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65658 | How best to format and position legend in line chart when legend text is long?
I always struggle when showing line chart with long legend title like this:
Is there any best practice to a chart with long legend title?
I try to show several alternatives below, but of course, it's not comprehensive.
(a) Stretch y-axis limit
(b) Put legend outside chart's body
(c) Shorten legend title
Update
I'm a researcher in computer science field. But, general discussions beyond research domains are also welcome.
Note that specific journals may have their own styling preferences for the legend.
@Bitwise Thanks. I'm interested especially in CS field. Unfortunately, I have no idea about style preference about this topic even in my field, and would appreciate if you could give some ideas.
When it's not too big, I recommend shrinking the legend font size and whitespace and reducing the complexity of the labels. If it's very big, however, I recommend instead moving to a systematic coloring scheme and explaining the coloring scheme in the caption rather than a legend.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:55:50.583737 | 2016-03-24T02:07:38 | {
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66833 | University policy of publishing student course evaluations: Prevalence and pros and cons
These days it is very common to have some course evaluation towards the end of a course, in which students respond to standardized questions on a numerical scale (e.g. between 1 and 5) and can additionally give free-form comments.
Sometimes individual lecturers make student comments (and their responses) available to the cohort in which the survey was taken and the next cohort, to show that they are open to critique and how they respond to it.
I am, however, more interested in cases where there is a departmental/faculty/university-wide policy to consistently publish evaluation results for all of their courses (averages of numerical data only, or perhaps the free-form comments as well) to the current and future cohorts.
Is it common for universities to have a policy of publishing student course evaluations?
What are advantages and disadvantages of doing this?
Has this been looked at in the educational literature?
It's common in the US for the average results to be available to students.
It's certainly a university-wide policy where I am. I suspect it's more-or-less a national policy, but I haven't checked the details.
At my institution these are not made public in any way of which I'm aware. Actually, the whole process of student evaluations has been much reduced since we switched to online out-of-class evaluations (generally only 1-5 respondents per class).
@DanielR.Collins I also observe this reduction at my school upon the institution of online evaluations. This is actually very troubling if administration is to use percentages as red flags. You find yourself explaining what went wrong when all that went wrong was the wrong 2 students filled out the stupid thing. I'm going to start giving them in class again to guard against this.
I used to adjunct at a strong college as part of a larger university where the student government was able to get a policy in place on publishing (statistics on) evaluations. The professor/adjunct had the choice to not publish their results; but this was uncommon since then you would be an outlier and it would seem like you had something to hide.
Pros: Frankly, with things like "rate my professor" out there, I'd rather have everyone's evaluations take into account than just the extremes. I think the point is that, provided we avoid the cons I will outline, there is transparency of some sort of metric of performance. Generally I found the statistics to show something reliable about professors based on what other faculty and students said about them. It prevents faculty from thinking they can just disregard the opinions of their students and it helps students have a consistent and official place to decide which instructor they would like to teach them (in a larger college anyway).
Cons: You need not look far to see academics complain about this practice. The only concern for me would be if for some reason there was some sort of plot to purposely bomb a professor's evaluations or a professor tried to game the system; these are generally not serious worries and one would hope there would be checks and balances for these concerns.
Other problem with RateMyProfessor is that it's possible to create an instructor account and remove any assessments that you don't like. Of course very few people do that, but the worst/most manipulative professors are the most incited to do so.
At my former UK university students evaluated the course (i.e., major), module (i.e., class), and teacher withat separate processes. The university published the evaluations of the course and module. The union fought against the publishing of evaluations of the teacher. The issue is that student evaluations of teaching often reveal a large degree of racism, sexism, and intolerance of the LGBT+ community. Publishing open comments that are unprofessional is unprofessional. Given the views commonly expressed in the open comments, calls into question the validity of across teacher comparisons of the numeric ratings.
Good point. I do think there's research that women and minorities are routinely given harsher ratings.
To wit: "Student evaluations of teaching are not only unreliable, they are significantly biased against female instructors.", London School of Economics: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/02/04/student-evaluations-of-teaching-gender-bias/
Where I am it is common to make the evaluations available to the course but not public. In fact, we have the evaluation in the middle of the course and the instructor is expected to discuss the result with the class and try to improve the course based on the feedback. To do so, many instructors show the aggregated results of the survey in class so that everybody can see the results. I also do so because I think it is helpful, especially when dealing with student who have extreme opinions and speak up load. So there could be one student who thinks that everything in great, and wants more or more difficult homework (I had one of these…) but the rest of the course is struggling already. Showing the average workload of the course then makes it clear that this guy is an "outlier".
Another important thing: Usually there is space for free comments on the course and at my place these comments are scanned and not transcribed. So it is usually not a problem to identify who has written a comment. I tell this to the students in advance: "The hand written comments will be scanned and I will be able to see the scans." The students can then decide if they want to use free comments or not and if they try to use a different hand writing. However, I do not show the scanned comments in class but only read some of them.
I'm not familiar with and studies conducted on this. However, in my two universities (US and non-US), the department does not publish them online but rather discuss the average rating of individual courses as well as the average of all courses in the department meeting at the end of the semester. In addition, each professor gets to see the average of the courses s/he teaches and compares it with that of the average rating of the courses offered by the department and school (not sure how f the average rating of all the courses provides in the university and is available there).
An advantage can be in terms of knowing your performance compared the other courses! Which can be also a stressful disappointed if you get low ratings (disadvantage?!)
To be honest, I have seen many evaluations that discuss in detail how a professor is "bad", unfortunately nobody seems to tale actions especially if such a professor got tenured or brings in a lot of funding!
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45665 | Are reviewers impressed by a quick response to a request to revise and resubmit?
My colleagues believe that if you submit your manuscript revisions quickly, reviewers will be impressed by your confidence about the issues raised.
However, I think that a quick response is not always the best option. If you consult with other people, you may submit better revisions which of course requires more time.
Are there any benefits in responding quickly to a request to revise and resubmit a manuscript?
Are reviewers impressed by a quick response to a request to revise and resubmit?
This seems like an opinion poll rather than a question allowing a factual answer. But for what it's worth, my opinion is that a quick response is of very little value in terms of "impressing the reviewers".
I've edited to hopefully make the intent clearer
Not worth a full answer, but I couldn't care less how fast the revisions come back. In fact, I probably won't remember how long it's been regardless of if it's fast or slow.
I'd be more impressed by this than seeing the paper come back to me for review from a different journal without any changes ;o) @Koldito hits the nail on the head, however I would say don't aim to impress the reviewers, they are unlikely to be interested in your confidence, just the correctness and clarity of the paper.
I disagree that the question is opinion-based. It is not asking "Are you impressed" but "Are reviewers in general impressed". Yes, it's about people's opinions but the question is not asking the answerers to express their opinion.
Opinions might differ, but here is mine: as a regular reviewer for a bunch of journals, what impresses me is a resubmission that addresses whatever points I raise in my review in a thorough and convincing way, irrespective of whether the authors take one week or six months to write it up. The more seriously you take my review, the more seriously I will take your resubmission.
I agree with this. I might go so far as to suggest that the opposite (somehow) of what the OP is asking might be more true: as a referee, when I get a revised version bounced back to me very quickly, I look to see how thorough and thoughtful it was. If someone takes only a week or two (including editorial lag time) to turn in something which does not thoroughly engage with the report, then it looks bad to me. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's worse to turn in a superficial revision very quickly than to sit on it for a while...but it can be more annoying.
@PeteL.Clark, I'd suggest that (a) the repsonse time should be appropriate to the scale of the revision, and (b) it's possible that the lead author is in a position to go flat-out on the revisions (e.g. grad student, top priority). Turning it round in a week could mean they spent 40 hours or 40 minutes on it. I am assuming that the editorial lag on a revision is small, as I've experienced (weeks with the editors for a submission, hours for a revision).
Also, as someone who's reviewed journal papers, it's hard to get a sense of time as a reviewer. By the time the editors have compiled the reviews, sent them back to the authors, and informed the reviewers of their decision, it's probably been a few weeks already. So turning around your review quickly doesn't make much of a difference.
The other answers are very good. I'll add that a good referee should review what's submitted, and make recommendations about what's on the paper in front of them. Let the editors worry about everything else. I try not to let the timeliness of the resubmission impact any recommendation.
That said, I appreciate it if the authors can turn it around while the manuscript is still recallable. I don't like it when a second review requires all the work of a first review because the authors waited until memories of the manuscript were vague for me. I don't care how fast it comes back, but I don't like it when it's coming up on a year (unless the original review called for more studies, which can take time). "Don't like it" of course doesn't mean that this would impact my review, just that it causes me more work.
At least for the journals I've refereed for, the referees don't know how long it took the authors to resubmit. Since I don't know when the other referees submitted their reports, I don't know when the authors received the reports, so I don't know how long it took them to revise. Maybe the authors took three months to revise; maybe they spent 87 days waiting for the other referees to submit their reports and revised in three days. Who knows?
Since the referees don't know how long it took the authors to resubmit, that can't have any influence.
It actually depends on the precise semantics of "revise and re-submit". In some journals i was involved with, three different responses were possible: a minor revision is of a mostly editorial nature and people expect that this can be done quickly. A major revision usually comes with a timeframe of four to six weeks and often requires more substantial changes (sometimes including addition of new results) but there is generally an expectation that these revisions are doable within this timeframe and the paper as such is broadly acceptable. A revise-and-resubmit suggests that the paper is not acceptable in its current form and needs substantial new content (new experiments, more comprehensive comparison to other work, etc). In particular, revise-and-resubmit is recommended when the editor (or the reviewers) is of the opinion that the revision requires more time than the four to six weeks timeframe for a major revision. In that case, a quick response will probably look odd.
Some journals tangle up the vocabulary even further by using "revise and re-submit" to described requests for major or even minor revisions as well. Be sure to read the notice carefully! I have, in the past, gotten something that looked like a rejection but was actually a request for minor revisions, simply due to oddly formatted journal templates.
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159855 | How do I motivate pursuing a PhD in Computer Science (CS) after a BSc in CS and MBA in Finance
I've developed a strong urge to pursue CS again to deepen my understanding of specific fields of interest while contributing in high-tech and R&D industry. I graduated with 3.0 and 3.7 GPA in a BSc in CS and MBA in '12 and '17. I've 6 years of experience as a software developer and manager unfortunately none of my work was research oriented. From the research I've conducted most entry requirements prefer applicants to master computer science as it's most ideal but a 2nd master's degree (in CS) is rather deterrent from a time and financial perspective. Has anyone had success getting into a decent PhD in CS with this sort of combination?
You're an excellent candidate for a PhD in Computer Science: You have a BSc in the subject, you have six years of industry experience, and you've developed a strong urge to pursue CS again to deepen [your] understanding of specific fields of interest while contributing in high-tech and R&D industry. (A desire to deepen your knowledge isn't enough, you need to be truly passionate about contributing in high-tech and R&D industry. I presume you are.) Your MBA gives you business know-how that'll focus your attention towards research problems that'll have real impact on society.
From the research I've conducted most entry requirements prefer applicants to master computer science as it's most ideal but a 2nd master's degree (in CS) is rather deterrent from a time and financial perspective.
Entry requirements are tailored towards the average entrant, which, I'll speculate, is someone that's never left university. You aren't an average applicant. You can confirm my theory by calling some admission departments. Thereafter, identify supervisors that pursue research that impacts technology. Pitch yourself to them, explain how your skill set will advance them. Establish whether they can help you on your pursuit.
I'll be sure to leave a comment once I have a word with them though that will be in a couple of years. I need to save :)
@TafadzwaGonera Save for what? The topping-up of your PhD stipend?
Save for tuition. I reckon PhD funding opportunities, grants and stipends aren't all that great here in South Africa. Glassdoor shows a national average of R160k i.e. ~4/5 times less than what I'll be earning when the program is underway. I've to consider pursuing the program part-time.
@TafadzwaGonera Part-time will be tough. Perhaps you can offer consultancy services, which would surely command more than your current hourly rate. That might allow you to focus a bit more than part-time on a PhD.
Thank you for the information. Consultancy is definitely one way of going about it, or I could go full-time then work hard to complete the program at the earliest. I'll need to speak to some PhD alumni, go back to the drawing table and start working on action plan.
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160242 | How to find new advisor after being let go
I'm a PhD student in US. I've been tipped by my advisor that I would be let go if I do not get results by a deadline. I am working on my options:
Switch advisors: I have seen people switching advisors and finishing their program, but I'm not sure how that works. Why would someone take another faculty member's (seemingly red-flagged) student, who is in middle of the program? How to approach with a red flag like this?
Apply elsewhere: How can I apply for another PhD position without my (potentially masters) advisor's recommendation? I want to email faculty members at other universities (as a master student, which is the potential case), but if I state that I have research experience and have submitted abstracts, that would lead to wanting to know more from my advisor. How can I represent myself as a good prospective and raise minimum question?
If there is any faculty in your current program that you believe thinks well of you, talk to them first - for advice, and maybe if they can take you in. Going through the formal process of applying elsewhere is much harder given your circumstances.
"Why would someone take another faculty member's (seemingly red-flagged) student, who is in middle of the program?" Because the alternatives are worse. Faculty have to compete to get good PhD students - it is not easy.
The way to find a new advisor is to ask. Whether they say yes depends on many things, including the known behavior of your current advisor. Are they reasonable or not? Is it you or is it the advisor who is the problem here?
You should also look at why you are having difficulties. Is the problem you are working on just too hard. This can happen in mathematics, for example, and it may take years to get partial results. Or the problem may even be unsolvable at the current state of knowledge, or even unresolvable in theory. If your have an impossible problem then a new advisor with a new problem would possibly work.
When you apply make the best case that you can be a success and get the best letters available to you. Your current advisor might write a good letter or not, but that depends on circumstances. Are you being let go because you aren't up to it, or because the demands of the research program of the advisor demand faster results. That might be the case in some lab sciences.
But in the end, all you can do is ask and apply and make the best case you can. Stress successes you have had, not failures.
It may well be that working harder to meet the deadline is a possibility. That would probably be the shortest path to success if you can manage it.
But any other path will take time. Be prepared for that and examine and evaluate all of your options.
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18398 | Responding to positive grant reviews?
A common way to handle grant applications seems to be to request external reviews, to which the applicant can then respond. Reviews and response together are discussed at a panel where the proposals are ranked, and the top x% then are funded.
I've found myself in a nice, but perplexing situation: I got back the reviews for my first grant proposal, and all reviewers gave top scores (and very positive comments). Now I'm wondering whether or not to use my right to respond - all information I could find about responses boil down to addressing criticism, but what do you do if there is no criticism?
Edit: The grant agency explicitly discourages using the reply to thank reviewers. The alternative option besides not replying at all could be to attempt to selectively agree with the most praising comments or something like that, but I'm not sure that is a good idea.
Beyond something generic like thanking the reviewers, not clear you need to do anything else.
Did the reviewers give specific comments, or just scores?
Thanks for the comments, I've edited the question to clarify that there were specific comments, just no criticism.
In that case you can pass on a response. While I haven't had this experience, I've been in other situations where I had a "right to respond" and when the feedback was positive I merely waived my right.
While it sounds that there would be no need to rebut against anything (I suggest to read the reports very carefully once again - some criticism can be hidden and is sometimes difficult to spot between positive comments) there may be another reason to formulate a response. It may well be that the reports contain valuable suggestions or remarks on specific points of your proposal. You can take the opportunity to pick up these suggestions and present new views or deeper explanations. However, I think that this really only makes sense if you have something new to say in view of the comments of the reviewer. I would suggest to not repeat what is already written in the proposal…
If there's no criticism to rebut, then waive the right to rebut.
If you've already received top marks with no criticisms, then you can only spoil things by saying something at this stage.
Just shut up. And enjoy the moment.
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2906 | Does ScholarOne really force you to have multiple logins?
Why can't I have a single ScholarOne login for every journal I submit or review for? Is there some way to copy over the address, keywords & password for all my accounts so I don't have to waste time making the same stuff up every time I get involved with another journal?
The real question in my opinion is "why do I need to fill in all of this stuff?". Names and affiliations of the authors are already in the paper, so there is no need to copy them back in. Author accounts can be replaced by openid. Reviewer accounts can be replaced by special links containing a unique id (many already do it). All you need is something that lets you upload a pdf.
Elsevier just combined profiles across journals. Let's see how long it will take ScholarOne to do this ...
Thank you for your question. My name is Jasper Simons and I work for Thomson Reuters, the organization behind ScholarOne. Our platform is configured by our publishers as they service their authors and editors. Publishers seek to maximize the value they offer to their journals, their editors and their authors through specific configurations of the ScholarOne peer-review workflow. This doesn't address your concern, but I hope that it sheds some light on the reasoning behind the multiple login requirements for authors. In short, there is one ScholarOne platform but there are many site configurations.
What is a "configuration" in your jargon? Does that word include the user database?
Sorry about that. Configurations refer to the specific peer-review workflow set up for a particular journal site or group of journal sites. Those are defined by the editorial office of the publisher or association. This includes choices such as "double-blind review" or not, and whether to assign manuscripts to an associate editor or directly to the editor-in-chief etc.
@Federico: ScholarOne is pursuing collaborations with ORCID to allow direct ingestion of user/author data through the ORCID. I'll separately look into why we wouldn't take such data points directly from an author submitted PDF. I suspect that there might be issues with validation of data that limit the use of such a solution but I am not sure.
Follow Up: Authors can already utilize ResearcherID or upload manuscripts through EndNote which will automatically pull your author data into ScholarOne, reducing the step to add your details manually.
This does not answer the question, in my opinion. Journal decisions about associate editors and double-blind review are orthogonal to requiring authors to set up independent profiles for each journal.
@JasperSimons Elsevier has consolidated author profiles across their journals. It has made reviewing and submitting for these journals much more pleasant. Are you saying that it isn't possible for ScholarOne given the current technology used by your organization?
@Jasper Simons Is it possible to access my journal dashboard using two different email. For example, in edas I can access to my profile using more than email.
@JasperSimons I am wondering if you are underestimating the hassle researchers go through to use ScholarOne because of login issues. I am a reviewer and author for at least 3-4 journals using ScholarOne. Each journal requires a different login/password. When changing institution, I get a new email address and receive invitations to review to the new email address. This creates a duplicate account that I cannot merge with the older ones. My login manager has currently 15 entries for various ScholarOne logins. My submissions/reviews even for the same journal cannot be found in the same place.
The ScholarOne platform is very capable of allowing a user to have a single login across all journals. Unfortunately, each journal (or in some cases publishers) has required their user accounts to not be shared with other journals or publishers. @aeismail answer pretty much sums up the reason (its not impossible however). At ScholarOne, we realize this is probably the most frustrating parts of the system, and are always looking for ways to help reduce the pain associated with this.
Disclaimer: I am an employee at ScholarOne, but my posts and opinions are my own!
There can be author and referee databases separated from user accounts: I log in with the same username and password, and then the server can restrict which of my user data are shared among different journals (including referee feedback scores). Does your platform allow this separation? It sounds like you are trying to shift the blame on the journals for what is really a design problem in your website.
@FedericoPoloni , The S1M system can effectively do what you describe. If you decide to submit a manuscript to IEEE, for instance, the account data is shared across the IEEE portfolio of journals. This allows you to have the same account data with all IEEE journals, but separate author and reviewer datasets per IEEE journal. However, if you then want to submit a manuscript to an IOP journal, we are contractually (IEEE owns your original account data) and legally (think GDPR) prevented from sharing your IEEE account information with IOP. Hope this explains the situation a bit better.
I understand there is a reson for keeping it separate, but ScholarOne allows to connect to ORCID to get information from it (sadly only gets name and few other bits, not a real help).
Thanks, I don't think I knew about ORCID when I asked this question!
I think the primary issue is the fact that because different publishers are responsible for maintaining the different author and referee databases, it's impractical (or perhaps even impossible) to share them between different journals. If you had the ability to get somebody else's database, it would be a potentially tempting target. So I think that everything is locked to a specific journal, without the ability to transfer between them. You can probably use the same login information for all of the different journals, but you'll need to register for each one separately.
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1112 | Should I include a publication where I'm only acknowledged (and not one of the authors) in my CV?
Suppose that I've helped other researchers with the statistical analyses for an epidemiological study and therefore I am acknowledged for that in the "Acknowledgments" section of the paper (something like "We thank andrea for his statistical support").
Obviously, this doesn't count as a publication for me, as I am not one of the authors. But if I include it in my CV, how much "weight" would a professor (or someone within the academia) give to that? I also have other publications where I am either the first author or one of the co-authors.
I am not thinking of a particular situation here (like applying for a grant or for a PhD position). I am just curious to know if it could be useful to put it into my CV or if it would just be irrelevant.
No, you shouldn't.
I've never seen anything like this on a CV.
If you have other publications, I certainly wouldn't include this. It would look like you are trying too hard to find something to put on your CV, which could do more harm than good. Let your publications stand for themselves.
One thing you could do when describing the various jobs you've had, is to include the statistical analysis work in the description of the activities you performed in that job. You could also mention it in the cover letter, if it is relevant for the job. Finally, do bring it up in the interview as an example of how you work in a collaboration.
I agree. It may even be harmful to list an acknowledgement on your CV, quite aside from the issue of looking like padding. It could look like nobody else has ever acknowledged your help on a paper, or it could look like you are claiming your help on this paper was particularly noteworthy (which could offend the actual authors). Either way, there's almost no upside, but some downside risk.
You all seem to agree that I shouldn't do it and since you've certainly more experience than I have, I'll follow your suggestions.
I think it might be appropriate to put this on your CV is you are very early in your career, and facing the "There's nothing but coursework on my CV" problem. If that's the case, it might be worth doing just to show that you're in the early stages of your research career, but that you are engaging in collaborative research work.
That being said, the moment you have something more substantial to put on your CV, I'd expect it to drop away in favor of those things.
You can ask these researchers to give you a recommendation letter. This may help you even more than another publication.
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3260 | Who all are considered authors of papers written on behalf of a research group?
In epidemiology it is not uncommon to see papers written by a bunch of authors on behalf of a research group (say "the X research group"). See, for example, this paper (randomly chosen from pubmed):
Moreira L, Pellisé M, Carballal S, Bessa X, Ocaña T, Serradesanferm A, Grau J, Macià F, Andreu M, Castells A, Balaguer F; on behalf of the PROCOLON research group.
High prevalence of serrated polyposis syndrome in FIT-based colorectal cancer screening programmes. Gut. 2012 Sep 14.
My question is: are the members of the research group X (whose names and affiliations are usually reported in the Appendix at the end of the paper) considered as authors of the paper?
Edit: I am particularly interested to receive answers that apply specifically to epidemiology, but of course experiences from other fields are very welcome!
Considered authors by whom? Hiring committees? Funding agencies? Other researchers?
I didn't know that different subjects had different definitions of authorship. I thought that one either is an author of a paper or is not, at least in epidemiology. Anyway, for example, do these publications count when calculating bibliometric indexes?
If I saw that citation in the wild, I would assume that the eleven explicit names are the only authors. In computer science, all authors are named on the front page, very few papers have more than 10 coauthors, and not every member of a research group is a coauthor of every paper that the group generates.
@JeffE http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2012.08.020, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2012.08.021...
I'll give my perspective, as an Epidemiologist:
It depends. Helpful, I know.
Often the reason there's a "on behalf of the X group" is that some small analysis has been pulled out of a larger study, and the named authors on the paper want to acknowledge that their results are the byproduct of a larger effort. A large clinical trial, or cohort trial for example, can spawn dozens of papers and secondary analysis done by doctoral students, small component research groups, etc.
For example, this paper is (I think) the result of the "Epi proColon" clinical trial currently being conducted by the manufacturer. It's a head to head comparison with 'FIT' - fecal immunochemical testing - to detect colon cancer. The paper you linked is an ancillary analysis of that, noting a particular finding that, while of interest to the field and clearly enough for a short paper, wouldn't ever make the "main" paper cut when the results of the clinical trial are published.
@Raphael has asserted that he thinks there should be a difference between "I turned a skrew" and "I wrote the paper". The problem for Epidemiology studies is that's often somewhat ambiguous. For example, many clinical sites are directed by people who don't really care about publications, being professional clinicians, but are still instrumental enough in the conducting of the study that they could arguably be included as authors. If you only had one of these, sure, toss it in as authorship. But what if you're running a multi-site clinical trial at ten sites? Do you include all ten? After all, they saw patients.
The "group" authorship is a useful way to acknowledge that. They can cite those papers on grant applications, "why should we continue to support your diagnostic lab" progress reports, etc. It's a compromise position for trying to tighten up who is an author while at the same time supporting large, collaborative science.
Those authorship acknowledgements also serve to make something "the official position of X study group". You often see that in vaccine trials and the like.
That being said, unless I was a named author on the paper, I likely wouldn't include it on my CV if I was anything but a very new investigator. But part of the point of these papers is that who is a named author is a rotating list. The Epidemiologists write their epidemiology papers, the clinicians write clinical papers, the lab people write lab papers, the biostatisticians write...you get the idea. So everyone publishes named in their niche, but the group effort is acknowledged for the entire productive output of the study.
In particle physics (and we have some very long author lists) they are.
Authorship rules are generally set out in the collaboration's Memorandum of Understanding (whatever it is called) and can sometimes call for odd things such as a paper being credited to someone who didn't even know it was being written but whose work calibrating some systematic effect of a minor subsystem a decade ago was used in the paper. That happened to me once, I checked inSPIRE and discovered I had a new paper out. Turned out to be a nice one, too.
To avoid that many of these documents have a "recent membership" type of clause so that you have to have been an active member of the collaboration in the last (typically) year to be credited. "Active" is defined by things like sitting shifts, attending collaboration meetings, contributing institutional funds to the general pool or hardware to the experiment and so on.
Do particle physicists explicitly list all the authors at the beginning of the paper? Or are there different grades of authorship (mentioned on the first page vs. in an appendix, for example), and if so do people make these distinctions or is everyone considered an author on a equal footing?
@AnonymousMathematician They generally either list all authors at the front or sign it with the collaboration's name. When they use the collaboration name, there is generally some other resource you can use to figure out who was a member at the time of that paper--a web page or some such. Order in the list is rarely significant, but I have been part of groups where a few authors might be listed ahead of the usual list to indicate that they were especially involved in that paper. That is more common among smaller collaborations (say under 100 members).
smaller collaborations (say under 100 members) — Yikes!
@JeffE see e.g. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037026931200857X. I have even seen examples where the list of authors is longer than the paper! (Sometimes the entire list is given after the paper proper, but I haven't seen a case where some authors are named on the front page and others in an appendix.)
I think there should be a notable difference between "I turned a skrew on that machine we used in the experiment" and "I interpreted the results and wrote two sections of the paper.". :/ In CS, the former would get "only" an acknowledgement with the reasoning that turning a skrew or holding a pipette is not an academic contribution.
@Raphael Well, of course there is, but when you have hundreds of people involved in the experiment there is neither a reasonable way to represent that in the author list nor a way to manage the political difficulties that would arise from trying to formally evaluate it. Even in that large a group, however, people notice who contributes and you won't get on the next experiment if you aren't worth having around.
@Raphael You're assuming the people who contributed this weren't both important and instrumental to the project and the paper. This assumption may be, and often is, incorrect.
@EpiGrad I guess I just can't imagine that many people being of that much import to a 10 page paper. I may be wrong, given that my intuition for this things is formed by (T)CS, but maybe there is also a difference in what "important" and "instrumental" means. Of course skrews have to be turned -- otherwise there is no experiment -- but is it an intellectual task? Depends on the skrew, I guess.
@Raphael I guess the thing is this - it's not a 10 page paper. It's one of a series of papers. The data from those papers needs clinical staff, on the ground, seeing patients. WIthout that, there is no study, and its hard to claim that isn't an intellectual task, or one that requires no specialized expertise. Those people often also have input on the study design as a whole. The objection isn't supposed to be a strong one as much as I find it common with theoretical CS/Math folks that if they can't imagine needing a 25 person research team, there must not be a need.
@Rapael I find that many people don't real comprehend how many person hours and how many specialized skills and analysis go into a particle physics experiment. It is worth noting that while our results papers are often three to ten pages long, most experiments will eventually release a instrumentation paper that may be fifty to a hundred pages long. There really is a need for scores or hundreds of people to get the work done.
I asked the guys at the library of my university about this issue and here is their reply. It looks like if I am member of the research group X, even if I am not among the names on the front page, it counts as a publication for me:
According to the ICMJE guidelines on authorship and contributorship (http://www.icmje.org/ethical_1author.html) you count as an author and will have the same rights and responsibilities regardless of your place in the author list.
Therefore, you also have the right to verify the publication as yours in the bibliometric system.
Again, we are talking about epidemiological research here.
Edit: To me, Anonymous Mathematician is right and the answer I got was meant to be read as: "If you fulfil the 3 ICMJE conditions, it does not matter if your name is written only in the appendix and not on the front page. You're an author just the same".
Edit 2: This is the answer from the library guys after I asked for clarifications
The part of the recommendations that you quote[*] concern who should be considered to be the author on a paper when it's sent to the journal. All the persons in the author list, even the ones that are in a group listed in an appendix, should fulfill all three requirements. If they don't they should be listed in the acknowledgement instead of the author list.
If this is not the case for your article, the responsible authors have not followed the guidelines.
[*] This is what I quoted:
"Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3."
My reading of the ICMJE link is exactly the opposite, that being a member of research group X who is not individually listed as an author means you are not an author. In particular, it distinguishes between "members of the group who are named as authors" and other members, and it says all individual authors should be identified in the submission. Being an author means accepting direct responsibility for the manuscript and giving approval for the version to be published; other group members may be mentioned in the acknowledgements as collaborators but aren't authors by ICMJE's definition.
Maybe I have misunderstood, or common practice doesn't exactly follow the ICMJE guidelines, though.
Yes, I have read again (and again and again) the ICMJE site and I share your skepticism. I'll try to contact the library again...
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60607 | Can the ethics committee of a university do something about reuse of exam questions?
I thought that it will be huge achievement to get diploma from well ranked university. However, at the end of my studies, as a foreign student I realized that the questions in exams I passed were repeating from past exams. Those past exams were not available in the database, but finding the screenshots from many students led me to believe that many exams are not credential. I'm afraid that this information will diminish the achievement I did by obtaining diploma from this university and hinder the opportunities for finding the job in the market if this information is publicised. I thought to raise this question with the Ethics committee but afraid that it will be David contra Goliath knowing that this practice is accepted as general for so many years. There are so few reusable exam question that actually the same exams are repeating every second year. There is no systematical way offered by the university to access the old exam. So the students communicate them via screenshots.
There is wonderful answer by @ Dan Romik below, how it is possible that he understood the question and you put on hold as unclear?!
What's your question?
Can the Ethics commity of the university do something to prevent this practice to happen in the future? "I thought to raise this question with the Ethics commity but affraid that it will be David contra Golliath knowing that this practice is accepted as general for so many years."
The practice of reusing exam questions is so widely accepted that I don't understand why you think it is an ethical violation.
The problem is that it is not made available to all students, I agree if it is in the archive, here only some have access to them, It is clear that the intention is to make sure that some students will answer the questions in their proper way creating unauthorized advance knowledge of questions on an examination.
@mak_ec: Are there so few reusable exam questions from previous years that actually memorizing them along with their answers is a viable tactic? Also, please elaborate on what you mean by "It is clear that the intention is to make sure that some students" - whose intention? Are you saying someone is intentionally giving an intentionally chosen subset of students advance knowledge that has an actual, positive effect on their exam results? Also, is passing on information on the questions among students explicitly forbidden (which is what I personally would find a very questionable move by ...
... the university), or is there just no systematical way offered by the university to access the old exams (thus leaving circulation and retrieval of old questions up to the responsibility of each student)? It would be helpful if you could edit all of this information into your question.
Answer to the first quetion is yes, There are so few reusable exam question that actually the same exams are repeating every second year..
Answer to the second question is: They are intentionally given because the subjects are considered as the most difficult in the programme
Answer to the last question is: There is no systematical way offered by the university to access the old exam. So the students communicate them via screenshots.
How do you know that the reason for reusing the questions is to help more students pass by memorizing them? This would be problematic if it is true, but given the number of potential (and legitimate) reasons for reusing questions, I am not sure how you can be certain of this, much less prove it. Is your claim based on evidence, or speculation?
@mak_ec: You forgot to answer O.R. Mapper’s most important question: “ Is passing on information on the questions among students explicitly forbidden?” — Also: How do students obtain screenshots of exam questions? Are exams held on your own computer?
No, because reusing exam questions is not unethical. If the exam questions are not publicly available, then getting unauthorized access to them (or distributing them without authorization) is likely to be a violation of academic integrity policies.
There are good reasons for recycling exam questions. In some cases, it's quite difficult to develop an exam that gets a good distribution of scores, tests all the important parts of the curriculum, and is worded clearly. Standardized testing companies have entire teams that validate questions, but individual professors have to get there on their own. If one has an exam that works particularly well, then it may be tempting to reuse it with only minor changes (or even no changes at all).
There is always going to be some cheating, no matter the precautions. As long as it's not systemic (and going well beyond this particular class), it will not affect the reputation of your degree.
If you do want to take some action, you could contact the professor teaching the class. He may well be interested in learning that his questions are being circulated, so he can design a new exam for the next iteration of the class. You should, however, be prepared to explain how you came across the questions (screenshots from other students?).
Reusing exam questions may be unethical, or at least highly inappropriate and unprofessional, depending on how it is done. As an example, in my institution's Code of Academic Conduct, under "Responsibility of the Faculty" we find listed the requirement that the faculty "Use examination formats that discourage academic misconduct." Moreover, as a member of my university's judicial board I saw cases where an instructor's practice of giving the same exam every year led to a major cheating scandal, so the instructor was clearly very negligent.
Thank you for your comment, it is really at the point that I raised in the question. I don't know why I'm criticized for not being clear in my question above, but your opinion is really what I expected and probably a direction to follow. Thank you.
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48987 | What the difference in CVs between "submitted to" and "to appear in"?
For those papers that have not been accepted, some people write "submitted to" in their CV and some others use "to appear in". I want to know the difference of "submitted to" and "to appear in". Thank you.
Two small additions to the other answers:
First, I have rarely seen "submitted to", but more often simply seen "submitted," with no journal or conference listed. The reason is simple: where you've submitted to makes no difference, since anybody can get any sort of trash rejected by a top journal. For a "to appear," however, the venue should always be included, since it means you've passed the standards of peer review for that publication.
Second, there is a third category that I have occasionally seen, "in revision." For areas that have a very slow review process, this can be useful for distinguishing that a publication has passed at least one round of peer review, even though it is not yet "to appear." It's still a pretty weak distinction from "submitted," however, so I wouldn't advise using it except for occasional edge cases with high-visibility journals.
For those papers that have not been accepted, some people write "submitted to" in their CV and some others use "to appear in".
Does anyone really use "to appear in" to refer to papers that have not been accepted yet? In my experience (mathematics in the U.S.), "to appear in" means "accepted, but not yet published", and it would be unethical to use it to describe papers that have not yet been accepted. It might occasionally happen, since not everyone acts ethically, but you wouldn't want to get caught doing that.
I can't rule out the possibility that other fields use these terms differently, but I'd strongly recommend sticking with "submitted to". It describes an objective fact, while "to appear in" is at best a prediction and could be viewed as an intentionally misleading statement.
This is definitely true for the areas of computer science and biology that I am familiar with as well.
I have never seen "to appear in" in a CV or a grant application. Presumably equivalent to any of these: "Accepted", "Accepted for publication", "in press", or the very formal "in the press" and quite distinct from "submitted" or "in revision".
"Accepted by..." is not uncommon.
This is somewhat implicit in the other answer, but to spell it out: "Submitted" means that it has been submitted to the cited venue, but has not been reviewed and accepted yet. "To appear" or "in press" means that it has been accepted and is working its way through the rest of the publication process. If you know the exact edition of the journal or conference proceedings that it will be published in, "to appear" with a precise citation is probably more useful than "in press" since it points the reader to the exact place it will be findable and at what point in the future.
Another important case is when a paper has been accepted and published online but not yet compiled into an issue of the journal. You can't give a complete citation because the volume, issue, and page numbers aren't known yet, but you can provide a link to the published online version of the paper. In that case, "To Appear In...", together with a link to the online publication is appropriate.
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11411 | Is Scientometrics a scientific discipline?
This question is not about the politics of scientometrics, nor is it on the role of scientometrics in governmental research programs, nor is it about the use of scientometric indices: these questions have been already addressed and debated somewhere else on academia.SE., for instance
Which bibliometrics index to trust more?
Scientifically meaningful sources of bibliometrics
Which is the most accepted measure for an individual's academic productivity?
The following question is about scientific method(s).
After these few words to avoid any debate, I would like to naively ask about the scientific rigor of scientometrics. Is there any kind of rigor/general method/scientific concept behind this field of research? Or maybe a more aggressive question: is scientometry a science?
This just seems to be an insulting question to anyone in or related to the fields of scientometry.
Scientometrics is a science to the extent that it applies the scientific method to a field of inquiry. Researchers in this area formulate questions and conceptualize existing problems (e.g., “in these times of scarcity, the public wants research to be efficient: how can we measure this?”), they make hypotheses, make predictions, gather data to test them, analyze the data and prove or disprove their hypotheses.
Regarding “what do we scientifically learn from scientometrics?”, well, there are plenty of established results (you can find some on wikipedia), but I'll use one recent paper from Scientometrics which highlights what this field can bring us:
Negative results are disappearing from most disciplines and countries
D. Fanelli, Scientometrics 2012, 90, 891–904
This one was really an eye-opener for me, on a phenomenon which I always supposed existed, but it was nice to see it backed by hard data. Other examples include:
Physical and economic bias in climate change research: a scientometric study of IPCC Third Assessment Report
A. Bjurström and M. Polk, Climatic Change 2011, 108, 1–22
Language biases in the coverage of the Science Citation Index and its consequences for international comparisons of national research performance
T. N. van Leeuwen, H. F. Moed, R. J. W. Tijssen, M. S. Visser, A. F. J. van Raan, Scientometrics 2001, 51, 335–346
I'll finish with a personal opinion: while I am annoyed, as most people, with the emphasis currently given on bibliometrics in the evaluation of research and research projects, I think scientometrics in general has an important role to play, just like related fields such as studies on ethics of research: better understanding the positive and negative implications of the way we currently do science is healthy (the meta-level of research).
Thanks a lot for answering this naive question. Thanks also for giving so good examples of applications of scientometrics. Thanks finally for your last remark regarding the difference between bibliometrics and scientometrics. I nevertheless wonder if it exactly answers my question. Your three examples are for sure much more interesting use of the statistical methods than the simple, almost stupid counting of papers I usually heard about in bilbiometrics (h-index, impact factor, ...). Did you really mention that one can make predictions ? Could you please tell me more about that ?
(cont.) If I try to compare scientometrics (with the few knowledge I have about it) with an other (naive) topic where I hope to find statistic and social studies both together, say economics (what a big word, isn't it ?), I have the feeling scientometrics still misses the point, there is no description there, in the scientific sense. Let me put an other naive picture: if I want to compare scientometrics and weather forecast, I would say that they are almost identical, except scientometrics has nothing like the fluid equations at its disposal. My question is: am I missing the point or not ?
@Oaoa have you read the PNAS paper defining the H-index?
@DanielE.Shub Thanks for the link. This one http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0508025 is for free. Well, when I discuss this paper with colleagues (I'm physicist), we usually do not understand why people uses the h-factor and not the m-one, as discussed by Hirsch.
@F'x +1 for such a nice answer.
@Oaoa There is a difference between proposal of a metric or any kind of a measurement system and the adoption of one. Adoption of a metric is socio-political in nature and rather subjective.
@Oaoa Your previous comment betrays an almost contemptuous disdain of mere "counting" as you put it. Why is counting "lower" in the scientific method than "predictions?" The scientific method makes no such distinctions and thus, your statement would be an opinion against the scientific method and not a fact towards it.
@Shion I then urge you to understand what science is about. Sure counting and predictions are at the same level, in the sense that when counting predicts nothing, it is instantaneously abandoned. Usually it means you have to change your investigation method(s). When a prediction is not verified by counting, it has to be abandoned as well. Of course, I merely replaced here counting=experiment and prediction=theory, which is a kind of abuse, since nobody here can tell me to what extend scientometric is a science, whereas the comparison seems to follow this line.
Regarding the naive-counting (h-factor, impact-factor, ...), of course I hate it ! As the nice F'x's answer shows us, there are clearly more interesting results when you need nice methods of extracting the relevant infos from a mass of data. The usual counting factors can be computed in mass by any computer, they require almost no effort, and they mean nothing. At least, it's the same for me as saying a scientific publication is a piece of paper.
(cont.) I believe they are much more than a single piece of paper that you pile up somewhere, and I would like here to understand how people working in scientometrics see them at the moment. I also believe scientometrics is not only about papers, but also on the long, laborious intellectual process(es) done before publishing. The first example of F'x (about the disappearance of negative result) clearly goes along this line, since it clearly say that, before publishing, researchers exclude they negative results. That's an interesting way of saying this result I believe. Thanks for your comment.
when counting predicts nothing, it is instantaneously abandoned. — False. Not all science is predictive, or even claims to be. Also: some true Scotsmen despise haggis.
@JeffE Well, I think I'll make no more comment, since it's totally despairing. Note nevertheless, the first sentence of Wikipedia [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science ], Science entry: Science (from Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
@Oaoa I won't go into a didactic argument with you on the definition of science since JeffE gets at its heart in his previous comment. The wikipedia definition of science you link to is limited. It ignores inductive, data driven compilation of knowledge as opposed to the traditional, deductive, hypothesis driven approach which that definition alludes to.
I just want to comment that bibliometrics isn't merely "evaluation of research and research projects" (not sure if this is what you meant though), but more fundamentally it is analysis (statistical, systematic) of publications. As such, it is (sort of) a subfield of Scientometrics (or a method used in scientometrics). It often uses citations, citation relationships, or other bibliometric connections, but it can also overlap with linguistics, information retrieval and other fields.
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49087 | How economically efficient is the grant system?
I wonder if someone (or eventually some country, organisation, etc ...) already evaluated the costs of the system of grants.
It costs at least the salary of the researcher who writes and gets the grant
but also the salary of all the researchers who didn’t get it, and could have done something else than writing a proposal
plus the costs in administration (e.g. the National Contact Point(s) in Europe at several places in each country)
plus the cost of organising the referral (travels, meetings, ...)
plus the cost of the grant itself, of course.
On the positive side, of course the entire society benefits from a completed grant.
So my questions are:
Are there some studies about the economical efficiency of the grant system?
What are their conclusions?
How much does the granting costs?
Are there other system evaluated?
Partially related questions :
How much time do researchers spend on writing grants?
How to quantify the loss in productivity due to time spent on writing proposals
but this question is really about the economy of research and factual investigations about the system of grants, not about feeling from researchers.
I don't have answer about studies. But in my opinion, although I hate writting grant proposals, I think that the grant system is generally an efficient way of selecting where the money should be invested. For researchers, it may seems like a waste of time to write these proposals. However, writing a proposal is actually helpful to plan future research. Some funding agencies may ask for example to do a 5 year research plan. Doing this takes time, but it helps to plan future research
I think talking about economic efficiency makes only sense if you compare these costs to the costs/benefits of other alternatives. Just because something is expensive, it doesnt mean it is not efficient (esp if not clear compared to what). Also, as@Phil mentioned, there is no clear cut what is an actual cost and what is job done anyway (or a job should do)
@Greg Different countries have different ways of distributing research funds. Also, the same country has different systems at different times in history. A study could compare the "efficiency" of these systems whatever that means.
This is a very interesting question, and one that I have also often wondered about (I guess everybody who is in the H2020 circus wonders about this). However, you should probably define better what "efficiency" means for you, because it's not entirely clear to me.
@xLeitix You're entirely right of course, and it's the weakest point of the question. As far as I can see, this is the crucial point of most of the economical studies: how to define quantities we would like to compare ? After writing the question, I was thinking this is not such an obstacle, since research is a small community where almost everything is transparent (who get money, who publish articles/patent/..., what are the impact of the research, .... ) and so it seems to me to find a criterion for "efficiency" should not be that difficult. But I let economist do so :-)
@Phil I do not want to venture in the debate about what people prefers as a system, but clearly the grant system is not the only one. At the beginning of the 20-th century, the science academies where playing the most important role, not the teams of research as it is now. Also, the grant system is more and more popular in Europe (to cite one example I know) where it has been imposed only recently, so a comparison with previous system is definitely possible I believe.
(...) Note finally that most of the (european) countries have (at least) two ways of giving money to the research : one through the lab and institutions (to cite only the salary), one through grants. In any case I feel it's the job of a state/government to try to optimise the way it shares money, hence the origin of this question : how could governments know the best way of making research if there is no study about that ? Perhaps I should indeed define an other system in order to restrict the question. But definitely I asked the question because I do not really know how to answer it :-) !
@Phil: "writing a proposal is actually helpful to plan future research" - this may be a topic for a separate question, but as long as considerable amounts of effort and manpower are invested to make sure those research plans sound convincing and yet do not promise anything concrete and keep as many options open as possible, as no-one can possibly know what new impulses and ideas will emerge based on the results of the research over the next year (let alone over the next 5 years - in that timeframe, much of a department's staff will have been replaced), they might not be so generally "helpful".
@O.R.Mapper Of course, a lot of things can change over 5 years. However, for me it is useful to sit down and try to make some long term planning, even though I may not follow exactly the plan. It helps to put the research into perspective. Probably that some other researchers may disagree, but for me at least, it is very useful.
I know of one such study: Cost of the NSERC Science Grant Peer Review System Exceeds the Cost of Giving Every Qualified Researcher a Baseline Grant.
The authors examine the full costs of the process used by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and conclude that it would be more efficient to simply give a base amount to every researcher who meets the requirements to submit a proposal. The costs they consider include the time spent preparing and peer-reviewing grant proposals. In addition, the authors argue that the current system is ineffective, in that it rewards mediocrity and safe bets over curiosity and innovation.
The same journal later published a rebuttal (The Real Cost of the NSERC Peer Review is Less than 5% of a Proposed Baseline Grant) and a reply to the rebuttal (Indeed: Cost of the NSERC Science Grant Peer Review System Exceeds the Cost of Giving Every Qualified Researcher a Baseline Grant).
Thanks you really much for this link. It's unfortunately beyond a paywall. Do you know any way to access it ? Thank you again
For a broad analysis of economic and social efficiency of science and science funding (including "soft money" such as grants), see the book How Economics Shapes Science.
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47845 | What is this "mixed" citation style that includes both numbered references and author-date formats?
Once or twice I had encountered papers which used quite convenient citation styles, which combined numbered and parenthetical references. The list of references at the end of the paper is sorted alphabetically, as in Harvard referencing, but also all references are numbered, so it looks like this:
[1] AuthorA (2015) ...
[2] AuthorB (2000) ...
[3] AuthorC (2010) ...
In the text, one might use numbers to save space ("as shown in [2],..."), or parenthetical reference: "as shown by AuthorB (2000),...". And it's really convenient, since depending on the situation you might choose how to cite. I failed to find the name of such citation style - is it at all standardized, or is it just the invention of those papers that I had encountered (as far as I remember, they were preprints from arXiv)?
Speaking about major citation styles that I've seen, I think that it could be the IEEE Citation Style, as your example matches the IEEE Style for electronic references (for non-electronic references, the in-text citation is the same, with the only difference, being related to reference list, is that the year is located at the end of the reference entry).
Alternatively, if it is not the IEEE Style, it might be either a publication-specific style, adopted by a particular journal or other publication outlet, or a hybrid style, manually developed by some authors.
Naturally, speaking about using LaTeX for biblographies, there are a couple of aspects that I'd like to mention. Firstly, according to Mori (2009), the citation style that you are curious about resembles the default reference formatting style for LaTeX. Secondly, if you use (or plan to use) LaTeX for producing your publications, the following sources, in addition to the paper by Mori, might be quite helpful for customizing bibliographic features to required or desired style: this guide by Patrick Daly (note that it describes a quite old version of natbib package - try to find a more up-to-date version or a similar detailed guide), this brief guide by Ki-Joo Kim and this excellent answer by Alan Munn.
References
Mori, L. F. (2009). Managing bibliographies with LaTeX. TUGboat, 30(1). Retrieved from https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb30-1/tb94mori.pdf
There are so many styles - my advice is always to choose a style (preferably the one that the journal specifies) and stick to it. Mixing styles makes for uncomfortable reading.
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62404 | Whether to accept co-authorship for conference presentation after making only a small contribution?
A collaborator sent me an abstract he's submitting to a conference, listing me as a co-author (middle position, implying not a major contribution). It's for a conference presentation, not a manuscript, and it will not be published in e.g. a supplement or anything like that.
I've spent a fair bit of time with him discussing and planning the project, I'm listed as a co-PI on the grant, and I expect to provide important contributions later in the project, but at this point I haven't specifically contributed, in any hands-on way, to the exact work described in the abstract.
I thanked him, made some minor suggestions about the abstract, and suggested that he didn't need to include me as I hadn't contributed enough yet. He replied saying that he was happy to include me.
The work is fine and I have no concerns or reservations about it. We're roughly at equal career stages and neither of us is new, so neither of us is looking for extra prestige etc. If we cared about fine balances, I'm probably helping him more than he's helping me in the project, but I'm happy to do it. I have made significant contributions to the overall experimental design and planning, and it's not ridiculous to be an author, but it is for a smaller contribution than I consider authorship-worthy.
Should I continue to battle to be taken off the authorship?
Are you asking if you should be listed as author or what you need to do to be taken off as co-author?
@Ric the impression that I get is that OP is asking an etiquette question, how much should OP object to authorship when OP feels s/he hasn't contributed enough to deserve it.
Although for the record, it sounds like OP has contributed if s/he's co-PI on the grant :)
Yes, as @samanthapants says, it's a question of how hard I should insist on having my name removed.
@iayork Are conference presentations a big deal in your field? In many fields they don't really count for much. They are good for networking and getting feedback, but they don't contribute to academic evaluations. Of course in other fields, conferences are very important to academic evaluations.
Look at the problem from the other side. How would your collaborator feel about not including you?
My answer is based on experience in the field of applied mathematics. I'm assuming (as stated in the question) that there is no written publication involved -- just a talk.
Don't worry about claiming unmerited credit
You have made some contribution. Coauthorship on a conference presentation carries almost zero significance for purposes of evaluation. It's not something you list on your CV, no matter how "early career" you are. Usually, if you are not already well-known and the results are not earth-shattering, then nobody will even remember, five minutes after the talk, that you were a co-author.
When to insist on being removed
Obviously, coauthorship of the talk has some significance to you and to the presenter. Since the presenter has already made it clear that he wishes to include you as coauthor, I would only insist on being taken off if:
The scientific work or the quality of the talk is so bad that you think it will reflect negatively on you; or
Your involvement is so minimal that you couldn't say anything interesting about the project (if asked by someone who attended the talk).
It doesn't sound like either of these conditions apply, so my advice is to let it go.
Coauthorship on a conference presentation carries almost zero significance — ...except, as usual, in computer science, where conference papers are the primary venue for peer-reviewed research.
@JeffE I'll clarify -- the OP stated explicitly that there was no publication. Even in applied math, a conference publication has some (albeit small) significance, and I would apply higher standards of contribution for coauthorship. In CS, I believe that if there is no publication (unusual!) then it's still almost zero significance, right?
Right. Without a publication, "coauthorship" in a talk is insignificant.
I am relatively new to science so my answer is from a perspective of a young scientist. It seems to me you contributed enough to be one of the authors so you certainly can be included. Sometimes a beginner can spend months working on something and accomplish less than an experienced scientist can contribute within a few minutes by a good comment or suggestion. Ultimately, it is the results that count, not the amount of time and effort spent.
If you also happen to be an expert in what the conference presentation is about, then you should be included as one of the authors. On top of acknowledging your contribution to the research, it tells everyone that there is another scientist out there who knows a lot about the particular subject. Other scientists and students can then contact you for advice, recommend you as a reviewer, or even choose you to be their PhD supervisor. So excluding yourself from authors may also seem a bit unethical as hiding your expertise from the world.
Besides ethics, another thing to consider in insisting on being taken off the author list is the "human factor". In general (or at least judging from my limited experience), refusing to be listed as co-author implies that you want to distance yourself (esp. in the context of a more collectivist culture), either because you find the research quality unacceptable to your standard, or because you do not wish to be academically associated with colleagues that have dubious reputations. Of course, as you explained in the question, this is not the real reason in this case. But the problem is, your collaborator offered you authorship because he felt that you had contributed enough (and judging from his reply he was not persuaded by your reason). Thus your refusal could very likely be interpreted as a gesture to distance yourself. If conferences are not a big deal in your field, this could be especially irritating to your collaborator (regardless of whether such feelings are justified) if you insist on what at most seems like a minor ethical breach.
In sum, you should consider the bigger cultural context, general practice in your field, your collaborator's personality, and your communication skill in making the decision.
This feels like a question of ethics rather than just etiquette, because based on etiquette it's somewhat expected that people offer co-authorship to those who in their eyes spend a significant amount of time and effort on the project, whereas you are asking whether it is ethical to not protest being a co-author when you do not feel you have contributed enough to deserve it.
Since it's subjective, you could also ask other people in your area whether they think it's reasonable for you to be a co-author. If they do, then since you also think you have contributed a fair bit of time and effort, then I don't think you have a moral obligation to get yourself removed from the authorship, despite it being less than what you feel deserves it.
After all, your main moral obligation is not to give a false impression due to appearing as a co-author, so if people generally have the correct impression then there is no ethical issue, in my opinion. Your viewpoint may differ, in which case you should just do whatever you think is right.
Note that if I were your collaborator in question, I would feel that anyone who contributed a non-trivial part deserves to be a co-author, but at the same time I would respect their wishes if they insist on not being named. That said, your collaborator may be different, or find it uncomfortable to exclude you, which you've to take into account as well.
Here is a simple perspective on the matter:
Co-authorship implies a contribution to the work, which doesn't necessarily mean adding actual data or making figures for the paper and so on. If your colleague feels that the discussion with you was productive and helped his process in understanding the problem and coming up with a solution, then I imagine he wants to list you as an author.
Most of the work towards a scientific publication happens in our head, so contributions to our thoughts need to be equally acknowledged and recognised as the more practical ones.
Although, at the end of the day, it really comes to the individual sensibility about authorship. If you feel like you shouldn't be in the list, it's fair for you to ask to be pulled from it.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Andrea
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45338 | What are reasonable alternatives to changing your name for academic publishing when you have a common surname?
I've recently embarked on my PhD studies (cancer, structural biology) and have yet to publish. Currently, there are some 200 papers in my name and several thousand under my surname. Because of this, I am considering switching my surname to an old, rare, surname in my family, which is only used by one active researcher.
My question is this: are there any reasonable alternatives that does not include legally changing my name? I personally don't mind changing it, but the old surname happens to be "noble", and may come off as quite pretentious. I would be able to change to another, less pretentious, surname, but in terms of rareness, no alternative comes close.
In short, what are my alternatives?
Do you have a middle name?
I do, but my name is unfortunately not unique even when using my full name "John. X Smith".
I use "Dave Clarke" as my name. Not the best choice, but it hasn't been too problematic. That said, try to do what you can to make your name distinct enough. Use the full middle name (not just X). Perhaps add Pope or Sir or Captain to the front of your name, or add a second middle name.
Captain John X. Smith it is.
I'm dying to know what the "old" surname is that's so pretentious. "Royal?"
Roland: ReseacherID looks very interesting. Thanks!
Aaron: it's not royal, but contains a "von"; Firstname von Surname. Thus pretentious.
Chris: Thanks for the heads up. Unfortunately this will be a decision I'll have to make before I can know for sure whether I'll stay in academia or not. I'm convinced I will at the moment, but like you say things can change.
Please tell me you'd be called Ludwig von Drake or Maria von Trapp. :) Seriously though, there's nothing wrong with using a pen name (it worked ok for Eric Arthur Blair, Mary Ann Evans, Winston Churchill and Joanne Rowling), although it may help avoid confusion if the pen name recognisably maps onto your usual name - as in the case of Rowling and Churchill. Make like Churchill and invent a middle initial: John Q Smith.
Well, I suppose I don't mind telling you. You can judge how suitable it would be in English: the surname is "von Otter". I think some of the pretentiousness is lost considering it basically translates as Eric "of the otter". Comes across as a tad silly, really. What do you think? OK in English?
Sorry - have to make this joke. You don't like your name so you choose an Otter one, eh? Don't worry - no English speaker will find it pretentious.
