern.
If a course-as-in-module is asking you to join a Facebook group, it's likely that it's for academic discussion. This can be beneficial as others have pointed out. And the interface is familiar to most students so the content can be quite rich. But if the Facebook discussion is to be graded that's the most problematic combination. Joining Facebook requires individuals to sacrifice a considerable amount of privacy, and I think it's not fair for university officials to explicitly require that consent to participate in instruction. If you have a problem with joining Facebook and the instructor wants you do so for a grade, you should definitely be concerned.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: As [Matthew's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/25931/739) says, you need to better define the terms. That is an important research skill, anyway.
Obviously, there cannot be any official FB pages for courses-as-modules/classes. Instructors who use FB as their main communication vehicle can be easily found in violation of the university's IT security practices via exposing the educational material that the university collects the money for on a platform that is not protected well enough. Even if an instructor only runs a FB page for their convenience, they still cut you out, and you have all the grounds to file a formal complaint with them to their department chairs saying that they discriminate in access to the course username_2ormation against FB non-users (although the remainder of the class will probably oust you out, and you will be considered a weirdo for the rest of your time in the program).
So having ruled a course-as-in-module/class page out, I can imagine a course-as-in-degree/program may have an FB page for intermittent announcements: news about a graduate being mentioned in NY Times, a faculty member receiving a good chunk of NSF money, a formal visit of the program by the Chancellor, may be more technical stuff like colloquia announcements. Probably nothing you cannot leave without. (Avoiding triple negations is another important practical skill that will definitely make your writing much clearer :) ). So they will give you a little nudge to join, but if FB does not fit your lifestyle, not having access to it will not be the end of the world.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: I see there are plenty of answers already, let me provide my experience with a similar situation.
I used to have a Facebook account which used to be useful at the time for interaction with friends & distant family. I moved abroad for studies and the Facebook became even more important in terms of interaction.
However, the priority of the studies was much higher than the interaction; It took me about 3-4 months to notice that Facebook in fact was doing more damage than help. Everyone wants to check if you are doing fine in the new environment etc but to them it is just a msg, to you that is multiple of msgs to multiple people (quadratic or exponential work?!?)
Basically, I deactivated the original account, created a new one with different name/surname which I use for the course. If they are not strictly checking for the credentials do the same.
In the more general view; keep in mind that students create groups in Facebook where they share exam, housing, event etc username_2o. That might be handy.
Long story short, account with similarities in name and details, without display picture, and `NO ADDED FRIENDS`
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: Lots students use facebook to communicate with classmates, academic and social groups. Some instructors create facebook groups to have central place for students to communicate.
Upvotes: -1 |
2014/07/14 | 772 | 3,150 | <issue_start>username_0: In a recent conversation with a person born in the UK, he mentioned his son had attended a US college for a year before deciding to move back to the UK to finish school. He told me that apparently if a student completes one year of school at an accredited US university, they can do a combined bachelor's/master's degree in the UK in, as I recall, only an additional three years. Apparently that was what his son was doing.
I unfortunately neglected to ask him for more information regarding the process or where I could find more information online, and have no way of contacting him. A friend of mine and I have been looking into moving to the UK after college anyway, and I recently remembered this conversation and wanted to look into it. We're about to be entering our first year of college in the US, and are considering doing precisely what the man said, completing this coming year and then attempting to apply there for the remaining three years. Not only would it get us to the UK sooner, but it would also be good for costs considering how much cheaper college is in Europe.
Is anyone else familiar with such a system and at least where we could go to begin researching it? I've tried looking online but have, as of yet, found little real information. Or is it just that the information I got was faulty and there is no such system?<issue_comment>username_1: In the UK, a bachelor's degree lasts three years, and the there are some undergraduate masters degrees available that last four years.
If you complete a year of study at a US university, some UK universities may accept this as enough experience to let you transfer into the second year of a UK degree. This depends upon how closely aligned the two courses are, and how well you performed in the first year.
The other option to consider is that many US degrees include a year of study in another country.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Apparently this is possible but it is at the universities discretion whether your credits are sufficient for entry into the 2nd year. [Kingston Uni](http://www.kingston.ac.uk/international/guidance-and-advice/your-home-country/usa/transferring-credit-to-kingston/) has some vaguely useful information on their website. In particular applications should be done via [UCAS](http://www.ucas.com/).
I would research some places you would be interested in applying for and contact them directly to see what their policies are. I suspect higher ranked institutions are less likely to accept your credits as sufficient (although I may be wrong).
As pointed out in the comments other things to consider if you are not a EU citizen is visas and tuition fee's. Tuition fees for non-EU students can be significantly higher than for home students (£9000 per year). A quick look at 3 unis gives international fees of:
Kingston Uni: £10750-12350
Brunel Uni: £13000-16000
Imperial College: £22900-25500
Notice the more prestigious institutions are more expensive. When you consider the reduced amount of financial aid (loans, etc.) for foreign students the UK may not be cheaper than US.
Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer] |
2014/07/15 | 387 | 1,584 | <issue_start>username_0: In US, universities often have a fixed overhead rate around 50%, or at least that's what I heard. But I don't know what it exactly means. How does this affect how much grant money goes where?<issue_comment>username_1: The 'overhead' generally refers to the funding that doesn't go directly to research expenses (salaries of researchers, cost of experiments/consumables, etc) but to the supporting expenses (salaries of administrative/support staff; cost of facilities and utilities, equipment depreciation) of services that are neccessary but not directly related to research.
It often is set by university administration to some fixed rate (50% sounds high to me, but it depends on country and research domain) that is taken from all grants and used to fund those 'common' expenses.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In the US, the overheads proposed to federal funding agencies (NSF, NIH, etc) are in my experience always calculated as an additional percentage on top of the total direct costs (salaries plus fringe benefits, travel, etc). So if your total budget for salaries, fringe benefits, and travel is $500k, and your overhead rate is 50%, then your total proposed budget is $750k.
Now, at my US university, the overhead rate is 54.5%, the majority of the budget is salary, and the fringe rate is calculated at 25% of the salaries, so a good rule of thumb for us is that the total budget should be twice the salaries. Now, that also means that you can work backwards from a total allowed budget by dividing by two.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/15 | 276 | 1,088 | <issue_start>username_0: I wrote my first academic paper recently (it is in math). I need to put a footnote crediting the NSF for funding. I have noticed that papers almost always say "Partially supported by [grant]". I got all of my funding from one grant. Should I still say partially supported? If so, what is the reason for this?<issue_comment>username_1: The NSF [requires](http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/gpg/nsf04_23/6.jsp#VIJ) the following text (or its equivalent) in publications from work funded by their grants:
>
> "This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (grantee must enter NSF grant number)."
>
>
>
No need to quantify the level of support.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Some grants come with more strict requirements than others. I am aware of at least one funding body, that requests to specifically explain which part of the work was supported by this grant (and you can not just say "a part"). Others are satisfied if you just mention them. Read the funding agreement and follow their guidelines.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/15 | 314 | 1,239 | <issue_start>username_0: I am using mendeley to save papers etc. which have come up during my research. However, I am often having some ideas about problems which are interesting or some links which are worth reading later. I would like to add this to mendeley easily, sth like a workable document.
Is sth like that possible? What are you using for a problem like that?
I appreciate your answer!
**Update**
I am looking for a way to add general notes, which are not paper related?<issue_comment>username_1: The NSF [requires](http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/gpg/nsf04_23/6.jsp#VIJ) the following text (or its equivalent) in publications from work funded by their grants:
>
> "This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (grantee must enter NSF grant number)."
>
>
>
No need to quantify the level of support.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Some grants come with more strict requirements than others. I am aware of at least one funding body, that requests to specifically explain which part of the work was supported by this grant (and you can not just say "a part"). Others are satisfied if you just mention them. Read the funding agreement and follow their guidelines.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/15 | 366 | 1,274 | <issue_start>username_0: I wrote a paper that I want to put on my webpage, but that I don't want to publish anywhere. I think that I need a timestamp on it, in case someone decides to plagiarize it. Is GitHub adequate for this?<issue_comment>username_1: Poor man's copyright protection can be done by sending a copy of the work to yourself by registered mail. The timestamp is provided by the federal government and as long as the envelope remains sealed, it is proof of creation on or before that date. Of course, I would also get a notarized or authenticated document as well.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Let's be scientists (It was fun to try out):
below is a small repository, where I first tried 'lol' to have a timestamp in the future ... doesn't work; but at least in 'history' I could backdate (bit unlikely that I authored s.th. in git 1980 ;-).
But at least the day that I pushed is set by github.com. In total, though, I wouldn't trust this scheme. ``I forgot to push but look at the authored date, I totally solved it years ago''.
Jul 15, 2014
history
2b5d4208aa Browse code
username_2 authored on Jan 1, 1980
lol
fc2a68a571 Browse code
username_2 authored just now
<https://github.com/username_2/lol/commits/master>
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer] |
2014/07/15 | 1,248 | 4,720 | <issue_start>username_0: Men make up the minority of students who receive undergraduate and graduate degrees. As a group men also tend to dropout of school at a greater rate than women. Men are even more in minority status as students in fields like psychology and education.
So, what books, biographies, survival guides, or other resources exist for men who say want to become educators?<issue_comment>username_1: I would suggest reading survival guides (or anything that will prepare you and give you an advantage) since academia is a difficult road. I would not worry so much about finding gender specific or field specific reading, especially if you are a male. The reason I say this is, while I am sure there are some factors that make males less likely than females to succeed in academia and some of these factors may be unique to "female dominated" fields, by limiting yourself to those factors, you are missing the critical fact that the vast majority of people fail to succeed in academia, regardless of gender or field.
For the purposes of this answer, I am going to define succeeding in academia as becoming a full professor. This is not demean those who choose to aspire to different goals (e.g., making a valuable contribution, having a well balanced life, or being happy), but it is merely a byproduct of the available data. For the same reason of the availability of data, I am also going to limit the analysis to STEM fields, for which Psychology is a member, but Education is not.
The reason I suggest reading survival guides is that over 99% of people fail (i.e., do not become a full professor) in academia regardless of gender or field. The Royal Society did a [study](https://royalsociety.org/~/media/Royal_Society_Content/policy/publications/2010/4294970126.pdf) which found that less than 0.5% of the people who enter academia do not succeed:
This is a huge problem, and if you are not prepared, and even if you are, you are likely to fail.
There is also a lot of research on gender differences. [HESA](https://www.hesa.ac.uk/) has a study, which I can only find [summary data](http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/WinSET/documents/sean-winset-slides-3-july-2013-for-website.ppt) of, which shows a "leaky pipeline" for women in STEM fields. For example, in the male dominated field of Physics:
at the GCSE level there are essentially equal numbers of men and women, but less than 6% of women are Professors. The same leaky pipeline exists in the so called female dominated field of Psychology:
At the undergraduate stage, the numbers are essentially the opposite of Physics with more women than men, but by the time you get to level of full Professor, the female domination is lost. The existence of this leaky pipeline means a lot of effort has gone into determining why women do not "succeed" in academia. The fact that both male and female dominate fields show the same trends means that most of the research into gender issues, in particular why women are less likely to succeed, are field (at least within STEM) independent.
In summary, men are doing better than women in "female dominated" fields, but no one is doing particularly well. Therefore, limiting yourself to small effects, while ignoring huge effects, is generally not efficient and you should read in a field and gender invariant manner.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Given that non-academic careers are off-topic here, and username_1 has already offered an answer for academic careers, I will answer the question of *resources for men who want to pursue graduate degrees in female-majority fields*.
I would offer the same advice to [anyone of any gender](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1363/what-books-biographies-or-survival-guides-are-helpful-for-women-in-engineering/21219#comment44349_21219) who wants to know what it is like to be a member of a gender minority in graduate school: Learn what it's *really* like by reading about the personal experiences (both positive and negative) of others who have been in that position.
As such, here are a few resources that I believe may be helpful:
* [On being a man in an MSW (social work) program](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dkPcCLTuKJU)
* [On being a man in nursing school](http://www.minoritynurse.com/article/men-nursing-school) (includes experiences from men in undergraduate through doctoral programs)
* [On being a man in a doctoral program in psychology](http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2011/01/cover-men.aspx)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer] |
2014/07/15 | 2,514 | 10,604 | <issue_start>username_0: University X offers course Y with Z credits. The course is mandatory, and very important. It lasts for more than one semester with heavy workload. The University awards Z credits for the course Y, but it only includes Z/2 credits in the GPA calculation.
This is where the story gets a bit personal. I assume the University includes only Z/2 credits in GPA calculation because the majority of the students do very bad in this course. But, that is not the case for me. If I have the Z amount of credits calculated for my GPA, it is increased for 0,3, which I believe can make the difference at some point.
I asked the officials at the examination regulation department about this situation, they said: "that was the case from the day when the program you study was established". Not convinced at all.
What should I do? Should I complain somewhere, should I ask for a specific GPA calculation for myself. In the end of the day it should be in the interest of the University to have students with good GPAs, hence I believe they do all this calculation "trick". And I believe I would not be asking for something "illegal".
What is the clever thing to do when one finds such regulations in own University which can be used on one's own good?!?
---
In case of need GPA calculation is done as follows:
(sum over all (number of credits for the given course `x` grade)) / number of credits used in calculation
example:
((course with 4 credits `x` grade) + (course with 6 credits `x` grade) + (course with 12 credits `x` grade)) / 22 (4 + 6 + 12 this case)
**Note:** From the comments it seems as my intention is to get in a battle of changing regulations at my University. That is not the case at all. I am just trying to find a nice way of using this situation on my benefit, by having some convincing discussions with the officials.
**Additional Note:** After digging through some documentation, I found an *examinations regulations document* which states clearly how the GPA is calculated, but does not give a reason for this type of calculation. I am also surprised to learn that minor subjects are not included in the GPA calculation. I also learned that the Final Thesis awards M credits, but in GPA calculations is weights ~2M credits. What bugs me at the moment is, why the University officials hide this information in all the other publicly available presentations. And their answers are not convincing to me.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> What is the clever thing to do when one finds such regulations in own University which can be used on one's own good?!?
>
>
>
I'm so glad you asked. The *clever* thing would be to realize that the best way to raise your GPA is to do excellent work in all your courses. Aside from being the optimal strategy GPA-wise, this has the fringe benefit that it is the only strategy with inherent rewards beyond the GPA game.
Look, I don't know where you're enrolled, but your university has taken a step down a dark road by playing with weighting GPA's differently than the number of credits or course hours (which is the weighting which corresponds to the actual instructional time and, ideally, to the workload of the course). You're contemplating a further step down this dark road by trying to play games with their game. It is up to them how they compute the GPA. I disapprove of their strange weighting system, but do you know what's even worse than a globally enforced strange weighting system? A student who asks for "a specific GPA calculation for myself".
Just rise above. See if you can recapture the quaint idea that your goal is to learn the course material rather than attain a certain number at the end. Or, if you feel that the world has moved on and that number that you get at the end is too important to your future to so naively dismiss, then respond by GETTING *BETTER* **GRADES**. Merc<NAME>, we live in strange days.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: I'd hold off on your conspiracy theories as to why the GPA is computed the way it is. You are entitled to a grade computed in an accurate and transparent manner, but if you go into this process assuming the university is out to get you, you're going to have a bad time.
(Note that from your terminology, I think that your university system may be different from the US ones I know, so take with a grain of salt.)
Credit for classes isn't assigned at someone's personal whim. If the university does have a policy of computing the GPA based on Z/2 credits for this class, that's a decision that must have been made by some committee and approved by some administrators, and there will be a record of it. Most likely, it would be published in the university's course catalog or official regulations, so my first suggestion would be to read through those carefully. If it's mentioned there, then you are expected to have understood and agreed to it, and that's the end of it. (If the policy was put in place after you entered the university, you may have the right to have the previous policy applied, but it doesn't sound like that is the case here.)
If you don't find it, it's reasonable to ask someone if they can show you where the policy is documented. (If you have an advisor or someone else assigned to advise you about which courses to take and your progress in the program, they may be helpful too.)
If you still don't get a good answer (probably unlikely), you could talk to more people (e.g. a department chair). Note that if you were told about it in advance, even informally, you'll probably be considered to have understood and agreed, and the best you can hope for is to get it more clearly documented for future students.
Throughout the process, I recommend keeping the tone of "I'm confused by the system and am trying to understand it better" rather than "you've cheated me out of my rightful grade". And always keep track of what you actually hope to gain and whether your efforts are worth it - if you lock yourself in an epic battle with the university just over "the principle of the thing", it's not going to have good results for your academic career, your relationship with your professors and peers, or your own sanity.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think the answer to this depends if you are an undergraduate or graduate student. If you are a PhD student (and possible a Master's student) your reputation with your future colleagues is much more important than you final GPA and I would suggest you just go with the flow. As an undergraduate student (and possible a Master's student) your GPA is really important and assuming the recalculated GPA is noticeably better, it is worth the fight.
For example, my UK department calculates an unofficial GPA that is then used to determine the degree classification (first, upper second, lower second, ...). The formula we use gives zero weight to first year marks, single weight to second year marks, and double weight to final year marks (it is a 3 year program). If the resulting degree classification were to improve by using a uniform weighting (either of all 3 years or just the final 2 years) and the student filed a formal complaint with the University, it would not surprise me if the University would not cave and change the degree classification. In fact, this year the University demanded that we change our policy and look at students who are one percentage point below the degree classification cutoff boundary and see if they would have done better with a uniform weighting.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: If your university uses a method to calculate GPA that is transparent, publicly documented, and reproducible; you will have to live with it (or transfer to another school). If GPA calculations are opaque and at the whim of some school official, that's cause for legal action (being patently unfair). Your first task is to find out which camp your GPA calculation falls into. It may seem to be a stupid formula, but if it's evenly and fairly applied (and anyone can accurately calculate their own GPA), what's your recourse?
As for "that is the case, but we don't know why", that is an unacceptable answer from the **school**. *Someone* should be able to officially tell you the reasoning behind it. It's possible that it dates back to a cheating scandal 200 years ago, or that they don't want to change it so that they can compare GPAs from year to year, but somewhere there must be a clear reason behind it. Go through the proper channels before raising a public stink about it, and don't be confrontational about it. There may be a perfectly good reason (in their minds, anyway), for calculating your GPA that way, but it should be publicly known.
The school *does* owe you an explanation for exactly how (and why) your GPA is calculated. They *don't* owe you a change in the calculations to match your expectations, or even to match "industry standards".
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: If the University understands the issue and does not want to change, one solution might involve listing both GPAs (e.g., on a CV). I think this might be OK as long as this is completely transparent and you (a) include your official GPA (b) make it clear that your recomputed GPA is not your official GPA and (c) that you explain how both are computed and why you have two. This might be hard to do concisely but you might say:
>
> 3.9 [Official GPA] / 3.95 [Self-computed GPA: Sum(Grade \* Credits)/Credits]
>
>
>
That said, doing this seems likely to be a distraction and pointing out two different GPAs is likely raise some red flags. If you're doing good work, how we choose to count really shouldn't matter. And if how we count *does matter*, you can't be doing *that* well. The other answers make this point very well and I won't try to reiterate it here.
You mention that this class is mandatory and most mandatory classes are taken early on. Is that the case here? Some graduate schools do not consider grades in the first year or two and most give much more weight to later years. username_3's comment makes it clear that some schools even try to incorporate this into the official GPA calculation itself!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: You say:
>
> After digging through some documentation, I found an examinations regulations document which states clearly how the GPA is calculated
>
>
>
Since the GPA calculation is defined in regulation, the only way to have your GPA calculated differently from regulation is to have the regulation changed, and then applied retroactively.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/15 | 1,681 | 7,182 | <issue_start>username_0: I have got an article the making, and presented it to my PhD advisor one month ago. The article emerged from my master thesis at a different university.
A week ago, he told me the draft is good, albeit difficult to understand, but he remarked that it contained too many new ideas to be published at once. The problem is that no journal will be able to find a reviewer. Furthermore, I am just some unknown PhD student to them, so there won't be a "rubber-stamp" for me.
The draft contributes to an active mathematical research area which leads previously unrelated topics together - in particular, very different mathematical communities. My draft contributes by another bridge between communities. I am convinced that people will find the result noteworthy and interesting, but I also agree that the combination demands (basic) knowledge from many different mathematical areas.
It is a disturbing but possibly realistic perspective that researchers keep the same old soup at low temperature on the cooker. But isn't that too pessimistic? There are so many mini results published, why should I cut down on at least trying?
**Are the concerns of my advisor well-founded in practices of the mathematical community?**<issue_comment>username_1: No, in my opinion as a (midcareer verging on senior) mathematician, there is no such thing as "too many new ideas to be published at once". This is a curious reaction.
Whenever a student asks a "My advisor said....[something strange]" question here (or elsewhere), I have to wonder how deeply to engage in the possibility that the student somehow misunderstood the advisor. Unfortunately misunderstandings between students and advisors are amazingly common...even when both parties are "good people" in every sense of the word. More than a decade after graduating, I still remember spending several weeks of hard work on certain things my advisor asked me to do. When at last I would go back explaining how hopeless it seemed, it most often turned out that there was some miscommunication: I didn't work on the problem that he had intended, or I hadn't read the right paper. [I remember wading through Katz's *Rigid Local Systems* because of a suggestion made by my postdoctoral supervisor. Being a postdoc I was more savvy than a PhD student, so I probably spent at most a week before I went back to say "Really? This is relevant to what I'm doing??" only to learn that, no, that was not the book of Katz he was talking about. Still, I'd like to have that week back...]
I would encourage you to consider the comment "the draft is good, albeit difficult to understand". I'm guessing that is meant to be independent information from the remark that your paper contains "too many new ideas". Some key questions:
* Was the draft *prohibitively* difficult for your advisor to understand? People [students, advisors, referees...] say that writing is hard to understand in two very different circumstances: they may literally be criticizing the writing style. But it is also quite likely that they are trying to say -- in a way which saves face for them and for you, but is in fact rather unhelpful because of that -- that they gave up before they could tell whether your arguments were correct, and they would only be willing to put more time into a better-written draft. You deserve to know whether your advisor vouches for your work.
Related:
* Does your advisor have the expertise in the disparate areas you are pulling together? If not, he is really not the right person to be asking about this. People sometimes seem to think (or more likely, to hope) that if they have a paper on "number theory" then I will understand it, and that if the paper references some work or lecture notes of mine then I will *really* understand it. No way. I often receive papers to referee which are about several things at once, one of which is part of my expertise but one or more isn't. I like to learn new things, so I'll stretch to a certain point, but beyond that I just decline to referee the paper on the grounds that I'm not qualified. If I can, I direct the editor to someone who is qualified; if I can't, I apologize for not doing that, but in no case do I intimate that *no one is qualified* to referee the paper. How could I know that?!?
