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12164 | Can I tactfully change my mind after agreeing to do an independent study with a professor?
I recently asked two professors by email if I could do an independent study with them. Both of them responded, saying that they can sponsor me for the study. As soon as I received the first professor's response, I replied, saying that I wanted to work with him and scheduling a face-to-face meeting.
Now that both professors have responded, though, I think I would enjoy working with the second professor more. Would it be appropriate for me to tell the first professor that I changed my mind, or would it be wrong to take back the commitment I already gave him? If it would be appropriate to change my mind, how can I handle the situation tactfully?
Although I would prefer to work with the second professor, I know that I would enjoy working with either of them, so I'll be fine if it's too late to change my mind.
Edit: Here is some more information about my specific situation.
I am planning on doing the same project with either professor. I am currently writing the music for a video game, and I would be working with the professors to produce the music and create a graded portfolio. I haven't worked out any specific details with either professor.
Both professors are music professors who have specific knowledge about music technology. The reason I would prefer working with the second professor is because I know he has expert knowledge of the software I'm using to produce the music. In addition, he is skilled with the genres of music I'm producing as well as writing film scores. I'm not sure how much the first professor knows about these specific topics.
I am an undergraduate, but I believe my question is still appropriate for this site because it is applicable to similar situations in post-graduate academics.
Just ask, say: I got two simultaneous positive responses. Do you have a strong opinion about whether I work with you or Professor X? If he says no, I assume he means it. And if says yes you should probably honor his feeling.
I'd use your second paragraph as explanation (minus the last line) if the first professor asks (and only if). Also, in response to @user814064, I don't think that the professor gets "first right of refusal"
Can you work with both of them?
I think it does matter that this is an undergraduate question: it means that the expectations of the professors is likely to be much lower, as is the amount of time and effort they are likely to invest in it.
Do you have a project already lined up ? it sounds like your meeting with the first professor would be to discuss topics for the study. In any case, if no financial agreement has been reached, I see no harm in talking with both professors and then making a decision based on what happens in those meetings. I disagree with @aeismail that you've given a formal commitment at this stage.
You didn't say though why you'd prefer to work with the second professor prior to having a meeting ? is it the subject matter ? general rapport ?
The key is what has been said: if the professor could view it as an agreement in principle, that makes things thorny. If it's just a chance to discuss things further before making a decision, that's a different matter.
It's a good situation to have to be interested in two projects, and be equally happy to work on either of them.
However, if you have given a commitment to one of the professors, then you really should honor that commitment. Reneging on your commitment will look bad to the first professor, and if the second professor finds out, that could leave a bad impression on his mind, as well.
You could tactfully tell the second professor, "I would really love to work for you, but Professor X gave me an offer first, and I accepted before I received your offer. I am sorry to have to decline, but perhaps we can work together in the future."
I don't think there's a tactful way to say the same thing to a professor after you've made a commitment; you'll come across as very opportunistic instead (note: that's not a good thing!).
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2672 | Good resource/advice on mentoring undergrads
As a graduate student I will mentor some undergrad students so that they can help me with my work and get some useful experience working in a lab.
From my past experience, I realized that they lack knowledge. So I do not want to them work on data analysis at least for a semester (unless they show promise) but at the same time do not want to just work on tightening nuts and bolts.
Also they lack time to get up to speed on doing research on their own.
What is a good way to get them interested in learning more? Also if you can point to some good resources on mentoring that would be helpful.
Edit (following eykanal's comment): I do not need to interact with undergrads on a regular basis. So I am not thinking about getting them interested in research, in general. I believe most of the students, who come to work in lab, are in general interested in learning, ignoring few who are just want to beef up their resume.
Last time I worked with a student, I had assigned him some data analysis related work only to realize later that he was more interested in working in the lab then in front of a computer. Lesson learned the hard way, because we ended up wasting time.
What I am looking for is the missteps to avoid when mentoring a student so that they would stay interested and try to do things on their own.
You discuss a few aspects of mentoring, but the actual question relates to getting undergrads interested in research, which isn't how you started. Could you solidify your question?
All of the below stems from my own experience mentoring and working with undergrads, both as a grad student and as a postdoc.
Firstly, realize that many undergraduate students aren't ready to do research on their own when they first arrive in a research lab. (Heck, neither are many graduate students...) Additionally, many will not want to do their own research, but they're very happy learning what you do and helping you set it up and work through it.
That being said, you'll want to start with simply talking to them during the interview process to determine what they want to gain from the experience. Most won't have a solid answer, but for the few that say something like, "I want to improve my MATLAB skills," or "I want to gain experience doing cell cultures", you now know whether they're a match for your lab.
The majority don't have specific interests, though. For those students, consider allowing them to work on a variety of projects with multiple graduate students. This allows them to observe different research techniques, different approaches to solving a research problem, and the different tools used in research. If you have the time, you (and the members of your lab) can take a more hands-on approach and actively mentor the student, showing them the various steps involved in constructing an experiment and the logic behind the data analysis stream.
First, mentoring undergraduate students depend highly on their skills and motivation.
Second, you should expect that an undergraduate needs to learn the technique. Even if there are after many courses, real research involves learning particular theories, techniques, etc.
Consequently, you will need to invest some time in teaching them. Almost for sure it will be beneficial for them (unless there are not smart enough or lazy; or you overshot with a way-to-difficult problem). If they will pay back - it's hard to say.
Out of my experience (as a PhD student) - working was interesting and enjoyable, but I benefited only in terms of learning how to collaborate and lead projects (a crucial skill). In terms of boosting me research - well, I would have done the same (or more) by doing things by myself.
(But the main problem was that it was never so formal, so they had a limited amount of time to spend on the project; OK, once mentoring a high-school student it was very beneficial for them (the first prize in an international competition), but it's a different story than a collaboration.)
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60543 | What can one do when emails to the editor go unanswered?
I submitted a research article to a reputable mathematics journal in May 2014. The status of my article is still "under review." I have contacted the editor at least three times regarding the delay but have not gotten a reply to any of my mails. Under such circumstances, what can I do? It's really very troublesome and painful for me to bear this.
Can you contact an Associate Editor or another member of the editorial board? More than 18 months with no communication does seem excessively long and the lack of response from the editor suggests something is wrong. You might also try the secretary in the editor's department and ask her if she can get in touch with him.
If you don't hear back from them either, I would withdraw the paper and submit it somewhere else. Hopefully, there's a way to do that in the online system -- but if not, contacting them one last time with the notification should be sufficient. They can't publish the paper without you signing some forms.
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34149 | When is it necessary to consult a university lawyer?
A comment on this answer of mine about e-book lending suggested that it would be better to talk to a lawyer. The situation is as follows: My head of school asked me to explore means of providing our core text books in electronic form to our students. I talked to Library services and IT services and they recommended iPads with standard consumer licensed e-book versions installed. I passed this information on to my head of school, who instructed the school manager to buy the iPads, copies of the books, and other associated hardware needed for running an iPad lending service. Have I, my head of school, or my school manager been negligent for not consulting a lawyer in this manner? Should academics really be consulting university lawyers on a regular basis?
I know this isn't really about the question, but I'm really curious how you find it worthwhile to pay for iPads to put the textbooks on. It seems to me that ebooks aren't usually that much cheaper than physical ones.
@JessicaB our students asked for them and the university presumably thinks it makes us look cutting edge. No way they would give us money to buy textbooks for our students, but they didn't hesitate when we asked for money for iPads.
Well, first of all it's good to check the license yourself. Here you will find that it says that
(i) You shall be authorized to use the iBooks Store Products only for personal, noncommercial use.
So, in this case it wouldn't even have been necessary to contact a university lawyer for the simple reason that the license is incredibly clear. In cases where it isn't you should at all times contact a university lawyer or contact the company in question itself, because in general IT and library personnel are not trained in legal matters (I just dropped by the library to ask). Now a valid argument could be made that it's the libraries responsibility to ask the university lawyer instead of you, but that's up to the mechanisms within your institution, the core issue remaining that one should be consulted somewhere down the line.
As to the question of negligence, I think (as a non-lawyer) you might be attributed negligence for not reading the license yourself, but not for not consulting a lawyer and just asking library/IT personnel. Still, it all depends on who was technically responsible for what and how the question towards the library people was phrased.
Additionally for future reference in case people find this through Google, the license also says
You acknowledge that you are purchasing the content made available through the iBooks Store Service (the “iBooks Store Products”) from the third-party provider of that iBooks Store Product (the “Publisher”); Apple is acting as agent for the Publisher in providing each such iBooks Store Product to you; Apple is not a party to the transaction between you and the Publisher with respect to that iBooks Store Product; and the Publisher of each iBooks Store Product reserves the right to enforce the terms of use relating to that iBooks Store Product. The Publisher of each iBooks Store Product is solely responsible for that iBooks Store Product, the content therein, any warranties to the extent that such warranties have not been disclaimed, and any claims that you or any other party may have relating to that iBooks Store Product or your use of that iBooks Store Product.
So not only would you need permission from Apple, but also from the third party selling every single individual book.
You keep saying "you", who is the "you" you are referring to? Is it the person in IT services, Library services, myself, head of school, the school manager, or the person in the school office who hands out the iPads.
@StrongBad Whoever was assigned this task was the you I was referring to. Either way, just before your comment I added some in on the topic of negligence.
Note that not everything forbidden by a licence is actually forbidden. Some clauses can be overruled by courts declaring them abusive, or institutions may be special cases in the law for certain activities.
@Davidmh: True that, if I remember I will edit that into the answer next time I have access to a computer. Over where I live we indeed have some laws regarding physical books and public libraries (which state funded libraries normally but not always are), but no such thing for digital content, however this could well be different in other countries (although I have never heard of such a thing in any of the major countries).
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80598 | Should academics be concerned about professorwatchlist.org
There is a relatively new website: http://professorwatchlist.org/ whose mission:
is to expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.
Help us identify, and expose more professors who have demonstrated liberal bias in the classroom.
What are the likely consequences for a US academic that is exposed as having a liberal bias in the classroom?
(This is not an answer, just additional information that I felt were relevant when looking at this website) It appears to be aggregating articles from online newspapers, not anonymous reports. Presumably, it also means that the professor must have taken action based on his "radical views", enough that it makes the news. And "leftist propaganda" seems to be a dubious shortcut : some of the professors here are (presumed) holocaust deniers or supporting terrorism, for example...
A significant proportion of the articles reference a source on campusreform.org, which I believe could be another example of websites for this question.
In my opinion the likely consequences are nil -- but I don't believe anyone can be sure.
Liberal bias meaning supporting the scientific consensus on evolutionary theory, anthropogenic climate change, etc.?
While its heart is to my taste on the wrong side of its chest, I don't see anything truly harmful or worrisome about this site. On the contrary, if I were the kind of academic who felt strongly enough about my political views to promote them in the classroom and/or on social media, I might perhaps enjoy the PR. One of the professors whose color photo is on the main page, is described as "an admitted socialist." The horror, the horror!
If it makes you feel any better, there are 'conservative' professors out there getting raked through the coals too.
@Hobbes it doesn't. Is there a conservative watch list also? I am happy for my question to be less biased.
Nothing like this, it's mostly just a case-by-case scenario. I was thinking of this specifically: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37875695
@NajibIdrissi not an ad. It is all over my social media feed, covered by the NYT and BBC, and written about by InsideHigherEd. I, potentially erroneously, thought it was a well known thing. The concept of being on a watch list is a little disturbing to me. The closest thing I can think of is the PETA lists.
The list is fairly short and each of the professors I clicked on already have a Wikipedia page talking about their beliefs, so this doesn't seem problematic at all to me. They also all seem to be quite extreme so most profs won't need to worry unless you're building bombs or brainwashing children.
@NajibIdrissi, It's popping up on blogs, twitter, and news sites. I guess I don't see it as dangerous, or particularly useful, since it is a private website.
If that website is really about what it says it's about, then I don't think there's anything to worry about. Academics should be open to criticism, especially if they are vocal about their political opinions. Academic freedom means the government should not interfere with what professors teach, not that they should be shielded from criticism. There certainly is political bias among university professors and it's not unhealthy per se to question that via independent media.
Off course, this website is very partial and lumps together extremists, people under FBI scrutiny or who were convicted with people with simply non-conservative opinions, and people whose research actually contradicts some of the American conservative positions. That last bit is probably the only worrisome aspect.
I suspect readers of that website are really looking for a confirmation of opinions they already have. I don't think it's going to have a lot of traffic from random people (apart from the one you're generating with that link). That is also true of blogs and website from the other side of the political spectrum.
If such websites challenge facts because they conflict with their political opinions, then there is a threat and it's our job to fight it with science, not with political activism.
In terms of "traffic" it has inspired a bunch of twitter posts and a couple of articles/posts on inside higher ed.
I very much doubt we need to be concerned with it at this point.
Collections like this have existed for a long time. When I was an undergrad, a minor incident on campus got spun up into Clear Evidence of Oppression (tm) and gets trotted out now, more than a decade and a half later. The site is, at the moment, pretty poorly designed, primarily a collection of innuendo and "X professor was mean to me", and like many user-submission dependent sites, is currently somewhat inundated with obviously fake examples.
Beyond that, the very pretense of the site, that there's a clear bias in favor of professors pushing liberal ideas that pervades and dominates academia also implies that exposure of a professor doing just that...won't do much, because an academics career is primarily dictated by other academics.
The list is only a threat given moves to shift the evaluation of academics into the political sphere. But those are separate actions, that should (or should not) be opposed on their own merit, because they have implications far beyond a random PAC's website.
Could you give an example of an "obviously fake example"? Does it carry a source, and if yes, is the source spreading obviously wrong information?
@T.Verron They appear to be trying to clean them up, but at one point fairly recently both Professor Dumbledore and Professor Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. were on there.
@T.Verron There are others, such as the UNC Asheville reports: http://professorwatchlist.org/index.php/watch-list-directory/search-by-school/106-university-of-north-carolina-asheville that, given the source's track record I would be extremely skeptical of.
I think this is obviously backlash from the University professors who have been publicly named-and-shamed over the past 4 months for holding conservative views. Jordan Peterson and Michael Rectenwald are the first that spring to mind, however there have been others.
Frankly, I don't think it will have the same effect and there's nothing to worry about. In all the examples of conservatives losing their jobs for speaking out against liberal views publicly (or privately and getting dox'd), the Dean of the institution or some other power figure within the university was the one to make it official and actually punish the conservative professor. Get them fired, academic leave, open letters, etc. The reverse just doesn't seem anywhere near as likely - an overtly conservative dean punishing a liberal professor? You'd have more chance of finding a unicorn. What i'm getting at is that liberal privilege exists within universities, and conservatives, ironically, don't have much sway over things. Liberal professors really don't need to be worried - but i'd still say that for the next 1 or 2 years i'd try and check as much of your own political baggage, whatever it may be, at the classroom door.
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11986 | Can student be the corresponding author?
I am working in a research project (not PhD and after Master's degree). I have completed a work which my adviser thinks is publishable. But he has such a heavy schedule that he hardly has time to respond. Can I take the whole charge of writing the manuscript and communicating the paper with his permission. (I have not yet asked him.)
There's no problem at all with a student being the principal author (in the sense of “being in charge of the writing”) of an academic paper. In fact, I think it's very good that you consider doing so. Here are, however, some thoughts on the matter:
Discuss this with your advisor before writing anything. Once both of you have established that there is sufficient matter for publication, and that you want to publish it, you should make plans for doing so. It includes determining (right now!) the authors list, the order of authors on the list, and plan who will do what.
The corresponding author (or corresponding authors), often indicated by an asterisk in the authors list and their contact details in a footnote, do not necessarily need to be the person(s) who actually did most of the writing. The contact author is the one who is the most central to the project, and who will be able to deal with correspondence about it in the near and not-so-near future. For that reason, some groups (including mine) do not consider students a good choice for corresponding author: in two years, they may be gone to a new job and not interested any more with the paper's research.
A few more comments for first time authors:
If you've never written a paper before, don't underestimate the task. Writing a paper from A to Z is a complex project, even for experienced authors. It requires using many different skills, and is truly an exercise in both scientific reasoning and communication, with very specific constraints (style, formatting, length limits, …). Assign a lot of time to writing, and don't hesitate to get help if you're stuck!
If in doubt while writing, put yourself in the reader's shoes. And specifically, a non-specialist reader's shoes. That should be the guiding principle.
That was helpful.
+1 for "put yourself in the reader's shoes". Indeed, that should be the guiding principle.
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46478 | What to do on finding a major flaw in a conference paper?
Most new findings in Computer Science are now published in conferences. While journals have some policy on reporting of errors in the papers that they have published, I have not seen any conferences having anything related to problems. I have found a major flaw in a paper published in a top conference. So what should I do in this situation?
@StephanKolassa No, its not my paper. I have found a flaw while reading a paper.
@StephanKolassa Thanks -- I have now added this information.
@Arani I am not sure if this is uncommon in computer science but (major) flaws do occur in some mechanical engineering conferences. The reason for this is usually that the deadline for the conference paper submission is much earlier (~6 months in advance even) with respect to the actual conference presentation. Hence the paper is not up to date. What does happen is that the author has already taken note of this and has made sufficient adjustments to their PRESENTATION. They might have forgotten to do the same for the paper. Your best bet would be to contact the author and ask them about it.