As a native of california, I wouldn't think of von Otter as pretentious (I was just reading a von Cramon last night and it never crossed my mind) however there is one other consideration. Given how often we refer to authors by just there last names (Smith says such and such) it might be more inconvenient to affect a last name than, say, an uncommon middle initial.
@Eric: depending on the implications in the country of origin of the name, and whether you care about them, you could just drop the "von" and be Eric Otter. A surname that's an English word is always occasionally going to provoke someone's imagination, and the otter is not the most revered among animals, but it's not ridiculous. You might not want to be "Eric Dungbeetle", but the worst you'll get over "Eric Otter", unless someone wants to be spiteful, is, "why did you choose Otter if it's not your real name? Oh, it's a family name, fair enough".
... so personally I don't think you need to rank how the name sounds to the English ear, among the practical problems to worry about.
Thanks again for good input - I'm a fan of this site already!
To be clear: von Otter is not something I'm choosing, per se. I am only allowed to switch to surnames already in my family, and based on rarity and pronounceability "von Otter" was the way to go.
Otter is another alternative, but I'm not sure the laws of my country will allow me to switch to a that name, seeing as I only have a claim on the "von Otter" variety. It's worth checking out, however. Thanks.
In general with multipart surnames (e.g. it's common in Spain to have two non-hypenated surnames) you some some influence on how they are presented. You could probably adopt "von Otter" officially but use "Otter" professionally, at least in English-language media.
I don't think "von Otter" sounds at all pretentious in English. (I don't know what "Otter" means in your language, but in English, the word "otter" refers a small, cute wetlands mammal -- how pretentious does "von Kitten" sound to you?)
In my language it's just a misspelling (read: older spelling) of the word Otter. And it's not the Otter part that may come across as pretentious ;) Thanks for the English-perspective though!
Using "von" and similar is not that a great idea. Journals and databases are not always consistent how they handle it.
Do you speak from experience, Greg? I just ran through 7-8 articles in different journals from a relative with "von", all were consistent.
I also have a very common name (usually quoted along the lines of "Smith, J.") and despite the fact that I have worked and published with two different institutions there has never been a problem assigning all my papers to me personally (ORCID and other system let you take your institution(s) into account). As long as there isn't a person with the same first and last name in your institution (and even then, it usually a couple of clicks to rectify the situation and I am speaking of someone who had to contend with a Joan/John Smith situation).
My university makes all researchers from post doc onwards keep a list of their publications on their official university homepage, so even google will associate my publications correctly. So if you come across a paper from my old affiliation you can get my current contact data from this.
And honestly most subfields are specialised enough that people roughly know that John Smith at institution A is working on a certain topic (because that's what your group does) and John Smith at institution B will probably not have published a particular paper. If people want to talk to your about your results, they will find you, even with a common name.
In terms of publishing papers, I'm not aware of any requirement to use your legal name. A common example would be those who continue to use their maiden name (where people change their name on marriage). A friend of mine did the reverse, and wrote her first paper under the name she would assume when she married shortly afterwards.
The trickier case is what will appear on your PhD. It may not matter much, but it would probably make life easier if that said the same as your papers. You'd have to talk to your university about their rules.
It's certainly an option. However, I've heard about potential problems when it comes to registering for events, and, as you point out, diplomas. The big question for me is whether or not I would then be registered under a "fake" (for lack of a better term) name on faculty websites etc.? I'm not sure what the rules are for a given institution. If not, there would be a cut-off between my faculty name and the name under which I publish, which probably won't be helpful.
Just for the record, at least in France the legal name does not change after marriage. Married people have the right to use the name of their spouse or a juxtaposition of the two names, but their "maiden" name officially stays their legal name. Many things happen that seem to indicate otherwise, but this is what French law says.
@Eric I don't think the registration for events is the biggest problems: conference organisers can be accommodating if you explain (possibly in advance by e-mail). The biggest problem would probably be border control if you have to travel and explain to the officer at the border that the the reason for visiting is that you're giving a talk at a conference, even though the name on your passport doesn't match any of the names in the programme, nor do any of the names on any articles or posters you've come with.
Adding/changing an pseudonymic middle name might be a decent middle ground (ha!). E.g., you could be Eric X.A. Smith on papers and Eric X. Smith on your passport, which might close enough to satisfy bureaucrats.
@BenoîtKloeckner what a fascinating thing, that's exactly the sort of information that I like finding out.
How do things work in practice for women publishing under their maiden name, at borders (passport/visa varies from conference registration) or submitting a thesis (thesis authorship varies from the contained papers)? That is, the problem of the dislocation between these may already be familiar enough to the relevant officials, that Eric may be unlikely to have these problems in fact (though of course officials may expect the dislocation to apply to women only).
The previous answers point out two things:
add/modify a middle name
use a pseudonym
I can agree to the first one, but the second seems more trouble than it is worth, as you yourself state. Further, I find modifying your name a bit of an extreme measure, i.e. "legally" changing your name, solely for the purpose of academic recognition.
I'd advise you to shift your view to other means of identification. All papers that I came across have some information regarding the institution of the authors and their emails. This info is also mostly freely available, even revenues that charge you for the paper usually allow free access to the abstract and author information. So, I don't really see a problem that someone wouldn't be able to contact you or find your website or your profile at your institution. Even with a large amount of redundancy, e.g. someone with the same name at the same institution, your email is still unique.
Consider also that a great amount of publications require a bio of the authors, mostly including a picture.
You mention citations, they are kept intentionally very concise, because they primarily point to the reference in the literature section of the paper. There is the full reference to be found and by following the above approach, everyone interested will be able to identify you.
The point being, aside from taking very drastic measures, you will not be able to guarantee that your name is/stays unique.
I suggest you stay with your present identity, the one which identified you throughout your life and which family, friends, and colleagues use to identify you and let the scientific community get acquainted with you as you are. I'm sure in time you'll see that it isn't such a big deal and your earned scientific renown won't suffer.
Many thanks for such a comprehensive answer. It's very possible that I am overestimating the benefit of changing my name and that I should, in fact, just abandon the idea.
That being said, allow me to play the role of devil's advocate:
In my field, I would likely need a minimum of two post-doc positions before starting my own group. This would mean that I'd be associated with several institutions and (most likely) go through several email-addresses. Reducing other means of identification.
Also, the "bio" in my field only consists of one's institution. I've never come across a picture.
I'll paste a relevant, earlier, comment to give you some further insight as to my thought process:
[...]However, I'm more worried about name recognition. In my lab, at least, we nearly exclusively refer to new publications as the latest "Smith paper", and also refer to other people's work by the surname of said person or the surname of the principal investigator in that group. To a lesser extent I'm also worried about citations (i.e., they won't cite my papers as "J. X. Smith", but often just "Smith 2003". Am I over-analyzing?
I use my gmail account precisely for that reason, until i get tenure. I had no trouble with that approach. Further, you infer the colloquial speech inside a field or lab. In that setting, all participants usually exactly know which "Smith paper" is referred to, who is this Smith, what is this "new paper", where is it published, etc. So, you run the risk of your papers being referred to as "the-guy-with-the-unique-name paper" (I'm joking of course :) ), you get the idea, but that doesn't change the acknowledgement of the community nor does it suggest its ignorance.
All good points. Thanks, I'll give it some more thought.
Consider also that a great amount of publications require a bio of the authors, mostly including a picture — In some fields. Author biographies are almost completely unheard of in others.
Add a name instead of changing it
Using a different name than your legal name can bring all kind of difficulties, however, people often use a subset of their full legal name. While changing names legally can be a hassle, adding an extra first or middle name is much easier.
Assuming that your current name is, say, Eric J. Smith with a middlename already, amending your legal name to e.g. Eric Aardvark J. Smith would allow you to his would allow you to still use the sub-name Eric J. Smith in most normal situations, while having Eric Aardvark Smith (or Aardvark Smith for alphabetic ordering reasons) on your publications and academic business cards. This has the advantage in case of any misunderstandings with 'non-matching names' an ID with the full name clearly resolves them.
"While changing names legally can be a hassle, adding an extra first or middle name is much easier." Which country?
Using a different name than your legal name can bring all kind of difficulties — It can? Like what?
I publish under a name that is not on my legal documentation (it's close but still different) and it has never caused me a problem.
@JeffE for example, getting reimbursement from bureaucratic institutions if paperwork shows "a different person" for the publication or conference, this is solvable but has caused an occasional headache for colleagues publishing under their maiden names.
@JeffE Border control too, that could prevent you from getting to the conference.
I would suggest that you take into account where your name would come in papers ordered alphabetically in your field.
At least one of the authors of this paper on the subject considered legally changing her name because it has such a notable effect on career outcomes in their field due to conventions about how names are ordered on scientific papers.
http://www.econ.nyu.edu/user/debraj/Misc/LastNames/Einav_Yariv.pdf
In 100 years, everybody in those fields will be named Aaron A. Aaronson …
@Wrzlprmft Everyone willing to change their name for the sake of career at least. The data implies it works and if the social cost is low or you're planning to do it anyway it's rational to take into account the career effects of your choice.
In biomedicine and cancer research, names are typically ordered by contribution, not alphabetically. Unless I'm mistaken?
Heh. Story of my life.
And, this effect is not nearly limited to Author lists of published papers. There's a reason companies have names like "AAAA Exterminators" and "Aardvark Towing".
@Wrzlprmft ...except in fields where the last author also carries prestige and signals seniority. ("Congratulations, Prof. Aaaaaaabarnathy, on your recent promotion to associate professor with indefinite tenure. In anticipation of your request, we have taken the liberty of legally changing your name to Zzzzzzzzymmerman.")
@RBarryYoung Because there's a serious problem with illegally parked aardvarks?
Of course. The only thing I remember about the ATLAS papers about Higgs and similar is that they are Aad et al. :)
Have you looked into using something like ORCID? It will not prevent people from talking about the "Smith paper", but at least it makes things easier to identify as yours, after the fact.
Also, nothing wrong with going with a "von so-and-so", but it seems like more trouble than it is worth....
If you are going to change your name (and I'm not convinced that you need to) why not change or add a middle name? There may be many John Smiths in cancer biology, but I imagine there are few John X. Smiths. Even the relatively poor disambiguation technologies in use at various bibliometric databases can handle middle initials with relative ease.
This is definitely one option. It would solve part of the problem, i.e. people willing to type my whole name in pubmed would find only my publications.
However, I'm more worried about name recognition. In my lab, at least, we nearly exclusively refer to new publications as the latest "Smith paper", and also refer to other people's work by the surname of said person or the surname of the principal investigator in that group. To a lesser extent I'm also worried about citations (i.e., they won't cite my papers as "J. X. Smith", but often just "Smith 2003".
Am I over-analyzing?
In other words, seeing as how there are several prominent researchers publishing under my surname, any reference to a "Smith paper" would probably be lost.
Granted, this is all secondary to my research and its quality, and very much so. Still, it may have an effect.
In my field at least, only one name is written out in full. Although I use my middle initial on papers, this doesn't always make it into citations. A more reliable variant would be to expand a middle name rather than the first, which some people do. This might confuse people a bit if that is not what you are usually called, but there are people who are known (widely) by a nickname, so it might still work out.
I have the same problem like yours since my mother tongue consists only of one-syllable words, each of them are extremely common.
Adding a hyphen between middle name and first name works for me. While it make significantly different in Google search results, nobody will care a hyphen. My university even allows me to use my name with the hyphen in my thesis so that it is consistent with my other papers.
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77747 | Is it appropriate to submit co-authored paper when asked for a writing sample when applying for an academic job?
I'm a grad students on the academic job market (social sciences, US). Many postings ask for 1-2 writing samples. Is it ever appropriate to send in a paper that has a co-author? I do have other sole-authored products I can send in (book chapter, manuscript under review), but this is the only work that's been published in a well known journal in the field. (I was second author.) Would committees rather see co-authored published work or is there a large premium on sole authored writing samples?
A "writing sample" should actually be written by you to, say, 95%, shouldn't it?
Is that the unwritten rule? If so, it sounds like a 2nd authored paper would not be appropriate.
I'm just guessing from the term "writing sample".
The relative value of co-authored versus solo authored articles varies from field to field, so you should really ask your advisor or some other trusted expert from within your field.
With that said, there is nothing in principle that should rule out submission of coauthored articles as writing samples. Obviously, articles where it is clear that you had a large contribution - e.g. articles where you are first author - are preferred. By submitting such an article in a job application package, you are tacitly implying that you took primary responsibility for the writing of the article (or possibly co-primary responsibility).
Here are some more concrete examples:
A solo-authored paper. Yes.
A first-authored paper with your advisor as second author. Yes.
A first-authored paper with several co-authors on a project of your devising and implementation. Probably.
A second-authored paper with another graduate student, the authors are in alphabetical order. Maybe, but it's not ideal.
A conference paper where you are 3rd out of 6 authors. Not appropriate.
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81059 | What are the chances for an H4 international masters student to get a teaching job at a US community college?
I have a B.E Civil Engineering and M.tech Environmental Engineering degree from India. Also I have 2 years of teaching experience in an Engineering college in India. Currently I am residing in US. Is it possible for me to get a teaching job in community colleges? How should I prepare myself to get a teaching job here?
To clarify: I have an H4 visa.
Do you already have legal authorization to work in the US? Community colleges may be less willing to sponsor you for an employment visa.
No. I am in H4 visa now. Can you please suggest some options for me?
You clarified that you have an H4 visa. As you know, you are not normally permitted to work under an H4 visa. Even unpaid tutoring might be considered a violation of the H4 terms. So you would need to first change your visa status by either:
Applying for a green card
Getting your own H1B or other work visa
As far as getting your own H1, unless you are located in a place where there is an absolute dearth of available faculty, I think it highly unlikely that a community college will sponsor a work visa for you. The amount of paperwork that needs to be done is tremendous (the Department of Labor certification itself is an inch thick)-- as well as the filing costs and attorney's fees. They may also have no experience doing this, unlike the international scholar's office at a larger institution. Finally, many CC faculty are part-time so you may not even qualify for a H1B to begin with.
I would ask your spouse to apply for permanent residency for the both of you and then go on the job market once you have employment authorization.
If you are legally permitted to work in the U.S., this should be possible. Please don't expect a lot, salary-wise. But it can be a rewarding job.
Obviously, your previous teaching experience is a plus. If your English is easy for U.S. students to understand, and you are patient about any communication challenges that might arise, that would be another plus.
If there is no full-time opening in your area at present, you could try teaching one or two classes as an adjunct. This can help you get a foot in the door.
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37749 | When I reapply to universities which have previously rejected my applications, do I have to pay application fees again?
I applied to a few US universities last year and they rejected my application because of my low GRE scores. Now I want to reapply again to the same universities. Can you explain the process to reapply? My concern is about application fees. Is it required to pay application fees for the second time?
I don't know, but it's very likely. Application fees are there to cover the cost of processing your application. That cost remains even if you are rejected.
Hi devika. You may apply for multiple universities at the same time.
If you haven't gotten improved GRE scores, then applying again is simply going to be a waste of your time and money.
I edited your question for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, etc. Please check that it still matches what you want to ask. I'd recommend that you take more care in writing your application essays than you did for this question!
I know this doesn't necessarily concern the answer to your question, but as @NateEldredge implied, you need to work harder on improving your language skills otherwise GRE scores will be the least of your worries. Wish you the best of luck.
Generally, there is nothing special about a reapplication; you apply just as if you were applying for the first time. You will submit all the required materials again. Of course, you will submit updated transcripts and scores, and you will probably have revised or rewritten your application essay, so you'll submit the updated version. Letters of recommendation will also need to be resubmitted; you should ask your letter writers to update their letters to reflect whatever you have been doing in the last year. And yes, you do have to pay another application fee.
Most institutions will give your new application a fresh look; the fact that you have previously applied and been rejected should not prejudice them against your current application. (However, people are human, and if some of the same people are still on the admission committee, they may have some memories of the weaknesses they saw in your previous application.)
Of course, to have a better chance of acceptance this time, you should have made yourself a stronger applicant! Hopefully you have better GRE scores and stronger letters of recommendation, and can report some additional helpful and relevant coursework or work experience in the year since your last application.
Based on what is mentioned clearly on most university admission pages, this is the correct answer. You are practically applying as if for the first time.
@AbbasJavanJafari Except... hopefully doing a better job.
I think some universities are cheaper to re-apply to, if they keep their applicants on file then there's less administration work to do in order to update and process the application. I got rejected the first time I applied to my chosen University based on academics, but I don't remember having to pay another fee when I re-applied with a portfolio (BFA degree).
In short? Yes.
Application fees cover the administrative costs of reviewing your application. Every time you apply to these schools, you will need to pay the fees.
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46773 | Visa requirement query for Indian postdoc applying in UK
I have completed a Ph.D. in India, which is my native country, and am applying for post doc positions in the UK. However, due to strict visa rules, I am not sure if my application would be shortlisted. In these types of situations, my CV and application file have already been approved by the PI.
However, do universities generally sponsor non-EU candidates like me or is it the responsibility of the PI to make the proper arrangements? How can I ensure that my job is not denied due to non-academic reasons like visa issues?
tl;dr: Read the job description.
Details: The job you're applying to is advertised publicly, and as a part of a job description it is normally explicitly stated whether or not the particular University is willing to sponsor the visa application for the non-EU candidates. If unsure, ask the contact person or/and their HR department.
If the university invites only those having a right to work in the UK to apply, there is nothing you can do about it — find another position to apply.
If the university is willing to sponsor the work visa for a candidate, there is nothing you (and your PI) need to worry about — the process will be handled by their HR department. Just make sure you meet Tier2 visa requirements.
Note that there are certain conditions for the University to apply for a Tier2 visa. Normally, the position should be advertised for at least 1 month. Also, the University should be a Tier2 sponsor (check the list).
I believe that if the PI accepted your application, he/she knows they can accept international applicants. You should just make sure this is the case by emailing the PI directly about this.
Once you get the offer, it is still not certain that you get the visa. The UKVI (UK visa and immigration) authority and the university giving you the so-called COS (certificate of sponsorship, which is a requirement to get the UK visa (Tier-2)) are two totally independent entities. This means that the UK university cannot guarantee you'll get the visa.
For most cases you should get the visa, however because of many factors, most prominently inefficiency and mistakes made by UKVI, your visa might get delayed.
It is also quite rare that the university will pay you for issuing the visa as far as I know.
I just want to ask to Dmitry's answer:
Beside Tier 2, Tier 5 is also an option for post doc (actually most post docs I know are in Tier 5). Compare to Tier 2, Tier 5 is much easier and faster to get, and it will cost the university less (if any). Moreover, only a limited number of Tier 2 visas will be issued per year. However, if you intend to apply for permernant residency, then the time in Tier 5 will not be counted, you need to stay 5 years under Tier 2.
Most university will not require you to have a working visa (Tier 1, 2, 5) to do a post-doc. Even if you already have one, you still apply to a new visa when changing the sponsor.
To know if the university will sponsor the visa, reading the job description is not enough. You need to ask the PI. My own experience: I once applied to a post doc which stated clearly in job description that applicants have to show proof of work permit in the UK on the interview day. I didn't have one, because I'm a Tier 4 student. But it turned out it was not necessary, and many applicants did interview via skype from their home country.
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48048 | Is it ethical for a professor to get a graduate student to complete a manuscript peer review that the professor has been assigned?
Is it ethical to a professor to accept a manuscript for review, and then have a graduate student referee it? What about assisting as a referee?
I understand that graduate students can be involved in the review process- this isn't my question. As far as the journal/editors are aware, the professor is the referee, but in actuality, the student is performing the review.
If an assigned referee would like a student to participate, how could this be done properly?
No, I think it is not ethical to "subcontract" referee reports without disclosing this to the editor. It seems however to be a common practice in some fields. I believe this has already come up on this site...
@PeteL.Clark Thanks for your comment. I had searched, but hadn't found any other questions. Sorry if this is a duplicate.
See e.g. http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5662/is-it-common-to-review-papers-assigned-to-your-supervisor
Is it ethical to a professor to accept a manuscript for review, and then have a graduate student referee it?
Though commonplace in some fields (or among some professors), the practice of passing the review to a student, without the agreement of the editor, is utterly unethical for at least two reasons:
The editor expects a review from that specific expert s/he required, not from a ghost one.
The work of the student would not be credited.
Moreover, in some cases, publishers ask to treat the manuscript as confidential, and in that case passing it to someone else can be considered as a breach of confidentiality.
The proper way to handle this passage is the following: the professor should write to the editor refusing the review and suggesting the student (or any other person) as a possible substitute, possibly outlining the credentials of this person to serve as reviewer. Then, the editor will decide what to do with this piece of information: either pass the review to the suggested reviewer or choose another reviewer.
I would consider manuscripts I received to referee as confidential whether or not this is mentioned anywhere explicitly by the editor.
This does seem to vary with the field - in some fields, it's an expected part of the process both for the review and for the grad student. I'd still play it safe and just check with the editor before delegating, and of course review their review.
@rpavlik: Is it really expected, or is it just something that people in certain circles get away with? Have you ever seen or received explicit referee instructions sanctioning this action?
Well, I've been told it was expected (from a prof who also taught the responsible research course), and have also seen emails from editors/chairs. Now, I think it's primarily (only?) been conferences in my case, and while I'm not usually credited that I know of, the primary reviewer doesn't just take my review and pass it on, they moreso use it as a starting point. Haven't seen it in explicit instructions, though I think I would have been more comfortable with that.
While I agree that unacknowledged reviewing is unethical, I would like to offer a counter-point on how I have often seen review "subcontracting" done ethically.
In communities that acknowledge and support the practice of involving students / postdocs / etc. in reviewing, there is often actually an official means of an invited reviewer designating the person they "subcontract" the review to as a sub-reviewer. This puts both the original and the secondary reviewer officially into the process and is fully transparent to the editor.
EasyChair is an example of a platform that supports this, and when I am acting as Program Chair of an EasyChair conference, I appreciate this feature greatly. It means that I know which reviews have been done by a junior rather than the original PI, which also most definitely affects how I weight the judgement thereby expressed.
Does the sub-reviewer get official acknowledgement that s/he can see for her/imself? (so the junior person knows s/he gets credit)
@Kimball I can't say for certain in general, but EasyChair tends to always email everybody involved unless they specifically opt out.
As an additional point, this sort of subcontracting can also be used as training for a PhD student, if done properly. (This is also mentioned in the link given in the comments of the question.)
The EasyChair situation seems to be complicated. Whenever I've reviewed for an EasyChair-organized conference, I've always been referred to as a "subreviewer", even though I was contacted directly by the PC member. EasyChair seems to believe that PC members, by default, do all reviewing themselves and anyone they ask to review a paper is a "subreviewer", rather than a "reviewer".
@DavidRicherby That seems very odd to me: I have done a lot of EasyChair conferences in one role or another, and have never seen this behavior.
Strange. I've reviewed for about ten, I guess, and have always been referred to as a "subreviewer".
@DavidRicherby Interesting: I guess our respective communities have different ways of organizing how they use EasyChair...
My EasyChair experience matches what @DavidRicherby described. The PC members to whom a paper is assigned are called reviewers, and other people to whom the reviewers delegate the work are called sub-reviewers.
I disagree with the other voices here. Although it would seem unethical to suggest that a professor has reviewed a document which has only had a student overview, there are two points to make:
Peer review is about guarantees of quality, not about processes achieved
The graduate's review may not be the final review submitted by the professor
In any review-based system, no one can guarantee that any review is perfect; only the aggregate effect of many such reviews creating a resource of high quality. Thus the review process for a highly respected journal is much more stringent than that of an 'easier' one.
On the side of the reviewer, this is a responsibility-based role, not a procedural one; what is important is that the professor is willing to stake a measure of their reputation on the review; if the graduate knows more detail of the field and the professor trusts their judgement, it could be a more thorough review than the professor could provide. As long as the professor judges the reviewer to be competent, that is their responsibility.
Finally, having a student review a paper may well be only part of the process; give it to a couple of students, see if they come up with anything. If they don't understand it, or they discover flaws, then the professor can review the paper herself in that light. Just because the graduate student has reviewed a paper doesn't mean that the professor will just pass the review on without comment.
The key, though, is that the journal is only asking that the professor provides responsible and competent feedback, and signs off on the review. How the professor reaches that goal is up to them, and peers that provide poor reviews should be excluded from the review pool (and associated privileges) by the journal. There is no magic to a professor reading a paper, and their judged competence to do so is only based on the university's assignment of professorship and the academic's history of research. Everything builds on expectations and responsibilities, not on some procedure having been carried out; the procedure is only there to make those responsibilities explicit.
I agree. Reviews were passed to me both as a student and as a postdoc, and as long as the official reviewer also looks at the paper, I don't see it as a problem. It would have been good reviewing practice for a career in academia.
I have seen the following situation. Professor X is assigned to review a paper, which is also publicly available on the arXiv. Professor X assigns a student to read and present the paper in a seminar, and during the course of discussion between the student and Professor X, an error is found. Professor X then summarizes the error in his or her referee report and recommends rejection. This seems pretty kosher. The only negative I see is that X did not acknowledge the student's contribution in his or her letter. But since this would only be seen by one other person, the managing editor, I'm not sure how important this is.
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27146 | Whether to use numbers or abbreviated names as a citation style?
Many papers use numbered references (e.g.: [1], [2]). Is this considered a good style or even a rule or would it be acceptable to use abbreviated names of the authors and year of publication (e.g. [Smith09] for J. Smith, 2009)? I find the abbreviated name reference style a lot more informative as after a while of reading papers on a given topic it’s usually easy to identify the cited publication without the need to look at the full bibliography. I have seen this style used in books and some editorials but it is not common.
Many Humanities journals use a numbered footnote citation style, e.g. Chicago.
Thank you for explanation. What confused me is that each journal defines it's own style and not each publisher. E.g. journals published by Springer on closely related research areas differ WRT system used.
The two systems are equally good but used in different communities/journals etc. You therefore need to check what is normally used in your field and when submitting manuscripts, of course, check what the specific journal uses. The fact that you say "most journals use" indicates you are in a field that uses numbered or Vancouver style (author-number) references. The author-date, or Harvard-system, is used by most journals in my field.
You don't get to choose
Although as a reader I vastly prefer the name-year system, as I don't have to look up most of the references, the advantages are rather irrelevant - in almost all cases, you don't get to choose, as you'll have to comply with the citation standard of the publication.
The journal, conference or thesis standard generelly will list the citation style required, and that's it.
In some fields one or the other style is more common, but in any case you may encounter a publication where a different style is required, so check first.
+1 for the very correct headline. (Even though I personally strongly prefer the number-only style, as I find it much easier to find entries in the bibliography when they are sorted by only one criterion (a number) rather than several nested criteria (name, possibly year, then possibly letter).)
It surely depends on the field we are talking about.
In medicine the number method now is the standard, probably because it improves overall readability of the text. Important references are often cited literally ("Smith et al. demonstrated that... [58]") and general statements by a collection of other researchers ("Many workgroups found...[23-27,57,89]).
Especially in books and reviews where the citations go in the hundreds You appreciate if the text is not clutterd by parentheses with long names but has only small-print numbers in exponential style.
The name/year system is much better, and you should use it whenever possible. In particular, if you work in a field with preprints your preprints should use name/year or initial/year even if the journal will later force you to change it. The reason is that name/year communicates relevant information, while number communicates no information at all. Just giving numbered references means many readers won't know anything about who did what work.
In math/CS you mostly use [1,2] or [Lot02,Zai04]. You can choose (unlike what most other answers impose) either of them, note for instance that both amsplain and amsalpha exist and either of them can be used in AMS publications.
It's a matter of habits which style the authors choose. The alpha/amsalpha [Lot02] style is better in most cases. However, there are communities where a numerical style is strongly prefered, moreover with the bibliography sorted by the order of appearance, and with compression turned on, because they cite hundreds of articles. And well, you don't want your in-text citations look like [ABC00a,ABC00b,ABC00c,ABC00d,ACE00a,ACE00b,ABC01a,BC00a,BC00b,BC01,BC02], when it can be [1--11].
Maybe there are instances where you can choose, but it is not correct to claim that "you can [generally] choose". I am totally used to submission guidelines such as this one that very explicitly, and without leaving any choice, say: "The format of references is a numbered list at the end of the article, ordered alphabetically by first author, and referenced by numbers in brackets e.g. [1]."
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41503 | Can my PhD thesis supervisor be a reviewer for my paper?
I want to know whether my PhD thesis supervisor (with whom I have co-authored many papers) is allowed to be a reviewer for one of my journal submissions?
When you asked your PhD thesis supervisor, what did they say?
In many cases this would be inappropriate. PhD advisors are considered to have a permanent conflict-of-interest when it comes to their advisees.
Some conferences/journals relax this condition and allow for reviews from former collaborators if there has been no collaboration in the past 5-6 years (or some similar time window). You should check the rules around CoI for the particular journal if these are publicly available.
However: it is best to not have your PhD advisor listed as a potential reviewer. If the Associate Editor or Editor-in-Chief makes that call -- to have an advisor review the advisee's work -- it is a different matter but one should not rely on obtaining reviews from former advisors.
"Some conferences/journals relax this condition and allow for reviews from former collaborators if there has been no collaboration in the past 5-6 years." This is indeed true, but it's not clear to me if these statements include thesis advisors. I'd expect the requirement to be a bit more stringent for them over other collaborators.
I know a good handful of people who have so many collaborators that there would be nobody to review their paper, especially since the community is very small. In general, the criteria used here is: Not in permanent, contact, not sharing funding, not sharing university/lab, no strong past connections (which comprises advising).
The question is ultimately one for your advisor and the journal editor to answer, but it certainly does not seem like a best practice. If for instance you are being asked to suggest possible reviewers, I think you should never suggest your thesis advisor.
I could perhaps imagine a situation in which your work is so difficult or technical that the thesis advisor needs to be consulted at some point in order to vouch for it or address its correctness. However, I think this should be avoided if at all possible: as the tag indicates, this is a clear conflict of interest.
From the perspective of the thesis advisor: if I were asked to referee a paper by a current student I would automatically turn it down, giving this conflict of interest as the reason. If I were asked to referee a paper of a former student I would write back to the editor informing them that they are my former student, ask them whether they really want me to referee the paper, and take it from there.
I've been asked to referee papers by my former Ph.D. students, and I did what you suggest. I wrote to the editors to make sure they're aware of the situation, and then I refereed the paper iff they still wanted me to.
@AndreasBlass and the result?
@Ooker Both results have occurred. "Go ahead and referee it" was the more common, but at least one editor decided to find another referee.
It's sometimes said that the purpose of a reviewer is to stop the author publishing something which will make them look foolish. If you see reviewing as collaboration, rather than conflict, then I see no problem with a phd supervisor wishing to protect the reputation of their ex-student by improving their paper.
@JeremyMiles this is an excellent point, but as more and more journals count on the reviewer to assess the importance of the work, this is where the thesis advisor may have the strongest bias. A responsible scientist will hopefully always be impartial with regards to correctness, but it's hard to be impartial when "importance" is so subjective already.
I've also been asked to referee papers by my former students. I just said no.
If the journal has asked you to suggest potential or preferred reviewers, you should not ideally include the name of your PhD supervisor. However, if yours is a niche field, and your choice of preferred reviewers is limited, then you could perhaps include his name, adding a note disclosing the potential conflict of interest and stating that you added his name due to a lack of other options.
However, if the journal editor invites your supervisor to review your paper, then it's up to them to decide. Usually in such cases, the referee discloses the conflict of interest, as mentioned in the last part of Pete L. Clark's answer.
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26215 | How to correct a fundamental error in a series of papers made by a colleague of your adviser?
I am a PhD student in mathematics. I recently found a fundamental error in a method used in a series of papers. My adviser confirmed that. One of those wrong papers was authored by a researcher who had several works with my adviser. I found that this error can be fixed using an approach which I found in some old works. So I started to write an article about this. I am just asking if I should tell my adviser to contact him and inform him about this error. Or contact all the authors of those papers. Or just continue writing my paper and cite their works explaining how their approach is wrong.
Talk to your adviser as soon as possible. I'm a bit surprised that in your previous interactions your adviser did not already tell you whether and how he planned to contact the author(s) of the fallacious papers -- especially given that at least one was your adviser's collaborator.
Here is my advice (it comes from a pure mathematician, if that is relevant to you):
Spend up to one work day writing up a careful description of the error. If a result is false, give a counterexample. If you can give one specific, easy to verify counterexample, start with that. Then if you have a further sense of the "terrain of counterexamples" -- e.g. if you know the result is never true, or you know that it is true precisely under some additional hypothesis, then include that.
The point of this is that in many cases what we perceive to be errors in mathematical work stem from misunderstandings between the reader and the author, including different use of the same terminology. I would say that approximately half of all the errors I think I see in my colleagues' work turn out to have such innocent explanations. Another big percentage of suspected errors stem from misunderstandings of the part of the reader: it is one thing if you come across a result that contradicts another result you have already written up. However, if you are just reading then the odds are fair that the cognitive dissonance in your mind is not actually caused by a mistake in the paper: for instance when I read other people's work, I try to do so with an eye towards its relationships to my own work and my own problems. As a proud student of the "Richard P. Feynman school of situational genius" I heartily endorse this approach, but sometimes it turns out that what I think is an error is due to an entanglement of "my situation" and the author's. Finally, when an error has actually been made, there is usually (very understandable) psychological resistance on the part of the author. This is why it helps to arrive with individual, crisp counterexamples.
If the theorem is correct but the proof is faulty, the situation may be more nebulous.
Everyone has different standards of what constitutes an acceptable proof. Moreover, mathematicians are still human beings, and the percentage of inessential slipups we make in the course of our written work is non-negligible. Most people do not appreciate their expository flaws and bone-headed but unimportant mistakes being taken as evidence that their proofs are incorrect. In fact, where possible, when you claim that someone's proof is faulty it is an honorable thing to give them a chance to correct it.
In this case you speak of a "fundamental error", which I guess means that it is worse than the relatively innocuous mistakes described above. Do you mean though that the theorems are still true, and you know this because you know how to prove them? If so:
Spend up to two or three work days writing up as much as possible of what you feel is a correct proof. If you can only give a sketch, so be it, but try to include all the ideas which convince you that your argument is correct. Your target audience includes people who are deeply committed to and knowledgeable in this particular area: you can write accordingly.
I would meet with your advisor as soon as you have written each document. (If you can write both in one day, great.) Then the question becomes obvious and unavoidable: what should you do with these documents? If he can vouch for their accuracy, I think you will certainly want to contact the author of the flawed paper, but whether to do this yourself or through your adviser is something you should ask him about.
Why do I place time limitations on these tasks? It is because of the following important observation, which in my understanding is somewhat peculiar to mathematics:
Even if the author's proof is wrong and yours is right, your corrected proof may or may not be publishable.
There are too many nuances here for me to go over them all, but just one quick thing: you say that you fixed the result using material from old works. Because of this, it is possible (perhaps; I don't know the situation) that the authors and/or the editors in question will still regard the mistake as a "slip up" (even if you do not). A math paper which does not contain "new results", "new ideas" or "new techniques" may be very hard to publish...let me readily admit that this practice is not entirely fair or wise, but it most certainly is extant. So you don't want to spend substantial work time on what may end up being a corrigendum written by the author but identifying you as the provider of both the problem and the solution.
Good luck.
Thank you very much for all the details you provided. The theorem in question is a "To good to be true theorem". The first time I saw it I said "No way". I checked the proof and it was a beautiful proof, I said to myself "Why no one in the past didn't have this idea ?". It was very simple. But I still couldn't believe it. So after detailed examinations, I found that the theorem uses a Lemma but the conditions to use the Lemma are not all satisfied. I think the counterexample is difficult to find. What I did is proving the theorem by a different approach with additional assumptions.
@user165633: Thanks for the additional details. It sounds like both the counterexample and the partial fix are of real value. I would recommend that you follow my advice (especially the part about talking to your adviser). Honestly, this does sound like a good situation for you to get a publication out of it...but you should still proceed carefully and not spend too much time writing it up until you learn how this will be received.
I think it is important for you to write it up for your own benefit, as well as the benefit of future researchers. The potential political situation associated with this should be explored as well. http://mathoverflow.net/questions/31337/how-do-i-fix-someones-published-error has some advice, one key part of which is to talk to more than one senior person who is familiar with the authors and the situation. It is important to fix things, but it is also important to pay due respect and care to whom and what came before. Talk to more than one person about how to proceed.
I think it's really important to make sure that your refutation is ironclad. So, it does make sense to write it up carefully and show to the parties concerned.
@user165633: Assuming that you do have both a clear demonstration of the problem and at least a sketch of a correct proof, there's also the possibility that the original author might be willing to co-author a paper about it with you. In many ways, that would be the ideal scenario for you, and it's one more reason to get in touch with the author sooner rather than later.
I'd also strongly encourage you to try to find a counterexample, even (or especially) if it's difficult. If you can't find one for the full theorem (and if so, that's interesting in itself), at least try to find one where the incorrectly applied lemma fails, even if the final result still holds. Also, since you say you have a new proof with additional assumptions, try to construct an example of what happens if those assumptions don't hold. Does the full theorem fail (great, you have your counterexample) or does it still hold (which means your new proof might not be as general as it could be)?
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87218 | Which citation style is the most concise and has the least impact on word count?
I'm writing a research proposal with a small maximum word count. References are included in this word count. Fortunately, the citation style is not specified.
I was wondering if there is any (widely accepted) citation style that will generally produce the shortest citations. As far as I've found, MLA seems to be the shortest as it switches author names to "et al." when there's four or more authors, whereas other citation styles that I've looked at only switch with a higher number of authors. Is there any style that would consistently produce shorter citations?
You could number your references, which is typical in the IEEE format.
Actually, now MLA switches to et al. after the first one. That said, places that ask for MLA papers generally don't have ultra strict word or page limits like in the sciences.
As @Adam Bosen commented, you will be hard-pressed to find a more compact in-text citation format than IEEE. A single citation is written [1] and several citations [2-5].
The bibliography is then listed in numeric order.
Presumably, superscript numbers would be shorter (i.e., no brackets). And by citation style, you also need to think about referencing format.
Accepting this answer as it gave me the shorted bibliography of the mentioned citation styles.
Coming back to this question when writing a grant with very strict word limit, I discovered that the most concise citation AND bibliography style must be the Science (without titles).
Example:
1.R. Hisakata, S. Nishida, A. Johnston, Curr. Biol. 26, 1911–1915 (2016).
You can find the citation-style-language csl file in the official csl styles github repository, that you can download and use in Zotero, Mendeley, RefWorks, etc.
If you're an EndNote person, see the style file in the most popular answer to this ResearchGate question
Vancouver is fairly short. See this guide. It is particularly common in medicine.
In terms of in-text citations, it is short.
It uses numbers as citations.
There are variations. But the shortest is to put the numbers as superscripts without parentheses. You can also include ranges like 1-5 for five references.
In terms of the actual references, Vancouver is also quite terse:
It uses journal abbreviations, so the length of each citation is often shorter
It doesn't require dois
End page numbers often omit the leading number e.g., 258-60 would indicate 258 to 260
It omits full stops after author initials
It omits comma between author surname and initial
It is worth noting that many of these features will reduce character counts and page counts but not word counts. E.g., using "J" rather than "Journal" in the journal name will not remove a word. Thus, the benefits of these tweaks in terms of giving you space to add additional content will depend on whether your constraints are defined relative to word count or page count.
As an aside, I think the ease with which you can include heaps of references using Vancouver is a major reason why medical journals have higher impact factors.
This option is hard to beat when the bibliography is also counting towards your word/page count (e.g. in a grant application).
https://anton.cromba.ch/2016/02/07/a-minimal-citation-stylefor-grant-proposals/
Just in case the above page ever goes down, you can download the raw CSL from here, save it on your computer, and load it into Zotero/Mendeley.
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41464 | What percentage of applicants on a wait list for masters program generally get accepted?
My application has been put on the wait list at my top choice institution (unfunded masters, about 10% acceptance rate). The Department said they may not be able to let me know the final decision until after April 15 (which I understand). However, I need to know the decision before April 15 to respond to other offers. In order to determine my chance, I have the following questions:
While this may vary depending on the programs, is there a general percentage of applications out of the entire pool being put on wait list? If not what factors determine this?
Are wait listed applicants ranked? if not, how do programs determine which one to accept off wait lists?
Should I let them know that they are my top choice and if accepted I will almost surely attend?
The answers to your questions depend on the university/department, but are all reasonable questions to ask. It would be perfectly reasonable to send an email along the lines of
Thank you for letting me know about the wait listing decision. I understand how competitive the admissions process is. I wanted to let you know that XXX is my top choice and if offered a place I would accept it immediately. As I have also received an offer from YYY that I need to respond to by April 15, would you mind if I checked on my status closer to the deadline?
This will hopefully open a dialog and they might say something like "given your place on the wait list it is unlikely we will know anything prior to the deadline" or "given your place in the wait list the picture should be a lot clearer closer to the deadline.
If you want to play it mean, you will accept the second best offer on April 14th. But you will not give up on your first choice. If your waitlist subsequently clears and you get a confirmed place, then you will have to withdraw with regret from your other offer.
Some people would suggest it is ethically unsound to accept firm offers in the knowledge that you may later renounce them. I don't really agree but that is your decision.
You should ask a question about if it is ethically unsound to accept and then later renounce. I am not sure how I feel about it.
If you are interested, go ahead and ask it ;)
I'd also be interested in seeing the answer. Of course, I also think @StrongBad's answer is a better compromise that avoids having to decide whether to take a course that is ethically dubious at best.
@StrongBad Thank you for your suggestion. So by asking if it is ethical to accept and then later renounce, I am letting the Department know that I may take that course of action. Will that make me less a moral character to them? My second choice is also an unfunded masters program, so I'd not feel as horrible as to accept a Ph.D. offer and then later renounce it.
@user90593 NO! That comment was not directed at you. It was a suggestion to ask about the ethics of it on AC.SE. I would not ask the department about it. Sorry for the confusion.
@StrongBad Thanks! I thought it was a quite odd to ask that.
This choice affects the student for the rest of her life. Certainly for the first few years of her programme and likely the career choices made immediately afterwards. Oppositely, it is very annoying (paperwork, re-advertising, emotionally) when a student withdraws unexpectedly, but at worse the faculty and the staff will forget it completely after 12 months.
Now, the department is playing a game by setting the acceptance deadline earlier than the competitors. Make no mistake, it is not by accident. I have no problem with an applicant playing the game as well as the institutions do.
But this is my opinion, and I do not seek to present it as any more than ambiguous. So my answer is put there so that the obvious does not escape the ambitious student looking to do best for herself.
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93163 | Publish the paper without letting know one of authors?
I and one of my peers prepared a journal paper out of his master thesis. We submitted it first to one of the well-known conferences of the field and it got accepted and we let the other coauthors know (including his professor, who is a prominent researcher in his field). They seemed to be very satisfied.
Later we decided to extend the paper and I submitted it to a journal. I was not aware that he had not told the others about the submission. The paper was accepted by the journal. This time my peer refuses to make his professor aware.
Now I wonder about proceeding with the publication? Is it ethical? What are the consequences if I finalize the publication, for me?
I am not sure I got things right, but it seems this needs to be said: all authors of a publication must agree before submission to submit.
my mistake was accepting the responsibility of corresponding
Arno is right 100%
Violation of journal's rule can lead ultimately to retraction of the already published paper. For example, if one of co-authors later complain.
You can check various stories behind the retractions: http://retractionwatch.com/
Thank you, so the consequence is what you mentioned. I probably suspend the process until I receive consent letters.
One must not submit a paper for publication without the consent of all coauthors. In my experience, most submission systems will point this out explicitly, but it remains true regardless of such notice.
It seems that for the first submission to a conference, your coauthors retroactively consented (maybe grudgingly, maybe happily). Nevertheless, you should have asked before -- not just informed, by the way.
You then committed the same infraction again, and submitted to a journal without everyones prior consent. Going ahead with the publication without your coauthors consent would be even worse (drastically so!) than the mere submission, so this is not an option. Your professor coauthor would almost certainly find out.
The appropriate step for damage control is to contact all coauthors immediately, apologize profoundly for your mistake, and ask them whether they want to go ahead with the publication. If everyone agrees, go ahead (and never do this again). If someone disagrees, you need to withdraw your submission and apologize to the editor (and indirectly referees) for wasting their time.
+1 for advice. No question, my submission of the work was wrong and must personally contact other authors rather than accepting verbal promise of my peer, but at least I am trying to ask the right thing to do while it does not affect me.
As mentioned before by others, all authors must agree when submitting. And if it's a renown journal like you said, they will most likely send an email to each author to confirm they agree with the publication before it goes under press.
In theory, all authors should contribute to a paper being written. If you intend to write one, the best is to warn potential contributors beforehand, and ask them before about agreement and contribution. In continuing work, preparing the paper with a few workers can be understood, as long as the others are warned about the future submission.
Otherwise, adding co-authors without prior information is unethical, as they have no option to withdraw or participate. Only acknowledgement and citation do require prior consent.
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17239 | Should co-first authors be listed in alphabetical order?
The field of research is the biological sciences.
Graduate student B worked on the project for 2 years: he did experiments to gather genome-wide data and analyzed part of that data. He defined the direction and feasibility of the project, and developed the methodology; if it were not to him, there wouldn't be a paper.
Post-doc A picked up the project for 1 year after graduate student B left the lab, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, contributed 4 key figures (exactly half of the figures) and at least half of the scientific conclusions.
It was agreed upon that A and B would be co-first authors, but currently they are listed as B, A, et al.
Do you think A would be entitled to feel some kind of injustice at not having his name listed in alphabetical order? Is there a consensus that co-first authors should be in alphabetical order and is the editor likely to point this out?
[edit] Additional information:
In this field, you can specify 'co-first authors' at the time of submission, and it is written as such under the author's list on the final publication as "X an Y have contributed equally to this work". Which of course is a big source of conflict.
Thanks :)
If the authors of a paper are listed as Bravo, Alpha, Charlie.... then what does it mean to assert that Alpha is a "first author"? If you list someone as unalphabetically second, then that doesn't that imply precisely that they are not a first author?
Yes, this is precisely why A is feeling left out. Because it means his contribution as a co-first is not properly acknowledged, and he is expecting the scientific community will see right through this.
Expecting the scientific community to see through this suggests that there is some other possible way to view this. But to me it sounds strictly contradictory: does B in fact feel that listing the authors as B,A,C,... is compatible with the agreement that A is a co-first author? Why??
B isn't participating in writing the manuscript at all and has no clue what is going on at the moment. He is just contacted from time to time to make sure about this or that or where some files are on the hard drive. Advisor agreed to co-first authorship but then listed the authors as such in the draft. A is hesitant to speak out. My speculation is that advisor wants to "stay loyal" to B because he was there before A and spent the "most time" on the project.
Thank you. The whole affair does sound suspicious to me. 'A' should try to talk to the advisor.
I don't see any way to view this other than as a misunderstanding or miscommunication. (Not necessarily an innocuous misunderstanding: perhaps someone is trying to pull a fast one of some sort.)
I am a mathematician, so maybe I am especially sensitive to logical issues, but I can't think of a situation in which someone tells me something that sounds like a logical contradiction in which I wouldn't just say, "I'm sorry: I must be confused because that sounds contradictory. Could you please explain it again?"
My only guess at the resolution of the contradiction is that someone is in fact trying to change their mind about the ordering of the authors. I know little about the conventions and nuances of author ordering (because in pure mathematics the order is almost always strictly alphabetical), but I do think I understand the meanings of all the terms involved, so I can only imagine that if you submit a paper to a journal saying "by Bravo, Alpha, Charlie....Please note that Bravo and Alpha are co-first authors" then the editors will respond by calling attention to the contradiction. What else?
When talking about Grad Student B, you said
if it were not to him, there wouldn't be a paper.
If that's not a good definition of "most important contributor", I don't know what is. B should be the first author. If you want to make sure that A gets due credit, and the journal in question allows this, I would suggest adding a footnote specifying who did what (I typically ask my undergrads to do this when they write joint term papers).
I actually think that is not a good definition of "most important contributor" because it can apply to more than one coauthor. In fact, in my field (mathematics), many people feel that "if not for me there wouldn't be a paper" is what it takes for one's contribution to merit coauthorship at all. This standard applies to most or all of my collaborative work with non-student-coauthors.
But +1 for the suggestion to actually explain what people did: I find this to be a remarkably direct solution to these issues of "author signification", practice it myself when relevant, and wonder why it is not more common.
Very nice suggestion! Actually, A explained the contributions succinctly in the Acknowledgments section, as should be common practice, but the advisor suggested deleting it because the journal doesn't "require" it (by the way I would be very surprised if a journal doesn't "allow" it).
Actually, I would say that this is precisely what alerted A and made him start to feel that his contribution may not be properly acknowledged.
Should co-first authors be listed in alphabetical order?
How is being co-first authors supposed to work in general? I come from a field where authors are typically ordered by contribution, but, by definition, there has to be exactly one first author. Being the first author of a paper is not some honorary title that can be split - it is simply the first gal/guy on the author list. Hence, by convention in my field, this is also the gal/guy that the authors have agreed upon has contributed most to the paper and should receive most recognition.
What is important here is that just because "A" is the second author of the paper, it does not imply that he did not do anything substantial. It merely means that the authors have agreed that her/his intellectual and technical contribution was at least a tiny bit less central to the paper as "B"s.
Do you think A would be entitled to feel some kind of injustice at not having his name listed in alphabetical order? Is there a consensus that co-first authors should be in alphabetical order and is the editor likely to point this out?
No, "A" has no right to require alphabetical ordering. The editor will not care, because how would he even know that "B" was supposed to be a co-first author?
The more important question here is whether "A" has a right to feel injustice because she/he in fact believes that her/his contribution was in fact larger than "B"s, hence, that "A" should be the first author. This is a question that we cannot answer. Note that the number of figures contributed per author does not seem extremely important. Likewise, who ultimately submits the paper is not the deciding factor. That "B" has spent multiple years working on the project sounds like she/he had in fact a lot of impact on the work, though (assuming that she/he did in fact not just idle around and procrastinate, which we cannot tell of course).
The editor will not care, because how would he even know that "B" was supposed to be a co-first author? >>In my field, you can specify 'co-first authors' at the time of submission, and it is written as such under the author's list on the final publication as "X an Y have contributed equally to this work". Which of course is a big source of conflict.
I've been in a similar situation. Getting offended won't help anything. Alphabetical order is just as arbitrary as random order.
But on your personal CV and website, feel free to list yourself first if you are indeed a co-primary author.
NO, your CV needs to list authors the way they are on the paper. You are free, and should, however, denote the co-first authorship.
Changing the order of authors on your CV is a major no-no. Many scientists I know would disqualify a candidate who did this, even with a co-equal list.
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90907 | Choosing between MS Word, PDF, and latex formats when submitting a manuscript for publication when all are allowed?
I've been working on an article, and for ease of collaboration among co-authors and advisers I have used Google Docs thus far, so I'll likely need to do at least a little post-formatting once in .doc format. In addition, I use linux and LibreOffice when I have to, and I generally dislike using MS products.
I'm now preparing the article to submit and the journal I am considering accepts a wide range of file formats: .doc, .docx, .rtf, & .pdf (with .tex files after acceptance).
I feel inclined to put things in LaTeX since I am well-versed and like the idea of having finer control of the appearance of things, but it will certainly take a bit more time and I am ignorant of the layout process journals use when preparing an article.
Is there any real benefit of using LaTeX or another format when submitting an article to a journal (in this case PLOS One)?
A side note: if you don't know it already, should you decide to convert the document to LaTeX, you may consider the usage of pandoc.
As per automatically typesetting and ease of use is concerned, I would go with LaTeX. (given that you are comfortable handling the syntax, as mentioned you already are)
My two cents ...send rtf or pdf or latex ... do not send docx ... I have a Mac, have not purchased Microsoft Word for many versions, and equations in docx files sometimes come out wrong in the default Mac readers for docx.
@DSVA This was kind of my thought. If I just dump my google doc, and upload my figures that is certainly faster if the LaTeX I make is just scrapped anyhow. The one benefit I see, besides Julius's point about pre-print sharing, is I can be sure my LaTeX generating tables/equations fit visually with the text.
TL;DR: Two considerations may speak for Word: possible differences between submission and publication requirements, and ease of collaboration and review.
The answers so far have sung the praises of LaTeX, and with good reason, but here is a caveat. You should try and determine whether the publication has a different requirement for the final version than the submission, just in case.
This happened to me with IEEE Computer last year. I have an article appearing in the July issue. When it was submitted about a year ago, I used LaTeX (despite some of my coauthors being unfamiliar with it), but when the magazine accepted it, they required me to convert it to Word! I found a tool to help with this but it was still a lot of extra effort.
I imagine this requirement arose because the magazine uses a professional editor to revise it prior to publication. Most publications are in journals rather than magazines and therefore aren't faced with this. (Or perhaps some journals do this too.). But because your question hit close to home and there will be some for whom this is applicable, I'm mentioning here.
Putting aside the question of whether a Word might actually be required, another point is the ease of collaboration and review. In this case, the OP has chosen to use Google Docs to edit, which certainly makes tracking changes and comments easy. Sending around Word has that effect too, whereas LaTeX requires a lot of hacks (macros to include or omit comments, latexdiff to markup changes, etc.) it's not like you're done as soon as you submit: you may quite likely have revisions to deal with.
Bottom line: while I find it easier to prepare initially in LaTeX, if you need to move from Docs to either Word or LaTeX, it seems likely it's easier to switch to Word and continue the submission cycle from there.
I appreciate the anecdote. Given my lack of experience in this arena, it is these experiences I hope to learn about.
I use git to track changes in latex, and it works pretty well most of the time... The only requirement is to NOT write entire paragraphs in a single line.
Anything that can let you store a snapshot is useful, since then you can run latexdiff. The issue in my case was the requirement to convert.
That all depends on the journal you're submitting to. Quite some journals that accept Latex, also provide a template to use. With a template available and knowledge of Latex, it should be fairly easy to convert the GoogleDoc to Latex if you download as HTML and then use eg Pandoc to convert to Latex (explained here).
But people who are not comfortable with Latex, are likely better of using another option. Converting from GoogleDocs to .doc or .docx generally also requires an in-between step using PDF, and will generally give some layout issues, but when a paper is bound to be submitted it's not really the time to learn Latex.
Thanks for the great answer. I've currently selected Fred's, as it pertained more specifically to what I was curious about, but all input here has been helpful to me.
It depends a bit on the journal, but after acceptance most journals do the entire formatting from scratch. They may give you LaTeX templates, but that's just to give you an idea of what it will look like in the end and how many pages your paper will consist of.
There may be a big benefit to producing it in LaTeX though, but this depends a bit on the field you're in. In most STEM fields it is considered more professional than Word, so if you're considering sharing it as a preprint with colleagues this might be a factor that you want to weigh.
I hadn't thought about preprint sharing, and good to know about the formatting, despite using the template. That was pretty much what I was wondering about.
Still, most journals have limits on page counts for different types of submissions and/or charge you extra fees when you're over some specified length. When you use their (Latex) template it gives you a good idea of what your page count is and whether that falls within their purview.
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46877 | How are mathematics conference presentations usually done and what to expect from the question and answer component?
I'll be presenting at my first conference in 2 days, and I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing, to be blunt. I was the second author in a paper that recently got published. So I more or less have an idea of what I need to discuss. I'm limited to at most 15 slides but what I'm dreading the most is the question and answer section. Can anyone tell me how these presentations are usually done and/or give hints? (I'm a grad student in math, by the way)
Some good advice here: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/advice.html (scroll down)
I'm not sure I really understand what you want to know. Have you never seen a conference talk? (If you haven't, you can watch some here.) Perhaps you're going to different conferences from me. The question and answer part is usually 2 minutes at the end of the talk; occasionally no one has a question, but often to be polite people will ask for a clarification of some point or ask about a connection to something they free-associated about during your talk. You should do your best to answer, but people will understand if you say "Gee, I hadn't thought about it that way" or "Let's discuss that during the break." Generally people are eager to get to lunch/coffee break and won't draw it out too long.
Ask your advisor for a chance to practice by giving your talk in front of your own research group. Or arrange to give it in front of other grad students, possibly through your local student chapter of SIAM. Make sure your "practice" audience knows that you expect them to ask questions.
The length limit is given in terms of time, not slides. Practice your talk and make sure to finish on time. And follow the advice given here: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/advice.html.
When the questions come, relax. You can't go wrong as long as you don't try to talk about things you don't know. It's perfectly acceptable to say you don't know. If there are no questions, it usually means nobody understood anything useful from your talk.