The idea that your paper is simply too ambitious is really a poor one. At most it means it is too ambitious for your *local* mathematical community, and if you hear that as a reaction to your work which is otherwise said to be "good", it's a sign that you need to find a larger pond.
>
> I am convinced that people will find the result noteworthy and interesting, but I also agree that the combination demands (basic) knowledge from many different mathematical areas.
>
>
>
Then you should find people who feel that the result is noteworthy and interesting, ideally those who understand all of it, but even those who understand some of it and can be supportive could be helpful. If you think your paper is correct and reasonably (even if not perfectly) well-written, why not submit it to the arxiv? If your paper draws together several different things, then try showing it -- via emails, for instance -- to people wom you know to be experts in at least one of those things. They can tell you whether they are qualified to understand the entire paper, and if not they can (perhaps) tell you who is.
>
> It is a disturbing but possibly realistic perspective that researchers keep the same old soup at low temperature on the cooker. But isn't that too pessimistic? There are so many mini results published, why should I cut down on at least trying?
>
>
>
Yes, that is too pessimistic. If you've done something valuable and technically difficult, it will be publishable. The level of technical difficulty may make the reviewing process more lengthy (it should; you are aware that *you don't want rubber stamp reviews of your math papers*, right?). On the other hand, in mathematics "technical difficulty" can be a selling point: if you have done something that is broadly valuable but that few people (or no one but you) would have had the acumen to pull off, then you have done something very impressive and valuable indeed.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As a mathematician who works squarely in between fields, there are some challenges which can make getting such papers accepted more difficult. However, all that means is that you have to work a little harder at writing clearly and accessibly. Think hard about who is going to read the paper and give them what they need to understand the paper.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: As an editor, I once got a submission that combined two very distant areas of mathematics. That was no problem; I just sent it to two referees, one in each area, asked each one to referee the part in his area, and assured each one that I had another referee checking the rest of the paper. Of course, once both referees reported that their part of the paper is good, I still had to make sure that the parts fit together properly, but that was easy enough for me to do by myself.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/16 | 561 | 2,542 | <issue_start>username_0: If, in a certain international journal where I have submitted, the journal webpage lists the editorial board, should I expect that the possible reviewers of my paper are selected from among the members of this board?
Or is it possible that the Editor in Chief may choose an "outsider" to review my submission?
I didn't indicate any preferred reviewers in submission.<issue_comment>username_1: Generally, when a paper is submitted to a journal it is first assigned an editor. The editor then identifies a qualified *outside* reviewer for that particular manuscript, and invites him/her to review the paper.
So the answer is: No, you should not expect that the possible reviewers of a paper are selected from among the members of the editorial board.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The purpose of peer review is to obtain constructive evaluation of the submitted manuscript from peers who are experts in the field free from conflicts of interest relative to the manuscript and author(s). Hence it is essentially irrelevant if the reviewer is one of the editors. That said, it is very unlikely that an editor ends up reviewing a paper for two reasons. If the editor is an expert, it is far more likely he will be the editor for the manuscript. An editor, with, probably, much work to to do with other manuscripts, is also less inclined to take n review work unless the manuscript is of particular interest. So chances are quite small.
In the journal I edit, I know editors have accepted reviewing the topic. In these cases, the topic has been such that it has been given to another editor who have identified the other editor as a potentially valuable reviewer. Commenting on your comment: I would expect editors to be more punctual with reviews than "normal" reviewers but there is no rule without the occasional exception.
A final comment. I do of course not know how the journal you have submitted to works. But, a normal case is for a Chief Editor to pass on the task of assigning and evaluating reviews to an Editorial Board or Associate Editors (as is the name for them in "my" journal). I think the case of a Chief Editor doing all that work is very unlikely because of all the work involved so it seems far more likely that it is one of the editorial board who is handling the review process. The Chief Editor may be involved in screening submissions and putting a final stamp of approval to the final manuscript as well as handling all the work *visavi* the publisher.
Upvotes: 4 |
2014/07/16 | 2,243 | 9,983 | <issue_start>username_0: I recently finished my final year of a Bachelor of Science degree in Web Development at university in the UK. As 3/8ths of the final year credit, I was required to create a Final Year Project, including ~40k word report and a software artefact, guided by a university tutor. At my graduation ceremony my tutor approached me to say he (and another advisor) are looking at getting it published.
This obviously sounds like great news, but as someone with no experience of advanced academia stuff I have no idea what this actually entails. Will this look good on my CV? Is it a frequent occurrence? When they say publish, who exactly will want to read 40k words about my final year project?
While I am proud of what I produced, I'm not entirely sure it is something I will want to brag about in the future as my skills develop.<issue_comment>username_1: Publishing your work means sharing your contribution or discovery with the larger community; if your advisor or tutor thinks that your work is publishable, they must have seen something in your work that they think is worth sharing. This could be a new algorithm you've discovered, a new technique you've described particularly well, or a collection of lessons learned that might be valuable to another person. It could also be customary for your program to publish final projects in a school journal or archive; in this case, it's less about the contribution and more the fact that you completed the program of study.
Typically, the journal or conference (or other publication) you wish to submit to has guidelines that you must follow: page limits, formatting, required sections, etc. As a result, you may be required to reformat your paper in order for it to be accepted. The flip side is it certainly doesn't look bad on a CV or resume, and can make a positive difference depending on your career goals. It shows you can document your thoughts, processes, and results effectively, which is what employers and grad school admission officials want to see.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I will talk about publishing as an undergraduate in a general sense. This may change depending on your field of study, where and how the work is published(journal, conference, workshop, etc) and what your level of contribution to the end product will be.
Let's start with the easy question. "Is this good for my career?" I don't know of many fields where having published work, perhaps especially as an undergraduate, is a detriment. As an undergraduate with two publications as first name (in my field the student/person who contributed the most / drove the ground level work is first name, the professor is last name and the names in the middle can range from "was vital to the success of the paper" to "they pushed a button a couple of times") and several acknowledgements having those papers gave me a definite leg up against my peers when it came time to search for jobs. Having publications under your name can be invaluable if you choose to apply to grad school but companies are often very interested to see what high-level, field-acknowledged work you have completed. It definitely makes you stand out in a crowd.
It may seem like nothing but puppies and rainbows but there's a darker side as well. Academic publishing is a lot of work. Depending on your level of contribution this can mean weeks of brutal work rerunning experiments, tweaking inputs/outputs, editing and documenting. Most of the people I know, their first paper was a brutal experience because Academic writing is unlike any other writing you have done and there can be a steep learning curve in both the technique and the tools. So, unless you have a burning desire for a publication for publication's sake, the deciding factors for you should be:
1. What is my expected contribution?
2. How and where will I be credited?
3. What are my obligations if the publication is accepted?
Let's break these down.
**What is my expected contribution?**
In my field a couple of professors coming up to you after the fact and saying "We are looking to get this published" is a bit weird. I'm assuming that these professors were in some way involved in the work as mentors or that this an extension of their work. It is unlikely that this work is fit to be published in its current state. That's not meant as a slam towards your work, rather it's a response to the specifics of publication. Academic publication is often fairly stringent in style and method. It is likely that parts of your work will need to be tweaked or polished for publication(this really depends on your field to be honest) and, in some cases, completely redone. It is **very** important for you to demand, in a nice way of course, a roadmap for what needs to be done to get this work published and what you will be expected to do. At that time you should also try to find out how much of the final publication will be your work vs work from others/the group at large. If you have graduated and are starting a new job or heading off to grad school you may have other demands on your time. Writing an academic publication, especially your first academic publication, can be a serious time sink. This will play into the next part...
**How and where will I be credited?**
Is your work going to be placed, whole cloth, into a template and submitted? Then you should expect to be first author(or your field's equivalent) and be given an appropriately large share of the credit. Is your work going to be used as a subsubsection, comprising all of 2 lines in the final publication? Then the credit to you should be, appropriately, smaller. But that's simplifying things a bit - author order and credit/acknowledgements should be explicitly discussed early in the process. Get it out on the table and nail it down because differences in expectations can definitely damage professional relationships which, to be honest, is probably the most valuable thing you will get out of this. Things like original contribution level, publication writing/editing contribution level, and time/effort commitment to the project should be taken into consideration. Additionally consider your future plans - are you planning on publishing again? Are you looking at going to grad school? Depending on the answers to these questions you may find that the most valuable things you get out of publishing are the experience of publishing and the strong network connections you forge with your coauthors.
**What are my obligations if the publication is accepted?**
This is the final piece of the puzzle. If your publication is a conference or workshop piece then someone will have to present at the conference/workshop. It should, ideally, be one of the primary contributors. If that person is you, will you be able to attend? Who will pay for travel and fees? Even beyond traveling for conferences/workshops - Who will pay for submission fees? Recently one of my papers was 3 pages over the limit (the conference accepted longer papers at a fee for each additional page up to 5 additional pages). This cost almost $400 (on top of the original submission fees). If this occurs who will pay? If the publication is accepted what does that mean about your ownership of the results of your work? If additional work is done on the project how will it be funded? It is likely that your professor(s) or your institutions has grants for all of this. But you need to find out before you agree to anything. Finally, the question a lot more people should ask, what happens if the publication isn't accepted? Will you be involved in making changes and attempting a different venue? How will the group handle revisions (which, with finished work, can be brutal as you're coming back to the submitted work several months after it was submitted and making changes)?
All of this might seem like a bunch more questions to ask than answers but, really, that's the point. There are plenty who will disagree with me but, in my experience, the research was the easy part. Publishing is the hard, nasty, and occasionally obnoxious part(though it is pretty awesome too). In order to make the publishing part easier you need to have a clear plan for how you will turn this work into a publication and what everyone's expectations are.
I both love and hate my publications. As an undergraduate they gave me a definite edge over my peers in both grad school applications and the job market. I ended up with some very strong connections in my academic community that I can still leverage today. I am still involved as a researcher in my lab. On the flip side my first paper was a special kind of hell. It was two straight weeks of 20 hour days as we pushed to turn finished work into a publication before the deadline. I didn't sleep at all for the last 3 days of the push. My second paper was still brutal, but overall much better as I had passed the worst of the learning curve. I actually got some sleep leading up to that one. I'm incredibly proud of my work but, to be honest, doing those publications pushed me away from graduate school. They were a valuable experience in the world of academic publishing which, it turns out, is not something I enjoy enough to make it my career.
**TL;DR:** Make a list of questions, email/meet with your advisors/mentors, and flesh out the answers to those questions. If they're largely satisfactory - go for it!
**EDIT** Given your additional information. Unless they mean publish it on webspace they(or the university) controls OR as a book there is almost no way I can see a 40k word transcript being published as is. My rough estimates put that to be about 100 - 120 pages. I've not seen more than a handful of published papers (etc) over 20 pages long and most are under 10. This may mean they want to publish a portion of it or an heavily edited version of it. This adds a new question for you to ask, what do they mean by 'publishing'?
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer] |
2014/07/16 | 515 | 2,408 | <issue_start>username_0: There is a paper I want to cite where, on the title page of the article, the authors names appear without any middle initials (i.e., one of the authors is <NAME>). However, this one author frequently publishes using his middle initials (i.e., <NAME>). What is the appropriate way to cite this-with the name as it appears in the article, or the name as the author typically uses it? For what it's worth, the source article appear in a mathematical journal, and I want to cite it in a paper that will eventually appear in a mathematical journal.<issue_comment>username_1: You need to cite articles the way the name is expressed in each article. The purpose of the reference if for others to be able to locate the source you have used and so making the reference accurate is essential. It may seem like nit-picking since most of the reference will be correct except for one initial but it is better to simply follow the the generic rule to follow the article in all details than to modify it. One instance where this may matter is when article references are listed in, for example, Web of Science. There an article may end up as two entries if there is a difference in the way it is referenced. I have seen and personally have articles that have multiple entries because of this and because people wrote the wrong year, volume etc. Still, the importance lies in being able to trace your sources and being correct makes that easier.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You should use the exact information which is provided on the published paper, not the real or current information of the author; even if his name or affiliation1 is change at the present time.
Moreover, the correct way of citation of each paper is provided in the webpage of its publisher and you can check how they have mentioned the author's name in the citation example (you may also download the bibtex or other outputs to be used in citation manager softwares). At least, by checking the publisher website, you will be sure how they prefer their published paper to be cited (even if other possibilities/doubts for correct citation exists).
1I know that affiliation is not mentioned in citation, but if somebody wants the affiliation of the author at the time of publishing the paper, the best source is the information written on the paper and is provided in its publisher's website.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/17 | 1,085 | 4,672 | <issue_start>username_0: I've been talking to one of my professors at a Master's program about enrolling in an independent study course under his supervision.
(An independent study course is a course in which a student engages in guided study on some topic under the direction of a faculty member. Students formally enroll in such a course as part of a degree program, just as they would for a traditional course, and it appears in the students' transcripts, academic records, etc.)
However, it's not clear to me whether independent study courses work the same way as regular courses with respect to tuition and credit accounting:
**Tuition**: Am I expected to still pay tuition for independent studies?
**Credits**: With traditional courses, there's typically some quantitative relationship between the number of credits a course is "worth" and the contact hours it involves. For example, a 4-credit course involves a certain amount of class time.
With independent study courses, where there are no fixed contact hours, is it common for institutions to have some expectation of how much time a student is supposed to spend on the course, per credit hour? For instance, that a 1-credit course expects about N hours a week from the student.<issue_comment>username_1: Since you ask about 1 or 2-credits, I'm assuming you're talking about doing an independent study ***course*** with the professor and not creating your own independent study ***track***.
Independent studies (also called independent readings, directed research, tutorials, etc.) are essentially micro-classes of one or two students. You come up with your own reading lists, discussion topics, or projects -- subject to the approval of the professor. Whether to list it as 1 or 2 credit hours (or in my university 3 or 4 credit hours) is up to you. In general, you should plan on spending as much (or more) time in your independent study as you would with any other class.
From the registrar's perspective, it's just another class that you are taking. If you pay a flat fee for up to 5 classes a semester, then it can be one of those 5 classes. If you pay a fee for each credit-hour, then it would count as one of those paid credit hours.
I do independent readings with the undergraduate seniors, master's students, and PhD students when they come to me with topics that are of interest to me, but aren't in the regular course catalog. Since **faculty do not get paid to teach independent study courses** (we don't get any more money for doing this, nor do we get course releases for it), we're essentially do them out of the good of our hearts or because the topic is particularly of interest to us and/or we'd like the interaction with advanced students.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Although there are several differences between a traditional course and an independent study course, for tuition and credit accounting, they are considered to be the same. If you receive credit for the course, you will also be expected to pay tuition for the course.
In my experience as a student who did an independent study (as an undergrad, it may be different in higher level courses), I designed the course and decided on the number of credit hours based on the amount of time I expected to spend on it. For example, a 1-credit course is expected to meet for one hour per week, plus 2-4 hours of homework/study out of class, for a total of approximately 4 hours per week. A student is therefore expected to put in approximately 12 hours per week for a 3-credit course. Tuition is then based in the credit hours that the student and instructor together have assigned to the independent study course.
>
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> >
> > With independent study courses, where there are no fixed contact hours, is it common for institutions to have some expectation of how much time a student is supposed to spend on the course, per credit hour? For instance, that a 1-credit course expects about N hours a week from the student.
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> >
> >
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Yes, as I indicated above, there are usually some expectations as to how much time you are expected to put in to earn a certain number of credit hours. However, as we all know, not all students *need* to put in the 2-4 hours of out-of-class study time to learn the same amount of material. In an independent study, this is also true. If a student in motivated to pursue an independent study, I will expect that you are also motivated to put in the number of hours needed to achieve your objectives for the course. I will also expect that you will put in *more* hours than you might in a traditional course because of your enthusiasm and desire to learn.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/17 | 885 | 3,374 | <issue_start>username_0: For example, if a person holds not just "Dr." but "Priv.-Doz. Dr." or "Prof. Dr." should we include the full title after "*Dear ...*"?
Thank you.
P.S.
July 20, 2014 UPDATE: as some repliers correctly guessed I faced the question when I was writing an email to a German person.<issue_comment>username_1: When in doubt, use the full title. Err on the side of formality, and let them correct you if they wish.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I would address a Privatdozent simply as "Dear Dr. ..."; when (s)he becomes a professor, I'll write "Dear Prof. ..." Even in German, I wouldn't write "Lieber Priv.-Doz. Dr. ..."
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It is very, very country dependent, so if you are not familiar with the local language, you should err on the side of politeness.
That being said, I am generally using full title in the address and other pompous places, but "Dear <NAME>, " or other short form when addressing in the text. This is a place where you can safely err toward giving higher titles, no one ever refused to be called a professor. I would use "Dear Dr. " with people I am sure that they are post-docs or people with no academic affiliation (lawyers, industrial people), and use "Professor" to anyone with habilitation, formal teaching assignment etc.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: It is important indeed to address people correctly, more important that initials, one may pay much more attention to the correctness of the name and family name which that person has written in his web pages, letters and papers. Even, if you know some people who know him (e.g. colleague, students, etc.) simply ask them how it is better to call that person.
In my opinion, the best way to address a person and write his name in letters is to `copy and paste the exact thing he has written in his web page`.
If the person has included his initials in his web page such as "Dr.", "Priv.-Doz. Dr." or "Prof. Dr." then it seems that those initials are important for him and should be included; if there is no sign of those initials; then it is better just to use Dr. or Professor.
If you use something and he feels it should be corrected, then he will use the correct form of his name in his reply email. After that, use his preferred way to write his name.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: As your question is referring to a "Priv.-Doz. Dr." I guess you want to address a German person. Hence, I would like to add to the already existing answers. In general, I agree that when in doubt, simply be more formal and use the full title.
However, at least in Germany you usually just use the highest title. Strictly speaking, only "Dr." is a proper academic title in Germany (i.e. Professor or Privatdozent are job titles). However, Professor is also seens as a title if addressing someone, due to the outstanding position coming with the title.
So, if someone is a "Prof. Dr. Dr. X", you just refer to him or her as "Prof. X". Titles like "Priv.-Doz." are usually not used, as these people normally also hold a doctoral degree, so you would address them as "Dr. X".
Basically it boils down to:
* If someone is a professor, you use "Prof. X"
* If someone is not a professor, but holds a doctoral degree, you use "Dr. X"
* If neither of the above applies, you use "Mr/Mrs X"
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer] |
2014/07/17 | 1,289 | 5,373 | <issue_start>username_0: Once a paper of mine has definitively been accepted for publication, I typically list it on my CV and in citations as "forthcoming". Other people seem to use "in press" for the same category, and an author once asked me to change my reference to his paper to use "in press" rather than "forthcoming". Do you feel that there's a literal difference in what's conveyed by these two terms, or some difference of connotation? I suspect it simply has to do with conventions in different disciplines.
(Personally, I'm a little bit uncomfortable with "in press", since it suggests that the publisher is at least close to the process of printing the paper. Apart from the fact that that doesn't make sense for online-only journals, I feel funny referring to a paper that I know will appear in a journal issue dated a year and a half into the future as "in press". Actually being printed is a long way off.)
(On the other hand, I suppose that "forthcoming" might be confusing to someone who doesn't know its standard meaning in academia. In theory, someone might interpret it as implying no more than "This is something that I'm planning to write, when I get around to it, and this is the journal I expect to publish in." Obviously, that's not what most academics take "forthcoming" to mean, but any thoughtful person would understand that "in press" implies that you can count on the paper being published.)
EDIT: Obviously, given some of the answers to my question, the way that I thought that nearly all academics obviously interpret "forthcoming" was not correct (assuming that there's not too much weirdness in the sample I've drawn by asking the question here).<issue_comment>username_1: I think many people would construe "in press" as meaning "has been refereed, accepted, and will definitely appear sometime", while "forthcoming" is often more vague, and may include cases where something has not yet been approved by a referee ... or even submitted... or even written.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: The major separator for manuscripts is whether or not they have been accepted for publication. This means been through peer review and revisions and accepted by the journal editors. Once a manuscript passes this step it can be assigned as *in press*. Anything before that stage is *manuscript in preparation* or *in prep.* for short. In a CV you can of course list manuscripts that have been submitted but not passed acceptance and *submitted* but this is usually not a formulation accepted as a reference in a journal. In my own CV I list manuscript as either submitted or published (which then includes in press).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I use *in press* for any accepted papers, regardless of the time-to-publication. I don't feel that indicating an article as in press implies that it will be published any time soon.
I specifically do *not* use *forthcoming* because it is ambiguous to me. I've seen people use it for everything ranging from accepted papers to future work in a conceptual phase.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I don't agree with most of the answers so far in one point: The answer depends on your field / area of research, so there is no universal truth about them.
For example in economics I have never seen *"in press"* and *"forthcoming in [journal]"* means that it is accepted. If the issue of the journal is already clear some people change it so that it looks like was already published (with a date in the future). (However, most people don't care after that point.)
The only thing where I have seen *"in press"* is when talking about a book.
So the main point (at least for me) is to clearly state by whom it is *"in press"* or where it is *"forthcoming"*, as this adds credibility to your claim that it will be published.
However, from your question it is clear that both are common in your area of research and therefore I would just stick with the most commonly used. If you add the journal / conference where it is going to be published it should be clear that it was accepted.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: These answers make clear that "forthcoming" can be misinterpreted. So be explicit. Here are things that I think will be clear, and are standard for CV's I've seen:
If it's **published**: give the publication details
If it's **accepted** but not published then say: **"accepted to [journal]"**
If it's **submitted** then say: **"under review"** or **"submitted"** If you want to emphasize the journal, you can say "under review at [journal]", but it's a judgment call whether to do this.
If it's **not submitted** yet: then say **"in preparation"** - but at least for me, if you do this you better do more to convince me that it's almost done - link to an article on arxiv, maybe. I'd advise not including these unless you have a good reason (say, it's a grant application and you want to prove you've been working with the other people on the grant --- then include a link to the draft.)