Related: How to address a mistake in an old paper in a very prestigious scientific journal? and What should you do if you spotted a non-trivial error in a highly cited paper? and What should/can I do on finding an error in a published article?
First contact the authors of the paper, and discuss the issue with them.
When the flaw is small and does not affect their results too much, they might simply put an erratum on their website. When they are unwilling to do so, let it rest (it is a small flaw).
When the error is significant, you might co-publish together with the original authors a new conference article that addresses this (it might even be called 'Erratum on paper XYZ')
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41950 | When should a faculty candidate notify schools about a competing offer?
If a candidate has been notified that she is going to receive an offer from another school, at what point should she notify other schools at which she has interviewed? In particular, if it's known that the other school is on a much slower trajectory to make a decision—say, six weeks or more—what should a candidate do, either to determine if other offers will be forthcoming, or to expedite the process?
Are you asking for a pragmatic perspective, an ethical perspective, or both?
Mainly pragmatic. (See slight revision to question.)
I think it depends on the deadline the offering school gave you. If it's after you expect to hear from the other schools, maybe waiting will be OK. If it's before, then you may have to light a fire under the slower schools. Also, there's a big difference between being "notified that she is going to receive an offer from" the first school and actually receiving it. I wouldn't do anything until you have the first offer in hand (or email).
You mean you'd wait for the official offer? Why?
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19756 | How can we promote better writing skills in academic education?
This question may be too wide or in some perspective perceived as unclear but covers a key issue (for me) in academia, namely, academic writing.
Students start their academic career with varying skills in writing. Often, and this the case in my department, there is no thought through progression to go from beginner through novice and proficient to expert level (the latter perhaps in graduate school) or some such scale.
My question is therefore how to get students to progress in appropriate steps through an education. In other words what is a reasonable progression of writing skills through an education. I am looking for suggestions of appropriate expectations for, say, an annual or semester wise increase in difficulty or complexity of exercises with the aim of learning academic writing skills through an education including graduate school.
That is an excellent question. We have the same issue in hour lab. Sometimes, it seems that the ability to write is something really difficult to acquire and that the issue is not academic writing but just writing. ..
The answers might differ depending on discipline. Academic writing in mathematics requires different (but overlapping) skills than academic writing in chemistry or psychology or economics or history.
Just been through a (horribly buzzword-laden) process to specify and unify this in my (quantitative sciences) department and despite the buzzwords and coolaid something has probably been accomplished. That said, the short version is "require the students to write and grade them on it" (something that I was doing before we began). The discipline specific bit is determining what they should write and how to grade the writing they do.
@dmckee Requiring the students to write and grading them on it measures their performance. What is your department doing to teach them how to write?
@DavidRicherby We talk about it in the context of making the assignments, we show the rubric and exemplars of good writing and we make them hand in drafts for comments.
In my lab, we were required to produce three-to-four page white papers, including figures, every time we presented at a lab meeting (approx. every 6 weeks).
This had two significant effects. Firstly, it forced the student to write down their progress, which was invariably ridiculously useful when the student actually started writing their thesis. Staple together a few of these sections and the methods, and often a good part of the background, was written for you.
Secondly, it gave everyone a chance to practice their professional writing in a casual lab setting. No one felt threatened and everyone improved. We would even review the articles being written by the lab professor, as there were always improvements we could suggest to him as well.
I strongly recommend this practice.
Note that this practice only works if the group actually reads and provides critique on the writeup. If no one provides feedback, the person writing doesn't learn, and the exercise becomes much less useful.
This is a nice way to force everyone to write on a regular basis, but doesn't take an awful lot of time? Making lab presentation already take some time, so writing an additional report is even worse. Any idea what was the work lead for such practice?
@Wiliam - That's the beauty of it - sooner or later everyone will have to write up their research anyways, be it for an article, proceeding, book chapter, or dissertation. This simply forces them to do it incrementally rather than all at once.
I ask all my students to submit a weekly summary of their work. There are no length or format restrictions—it's just a summary of what they've done, and what they plan to do. It makes meetings much more productive, since we already have an agenda worked out.
@William, yes, it takes time now, that as the first comment says, is saved later. And the results are much better. I encourage my students to show me drafts often, and check/proofread/rewrite themselves.
@aeismail, related but not the same. You need to encourage "write early and edit often" instead of some big-bang theory
HAVE them write. A lot of times students don't write because they simply aren't asked to. (Keep in mind the corollary to this is you're going to have to do some reading!)
Have them research! Many times students don't make the leap on their own between reading, writing, and then (hopefully) thinking that's incredibly obvious to those of us who have devoted our lives to teaching. I've seen a lot of lightbulbs go on when I've been able to help a student make the connection between research, writing, and work output.
As gman started to say above, if your school has an academic writing center go there and ask lots and lots of questions. Usually people who work in these departments have thought far more deeply about your question than you might ever be able to. They might even be able to give you exercises or assign a tutor to monitor your class. At the very least, make sure the students know the writing center is there and that you expect them to use it!
As a grad-student I really appreciate this question. As a Humanities student most of our writing is text. I found even at under-graduate level a substantial amount of time could be taken up going over the same writing issues (usually after assignment hand-backs) over a number of course modules. It amazed me that there was not a module to at least give the basics in academic writing.
I have noticed though in Ireland(my home country) that there is a number of Academic Writing Centres starting to set up in Universities. At the moment they are voluntarily drop in centres where you can get advice on your writing.
In the case of the university I attend
The AWC offers free one-on-one tutorials on essay writing for NUIG students. Last year, AWC tutors helped over 500 students to overcome recurrent problems with grammar, punctuation, spelling, and essay structure.
They also run group workshops at certain times of the year for different levels within the University, so some are aimed at under-graduate and some at post-graduate. Normally at these workshops you bring some of your writing and as a group you give each other advice on improving our writing style.
Finally they run an online course which works in the following way.
Online students are assigned weekly writing tasks and editing tasks. Editing tasks consist of specific questions which assist students in providing constructive feedback rather than criticism. Guided editing tasks help students to re-evaluate and improve their own writing. Students then rate the usefulness of the critique they received. In this way, points are awarded for effort rather than existing ability or experience. The entire process is strictly anonymous. The AWC takes on a supportive role for the duration of the course. Students receive weekly readings and emails.
A number of other universities also have a academic writing centre in place. See here and here
While this is by no means a perfect model because it requires the student to want to participate it is a step in the right direction for improving a persons writing skills.
To build on eykanal's answer, if you run a lab then have a lab blog and encourage or require your students to contribute to it. It is a great way to structure writing and improves research, learn how to communiate research, encourage active learning, and even improve technical writing. The public nature of a blog, puts a bit of pressure on the student, and you (or a senior student) should help them edit their first couple of posts, but afterwards give them freedom to roam. This is especially useful during thesis writing, since a student can package partial progress into posts. Finally, by requiring students to blog, you let them build a web presence and let them make connections in the field that don't depend exclusively on your klout or their papers (which usually are few and concentrated toward the end of the PhD for many students).
As a graduate student, I chose to blog on my own and it has been an incredibly rewarding experience. It has allowed me (along with other parts of my online activity like G+ and SE Q&As) to develop papers faster, feel part of a bigger community, and make new contacts that lead to new independent collaborations. I can't recommend it enough.
We start by getting all students evaluated by our Teaching & Learning Centre. TLC staff will recommend an action plan for students that are struggling with their writing skills. Additionally, in most courses we ask students to write essays and summaries of any lab work, which is returned with specific comments on the quality of writing. After all this, most students will somewhat improve their writing; however, many will never be great at it.
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27717 | Variation in drop dates, and effect on student outcomes
(This question may be specific to US university systems. Also, sorry it is long.)
US universities usually have some provision for students to drop a course. Within the first N weeks of the term, if they decide they don't want to continue with a course they are taking, they can drop out of it. Their official transcript will show no record that they ever took it, and it will have no effect on their GPA. If they are paying tuition per course or per credit, they may get a refund. Usually they have to stay enrolled in some minimum number of courses, so this can probably only be done for one or two courses per term.
Students may have many reasons for dropping a course, but obviously one common reason is that they are not doing well in the course and are afraid they may fail it.
(There may be another option to withdraw from the course up to N+K weeks, but with a note on the transcript saying that they enrolled in the course and later withdrew, maybe listing the pseudo-grade of "W". This usually doesn't affect their GPA but may look bad to prospective employers, graduate schools, etc.)
I realized the other day that there is very wide variation between institutions in the value of N. At Institution A, the medium-sized public university where I currently work, we have N=2. At Institution B, the small private college where I got my bachelor's degree, we had N=11! (I had vaguely remembered that N seemed to be larger at B, but I was still startled when I looked back at an old B calendar to check.)
(One significant difference: at A, students very often pay by the credit, and get a refund if they drop, so the university has a financial disincentive to let them go. At B, most students paid a flat tuition fee per semester, and didn't get any refund if they dropped a course.)
Anyway, it seems like this could have a rather profound effect on student outcomes. When N is small, students have only a short time to commit to their schedule, and can more easily get in over their heads. By the time they've had a midterm exam and realized they are in trouble, N weeks have already passed and they are stuck in a course. Most likely, they end up with an F (or several, if the time they spent trying to pass the hard course hurts their work in their other classes). Their GPA drops, hurting their eventual job prospects. It may drop below the institution's minimum for continued enrollment, in which case they may quit college altogether. I'd expect an overall negative effect on retention and graduation rates, job placement, and other common measures.
On the other hand, if N is large, then by the time the drop date approaches, students may be more than halfway through the course, and may have taken several exams. If they are likely to fail the course, they probably know it by now, and the obvious course of action is to drop it. In an extreme case, the result may be that students hardly ever get D's and F's (because they drop those courses), and grades may inflate.
So I have two questions:
What factors do universities actually consider in choosing or changing their value of N?
Is there any research studying the effect of N on student outcomes?
Feel free to help with tags. I was hoping for something like "academic-policy" but didn't see anything that fit exactly.
(And for mathematicians reading this, no, we didn't have N=39916800.)
I'm referring to longer-term outcomes like graduation rate and overall GPA. (And I'm afraid there may also be a language barrier - I think what you call "module" is what I call "course" or "class".)
A [tag:policy] tag might be appropriate for questions about how university rules are applied. Hence, we now have one.
This question does seem sufficiently specific to the US system to me to warrant the [tag:united-states] tag, but I'm not sure enough to retag myself. Thoughts?
It is interesting that N looks to be a university-wide figure. Surely an appropriate N varies quite significantly between courses? A logical way to do this would be to allow a withdrawal (with or without a refund) only before a certain % of assessments or lectures have been completed. For example: once a 20% weighting of assignments and/or tests have been completed, or 40% of the lectures have been given (whichever comes first), the student may not withdraw. Perhaps the apparent lack of consistency or logic in such policies signifies that there is little research or consensus on the matter.
I don't see how this question is specific to the USA. Don't all universities have withdrawal policies, regardless of country?
@Moriarty: "40% of lectures" would reduce to N=6, since classes normally meet a fixed number of times per week for a 15-week semester. Exams are usually spread approximately uniformly through a semester also.
@Moriarty Agreed. Since it's primarily about grades and not about money, it's relevant for universities everywhere.
@Moriarty: Indeed, different N for different courses at the same department do exists, at least in Germany. Here are my 2 data points: Both had a fairly high value of N=8 and N=14 for lecture-based courses (1-2 lectures/week +1 homework session/week + final), and a pretty low value of N=2 and N=-4 for seminars (each student is given a paper to read and then each week one of them does a 30-90 min talk, topics are given out at the end of the previous semester, so N=-4 is possible). The reasoning was that a student more or less would have little impact on a lecture, but a lot on a seminar.
I'm not personally aware of formal studies on the subject, but at my undergraduate institution there was a carefully thought policy that seemed to work fairly well. They had not one, but two different drop dates for classes, with different intentions:
The first drop date, ~5 weeks in, left no record at all, and was intended to allow "class shopping" and academic risk taking. This made registration a low-stakes decision. A student unsure whether they could handle a hard class or undecided between two classes could simply sign up, try things out, and then make a decision after a couple of weeks, before investing too much.
The second drop date, ~12 weeks in, left a record on the internal transcript, and was intended to allow a failing student to triage and focus on their remaining classes. It still didn't show up on external transcripts (except as a light-load semester).
With these two dates as long-standing and well-accepted policies, professors tended to include them in their planning. Most of the early "shopping" drops happened in the first week, so professors tended to wait until the second week before doing things like arranging tutorial sections or setting presentation schedules.
Similarly, grading policies mostly tended to assume that D, F, and late drops were synonymous. Thus, many classes set their first quiz before the first drop date, to let students have their first serious assessment of their progress before that decision deadline. Likewise, curves were often set to assume the worst grades would have gone to the students who dropped, meaning that students who stuck out the class were not unfairly penalized (though they could still fail if they did that badly).
These policies I'm sure do create some statistical GPA inflation, but I doubt it has much significance because 1) it would not generally affect the stronger students, and 2) significant failures are still visible as gaps on a transcript.
At the institution you describe, were there any financial effects from dropping by either method (e.g. tuition refund)?
@NateEldredge Typically it would not have even been a question, since most people would not drop enough to shift from "normal" to "light load". In the case where somebody did shift past that boundary, I believe the policy was fairly complex and based on an idea of 'fairness' - maintaining tuition revenue was clearly not the primary concern in drawing up the policies.
Ok, so your institution had a flat tuition rate for "normal" loads. At mine students pay by the credit, so if they drop a course they might receive a refund for those credits, even if their remaining courses still constitute a "normal load".
There are similar multiple cutoff policies at my institution, with the added wrinkle of 4 undergraduate colleges, all with slightly different dates and policies. Even within a single class.
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56400 | German language for Phd courses in Germany
Can PhD students study in universities in Germany, in engineering courses, without knowing the German language? Can they research and live without any problems?
Does applying to these universities require knowledge of the German language?
I thought this is a legitimate question. Why downvotes?
Specifically I'd like to know more about engineering courses.
I'd say that the answer is yes in general, but at some point you are going to need some help with bureaucracy and papework. Sooner or later, you are bound to find something which is in German only: some set of university regulations, or a rental contract, or a registration form at your local municipality. You can ask a colleague or a friend to help you.
@FedericoPoloni: I'd say that at least in some fields, the answer is "not necessarily", because PhD candidates in Germany in some fields are often university employees who are supposed to teach and research. While the external issues you list might appear, being unable to speak German and thus being unable to support teaching in classes that for one reason or another is held in German, or to attend meetings with German-speaking consortiums of projects that fund your position could be much less avoidable obstacles.
I know programs in other fields where the official graduate school language is English (e.g., my undergraduate alma mater - over 20 years back even), but am not personally familiar with engineering in Germany. You need to check the online program description for the universities you're interested in. They certainly exist - here is one example. The entire page is in English. It's an interview with international students about their experiences in the program, so it might be helpful, or at least interesting as well.
I had an Israeli professor who didn't speak German. He was tenured, taught in English even at the undergraduate level, and still managed to be probably the most popular teacher. While Germans generally speak some English, you just face a somewhat restricted social life, and should learn German while in the program to enjoy your time in a PhD more.
+1 for informative answer. However, I heard that living in Germany as an international student who could not speak in German may be impossible. While, I heard that this is not the case in Swiss, Netherlands, and Sweden.
@Eilia: I'm not sure where you heard that, and why someone considers it impossible? I've left Germany 24 years ago (to live in the U.S.), so things could certainly have changed; but even back then English was commonly spoken. In fact, as most Germans speak some English, they tend to like to practice it with you - which might be an issue if you try to learn German. Especially in the big cities, and with a new generation no longer learning Latin in school but English, I don't expect much of a language barrier. Good grad schools teach in English for the most part anyway.
@Eilia: Sticking to language, it's hard to compete with Sweden. Swedes have some of the highest non-native speaker English competency in the world. Dutch are also good English speakers; not so sure about Swiss having an edge over Germans (they are kinda (at over 50%) a German dialect user after all). If you have other concerns - xenophobia or something like that -, that exists everywhere to some extent, but I don't see Germany stick out. That all said, if you live in another country, you should always learn that language to better socialize. Good luck!
Thanks for the informative comments. Learning a new language to live in a different country is a must; however, I have concerned of the early steps! Now, I'm more confident :)
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91605 | Should I use "I" or "We" in Peer-Review Journal Submissions?
I am the single author for a journal article which focuses on the measurement and validation of two scale instruments. This is a purely quantitative report for submission in a top-tier educational psychology journal. Where appropriate, I have used the plural first-person "we" in the article, as "I" sounds very peculiar to me. I also feel as though it is disadvantageous to write singular first-person when submitting for blind peer-review. At the same time, I don't want readers thinking I have multiple personality disorder as more than one person. ;)
In your opinion, should I be using "I" or "We?"
FYI I'd rather not use passive voice. It's madness for this article.
Thanks for your thoughts in advance.
What do similar papers in your field do?
Follow the conventions in your field. I suspect that in most fields papers use 'we' since most papers are authored by more than one person. I would personally use 'we'.
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112297 | Grant "pre-approval" issue
Background:
I work in a public university as a staff member, and also a part-time lecturer, allowed to teach only 1 class (per Union).
Last year, I applied and received multiple grants/awards for my teaching position. I already completed the work and received payments. The grants did not require any approvals from department/dean.
Recent development: Now, our dean approached me with the following conversation:
“You need to send me info prior to your grant submission..