Giving good talks is a vital career skill - yes, even in math! At the conference, pay attention to talks that you enjoy and how they are delivered. Improving your presentation skills will be a lifelong, valuable effort.
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21200 | How to obtain a percentile ranking for a journal? (i.e., top 30%; 30% to 50%)
My institution ranks scientific achievement according to some criteria when evaluating promotions, positions, etc. for its subjects (students, grad students, personnel, etc.) This is done by a rule book that is specified in the form of a bylaw and is administered by the ministry of science, therefore it is not local to my institution, but applied nationwide.
The passage about SCI journal publications states that journals are divided into three groups:
eminent international journals - a journal that in its subject ranks in the top 30% journals in ISI list publications
outstanding international journals - the same but for <30% and >50%
international journals - the same for <50%
The difference in "points" awarded for publications in each of the categories is rather large. I was wondering how I could determine which journals fall into a criterium from above?
I talked to the administrative service, but got no satisfying answer, i.e. there is no list of journals (which is understandable, as there are far too many subjects). They told me something along the lines: "These things will be evaluated when the time comes", which is, of course, not at least satisfactory to me.
I talked also briefly with the head of the department and he told me that he never really gave it much thought, I should publish in journals that suit me, the higher the impact factor and prestige the better of course, but in the end it isn't that much of an imperative, and that I should let the "politicians" and administrators worry about those tiny matters. I would, however, still like to know which journals I should favorite.
PS: the rule book naturally specifies similar criteria for various scientific publications (conferences, patents, books, etc.), but since I'm working on my first article to be submitted to a journal and I still haven't decided which journal, I would like to take things like this into account
Likely this is not the answer you want to hear, but I assume the administrative service you talked to is correct. If nobody really knows which journals fall under which of these (rather subjective) categories, it will not be feasible to in advance establish for sure way how much any paper you write will count in the end, when you are evaluated.
This is not nearly as strange as it sounds. Formal rules for promotion and the evaluation of research tend to live in the ugly grey area between bureaucrats who like things orderly, well-defined and, most importantly, written down, and the reality of science, where basically no two scientists will ever be able to agree on an absolutely consistent quality ranking of publication outlets. What usually happens is that some sort of nebulous rankings are defined without specifically ranking concrete venues,and then leave it to a commission of academics to decide ad hoc which publications fall into which category.
At my current university, we have similar nebulous requirements for PhD graduation. Essentially, it is required that students need at least one A-ranked publication. However, what is considered A-ranked varies considerably between different faculty, and is basically negotiated when graduation time is near. I assume requirements for tenure etc. are handled similarly.
Note that there are some initiatives that are trying to rank publication venues more formally, for instance CORE for computer science. However, these rankings are also far from perfect (or, for some fields, they are apparently downright terrible).
wow, unless "A" is determined very loosely that is a really tough graduation requirement.
As you mentioned the first factor is the impact factor, so, it would be better to be published in high impact factor peer reviewed journals.
As I am into optics, I may say that, for physics, Science, all Nature journals (Nature Photonics, Nature Communication, etc), Physics Review Letters, Advanced Materials, etc. may be included in the first category. The second category may include Applied Physics Letters, Optics Express, Optics Letters. etc. The third category are probably not well known international journals with low impact factors and maybe conference proceedings. If you are really into your field, I guess you know all important journals there. If you don't just do a simple search of the list of impact factors.
The second factor(which is more important for me) is the quality and novelty of the research, i.e. number of citations. Sometimes it is really hard for grad students, post docs or researchers to be published in the articles of the first category, because it is complicated and sometimes 'politicized'. So, don't think much about that but rather put an emphasize on the quality of the research without forgetting to try to publish in a journal with an impact factor as high as possible. If your publication has a lot of citations it means that it is a state-of-the-art research and you really have something to say in that area.
I've heard as well that it is near to impossible to publish in the first category at the beginning of the career, unless you co-author with more than one experienced "regular". Now that you mentioned citations, the mentioned bylaw makes oddly no reference to them. They seem not to contribute, although I can't say for sure.
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73634 | Should I reply to a non-automated email from the editor acknowledging manuscript submission?
Suppose I submit a paper to a journal which does not use an electronic submission system, so I just e-mail it to an editor.
When I receive an e-mail acknowledging the submission (no personalisation beyond [insert my name] and [insert the name of the paper] kind, but it seems not to be automated in any way except perhaps copy-and-paste), should I reply to it (to say thank you), or is it more courteous/established to just not reply?
I don't think there is any particular reason to write back, unless the editor sends a more personalized message or actually asks a question. However, a quick note back will not be a problem either.
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34374 | Tips on how to format a manuscript in marine biology and physiology
I'm working on my first publication on work I did as an undergrad. My adviser from undergrad will be helping me edit and go through multiple drafts, but because I'm now at a different university for grad school I haven't spoken to him about this first draft.
I've looked at the publisher's website, but they were vague and provided only general comments about how to format the manuscript. I don't want to send my draft to my old adviser and have him think I'm an idiot because my formatting is different from the norm. (Perhaps relevant: this publication has to do with marine biology and physiology.)
What font is appropriate? Times New Roman 12?
Double spaced?
Do figures go at the end? Should I space my figures the way I want them spaced in the publication?
Do I include line numbers?
Side question: What is an appropriate length (in number of words/pages/whatever) for this type of publication? I know it depends on the journal, but it's hard to translate pages in a journal to typewritten pages. I'm submitting to a journal with an average impact factor.
The general formatting advice from @CapeCode is sound. Generic font (certainly not anything odd) and 1.5-2 line spacing is fine for the text. Tables and figures should go at then end. Many journals ask for figure files not to be included in the manuscript file at all, follow such advise. If figures are separate all figure captions go at the end of the manuscript file.
Regarding line numbers it is not a major issue unless the journal specifies something special. Some manuscript systems provide only PDF-files of the manuscript. Some reviewers then prefer to have the line numbers to locate their comments. If the journal provides the Word files then as @Cape Code states these can be more of an issue. So try to see if you can figure out what the journal sends out but in the end I do nto think it is a major issue.
In addition, I strongly want to push following any instructions for authors to the point. Make sure your use the proper reference formats and follow other journal formatting details. If no explicit instructions for authors exist then look at recent articles to see what styles the journal uses. A manuscript that follows the journal style looks more serious than a manuscript that does not.
As for length, I would say that 6000-8000 words incl. references is a reasonable size for a regular research paper in your disciplines, shorter is possible but longer should be treated as a warning. If you really want to know just count the words on a page and guestimate the total for the article, you will not be far off.
At this stage, content is what you should focus on. In most biology journals, formatting is done by the publisher. Thus formatting at this stage only serves the purpose of making your draft easy to read and comment on, so to answer your questions:
What font is appropriate? Times New Roman 12?
If your adviser usually reads on a screen, consider using a sans serif typeface (Calibri, Arial, etc.), if read on paper TNR is fine.
Double spaced?
Only useful for people who print it out and need space to scribble.
Do figures go at the end? Should I space my figures the way I want them spaced in the publication?
For the convenience of your adviser, you should include them where you think they are relevant. It's usually editorial management software that place them at the end (which makes reading draft cumbersome). Consider using a smaller font size for captions to help differentiate them from the body.
Do I include line numbers?
Can be helpful if you do not use interactive commenting tool (like the one of MS Word) it never hurts to have them IMO, make sure they are continuous, and include page numbers by all means.
Note: this only applies to internal circulation, you might need to re-format for submission following the journal's guidelines.
Most of these would depend on which journal/conference you are submitting to. For instance, IEEE and Springer each have their own style.
Unfortunately, your answer doesn't really add anything that it's already in the other answers.
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16188 | How to choose between multiple math postdocs offers?
I am trying to decide between some math postdoc offers, and I can't decide what is important for a postdoc position. I have talked to several senior mathematicians including my advisor, but they all seem to have different opinions. I just want to hear some more opinions on the following:
How important is prestige? Suppose that I have an offer from school X, which is fairly prestigious (something like top 10, which isn't a well-defined notion). Also suppose that I have an offer from school Y, which is not as prestigious but a better match research-wise. Suppose that the ranking of school Y is approximately n (again, not a well-defined notion). For which values of n should I choose school X over school Y? My goal is to become a tenure-track professor in a PhD-granting institution.
What makes a good postdoc supervisor? I can think of the following criteria: compatible research interests, being well-known in one's field, compatible personalities, generous with time, etc. Am I missing anything else?
On prestige: See this answer to a related question. (It's about theoretical CS instead of math, but I don't think the cultures are all that different.)
I mean that answer suggests prestige matters, but mainly because of the culture of prestigious departments and how it affects your work (the name itself is much less important). So n isn't necessarily 10. My guess is almost everyone here would say it depends on the disparity of the fit between the two schools. However, whatever the disparity I doubt very many people would choose an n>40 even if the disparity was extremely large. My guess is n is somewhere in the 10-20 range.
The advisor matters more than the school.
It is the number of articles in prestigious journals in the end that matters, and the results. If you are a good match research-wise, then this is obviously better; I (hope) that journals do not accept to publish results based on the university ranking, but based on the result, so yeah..
@Paxinum: Not the number of papers. What really matters is the quality of the work.
@JeffE That is why they have to be in good journals; only good work appears in good journals (I presume).
@Paxinum: You presume incorrectly.
@JeffE Hm, ah ok. But I have the (cynical, inherited from my advisor, I guess) view that people in the first selection only look at journal first, and then at the actual article.
nagniemerg is absolutely right that at the end of the day, your results will be much more important than a name on your CV. I think being at a prestigious institution is very useful for getting a first look at your application (which is a f***ing valuable thing, as Rod Blagojevich would say); if the rest of what's there doesn't stand up, getting that look won't help much.
That said, I would think carefully about how sure you are that institution Y really will provide a better research environment. Prestige tends to correlate (far from perfectly) with having an active department with a lot of seminars and visitors, which can often be more valuable than day-to-day contact with a single advisor. Having higher-quality students and colleagues can make you a better researcher.
I also think there's a lot to be said for the uncertainty of life. Maybe you'll go somewhere and whoever you were going to work with will get a job somewhere else, or have a baby, or go on sabbatical. Maybe you'll start a collaboration with someone you don't even know exists yet. It's all very hard to predict, and on some level you have to go with your gut. You could do a lot worse than just going with the most prestigious option, but if other factors seem to point another direction, I don't think you should just ignore them.
EDIT: I wrote this is a bit of hurry last night, and I realize it might be a bit unhelpful. However, it's honestly quite difficult to say anything general, and you indicate that senior mathematicians who know you and know what your options are cannot come to a consensus. To me this indicates that probably you will not be able to conclusively figure out where is the better choice. This is not to say it doesn't matter, but once the uncertainties are sufficiently large, one might as well flip a coin (or at least flip a coin until you get the answer you want).
At the end of the day, the quality of your research is more important than prestige. I would go with the university that is a better research match.
As for what makes a good postdoc supervisor. I think this depends completely on the individual and how one conducts research. The two extremes are: hands off -- I have plenty of ideas and give me something to work on.
The best is a combination of the two. This shows you are able to work independently and work well with others.
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25804 | What to do when you discover a mistake in the archived copy of your PhD thesis?
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?
Did you write a monograph or a so called stapler (or sandwich) thesis consisting of a preface plus several publications?
it's a sandwich thesis. The mistake is in one of the preprints.
If it is a sandwich thesis, I guess that it's only reviewers who read it (perhaps except for the intro).
While not directly relevant, I have to ask: Why an arXiv-like server (and not arXiv itself)?
university put it on-line automatically, not me.
Did you talk to your adviser? What does he/she say?
he says not to do anything. Actually I don't know whether he says this for his own sake (I suspect he did not read at all some parts of the thesis) or for mine.
While not directly relevant, I have to ask: Why an arXiv-like server and not also arXiv itself?
What arXiv-like servers do not allow you to publish an updated version (the original version, of course, should be kept available for archival purposes)? I would suggest that nobody submit to these servers.
You could be cynical and take comfort in the fact that hardly anyone reads PhD theses after the associated defense.
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.
+1 but I'm not sure it answers the question which is (as I understand it) "What is the best way to submit errata to an already-published thesis?"
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.)
Mathematics has a great tradition of making mistakes and then fixing them yourself. 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.
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.
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).
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156053 | How can I make my papers available on Sci-Hub?
An essential assumption of this question is that I own, without restriction, the copyright of my papers. I am a novice Sci-Hub user. How do I make my papers available to other Sci-Hub users?
Edit: If your answer is to post the paper somewhere other than Sci-Hub, please explain how that leads to the paper being available in Sci-Hub. I want to target people who only look at Sci-Hub for papers.
"Sci-Hub is a shadow library website that provides free access to millions of research papers and books, without regard to copyright, by bypassing publishers' paywalls," source: Wikipedia. "Sci-Hub obtains paywalled articles using leaked credentials." So, it seems, Sci-Hub focuses on papers owned by corporations, rather than individuals.
There's surely less interest in providing access to papers owned by individuals, since those individuals can simply make their papers publicly available. Nonetheless, let us suppose that Sci-Hub takes an interest in making more works available. Then you just need to make papers available where Sci-Hub looks.
Even technical report repositories such as arxiv may forbid Sci-Hub from redistributing papers. So, there isn't much of an incentive for Sci-Hub to move into this space: They create trouble for little reward.
Sci-Hub could start looking at personal websites, but, what's the reward? The material is already accessible. Sci-Hub could also start allowing authors to upload content, but, again, what's the reward?
I don't really see why Sci-Hub would invest in making papers owned by individuals more accessible. Their niche is elsewhere.
The reward would be that the papers are online in the same repository (and possibly with the best version).
"Then you just need to make papers available where Sci-Hub looks." Where is that?
@user111388 At what cost?
@AnonymousPhysicist Publishers' websites. As explained, I don't see any motivation for Sci-Hub looking elsewhere, e.g., arxiv or personal websites.
@user2768: I am not talking about if this is feasable or not (I don't know). All I am saying is that I see an advantage in having it available on SciHub (also because the website could go down at any time). You are asking what the reward is and I answered
@user111388 Let me rephrase: I see no reward for SciHub, since the cost is too high. Of course, I'm speculating, I don't run SciHub. I don't question the benefit to users.
This does not answer the question.
SH/LG allow users to upload books & papers, although the upload interface can be tricky to find. The paper upload interface is at (currently): https://libgen.li/librarian.php
Welcome to aca.se, gwern! This is the closest thing that exists to a positive answer, but it's not quite precise: The interface you've linked uploads papers to the (somewhat unrenowned) magazine section of LG, not to SH. From what I understand, the former contains the latter, but not vice versa. For example, here is an unofficial scan uploaded manually to LG via your interface. It is not on SH.
That seems unlikely. The 'magazine' section is MagzDB, which is not even under the libgen.* domain names, and you can clearly see in your own link that it is labeled 'Scientific Articles' and further includes a link to 'Sci-Hub' so LG sure thinks that the paper got into SH... I can't say why the SH proxy-domain+DOI query combo doesn't work, other than that there is a lot of brokenness around SH in 2021 specifically, on top of all of the usual UX/UI bugs it's always had.
The "sci-hub.se/(optionally https://doi.org/)DOI" query works for all articles that SH has saved, so I'm afraid it has not saved ones uploaded to LG, even if they were uploaded before 2021.
I can confirm that uploading to LibGen's Scimag was the correct solution when that was still possible. But shortly after SciHub announced that it is no longer accepting new articles, the upload page for Scimag stopped working.
Even today you can see that any article available via Scihub is also on Scimag, and vice versa as long as the DOI is entered correctly in LibGen's metadata. With the current embargo SciHub is effectively functioning as a simplified interface to download from LibGen's Scimag.
First, congratulations for defending free access to knowledge.
As for the question itself, as @Lighthouse Keeper said, the question should be reformulated. Since what the SCI-HUB proposes is to making accessible the scientific texts closed by paywall. So, at the first glance your text isn't targeted for this tool. However you could upload your work to the initiative libgen (a cousin to SCI-HUB).
However, something that were not said yet is you can publish in Open Access Journals. There are some journals that are really good - just be alert to the predatory ones.
**
In addition, I have seen some researchers that leave their publications linked on their professional pages. Here are trade-offs to do. Get a DOI and recommends the use of sci-hub or publish on your own website (GitHub etc) without DOI.
But in any way, encouraging their colleagues, students and others to use the sci-hub and defending the free access to knowledge you already have an immense contribution.
"you can publish in Open Access Journals" I tested this and Sci-Hub does include papers from at least one open access journal.
@AnonymousPhysicist Weeding out Open Access Journals surely isn't worth the effort
Most Open Access Journals in my field charge a lot for publishing. That's not really an alternative with our limited resources where we can't even buy computers to write our papers on!
Sci-Hub is not like arXiv, bioRxiv, ChemRxiv, viXra, GitHub, FigShare, Mendeley, ResearchGate and Academia.edu, where you upload your own papers.
People do not upload their own papers to Sci-Hub. They publish papers in journals and Sci-Hub then makes the PDF copy of such journal papers, available for free.
If what you want to do is make your own paper available for free, I would suggest to use one of the platforms mentioned in the first sentence of this answer (except for SciHub).
Sci-Hub obtains paywalled articles using leaked credentials. So if you want to get your papers onto Sci-Hub, just follow this procedure:
Publish them in journals that your institution subscribes to.
Donate your institution credentials to Sci-Hub. If you can't do this legally, "accidentally" fall for one of the phishing emails Sci-Hub regularly sends.
They will do the rest.
Your #2 is unethical. Sorry, this is bad advice. You don't have authority to "donate" the credentials. Doing it "accidentally" is, of course, dishonest.
@Buffy tell that to einpoklum (check out their comments on my other Sci-Hub related answers). It's a topic I am sick and tired of. One might be able to tell how sick I am of the topic from this answer too, actually, since it suggests doing something illegal to help something that's also illegal.
It's as simple as step #1 if the journal is well covered by Sci-Hub. Most are, but some are not. If this is the case you can upload to LibGen and that will make it available on Sci-Hub within a few days. Donating your personal credentials is completely unnecessary.
I don't think I have ever received a phishing e-mail that I could associate with them. How do I recognize them from the other normal ones?
@FedericoPoloni I think the point of a phishing email is that you cannot identify the sender. So "accidentally" fall for every phishing email you see that's after your institutional password, and eventually one of the attackers will sell your credentials to Sci-Hub.
I too have never seen a phising email from sci-hub and the legal cases don't suggest that it has been part of their strategy.
@CrimsonDark the "accidentally" is in quotes for a reason. One does not even have to say it is from sci-hub, but from some random scammer who stole their ID and gave it to sci-hub.
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17033 | Gap year before post-doc?
I have been in a rush to accomplish academic goals since I remember myself. Started my PhD right after undergrad and did my Masters on the same time. Now I am about to submit my thesis and feel kind of burned out, having spend so many years in a far from perfect working environment.
Academia has always been my goal (I like both teaching and research and I am not interested in industry), which is why I started a PhD on the first place, but I really feel I need a big break to think clearly of what I really want before applying for a post-doc. I also read this somewhere: "The rest of your life you are going to be a scientist. This could be your last chance to be something else. Take it."
So I thought a "late gap year" would be ideal for me. I would get to travel, which I love, volunteer in wildlife conservation and in schools of developing countries and take some time to clear my mind, so that when I am back, I can take the right decision for a post-doc and be totally dedicated in it.
Up to now I have a decent resume with a 5th paper in preparation (including first-authored) and several international conferences, fellowships and awards. However, I am very concerned on the impact such a gap would have on my CV, since I want to apply in high reputation universities/institutes, where competition is fierce.
Should I tell a future PI I did a gap year and if not, what would be the appropriate excuse for a year off? Also would this gap have an impact in future job-seeking (mainly for positions in academia)? Finally, I am also worried about the reaction of my current PI (who has been asking me lately, which lab I am planning to apply for a PD) when I tell him my plans. The last thing I want is a reference letter from an angry PI.
*EDIT*My field is Molecular Biology. I performed my PhD research at several European countries and I am flexible with post-doc positions (Europe/Israel/US/...) depending on the projects available.
If you can swing it, you are likely better off to defer graduating for a year and then return to "complete" your already finished PhD. This way the clock doesn't start.
As usual, if you include information about geographic location (both the current one and the one(s) in which you intend for the future) and your field, you can get more specific advice. Advice which is generalized across all the world's academia is at times extremely superficial.
I will speak from the perspective of American academic mathematics. In this subculture, taking a full year off before starting a postdoc looks bad: the competition for postdocs is extremely fierce right now. For every postdoc position there are at least five other people who wanted that position but couldn't get it. So employers really want to give jobs to people who are sure that they want them, not those who are feeling "kind of burned out" or "need a big break to think clearly of what I really want".
If you take a full year off instead of applying for postdocs, then unless you have something amazing to show for yourself at the end of that time, the year off will definitely hurt your applications. Whether or not you can actually do work during a "year off" seems highly field dependent: in mathematics this is certainly possible; in laboratory science this seems much less feasible.
Here is some advice that I would offer you:
1) If you want to take some length of time off, try to secure a job upon return before you take the time off.
If this happens then in some sense you do not really have an employment gap, and that will look much better on your CV.
2) Consider taking a smaller amount of time off than a year.
A year is a really long time to put aside one's career. In fact many people would have trouble supporting themselves (especially if they have families or dependents, which I guess you do not) over such a long unpaid stretch. It is also more than enough time for your academic skills to atrophy. In some academic fields (pure mathematics not so much, although in some subfields this could still come into play) a year off is enough to make your entire research program less fresh and cutting edge. Anyway, imagine that you are competing with many talented young people who spent the first year after getting their PhD working their butts off. Do you really want to spot them an entire year headstart? As other people remarked in a closely related question: whether it is fair or not, you should imagine that a big clock in the sky starts ticking the second you receive your PhD. From that point on, people will be evaluating your work not just in an absolute sense but relative to the time elapsed from that point. Adding in an extra year makes almost anyone's profile look much less strong.
I think you should consider taking a shorter amount of time off: either a semester or a long summer. As the American academic calendar runs, you will have a built-in vacation of about three months just by virtue of being an unemployed PhD over the summer. I really enjoyed this time: I moved into an apartment downtown in the city where I grew up but hadn't spent more than a few weeks at a time for my entire adult life. It really was refreshing and recharged my batteries. However, it also depleted my savings: by the time the new semester rolled around, I really needed the paychecks.
If you need much more than three months' break from a career, you should ask yourself: are you sure that this career is really for you?
Just ran across this, but +1 for the less time. I effectively had a "Gap Quarter" between graduating and starting my postdoc due to getting funding in line, finishing things up, moving etc. and by the end of it I was going stir crazy.
I actually know of a tenured math professor at Columbia who took three years off before grad school. Not quite the same situation, but I really think the case varies greatly from person to person. Postdocs can honestly just occur for the simple reason that your PI actually wants to work with you.
First and most important point: Taking a breather for your emotional well-being is much better than feeling remorse, fatigue and possible burn-out later.
Other than that...
A lot of people have "gap" in their academic activity by working in industry - which can be a lot longer than one year. Women often have gaps when giving birth and taking an extended period of time to care for their (or should I say our?) newborn children. And there are other kinds of gaps. So even if these gaps are not the highly-regarded norm, they're still a de-facto norm.
We're not all robots who care about nothing but immediate fast-track academic rat-racing. Will you get penalized for this when seeking a post-doc? It's certainly possible; but are you sure you want the "advantage" of appearing to be someone who's under stress to perform all day everyday and can be leaned upon a lot?
It's likely that during your year off you will end up doing something that you could be proud to present as what you've done during that year.
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73243 | Is it ethical to ask colleagues to write a review of my book?
I have published a monograph and now would like to see it reviewed by a/some journal(s) in the field. Given that there are many other books they could publish a review on, they might not find a reviewer who is interested (I have already contacted them).
So I was thinking of asking a colleague to review the book (I have collaborated with him in the past, but we're not at the same institution). Is this ethical? Presumably he would be somewhat less likely to voice criticism than someone who doesn't know me personally. (Although this criterion would exclude a whole lot of people)
If I was your colleague, and I reviewed the book and told the world that it is rubbish, what would you do? The reviewer must be absolutely one hundred percent free to express their opinions of the book, no matter what they are.
On the other hand, if your book is the best one ever written, and the reviewer writes just that, as soon as the world finds out it was your colleague, your reputation is gone.
I wouldn't say 'gone'. It would still depend, IMHO, on how objective the review was. If the book is indeed good and the review says so, anyone can verify the claims. Then, the fact that you guys know each other is irrelevant...
@gnasher729 many fields are so small that finding reviewers that do not know the author would be near impossible.
It's not exactly "unethical", but may not accomplish what you want, if/when it becomes publicly clear that a friend of yours wrote the review... and, indeed, people may think worse of you upon discovery that you arranged the situation. That is, as other people have noted here, there is a sort of implicit understanding (?!) that books reviews have some impartiality to them...
In the book fields I am familiar with there are two types of reviews. The first is the traditional peer review which is used to help decide if something is publishable. The second type of review, which I think you are asking about here, is a summarizing review.
Finding peer reviewers to judge the if a book should be published should be left up to the editor. If the editor asks for suggested reviewers, you should provide suggestions. In this case, having previously collaborated with the colleague, the editor may see this as a conflict of interest. If you suggest your colleague, you should be upfront about the prior collaboration
For reviews that summarize the work, if you know a publisher that takes unsolicited reviews, and you want a review there, then it is fine to ask people you know if they would be willing to write a review. Knowing, and even being friendly with, someone is not generally considered a conflict of interest. The issue is that the person you want to ask is a former collaborator. This might be seen as a conflict of interest. You can still ask the colleague and mention that you do not see the prior collaboration as a conflict of interest. You might want to suggest the collaboration check with the publisher prior to writing the review.
If someone reads a book review in a journal, they expect that this review reflects an unbiased assessment of the academic qualities of the work in question. The key word here is unbiased.
In your described scenario, it would be the author who suggested that his or her book was reviewed in the first place (+1 potential bias). In addition, the respective reviewer would be one of the author's choosing (+1 potential bias). Finally, the reviewer would be a former collaborator (+1 potential bias).
So, there are three potential points of bias. None of them inevitably has to lead to a biased review: the book might be suitable for a review article in that article anyway, the chosen reviewer might be the candidate anyway that is most fitted for the task, and the final review might be in itself fully fair and objective.
On the other hand, if you suggest your own work for a review article, it might receive more attention than it normally would (and perhaps deserves). If you invite a particular person to write the review, you might be choosing someone who you can assume to agree with your work, perhaps because they work within the same theoretical framework as you do. Researchers from other camps might be less favorable of your book, but they are not given the same opportunity to voice their concerns in their review article, because they never were invited to write one. If the reviewer is one of your former collaborators, they might be more forgiving in their evaluation of your work than actually warranted.
The reader doesn't know that all this is going on behind the scenes. On the contrary, for all what they know, none of the points exist which have the potential of biasing the review, because usually it's not authors who invite reviews, it's not authors who choose reviewers, and usually there should not be a relation between reviewers and authors (at least if the field is large enough). The readers don't expect any of these things, and they therefore cannot take them into consideration when reading and evaluating the review. This is a situation that I consider quite unethical, because information that is crucial for the readers is unavailable to them.
In order to alleviate the situation, you should insist that the review contains a disclaimer which minimally states that the reviewer and the author are former collaborators. In my opinion, it should also reveal that this particular reviewer was suggested by the author.
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17365 | Applying for jobs without significant publications: is it worth the pain and what to highlight?
I'm in a conundrum.
Due to a change in areas half way through my PhD, I find myself at the end of my training with no significant publications. I have one in press, and several in prep so in the next year I should have 3-4 if all goes well. I'm also at a top ten university in the US and have good recommendation letters etc...
My issue is: I need to get a job as soon as possible in Europe to be with my partner. I have applied to both post-docs and to some assistant professorships at smaller schools in his city thinking I should at least try but I'm feeling seriously under-competitive where the norm in my field is at least three papers by graduation.
I have an option to stay on as a grad student for a 6th year at my institution, but it would have to be remotely (as I will move to Europe anyway) and frankly, I don't want to have to do that (both because it's too hard to do research and I make little money). But it is a safe option, and might give me time to write up all the backlogged data I've recently acquired.
So my options are to take an extra year with very little pay and apply later, or apply extensively and effortfully to jobs that will probably reject me, though there is a small chance I'll get one.
In your experience, will people even consider PhD's with very few pubs, or impending pubs, and if so, are there things I can do to make my application look more competitive, e.g. should I explain myself (I don't want to make excuses though) or highlight grants and presentations?
Or should I just cut my losses and suffer through living abroad with no money and taking the extra time I would have spent applying to a million places to write up a bunch of papers and then try again next year with more confidence and competence, and maybe landing a better job?
Thanks!
UPDATE: I ended up getting short-listed for five institutions, two of which are top-tier, and ultimately was offered two assistant professorships and one post-doc. I am sure I would have been better off with more pubs but I'm glad I ended up applying for reach jobs as ultimately I think I ended up with some great choices, met a lot of people in the field, and most importantly, got a job!
Thanks for all your input.
FYI I started an answer to your question but gave it up because I knew so little about your specific situation that I felt I was only talking about myself rather than saying anything I had a reasonable expectation might be helpful to you. (It would be nice to know: what is your field, where in Europe you will be going, what kinds of academic jobs you might be looking for...)
I am on a search committee right now (at a small, teaching-focused, state school). People without publications made it through to the phone interview stage, and a couple were judged "good enough to bring out if we don't have anyone better" and the reasons they weren't judged better than that had nothing to do with research. However, we had there were people who came across better. Moral of the story: the job market is tough and you'd better shine in as many aspects as possible.
Disclaimer: this question is seriously underspecified. For a reasonable answer we would probably need at least the city you are looking for, your field, your qualifications beside publications, etc.
That being said, I feel that the Assistant Professor market in Europe is insanely dry in most fields, and, honestly, getting an Assistant Professor position directly after your PhD graduation is very unlikely even with an extremely good CV. If your CV is not absolutely top-notch for your field, I am afraid applying is largely a waste of your time. On the other hand, at least in my field, getting a PostDoc is often comparatively easy and uncomplicated, and reasonably payed in many places. A PostDoc is also a really good time to write up a backlog of publications and improve one's CV, so maybe this is what you should be shooting for.
Sorry about the lack of specification. My field is Psychology but I am applying to business schools as well. And I'm applying in the UK (London, to be specific). And yes INSANELY dry market. I do feel like it's a bit of a waste of time, but I've had at least one advisor encourage me to apply widely just in case. I would actually be super happy with a post-doc because it would give me time to work on pubs, but those seem even harder to come by than lectureships. I've only found two funded ones that have been advertised over the past month.
Don't know anything about Psychology, but in Computer Science PostDocs are mostly not advertised at all in Europe. You just talk to professors with funding directly (or, even better, let your contacts talk to them).
In my subdiscipline of computer science, postdocs are everywhere. If you're not seeing enough postdoc opportunities pop up, spread out the network a bit more - sub to more mailing lists, tell professors that you're looking for a job and for them to keep you in mind if they see a position, etc. Good luck!
You can also get a postdoc by applying for grants. For example, there is something called Newton International Fellowships, for people who did their PhD outside the UK.
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69407 | How might being disciplined for participating in a non-violent protest on a public college affect my academic career?
I go to a government-owned school that has certain policies regarding a student's speech, namely:
That speech shall not be discriminatory/offensive.
That on-campus protests take place only at a "Hyde Park" location in the student center.
Suppose I decide to form a protest and violate rule #2, and perhaps unintentionally violate rule #1, incurring a disciplinary action of record. How would my doing so affect my ability to pursue a degree at a different school?
Probably not at all. Most academic institutions support freedom of speech. However, this depends on the goal of the protest and the type/location of the hypothetical institution. For instance, I imagine some religious institutions might not hire someone who had protested for abortion rights.
These policies are at the same time repressive and ridiculous.
First, because the fundamental principle of protesting is causing inconvenience, annoynance, displeasure - so a designated "speech zone" is the same as "protest where we don't notice you and it doesn't matter".
Second, because any speech that management doesn't like (or that a student group which can put pressure on management to repress speech doesn't like) will be defined to be offensive. It offends them, after all.
Thus the only thing that happened is that you were involved in organizing a protest. If the regime in the state you live in is highly repressive, then maybe that means you'll have trouble getting into another school (although I kind of doubt it); if it isn't, then you won't.
Note that these policies are extremely repressive and are in my opinion contradiction of fundamental academic principle.
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69421 | Importance of paper download statistics
In an editorial on the topic of Sci-Hub, Marcia McNutt (Editor-in-Chief of Science Journals) lists a few reasons why Sci-Hub may be bad for scientists. One of the drawbacks she lists is (emphasis mine):
Authors do not benefit from download statistics, for example, which are increasingly being used to assess the impact of their work.
This surprised me, as I have never come across any mention of download statistics being used to measure the impact of papers / scientists. Are download statistics really being used in any meaningful way when assessing the impact of scientists?
I'm also asking because sites like ArXiv does not provide download statistics, and neither do other secondary publication servers (university paper repositories, private homepages, ...), which would hurt the impact rating the same way.
Sounds like journals are running out of arguments to defend their paywalls.
The thing is also that most download statistics are quite utterly useless, at it also counts search engines crawlers and downloads by non-scientific people. Also, you don't want to put this information on your own CV, as it is extremely easy to manipulate. And if you can't use it on your own CV, it is not very useful in a portofio of "impact measuring" tools.
The argument is a ludicrous one, defending a parasitic system that should have been buried a long time ago, and written by an individual with a blatant conflict of interest.
In theory there exist some attempts to measure scientific impact from download data. Example.
In practice, nobody cares, partly due to the fact that there are many ways to get an article without incrementing the counter. (and also because we already have enough stupid metrics).
I figured as much, but wanted to give the argument the benefit of the doubt. Thanks for confirming my suspicion.
As @Franck notes, people can access a publication without incrementing an official journal counter. These include: (a) pre-print server, (b) personal website, (c) institutional repositories, (d) sites like ResearchGate, and (e) indexing services that provide paid and independent full-text access such as EBSCOHost. Sci-hub simply adds one more source where download statistics are not linked to the original publisher.
So, any estimate from the journal will be an underestimate of total downloads. Adding one more source is not going to make much difference. And more generally, it should have a fairly uniform effect. In general, you are likely to interpret download statistics "normatively". I.e., To what extent is an article getting more downloads per year than a typical article? A general downward factor on official downloads does not prevent such normative statistics. There's also another reason why normative interpretation is key. The definition of a download itself is poorly defined. I.e., does it include people who scroll the full html listing? what about a person who downloads the same article more than once? What about indexing services? etc.
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38213 | Does publishing a monograph with Springer in computer science have any academic value?
I was recently invited by Springer to publish a book: I proposed a table of contents, it was internally (in Springer) reviewed and accepted to be published as a monograph. I am at the stage of finalizing a first draft.
The content is mostly based on previous peer-reviewed publications (around 15 journal and conference papers in the computer science domain) along with more introductory material, state-of-the-art survey, and use-cases.
Is there any academic value in publishing a book that is based (approx. three quarters of it) on existing (peer-reviewed) material?
Also, as I am considering applying for assistant professor positions (I am currently working on contract basis), I would like to ask how is this book monograph viewed at by hiring committees? Is it considered vanity or a plus?
The title of this question doesn't match the question in the text. The part about hiring connittees' views on books is answered elsewhere on this site, iirc.
@JessicaB: the third paragraph matches the title.
@StephanKolassa No it doesn't. The title asks about Springer and comp sci. The third paragraph asks about existing material.
@JessicaB I am not sure what you mean.
@xLeitix My interpretation of JessicaB's comment is that the question title is about publishing Springer and comp sci book (un-peer-reviewed) while the third paragraph is about publishing a book (3/4 based on peer-reviewed) materials.
I saw the title of this question and had no idea why someone would question the value of a Springer book in computer science. Neither being published by Springer or being on computer science makes the value of work questionable. When I looked at the text, I found that the question was really about whether the material of a book having already appeared elsewhere stops it being valuable. It seems to me that the concepts 'Springer' and 'computer science' are peripheral to the question, rather than being central (which is what the title suggests).
Thank you for your comments, just to clarify my initial thought: in order to write a book, one "cannot" start from scratch, there must be some published, peer-reviewed work to begin with, so as not to have an atrocious (as Stephan puts it) book. So, I guess the material "has" to be pre-existing to a certain degree, although I realise from your comments this is not always the case. So the question regarding its academic value remains, whether the book is based on existing material (my case) or not.
@NajibIdrissi: No, "book" doesn't automatically suggest monograph. Most books are not monographs, and some monographs are not books.
Is there any academic value in publishing a book that is based (approx. three quarters of it) on existing (peer-reviewed) material?
If well done, this seems like a useful book to me. Bringing together various related papers, adding some expository material for readers not yet intimately aware of the field, providing some perspective through use cases ... why not? Remember that in CS, the point of books is almost never to have original material. Books in CS are meant as a collection / introduction to a topic, not as a venue for new research contributions (that's what we have conferences for).
Also, as I am considering applying for assistant professor positions (I am currently working on contract basis), I would like to ask how is this book monograph viewed at by hiring committees? Is it considered vanity or a plus?
Springer isn't a typical vanity press outlet, so I can't see a hiring committee outright discarding your publication there. I guess it will be a small plus (or a bigger plus, if the book turns out really good and becomes better-known in the field). However, your actual original research will probably be much more significant.
+1. However: "Springer isn't a typical vanity press outlet" - I am currently reviewing a Springer book that is atrocious, having evidently neither had any peer review nor a competent editor or typesetter. I'll agree that not everything that Springer publishes is vanity, but the Springer label alone does not guarantee quality (maybe it did in earlier times). The book would need to stand or fall on its own merits.
@StephanKolassa Certainly. But nobody will look at a Springer book in the CV and assume by default that it will be a terrible vanity book (unlike some other publishers).
@StephanKolassa, I guess if you suggest strong rejection of the book, but it will be published, then your point about Springer quality is correct. It might be that the atrociousness of the book was not evident to non-experts?
@al_b: it's already published, and I am reviewing it for the book review section of a journal. It's quite possible that non-experts are fine with the book, but that's the point: I once thought that a Springer book would be vetted by experts and I could trust its contents. In this case, my review will essentially attempt to warn people away from it.
When it comes to the "value" of a book for a hiring committee, the value does not have to be soley academic. A significant part of the job of an (assistant) professor is usually teaching. If your book can be used in an (advanced) course, then that could be an advantage.
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36449 | What should a regretful student who is caught plagiarizing do to move forward?
I'm a high school student also enrolled in a computer science class at a local college, and earlier this week I noticed that my grade for the class had dropped. I checked the online gradebook after noticing this, and there was a 0 for a programming assignment I had submitted. I sent my professor several emails (instead of asking him in person because the college is currently on break) asking why there was a 0, and he responded after a few days by telling me to wait for the disciplinary committee to contact me regarding the assignment.
And only after sending my email did I remember that I had taken bits of my program from an online one written for a problem very similar to mine--and it even used techniques we never learned in class. It was months ago, when I was really overloaded with work, and I thought I was safe because I paid to access the code online. And a lot of my friends who were full-time undergraduates seemed to be overtly cheating pretty often.
And only after he responded did the full gravity of the situation sink in on me: I had plagiarized, and there was no excuse. I had used someone else's work without much remorse while I was doing it, lacking moral responsibility just like a sociopath might. I did something might ruin my life.
At this point, I'm panicking and desperately need advice. I feel terrible, and I'm finding it hard to concentrate on my work for high school or even sleep. I had an amazing opportunity to pursue something I really loved at a higher level than most people my age, and I completely blew it. And what's more, I might not have the chance to do it again now.
I was recently admitted to my dream college Early Action, and it was the only college I applied to. But now I'm afraid that I'll get rescinded because I'll probably be dismissed from the college I'm currently enrolled in, and even if the disciplinary committee doesn't let my dream college know directly, it probably has a way to find out.
And even if I don't get rescinded, I'm worried that I'll need to send this information to all of the grad schools I apply to, or if not, they'll just have it anyway.
I know there's not much I can do until I hear back from the committee, but what should I do right now and after I hear back? If I'm brought before the committee for a hearing, what should I do? What are the chances I'll be rescinded? Will this prevent me from getting into a good grad school?
Related: I was caught cheating on an exam, how can I minimize the damage?, but that student was not quite so regretful
Also related: Didn't pay attention to rules and created an illegal note card for exam?, but in that question there was no disciplinary hearing
I hope you find the answers to the previous questions helpful, though they may not apply directly to your situation. If nothing else, I hope they will help you understand that you are not the first student to have made this mistake, you will not be the last, and it is a mistake that is serious, but rarely life-changing.
If I get rescinded, it very well could be life-changing.
I don't know what "rescinded" means, but if you mean "dismissed from the university," it would be a highly unusual consequence for a first offense.
I don't know what educational system you are in, but at a US university it would be very unusual for a student to be expelled (dismissed) for a first plagiarism offense.
I indicated in the first sentence of my post that I'm a high school senior enrolled at a local college. I was caught plagiarizing at a different from the college to which I gained admissions as a full-time undergraduate.
I'm worried not that I'll be dismissed from the university but that my part-time enrollment will be revoked, as well as my admissions to another university.
I don't think either of these are as unusual, but they're pretty life-changing. It pretty much means I won't be going to college.
Does your high school know that you're taking the programming class? Does the college you got accepted to know that you're taking the programming class? When I was in high school I failed a class on real analysis, and I just never told anyone.
"I thought I was safe because I paid to access the code online" Paying for answers is like paying for sex. If they'll sell them to you, who knows how many others they might have sold them to? If you want to cheat on homework you should do it with partners you trust. (That being said, the best strategy is abstinence.)
The college I got accepted to knows I'm taking the programming class because I listed it on my application, but my high school doesn't necessarily know.
Is the problem really plagiarism, or merely cheating (looking up the program somewhere, without designing it yourself)? If you had cited the source and modified the code, would the situation be any different? Did they really catch you on the basis of the similarities between "bits of the program you took elsewhere", or rather because your program used techniques you never saw in class ("he probably had someone else do his homework")? How much of the (final) program did you copy/paste (i.e. is it one or two subroutines, or does it cover the whole structure of the project)?
It covers the whole structure of the project
You should find out if the incident will be listed on your transcript. I think that is the only thing that gets sent to colleges
You sound quite naive about what constitutes plagiarism or academic wrongdoing at the university level (in particular the thought that paying for the code makes it okay or even less likely to be caught is pretty much exactly wrong). But this naivete is quite well explained by the fact that you're a high school student.
It's great that you realize that you did something seriously wrong: I agree with you. But you're not a sociopath: rather, you are a teenaged minor, and your behavior is well within the normal operating parameters of such entities. Many (perhaps most) minors do at least one really stupid thing that if they were an adult would get them in real trouble. But unless their actions cause irreparable harm to others, the adult world tends to be forgiving: there has to be a time in which you can make mistakes and learn from them.
I think it is very unlikely that your actions would cause the university in which you've been early admitted to rescind its offer. This is on the border of being so unlikely as not to really be worth worrying about...but someone in your situation is going to worry. Here's how to allay your concerns:
You should go to your professor and explain very calmly and honestly everything that happened. Your position should be that you are thoroughly repentant and will not contest whatever penalty to your course grade you have received. You have just one concern: you don't want the academic dishonesty to appear on your transcript, because -- be honest -- you think that might jeopardize your collegiate career. If it comes to it, you should make clear that you would rather get a failing grade or an unsatisfactory withdrawal from the course. (This is a difference between your situation and that of most normally enrolled university students.) If the professor is not willing to agree to that on the spot, then you should talk to others -- in particular, to your parents -- about how to proceed next.
Note that the professor has already forwarded the matter to a disciplinary committee, so he probably doesn't have the ability to agree to anything on the spot - though he may agree to recommend a specific course of action to the committee.
@ff524: Well, first of all, recording the incident on the transcript may not even be an option on the table, and the professor may know that. Second, the degree of of the professor's involvement is highly variable depending upon the college/university. At least at many universities, the disciplinary hearing is a kind of mediation between the student and the professor. So if the two agree on the outcome, it's a short meeting. (I will admit that going straight to the committee without talking to the student first is not the most encouraging sign.)
I would have visited my professor during his office hours, but the university's out of session for winter holidays. And I pretty much blew any chance to get my professor's sympathy by emailing several times when I saw my gradebook and saying I didn't know why I had a 0
There are also situations in which, supposedly, the instructor has no discretion about whether to report or not, the idea being that exercise of such discretion may involve biases... That is, non-reporting of cheating/whatever may get the instructor "in trouble"...
@paul: Yes, supposedly. :)
:) ... The "supposedly" may become operational if more than one student has misbehaved, and one who was punished discovers that others were not, etc. Then the university may have set it up so that on quasi-legal grounds the instructor is positively at fault, since the univ "has a policy...", and then the univ may not defend the instructor against grievances.
This professor is also very no-nonsense about this and there are over 400 students in the class. Do you still recommend that I email him with a full confession and an apology? Or is it too little too late--and the email would also be self-incriminating. Should I wait instead to hear back from the committee?
But like I said, the more I have to wait, the more it's killing me
@user5593: The fact that you have to wait until the new academic semester sucks, but it is a fact. In my opinion this is an "in person conversation". For now, an email saying thanking him for getting back to you and letting him know that you would like to meet with him as soon as possible seems to be in order.
@paul: In my opinion the fact that the OP is a high school student provides a justifiable window for treating the case differently from students enrolled in degree programs at the university. Whether the university will see it that way is up to them, but I'd be surprised if no one there had any compassion for the OP.
True, being under-18, e.g., in the U.S., etc.
An important part in your situation is that you understand the seriousness of what you did, and that you regret it.
I would think that a disciplinary committee, while it probably will and certainly should take a disciplinary measure against you, also probably will and certainly should mitigate that measure if they are convinced that you sincerely understand and regret your action. The good news is that there is a wast array of possible measures, as giving the lowest grade, giving an official blame, public or not, etc. You should expect something, but there is no need to anticipate something dramatic. Do not relax too much though, that might reflect badly on you.
A first offense will generally not get you kicked out. I speak for my own institution but probably most others have a similar policy. Probably the worst that will happen is that the zero grade will stand for that assignment. It's when students habitually plagiarize that they get into real trouble. Just learn from this mistake and don't let it happen again.
You sound like you've punished yourself plenty too on this issue. We all make mistakes. Own the mistake and use it as an opportunity to grow personally and professionally.
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45888 | Can one include already published papers in a monograph thesis?
I am writing my phd thesis in a monograph format.
The monograph consists of several chapters, some of which have been published with co-authors, however, the thesis as a whole is a stand alone piece with each chapter connecting to the previous one and is on the same topic.
If I indicate that "part of this chapter are published in ..." but write the thesis a coherent whole, can it be considered as a monograph?
How did your advisor answer this question. (You did ask your advisor this question, didn't you?)
If the question is whether my co-authors agree that I include the chapters in my monograph the answer is yes. My question is about rules regarding the monograph. I cannot find any information on the internet about the specific rules of writing a monograph. What I would like to know is whether I can include chapters that were written with other people.
@gize The "specific rules of writing a monograph" differ from university to university, and sometimes even from department to department within a university. There is no general answer to this question. As it stands it's unanswerable because you don't state your university and department. (And if you did state your university and department, the question might be closed as being too specific.) You have to ask your advisor, or some other knowledgeable authority in your department or division.
Thank you @Pont for the answer. Let me rephrase it a bit then: what is your impression? Does your university accept this? Or is this considered to be standard practice? What is the definition of a monograph even?
Ask your advisor.
@gize (1) My impression is that there is no general rule. (2) I don't know whether my university would have accepted it, since I did not publish before submitting the thesis and thus never needed to ask, nor do I even know whether the policy would have been the same for all departments at the university. (3) I don't think it's standard practice, simply because as far as I know there is no standard practice. (4) As far as I know, there is no full and formal definition of the term "monograph" which is officially endorsed by all universities.
Does this answer your question? Writing Thesis: Copying from published papers
This is common practice in a PhD thesis in the sciences. Sometimes it is required that chapters in the thesis be published.
I understand that this is common practice for cumulative theses, but the question is whether it can also be done in a monograph if I integrate the chapters.
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19050 | Do universities have a comprehensive reference document for all their policies and regulations?
As an organization, a university has various types of regulations (academics, disciplinary, etc), which are separately documented.
Do (at least) large universities prepare a comprehensive book containing the code of laws of the university in different sections. I mean a reference book addressing all regulations of the university.
For example, when there is an official conflict between two parties, using that reference to justify their actions, instead of dealing with section documents.
If yes, could you please reference them for review.
Some don't, or rather - some have these in multiple documents, with some of the documents not easily accessible to students or junior / adjucnt faculty. That's what it was like in my Alma Mater anyway - and it's a 90 year old university with ~10k undergrads, 2.5k M.Sc. candidates and 700 Ph.D. candidates.
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12150 | Which email address should a student use in a publication?
So my student and I are writing a paper, my question is: Among [email protected] vs [email protected]
which sounds more professional?
I personally submitted a paper back when I was a bachelor student using my gmail address, although I had a similar student account like the one above. But my supervisor back then advised me not to use an @student account
In this related question, a reviewer mentioned that he tends to have a negative a-priori when he sees an author of a paper with a gmail address (he admits that it should mainly be about the quality of the work, but he can't help it)
Why not consider a third option? Your student may be able to get another email address that looks more professional and can be used indefinitely. For instance, many professional societies offer addresses to their members.
Nobody cares about your email address. Only the content of the paper matters.
i didn't find anything bad about an institute email account, why ask?
university email always looks better
Isn't this a duplicate of E-mail address to use in publications?
@JeffE; I agree up to a point. Don't use [email protected]
I don't really understand most of what I read below. I think it should never be bad to tell it like it is. I just got a paper accepted (in a top journal) which has two authors, the other being a student of mine, and he chose his @student account as his email. It never crossed my mind that we could be at a disadvantage because of this. The point is: do you want to hide that an author is a student? Why? Students can do both atrocious and amazing things, and the world knows it.
It depends on many things, which I tried to order by descending priority:
Possible journal policy: in most cases, they don't have one
Possible employer policy: my own institution forbids the use of gmail.com addresses in lieu of our professional ones, because of a national policy forbidding use of commercial email providers for state-paid positions (prohibitions which my institution extends to students)
Which email address you'll keep longer: students email is temporary, but gmail.com may also be (it may not be hard to imagine that, in some near future, you become infuriated by Google's (or any company's) behavior and close your account). On that note: if you graduated from some institution, you may get a permanent alumni email redirection, which may last longer than all those individual accounts.
Which email looks more professional: [email protected] sure doesn't do any good for your reputation.
It was difficult to choose a best answer.. I chose this one as it is short, organized and covered most of the points suggested by others. But I'd also like to add the solutions suggested by sr3u: "using an alias from a professional society (e.g. acm.org, ieee.org, ams.org etc..)"
and by Faheem Mitha: "Create a custom email, including buying ones own domain, and paying for custom email hosting for email addresses of the form [email protected]"
It is actually quite easy to imagine being infuriated by Google's behavior and closing your account. In fact, I encourage readers to do just that, given Google forwarding your data to the NSA (as per the Snowden revelations), and many other breaches of privacy and forms of mass surveillance.
Let me suggest a different direction (even though it doesn't directly answer your specific question):
Don't put your email address on the paper.
(obviously, put whatever you want for the correspondence when submitting the paper).
When I was a grad student, my advisor forbid me to put an email address for us on any papers unless it was required by the formatting guidelines. We just left out email addresses altogether, for the following reason:
If someone wants to find you, a simple Google search will turn up an email address that will be at least as current, if not more current, than the address on the paper.
"But what if my old website is still active with my old address?" you might complain. That's your own fault for not policing old websites. If you have switched institutions, your new website should quickly rise (or will eventually rise, anyway) above your previous sites, cached pages notwithstanding.
Will there be false hits because someone didn't find your up-to-date email? Sure. I'll argue that just as many times the email you put on the paper will be different than the one you currently use.
The fact is that email addresses change, and what you put on your paper may not matter in a year, or two, or twenty.
Is it always the case that "a simple Google search" will turn up a working email address? What about common names? It is true that a well maintained web site, with a working/current email address and current list of publications, should rank highly on search results, though many don't have such a thing.
@FaheemMitha more often than not you know more than just the name of the person you are looking for. Smart keywords yield better results ;)
@FaheemMitha ..."though many don't have such a thing." This is a good reason to ensure you have at least a minimal web site that highlights your name, past affiliations, and papers. Then make sure you Google yourself (preferably without being logged in to a Google account, as that seems to re-order search results and many times "knows" who you are). Your page should eventually show up in the first few hits. If it doesn't, tweak the title, key words, etc. until it does.
"If you have switched institutions, your new website should quickly rise (or will eventually rise, anyway) above your previous sites, cached pages notwithstanding." - unless you switch to a position that does not publish pages for individual employees (e.g. when transistioning from academia to industry, which does not mean that your interest in doing research suddenly vanishes without a trace).
A university email address that I had long used become unavailable in 2011, so I faced the decision of what to use for publications, and indeed what email addresses to use in other places.
My main criteria was that I wanted a permanent email address, and I wanted maximum control over the email address, including reducing the possibility that others are reading/storing my email, and the option to change my hosting if I was unhappy with it while not having to change my email. Changing email is a real drag, and I think it is a good idea to use a permanent address for publications if possible. If someone is contacting you regarding a paper, and it bounces, it is possible whoever it is will just give up. Your prospective correspondent may try to search for a more current address, but why make it difficult? If you have a common name, searching may be more difficult.
The main issue asked in the question is what is more professional. Personally, I think this is a minor issue. Maybe some journals care, but I don't see why they should. They should be more concerned, in my opinion, whether you will be contactable by this email long term. Unfortunately, in many cases it is not possible to update publication email addresses afterwards, even online, so that makes it doubly important. Email to my old address (which I stopped using in 2011) now bounces, which is unfortunate, but I can't do anything about it.
There are many choices available out there. They include:
1) Free corporate email addresses. Google's gmail is a popular example in this category.
PROS: They are free. It is permanent as long as the provider does not close up shop or close your account for some reason.
CONS: They are not university addresses.
Someone is probably going to read and possibly sell the contents of your email. Otherwise, why would they give away something free? Also, if the email hosting is hosted in the US, the NSA may store your email. As we know from recent news revelations, for gmail, we can assume that both Google and the NSA are going to be going through your email, or at least keeping it.
You have little or no control over the quality of the hosting. Even access may be problematic at times.
2) University address (possibly using alumni accounts)
PROS: University address, which is generally a good thing for academic publications. The NSA might still sniff through the email, but it is unlikely the university will, though who knows these days?
CONS: Little control over the quality of the hosting or other parameters like the amount of storage allowed. If you want to change to another host, you will have to change the email. Possibly not permanent (for non-alumni addresses). If you don't work at the university any more, they will probably eventually shut down that email address (again, for non-alumni addresses).
3) Create a custom email, including buying ones own domain, and paying for custom email hosting for email addresses of the form [email protected].
PROS: Complete control over the email hosting. If you don't like the hosting, you can change it. One hopes a paid hosting company will not sniff through the email, though again who knows? For US hosts, the NSA is still a concern. It is a permanent address as long as you own the domain. You can make the email address easy to remember and to tell someone over the phone. Mine is extremely easy. Also, you can use [email protected]; i.e. you can choose whatever username you want.
CONS: Not a university address. You have to pay. However, the charge is not excessive; I pay $10.00 a month, and this is on the expensive side. There are cheaper options.
As you can guess, I went with option 3.
+1 for own domain. Best approach if you are worried about validity of the address in the future.
The problem of university addresses getting stale because the linked accounts are not available/active can also happen with other accounts. Gmail may be a bit more sensible than most, but I have suffered for using hotmail.com (Microsoft always knows best, including when to delete all your old saved mail wholesale without telling you).
If your student is a serious scholar, I recommend using an alias from a professional society (acm.org, ams.org, ieee.org, etc.) instead, which can be redirected to whatever actual account one currently uses. My old grad school address of [email protected] also has stayed for years, first as a pointer to my school e-mail account (now of course gone), and now as an alias for my work e-mail address that I use professionally. Your school may have some such option also, check with some local IT guru there.
In general, an institutional account looks more professional than a personal account. However, because of the transient nature of most student accounts, you may want to consider having your student open an account using [email protected] format, especially if their current gmail user-name happens to be something like [email protected]! This account should then be used for all academic/professional correspondence with individuals and institutions outside your university. (Obviously your student still needs to use the @student.university account within your university.)