In any of these last three, I could argue that the paper is "forthcoming". So if I'm reading a CV that says "forthcoming", I'll assume that it's forthcoming in much the way some of the papers I've been planning to get around to writing for 5 years are "forthcoming", because if it were accepted or submitted the person would have said so.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/17 | 767 | 3,140 | <issue_start>username_0: Will generally accepted papers appear in conferences proceeding without presentation? In particular my paper is accepted for [**this**](http://www.greenorbs.org/TrustCom2014) conference. In the conference web site they pointed out: "Accepted and presented papers will be included in the IEEE CPS Proceedings." In its registration page they have told:
>
> Please register your papers before 20 July 2014. It is strictly
> enforced. If we do not receive your registration by that date, your
> papers will be moved from the proceedings. Thank you very much.
>
>
>
Does this mean the registered papers definitively will be appeared in the proceeding? Unfortunately there is no contact info on the web site and they do not response emails. I could not attend the conference and I wonder should I pay regitration fee or not?<issue_comment>username_1: In general, at least for the better conferences in the computing and information science research area that I find myself working in, if your paper is **accepted** and at least one author has **registered** for the conference, then your paper will be included in the conference proceedings and available in the usual archives (ACMDL/IEEEXplore/DBLP etc.)
I have done this multiple times when I lived in different countries and could not afford to travel to a conference in a far flung location. Sometime ago, I wrote [another (very related) answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11428/the-fate-of-an-accepted-paper-not-being-presented) which might be of further help to you.
However, this may vary for the particular conference that you have a paper in.
**Added:** (to incorporate Jeff's comment)
In some conferences, an author may not even register. A colleague or otherwise could present your paper for you. Of course, this needs the permission of the organizers.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The [IEEE policy on non-presented papers](http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/organizers/handling_nonpresented_papers.html) is as follows:
>
> Authors are expected to attend the conference in person to present their papers and share their ideas.
>
>
> To encourage attendance, IEEE recommends that conferences exclude or limit the distribution of any paper that was not presented at the conference. This policy is not mandatory and only applies to conference proceedings where IEEE is the copyright holder.
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> If authors are unable to attend the conference and present their papers, they should contact the program chair as soon as possible so that substitute arrangements can be made.
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That is, it is at the conference organizer's discretion. Some IEEE conferences *do* pull a paper from the published proceedings if it isn't presented at the conference: for example, the [IEEE Signal Processing Society has the policy](http://www.signalprocessingsociety.org/about-sps/governance/policy-procedure/part-2/) that papers not presented will not be distributed on IEEEXplore.
The only way to be sure your paper will appear in the conference proceedings is to confirm with the conference organizer.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/17 | 882 | 4,012 | <issue_start>username_0: A few weeks after my work was published in a conference, I received an email from a research group from another university asking me to provide my source code. The email was very polite and explained the reasons for the request, i.e. the direction of their research. There was really no reason to deny them. However, yesterday (ca. 6 weeks after the first request), I received a similar request from another group asking for the same code to conduct research in the same field as the first group. (To clarify, I'm in CS, but both groups work in statistics) I see no reason to deny them either.
But should I explicitly state that the code was already asked for and provided to another research group? If so, should I also notify the first group?
I found myself in uncharted territory since I haven't expected anyone to be interested in that code, let alone to receive two requests. Also, this situation has potential to escalate into misunderstanding(s), if information is withheld or provided, but misinterpreted.
PS: I haven't talked yet to my adviser, as he is on vacation and I really don't intend to bother him with this matter.<issue_comment>username_1: One possible course of action could be to make the code publicly available on your website, or some public repository system, e.g. github. That gives you no control over the distribution, but provides other important things like public appreciation and (in case of github) widely recognised timestamp.
Since this is your code, you have the right to promote yourself by mentioning that it is widely used. However, it may be not a good idea to share the information about someone else's current research interests, without asking them first. Some areas can be very competitive, and it is better to be safe than sorry. You could ask your "users" if they agree to be mentioned as such.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Going off of what username_1 said. You could publish it to github or on your website and then send an email BBCing all the parties who have expressed interest. This way you can inform everyone of the new code location and hint that multiple people have asked for it without explicitly telling anyone anything.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: There is no reason to inform anyone of anything. Any (non-collaborating) researcher contacting you should reasonably expect that other researchers could ask you the same question, including requests to share code. (This is not true of collaborating researchers, from whom you may want to request permission before sharing code.)
Do note that in some research settings you may not want to share code. I would definitely consult with your advisor.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: If one choose to share code, generally one should do it with relative unselectively (ie. sharing on GitHub as others proposed, or just on your own site) or in form of collaboration.
In the first case everyone who is looking for your code and agree with some basic rules, Terms of Use, etc essentially granted to use it, and it is not your business beyond that what they use it for. It is possible to tell groups that others using this, too, but telling about others project without their explicit consent is very unethical. In my field, I know only one professor who actively introduce groups to each other who are intent to do similar research to encourage them to collaborate, but this is a very shaky field and the default is the no see, no hear, no tell.
In the second case you are collaborating with one or the other group. If they are overlapping in research, you shouldn't collaborate with both, and I think hinting that you are already working on a similar topic with someone is the ethical way. Off course, you still can give the code both of them, but without collaborating and sharing data with one side.
Disclaimer: I am not in computational science, but in computational chemistry, so there can be differences in local habits.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/17 | 2,650 | 11,225 | <issue_start>username_0: ### **TL;DR**:
*How should I blindly grade exams when I can recognize over half of the papers by the handwriting?*
**Situation:** I'm a TA for an first year physics class of approximately 50-60 students. Due to a complaint along the lines of *"the grader hates me so I failed the class"* that the department got last year, there is a proposal in the department to ensure that tests be swapped to blind grading. However, as the class assigns a fairly large amount of homework, from experience I know that I can reliably recognize more than half of the class's handwriting. The proposed system goes along the lines of having students use an ID number that they get when they take the test that isn't shown to me until I'm putting grades into the computer. The problem is that I feel that this would do very little to actually reduce bias if TAs can just recognize handwriting without a name.
Short of putting people on rotation for grading this stuff, which has its own problems, are there any better ways to implement a blind grading system to remove any handwriting bias?<issue_comment>username_1: If I understand this correctly, blind grading is a formality introduced by the University to make students' claims on the biased teachers unjustified. I would say - keep it that way and do not bother any more. You are not going to hate them and give them lower grades, are you? So, it does not really matter that you in fact can recognise the handwriting. If a student is really really bothered to keep their identity secret... well, they could try to write with the unusual hand.
Answering your question formally - to implement a real blind grading system you can swap the scripts between departments, or TAs.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: The blind grading should never allow the name of the student to be linked with the student number. Your grade sheets should be coded only by student number until the end of the semester. All written assignments, wether marked or unmarked, should be identified by number. In this way, you will have much less of a chance to learn the handwriting. You will get the odd look when a student shows you a paper to ask a question.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Others have mentioned the issue of removing hand-writing from the equation by having homework or assignments printed as opposed hand-written. so I will simply add what we commonly do in my department.
**Add a moderator to a random sample of scripts/exams.**
With a moderator, even if the grader knows the student, the grader must consider that their own marking will be checked. If Gary Grader consistently mis-grades papers (due to bias or simply weak grading skills) then Mary Moderator should catch this, at least on *some*. Those flags may indicate a need for someone to step in and talk with the grader about grading bias or other grading issues.
Now, you could make the moderating blind as well so that Mary Moderator would not know which grader she was moderating. One reason to do this is that Mary might be concerned that George will be angry at her (or take revenge, etc.) so Mary might simple say that "Yes, all of Gary's papers are graded correctly."
We don't do blind moderation but I have heard others comment that "we don't change grades because we don't want to cause problems for our colleagues" which disturbs me greatly (because the graders know this and it, in effect, nullifies the whole moderation process).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I'm not entirely sure what you mean by rotating (and the associated problems), but we use the following scheme:
* Graders have "their" questions.
* exams "rotate" between the graders until in the end each question is corrected for each exam.
+ Sometimes this is done in large batches - each grader goes to the secretary when they have time, get all or maybe half of the exams, vanishes to their office, and returns exams and marks list when done.
+ More often, all graders meet, and small batches of exams are exchanged. Here, everyone gets one question, and as soon as you are finished (or cannot easily find a new batch) you either get a new question assigned or towards the end help sort who still needs to get which question and carry those exams where they need to go. This way, the exams are quite well shuffled, so one would expect that even if a drift in the marking over the course of going over all exams occurs, this is different for each question and cancels out in the end.
There are two main ideas with this scheme:
* Even if there are example solutions and a rough list of points the professor wants to be considered, usually a bunch of minor decisions has to be made. It is easier to have consistent marks for all students if the marking for a given question is done by one grader.
* It is faster if every grader has to go into the details only for a few questions. Getting "into" a question can take considerable time, and after solving the question myself and comparing that to the example solution I tentatively write up criteria for the marking. I then grab some 10 - 20 exams and go through the question marking them but without actually giving grades and check whether my tentative point list is feasible and what other typical problems I need to add to the list. Only then the actual grading starts.
I cannot recall whether we have the students pseudonymized (by student ID) or whether we have names - typically the pressure is to get the grading done, and that means I (and about all of my colleagues but the one who transfers grades to the final result list) never look at the name. I directly go to the sheet where "my" question is (or sometimes, particularly towards the end, people who are already finished will do that for others).
* With such a scheme, the impact a single grader biased against a particular student can have is quite limited.
BTW: some of us usually "know" the students from labwork practicum (others help only with the exams and have never seen any of the students) - but that are brief encounters of large numbers of students. A student has to be either exceptionally good or exceptionally bad or behaving exceptionally in some way to be remembered by name. At least for me, while I *may* remember someone when seeing them, the connection to name or handwriting is much weaker. Of course, that is different if you encounter them again and again over the duration of the course.
---
I'd like to add some general thoughts:
* While I do see distinct advantages with the system described above which can easily be carried out in a blinded fashion, the student claim
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> My grader hates me so i failed the class
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is **not** among the good reasons. Students can look at their marked exams. They can then complain if they suspect the grading was not fair (or an error occured).
They can even ask for someone else grading their exam. If it turned out that there was a problem with the grading, this is dealt with a) for the student (or all students in the each-grader-has-their-questions scheme) and b) will have consequences for the grader.
* In my experience, students thinking that TAs not only remember them but have strong enough feelings that they end up giving biased marks to a measurable extent (in a field where a large part of the grading scheme is usually formulated in "hard" ways like calculation correct yes/no; sign error, axis label missing, units missing: each -1/2 point and so on) greatly overestimates the importance the given student has to the typical grader (PhD students or postdocs who are assigned to help grading on top of all other work they have)
* Do not forget that there is a distinct bias *against* letting students fail: failing students come again for examination and create lots of additional, but unsatisfactory (IMHO it is far more pleasant to correct a good exam than to sort out the mess of a bad exam) work.
IMHO there are some trade-offs involved. Obviousy, possible bias against students is bad and needs to be avoided. On the other hand, you have to be careful not to make otherwise bad decisions and end up unbiased, but overall worse:
* One obvious way of not having a student bias (that also removes the information-leaking of the question) is to have graders that were not otherwise involved with those students.
OTOH, people who have been TA with these students may have a far better grasp what can be expected from the students than people who have not been involved with that course (we have a fair amount of PhD students and post-docs helping with the grading that have a related but not the same background, e.g. physicists and optical engineers helping grading physical chemistry exams).
* Another obvious possible bias is that seeing what the other grader gave for their questions will influence the grader\*. This could be removed by having separate sheets for each question - at the cost that it is error prone and/or a whole lot of additional work to make really sure nothing gets lost, nor mixed up.
* Already having only student ID or other pseudonyms in practice means that some easy way of error checking is removed: it is much easier to mix up the grades between students when transfering to the grade list when the list consists of longish ID numbers instead of names.
Obviously there should not be any errors, but such errors do occur. And at some point the question should be asked whether the removed alleged bias is worth that less time can be spent on actually teaching the students because it is spent on double checking anonymized lists and correcting errors that occured.
\* (But for our exams it is rather typical that students perform very differently in different subfields: one is at home with thermodynamics but doesn't get kinetics and vice versa)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: To help "save me from myself," from the first moment I was allowed to implement partial credit (after escaping my *alma mater*'s absolute insistence on all-or-nothing grading), I began crafting incredibly, at times *ludicrously* detailed rubrics (down to the half-point, even for the many questions on a 100-point exam) detailing every conceivable level (and timeline) of errors that a student could make (or at least, that I could *anticipate* them making), and I make myself stick to it. Even if the student has annoyed me with his in-class noisy chattiness--even if he has already been caught in an academic misconduct net earlier in our acquaintance--it forces me to treat him the same as every other student. If it's a 3-point mistake for someone else, it's a 3-point mistake for him, too.
(Sidebar, Your Honor: Sorry, fellas, for the gender bias there, but after a single XX to start the Sad Roll of Dishonor, it's been an unbroken streak of about 76 in a row for the XY's.)
I also grade each exam one page at a time, to help break up the exams and make the handwriting-recognition neurons fire less often. That also has the fringe benefit of keeping me from turning any concerns that might be forming about trends in the grades so far (since I don't know the overall results yet) into an inappropriate shifting of the standards bar halfway through.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/17 | 746 | 3,103 | <issue_start>username_0: Is there a simple line of questioning which gives an up front indicator as to a persons ability to do research?
[FizzBuzz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fizz_buzz) is an interview question which is used to determine whether an applicant knows how to program. It is a simple problem, with a simple solution which can seperate those who can, from those who can't.
Are there common equivalent questions for gauging someones ability to do research?
(Granted, there are a wider variety of perspectives of what research is, especially across disciplines so it is unlikely there is as clean-cut an answer to this question.)<issue_comment>username_1: As I've said in [another answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/17700/11365), the best predictor of success in research is... success in research.
The interview question for gauging someone's ability to do research is therefore:
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> "Tell me about your research."
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Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: No, there is no useful research analog of FizzBuzz.
FizzBuzz is a rather limited test of programming ability. An incompetent candidate may fail at it, but passing this test in no way qualifies someone to work as a programmer. Some programming jobs attract lots of incompetent applicants, and it's worth filtering them out, but FizzBuzz is just a small step in that direction. The only reason we've heard of it is because it makes a great story when someone applies for a job but can't pass the simplest test.
For faculty hiring, there's no need for such a crude filter. The number of highly qualified candidates is much greater than the number of openings, and filtering out the incompetent is not a big deal. (If you spend a lot of time worrying about whether your candidates are incompetent, then something has gone catastrophically wrong with the search process.) Instead, the hard part is deciding who the very best candidates are, and FizzBuzz-style questions won't help with that.
For graduate student admissions, competence testing is more relevant. However, there's a fundamental difference from hiring a programmer. In that case, you are looking for someone who already has programming experience, and FizzBuzz helps filter out people who are bluffing about how experienced they are. Someone who fails could still learn to be a fine programmer, but you don't care since you're looking for someone who already knows how. On the other hand, most applicants to graduate school have only limited experience with research, and that's OK. You're looking for potential, rather than experience, and that's trickier to evaluate. I'm skeptical that any simple, clear-cut test can reliably predict research potential.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: As an interview question, I like this one:
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> "What's the most interesting discovery you have made in your research?"
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Answers to this question can show what the researcher thinks is particularly interesting about their work, exposing some of their character.
It can also be useful to hear what they consider to be a "discovery".
Upvotes: -1 |
2014/07/17 | 2,928 | 11,376 | <issue_start>username_0: I was watching [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLlA1w4OZWQ) video on YouTube ([this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcIUhHWsqlE&feature=youtu.be) is the second part of it) and it motivated me to ask this question.
**From the videos:**
>
> *....that's the good aspect of peer review. It should work to sift out problems with the interpretation, problems with the results. It should work to improve a paper. The problem is ..... there is a huge volume of stuff and we are increasingly getting swamped. .... here is one of the worst examples of where peer review has entirely failed. ....*
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The examples he talks about is discussed in this [blog post](http://blog.chembark.com/2013/08/14/some-very-suspicious-tem-images-in-nano-letters/).
When you zoom in, you can clearly see that it is photo-shopped.
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> ...this is one of the top ranking journals in the fields...
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> *Now here is the really troublesome aspect... if they had done it better
> (you can see a much better photo-shopped image in the blog), how would we know. Not only is money spent in that lab, other groups would chase this up and that's the worrying aspect and it builds and builds. Science is like that.*
>
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> *In the past if the referees didn't pick it up, that was the end of the story. We now have something called the post publication peer review. There are sites ( [PubPeer](https://pubpeer.com/)) and there are blogs ([ChemBark](http://blog.chembark.com/), [Chemistry Blog](http://www.chemistry-blog.com/)) where people upload paper and say well this looks like a great paper or in many cases they go "there is something I don't quite get here" and that leads to lots of comments from people in the field and I think this is where we are evolving to... away from the traditional peer review system. The publication is seen to be the start of the scientific process and not the end, where you generate debate.*
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**My questions:**
Are there other such examples in physics? Can you point me towards a blog/site or something of the sort that goes through these things?
Are there any blogs, articles or essays that discuss problems surrounding the peer-review process (in relation to physics). How it can improved, where alternative methods like post-publication review are discussed ? I know [ChemBark](http://blog.chembark.com/) for chemistry, I am looking for it's "equivalent" in physics.<issue_comment>username_1: I would like to slightly disagree with the username_2's answer regarding the possible *methods* of scientific misconduct in physics.
Unfortunately, in more theoretical parts of physics some people can manage to pretend that some complete and utter nonsense represents a new result well enough to fool the referees and editors and thus beat the peer review system.
A prominent example of this (to our luck, very rare, at least AFAIK) phenomenon is [**the Bogdanov affair**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdanov_affair), see also e.g. [the web page by <NAME> on this](http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/bogdanoff/) and the [Nature article](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v420/n6911/full/420005a.html) on the ensuing scandal; a sample of the works involved is available through [this Google Scholar query](http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=inauthor%3AG-Bogdanoff&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=1997&as_yhi=2003). The Bogdanov (a.k.a. Bogdanoff) brothers got their Ph.D.s using the papers in question, one in physics and one in mathematics, and in early 2000s have published a number of strange -- to put it *very* mildly -- papers in a number of reputed physics journals, including Classical and Quantum Gravity and Annals of Physics (and e.g. the Annals of Physics paper is [still there](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003491601962128) -- it is not withdrawn until today). The papers were not just wrong -- they turned out to be downright gibberish.
In the light of the Bogdanov affair it is not a big surprise that sometimes peer review also fails to detect even a really large-scale plagiarism, as in the infamous case of more than 60 works by a group of Turkish physicists who plagiarized earlier work, see e.g. [the Nature article](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7158/full/449008b.html) and [this post](http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=638) at <NAME>'s blog for details.
Unlike the <NAME> case, AFAIK the papers by Bogdanov brothers did not involve experimental data or predict outcomes of reasonably doable experiments, so their case is pretty much a *pure* **peer review failure** at the level of the referees and editors (and of course a failure of their thesis advisors too).
IMHO, the Bogdanov affair shows that the argument regarding *going to production* and *post-publication review* from the username_2's answer does not seem to work well in the more theoretical parts of physics, especially when the authors make no readily verifiable experimental predictions.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The methods of scientific misconduct in physics are not different from what you see on chembark (photoshopping, data creation and so on). This years nobel prize in chemisty went to a physicist as it happened often. The methodogical overlap is huge, mostly the topical focus is different, collaboration is frequent as interdiffusion of scholars between both branches. Also physics is such a broad field that the role of peer-review in different subfields has different importance.
<NAME> was an exceptional case, from which one can deduce the differences in revealing scientific misconduct and the role of peer review in physics vs. other scientific branches.
**There are not much cases like <NAME> in physics, as we have a very strong post-publication review system in physics/chemistry many scientific branches lack: the industry and the mathematical and experimental interdependence and overlap of most theories in neighboring subfields**. It's stronger than the peer-rewiew system at the journal level and one of the reasons why physics is called a "hard science". This is really the crucial difference to other scientific branches and the reason why you will not find much important scientific misconduct by physicists in top journals. Hiring of top researchers by industry and patents are a strong incentive to avoid scientific misconduct. **And top research in physics is correct, reproducable and valuable research, in branches like psychology or philosophy you really have problems to identify and judge good research by clear criterions.** This is due to the nature of the topics. <NAME> research career was finished, he will never do fundamental research again or wright a paper. He probably knew that is was just a matter of time considering the importance of his results that someone in academia or industry would reveal his misconduct, probably career obsessed and blind.
The case of Schön started in the physics community an open-ended discussion wether peer-review at the level of the journal is the place to detect such cases, there were not much widespread cases like this before (I can't remember). From the discussions I had it seems most physicists agreed that not peer review at the journal level was the problem in this case, but lack of review of his collaborators before submission. Unfortunately in the aftermath he was the only one sentenced and losing his PhD 2013. Take a look how much [co-authors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6n_scandal#Withdrawn_journal_papers) he had on most papers. Schön's other collaborators were cleared of all wrongdoing by an committee appointed by Bell Labs. They are nowadays professors at ETH Zürich and Stanford. They could not identify the fraudulent data or would have to invest to much effort?
**To this it boils down, how much effort do you have to invest in peer review and what is the status quo of trust and mistrust in your subfield?** Is mistrust prevailing? [For some branches](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/12520/can-up-to-70-of-scientific-studies-not-be-reproduced) the status quo is problematic. In physics we can tolerate such a case of imperfect peer review at the journal level from time to time due to much stronger other inherent mechanisms other scientific branches lack. The subfield of priming in psychology for instance had to [undergo rather exceptional processes to regain credibility](http://www.nature.com/news/psychologists-strike-a-blow-for-reproducibility-1.14232) and will have to do so on.