You are only a lecturer…
We hired you just to teach 1 course…
You have a limit for a course teaching… you have a limit (per Union)...
You need to consult with the dean and the department chair about any grant’s proposal and share your idea with us…
I know that you are not required to submit for internal review to the dean, but since I knew nothing about it, I was in a dark, moving forward you must inform me about your plans… You need to work with a tenured faculty on grants…”
My question:
What do I suppose to do in this situation? I obviously do not believe dean’s well wishes, and would like to apply grants in the future without “dean’s blessings”. I also feel that the dean would go behind my back and ask for denial of my proposal. I do not wish to share my ideas for free.
Why not finding an tenured ally in the faculty and work with them? That would make it harder for the dean to sabotage your proposal (if that is indeed what you fear).
Tenured ally are absolutely not interested to do extra work. And I rather do everything by myself.
It's not about my trust in administration. My intellectual property does not belong to the admin.
@CP I don't see how the admin is claiming your IP. Sending an email to the dean would provide a paper trail that it is your IP. If you want to get into IP discussions though you will have to consult a lawyer, since the university may be able to claim any IP related to your work anyway.
If I shared my ideas for the grants, I believe I would not be a recipient of any grant. The deans statements are directing me to stop applying for the grants. I believe the dean has no authority here, it's out of the scope.
@CP I'm not sure what country you are in, but I would interpret the dean as being your boss's boss and would have complete authority over this, especially if the grants have any relationship to your university position. You should definitely bring this up with your department chair to clarify.
Ideally, yes. Reality, the department chair does not care about it.
In the US, it's fairly normal to require approval of grant proposals by the administration before they are submitted. You haven't specified what country you are in or who you submitted these proposals to but in the case of major federal funding agencies in the US such as the NSF, grants are awarded to the university rather than to individual faculty and staff members.
Once again, my grants did not require dean's approval. It was approved by a special university committee. I am in the US.
Why don't you want to just get the dean's approval? I don't see any reason they would say no, it sounds like they're just annoyed there's N dollars in their department now that they didn't budget for.
Of course, if you take this attitude, you might get a "no."
Incorrect. The additional budget comes to the department for the grant with my name.
I think I clearly stated that I do not wish to share my ideas prior grant submission with anyone. And I do not believe dean's well wishes.
"I was in a dark" No manager wants to be surprised by something going on in their organization.
It is not unheard of for software companies in the US to, in their contracts, lay claim to anything their employees create while an employee. What makes you think that while being paid by a university, your ideas should be hidden from it, and that if your employer asks you to share your ideas, that they are in the wrong?
@CP If your "Incorrect" comment was directed at me, I don't see how that's right, when you followed it up with saying "the additional budget comes to the department ..." which is exactly what I just said.
@CP Again, if your second comment is also directed at me, you need to explain why you are so damn protective of your teaching ideas. That is not normal academic behavior, and we are all very confused by what you think is going to happen if you just get the dean to rubber-stamp your proposal.
@CP Not "all" of us are confused. Majority doesn't mean "right". I see your point. Hopefully you will find the best way, and update here on how things came out.
@Scientist, thanks again. A lot of politically correct responses were given, and someone below even got into embezzlement. I lost desire to respond.
@CP I think this community is biased towards defenders of institutional establishment. I have seen it in several other threads about e.g. student vs. professor conflicts, advisor vs. advisee. Perhaps posting here what looks good to department fellas. Anyways, perhaps I am in the wrong, or just out of tune with local practices somewhere. I believe you've seen different views, and this is what counts.
@Scientist There are very nasty bureaucrats around, no question. But nothing in the question of OP suggests evidence for that. There is just the position that OP doesn't want to share ideas, without further explanation. "It's mine!" is a comfortable position when you will be indulged or can afford it, i.e. a little kid, or a very powerful businessperson, but in most contexts life is a compromise of give and take. Unless therefore OP has evidence of being scammed out of ideas, this should at least be considered. It's not PC, it's simply practical. If OP believes that they can go against...
... the dean, then why do they ask the question here, to random strangers on the internet who know neither OP nor the dean? Either OP are formally allowed to go against the dean (because the committee is independent and the grant not under control of the dean) or not. In which case, the dean cannot stop the grant, but sabotage OP in other forms, including continued employment. Again, this is not PC, but simply reality. It has nothing to do with defending institutions. Gravity, like institutional bureaucracy, sucks, whether it's being defended or not. OP can ignore this, at their own peril.
@CP: it seems that your edit essentially erased the whole question. Whether intentional or not, this isn't allowed, so I reversed it. If there is information you need to add or clarify, you can use an edit to do that, but you can't delete the whole thing.
It might help to understand where your Dean is coming from. I work for my university's research administration department, and I can understand his position. For context, we are an R1 university in the United States.
There are likely a few things going on:
Grants often create liabilities for universities. There may be cost-sharing requirements or other implicit costs which the university will be required to pay. Administrators need to keep a close eye on these requirements in order to keep the university functioning smoothly.
Grants create risks for universities. There are many legal and ethical rules surrounding grants. Although some of the risk is on you, much of the potential penalties are assumed by the university. For this reason, many (if not all) research universities have dedicated research administration departments and all grants are required to flow through those departments.
There are legal issues. In all of the grants I've seen, the grant goes from the granting agency to your employer. It is not a grant to you personally. You should be careful about accepting money on your own. Carefully re-read the grant terms to be sure that this is not the case here.
Not all the reasons are bad: universities often like to reward individuals and departments who do a great job of soliciting grant dollars. If they can't keep an eye on grants, how are they supposed to that?
Other answers have mentioned intellectual property. I'll only repeat what they have said: if you work for a university you should not assume that any intellectual work product is your own property. Make sure you understand what the rules are in your location.
Overall, I would treat this as an opportunity to develop in your profession. If soliciting grants is an important part of your career (current or future!) then it would help to understand how it works. It's not as simple as just applying for a grant - and for good reason!
My points and more good ones. (+1)
I would add one point to this. The dean has some responsibility to know what is going on among lecturers they are supervising. Having grant money appear without prior knowledge would make the dean look inefficient.
What also may be consideration - when does one work on the grants? Since they are related to the perk of job (the 1 course) one could rationalize that OP's time on job should/could be used in researching grants available, writing the grants. But, then what does this take away from other staff responsibilities and is it worth the effort for the course being taught? Wouldn't that be a normal discussion between admin staff and their immediate manager (Dean?) before getting too involved? (I would have expected teaching a course would have taken up almost all extra flexible time!)
#4 (providing rewards) is unconvincing as a reason here. If the administration lets it be known that they will reward grant winners, then people will automatically be motivated to inform the administration after they get one. #1-3 are reasons to prohibit cowboy grant-writing; #4 is not.
I agree that is unlikely to be the answer to OP's problem, but I am leaving it in because other readers may find it informative.
If you aren't willing to do what upper administration is directly telling you to do, then either:
Be willing to accept the consequences when you go against the dean.
Look for a new university with administration that you can trust.
To summarize my responses to you in the comments:
You seem worried about your intellectual property. However, the university may already own this. You'll have to check your university policies and talk to a lawyer. If you document your ideas (e.g., an email to the dean with your grant proposal draft) then you would be able to show that you authored it.
You seem to think the dean has an ill intent. However, you haven't provided any evidence of this. From what you have said, it seems like the dean just wants to know what is going on and possibly protect the university and or you from liability issues caused by the grants (e.g., it is outside your job description, you claimed your university affiliation when applying for the grant, you are using university resources for grant work without approval).
In other words, if you are receiving grant money (or doing anything) in what appears to be an official capacity of your work position (lecturer at a university), then the university has a right to know about it (and to prevent you from doing it).
It does not make sense. The dean has no right to make me share my intellectual property without my agreement.
@CP There is nothing in your question about IP. Can you clarify the original question?
Since you work for the university, the IP situation is complicated anyway; especially if the grants you request are supported by your affiliation with the university. If you have a reason to distrust your admins, and no support from the other faculty, you really have no chance but to change to a more congenial environment. In our department, you cannot even submit proposals for grants without getting signatures from at least 3 levels of admin.
I had some teaching ideas, applied for the grant, implemented them, got payments, the dean did not like that.
The grants only needed my proposals. No other approvals.
You were talking about IP. Please clarify. In the meantime, Austin's response is pertinent.
My proposals are IPs and the extra work I did for it to implement the proposals. It was my extra work designed for the grants. Not sure what else to add.
Still unclear: it may not be your (or your complete) IP if you did that work when paid by the university. This is a different issue from whether you want to prevent your dean from stopping you submitting or whether you do not wish to share ideas with your colleagues but rather make sure only you get the credit. Three different questions. Which of these is your goal?
My goals: 1 Get paid. 2. I am not obligated to share any ideas if I do not want to. 3. Get more grants.
@CP Goals #1 and #2 might contradict each other.
The IP is mine, since I created the idea. The result of the idea (implemented product) does belong to the university since yes I got paid for it to implement it.
If I share the idea(#2), I will not get paid(#1). Yes, they do contradict, I am trying to avoid that.
IP is a legal term. So, you may not own it if you work for the uni. It's different from authorship.
The idea is nothing then? In my case, I call my ideas - IPs, since I see someone's trying to steal it. I do believe the university does not own my ideas. I am in US.
I did not say that the idea is nothing. But IP is a legal term. It's not for you to decide how that is interpreted, there is a precise legal framework for that - especially as lots of money may be involved with it. If you can apply without asking the dean, it's one thing. Which consequence this will have for your status in the department is another. Also, it is not typical that grant money can go directly to an individual, but if in your case it is possible, that's good news for you.
@CP: In every other job in the world, you have a responsibility to keep your bosses informed about the work you are doing, in as much detail as they request. Academic jobs are no different.
@CP "I had some teaching ideas, applied for the grant, implemented them,got payments..." There are two possible issues with this: 1) The dean may not like you do experiments with teaching a class. It is hard to elaborate more without knowing what exactly you implemented, but there are many teaching innovations which require approval before being implemented... 2) You got hired by the Uni to teach a class, and then you received money from other sources to make changes to that class. That could be problematic...
Technically speaking, many grants are made to the university and not to
the applicant personally. University grants offices are typically paid a small
percentage of the grant amount for administering the grant and in many
cases a larger percentage of the grant amount for 'indirect costs' (library
usage, computer facilities, etc.).
For such grants it is usually a requirement
for deans and university grants officers to approve the application.
I am not saying your dean is a 'nice guy'. Or that union contracts make any logical sense. I'm just saying make sure
you know the rules of the granting agency and the university before you
make grant applications.
You are using the department's resources (that includes your working time) to work on your grant projects. To do that without the departments knowledge is close to embezzlement. This dean is actually very nice to you at the moment.
He has every right to know before what you're applying for, and what you need for it. Desk space for a student, your working time, equipment, lab time, lab space, etc. The scientific details of your project are possibly of no concern to him, but unless you are hired as an independent researcher, he still has every right to demand that you share them. Because you are already using department resources to write the proposals.
It is not likely that the dean is out to get you (he probably has better things to do). Follow his advice and see what happens (he will have some expertise that you don't at this time). You are likely young and whatever happens is not going to have any lasting effects on you.
On the other hand you may discover that the dean is a nice person and make a friend.
In the worst case scenario, you will find that the dean's advice should not be followed and have a 'reason' to go back to your 'old ways'.
I believe you're in a tight situation. But do not feel singled out: I have heard of many such cases where department higher ranks exploit younger staff. The academia is unfortunately full of opportunistic predators nowadays. This person seeks to be put in a position from where he can blackmail and manipulate you.
I do not know anything of the local social & cultural standards of where you are, or whether you are a local, or an immigrant. I am afraid you must make a moral choice which will affect your personal life and career. This person probably seeks to parasitise and sabotage you. You must find a way of neutralising his actions with minimal damage.
The best for everyone else in the bigger picture is that you confront this dean head on. Offering open resistance and wide exposure directly weakens a bad workmate. If everyone resists, abusers cannot thrive. Problem is, it will likely cost you your peace at work, and force you to move away. Possibly confronting authorities may not be socially acceptable (e.g. China) adding to a bad reputation and extra enemies / penalties.
Another way is to scam the abuser. You may pretend to scared and frame fake ideas and proposals, provide elusive information. This will lead to a cold war and eventually he will realise, but it buys you time (e.g. a dean may be temporary).
Or you simply abide and pray for the best. This is probably what this person is used to seeing.
Evaluate your chances where you are, and whether moving on to a better environment wouldn't be the best for you. By all means, when you get the chance, please do neutralise this person. Time is your friend against abusers.
Good luck.
I have always resisted abuse, ever since school. I think it pays off but it is frequently uncomfortable.
I am now trying to find a way to resist in a smart way. It's hard. It's just killing me.
This person probably seeks to parasitise and sabotage you Where is this coming from?? Other than the OP's feeling, there seems to be no evidence of this. I interpreted the dean's request as being inline with their duties.
All the statements from the dean are saying "do not get grants". If you attempt to get them, send them to the dean. This is just a dead end game.
Doesn't seem like a parasitic move then. He may be trying to protect you and or the university. For example, since it is outside of your job description the grants might lead to liability issues for the university (are you listing your university affiliation when applying for them?) or they are using the universities resources without being approved.
@AustinHenley Yes, I read your answer. I read the move in a different way. Also I do not think the dean has a duty to control grant applications from everyone (what to say from specific targets).
@CP It is hard because you probably don't like playing games. Passive-aggressive, lying, faking smiles, scamming, implied threats, etc. It tends to become quite unhealthy. If you find out how to neutralise this person, it may end quicker.
I am curios how would you "neutralize this person"?
@AustinHenley I see you are a good person, with a good heart. This is probably way you do not see the hidden damage this negative person did. My husband is kinda like you. It must be really dark for him to see the damage.
@CP This is totally context-specific. Bad academics often publish obvious misconduct (e.g. in verbatim plagiarism or image manipulation), others heavily rely on a facade reputation or a specific collaboration, or even pinpoint protection. Some are actually desperate thus some resistance would suffice to cut them off (e.g. tenure or main funding is on a deadline). It is hard to say, one needs to study their enemies. This is why I tend to recommend just fighting openly and moving elsewhere -- it is easier and way healthier.
@Scientist I feel that I need to apply for another grant and see what this person does next.
It is not likely that the dean is out to get you. Follow his advice and see what happens. You are likely young and whatever happens is not going to have any lasting effect. You may discover that the dean is a nice person and make a friend.
@CP I was wondering whether you found a solution? Please also mind to select the most helpful answer for you in this thread. It would be interesting if it proves to have been this one. So many users here strive to maintain the current status quo of institutional oppression.
@Scientist Thank you for asking. For now, there is no new grant opportunity, so I am not applying at this time. I am also looking into non-job related opportunities where I can get a better level of satisfaction.
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206622 | Do universities have an agreement on when acceptance letters can be sent?
Most universities agree on the deadline of December 15 for graduate application submissions, and on the deadline April 15 for committing to an offer from the university.
My professor claims there is a similar agreement on how early acceptance letters are officially sent out (February 15, perhaps). User @NateEldredge expressed skepticism of this here.
Q: does such an agreement exist?
Dec 15 as a deadline for US universities isn't particularly common. I just got done writing recommendation letters for a few students (in mathematics), and their application deadlines were all scattered through December, January and February. Maybe there are certain fields where such an agreement exists, though.
Also, the April 15 agreement is specific to the US. I'm going to add the [tag:united-states] tag.
At least in physics, 12/14 of the universities I applied to had Dec 15 deadline
Departments set application deadlines (as far as I know), not universities. Mine were also all over the place.
If some universities do have such an agreement, formal or informal, my R1 institution is not among them.
@Buzz As pointed out, this could be a departmental thing, so it may depend on the field (I am referring to physics)
Well, I am also in physics and on my department's graduate admissions committee.
It's hard to provide evidence that something does not exist, so we ordinarily put the burden on people making claims to provide evidence for them. If your professor makes this claim, can they point to such an agreement? If not, I don't think you should believe them. Not that you need to confront them about it or anything, but if you're sufficiently curious you could say you haven't found anything about it and ask where they heard that. You might also consider whether it actually matters to you at all: would this change your actions in some way? Should it?
The April 15 Resolution setting the earliest date for offers of graduate student funding to expire is well-known and well-documented. I've never heard of anything similar setting an earliest offer date, though in practical terms the April 15th Resolution organizes the application calendar; most applications will be due around December (+/- a month; I agree with Nate Eldredge that there is no such universal Dec 15th deadline), most interviews conducted in Jan-March if they happen, and decisions to offer admission around that same time, often contingent on whenever the group of people on the admissions committee can find an available time to meet. There's not much benefit to offering earlier because the expectation is that students will wait to see what other offers they have before accepting, because that's the whole point of the April 15th resolution: preventing a race against the clock for universities and unfair expiring offers for students.
Not an answer to the question itself, but worth stating nonetheless:
An "agreement" may be an unwritten and unacknowledged one, between just some universities who think that it would be a useful deadline to choose because many others use it as well, not because there is a formal contract between universities. In other words, there is an entire continuum between complete anarchy and having a written, legal, binding contract between all universities in the entire country.
An excellent point! (+1)
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211191 | Creating a website while a PhD student?