Of course, also check the policy of the journal to which you are submitting. If they require an institutional email account, then this is a moot point.
I am publishing at a conference this month, and was surprised to see instructions to authors say email addresses are required and specifically urging industrial authors to use a more permanent address, such as @acm.org. ACM is a CS professional organization and I do agree that it looks better somehow than, say, gmail. I don't think that applies only to nonacademics, and of course a change in address is especially likely for students.
I agree with other answers saying email addresses have no place. The right info to include is an orcid to permanently disambiguate each author and provide a link to their current contact information. This looks ugly in a printed paper but should be on the site where it is published.
Might have something to do with the fact that you have to pay a membership fee to use an ACM address?
ACM was just a suggestion. You wouldn't join just for the email but if you're a member, you can get a long-term email address that is likely more stable than an institutional one. That being said, I opted for a company address because it was easier to use [email protected] than to enumerate each address. Oh, and because nobody cares....
Or perhaps I misinterpreted that reply. If you meant ACM is better than gmail because it costs money, I don't think that's it. I think it is more about it being like a guild ... it is sort of an institutional address rather than a personal one.
No, I was worried mainly about the lock-in ("I'm not interested in ACM anymore, but I can't stop paying my yearly subscription or they'll take away my e-mail address"). Also, if this was an ACM conference pushing for authors to get their own subscriptions, that seems even more questionable.
Actually IEEE, which has a similar service.
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30758 | How to build relationships with professors in such a way that results in good letters of recommendation?
I know a lot of questions are asked about letters of recommendation, but I was unable to find anything on this site or the internet in general that spoke to the particular issue of how to build the sort of relationship with a professor that results in good letters of recommendation. I get that you should of course do pretty well in the class and participate and go to office hours and be generally easy to work with and stuff (and ideally do research with the professor), but apart from that, is there nothing more you can do?
I know some might be eager to answer that you shouldn't be so mercenary about it (i.e. you should just organically be interested in the material and the professor and the good letter of recommendation will follow), so allow me to provide an example where this did not work out. I got a letter of recommendation from my favorite professor in college, which for some reason I was able to see (it was about a decade ago, so I forget how; I had waived my right to see it). Even though I thought he liked me (I went to office hours multiple times; I had two classes with him, both of which I did well in; he encouraged me to go for a fellowship; he even went out of his way to see a play I was in), the letter was the most basic "this student was in my class" sort of letter you could possibly imagine. It was such an incredible slap in the face.
Maybe he was just a jerk and that's that. Maybe I should have asked for a "strong" letter of recommendation (which I didn't know at the time was what you were supposed to ask). But regardless, given the vagaries of human relationships on top of the limitations of your own abilities, how is it even possible to get a strong letter of recommendation?
Being cordial does not imply lying (or exaggerating) on a recommendation letter. Perhaps your professor genuinely did not believe you were a top student. In order to get a good recommendation letter you should make sure that the person you ask has a high opinion of you professionally - having been previously praised for your work might be a good indication.
If that's the case, then why did he encourage me to apply for a fellowship? Why, later, did he encourage me to submit my thesis to a competition? But fine, even if he didn't think I was all that great, how can one be a more "top" student than getting an A in a class? Are we just supposed to be the greatest genius since Gauss?
Getting good grades does not guarantee being a good worker. The way I got good letters of recommendation was by asking professors that I had worked with (research projects and such) rather than those in whose courses I did well. Chances are, in a big class your professor might not even remember if you did well in the exam.
I see. Also, this suggests that instead of asking our professors for help when we need it, we should only ask questions that are as advanced as we can handle, even beyond the scope of the class. Would you say that's the case?
Sorry, one more question: I doubt I'll be able to do research with three different professors prior to applying to grad school, let alone 3 different professors who think I'm a top student. Am I just SOL?
You can contact professors in your department asking if there are small projects you can work on related to their work. In my final year I got to work with one prof. on small lab stuff, did my final year research project with another one, and set up a class experiment for another one. I asked for letters of recommendation from the first two guys and got excellent ones. I guess the key is to build a personal working relationship with your professor. A professor that doesn't know how you work might be reluctant to recommend you.
I see. I was told by a professor that I wasn't ready for research yet (I'm in my first year but applying to grad school next year because I'm a postbac plowing through prerequisites), so I'm doubtful, but I guess it's worth a shot. Thanks for the suggestion.
Strong recommendation letters come from professional relationships, rather than personal relationships. Of course, the two are often related, but if a professor hasn't seen much more than getting an A in a class from a professional perspective, then they can't say that they have. A wise and helpful faculty member will warn you of this fact in advance, but faculty are human and many may not be wise enough or helpful enough to give an appropriate warning.
The canonical answer, of course, for getting a good recommendation to grad school is to work with a professor on an actual research project. What you actually need, however, is for a professor to be able to speak to your potential to become a good researcher. Even working on a research project will not necessarily demonstrate that, if your role is as a cog in somebody's machine (a friend once worked on a research project as an undergraduate where her job was literally to grind rocks into powder with a mortar and pestle: the project was awesome, the job they wanted done was not).
What does research potential really consist of? In my experience, research potential means:
Creativity in approaching difficult or ill-defined problems
Initiative enough to accomplish hard work work independently
Skill enough to solve complex problems effectively
Intelligence and background enough to acquire new skills when needed
Social skills enough to do all of these things as part of a team (semi-optional)
There is another excellent way besides actual research projects to demonstrate all of these as an undergraduate: project-centric classes. Many graduate or upper-level undergraduate classes have an large optional or required capstone project. When you take on such a project, it gives you a chance to do something really cool, above and beyond the base minimum. With a good project, you can demonstrate all of these qualities to your professor and provide both the evidence and the motivation to write a really good letter.
Thanks for this. That makes sense for grad school, but what about non-research-related scholarships? Same stuff applies? (Also, these responses help me now that I'm in a field that does research, but just by the by, the professor I mentioned was an English professor, and if research was even a thing in the English department, I wasn't aware of it in all the years I was there.)
@user124384 My experience is primarily in research-related areas, but what I said also applies to most other ventures as well, so I would expect there to be some applicability to the non-research world too.
If I may ask another question, I'm only in my first year of studies. How could anything I do in research be possibly impressive/creative/skillful at all? Also, how can we learn how to be creative/skillful in research apart from just being a natural genius? I guess ideally the professor would show us how, but given the fact that I was never told that research was the magic ticket to decent letters of recommendation, I assume I'm on my own on that count, too.
@user124384 Typically, you learn how to effectively do research either by working with mentors or by trial and error. But you can demonstrate research potential in the form of creativity, skill, initiative, etc., in accomplishing any open-ended task.
@user124384 there's really no substitute for doing things. A friend of mine started doing intern stuff with a faculty member his freshman year of college. He worked hard, learned a lot of stuff early on, and by his junior year was actively contributing to research. You'll learn how to do these things by doing them -- ask if your professor has a project you can work on, and show you can make progress. Or at the very least, that you can ask questions about your roadblocks that allow you to get around them.
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17528 | Getting into math ten years after a BA in English
I got a BA in English at a pretty good school, spent the next 10 years in a fruitless pursuit of screenwriting with a day job in a legal department, and now that I'm sick of all that, I'd like to do something mathy. And it seems pretty clear that that's going to require going back to school.
Since this is a HUGE redirection -- a ridiculous one, really -- I assume I should get a second BA/BS before even considering a masters, right? I did well in math in school, but I left off at single variable calc. (I'm currently studying linear algebra on my own and loving it.) But what, really, are my chances for even getting into a decent second bachelor's program?? I'm thinking of taking college extension classes to get more experience and recommendation letters for that purpose. If I get some online bachelors degree (EDIT: or a post-bac), are any (reputable) masters programs even going to consider me??
You may well ask what my eventual goal is, but I'm at such a basic level that I'm not sure that that question is all that relevant. If I were to pick a goal just for the sake of aiming for something, getting a job in statistics sounds interesting, but who knows what I'd want to do after getting a second bachelors. I'd like to try my hand at research, but that sounds way too pie-in-the-sky given my background.
Thanks for any advice or feedback.
You might be interested in these relevant questions and answers: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3153/how-does-one-change-fields-between-undergrad-and-grad-school and http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2950/is-it-possible-to-attend-graduate-school-in-pure-math-after-undergrad-in-cse
@ff524 Thanks for those; I didn't see them when searching the topic. They seem a bit different to me, however, since the OPs' undergrad degrees were math/science-related.
The questions are very different, but a lot of the advice in the answers still applies (ask the grad school you plan to apply to what you need to do to be considered for admission; look into taking some classes in the new field as a non-degree student)
@ff524 Oh, yes, they're definitely helpful; I was just justifying my somewhat overlapping question. Those answers make it sound like making the switch is unlikely-to-impossible. I already spent 10 years on attempting something unlikely/impossible. Am I just setting myself up for another such attempt?
Am I just setting myself up for another such attempt? That's something much too personal for strangers on the Internet to answer, unfortunately :) What you propose to do is difficult, certainly not impossible, but the cost/benefit ratio and the likelihood of success depends on your motivations, your abilities, your goals, etc.
@ff524 Just the fact that you didn't answer with "don't even try" is a good sign, imo. :)
If you're interested in a second BA and want to push yourself, consider Columbia University's School of General Studies. You can major in math and get a second bachelors. It's expensive, but may be what you're looking for.
You are not prepared for a Master's program right now, which I think you recognize. That said, it may not take too long to prepare yourself. I would recommend looking at requirements for continuing education and graduate programs at nearby regional universities. Many of them have programs designed to accommodate a student with your needs. For example, here are the requirements at CSU East Bay, a regional school near Oakland. Note in particular the Post-baccalaureate unclassified status. You might not expect it, but many such programs are quite strong and have a solid record in placing students in PhD programs. Don't discount them.
Thanks for suggesting those. For some reason I hadn't thought of it, and it looks like that's going to be the best possible avenue for me--both academically and financially.
If you want to go into math, should you get a BSc?
I'd say "yes". It often is quite doable to pick up a new subject on your own if you have academic experience, but English and Mathematics are so far apart that I'd doubt there would be a lot of synergy. Mathematics has its own way of thinking, which is probably picked up best by going through an undergrad degree.
Should you go into math?
Enrolling for a degree is of course a rather strong decision. In my experience quite a few of those who start anew later in their lifes drop out rather early. Maybe taking an online course first could both be a good preparation if you go through with it, and helpful to figure out if you really want to it.
Can you get in somewhere?
I don't know about your country, but both the UK and Germany often have places reserved for mature students, which have fewer formal requirements. So in those countries, getting into a decent program would be quite doable.
A final comment
For me at least mathematics is great fun. If you believe you'd like it, and you are willing to put in the effort, give it a try.
Well, I commend the OP on having the heart to contemplate such a step. I'd like to mention a factor that has not yet been mentioned in the other answers - your age, and more specifically, the responsibilities that you have to shoulder while attempting such a career switch. If you do decide to apply for a undergrad program in maths, and happen to be accepted in a reasonably good one, you'd be starting from scratch in a field governed by abstract concepts that take a good deal of focused work to wrap ones head around! This is a lot easier if all you have to worry about is yourself, and don't have the weight of other responsibilities (family obligations, relationships etc) to bog you down. Even if you don't have such responsibilities, you'd have the inescapable feeling of being a generation behind your peers, and unless you have a very determined and strong force of mind, you would be having to fend off doubts regarding your decisions/capabilities at regular intervals - which could hinder your focus significantly, and make your mental faculties less acute than they ought to be!
(This is a personal opinion of mine - I've seen many later-career grad students struggle with these issues, and hence I thought it was wise to know about the possibility of such a train of events before committing to such a momentous decision!)
Thanks for the heads-up. I'm lucky in that I don't have to worry about family (if I had kids I don't think I'd even attempt this), but I do have to support myself, which makes taking classes (most of which are during the day) in preparation for a formal program rather difficult.
I'm answering from an American point of view, on the supposition that is your background also. I'm not sure how applicable this advice is to a non-American.
You already have a bachelor's degree, so you shouldn't need to take a second full BS. There are two ways that I can see you going. Either way, you should be taking the equivalent of a major, or at least a minor in math before you pursue graduate studies.
Enroll as a full time second, or third year "transfers" student in a math-science oriented BS program, using your BA credits surrounding your English major for your non math credits. You should be taking something like two to three math courses (and one or two courses in physics and/or computer science) a semester, until you have completed a math major.
Enroll as a "special student" somewhere part time, taking one to two math classes a semester, until you have 10-12 math courses that constitute the equivalent of a math major, or at least 6-8 courses for a math minor.
Yes, I'm American. :) I actually ended up taking the accepted answer's advice and enrolling full time at a state school. Quit my job and everything (and LOVING IT). I'm currently officially enrolled as getting a second BA in math, but actually intend to change this to fulfilling prereqs for a masters, as you suggest, based on advice from an advisor. However, I've decided to do CS instead of math (being more practical and all), though I'm still going to try to take as many math classes as I can. :)
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95803 | How can one find a promising research project that doesn't just fall apart?
I'm just starting my second year of a master's program and hoping to apply to PhD programs, but I still haven't even submitted a paper for publication. I've worked on 3 research projects over the past 3 years, all of which have fallen apart for different reasons. [EDIT: They fell apart not because they didn't validate my hypothesis or something, but in two cases, because of advisor drama and in one case because another student found a significant flaw.) How can I choose my next project in such a way that minimizes the chances that it'll also just fall apart?
My experience with these abandoned projects has, I believe, taught me three things:
Vet potential advisors more thoroughly,
Don't waste time on a project you don't think is all that promising right from the get-go, and
Get on a project with a team, not one that you'll work on individually.
However, my experience has also shown me that:
It's really impossible to know what an advisor is like until you've already crashed and burned with them.
Good projects are hard, if not impossible, to come by. At the time that I worked on the projects that fell apart, they were basically my best options.
Having to find a team to work with puts you at the mercy of whether people a) have something you're even able to do, b) are actually good to work with, and c) want to work with you (unless, I guess, you're just assigned to the team by your advisor). I've already been shot down by one potential research partner.
Meanwhile, I know of an undergrad who worked on a project for one quarter and now has a publication at a major conference. Do I just have to face the fact that I'm not cut out for this research stuff? I'm starting to get the impression that I'm just a "quitter," but I feel that every time I've quit, I've done so for completely valid reasons, not just because the "going got tough."
Is there something I'm not thinking of or doing in order to find a good project and take it all the way through to completion?
Having a publication is not a mandatory admission criterion for any PhD I have ever heard of.
@astronat Certainly not mandatory but isn't it important, especially for getting into a top program? And for an applicant who is already in a master's program?
Important, yes, but not crucial. I would consider myself to be in one of the top institutions in my field in the UK, yet myself and none of my cohort (6 of us) have published yet, and all but one of us has a Master's degree of some description. I therefore think the answer very much depends on US vs Europe.
Hm, I'm in the US so maybe it does. I also heard that publications don't matter all that much from a US professor, but her proof of that was that her publications prior to acceptance into a PhD program weren't that great -- not that she didn't have any at all.
I wouldn't expect master's students to have publications going into a Ph.D. program, even in Europe (and I've worked in Europe and in the U.S.).
I've been in a somewhat similar situation. I agree with your point #1 - advisors are crucial! To better vet them, I would try to talk to PhD students who have been working with them for a few years. Ask them about how their work is going, and how they came to their subject, how their advisor handled it when they ran into trouble with their approach, etc.
For how to pick a subject that has high likelihood of leading somewhere, it's always a gamble but in my previous group, the people who were taken on as part of a EU project grant seemed to do better in this regard - the subject has to be very thoroughly thought out for the application, with "worst case results" analysis where you practically have to guarantee publishable results (even if those will not be top-conference results).
I did talk to several of students of one advisor, and they only said good things, and he turned out to be the worst of all! Then I talked to a student in the same dept who has a different advisor, and she mentioned that she'd been warned about that guy. So I think asking people who aren't students of a particular professor but instead just know of him is the way to go. As for grant applications, that's a great idea and supports my decision to apply to the NSF fellowship even though I don't think I have a chance in hell. At the very least it might lead to clarifying my ideas.
The fact that your projects failed should not be a bar to your continuing on to a Ph.D. program. The reality of research is that most research fails! Remember that Edison tried over a thousand combinations before finding one to work for his light bulb. Nobody is 100 percent successful in research and projects end up falling short of expectations or failing altogether a substantial percentage of the time. It's how you persevere through the failures that distinguishes a successful researcher from an unsuccessful one.
Moreover, projects working or not working can be a matter of luck, and sometimes it can take an extended period of time to make a breakthrough. During my Ph.D. project, I had basically nothing but failed approaches to show for two and a half years (!) before I had my "Eureka!" moment. I wrote six papers in the remaining three and a half years after that.
So I wouldn't worry about finding a "good" project: ideas that seem sound on first blush can fall through, and a "high-risk, high-reward" type project can lead to big breakthroughs in the long run. Focus on doing something that interests you, so that you can keep going when you run into rough patches (and they will come).
The issue with these projects though isn't that the results weren't in line with my hypothesis but drama with advisors: in the 1st case, the advisor was just impossible to get a hold of, in the 2nd case, the project wasn't really in my advisor's wheelhouse, so he didn't notice a glaring problem that was identified late in the process by another student, and in the 3rd case, my advisor claimed the project was publishable, and after I worked on it for months, one of his co-authors revealed that they had no intention of publishing it.
So if the problem is with the advisor, why are you worrying if you're "cut out" for research? It just sounds like you need to choose a better advisor, and that's a different problem than choosing a research project!
Well, it's been three different advisors. And in the case of 2 of them, their other students seem to get publications just fine.
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159310 | Reverse journal editor search
I was wondering if there is a tool that allows to search for journals where a given researcher is one of the editors.
I believe the simplest way to achieve something of that kind would be to look for the CV or research website of said researcher and look if they list their editorship responsibilities.
I do not think there are many researchers that are editor for more than 1 or 2 journals.
I guess if someone wants to advertise what journals they edit for, this will be visible on their web-page.
It's a fair question. Google Scholar does not currently support any search operator for this; I'm not sure about other portals. There is a more complex data scraping solution, but I imagine the easiest way is to search the individual's name, then click it and it should bring up a list of works they're associated with, although that would mix together ones where they are an author as well as an editor. Or use their CV.
Are you trying to avoid a certain editor, or is it something else?
@Buffy In this case I am asking in the abstract. In the past it occurred to me to use the opposite tactics: "Prof. X might like this sort of thing, is there an appropriate journal where they are also an editor".
Alternatively, you could just send them an abstract, ask if they'd like to see the whole paper and, after a bit of communication, asking for recommendations about where to send it.
EDIT:
Try Open Editors, a newly published dataset of ca. 480.000 editorial board positions across 6.000 scholarly journals at 17 academic publishers.
OLD ANSWER:
There are no open data* about editorial boards yet.
Thus, research articles that analyze the composition of journals' editorial boards unfortunately collect their data manually. For instance, a paper in 2016 writes at p. 4:
We began with a collection of 605 abbreviated titles of journals
[...]. Crowdworkers from Amazon Mechanical Turk then expanded those
abbreviations into full journal names and collected the individual
editorships associated with each journal.
It has not gotten better since then.
However, there is a reason for optimism as ORCID allows users to list their editorial board positions. Unfortunately, ORCID remains underused; but perhaps in the future its API could offer a greater treasure trove regarding data on journals editors. (The same is true with WikiData).
* Note: By "open data" I mean data that are, inter alia, interoperable, machine-readable, structured - see, for instance, the explanation of "Open Data" at the European Data Portal.
"There are no open data about editorial boards yet." No, it's listed on journal websites.
Dear @AnonymousPhysicist, I edited my post to clarify what is understood as "open data".
That's clearer.
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15067 | Should a dismissal from PhD in graduate application be listed as academic misconduct?
I'm wondering whether dismissal / withdrawal from a PhD program should be listed as disciplinary action on subsequent applications. A Master's program application usually asks questions like:
Have you ever been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at any post-secondary institution you have attended, whether related to academic misconduct or behavioral misconduct, that resulted in a disciplinary action?
I was academically dismissed from a PhD program after four semesters for not being able to maintain the minimum GPA. I plan to fully include this information in my application (e.g. through transcripts from the institution from which I was dismissed), and address why I was dismissed (and what steps I have taken to address academic concerns) in my Statement of Purpose.
Q: However, I am not sure if my dismissal counts as one that is due to "disciplinary violation" related to "academic misconduct or behavioral misconduct". I was simply dismissed due to not being able to maintain the required grades. Should I answer the above question in the negative?
"Academic misconduct" is not the same as "Lack of academic performance." "Academic misconduct" is things like claiming undue credit, fabrication of research or sources, outright plagiarism, etc. Simply not making the grades might reflect on your academic aptitude, but (unlike academic misconduct) does not necessarily reflect upon your character.
This is correct. What the OP experienced is also called "academic failure" and is distinct from academic misconduct. "Behavioral misconduct" would include things like being sanctioned by the university for sexually harassing your students, dealing drugs on campus, or starting a fistfight with the Dean.
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68446 | What data analysis software should a supervisor recommend to their research students?
Often I have found that research students who have learned to do experiments have not learned to use software to handle their data effectively. It's not within my power to insert the appropriate training into their prior education. Teaching people to program or use software is not within my area of expertise or a priority for me. I have observed other research supervisors expecting their students to "teach your self to use what I use" but I realize that what I use, while very powerful, may not be best for a beginner. Also, I picked my tools a long time ago so the state of the art may have changed. What should I recommend to my students, and why? I would like for students to rapidly acquire flexible, durable analysis skills.
What kind of analysis do they need to do? And what volume of data?
This might be better asked at Software recommendations. They should be able to deal with academia-related requirements just fine. Consider flagging your question and requesting migration.
@StephanKolassa First rule of migration is whether it's off-topic at the current site. I think it should stick to Academia.
I would like for students to rapidly acquire flexible, durable analysis skills.
Your criteria are quite stringent! I think you are going to have to compromise at some point along the line. If you want them to acquire the skills rapidly, then they are probably going to have to use menu-based software, which will be limited in its flexibility. The long-term and more flexible solution would be for the students to learn statistical programming, but that of course has a steep learning curve.
In my opinion, R has a lot of advantages. [I imagine you have already come across it, so I may be stating the obvious here and you may have a good reason for ruling it out, but...]
It is free and open source, and therefore once learnt, the skill can be taken anywhere.
It's massively flexible when you take into account all of the add-on packages
Students can "ease" into it using R commander, which gives a menu-based interface but also outputs the corresponding code.
It is popular and therefore very well resourced.
The best compromise that I can think of would be to start the students off using the menu-based R commander package, but encourage them to inspect and customise the code where possible. If you are not able to give training yourself, it would probably be a good idea to arrange for someone else (either in your department, or pay someone external) to give a course. There are lots of good self-learning resources available, but a course ought to speed up the learning process. When they see how powerful the software is, it is likely to encourage them to put in the time and effort to learn to use it well.
R is a good answer only if the OP asks about statistics. In general, you can do whatever R does and more with, for example python and pandas.
Also, keep in mind that R has a rather steep learning curve. Unless you are handling lots of statistics, Python is a better choice for a general programming language to perform data analysis (and also do stats). It's also free, open source, and its usage is growing fast across disciplines.
@AnderBiguri I disagree with the first part of your statement. R is perfectly capable of handling lots more than just statistics.
Having recently self-taught both R and statistical python, it felt like the free resouces for R were considerably more accessible than the resources for numpy/pandas.
@Racheet yes, but python is a better tool for Artificial inteligence, computer vision, image processing, .... Not saying you cant do those in R, its just to as good for it.
@AnderBiguri oh I agree entirely that python is a stronger toolset, that's why I learned both. I was just commenting that the self-study resources for R are much better than the ones I could find for Pandas.
R commander is an interesting suggestion. The one reservation I have is that usually hardware does not come with documentation for interfacing with R.
Teaching how to program should be a priority in research, in at least Sciences. Doesn't matter what STEM field you are in, almost certainly you will need to deal with data, and using "black box" software only teaches to do whatever the software tells you.
I've seen people give results using standard deviation and mean for non-normal distributions, and its just because they didn't know how to plot their distribution and just used black box software. I've seen people rename file by file a folder with 500 files with data. These are worse than "Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion".
Since nowadays almost all research in STEM is performed using computers, understanding computers is a must.
My recommendation is to make people learn MATLAB if you have access to it, or Python if you don't have access to MATLAB or you are a Open source / free software supporter. Both of this languages are designed to be very high level, and not need "advanced" computer science skills (such as inheritance in OOP, or pointers in C)*. Both of the languages are widely used and there are numerous free online courses to learn, in Coursera, Codeacademy, Udacity, EDx or any other online learning platform.
Learning how to code to the basic point should take less than 2 months, considering that meanwhile the student is also doing other things. And they can save thousands of hours of tedious work.
Let me repeat the key message: We need researchers with programming skills. Its incredibly important skill to be able to perform research in the XXI century.
While this answer mainly focuses in STEM, basic programming in other fields that use statistics is also useful.
*Of course, knowing about that helps.
I don't know about the absolute need for programming skills. Things like Excel are very powerful and do not need programming skills, some understanding of scripting lets you do a lot already. People who don't know how to stats will not learn by learning how to code.
@CapeCode I have used excel for sciences because my advisors wanted it. It would take me about 10 times longer to make something than in Matlab, because excel is not a tool designed for science. No one says you can not use notepad to write papers, its just not the right tool for it.
It's probably not designed for science but it does a lot of the basic and not-so-basic stuff. Also, you can increasingly use Matlab functions and toolboxes without having to write a script. My point is knowing to code is useful but I don't think it addresses poor statistics proficiency. I see a lot of researchers wasting their time coding stuff that already exist as off the shelf products.
While programming is definitely useful for handling large datasets (I do a bit of coding myself for my bioscience research), for small datasets (such as a single qPCR run, or a few cages of mice), specialised programs such as Excel or R are much more useful.
@CapeCode the statistic deficiency was just a simple example, that would definitely be better addressed if the person would know what he/she was doing instead of using a black box software, which is the point.
@MarchHo I dont agree. for very small (very) programs such as Excel or R are as useful as knowing how to program at best. Definitely not more useful than programming skills. Also, Excel is very far from being a specialized program for sciences.
I'm sure we all agree that knowing what you're doing is a good thing. I don't see how using a Matlab or Python function without understanding it could be superior to doing the same with an Excel function or macro.
We're talking about students here, not currently practicing researchers, and so my comment is really made with respect to future trends rather than the current state of play which I believe the other answers address.
I believe that in the future, more and more people will be expected to know how to program if they are going to do any kind of data analysis. Perhaps not on the more theoretical side, but since you said your students are doing practical work, I will assume that is not an issue. Tools like R and Matlab are good places to start if you are unfamiliar with programming and want to get something done right now; but honestly, since the barrier to entry for programming in fully-fledge generic programming languages is so low these days (and expected to get lower), I see no reason not to point students in the direction of a full programming language and the modules they might want for doing statistical analyses that are relevant to their field.
Whilst R and Matlab are fine choices, personally, I would introduce my students to something like Python, and the excellent modules that are avalible to do all the data analysis that can be done in R/Matlab that exist in the Python ecosystem. Python has a very gradual learning curve at the beginner end of the spectrum, while at the other end advanced programmers can write code thats just as fast as C if they take advantage of the newer, optimized interpreters. These 2 pros, plus the plethora of modules for doing any kind of analysis/plotting R or Matlab can do, is what has made Python the defacto language of choice in my field (Bioinformatics), and likely a powerful tool under your student's belts going forward with whatever they decide to pursue in life.
Of course, there are other languages out there, such as Java, Julia, Rust, etc - however I would rather teach those as second or third languages to learn, once you have a strong foundation in Python.
For the record, i'm not saying "teach them python", i'm saying just make them aware of it's existence.
Matlab/Octave is appropriate for physics (experimental)
Matlab is very well documented. and get all the graphs done you need as a physicist. It will allow your students to focus on the physics problem instad of hunting bugs or documentation.
Be sure that your university includes the statistics toolbox in the license.
The specific platform is going to be discipline specific so what will work for my students may not be best for your students.
However, if you teach them a proper digital-data-analysis workflow, then they will be able to transfer good habits to whatever specific analysis tool they are using.
For my students, I emphasize:
1) proper data archiving - each data set contains only data stored as plain text
2) proper metadata - each data set has accompanying detailed metadata
3) using code for data analysis - all data manipulations are completed with reproducible code and the original data are never altered
4) version control - we use git but that's just my preference
This is very good general advice, but not sure that it really answers the question.
Often I have found that research students who have learned to do experiments have not learned to use software to handle their data effectively
What kind of data handling and what kind of software program you're referring to? Is it programming language that analyze experimental data (R, Python/C++) or software (like SPSSS/Minitab, Matlab/Octave, Atlas.ti/VUE etc)?
R, C++ would be have a very steep learning curve. Even Python would not an easy entry for student who have no basic programming in their undergraduate years (based on my personal experience, it's not the syntax itself, but the early step on choosing and install IDE, configure module etc but maybe that just me).
This may sound cliche but for not starting flame wars about which software/program is the best, it all depends on the needs and background of the users. For example, those who has background in statistics would like to use R (R can do lot more than statistics, I know) but for biology students who do research in fermentation, maybe Minitab is enough. Same thing with Python/Ruby/Julia or C++/Fortran or Word/LaTeX etc.
Ask them what they learned in their undergraduate years and see if they can fully maximize it in their research. For me, the first step is not to learn fancy software but to have a clear understanding how to do research and a good research practice (research methodology, workflow, raw data management etc) and only then introduce software/program to help them.
Software that I have tried in my field:
MATLAB, SPSS, WEKA, GAMS, DigSilent, ETAP, PSpice, MS Excel, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, ...
My recommendation: MATLAB
Positive points of MATLAB:
It has both GUI features and coding (of course, they should go for coding).
The community is active and good.
Their documentations is very good.
Their examples are excellent.
These all help learn MATLAb quickly.
What I have done in MATLAB:
Genetic Algorithm, Linear and Nonlinear Optimization, Clustering, Classification, Plotting, Parallel Computing, Neural Networks, ...
Plus, tell them to work with LATEX as well. They will thank you later. Though, they should also be already an expert in MS Word.
When they get into one area in detail, let's say Optimization, then it might be time to move to a new software like GAMS. You will still need MATLAB for plotting your results, ...
Although almost all academic institutes support MATLAB and have a license, industry are fan of more freeware, like Python.
This answer adds nothing to the already existing answers.
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62210 | Would a Professor be responsive to a meeting request from a PhD student like this?
I am a graduate school applicant and am considering requesting a meeting with a professor while I'll be visiting a city near their university town.
The current e-mail format I have in mind goes roughly as follows:
Dear Professor X,
I am a graduate school applicant at University A. Before this I
graduated from University B and have worked with Professor C* on some
research projects. I am visiting City D for the next two weeks or so
and I would be delighted if you could meet with me for a few minutes
to discuss your latest work on topic E. I've been very interested in
topic E and have been spending time trying to learn more about it, writing up
some notes on this and related topics along the way (which you can
find on webpage F).
Thanks for your time. (signed, me)
*Professor X has coauthored many papers with Professor C and they still collaborate frequently.
My question is that would you as a Professor be responsive to an email of this nature? What improvements or extra information would you suggest to add that would make you more likely to grant such a request to meet? Is there something in the above which would make you not want to meet?
Other info: I have never had any contact with Prof X before this. Prof X is a big name and an extremely active researcher in the relevant field.
If X is really such a big shot then I'd suggest you to invite C to make a formal introduction; that should make you stand out from the crowd of people who also want to meet X. If for any reason you don't feel comfortable pulling C in, then don't use C's name in this e-mail. Also, don't say "few minutes," say 30, 45, over lunch, whatever is enough for you to do the job. X will likely pass it to his/her assistant and "a few minutes" is confusing.
Penguin is right. If you can summon C's support for the visit, that helps and you can mention him; if not, don't. However, quite a few great people are quite open to meet even unknown interested students with relevant interests; just suggest a brief imposition on his/her time. It is hard to estimate, but ~30mins might sound about right. And if it doesn't work out, don't worry too much, people can be busy.
You write The next two weeks. That's very late to open up ½–¾ hour in the agenda of a busy professor. Better plan such a meeting at least a month ahead.
When I was applying to graduate school I once did this successfully without C or F, and while almost entirely ignorant of E, and the meeting went well. You've prepared much better; good luck to you! But do keep in mind that X might randomly not reply, and it doesn't mean too much. In that case I'd try again when (if) you get admitted to A (assuming X is a professor at A).
@Penguin_Knight's comment is the best advice in this situation: ask Professor C to introduce you (via email with you in CC) to Professor X and mention that you will be in town and would like to chat. Professor X may not have time to read all the messages she gets from students and other people she doesn't know, so there is always a chance your message -- not matter how well-crafted -- may be overlooked. But a message from a coauthor will immediately stand out and is sure to be read carefully.
This is a very natural thing for Professor C to do (assuming she has a positive opinion of you and your work); you should make the request politely but you don't need to feel that it is a huge favor.
If you leave a good impression, this introduction and the subsequent visit will usually drastically improve your chances of admission.
Thank you for your suggestion. Asking Professor C is a bit of a complicated matter but I have decided to go with requesting that he introduce me. Why do you say that it shouldn't be viewed as a huge favor? After all like you said if X agrees it could improve my chances. Is this something Professors tend to do often if they think the student under consideration is good?
@user24542: It's more a favor from C to X than to you. Finding good advisees is (1) important (2) fraught with difficulty. And "So-and-so's been doing great work for me and will be in your area next month. (s)He'd like to meet you if you can spare 30 minutes." is a much easier way of moving a student's career forward than writing a full letter of recommendation.
My question is that would you as a Professor be responsive to an email of this nature?
Yes, quite likely.
What improvements or extra information would you suggest to add that would make you more likely to grant such a request to meet?
It's perfect as is. Maybe remove the "a few minutes"--hopefully discussing research would take a bit more than that?
Is there something in the above which would make you not want to meet?
No, although before responding I would probably take a look at your application.
Just remember that your willingness to participate in AC.SE likely shows your interest in communicating with strangers, which may not be the case for everybody.
Ok, putting myself in your shoes, I would probably do things like this.
First, if possible, I would try to get a positive introduction from my professor. I think that you should try to see if you can get this introduction before you proceed as the willingness of professor C to support you will be crucial. More than likely Professor X's decision whether to work with you will be based on whether Professor C says good things about you. If Professor C doesn't seem like he will have good things to say then Professor x will almost definitely not want to work with you, and you might need to revaluate whether it is worth your time to pursue meeting with him.
Assuming you do end up deciding to go ahead with the email, I would send something like the email below. When doing this make sure you give the Professor a lot of notice as they sometimes have hundreds of emails to deal with.
Dear Professor X,
I am sorry to bother you as I am sure you are very busy. [optional but
shows your consideration and respect]
I am a graduate school applicant at University A. Previously, I worked
with Professor C* on some research projects at University B. [Add
lines with information about the projects' outcomes, e.g., are they
soon to be published/ how did they go well?]
As part of my work with Professor C* I became very interested in topic
E, particularly your work [example/reference]. You can read some of my
notes about this and related research on website F.
I am contacting you as I would really like to
discuss your latest work. I will be visiting City D from [Add when you
are going to arrive] for approximately two weeks and I would be
delighted if we could meet during that time. However, I can also
understand that you may be too busy to accommodate me during that
short visit, in which case I would be very happy to skype, or talk over
phone at sometime in the future.
Please let me know if either option would be acceptable - it would be an honor to speak with you.
Thank you for your time. (signed, me)
Shortened version:
Dear Professor X,
I am a graduate school applicant at University A. Previously, I worked
with Professor C* on some research projects at University B. During this time I became very interested in topic
E, particularly your work on [example]. You can read some of my
notes about this and related research on website F.
I will be visiting City D from [Add when you
are going to arrive] for approximately two weeks and I would be
delighted if we could meet during that time. Please let me know if this is possible - it would be an honor to speak with you.
Thank you for your time. (signed, me)
Concur with 37208. I would add that it assumes a priori that what you're saying is a bothersome imposition -- why lead with that impression?
@user37208 I would lose a lot more than that. I think this email can be 1/3 - 1/2 this length.
I have updated the answer in response to these comments.
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21117 | Is it normal to preferentially invite female speakers when there would otherwise be few female speakers?
My institute is creating an annual list of invited speakers and solicited suggestions from staff. It was at pains to point out that although only "n" 18% of suggestions received were female, they made up "n+1" 31% of the speakers selected to talk. As a female student, this makes me feel uncomfortable that women seem to be getting preferential treatment - is this normal practice in academia, in the UK or elsewhere?
Edit: I didn't mean my question to sound insulting, I'm sorry if it sounded that way. Everyone invited is perfectly qualified and I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. It just seemed a little strange all the women on the shortlist made it through whilst quite a few men didn't. And that the email took on an apologetic tone and emphasized this so heavily. I was just interested in whether this is common as it makes me feel a little uneasy that gender plays such a prominent role in the organizers' thinking. Thanks.
Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
First of all: if the women who were invited to speak are in fact highly qualified for this invitation, they are not getting a "free pass". A "free pass" implies that they are invited only because they are women, and are not otherwise qualified. Qualified women are at best getting a "priority pass" to make up for being often overlooked (especially when the organizing committee is all male), and possibly not getting any kind of special pass.
It is a bit insulting (although I am sure this is not your intent) to suggest that these women were invited to speak because they are women, and not because they are doing quality, competitive work. I can see why you were uneasy when the organizers sent an email emphasizing the gender of the speakers, instead of their contributions to research; I would also be.
Second: depending on the sample size, it may not be entirely significant that 31% of invited speakers were women when they made up 18% of the list of suggestions.
In answer to
Is this normal practice in academia:
Yes, sometimes a conference or workshop organizer will look at the list of invited speakers, see that women are heavily underrepresented, and think carefully about whether there is a qualified female researcher doing excellent work who could be added to the roster.
This is done as a deliberate response to counter a known bias. We know that we (as humans) are very bad at evaluating people based on merit alone; we tend to let our cognitive biases get in the way. (See, for example: Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students.) Deliberate attempts to increase the representation of women in underrepresented fields exist to counter this known bias.
I regret using the phrase "free pass" and updated the question to hopefully make it fairer. I think you're right to highlight the unconscious(?) bias angle. In light of that it's probably sensible to take corrective action... just wish it wasn't necessary!
@user15422 It's also possible (though I have only anecdotal evidence to suggest that this happens) that all of the women who were suggested were "superstars" (because the "ordinary" female researchers were overlooked) and so all of the shortlisted women were invited.
Interesting thought, although hard to quantify without the original shortlist. Certainly many "seem" prominent and it seems like a plausible angle, psychology-wise.
I agree with this answer except that I think it is a bit strange to impute the insult to the OP rather than to the organizers. Indeed, your link for "a bit insulting" talks about a male faculty member saying that his department "'went out of their way to accept more women' that year," which seems more analogous to the e-mail that prompted the OP's question than to anything that the OP said.
"Underrepresented"? 18% already seems overrepresented to me. We have a far lower ratio of women among students (which may differ between locations).
@Raphael certainly the gender balance varies by location and field (OP never said what field this is in)
Very true; my bad completely assuming this was about CS. Doh.
@Davor: if there were no sexism involved in the original imbalance, then it might well be the case that introducing gender quotas is "full blown sexism". However, if the imbalance is caused by prejudice or bias at some level then it's not "sexism" to attempt to flip the "free pass" that the 82% men have been getting all along. Whatever your feelings or mine on the question of whether society is perfectly non-sexist other than positive discrimination, I think it's always pretty clear that the people positively discriminating believe that it isn't and so their choice is not necessarily sexist.
@SteveJessop - Discrimination remains discrimination, no matter your motives. You might believe that it's OK to discriminate certain people just because some other groups were/are discriminated, but I don't and never will.
@Davor: Right, the act of removing a privilege from men (by transferring some of their free passes to women) is perceived by some as discrimination against men regardless of motive. Hence the otherwise-bizarre notion that anything less than 82% men would be sexist against men. In the view of the organizers, of course, that 82% figure already factors in a great deal of discrimination again women, and hence holding to it would be (in their view) discriminatory against women. I don't know whether the organizers are correct or not about their field, but it's relevant and explains their tone.
This sort of positive discrimination is fairly common, in a number of areas, not just academia. For example All-women shortlists and for a less severe but more academic example women only scholarships.
The ethics of positive discrimination is a complex issue. Personally I agree with you that I find it a bit distasteful, mainly as it encourages the incorrect stereotype of women being less valuable researchers. Although, in this particular case I suspect if it hadn't been explicitly pointed out no one would have noticed or cared.
My worry is that it creates resentment and backfires - some research seems to indicate it's a common reaction (although mostly involving race rather than gender).
What is "positive" discrimination? Anything that fits the zeitgeist?
@Raphael I think this sums it up quite nicely. It is a fairly objective thing where one group of people is favoured or given special opportunities due to discrimination (perceived or real) against them. It is not really affected by previewing views beyond what groups are viewed as being discriminated against.
Even though suggestions were solicited, that by no means binds the department to selecting only women who were suggested—the organizers who choose the speakers are free to augment that list however they choose, or completely ignore it, if they feel the choices are inappropriate or inadequate.
The real question to ask is:
Are the speakers who were chosen qualified?
So long as the speakers merit inclusion in the seminar series, it shouldn't really matter what the gender balance is (particularly in the small sample size of a single year!).
The only way you could argue that women were getting a "free pass" to speak is if unqualified women were being given an opportunity to speak.
Why is this the real question to ask? It seems like you are saying that there can be no objections to discrimination on the basis of sex (or any other attribute) so long as all the invited speakers are qualified. Would you still say this if the organizers had bragged about selecting disproportionately many men? I don't mean to say that situation would be analogous, only that this answer seems a bit simplistic. It also seems misleading to talk of "small sample size" when the question clearly suggests that the discrepancy was deliberate on the part of the organizers.
The question was not if it is OK or if it should (or shouldn't) be considered a free pass, but [I]s this normal practice in academia, in the UK or elsewhere?.
I'd argue the better question is "Of the topics, expertise, and people available, which ones will provide the intended audience with the most value?" In some academic situations having a specific representation of women might be of value to the audience. A lot depends on what you want the audience to gain from the experience.
About 10 years ago, I was on the organizing committee of a fairly large conference in the US. At one point, a society that was providing us with some funding told us that we didn't have enough women among the keynote speakers, and that we ought to go get some more. The society is a well-known one with a good reputation -- it's not ACM or IEEE, but some group like that. We told them to go pound sand. Several prominent members said they would resign from the organising committee if we had to follow this decree. The society eventually backed down, but not without a bit of a fight.
So, in this case we did not give preferential treatment to women, but we were certainly encouraged to do so.
NO, in all likelihood you were being encouraged to make sure you actively recruited the best female speakers and then gave all who applied equal treatment.
Well, I was there, and you weren't (as far as I know). We were told to get more women to make the numbers more balanced. BTW, people don't "apply" to be keynote speakers.
The only thing that matters is qualification based off of merit. Unfortunately, in school and infesting its way into corporate culture, it's more about filling quotas than worrying about who is most qualified or who deserves it the most.
"Free pass" may not be the correct term for all 31% of those women, but it's more than likely the case for at least some of them. The organizer is sexist, plain and simple. People can bat words around and pretend that any particular group of people "have it harder," but in the end, it's just sexism and discrimination. Who's to say whose upbringing was worse and why that entire group of people should have more rights than another group? You don't see any of those same groups of people complaining about the lack of males in nursing or the lack of females in hard manual labor jobs.
If you feel uneasy about it, that's good. It means you have a fair mind and don't like one group having preferential treatment over another.
It's nice to assume that society functions as a true meritocracy, but there is so much overwhelming evidence demonstrating that hidden biases play a huge role in virtually everything, from promotions to awards to opportunities to .
So it's okay to give some a preferential treatment because you think an entire group of people have it harder than others? You can make up any excuses you want, it's still sexism and discrimination.
There's sexism, and then there's "I will make a deliberate effort to overcome my own unconscious bias and invite some people who don't look just like me"
No, that's still sexism/racism/discrimination. It's assuming that every person who "looks like you" is "like you." They're not. It categorizes people.
Why is "qualification based off of merit" the "only thing that matters"? More importantly, how do subjective statements of your own values help to answer the OP's question? It's tempting to treat the site as a discussion board, especially when a provocative question comes along, but I think it's best to stay focused and stick to the question/answer model.
@TrevorWilson - I did answer it in my first sentence. Every answer here is subjective, especially the one marked as an answer. That's the normal course for a question that relies on subjective responses. As for your question, once you dip your feet into the nonsense world of "what group deserves more rights than others," there's only a varying degree of even more subjective thinking to get someone from taking the stance that some people deserve even less, or aren't really people. The intelligent and fair route to take is to be equal and be judged off of merit, not gender, race, etc.
@Jackson I don't think you're giving enough consideration to the possibility that the bias actually exists. A quick google search found this Science paper on the topic, I suggest you read it and consider your viewpoint.
No, I think I've considered the possibility, I'm just not sexist so I don't think any gender should have any advantage given to them because they may or may not have a vagina or a penis. I've read countless gender studies. Almost every one is subject to the bias of the conductor(s) or flawed study methods that link correlation to causation. Yale will be no different. They never take into account the natural desires of the individual. They start with a false premise and build illogically. If anything, factually, the system, even on a governmental level, is in favor of women and "minorities."
If qualification is the only thing that matters, then it seems that the percentage of qualified women was higher than the percentage of suggested women speakers, right? What's really wrong is that due to a missing penis presumably, fewer qualified women than qualified men were suggested. Since there is a discrepancy, what reason do we have to believe that the number of women invited was too high, and not that the number of women suggested was too low?
@gnasher729 Not sure what you're talking about. We don't "know" anything, except that allegedly 31% were women speakers even though only 18% were suggested, suggesting that they were picked more heavily off of the fact that they were women, not because they were [more] qualified, along with the follow-up email.
So it's okay to give some a preferential treatment because you think an entire group of people have it harder than others? — Yes. Exactly.
@JeffE That's fine. Your opinion is your opinion. Just don't deny being a sexist/racist and support discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc.
When your darts consistently hit the right side of the board, even though you aim for the middle, you can insist that you're aiming for the bull's eye, or you can deliberately aim to the left.
Your personal goal is to aim for the middle, while others may be intentionally aiming for the right side. Why are you aiming for other people? Are women not capable of making their own choices?
@JeffE no one is actively discriminating against women, less women simply enter STEM on their own accord. Let's encourage equal opportunity, rather than equal outcome.
no one is actively discriminating against women — [citation needed]
@HugoZink Encouraging equal opportunity involves making sure that the opportunities also appear equal from the outside, as otherwise well-qualified and interested people will not even try to get in (why would they if it appears to be a hostile place to be?). And part of this is to make sure that female speakers make up a decent fraction of a conference.
@JeffE where's your citation that they are being discriminated against here?
@TobiasKildetoft that's still attempting to force equal outcome. That doesn't work and is sexist.
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20423 | Is it the number or quality of internships that is more important for Graduate School admission into Computer Science?
I'm an undergraduate in Computer Science who's has just completed his 2nd year. However I could not get an internship for the summer leaving me extremely tense about the future since there would be only one summer left (i.e., the summer of 2015 since I graduate in 2016).
I intend to apply to graduate schools in North America and Europe after my UG. However since I will have only one internship under my belt (assuming I bag one in summer 2015) will it put a damper on my prospects? Or is it the place of and quality of work done in my internship (coupled with good recommendation letters—which I doubt I will get) that would be far better than the number of internships under my belt?
I'm in the process of building a portfolio of real-life projects to demonstrate my skills and capabilities. I am also contributing code to open-source organisations in the next two months à la Google Summer of Code (however without the formal recognition) on a totally voluntary basis. Will that help in overcoming lack of an internship between my second and third year? What else can I do that can help me build a better application for graduate school?
What kind of graduate school are you applying to - MS or PhD?
@ff524 So far my research suggests a mix bag of graduate schools i.e. both MS and PhD. However a PhD schools are more in number than MS.
A terminal masters (e.g., MSCS) and a PhD in computer science are two very different degrees with very different profiles of admitted students and with very different post-graduation paths. You should decide what you want to get out of graduate school and then look for schools that can provide that.
The short answer is a lack of internships is not a problem.
The long answer has two cases:
MSCS programs in the United States are profit makers for
universities. It is much easier to get into an MSCS program at a
top university than the PhD program at the same university.
Research experience is a plus, but I don't think industry experience
matters. Grades and recommendations from professors are most
important.
CS PhD programs in the United States almost exclusively admit
students that they are willing to fund, so they are much harder to
get into. In addition to strong grades and letters of
recommendation, schools want to see that you are capable of working
independently at research. The best way to do this, as Leon palafox
answered, is to have research experience, including a thesis and/or
publications. Next best is to have completed projects not required
for any class. That shows you are capable of doing a project
without its being broken down into lots of steps with intermediate
deadlines. I'd say Summer of Code-like experience is at least as
valuable as an industry internship. It shows passion and the
ability to work independently. Incorporate that into your essay,
and get a letter of recommendation from someone on the project (or
from a professor at your institute if one is nominally supervising
your work for internship or independent study credit).
I am not knowledgeable about admission into programs outside of the United States.
If you are applying to a PhD, that portfolio of real life projects might not matter much.
In Graduate programs, they are very interested in proof that the student is capable of pursuing research, which is usually proven via a BS Thesis or a couple of Publications. Here in the US, many take a year off to work in some lab to get both a letter of recommendation and at least a publication in some conference.
I'm evaluating having a Grad student right now, and I would certainly would be more interested in him/her having proof that they know what grad school is all about rather than showing that they are good programmers.
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95875 | How to weigh these pros and cons of applying to PhD programs?
I know people have posted LOTS of questions about whether they should apply to PhD programs, but I haven't seen some of the issues I'm currently facing addressed.
I'm currently a master's student in computer science at a top 15 university and am faced with the current pros and cons:
Pros
I strongly prefer research to software engineering. Apparently this is the only valid reason to get a CS PhD (other than wanting to become a professor, which I don't), and this reason is certainly true for me. I've worked on 3 research projects, all of which I have found vastly more interesting than the software engineering internships I've had. I'm especially excited about finding solutions to unstructured problems, which apparently is the core of doing research.
Cons
According to what I've read, it's likely that even if I get a PhD, I'll end up in software engineering anyway. That's a lot of time and energy spent on something that will end up having little effect on my career. Ideally, I'd like to get an industry research position somewhere like Google, but from what I can tell, only a select number of superstars get those types of positions. I spent my 20s chasing a similarly uber-competitve pipe-dream, and I'd rather not waste my time on another one.
I'm 34 years old. This fact has two repercussions:
Continuing to get paid very little for 5-7 more years seems flat-out irresponsible at this stage of my life. I wiped out my savings and took on loads of debt to quit my job and go back to school. I'm afraid that if I don't to make as much money as possible as soon as possible, I'll end up having to resort to eating cat food when I retire.
If and when I do graduate with a PhD, and if I'm unable to secure a research position and go the programming route, I'll be a new entrant to an industry that is notoriously ageist in my 40s rather than my 30s.
PhD programs are, infamously, very stressful, and I'm not sure I want to put myself through that. I've had chronic depression for my entire adult life (albeit managed and medicated), and I honestly wonder if I could handle the anxiety that PhD programs apparently bring. The PhD application process alone seems enormously intimidating and demoralizing to me.
I frankly just don't think I'm a competitive candidate. My grades are excellent, but I'm not currently at even a top-10 school and I have no publications or good connections to professors at other schools. I also just had a sort of falling out with my current advisor, who's famous in his field, and I'm probably not going to get an LOR from him. I've heard that publications don't really matter in PhD admissions, but I'm looking to apply to top-five schools, where, based on bios I've read and students I've met, they do matter.
Given all these considerations, does it seem obvious that I shouldn't apply to PhD programs? Research seems very alluring and fulfilling to me, but these various drawbacks make it seem like it may not be worth it.
Believe it or not, you are facing very common issues. I think it comes down to what your life goals are, keeping in mind that 34 is by no means old, and also keeping in mind that by your statement, the end result is the same (you will 'end up in software engineering anyway').
If the end result is the same, its just a question of whether you want to have that experience and ultimate reward of holding the highest degree offered. Yes, you might lose 6 years of industry-level salary, but given that the salary trajectory of PhDs is somewhat steeper (on average) than Masters, your lifetime earning potential might still be higher with PhD. So don't think about your age (too much).
Also keep in mind that the experience of getting a PhD trains you in "finding solutions to unstructured problems" as you state, making you a very desirable candidate.
Your point on the stress of working on a PhD, plus some depression, is worth some reflection. Its not easy, and its going to poke at your weak points. But you'll also find that depression in PhD students is almost epidemic, so you would not be alone in that. From someone who also struggled with that, I found the process made it worse at times, but ultimately better. I had to learn coping strategies.
Finally, on being a good candidate, publications certainly DO help in PhD applications (it demonstrates you understand the job). If you are not the strongest candidate, don't expect to be considered by top-5 schools. But also know that in industry, those affiliations matter far less than you think.
I generally advocate for 'going for it', but really its just a matter of what life experiences matter to you. At 34, an extra 5 or so years really isn't that much, but if having a PhD isn't that big a deal for you, jumping straight into industry may make sense.
Having a PhD is only a big deal for me in the sense that it may open doors in industrial research. However, it will be effectively worthless if it doesn't. I wouldn't get some weird pride out of having it. As you identify, the choice then comes down to whether I'd simply enjoy spending 5 years doing research instead of software engineering. In that case, the choice is obvious. My biggest fear is being bored at work the rest of my life, and it seems that, for all its drawbacks, being a PhD student will at the very least not be boring.
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96642 | Is it possible to recover after completely botching my best chances to get a PhD?
I'm currently a master's student in computer science, thinking about applying to PhD programs. As I detailed in this post, I had the audacity to ask my advisor why he hadn't let me work on projects that he allowed other students with equivalent qualifications to work on and instead had me working on a project that, according to one of his co-authors, was not publishable (it was more of an industry thing and they were just going to stick it on the internet somewhere). In response, he fired me from my gave someone else the TA position he had said I would have and now isn't even responding to my emails. (And he refused to answer any of the questions I'd asked him, btw.)
Is it even possible to salvage my chances of getting into a top PhD program after this? He's a famous professor and very well regarded in his field. A letter of recommendation from him would have been CRITICAL in my applications to PhD programs. Now, I not only don't have a publication to my name, but have NOTHING to show for a project I worked three months on. I know that conflicts between advisors and students are typical, but do they typically result in a totally burned bridge without even a LOR? Presumably, my potential bridges with everyone he knows (several professors in other schools) are also burned for me as well!
I suppose I can try to find someone else in the department to do research with, but
this setback has delayed my application by at least a year, and
the only professor in my area who seems nice enough to work with is a very junior professor, and my understanding is that a LOR from a well-known professor is critical. (I've met all the other professors in my school in my chosen specialty and they all come off as complete assholes.)
I am left with a few questions:
Did I just completely blow my chances? If not, how can I possibly get on my feet to be a competitive PhD applicant by next year?
How is it possible to find a nice, supportive advisor?? I had done my due diligence: I talked to several of my advisor's students, and they had nothing but good things to say about him. I'm not sure what other sources I could possibly find. A friend of mine did the same with a different advisor, only for his true colors to come out after several months of working with him as well. Is it really just a roll of the dice, where even if I get into a PhD program, odds are the advisor is going to turn out to be an asshole?
In the future, am I just supposed to keep my mouth shut even if I have reservations about the project I'm working on?
UPDATE: This experience (and a couple others) soured me on academia completely and I ended up going into industry instead. So far so good.
You were a Masters student, so having an industry project to show instead of a paper is not a bad thing. Your depiction of the case, unfortunately, sends off a message of entitlement. Your enemy in the present case, as described in your question is not your former advisor. If there were other things not discussed, my opinion may yet shift.
@CaptainEmacs Sorry, in the interest of keeping this post short, I wasn't fully clear on what happened: the co-author said this during a meeting with the advisor; he wasn't "inveigling" me against him. Secondly, I actually didn't bring up his comment during my discussion with my advisor; I just said that since I was looking to apply to PhD programs, I was hoping to get on a project where I could contribute something novel rather than simply coding up what they had already come up with. And I was confused and hurt that people with my same background were given that opportunity and I wasn't.
@CaptainEmacs I am in no way insinuating that I don't think I was in the wrong here. Although I think never talking to me again is an overreaction, the very title of my post refers to my having completely botched this.