Of course, also other branches develop technological relevant ideas, prototypes, patents and are funded by industry, **but the crucial point is that often published results in physics journals turn into an product within a decade. This time scale is important, as it has strong implications on the quality of work of experimental physicists as the case of <NAME> has shown.** In other scientific branches, e.g. psychology, you nearly never have to fear this kind of very strong post-publication review (where experimentalists in industry and academia will try to analyze and rebuild your experiment bit by bit, much stronger than any review by an editor or collaborators) or discovery-idea-patent-product will last several decades (e.g. drug development in medicine), so nearly as long as the career of most scholars and some decide to take this risk. **In physics/chemistry, for widely studied and interesting research topics, your chance is zero, misconduct in the long term (which means 10, max. 20 years) is scientific kamikaze.**
Please don't interpret my words as an underestimation of peer-review done at the journal level (in non-industry relevant fields it is the most important level), I'm a strong advocate of open access and open data and in my opinion the best hindrance of scientific misconduct would be if search engines like google scholar would directly link comments on arxiv to specific papers in the search results. If a bunch of co-authors decide to falsify data professionally (not like a school kid in the picture above), then only other research groups trying to reproduce this results can reveal the misconduct, post-publication review. In physics this will happen for sure. On retractionwatch you can read stories about journals that are not inclined to publish comments of other authors proving the bad quality of their peer-review. In physics comments have always been a vital part for public discussion of competing theoretical models and experimental data. But nowadays the publishers rely more on a more profit oriented model than decades ago. So central uncensored websites like pubpeer are really necessary from my point of view seeing a rise of plagiarism and misconduct, although their importance may vary strongly from branch to branch. Physics, in my opinion, is not in trouble, actually the time scale described above has become even shorter since the rise of the internet due to better and faster access to software, data and knowledge. Unfortunately in humanities the phenomenon of "copy, shake, paste" vice versa [seems to have risen.](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1206/how-many-people-read-an-individual-journal-article/1224#1224)
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer] |
2014/07/17 | 457 | 2,029 | <issue_start>username_0: I would be happy to have a short comment by somebody on following simple situation: I submitted my paper in beginning of January. In the end or January the status changed from the administration (Editor) to "under review". After that, this has not changed, it is still "under review". Is this normal. My field is history.
The journal doesn't indicate the review-times in the pages, but from the same publishing house's pages I have seen other journals of the same field and noted that the time may vary from 3-4 months up to one year.
I have decided that I will patiently wait, but I am starting to feel insecure about if they have forgotten to push the status-button. So, it would be nice just to know, does this sounds normal? Another article a couple of years ago in another journal didn't take that long.<issue_comment>username_1: The time frame you mention is within what can be encountered. The time frames also differ wide between disciplines but also from journal to journal so one way to check how reasonable it is will be to check the journal for how long it has taken other papers to go through to acceptance. Many journals state this for each article and hopefully your journal does so as well. If no such information is stated you can try and ask a senior colleague who may have a perspective on the journals and their turn-over times.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Depending upon your field, it may be acceptable to write a short note to the journal requesting an update on the status of the article. So long as you are respectful in asking, there will not be any harm in doing so.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Since the time-frames for review in other journals under the same publisher vary anywhere between 3-4 months to a year, I think you can consider the time-frame normal in your case. However, I think it should be fine to write a polite email to the journal editor asking him/her to update you about the current status of your paper.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/18 | 576 | 2,224 | <issue_start>username_0: I am fairly certain academic papers do not use apostrophe " ' " for contraction, like "won't", but what is the academic way (in engineering) to do this. For example, " A humans walk cycle " , it is the walk cycle belonging to the human, so " A humans' walk cycle " seems appropriate. However, I rarely see apostrophes used in academia, so should it be " The walk cycle of a human " instead?
I realize this is a bit of an english stack exchange, however, my question is the academic convention, not what is right or wrong in grammar.<issue_comment>username_1: There is no academia-specific convention to avoid the use of apostrophes to form possessive nouns. Follow the usual rules of correct grammar and good style.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I agree with username_1 answer of there are *'no academia-specific convention to avoid the use of apostrophes to form possessive nouns.'*
However some universities now have developed guides in relation to grammar that can be referred to. It may also be worth while checking if your college has an academic writing centre(AWC) that runs workshops on writing skills. I know in my own university there is an AWC but also when at undergraduate a number of lecturers referred us to a general guide, *The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar*.
For example on the [University of Canberra](http://www.canberra.edu.au/studyskills/writing/grammar) website they deal with a number of grammar points including the use of the apostrophe (see point 6). Here is a second [example](http://drhazelhall.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/2013_hall_rules-conventions_ac_writing.pdf) of a guide
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I am not aware of any style guide or convention that advises against using constructions that need apostrophes as a general rule, or says anything other than "Use correct English grammar and spelling to the best of your ability."
Style guides may advise against using contractions such as "won't" or "isn't" but that is because they are seen as being less formal, not because they need an apostrophe.
"A humans walk cycle" is nothing more than an error that wasn't picked up by the author or proofreader.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/18 | 1,170 | 4,965 | <issue_start>username_0: Having a realistic option of publishing a minor study in a 4th quartile journal, is this better than nothing? The articles of many, but not all, authors are kind of pretentious and unremarkable (not being cited nowhere), but not plagiarized, or computer generated.<issue_comment>username_1: In the UK the value of a publication is often based on the [REF](http://www.ref.ac.uk/) and the [QR](http://www.delni.gov.uk/index/further-and-higher-education/higher-education/role-structure-he-division/he-research-policy/recurrent-research-funding/quality-related-research-funding.htm) model. For the REF, only your top 4 publications in the 5 or so year return window matter. If you have less than 4 publications, low quality publications are definitely better than nothing. For the QR model, only research which is considered
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> Quality that is recognised internationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour.
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is worth any weight to the university. No one really is willing to define what "internationally recognized" means. This means that for hiring and promotion purposes, assuming you have 4 high quality publications, multiple low quality publications are not worth anything.
While the REF and QR model influences hiring and promotion decisions, as well as funding body decisions, I believe there is still a place for low quality publications. They can be helpful in allowing you, and other, to refer to them in later higher quality publications. It is also a way of archiving and sharing your research.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: You're going to have to give us a little more information to get a useful answer I think. What stage of your career are you in, where are you located, what are your career ambitions? Do you have a lot of prior publications in better places, etc.?
Here's a general hint: try to think of what you want to communicate with your CV.
I'm going to answer as if you are a grad student in the US who wants to get a tenure track job who has no prior publications. Here what you're trying to communicate with your publications is *scholarly quality*. You're trying to show that you deserve a seat at the grown up table. A low prestige publication doesn't do that.
I'd say don't publish rather than publish somewhere bad. The reason for this is psychological: search committees viewing your cv are going to fixate on the data points they have and extrapolate from there. If the only data point they see is a low-profile publication, they are going to judge that this is likely the best work you are capable of doing and extrapolate that you will be unlikely to earn tenure, and therefore don't deserve further consideration. (For lots of junior researchers their first couple papers are assumed to be the strongest work they are going to do pre-tenure b/c these are papers arising from the dissertation, that have presumably been written under the guidance of a distinguished mentor. That assumption is actually true in a lot of cases.)
If this is your situation, then don't waste your work publishing somewhere mediocre. Take the paper, make it as good as you possibly can and then start sending it to conferences. With some conference feedback, the paper might get good enough to make it into a more prestigious journal that actually helps you build your reputation as a scholar.
Now, if you already have a couple of strong publications, things are slightly different. People are going to fixate on the good publications and interpret the rest of the CV in light of them. That frees you up a bit. If this paper is good enough to get published somewhere, and you're not really interested in it as a research project, and you don't need the reputational capital, then maybe you can just let this go at a lower-tier journal. What you'd be trying to communicate in this case is that you're active.
If you are in a country with governmental rules about what publications "count" towards tenure or promotion, like the UK's REF system, then what you need to communicate is that you're capable of jumping through that system's hoops effectively.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Academics obsess about publishing in recognized journals and while this is "proper" form, the arena is far from its ideal landscape, which few, if any, academics have actually analyzed or questioned.
Consider, for example, Hesse's idea in Magister Ludi: a uniform platform for all human knowledge, interlinked together, stewarded in perpetuity by those with highest credibility for their respective domains -- not by publishers with profit motivations or university presses with their own interests in mind.
If your work has merit, publish it to the web, on a blog, for example, where it can get many eyes, receive comment, and your work can progress. Ultimately, it is the ability to *defend* the work's value, not receive a blessing from some higher authority, which is important.
Upvotes: -1 |
2014/07/18 | 2,703 | 12,182 | <issue_start>username_0: In the US, many PhD programs require applications to submit the results of one of the GRE subject tests. For example, almost every (serious) PhD program in mathematics that I've seen requires it. However, when looking at the admissions webpage of some programs, there sometimes seems to be some kind of grey area when it comes to the subject test.
For example, on [Harvard's webpage for the mathematics PhD program](http://www.math.harvard.edu/graduate/), it is written that:
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> The Department requires all applicants to submit GRE Mathematics Subject Test scores. Applicants should check on the ETS website for test dates in their area to insure the scores will be submitted before the application deadline.
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So far so good, and if they left it at that, the message would seem to be: "you *have* to submit the GRE subject test, otherwise your application will be incomplete and rejected outright". However, it goes on to say:
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> While the admissions committee reviews all applications submitted by the deadline, missing math subject test scores are one less data point available to evaluate the application. Depending on the applicant pool and the strength of the application materials, the missing subject test scores may put the application at a disadvantage.
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How should one interpret this? Does it mean:
1. "We thank you for the $105 donation, but your application lacks critical information and will almost certainly be rejected"; or
2. "Your application will be considered, provided it somehow demonstrates that you have a sufficiently strong mathematics background to succeed in our program"?
One one hand, it seems possible that they would want to "consider" applications without the GRE subject test, in that they receive the admission fee and that they can discard the application with very little time and effort (after all, they said the GRE was necessary). On the other hand, it seems silly that Harvard should reject an applicant who, by all accounts, seems to be this generation's Terence Tao, for the simple reason that he did not take the GRE subject test.<issue_comment>username_1: This is not a grey area. This is simply a contradiction. The first paragraph you've shared says it is *required* and the second sure seems to imply that they are only *strongly recommended*.
Since it's easier to use the single word "required" accidentally and sloppily than it is to write that second paragraph by accident, my guess would be that they mean that the subject GREs are only strongly recommended, not required.
Let's be very clear though: The opinion of people here doesn't matter. The specific departmental admissions officers and committee are the only opinions that matter since they will make the decision. If you see contradictory information on their website, point it out to them and ask for a clarification. They will clarify the issue for you and probably even fix the page.
Finally, even if something is "only" very strongly recommended, it's still *strongly recommended!* Top programs are extremely competitive and it's up to you to do everything you can to strengthen your application. You might be the next generation's superstar but unless you've already done incredible, it can be extremely hard to tell this. Fantastic scores on the subject GRE can help make your case. Not doing it at all might suggest some insecurity on your part that you might not do well. Take the test unless you have an extremely good reason not to.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This is certainly poorly and confusingly worded, but I think I can explain the reasoning based on similar issues I've seen with other departments. Here's my interpretation:
The department expects every applicant to take the GRE subject test. However, they know that every year a small fraction of the applicants screw up and don't manage to register in time to take it in the fall. It's impossible to take the test at the last minute, so at that point there's no way to fix the situation. The department doesn't want to automatically reject these applicants, for exactly the reason you mention (what if someone's the next Terry Tao?), and they are worried that if they list the GRE as an absolute requirement, then the university administration might force them to do that. On the other hand, they also don't intend to offer applicants the discretion to decide for themselves whether taking the subject test would strengthen their applications. They want everyone to take it, with the possibility of forgiveness for outstanding candidates who screw up. These goals get combined into the confusing statement that it's mandatory but your application can still be considered without it.
I don't know how the Harvard math department evaluates applicants with no GRE scores, but I can tell you how my department does. We're a little happier if we see an apologetic note about how the applicant intended to take the test but failed to do so in time, but of course we know such a note proves nothing. Our default assumption is that the applicant was worried about doing poorly, so we start asking questions like "How badly would we guess they might have done?" and "Would we have accepted them anyway, even with low GRE scores?" If the application is otherwise fantastic, then the chances of acceptance remain good. However, these are the cases in which we would have cheerfully made excuses for low scores (maybe the applicant just isn't good at standardized tests or had a bad day), so nothing is gained by skipping the exam. An otherwise marginal applicant with no GRE subject test score will be rejected, and a strong but not fantastic applicant will be at a disadvantage.
So my best guess as to what the policy means in practice is something like "if you don't take the exam, we'll be annoyed at your irresponsibility and we'll evaluate your application with a presumption that you wouldn't have done well on the exam, but we'll still consider admitting you." This means you have a strong incentive to take the exam if you can.
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> On one hand, it seems possible that they would want to "consider" applications without the GRE subject test, in that they receive the admission fee and that they can discard the application with very little time and effort
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In a typical U.S. department, application requirements and graduate admissions decisions are handled pretty much entirely separately from application fees. For example, many people on the committee won't even know offhand what the current application fee is or where the money goes within the university. In particular, whoever wrote the policy about GRE scores probably wasn't thinking about application fees at all.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The answer by anonymous username_3 seems essentially correct to me.
One thing to remember is that (in all math depts. I'm aware of, including Harvard's, and mine) grad admissions are reviewed by a faculty committee, who have nothing to do with imposing/collecting application fees and so on --- so there is certainly no correlation between department rules/guidelines and things like fees.
The committee members will do their best to assess candidates based on all the information they have available, using their best judgement as to how well the candidates will perform in their program. At Harvard in particular, they have their pick of the very strongest candidates from all over the world. GRE's are just one small component of their evaluation process, but are useful --- if someone doesn't do very well on the GRE, this is a flag. Essentially all the students admitted by top programs such as Harvard will have gotten close to a perfect score on the GRE subject test, though, and so the GRE serves more as a negative indicator against admission (if a candidate didn't do we'll) than as a positive indicator that someone should be admitted.
But of course occasionally someone who is unquestionably very strong will have done poorly on the GRE, or not done it at all, and the department will want to have the option of being able to waive it as any kind of formal criterion. Hence the slightly ambiguous wording on their website.
(One thing to remember is the once the dept. committee makes its selection, there is a bureaucratic process within the university where the list of admitted candidates has to be given to/accepted by other university entities, such as the university's graduate school. The department probably has to give some explanation/justification for its selection, and some discussion of the criteria it used. The GRE is presumably one of these, but they don't want to put themselves in a straitjacket of not being able to ignore it in special cases, and hence --- as username_2 notes --- they have a slightly ambiguous, flexible, policy.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: There is one more option that (I think) has not been mentioned. I know of schools where exam scores are absolutely required, but students are sometimes accepted even though scores were not *yet* submitted. At these schools, the student can be given a "conditional" acceptance, and has one semester to submit the required scores. If the student still doesn't have scores on file at the end of that first semester, the graduate school will not allow them to continue attending.
The same sort of conditional acceptance is used for students who need to submit final transcripts after they graduate from their undergraduate program. In most graduate programs, all students are required to submit final transcripts, but students can be accepted conditionally before the transcripts are received.
This kind of situation is suggested by language such as
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> While the admissions committee reviews all applications submitted by the deadline, missing math subject test scores are one less data point available to evaluate the application.
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Note "submitted by the deadline". The school might decide that they will accept some students who don't submit GRE scores by the deadline, while still *requiring* that the students must *eventually* submit GRE scores. This allows the department to use the scores for statistical purposes even if the scores were not always used for admissions purposes.
This sort of conditional admission is related to a scheduling issue with the fall subject GRE. This year (2014), the last exam date is October 25, and scores are estimated to be mailed "approximately" on December 5. This is just *barely* enough time for students who apply to schools with a January 1 deadline and send the scores from the October exam immediately. If a student delays sending scores to a school, the scores might not arrive in time for a Jan 1 deadline. This is likely part of the meaning of the language
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> Applicants should check on the ETS website for test dates in their area to insure the scores will be submitted before the application deadline.
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Students who send their scores a little late would probably be worse off if their application was summarily denied than if it is reviewed with missing GRE scores.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: We as applicants must take a decision whether to include GRE subject or not wisely. First, we must do our best to fulfill all required documents (including the recommended ones). But if we failed to do so for whatever genuine reasons and we do not want to waste another year of waiting (if you have no problem waiting for another year, then you can get all advantages by providing all required documents), then we must write to the Graduate admission and explain the situation. Perhaps, they can give a conditional offer. If they have no solution to this problem, then don't waste your money for application fee. Alternatively you can search for universities which do not require the gre subject test (there are few good universities). Or you choose an alternative schools, for instance instead of applying admission to Maths Ph.D course, you can apply to Computer Science Ph.D course (pnly general GRE required). They are very much similar and they usually have inter-disciplinary program.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/18 | 2,620 | 10,909 | <issue_start>username_0: I know that for a certain project a colleague with whom I have worked on the project erroneously got a grade that is higher than he should have gotten (the administration made a mistake is my guess). He told me about this himself, but also told me that he is not planning on changing it. The course is a 12 ects course, so has quite an impact on someone's gpa.
Now I have two thoughts:
1. It is not fair to 'betray' a colleague who trusted me with this story
2. I also worked on this project and I got the correct grade, it feels unfair. And I also simply feel that it is simply not just in a way.
What do you think? And should I take action or not?<issue_comment>username_1: Does your university have a procedure for appealing a grade? If so, look at what it says. I would be surprised if it allowed for appealing *someone else's* grade.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I see three levels of possible 'formalisation' of your question: 1. purely personal ethics - academic ethics - code of conduct of your University
The first is really for you to decide; you may go for advice to someone you know well and trust their opinion. The last one is straightforward: simply read the code and see whether or not it has something related to your question. Regarding the second one: from my point of view, the situation is similar to spotting an error in a published work — academic ethics assumes that you should take reasonable actions to share your concerns with the world (starting with the author and the editor). This is not an easy or popular route, however, and in some countries it contradicts "normal" morale of people outside academia, as you acknowledge in your question.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: *"It is not fair to 'betray' a colleague who trusted me with this story"*
It's also not fair that he got given a higher grade by mistake in the first place. The sooner it is fixed, the less chance there is of ugly flow-on problems popping up.
What if the grade affects the class of honours granted to his degree, and the degree is later revoked and downgraded upon discovery of the error? That could look a little dubious on a university transcript.
The "right" thing to do is for your colleague to report the error himself. But as he has made it clear that he will not, your situation is a little more ambiguous. But sometimes you have to do the right thing on behalf of others. A discreet email to the professor or lecturer who ran the course would likely lead to the grade being corrected. If you did this, you could disclose your intentions to your colleague beforehand, to give him the chance to correct the error himself.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Answering from an ethical perspective. The grade was entered in error, if the other student was unaware of a mistake they would have been morally fine, it is not their job to double check the grader's work.
But since they are aware of the mistake it is their obligation to inform the grader. By intentionally keeping that information from the grader they are deliberately breaking ethical rules. In addition, by telling you about it they are compounding the original wrong by making you a party to their original transgression.
Unfortunately your classmate has made you responsible for their behavior because now you have to choose between doing the right thing (reporting them since they will not step forward) or being silent.
I can't tell you the consequences of that choice, but possible consequences of turning them in are social rejection and possible consequences of staying silent include academic sanctions against you if it comes out that you knew and did nothing. Just remember, they chose to put you in this mess, and for that you *owe* them nothing.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: If you really want to became successful in your field you should erase the word 'fair' from your vocabulary.
Nothing seems fair from all perspectives and the sooner you realize this the better.
From the way you describe it, there are 2 possible scenarios:
a) the professor made a mistake
b) the professor personally knows your friend and helped him
By lowering your friends grade you won't improve your grade. If for example you go and get his grade lowered this guy will hate you and you will honest seem like a pretty jealous person.
**To sum up**: Let your friend do what he wants to do, it's not your grade and you should **not** try to convenience him *you are not worthy of that grade.* Even professor mistakes are part of life, be realistic and don't seek fairness.
You should try to improve yourself and not lower you friends grades.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I would consider your situation from two perspectives:
* From an ethical/moral standpoint: grades are by nature unfair, and mistakes in grading are common. Welcome to real life and live with it. Do you think Student X who got an A just because he was going to every TA office hour deserves it better? Do you think Student Y who got an A just because he used homework solutions from last year to optimize his homework grades deserves it better? [What percentage of college students do you think cheat?](https://www.quora.com/The-College-and-University-Experience/What-percentage-of-college-students-cheat/answer/Franck-Dernoncourt?share=1).
* From a personal gain maximization standpoint, you need to consider two points: 1) Will denouncing your colleague improve your GPA, change your rank or bring your some award? 2) Will denouncing your colleague negatively impact your network and/or perturb your learning experience?
In school, there are several goals:
* focus on GPA/ranking/award/etc.
* focus on learning.
* focus on networking.
* focus on partying.
Take action according to what your focus(es) is/are.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: Your friend trusted you with the truth.
I think it is only fair that you trust your friend and tell him beforehand what you plan to do.
It is better that he comes out with it than you, and you don't lose a friend.
If he doesn't want to be honest and "fair" at least ask him not to involve you if he gets in trouble for it.
This means that he will not trust you anymore but most likely he will still be friends with you.
Friendship has more value to me than some moral that no one really cares about (except you because you know the truth).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Most of the time life is *not* fair, and it look like your friend just got a break. Good for him. Now, I suggest you ask yourself the question: is this likely to have a real negative impact on you? If so, then you may want to talk to your friend about the situation, hoping he will ask for the correction himself (if he refuses, you have a more solid ground for reporting it yourself). But if your friend's lucky mark is unlikely to affect you in a negative way, I'd say good for him, maybe next time it will be your turn. Be happy for your friend, live and let live.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: You say he got a grade that is too high because you saw a "mass" email with the grade and then the student showed, presumably, the grade on the piece of work or on his transcript. You came to the conclusion that the email with the lower mark was correct and that the transcript is incorrect. There doesn't seem to be an obvious reason, apart from personal bias, that the transcript should be assumed to be wrong instead of the email. Given you do not really know what grade he should have gotten, there is no reason to say anything, especially if you do not want to. If you want to alert the Professor that you think someone else's mark is wrong you can do that, but remember you really do not have any proof.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: Besides the social and ethical issues raised by others, I might take a different, more diplomatic approach.
Personally, I'd tell the instructors about this mistake, and how I felt about it, but not give them specifics about who received the incorrect grade. There may also be a neutral party to help navigate this, such as an *ombudsman*, if that feels more comfortable
They may not care enough to find and fix the mistake, or if they do, you won't have directly betrayed your friend, and perhaps other mistakes will be corrected, to your credit. If you can earn the instructors appreciation, you may argue for some bonus points, or form a valuable relationship for the future.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_11: Sometimes a professor will bump up a student's grade because of things like creativity, improvement, or demonstrated hard work. So neither you nor your classmate actually know that a mistake was made.
In addition, there's a trust issue. Your classmate trusted you with their doubts about their grade. Now, sometimes violating such trust is the right thing to do (as in the case of outright cheating), but you need to have a very good reason.