I am about to start a PhD this fall. As such, I am contemplating about creating a personal website to host various academic activities and projects. In addition to sharing my academic interests, I think it would be a great opportunity to share my excitement and passion for mathematics with a wider audience, while providing valuable information, such as a CV, contact information, etc.
Is it a good idea to create a website this early in my career? If so, how would you recommend building my website? Using HTML, WordPress, Google sites, etc.
In most cases, I see professional mathematicians use raw HTML pages, and very few of them maintain a visually pleasing website, at least in my opinion.
Instead of starting with some website you may use i.e. Github. Then create a separate repositories for things you already mentioned (CV, contact info etc.) and private repo(s) to brainstorm your ideas, document what you are doing etc.
Private but shared with others repositories are great for collaboration
Markdown is often good enough for anything from wiki docs, presentations, CVs. As you are in the math I guess Latex is also an option.
Yes, it might be good to do that. However, there are two caveats (at least)
First, keep it professional. Web pages can have a long life and things can come back to haunt you.
Second, don't get so tied up in web construction and all it might entail that it detracts from the important work of getting a degree. It can become an obsession.
Something fairly simple in structure that resembles an extended CV is a place to start.
First and second are antagonistic goals. I concentrated on First. The website was not very pleasing, but informative and easy to maintain/automate.
If you want to be in academia, a decent personal website is a must. In almost any interaction you have (applying for an internship, people interested in your work, potential collaborations etc), your website will be the first thing people would look for.
It can be simple and clean, GitHub pages is a perfectly acceptable option, or creating your own simple website is also fine. Keep it professional and tasteful!
I think it's a great idea, and I would say especially as early as prior to starting a Ph.D.! Since you mention talking about mathematics to a wider audience -- I think there's a side benefit to maintaining your own site and writing about your academic interests. If you write something regularly, like a short blog post or a short note on something you've been studying, you train yourself to become a better academic writer. This will become extremely useful to you in your Ph.D. It will help you in writing your future publications and a dissertation. The ability to write well academically is very valued by advisors because it saves them a lot of time in making corrections to your writing.
Like others who posted an answer, I also recommend hosting your page on GitHub since it's free and gives you a lot of leeway on what you can achieve. You can use Jekyll to convert markdown to HTML, it's super handy.
I also created my personal site shortly before starting my Ph.D. to showcase some of the past academic work, my scientific interests, and my fun side-projects. It has grown with content over the Ph.D. years, for example I've been adding links to my publications, links to the talks I gave, and I always keep a link to the most recent CV. This has helped many researchers over the years to find me and my work. It helps in science outreach and disseminating your research.
Best wishes for your Ph.D. journey!
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77854 | Staying in same lab for a while after finishing PhD?
I will soon defend my dissertation and been thinking on what do next after successful completion.
My situation is probably a little different than for most PhD students, since I have been working on my PhD while working full time in industry as engineer (for last 3 years). So, I have no urgent need to look for a new job after completing my PhD, unless I want a promotion (in industry) or to commit fully to research (which I been wanting to do).
If I put off doing postdoc or switching from industry to research, how would it look for me to continue working in the same lab, with same professor(s), to finish some unfinished projects or possibly get involved in recently awarded projects of my professor(s) (advisor and co-advisor)?
It is not unusual for post-thesis PhDs to hang about for a bit, as they look for a job. Too long, and you had better call it a post-doc and be actively looking for your next job.
The original intent of the post-doc, in addition to giving a young PhD time to establish a solid publication record, was to learn and develop a new skill, technique, or research area. A few decades ago, it was not uncommon for newly minted PhDs to go straight into a TT position; today, its quite rare, making the post-doc almost assumed, and many do elect to stay in the same environment.
In my opinion, for someone who aspires to an academic career, the best post-doc is completed elsewhere: it extends one's education beyond their PhD studies into a new (but probably related) domain, builds on their research toolbox, and introduces one to a new way of thinking (avoiding so-called 'intellectual inbreeding').
However, there's nothing inherently wrong with doing a post-doc in the same lab, except that it usually doesn't offer a whole lot of opportunity to learn something new. I can think of several individuals who landed a great TT position after a post-doc in the same lab. But do consider that doing a post-doc somewhere else might make you more marketable in the long run.
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156160 | Does having publications on a completely separate field helps my graduate school application?
I am currently a mathematics undergraduate with every intention to enter a top mathematics PhD program in the future. I understand that having research experiences as an undergraduate is one of the key aspects of making your applications sufficiently strong to be considered, and as such, I have participated/am participating in a couple of undergraduate research projects.
Here is the problem: While I have been interested mostly in number theory/analysis in my earlier days as an undergraduate, only recently have I realised that I'm most interested in set theory. I have completed one undergraduate research on number theory (not publishable but was published on a small, local mathematical journal), and am currently participating in a project related to PDE, which is very heavy on functional/nonlinear analysis (this project is expected to lead to a publishable article). As one can tell, these two projects have completely no relation to set theory. I also have one final project to undertake, which is my final year project, and I intend to research on set theory on this project.
Should I ultimately decide to apply for PhD under the set theory/logic department in the future, how much would my past research experiences in other fields help in my application?
I appreciate any advice provided.
Should I ultimately decide to apply for PhD under the set theory/logic
department in the future?
It's up to you. Nothing you have said indicates that you should not pursue your dream.
How much would my past research experiences in other fields help in my
application?
A lot.
When I read the title, I thought it was going to be that you're applying to mathematics but published in biology, or something like that. After reading the question I've learned that you've published a number theory paper in a small local journal, and may publish a paper heavy in functional analysis, and you want to apply for a PhD in set theory/logic. These aren't "completely" different fields, they are all mathematics subjects and there is always some overlap.
Having a publication, no matter what the field, does show at least a bit of aptitude for research, and that you have experience in academic research and publishing. Not all undergraduate students that get into prestigious PhD programs have publications (though it certainly would help). Even fewer will have a publication in precisely the same field as their PhD.
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97016 | Is it disadvantageous to my research career in bioinformatics if my PhD work is mainly software development?
I am in the fourth year of my Ph.D. studies in bioinformatics. I have published two articles, one in my second year on the comparative genomics of a group of bacteria as a co-first author.
Since then I took up software development and published software for comparative genome analysis, assembled from the various programs I wrote for my first publication.
Later I generated a web resource of data from this software containing comparative genomics of thousands of bacterial strains. This may become one of my thesis chapters and another publication, hopefully.
So, the majority of my thesis would consist of software development without any direct clinical or experimental research.
Will that be a major concern for a future career in this field?
I am scared that I won’t be given research positions and become a programmer forever.
Ask your advisor. Nobody else can answer this question better.
My advisor is quiet confident that It won't be a problem. But opinions of unknown refrees may vary.
@blueText: Have you also asked this your advisor? In the fields I am familiar with, the referee reports (and the defense) are a formality and they won't say you don't pass if your supervisor says so (especially if the referees know your supervisor).
@Wrzlprmft I am concerned more about postdoctoral career. Should I edit this question or ask another. I am scared that I won't be given research positions and become programmer forever.
@blueText: I edited your question accordingly and think it can be reopened now. Please see whether everything is still according to your intentions and [edit] again if necessary.
Knowing good programming practices and software development standards in bioinformatics is a SKILL not a hindrance. You used that skill on a relevant topic and probably have good knowledge about comparative genome analysis. In bioinformatics there are always people that are more "bio" and people that are more "computer science" focused, and people who swap between those depending on the needs of their current projects.
This question is more like a discussion rather than a yes/no answer. But, you are not the only person and there are many in such a dilemma. So, this is a perfectly valid and relevant question to ask. I have upvoted your question as a F*** *** to the assholes who go around and mark every question as off-topic.
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98787 | Using figures from my thesis into publication post defence
What concerns may arise if I copied figures from my approved thesis for submission of research article. This may happen to many during their final months in lab.
My thesis is submitted to the University. Shall I have copyright on my accepted thesis or my University will have? I am not sure if I need to reuse that content who will provide permission for doing so?
Please [edit] your question to clarify: 1) Is this about novelty or copyright? 2) Is your thesis published or will it be? 3) Why are you focussing on figures? Unless we are talking about explanatory sketches or similar, the research leading to these figures should be the same as well.
@Wrzlprmft I included unpublished data into my thesis. We are now planning to communicate it as a research article.
Nobody here can answer whether you or your university have the copyright on your work. It depends on what contracts you signed, what employment status you had, and possibly your jurisdiction (e.g., is there an automatic copyright transfer in an employment situation?). Anyway, do you have any reason to suspect that your university does not want you to publish your results?
This is a quite common situation, so it will most likely be OK. The main points you will need to check are the following:
What copyright are you assigning your institution? The universities I have dealt with in the past all asked for a non-exclusive license, meaning you can publish all or portions of your thesis again if you want to. However, your institute's policies may differ; check your handbook or ask the administration.
Will your thesis count as a prior publication? This will depend on the venue you submit your paper to. In some places the thesis is even formally published (and has an ISBN assigned to it), which may increase the likelihood that the journal or conference will consider this work as already published. Check the venue's rules for submission and if necessary ask the editor before submitting your paper.
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171615 | Bias of single blind journal
I have submitted my manuscript to a single blind high quality journal. My idea is novel and based on an idea published in their journal. After two weeks, it got desk rejected because the data seems not interested (there is no restriction on the used data by the journal)! I have sent it to another journal and got rejected with many mistakes by the reviewers. Then, I have submitted it to double-blind journal, it got interesting comments, as the idea is excellent but not within the scope of the journal and ask me to follow their comments and submit it to another more relative journal. My paper is accepted now and got published. My question is: is single-blind bais? Do the reviewers judge the paper based on the author index or region?
What you have gone through seems normal, and that you have misjudged the quality or scope of your work with respect to a journal. Submitting to a journal takes experience. You need to tick all the 'boxes'; i.e., your article must look like it belongs. It is like sending a half cooked meal to a customer, and asking the customer for comments.
The short answer to your question is that there is no way to know whether or to what extent bias was a factor in the rejections.
There is literature on the bias problem, using data on many submissions to many journals, but it would be hard to claim (and document) any single instance.
I'm glad your paper found a home.
No one can speak for all reviewers, but, at a reputable journal, that shouldn't happen. Single blind reviewing is to prevent pressure put on reviewers by authors, especially those with powerful constituencies.
You don't speak about the "quality" of the various journals, other than the first. There may have been different reasons for rejection. The first, for out of scope has nothing to do with the authors.
The bigger danger in single blind reviewing is when the author is a "friend" of the author. That should be revealed to the editor (by the reviewer) and they should probably decline the review.
Certainly, the system isn't perfect, but mostly it works as intended.
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9082 | Can dissertation be included in publication part in CV
In my CV, I include my dissertation topic within my education part like this:
From start-time to end-time
Master of something, University at somewhere
Dissertation title: something
However, I also see some people include their dissertation in publication part even though it's not published publicly. So, I wonder if doing that is acceptable and advisable.
I think it is best to put your dissertation under its own heading "Dissertation". Even though this wastes a little space it makes the thesis easily identifiable. The value of a dissertation will diminish with time after the PhD so you can change its location later you want to conserve space. But, particularly in your early career many want to be able to clearly see what you wrote up for your thesis work.
But what is the advantage of separating dissertations into 1 section instead of including them as a part of education history?
@LongThai Ok, if you list your bachelors thesis, masters thesis or equivalent then that would make perfect sense as you say. I was not considering listing anything pre-PhD other than as degrees in the educational part of the CV. Any way would be good as long as he thesis is easily found. I would also add that a PhD thesis is usualy what counts afer the PhD. I doubt many would look for any thesis of a lower degree.
@PeterJansson: does that apply generally or only in specific fields (e.g.: computer science, mathematics)? I wonder if this also applies to social science and humanities.
I argue for including the dissertation explicitly as a publication item, preferably in a separate section "Theses", or "Theses, technical reports and pre-prints" (including other theses, such as master thesis, if publicly available). Of course the solution also marginally depends on the habits and regulations of the country where you completed the thesis. In countries like Germany, a dissertation thesis is required to be submitted to the university library, subsequently it is catalogued by the German National Library (Dissonline section) and receives an ISBN, hence it can be treated as a proper publication. As far as I know, also in the Netherlands, dissertations are published as books with proper ISBN assigned, hence proper archival publications too. In the past (not sure about current situation) some other countries, such as Slovakia, even master theses were required to be archived and made publicly available on request by the university libraries.
Rather interesting. Did not know this ISBN issue in Germany. In Austria, a dissertation has to be submitted to the university library (after grading) and it will be catalogued in prior (during submission to the educational institute) (but without an ISBN afaik). http://media.obvsg.at/dissdb
I think your method (thesis title in the education section) is the standard one. Though I notice your example doesn't have the advisor's name, which should be there too. If the thesis was published separately as a monograph, or several articles, I would still list the thesis title in the education section as well as the papers/monographs in the publication section.
Some people publish their theses as part of a monograph series. In that case, it could appear under "books," but should still be identified as the PhD thesis.
In other circumstances, I would not include it under "Publications," but instead list it more or less as you suggest. (Under "Dissertation Topic" as part of "Education.")
yes, you can include it & you should include it because many persons would be eager to see an information regarding your dissertation.
btw If you are using LaTeX to write your cv, BibTeX provides an entry regarding dissertations - phdthesis.
when having an ISBN, then you can use the (BibTeX) book entry and your publication part.
without an ISBN, use (BibTeX) phdthesis entry within the education area of your cv which was proposed in another prior answer.
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30211 | What is a non-tenure-track assistant professor position in the USA and is it harmful?
I see some offers on the Chronicle jobs website (such as this one from UC San Diego) for non-tenure-track assistant professor positions.
Is the work of a non-tenure-track assistant professor exactly the same as the work of a tenure-track assistant professor, e.g. in terms of teaching/research ratio?
Also, would taking on a position of this type be more, less or equally helpful compared to, say, taking up another postdoc, for someone that would later want to apply to a tenure-track position?
Forgive me if this question does not make sense to you, but I have taken the impression from some sources that whatever professional decision one takes that is slightly outside the "normal" progression of an academic career can be harmful.
I think non tenure track assistant professors are usually more teaching-oriented positions at research universities. Essentially, "non tenure track assistant professor" is a sexier way to say "lecturer". However, I am not american, so take this with a grain of salt.
That being said, you should never assume a specific job profile from a position name anyway.
@xLeitix "Teaching oriented" isn't reliable enough to be a rule. In my field, for example, non-tenure track positions are often - and I'd guess the majority of the time - for strictly research positions.
The most important point is that jobs vary significantly by discipline. If you are in the field of Cognitive Science, or in a related field, you are in a better position to know what a job ad in that area is actually looking for. Unfortunately, the job ad linked in the question is written in a way to make it hard for those outside the area to know what it wants - it does not directly say whether they are looking for research or teaching. There is no way to tell without asking what the teaching/research ratio would be.
In general, there are two common uses of non-tenure-track "Assistant Professor" positions in the U.S.:
Postdoctoral positions. These are not usually considered "harmful" to your career. In many fields they are a standard part of the academic job progression.
Teaching-oriented positions for which the candidate has a PhD. These may be full-time positions (as in the linked ad) or part-time.
The second type of position could be helpful, or harmful, depending on what sort of tenure-track position you are looking for. You have already narrowed down the type of institution where you would like to have a tenure-track position, and started honing your CV to be a perfect fit for that type of school, right?
If your type of school is an elite research school, then another postdoc seems more likely to be helpful than a teaching position. This is the type of school where leaving the standard progression is most likely to be harmful to tenure-track chances. If you are a likely candidate for this type of position, you probably know it already.
If you are looking at non-elite public universities, which have more of a balance between research and teaching, a single non-tenure-track teaching assistant professorship is not a mark of certain doom for your tenure track hopes. You can use the job to hone your teaching, move your research forward a little, and you can use the time to apply for tenure track jobs.
If you are looking at teaching-first institutions, or at community colleges, then you need to make sure you have excellent teaching credentials. You might be able to use a teaching-oriented term position as a way to do that.
Unfortunately, because of the excess of candidates relative to the number of tenure-track positions in many (most?) fields, and because the number of tenure-track jobs is not increasing, many academics work multiple term positions in a row. This is especially common in the humanities, and it can be "harmful" for tenure track hopes, unfortunately. I was fortunate to find a tenure-track position, so I can't speak too much to how to handle the situation of multiple term teaching positions, but you can find a lot of discussion about it on the web.
There are at least two other uses: Medical schools, where tenure is often much more difficult to get, and 100% soft money positions in university systems where "tenure" implies some funding obligation.
Actually, in this specific case I think it may just be a mistake in the ad.
The application page linked from the Chronicle ad just describes the position as "Assistant Professor" and doesn't say anything about tenure one way or the other. Certainly the default for an assistant professor position would be that it is tenure track.
Also, I attended UC San Diego as a grad student (in a different department) and don't ever remember hearing about any non-tenure-track assistant professors. Full-time teaching-oriented faculty at UCSD have the title "Lecturer".
So I think there's a good chance that these are ordinary tenure-track assistant professor positions, and that someone just clicked the wrong box when submitting the Chronicle ad.
I would suggest getting in touch with the department for clarification.
After reading the advertisement, my opinion is that this is most likely an error in posting the advertisement, and that these actually are tenure track positions.