Ok, point taken. It's not easy to get out of such a situation. You can see if you can find some friendly prof somewhere in the faculty - or tone down your expectations about the ranking of the school. There are some less known places with good and interesting research.
a LOR from a well-known professor is critical. — "Well-known" and "junior" are not opposites! In particular, most junior faculty in strong departments are well known, and most senior faculty in weak departments are not.
@CaptainEmacs sends off a message of entitlement — I couldn't disagree more strongly. OP is entitled to ask his advisor why he wasn't given more interesting work. Moreover, OP is entitled to an honest and well-considered answer. I find your suggestion that OP is somehow responsible for his advisor's tantrum offensive.
@JeffE Thank you so much; both of your comments make me feel so much more hopeful and less like I need to whip myself over this.
@JeffE I had a bit of a conversation with the OP about that (it is still around). He convinced me that this was not intended this way (see my later response). To me, the original formulation of the question, without the context of prior developments, was ambiguous. Please note that I had qualified my statement on (then) possibly lacking information.
@JeffE: I mostly agree with your post, but note that a partial cause that contributed to the advisor's tantrum may have been the OP's previous own "tantrum" ("I was confused and hurt that people with my same background were given that opportunity and I wasn't." - the way I read this, at least, they actually said it like that).
@O.R.Mapper No, I didn't say that. I simply asked why I couldn't do a project like those other ones. I mentioned in that comment that I felt hurt in response to the accusation that I felt entitled. But I won't hide the fact that I subsequently did have something of a tantrum: I noticeably went out of my way to avoid him in the following days and privately expressed my frustration to one of his students (a friend of mine). If that's sufficient grounds for being permanently blacklisted, then so be it, but it still seems like a gross overreaction to me.
@user124384: "And I was confused and hurt that people with my same background were given that opportunity and I wasn't." and "I felt hurt in response to the accusation that I felt entitled" look like two quite different statements to me (both from your comments), but it's good to know you didn't literally say you felt hurt, thereby possibly exerting some pressure and exhibiting possibly unrealistic expectations (that the professor can summon projects at will to make everyone happy). Without such an implication, I fully agree with JeffE in that the professor is overreacting.
@O.R.Mapper No. Sorry, I'm still not making myself clear. One of the commenters accused me of feeling entitled. However, I claim that I did not feel entitled; I felt confused and hurt by the fact that I wasn't given a different project. If there was a valid reason that those other people were given those other projects, or even if it was arbitrary, then fine. I just wanted an explanation since it seemed rather unfair from my perspective.
@user124384 - Have you spoken with a department administrator?
@aparente001 I have an appointment with one in two weeks. I might try to find someone with better availability.
(1) If you're in computer science, then even failing to get into a PhD program immediately after finishing your master's degree is not an insurmountable road block. There are even industry projects you can work on to improve your application.
(2) Yes, it is ultimately a roll of the dice. Some advisors are, in fact, just assholes who will ruin your career, and there's no amount of due diligence that will completely remove the chance of finding one. It's horribly unfair that a choice that will determine your career and entire life will depend on making a random die roll, but there's really nothing you can do about it; you have little power as a prospective grad student. (And don't expect much understanding or sympathy here; this board is mostly composed of people who have made that roll, and don't realize the amount of luck involved or that there was a die roll in the first place. The same remark applies to a wide variety of such die rolls in life.)
(3) Few people will say so explicitly, but yes. You have little power in the advsior/student relationship; and as a student (and not even one of his PhD students), you're probably beneath his notice. It is also massively unfair, but see point (2).
Then I'm not interested in getting a PhD. If I have to kiss someone's ass, I'd rather be paid 6 figures while doing so.
Well, the upside is that if it does work out, it's the perfect job: You get to work on legitimately challenging, original research (which is impossible outside academia in some fields, such as mathematics), have the time and support to do so, and get to pursue your own goals and research interest. The downside is that getting there comes down to a matter of luck (although I'm sure most people here would insist that you can avoid the dice through sheer force of will--- and if it doesn't work out, then you must not be talented enough or want it enough).
+100 for "don't expect much sympathy or understanding here"...so true!!
While I generally agree with this answer (and upvoted it), this community is also filled with people who have seen their fair share of unreasonable students, so I think many of the senior members here take a somewhat balanced view on a situation that they only know one side of. (and, philosophically speaking, Stack Exchange is not and is not trying to be a place to get comfort, it's a place to get actionable recommendations)
That said, I agree and have always agreed that we, as a group, often forget about survivor bias.
@xLeitix: Definitely agree that stackexchangeable isn't and shouldn't be a place to look for sympathy from, but I am annoyed by the preponderance of answers (on other questions) that boil down to, "Well, things will magically work out if you're talented enough and try hard enough; and if they don't, then you must not have been good enough or wanted it enough." It's like a board full of lottery winners telling people that they just need to keep buying more lottery tickets.
It looks that your relations with this professor are coming to an end, and you can't rely on his future support. That's a shame; however, there's still a plenty of fish in a water, and hopefully enough time to get some.
Why don't you focus on establishing some contacts with another professor or lecturer in your university? Maybe someone slightly less senior and/or less famous, but still sufficiently established so that their LOR would matter? You probably attend classes of other professors, perhaps doing some sort of projects with some of them? Could it be expanded into a collaboration resulting in a publication or a research report?
Are there other TA/RA positions advertised? Or maybe someone is seeking an hourly-payed students to collect some data for their experiment? A professor is running a Math Society or a club?
You probably did your homework studying this professor really well, but sometimes the relations simply does not work out. Maybe he is not a very good person; maybe you could've been a little bit more delicate (or cautious) with the language you chose to make your inquires. Maybe you should've waited until the contract is signed before hinting your unhappiness with the arrangements. It is impossible to say at the moment; and there are more urgent matters pressing. The understanding will eventually come.
Many people adopt the strategy of "keeping your mouth shut" and are successful in academia. Many did not, and they are successful, too. Academia is diverse, and in parts it is still a place where academics are allowed to be weird and insubordinate as long as they deliver outstanding research and excellent teaching. But the flip side is of course that sometimes someone else is behaving inappropriately led by his/her ego, or a sense of entitlement, or simply as a result of heavy sleep deprivation, and you occasionally become a collateral damage. It is important to remember that we all are people and try to treat others in the same way you would like to be treated yourself.
If you are a student in the US, consider reaching out to your institution's ombuds services. They are usually an informal and neutral third party that can arbitrate disputes such as this. Although I can't elaborate on the terms of your termination (what does your contract say, are you at will?), knowing of this avenue of resolution may serve you well.
"Fired" was a quick, dramatic way of describing it. The full story is that I hadn't signed my contract yet. He had told me that he'd chosen me to TA for him, and then after our discussion occurred, I discovered that he had given the position to someone else without telling me. Regardless, though, talking to an ombudsman is a great idea, thanks.
Fired =/= not hired. Since you never signed the contract, I presume he never signed, and HR never signed, I can reasonably presume that you were never an employee (TA) in any capacity.
Your presumption is incorrect.
Being promised a job =/= does not mean you will actually get it. The employment contract is not valid unless all parties pertaining to it sign in agreement.
I never said anything about what my assumptions were. I simply reported what happened.
Some profs lord their power over their students as they have the student future in their hands. This gives them a sense of God"ish" power and when its questioned, some profs act out. The result can be something like this. Even asking fair questions of them, can drive them in to a passive/aggressive rage. They may not raise their voice, but you'll know you've stepped in it when they don't reply to your emails and won't respond about your thesis.
Sadly, the best course of action may be to simply play the game and go throw yourself on the mercy of Mr. God and appeal to his vanity/ego. With such folks, that is usually their softest spot. :)
Todd
Thanks, this echoes what a professor friend of mine had to say about the incident. I'm unable to appeal to his ego, however, if he won't respond to my emails. I already sent an apology, with no answer. I've thought about going to his office, but that seems like a bad idea under the circumstances.
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159932 | Including travel grants on CV
In the UK, a number of scientific associations like the Royal Society of Biology or the Institute of Physics offer competitive travel grants to PhD students and early-career researchers. They are typically small in value, around £500. Nevertheless, it is funding that I have independently obtained, and I would like to include such travel grants on my CV for postdoc applications.
What is a good way to include such funding on a CV? I'm not sure if putting them under "grants" is the best approach because that's usually for research funding. Also, should I list all such small awards separately or, if I have several of them, just state that I obtained a number of travel grants totalling £XXX from organisations YYY and ZZZ?
At this point in your career, I would include them, especially if you have nothing else. They show you've done some successful grants.
Is it a competitive process? Or pro forma?
@AzorAhai-him- They are competitive grants indeed, which is one of the reasons why I think it's worth to highlight the funding in some way at least.
I had a similar thing. If you can find the award rate, and it's low, you can add that
I suggest placing travel funding under the "Awards" heading, because they are funding for your travel expenses and not your research. Funding for research I would call "Grants."
However, there are many reasonable ways to do it. People are not much interested in small amounts of travel funding.
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160116 | Manuscript acknowledgement for students who helped with lab maintenance
I am working on a manuscript for research I performed in graduate school - the first manuscript from my research has been accepted for publication, so I am getting things started for the second one. Anyways, I am thinking about how best or whether to acknowledge other students in the laboratory who were involved in background maintenance work for the project. I have already acknowledged individuals who contributed working space/instrumentation and performed tests that were directly impactful on producing the manuscript. The background work includes items such as washing/drying glassware, being the student who received and started maintenance of microbial cultures that were shipped to us, was involved in discussions with myself and our advisor about the culture medium, etc. One of the students had a similar but different project that required us to use the same type of culture medium, but I prepared all of my own and adapted the process (not the final chemical concentrations) to my needs. It's been a couple of years, and I vaguely recall that somebody may or may not have assisted with sampling one time for the experience. Any advice on how to address these minor/negligible contributions?
Personally, I would be generous with the acknowledgments.
Adding somebody there costs nothing and generates goodwill.
But, check with your advisor.
Part of your advisors job is to mentor you on being a scientists, including cultural norms such as writing acknowledgments.
Perhaps they have their own standards.
Agreed. Generosity costs nothing in such a situation. Look at the co-author list of many publications that come out of CERN, for example, though I'm not suggesting co-authorship here. But some things can't happen without such assistance.
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160313 | What to expect from a postdoc interview for a field rather different from mine?
I'm currently applying for postdoctoral positions in Mathematics in a field rather different from mine (computational complexity/algebraic combinatorics). It's a broad question, which I am sure some have asked before, but what questions should I expect, given that I am likely to have different expertise from them? I'm not sure what to show... apart from enthusiasm.
I know this is a vague question, but I'll accept any educated advice from the community.
Just out of curiosity, what is your current field?
Also, what is your reason for applying for a different field?
@JW says in the question: computational complexity and algebraic combinatorics. By different field I meant 'slightly different' (spectral theory/quantum walks). It's differnet as in it is somehow related but not quite my area of expertise.
Thanks for clarifying. I read it as the different field being computational complexity and algebraic combinatorics.
I would recommend being prepared, to the extent possible, to give a clear explanation of your own work on demand. What did you do, and why is it interesting? Do you remember how the proofs go? When you cite others' work, do you remember how the proofs in their work go?
Keep in mind that they might show the most interest in parts of your work that seemed peripheral to you.
If you have a friend willing to help you (someone in your graduate program, perhaps), I'd recommend asking them to look at your research statement and then ask questions (in person or over Zoom, etc.) about anything that they find interesting or don't understand. Don't try to steer the conversation; rather, insofar as you can, allow them to.
Good luck.
It's very much like a job interview, as in that in can vary widely depending on the situation! The important thing is that you know what you want out of this, believe in that goal and let others know this.
You did your PhD in your dedicated field so you're an expert in that. Don't try to convince other people that you know what they know. Your fellow colleagues want to see that you're passionate and that you like what you do. Prepare what you can and convince yourself how you can excel in this new field by using your background.
What they will want to know, even if they don't make it explicit, is how your work and interests will complement theirs. In a truly good place they will also want to know how their work can help yours.
Along with this is the question of how flexible you might be and how open to collaborative work.
If there is someone at this place that you actually want to work with you might have an opportunity to mention that.
But the questions actually asked might be along the lines of "why do you want to come here?". Also there will likely be questions about your long term goals.
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95809 | Should I leave out research in my NSF fellowship application if I'm not getting an LOR from the professor I worked with?
I'm pretty sure that my former advisor lied to me, manipulated me, and thinks I'm an idiot, so understandably I don't think it's a good idea to ask him for a letter of recommendation for the NSF graduate fellowship. However, my most recent academic research experience was with him, during the Spring quarter, and it's probably the most impressive research I've done, especially since he's a well known professor. I do have other research experience to talk about, but it's not quite at the same level.
But if I write about that project in my application, I imagine the committee is going to wonder why I don't have a letter of recommendation from that professor. Should I strive to minimize that research or even leave it out completely? Or is the benefit of talking about that research experience greater than the risk of being judged for not having a letter from him?
EDIT: This is why I think my advisor lied to me, manipulated me, and thinks I'm an idiot:
1) He said I couldn't work on a certain type of research project I wanted to work on because I hadn't taken a particular class. He then let two other students (undergraduates) who had not taken that class work on that type of project. One of those projects led to a publication.
2) I asked him why he let those other students work on those projects and he said it was because, while they were working on the projects, they learned stuff from that class on their own. I asked why I couldn't have also learned that stuff on my own, and he just said, "ehhhh" and refused to answer any further. [Response to comment below: those students, former classmates of mine, had not learned the material from that class on their own prior to being assigned the projects.]
3) There was only one project he said I was capable of working on. I asked if he thought it was publishable, and he said yes. I worked on it for months, and then met one of his collaborators, who said that it was not in fact publishable, but reassured me that they would post it on the internet somewhere. [Response to comment below: The collaborator didn't say this because something in the project was revealed to be less promising than they originally hoped. He said this because he viewed the piece I was working on as a small addendum to the larger project, which had already been published.]
UPDATE: In case anyone is curious, it turned out that my advisor did in fact lie to me and think I was an idiot. He did not, however, manipulate me -- that part was due to a misunderstanding.
Can you explain why you think that your former advisor lied to and manipulated you, and why he may think you are an idiot? Did you talk with him about recommendation letters?
@Mark Sure. Added to the original post.
@Mark He's written me an LOR before, but I haven't discussed it with him since our falling out.
Well, I think it's fair to say you don't want a letter from that guy because he doesn't seem to have a lot of respect for you. Is there someone else who can authoritatively speak to that research?
Based on your edit, I would not conclude that he lied and manipulated you, and thinks you are an idiot. #1 sounds reasonable to be honest - a student may really not be able to learn the content of a course and work on a project in a quarter - the other students may have learned it before starting their projects. #3 is quite a normal thing in science, first one thinks something is going to work and have an impact, then one realizes that things weren't so great after all. Have you seen the LOR he wrote for you, or did you get some details about it?
@ElizabethHenning Yeah, and what's really bizarre is that he asked me to TA for him, which doesn't make any sense if he respects me so little. (I've since been fired, after questioning him about all this.) I really wish I knew what I did to make him think so ill of me, but that's a different topic. He has two co-authors on the project, but I didn't work with them at all and have only met them once. They're at totally different schools.
@Mark #1 They had not learned that stuff prior to those projects. I know that because I was in the same related course that they were in the preceding quarter. #3 Nothing in the project changed enough to merit a difference in impact or importance. It's not like the collaborator said something changed; he just stated that what I'm doing is more like a small supplement to the real meat of the research (even though it would take like a year of work).
@Mark No, he didn't show me the LOR he wrote for me several months ago, but now that he's apparently fired me from my TA position, I imagine an LOR he'd write for me now would be quite different.
Based on your edit, I would not conclude that he lied and manipulated you, and thinks you are an idiot — I would.
@JeffE What's astonishing to me is that his basis for thinking I'm an idiot is the fact that I didn't get a near-perfect score in his class, though I did get a solid A.
As someone who has reviewed applications for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program, it would definitely be weird to see someone talk extensively about a research project and then not have the advisor write a supporting letter. It would certainly raise questions among the panelists assigned to review the application, especially if no other explanation were provided.
Normally I would not make such a suggestion, but this might be an instance where you should list the experience (if you can), but not talk about it so effusively or in great depth.
Include it, but only as one piece of a larger research narrative.
As someone who has reviewed applications for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program, I think omitting research experience from your application is self-sabotage. You need to sell your research potential in the strongest possible light, and nothing sells research potential better than actual research experience. I would find the lack of a supporting letter from your former supervisor suspicious only if the letters you did submit were weak.
That said, even with a supportive letter from your supervisor, you wouldn't want to make this project the centerpiece of your application, because you already have feedback suggesting that it won't lead to publishable results.
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68437 | How to obtain the h-index or number of publications for a given academic as a function of time?
Services like Google Scholar can provide you with the h-index of a given author at present. Is there a way or a service that provides a time series of the h-index (or the number of publications) as a function of time, or even provides a plot of this time series?
Are you interested specifically in the Google Scholar citation data, or would a visualization of the h-index as measured by, for instance, Scopus also do?
Scopus also works, it can be any service. I am aware that different sites provide different measures of h-index that are not consistent between themselves. Any would suffice to get the general gist of h-index evolution.
Scopus has an author search option. You can then examine a range of graphs that show academic output over time. Many universities have a subscription to Scopus.
As with any citation and publication based metrics, the values are contingent on the citations and publications included in the underlying database. Scopus is fairly broad, but there is quite a lot of quality control. So the numbers will be quite a bit smaller than for example Google Scholar. Another option might be PublishOrPerish which is a downloadable free program which uses Google Scholar as the underlying data source.
Below I show an example for Albert Bandura (one of the most highly cited psychology researchers) using Scopus.
Citations per year
Documents by year
h-index by year
I could not see any easy way to just get the h-index by year. However, the h-index tab, does allow you to filter on different years. So you could manually, change the end year and repeatedly obtain the h-index to see how it went up each year.
My repository allows you to do exactly this. You can input the name of an author and the program will output a graph of citations and h-index over time, based on Scopus data.
Here's an example graph generated by my tool. You can choose between historical and document-based analysis (if future citations count immediately) depending on what you're looking for.
I am not actively aware of any tool that does this, although I vaguely remember seeing such timelines for various bibliometrics tools. However, if you are able and willing to do a little bit of coding, it should be reasonably easy to code this up yourself.
For instance, SCOPUS has an API that you can use to get all citation data for an author. From there, you should be able to can just browse the publications that cited this year to year backwards, remove all publications whose publication date is after the date you are currently looking at, and recompute the h-index. A Python script to this end should be quite easy to set up.
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66280 | What algorithm does Google Scholar use to order papers in a search?
When you perform a search on Google Scholar, is there any detailed explanation of how Google orders the results?
Please explain what you mean by "Google uses to rank its papers". You mean those papers authored by Google? Or papers found by Google?
I've edited to capture the implied question, which I think is now both clear and interesting.
I believe it uses this
"Google Scholar aims to rank documents the way researchers do,
weighing the full text of each document, where it was published, who
it was written by, as well as how often and how recently it has been
cited in other scholarly literature." About google scholar
For more detailed answer,
"Google Scholar also strengthens the Matthew Effect: articles with
many citations will be more likely to be displayed in a top position,
get more readers and receive more citations, which then consolidate
their lead over articles that are cited less often." Google Scholar‘s
Ranking Algorithm: An Introductory Overview
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43344 | Are programmers usually included as co-authors in psychology?
I work as a programmer supporting a psychology lab.
Most of my work is translating some paper-based or physical assessment into a computer-based equivalent or I create programs for novel assessments along with associated databases and support programs for data retrieval and basic cleaning.
Recently, a colleague included me as a co-author on a paper.
Are they are being overly nice or should I be a co-author on other papers?
I can't speak for the traditions of psychology, but my general read as a scientist is that if you are making intellectual contributions, you can be included as an author, and being a programmer working closely with the study designers, you are likely to be doing so.
Well, if without your work the study wouldn't be completed, I don't see why you shouldn't be included as a co-author.
@Nobody That's a terrible way to judge whether coauthorship is deserved. The bar for intellectual contribution should be higher than that. I don't think there's anything wrong with a programmer being included in almost any field, but it shouldn't necessarily be by default.
In addition to opinions, it would be good to have some actual references for this.
@RogerFan, I'm not saying that he should be included by default, I'm saying that if he had real participation in the project, he should be then included as a co-author.
@nobody without my RA who schedules, starts the experiment program, by double clicking the icon, and pays my subjects, very little research would get done in my lab. None of that, however, is worthy of authorship.
@StrongBad, that's another case, again. The OP is not copying a code that his superior is giving to him, nor just executing instructions from someone. He is designing a method to evaluate a set of data (probably a large one). But yeah, it still depends on the case. As I said, this condition is directly related to how his contributions made the study succeed.
@Nobody you said the OP should be an author if the study wouldn't be completed without the work. I am not sure what you mean by how the OP's contributions made the study succeed, but to me the success of the study is independent of who should be authors.
By "success of the study" I mean the completion of it. Also, I am not sure as well, since I am not part of his work. If he gave substantial contributions with his algorithms, I understand that there should be at least a little of judgement about the conjecture of adding him as an author or not.
Related, although about statisticians, not programmers, but also in psychology: When does a statistical consultant become a co-author or collaborator?
In general, only researchers are included as authors. In some cases, the person doing the programming makes a critical intellectual contribution and becomes a researcher. In Psychology, specialist help is often brought in for programming, statistics, modelling, animal care, data acquisition, drug administration, and subject treatment. These support staff are often just turning a "crank". The crank is not necessarily easy to turn and the project would not be completed without it being turned, but turning the crank is not research.
Support staff tend to be mentioned in the acknowledgements. Programmers tend to get the short end of the stick in that they get acknowledge only the first time the software is used while other support staff get mention on every paper they are involved with. Support staff only become authors if they do something novel (for example, develop novel testing software). In these cases, they would be an author on the paper (often a methods paper) describing that novel contribution.
Summary:
Programming a task to a specification is one of many procedural tasks that typically does not lead to authorship in psychology.
Authorship is typically justified where the programming task involves a substantive intellectual contribution particularly in terms of both academic insight required and contributing to the design in a way that relates to the overall contribution of the resulting paper.
Programmers can try to negotiate authorship. This is often done by either amplifying the programmer's overall intellectual contribution or when the lead author requires the programmer's input for financial or other reasons.
More details
Putting aside the issue of what is reasonable, I can share some observations from my experience working in a psychology department for many years.
Professional staff with technical expertise in programming are often used on psychological projects. They might be used to program an experiment, set up a data collection tool (e.g., a survey), set up a website and so on.
Typically, programming a task does not give rise to authorship. The logic is that more procedural contributions are insufficient to justify authorship.
As a casual observation, I have noticed that some psychology researchers undervalue the creative contribution that is often required to effectively implement a programming task.
Support staff versus academic programmers: I also note that there is a difference between professional support staff and academics (students and faculty) that provide the same technical support. Support staff are typically not on an academic career track, typically do not have domain specific training in the substantive discipline of the paper, and are not assessed particularly on their publication output. In contrast if a technically minded collaborator programs an experimental task, they are more likely to be motivated by co-authorship, they will also more likely be able to contribute to other intellectual aspects of the paper (e.g., task design decisions; write-up; project conception; etc.).
I also have seen cases where authorship is negotiated. In particular, where the lead author does not have money to pay the programmer or the programmer is particularly motivated by authorship, authorship can be offered as an incentive to be involved. As @strongbad implies in the comments, this can get into mirky ethical territory where the contribution clearly falls short of ethically recognised criteria for authorship. And as @strongbad notes in the comments, a more appropriate way to navigate this is to ensure that the programmer does make the requisite intellectual contribution (e.g., through contribution to design, write-up, etc.).
I like to think that when authorship is "given" instead of money that it is more along the lines of: I cannot pay you for the programming, but if you do it, I will allow you to make an intellectual contribution so you can be an author.
@StrongBad excellent point. I've made a few edits in response.
This is an old question, but I'll add a quick link and discussion of APA authorship standards.
The guidelines: http://www.apa.org/research/responsible/publication/
According to this:
Authorship credit should reflect the individual's contribution to the study. An author is considered anyone involved with initial research design, data collection and analysis, manuscript drafting, and final approval.
On the website, this is directly contrasted with: funding, mentorship, and not participating in the actual publication. The last one is tricky.
So, where does programming fall in? How I interpret the last exception above is: if you aren't using analysis that I ran/interpreted, my statistical tables, any graphics I made, or any of my writing (obviously), then I'm not contributing. From my perspective, though, if you use even one of those things in the manuscript/presentation, I have contributed to the manuscript in a tangible way, and should be included as an author. I feel obligated to mention (as this has happened) that, from my perspective, if you take my code and change the color of the plot and include it, you're still presenting a product of someone else (and need to provide credit for that). Now, if I write code for a data collection procedure, that doesn't necessarily relate to a tangible contribution to the manuscript, and may or may not qualify for authorship (see below about creating a new data collection program for the project).
I believe the need to provide credit is the primary consideration. If you have a published software, you shouldn't be given authorship as credit for its use (as a citation to the software is sufficient). If you have a paper on a unique data collection method, you shouldn't be given authorship as credit for its use (again, citation). Now, if you designed a unique program/statistic/data collection method, you probably should be given authorship, as there isn't another appropriate way to provide credit for that contribution (an acknowledgement isn't enough for that level of contribution, in my opinion).
Overall, though, I believe the best way to approach this is through mutual agreement at the beginning of the project. This involves a clear definition of the scope of work and compensation for that work (even if the compensation is zero), and revisiting these agreements if the scope changes. Note that there is no exception about authorship for being paid or not, so if you are a paid consultant and are contributing you should still be listed as an author. If you agree to do X, Y, and Z for money but no authorship, fair enough. If you agree to do it for no money but authorship, also fair game. In my experience, such agreements help to keep things friendly in terms of mutual expectations moving forward: if the scope of work was completed, the agreed upon terms should be respected (that doesn't mean that's all you can do on the project, just that the terms should be met whether or not you chose to continue). Note that, as circumstances change, these SOWs are often updated, if only informally, to address the new condition (deadline got moved up, so we need that tangible a week earlier than expected).
Regarding your situation, it seems a bit unclear from your post. If you are typing questions into SurveyMonkey, you probably don't deserve authorship. If you have created an innovative data collection method/statistic/program specifically for this application (and haven't/aren't publishing it elsewhere), you probably do. Finally, if you are contributing tables/analyses/graphics/text to the final manuscript/presentation, I believe that you certainly deserve authorship credit for your work (as you will have contributed, tangibly, to the written product).
Authorship of a scientific publication can sometimes be a difficult discussion as the requirements, reasons and justification of the author list are not always consistent, clear and well communicated.
Some researchers, labs and universities therefore employ the so called Vancouver Protocol [1, 2], that poses a number of requirements for authorship:
conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data; and
drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
final approval of the version to be published.
This protocol is of course merely a suggestions, but (based on my limited experience) it seems to capture the sentiment and approach taken in several labs that I worked in. Note that in some universities, authors are required to complete a signed co-author statement, that describes their contribution to the paper as minor, proportional or major.
So coming back to your question:
Are they are being overly nice or should I be a co-author on other
papers?
Based on the information in your question and taken the requirements of the Vancouver protocol, I would say that they are overly nice to add you to the paper.
Of course, there is absolutely no problem in you being a co-author on the paper,
if the main authors value your contribution and propose to add you. But, it would be, e.g., hard for you to claim co-authorship on that paper if you did not work on the manuscript.
Note, however, as pointed out by StrongBad in the comment that:
The criteria are not intended for use as a means to disqualify
colleagues from authorship who otherwise meet authorship criteria by
denying them the opportunity to meet criterion #s 2 or 3. Therefore,
all individuals who meet the first criterion should have the
opportunity to participate in the review, drafting, and final approval
of the manuscript.
See http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42177/if-you-make-a-substantial-contribution-should-you-be-given-the-opportunity-to-sa in regards to if not working in the manuscript should be a reason to deny authorship. The rules, which I misread, essentially state that if you make an intellectual contribution you should be allowed to work on the manuscript.
An author should be involved in many stages of the study; from involvement in design of the study, to involvement in analysis and writing. Someone who is merely programming is not an author, although this is a valuable contribution
Well, a programmer who is not just blindly implementing is involved in both design and analysis. They can always be involved in writing if the primary authors permit it (and they should if the person meets the other criteria).
hens "merely programming"
The problem is who defines "mere" - lots of non-programmers denigrate the intellectual labor involved, thinking of it as equivalent to e.g., running a mouse colony or prepping samples for mass spec.
@jakebeal Honestly, as a computational researcher and former software engineer, it often is equivalent to running a mouse colony or prepping samples if there is adequate specification from a project manager.
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66301 | Is it acceptable for paid online course to use quizzes and materials from elsewhere on the internet?
This question is specifically about a high school course, but it should be applicable to any online course in general.
I was taking a physics course online to skip it in school, those courses are really expensive, so I took the cheapest one that my school was allowing me to take, and it was understandably low quality. This much was ok and expected.
What wasn't ok however, was that all the questions on the quizzes and exams were stolen from the internet. Every single question was taken from some school's "Ch 3 Review Sheet" or "2008 XYZ High School Physics Final Exam" etc. that was made public online.
My parents paid $500 for this course and the people didn't actually write anything themselves, and I'm pretty angry.
So my question is twofold:
Is it ok for a course to do this?
If not, is there any official organization I can complain to.
See How widespread is sharing of slides/assignments among educators?
@QPaysTaxes not in the least.
Also Is it considered plagiarism for a professor to use uncited sources in teaching materials?
@ff524 I'm not getting taught off a textbook here that comes with a set of slides and test questions, I'm supposed to be paying them to write their own material.
@QPaysTaxes I don't see any difference. Many times these questions are developed by a publisher specifically to share with instructors, so it's natural that instructors using the same book have the same exam/assignment questions.
@QPaysTaxes For all we know, all of those review sheets and final exams the OP found online really come from the publisher's bank of exam questions.
If there was an expectation of originality of content, 99% of my grade school and college teachers would have committed plagiarism. For that matter, I've had classes in college where 100% of the assessment (homework, quizzes, and tests) were administered by a 3rd party company that we had to shell out another $150 to have access to. All the professor did was "open" the assignments to us at annoyingly sparse intervals.
@Maltysen If you don't think the course is doing anything, why don't you source the necessary resources and teach yourself?
I guess I'm just a glass half full kinda guy, because finding exactly worded questions and answers as my exams online was a god send for me.
Is it ok for a course to do this?
It is common for instructors to use teaching materials from outside sources. There is generally no expectation of originality when it comes to teaching materials, including lecture slides, assignments and exam questions (which may be provided by the publisher, especially at the high school and undergrad level). See this answer for details.
This is similar to the way we don't consider politicians to have plagiarised when they give a speech that was written by a speechwriter - in that scenario, too, there is no expectation that the material was written by the politician who delivers it. (In that situation, we only seem to mind if the speechwriter lifts parts of the speech from another source...) But if a student submits a homework assignment that was written for him by someone else, or an advisor puts chunks of her student's thesis in a paper without proper attribution, we would consider that plagiarism, because there is an expectation of originality.
You wrote
I'm not getting taught off a textbook here that comes with a set of slides and test questions, I'm supposed to be paying them to write their own material.
I'm not sure why you think so. You're not paying anyone to develop course materials. It is common for instructors to use prepared material, including slides, test bank questions, etc. that might come with the textbook. It's also common for instructors to share material between themselves.
What you are paying for is for them to deliver an effective educational experience to you. If they have been educating you effectively, it shouldn't matter whether the materials are original, or whether they came from a test bank or other outside source. If they haven't been educating you effectively, you can complain on those grounds - not because you expect them to develop original materials.
If not, is there any official organization I can complain to.
If you believe you have been treated to a sub-par educational experience, you can complain to whomever is responsible for the course.
So... plagiarism is OK if I make money off of it to teach others?
@CᴏɴᴏʀO'Bʀɪᴇɴ Plagiarism occurs when there is an expectation of originality and you pass off other's work as your own. In teaching materials, there is no expectation of originality.
+1 excellent and transparent response, including follow-up!
@ff524: The post you link to is specifically about unpublished lecture slides. If it's online, I wouldn't consider that unpublished..
@BlueRaja-DannyPflughoeft When I said "unpublished teaching materials" in this answer, my intent was to say that an instructor can't write and publish a textbook based on other people's materials without attributing them, not to say that an instructor can't teach with other people's published materials. Is that what you're referring to? If not, I'm not sure what post you're asking about.
@ff524: I have the impression, that the OP is more referring to copyright than to plagiarism - but possibly also mixing the two.
@Gerhard perhaps - if so, we can't possibly ascertain the copyright status of the material. (For all we know, all the instructors - the OP's teacher and the instructors who posted the materials the OP found online - got these questions from the publisher's test bank.)
I'd just like to point out that the expectation of originality is culture-specific. I'm from Serbia and there, in general, there is expectation of originality for test/exam questions. While it is in general acceptable to take bits of inspiration from problems in practice books, it is highly unusual to use ready made question banks provided by publishers. "Borrowing" exam questions from colleagues too much usually leads to a slightly negative label of a person who can't make up his own exam questions. On the other hand, universities here are much more teaching-focused.
I somehow disagree with this answer: though teachers might have no expectation of originality on teaching materials, in my experience students do not appreciate this, and really they expect a significant effort in this sense from the teacher. In other words, my experience is that students become willing to put effort into an exam if they have first seen the teacher doing their "homework". See also @AndrejaKo 's remark.
To comment at length on issues addressed well by @ff524's answer:
First, as a fact, in all my observations, at all levels of education, from k12 through advanced PhD-program stuff, at most 1/100 people create their own course material. That is, yes, 99/100 use something published by traditional publishers, etc. For that matter, probably an exact zero percent of high school teachers use anything other than what is mandated by their school board, which was not created by them... and they would not have been paid or compensated for creating anything anyway, so, ...
At undergrad level, a similar dynamic is in play: most universities, colleges, and even community colleges do prefer "tried and true" texts to anything that their own people might create. (See "prophet in their own land"...) So, actually, it's all the more certification of conformity that they don't use their own in-house material...
Returning to the literal question(s). Low level math is so intensely cliched that no one can claim much originality to anything at all... Ok, given that, can you complain that anyone's not original? No. They aren't original, and they know that, and everyone else does... and how many ways can we ask basic calculus questions? Or can we copyright "2+2=4"? Hopefully not. Nor need we compose original narratives about arithmetic algorithms using Hindu-Arabic numerals.
Nevertheless, a too-literal copy-and-paste of stuff off the internet is cheesy, cheap, etc.
Double-nevertheless, there isn't much room for "original" questions about 350-year-old, or 1,500-year-old, ... math. The fact that your "teachers" didn't create their own content is completely unsurprising, given the realities.
(I note that, due to my luxury of having a low teaching load, blah-blah, I can create more true-to-reality notes on many mathematical topics... But many people do not have a light-enough load to do this, and so on...)
Indeed, given everything you've written, it's probably better for K-12 students if their teacher spends more time interacting with them and preparing to teach them more effectively, etc. and less time making up homework problems.
@ff524, indeed, no doubt. I'm not even a fan of "homework", especially in "math", because this creates/portrays it as yet-another "challenge-response" game, rather than as a mercifully-saving resolution of seemingly-chaotic problems. Tsk. (Sadly, indeed, all, yes, note, all... my prior experience with future k12 teachers of math discloses very unhappy attitudes toward ... math. Yikes.)
In my limited experience, most community college math departments that I've dealt with seem to have written their own, custom, in-house basic algebra textbook. It's a little bit of a mystery to me why that is, but the top thing I get back when I ask is that mass-market books are physically too big/overwhelming to students/has too much material they don't want to cover.
@DanielR.Collins, I'm happy to hear that people do that! In addition to having a text that is harmonious with the actual course given, this surely saves the students a lot of money!
Unfortunately, the quality (mathematical content) tends to be low, and the text is still pricey. Other than that, I would agree with the motivation; I'm still waiting for a high-quality open textbook we can all use for this. OpenStax has gotten pretty close recently.
@DanielR.Collins, hm, so they don't just make PDFs available? Or printed-out for the cost of printing? Someone's making money on the text? Tsk...
Currently at our school, yes.
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90288 | How to tell whether email seeking paid peer-reviewers for grant scheme is legitimate? How to respond?
I am not sure if this question should be asked in the academia.SE. But, I don't have a clue either for other forums.
Today, I received an e-mail(in my academic id) from Kazakhstan saying that they would pay me USD250 per review of the research projects submitted to National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation (NCSTE) in Kazakhstan.
The e-mail reads as below:
Dear Sir/Madam,
The National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation (NCSTE) in Kazakhstan regularly organizes peer-review of research proposals from Kazakhstan’s scientific community. The center was founded in 2011 according to Decree of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
NCSTE invites you to participate in peer-reviewing process of technical and scientific projects. The payment for assessing a research proposal is $250 (USD). One expert may assess up to 10 research proposals per call. The calls are expected to be announced throughout the year.
If you are interested in cooperation and would like to be a member of our peer-review expertise, please let us know by filling in the “Form for international experts” (see in the attachment).Please, send to [email protected]
Please note, that NCSTE expects your H-index to be 5 or above according to Scopus or Web of Science databases for a particular period 2012-2017. Links are provided below:
https://www.scopus.com/
https://webofknowledge.com/
In case your H-index is lower than 5, we still include you into our database, however won’t be able to use your service until it reaches 5.
All expenses (postage and bank transfers) will be covered by NCSTE.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
P.S.: For more information, please visit our official web site at http://www.ncste.kz/en
I am hesistant to click any link provided or to visit any link provided here because of the latest Ransomware attack (WannaCry).
For answer to my worries, I went through a forum like discussion in Cronicle page where few persons claim that it is legit.
I have the following questions:
Should it be legit?
Why will some agency pay this much money for a review of 10-15 page report?
For the first time I am experiencing this, how should I respond? Should I respond at all?
Can it be a spam or a scam? (There is a doc attachment, which I have not clicked till now.)
Disclaimer: Please avoid yourself from clicking any link here if you think it could be a s[c/p]am even from my side.
I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole (or a 3.x meter pole).
Have you or your colleagues ever heard of NCSTE before? If that organization exists, they should have a physical office, a phone and an email address. Try to contact them to ask about the email.
From the homepage in the link:
Контакты
The Republic of Kazakhstan,
050026, Almaty, st. Bogenbai Batyr, 221,
E-mail: [email protected]
Reception: +7 (727) 378-05-09
Department of Public Relations +7 (727) 378-05-72
(Sorry for formating, no idea how to put a line break in a comment...)
It seems that organization is a part of Kazakhstan's government. They probably are trying to gather foreign scholars to review their local grants and have a bit of money to do so.
On the topic: http://baltimorepostexaminer.com/kazakhstan-taps-scholars-to-change-how-research-grants-are-awarded/2012/07/10
@CapeCode Thanks for the baltimore link. It helps in some way.
@CapeCode I am not sure about the quality of the Baltimore Post Examiner. That said, if this is a scam, it is an elaborate one.
I admit I hade never heard of that website before and have no reason to believe it has anything to do with the city of Baltimore. Also, just because the government is doing it doesn't mean it isn't a scam.
Same reaction as @CapeCode ... the article could be legit but it doesn't mean someone wouldn't use news of this to phish.
"Why would they pay this much money?" Because the amount of time and expertise it takes to properly review a grant application makes 250 USD actually a bargain for them.
It is kind of common that some countries and even EU recruit external reviewers. And since an external reviewer has zero incentive to do the job, which actually takes time to do if one wants to do it properly, many if not most of these requests are paying some minimal fee.
Please, if you do not trust the links, do not make them clickable and put a disclaimer in the end...
This is most likely genuine, in particular if the proposal to be reviewed fall broadly into your area.
Just check the actual web address of the links given (rather than what they say they are) and/or search the respective institutions online. I did once a similar job for the Polish science foundation.
Actually, if you click the link http://www.ncste.kz/en provided, you will learn that they are attempting to boost their science standing and one way to do that is to get international reviewers.
Don't be too paranoid about viruses, just don't do stupid things (like typing your password into some unknown/new website), or opening mail attachments of unknown origin, etc..
(+1) Being a computer science guy, I am handling it with care. Yes, I viewed the mail in original version, and to me it looked legit. But then, I was surprised by the offer they give i.e. 250 bucks for one review. Yes, their website looks legitimate.
$250 per review is not that much, if you work for a good fraction of a day on it, then this is fully justified (in terms of the salary of most senior scientists in the west).
@Coder Bulgarian Ministry give from 500 to 850 euros per review, Check Nature jobs
@Coder It's a terrible sign for academia that the fact that they are paying you the modest sum of 250 USD is already a red flag for you.
I performed 8 reviews for them back in November of 2017. While the grants were quite low quality in terms of the science, everything seemed legit in terms of the process, paperwork and contracts. While payment was promised by December 2017 I have yet to be compensated, initially it was just a constant string of excuses and delays but now stopped answering my e-mails. I will update if I ever receive payment.
UPDATE: Payment received. While it was delayed by many months, I did end up receiving full payment for my efforts.
Well, the telltale sign of a scam is when payment time comes. There are basically four possibilities:
no payment: you have been scammed into doing a service gratis. However, the service you are doing here is unlikely to be useful for scammers.
payment "forthcoming" once you forward some processing fee/administrative fee that is small in comparison to the expected payment. Of course you never here anything once you pay. "small in comparison to the expected payment": the expected payment appears too small to make this scam worthwhile for this case.
You'll get the agreed fee.
You'll be paid quite more than you are supposed to receive, some flimsy excuse is given for that and are asked to move the excess payment back or onward to other reviewers. This is money laundering or fraud, depending on whether the owner of the original account is aware of the payment happening. In the former case, the police will eventually catch up with you. In the latter case, the money paid to your account will get retracted eventually and the money you "handed on" is gone irretrievably out of your own pockets.
So the real danger is case 4): if anything like that happens, notify the authorities and refuse to handle any money outside of your own pay.
Outside of that specific scenario, there does not seem much of a point in using this basic setup with the mentioned sums for fraud.
It is plausible that it is genuine. However, it is also plausible that, even if it is genuine, the information security there is lax. In particular, do not give them your bank account or routing number for "electronic transfer". If you want to do the work for free, just say so. If you do want the fee, (try to) insist on having a paper/physical check mailed to you, rather than electronic transfer. Even then, if they send you a check, it may take forever to clear, or bounce... eventually... and you pay a fee and get no money.
I've done a few of these referee jobs for far-away places, just to be a good sport, and attempting to decline payment. In one or two cases, they did send me a physical/paper check anyway, and it did clear. I absolutely did not give out any personal info in the process! Again, no bank account, no social security number, no date-of-birth. The risk is not worth it.
I have already reviewed 4 projects for them and send them everything by November 2017, but they didn't pay me yet. I am an associate professor and they found me with similar way as you described earlier.
TL;DR: it is quite possible that this is legitimate, but it just may be a well-disguised scam. Apply your usual cautionary procedures.
I have reviewed for internationally less visible research councils before; there may be some reasons why they invite international reviewers - for instance, some ambitious science minister wants to raise the scientific profile and quality of the research and thus invites well-known and -respected scientists to the panel to improve decision quality and visibility.
Without prejudicing your further investigations, there is a possibility that this is legit. Depending how the expense is paid (per report or in total) you would not have to read just a single 10-15 page report, but 10 of them; that can be tiresome (although some comments say payment may be per report, which would, in turn be very generous). It still might be legitimate to pay for that, and some research councils pay a compensation for reviews. Are you well suited for reviewing the call? That would indicate that they did some research and they are well informed.
Still, it might be a spearfishing attack, so tread with care.
If he would be well suited and they did some research, they would address him by name and even title. The "dear sir/madam" makes it look more like a scam or at least like people desperately looking for reviewers and simply contacting everybody, suited or not.
I read it as 250 per proposal and you can "earn" up to 2500.
@StrongBad If that is the case, it is very generous. Still, they may try to get some visibility. The more prestigious the research council is, the less they (need to) pay :-)
@CaptainEmacs I agree. Consider them getting 100 proposals from the whole conuntry. Each proposal will have 2 reviewers. Each total amount of money to be paid 250 x 2 x 100 = 50000 USD. (all in lower bound). That is huge. (as per Google: equivalent is 15636500.00 Kazakhstani Tenge)
@Coder 50k is chump change in a government budget, even in Kazakhstan, if someone has decided they want this to happen. It costs the NSF roughly 2k to have someone attend a panel, and the panels I have been on have had 3 proposals per reviewer, so about $700 or so per proposal reviewed. That's a much more thorough process than this would get you, but I think you see my point.
I sent my evaluations at the end of August the required documentation for the payment, but I am still waiting a reply from that email. No reply, no payment. I I sent many e-mails to Mr. Dusmanbetov and [email protected] lot of times. More than eight months without an answer. This is not serious.
Simply look at the domain where the email came from. Go to their official website then to check. Don't respond if it is from other than official domain. I don't trust emails from yahoo, Hotmail, gmail etc. Recently I did review a grant application from a middle eastern university and I got paid USD500 already. That one was also came suddenly by email but from the university's domain. So there is nothing to worry about. Many times we don't understand what is fake and what is genuine which is very simple. Do one application first and see whether they pay or not. If not, don't do again. Ask your payment by a check if you don't want to give your bank details. At the end of the day you are not loosing anything except some of your valuable time. Good luck.
Thanks for the answer. Nice to see that you have already experienced the peer review and got paid.
I will respond in general terms.
Check the quality of the English. The worse it is, the higher the likelihood that it's bogus. Here, I saw one weird sentence: "If you are interested in cooperation" -- not too bad, could be legit.
Try responding to the email but without your signature, or with a throwaway account. The response you get will probably be more illuminating than the first, unsolicited one.
And, obviously, try googling them. When I come across something suspicious, it is sometimes helpful to type the normal search words that you would normally use, and then type "scam" as well. Or "complaint".
You can set yourself up to receive payments via PayPal without divulging personal information. However, it is best to link PayPal to a separate bank account than the one you normally use. Once in a blue moon PayPal freezes the bank account, sometimes due to a misunderstanding; and then you can't get any funds out of it.
Alternatively, although I haven't tried this, you can create an account at a freelancers' website, and then the payment would go through that organization.
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13496 | Resources for students designing surveys?
Somewhat similar to this question, but looking for resources (books/articles, etc) for undergrad students who are not very familiar with designing effective surveys, (for example, one student is creating a survey in SurveyMonkey to evaluate nurses' attitudes toward their work). I'm looking for a resource to help my students develop survey questions that will return meaningful, non-biases responses.
Note: this is in the social sciences, but would welcome resources that will be helpful to undergrads in any field.
By "develop," do you mean "build and deploy" (such as SurveyMonkey will do)? Or do you mean "develop good questions," i.e., questions that don't inadvertently introduce bias?
@J.R., I meant 'develop good questions' which do not inadvertently introduce bias. 'Building and deploying the survey' would be another question...
just a tool, qualtrics is popular
I have found several resources that are helpful for introducing motivated undergrads to the concepts of survey design and analysis. My own favorites are
Survey Questions: Handcrafting the Standardized Questionnaire
Methods in Psychological Research
These books provide a good overview, and are accessible to beginners.
What they need is proper training in survey design and analysis. Let's say, around 80 hours of teaching and then a lot of practical work, assuming they've already got a basic stats grounding.
It's a serious technical skill, and you won't do them any favours if you don't treat it as seriously as any other tool they might use.
One option might be to work with a colleague who does teach survey design and analysis. They may well have students who are looking for some material on which to practice their new skills. Perhaps your colleague can set for them, as homework, the task of working with one of your students on the survey design. That way, your students get to introduce their students to their subject (learning by teaching), and they get to see survey science done reasonably well (assuming your colleague has taught them well).
Just because survey design looks easy and online tools enable any fool to do it, doesn't mean that any fool should do it.
A complaint about "giving them a well when they only need a drink", doesn't hold water. How could any teacher encourage their students to do bad science, or cultivate a contempt for other experts' fields?
(are they physicists?)
That would be giving them the well when they only need a drink!...unfortunately neither they nor I have the time and resources for 80 hrs of teaching w/ lots of practical work. So its a good answer, except that I am looking for something I can point them toward and let them learn on their own; pithy advice that's accessible even to a neophyte!
I want to give my students (undergrads at a junior college) exposure to survey design & analysis, without overwhelming them--hence the comment about the well versus a drink. Ideally, the intro I can give will inspire them to learn more, and more deeply, later in their career. Survey design isn't officially part of these courses, so my ultimate goal in including it is to inspire students to explore it on their own after my introduction. I am NOT trying to "encourage [my] students to do bad science, or cultivate a contempt for other experts' fields"!
@J.Zimmerman in that case, get them working with other students who have been taught this stuff: that gives them the exposure, without having them do bad science.
@EnergyNumbers, you would be unpleasantly surprised to find out that the fraction of universities (even research level ones) that have a decent survey methodologist somewhere in the academic staff is probably single to low double digits. Here's an exhaustive list of programs granting degrees or certificates in survey methodology (which usually means there are 3+ people who can teach alternating courses): http://www.amstat.org/sections/srms/college.html. If the OP is a local of any of the cities, trying to connect to these folks, even if they are in a different school, might work.
+1 for finding areas of mutual benefits through collaboration for students
Zimmerman I think I can help you out. I have a resource where students can create and deploy surveys. It also has a tutorial that helps you create a survey from beginning to end including tips on creating neutral non biased questions.
Check out SurveySidekick.com
The site should be especially useful for beginner survey designers. It was created by Teachers College Columbia University and meant for any higher-ed students so I think this is appropriate for your students.
Hope this helps!
Sounds good, but I don't like that it requires an access code for access to the site. +1 for the tutorial--that's the kind of resource I was looking for.
Everybody can design a good question, right? Just like everybody can build a car engine. Or everybody can cook Boeuf Bourguignonne a la Julia Child. Or everybody can write a speech for a candidate in a state governor election. Instrument design is a professional work that requires understanding how people respond to questions, which in turn requires some psychology on the respondent's end, some statistics on the data user's end, some computer graphics on the GUI end, etc. As a professional survey statistician, my professional duty is to discourage your creating a false sense of "doability" here. Rectifying the user-written instruments is an unpleasant part of the job that a team of survey methodologists in my company has to perform more often than we would have liked to.
Having said that, I would encourage you to lookup something like "questionnaire design class syllabus". The JPSM/UNC class looks good, and refers to right books. The reading list of the UIC course is very comprehensive, if not intimidating. If you don't have the time to read any books, the minimum self-check list is available through the RTI's Question Appraisal System.
+1. Good resources, @StasK. Since I am looking to pique my students' curiosity and appreciation for survey design, I appreciate having a way to introduce rigorous methods without giving these students a huge reading list.
I know an answer has already been accepted but I will add this for future searchers.
Coursera has a module called Questionnaire Design for Social Surveys. Since it's free and you can pick and choose which video lectures to watch, your students might find it quite helpful.
One example of the lectures included is "Measurement Error: Bias and Variance" but there are also plenty of others to not just measure bias but also reduce it.
Some advice, but not a resource.
As something that you want to happen quickly, EnergyNumbers' advice to
find a colleague who does this or teaches a class on it is
appropriate. Ask this individual if they would be willing to come to
your class for one or two sessions to give the students an overview
of the process, including examples of good and bad survey questions.
A whole lot of success can be achieved by mimicking the successful
behavior of others, even if you do not have time to get into the
underlying theory (cf. memorizing basic arithmetic facts instead of teaching children to construct them a priori).
As an exercise, have each student write two or three survey questions independently and test them on the rest of the class.
Depending on the number of students in the class, extreme biases
should emerge under review by the class.
Strive for a neutral tone in the questions. If you are asking an opinion question, do not ask how strongly they agree/disagree with one opinion on the issue. Give them a range of opinions and let them pick the one they agree with most. Let the respondents provide the bias (otherwise, what are you looking for). Let's go with the nurse example proposed in the question. Let's look at two questions about shift length:
To what degree do you agree or disagree to the following statement: "My shifts are usually longer than I would prefer."
Strongly agree.
Somewhat agree.
Neither agree nor disagree.
Somewhat disagree.
Strongly disagree.
Please select the response that most closely matches your opinion regarding the lengths of your shifts.
Most of my shifts are too short. I could work longer shifts if it was needed.
I sometimes have shifts that atr shorter than I would like, but most of my shifts are of an acceptable length.
I like the lengths of my shifts. They are neither too long nor too short.
I sometimes have shifts that are longer than I would like, but most of my shifts are of an acceptable length.
Most of my shifts are too long. I would prefer to work shorter shifts if possible.
Other (provide a spot for written comments).
Both questions are after the same info - how nurses feel about the length of their shifts. The first question is biased - it is asking nurses whether they agree with just one (negative) opinion about shift length. You have given them just one opinion to agree with about an issue instead of a range of opinions to agree with. The second one is not as biased. It goes after the same information, but in a different way - by providing a list of five opinions about shift length running the gamut from too short to too long and asking each respondent to pick which one they like most.
Provide an other option. Notice that my second question has this option. That way you can capture the few of the more unusual opinions without railroading the respondents into just the choices you provided.
Use simple language. Do not use flowery language or more complex wording than necessary. Notice that my second question did not read:
Please meditate on the durations of your shifts and select the
response that most closely matches the harmonious resonances of your
soul.
Avoid technical jargon unless that technical jargon is understood by all of your respondents (and then think twice about it) or if the survey is about technical aspects of the respondents' work. Jargon related to the nursing field would be appropriate, but be careful. Jargon used by a geriatric nurse might not be understandable to a nurse anesthetist. Since you student probably does not know much nursing jargon, such jargon should be avoided.
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11602 | How to put multiple affiliations on a paper as the author?
I work for a large company, I am also a student at a big school. My employer is supportive in terms of funding required for my studies. Although the research paper has more to do with my academic studies. What is a reasonable way to put both affiliations in the research paper? My primary affiliation is my employer and second affiliation is my school. Is it ok to put in the Author section both affiliations? And give a footnote with the details?
You should be able to put both affiliations on. I assume you are permanently employed, in which case that is more permanent than the academic address. However, if your published work is done as part of your schooling you should put that affiliation first, perhaps listing your job affiliation/address as "permanent" or something describing your employment.
The reason for putting your academic affiliation first is that it is within that you have done the work and probably received intellectual coaching and support (if you receive similar input also from work then that affiliation might be equally valid as first). Listing two affiliations is common and the reason is typically when people move between institutes and it is important to keep readers aware of one whereabouts in such circumstances. In your case you will likely be found at your company in the future (my assumption) and it therefore makes sense to list also that.
Thanks Peters , i more or less received intellectual coaching from both work and school .
If both institutions contributed to the work you are reporting in your article, you should list them both as affiliations. It is not unusual at all, and in most (all?) journals there is no concept of “primary” or “secondary” affiliation: whichever order you list them in is fine.
For example, see the penultimate author in the list below:
or this other example (which I consider over-the-top):
Good to find your answer. The neat one indeed!
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34999 | How beneficial is speaking at non-academic conferences to future computer science career?
How beneficial is speaking (or holding a workshop) at non-academic software development conferences (like PyCon, Strange Loop or LambdaConf) to future computer science career (applying to PhD and further)?
Practice at giving a good presentation will help for many career paths, including an academic one.
That really depends what you mean with "beneficial". One of my junior PhD students recently went (partially self-funded) to a relevant developer conference, and he felt he benefited greatly (probably much more than from an average scientific conference).
He was able to establish great contacts to industry. This included potential partners for studies and interviews (lately a big part of our research), as well as potential internship opportunities. (as a sidenote, this mainly happened because this specific student is an excellent networker - you can't just go to a developer conference and hope that useful contacts will spring up automagically)
He got a lot of perspective on how industry sees the current challenges of our field (as opposed to other researchers). This gave him interesting ideas for his PhD, and also tremendously boosted his motivation, as he saw that many of the things we are working on are actually quite interesting to big industrial players (such as, in our case, Facebook).
He was able to give a presentation about our ideas, and they were perceived really well (much better than he expected, truth be told). This gave him presentation practice, forced him to collect and structure our early ideas, and further strengthened his commitment to the topic.
Now, since you specifically ask whether attending such a conference will be valuable for:
(applying to PhD and further)
I think you can safely ignore this aspect. In pretty much any career phase, nobody is going to read your CV and think "that guy attended this conference, he must be great". I don't even list attended conferences (of any type) on my CV anymore, simply because it seems so irrelevant to a recruiter.