Finally, there's the question of impact. If grading in this class was not competitive, your classmate's grade has very little effect on anybody else. The only effect it could have is in competition for internships or jobs, but in many fields, GPA is not particularly important for such things. (I don't know about engineering.) Even if the class was graded competitively (some percent A's, some percent B's, and so on), it's rather unlikely that the professor will recompute everybody's grades after changing one.
*Edit:* Also, what will the instructor think of you? I guarantee they will not think, "Wow, this person is really honest and conscientious". More likely, they'll think you're grade-obsessed and willing to hurt somebody else to get ahead, even if that's not your motivation. At best, they'll shake their head and go, "Kids and grades these days...". If you have this instructor again, or if they tell their colleagues, this could come back to bite you.
Putting these considerations together, it seems to me that you should not report the suspected error. (If your classmate is feeling courageous, they may want to ask.) Focus on your own grades (and, more importantly, learning), not other people's.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: I don't know that this is a popular opinion but if I was in this position I would feel cheated. Would I try to change that? NO!
How is your life going to change if you report this? Will you see any benefit? I don't think that you will. Will your colleague see any benefit? I don't think so.
To recap: if you do something your life won't improve, the life of your colleague will most likely be worse than it was prior to your action. Essentially any action can only cause harm. Nobody will benefit from you speaking up.
TL;DR nothing good can come from you speaking up, at best nothing will happen, most likely something negative will happen to your colleague.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/18 | 2,640 | 11,142 | <issue_start>username_0: I am an adjunct instructor at a technical college in the US. I was tasked with creating a new class which I would teach in the spring. I have finished all of my course materials (.pdfs, lab sheets, power points, etc etc). When I was first hired and told to create the new course, I was informed by some of my colleagues (former adjuncts at the same institution) that I would be paid for my course content. However, in speaking with my directory I was informed that I would not be paid for my course content as it is part of running the class.
Now whether or not that is right or wrong, I'm not too horribly concerned. However alot of my own personal time goes into creating these materials and I would like to protect my time investment.
**Would it be wise or prudent to try and protect my course materials through some sort of copyrighting process of some sort, or something to that effect?**
If so, **what is a sufficient way of documenting my materials and ensuring that any party who obtains them sees them as "copyrighted" or possessing whatever protection that is applied to them?**
My interest is in ensuring that my course materials are not gobbled up by someone else in the program, then taught by someone else without having been properly reimbursed for my development work in my personal time. Everyone else I have spoken to has said it sounds "not very kosher" that I am not being reimbursed for developing the course work.
I would simply like to protect my personal investment into these materials.
Thoughts? Insights? Experiences? Thank you!
I went through my contract, and there are two subdivisions that outline IP and copyright goodies, etc etc. The first paragraphs in essence state "The faculty member is entitled to the results of their research, IP, etc, EXCEPT when we pay for the research to be done, OR give you a break in your work load but still pay you to do the research, OR" - now this is the line I'm not sure about, "C. Under an assigned duty and/or work-for-hire arrangement with an external sponsor.
" I was very informally asked "Hey, would you be willing to put together and teach a class on subject X?" Me - "Sure.". (That's fairly literally, the extent of the request and my response). **Would that fall under either of the definitions of C?**<issue_comment>username_1: Simply write "Copyright: Your Name. Do not copy." Putting your name on it leaves them a way *in* in case they want to contact you for possible re-use or collaboration. The "do not copy" (or similar desired "term of use") puts your explicit intentions on the document, in this case reserving all rights to yourself. I personally put the latter part in a different font so that it stands out as a "meta-item" of the document.
Otherwise, if you think the "cat's out of the bag" on your material already, the best way to protect it is to publish it to the web, where the Internet can form a historical record for your creation and the community can now help you with fair credit assignment.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> To be clear, I am developing the materials while not teaching any courses or being paid by the school in any manner. It is currently the summer semester and I am not being paid to teach, develop course work or anything. I will have to try and find my contract.
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The shows a misunderstanding about the nature of a teaching job. When you're paid to teach a course, you're not being paid to do work only while the course runs. You're also being paid to prepare the course, and you're going to need to do that before the first meeting.
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> I have finished all of my course materials (.pdfs, lab sheets, power points, etc etc). When I was first hired and told to create the new course, I was informed by some of my colleagues (former adjuncts at the same institution) that I would be paid for my course content. However, in speaking with my directory I was informed that I would not be paid for my course content as it is part of running the class.
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Your colleagues were probably confused. Nobody pays instructors extra money to produce powerpoints and handouts. It goes with the job.
If you don't want others in your department to use your lab handouts without paying, don't give them your lab handouts. If you don't want others in your department to use your powerpoints without paying, don't give them your powerpoints.
As <NAME> and JeffE have pointed out, copyright protection is automatic in most jurisdictions. It can be wise to put a copyright notice on your work, since a possible defense against a copyright-violation lawsuit is that the defendant didn't know it was copyrighted. A formal copyright registration is necessary in the US if you want to be able to recover more than actual damages, i.e., if you want punitive damages.
In general, the question shows an unrealistic set of assumptions about what teachers do; what they're paid to do; and what the normal contractual arrangements are. Furthermore, many people who write have an unrealistic belief in the quality and market value of their writing. There is no particular reason to expect that anyone else in the department will like these materials so much that they would want to use them. Most people prefer to do things their own way.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Regarding your question
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In the United States (I have zero knowledge of copyright law in other places) the following applies **if** you actually hold the rights to your materials:
* You can only get copyright protection for materials that you have fixed in a "tangible medium." For example, you can copyright your presentation slides or a video recording of your lecture; you cannot copyright your unwritten, unrecorded lectures.
* You can only copyright something you "created"; if you compile existing public domain material in a way that requires no creativity, it is not eligible for copyright protection.
* You can explicitly notify others that you *reserve all rights* (the [rights of the copyright holder](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#Exclusive_rights)) to the materials with a written statement to that effect. For example, you can put "Copyright 2014 0xhughes, all rights reserved" on the footer of each page. (Note that you don't *have* to do this to get copyright interest in the materials, but it's a standard way of warning off potential infringers.)
[Here](http://www.help.d2l.arizona.edu/content/copyright-advice-lecture-notes) is a reference for this answer.
Regarding the first part of your question
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this has already been addressed by another answer.
Regarding your specific contract, you will have to seek further clarification from the university as to who holds the rights to the materials.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: You are being paid to teach a course, which means you're getting paid to create things like power point presentations, OR simply write on the black board... Since you're choosing to create a more concrete item, this is your choice, and that is still the property of your faculty. Whatever you create is being governed & paid by the faculty.
What investment are you talking about?? Please don't be delusional. You're not writing a research paper which is being published under your name. You're relaying information to your students. This information is out there because you were paid to create it. There is no investment here.
You're trying to get paid say $50,000 to create things for your course, teach it, and then get paid again for the same material!
That makes absolutely no sense! Find another field of work if you want to get royalties.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: I am late arriving, but let me see whether I can understand... a) you are pretty sure you aren't going to get rich off your work, but b) it would chap your buns if the college took your material, handed it over to a TA and had the TA teach subsequent sessions of the course. Is that right?
If that's right then the question (in the United States) boils down to whether what you've produced is a "work made for hire." If it is, it belongs to the institution; if not, it belongs to you.
Getting a standard contract modified, particularly if this is a state institution, may be nearly impossible. I think I'd write a letter to whoever signs the contract saying something like, "My understanding of our contract of \_\_\_\_\_ is that all rights to the course material which I may develop to deliver this course vest in me, and that the University of \_\_\_\_\_ claims no right to any intellectual property developed in the preparation or conduct of this course. Please confirm that my understanding is correct." Then get a letter signed by whoever signed the contract that essentially repeats your question as a statement. It will probably be easier to get this going with a personal meeting than with an exchange of mail.
Then put copyright notices on everything. You might also want to record your lectures: <http://bbrown.spsu.edu/papers/podcasting/podcasting_protects_ip.html>
(I am not a lawyer, and this isn't legal advice. If you think the materials *are* worth tens of thousands of dollars, you need an IP lawyer.)
*Edited to add:* Take note of MarkJ's answer here and consider putting all your stuff on a personal web page with copyright notices attached. I've used the [Creative Commons](http://creativecommons.org/) licenses for my own stuff. Publishing it that way won't keep others from using it, but will preserve your claim to authorship.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I think we are missing the main point here: are talking about intellectual property.
I do not agree with the idea that pedagogical design is different from research based on the fact that the former was created to serve an audience (e.g.; students). Under the same premise, the copyrights of a composer's opera commissioned by an Opera House would belong to the opera house. Under the same premise, the copyrights of all commercially published handbooks should belong to the universities if the author happens to work, even part-time, to a university.
There is no question that customizing materials for a class, preparing a lesson, or doing specific handouts, powerpoints comes with the job of being an instructor. However, if a teacher prepares a whole course in his/her free time (e.g. summers) that is not bound to the school where s/he works, and furthermore, with the intent to publish it. Then, I think these materials belong to the teacher.
I find problematic all this idea that it is OK to defend intellectual property only when it is research. I think it is a reflection on the view of teaching as a second class citizen in some academic circles.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/18 | 2,725 | 11,502 | <issue_start>username_0: **Revised.** I was thinking about the way I write research papers, it involves a lot of revising to even get a "first draft," and subsequently I do a lot of revising also. Presumably this is fairly common nowadays, as computers have made revising papers easy.
However, in days of yore, before TeX/word processing, these revisions were not so easy, so I wonder:
**Has TeX/word processing qualitatively changed the way we write papers? Specifically: (i) did people do significantly less revising (or make fewer passes) before computers? (ii) did people have different approaches to writing first drafts?**
My understanding is that, in the past, faculty typically had assistants/secretaries to type up hand-written notes, and sometimes special symbols/figures would be drawn in by hand (by faculty? or assistant?). Then I presume the faculty would go through and edit by hand, and necessary parts would be retyped. Possibly there would be another pass of this, but I can't imagine that many more revised typings were made. Did this mean less revising was done?
If so, did this force people to plan out their first drafts at the handwritten stages differently than now? At least for me, I usually have a basic outline in mind and then just start writing and go back to revise earlier parts while writing later parts (apart from the intro, which is sometimes written last). However, I guess this style is not so practical when writing by hand?
(Originally, my question was if word processing has changed the quality of papers, but that was deemed too opinion-based. Hopefully, this is something people can answer semi-objectively from their first or second hand experience.)<issue_comment>username_1: **Remark:** *The following answer was for the original version of the question (deemed too subjective) regarding the impact of word processing on quality of papers.*
This question is really impossible to answer since it is impossible to compare new and old articles due to a lack of a fixed standard over time. Now in this case I think of now and then being a span of, say fifty years. The shorter the time span the more difficult any differences will be to identify.
First, the way articles are formulated has changed and the standards are in constant but slow change. Articles started out as letters (late 18th/early 19th century; usually directed to a person in a learned society) being publicly read to the society. These were very personal. Later, the more formalized writing started taking shape (late 19th/early 20th century). Second, the pressure to publish differs, which means articles are pushed through as quick as possible. We have gone from a situation where a paper every now and then has been replaced by *n publications*/yr rates to be acceptable (varies between disciplines). This can reduce the amount of time to be spent on each paper, on the other hand one can argue that one becomes more experienced. Third, the research community is growing larger and larger and although this is not directly affecting quality it means competition for resources and a necessity to write more and quicker. This will also feed back into the second point. As I see it it is not clear that we are going in any particular direction and part of the reason is that our reference as to what is good is also shifting.
So even if one considers the introduction of computers, it is difficult to assess changes because the reference with which to compare does not exist. In the same way it will be difficult to compare scientific research of the 18th or 19th century with research done today and state that modern research is somehow better by comparison. For a very good discussion on this topic I suggest reading <NAME>'s *The Structure of Scientifc Revolutions*, The University of Chicago Press.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Making an answer out of some amplified comments, which I deleted...:
Prior to slightly-modern typewriters such as IBM's "Selectric" and some proto-computerized typewriters, mostly too expensive for individuals to buy, staff typists did not "add value" much (except for faculty who could not type), because they could not literally type special characters, which then had to be drawn in by hand by the author, by reference to the original hand-written thing. The typist would leave approximately the right amount of space to draw the characters. As you can imagine, making a boo-boo drawing characters onto an already-typed page was both all-too-easy and very annoying. In principle, one could make photocopies, but (let's say early 1970s) photocopies were much more expensive than now, and were typically much, much worse quality than a directly-typed page. (One could also type onto "mimeo masters", and draw characters on them, but this was incredibly messy, smelly, crazy. Mimeos were the closest thing to "private publication", but one could only make 30 or so copies before the "master" wore out...) The "white-out" of the time was not very good, either: it would often fall off the page.
For submission for publication, the hand-drawn Greek letters were typically to be underlined or circled in red, Fraktur with green, stuff like that.
Yes, the revise-and-retype cycle was burdensome. In effect, errors could easily be introduced by typists, and new/different errors the next time, after the author proof-read.
Since there was usually only a handful of typists per department, even the people with some seniority would have to wait a week or two or three for re-typing, adding another delay. But most people were reconciled to these delays, especially since learning to (genuinely!) "type" was not so typical in those days! That is, in high school in the U.S., people studying "business/secretarial" stuff, *not* planning to go to college, would learn touch-typing and shorthand. People "going to college" often did not learn to type at all, and possibly did not possess typewriters at all. For such people, there was no real choice but to give hand-written manuscripts to typists, even if the whole process was slow and crazy-making.
With the advent of the Selectric and such, and especially proto-word-processors that could treat non-Roman characters and do corrections and *remember* things, typists did add value, even for those who could type, because they'd have those machines, which were too expensive for typical individuals to afford. <NAME> was an exception: prior to 1977 he had his own Selectric, and was an excellent typist (unsurprisingly). The hitch in using those things was "changing the balls", because not all characters could be available at one time. So this slowed things down quite a lot. The usual trick was to leave spaces for exotic characters, and go back and fill in by ball-swapping... which lent itself to the same annoying boo-boos as with hand-drawing characters into blank spots on a page. And not *all* characters were available... And any diagrams would still have to be drawn by hand.
With the advent of widely-available desktop computing either provided by math depts, or, eventually, cheap enough for individuals, again staff typists no longer added much value except for those who couldn't really typ, and the possibility of revising-without-completely-retyping changed everything. I note that pre-word-processing, seniority determined access to and priority with the limited staff typists, and wait-times for typing or retyping could be weeks. And as recently as 2005 I observed a senior colleague giving dictation to one of the few staff who could take shorthand, to type up a letter, and the person giving the dictation would make the now-almost-forgotten editorial marks on the typed copy, send it back for retyping. There was/is "status" in giving dictation or having typing done by others?
Formatting was not really possible either, except at publishers' houses. Sure, one could hand-draw, but they'd re-typeset everything, so any visual effects an author came up with were a waste of time. Perhaps the ugliness of mathematics manuscripts in those days (as in early SLN's) reinforced the quasi-Platonic mythology about the mathematics itself, since it sure didn't look so beautiful when clumsily drawn in by hand on the page!
The several years of the availability of desktop computers but without anything resembling TeX (mid 1980s) allowed much time to be wasted typing things up in file formats that were obsolete by the next year, etc. That was irritating. The desktop computers of the time had tiny memory, were literally slow, were unstable, and the daisy-wheel printers took a couple minutes to print a single page. And jammed. And...
Some faculty seemed not to mind demanding endless revisions from typing staff, but to me this was awkward, and just doing it myself was easier, since I *had* learned how to type. A significant number of the grad students at Princeton did type their own theses in the 1970s, but many did not. But the quality expected was really very low, so that *lack* of what nowadays would be minimum-allowed-quality was ignored.
All that effort expended to create even a crude document *did* distract from the content, yes. Cutting-and-pasting and moving things around and search-and-replace were really infeasible, not at all worth the trouble unless there'd be a major disaster otherwise. Just getting a reasonably correct thing onto the page was already a considerable accomplishment. Whatever had been more-or-less correctly typed so far was "frozen".
Thinking about it, it seems to me that there was much less self-critiquing done in those times, because it was so difficult to create an easily-readable document, typed or handwritten. That is, it was simply harder to subject one's own writing to careful scrutiny, because the typical copy would be (perhaps semi-legibly) handwritten, many cross-outs, pieces of paper taped on, white-out, ... In particular, the "notes" were much less an incarnation of mathematical ideas, I think, since they were inevitably a crappy version thereof. In contrast, nowadays it is possible to have "notes" that other human beings could read, etc. :)
Even before today's set-up, some people (including me) did try to skip the hand-writing step to the extent possible, exactly because hastily handwritten text was almost automatically not-really-readable by anyone else, and because typing prose could be much faster than hand-writing it, even with old typewriters.
A large difference seems to me to be in computations. "Long ago", of course all computations were first handwritten, and errors and revisions were a horrible mess. In contrast, nowadays one can typeset the first attempt to make it *legible* if not correct, and *iteratively* correct it, rather than repeatedly starting over, etc. This possibility, of iterative computation via typesetting, was absent in the dim past.
Also, getting other peoples' opinions was of course crazily slower: time-lag for typing-up, and then actual physical mail, further impeded by "campus mail" at both ends... in contrast to emailing a PDF. In fact, international mail ("air mail") often failed entirely... :)
So... "yes". :)
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I saw somewhere some information on a mathematical paper by <NAME> (i.e. <NAME>). He would hand write it, send it to a printer to have it typeset, then make hand-written corrections, send it back to the printer, and so on, several iterations.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/18 | 1,208 | 5,614 | <issue_start>username_0: I am currently preparing for my graduate school application. There is one professor whose research interest in general matches mine. He has listed several potential research projects for prospective postgraduate students and I am particularly very interested in one of them, say Project A. Since Project A's scale is very broad, I planned to read some of his related publications to get familiar with the topic before I contact him via email.
The problem is I can't find any article written by him about Project A on his website or through Google. He did list some selected publications but they all seem to relate to other projects, which are different from Project A. In my view, those projects are more theoretical and related with asymptotic analysis while Project A is related with probability and stochastic modeling. I have not opened all articles to confirm my statement.
Do I overlook anything? Is it possible that a professor lists a project that he has published any related works in the past 3 years? Do it mean the professor don't want to intake students with Project A recently?
I don't want to send a email to the professor and ask for references because I think it's not polite. Currently I am searching the title of Project A and reading related publications by other professors. I have also browsed one of his papers , which is related to another project. What shall I do next? Is it proper to send an email to his current student and ask for reference?<issue_comment>username_1: It is *completely* reasonable and polite to send an email to the professor, saying that you are planning to apply to his department, you were interested by the discussion of Project A on his web page, and asking if he can tell you more about it and/or suggest further reading.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: With the current amount of information in your question it's going to be hard to state anything with certainty. But I think your issue may come in a difference between your understanding of the statement 'potential research projects for prospective postgraduate students' and the professor's intention behind that statement.
This is given with the caveat that I can only speak for my experiences and the experiences of those I know in similar fields. Nothing said here should be construed as fact or as the only option.
Many professors have a lot of research interests. Typically when you read something like 'potential research projects for prospective postgraduate students' that means that this is a research field the professor is interested in pursuing. Obvious right? What's not obvious is that this does not mean that the professor/lab/researcher has begun research in this area.
To take a directly related personal anecdote (with some details changed to protect the wicked)...
One of the professors in a lab I know has done a lot of research in the field of markov random fields and motion planning. This includes medical research using markov random fields, computer vision work using random forests, motion planning comparisons... etc. Hopefully you get the point; this professor has tons of work in the field of Artificial Intelligence with a pretty heavy bent towards robotics.
This professor also has a grant to explore human robotic interaction specifically with regards to direct or hybrid human control over robots. This is not directly related to any of the professor's previous work(though other work may have brushed up against this area). Additionally none of the professor's current students are interested in this area of research(already being involved in their own projects in other research areas.) The professor is now looking for students to do research in this area.
In this way you can have a professor/PI/researcher/lab that is looking for a researcher for a project that that particular individual or group has not yet published in.
So to be a bit more specific about your question. Is this particular research area a deal breaker for you? What I mean is - all other things being awesome, if you cannot do this research in this lab would you turn down a spot in the program? The reason this is important is that it could change how you interact with this professor.
I think the thing you should be most aware of coming into this situation is that sometimes research doesn't work out. This is especially true when a lab is entering completely new territory(an area of research it has never been involved with before). If this particular area of research is a dealbreaker for you(it is the only research in that particular lab that you are willing to work on) then you should be cautious jumping in. If somethings comes up and that research is, for whatever reason, not continued you need to ensure that you have other options or you will find it very difficult to finish your postgraduate degree.
Finally, it is not rude or inappropriate to contact a professor asking for more information about one of their projects or interests. What is rude is not doing your homework before hand. It's the difference between "I think cats are neat, tell me all about cats" and "I've done reading into cat psychology and I think your project on why cats put their butts in your face is very interesting. I've read but I was hoping to get more information from you about it." Professors(most professionals and experts) are busy people and no one wants to feel like you haven't done your homework. If you approach such communication with professionalism and courtesy then asking questions is almost never a problem.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer] |
2014/07/19 | 1,000 | 4,237 | <issue_start>username_0: I did my PhD 4 years ago. I was not comfortable with my guide but I concentrated on my work, and I successfully completed the PhD. But I published a little work with his name as correspondence author. But now I am in good position in another country, so I need to publish my PhD work without his name as co-author. If I publish a paper of my PhD work without my supervisor's name, what will be happen? Are there any legal problems that will be raised?<issue_comment>username_1: If you have discussed the paper with your supervisor in the past years; then your publication should meet his rights on the paper as he has previously contributed to your paper. Furthermore, if your research paper is done under financial support of your PhD university; then you have to acknowledge their rights too.
I think that the contribution of a co-author to a paper is important in acknowledging their right in project or paper, their supervision to your PhD thesis does not bring any right to your further (after graduation) academic publications.
As an instance, a paper is written based on a supervisor's contribution to it and it is part of a chapter of your PhD thesis; so it is obvious that you have to contact him about your paper. But if after graduation in the recent years you have found a good idea and worked on it without help of nobody else so there is no need to talk about your paper with others.
As a general rule, if you have never discussed your research project or paper with your supervisor, he has never contributed to your paper, you never used his resources, your PhD university does not hold any right to your paper idea and you meet the rights of financial supporter of your paper; then you may publish your paper solely. Otherwise, you have to meet their rights in your publication. Also, please note that one may build his academic relationship based on this rule to the other colleagues or students too. If and only if they have contributed to your paper, they can be a co-author of that paper.