There are at least three situations in the US where I commonly see non tenure-track assistant professor positions:
Limited duration "Visiting Assistant Professor" positions. Here the candidate will be expected to cover the teaching load of a regular faculty member, typically because the regular faculty member is away on sabbatical leave or on an administrative appointment or unavailable due to health problems. It's not uncommon for such a position to exist for a year while a department searches for a permanent tenure track replacement.
Permanent or limited duration "Research Assistant Professor" positions, typically funded by grants. Here the candidate will be expected to perform research and bring in the grants to support their salary but won't have a regular teaching load.
Permanent "Clinical Assistant Professor" positions. These are full time teaching positions with no possibility of tenure. A similar title often used is "instructor."
The advertisement linked to by the original poster doesn't seem to fit into any of these categories, which is why I believe that the "non tenure track" on the listing is simply in error.
In my department, postdoctoral appointments, usually for a 3-year, non-renewable term (and thus definitely not tenure-track), carry the title of assistant professor. Postdocs are listed on the department web page as "Post-Doc Assistant Professor" but in the university directory simply as "Assistant Professor of Mathematics" (with no indication that they are not on tenure-track).
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12048 | Where do the responsibilities of an MS GRA doing a thesis actually end?
I am doing a MS thesis in an engineering lab and I am fully funded by my advisor (tuition waiver plus stipend). We are a small lab and my professor is aiming for tenure. I am ahead of schedule and almost done with my thesis.I am good at programming and completed the project in 3 weeks (my professor thought it would take at least 3 months). Now, my professor is asking me to work on other things which involve developing apps for her other projects. I have protested by saying I am an GRA and I should only be concerned with my thesis project and my work in all other large projects in the lab should be at my discretion.
My advisor replied that I am pretty lucky to work for her since other professors have graduate students who work on 5 projects simultaneously (which of course is load of crap, I have other friends working in other labs who only work on their thesis). The other time I protested, my advisor said that since I am supposed to work 40 hours a week in lab, the project should be completed within 2 weeks easily. (These projects which my advisor wants me to do require some 80 hours of programming sometimes since I first need to learn the language and then write code for it). It's not that I don't want to develop apps, but I am more interested in writing journal papers for IEEE with deadlines in November, and I need all the time I can for that endeavor. I raised this issue but my advisor said that getting accepted in IEEE is remote, so I should concentrate on writing apps since there is a very good chance for her to get funded if I develop them.
I know that even if I refuse development, my advisor might throw a fit but my GRA will be intact because no advisor fires a student who is about to complete thesis. Also, I had asked my advisor if she would be interested in helping me with getting a PhD after thesis and she flatly said no. The advisor said I should probably go back to industry and work for 3-4 years and then decide on PhD. It seemed more like an excuse to make me get out of the lab. So it's pretty obvious there is no chance of a long-term relationship with my advisor.
I am trying to understand what are the other job responsibilities of
an MS student doing thesis? There is no chance of working with my
advisor after MS, so why should i work on her projects? I can very
well try to get some journals papers published as it might help in
getting a PhD admit elsewhere, or should I just develop her apps
because I work in her lab?
Edit: There are 3 people in my lab now (2 MS students and one PhD student), but I am the only programmer.
As a practical matter: You will eventually need a strong recommendation letter from your current advisor. Her letter will likely have more impact on your PhD admission chances than an IEEE paper. Digging in your heels now may not be the most effective way of getting that letter.
tl;dr Your adviser is not wrong. There are plenty of additional responsibilities and duties of maintaining a matured lab affiliation even as a MS student.
I think you went about it a wrong way. A little hill out of a molehill has been created.
Being a GRA in a lab does not mean that the buck stops with your thesis research. I am a member in a medium sized lab based in a ECE department. Typically, we have 4-6 graduate students, 1-2 post docs and a gaggle of undergraduate and masters students at most given times.
My Responsibilities:
Thesis research. This is primary and takes up most of my time.
Collaborative research with another graduate student. This is my secondary project and takes up a little bit of my time.
Giving talks in the lab about our works in progress.
Guest lecturing for my adviser in his courses when he is away.
Mentoring REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) students when they come in summer.
Mentoring undergraduate and masters students from my own university in their own and lab projects.
Helping other lab members out with analysis - typically quantitative and some qualitative.
Reviewing articles written by other lab members.
Social engaging with lab members and lab visitors.
Designing presentations for lab funding reports and reviewing said reports.
I am sure I have forgotten a few more "responsibilities" but I can assure you that my work does not begin and end with just my own thesis research. It sounds like a lot but I can assure you that it really isn't and the situation is quite typical for my university and department. I have an excellent work-life balance. Now, I am a PhD student but once upon a time, I was a MS student and I had similar responsibilities.
The situation you describe is not atypical. I have seen folks in labs (which develop apps as a stepping stone to doing research) spend a lot of time actually developing the app. You are right. It takes time. Being a member of the lab means contributing to projects which are not just your own. It is a team effort.
Your adviser has actually given you a sanity check in terms of getting a PhD admit and in terms of what other graduate students usually do. Getting a paper accepted in a prestigious IEEE transaction is quite a considerable effort and takes a long time. It seems to me that your adviser does not feel that your research will be accepted into such a venue. I also think you hit a nerve somewhere when you argued about quantum of hours and projects to be worked upon according to your GRA deal. It doesn't work like that. You are not a unionized worker.
Research takes as long as it takes.
What do you mean by "sanity check" in terms of getting a PHD admit?
Advisers generally give you hints about what they expect from a PhD student. We just had a REU student who was good, but not great in technical abilities. My adviser basically told him that if he brushes up on his technical abilities then he has a chance here. In order to brush up, he has to do something worthwhile like doing well in equivalent courses or appropriate work experience. It seems as if your adviser is telling you something similar.
i will be honest with you, since there is no reason in obscuring facts. I am the only programmer in my lab and i do all the app development for my research and other 2 GRAs.And we get funding based on those apps.My adviser asked me to go to industry.When i pushed her more ,she asked me to find an professor who has "just started". Well , my adviser herself started in 2012. So this is pretty insincere coming from her.
(from my association with her i believe is mostly due to personal reasons not because of my work .There were occasions in past when my adviser wanted me to help her out with carrying out few interviews of test subjects on weekends and i have flatly refused to help her with it .I will not work on weekends for anybody .That is my time. However ,other students willingly came forward and took the interview. Now these students are not very hardworking ,they slack of during regular times but they did it just to gain her favor.Regular grad school blues.I think i lost her support cuz of this)
I think you are being a tad unreasonable and there definitely seems to be some kind of personal baggage between you and your adviser that I have no authority to comment upon. Having said this, you might have ticked her off by refusing to work on the interviews during the weekend. Mark, that I have worked many times on weekends both bidden and unbidden. When I have worked on weekends or on other holidays, there has been a tacit understanding between my adviser and myself that I will take some flexible future holidays as it suits everybody. Surely your adviser did not bar your from all holidays?
well working on weekend is an option but people getting bummed over my refusal to do that speaks of poor managerial skills. Academia seems more like slave labor where you have to go to any lengths just to please your advisor. Corporate seems to be a far better place after all these experiences.
@james234: Academia is not always slave labor. Not all advisors are created equal!
The way that I view my GRA position is that the university is paying your tuition and stipend. There is expectation is that you will provide labor that will contribute to their projects. It's a pretty good deal- you get an education with a mentor in exchange for work that hopefully you are interested in. I would expect them to think of you as an employee. At this stage, you work for someone and they tell you what they need and you do it. It takes time and effort to mentor you, make sure you contribute everything that you can while you are there.
My role as GRA is to do research and i will do research as long as it benefits me and since thesis is research , the Univ. will fund as long as i am doing thesis. Now ,i can either work for my advisor on her project or try to publish . Since i am enrolled full time ,i can only do one of them(develop apps or write journal papers) at a time.
Now if i am successful , both of them will benefit my advisor .An app will get her funding and a journal in IEEE will help her in getting tenure ,although writing an app is much easier.
But for me, writing a journal paper is far more beneficial since it will help on my phd application. Now how is writing an app going to be beneficial?
I am an GRA but at same time i am not a mindless worker willing to toil on anything that people will ask me to do.
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103478 | Will there by any copyright issue if we decide to add ACM Computing Classification System to our theses?
Let us say that we decide to use ACM Computing Classification System in the undergraduate and graduate theses from our department. These theses belong to the field of Computer Science and Engineering.
Will there by any copyright issues from ACM side?
There is an ACM Chapter in our department.
Why would there be a copyright problem with classifying documents? Are you saying you want to publish the classification list yourselves?
@JessicaB No, we simply want to put the classification somewhere in the opening pages of the theses.
But whose copyright are you afraid to infringe? (Please [edit] your question to clarify.)
@Wrzlprmft Copyright of ACM. Because the classification is their property. Edited my question.
Copyright applies to the text of the classification, not to the use of it. Giving the classification of a document would be roughly like citing a result in another paper (and is the purpose of the classification). There would only be a copyright issue if you want to copy out part of the text.
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206849 | CEA vs CNRS for permanent researcher positions in France
I am trying to find a permanent researcher position in France. I'm applying to job openings in CEA and CNRS. Though I have some understanding of how CNRS operates and working conditions, salaries, etc, I have no experience at all with CEA.
For some context, CEA and CNRS are among the largest public research institutions in France (along with INRIA, INSERM, and some others).
What are the differences between the two institutions? In particular, what are the effects on the life of a researcher in terms of salary, funding opportunities, ability to attract students, career progression (i.e., how difficult it is to advance to director of research in CEA vs CNRS), and so on.
What are CEA and CNRS?
@Sursula I added some further comments to the OP. However, the question is intended for people who have some prior knowledge about this (hopefully there is at least someone in this forum).
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30071 | Apply for a cluster for scientific computing from a developing country for academic use?
I don't have access to a computer cluster in my university. Is there website that accepts applications for free access to a computer cluster for scientific computing?
Further information: I am in Cuba. I need something on the order of 30 processors, about 50 GB of hard drive, for a week or so. I need to run programs written in C++ and Python.
What sort of computing are interested in doing? Various different resources are available for different purposes. For example, EmuLab offers free cluster access for purposes of network simulation, but wouldn't be appropriate if you wanted to do, say, fluid dynamics.
This question was cross-posted to the Scicomp.SE and should probably be closed here.
@jakebeal I am doing research on metabolic networks. I need to run simulations written in Python and C++.
You may get more responses if you can give some more detail as to your situation - eg what country are you in, what sort of scale of cluster do you need, etc
@SimonW I added some more information.
BTW, not sure about US-Cuba relationships - there might be legal issues with a US organization providing massive computing power to someone in Cuba.
Yeah, the US-Cuba embargo could be a problem. Do you have contacts in Europe, Russia, or China, where someone might be able to get you an account?
This doesn't quite answer the question, but in case you have some funds available (but not enough to buy a cluster): Various cloud services - Amazon in particular but probably others - will let you "spin up" a temporary compute cluster on their servers. You pay for this by the minute, or sometimes by more complicated systems where the price is according to demand.
For small projects this approach can be quite economical, and so may be feasible in some circumstances where access to a dedicated system is unaffordable.
There is also the chance to get a research grant from AWS or Azure, or use the trial account which GCE offers (500 USD - which allows you to at least get some initial experiments in).
Thanks for the tip, but I don't have funds.
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89367 | Status of "Reviews Completed" in a springer journal
We had submitted to a springer journal (field: Bioinformatics). Two reviewers reviewed the paper and both strongly and unequivocally recommended publication after a few minor changes, e.g., grammatical, a few small clarifications and change of background colors (from black to white for printing purposes). The editor seemed to be very happy about the reviews as well. However, in the tracking site it displayed 'Major Revision' probably as a norm - though frankly there was nothing major in the suggested revisions and both reviewers actually used the term 'minor' in their reports ! It took us no more than two days to do all suggested changes and resubmit. The second round of review has now taken little more than a month, out of which the status was 'under review' for last two weeks and 'Reviews Completed' from last two days. I have never encountered this status before elsewhere so wonder what it means ! Is it similar to 'Pending decision' or indicative of something more than that ? This is my first communication as a corresponding author, so, not to mention, am a bit tensed.
If people start sending e-mails to [email protected] instead of posting questions here, there are chances that they eventually figure out that their user interface is lacking and poorly documented, and that they decide that it costs them less money to change it rather than to answer a constant stream of support questions.
@FedericoPoloni I want to be able to give more upvote for this.
This means that in the next couple of days or so you will hear from the editor for the decision on your manuscript. Basically it means what it says: the journal has received the reviews, the editor is reading them and preparing the letter with her/his decision to send you.
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167595 | Difference of difficulties between fields of research
Is it true that research (Ph.D...) in some fields requires more work and are harder than others ?
For example to publish an article in computer science is it more difficult than to do in telecommunications ?
Thanks.
I think this is a very subjective topic. What someone might consider hard, others might find easy. It all depends on your skills and education.
something is hard if the work requires much effort and precision, and this agreed on by a community, it is not related to a person's education
The differences are huge, not only within CS, but even within the same field of CS depending on the type of venue you address (top conference vs. good conference).
@lighthousekeeper That should be the right answer (if you make it an answer)
Deleting questions with thoughtful answers iby defacing them s not good practice. I have rolled back the edit. You can choose to close your own question if you wish.
The problem is that everybody is very well aware of the challenges and difficulties in their own discipline, but only have an outsiders view on the others. There are those who switched disciplines, who have a somewhat better view on both. However, remember that there was reason why they switched. So they are unlikely to be representative for their old discipline. Moreover, people differ; tasks that are difficult for some are easy for others and vice versa.
It is undoubtedly subjective.
But take the same researcher or PhD student. Being in an interdisciplinary field and having a rather interdisciplinary formation I am hundred percent sure some research lines potentially lead to more papers than others. No doubt about it.
However your question asks two different things, or better seems to assume the number of publications as an indicator for the easiness/hardness of a field...
This is an unfair take, perhaps. I am not sure that publications number is, alone, a good indicator of the amount of dedicated work required. In simple terms, spending week ends in the lab working in topic A is more likely to lead to a paper then doing the same on topic B. Yet, weekends were spent in lab, both ways.
Downvote could have add a comment. It is simple as this : I worked really hard and publish really a lot. Another topic / technique and the same me would have publish much less.
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15529 | How to judge the reputability of a journal that seems to be of poor quality, but has a distinguished editorial board?
I happened to visit the website of the IJDEA (International Journal of Differential Equations and Applications) and was wondering – how good is this journal? There was a question here on Academia. SE regarding IJPAM (International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, by the same publisher: Academic Publications Ltd.) and it seems this journal is not up to the mark.
However, IJDEA's Editorial Board has some prominent members from reputed institutions that I just couldn't overlook. For instance:
E.W. Cheney and R.E. Showalter from UT Austin, USA
S.N Chow from the National University of Singapore, Singapore
E DiBenedeto from Northwestern University, USA
A. Fokas from the University of Cambridge, UK
J. Marsden from CalTech, USA
(Late) P.A. Samuelson from MIT, USA
C.W. Shu from Brown University, USA
My question is: Given the presence of such top-class scientists on its editorial board, why are IJPAM/IJDEA and Academic Publications Ltd. considered predatory by Beall's list?
P.S.: I'm assuming that the Editorial Board and quality of articles should be good enough to check the quality of the journal. Please correct me in case I'm wrong.
Considering that DiBenedetto is spelled incorrectly and he's been at Vanderbilt since 2000...OTOH, he does list this journal. Showalter has been at Oregon State since 2003. Marsden is deceased (2010).
possible duplicate of How do you judge the quality of a journal?
@mkennedy Showalter also lists the journal name in his CV. The case is getting even more curious now!
@EnergyNumbers while I think that question is related, this question seems to be asking specifically about how to interpret editorial boards of journals so I don't think it is a duplicate.
I am no expert in DE. Out of my own curiosity, I checked. In the E.W. Cheney's BIOGRAPHICAL DATA FILE updated on December 31, 2012, IJDEA is not in the list of EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITIES ON JOURNALS.
Marsden is dead.
Serrin is also dead.
You've already identified part of the problem:
Deceased individuals like Paul Samuelson and Ilya Prigogine should not be listed as "editors" of a normal journal.
The editor-in-chief of the journal should be clearly identified.
They're claiming to have an Impact Factor when they're not indexed by the services that publish Impact Factors
You can see Beall's full list of criteria on his blog Scholarly Open Access.
So, if somebody's alive but not part of the editorial board of the journal and yet mentioned as part of the editorial board, can that somebody sue the publisher?
In principle it should be possible to sue. However, they should have at least attempted a "cease and desist" letter before filing a lawsuit!
Yes, maybe! But some people mentioned are actually members of the editorial board as mentioned.
That doesn't matter. Just because some are legitimate members doesn't mean that all of the list is legitimate.
@user10532 In practical terms, suing a person or company in a different country is prohibitively difficult and expensive.
The editorial board is one way that many journals (both predatory and not) try two establish themselves. I cannot find an in depth analysis by Beall of editorial boards but, in a comment to this blog post on editorial board makeup Beall says
Sometimes publishers add names to editorial boards without asking for permission. As part of my analysis, I sometimes email and ask ed board members if they really agreed to serve.
He also has a blog post which looks at the editorial responsibilities (100+ journals) of a Dean in the Univ. of Texas system.
In summary some people get put on editorial boards without their knowledge and others will agree to be on large numbers of editorial boards so you cannot use the editorial board membership as a good judge of makeup.
It seems indeed impossible to actually distinguish between genuine and 'fake' journals these days. Darn!