Edit:
@ff524 correctly notes that you were specifically asking about speaking at an industry conference, not just attending. I am not entirely sure about this, but I would assume that this may be a small positive factor for applications on a junior level (say master of PhD student), depending on the conference:
Nowaydays, many of the industry conferences in my field are organized like un-conferences. That is, everybody can speak if they want to (maybe pending some light review for on-topicness et cetera). In that case, you are back to square one - speaking at a conference where everybody is allowed to speak does not count for much. It maybe speaks to your motivation, but really that seems like a very small and insignificant factor.
If the conference is more like a traditional conference, where speakers are typically either invited or you need to apply in some way for the honour of speaking, presenting may be perceived as a sign towards your esteem, but this really requires that the reviewing professors know this specific industry conference, think highly of it, and know that speakers are competitively selected. I would not count on this to happen, but it surely won't hurt.
For any application after graduate student level, your research credentials are so much more important than any talks at industry conferences that you can safely ignore them for future applications.
you specifically ask whether attending such a conference will be valuable - Actually, OP asks about giving a talk or holding a workshop, not just attending.
@ff524 True. Not sure to what extend this changes my answer, to be honest.
Well, attending a conference doesn't mean much, but speaking at (an important) one shows you are held in some esteem by the community. I have no experience in PhD admissions, but I do hire MS research assistants; I would definitely be more interested in a student who has achieved that kind of recognition.
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112457 | Is supporting Sci-Hub illegal/unacademic?
In the classroom, one of the students asked me about Sci-Hub. I answered that I like the idea as I am against the tyranny of publishers. As a fun fact, I added that I have even donated to Sci-Hub.
Then, I received a notice from our department head referring the case to the disciplinary committee since Sci-Hub is illegal and any direct and indirect support of an illegal activity is against the university policy.
Is supporting Sci-Hub illegal / unacademic?
To clarify, your department head referred you to the disciplinary committee? Also, could you please elaborate on your position (e.g. tenured faculty, tenure track, non tenure track, adjunct, etc).
@RichardErickson No, it does not depend on my university's policies if it is illegal or not to support Sci-hub. Universities do not make laws. At most I can break a contractual clause or an ethics code by supporting it, but that's not the same thing as being illegal.
By the way: which country are you in, OP? That might change the answer.
It may still be disallowed by the uni via contract with the publisher, no matter how sympathies may run.
@RichardErickson The main source of confusion is that this question could be stated better. The question in the title is "is supporting Sci-Hub illegal / unacademic", but the implied question that everyone has in their mind when they finish reading this post is "Is the university right? what should I do now?". But the university never claimed that it is illegal/unacademic, just that it is against their policy. We can't answer this because we don't know what this policy is (nor which university OP works in).
What kind of answer are you looking for? Sci-Hub is pretty clearly illegal, and donating money to it is pretty clearly supporting it. Whether supporting an illegal activity is legal is something outside the scope of Academia.SE. Besides, in your case it's already against the university policy, which you presumably agreed to abide to when you took up your job. I am not sure what else there is to answer.
You should perhaps rethink your question. How would it help you in your situation if the majority of users here opined that supporting scihub was neither unacademic nor illegal?
Depending on your jurisdiction, there may be an important distinction between illegal and unlawful. This is yet another reason for editing the question to state the relevant jurisdiction.
You could consider clarifying what you mean by "donated". There is a big difference between giving your own money to Sci-Hub and downloading a paper using your institutions account and uploading this to Sci-Hub. My guess an assumption of the latter has caused the issue.
@Allure "Sci-Hub is pretty clearly illegal" is a pretty strong statement. Individual uploaders may have broken their personal contract with a specific publisher, but that does not necessarily make using it illegal. Definitely not "clearly".
@pipe from what I've seen, laws across the world are tightening around that loophole. See https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/86414/is-it-legal-to-use-sci-hub-cc-in-germany/112475#112475. Besides, the OP wasn't using the service, he was donating to it.
@Allure "Sci-Hub is pretty clearly illegal," is it? What law has Sci-Hub broken?
@user2768 it acquires the material illegally?
@Allure What exactly is illegal about the way material is acquired?
@user2768 if you aren't familiar with how SciHub acquires its papers, I recommend reading articles like this one. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/whos-downloading-pirated-papers-everyone
@Allure I'm familiar, I'm just questioning which aspect you are asserting is "clearly illegal."
@user2768 Tell me how SciHub acquires its papers in your own words, otherwise I have no idea how to answer your question.
@Allure It seems you have no evidence to support your claim: The law is nuanced and whether Sci-Hub is operating illegally is complex to ascertain. Your claim that "Sci-Hub is pretty clearly illegal" is without evidence and I believe false.
@user2768 it seems you don't understand how SciHub acquires its papers; as long as that is the case I don't see any point responding to you.
@Allure That doesn't help your argument. I'll leave it there from my side.
Just curious: how did the disciplinary proceedings turn out?
In my view it is foolish to describe Sci-Hub itself as illegal. Acts can be illegal, but not "things" or groups of people. Only activities. While it is true that they may engage in illegal activities, that is not the same thing.
However, if what they do is copyright infringement (very possibly) then you can't participate in that.
However, if you want to upload things for which you hold copyright to Sci-Hub or a similar site then you aren't engaging in any illegal activity, nor is any downloader, provided that you grant an appropriate license.
Countries and other jurisdictions make laws. People (and organizations) can break those laws, but the people themselves, and the organizations do not themselves become illegal.
I think your university is right to open a disciplinary hearing only if you advocate breaking laws to students.
I agree with you that publishers have put a lock on science and culture that is very unfortunate. Especially when copyright no longer seems to expire after a reasonable period, and fair use is losing ground. Publishers are transferring what should be a common good into a private profit making enterprise. They are, IMO, stealing from the public. If you can afford not to give them copyright on things then I encourage it, but the whole system has made it hard for academics to build a reputation otherwise. Long term this tends to make us dumber, not smarter. As they say: Sad.
I'll add an historical note. There was once a valid reason for publishers to want to hold copyright on articles they published. There was a lot of friction (read cost) between an author and a potential reader. As such, since the publisher bore a lot of the cost (not the creation cost, of course), they needed assurance that they could recoup what they spent in making scientific articles available - especially since the material itself had value, but the number of potential readers was small (relatively speaking).
But that world is now long past. Publishing is nearly frictionless now. Publishers can still provide a useful review (done by volunteers) and editing (done by paid professionals) function, but the distribution cost is near zero and borne partly by users in any case (internet fees). Most of the real cost of the creation of publishable material today is borne by the author, by universities and scientific organizations, and by government. Publishers in the old model are an anachronism if not an oxymoron.
I think your university is right to open a disciplinary hearing only if you advocate breaking laws to students. In many jurisdictions, copyright infringement is not breaking criminal law, which is what is usually meant by "against the law". Further, they act of downloading a paper from Sci-Hub is, in most jurisdictions, not copyright infringement. Rather, Sci-Hub is committing copyright infringement (and possibly other crimes depending on how the paper was obtained).
The question isn't "is Sci-hub illegal". It's "is giving money to Sci-hub illegal".
@FedericoPoloni, I doubt that there is any law that could be construed that way, but I'm just an academic, not an international lawyer. There are lots of laws. There might be policies against it, and likely are, but contributing money is likely not illegal. In the US, some organizations (the MOB) are designated as Criminal Enterprises, meaning that their whole purpose is to break the law. There might be laws against contributing to such organizations. I think (hope) the bar is set high for creating such a designation. But it is local laws that apply, of course.
I think your university is right to open a disciplinary hearing only if you advocate breaking laws to students. That's exactly what you do if you say you 'like the idea' of and even donate money to an illegal endeavor. (Having said that, I have mixed feelings, including sympathy, toward scihub although it's activities are clearly illegal in most jurisdictions.)
What Sci-Hub itself does is illegal in most jurisdictions.
Whether it is illegal to download from Sci-Hub, and whether it is illegal to donate money to Sci-Hub, will vary from place to place, and is really a question for experts in law, not an Academia Q&A site.
Whether it is ethical to download from Sci-Hub, or donate to Sci-Hub, is a different question, which some would argue is unrelated to the legal situation.
A third question is perhaps whether what you have done, as a private individual, is any of the university's business (I assume that the donations were personal ones and not from university funds?). A fourth question is, if not, whether it becomes their business when you tell a student about it.
It will probably be worth being very clear in your own mind about these distinctions; but pragmatically, it may also be a good time to apologise, and not make a fuss.
Depending on the legal details, it might be important to differentiate between an apology and an admission of guilt. The latter might bring more trouble.
What Sci-Hub itself does is illegal in most jurisdictions Why?
@user2768 it distributes copyrighted material without the permission of the owners.
@Flyto Whether that is illegal depends on the jurisdiction. I suppose that's why you opted for "most jurisdictions."
@Flyto: Distributing individual scientific articles to people interested in them is not, to my knowledge, illegal in "most jurisdictions".
@einpoklum but copyright infringement is. Not every case of distributing scientific literature is copyright infringement, but Scihub doesn't discriminate.
The discussion on Sci-Hub has been flattened: On the one hand some people say it is really useful and fills a need (and they are right), and on the other hand people say that this is illegal and the project relies on the sharing of credentials and the violation of Terms of Service.
These sides only cover part of the question!
In truth, academia is the victim of the large publishing industry — Elsevier, Springer, etc. — who extract value without creating any. In the last thirty years, they have been unable to pivot their models, and we have been humoring them because academics and academia are overall terrible at negotiation.
While Sci-Hub may seem like the solution, it is not: At best it is a short-cut to the solution. However, the real problem Sci-Hub introduces is that we abdicate the traceability of these articles. While right now we seem to be getting more or less the published version of these articles, this resource introduces the possibility for a third-party actor to pollute and corrupt some proportion of the content it serves.
For instance, a foreign actor could modify the data in a sufficiently large number of publications related to vaccinations, to change perception of vaccine efficacy through manipulation of scientific publishing.
The idea of "polluting the science" is vividly described as a weapon in the sci-fi series the Three Body Problem.
Sci-Hub cannot be a substitute for us advocating and obtaining a better science dissemination infrastructure, especially since current structures exploit our labor at multiple junctions (reviewer, author, editor, etc.) and provide little in return (for instance, it seems these structures are really bad at enforcing fairness rules, as recent work by Talal Rahwan highlighted).
Sci-Hub is a temporary solution. Perhaps it's useful right now. But the risk of relying on it is that it could be a Trojan horse, and it shouldn't stop us from pushing for change from the academic publishing industry.
In the meantime, one small contribution we can all make, is to be supportive of efforts to instill DPI (Digital Persistent Identifiers), for instance ORCID for researchers and DOI for articles. These identifiers help create some layer of traceability even if materials are published through untrusted channels, such as Sci-Hub. This is why the US has been strongly pushing towards adoption of ORCID/DPIs (with NIH in 2019, NSF in 2023, and every agency by 2027).
"and on the other hand people say that this is illegal and the project relies on the sharing of credentials and the violation of Terms of Service." Isn't this right too?? perhaps you might consider saying so.
If you think Sci-Hub is a knight in shining armor fighting against the tyranny of publishers, your view of Sci-Hub is incorrect. Sci-Hub is generally illegal, does illegal things, and is a scourge of law-abiding academics & institutions everywhere.
I'm going to skip all the "publishers are/are not tyrants" arguments because I assume you are familiar with them and have already decided publishers are tyrants, and trying to change your mind is futile. However Sci-Hub does illegal things in other ways: it embodies the dark side of the online world by phishing, hacking passwords, stealing as much information as possible, etc. Check this article out.
Let me be clear: Sci-Hub is not just stealing PDFs. They’re phishing, they’re spamming, they’re hacking, they’re password-cracking, and basically doing anything to find personal credentials to get into academic institutions. While illegal access to published content is the most obvious target, this is just the tip of an iceberg concealing underlying efforts to steal multiple streams of personal and research data from the world’s academic institutions.
...
We know that, at one UK University, Sci-Hub managed to get six passwords through a 48-hour dictionary attack on their system. Then, over a weekend (when spikes in usage are less likely to come to the attention of publishers or library technical departments) they accessed 350 publisher websites and made 45,092 PDF requests. In another attack, the hackers not only broke into their database; they changed the names and passwords of profiles. Another institution told us an intruder changed the cell phone numbers linked to the user accounts and also planted malware, meaning that all their computers needed to be completely wiped. In addition, we have evidence that Sci-Hub is bombarding university IT systems, often for days on end, without the knowledge of compromised users.
If you distrust both publishers and IT experts, try talking to your institution's librarians. It might surprise you that they dislike Sci-Hub too. The article cites several reasons, such as how Sci-Hub stifles innovation in publishing, is parasitic on libraries, puts the library at legal risk, and has no regard for copyright law. Some quotes:
It can be argued that, far from being disruptive or publishing’s “Napster moment”, by providing access to such material Sci-Hub is stifling the impetus needed to innovate in publishing.
...
Again, it is ironic that access to the site is provided by the very mechanism it means to subvert. This argument becomes even more extreme when it is taken to its logical conclusion (which all three of us have heard) that we should cancel library subscriptions and rely on Sci-Hub: a major reason Sci-Hub exists is because of the subscriptions we pay for. It is unashamedly illegal and it is parasitic on library subscriptions.
...
In terms of library access and users donating subscriptions, such action puts access to all our users at risk ... Moreover, university libraries can become liable for breach of their contractual terms if services are misused, or credentials passed on by library users. Typically, contractual terms specify that “Authorised Users must not provide access and/or allow use of the Licensed Material by anyone other than Authorised Users” (or words to that effect). Thus, if a subscribing institution knowingly lets an Authorised User do this, or turns a blind eye to the problem if it is drawn to their attention, then the subscriber is in breach of its contract with the publisher and will be cut off.
...
Our final objection to Sci-Hub is its utter contempt for copyright law – and this is an important point. Ownership of copyright in a work gives the owner the exclusive right to certain “restricted acts” in respect of that work, and a copyright owner may authorise others to do those acts by licence. Elbakyan is scathing in her blog posts “about so-called copyright law” that was “created to make to taboo free distribution of information”. The fact is Sci-Hub is engaged in large-scale, blatant, and very public copyright infringement, and from an ethical standpoint librarians should support publishers’ efforts to get its services closed down, but not without arguing effectively and advocating for the alternatives at the same time.
This is the website you're supporting.
In the end it's up to you to decide what values you believe in, but if you believe that supporting Sci-Hub is academic, I'll venture that you're in the minority among people who have a clear picture of what Sci-Hub actually does.
"In another attack, the hackers not only broke into their database; they changed the names and passwords of profiles. Another institution told us an intruder changed the cell phone numbers linked to the user accounts and also planted malware, meaning that all their computers needed to be completely wiped." Nowhere in these sentences is it said that these attacks originate from Sci-Hub. If this was from a source I trust, I'd glance over it, but this is from Scholarly Kitchen and the author is pushing anti-piracy tools. Color me unimpressed. Stealing creds to use as a proxy, this I ...
... assume Sci-Hub is doing. Wanton destruction, nope. There is no incentive for Sci-Hub to bite the hand that is feeding them. I agree with the idea that Sci-Hub may be counterproductive to proper liberalization of academic publishing, but it would take much more than closing sci-hub to force academics to switch to open publishing. After all, there is still the arXiv, personal websites, twitter hashtags for sharing files, private collections walking around and more. Academics don't generally believe in the existence of knights in shining armor.
@darijgrinberg suggest reading the whole article, I cannot quote every relevant part of it. If you choose not to trust it because it's from Scholarly Kitchen and the author is pushing anti-piracy tools, that's up to you, but I'd be curious what kind of evidence you'd accept.
@darijgrinberg Another example if you dislike this one: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Librarians-Find-Themselves/235353 Edward Sanchez, head of library information technology at Marquette University ... says that many colleges have been targeted by Sci-Hub. In one case at Marquette, a professor received an email stating that he or she needed to update his or her university user name and password by following a link. Once on the site, which was actually in New Zealand, the faculty member typed in new credentials, which were then captured by what the publisher later linked to Sci-Hub.
@darijgrinberg as for what academics can do, read the other link which gives concrete suggestions. It's at the very end of the article.
It's the implicature that stinks about the ScholarlyKitchen post, not the literal claims they are making. The post quotes cases of Sci-Hub illicitly gaining university credentials, and cases of university credentials being heavily abused (for malware and password change), leaving it to the reader to add 1+1. But nowhere is it made clear that Sci-Hub are sharing the creds they have obtained with miscreants; they could just as well be gaining them from the latter's forums -- and furthermore, some of the heaviest claims state no connection to Sci-Hub at all. The Mabna hackers have never ...
... been connected to Sci-Hub to my knowledge, yet the post drags them in by their heads and shoulders.
@darijgrinberg I'm concluding that it's impossible to convince you, so I'm not going to bother. Suggest you speak to your institution's librarians about Sci-Hub and see what they say, that's all.
No, I'm not going to attack your motte. Sure, librarians have good reasons to pursue higher-horse approaches, such as cancellations of subscriptions, and academics have their own set of weapons, such as editorial board flips. Pretty much everyone who sympathizes with Sci-Hub also does what they can to make these happen; but most academics on lower rungs of the ladder can only negligibly contribute in these ways, and either way, it does not address immediate problems like "how can I get this paper this referee is asking me to cite?".
@darijgrinberg "how can I get this paper this referee is asking me to cite?" That's easy. Ask your librarian. Librarians exist to solve problems like this. I can practically guarantee that your librarian will be able to get you the paper legally. Of course, you can also do the easy thing and use Sci-Hub, which is sort of analogous to "I have the immediate problem of how to cross the road. I could jaywalk, or I could walk 50 meters down the road and use the zebra crossing." Decisions, decisions.
For the curious: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/93341/if-i-request-a-paper-through-my-university-library-must-they-pay-a-substantial
"Sci-Hub is generally illegal," why?
@user2768 I consider it pretty self-evident that Sci-Hub is illegal. If you don't, please explain what is unclear about it because otherwise I don't know where to start answering your question.
@Allure Sci-Hub may partake in illegal activities (hosting copyrighted material), but that does not "make them illegal". An entity cannot be illegal by virtue of its existence. There are plenty of out-of-copyright or copyleft documents on Sci-Hub that are legal for them to serve and legal for you to access.
@forest if you consider an entity cannot be illegal by virtue of its existence, can you name any entity that is illegal?
@Allure No. An entity may partake in illegal activity, but it cannot itself "be" illegal.
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115392 | Is it possible to start a PhD at 36 without taking a huge hit financially?
I'm currently working as a Senior Engineer (Mechanical) for a large company. However, I am increasingly finding the work to be dull and lacking in challenge. I don't think I can bear to spend the next 20-30 years like this - I feel that I am not making use of my true abilities and I yearn to be doing something more novel and breaking new ground.
I live in the US (Boston area) and I have been looking around at what other opportunities are available; however, it seems that many of the more interesting-looking positions (which are more research-based) require a PhD. I majored in fluid dynamics and have some experience in CFD, so I am looking at positions that lean towards that area.
So, I am considering whether I should do a PhD, which seems to be a logical choice if I want to be doing more intellectually-challenging work. However, right now I am earning a good salary; I have a big mortgage to pay and a 3 year old kid to support. Doing a PhD seems like it would be a very difficult path to take, from a financial standpoint: not only would I have to give up my healthy salary, but I would also most likely have to pay a lot in tuition fees, in which case I would go from earning ++$ to -$, which would be very difficult to manage.
So, my question is: is it possible to do a PhD at my stage in life, whilst also paying the mortgage and supporting my family? What is the best way to balance this?
I should probably also mention that I have a Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering from a top UK university (I moved to the US from the UK a few years ago).
Would/does your company pay for employees (i.e. you) to get a PhD? Some do.
Your assumption about fees and tuition are most likely wrong. US Universities pay most Engineering graduate students a stipend (less than you're currently making) , cover most/all tuition, waive some fees, and sometimes offer healthcare insurance. MIT Posts their generic PhD stipends on their webpage: https://gradadmissions.mit.edu/costs-funding/stipend-rates
Tuition costs are generally covered in the US for engineering PhD students + they get a stipend. In the Midwest, it seems they get a stipend around $20-30k, but you'd have to check with specific departments to see actual numbers. Also, as a PhD student at Michigan, I get really good health insurance that covers my family. Be sure to look at benefits like that, too.
Your university may pay Ph.D. students. But that salary is far less than what a 36-year-old Senior Engineer earns. So yes, you take a big financial hit. You probably cannot do it if you have a mortgage and a family to support.
It's more like going from +++++$ to +$.
Yeah, don't do it for the money. CS students who end up going for a 5 to 6 year PhD could be giving up close to a million dollars, for example.
Not that it seems that you're doing it for the money, but it's good to know up front what you'll be giving up financially, to see if it's tolerable for you and fair for your family (don't forget about them and how they'd be affected by a near-poverty level salary). On the other hand, even though grad students are very busy, the schedule can be very flexible, which was the main plus that I saw as a mid-30s PhD student with young children.
@JonCuster It's a good suggestion, but I think very unlikely. My company is notoriously tight with money. It's hard enough to convince them to fund a 1-day training course ..
@MikeA your second comment hits it on the head. It's not that I'd be doing it for the money, but the reality of my situation right now is that I need to be earning a certain amount to support my family. As you mention, it does seem like there could potentially be a huge financial opportunity cost.
@NajibIdrissi It's a good point and I have been applying to those positions anyway, but so far have not heard back from any of the ones that state they require a PhD (so I haven't gotten to the point where I can 'argue' anything). The impression I get is that people seem by default to not believe you can do cutting-edge research-based work, unless you have a PhD. Perhaps it's also partly the area I live in - Boston may be somewhat saturated with PhD grads looking for work, so maybe employers can afford to be picky?
@Time4Tea Before spending the years on a PhD, I suggest intense networking. If you send an application in response to an advertised job opening it may be automatically rejected for lack of PhD. You need to be known to the managers who have the openings. Join any professional societies that hold local meetings, and get to know people who might have jobs.
I am a PhD student in physics, but I strongly believe that a 6-year academic research experience is not necessarily superior to a decade of experience of working in the industry. So I second what najib Idrissi said.
Maybe a change of employer can already give you the challenge you are looking for. For example in a small company there is more variation in the work you do.
You state that you do not get to the interview process, so 2 things: first, have you had someone (i.e. company or maybe your own HR if you have a friend there) look over your resume? You may not be self-promoting enough of your accomplishments for HRs to see it as equal to Ph.D. requirement. Also, you just may not get past HR like that with normal channels (its a hard requirement and software or HR person just rejects without looking at any other thing). In that case, have you tried going to meetups and other social events to start networking (can start this with academic meetups too)?
@JGreenwell I think you and Patricia Shanahan both make a very good point. I probably do need to work on improving my networking, to try to help get past the 'normal' HR channels, which I am most likely running up against.
@Time4Tea I am unfortunately having a similar problem with only a Masters so I know its an issue (even when there is "equivalent experience" on the posting) and I'm right there in the same boat
@JGreenwell it's a bit ludicrous, isn't it? "I 'only' have a Masters degree, so clearly I'm not capable of doing cutting-edge research in Industry ..." :-(
@Time4Tea you should address your professional experience nce in your cover letter, don’t wait till the interview
You almost never have time to learn anything remotely comparable to the depth of theory in a PhD while doing a typical industry job. Patch this bug, patch that bug, oh we actually have time for a new release what a luxury. No wait we actually don't have time for it but now we promised customer it, o SHIII...
Research positions at my company (WA, USA) do not require a Ph.D. My impression is that hard requirement for Ph.D. is not very common in the industry. I wonder if it could be more common in Boston area, where there is a large supply of Ph.D. holders.
Really need some more information here. You mention 3 year old kid, but are you a single parent, or do you have a spouse in the picture? If the latter, does (or could) s/he contribute significant income?
@Akavall I think it is quite possible that part of the issue is the Boston area, and the number of PhDs coming out of the Universities here. If it were anywhere else, the employers might not be able to be quite so picky.
@jamesqf I do have a wife and she is earning a decent salary. So, it might be possible for me to drop my own salary to some extent. Still, the level of PhD stipends that has been mentioned here would be a big change.
@Time4Tea: In that case, perhaps looking at some lifestyle changes would help. Of course I don't know your circumstances beyond what's in your question, but I see a lot of people spending far more than they need (or enjoy), either to impress their acquaintances (usually doesn't work :-)), or because they think it's expected. Try reading e.g. the Mr Money Moustache site.
I did my PhD in computer science in the Boston area. Through an RA and a bit of TA, I had my tuition, health insurance, and conference travel expenses covered, plus a stipend which has since risen to $36,800 before tax per year. (With a bit of googling you can look up what financial support various PhD programs offer, as well as health insurance costs for dependents -- for a large family, this might be $10,000.) That was enough for a modest but comfortable single person's lifestyle in expensive Boston, but I would struggle to support a child or mortgage with that. PhD stipends will vary by field (i.e., how much funding professors have) and by university (i.e., local cost of living).
You will know your financial situation and it's up to you to judge whether you can cut your expenses and/or dip into your savings to make that work. PhDs are getting longer, so keep in mind that you probably need to do this for about six years.
There are a few other options to make it better financially:
Ideally you can work something out with an employer where they will pay you while you do your PhD, probably in exchange for some part time work or a promise that you will continue working for them afterwards. Such an arrangement is more common for shorter programs like an MBA.
It's also possible to spend some time during the PhD working in a company that is somehow related to your studies. For example, a lot of computer science PhD students will do internships at companies like Google or Microsoft. A 10-week summer internship could give your annual income a >$10k boost.
If it all gets too much financially, you can take a year or two off your PhD to work and then come back to finish. That's not ideal, because it interrupts your work. However, it's better than needing to drop out entirely.
Overall, however, I think it's unavoidable that a PhD will entail a financial hit. A PhD is almost never a good financial decision, but if you are passionate about research it's definitely worth it.
This is a great answer, thank you! I will discuss with my current company and see if there is some way they might help fund a PhD, although I think it unlikely. If not, perhaps a short-term goal could be to move to another company that would be more willing to consider it. As you live in Boston, do you know many people who have been funded by companies to do PhDs? How common is that?
The impression I get is that there are quite a lot of highly-qualified Science/Engineering grads/PhDs coming out of the Boston universities. If that is the case, could it be possible that companies are spoiled for choice and might be less likely to help fund a PhD because of that?
I'd suggest adding that it's worth checking what insurance might cost, too. A good friend of mine had free individual insurance but family insurance was close to $1k/month for him while he did his PhD. That was far more problematic than the pay difference between industry and academia.
@ElysianFields Good point. Mine was free, but dependents weren't. I looked it up: 7k annually for spouse, 4k for first child, 2k for second child, and further children free. So, yeah, 1k/month for a family of 4 or more.
@Time4Tea Getting employers to pay for a PhD is pretty hard. I only met one person who had managed it. Employer-funded masters are more common.
@ElysianFields good point about insurance. That is definitely an important consideration, but I think we could probably get reasonably-priced medical insurance through my wife's employment.
@Thomas I think perhaps my best chance of getting my employer to help fund it would be if I find another opportunity and threaten to leave. That would then put me in a good negotiating position, if they want to hold onto me.
@Time4Tea A lot of employers do not provide funding for education because that makes you more valuable to other employers, but not necessarily the one you are working for. In some fields (such as government contracting) it benefits the company to support even PhD because they get more money on government contracts and look more appealing to potential customers because of the educated work force. You could look to into one of these organizations. They often also have more interesting work (a long the lines of research you may be interested in) national labs may be up your alley.
@Time4Tea From what I saw of my time working in Boston many companies do offer to pay for continued education. They do so because much of the competition already have this benefit. This is why in the Boston area you see similar health care, transportation, retirement etc, being offered by companies. In that area it is the norm.
No. You will take a financial hit. That's the short answer.
It is a good practice though to find out how big of a hit you would take. With such a life-changing decisions you ought to put some work into analysis first. You need to estimate your opportunity cost of doing a PhD. Essentially that will be a measure of your financial hit. How much money you will lose compared to not doing a PhD.
...right now I am earning a good salary; I have a big mortgage to pay
and a 3 year old kid to support.
Just from this sentence I can guess that your opportunity costs will be high. Here are some things to take into account:
Possible negatives:
reduction or loss of salary
tuition costs
time you will have to spend studying
possibly longer commute
resuming a career at the age of 40 possibly starting at a lower salary, despite having a PhD
risk of failure at PhD program
risk you will not enjoy a PhD as much as you expect to
the last but definitely NOT least is graduating from PhD into an economic recession possibly making you unemployed for years into your 40s
Possible positives:
More interesting work opportunities upon graduation
Higher pay if you successfully resume your career with PhD
Higher chance to remain employed doing the job you love into retirement age (a very good thing once you get older)
Learn to understand the world better, makes you happier
A very important step before you sum it up is to discount all your future gains and losses and compare their present value. For example, getting a better job in 4 years is less certain so it has less present value, maybe 60% compared to if you got this job today. Losing your job now to start a PhD, if certain, is valued as a loss of 100% of salary. Basically things that may or may not happen in the future are less important than the ones that are guaranteed to happen now. 10% discount rate per year is a good rate, but make it compounded.
Also account for compound interest that would accumulate on your immediate gains/losses. For example, the salary you receive now is way more valuable than the salary you will receive 10 years from now because you can immediately invest it, and not just in stocks or your retirement, but to pay off the mortgage sooner, to get quality early education for your kid, etc.
You don't have to be precise with any of this. Just doing a sketch and reading up on those financial concepts will make the picture much clearer.
Finally, if you decide it is not worth it, there are other options. You can start reading up on research topics that are interesting to you, see if any of that research can help your current employer save/make some money. If yes, perhaps you could even get your company to allocate some R&D budget for a small corporate lab. Perhaps even team up with some academic institution for a join applied science project with corporate funding. It will take you years of reading and studying, but so will a PhD program.
As others have said, you should remove "tuition costs" from your Negatives list.
@JeffE thanks, I renamed the lists as "possible" negatives and positives so it doesn't look like the list applies to every case. Each case is unique of course, not just because of monetary outcomes but because of personal preferences
Good answer overall (+1), but there is another possible positive that you are ignoring: the opportunity to do deep research into an area that fascinates you, without having an employer asking that everything that you do is immediately applicable to the company's environment. This is potentially the main reason to do a PhD -- it's the main reason I am! You also develop invaluable learning skills, and much more. Not everything is about making more money in the future. (The question asks about taking a financial hit, rather than doing a PhD to make more money in the future.)
Higher chance to remain employed doing the job you love into retirement age, is that true?
Yep @SamT there is a happiness you can find in finally being able to come up with your own versions of the awesome stuff which your professors once showed you when you were an undergraduate. If you work hard you are quite likely to reach those levels at the end of your PhD - or maybe during your PostDoc. That happiness is probably not so easy to find elsewhere in life.
@mathreadler I mean, I have found that from the start... (doing maths/discrete probability theory). Getting to research when I find interesting, not just an intersection between what I find somewhat interesting and a company considers important -- it's great! But very tough sometimes. In fact, interestingly the drop-out rate is about constant throughout the PhD: it's not the fact that quite a few drop out at the start and not later on, but rather the rate is about constant. Tough, but rewarding! (I think anyway)
@SamT : Yes, not only at the start, but some also quit when they realize how stuff works and that it is not the future they want. Yet some others quit because they get demotivated when they see the arbitrarity of what is accepted and what is not. Well, no system is perfect, that is fur shore.
Yeah, agreed. I find it interesting, though, that the drop out rate in the first two months is basically the same (in maths at least), as the drop out rate in months 36 to 38. Anyway, we (/I) digress, ad don't want to spam this comment thread
@SamT Yep, it must be rather stressful for them to lose the tractive power of those guys in month 38, they must have learned a lot on the way and suddenly we just lose any chance we might've had to get ahold of them when they are in their prime.
Here a few options you and/or your family could consider:
A research collaboration at your workplace: If you could marry what your workplace does with academically-interesting research (interesting to some university professor, to be more concrete) - you might be able to engage in such research on company time. This may or may not be within the purview of a PhD program, but it would meet your underlying goal.
A part-time/extenal Ph.D. program: If your workplace is willing to let you take down your salary somewhat, but all go down to part-time employment (whether it be 50%, 60% or 80%), and your industrial experience is interesting to a potential advisor, you could work on a PhD at a slower pace, and partially in your spare time (assuming you have any, with small child and probably a spouse). Of course, this would likely take quite a good number of years.
Relying on your spouse: Your spouse may be willing (and able) to find more gainful employment, with yourself and perhaps other family helping with child care, while your salary drops significantly as a Ph.D. candidate. Of course - if you're not an employed/funded Ph.D. candidate, it's quite unlikely your spouse could increase her salary by that much. You can potentially improve this option with some real-estate-dorm switcheroo: Assuming you get a funded Ph.D. position and couples/family dorm privileges, you could move there with your family - again, if your spouse is willing to put up with that - and rent out your existing apartment.
All this goes to show why it's important for junior researcher unions to thrive and struggle to bring the wages up, enough to make it a viable option for adults with families to be able to support their families and shoulder their expenses as Ph.D. candidates. Typical salaries must at least treble, if not quadruple, for the that to be the case. If you do end up as a Ph.D. full-timer, do invest some time in union organizing.
+1 for the suggestion that wife could support mortgage
@Dawn: To be honest, I got the idea from PhD-Comics' Michael Slackenerny...
Funny enough I'm opposite of you: got my PhD, did some teaching and now in industry. Ahh the irony! I'm going to be as honest as possible here, I don't think you should start a PhD; here are my reasons:
Engineering is not research: I'm in computing, to this day, I'm impressed by engineers everyday. However here is the truth: doesn't matter how efficient you might be in the engineering department, research has its own struggles. For example, if I create a programming language, it is not research on its own, but if I come up with a theory on a type system of a language that might be a research and publishable. To an engineering mind, it might be a battle, that overtime might force you to say: ahh I don't need this in my life I'm going to leave research.
Loads of reading: you will be reading 80% of time, other people's work to get an idea, where your contribution maybe; but there is no guarantee. For example, in my case, due to lack of good supervision, I was not certain what will be my contribution after a year of reading other people's work. However, and engineer might say: well, I'm calculating my input to this work, and this should be my output; but this is not true in research. You will be wondering "where the idea comes from"; and let me tell you it is a rabbit hole; you might get lucky and get an idea but reading a journal, or you might go through the last 20 years research and journals and get nothing.
Finance and Research You might say, well, I'm senior in my job and I'm bored. I want to do something different, but without getting hit financially. Doesn't matter how you cut it, you will get hit financially: you are changing the trajectory of your career; what do you expect.
What is the end game here?: Imagine this: hello sir, here is your PhD diploma; what will you be doing sir?. You might publish several papers during PhD, then what about after that? Becoming a lecturer? Let me tell you that is also very hard to get and they will pay you probably less than what you are making; research is not for financial gains and stability; you see what I'm trying to say here?
When everything is boring: I think you are bored because there are not so much diversity in your work place, and it is time to move on; but maybe because of family issues you can't. Have you considered outside work projects? Something that you need to push through? That might be the answer your problem.
Thanks for your suggestions. Regarding your last point: I think a big question I need to answer is: am I bored with my current job, or am I bored with Engineering? Unfortunately, I feel that it may be more the latter - it seems that when you get down to it, Engineering is essentially solving the same problems over and over again in different contexts. It's learning new things and breaking new ground that really motivates me. Btw, I love reading - I often read through Engineering/scientific text books for fun in my spare time.
...and in an instant, tens of thousands of R&D engineers go up in a cloud of smoke
@Time4Tea If you like to do it, and love reading, do it; however I got an impression that you do think like a engineer and want to calculate your financial hit; and research is a horrible in that sense. You will get hit.
Where I am from, "industrial" PhD students are not unheard of. A private company (which you probably work for) pay part of your time for you to do a PhD on. For example 50% of your working time.
You may get less institutional duties like teaching MSc and undergraduates than ordinary PhD students paid by employment at university or stipend would.
I would guess you would make more money that way but have less "academic freedom" as your "boss" in this case will be the company paying for your degree.
I would think the chances to be allowed to do one of these increase the better network and the more of a name you have made for yourself being skilled at tackling technically difficult things at work (assuming you would do a PhD in some technical field).
I gave up a job as a senior engineer to start my PhD (at 30). I was very lucky in that (1) my wife at the time was well-paid (better than me in engineering), and (2) PhD stipends in the UK are quite decent -- it sounds like this may be a possibility for you Similarly to you my interesting job had become much less so as our customised systems became much more routine.
You'll have to budget carefully, but being based in Boston should give you a good chance of finding a PhD position without having to move or work away from home for long periods. It's not a purely financial decision by any means, or you probably wouldn't do it, but you need to be financially confident.
If you plan to continue in academia, TA work during your PhD is important experience, and can pay a reasonable hourly rate - but you don't want to do too much and risk your research. This depends heavily on country, institution, funding source etc. but should be taken into account.
Ultimately only you and your partner know how much you can trim from your current spending, and how that balances against what you want to do.
You don't sound like you're in a desperate situation, so you could try living a simpler lifestyle for a year or two, perhaps putting the savings against your mortgage to reduce costs when you do start, before looking in earnest for a suitable PhD. Do you expect childcare costs to go up or down? Here UK, pre-school is normally costly, while state primary schools are the norm, so childcare gets cheaper when they start school.
Finally an important non-financial point: only take up a PhD for a supervisor that values your industrial experience. You've got something uncommon to offer, and a good supervisor will understand that; they'll also respect your family life. A poor supervisor will expect you to remember an entire BSc and not to know anything else, while expecting you to work hours to suit them (e.g. expecting you to be available to meet up late in the day, when you're in by 0800 every day and have to pick your child up).
You're right. One can't pick a PhD supervisor carefully enough. This ought to be tattooed on every prospective applicant's forehead. There's no one size fits all as this is so much more about human alchemy than sheer credentials alone.
I can barely believe I'm suggesting this, but....
Have you considered an online PhD? There are a variety of programs, some of which are affiliated with prestigious physical colleges (e.g., Columbia). These would work around your schedule, and wouldn't require you to quit your job. I'm not sure how much work this would entail...I would imagine significantly less than a 'real' grad school (i.e., not full time), though more than enough to keep you busy.
If the goal is to get a (legitimate) piece of paper to 'check the box' and allow your employer to promote you, this seems like a good option. If the goal is actually to learn how to do research, then I would of course suggest going to the best possible grad school and getting the best possible education...but in that case, as others have said, no real way to do so without uprooting your whole life.
I'm super-suspicious of anything like that. I'd make the the default assumption that such a program offered to me is some kind of a scam.
(-1) A PhD is not so much a diploma as a research apprenticeship. Doing it “online” has no benefit, there are very few courses to attend, you still need time to do the research or it will be a complete scam. By contrast, it's perfectly possible to enroll in a regular PhD programme without a lot of presence on the university's grounds, because you are working in another lab or in a company interested in your research for example. The challenge is finding time for the research and it's almost impossible with a demanding full-time job.
@cag51 thanks for the suggestion, although I'm not sure why an 'online' PhD would be better, in my situation. I live in Boston, so it's not physical proximity to academic institutions that is the problem, it's more about the time/money. Perhaps I'm ignorant, but I would think that for an online PhD to be 'worth' as much as a regular PhD, a similar amount of work would need to go into it?
@Relaxed, Time4Tea -- If the goal is to learn how to do research, then I agree, online is a waste of time. If the goal is to get a degree from an accredited school (so that OP's big company can promote him), then the top-few online programs seem reasonable. I suggested it might be better because it will work around your schedule, so you wouldn't have to quit your job while pursuing it -- though I am assuming that an online PhD is WAY less work than a 'real' PhD, which I admit may not be the case.
I mention this because I've collaborated with a few big companies. In such companies, a degree from an accredited school will satisfy HR, and the technical staff will care about your years of experience more than your degree. No one generally cares where you went to grad school after 5 years in the field.
@cag51 ok, thanks. It is an interesting suggestion and I will look into it, as I am open to all options. Yes, it might be the case for Industry that just having a certificate that says 'PhD' with my name on it on it may be more important than the 'quality' of the degree.
This is a great idea if all you care about the whole thing is a piece of paper saying PhD on it. If you want to become able to do research it's a horribly bad idea.
@mathreadler - I think my last paragraph says this, almost word-for-word.
@cag51 if you are hired for your PhD the company hiring you may care about that you can do actual research. Which is what the diploma is about. An institute puts it name on the line, guaranteeing that you can do research.
@mathreadler - again, my answer very clearly states that if the goal is to learn how to do research, you should go to the best possible grad school. OP's question very clearly states that spending 6 years getting $30K a year to get a degree validating the skills he already has is not a good cost-benefit tradeoff for him. I agree that online "doctorates" are a joke, but I also think that requiring a PhD for a promotion is stupid. I don't get to make the rules. The fact is, if OP just needs a piece of paper saying PhD, an online diploma might be an option depending on his circumstances.
@cag51 Validating skills he already has? Where do you get that from? OP says he finds that his current work lacks in challenge. The challenge he seeks would be in acquiring new research related skills to learn (to construct) more theoretically advanced tools - and that doing so would make better use of his abilities. That he believes he has the ability to acquire said skills, not that he already has them.
How simply can you live for a few years? Doctoral students normally live a very simple life outside of their academic work. You know what your mortgage is, of course, and it could be a burden. You may also be facing school fees for your child pretty soon if not now. Can you make your car last for a few more years? Can you give up entertainment, hobbies, etc?
As the comments indicate in many fields the institution will grant you your tuition fees and probably pay you a small salary, not much above a poverty wage if that. It would be a small fraction of what you currently earn.
Have you got retirement savings? Are you willing to spend them now and maybe not make them up later?
People do this, of course. But you have to be very sure that your life goals require it. The academic life has many advantages, but money is seldom one of them. But "challenge" is one of the big positives.
But the short answer to the question is, no, it likely can't be done without a big financial hit.
Thanks for your answer - it more or less confirms my suspicions, that there would most likely be a big financial impact. I think for now, I will have to do some more research into whether I could possibly make it work financially, and try to look at other ways to find higher levels of intellectual challenge without having a PhD.
@Time4Tea, You might explore (a) funding from your employer combined with (b) part time commitment. It requires a 3 way buy in but others have done it. It depends on how valuable you are to your employer and how flexible one of the many local universities can be. The "funding" could just be paid time off for studies.
Others have mentioned a part-time PhD or ‘industrial’ PhD. A possible scenario there is:
You identify a topic which is academically interesting and of at least some interest to your current employer (but which they're not doing because it's not vital to them, or too expensive, or ...)
You drop to 50% at your current employer (and add a modest PhD stipend).
You line up a supervisor at a local institute, who'll supervise the project.
Advantages to the supervisor/institution:
You have a clear (ish) project and are starting with lots of professional background.
You have experience of working independently (so you'll need less handholding).
You have a commercial network and current commercial knowledge/nous, which the supervisor/institution may be interested in plugging in to (ie, an entirely selfish motivation).
Advantages to your current employer:
They still have you around, possibly significantly more motivated.
The research outcomes may be useful to them without them having to pay for it.
They get to brag about their staff working intimately with Institution X, blah, blah.
(Note: you're not asking your employer to significantly fund the PhD here – these are merely payoffs that might sweeten things for them).
Such arrangements are often seen as useful to the larger economy, so there may be support which either you or (more probably, I think) the prospective institution can apply for, to grease the wheels. If you said to a supervisor ‘you can apply for this money, and I can write the bid for you’, then you're talking their language.
In the UK, for example, a company can apply for a CASE studentship, in which the company defines a project jointly with an institution, and EPSRC provides support for the student, thus minimising the cost for the company and the institution. Now, these particular things are principally aimed at full-time recent graduates, you're interested in setting this up ‘backwards’, and of course that refers to the UK rather than the US; but this shows that such a setup does exist, and I'd be surprised if there wasn't something similar in the US (once you know to look for it), which might be bent to your specific case here.
There are a couple of circles to square there, but this might be a start.
If you're going ahead into this venture with a view to tick a box, that's probably too thin a motivation and won't survive the test of both time and cost of opportunity. The latter will hit you hard when you find yourself stuck in a rut.
My advice to you, should you wish to embark on this risky journey, is to be absolutely clear about your goals and carefully ponder whether you want your thesis to be in engineering or in science. Fluid dynamics is broad spectrum with its ends reaching wide into both fields. I mention this because there's a chance you'd find yourself with the wrong audience if you came up with something absolutely brilliant from an engineering viewpoint but that would only carry marginal weight to more basic scientists. And vice-versa.
Of course I don't know you at all but the description of your current situation seems to suggest that you are currently in a comfortable albeit no longer challenging position. Perhaps this is actually an opportunity for you to flip this around and start exploring potential research projects while retaining your day job.
If the financials of it is your main concern, this may or may not be an option for you but consider doing a PhD in Switzerland or Norway. They have indecently competitive salaries and their research ecosystem is excellent plus you can easily get by speaking English alone. In Switzerland semester fees are so (ridiculously) low that student debts are virtually unheard of. I suspect the same can be said of Scandinavian countries.
Norway has many fluid-related research projects linked to their oil and gas platforms activities.
With respect to your seniority, the only flag I'd raise is not to underestimate finding yourself surrounded with younger fellows. If you've gotten accustomed (and perhaps rightly so) to certain life standards and have achieved the status and maturity levels that I suspect, do ask yourself if being back to school with ``kids'' is not going to take an unsuspected toll on your morale. That might sound arrogant and haughty but you'll know what I mean if you get there.
I think most views expressed here will be helpful. At the end of the day, everyone's different and a happy research experience rests on so many factors that no single opinion can possibly accurately summarize.
All the best, I wish you well.
Thanks! I think you make a good point, that my current situation is a good time to do some background reading and explore potential research projects, to see if I can find an area that really interests me. Switzerland and Norway sound like fantastic places to do a PhD; however, I don't think moving internationally is going to be an option for me.
I started my PhD at Cornell when I was 39. I had a master in Coastal Engineering plus a BS in physics and the equivalent to a master in solid state electronics + computer Science (all from a public Spanish university). Before that, I was also developing CFD codes.
I got a scholarship so I didn't have to pay for tuition and got a small salary. I knew people in a similar situation that was able to support their families, but, as others have pointed out, you'll probably have to go back to a simpler, student's life.
As far as I know, tuition is rarely paid for PhD programs. People usually have some kind of scholarship.
I am currently doing a masters in CS (not in US) currently at the age of 35 I started it and want to do a phd. I don't live in US but 5 years back I had applied in universities but I was rejected. Upto 2 years back I was rejected in admission process at many places I tried many other places for admissions in phd but some or the other thing did not worked.So I decided to first to a masters and then move to phd. I am lucky I don't have a family as you have. Financially I am hit in masters program itself. So if family liability are there on you money wise things won't be easy to manage but you may need to talk to your professor or guide or department people may help by involving you in some projects which can be paid projects. Though usually working in such projects side by side along with your degree is tough.
Basics:
You find your current position unchallenging
You think R&D is where all the fortune and glory is and the path to R&D is a PhD, but...
You don't think you want to take the financial hit because of payments
for a house you can't afford and having to support your child
To me, it sounds like you want someone else to handle all of your risk - you've even gone so far as to ask other people to do the thinking for you.
Try this: START YOUR OWN BUSINESS.
You've got untapped abilities? Prove it. That takes research. Think you've found an underserved market? Develop a solution for it, end-to-end.
You're going to take a financial hit either way. But, at least this way, your happiness is yours. Your mistakes are yours. If you find yourself bored, you won't have your employer to blame. You'll also relieve yourself of that terrible fat check you currently get. So, be an engineer: downsize, simplify your life.
If you fail, great! You've learned something: maybe you're not what you thought you were. And - added bonus - when you DO decide to go back to work for someone, you'll have a deeper appreciation of what it takes to get you that fat check you find so unattractive today.
If you succeed, you'll have accomplished more than most PhDs. Oh... and you won't have the PhD debt load, after. So, there's that.
I have considered starting a business, but I've come to the conclusion that 'business' and money are not what motivates me. I don't think I'm asking anyone to 'handle my risk', I'm trying to get a feel for what the risks are, before I make a leap. To me, that seems like a sensible approach ...
How in the heckin' heck will he be able to spend time on doing research if he has to work 12 hours a day on starting a company?
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121962 | Telling where I am originally from at the first lecture?
I am going to start teaching next year in a university in the UK. One common question I get with students in one-to-one conversations is about my origin. I certainly have an accent, and they are naturally curious about it. I was wondering if it is fine that, when I introduce myself during the first lecture, I tell them where I am originally from? This is not an issue for me.
I understand that some lecturers get offended with the question "where are you originally from?", but I think sometimes students are genuinely interested on knowing this inconsequential information. I was, when I was a student, so I understand.
@Monika I was wondering if it is fine that when I introduce myself during the first lecture, I tell them where I am originally from. Sorry, I didn't use a question mark.
Is the difficulty / social awkwardness of this sort of disclosure a UK thing? In the US, these disclosures / conversations are almost the norm. I think I knew the origin of all my professors. Certainly I did with all of my Grad school instructors. But then again, all three of the universities I went to had sizable populations of foreign students and foreign-born professors.
Why not simply put a short bio on your university web page? That way interested students can easily find the info. but you don't have to spend class time on it.
One of my US professors mentioned he was from Turkey on the first day and then asked us as a final exam bonus question.
Do it ! :-) || Where are you originally from? :-). | I ask that question of many people. The question is often criticised in social media as rude for various reasons BUT I am genuinely interested and have seldom had people react adversely. I have visited 35 countries )some only VERY briefly) including 15 visits to China (1 of 35 countries). I like finding out where people come from, partially to see if I know their homeland personally, partially because people generally enjoy finding someone knows something about their homeland, partially because .... hey, life is interesting :-) - Russell
@Van No, the difficulty here is not a normal UK thing. I can't quite understand what's led to this question being posted.
I've seen this question in trending section on the right, and now I'm curious of your ethnic origin too.
These questions are just to initiate or maintain a conversation. In general, people don't care.
You can certainly do so. Something like "I was born here. I did my undergraduate degree here, my masters degree here, and my PhD here. After my PhD ..." etc. It doesn't have to be very long and could also be part of your lecture slides.
One of my lecturers from my bachelor's degree did this, and I still remember she and my brother shared an alma mater.
It also adds "weight" when you embellish theory with real examples : "when I was at XXX this happened and we solved it with YYY"...
I like it when professors do this, not just to answer the where are you from question but also to give an idea of what they do outside of lecturing... for example, if you sponsor or work with any student club, or if you have some interesting research going on.
I agree there's no harm in humanizing yourself a bit by sharing this small bit of personal information. Professors are people too, and people sometimes forget that.
When I first visited the university that I ultimately would attend for undergraduate studies, I sat in with a group for a type of orientation led by a gentleman who was 'not from here'. He began with some brief information about the university, what we were going to do, and then said to the crowd in his relatively thick accent, "I know what you are thinking . . . I am not from Michigan." Everyone laughed. The timing was perfect because it was obvious English was not his native tongue and we'd all quite gotten accustomed to his accent by this time.
@NuclearWang Professors sometimes forget that, too!
I think it is a good thing to do, actually. In fact, anything you can do or say to make connections with them is good. In this case it places you in a context. You can also ask, assuming that the scale is reasonable, if anyone else comes from an "interesting" place. Don't press it if no one volunteers, but many people are proud of their origins. Others may not want to seem different from their peers.
The basic idea is to make yourself seem more human to them rather than just someone who will need to judge them eventually. Students sometimes fear their professors, especially in early courses when they have little experience. When they see you as a person they will probably be more willing to accept what you say when you, inevitably, correct them.
Good point. However, I would skip asking them about it, as people get easily offended about their origins nowadays.
@Name, not to ask individuals, but to ask if anyone wants to volunteer the information. BTW, where are you that people get offended?
In the UK, the question "where are you originally from?" tends to be tricky. They often think it is because they look different. I like your other points, it is just that asking this question to the students may only lead to a cringe silence.
I usually ask who else is from abroad. My courses are on EU politics, so it's a natural ice-breaker.
Yes, I teach in the US but have an Australian accent. So I usually introduce myself to a new class, and see if there are any others from outside the US (originally or their parents). Many students mistake my accent for British, so I like to set them straight. :-)
@PeterK. - in 1989 I stayed in a hotel in Jamaica that had ~90% US guests; everyone from the north-east of the US assumed from my accent (I'm from Essex in the UK) I was from Chicago; people from Chicago thought I was from Kansas; people from Kansas thought I was Texan; Texans thought I was Californian; Californians thought I was Australian. Hearing that Americans think you're British kind-of closes that circle for me :-)
@Spratty Great story! :-)
@Name "...tends to be tricky in the UK" - Don't be coy. Asked by a complete stranger, "where are you originally from?" often means "are you an illegal immigrant?"
@alephzero, and it also tags the asker as a jerk when asked that way.
@PeterK. I attended a conference talk that opened with "I should point out that I'm Swedish. I like to say this at the start of every talk that I give because otherwise I find that the audience spends about half of their time trying to figure out where my accent is from and I'd prefer you listen to what I have to say instead." I found it was a great way to break the ice.
@WesToleman Of course, as a Swede, having the skills to break ice is important.
@PeterK. Funny, I'm almost always confused for an Aussie when in the States. Why is it that they get us switched around all the time?!
IMO, teachers should not ask students they've just met where they've from (unless it's a more personal-interaction workshop or such.)
@einpoklum, asking a class whether anyone wants to volunteer isn't the same thing, of course.
@Buffy: True, but I'm still uncomfortable with that.
@Buffy In the ideal world with no ethnic or national prejudice, absolutely, but I fear if a student is already uncertain how their ethnicity or nationality would be perceived, having other students who already know their background is considered "cool" among their peers to "volunteer" will not help break the ice but will only increase their uneasiness.
I usually introduce myself in my first lecture by giving a short overview about my background. Since I'm not very different from most students, there is nothing surprising in this, but if I would have a different background, I would mention it since it helps building a relationship to your students. If you are having an accent, they will recognize that you are not a native speaker anyway ;-).
I teach in what is not my first language. I speak more or less correctly, but my accent is strong to the ear of a native speaker. On the first day of class I generally make some jokes about my accent, so that students know I am not oblivious to potential problems understanding me, and I ask them to stop me whenever they don't understand something because of my accent or grammatical errors (this occurs occasionally), but I don't usually explain where I am from unless (better said, until) asked. The class is not about me, it's about whatever I am teaching, and I prefer to spend lecture time talking about mathematics than about myself, since in any case there is no reason to enter into personal details. Moreover, many students can guess from where I come, and inevitably by the middle of the semester someone asks anyway.
In general, opinions differ about how much to personalize interactions with students, and different degrees of personalization can work well for different teachers. I try to maintain a certain distance and focus on subject matter, and my uninteresting life story is not relevant to the subject matter, but it would be entirely reasonable to spend two minutes the first day explaining from where one comes. This seems to me mainly a matter of personal taste and teaching style.
I took linear algebra from a professor who was from Australia. The first couple weeks of the course were all about manipulating matrices with the variables X, Y, and Z, terms which were mentioned constantly. Two weeks in, he asks if anybody has any questions, and a student raises their hand: "what's zed?" (Z is pronounced "zee" in US English). There's absolutely no problem with having an accent, but even if you don't have a strong accent, it's good to make it clear up front that you want to make sure everyone is understanding each other and welcome the opportunity to clarify.
@ZachLipton: The instructor has to become aware of where his/her speech may cause problems for students, and take steps to ameliorate the problem. For example, in my case, when I teach in Spanish, because I do not pronounce the Spanish 'r' well, I have to take care to distinguish words such as "ortogonal" and "ortonormal" that appear in similar contexts with closely related, but different meanings (the way I pronounce the second 'r' in "ortonormal" is hard for a native to hear, making it hard to distinguish from "ortogonal").
To be honest, your birthplace, ethnicity, and nationality are irrelevant, and it is not appropriate for people to ask questions of that sort in a professional context. You may not mind the question, but others may. By introducing the information as a preliminary, you are setting a precedent that will pressurise your colleagues who may prefer not to discuss the matter.
Personally, I do not generally tell people about my birthplace, ethnicity, and nationality in the course of teaching, unless it had some connection to the subject-matter at hand (e.g.: if I were citing my own experience/background to illustrate an argument I am presenting in the lecture -- I am in a humanities subject, so that does occur in some instances).
However, when I used to work in Scotland, I was open in declaring that I am not local (but without specifying much more), since my accent (British-English Received Pronunciation) makes it fairly obvious (although, as an ostensibly "neutral" accent, it does not tell you much more). When I mispronounced the Scottish name of one of the students, I apologised and added
"as you can tell, I am not Scottish -- in fact, I live south of the border"
(in the UK, it is quite common for academics to not live in the same city as their university).