I understand that you are a better researcher after a few years but I think that talking to a senior researcher and professor and asking him to read your paper will allow you to find your mistakes and publish better papers. Also, working with other researchers will add to your reputations and build connections with them. They may also contribute their papers with you and may ask you to read their papers in future.
---
This question has good answers to this question:
[Advisor's/University's rights in the PhD/MSc alumni's research projects and publications](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24297/advisors-universitys-rights-in-the-phd-msc-alumnis-research-projects-and-publ)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: ### You have left at least two important things unanswered:
1. Has your supervisor contributed to your work? (How contribution is measured depends on the field you are working in, it could be through "real" intellectual contribution, feedback, funding, ...)
>
> But now I am in good position in another country so I need to publish
> my PhD work without his name as co author.
>
>
>
2. Why do you need to publish without his name as a co-author?
>
> If I publish a paper of my PhD work without my supervisor name, what
> will be happen? Is there any legal problems will raised?
>
>
>
If he has contributed to your work, there may be several legal problems such as fraud or copyright infringement.
If you are sure that he has not contributed in any way to your thesis (which is unlikely) then you are fine to publish on your own. Otherwise you should talk to him and ask him if he thinks he has made a significant contribution and wants to be your co-author.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Your new paper is based on your previous work, so if he has helped you in this new paper then give him credit. But it seems that this new paper is strictly your work, and no credit would be due. BUT you will be referring to a previous work which he supervised. Your PhD is your original research under his supervision. Unless he physically wrote words in your paper, either your new work or your PhD, I wouldnt think its necessary to credit them.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/19 | 594 | 2,499 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm just starting out in research and about to finish my BSc. If I stay in research I'm wondering about the economics of it: where does the money come from? I am passionate about a specific field and I want to be able to do research in that area - but I imagine to support that research I'd have to find a lab that has been specifically funded and has projects related to that field, right? And how does the funding for these labs work? Is it mostly project based with 1-2 year length after which the lab has the pressure to submit another proposal to find another project, or does it have less pressure because the lab is also funded by the university?
In essence I'm just wondering about the money flow that is keeping a research lab alive: if I want to do research in X, I'd have to find a lab that has the money to support X right?<issue_comment>username_1: Most labs get funding from granting agencies, governments, industry agreements, or private foundations. Some universities also provide funding in other forms.
Now, what they can do with the money depends on the conditions of the grant. Some, are attached to a specific project. They may also include a breakdown of the expenses: this much to hire two PhD students, this block to hire a posdoc, publications, experiments, computers... Some other grants are more open, and may give the PI more freedom to allocate the resources, or to work on sub-projects.
Some areas of research have economical interest, and may lead to patents and industrial agreements, that could help the lab to be less dependent on grants.
Lastly, some students may get their own funding, that may be attached or not to a specific project.
Universities do support labs, mostly by paying salaries of the staff and infrastructures.
Regarding the times, most labs apply to any grant in reach: you can never know if the grant you are hoping for will be renewed; and there is never too much money.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The ideal book for you would be *[How Economics Shapes Science](http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674049710)*. It answers your questions and many more. It provides a broad and deep analysis of a wide variety of empirical data about research funding. It will help you make smart career choices. Sadly, I don't think most graduate students in sciences and bio-medical fields understand the economics of research and academic careers before they enter their field.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/19 | 1,163 | 4,827 | <issue_start>username_0: I have written an informal article 9 pages long, that covers some general, lightly technical material. I wrote it because this material is not covered elsewhere, and I am knowledgeable in the field. The material is light in the sense that it is not highly innovative, or even highly useful, but it is "good to know". The subject matter is information security, with respect to radio systems.
I have posted the article on my personal webpage. Should I bother to submit it somewhere for 'proper' publication? It is not technical or innovative enough for IEEE or ACM journals (or even letters). Or should I just keep it on my page for people with search engine inquiries related to the subject matter to possibly stumble across?<issue_comment>username_1: I wouldn't bother with further publication. You've pretty much nailed the issue: search engines work quite well to "winnow the chaff" (to quote Rivest) when the right questioner comes along, and good security through the Petabytes of obscurity when they don't.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Submit it to a conference that publishes a proceeding. Check the ACM SIGs. There are at least a couple that might work.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: If you don't know where to publish something, but nonetheless it is of an appropriate standard and you consider it worth sharing, why not posting it to [arXiv](http://arxiv.org/)? You won't get prestige just for submitting, but:
* people can find it,
* you can easily point to it,
* it is timestamped.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: You may try <https://www.researchgate.net/>
But I am not sure what their policies are.
Since I wrote this information, two people downvoted the answer, not
saying why.
But this answer is factually correct. You can make scientific papers
available through Researchgate, and probably some that are not too
scientific. I have done so, though I would not choose Researchgate as
my primary publication medium (all of my papers there were first published on
some other venue).
Some people do get my papers through Researchgate, so it does fulfill
the dissemination purpose to some extent. I am also told by
researchgate about citations of my papers, so that I can see what
people make of them, and I can get some of the citing papers through
Researchgate. I do not really use Researchgate professionally: I am
retired. But then, the question was also for informal availability on
the web.
I know that some people do not like Researchgate for various reasons,
and possibly for opposite reasons. Mainly, they seem to lack
resources and many of their weaknesses do not get corrected. But they
do not ask for money as does [Academia.edu](https://academia.edu). So I use them for what they
have to give, and try to be tolerant with their failings.
One of the major problems is, as remarked in [other places](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47481), that they
do not manage well authors that have the same name. I am particularly
aware of that because my name is somewhat common. But then
Researchgate is not a reference medium.
So my advice is to be very precise on the paper itself about your name,
affiliation, and any other public information that will identify you
as a single person (using your social security number might work, but
is not advised). If the paper appeared somewhere else, try to also
give that information. And remember to be careful with copyright, and
to preferably know what you are doing in this respect (even when you
choose to disagree with some publisher).
Last remark for downvoters. My information is factually correct. So
you are really criticizing the operation of Researchgate, even though
all the user want is to make his papers accessible. It would be better and more useful
to explicitly state, however tersely in a comment, what your
objections are.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: Some options: trade journal (not an academic journal), LinkedIn article, blog post.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: An answer in a comment by alarge, who is from life sciences background:
>
> Might you consider some protocol or method journals (e.g. SpringerProtocols, Methods, EPJ Plus)? Quite often the content of these types of publications are useful to some people, especially those new to the field, but do not really present any new results (and the methods have been described somewhere else, but usually just not in full detail). Alternatively, some pedagogical journals (in the style of Am. J. Phys.). I do not know about the submission process of the journals I mentioned. Finally, the omnijournal PLoS One in principle should accept everything that is technically correct.
>
>
>
Adipro in the comments suggested <https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos>
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/19 | 1,213 | 5,187 | <issue_start>username_0: I am a undergraduate student who also work as the systems administrator in the school. I also do research work under a professor. Recently, I had to work on this professor's lab to upgrade the older machines to newer machines. I literally got no help from any of the fellow lab mates. Though, I did it as part of my systems administrator work, the professor had instructed his Ph.D students to help me. However, I do not complain of this.
I have a very nagging girl who always wants to get her things done and couldn't even figure out some basic stuff from the Internet. She simply blames the installation and this pretty much annoys me. She is not thankful for what I am doing, and so I do not even feel like helping this girl. I want to report it to my professor in such a way that I do not offend him in any way. I never bothered him much so far. But I want to escalate this issue. How should I go about it?
**P.S**: I am not sure if this question belongs here or on *[The Workplace](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/tour)*.<issue_comment>username_1: I would take smaller steps first.
1) If you are doing something that is not part of your job, stop (selectively) doing it. Politely reply that X is not on your responsibility.
Following these two advice alone could change her behaviour. If the problem persists
2) Talk with her first. Say that you are using much of your time to help her, and tell her that you expect a more professional relationship.
If there is still problems, then talk to the professor.
I would also require the lab members to help you if instructed to do so. If you don't, they will see you as someone they can use.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: There are a couple of trajectories, depending on how you want to define yourself.
1. You can get the student to understand that her problems are due to her ignorance of computers. But try to direct her to resources where she can remedy that rather than blame her.
2. Talk to your supervisor and ask how they suggest you proceed with it. This tactic puts the responsibility for failure (or success, <-note) on their shoulders and keeps you from receiving damage.
Hope that helps.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The answer really comes down to whether or not your position as "Systems Administrator" is paid or not. If it is a paid position, then welcome to the professional world, where users will often complain about the resources and facilities that are provided for them. Dealing with their complaints in a professional manner is part of the job that you are being paid for, and it is not appropriate to complain to your manager about that aspect of the job, unless a user is being abusive. You should make it clear to the user concerned that you have installed the software that you were told to install, as you were told to do, and that if the software is inappropriate or does not suit her requirements then she needs to talk to her supervisor, as he/she is the one responsible for ensuring she has the equipment she needs for her research. Do not get angry, be polite and professional; *"I would like to help you, but as system administrator I just install the software I am told to install. I have no powers to choose or change what you have been given, so if you need something different you will have to talk to the boss."*
If a particular user takes up far more time than than the rest, then you need to ask your manager how to proceed - your employment contract will state how many hours you are to work, and if your manager wants you to cater to the whims of one particular user during those hours, then that is their decision. You should also realise that, since you are the paid "System Administrator", it is not the job of the PhD students to help you carry out this task. They aren't system administrators, they aren't being paid to do the job - you are.
If, on the other hand, your position as "System administrator" is voluntary and unpaid, and the PhD students are part of a "sysadmin" team, then you need to ask them to take a more active role than they are, and to consider whether hours spent on tasks are being allocated in the most efficient fashion.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Be careful about escalation. Remember that Fort Sumter started the civil war even though there was no loss of life on either side during the battle. The graduate students outrank you. They also outnumber you and will fiercely counterattack. Leave them alone as you have to date. If you need help then make friends with one of them.
Apparently you do not work for the girl. That puts you on more equal footing with her, which means that you can speak frankly with her. Tell her how much time you have to work with her, what you can do for her, and what you cannot do for her. Set up a time to meet with her and tell her that you cannot accept walk-up requests. You and she will have to develop some personal relationship of mutual respect.
The professor may not want to hear about your problems. If he has a problem then he will tell you. Your primary responsibility is to him. You fix his problems; he does not fix your problems.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/19 | 699 | 3,203 | <issue_start>username_0: Is being a maths "tutor" volunteer at sites like [MATHNERDS](http://www.mathnerds.com/) useful in terms of "good impression" for future academic prospectives?<issue_comment>username_1: If you apply for grants where "Broader Impact" (or something like it) is a criteria, then a demonstrable history of volunteer and outreach activities related to your academic field of study can be helpful. Same goes for awards that consider "service" as a criteria.
(The reviewers of my NSF graduate research fellowship application commented favorably on my volunteer experience, which I mentioned towards "Broader Impact".)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This will likely depend on your discipline and the type of volunteer work that you engage in. It can't hurt, as at the very least it shows your're interested enough in the field that your're engaging in it informally. As for how much it will benefit your prospects, that will depend on the type and extent of volunteer work and how it fits with your prospective discipline. Establishing a consistent history of volunteering with a particular site will demonstrate more commitment than volunteering at many different sites for briefer periods of time. Assisting with moderating or engaging with the management of the site's services (if an option) also demonstrates a higher level of engagement and responsibility, beyond a casual hobby or side interest.
As for whether potential academic programs or jobs will look favorably on your volunteer work will depend in part on their interests and areas of emphasis. A program which emphasizes the application of mathematics in industry may not give volunteer tutoring much weight in the applications process when compared to a student who has had "volunteer" internships in industry. In contrast, a graduate program or professor that emphasizes the use of web technology to enhance math education would probably view your experience more favorably because it aligns with their mission.
In my own experience in behavioral sciences I completed several lab-based internships in biology and psychology, which emphasized scientific method and theory, including proper record keeping, sterile technique, and data collection. This was viewed favorably by the more research-oriented graduate programs I applied to; other applicants had mostly volunteer experience with clinical mental health populations, which those programs did not give as much weight. However, at one of the program's where I was wait-listed, a faculty member informed me that they were concerned I had no experience (even volunteer experience) working with individuals with serious mental illness, and it counted as a strike against me. My research experience wasn't seen as negative, but it didn't carry as much weight in the eyes of that particular program.
In sum, demonstrating a consistent track record with a volunteer organization will demonstrate commitment, interest in the field, and maturity. However, the amount of benefit you will get in terms of future academic prospects will likely depend on how well that particular volunteer experience matches with a given program's academic interests.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/19 | 585 | 2,436 | <issue_start>username_0: I am doing masters in physics. I recently did internship in high energy physics for 2 months. But my institute allows me to do 6 months project only in condensed matter physics. I want to pursue PhD in high energy physics only. So, is it possible to pursue PhD in different area than master's thesis?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, definitely
---------------
Of course you can! The specific subfield is mostly limited by (a) your interests; (b) availability of a suitable supervisor who knows that field, and possibly (c) availability of funding/equipment/etc for that research direction. It may be that a particular university/department doesn't accept your chosen direction (e.g. they don't have the researchers or funding for in-depth high energy physics research) and you need to look for other universities to do the PhD, but your master thesis topic is not restricting in any way.
It can be slightly useful to do a PhD that aligns with your master thesis, as it gives you some head start and possibly some publishable research already, but it's not a race and you definitely can do it in a different direction, many people do.
Researchers work in multiple areas
----------------------------------
To expand on this - there are few general restrictions. It may be that a particular organization (or funding source) or person at some particular time nudges you do do something specific; but in general, there are no universal restrictions and people can:
* Pursue PhD in a different subfield than Master's thesis (your example)
* Get PhD in a different subfield and topic than what you submitted at the start of your PhD
* Pursue PhD in a different field than Masters (e.g. physics PhD after mathematics masters, computer science PhD after economics masters, etc)
* Do research in a completely different area than your PhD (e.g. linguistics PhD publishing CompSci papers)
* Do publishable research without being connected to a PhD process in any way.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I was offered by a couple of institutions to enter a Ph.D. program in Labor Studies or Sociology, even though my existing degrees are in Computer Science. Now, true, I have a PhD, but - this is all possible if you make a reasonable case why you should be admitted.
(That's not to say that university bureaucracies will easily accept such a situation; but you have your PhD advisor to help with that.)
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/19 | 1,792 | 7,844 | <issue_start>username_0: I am an amateur (not affiliated with an academy) mathematician.
I have written a research monograph (see [my site](http://www.mathematics21.org/algebraic-general-topology.html)).
The current status of the book is that it is well written and is reasonably checked for errors. However there are serious errors in the last chapter. I may remove the last chapter and try to publish the rest of the book without it.
I sent my book (not yet including the last chapter) to several publishers. They all say either that my book is too original and rough for book form and should be published as articles first, or that my research is unmotivated. (I disagree and consider my work fully motivated.)
And now my book is in consideration of a publisher. After I sent my book to the aforementioned (last) publisher, I realized that before writing second volume of my book I need first create second edition of the first volume (which is in consideration now). I had two ideas how to rewrite it when it was already in publisher's review.
I doubt what to do with the last chapter (which as I've said above is currently erroneous). The simplest thing is just to remove it now, because it anyway should be rewritten in the second edition (and the rewrite is rather massive).
Should I for now remove the last chapter and leave this work to the stage when I will write the second edition of the first volume?
Or maybe should I stop any publishing attempts until I finish writing the second edition? (I'm afraid that if I happen to die, my work may be lost unpublished.)<issue_comment>username_1: >
> I disagree and consider my work fully motivated.
>
>
>
This is a key point. The issue isn't whether there exists compelling motivation, and you may be right that there is. Rather, the issue is whether you have successfully communicated this motivation to readers who have spent far less time thinking about the topic than you have and who lack the perspective that comes from developing a subject from scratch. You'll have to work extra hard to articulate the motivation and communicate it successfully. If the readers still don't understand why are you doing something, then that itself amounts to a communication failure (regardless of whether you feel they ought to have understood). You don't need to communicate successfully with everyone, but you need to do so with a large enough audience.
I'd strongly recommend trying harder to address this before publishing the book. You can consider the editors who have looked over your submissions as a random sample of readers. Many of them fail to understand the motivation behind your work, which suggests that many readers would find it unmotivated even if someone agreed to publish it. Ultimately, the goal should be not just to get the book published, but to get it read and understood. The feedback from publishers is helping you identify what you need to work on to attract readers.
>
> Or maybe should I stop any publishing attempts until I finish writing the second edition?
>
>
>
Are you proposing to publish the first edition while you are already working on a second edition, or to submit the first edition as a draft while telling the publisher that you are working on serious revisions? The latter could make sense, while publishers are unlikely to agree to the former. (Publishing a book takes time, effort and money, and nobody wants to commit these resources to a mathematics book that will quickly be out of date.)
But the fact that you already have large-scale changes in mind suggests that the book might not be ready to submit for publication. You don't need to have completed all possible revisions before approaching publishers, but your chances of acceptance go down if you aren't presenting approximately your best work.
>
> Should I for now remove the last chapter and leave this work to the stage when I will write the second edition of the first volume?
>
>
>
What's the alternative to removing it? If you have in mind fixing the mistakes now, then I can't advise you on which approach is better (since I haven't read the book). If you mean keeping the incorrect chapter in the manuscript and not dealing with the mistakes until later, then that sounds like a bad idea.
>
> I'm afraid that if I happen to die, my work may be lost unpublished.
>
>
>
I can understand that this is a depressing possibility, but I wouldn't worry about it now (assuming you are no likelier to die soon than other people your age). If it makes you feel safer, you could always ask a friend or family member to try to get your work archived somewhere if you died unexpectedly. I can't say they would necessarily succeed, but it couldn't hurt to try.
By the way, the publishers who suggest publishing research papers first have an important point. The mathematics publishing system is set up to work that way, and it is not particularly well adapted to publishing large chunks of unfamiliar research in book form. It's certainly possible to publish research monographs, but you may be making things unnecessarily hard for yourself. Unless you have a very strong reason to prefer a book, I'd recommend trying articles instead.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I would say you must keep trying and get it published, even if you end up paying for that because this is your hard work and should not be wasted or lost.
the best way is to go and talk to publishers and ask them what can be added or subtracted to meet their requirements and standards.
You can also convert the book into an e-book and upload it on paid libraries
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, you should absolutely stop trying to get the book published until it is ready. Talk to the publisher who is considering your book, explain the situation to them and ask for their advice about what to do. In my opinion, a second edition is unlikely ever to be published because, as I understand it, mathematics research monographs don't sell well enough to justify a second edition.
Even if a second edition were to be published, what is the purpose of the first edition if it is rapidly superseded by the second? From the way you write your question, it seems that that the purpose, for you, is publication. Publication is not a goal: it is a means to an end. The goal is to make other mathematicians aware of your work and that is most likely to happen if you present the work in the best way you can.
Listen to what publishers say. You know more about your field than they do; but they know more about their field than you do and their field is books. It *is* unusual for advances in mathematics to be published as a book, rather than in papers. That doesn't mean it's impossible to publish as a book but it does mean that you should have a good reason for rejecting the conventional method of publication.
If the book you're talking about is the preprint "Algebraic General Topology" on your website, then I'm sorry but it *is* rough and unmotivated. You have a five-page introduction, of which less than two pages (the sections "Our topic and rationale" and "Earlier works") could be considered as motivation. That is followed by what is, literally, a 250-page list of definitions, lemmas, theorems and proofs. To write that much mathematics is without doubt impressive but, to get there, you must have read at least one or two maths books: this is not what a maths book looks like. If the technical content is good (I know nothing about topology) then you have a sound basis for a book but not yet a book.
Finally, make sure your family knows about your work so that, in the unfortunate event of something happening to you, they can try to get it published so it isn't lost forever. (And take your vitamins and look both ways before crossing the street! :-) )
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/19 | 1,541 | 6,254 | <issue_start>username_0: \*Edit in response to comments: I'm not asking "What is the number of publications n of quality q1 such that anybody who has n many publications is guaranteed to get a job at a school like Y?" There is no such value of n. What I'm asking is, "Is there a number of publications n, of some quality q such that without n many publications of quality q, one will likely not get a job at a school like Y?" I realize the title is misleading.
This is in response to a conversation that developed in [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23667/unfinished-math-phd/26115?noredirect=1#comment54384_26115) thread.
I would like to hear from academia.SE members who have been search committee members on a junior search. How many publications, and of what quality would be required to get a job at different kinds of universities?
Let's say for the purpose of this exercise that we are in the U.S. and that there are five kind of universities.
1. 2 year community colleges with incredibly heavy teaching expectations (4/4+)
2. 4 year public or private colleges with heavy teaching expectations (3/4)
3. Elite small liberal arts colleges with moderate to light teaching expectations (2/2 - 3/3).
4. Non-elite state universities with graduate programs and light teaching loads (2/2).
5. Elite universities with little to no teaching (1/- or 1/1).
It would also be helpful if respondents would identify which discipline they are in.<issue_comment>username_1: Here's an answer for philosophy, based on anecdotal experience seeing my friends CVs and how they fared on the job market.
1. No expectations of research. Tenure, if it exists, is going to be on the basis of teaching and service.
2. Here you need to have published something, but it isn't terribly important that it be in a very high-profile journal. To get tenure you'll probably have to get two to four things published, but quality won't matter very much.
3. Here you'll need to have at least one very good publication under your belt in order to get considered and realistically probably more like 3-4 publications in top 20 journals for your field. these are desirable jobs and quality will definitely count.
4. To get a job that involves grad teaching you are going to have to have a number of very high profile publications that speak to your ability to become a recognized leader in your field. I'd think you'd need 3-5 publications, some of which are in top 10ish places.
5. To get the brass ring, you don't seem to need more than one or two papers, but they need to be in the very best places there are, plus you need to have a couple other papers in the works that your SC can imagine will land there too.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm the faculty search chair for a top-5 American computer science department.
>
> How many publications, and of what quality would be required to get a job...?
>
>
>
**This is simply the wrong question.** To be considered for a position, you must have an independent research record among the very best in the world in your age cohort and subfield. The *number* of publications really doesn't matter, for the same reason grades don't matter for admission to a top PhD program; there are enough applicants with enough publications that we can afford to focus on more important features.
What matters more is the quality, visibility, impact, and reputation of your research. You must have a coherent and compelling research vision and agenda. You must have letters from the very best people in your field—people that the search committee already know by reputation, preferably *not* at your home institution. Those letters must say things like "major impact on the field" and "strongest student on the market this year", with specific, technical, and credible details to back up their opinions.