Look at who publishes the journal—the more recognizable the publisher, the less likely it's a scam. For instance, journals published by well-known professional societies (SIAM, APS, ACS, etc.) are almost certainly on the level—they'd be risking their reputations otherwise. However, beyond that, things can get dicey, even at well-known publishers like Elsevier.
This answer focuses on the question asked in the headline not the text, which is more specific to predatory publishers.
The best judge of the quality of the journal are the papers published in it. A good journal publishes good papers. The next best judge is to see whether you're communicating with a journal employee or a member of the editorial board. If you receive invitations which are clearly written by an editorial board member, if you meet them at conferences and they talk enthusiastically about their journal, if your submission receives decisions that indicate the handling editor knows something about your field, you're dealing with a good journal.
Composition of the editorial board isn't a good indication because some unethical publishers will add people to editorial boards without their permission, or refuse to let them resign. Even for genuine journals, board member can join, and then do nothing (as in, literally nothing - not even when assigned a paper to handle). The result is an ugly symbiosis where both the academic and the publisher derive benefits from the academic being on the editorial board, but the academic doesn't actually influence the journal in any way. This setup is unfortunately quite common, and there's no easy way to tell from the outside how involved the editorial board is with the journal.
The title is not the question..
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14160 | Does research experience in a different but related field help in PhD application? (Pure Math->TCS)
I think the title itself is a good summary of my question.
But to make the situation more specific: I am a double major in math and computer science, and would like to apply to PhD program with theoretical CS as primary research interest. I am well aware that research experience helps a lot to show the committee that one has research potential.
All other academical records of mine are in decent shape so I want to shoot for the top programs. Now I am writing my SoP and here comes the problem: I have only non-TCS research experiences.
What I have in hand are:
1) serious pure math REU (not just expository) with a recently submitted paper
2) technical work (implementing and benchmarking) new numerical algorithm (scientific computing) with tech report
I was planning on doing a senior thesis, but my potential advisor is on a leave so it didn't work out. I went through the old questions and only found one related question. But I guess in my situation, it is worse because I have only research experience in entirely different subject. Although I am very proud of what I did, it is hard to sell them in SoP.
I always thought I don't need to do research in the exactly same area to what I want to do in grad school. Plus trying out interesting areas are fun. But it seems to me now that it was a very bad idea.
Doesn't "I wish to study a_0,a_1 and a_2 in A. I have done research in B and have been a trustworthy cheap labor in C. B and C are somewhat related to A, so I think I will do a decent job in A as well." just sound miserable?
[Thanks for reading - I know it is a bit long. Also I do apologize in advance if this question violates the rules - it is my first question ever. :)]
Serious question: What makes "pure math" research "non-TCS"?
@JeffE If I get your question right: They do have close connections in general. But mine does not have a computational nature in it. And as far as I know, that branch has relatively less research/application in CS. (comparing to algebraic geometry/(algebraic) topology/representation theory/harmonic analysis/graph theory/geometry/combinatorics/probability/stats)
I'm not an expert, but, from what I know, your experience is quite valuable. Even if you had computer science research experience, there's a good chance that what you would actually end up doing in a PhD program is far from the domain of your undergraduate research.
If you're still worried, note that theoretical computer science is all mathematics. I was an applied mathematics and statistics major and am currently taking a graduate course in approximation algorithms--it's literally a graduate course in theoretical side of applied mathematics. Other theory courses in automata, computation, machine learning, etc are also all math courses, but in the computer science domain. I actually think that your math/research background, if anything, is a huge plus.
What PhD programs are really interested in is whether or not you have done research in any discipline (preferably math/engineering for CS) and if you enjoyed it and showed an aptitude for it. You're ahead of the game, don't worry. On that note, if you know that you want to do TCS research, you could start now.
Thanks for the answer. I never really worried about course work. I was just worried about my seemingly 'irrelevant' research history being a potential down factor...Now I feel better about my application.
@Chi No problem. Glad you feel better. It's easy to compare yourself to your view of what an ideal candidate is and come up short.
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18212 | What is the purpose of chairmen at conferences?
I often struggle when explaining people not familiar with academics or new to academics the concept of a chairmen at conferences or talks. At some point I have to say that this is somehow an academic tradition or a way to give small honour to people with reputation in some field.
Beside this and some obvious things (Someone has to make sure that the speaker is not running out of time, etc. -- Why not the organizer for example?): What is the purpose/what are the arguments of having a chairman?
Depending on how the conference is organized, the duties of a chair before the session can include:
Selecting the abstracts that will be presented within a given session.
Organizing the abstracts in the order of presentation.
Transferring unused abstracts to other sessions (where possible).
Advertising to solicit contributions.
During the session, the goals of the chair can include:
To introduce the speaker
To ensure time constraints are being adhered to
To moderate a question-and-answer session following the talk
If other questions have not been asked, to offer questions of her own.
The organizer of a session may or may not be the chair of the session. In larger conferences, in which you have many parallel sessions (some have 50 to 60 or more run simultaneously), it is entirely impractical to have a meeting organizer chair every session. For smaller conferences, however, this is done. In such cases, though, the organizer of the session is still called the "chair" of the session.
It is also possible, at some conferences, that the organizer is unable to attend the session, as a result of illness or conflicts, for instance. In such cases, an "emergency" chair is appointed to run the session. (I had to serve in such a capacity at the most recent conference I attended.)
I think the first three of your second four point are also part of the duties of a session chair. However, I never got why people presume that the session chair should ask a question if nobody else does. As a chair I never had an awkward feeling when where no questions. Moreover, I think that asking questions as a session chair has to be done with care as it heavily interferes with the role of a moderator. But probably this would be worth another question…
I said "can" include—this is very much a function of the standards of a particular conference. For instance, there is no requirement to have a Q-and-A session if the speaker has used up all of her allotted time. Similarly, someone asked to step in at the last minute might not be expected to ask any questions. However, in general, I would expect the chair to step in only if there was time available and no one else wants to ask any questions. (Effectively filling time until the next talk starts.)
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14591 | Do educational programmes need to be in italics within the Harvard system of referencing?
I am mentioning educational programmes within my essay and wonder if I need to have the name of the programme in italics? (For example, the Wellmother programme.)
Also I have mentioned a Government document, Midwifery 20/20 in the essay and wonder if this needs to be in italics?
In general, italics would not necessarily be used just to represent the name of something. You wouldn't write "the Marshall Plan", so you wouldn't write "Wellmother programme", either.
As for the government publication, that's a different matter altogether. If the document is a "stand-alone" publication, as most such works are, then it should be italicized as if it were a book. So, this could also extend to a program if it were announced as a formal document, rather than just a policy position.
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15027 | Will a graduate student publishing in different disciplines confuse potential employers?
I'm a third-year computer engineering PhD student. My dissertation topic is re-configurable caches (computer architecture) and my supervisor is a very nice person. I have four publications with him in well-known conferences in my area. But currently I'm in a weird situation. In my 2nd year I fell in love with computational neuroscience and started working on it with another professor in my university simultaneously with my PhD research. Obviously my PhD supervisor encouraged me. Recently I got two high-impact journal publications as a first author on cognitive neuroscience. I am very happy with my dissertation topic but also want to include my neuroscience papers in my résumé. I would like to try for faculty positions after the PhD. Do you think my résumé can create confusion among potential recruiters or will it show multidisciplinary research interests?
I refuse to believe that having papers in multiple disciplines is a negative thing in any thinkable way, and I haven't heard of anyone running into trouble.
The only real danger you will have with prospective employers (presuming that you look for a postdoc before your faculty search) is that a potential advisor might be concerned that if you aren't engrossed in their research, you will seek out opportunities in other areas. If it's their money that's supporting your time, then you'd be expected to devote your effort to the line of research you've been hired to do, not what you'd like to do.
This is something that you'd have to explain in your cover letter in any case. But you'll need to explain—as you have—that your lateral move was encouraged and done with the support of your current advisor. Otherwise, it could be a concern.
I strongly agree with the latter. I am in a similar situation right now (change of plans regarding my Ph.D topic, even field if you like),I was strongly encouraged by my supervisors to publish a journal paper in my previous field (which I did eventually). I can understand your fear of having an impression of jack of all trades-master of none, but if you've managed to publish good papers in both fields, it actually shows you've mastered (or in the process of mastering) both, which in turn means you can conduct your research in an independent manner and contribute to existing knowledge. I reckon academics as well as industrial parties would acknowledge this fact if you include that in your CV.
"I strongly agree with the latter." What do you refer to?
@PiotrMigdal Refer to last sentence of the OP. I am trying to say it shows multidisciplinary research interests rather than creating a confusion among interested parties.
I would disagree with one premise that underlies your question and state flatly and unequivocally that it doesn't matter one bit what most employers may think. Whether you choose to go deep in one research area or publish widely is something you can resolve by looking at what you want to do in life and weighing your current opportunities to make the most of them.
Why would you care about any employer that is so confused about your studies that they don't take the time to understand deeply your unique talents as someone who delayed entering the workforce to complete a PhD?
Now, you might have some soul searching to do to figure out why you are choosing to frame this current research time allocation dilemma in terms of nebulous "future employer" impressions, but try to look closer to now as opposed to what you think might look superficially good to others but ultimately not reinforce who you wish to become. If you have identified a small set of high likelihood employers and they generally prefer breadth or depth, then now you have an interesting question if you want to maximize your chances with this narrow set of employers.
In the end, only you can decide if ruling out some employers due to their views is a feature or a bug in your plans for your degree.
+1 for "Why do you care what other people think?" -1 for "Because I need to eat."
@JeffE Getting a PhD is about the last activity I would recommend for satisfying the need to eat. Just saying ;-)
Well, yeah, of course. But some people can't live without doing research.
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10401 | How do you cite articles from a "database?"
Cochrane reviews are great to cite in academic publications due to their systematic nature but I have no idea how to cite them in APA style because there's no obvious volume or issue to use in the citation. Here's a reference I've already tried, albeit awaiting on the volume and issuing numbers I'm meant to give.
Linde K., Berner M. M., Kriston L. (2008). St John's wort for major depression.
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD000448.pub3.
PMID 18843608.
Hello, Brenton. I've edited the title a bit because as originally stated, the question was too narrow in scope for the board. (The text is still somewhat too narrow, but I think the basics are still on-topic.)
The first two sources of information about such questions are
The publisher of the database may have specified how they want to be cited.
In fact, The Cochrane Collaboration has such guidelines:
Cochrane Policy Manual: How to cite our products
Cochrane Reviews: How to cite Cochrane Collaboration products
The APA style guide may have said something already about this data base.
This is also the case:
How to Cite Cochrane Reviews in APA Style
They explain how a journal article style should be used with year as volume and monthly issue:
Singh, J., Kour, K., & Jayaram Mahesh, B. (2012). Acetylcholinesterase
inhibitors for schizophrenia. Cochrane Database of Systematic
Reviews, 2012(1), 1–101. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD007967.pub2
If these would not have lead to the required information, a more general idea is:
Following the DOI of your example, I end up at a page of the Cochrane library that also has a tab "Cited by". You could have a look there how other people actually cite the report.
If all this had failed, I'd propably have gone for a technical report style citation.
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42519 | Standard method for showing changes made to a LaTeX manuscript
I am about to resubmit a manuscript to a journal, having now addressed the reviewers' feedback.
The instructions say to submit my final manuscript along with a "marked-up manuscript", which is "the final version showing all changes from the former version".
Since my manuscript is in LaTeX, what is the standard way of highlighting the changes I made? Had it been a Microsoft Word document, I would have used the "track changes" feature. More so than technical methods, I am wondering what format the reviewers typically expect. Are they asking for a marked-up, compiled PDF? Or a marked-up TeX source code? Or a side-by-side comparison of the source code?
There is a duplicate of your question on TeX.SX; “Track changes” in LaTeX
When submitting to IEEE journals which require to highlight the changes, I simply colour them in red (no one complained so far...).
\usepackage{xcolor}
\newcommand{\rev}[1]{{\color{red} #1}}
%
%...
%
\rev{Hey, I'm a change}
For purpose of reviewing, they just need a compiled PDF. For the final submission, you can simply redefine the \rev command to do nothing.
I often use this solution when sending new versions of a manuscript to collaborators. I have used it at least once that I remember for a revised submission to JAP and that seemed to be fine too.
At least on one occasion, I used Latexdiff’s output with the default settings for this purpose and nobody complained. In some cases, you might want to manually tweak this, e.g., if you moved larger pieces of text. If I recall correctly, I reviewed some manuscript, for which the editorial system automatically applied Latexdiff (or something that generates a very similar output) to the manuscript.
Speaking more generally, the point of this requirement is quite obviously that the reviewers and the editor can easily see, which aspects of the manuscript were changed and how. More precisely, it should be easily visible where you added something to the manuscript, and (what is sometimes done badly) where you removed something. Latexdiff’s output fulfils these criteria in most circumstances, but there are other ways to do this.
I would not know why anybody would want to see your source code at this point, as it is more difficult to read and it also contains changes that do not affect the compiled manuscript. Also, depending on your field, some reviewers may not know LaTeX.
Finally, I think that whoever wrote marked-up manuscript actually wanted to say marked manuscript (or mark up is actually also used in this meaning and I managed to be ignorant of this).
+1 for latexdiff -- fantastic tool for exactly this purpose.
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103723 | How do I tell my advisor that I lost interest in the subject?
I got my MSc in physics working on a certain subject with my advisor. I'm now starting my PhD studies under the same advisor.
The problem is, there's a tacit assumption that I'll do my PhD on the same subject as before, but I really lost all interest for it, I don't feel the same about it anymore. I really don't know what to do instead and how to find my new path, but I don't want to stay on this subject simply out of inertia.
What's the best way to tell this to my advisor without giving the (wildly inaccurate!!) impression that I lost all interest for physics? He's a great guy, btw, and he listens.
... If my advisor is reading this, I guess that's a way too xD
EDIT: It's theoretical physics and my advisor's knowledge is fairly wide and aligned well with my general interests, so doing the PhD under him is definitely something that I still want.
there is a piece missing: have you talked to advisor before starting PhD? did you have some kind of interview, where plans were discussed? have you even interviewed, or got accepted into other PhD programs? We are talking about next 3-5 years of your lives. I wonder why this issue didn't come up earlier
Yeah, I talked to him and I definitely want to work with him, he's not the real issue here.
what does it mean "you talked"? Did you agree to continue working on the project, did you say you want to switch? AFAIK, advisor and project are usually connected
I was answering the question in your words, mate.
I am trying to reconstruct the whole picture. If you had pre-agreement that you'll join advisor on the same project, it would change discussion
By project, do you mean in the formal academic sense, with grants and all?
I support the answer from Bryan but I'd give more emphasis to what he said in the paragraph starting with "preferably." Please do bring some ideas about one or more possible new directions to the meeting where you make your announcement. Give your advisor something positive to latch onto and get excited about. Yes, you can be careful to show that you're open to suggestions; nevertheless, bring some examples of ideas that get your mind sizzling to the table. // One more thing. If you could make a convincing case that your previous direction got pretty well wrapped up in your previous...
... degree work, that would be helpful. It's not good to leave things hanging and flit from topic to topic. So, show that this is not the case. // You would do well to change your username (unless it has nothing to do with your real name).
Thanks! Nah, I won't change my username, too many academics think they have to hide these days anyway, not playing that game :)
Assuming your advisor is a great person and someone who listens, could you simply say:
I'd like to work in a new direction for my PhD.
Alternatively, if you feel it necessary to give some reason:
I'd like to work in a new direction to differentiate my masters work from my PhD thesis.
Preferably in either case you have at least some idea of where you want to proceed so you can continue the discussion in that direction. A desire for some breadth is a fairly normal and healthy part of the academic experience.
If your advisor questions the change of direction, you can simply say that after working on topic ______ for ____ years you are more interested in pursuing another direction.
It's certainly possible your advisor will be somewhat upset if he expected you to work in your previous subject (and especially if he took you on as a student because of that expectation), but it won't serve either of you to be coy about it or to plod through, not enjoying what you are doing, until you decide to quit. Ideally, however, this should have been a discussion you had before you agreed to work on a PhD with this advisor.
Keep in mind that your new direction should still be a fit with your advisor's work; if your previous project was in ideal spheres and your new work is going to be in falling apples, your advisor may not be qualified to advise you. It sounds like in your case that is not an issue, but if you are receiving any grant funding through your advisor, those funds may be particular to the project you are undertaking - hopefully you have some awareness of whether this applies to your situation.
Note that in my suggestions I was careful to phrase things positively and prospectively: you don't need to say you are sick of your previous topic, only that you want to move into something else. By approaching it this way, you come across as forward-thinking and not at all negative about physics in general, and not negative of your past experience as a masters student.
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14466 | How does a graduate student judge if one is slacking off?
As a third year graduate student (theoretical physics) I need to find out methods to understand if I am doing well or not, am I making progress or not, am I putting in enough effort or not?
How do I judge/measure my performance?
Of course a primary skew in my situation is that I found an advisor only towards the end of my second year of PhD. (..before that I was working in other groups on topics which I didn't like at all..)
Is your advisor shouting at you?
@FedericoPoloni Doesn't seem so! Our last meeting seemed fairly pleasant - we were basically throwing around various possible research ideas and seeing which ones can or cannot work. [..though I could be a terribly bad reader of human emotions/behaviour!...]