My Physics 1 teaching assistant had an uncommon accent, but instead of telling us, when someone brought it up she said we can try and guess, and she would tell us if we got it right. We didn't... but it contributed to a more jovial, humorous atmosphere. This will not work for just anyone though, only if you're generally an outgoing person, smile occasionally etc; also, it works in the group setting rather than in 1-on-1 conversations.
Maybe you can also think of "gamefying" this aspect of your interaction with students.
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107259 | Reviewer of PhD thesis doesn't allow me to write in the first person singular
In my PhD thesis, I often used the first person singular during the description of the problem and the discussion of the results. One comment from the reviewer states that because I did not use the third person, the entire thesis must be revised accordingly.
I understand that in a journal article one should use the third person to describe the problem and discuss the findings. However, I always supposed that one can use the first person in a PhD thesis because I saw many researchers doing so. Could anybody give me a suggestion about how to deal with the reviewer who doesn't accept my choice to write in the first person?
I'm voting to reopen the question because it has a different focus than the earlier question: The earlier question was about the standards for writing in the first person. This new question is about how to deal with a reviewer who doesn't accept the choice to write in the first person.
@lighthousekeeper I am convinced by your comment that this question is about how to deal with the situation that the committee member disagrees with the OP's choice. I apologize and thanks for pointing it out.
Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
Can you please [edit] your question to clarify whether the reviewer really insisted on you using the third person (he, she, it, they) or just the first person plural (we)?
As one of our esteemed moderators posted a clarifying question here and not in the chat chain, I'll dare to do the same.... Can you give us a bit more context such as field, age of reviewer, whether reviewer has some recent publications, country you're in?
This post is (now) non-controversial.
With due respect - everyone's answers here are mostly irrelevant. The suggestions, ideas and perceptions we here on Academia.SX have on this issue are not the authoritative answer you need to get you past the review.
You need to talk to:
Your advisor
The administrator in charge of the "thesis phase" of PhDs in your department or your graduate school
They have some or lots of experience, respectively, with this situation, and will tell you what you should/must do when faced with such a demand from a reviewer. They may also contact the reviewer on your behalf if they believe s/he is wrong, or to explain the regulations to him/her etc.
Note that it might even be the case that you're expected to use the first person, and other reviewers will get annoyed if you switch. So you can't just cater to one person - you need to check what the default is.
I like this. We can discuss the problem here till the cows come home, but the advisor and administrators on the ground are the people who can give relevant, meaningful advice to OP.
Your institution will have a set of style guidelines. Follow them and speak to your administrator if you get any pushback
@Stevetech: I was assuming that if OP was able to submit and have his thesis sent to reviewers, it meets the institutional guidelines already.
I was agreeing with you. Most institutions will also have language guides
At least my experiance was that there were a bunch of beuracractic rules about tables of contents, margins front material, font sizes etc but said bureaucratic rules were silent on how the body of the document should actually be written. That seemed to be down to conventions and unwritten rules.
@PeterGreen: In that case, your advisor will say "officially you can write your thesis either way, just humor the guy" or "I want it to be 1st-person, let me talk to him".
This answer could apply to any question. Should we just shut down academia?
@AaronLS: No, it couldn't. But there are certainly some questions here on the site with the answer being essentially "Just read the manual".
@einpoklum That's not what I mean. I mean this question basically says "Go ask someone else", and any question could be approached that way. Someone might ask a question about financial aid, and we could be very capable of answering the question based on knowledge of the particular process, but someone could also provide a non-answer that basically is "Go ask your the financial aid advisory" which is essentially directing people away from the site when they've asked a legitimate question that is answerable. It's even less useful than a link only answer.
@AaronLS: The answer isn't "go ask someone else", it's "the only answer is what someone else will tell you", and those are not the same thing.
@einpoklum This entire page proves that it's not the only answer. Literally the counter-example is right in front of you.
@AaronLS: I wrote this answer to disagree with (most of) the other ones. And I managed to convince the OP, so that has to account for something...
@einpoklum It does count for something, but doesn't invalidate my point.
There is an annoying truth here: What's OK in a PhD thesis and what not largely depends on the reviewers. Some people in academia have a huge inflated ego and prefer things to be done as they suggest, and the reviewer in your case is possibly among those people. You don't want to fight with them on this kind of issue.
If the reviewer has other comments that tend to create additional work without clearly improving the thesis, you may consider exchanging the reviewer.
Agreeing with DSVA; different fields have different widely accepted conventions. For example in astronomy use of “I” is quite prevelant, but in say, a particle physics paper is not, showing even within the same field, different subfields may have varying conventions. That being said, the department’s PhD style guide (if it exists) always takes precedent.
@DSVA and JNS: Mostly agreed. I'm referring to the OP's description, according to which he already saw his preferred form in a couple of PhD theses (presumably in the same area).
There is no steadfast rule that applies across disciplines, countries, fashions, and personalities.
Do what makes your reviewers happy. Their demand is annoying, but not utterly unreasonable. More importantly, they decide over your defense and thereby your future.
This is not something worth fighting over, and certainly no reason to change supervisors.
I agree that it's not worth fighting the reviewer; nevertheless, I think the reviewer is being utterly unreasonable.
A famous example of the “make reviewers/editor happy” rule is the story of this cat http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/cat-co-authored-influential-physics-paper who got co-author credit for a paper. I actually think that, in a thesis, attribution is important and “I” should be used to clarify what the candidate has done.
We think that they can either suck it up, or keep using they as it clarifies very much the thesis.
And by they I mean you, by we I mean they, or something like that.
I wrote my PhD thesis by putting "I" everywhere when the norm was a vaporous "we, the people". I wrote it, together with MY brain and, most importantly, MY ego. The dog did not type it either, though we could be all-encompassing.
I find it ridiculous to use a metaphorical "we" or "they", or "the neighbour" when talking about one's own work. We should share their salary, while we are at it.
Now your question is whether you can do something or not, which is completely up to the jury or referrer. Sure you can. And sure they can make your life miserable.
We is first person, not third.
We love the humor in this post. +1
So you didn’t want the reader to follow along?
@JeffE: I am not sure what you mean. That by using "we do this and that", the reader is somehow embarked in the journey? No. This is not a John le Carre book but a document which shows what I did to get the title (and, hopefully, moved our civilization's knowledge a tiny bit ahead). Me and possibly others, in that case we (Mary Brown and myself) did something together. She did something else on her own ([MaryBrown2003]) which is not "we" anymore. I find it hard to understand why this is a problem only in Academia. Normally people will say "I" when they mean "I" and "we" when they mean "we"
@WoJ Mathematicians and their ilk justify the standard use of "we" for solo work by claiming it means "the author and the reader". For example: "As a key step toward our main theorem, we prove Lemma 4 using a variant of our proof technique for Lemma 2." Math papers don't describe what someone did before the paper was written, but an argument to be followed by the reader after the paper is written, with the author's help.
@JeffE I agree that this is appropriate for a mathematical proof or similarly structured argument, but in many other contexts (e.g. reporting practical procedures) it doesn't work. For instance: "I wet-sieved the disaggregated material using a 62 μm mesh and dried the coarse fraction at room temperature". Substituting "we" here would simply be incorrect: none of my colleagues participated in the sieving, and I think we can be fairly sure that the reader of the thesis wasn't involved either :).
@DSVA Switching to the passive decreases readability (in my opinion), increases length, and worst of all removes information. It actually makes a practical difference whether a sample was prepared by me, by a department technician with 25 years' experience, by a novice undergrad assistant, by a professional external lab, or by a trained chimpanzee. Distinguishing between work that I did and work that someone else did is particularly important in a PhD dissertation, because it's primarily my work that's of relevance for assessment.
@DSVA Of course if your field or target journal strictly mandates the passive you have no choice, but for many fields this isn't the case. For instance, Nature's style guide says ‘Nature journals prefer authors to write in the active voice’, the American Chemical Society Style Guide (3rd ed.) says ‘Use first person when it helps to keep your meaning clear and to express a purpose or a decision. [e.g.] Jones reported xyz, but I (or we) found…’, and as JeffE mentions above, the active ‘we’ is standard in mathematics. For the rest, I think we'll have to agree to disagree.
Actyually... I've always though that the academic "we" meant "I the author and you the reader".
@JeffE I always thought of it as the royal plural. In any case I've never seen first person singular in a math paper so it would just be weird.
Despite this academic's personal embrace of first person writing, many respected colleagues despise even a hint of first person narrative. In their honor, here are a few ways writing improves without the first person.
Phrases like "I think that" and "I believe that" often sneak into writing and water it down. Excising the first person can make the arguments bolder, as well as more readable.
Even in presenting results or discussion or a conclusion, "I find that..." might already be implicit. For instance, replacing, "I find that the sky appears blue," with "The sky appears blue," yields a stronger topic sentence for the paragraph. Again, sentences can gain authority while becoming briefer.
More broadly, the best writing tells a story. However, the narrative that is often closest to an author's mind is their own journey through the topic. Only exceptional circumstances make that autobiography a compelling narrative to frame a research paper. Instead, "storytelling" should almost always give the reader insight into the research, perhaps by highlighting an incident captured in and illuminated by the data, or a metaphor to characterize molecules' motion, or as the puzzle of why X commonly happens after Y.
As other answers here emphasize, if that committee member cares enough about this point and must approve the final draft, then editing it is the wisest course of action. If there are hints (from that person or others) why they care, that may allow for compromises that meet those objectives without a full edit, or it may at least make the time spent editing out "I"s feel less bitter. And upon reviewing sentences in the thesis that use the first person, if patterns emerge, editing only the frequent, most problematic contexts (such as "I think...") may appease that reader.
(This answer uses neither the first nor second person, without relying on the passive voice. It is possible by (occasionally) relying on the impersonal pronoun, using gerunds to discuss action without having to identify an actor, and making inanimate things into grammatical subjects. It makes for an annoying writing experience, and hopefully such edits will not be mandatory after all for the thesis in question.)
As a side point, It is very convenient to use the term "we" in a draft of a paper, in the off-chance that an additional author joins for one reason or another (someone you consult makes a significant contribution, two articles with similar content are independently published on a pre-print server, and a joint paper is in order).
Also, some boiler-plate introduction of terms/notions can be almost copy-pasted between projects, some with one author, some with several. Changing all 'I' to 'we' must be annoying.
Writing style is not a big deal. If you have a strong and reasonable opinion about style, you have a good chance to defend it, because people won't care too much.
Depends on the country, but I think in general, not all reviewers get to approve the final version of your thesis. Some suggestions of those who do not, especially suggestions about style, can be silently ignored.
If "third person", as in "he" or "she", is actually what you meant to say then it does not seem common in the West, which makes it more likely that you can just ignore this suggestion.
A lot has been covered by other answers, but I just wanted to add something that came up while I was working on my thesis.
The faculty at my university always suggested that in the "Contributions" section (of the Introduction), you list your contributions in first person. For example, "I was responsible for implementing X on Y and testing Z", "I authored a paper in IEEE Transactions on ABC" and so on.
For the rest of the thesis it was passive, but that one section was handled differently. Of course, discuss this with your supervisor and reviewers first.
One quick solution could be to find another example of a thesis that has already been approved by your institution which also uses first person singular. If there is a precedent it might justify your use.
I remember that one of my reviewer comments about "aesthetic" language issues like this which I ignored: the reviewer suggested that I had not used a real word, I provided a link to a dictionary definition of the word, stated that it was a matter of preference, and that I would keep my original choice of word. (I do not claim that all comments can be rejected in this way, but my point is that it is possible.)
thanks, I have already found several precedents approved by my department.
I am in favor of clear writing and against the academic attitude. All that said, I would still go ahead and write it like a normal journal article. Use the third person and the "we/our" for most of the results. After all, you will probably add at least your advisor to the co-author list of papers coming out (or have already done so if you already wrote the journal articles).
Just scanned my thesis, which was mostly stitched together chemistry papers. Not like a European one where all it is, is the papers themselves. But pretty clearly taking different papers and with some minor edits changing them into chapters (e.g. combining redundant methods). I was pretty much either talking about the chemicals or using the passive voice or saying "our" for discussion of interpretation and such. But these were sections where I had co-authors, professor at least.
I did have one minor area (other than acknowledgements) where I used first person and got no static for it. Within the Intro, after giving a review of previous work, I discussed the research objectives (in a one para section called that) and used "my" in context of "my goals changed during the student. Initial my goal was X; subsequently it was Y. Didn't get any static for this--it was a helpful para to explain why the chapters to follow in the thesis were connected.
There are a lot of other areas where you can cut the crap and be honest (for example, I shared some important lab safety learnings and equipment construction that was helpful to subsequent students but really fit in a thesis more than a results journal article. I did that on purpose because the main audience was/is future group members.
But I wouldn't make a big deal of the impersonal style. Some of it is good (keeping attention on the chemical, not the researcher). Some of it is bad (pompousness, or not taking responsibility). But overall, it's not worth worrying about.
Get the union card done. Thesis is pass-fail and very little read. Don't mess with it too much, just wrap something up, get a job and boogie. Defense committees can be very accommodating as long as you have published well (already showing ability to make solid contributions) and have gotten someone to hire you!
In my opinion, avoiding first person and sticking to passive voice is beneficial for two reasons, one philosophical and one practical.
Starting with the practical - parts of the thesis are likely to be used as a base for subsequent journal articles. As the OP says, journal articles have a fairly set format. By sticking to the same format in the thesis, a lot of redundant writing effort could be saved. It would also be a sort of dry run- one can identify problematic/ambiguous phrases/paragraphs, which are to be avoided in later manuscripts.
On the philosophical front, any piece of scientific writing should, IMO, primarily convey scientific results and secondarily the methodology used by the researcher. Certainly, researchers deserve credit for novel methods followed, but this shouldn't overshadow the results/inferences. I believe passive voice acts as a safeguard against this.
Could I know why this answer was down-voted? I'm new to the site and would like to avoid mistakes/oversights made in the future. Thanks.
Your practical point is a really good one. (Arguably, that reviewer should've spoken up about it before the thesis was mostly written.) You're answering the question: "Could anybody give me some suggestion?" by supporting a change to third person: therefore no need to tangle with the reviewer. You may have gotten down-voted because people think the novel part of this question is how to deal with that committee member, rather than the writing itself (covered in previous questions). ::shrug::
Active voice is best. Using the passive voice is not good.
@MartinF because....
@FábioDias -- The active voice is usually more concise and easier to understand. See https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/CCS_activevoice.html, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/539/02/ or https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/active-voice-versus-passive-voice
@user153812 because you have everything backwards.
Am I missing something, or are you just trolling?
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190776 | What should I do when my PhD adviser sends me a paper to read?
I'm currently in a PhD program in Electrical Engineering. Sometimes, my adviser will send me papers with a small note such as "I thought this may be relevant to your work. Please have a look and see if it is helpful." Because I'm relatively new to the field that I'm working in, reading a paper, even if not as rigorously, takes me some time. The main reason is that I am often not familiar with the technical terms in the paper, so I need to look them up while skimming.
While I appreciate my adviser's consideration for sending me paper X, it will often be the case that I am working on implementing something from paper Y when they send me paper X to read. Paper Y could have been a previous paper that my adviser recommended, or it could be one that I found.
Because these papers are technical in nature, so that only reading the abstract would not give me a good enough idea of whether they are helpful or not, I feel that my progress towards paper Y would be slowed down considerably if I split my time between reading paper X and working on paper Y, as the repeated context switching would waste some time. This is especially true if my adviser sends me more than one paper to look through.
I've added below some ways I thought of proceeding, and I'd appreciate any feedback on them, or any another way that I haven't mentioned.
Thank my adviser for sending over the papers, and let them know that I will get to them as soon as I'm done with the current paper that I'm reading/working on. I'm not sure if this approach would be considered rude or not.
Drop the current paper that I'm reading/working on and focus on the paper(s) that my adviser sent over. While this may please my adviser, I feel that my own progress would slow down, especially since I would be constantly reading over papers that my adviser sends over and not actually getting any work done.
Split my time between the papers that I'm working on and the papers that my adviser sends me. As I mentioned, because of the repeated context switching, I feel that this approach would slow me down.
The answer is field dependent. Can you tell us what it is?
@ThomasSchwarz I've added it at the beginning.
How many papers is your advisor sending each week? Since "have a look" usually means take 20 minutes looking it over, this can be a problem it if is 10 papers per week.
Seems like you need more practice in reading papers, including learning to approach them with varying degrees of rigor as needed.
Maybe talk to your advisor about it? You may find out they are reasonable and don't expect you to read their quick email right away...
@TerryLoring I'd say one or two a week. The main problem with looking it over in 20 minutes is that I usually don't understand all the terms in the paper, so I would have to look them up to understand what's going on. It's OK if the terms are not part of the main idea, but it is often the case that these terms are the main idea.
@JonCuster I've read through this before. I think my main problem is that I'm relatively new to the field that I'm working in, so it might be the lack of experience that's causing me to spend time trying to understand a paper, even if I read it less rigorously. I've added this description to my question.
Could well be. It gets better, usually pretty quickly, as you pick up the lingo.
@Anyon good point. I will consider doing this.
@mhdadk if you're new to the field, reading papers and understanding what's going on in general is often more important (and beneficial) that completing your current project. And in the long run, it will help you become a better researcher and save time!
I think the bigger problem here is that you don't feel comfortable enough with your advisor to ask them. Helping you learn how to do research is exactly their job description, and they won't be able to do a good job if you are afraid of talking to them.
I read over one thousand papers and books for my PhD (not necessarily word for word), and included nearly 700 of them in my thesis. While I am probably on the extreme end of the spectrum, you are supposed to become an expert in the narrow field and a decent enough specialist in the broad field when holding a doctoral degree. Reading papers is what gets you there, along with own research. You are also very lucky that you get a selection of papers relevant to your research, which saves you a lot of reading. Good luck!
It probably would be good to try to reference it in any relevant paper that you are writing. Similarly, if it is relevant, you can add it to your list of references for your master's thesis or Ph.D. dissertation!
@JosephDoggie just of course; after one has read it; and made sure it is indeed relevant; :) I like the idea though because then (if not permission is needed which I likely doubt but I have no real idea) you prove you have read it as well.
My advisor used to say "you should learn to read a paper without reading it". :)
As you mentioned in the comment section, since your supervisor gives you only 1-2 papers per week to read, I think it is totally possible for you to handle more than this. It seems that you spend too much time for a paper, but it is understandable as you are new to the field. It will take you some time to be familiar with the field. Eventually your understanding will be better, but you will still have to improve/practice reading skills. Knowing what to read and how to read effectively is important. Your time is limited.
Also, if your supervisor sends you something to read, it is usually something useful. It does not mean that you have to read it now.
I have my own strategy for reading papers. It does not work for everyone, but it is similar to (3). Assume that I have many papers to read. I choose one of them and spend some time on reading the first 2-3 important sections of that paper. Then I move to another one and repeat the same process. I keep doing it again and again until everything is finished. It also helps me cope with getting bored with reading a very long paper.
Last but not least, it is helpful to take notes as you read.
Emphasis on the last sentence. Not only is it "helpful" in general to take notes as one reads, but the OP is a PhD student, which probably means they'll have to compile a large bibliography as part of their thesis.
Depending on one's field, reading a research paper thoroughly can be a time-consuming process. If one were to be able to understand a paper and make a software simulation of it, that would be worth a Plan "B" project, in my book.
One or two papers a week is nothing, especially if you are just looking over them and extracting the key points.
You may talk about this with your advisor, but I strongly suspect that an advisor sending you a paper does by no way mean that you should read it immediately. Most probably the advisor was doing some research on their own, found that paper, thought that it may be useful for you, and immediately sent it to you so that neither them nor you will forget about it. But it should not be considered an immediate call-to-action.
So what you can do is schedule some time for reading papers, say each Monday morning, and you postpone any new paper till next Monday (unless there are strong reasons to read the paper earlier, of course). (Obviously the period may be different, depending on your situation and suggestions from your advisor.) If before that your advisor asks whether you have read the paper, you simply reply that you were working on <whatever it was>, and you plan to read the papers on Monday. (And obviously do it, and this includes having some system so that you do not forget which papers you advisor has sent to you. This may be a simple "mark-it-unread-in-email-inbox", or a todo list, or just "print-it-out-and-put-into-a-physical-to-read-folder", etc.)
This way you will not have that much context switching, and at the same time you will thoroughly read the papers.
Probably you don't even need to reply to your advisor email, or just reply with a simple "received, thank you" (this depends on your advisor and general culture, of course).
(+1) I like this answer, thank you.
Basically, if they send you a paper, saying it is relevant, then you should read it. If they don't send a paper copy then print it out and put the date received on it so that you can sort them as needed. (See below for "why" paper.)
But you are busy, so you need a way to proceed to make this reading "easy" to accomplish.
Here is a pro tip for any scholar. Always have something immediately available to read no matter where you are. This was early advice to all of our doctoral students.
Whenever you are "out and about" have one or two of the papers with you. Also carry a pen so that you can annotate them, and perhaps a highlighter. Optionally, carry a few index cards as well so that you can take notes external to the papers and arrange them as needed later.
Now, whenever you have a few moments of dead time, perhaps waiting for your lunch to be delivered or you are waiting for a bus (or riding one), pull out one of the papers (or a few of the index cards) that you are carrying and read or review what is before you. This turns "wasted" time into productive time.
Yes, you should thank them. No, you shouldn't interrupt all other work to read the new paper unless the supervisor strongly recommends it.
At the start of my PHD I commuted by bus. That was paper-reading time, which worked very well. A small notebook (or your index cards) is very useful. If reading offline, which I recommend, you can note down mystery terms (so long as they don;t completely block your understanding), useful-looking referenced etc. for later follow-up. Switching your attention away from the paper to a rabbit hole of definitions built on definitions makes things a lot harder.
When I was starting out in my PhD I used to have this same problem that you're having. I realised after a year or so that when my supervisor read a paper, what he meant by this was that he had read the abstract, and then opened it up and flicked through the equations. What reading a paper meant to me at this point was that I would go through every line in detail and try to understand everything I could, following references for things I didn't understand and deriving equations.
So I would advise you that, an important part of the process of doing a PhD is learning how to read texts at different depths. I guess at the start you would be likely to need to read things in a bit more depth than your supervisor to understand as much as they do, but it's unlikely that they expect you to read everything that they're suggesting a lot of detail.
If you're unsure, you could also try asking your supervisor, "how in-depth do you think I should read this paper?", or "how much time do you think it would be worth investing on this paper?"
Thanks for sharing. Your experience resonates a lot with mine.
Yep. I say I read a paper if I read the abstract, skim through the methods, and look at the main figures. Done.
My way of phrasing this is: get an idea what it's about and how, so at some later time you can think "hey wait -- I think saw a paper about that!"
(This is an attempt to summarize the advice given in the other answers and comments in a more hands-on form.)
Your supervisor is asking you to have a look at the paper, which is not the same thing as reading it. Your supervisor is probably expecting you to quickly browse through the paper to form a first impression of its relevance to your work.
What I'd do is what others are suggesting: spend 15-30 minutes with the paper, and with Google, to answer the following questions:
What does the paper try to do?
How can this be relevant to your work?
Do you think studying it more will be worth your time?
Why? / Why not?
The answers should all be one or two sentences. Write them down. If you can't decide on an answer, write down which questions you need an answer to first. File the results in your list of known papers. Discuss these results at the next meeting with your advisor; they may be interested in your findings and they should be able to advise you how to proceed.
The goal here is not to understand papers in depth, but to navigate the space of papers. Your advisor can help you with this, but only if you can establish a dialogue on what you're finding.
Welcome to being an academic.
One important distinction that many younger academics don't make is "being ready to hear/read" vs "being ready to understand". Not every paper that is sent to you should be read in full detail. Or even in partial detail.
There is one broader lesson here, the way mentors/advisers interact with you is as much the lesson as whatever technical content they tell you.
When I got to grad school my adviser would talk about math in ways that sounded unhinged and weird to me. But he is an excellent mathematician. It was the way I was talking about mathematics that was wrong not the way he talked about mathematics. He was (still is) better than me. When I defended my PhD we went out to dinner and I was talking in the same "unhinged" way. It's just a matter of information throughput.
One thing that I think is missing from your calculations here and from some other answers is sending papers to each other is how academics interact. Your adviser is sending you papers partly so you can read them and learn from them. They are also sending you papers because that is how you should interact with other academics you work with. I send papers to people literally everyday almost. I get papers sent to me almost literally everyday. This is just being an academic.
As for how much detail etc. do you read them? If you're asking this question, you're thinking about this very wrongly. You're an academic now. It's your decision. How relevant or interesting is the paper? Not every paper should be read the same way. Some I've poured over and others I've skimmed. It's your call because you're the researcher.
Lots of good advice* but I'd like to emphasize that the strategies urged upon you (keep up the physical work, but make regular time for reading papers in addition) will be valuable to you. How many of us find things when writing the thesis introduction and background at the end of the PhD project that we wish we had known before we did the experiments? One here!
*which I can't comment on due to insufficient reputation - else I would just add a short comment.
tl;dr: Talk to your advisor about this.
What should I do when my advisor tells me to [etc. etc.]?
The answer to this question template is most usually: Talk to your advisor and coordinate their expectation from you. Not every time you get this message from them, but when it happens the first time, schedule a chat at their office or remotely; tell them you want to attend to the request/suggestion they made; explain that you are not sure exactly what they expect in terms of scope/breadth/etc., and you would like for "meta-guidance" on that.
It is ok not to know how to best handle such requests and to ask to be told what to do. You will not appear foolish, argumentative or ungrateful.
Specifically in your case,
Because I'm relatively new to the field that I'm working in, reading a paper, even if not as rigorously, takes me some time. The main reason is etc. etc.
Tell your advisor that. Ask them whether they think you should invest the time to read rigorously, or whether they mean skimming the paper, or reading abstract / abstract & intro.
current paper that I'm reading/working on
talk to your advisor about prioritizing or scheduling ongoing work (including reading) with their incoming suggestions.
(+1) thanks for the insight.
Authors include abstracts for a reason, my advice is to go through the abstracts, and then prioritize into 3 buckets (read the whole dang paper ensure I understand everything, skim the paper for important points, skip/read later). It sounds like not everything your advisor is sending is going to be 100% relevant (just, maybe relevant). If you do this you will get a sense of which papers are seminal real quick because everyone will be citing those papers. If one of those landed in your skip pile, you pivot to read the whole dang thing.
Now, I know you said that utilizing the abstracts is probably not good enough. I actually agree with that point. You are a student, you need to get your hands dirty with the technical aspects. However, you can still prioritize based on the abstracts. My 3 categories could be broken down like this:
Paper appears directly applicable to your research topic: read the whole paper
Paper appears to only be tangentially related to research topic: skim the paper
Paper appears not to be very relevant for your topic: read later
I would suggest doing your reading with a study journal. I like the hard bound, lined journals, with page numbers and a table of contents section. That way you can create a list of what you read in the table of contents and where you can find your notes on it later by page number in your journal. The hard bound physical journal works well for me because it is sturdy, doesn't require power, and I won't get distracted by browsing the internet. But you do you, it works for me. Some folks like bibliographic tools and they are really helpful when you actually go to write so take my suggestion with a grain of salt.
The other thing is that I wouldn't try to reproduce the papers. There is value in that as a grad student, but you should just try to understand the papers. Make notes about them, and do your own thing later.
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132894 | Host Institution - Marie-Curie individual fellowship
I am planning to apply for a Marie-Curie individual fellowship. Should I be already a Postdoctoral Fellow at a particular University, which will also be the host Institution? In other words, could I assign a host Institution and in case that I receive the fellowship, I can then start working on it?
thank you
For Marie Curie fellowships you shouldn't already be employed by the host institution. These fellowships are meant to encourage mobility so you must apply to go to some other place.
could I assign a host Institution and in case that I receive the fellowship, I can then start working on it?
Yes that's exactly the principle. However be careful: you don't just pick a host institution, the key factor in these fellowships is to have a strong research plan prepared in collaboration with the host institution.
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135317 | Professor reaction to sci-hub articles
Suppose hypothetically I download certain new research articles from sci-hub which I read and eventually liked. Now if I contact the authors for follow up question/discussion, then is it a good idea to tell them that I read their papers through scihub (if they ask me how did I get I came across his paper).
Related, if not duplicate: Is it illegal to cite books that were illegally downloaded or accessed from a library?
Even if the chance of them caring is small, why do you need to mention where you got those papers in the first place?
I cannot tell you what authors would care in general, but I can tell you that most authors I know would not care at all. No one gets a dime from a paper anyway.
I advise you however to not mention such a detail: it's actually irrelevant in that context, because you would be writing to discuss the content of the paper, not the ways to get access. When you write to someone, especially someone you don't know, avoid irrelevant details: people are busy.
Also admitting that you got the paper off Scihub can get you into legal trouble (since the main difficulty with prosecution is identifying the people who're pirating the papers).
If an author were actually curious about how you accessed their article, they would probably ask. I would suggest simply not mentioning it (since they probably don't care).
As an aside, one way to access articles behind a paywall is to contact the author directly. Many journals provide authors with links which give free access to the article.
Jup, that worked very well not only during the Elsevier blackout in a few European countries a while ago. Publishers basically love to get their articles stolen given away for free if the alternative is that they are not read (and later cited) at all.
Publishers' practices do sometimes seem designed to drive researchers to sci-hub.
Ignoring legality, Sci-hub has the best interface ever to get a paper. Via the publishers' sites, it's usually (1) search for title on Google (2) browse through results because it's not always the first one (3) land on a paper page with a different layout for each publisher (4) hunt for a tiny "pdf" button (5) the "pdf" button sends you to a "smart version" of the paper, ugly, slow to load and with 100% more tracking (6) hunt for another tiny "no, I really want the pdf" button (7) finally download it.
In my field, nearly every paper (or at least a preliminary version) is posted to arXiv. Publishers participate in this system since they have no option otherwise. Of course, this is preferable to sci-hub since authors themselves control whats accessible. I feel arXiv has the UX you desire (nice interface, easy pdf access), but without the issues of legality (and watermarks). I wish more disciplines systematically participated in such a preprint system.
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143766 | Citing abstract only papers/conference proceedings
I'm doing my MS in Astronomy and Astrophysics so almost all of the literature I need is readily available on NASA ADS website (ui.adsabs.harvard.edu) with links to downloadable PDFs and HTML articles. But sometimes I come across conference proceedings, or some old articles where only abstract is available for reading but it DOES contain what I'm looking for.
Since I can't read the whole thing, is it okay to cite that?
Apart from the original links to downloadable PDFs, if something I want to cite is in the abstract but I want to dig deeper and the paper is not available for download in any form, should I look for other papers that have same information and are available or can I use sci-hub. And how fair is it to use sci-hub?
It is a bit risky to cite papers having seen only the abstract. You might be able to contact the original authors in some cases for more complete versions.
But, the safe and approved way to get access to papers that aren't easily available online, or available only by conflicting with with ethical considerations, is to go to your local library and ask the librarian there to get you a copy. Academic/university libraries are best, of course, but most libraries have some sort of access, directly or indirectly to nearly everything.
Moreover, a research librarian at a good library is a tremendous resource for finding obscure things and even related things you don't know exist.
Just for my own clarification, let's say I needed a device's operating range and i did find the value of said range in which it is operating in the abstract only. Will it still be wrong, as I am only picking a certain value reference from there. Thank you for your feedback, I'll check in with my librarian too.
No, it isn't wrong, just risky. The case you cite is probably fine, unless it relies on information in the paper that you haven't examined. Not every paper comes to the correct conclusion. In general, you want to see the argument that confirms the conclusion.
Thank you, I'll be sure to keep it in mind.
should I look for other papers that have same information and are available
That too; but it doesn't replace reading the actual paper you're citing.
Something else you could do is contact the authors and ask for a copy of the paper.
or can I use sci-hub.
Yes, I suggest you use SciHub.
... how fair is it to use sci-hub?
It is morally and ethically justified; and its use is by now ubiquitous. This use is also probably legal in most countries, although in many countries it is in somewhat of a gray area (and perhaps, in some countries, strictly illegal); but promoting the use of Sci-Hub or similar initiatives is important to degrade the usurious restrictions on the sharing of scientific information which publishers have enforced for so long; as free access to papers becomes the norm, it becomes ludicrous to try and prevent it, and complete legalization will likely follow.
Note that you do not have to explain how you got access to papers you are citing; and I've not heard of anyone being asked to do so.
There are other posts here on Academia.SX which regard this question; see the scihub tag.
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139712 | Is it safe to use up all the words available in a word count limit when submitting a journal article?
Let's say that a journal article submission wordcount limit is 10,000 words. Does this mean that only really awesome or important submissions should be over 9,500 words? Or any article can be at 9,999 without predisposing the editors against it?
If you have 9,000 words, do not try to add new words only to get closer to the limit.
If you have 9,999 words, do not remove words merely to get further from the limit.
Submit no more than 10,000 words unless you ask permission (sometimes there is flexibility in the word count, sometimes not).
In summary, use the limit as given and don't concern yourself with gaming the system beyond that.
These sorts of strategies and games might have a place in standardized testing but they don't have much place in research.
I'm sure someone may say, "depends on the paper" or "the discipline". However, generally speaking, these limits are guidelines to prevent the submission and processing of articles that just do not fit the parameters of the journal. So don't go over (without permission, there may be a bit of leeway).
However, no editor is going to say, "this could be a good article, but it's too close to the limit, so I spike it." If it's potentially publishable, it will go to peer review. And then be treated per the results of the peer review.
If your paper is too wordy for its content and importance, the peer reviews may be less good and the editor is more likely to pass on it. You should also expect peer reviews may point to sections which are too detailed or superfluous, or -- more likely -- highlight areas you should augment. You will then have to fight how to create space for the revisions requested, what to cut out, or plead for extra space. So by and large, if a journal's limit is n words, I would hesitate to try to place an article there where my first submitted draft was more than 0.9 n, say, just because I expect difficulties further on. And I would be doubly careful if I ended up at 9,999 vs a limit of 10,000 after careful chiseling already, since I've never had a minor revisions or revise-and-resubmit that didn't end up growing the paper at least a bit.
I'd be a bit more careful with journals that say "typical papers are n words, but exceptionally up to m > n words". They are telegraphing that their limits are flexible for the right paper, but it had better be something special if you're at m-1 with your submission. That being said, exceptions can always be made. My spouse, not in my field, has anchored an author team that got a highly important systematic review published in a special issue all on its own of a fairly important journal since the paper's required length to be comprehensive required more pages than the journal's typical single issue, never mind single paper. And I've seen important research papers in my old field, math, that have been split into 2 or 3 somewhat arbitrarily chosen subarticles due to the length, and then all published in a specific top journal. But that's rare.
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119665 | How to order and divide up "Invited journal articles", "Journal articles", and "Conference articles" on a CV?
I recently presented a paper at a conference, and it appeared in the proceedings of the conference. I have now been invited to submit an extended version of the paper to a special issue of a journal. This issue will contain the top papers from the conference (but not all papers that appeared in the proceedings). This is relatively common practice in my field of computer science.
I already have listed some journal articles on my CV that were submitted without invitation and accepted. Assuming this most recent article is accepted to the journal special issue, would it make sense to divide my publications list into 'invited' and 'regular' papers?
Specifically, I am considering two options for headings:
"Invited journal articles", "Journal articles", "Conference articles" (i.e. split up)
"Journal articles", "Conference articles" (i.e. leave combined)
Possible duplicate of How should I cite an invited paper?
How is that a duplicate? The linked question is about citing an invited paper in a research article, not about how to list it in a CV.
Citation and listing things on a CV are quite similar, but I see your point. The title of the question also seems to have been edited, which makes it less like the one I found.
I'm not in computer science, so I'm not sure if these three headings would be a standard everyone adheres to. Still, generally speaking, you have some freedom in how to organize a CV. However, splitting a section into two doesn't look great if you don't have enough stuff to put under the new headings. Instead of making a new heading for a single invited journal article, I would suggest leaving it as one section, and marking articles to highlight noteworthy aspects (e.g. invited, won best paper award, featured on cover page, etc.).
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119797 | Is it okay to cite the same source in two consecutive sentences?
I am writing a paper (about the usage of renewable energies) and I have the following sentences:
"In 2016, wind and PV contributed about 12% of Europe's electricity supply [SOURCE1]. A study carried out by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission concludes that a tripling of this contribution is needed in order to reach the 2030 target [SOURCE1]"
Is it okay to cite SOURCE1 in two consecutive senteces. I am talking about naming the source. Or is it more advisable to use the source information only once at the end of the second sentence like:
"
In 2016, wind and PV contributed about 12% of Europe's electricity supply. A study carried out by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission concludes that a tripling of this contribution is needed in order to reach the 2030 target [SOURCE1]
"
I appreciate your input. Thanks in advance.
How big is SOURCE1? If it is more than a few pages, cite not only SOURCE1, but also the page number (or another way to find that spot without reading the whole paper). Then, of course, use separate reference if the reference it for different pages.
You might look into "ibid." and "loc. cit." Although I rarely see them used in my field (mathematics), they were quite popular with English teachers when I was in high school and college. So I conjecture they're approved by style guides.
Is it ok from an academic point of view? Absolutely. It is never wrong to cite a source that you use. However, it might be "wrong" from an flow-of-the-text point of view. I would sidestep the issue by just reformulating the two sentences. Something along the following lines would perhaps resolve your problem:
"As noted in [SOURCE1], wind and PV contributed about 12% of Europe's electricity supply in 2016. That study, carried out by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, concludes that a tripling of this contribution is needed in order to reach the 2030 target."
or even
"As noted by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, wind and PV contributed about 12% of Europe's electricity supply in 2016 [SOURCE1]. There, it is concluded that a tripling of this contribution is needed in order to reach the 2030 target."
I would say it is absolutely acceptable to cite the sources like in your example. From the stylistic point of view, a number of people take references to be annotations which are not supposed to interact with the grammar, in the sense that they are not grammatically part of the sentence, thus repeating a reference is not like frequent usage of a single word or phrase.
While @Phil's suggestion is great for the cases where your claims can be reformulated, sometimes that is not possible, in which case your suggested style is the way to go. In the following example, reference [1] is first used as a general, survey reference, and in the following sentence to back a specific technique explored as part of the survey along with some other examples, so wrapping it up to a single mention would not be practical.
The first step the process of fruity entertainment process is typically fruit juggling [1]. Most commonly employed tools are various tropical fruits such as mango [1], pineapple [2] and papaya [3].
[1] B. I. G. Authority: Survey of fruity entertainment strategies.
[2] P. Ine-Apple: Advances in fruity entertainment through the use of pineapple.
[3] P. Apaya: The importance of tropical fruit for fruity entertainment.
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27776 | Is it okay to let body text follow immediately after intermediate level headings?
Let's say we have a thesis/scientific paper with a sectioning depth of three [chapter, section, subsection]. I already often wondered:
Is it okay to have text outside of the lowest level, i. e. subsections?
For instance giving the introduction to / overview of a chapter is that done right after the chapters headline (or sections headline) or in the first subsection appearing in the same chapter?
What does the style guide of your target publication say?
Is it okay — To whom? It's certainly fine with me, but why should my opinion matter?
For what it’s worth, there are also people who hold the opinion that there must be some text between, e.g., a section header and a subsection header.
If you'd looked at other theses in your institution (they're all in the library) or other papers in the venue you intend to publish in, you would have found your answer immediately.
I like both answers, just one remark: Please, don't create solitaires, i.e., subsections that don't have a sibling.
In my view, it is perfectly acceptable. It often helps readability, and logically it makes sense (a good example is the "introduction before subsections" that you cited).
That said, some people hate it, and I have already encountered referees who wanted me to change it. I haven't been able to infer a reasonable motivation up to now, so I would be interested in reading arguments in its favor.
Academic papers typically have no table of contents, so there is even less motivation for enforcing a strict tree-like structure.
Approval. I have read publications that felt like their main contents were introductions. After two pages my only though was: "bring it on". One surely should still focus on the content and add an introduction only if absolutely necessary.
From my point of view, the answer to your question depends on the content that you refer to by introduction and overview as well as the actual number of sub-sections to a respective level. I consider a sub-section to be an actual subsection as stated in your question as well as a section within a chapter.
The actual content should always be placed within the respective sub-section. Sectioning is supposed to help a reader finding content of interest fast.
Kind of Introduction
Depending what you aim to introduce (specialties of a method vs. a rather general field of study), the introduction should be placed within or outside of the sub-section.
Kind of Overview
Usually, I would expect an overview to be outside of the specific sub-sections of content. One may say, that an overview works out to be the same as an introduction to a rather general field of study, cf. Kind of Introduction.
Number of Sub-sections
The more different sub-sections you have with regard to a level, the more important I find an overview to interrelate these. Since I do not know which sub-sections to read a-priori, I expected an overview that sketches and relates the entire content right after the chapter/section heading. Depending on how interrelated the topics in your sub-sections actually are, this introduction/overview may be longer or shorter.
+1 for the introduction before the subsections in your answer. :)
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105329 | What does it mean when a manuscript submission systems lists the status of a paper as "Archived"?
I submitted a paper in journal. After one day status is Archived. What is meaning of it? I did't get any communication information. Thanks.
My first guess about the meaning of "archived" would be that the existence of your paper has been recorded in the journal's database, but nothing else has been done with it.
Ok ..... It means it will consider late on ?? Thanks ....
@Andreas Blass i mailed to editor but no reply even after 5 days. Now what can I do?
My best guess is that the editor is unavailable at the moment --- sick or traveling or on vacation or ... --- so the journal's administrative staff is just holding on to the paper until the editor returns.
It is frustrating. It has also happened to me. There is no communication from the journal.
This will depend on what system the journal is using, what processes the editors are following, what that editor in question was thinking that day, and maybe other factors.
Point being that there is no way for you -- or in fact, anyone -- to know for sure. You have two choices:
Ask the editor.
Have patience.
I would suggest the second. You will get a notification in due time when someone has made a decision. You can also look up what turn-around time the journal strives for (say, 3 months) and then round about that time email the editor if you haven't heard back until then. But after just a single day, the only reasonable answer is: Have patience!
I mailed to editor but no reply even after 5 days. Now what can I do?
Now what? Go to step 2: have patience. If there is no change after a month, then take further action.
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75004 | Is it appropriate to show that a conference paper is prestigious by comparing the conference rejection rate to that of Science and Nature?
I have a paper accepted as an oral presentation at a conference that has an acceptance rate of 3.5 %. My field is computer vision and the conference is CVPR, the largest and most important international conference. In my field, conferences, rather than journals, are the main publication medium.
In a cover letter I am writing, I want to reinforce how prestigious it is to have such a paper accepted, especially to a non-expert audience. Now, I know that Science / Nature have acceptance rates of around 7%, so I was thinking of writing something like the following:
"I recently had a paper accepted as an oral presentation at CVPR, at an acceptance rate of 3.5 %, which is half that of the Science and Nature journals."
Does this read well? Or does it sound arrogant? And is putting this in context with Science and Nature necessary, or is the acceptance rate itself ok on its own?
Thanks!
My immediate reaction to this is "No. Just.... no."
Haha! Fair enough...is that because it sounds arrogant / contrived?
But surely folks in your area (presumably related to the jobs that you are writing said cover letter for) will know what CVPR is?
No they will not. It is a very general panel, who do not work even in computer science, let alone computer vision. They will be chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, civil engineers... They will never have even heard of CVPR before.
Acceptance rates do not tell the whole story. Most researchers have a rough idea of what to submit and what not to submit to Nature/Science.
I think it might be a good idea to mention the low acceptance rate, but omit the comparison to Science and Nature. Let them figure that part out themselves. Many engineers will have no idea that conferences are highly regarded in computer science, or that some conferences have low acceptance rates (I work with engineers).
I agree with @Significance: your best bet is probably just to put the acceptance rate in brackets, as in "oral presentation at CVPR (acceptance rate 3.5%)". Comparing it to Science or Nature just makes you sound like a twit, which is probably not the impression you want to give. (Separately though, congratulations on getting an oral at CVPR - I work in the field, so I know that it's a big deal.)
For the record, the reason it would make you sound like a twit is not so much to do with arrogance, and more to do with giving the impression that in not having the Science or Nature paper that you appear to really, really want, you're having to resort to convincing yourself that your actual accomplishment is even better. That comes across not as arrogance but as insecurity, in a context in which your actual accomplishment is cool and should be providing you with sufficient reassurance that you're a good researcher. Getting a CVPR oral is cool (and difficult), it's not a consolation prize :)
No, or this is the best journal ever.
Notice that in general acceptance rate isn't, taken singularly, a good indicator of high/low quality; it is just the ratio between accepted papers and submitted papers. If most submissions to a journals are of very low level, that makes it a low level journal. On the other hand, if most submissions to one particular journal are very high level, that makes the journal high level too.
I recall a press release (can't find a link now) about a newly opened Wal Mart. The associate selection rate was claimed to be lower than Harvard's undergrad selection rate. Whether the claim is true or not, it is certainly plausible to me.
If your audience is a non-expert, even saying an acceptance rate of 10% has almost no meaning. You are better off saying ... a paper accepted in the leading conference on X.
I am a CS researcher and I know the reputation of CVPR conference.
Please see the following situations:
People submit to Science/Nature journals when they see that their work is highly qualitative and could give a high level of contribution to the scientific world. It is not like someone does a small thing and submits. So, if 1000 papers are submitted to journals like this and only 450 gets accepted then, the acceptance rate is far high.
However, similar case as above does not happen in conferences. Anyone can submit anything, even if it is a small contribution.
Please remember, it is NOT WISE to compare conference with such journals. Journals are far better than conferences given the amount of contribution you may find in the published works.
Anyone can submit anything, even if it is a small contribution. -- That may be true in principle, and even in practice at CVPR, but conferences in other parts of computer science see a lot of self-selection, exactly for the reasons you ascribe to the tabloids.
Journals are far better than conferences -- ...in many fields, but not all.
I agree if we see the h-index of few conferences are far better than journals in the same field. yes @JeffE
It has nothing to do with h-indices. In many subfields of computer science, conferences are the primary publication venue, and journals are simply viewed as less important or not important at all.
Yes, they are the primary publication venue because the peer-review results from journals are very slow. But, conferences provide you quick (at least not longer than journals) feedback on your work.@JeffE
And, I don't agree with your saying In many subfields of computer science, conferences are the primary publication venue, and journals are simply viewed as less important or not important at all. @JeffE
Taken on its own, the acceptance/rejection rate is not particularly useful as a measure of quality or "prestige" since journals often also differ by the average quality of submissions they receive. In theory, it would be entirely possible to have a journal that receives such a large volume of low-quality submissions that even with a low acceptance rate it still publishes a lot of garbage. Similarly, it is possible to have a journal that receives such high quality submissions that even with a high acceptance rate it still publishes only high-quality paper.
Of course, this does not mean that the acceptance/rejection rate is useless in conveying information. It just means that you are missing another piece of information that pairs with this metric. For this reason, I recommend you remove your comparison to Science and Nature. It is not so much that this sounds arrogant, but it shows a lack of appreciation for the fact that these latter journals tend to attract high quality papers from across many scientific fields. It is likely that these journals have a higher baseline of submission quality than a conference proceeding, which means that their higher acceptance rate may still reflect a higher quality requirement for publication.
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48756 | How to protect your unpublished ideas?
My advisor introduced a new student in my work saying that I am doing X,Y,Z and he will be doing A,B,C. I was asked to explain X and share all the data, results, reports, all related publications etc to enable the student to do A,B,C. Once I have explained him X, Y, and shared my data and future plans, he changed/abandoned his directions and submits a paper with another lab collaborator and my advisor on my key idea X without even letting me know anything. After somehow finding it, I politely asked them about it. They were apologetic and both these students agreed through email exchanges that it was not their work and that they should have credited me. They also agreed that this should not have happened after a little confrontation.
I know, my advisor is fully aware of the whole situation, and this was done deliberately. I am not able get out of this whole situation for a long time. Taking a fight with my advisor or the students is not an option. How would you all handle this situation effectively? How can you protect your ideas that are unpublished but you have been asked /instructed to share with others? Even I have experienced situation where the supervisor himself misuse and steals student work without giving credit to the student who did it. So a tough question is, how do you protect your ideas from being stolen by your advisor?
Something does not feel right with your question. How you work on your idea and just by telling this idea to the other students, they were able to publish faster? What were you doing in the meanwhile?
I was targeting a journal ( that is hard, needed regor and has high impact factor) and the students submitted it to a easy conference. I was out for attending two conference for over a month and in my absence ...
Sounds like you have a fantastic advisor. Find another, and do it fast.
2 years ago you had the same problem. You should have changed advisor then. On the other hand, you seem to over believe in your idea, without any real proof (only talk by your advisor and no publications). If your idea was that good, why did they publish in an easy conference? Makes no sense. Your previous post said you had this idea for 2 years. Why have not you published anything for two years? If an idea is that good, waiting to publish for 3 years is silly, because it is enough time for someone to come up with a similar idea and scoop you...(continued)
...In those type of situations there is only one solution. Wrap up your idea soon (e.g. one month from now), select a journal that allows preprints uploaded on Arxiv (e.g. Springer, ACM, Elsevier) upload to Arxiv and concurrently submit to the journal. Even if you get a rejection, Arxiv establishes your priority. Of course, you must now probably cite the other works of your "advisor" referring to your idea.
How to protect your unpublished ideas? — Publish them.
Taking a fight with my advisor or the students is not an option. How would you all handle this situation effectively? — Have a direct conversation (not "fight") with your advisor. If that does not resolve the situation to your satisfaction, change advisors immediately, even if that means moving to a different country.
Could it be that even though you came out up with idea X, you are unable or the incorrect person to execute on X? Hence, your advisor decided to get another student to do it to give the idea life as soon as possible; i.e., supervisor wants to be credited for it regardless of which student does it. If that's the case, then there is nothing much you can do about it. The key is to have plenty of ideas and move on. And yes, I agree with the others, change supervisor.
Use the internet and a third-party hosting site (not affiliated with you) that keeps track of date and time for every file or page your write (preferably one that also backs up data). The material must be available in some way (if anyone knows how to get to it), but this does not have to be advertised in any way. Tell at least one trusted friend that understands your work it`s location.
In this way your material remains practically invisible, but time-stamped like a research log. As it is a neutral, 3rd-party site, it should be usable as evidence in your favor. As the material was put on the web, viewed by others, it is citable and, in theory, has been published to some limited degree.
Are there any specific websites/services that are typically used for this ?
Obviously your idea is not 'protected' as someone else might have the same idea and/or a subset of that, and make a publication/patent out of it before you do; and you can't claim that the person stole it through your brain waves!
Write down the introduction and background to that idea you have, and prove that it is your contribution through case studies and evaluations, and submit it to be published in a conference as a poster or a paper.
At least here in Chile (and I suspect elsewhere isn't so different) your work for a degree belongs to the school. There is nothing "yours" to protect, legally. And morally, your work was instigated and supervised by faculty, so it isn't all yours anyway.
Well, sounds like I should be glad not to be a student in Chile. I presume students in Chile publish under their own name, and not simply under the name of their university, though, right?
I think it is a perspective that one should consider, maybe less harshly, but a valid one. Projects are essentially joint projects, so not only a supervisor have obligations, but a student has the obligation to go forward, too. If he fails, in certain circumstances other members of the lab has the right to move on or pick up where the project was halted.
@Earthliŋ my PhD thesis in USA belongs to them for (re)printing rights and such. I'm not completely clear on details, but here I do have that clear.
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44609 | Authorship and reputation for British/Australian academic systems
I have recently been offered a position for a "postdoc" (fixed term level A position) in Australia.
In the British/Australian (and European) academic systems, career progression is very different from the United States, as outlined in this answer.
In my field (a subset of engineering) we have an authorship order for publications based on contribution level, with the last author being the PI/Advisor of the lab (receiving a lot of credit in the process).
In the British/Australian systems, there is an expectation to informally supervise a few students for post docs. I have been informed that I will be expected to help supervise or actually supervise students and perhaps obtain my own funding as well. In the US most post docs in my field exclusively focus on research, and nearly always get first author.
Additionally, if I'm moved to a B and/or C level academic (sort of like assistant and associate professor respectively here in the US) this supervision and funding responsibility will increase. This part is similar to the United States for a tenure track associate professor.
The difference between the US and the UK/AUS systems is that at the B academic level, I still would not be a professor, and I would have a PI above me. This brings up the authorship question...
Given the different structure between the two systems, does the UK/AUS system dilute the competitiveness and career advancement of junior academics in the UK/AUS system, especially if they intend to migrate back to the US academic system?
The reason that I ask is because in the US, once you are an assistant professor, you will get last author on any papers produced by your lab, but in the UK/AUS system, there may be a professor in charge of junior academics (assistant and associate professor equivalents) who would instead receive last author. This then dilutes the rating of the junior academics among their peers, because they become a middle author instead of the last author.
If this isn't the actual practice, please correct me.
Academics in Australia are usually on temporary contracts or on continuing contracts. Levels, however, don't directly relate to job permanency in Australia. For example, it's possible for an experienced postdoc (temporary, employed on PI's grant) to be paid at level B (starting rate is typically level A; step 6) and it's also possible for an academic to be appointed at level B for a continuing position (similar to tenure track). Although some level Bs will be on continuing positions, it's also possible for an academic at level C to not have a continuing appointment (e.g. a Future Fellow whose dept. has not committed to support him/her after the fellowship runs out). Yet they are still at level C because that is the appropriate level for their career stage (i.e. IF they had a permanent position, they would be appointed at level C). Most of these people, however, can leverage such a fellowship into a continuing position and start their own lab. This is similar to starting a tenure track position in the USA.
I think it's best to think of levels as representing career stage not the type of job (i.e. the level does not determine whether an academic is on a temporary or permanent contract, especially at levels A/B). You don't rise through the levels from a temporary contract to a permanent position - you must separately apply for a continuing position. This is analogous to how postdocs must apply for tenure track positions in the USA.
With regards to authorship, I think this is very group dependent. Typically postdocs run their own research and get first author while also supervising honours/PhD students and getting a second/middle author paper for that work. The way you describe this in your question (postdocs getting middle author papers but few/no first author papers) does not fit with my experience in Australia but it might occur in some groups. You could, however, find groups like this anywhere in the world. This is something you need to discuss with your potential advisor.
Note: this post has been heavily edited from the initial version to address questions in the comments.
Thanks for the answer. I asked for B because I do have experience (in industry) but they don't want to go that high. They said that B is the start of something "like tenure track," i.e., they are on probation to produce results in order to obtain the continuing appointment.
So suppose that you are a C level, still managed by an actual professor, and on continuing appointment, how does that change the answer to my question? Will the C level "tenured" academic still not get last author papers because the professor whom they are working for receives it instead?
Also, I clarified my question, I was under the impression that B is equivalent to "assistant professor" and C is equivalent to "associate professor."
One more question, I will have a PhD and about 6 years of very relevant industry experience, should I have been offered to start at level B?
Postdocs can't reach level C as far as I know. Level C will typically be a continuing appointment (i.e. similar to tenure track) so you wouldn't be working under a PI. Level B can be a continuing position but it can also be a payscale for experienced postdocs (perhaps it's best to think of level B as a payscale not a promotion scale). I'm not sure how common it is for postdocs to start at level B so I can't help you there but I do know of postdocs with a lot of experience that have been bumped up from A to B. However, I'm not sure how far up level B postdocs can go.
@daaxix The appointment level should have been part of the advertisement. If they advertised for Level A and you applied for Level A then it would be really hard to be offered a Level B appointment regardless of experience. You might be able to jump the steps a bit faster though...
I think of it the phases like this in Australia. First, you postdoc (normally level A), either paid or a fellowship (e.g. a DECRA). You then try to leverage that into a continuing ('full time') position (level B+). It's more complicated than this because some DECRAs (early career fellowship) have continuing positions and may be appointed at level B or C while some future fellows (mid career fellowship) don't have continuing positions (even though they'll be appointed at level C or D). A high level doesn't imply you have a continuing position.
So basically you can't look at the levels as equating with a position. For example, a DECRA fellow could be a 'postdoc' under an advisor (at level A or B) or have continuing appointment at level C with their own lab.
The difference between the US and the UK/AUS systems is that at the B
academic level, I still would not be a professor, and I would have a
PI above me.
This largely depends on the type of appointment you get.
Since your appointment is a fixed term position, it means that the funding for the position probably comes from a research project and there is a PI (probably a professor or an associate professor) who is managing it / acquired the funding. This would make you a Research Associate and your position is pretty much tied to this person who manages the funding and I would not be surprised if he/she is the last author of the publications.