Moreover, the search committee must agree with the assessment in the reference letters. Without a champion on the search committee, you will not get an interview; there are simply too many strong applicants. Yes, we *do* read your statements, your papers, and other papers that cite your papers ourselves. We also call up colleagues in your field who didn't write you letters and ask them who the best people are in your field; they'd better mention you.
That gets you to the short list of people we are willing to interview. Unless it's a dry year, there are more people on this list than interview slots, so the recruiting committee has long discussions comparing the merits of various candidates and arguing about departmental needs/strategy. Sometimes enough clear winners emerge; more often, we just have to vote.
Once you are invited to an interview, your performance at the interview often becomes more important than your past record. Your talk must be compelling and polished. You must impress the faculty and students you meet with your breadth of expertise, your research agenda/vision, your likely success as an advisor, as a collaborator, as an instructor, and as an intellectual leader.
In short, it must be clear that you will get tenure.
Inevitably, more people will "pass" the interview than we have positions to offer. So there is another long and wide-ranging discussion among the faculty, comparing the merits of the various top candidates and arguing about departmental needs. Sometimes clear winners emerge; other times the faculty deadlock and the department head has to make the call.
I have seen candidates with 2 or 3 groundbreaking papers get hired (and later get tenure). I have also seen fresh PhDs with 20+ papers in top venues that were not even considered for an interview, because their work was judged incremental or narrow. The number of papers is simply not the right metric to care about.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The answer we give at our R1 is "N+1" both in regards to hiring and promotion/tenure. That is, there's no safe bright line. Even if you had N publications, you would have needed "N+1" to get hired, promoted, or tenured. It makes for a lot of anxiety in the junior faculty.
Note: Been a search committee member on both searches within my department in the social sciences as well as interdisciplinary programs in the humanities.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/19 | 2,112 | 8,661 | <issue_start>username_0: My institution provides a dedicated storage space to host our academic websites, which is reachable via the institution domain (something like `http://people.institution.org/John.Doe/`).
I try to have a tidy website of a few pages listing my publications, research area, contact, etc. It is currently reachable through my institution domain. I try to also put some efforts in SEO when people look up for my name or particular research area on search engines.
I'm in my last year of Ph.D. and I will undoubtedly move to other institutions in the next few years, so I am wondering if it wouldn't be preferable to host my academic webpage on a dedicated domain `http://www.johndoe.com`, which would prevent the need to do the SEO all over again each time I will switch to a new institution.
The only advantage to use my institution domain is the affiliation, but this information is present on my website anyway.
I'm a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering in France, if it matters.<issue_comment>username_1: Reasons to use your own host/tld:
1. You don't expect to be at your current (or future) institution for very long.
2. Your institution uses a painful CMS system, requires you to use ugly templates, or has content or size restrictions.
3. You don't want to ask your department head or IT manager/webmistress for permission every time you want to update your page.
4. Your personal brand is more important than the university brand (see #1).
5. You are part of a multi-university project.
6. You created your own domain website when you were a graduate student and never found a good reason to switch to your employers' sites, even a dozen plus years after graduation (my case).
7. etc.
Reasons to only use your university website:
1. It's the default position.
2. It doesn't cost you any additional hosting or domain registration fees.
3. In many cases, the department or IT admin will help you set it up using one of their templates, meaning you do not have to learn web design
4. In some cases, the database that populates your research publications will be pulled from your Faculty Annual Report (or vice
versa). This means that keeping the university CMS happy results in
less paperwork overall in terms of reporting your research
activities to the university.
5. The google-juice (SEO) of the university will likely be higher than your own.
6. Some may argue it looks more professional to have an .edu/~name site rather than a private.com website.
7. Loyalty
8. etc.
And of course, one can always do both. The cons of doing both are:
1. Requires updating both.
2. Visitors may be confused about which site to go to (or you have the same info mirrored, which leads to #1)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Why don't you just do both? By both, I mean use both URLs. I "do both", so when I graduate, I'll still have my site for others to see. You can do this in many ways, but I had my university student page auto-redirect to my personal home page. The code for that is like a one-liner.
This grants me the opportunity to refer people to different sites depending on the situation. I think myname.com is undoubtedly easier to remember than the nuances in my university student site URL: people.school.org/first.last ... On the other hand, if the situation is more institution-based, perhaps it's better to stick with my college's name. You've got options this way.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I find it really strange that no one has mentioned the possible reputational benefits of using the university's website. I don't think there's any way to write this without sounding like a snob, but I'll say it anyways; people are snobbier than they like to admit, and academia is probably worse than many other fields. If you're at an at all prestigious institution (even actually, if you're at a not so prestigious one), you want to emphasize that affiliation. Of course, your work has to stand on its own two feet ultimately, but people will be more open to it if they see you're connected to a serious institution, rather than some dude in his basement (remember, there's always something they could be doing rather than reading your paper). Most academics keep a mental rolodex of where people are located for different purposes, like knowing where to send students or where they might like to visit. Why make it harder for them to figure this out?
A couple of other commenters have mentioned that you should be building your own brand, not the universities, but I don't see how you separate those. Usually, the university has a much stronger brand than you do, so you want to steal a bit of it for yourself. If you're in a situation where this isn't the case, it's still a virtuous cycle where improving the department's reputation should ultimately pay you back, and shouldn't stop you from moving.
That said, I've certainly experienced the trouble of moving my website (many times), so I see the appeal of having a stable website that doesn't have to be moved, but why not both?
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: You are trying to find a design solution for a technical problem that does not exist.
You mention SEO as your primary concern (for whatever reason¹). So when you move your professional website to another institution, (have your admin) put a [301 (Moved Permanently)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_301) in your old website's `.htaccess` and search engines will automatically update their databases accordingly.
This assumes that you can keep your old (sub)domain/page at least for a few months; as far as I can tell, this is common. Many groups/departments maintain lists to alumni at their current position, anyway; it is as much advertisement for them as it is for you (if you're good).
Note that you can still use one domain as an alias for the other. Which direction you choose is probably irrelevant in most cases. I'd argue that it *is* important to have *something* at an institution URL so that you have a representative address that looks official and leaves no doubt that you are, indeed, *the* John Doe from the University of Illustriousness and not some dude who happend to be the first to register john-doe.com.
---
1. As a researcher, I figure that your publications are your business cards. These are indexed in other places and your moving does not change how they can be found (and thank the powers that be for that!). Search engines pick up on your new website in a matter of days (for some you can even trigger indexing yourself) which should be enough, assuming that there is little more value but contact data besides the publications there. But ymmv.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I think you should do both, but in a different way that has been [suggested by username_4](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/26187/5962) and [by username_2](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/26141/5962). Both of these other suggestions involve doing some sort of invisible "redirect" from one page (almost always the temporary institutional page) to the permanent page on your domain. [username_1 suggested having two pages](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/26140/5962) which is the closest to my answer. I suggest you should create a page on your institution but have it be a small "soft" redirect that asks people to click through.
Keep an institutional page but keep it very simple. Have the page give the following information (at most):
* A short narrative biography of you and your reseausername_2 or teaching interests.
* A nice recent picture of you. [Nice, but optional.]
* A link to your CV on your website. [Optional]
* A list of 2-3 recent selected papers. [Optional]
* **A very prominent link to your actual homepage on your domain**. I do this with text like, "For more detail on my reseausername_2 and teaching, visit full academic homepage.
username_3 is correct in [citing the importance of association with your institution for status reasons](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26130/should-i-host-my-academic-website-under-my-institution-domain-or-under-a-domain) In order to get the benefit, put the name and the logo and/or seal for your institution prominently on your personal page in a way that makes it clear that you are associated with the institution but also clear that it is your personal page.
This is what I have been doing for years. One benefit is that many institutions make updating institutional pages tricky (e.g., you need to go through a webmaster). This is a nice compromise in this situation because you only need to update the biography, picture, etc. infrequently.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/19 | 1,290 | 5,165 | <issue_start>username_0: **Context:** I'm writing a dissertation in Computational Social Science using the [Kluwer](http://www.mackichan.com/products/shells/kluwer.pdf) bibliographic style. My question isn't specific to this style and applies generally to dissertations in computer science, sociology, economics, and management.
**Q: Should I include URL (DOI or other) in bibliographic entries for all journal or conference articles, in addition to normal full citation information?**
There is no such requirement or guidelines from my University or Department. I've done numerous web searches, but I've never found any general guidelines on this.
**Pro:** All of my committee members and most of my readers now read articles on-line rather than through printed journals or proceedings. All the URLs will have hyperlinks, so when they are reading the PDF of my dissertation, they can click on the hyperlink that will open a browser window to the article. In addition, my dissertation will have internal hyperlinks from citations to bibliography entries and from key terms to glossary entries. Finally, I use the Zotero reference manager, and I can usually acquire the URL as part of the "one click" import process.
**Con:** Adding URLs for every journal/conference article adds visual clutter to the bibliography. When the URLs are not DOI, they may not be valid for a long time. It will add some work to test and correct URLs that don't meet the basic criteria of usability, consistency, and stability.<issue_comment>username_1: Adding DOIs and URLs to your bib references is really a good idea!
If you are really concerned on the visual clutter, you can "hide" hrefs under the author/title/journal line. In this case, the references are not visible in print version (which is probably not terribly bad, since only a few people will bother to type DOIs from paper back to a browser search line). In the pdf version, however, one can click on the bib reference line to access the online document (which is really something people appreciate). If you hide hrefs under the titles, make sure your PDF readers do understand this (give them a clue with a footnote or so).
It is really a good idea to use DOIs as much as possible and avoid using potentially unstable URLs. However, if the document is not easy to find (e.g. not among first 3 references in the Google scholar), I would probably go with the URL to help navigate the reader.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Your college should have people responsible for determining if a dissertation has been formatted correctly. Even if you are completely unconcerned about running afoul of this by adding links, check with them first and save a potential headache. They can be very demanding and unyielding.
And depending on what you're typesetting the bibliography with, changing formats can be as simple as changing a single word/setting. This would allow you to create one version with convenient links, and another without, and so on, as desired, with essentially no extra work.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Adding links is extremely useful for people who actually want to lookup the references.
DOI serve both as a link and as an identifier, so adding it is a good idea in general. (A similar thing holds for arXivID.)
Both for DOI and arXivID it should be visible as `doi:1234/56781` and `arXiv:1401.9999`, with an underlying link so it is clickable.
With other links, I consider them only if both DOI and arXivID are absent.
It may be less stable, but still it is better than nothing.
If you are really concerned with the visual appeal, you can make the title (or journal reference) clickable without spelling out the complete link. But personally I think that for references usability is more important than visuals (at least, it is what I do for my PhD thesis).
To get you some taste, it looks more or less as (the citation style is temporary, just look at the style of links):
Another approach (from a paper) would be to hide link addresses as in:
See also:
* [How to get DOI links in bibliography - TeX.SE](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/3802/how-to-get-doi-links-in-bibliography)
* [BibTeX fields for DOI, MR, Zbl and arxiv? - TeX.SE](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/151628/bibtex-fields-for-doi-mr-zbl-and-arxiv)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: With my *copy editor* hat on, I'm certainly for including useful things in the biblio, especially DOI and online repo (arXiv and stuff) links are very useful, since more information in bibliography prevents typos and mistakes from being significant.
With my *thesis oponent/reader* hat on, I have the very same opinion, since I'm very likely interested in checking some of the references, mostly because they're unknown to me and I'm curious what they are about.
With my *article author* hat on, I'm for as well, since it's more likely that people actually read my paper when you cite it.
Conclusion: The more information the better.
Upvotes: 3 |
2014/07/20 | 880 | 3,817 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergraduate at the [Open University](http://www.open.ac.uk/) (OU), which allows me to study part-time and from home (actually even from a different country). Getting my BSc will take me other several years, but I want to start gaining experience with doing research and start publishing papers. Specifically my field would be the Semantic Web and I already have lots of industry experience in this subject, just not much academic experience yet. So I found this institute at the OU called the [Knowledge Media Institute (KMi)](http://kmi.open.ac.uk/) that actually does quite interesting Semantic Web work. I contacted some professors from various labs in the institute and none seem to offer remote internships.
Now to my question: how do other OU students start publishing given that there isn't really a campus and you're most likely in another country?
PS: I know research is usually accomplished face-to-face, but this relates specifically to OU which is a highly-accredited online university. There must still be a way to do research for an undegrad at OU.<issue_comment>username_1: At the risk of sounding obvious let me share some advice that will not be specific to OU.
First, wherever you are, you can do research on your own, although it's usually a tough call while being at the undergraduate level.
A somewhat more realistic option could be locating and contacting the academics in your field at a university *reasonably close to your location* (so that you can at some point contact them in person) and get them interested in supervising your research *jointly* with the OU people or on their own.
The problem with the second option is how to get the people at your local university interested in working with you but perhaps you could get some letters of recommendation from your teachers at OU to help your cause.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There is usually no absolute requirement to be associated with an academic institution in order to submit a paper to a journal.
However, you have a serious credibility barrier to overcome if you choose that route, depending on how common independent research is in your field. My impression is that in some fields (network security, for example), publication by independent researchers is relatively common. In contrast, it would be much less common to publish an experimental neuroscience paper without an academic affiliation (I've never seen one).
You may also have an issue regarding access to the literature without an affiliation.
Maybe you should try writing a short project proposal, with some preliminary results or analysis (whatever's appropriate), and sending it to the researchers to ask if they would like to collaborate.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: You may look into getting started with open-access journals. These are probably more likely to be amenable to independent research. Some examples are [PloS](http://plos.org), and [The Winnower](http://thewinnower.com). Good luck!
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: You make it sound as though doing research requires publication in a journal. I will answer just regarding publication. If you have found some journals that you might wish to publish a paper in, consider contacting the OU professors you wrote to and asking them for specific advice not abot internships but about getting your paper published. They are at the same university as you, so you are writing to them as a colleague.
Have you asked the question on one of the OU's internal online forums? I'm not a member of the OU so I don't have access, but I know that the university runs several much-used forums online.
And have you asked your module tutors or whoever else has an official academic responsibility towards you at the OU?
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/20 | 1,304 | 5,610 | <issue_start>username_0: I am in the field of computer science. It is often the case when I am reading a paper I start to wonder, *"Wow stunning results, however, I would like to prove that."* or *"How exactly did he get these amazing results? He/she just wrote a rough overview of the real methodology used in this paper."*. As you can see, a lot of times the small things have a huge impact on the overall performance of the underlying methodology. Often they are not part of the paper or not revealed at all.
My idea would be to contact the paper writer, to ask for his research programs to recreate them and understand them. Can/should I do that?
I personally think that there are probably not a lot of researchers, who would let somebody else *"look at their cards"*. What's your experience with that?<issue_comment>username_1: Ask for the code. Please do, however, explain why you want it and what you intend to use it for.
Personally, I would be quite happy if someone contacted me about my research, and would try to give all the necessary tools to recreate my data. Especially so if I am not currently working on a follow up piece.
That said, I've asked for parameters, codes, procedures etc. several times from the authors when the description in a paper has been vague. I've had a lot of different responses: Some have plain ignored me, others have given me everything I asked for, and yet others have only obliged when I've suggested that I might be willing to put them as co-authors if I built upon their code in a way that leads to a publication. Finally, some have refused my request. This has happened for a number of reasons, for example those discussed in [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17781/why-do-many-talented-scientists-write-horrible-software).
If you ask for code and say that you just want to verify some of the conclusions of the authors or use it as a reference for your own implementation, you can most typically expect a refusal or no reply. This, at least, is the experience I've had.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I think it is perfectly fine, and I encourage asking for the code. I actually support the position that *any* published results based on software are worth next to nothing if the authors are not willing to publish the source code along with them. If they have not already done so when publishing their paper, I find it their moral obligation to do so as soon as possible or at least upon request.
If the reason for authors not publishing their source code is that they do not fully trust their own software, then the results should not have been published at all. Why should anyone trust your results if you are not willing to defend the way you produced them?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, it is fine to ask. From my experience, not many researchers share their code. Sometimes the reason is that the authors are afraid that you will write a better algorithm or that you will extend their work before them. Some other reasons may be that the software has no documentation and they don't have time to prepare some documention, is not written in english, or has dependency to commercial software or software that belong to other authors. However, there is a lot of reasons for sharing the code. It gives more visibility to your work, helps other researchers so that they don't need to reimplement your work, allows for a more fair comparison when comparing algorithms, etc.
Personnally, I have asked the source code or datasets of other authors several times. If they don't want to share, they usually just don't reply to the e-mail, or they may say no. But there is no consequence to asking. So just ask. Besides, sometimes the authors will not provide the source code or datasets but often they can still give you the binary files. In that case, it can still be useful.
Personally, I share the source code and datasets of all my research papers as first author as part of an open-source data mining library ( <http://www.philippe-fournier-viger.com/spmf/> )and I believe that all authors should also share source code and datasets. Here is a blog post where I explain in more details why it is important to do so: <http://data-mining.philippe-fournier-viger.com/why-it-is-important-to-publish-source-code-and-datasets-for-researchers/>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: It's absolutely acceptable to contact an author and ask for their code - and in my experience, a good portion of researchers are more than happy to share their code. While yes, there are some who won't want to let someone get a glimpse into their work, this isn't a universal stance.
A few things to note:
* You are asking for a favor, please do recognize it as such. Preparing code is not a zero-effort activity. For example, if you're talking to researchers doing human subjects work, there's potentially data that needs to be stripped out. Even if there isn't, it's possible that code for ongoing, as-yet unpublished research needs to get stripped out, comments cleaned up, things like that.
* When asking for someone's code, do make it clear what you're planning on using it for. Beyond making it more likely for your request to be met favorably, it'll be useful for helping the person providing the code know what it is you need. For example, do you want to build on their stuff? Simply reproduce their results? Something else? There might be things you need to know that are purpose-specific.
* If you intend to spin things into a paper, you might want to get them involved in that as well.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/20 | 450 | 1,943 | <issue_start>username_0: **Question:** I am interested in two fields, mathematical biology and cryptography. Is it okay to discuss both of these interests in my statement of purpose?
I'm currently a junior majoring in mathematics. I have to write a statement of purpose so that I can be able to attend a mathematics conference. During the conference there will be a time where we can submit applications to graduate schools there. I'm not sure if it is for seniors only, but I am writing one just in case. I don't know which schools are going to be there. If I did I would just choose one depending on the degrees offered by each school, but I don't know who is going to be there.<issue_comment>username_1: Keep it short and succinct, I would say a paragraph is good, unless otherwise stated in the application. If this means that you only have enough space to talk about one of those areas, then pick one.
If the conference is more geared towards pure mathematics, I would suggest expanding on your interest in cryptography. Otherwise, if it is an applied mathematics conference, then talk about your studies in biological math. Chances are schools which specialize in pure mathematics will attend a pure mathematics conference, and likewise for applied math. If you want to find out the universities who are attending, just ask an event coordinator. I'm sure there isn't any secrecy surrounding who is attending.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would try to emphasize (as far as possible) the commonality of math between the two disciplines. For instance, biology may use a lot of differential equations, or even graph theory, and perhaps cryptography can too.
It would be awesome if you came up with an application combining the two disciplines, e.g. using fingerprinting for crytography. Your job in writing a statement of purpose is to convince people that you're a viable candidate for such role.
Upvotes: 1 |
2014/07/20 | 885 | 3,847 | <issue_start>username_0: If a PhD student is working on a research project which is neither related to his thesis topic, nor supported by the university in which he is studying or a faculty member; Does he have the right to use his academic affiliation and contact email?
There are two points here,
* If the student is using the university facilities, he may acknowledge that support in the Acknowledgement section of his paper not by using the university affiliation.
* The university in which the student is studying in doesn't necessarily want to be associated with whatever research he does in his free hours.
P.S.: Does this consideration apply to the researchers who work in a research institute or company?<issue_comment>username_1: First step: Ask your (1) advisor or (2) the department head or (3) both. Since you are not faculty, you may have to get permission to use the departmental affiliation for something that is outside your project. As long as this involves ethical and legitimate research I am sure it is not a problem. The department or university may have guidelines for publishing ethics which you may want to check as well. So, although there may not even be a problem, it is better to be safe than sorry.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It can just be published as "unsponsored research". If they value their relationships highly though, they should dialog with their professors.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes.
----
The affiliation serves two purposes: acknowledgement and identification.
Even if it is not part of your thesis research, if you are receiving resources *of any kind* from your institution, you should list them as your affiliation. These resources include money (whether directly related to your research or not), computing equipment, internet access, printer access, electricity, phones, faculty and student colleagues (whether coauthors or not), library access (either physical or electronic), whiteboards, local coffee shops/bars, and the general intellectual atmosphere that encourages you to do research in the first place. You can afford to be generous.
Also, the affiliation helps identify you as an author, especially if you have a common name, or you publish other papers with the same affiliation.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Sorry to revive old post, but here's one more perspective - consider not some abstract "right" of the student, but rather the political and practical aspect for somebody building a career. For argument's sake, OP, let's assume your paper was on a totally unrelated subject, using no university resources, i.e., typed up at home on a personally owned laptop. Even so, think about how your advisor will react when he is surprised to learn that you have been spending time and energy working on this significant outside project and didn't even tell him. PhD students in sciences receive a full stipend, and that is supposed to sponsor *ALL* your academic energy (regardless of day/night). After all, some of us do our best work at night and at home. The time it would take to conduct independent research and publish is easily like a moonlighting job, and this is usually frowned upon or explicitly forbidden. It is a distraction from your dissertation, and will likely slow down the research of your advisor who is paying your stipend. Finally and most importantly, the advisor has powerful influence over your professional future. When that advisor is writing the all-important recommendation letter, you want him to say you are dedicated, focused, and hard working, not that you are an irresponsible dilettante / rogue player. I know this may sound harsh, but it is the reality of the world. (I'm a full professor in the sciences at a top 10 US university, and I have advised 12 PhD students over 20 years.)
Upvotes: -1 |
2014/07/21 | 281 | 1,237 | <issue_start>username_0: I am interested in finding the ISI-indexed papers for a given institition X. This would be any ISI-indexed paper where one or more authors are affiliated with X. Is this doable and are there any guidelines for how to do this?<issue_comment>username_1: The easiest way would be to do a Web of Science search using the '*Address*' field, with the university name or institution name as query. This will most likely return lots of results, and you will maybe need to go through them manually to do some quality checking. You can also refine search results by '*Countries/Territories*' to filter irrelevant results (e.g. similarly named institutions in different countries). You can also use the '*Address*' field to search for individual department names while also including city and country for some good results.