You will need to compare your amount of work done and publication with other PhD in the same area and of the same year.
It's a good question, and one that's rather difficult to answer. I'll say a few things though.
being able to judge your own level of progress and evaluate yourself honestly but fairly is a crucial part of your development. After all, you won't have an advisor for very long, but you'll be a researcher for a long time. So it's good that you're asking this question
Research has many phases, and to evaluate your progress it's important to recognize which phase you're in.
in an exploratory phase where you're looking at different topics to see what might be worth pursuing, you should be reading a lot. A plausible metric here could be whether you're reading something every day, and if you're getting a sense of familiarity with the literature (you know citations without having to look up the bibliography, you keep encountering papers you've read before, and so on)
when you are working on a particular problem, do you have an idea that you're trying ? If not, what are you doing to search for the next idea ? do you have concrete tests of whether the idea is going to fail or not ? If you're thinking concretely and constructively, then you'll automatically make progress (notice that I'm not talking about how long it takes, but rather whether you see paths to progress)
when you're writing up work, are you methodically identifying things that need to be edited/cleaned/removed, and are you spending enough time each day working on these. When there's a lot of grunt work to do, time spent is a good measure of productivity.
Conversely, students (and researchers!) often become unproductive when:
they don't know what to do next, and don't know to ask, or how to find something to do next
they have things to do next, but are overwhelmed/fearful, and avoid doing them, or fritter away time in busy work (getting the exact right font for the title, for example)
The trick is not to get caught up in doing things at a certain rate, or worry about the large-scale, but rather ensure that you always have something to do next. If you don't, that's when you go talk to your advisor.
Perfect answer :)
Minor disagreement: The right time to go talk to your advisor is long before you run out of things to do next. Put another way: The right time to talk to your advisor is never more than a few days from now.
@Suresh Aren't you setting a very low bar when you put so much emphasis on knowing what to do next? Or I guess I am misunderstanding you! Because personally I ALWAYS see a long to-do list in front of me in terms of research questions and papers to red. BUT this is quite irrelevant because almost always I might be wasting time along directions which aren't going to help. I might just be "slacking off" reading papers which I find exciting but are actually probably useless for what my advisor has in his mind. Its very hard to judge what is "concrete" and "constructive" - to use your words.
"I might just be 'slacking off' reading papers which I find exciting but are actually probably useless for what my advisor has in his mind". My view is that even your advisor has only a slightly better idea than you about what's useful and what's useless, and your job really is to train yourself to acquire that sensibility. Relying on your advisor is ok initially, but is something you have to do less and less.
I think that one factor should be "ask your advisor". Depending on the relationship that you have, they might be best placed to give you an honest opinion.
But like @Suresh has said, he/she won't have an advisor for a very long time. He/she will have to learn to self-evaluate. Indeed, now asking the advisor might help though :)
Corollary: Never don't have an advisor.
Unwanted corollary: Never graduate.
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45146 | Where to submit an article exposing widespread fraud in academia?
Where would be the best place to submit an article for publication arguing that the conventional mathematics curriculum including calculus and the courses leading up to it (i.e. most of secondary-school mathematics) is fraudulent?
Note inspired by comments posted below: My question was where to submit such a publication. My question was not whether the thesis of the publication is true. This is something I have been thinking about since 1978, and I have been teaching calculus and its prerequisite subjects since that time, and published on calculus teaching. Comments below suggesting I am rashly commenting on a subject I haven't thought about are mistaken.
Could those who have down-voted the question explain what their objections are? The comments make me suspect that some of them result from disagreement with the thesis of the proposed paper. But the question was only about the appropriate forum for publication and I made no attempt to support the thesis, since that would be off topic. Is this getting down-voted for off-topic reasons?
I doubt you will get anywhere arguing "fraudulence." You could argue that it's not optimal (and I know people such as Benoît Mandelbrot who would agree with you), but to argue that the courses are fraudulent would be to say that they're teaching false or misleading information, which just isn't the case.
@aeismail: they're teaching false or misleading information – It’s even worse; it would mean that they are intentionally doing this. If this actually were the case, it would be impossible to publish this article in any peer-reviewed journal, as the potential editors and reviewers are involved in the fraud.
Reminder: extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
@aeismail : They are indeed teaching falsehoods. They are teaching that mathematics consists of algorithms. They give you an algorithm for solving assigned problems #1 through 10 and in effect teach, without explicitly saying so, that doing that sort of thing is what mathematics is. Poll 100 non-mathematicians and I won't be surprised if you find that all of them say that they were taught in school that that is what mathematics consists of. Add to that the fact that students who aren't remotenly.....
...prepared to understand calculus are encouraged to take calculus, and have been give grades of "A+" in prerequisite courses, and the faculty generally knows that such students don't even begin to have any awareness of the prerequisite material, and then the course is adapted so that such students can get good grades in it, the adaptation consisting of just giving them procedures to be mechanically followed to get answers to assign problems, and students graduate from college in effect having been taught that that is what mathematics is. Falsehoods about the subject of the course are taught.
@PeteL.Clark : This is something I have thought about for decades. Please see my two foregoing comments.
Ok, I think i see the angle you're approaching it from. Could be an interesting discussion of pedagogical principles and approaches, if you didn't drive away the readers you should be trying to reach. Peter's absolutely right about that; you need to squelch the indignation or it's too easy to write you off as a crank. Focus on what could be done better and why it would be better, rather than accusing folks.
Still, what you are referring to is not fraud; it’s at worst bad didactics. (Besides, what you describe is not globally applicable. I was not taught mathematics like this.)
@PeteL.Clark : Have I been disrespectful? You start from the presumption that I haven't thought about things I am saying. There is nothing in codified standards that says one should teach that mathematics consists of algorithms. No one says it explicitly. It's silly to expect to find it in codified standards. You will find lots of people who admit that it is true and say they wish they could do something about it. Professors of mathematics are not entitled to say they wish they could do something: they are the ones who can.
@Wrzlprmft : I am aware that mathematics is not always taught that way, and indeed it was not taught that way to me, nor is it taught that way in courses in which the students are there because they want to learn mathematics. It is taught that way in classes where the students work hard and pride themselves on good grades and whose motive for being there is to polish their resumes and impress schools and employers they will apply to.
These comments have seem to be about the merits of my claim about fraud, and don't seem to contemplate the actual question I asked.
@PeteL.Clark : I would also prefer to avoid this particular discussion here, since it doesn't address the question I asked. The question was: which forums are appropriate for such a publication, if it is to be published?
A couple of decades ago you could have circulated it as a pre-print among the academe and eventually expanded it into a book. Now you'll just be seen as (a) riding on Lockhart's coat tails and (b) hyperbolic.
@dmckee : Fortunately I will not duplicate Lockhart's thesis, although I agree with it. Pete L. Clark says he would pay attention to something that begins by saying "Here is a serious, widespread and insidious problem with the conventional mathematics curriculum". One thing on which I agree with Lockhart is that a big problem with the mathematics curriculum is that it is a curriculum. Curricula should be abolished.
Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is seeking specific advice on how to proceed in a specific field of academia, not asking about academia as a whole.
A partial answer to your actual question: Not here.
I think is question is not a very good fit for us. I think where to publish something is both opinion based and too specific.
In one of Feynman's books he mentions showing a flexible curve to his math class and pointing out its "surprising" property that the tangent is always horizontal at its lowest point. His point is to illustrate that the class were differentiating functions and finding minima without any genuine understanding. If passing such students is the sort of "fraudulent" behaviour that the OP refers to then I agree with him, but it's not the best choice of adjective.
@TheMathemagician : That students without ability show up is not fraud. That they are encouraged to show up, and tacitly but effectively and emphatically taught over the course of years that mathematics consists only of algorithms, and that is done only to fill up classrooms in order to get tuition money, is fraud. And it's far worse than just that.
@ToddWilcox : duh. Obviously I would not attempt to put such a thing here. I've never hinted at making the case for that proposition here. What is the occasion for posting your comment above?
@keshlam : You wrote "Focus on what could be done better and why it would be better, rather than accusing folks." Can that work of doing it better is something they don't want? When the substance of the accusation would be that they don't want it? And some of you comments here cause me to wonder what qualifications you claim. You seem to consider yourself competent to take a position on some of the matters I've raised. Of what does your competence in this area consist?
The appropriate places to put an angry contrarian rant where you assert that a large percentage of scientists are doing it wrong are (in order of preference):
arXiv.org, which will take pre-print papers from pretty much anybody with a well-established affiliation within their scope.
viXra.org, which will take independent paper from pretty much anybody.
A personal website extolling your particular theory at length (e.g., Gene Ray's famous site)
These are all good places to submit an article such as you describe.
Publishing such an article, however, may not cause much of the mathematical community to listen to you. For that, you will have to dig deeper and try to understand how to speak the language of the people that you want to listen to you, such that you can establish credibility with them. A good starting point might be to take one particular significant point, rather than the whole broad spectrum, and construct a study that produces quantifiable evidence for your position. That then, written up in a manner that conforms to the standards of the community and will not score highly on the crackpot index.
Please understand that I am being serious in my response to you: it is possible that you have identified something significant (I have no idea, not being familiar with your assertions). If so, however, you will need to be very strategic in your approach to presenting it effectively.
I don't intend it to be angry or contrarian, but I've observed in recent hours that it makes some people angry. And I think their reaction is unreasonable, and in fact it surprised me. What I would have expected is that people would feel their attention was called to something they hadn't noticed. Except that I know that some have noticed and will agree.
@MichaelHardy, the word "fraud" has not only very negative connotations, it has negative denotations as well! It is used by the legal system as a term for a felony. If you don't want to seem contrarian, step one would be to avoid that word entirely. A great step two would be to write something that does very little in the way of criticizing what currently exists and instead is largely about how things could be made better. "I've got an idea that I think will help" is so much more positive than "what you're doing is criminal".
@ToddWilcox : Indeed, fraud is bad. I don't think of what I'm doing as "contrarian" because I don't really expect anyone to disagree with it, although I do expect it to be news to some.
Since we haven't seen your definition of "the calculus curriculum", we can't answer that question. I suspect from what little has been said that the actual answer is going to be a science-vs-engineering or applied-vs-pure divide, with basic pedagogical philosophy disagreements about what mix should be the default. But I'm guessing, and discussion here wouldn't do justice to the topic, so outside of cautioning against absolutes in the real world and against the "if you disagree I must have explained it badly" trap, I'll shaddup again.
@MichaelHardy You keep using words like "obvious," but the matter is apparently not so clear to your listeners. If you want to have an impact on the mathematics community, you need to think about how to present your case so that it is clear to those listeners. A good start would be to post a draft paper on arXiv and ask mathematicians you know to critique it.
@MichaelHardy Regardless of whether you expect anyone do disagree with you, clearly many do, including me. I tutor mathematics from third grade through undergraduate courses and I really have no idea what you're talking about. The public and private schools and universities in my area don't seem to follow this fraudulent curriculum you are concerned about at all, and neither do any of the home school materials I've seen (and I've seen many). This is the first I'm hearing about teaching that "math is only about algorithms". I worked with a ninth grader on a proof yesterday.
@ToddWilcox : You see quite a lot of the math-consists-of-algorithms ideology among those who ask questions on math.stackexchange.com. In freshman calculus courses lots of students are people who treat learning math only as a price paid to get a grade to impress prospective employers. They demand to be told in advance an algorithm to find the solution to every homework problem (although they don't know the word "algorithm"). They don't know what theorems or proofs are and they don't want to. Knowing how to prove something doesn't give them any confidence that it's true, rather....
...they demand and feel entitled to dogmatic assertions from authorities that they can rely on for that. That's what goes on in flagship state universities. Of course there are students of a different sort there as well, but lower-level courses are conducted in such a way as not to put any strain on those of the sort I described here.
Remember, students who come here to ask us to do their homework are by definition atypical, inferior students. Of course that subset just wants an answer. Null datum.
@keshlam : On average those who ask questions on math.stackexchange.com are far better than typical students. Those who simply post homework problems do so not simply because they just want others to do their homework, but because they don't actually have questions about the subject. They see something in heiroglyphis and have no idea what it says, and copy it. But nobody likes doing that so that's why we see better-than-average students.
Uhm... I think you've just agreed with me that the subset you are complaining about are atypical.
@keshlam : They are atypical of those who post to stackexchange, but they are not atypical of those who show up in courses. The system encourages unqualified students to sign up for courses.
@michaelhardy: We agree that we disagree. Strongly.
@keshlam : Are you saying typical students in calculus courses are not learning as a price of a grade, but learning because they want to understand regardless of whether it gets them a grade, and know that mathematics isn't just algorithms for finding answers to assigned problems, etc., and are working toward understanding things independently of what authorities tell them?
Some of that, yes. Some no. Some of the nos are regrettable, some aren't, depending upon the needs of the students. "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, / And every single one of them is right!" And this is getting long enough that it should be taken to Chat again.
keshlam And this is getting long enough that it should be taken to Chat again. Seconded. @MichaelHardy, you're experienced enough on Math.SE that you should understand how things work on SE sites.
@PeteLClark wrote "If you cannot prove to my satisfaction that (i) this statement is a codified part of the mathematics education curriculum and (ii) that those who are responsible for designing the curriculum believe it to be false and put it in with the intention to deceive, then by no means have you demonstrated fraudulent behavior, and I would stop reading there." If someone demonstates that grades are always based only on bribes, would it fail to demonstrate dishonesty if I cannot find a NCTM regulation saying that's what they should do?
@ToddWilcox : Just to be clear: The current conventional math curriculum is not just subotimal; it is evil.
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159817 | Combining 2 sections according to the reviewer’s comment
I get review comments for my manuscript. Reviewer suggested combine G section with B section as one section. So I combined as he/she suggested. Now I am preparing REPLY to reviewer’s comments. My question is that should I put my whole combined section to REPLY file and highlight the combined G section’s texts? Or Is this okay if I reply like this “According to your suggestion, we combined G section with B section as one section”?
"The material from sections B and G of the previous version have been incorporated into the new Section H of this version".
That should be plenty. Just point to the place where the material now sits as suggested above.
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12965 | Citing low quality papers (solutions) in surveys?
I sometimes find papers that aim to solve the same problem that I am working on, but these papers are of terrible quality. Some of these papers:
introduce wrong solutions,
re-introduce a solution that is already published, or
are just very hard to understand because of the low quality of writing.
Should I cite these papers in my "related work" section when writing a paper?
Would it be offensive to tackle these papers and prove that they are wrong (especially as the most of these papers are published in not very good conferences)?
Or is it perhaps a waste of time to pay any attention to these papers?
you might be a tad careful before claiming that a paper has introduced wrong solutions. how would you know this?
@Shion because you are an expert in the area (otherwise you wouldn't publish, right?)! I always advise for caution, but you sometimes you have to call a cat a cat.
@Shion .. by formal proofs usually.
Speaking from the perspective of a no-longer-quite-so-young mathematician, this is a serious question. I think one should acknowledge "prior art", even if one disagrees with many aspects of it. That is, to pretend that something doesn't exist when one is aware of it is dishonest. (I do not think that one's bibliography must only include things one has used... that can be subverted to argue, as I have heard a distinguished mathematician say, that one need not cite anyone else's work _if_one_is_careful_not_to_look_at_it_.)
Yes, there is the awkward issue of giving an opinion on "prior art" that one finds deficient. As @Shion comments to the question, one probably should hesitate before being too sure. The universal non-commital (therefore slightly dismissive, which is the right amount) comment is something like (at the end of introduction) "Compare [A], [B], [C]." Not saying that they're crap, or failures, or anything else. Just admitting one is aware of them, and pointedly not endorsing them... if that's one's intent.
That is, I think that published papers should not just be update-reports, but have sufficient scholarly context-setting to orient a genuinely interested reader not already completely expert, for example. I realize that the literal function of many "published papers" is merely "making a living", but it is not profoundly difficult to do somewhat better.
In general I cite a paper in two cases:
1) I use something introduced there (from the problem statement to some theorem) in my work.
2) I think it would be a good idea if the reader takes a look at that paper when reading mine for some reason (historical, mathematical, whatever).
I don't think I am either able or obliged to put even everything good related to my current work into the literature list: I don't know the whole history myself and nobody will be able to navigate through the whole history anyway. Beyond certain length, the
"additional literature" part of the list becomes equivalent to the empty one: if I am suggested to read 3 papers, I'll look at all 3; if 10, I'll look at 1-2, and if 50, I'll look at none, and I suspect that most other people have similar attitudes.
The only case in which I would put any reference to a terrible (in your sense) paper into my work is if I choose to write the sentence "There is a lot of junk written on this subject as well, see, e.g., [][][]" in the main body, but I usually prefer to make enemies in more sophisticated ways :-).
I would:
Not cite them in your related works section as you clearly do not build on top of that work because of the bad quality.
If these papers do not have a lot of citations or attention, I would not waste my energy on writing responses to these as they will remain obscure. I would recommend putting your energy into writing papers yourself and reading quality material.
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15256 | Plagiarizing problem sets and homework
I am a young student checking pupils homeworks.
I've got a case - 2 pupils definetely cooperated when doing homework.
Do you have tips to determine who actually solved it and who copied? Got some ideas myself (like maybe one who copied had a better handwriting) but it is better to ask.