At the same time, Level B is the appointment level for a Lecturer in an academic position, teaching only (quite rare) or combined teaching & research (most probable). At this appointment, where you are also expected to teach throughout the semester, you are part of the operating fund of the School - Faculty and you will not have someone as a direct supervisor except the Head of School. You will probably have others in the same broad area of expertise but not someone as the PI in the previous case.
Also levels are used mainly for salary and promotions. Your initial appointment is at Level A, Step 6 (A6) and each year you move one step to A7 and A8. After that you have to apply for a promotion and move to Level B.
These are, in a broad sense, the dynamics of level B appointments (you are either "research" or "academic") and this will probably define authorship.
I think the important thing for OP to understand is that moving from level A to B does not necessarily change your 'job title'. An experienced postdoc can move from A to B but still be a postdoc while another person could be appointed to level B with a continuing position - both at level B but both on very different career trajectories at that point in time.
This is a good answer, so to clarify, if I progressed to something like a level C continuing appointment academic, even though my "supervisor" would probably be a professor, in most cases I would have my own lab, and hence receive last author instead of the my official supervisor, who likely holds an official "professor" title? So generally, continuing academics have their "own lab" similar to the United States?
You won't progress from a level A or B postdoc to a level C continuing appointment - you'd need to be hired for a continuing position appointed at level C. It's not much different to how postdocs in the USA don't progress from a postdoc to a tenure track job - they apply for and are hired for a tenure track position. Think of a postdoc in Australia as a postdoc in the USA and a continuing position in Australia as a tenure track position in the USA - they are two very different things. Levels don't directly relate to job permanency (e.g. a level B could be continuing and a level C contract).
As @user49483 mentions you need to be appointed to this level. Also there are 3 steps on Level A from your appointment and 6 steps in Level B so under normal career progression it would take 9 years and 2 promotion applications to reach Level C. Of course if you perform exceptionally you can jump steps and levels if those above you agree.
@user49483, I have been told what o4tlulz stated, basically if I do well I will have a chance to change to the "tenure equivalent" track. However, this still doesn't clarify my question, does a C level continuing academic typically receive last author and run his/her own lab, or does their supervising professor receive last author, for the engineering fields?
@daaxix In order to be promoted to Level C, you'd have to demonstrate sufficient academic leadership that probably will be on your own. You might not necessarily have your own lab to run, but probably you will be expected to run your own research projects and supervise your own students - apply for grant money by yourself and have last authorship of your papers.
Part1. @daaxix I still think you are missing the point. As o4tlulz says you can be appointed at level C if you show sufficient ability but you won't rise step by step until all of a sudden you find yourself at level C - in the same way that a postdoc in the US isn't going to find themselves smoothly transitioning into a tenure track position. That isn't how the academic levels/steps work. Of course if you showed sufficient ability you could be appointed at level C if such an opening arose, but this is analogous to a postdoc applying for a tenure track position in the USA.
Part2. If you were appointed at level C it's very unlikely you'd be still be working under a professor - if a university hires a level C to do research then they would expect that person is able to conduct independent research/run their own lab (otherwise they'd just hire somebody who could). So really I feel this is much ado about nothing - the systems really aren't as different as you seem to think they are. A typical progression in Australia is postdoc -> fellowship (or two) (normally start a small group) -> continuing job offer at level B or C (start a bigger group) -> move up levels
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101285 | What to do when a co-author submitted corrected proofs without the first author's knowledge?
I finished my PhD studies about a year ago, and am no longer working at the university. My supervisor, and co-author of three papers, urged me to work with him on the fourth paper in order to get it published. In fact, his contribution to the paper was very small. He should act as corresponding author and deal with the submission, which -- I thought -- would be a relieve. However, this did not work out. First, he made changes to the revised version of our manuscript before submitting it, which resulted in a revised paper among other things missing a figure.
The paper was accepted anyway, and we received the uncorrected proofs. I cannot say exactly why, but although I told him I am working on it (which he said did not notice), my co-author just submitted the corrected proofs without my knowledge. Now, among other errors, a whole paragraph is missing, and I fear this version of the paper is published online very soon.
I am really disappointed and angry. I make a lot of mistakes myself, and I do not expect my co-author to agree in everything I write, but does team work not imply that you inform your team before submitting the final work?
Of course, I tried to submit a revised version of the corrected proofs and convince the journal to use these, but I assume this is pointless. Once the proofs are uploaded there is usually nothing that can be done.
Maybe, there is no real question here, besides: What can I do now?
Which field/journal is this? I cannot add or remove a paragraph when submitting the corrected proofs, such changes would require approval by the editor or even reviewers. Can you?
It is an mdpi journal and the paper was submitted as a word document. I don't know how he managed to delete the paragraph, but it has disappeared. The editor made a comment on this paragraph so that it appeared underlined. I supect someone just hit delete.
Of course, I tried to submit a revised version of the corrected proofs and convince the journal to use these, but I assume this is pointless.
It isn't! This happens very frequently. But do talk to some human contact person (at least via email) to make sure this is accepted.
Team work
It seems like there hasn't been much team work. Talk to your former advisor, directly, on the phone; tell him you want to coordinate the proof work with him, and mention that in the currently submitted versions there are problems X, Y and Z. This should piss him off.
Don't leave this to email - either face-to-face or voice call, for a stronger impression and sense of urgency.
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204180 | Reserve list for a postdoc position
I've recently interviewed for a postdoc position and the day after the interview I was notified that I was first on the reserve list. I am just wondering if there are anyone out here has any experience with being on the reserve list and could tell me how long did it take for the final update to come in, and if there have been any success stories.
Thanks!
This depends on how many offers were made and the time given for a reply. If it is several offers then you might hear something in less than a couple of weeks if one of the offers is declined early. If only one, then they wait until they hear. But expect a couple of weeks, at least.
If you haven't heard in two weeks you could ask if there are updates.
Caveat. I'm not in your target group, but this is just how things work in general. They want closure if possible.
The notification that you are first on the reserve list for the postdoc position means that you were not their preferred choice, but that they would be very happy to hire you if their preferred choice declined the offer.
As such, it is impossible to predict how long the process will take. This will depend on how much time they give their preferred choice to respond to offers and also how quickly the preferred candidate responds to the offer (they might not need all the time given to them).
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17990 | Should I put my h-index on my CV?
I'm finishing my PhD and looking for postdoc jobs. I've published a decent number of papers (and also have a fair number of citations), and want to emphasize this on my CV.
Should I actually state my h-index on my CV? If so, is Google Scholar the easiest/best way to compute this?
2014.03.12 EDIT:
Thanks for the advice. I had originally planned to put my h-index at the head
of my list of publications (as a clickable link to my Google Scholar profile).
Based on the advice from many of you I will just omit this altogether for now.
My scholar profile is easy to find (for potential PIs who care about such
metrics), and not explicitly stating my h-index myself avoids any negative
connotations among those who object to the h-index or calculating it via Google
Scholar (e.g. Google includes self-citations, arXiv/non peer-reviewed papers
etc).
A range of statistics can be useful in providing a quick snapshot of your research productivity. Common statistics include: number of refereed journal publications; number of publications that meet a criteria such as you being first author or the journal being above a certain impact factor or on a discipline specific list of quality journals; h-index; total amount of grant funding; etc. These would supplement a complete list of your publications.
With regards to h-index, Google Scholar will give you the largest value and its arguably the implied database when a h-index is provided without qualification.
I know that some people on this site object to the bureaucratic reductionism that can result from using measures like h-indices, impact factors and the like. Nonetheless, just because they are imperfect, does not prevent them from being useful. Such measures should not replace actually reading your work to assess its quality, but they can be useful in getting a rough handle on the impact and status of your research.
In terms of anecdotes, I have read several promotion applications that have successfully incorporated a range of such summary statistics to make the case for promotion. h-index, total grant funding, total publications, average teaching scores are all evidence, albeit imperfect that decision makers who are often outside your area will use to decide how to allocate resources like jobs, promotions, etc.
I would say no for two main reasons. The first one is the h-index will change rapidly with time, particularly for new graduated PhD students with only few years of publication history. The second one is that the h-index provides only a little information, the only possible values are likely 3,4 and 5 which can be increased with some luck.
I have read only few dozens of CV of PhD, but none of them really put down their h-index. Probably, a better way is to highlight the most important papers that you think which can represent you research interest and your contribution. It might be better to provide a clickable link to your Google Scholar profile in application email rather than in CV.
As for the h-index, Google Scholar indeed provides an easiest way to obtain it. However, I have some doubt on it as it also counts those citation from unrefereed papers, such as those in arXiv, and even worst, publications from some journal articles that can be written by anyone. It seems to me there are ways to play with the system, in particular, for small number of citation. But I think that it is somehow representative.
"the only possible values are likely 3,4 and 5" [citation needed]
To clarify, I have known finished PhD students in my field with Google Scholar h-indices in [1;18]. Granted, Google Scholar is by definition inflated, but still ...
@xLeitix Would you mind to share the link to a real example? No offence. h-index = 18 means that there are 18 publications with at least 18 citation. By the nature of power law distribution, it usually means there are 36+ publication. Suppose a 5 year PhD student, it means 7+ publications per year, and each of them attracts average 3+ citation per year. It is not counting the papers in the last year must attract 18 citations in only one year. It is possible, but not with all 7 papers. I do see a PhD with 8 h-index, but this exception is only because of the collaborations with many people.
@hwlau but if you look at enough examples you are likely to find an occurrence of the extreme (18 papers with exactly 171 citations). That said, 18 papers as a PhD student is still an outlier for most fields.
@hwlau Don't nail me to 18 concretely, but a colleague and mentor of mine who is now manager at IBM Research certainly graduated with 16 or more on Google Scholar (he is now up to 24 http://scholar.google.com.sg/citations?user=KK2le2UAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao). I myself graduated with 13 or 14, iirc. I am aware that this is a pecularity of my field, but I still think that the above statement is simply invalid.
@StrongBad In my field, 18 papers (including ones that are not first-authored, of course) is not an exception at all. Getting all those (partially really weak / minor) publications cited is more uncommon of course. To be honest, in my field, a high h-index mostly shows that a candidate knows "how to play the game" and is well-connected in the field, which may be a positive factor for many committees in its own.
@xLeitix Funny that Florian Rosenberg has had a declining number of citations each year and is now on par with a grad student.
@user1271772 He has also not worked in academia for almost 10 years, so I don't find this very surprising.
@xLeitix he's published several papers in the last 10 years, and even in the last year. They are just not getting citations.
I am not anywhere near the point where I'll be reviewing CVs, but people I know who do so tell me that whenever a CV lists things like h-index, number of citations for each paper, journal impact factors, aso, the general feeling is that the person is either a) a show-off or b) trying to hide actual content or merit behind impressive metrics. That's also the impression I get. Remember that the people who are going to read your CV know the field: what is relevant, what the good journals are, what it means to have those citations, and whether or not you are trying to boost your achievements. Also, as others have mentioned, metrics are ever-changing, data-base dependent and very easy to find by whatever means the reviewer deems appropriate. So I think your decision is the wisest.
"the people who are going to read your CV know the field" not necessarily... I was told by my university to put impact factors of journals I'd published in on a grant application, once.
Better is to put list of your academic results and publications into your CV. Good index values are fine and could be included, but put your results first. Value of index tells something about popularity of your publication, but nothing about subject matter, which is most important in CV.
Since citation counts and H-index change over time (even for a fixed set of publications) it is probably best to omit this information from your CV and instead report it in the "response to selection criteria" for relevant positions you apply for. Academic jobs usually require some evidence of a research track record (or research potential at lower levels), so you can respond by reporting information on present citations and H-index. You should also bear in mind that it is usually simple for the selection panel to look you up in a citation database and get an updated report of these metrics in real-time. For all these reasons, the CV is not a great place for this information.
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138159 | Re-entering teaching after working in the industry (in Europe)
I have finished my PhD a while ago and have since worked at the university as lecturer. Now the contract is coming to an end and I am weighing two options: (1) Teach at the university (I am much more interested in teaching than in research) or (2) work in industry.
I have done a lot of teaching during and after my PhD and consider myself to be quite good at it. However, finding such a teaching position where I live seems very difficult at the moment. Abroad, those positions seem to be more plentiful. If it is of any matter: I live in Germany. The field is mathematics.
As I am not exactly keen on leaving the country, I would like to try working in industry. However, I worry that I might miss teaching, and wonder if, after having left academia for a year or two, it would be difficult to return. Some related questions have been asked, but I fear that my lack of interest in research might give things a different spin...
Would leaving academia now be held against me if I tried to return a few years later to teach at a (possibly foreign) university?
It seems to me that in Germany you have quite some choice for teaching only positions at higher educations strucutrues:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Fachhochschulen_in_Deutschland
what do you mean with "Abroad it seems more possible": where?
While it depends on where the possibly foreign university is, I can answer for the UK (...for now, pre Brexit. Post-Brexit will just be some sort of crazy nightmare so who can say). Simply put, yes, if you were applying for a teaching-only position, having a stretch of time in industry and outside of teaching is likely to be seen as negative on balance. With numerous qualified people applying for every position, committees can pick and choose and they usually pick and choose people who have fresh teaching experience rather than someone who has been out of the game for a while. It isn't impossible to come back to teaching from industry, especially if you can show how you working in industry would be an asset to your teaching, but it's hard. Indeed I only know of examples of a move back to teaching from very few fields and it would be unlikely in mine (Social Sciencey and Artsy).
This seems correct for STEM fields also. There might be exceptions for part time teaching at the upper level in state-of-the-art subfields if that is your specific expertise, but generally not for most teaching-only positions. Easier for research oriented positions in some fields, but again, emerging disciplines.
In Finland and at least some other Nordic countries there exist universities of applied sciences (ammattikorkeakoulu/høgskole/yrkehögskola/erhvervsakademi), and possibly such institutions that have changed into or combined with universities. Germany seems to have a similar institution.
These offer less academic bachelor degrees and maybe higher degrees. They need teachers, who might or might not have some possibility or requirement for research or R&D. At least in Finland they often require the teachers to have relevant work experience, unless they are teaching general subjects (like mathematics); but I doubt relevant work experience would be a bad thing there, either.
The teaching would often happen in the local language and might require a local teaching qualification.
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62358 | Probability of acceptance when editor requests "major revisions" but one reviewer recommended "full rejection"
I recently received reviews on a paper that I submitted to an Elsevier journal, with 2 reviewers. One had some minor comments and recommended minor revisions, while the second reviewer recommended full rejection and was very vehement about it.
The second reviewer's concerns were basically that he believes that one of the databases used in the paper (which is used in many other studies published in this journal) is completely invalid, but to back up their claim they posted links to a bunch of blog articles. Overall though, they were very disparaging of the paper in almost every possible way because of that.
The editor gave the paper a "major revision" decision. While I feel like we can respond to the comments, it doesn't look like the second reviewer would be convinced regardless of what we respond if he believes that database is invalid. I've also read that if a paper gets a "full reject" recommendation from even one reviewer, the probability of it being accepted is basically zero regardless of what the other reviewers say.
Any thoughts on how to proceed?
Is it an option to add a mini-study using another database, even if for a smaller sample, as proof-of-concept to the paper?
"I've also read that if a paper gets a full reject recommendation from even one reviewer, the probability of it being accepted is basically zero regardless of what the other reviewers say." - no, that is not true.
There was a recent, notorious scandal in which the editor accepted a paper for which all reviewers recommended rejection!
I have successfully revised a paper with a reject from one reviewer, through a major revision, into an accepted article. It is definitely possible. I would write your best revision and include a very strongly (but politely and professionally) constructed and worded cover letter directly addressing the reviewer's points including the fact that using blog posts as counter evidence is outside the norms of the field. If the reviewer can point to peer-reviewed academic publications that support their negative points, then that might be sufficient evidence to reject the article, but otherwise, that evidence isn't very strong.
Indeed. The editor has not rejected it, which is a sign he sees a chance that you may be able to address the issues.
including the fact that using blog posts as counter evidence is outside the norms of the field – I slightly disagree with this. Even if the reviewer (or blog author) is a complete crank, you should be able to debunk their arguments. (There are however some exceptions, when the asker cannot be expected to do this – see my answer.)
The one deciding upon the acceptance or rejection of your paper is the editor, not the reviewers. In an extreme example, you do not need to fear that your paper is rejected due to a review saying nothing but:
I recommend to reject this paper because of fish.
The editor would just blacklist the reviewer and request another one. Of course, reality is more complex, but you can assume that editors put less value in reviews that show little effort from the reviewer’s side, resort to questionable arguments or seem entirely unbalanced in their assessment. In addition, if the authors convincingly address a reviewer’s critique, this will also go into the decision.
Regarding your particular case: If the negative review had fully convinced the editor that it is impossible or very unlikely that you salvage your paper, they would have rejected it, which they obviously didn’t. Moreover, if the journal accepts many publications using this database, the editor should be very worried if he is convinced by the reviewer’s criticism of the database. It may very well be that the editor just wants you to respond to possible minor criticisms from this reviewer and give some argument that your choice of data was valid.
Thus revise the paper as best as you can, addressing as much criticism as reasonably possible (i.e., stay true to your assessment of reality and do not change your claims just because the reviewer wants you to). In the response letter, address the reviewer’s or blogposts’ criticism of the database, which you usually should be able to do. There are a few exceptions from the latter, e.g., if you are just using data from another field as a benchmark for a method (in which case the validity of the data is not that problematic for you paper anyway), if the argument is based on extensive studies (in which case you can resort to arguing that these studies shall be peer-reviewed), or if there is a considerable gap between data acquisition and evaluation in your field (in which case, it’s not your responsibility to sort out these problems). However, if you cannot respond to the criticism at all, there may be indeed something wrong with the data.
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90567 | Whether to get different letter of recommendation when supervisor's letter is bad?
I've graduated from my previous grad school (psychology) for 2 years and now seriously considering to apply for another graduate school (or professional school at master's level), computer science in particular, for next year's entry. That was also the major of my college degree. I will be applying several Canadian schools now and hope I will be able to start a new life there.
I was extremely uncomfortable when I just got into the psychology graduate school four years ago that I didn't do well at first. Not only due to English being my second language, but also I had absolutely no background in psychology, plus the massive amount of reading filled with weird words drove me absolutely crazy. For this reason, my major advisor had me finish with a master's degree instead of PhD, which I was originally enrolled in. However, he was extremely helpful when I was doing my master's graduation project and thesis. He was helping me day and night with my work that I believe nobody else could ever help his student this much. I ended up finishing my master's level of psychology very well and left with that degree.
When I got in touch with him recently and asked him to write a letter for my next school, he said
"I will mention that at first you didn't turn out to work very quickly that you had trouble to get what I was asking done. So I had you finish with a master's degree instead of PhD. However, later you learned to work much harder and your final project and program worked very well. If you think the above contents suit you, let me know where I should send the letter."
I don't know for sure if my feeling is correct, but I feel like I will get 100% rejection even from mediocre schools I'm going to apply, if those words appear on the LOR.
Question: should I switch letter?
Concern: I didn't ever think one day in the future I will need to go back to school when I was still doing the psychology program. Thus I was't enthusiastic at all about building my connection with professors so that two other members of my thesis defense committee really don't know me very well.
This is probably the last chance for me to change my fate, I don't want to lose it.
Suggestions please, and any help is much appreciated.
It's not an ideal letter - some may take it as you being able to learn and turn things around, but, to be honest, supervisors have a lot on their plate and may choose a more straightforward ready-to-go candidate. Your prof is very honest and lets you know what they will write - that's fair of them. But if you can possible get better LOR, you probably should.
What does ROC mean?
As I see it, the adviser's reply is in order. He openly stated what the contents would be and emphasized the option to choose another letter, if it suits you more, without any implication that that act could be taken in a negative connotation.
Further, the contents seem to align with the story you told here, i.e. you started a PhD, but finished with a master's degree. He states you strengths and weaknesses, which is to be expected. What is more important, he intends to accentuate you growth during your studies. This is a powerful statement from his side. As I see it, his response is objective.
Additionally, given the fact that your adviser was extremely helpful during your graduation ("day and night"), which I understand him to have taken on extra effort to see you graduate, I see no evidence that he would sabotage your attempts.
My opinion is that you should use this adviser as reference, as I seriously doubt that you could get a stronger letter from someone else (unless you neglected to mention that you had other collaborations where you fared better). Although other persons may not say anything bad about you, they can probably say also nothing positive, and luke-warm letters are not good. I would always opt for a strong letter, from someone who knows you and can attest to your journey through grad school. It is nothing unusual to have a bad start, but the fact that you saw it through and earned praise towards the end is a very good thing.
Finally, you should probably menage your expectations. You shouldn't expect that you'll find anyone willing to lie for you in a letter of recommendation. From your post, your adviser is a good guy, so, again, I think you have the best chances going with him. Or, put another way, your adviser said nothing that wasn't true, so this truth might or might not hinder your way into some institution, but that state was not induced by your adviser, he simply reports what he observed.
Thanks you for the reply. What I didn't mention in OP is that not only he helped me far beyond what we expect as a supervisor, but also we had a much closer personal relationship if I didn get it wrong - he offered me to live in his place when I had trouble find a temporary one immediately after I graduated, although I didn't end up taking it. He is really a VERY good guy, and I hope you are right in this sense -- his mentioning of my growth will be a good factor for the prospective school to consider, despite I did have a bad start.
I view this as having two issues. One is the way the letter will be taken if provided. But the other is the inference if it is not provided. If you apply but don't have a letter from someone who advised you in this MS program, even in a different field, isn't that likely to lead to a negative inference? That being said, while user3209815 is probably right that another letter won't necessarily be stronger, it seems clear the adviser is stating up front that it has issues. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. I'd take the letter, but not hold my breath.
@FredDouglis You are basically concerned that it will be suspicious to the school I will apply if I lack the letter from my major advisor from my previous degree, right? In this sense I will take that letter. Also, would you explain a bit about "hold my breath"? English is not my first language so that I don't always get the meaning of English idioms. Thanks!
@DavidWu, "hold your breath" refers to having high expectations. Take the letter, hope for the best, but don't be surprised if your fear that it is not helpful enough turns out to be true. As for it being "suspicious," that's not the word I'd use, but it's close. If they know you were in a program, and left with an MS/MA, but didn't get a recommendation from your supervisor, they will likely wonder why you didn't get that recommendation. Of course another option is to try and explain that in your essay if you can.
@FredDouglis Thanks for the explanation. I will definitely take his letter. Yes, I will probably need to explain in my PS if I don't take it, which will make the situation even more complicated. I always believe being honest and straightforward will make thing easier to deal with in most cases. But like you said, I won't bet a good result on my school applications.
@DavidWu - Well, this is the kind of situation where it might be helpful to try to make a personal connection with a professor in a department where you'd like to apply. Once you have that personal connection, you can be up front (=honest) and tell him or her about your experience. That person may then be able to put in a good word for you with the admissions committee. Also, you could include something about your personal growth in your psych masters, when you write your essay.
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87140 | What does it mean when submission system says "under review" after submitting minor revisions?
Is it possible that after sending minor revisions my paper has gone for a fresh review again. I had received the following recommendation: accept subject to optional revision. The status has been showing " under review " for a month now.
Is it still with the associate editor or with the old reviewers. I got two referred comments and one guest editor comments
Sent my paper to ieee transaction
Well, it is certainly gone for a review; what do you mean by "fresh"?
@peter. By fresh I mean ha it gone to the earlier reviewers or new ones considering that the earlier reviewers gave me a recommendation: accept subject toniptional revisions
In most of the article submission systems the "Under Review" status means your manuscript is with reviewers. Most probably it must be sent to the old reviewers but there is also a possibility that editor might invite a new reviewer. It happened to me, one of my article which went through 2 revisions, 1 major and 1 minor took 1 year, and it was rejected because editor invited a 4th reviewer who raised few concerns.
Best of luck for your article.
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118803 | Could I submit an abstract for a conference prior asking my supervisor permission about it?
I would like to submit an abstract for a poster presentation, I'm just worried that if I tell my supervisor before submitting, she might say I shouldn't do it, because she rarely wants me to be away from the office. So I was thinking on submitting the abstract and once I'm accepted telling her I've been selected for presenting at that conference. What do you think about it? Would this be a good strategy for attending a conference when having a strict and closed minded supervisor?
P.S. Our research is not about any kind of product or patent we're developing for a company, so no privacy issues apply in there.
I mean, I suppose you could ask her after you’ve submitted, then bail out of the conference if you get accepted and she says no.
In my experience (mathematics) a supervisor would be annoyed by the opposite behavior. Applying for a conference alone and without external confirmation is the kind of thing an "adult" researcher would do. Asking for permission is kind of childish.
@GiuseppeNegro That sounds bizarre to me. I as an "adult" researcher would always, without fail, check that my collaborators were happy for me to talk in public about our unpublished work. And it would be unusual for a student's supervisor to not be one of those collaborators.
@DavidRicherby: of course, these are different matters. But the problem here is not of a collaborative nature. You, as an adult researcher, do not ask for "permission" to your collaborators or bosses to go to a conference. You ask whether it is appropriate, in their opinion, or (if needed) if you can be funded, things like that. That's different from "asking permission".
@GiuseppeNegro That's a distinction without a difference. In both cases, if they say "no", then the submission doesn't happen.
@GiuseppeNegro You are arguing semantics here. The salient question is "I think my supervisor does not want me to go to this conference, should I submit without telling them?" - and the answer to that is a pretty definite "no" in any discipline I am aware of, and for a number of reasons.
@xLeitix: The question is different. The question is: "should I go asking for permission before applying to a poster presentation?" and the answer I propose is: "act with self-confidence; if you feel you can go there, and that it can be useful for you, apply". This, of course, rules out the cases of unpublished collaborations, etc...
Yes you could.
I'd strongly suggest you not do it.
Your supervisor has a lot of power over you - they aren't someone you want to upset.
It is unfortunate that your supervisor is not supportive of you trying to seek out conferences to present at, but you should address that issue with them rather than try to go behind their back. I would suggest trying to find another supervisor before I would suggest trying to undermine the authority of your current supervisor: there just aren't enough positives for you on that path.
Note that if your supervisor deserves authorship on your work, either omitting their name as an author or submitting without the approval of someone listed as an author could be considered academic misconduct. In some fields, authorship by only a student without their supervisor is common, but if you aren't in one of those fields you should be especially careful.
The real issue is to find out, why she does not want you to be away from work. It could be that she feels you or your research are not yet ready or that she knows you are on a though schedule with your project anyway. The reasons might be good or not, they might be valid or not.
Talk to your supervisor to find out more about her reasons. Maybe you can address them or convince your supervisor, that you should attend at least one conference per year.
If money for travel expanses is rare, you can apply for travel grants, apply to conferences nearby, or pay them from your private money. The experience might be worth the money.
The real problem is your relationship with your supervisor, not the submission.
... my supervisor ... rarely wants me to be away from the office.
This is your real problem. Or rather, the situation where you believe your supervisor is holding you back and doesn't have your best interest at heart.
Now, you've not told us much about what kind of research you do; what kind of interaction and collaboration you have with your supervisor; whether you believe she is mis-supervising you, or stunting your activity, or whether it's just a question of focus of efforts; etc. But this is a bad situation to be in. Either you are being mistreated, or there is a severe failure in communication between you two.
I suggest you discuss this relationship (perhaps confidentially at first) with co-supervisee's of hers, that you trust; with other grads in your department; or even describe it for us in a different question here on the site. How did it get to be that way? Did you voluntarily choose each other, or did some circumstances forced one or both of you into this situation? Do you feel you're benefiting at all from her supervision? That she's helping you develop as a researcher and as a person? Have you tried bring some of this up with her before, and failed, or were you worried she'd react angrily/vindictively? etc.
I would recommend the opposite of the answer of Brian Krause unless you have explicitly been told in the past not to submit things. You aren't going behind her back, you are just being professional. It seems to me to be a mistake only to try to counter explicit instructions.
I'm assuming, of course, that the work is yours alone and that shared authorship is not an issue for this work. If it is not yours alone then you need permission from your collaborators to publish and they may have a right to shared authorship. In some fields almost all work is collaborative. In others it is almost all the work of a single person.
However, there are two other issues. One is the payment of conference fees and travel expenses. You can't really expect her to cover these unless she has approved of them in advance. The other is how to deal with the time you will spend away. If others depend on your presence, say in a lab, it could be disruptive.
I would suggest that you submit, but expect that you might not be able to actually attend. Sometimes that can be worked out with the conference committee and sometimes the author has to withdraw, which can be a bit embarrassing.
But it seems a mistake to me to make a decision based on what she might do. Just be prepared for what she does and to accept final decisions if necessary.
In my field it would be very atypical and unprofessional for a student to submit an abstract without supervisor approval, since the supervisor would almost certainly be a coauthor and authorship without supervisors is incredibly rare. I realize in other fields the norms are different and I probably should have mentioned that in my answer. From the OP's history, though, they are in neuropsychology which is quite close to my field.
@BryanKrause, if the situation is so unusual in the field, then the submission is likely to be rejected in any case. I don't see that it is unprofessional in any field to take initiative on scholarly work. Some may wish to impose such ideas on students, but it seems foolish to me. Atypical, I can accept, of course. One can't, of course, submit work that is partially the work of others without some form of co-authorship.
Yes, your last sentence is why it's an issue: in fields like neuropsychology there is almost zero work that is not partially the work of others, and the research is at a minimum usually designed by or with the feedback of the PI, sometimes even years before a student has started the project. Depending on the conference, though, no, it would probably not be rejected for this, conferences in the field aren't as important as papers and the peer review for conferences, especially for posters, is fairly minimal. Reviewers aren't going to google the authors to see if any is a PI.
@BryanKrause, I edited to clarify as did you. Some supervisors are just over-controlling even in situations in which this isn't an issue as you can see from other questions on this site. But anyone should be free to publish their own work.
Yeah, I definitely agree that a supervisor doing anything to prevent the professional development of their students is a terrible betrayal of their responsibilities.
@Buffy A submission wouldn't be rejected just for having unusual authorship: things that are unusual aren't necessarily illegitimate. For example, in my field, having more than about five authors is unusual and more than ten is almost unheard of. But I can't imagine anybody rejecting a paper just because it had ten authors.
@Buffy "anyone should be free to publish their own work" Conversely, anyone who ought to be an author (which the supervisor very commonly should), should be free to not have their work published without their consent.
@DavidRicherby. yes, of course.
To sum up the ansser: Ask before your apply, don't rely on might.
If the supervisor has any valud claim to authorship, and you leave her off, that's a bad thing. If you put her on as an author without permission or knowledge, that's a bad thing as well. Both actions would certainly be unprofessional.
I fail to see how logistically this can be done. If her name is on it, the submission will usually assume all authors agreed on the final version. She will get an e-mail and find out that you faked her approval.
If the work does not have her name on it, then she can be right not to give you paid leaves to present it. In that case, pay for yourself and spend your day offs to attend it. Think of it as a workation, learning tour, etc.
Another possibility is to apply for travel scholarship. These are usually a sign of approval from the organization on the work's quality and that may push her closer to saying yes.
More importantly, submitting an abstract behind her does not address the root cause that she does not want you to be absent. Perhaps start from there, during annual review or periodic meetings, list "going to a conference" as a goal and start the negotiation there. List possible "win-win" for you and her (the research team.) Express firm interests and ask for guidance. Be upfront about if you need her grant to support you or you'll pay, etc. Perhaps she was worried about funding. You may also suggest attending local conferences to cut costs, or remote meetings to make sure you're not missing important affairs at the base.
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63026 | How to publish my PhD as a monograph when examiners are unable to oversee the process?
Before my viva (as they call it in the UK) one of my supervisors strongly hinted that one of my examiners would likely be interested in supervising me with the writing of a monograph. Three months after my PhD was awarded, I decided to contact both examiners and both responded that they did not feel qualified: one does not hold a doctorate, the other's main disciplinary area is outside my own.
Fair enough.
I was given your typical stock advice to publish and review but my heart is still set on publishing a monograph.
There are a couple of professors throughout the UK and North America whom I am keen to contact as potential supervisors for my project on the basis of our shared research affinities. Do I just send them an email? What is the protocol?
This newbie academic does not want to commit any faux-pas!
Is a monograph or book of some sort an independent endeavour?.
Sigh.... post-PhD distress
Are you talking about PhD thesis or just papers?
Am I missing something here? How can these be your examiners if they are not qualified for this?
Sorry for the silly question, but can't your former supervisors help you with that?
The question is very confusing. Monographs/books can be solo or co-authored of course. How exactly is the monograph related to your thesis? Why do you still need a supervisor?
I finished my PhD a few months ago. In the UK, a monograph stems from your PhD dissertation. Based on my conversation with my supervisor, I apparently need a 'supervsior ' to guide me throughout the process of writing a monograph. @Kimball: good point but my supervisors did not offer to but instead hinted that the examiner would be interested to do so
@Tobias Kildetoft : one examiner does not hold a PhD but is part of the university faculty. The other specialized in my secondary discipline.
It's news to me that anyone needs to supervise your writing a book in the first place. Is this field dependent or something?
It would help people to give more relevant answers if you specified your discipline, or at least whether you are are in the arts, social sciences, natural sciences, etc. For instance, your claim that "in the UK, a monograph stems from your PhD dissertation" is not usually the case in e.g. mathematics
@Roland: Have a look at this example (in German)thehttps://tu-dresden.de/mn/postgraduales/promotion/promotionsordnung - it just says that "usually the majority of reviewers shall be university lecturers" and "the PhD commission shall usually be lecturers of this university". If the faculty commission that oversees the PhD procedures think someone suited they can nominate them regardless of formal qualifications (they probably need to document well why exactly, but it is possible). The point here is that this person is considered fully qualified, though (by that faculty commission).
BTW: strictly speaking, you don't need to hold a doctorate to become a professor - you "just" need to prove research capabilities that are equivalent to doctorate and habilitation (plus a few more things such as ability to teach).
I'm in a field where monographs are the norm an cumulative dissertations the exception. Neither I nor anyone I know needed a supervisor to publish their PhD dissertation as monograph. You just send a polished book proposal and perhaps sample chapter(s) to the publisher you are interested in and hope for the best. My experience is in Germany and Austria with British and US publishers.
Be upfront and honest, and ask!
Make contact with these select few. Explain that you've received interest in producing a monograph, but those doing so later declined their support because their qualifications or subject knowledge are, described much lesd tactfully than you should, inadequate.
Describe your reasons for contacting them in particular - yes, personalise these requests. Ask if they are available to lend support, and whether they would desire to do so. Don't send a copy of your thesis, but make it clear that you will on request, that is, if they don't indicate that they looked it up already.
If you get declined, thank them for their answer, and for any helpful critique or advice they give. If they accept, discuss with your university to see what support you can get from them - if you have their backing already, this is a good thing to mention in your approach to potential collaborators.
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119700 | Why do the prerequisites to enroll in PhD programs vary between research groups in Germany?
I have been trying to get a Ph.D. position in Germany so I follow the advertising sites frequently. A few days ago I saw a position from a group of X Institute. I wrote the professor about the requirement and he replied a bachelor is a prerequisite and he encouraged me to apply. Today again I saw an advertisement for a position from a different group from the same institute and the professor said a master is needed as a prerequisite for becoming a Ph.D. student. My question is why the requirement varies from group to group whereas they come from the same institute? Can a professor or supervisor can play a role to waive master if he wants?
To be honest I don't know any institute in my area where it is allowed to do a Ph.D with a bachelor in germany. But in general it is possible. As far as I know it is up to the one who is supervising to hire you for the position. If he finds you suited, he can hire you. The university will put some conditions on you once you enroll officially as a Ph.D student like completing courses and successfully finish them if you have a bachelor's degree. The same can happen with a masters degree but to a lesser extent
Anecdotal Ecidence: I heard that if you published during your bachelor course, you are qualified to start a PhD program, because you have already proven that you can do research and work in a scientific manner. I think in practice, you'll probably need outstanding achievements having only a bachelor's degree.
@problemofficer A number of programs where I live (Canada) are known for being willing to somewhat condense/bundle a master's degree into a PhD, generally adding 8 months/a year to the PhD instead of the potential 2 years a lot of "fully fledged" masters programs seem to take.
Usually, with a Master in the field of the PhD position (or a closely related field, e.g. PhD positions in physical chemistry will typically accept physicists or chemists; possibly the Master should have a grade better than x), you can be directly accepted.
With a Bachelor (or Master from a totally different subject, or Master not from a university but a university of applied sciences, or possibly a degree from a foreign country for which there is no official declaration that it is equivalent to the Master of a German university) your application will probably have to go to a committee first who have a look at your case and decide whether and which additional courses or exams you need to take.
If the institute you're talking of is a non-university research institute (e.g. Max Planck, Fraunhofer, Helmholtz, Leibniz): the PhD is not granted by these institutes but by the university they cooperate with. Different groups of the same institute may be cooperating with different professors from different faculties (or even different universities), and thus different rules may apply.
I am talking about Leibniz institute @cbeleites
@Dukhiatma: I've been at a Leibniz-Institute a while ago. Our head was (is) professor at the local university, and so are some of the other group heads - but not all in the same faculty (chemistry vs. physics). The exam rules, including those for PhDs are on faculty basis.
tl;dr: You'd typically need Master's. Read on to find out why.
The "traditional" German higher education system had only one kind of a degree before PhD, the Diplom. It's typically translated as MSc and it's not wrong: basically, it was a 5 years degree. You'd typically need this degree, and having it from a university (and not a Fachhochschule, a polytechnical university) in order to start a PhD.
Then, Bologna happened.
The current scheme in Germany is: 3 years BSc + 2 years MSc. Though the initial thought was to have a US system, where most of the students exit university with a BSc, it did not took off. Most companies and universities themselves saw "just" BSc as inferior and still required a MSc degree. It got a bit better nowadays.
It is possible to get a job with a BSc, even if it would pay less.
It is also possible to start your PhD with a BSc. But it's much, much harder. In many places special "fast-track" programmes exist. Details depend on the location. Typically, they allow a future PhD candidate to study for their MSc, but in a sort-of accelerated manner, for example, the MSc thesis is then allowed to be a topic from the future PhD. Further, typically the non-MSc holders are payed less, E12 level instead of E13.
All this requires, however, further, and in some cases non-insignificant actions from the advisor. So, there might be a certain willingness to employ a BSc-holder. It might be easier, if it's a four-years BSc. The typical "fits all" requirement is, however, a MSc.
A further notice. There are two sides to doing a PhD in Germany. 1) The general advisor-student relationship. It is about research and mentoring. No money is involved in this relationship. (You might want to register as a (PhD-)student with the university, it costs not much.) 2) The employer-employee relationship. The "funded position" is not really connected to the readiness to supervise a student. (Yes, it is often coinciding, but it is not required to be so.)
My point is: you should really ask very directly, does this particular professor really want to supervise you as a prospective PhD student (even with "only" a BSc), or do they do the former and have money for your position.
One should point out as well that a phd in Germany is typically shorter than a phd in the US and focuses nearly purely on research. So a German master (2yrs) + 3 yrs phd equals a US 5 yrs phd, where the first two years very much resemble a German master program
"Then, Bologna happened." - what event does this refer to?
@user2357112 The Bologna Process
In most programs in Germany, the PhD is a paid position that is known as a Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter ("academic employee") and typically requires a master's degree as a prerequisite.
There are some exceptions to this—there are some programs where students enroll in a master's program that leads to a PhD position once the master's thesis has been completed. But such programs are relatively uncommon and should not be expected as a master's course.
Most of the paid positions are designated as E13 in the the union agreement (Tv-L), which by said agreement require a masters degree. I would add the detail that it is not possible to waive this prerequisite for such positions. The professor can still take you as a student (If the university allows it) and even pay you from other sources (if he has some), he just can't employ you on those specific positions, even if he wants to.
Well, TV-L says for E-13 (and 14 and 15) roughly translated "... as well as other employees who execute similar tasks on the basis of equivalent ability and experienct". I'd argue that doing a PhD is similar in that respect, and PhD students without a Master in a relevant field in my experience have to have a PhD committee decide whether they can be accepted as PhD students (possibly: after which additional exams). Thus such a student would have a very good claim to have been found equivalent. I do see the rist that the employing institution may try to pay only E 12, though.
@cbeleites-and one more thing. I think they only care about masters but doesn't matter if its from a different field. For example, I have seen one group accept a student who did his masters in finance and economics to do Ph.D. in neuroscience. The professor accepted him as his girlfriend was a Ph.D. student in his lab. So I think at the end of the day a masters degree in anything matters, doesn't matter if you have appropriate skills and publications.
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32035 | Cumulative versus monographic dissertation
I am in the beginning of my phd studies in computer science. Specifically, I am in the area of machine learning and linked data. I have talked with my professor about these both types of dissertations, however, it`s on my own which format I choose.
Any recommendations, when to choose a cumulative and when to choose a monographic dissertation? What`s your experience with each format?
The first result on Google discusses some differences between the two, with an emphasis on cumulative: http://www.unr.uni-freiburg.de/promotionen/downloads/cumulative_vs_monographic
If I had had a choice, I would have chosen to write a cumulative thesis.
Results are in the papers. And converting papers into a monograph takes a lot of time with relatively low added value. (When someone asks me about the result I still point to publications.)
One advantage of monographic thesis is when it is on a new field (with publications being very coherent on one topic) - then it can serve as an introduction for the others. (However, it seems that not many theses fit this criterium.)
There are advantages with both. It is worth starting by stating that a research education is not about writing papers but to educate a person to become a self-reliant researcher. The thesis or dissertation is the document that shows the result of this effort.
From the perspective of showing the result of the education as such, the monograph probably better reflects the work done since articles normally brush away methods and other aspects through referencing. Articles often focus on a core piece of data and have no space for additional data that may have been collected. or shows data in a very condensed way. In a monographs much of this can be expanded upon and more of what was actually achieved during the study can be documented thoroughly. I occasionally bump into monographs that ha excellent detailed descriptions of methods or other aspects where I can really learn something new in a good way. This is of course not why anyone should write a monograph but the monograph can be an appreciated publication.
So the monograph provides possibilities for the PhD candidate to show the knowledge gained in a detailed way.
The cumulative thesis can probably also have different looks. In Scandinavia, the thesis consists of about 3-5 papers at different stages of completion (a basic rule is that they should be at least in shape to be sent in for peer review in a journal). Most students end up with a couple of published papers and a couple of manuscripts in their thesis. There is also a cover paper to be written where the different papers are shown in a larger perspective and which should tie the thesis together.
The benefit of this format is that the PhD candidate has publications under the belt by the time he/she finishes. This can also be true for anyone writing a monographs but then that person has to write on two things in parallel although much of it is likely a matter of reformatting. But the focus on papers is, regardless of how one feels about it, a necessity since almost everything that concerns evaluation in academia involves counting number of publications. So the more publications the better, basically. Doing a cumulative thesis is thus a more direct way into the "after-life" of scientific publishing.
Another point to bring up is the actual writing of a monograph. Since the monograph is a single entity the author has full control over the progress (bar intervention by the advisor) which makes it easier to complete with a set deadline. With a cumulative thesis, focus is on manuscripts which often involves more or less responding co-authors which in the end can complicate things and most importantly make deadlines more difficult to assess.
One should, however, not forget that it is possible to combine these to some extent. The cover paper for a cumulative thesis can probably look quite differently in different countries (academic cultures). There is, however, nothing that says that the cover paper could not contain just the parts I described are more or less unique to the monograph. This would then provide the best of both worlds.
I'd recommend to check out the associated burocracy for each version.
I did a monograph: this was the usual thing to do at my old institute, and I would have needed to apply for permissions to do sandwich thesis and another permission to submit in English. I changed institutes, but kept with the monograph as large parts were written already.
One colleague told me that he had quite some trouble obtaining the necessary copyright transfers for his cumulative thesis. Many publishers have theses explicitly listed as allowed reuse on their copyright transfer agreements (important also for monographs if the same figures are used!). However, there was one that just gave permission for the required number of prints, so the pdf of the thesis cannot be made available by the library.
In my experience, there are now to subpopulations in the monographs:
Monograph had no influence on the expected number of papers published (in English, of course) in my old institute. Compared to what the link in @Austin Henley's comment says, the procedure was the other way round: we did publish like other people that go for cumulative thesis, and the monograph refers to the publications ("These results were published in [CB3]").
However, where cumulative theses are the default I've also seen people hand in monographs because they do not have the required publications for a cumulative thesis.
To reinforce @Peter Jansson's point that monographs often give more details:
My monograph thesis holds a number small experiments and results that were not published in detail in any of my papers, e.g. some findings about sample storage and far more detailed descriptions of the practical lab stuff for the experiments and in some aspects is further advanced than the corresponding papers because I gained some more knowledge between submission of the paper and writing up the monograph.
Actually, I've looked up a number of monograph theses to read up on new subfields and if I need to actually implement the discussed methods - I often found them far more readable than the corresponding publications. Just like I have a look also at the Tech Report if both paper and technical report are available.
And yes, I sometimes tell students to read up details in my thesis (or to read up the introduction for a crash course of what we are doing).
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72512 | How to write a letter declining a supervisor offer?
I have written a proposal to a supervisor for asking a letter of support in order to apply for a PhD research grant. First, I emailed to supervisor A but no respond for two weeks. Then, I tried to write to the second supervisor (let say supervisor B) and he agreed to write me a letter of support. A week later, I got an offer from supervisor A. I decided to put both letters in my application by list supervisor B as prior.
Recently, I have been awarded a grant under a supervisor B. So, I would like to write a letter to say thank and sorry politely to supervisor A.
Please advise how to write a fit letter of this situation.
Can you say something about how that grant works w.r.t. suggesting supervisors? I have not heard of such a scheme, in which on the one hand you have to specify some supervisor, but on the other hand you can specify several potential ones. I would think it's either "this is my intended supervisor for this subject" or "first conditionally authorize me, then I'll get you a supervisor".
A few suggestions:
Don't mention the order of events or the fact that you listed B as the prior, unless A asks. That is, something like "I had applied for this grant listing several potential supervisors, as both yourself and B are able to supervise this work. etc. etc." ; if A asks why you didn't list him/her as the prior, then mention the timing.
If there is the theoretical possibility of you asking for a change of sueprvisor for the grant from B to A, you will (sort of) need to justify why it is you're not doing so.
If co-supervision is an option, you'll need to either ask for from A, or explain why it's not relevant.
I would try to organize some sort of visit with A, or suggest other ways you might collaborate or that you might be useful to him (although there might not actually be such an option, in which case forget about it).
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138183 | How important is teaching experience?
I am a PhD student in economics in the UK. Recently, I have been hearing how important teaching experience is to find a job in academia as a lecturer. One needs to submit teaching statements and may be asked about one's teaching philosophy.
Can you please share your experience about how important teaching is in becoming a lecturer? I suppose being a teaching assistent and leading example classes is a big plus. Of course, only if the research part of the PhD is going sufficiently well such that there is time for teaching.
What about schemes like the TSP (The Scholars Programme) of the Brilliant Club where PhD Students visit schools the odd times and give mini courses to interested pupils? Does this count as being committed to teaching or is it neglected due to the low level of difficulty?
At my school, we have no shortage of applicants with a wonderful research record. However, after shortlisting them, the overwhelming factor we use to hire an applicant is teaching. We've passed on some excellent candidates with a brilliant track record because they would make awful teachers. In short, at my school, research gets you an interview, and good teaching lands you the job. Note, in Australia, some universities are hiring teaching focused staff, usually non-tenure. So teaching will be the main consideration for these positions.
"I suppose being a teaching assistent and leading example classes is a big plus." Not if every job applicant has done that.
@AnonymousPhysicist what about the mentioned school programme from Alex? Does teaching pupils really help in demonstrating your interest in teaching and attending an extra teaching workshop or doesnt it really influence university hiring decisions as it is not quite the same as teaching university students?
@KeSchn I'd not heard of TSP before, but it sounds like it will demonstrate your interest in teaching secondary school, which is a good career path for a PhD, but not the career mentioned in the question. One teaching workshop isn't sufficient to be evidence. Do several a year, for many years.
I voted to close, because depending on the institution, the answer to the question could be "teaching is the only thing that matters" or "teaching does not matter at all."
How important are carbohydrates in a healthy diet?
@Prof.SantaClaus Would they have made awful teachers because you saw them teach badly or because they didn't have much teaching experience on their CV?
@ElizabethHenning As part of the interview process, shortlisted candidates (usually based on their research record) have to demonstrate their teaching abilities. From their demonstration, we then make the offer.
Even if the PhD research does not go as planned, I would strongly suggest you to get some teaching experience for a number of reasons:
"One learns best when one teaches" as a translation of the German "Am besten lernt man, wenn man lehrt". Teaching gives you a deeper understanding of many topics, it helped me a lot.
Character building: you as a person will benefit as well from teaching. Speaking publicly is not an issue for me since I taught during my PhD studies, this had a really positive effect on my work outside academia as well.
For a lecturer (defined generically) it would be very important anywhere. Most of your competition for any teaching position will include many people with experience. Some will have a lot. It is good to get it wherever you can.
I have no experience with the program you point to, but it looks promising. But there are other ways. I'm surprised that you aren't getting some of that in your doctoral program, but that depends on funding. One way to easily get a bit of experience that may be open to you is to ask a professor who also has undergraduate teaching duties if you could give a lecture or two on some topic in that other course.
When I was an undergraduate, my professor actually asked each of the students (very small classes) to deliver a lecture on some topic. It didn't give him the day off, however, as he was there and gave us some feedback on how we did. The first try can be pretty miserable, actually. Especially for an introvert.
You can develop a teaching philosophy of sorts by watching the professors you admire and giving some thought to why you think they are effective. What is it that they do, not just in the lecture hall, but overall, that makes you appreciate them. You can even ask them about it.
But many new PhDs have a lot of misconceptions about teaching and learning. The biggest misconception, I think, is to believe that students are all like yourself. They aren't. And you need to adapt to that if you want to be effective. Effective lecturing, for example, is only a very small part of teaching.
However, since the term lecturer (descriptive, generic) may be different from Lecturer (an entry level academic rank in UK) your mileage may vary. How important it is for hiring into a specific rank depends on the university hiring. For some, teaching would be very important. For others only research really counts. For some even research isn't enough unless you attract grant funding for it.
Would a hiring board base their decision equally on teaching and research or does research dominate the hiring decision of new lecturers?
If lecturer means teaching faculty then research will play a small part. If lecturer means an entry level position with teaching and research then research might dominate, depending on the institution. My interpretation of "lecturer" was the former. In some places it is expected that you will (eventually) "pick up" some teaching skills but research and grant writing dominate everything else. If you make the position a bit clearer in your question I'll edit as needed. The terms aren't the same everywhere. In my world "lecturer" = "teaching primarily". Yours?
The question specifies UK, so this is probably a good start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_ranks_in_the_United_Kingdom
@buffy it's quite common for UK phd students to get little to no teaching experience. At my Uni, PhD students cannot deliver lectures to undergraduates and they are not allowed to grade master's level assignments. They are left with marking undergraduate essays as their only teaching experience...and only a limited number of them get that job. I delivered one lecture to undergraduates as a PhD student and that was notable...and was because the actual lecturer was hospitalised.
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139444 | Should a citation be included when answering a question regarding a specific source?
For example, "How do the six types of shenanigans relate to the ethical use of a flux capacitor according to Smith and Smith?" (Smith and Smith are authors of the textbook). For this type of question, where there is a specified source that must be used, is it necessary to re-state the source in the answer?
The question is posted in a discussion board. Only students of the course and the instructor are the intended audience.
Also, the chapter of the book is directly stated in the subject line of the posted question.
Ex. "Chapter 2: Electric Boogaloo"
When writing a paper for publication, include the citation. When speaking to your friends, no citation is required.
For a textbook, which could be long, it might be appropriate to specify where the information is in the book.
If it is a discussion board the audience are only the course instructor and the students of the course, whether or not you repeat the citation in your answer is not going to have any important or lasting effect. That said, while a very strict instructor might complain if you do not repeat the citation, I cannot imagine any way in which repeating the citation could have a negative effect. If you are in doubt, just cite it again.
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130673 | Bachelor thesis without a research question
I have been asked to provide feedback regarding a paper a friend of mine has written. I sometimes read scientific research in my free time and I am yet to come across anything similar to what that friend has produced. I don't think I can provide any meaningful feedback as I am not sure how to approach this thesis.
This thesis has no defining research question that it is trying to answer. The aforementioned friend of mine wrote his bachelors thesis to merely inform the reader about the subject. As such, no meaningful conclusions were made. The conclusion section of the paper only contains a short summary of previous chapters. That friend of mine studies in Finland. The subject of this paper is Cyber Security.
Is that friend of mine doing something wrong? If not, could you perhaps point me into the direction of similar research so that I can use that as a baseline to provide feedback?
I can't be sure, but from your description it seems like this thesis does not include original research, and that is what troubles you. Instead of original research, it sounds like your friend may have produced a survey or review of a particular area, which informs the reader about the body of work in that area. (See this answer to Difference between research paper and scientific paper).
A bachelors thesis may or may not be expected to include original research. Your friend should ask his or her thesis advisor to clarify the expectations in their department.
I see. Thanks for the information. However, from where I stand the thing look even bleaker now as my friends paper contains no citations of any other papers. It only contains general information that I would expect to find on a Wikipedia page. In any case, thanks for your help. I'll try to guide him into the right direction.
@P_Andre Your friend should definitely ask around to find out what the specific expectations are in his or her department. This varies tremendously from one place to the next.
There is probably no requirement for original research. Check but I bet this is the case. However, based on your statements, including comments, I get the impression the paper is not very good. While you are not an expert in their requirements, your common sense gut reaction seems to lean this way.
Give this advice:
Add citations and comments on the literature.
Also advise the author/instructor to try to come up with some better slant/theme/question or some interesting categorization/structure (importance, front to back end, historical evolution, etc.). Obviously the facts, ideas have a value on their own. But any written work functions better for the reader if there is some narrative or story. It's not an exact problem like an equation to know how to assign a theme, and multiple decent options exist. But the effort to assign one will likely pay off.
The paper will still probably be lacking (I am reading between the lines), but you will have discharged your duty to give a few words of decent advice. At that point, que sera sera. Heck, even if all the kid does is a half-hearted attempt at 1 (writing endnotes but not really evaluating the literature for importance), at least he will have practiced the clerical mechanics of doing citations.
The scope sounds too large. He would have been better off picking something more granular. But at this point, it is likely too far down the pike to worry about. It's really just a school project...let the kid get his gentleman's C and be on his way.
What you can is compare to other bachelor's theses on the same area at the same university. Most or all Finnish universities have an electronic depository of published articles and theses (these might be different or the same one).
I checked that the repository for University of Jyväskylä does not contain bachelor's theses on this subject.
Aalto's repository has several; but they do not seem to be openly accessible to everyone, see https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/doc_public/bachelor_info/?la=en. But maybe your friend can access them with their university account.
On cybersecurity:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
In a similar spirit, I would suggest asking your friend to find the institutional repository of their university, or alternatively visiting the university library, and checking out some of the theses, if they are accessible. Or maybe you can find some publicly accessible ones. You can use them to get an idea of what such a thesis might look like.
In math
In (fairly pure) mathematics, most bachelor's theses do not contain original research. They likely contain a proof and maybe some context on the problem. This might or might not be different in cybersecurity.
In general
A bachelor's thesis should be a significant contribution to or sign of the writer's understanding, in any case. It is also practice for scientific writing. If it looks like a literature review, then it should definitely have references.
Ask the advisor for more details.
Original research is not required for bachelors or masters courses, only doctorates. A replication study is acceptable. However the research question, hypothesis, or aims/objectives should still be clearly stated. Many courses still require a dissertation to have original data, even if the conclusions are negative or not novel themselves. What you appear to be describing is a literature review, not a thesis. Please check the requirements of the specific programme to ensure that this is acceptable instead of a thesis. Submitting it as original research would be inappropriate but it should be possible to add sufficient results (including modelling or simulations) in the context of the literature to meet these requirements. If this is the case, then this is a matter which should be taken up with the supervisor as it appears that the candidate has misunderstood what a thesis entails.
A "bachelor's thesis" can certainly be a literature review, as mentioned in the other answer.
My programme certainly would not have allowed this. The requirements were made clear to us. Of course, different fields, institutes, and countries have different conventions. Every course is different so it’s hard to generalise. It is the candidate’s responsibility to read the the regulations of the course but this really should have been discussed with the supervisor if it hasn’t already.
Agreed that the requirements should be clear for a given program and that it varies, that was why I was raising the issue with your answer that states a thesis requires original data. A "bachelor's thesis" is really just a synonym for "bachelor's project" and can be just about anything, depending on the program.
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