You can ofcourse do similar searches in Scopus etc. as well, but if you are specifically after ISI-indexed papers you should use Web of Science (maybe even restricting yourself to only the *Web of Science Core Collection* database).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Ask a librarian at Institution X. You would probably get your answer in a few minutes or maybe in at most 24 hours.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/21 | 440 | 1,881 | <issue_start>username_0: I am reading a colleague's CV which lists an "Excellent Foreign Scholar" scholarship from the National Science Foundation of China. I am not familiar with this program, nor is google particularly helpful for me as a complete non-speaker of Chinese. Is anyone familiar with this program, and what it would entail?<issue_comment>username_1: Go to google for china and you can ask that it translate the page. You will find several articles related to the "Excellent Foreign Scholar" scholarship from the National Science Foundation of China.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: *Preamble: I am one of a few Chinese active participants on this site. There have been some questions about Chinese academics here. I always tried to not to answer them. For example, there was a question about the role of correspondence author in Chinese academia(the OP even offered a bounty for it). I did not answer them for two reasons: I am not an insider and I do not wish to give out information I am not absolutely certain about. However, I feel that I need to give some answer for this question because I just see some un-useful answer. Hopefully some Chinese scholars will answer them after they see this one.*
According to this [document](http://www.access4.eu/_media/NSFC_4_new.pdf), "The Joint Research Fund for Overseas Chinese Scholars and Scholars in Hong Kong and Macao is established by Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) to encourage **excellent** overseas Chinese scholars (including those with **foreign** nationalities) under the age of 50 to conduct high-level joint research with researchers and organizations in mainland China."
I suspect your colleague received this fund. Please note that the qualification is oversea Chinese scholar. "Foreign" here means he could be born in oversea but at least one of his parents is a Chinese.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/21 | 852 | 3,478 | <issue_start>username_0: I am currently writing a paper in which I have many topics to describe. It would not be productive to read and cite papers or even books on the topics because I just have to describe them very briefly as an introduction to some follow up topics.
For "private" use I would just use the corresponding Wikipedia articles but that is considered bad practice in academic papers.
So do you have any tips how to get credible definitions of and/or short introductions into (in my case computer science) topics without searching through dozens of papers/books for some useful/credible parts?<issue_comment>username_1: I tend to use books for this sort of thing. For example, if I need a definition of "data mining", I do a Google Books search for that term. A book about "data mining" is going to define the term in the introduction or first chapter, so it will usually be in the pages that are part of the free preview.
Another option is to look at the citations used in the Wikipedia article itself, and then look up those articles. Wikipedia tends to be pretty good at citing the key article(s) for a particular subject.
Also, it's helpful to know a few online cite-worthy dictionaries that you can search for common definitions. For example, [The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy](http://plato.stanford.edu/index.html) is useful for philosophical terms.
There's also [Scholarpedia](http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Main_Page), which is a peer-reviewed online encyclopedia. It's not as extensive as Wikipedia. However, in my field at least, the articles tend to be written by well-known names.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Consider:
* textbooks on a given subject,
* review (rather than research) articles on a given subject,
* key papers (e.g. the one where a given subject was introduced for the first time).
Good places to start:
* <http://scholar.google.com/> and look for general and (typically) highly cited books or papers,
* the *references* sections on Wikipedia.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I agree with the idea of referencing books. You may not want to buy a book for each topic.
I suggest using libraries. Most people writing papers have access to a university or other reference library. Many will let you go in and read books there, even if you are not affiliated with the university.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: You need not discard a Wikipedia definition if it is one that you like. Print sources can be equally sketchy as anyone can print books (cf. "<NAME>", by <NAME>). It sounds like you merely want correctness, not *sources* of definitions anyway.
As long as the definition is fairly accurate, just cite it as you would a print source, but (like with all internet resources) give the date and time along with your citation, since the Internet can change out from under you.
In any case, it's not really academics who have a problem with Wikipedia, it's the publishers and ever since the printing press, they've spent a good while curating influence on the minds of the Establishment. But obviously, with the Internet, it all needs re-addressed.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: I read abstracts of journal articles I can find on JSTOR.
Abstracts generally serve as concise summaries of entire papers. They're also written by the author(s) of the article, so you know the emphasis will be on the core of the topic, not on side-note information.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/21 | 708 | 2,887 | <issue_start>username_0: I am working on my PhD thesis and have to write a monograph based on my publications. To prevent that I plagiarize myself, I came up with the idea to automatically check my thesis against my publications.
Is there already a tool for this work-flow?
>
> **Input:** PDf of thesis and a pile of PDFs;
>
> **Output:** annotated PDF of thesis.
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: Use [Mendeley](http://www.mendeley.com/) while doing your edit and make use of its robust functionalities which will prevent most plagiarism as it helps in annotations.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Summary:
* Make sure you understand the standards of self-plagiarism relevant to your project.
* Your institution's LMS likely provides access to an automated plagiarism checker you could use.
* Automated plagiarism checkers are imperfect.
* Some people think that commercial plagiarism checkers are unethical.
If you haven't already done so, talk to your dissertation committee about their understanding of self-plagiarism. What exactly are they concerned you might do? What are their standards, and are these standards reflective of common standards in your discipline?
Once you know how your committee understands self-plagiarism, talk to the people who administer the learning management system (LMS) at your campus. Many LMSs include access to commercial plagiarism checkers, and many of these services allow teachers or students to upload selected papers to the plagiarism checker's database. (The idea is that the plagiarism checkers allow teachers to check student work against unpublished papers that other students--like roommates or sorority sisters--have submitted in response to the same assignment in a different section of the course). If you put your publications into the plagiarism checker's database, you should be able to use the plagiarism checker to identify potential self-plagiarism.
HOWEVER, automated plagiarism checkers are imperfect. Whichever one you use, it will probably flag some stuff that isn't really plagiarism, and it might miss some stuff that is. The automated checker should supplement your own judgment, not replace it.
Finally, some people think that commercial plagiarism checkers are unethical because they collect papers and make money off of them without paying the authors. The courts have ruled that it's fair use, but you should at least know that the issue exists.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I don't know it will work for you or Not but you can compare your current thesis with any other previous thesis one by one by using plagiarism comparison tools. There are lot of tools available on internet here is an example
[Plagiarism comparison](https://www.prepostseo.com/plagiarism-comparison-search)
You have to compare your current thesis one by one with older one. This is very effective tool..
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/21 | 574 | 2,602 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm fairly early on in my PhD research. A few months ago I submitted an abstract to a conference, which was accepted. The conference is coming up soon, and my research has taken a slight turn away from my accepted abstract (still same field, collaborators, etc...--just asking slightly different questions and taking a slightly different approach).
My question is, am I obligated to put the program-accepted abstract on my poster? If I am, should I try to tie my poster content as closely to that accepted abstract as possible? Or can I present poster content that would've been more appropriate for a different abstract?
Or can I use a different abstract on my poster, and thus tie the content more closely to what my current research path is?
What about keeping the original abstract in its entirely, but appending it?
EDIT: I'm in the field of astrobiology (probably most similar to the fields of geology or astronomy if I had to relate it to a more conventional field)<issue_comment>username_1: I work in astronomy.
I have never heard of anyone in authority at a conference complain about a slight deviation from a submitted abstract.
I suggest writing your poster on your new direction, with a corresponding abstract.
I would also submit your amended abstract to the LOC of the conference as soon as possible. Mention that your work has taken a slight turn but the main topic and co-authors are unchanged.
If there is time, the LOC can include your amended abstract on any web-page or hard-copy documentation. Apologise for the inconvenience that this may cause the LOC and ask nicely that they make these amendments, if possible.
Even if these documents cannot be altered, I doubt that anyone is going to get upset that your new abstract is not exactly the same that you originally submitted.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In most fields, it is quite common for the subject matter of either a poster or a talk to stray quite significantly from the submitted and accepted abstract. This is understood as part of the "cost" of asking for abstracts to be submitted months before the conference is actually held. If people want to present cutting-edge research, then it will often require either a generic abstract or deviations from what was submitted.
That said, you can't arbitrarily change your poster topic *too* much—it should still be in the general area of the poster or abstract you submitted (otherwise it may end up being out of place in the session where it's presented). But deviations that stay within the topic matter are fine.
Upvotes: 2 |
2014/07/22 | 818 | 3,489 | <issue_start>username_0: I have seen one extreme of the spectrum, where a person conducts great research without even attending college. For a student to become an independent researcher, how much is on the advisor's shoulder and how much on the student? I know the answers may be all over the map. Just curious what your takes are on this question. Anecdotes and personal examples are welcome.
I have noticed some professors are more successful in supervising students to become independent researchers (approximated by the number/ratio of alumni who land research jobs) than others, even though their research portfolios and student qualities are similar (e.g., in the same department). That's one reason I bring up this question.<issue_comment>username_1: Pairing students and advisers with complementary *goals*, *needs*, and *expectations* is the key. If a student is already self-motivated, capable, independent, and has a fully-funded, well-conceived research project, then they can be paired with an adviser who gives little oversight. However, if a student is lacking in one or more of those areas, then they should be paired with an adviser who can support them and help them improve on their weaker skills.
References
<NAME>. "A Review of the Literature on Effective PhD Supervision" Centre for Academic Practice and Student Learning, Trinity College (2008).
<NAME>. "Postgraduate Research Supervision: A Process of Knowledge Management." (2001)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: There are two major types of advisor approaches which I've encountered during my studies:
1. Hands-off, abstract guidance only. Hint at which areas are interesting or currently active, but do not throw yourself into your student's work. Usually such advisors will gladly proofread the student's work for errors, but they rarely know what to do if a student gets seriously stuck. Advisor sessions may be spent discussing current trends, future work of either the advisor or the student or, in some cases, simply "life advice".
2. Co-worker approach. The advisor treats his student as an equal and tries to immerse himself into the student's work (or vice versa). By having a lot of exposure to the advisor's routine (how he goes around solving problems, how much time he spends doing research, how he prepares for lectures, etc.), the teacher aims to guide the student by example.
These two approaches are often seen in combination (while the student may be treated as a coworker, he still is usually the one to do the typesetting, the programming, and other time-consuming tasks).
Personally, I prefer the second approach, which is likely because I am not that settled in the "theoretical research" routine. Some of my friends, who have known since their Master's studies what they want to do, are very enthusiastic about having a well known professor with the hands-off approach.
To answer the question about either approach fostering independence, I believe the hands-off approach leads to much larger independence as a researcher, but the coworker approach may lead to a much better work ethic (mirroring the professor), which is tremendously important in science.
It seems to me that students have a harder time successfully completing research (asking the right question, having the right insights, etc.) than being independent. Therefore I believe that student/advisor relationship does not need to promote "independence" in any substantial way.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer] |
2014/07/22 | 1,185 | 5,092 | <issue_start>username_0: We received a report on our paper (it's the 2nd version already). The referee writes:
>
> The proofs are correct. However, I'm not completely satisfied with the style in which the paper is written and the authors have to work more on the **essay**.
>
>
>
I'm not sure what we can do with that. We are not native speakers and we did our best to use as good English as we can. I'm not sure how we should respond to that, since currently it seems to be the only thing that prevents us from finishing the referee process. We implemented the minor corrections suggested by this referee and as well the remarks by the language editor.
Any ideas how to proceed in such a case, please?<issue_comment>username_1: The referee is obviously satisfied with the "scientific" part of the publication but points out the narrative itself. I don't think that your English language skills are the deciding in the factor in that matter. You could write the same paper in your native language, let it someone translate it as it is and still get the same comment. As the referee puts it, it's the style that has issues. You should try to formulate your paper in a way which not only lists the discovered facts one after the another, but attempts to guide the reader's thought process towards your idea and results. Make it more interesting and engaging. Your language should be eloquent, your narrative consistent, your thought flow constant; the paper itself serves as a way to reflect the scientist's mind and as such it does not consist only of definitions, lemmas, theorems, proofs, citations, figures, etc., because a significant part is the skill (or art) to mold them into an article that readers will enjoy reading.
If the problem is really only the lack of English skills, try to write it up in your native language and consult some professional to translate it.
If that is not the case, don't be discouraged, good writing is a skill and can be learned and trained. Unfortunately, I've encountered many students (and some experienced scientists) who struggle with this. I personally blame it on the lack of reading of non-scientific material, like novels, articles, philosophical works, etc. Of course, this doesn't mean that you should style your paper like an adventure novel, but, as I mentioned before, writing is a skill, and it is best honed by being in contact with other well written materials. This way, you'll broaden your vocabulary, improve the ability to express your thoughts through text and, if you focus on English materials, become more proficient in English.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: The comment from the reviewer may mean;
1- Rearrange the ideas in your paper. For example, the order in which the things are explained may not make sense to the reviewer. Note that this is completely subjective thing, one order of ideas may make sense to one person but not so much to some other person. So, Just try some re-arrangement of idea and hope for the best.
2- The story may be weak. I would suggest to start the story with some ground work by highlighting the existing similar work by other researchers in your field. Then gradually move towards what you are offering in your paper. The rest of the paper will then explain the details of your ideas.
These are just my suggestion. You know the best what is good for you. Good luck!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The comment could mean two things:
1. There is a problem with the way your article is organized
2. There is a problem with your English
I would start by looking at other recent articles in that journal, and see if the organization of your article is different from those. If that is the case, I would rewrite (probably with a lot of "copy and paste") the article such that the form mimics the typical form in that journal.
If you have a collegue who is a native speaker, you can ask her or him to look at your article. It is probably too much to ask for her or him to completely edit the article, but (s)he can give you an idea whether your English needs to be improved. If that is the case, then I would probably end up hiring someone. There are usually some people who do this freelance. It pays to ask around if someone has done so recently and whether or not (s)he can recommend someone. Also look around in your institution: sometimes you are lucky and there is someone in your institution whose job it is to correct English (that is the case in my current institution).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: If I may add one more thought to the discussion here. I think "the authors have to work more on the essay" proves that this referee is not able to put his thoughts in a usable, clear, scientific way. Style problem!? If he or she does not want to invest the effort in explaining himself properly, I doubt that he is a good referee. It is his/her duty to do a proper job. Ask for specific examples of what he is - vaguely - complaining about. I am certainly questioning **his/her** style. I do referee papers from time to time.
Upvotes: -1 |
2014/07/22 | 1,310 | 6,029 | <issue_start>username_0: What are the differences between papers that are chosen for presentation vs those which are accepted for poster presentation? Is one less reputable than the other one? How does a committee select received manuscripts for these two categories?<issue_comment>username_1: *Disclaimer:* This is mostly from personal experience on the sending side of the process, and a little bit of talking to professors that have actually been on selection committees.
As far as I can tell, the two main points for selection of poster vs. presentation are completeness and impact.
By **completeness** I mean whether the work is actually finished or close to finished. If the selection committee cannot tell whether work is finished, or knows it isn't, this is grounds to select the work for a poster instead of presentation. The main reason is that a presentation about work that isn't finished will most likely be somewhat boring, because it lacks strong conclusions, whereas at a poster a discussion about the work that isn't finished might actually be much nicer than work that is completely done.
**Impact** is a bit of a vague notion, but in this context it consists of relevance to the audience of the conference and the level of innovation in the work. If work seems to be only relevant for a few people attending the conference the work will most likely be selected for a poster, because the people that are interested can then look up the poster. In case of a presentation the room would be mostly empty, because most people are not interested which is undesired. If the work is highly innovative, instead of a small step forward in a big process, this will most likely interest a lot more people, thus making the work suitable for a presentation.
**To summarize**
Finished work with high relevance to the conference audience and preferably large steps forward in the field will be selected for presentation, the opposite case will be selected for a poster or even rejected.
**Discussion**
In general you could say that a presentation is more prestigious, because it is sort of a quality stamp.
However, the boundary between presentation and poster can shift substantially based on the type of conference, the number of submissions to it and the level of submissions and (I know, not fair, but they're only human) the personal preferences of the selection committee.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It might be useful to look at it from the conference organizers' perspective:
* Accepted full papers usually require the author to give an oral presentation at the conference. But the number of time slots for those presentations is usually limited by the size of the venue (number of conference rooms), and extending it either costs the organizers additional money or is not possible at all. So there is a strong motivation to limit the number of accepted full papers, and to choose only those that represent the largest impact/progress to the research field.
* Accepted posters on the other hand are usually presented at a short (~1-2h) poster session, where many posters are presented at the same time in a rather small area. Each conference room booked for the oral presentations can probably be used to present 50-100 posters in a single session, and scheduling a second poster session can cheaply double that. So there is no real motivation to limit the number of accepted posters, beyond making sure that they make sense and represent at least a minor step forward.
These perspectives also match my experience on acceptance and gained reputation in the field of computer science: You can get pretty much anything accepted as a conference poster, while getting a paper accepted is much harder. For that reason, accepted posters are largely irrelevant scientifically, and - in my experience - are usually not even actually published in the conference proceedings (sometimes the proceedings at least contain the extended abstract that was submitted for poster acceptance, sometimes not even that).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In conferences where there is a poster session (or poster sessions) usually there is the option for authors to submit a poster and not a full paper. If this is the case, then there is a page limit for poster and full papers, e.g. poster 4 to 6 pages, full paper 6 to 8 pages.
If there is not such a discrimination but the committee has the option to choose papers for poster session then the selection is based a) either on reviewers comments or b) from the judgment of the organising committee.
In a), there should be a field on the reviewer 's form asking something like: "This submission is for presentation or for poster?" along with the other reviewer form 's fields.
In b), the committee takes into account the subject of conference, its scope, areas of interest and the contribution of the submission. There are two cases: a) The paper is accepted but not, qualitatively, pass the standards of the committee for presentation and is registered for poster, b) There are many good papers but not all of them fit in the time slots of sessions and thus some have to go for poster presentation and the choice is made according to the same criteria for case a).
As for the "reputable" part of the question, if the paper is peer reviewed then is the same either it is presented as poster of presentation. In ones CV the section of conferences' publications (usually) is divided in peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed/abstract reviewed papers.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Regarding "Is one less reputable than the other one? " , in the University I studied they assign points to every contribution (and then sort us for PostDoc positions etc.) A paper chosen for presentation can give you up to 0.75 points whereas a paper chosen for poster can give you up to 0.4 points.
Of course the trick here is the "up to" part, but normally you can count on receiving more reputation from a paper chosen for presentation.
Upvotes: 0 |
2014/07/22 | 1,297 | 5,861 | <issue_start>username_0: I have done my masters in Computer Science, but did not receive much support in the masters program to get the final project published. I am presently working as a software developer in the industry while also trying to perform independent research on a few topics which I have in mind when out of the office.
I have recently completed some research ad derived new method for data clustering based on a heuristic which is novel idea as far as I can tell. I have shown it to work better with respect to only one metric with a few other algorithms which is of the closest type.
I have been allowed to use my employer's organization address and email for correspondence, but my organization has told that there should be a disclaimer that my organization has nothing to do with this research. If I do not use this address, I need to give my current address. I am not sure if I can give my university address at this point, as the entire research was done after I graduated. At the university I had access to journal subscriptions for which appropriate acknowledgments are given.
Previously I have not published any peer-reviewed work anywhere and I am the only author of this manuscript. I am not sure how shall I proceed. Submitting to journal such as Elsevier will be single blind, and as I am trying to publish as a new independent author, will my submission be subject to biases based on my lack of previous publications? Or shall I go for a conference with double blind review process? Also the 7 ~ 10 page mark for conference is difficult to maintain without removing vital components.
Some information about the work. The work was not complex, but is unique and it is shown to work on several well known data-sets. The main topic is data clustering.
*How should I proceed with publication?*
---
**Edit:**
*Adding information in reply to @Nahkk's comment.*
I have no previous academic experience. I have shown this to one professor from a different research interest domain because none of the professors from the paper's domain were interested in this topic, surprisingly. I have also asked for suggestion from a person working in this field. One of them suggests to try for a journal and another suggests a conference first, then work and improve the algorithm do exhaustive tests and then go for a journal later.<issue_comment>username_1: You can try any of the options, and see what result occurs.
As a thought experiment, try submitting your paper to a journal of French historical literature. It will be rejected because (I am guessing) the paper has nothing to do with French historical literature, but it may also be rejected because it doesn't have French in it, or pay enough respect to history, or be written in an appropriate style used to criticize literature in an academic fashion.
More to your case, I would be surprised if, even after reading other papers and attempting to imitate their style, you were able to get your paper accepted at first try to a creditable journal without a large amount of outside coaching, because of issues even more subtle than I mention in the thought experiment above. The advice mentioned in the comments of working on the result to make it more robust and applicable and introducing it to many other people sounds like the right tack to me. In this fashion you will encounter the people who may be interested in your result, and have the experience to share with you on how to best present it, and help you raise its chances for being accepted by a journal.
Since you don't have these experiences yet, you need to depend on the experiences of others or earn it on your own.
Of course, you can try submitting it to a journal first anyway, and see what feedback you get. That is a less gentle but still valid way of gaining experience in these matters.
(If you try the longer and more laborious route of introducing it to several people, I recommend leveraging the effort by researching these people and seeing if they can help you in other ways. With the right preparation, intent, and eye toward future goals, such as recommendation letters accompanying future grant proposals, the "extra" labor in taking this route may turn out to save a lot of work in the long run.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I think there are many questions here;
**Independent Publishing?** It is possible to publish your work as an independent researcher. see this question "[Does one need to be affiliated with a university to publish papers?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3010/does-one-need-to-be-affiliated-with-a-university-to-publish-papers)". For further confirmation, I would suggest to directly contact the responsible personnel of the conference or journal.
**Forums(Journal vs Conference)?** Journals are usually assumed to be of high standard. However, this might not be true always.Some conferences have equal or higher standard than journals; they only accept high quality works. However, you should be able to find many conferences with a track record of accepting publications with varying qualities.
**How to find the quality of a forum?** If you want to find out the quality of a forum, check their previous publications and try judging their quality. You can also look for people who have published there, if they are expert in your field then it could be a high quality journal or conference.
**What forum suits my work?** You know the quality of your work therefore aiming for forums inline with the quality of your work will save you a lot of time.
Otherwise, you can discuss with an expert (a professor or researcher in academia) who knows the forums and their qualities. If they can read your work that would make it easy to find the matching forum.
These are just my suggestions, rest you know what is best for you. Good luck!
Upvotes: 2 |
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