This isn't directly related to academia, but it is related to "life as a graduate student", as we've all been there. I personally vote to leave this open.
This is homework, so I believe there was enough time for copying.
I've changed the title of the question, since it is not at all physics-specific.
This isn't directly related to academia — Say what?? Of course this is directly related to academia!
What does the syllabus say about collaboration on homework? This is enormously relevant. In my courses I encourage collaboration on homework, knowing that the student who merely copies will fail the exams.
Well, up to date it says nothing. I have always been thinking that copying = cheating, because ranks depend on marks, and couldn't imagine that this must be additionally mentioned.
@JeffE - I guess I meant it's not specifically academia-related; this question applies to any teaching institution. Still, it does work here.
And teaching institutions (or as they are sometimes called, academies) aren't academia? What dictionary are you using?
Before you take any action, make sure you know the rules of academic integrity at your school. Many institutions have very strict rules to follow regarding the handling of suspected plagiarism, because of the legal implications.
What Fuhrmanator says. Many institutions only require the course leader to flag cases of suspected academic offences and produce evidence. Then the actual investigation of if and what AO happened will be carried out by a separate committee. This ensures that the university's AO policy is enforced in a fair and consistent manner.
Here is my anecdotal experience for dealing with copiers and plagiarizers. At the end of the day, everyone should be penalized. It's just a matter of sorting out who did what, and making sure they're aware that further offending can carry severe consequences.
If discussing problems in groups is okay and encouraged (it should be!), don't forget to reinforce this. Just stress that the solutions themselves must be individual work.
The weaker piece of homework (i.e. less complete explanations and working, or missing parts) is likely to be written by the student who had no contribution (or a lesser contribution) to the solution.
It's usually rather obvious that some copying has gone on, especially if they all make the same mistakes and lay out their working the same. Consider rounding up all the students and talking to them together to find out the full story. They've already been caught red-handed, so it's in their best interests to be honest with you!
It's important to find out exactly what happened, because there are cases where someone has copied work without the other's knowledge. In this case, it's not fair to punish both parties.
If the student doing the copying has accidentally written their friend's name or student number on the sheet rather than their own, that tends to be a dead give-away that it's a downright facsimile of other work (that has actually happened).
Not always true - I've seen copiers who expand on the work they copied
@PranavHosangadi I'd say that if they expanded on the copying, that's better than straight-up copying, so I wouldn't worry too much about penalizing them less.
@AlexBecker, consider a scenario where I do all my work by myself, and you copy my work but expand on it. Mine is the weaker solution, and following this advice I am more of a suspect.
@PranavHosangadi Fair point. I suppose I also hadn't thought of the possibility that the work was copied without permission.
@PranavHosangadi May I suggest you read my answer more carefully? I do say that the weaker piece is likely written by the copier, not always. But unless (this possibility I also mention) the work is copied without the knowledge of the "victim", each student should be disciplined equally and so the point of who did more actual work is unimportant.
@Moriarty, most definitely both should be given a hearing before handing out punishment, but to be honest, one will tend to think the weaker solution belongs to the copier, and hence the "he stole my work" consideration will be applied incorrectly.
@PranavHosangadi Indeed a private discussion is necessary. earthling's answer describes the two choices well. A student is innocent until they admit their guilt (or it is proven beyond reasonable doubt). If an amicable discussion doesn't result in an admitted consensus as to who did what, or both students deny any wrongdoing yet copying almost certainly occurred (sometimes there's only so many ways to skin a cat), then I think that the case is outside the jurisdiction of a TA.
Although I do not teach physics I do have a solution that generally works quite well.
The main answer is: It does not matter who copied from whom - fail both.
If one student allows another to copy, then both fail. I enforce this quite strictly and there are some students (who do not pay attention to the warnings I give at the start of the semester) who do it, but they never make the same mistake twice.
As Moriarty said, it is possible that Student B copied from Student A without Student A knowing about it. I solve this problem but calling them both in front of me (private from everyone else) and tell them they have a choice:
Choice A: Both admit that the copying took place with consent of both, and both fail that homework/assignment/test/whatever is being assessed.
Choice B: Student A says that Student B stole Student A's work, and Student A gets off with a warning to be more careful (but no punishment) and Student B fails the module immediately without the opportunity to recover (Student B must re-take the module from the beginning).
I have dealt with many cases this way and only three cases where the students ended up in Choice B. In this case, the offending students admitted that they stole work.
You should never support the student who allows another student to copy from them. That behavior is simply unacceptable and that needs to be made quite clear to everyone.
If you don't have an official plagiarism policy in your syllabus, failing a student for a course because of a plagiarized assignment is excessively harsh. It is perfectly fair, however, to give them zero credit for the assignment.
There's also a privacy/FERPA problem with this approach. If student A is honestly unaware that any copying took place, I cannot identify student B as the plagiarist to student A. (I faced exactly this situation two months ago.)
@aeismail I do mention it in the syllabus. Of course students must know the rules at the start. I have yet to see any student call me unfair...even behind my back. Strict, yes. But never unfair.
@JeffE You cannot highlight a block of text and say it also exists in Student B's paper? What privacy rule are you violating?
No, I cannot. The fact that a student has been found guilty of cheating, or is being investigated for cheating, is itself a FERPA-protected educational record. Formally, even the fact that a student is registered for my course is a FERPA-protected educational record. The most I can say is "This block of text appears verbatim in another student's submission".
@earthling In physics, it's fairly common (at least more common than in your field, or so I'd guess from the way you wrote this answer) to allow collaborative work, which tends to result in multiple students submitting near-identical solutions. Depending on the nature of the class, the policy of automatically failing anyone who submits work that appears to have been copied may not be realistic. (Whereas it certainly seems appropriate for e.g. an English class.)
I am surprised that no one mentioned this solution yet, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find out by interrogating them: question them both on how they solved the exercises. "So, tell me, which formula are you applying in this line? Why are the hypotheses satisfied? Show me the missing steps."
I have also got in that situation with a couple of students that I was lecturing. I decided to fail both and sent an email, to both of them, saying that they were going to be penalized even with the disciplinary committee of the University to expelled them both. In a couple of hours the person that was guilty confesses his participation in this situation. I only decided to fail that person from the exam and leave the other only with a disciplinary warning.
Long story short: Here you have only two ways, either you fail both of them which is simpler; or just look for the guilty person (which I usually do and I always discover the sinner")
Good luck!
I would argue a student has committed an offence by allowing / supporting the copying. Punishing only the copier tells other students it is ok to share as long as you are the original author. Seems a bad policy to me.
What if both students profess ignorance? (Yes, I've seen this happen.) Are you happy with the possibility that one of the students may be expelled even though the plagiarism happened without their cooperation or consent?
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15211 | Are there any resumé revision services available for PhD applicants?
I am preparing a resumé for a PhD application. I'd like to know if there any good, and not necessarily free, services that evaluate and comment on a resumé.
If you are currently a student , your university career services can help.
Ask the faculty who are writing your recommendation letters. They'll have the clearest idea what you should include, because they're the ones actually reading PhD applications.
By the way, I can't imagine it would be worth paying for CV advice for a PhD application. For ordinary job searches, people sometimes pay for resume advice because they want to do whatever they can to minimize the chances that their resume will be tossed aside after a quick glance. That's not really how PhD admissions works, the CV plays a less central role, and in any case it's easier to write an academic CV than a resume (it's more comprehensive and thus involves less choice, and you don't have to sell things as hard).
Yes, literally hundreds. Have you googled something like "professional resume for phd application" or "professional resume writing services"? You are bound to find something near where you live, including quite possibly your undergrad university.
The big question, I think, is whether for a PhD application you should be supplying a resume or a curriculum vitae? CV's are usually more common for academic and research positions. If you are unsure about the differences, here are a couple of useful links.
Good luck with the application.
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7668 | What can I do to recover from a short term burnout?
Over the past few days, my advisor and I had been going really hard. We got a really good idea and the preliminary results looked good, so I started spending long days in the lab, going home only to sleep. My advisor saw this and he started spending a lot more time with me and we had long meetings whenever I requested. This has been going on for about 4 weeks and although I loved it while I was in it, I feel burnt out now. There are still really exciting things I need to try but I don't know why I can't get myself to do any of them.
What is a good strategy to escape this burnout phase?
I have already tried:
Playing an instrument I was good at
Just taking some time off
Limiting my work hours
But none of these and others seem to work.
If it is days or weeks (not years), I don't know if "burnout" is the right term. It's just a temporal loss of motivation or energy, or tiredness. (Anyway, the quicker you fight with it, the better for you.)
Not specifically academia-burnout-related. As my Zen teacher says: "if you're so burnt out you feel you can't accomplish anything, start with clapping hands". Do anything you can succeed in, starting from the absolute basics, until gradually you recover your momentum and get back to serious things. Another advise, to prevent burnout, next time keep the excitement / expectations in check. High expectations mess with your success thresholds and rob you of the sense of accomplishment. Excitement wastes your serotonin unnecessarily, while you need it for creative work.
Bipolar disorder? You never know ...
Actually, there's a lot of research that suggests that extended workweeks are only sustainable for a short period of time—a few weeks at most. Beyond that, burnout sets in, and can require a few weeks of rest to "make up" for the intense work done during the "rush" period.
Don't "fight with it" as suggested above. This only delays the effect. Let it go instead. Set aside two days where you're not allowed to think even one tiresome thought. Do something completely different. See if you can manage to do "nothing", for a short while.
For a true burnout you will need to stop working, rest, and seek counseling/medical help. You need to lower your expectations of yourself and virtually eliminate what others expect from you. Ultimately, because work is about expectations (either self-imposed or set by others), I doubt that you can continue working and recover from a burnout.
Given that you state that the burnout occurred over a short period, rather than a sustained year-upon-year effort, my advice is to take a vacation. Three weeks should do the trick.
Just remember, life is about enjoying it, not earning money, because in the end you will take nothing with you.
I agree: get yourself out of your current environment (no work, change in daily life, change in place). If you work at a small campus in a rural area, take a trip to New York/LA/whatever. If you work at a University in the center of London, go to the Lake District for a week or two, go hiking in Corsica, just go bury your toes in the water of Ardèche, etc. Doesn't have to be very far, or very expensive, but it should take your mind to other things. Also: find good books, don't bring your computer, don't look for internet access.
@F'x: Sounds like good advice for me (and I'm not even burnt out).
I gave Dave Clarke's feedback a "yes" to was this helpful, but I have to add my own experience. If you're truly feeling burnt out, you need to do one of two things, step back and think about it, or jump in and just submit to it. I've felt burnt out with my job and been pushed to the edge where I lost all productivity, but then I realized, it's my life, and if I want to do it, I should "claim" the work as my own even if I am not the boss, And that really makes all the difference. Claim what you're doing, own it, and take pride in it, it will stave off burning out.
I find burnout a reoccurring effect, and to some extent it comes with academic research as you are continually trying solve problems and come up with new ideas. In this respect I find doing science like doing art - if I am not in the mood for doing it then the results won't be good and productivity is low, so the only solution is to stop completely. If you have got the research 'bug' (you normally love research and it preoccupies pretty much every waking hour of your day) then when you are ready you will come back to thinking about it and want to get back in the lab.
My advice is to do nothing until you are ready - don't think about the lab at all or worry that you are not doing anything, just rest completely - go for walks, watch moves, kill zombies, whatever.
As a post doc I have learnt to organise better, and back off if things get too hectic, taking an afternoon off for example. I still suffer a little at the end of the year, where I take a fortnight off but usually I am itching to get back after a week.
Burnout is a word of many meanings. But basically, it is characterized by a very strong physical exhaustion, a general anxiety and the feeling that you are a failure at work, that you will never meet the expectations of the persons you work with/for. This last feeling is strengthened by the fact that a person in burnout thinks she owes something to the others. A last symptom is depersonalisation : you have the feeling of living outside you and the world, you are a spectator of your life, not an actor of it anymore. If you have this last symptom, you should go to the doctor right now, not asap, now !
Most of the time, a burnout becomes a real medical problem (as a strong anxiety syndrom) and needs that a medical doctor takes action.
Besides giving a medication, a MD will give life advice such as :
Stop completely working for a while, do a sleep cure
Avoid any activity that relates to work (you're in academy, don't read complicated stuff, you're a plumber, don't do any home improvement)
Change your environment : go visit your old uncle who is a farmer in Ohio (or a fisherman in France, or ...)
Modify the way you live, be more involved in your own life. Sometimes, we (=people in academy) don't take the time to cook, to do sports, to rest without activity. Even if one can live happily with a 100% focus on work, it increases the odds of being burned out.
And my last advice : at first try to avoid seeing people from work. It is necessary, so that you can realize that they don't really need you and you don't really need them.
This is really me! About your last point, but how can I graduate without seeing them and being at my work? Right now the only way out that I can see out of this mess is suicide. I can no longer read, I only see me failing. Thanks for the advise to consult a doctor, though I am not sure if I will do it.
I don't think it's intended as never see your coworkers. It is, however, important to shy away from meeting coworkers while you are trying to take a few weeks of distance from your work. If you keep meeting with them it is much harder to mentally let go of your work, even if only for a few days. You'll still graduate, you'll go back to work, but first you need to give yourself some well earned rest. Don't try to fight your own mind because you will likely lose that battle. Don't try to rationalize pushing yourself harder by imposing deadlines, because it won't help you "beat" your situation.
As an addition to the current suggestions, I can highly recommend adding some exercise to your daily life. Lab life, especially when intensive, makes as sedentary life style. You sit in front of the pc, by the wetlabs... etc
What kind of exercise you do is a preference thing, I personally love high-tempo ball sports like football (soccer) or squash. There's nothing like the endorphine high you get after wearing yourself completely and take a shower afterwards. It will help you get troubles off your mind as well. I can highly recommend squash for this purpose; when playing with an even opponent, an hours workout will get you to a point where forming shorter sentences is as complicated of an intellectual task as you can manage, which means no time/place for daily worries.
Another important thing is to get good sleep. Not just the hours in bed but the quality of sleep. If thoughts and worries about work are haunting you in the sub-conscience, it really doesn't matter how long you are in bed. In this aspect you'll have a positive synergy between physical workout and better sleep.
Hope it helps, and you'll start feeling better soon.
As JeffE would put it, Run, don't walk!
This is a great answer. My life became an order of magnitude better after I started practicing sports and sleeping more (and not trying to wake up early to work on saturdays and sundays).
First of all, noone here can know what is really the matter with you. So we all find it rather alarming, because
"Not getting yourself to do exciting things" can be a symptom of serious medical problems.
However, after a "work-sprint" you may just be exhausted in a perfectly normal way. E.g. after I had handed in my Diplom thesis, I needed two weeks of basically doing nothing and sleeping a lot (incidentally and very typically, I got a cold as well). It's just paying back your debts in recreation, in the very literal meaning of the work.
Things to do:
Talk to your advisor. From what you wrote, you have a very good relationship. If you think you are in the normal need-for-holidays, tell him, and get the holidays.
During the holidays,
Sleep much
Spend much time outdoors. Sun (in case it's winter now where you are) and excercise is good for everyone and you may need to catch up due to the work sprint. Doesn't need to be real sports, for me personally it would be better to do "excercise" on a non-exhausting level, but longer. 5 - 8 h of walking, biking or slow cross country skiing would sound good to me, but your marks may vary of course. I'd say, a good amount of fresh air is when you fall into your bed at 8 pm and sleep till next morning...
Make sure you eat lots of vitamins
If you are afraid (i.e. you are not 100% sure that it isn't) something more serious may be the matter:
Don't wait until you know it is serious! By then, it will be very serious, and you may not be able any longer to seek the help you need.
Also talk to your advisor. If you think, holidays may help, take them. However, here are two additional "saftety lines":
Schedule a meeting for after your holidays to discuss whether you are again in working condition. Ask him now that he should get you to medical help if you are not in working condition after the holidays.
Ask him to come and get you to medical help if you don't show up after holidays.
In addition (before the holidays),
find out whether your university has some kind of psychological counselling (not sure about the correct English name), examination offices usually know that.
Alternatively, find out a psychological clinic (university hospital?) with emergency counselling hours (again, someone please correct my English)
If you don't get yourself to doing this now (till Monday noon), go to your advisor (or very good friends/relatives), tell them you have a psychological emergency and that they should get you to medical help immediately.
Normal exhaustion after intense work:
Personally, I know and love these exciting periods of intense work. However, they are exhausting, and you need the recreation afterwards as you'd recreation after a mountain tour of several weeks. Also, they don't happen every day (I think one couldn't survive that, even though they are incredibly good). BUt from what I know from fellow researchers, these a serious driving force for quite some of us. Welcome!
Even though you are now exhausted, remember how good it is. I think a healthy balance is if you are exhausted like you are exhausted after a big physical effort. I remember them like physically strenuous tours.
They are not an every-day experience, but odds are that this wasn't the last experience of the sort :-) And, while this one may have been too much of the good, you can learn knowing when it is enough (and/or to plan for recreation afterwards). For me, this got easier once I had the experience that new such spells of incredibly good work do come.
For me, having a structure is usually something that brings a good balance.
One of the reasons PhD students can get very disorganized and end up wasting a lot of time is the lack of a fixed schedule, this is both needed to have a productive life and a balance between your work and personal life.
Just try to keep by an schedule, and you'll see you will get more relaxed.
Sure. That prevents any future burnouts. But what can be done once you get into one?
The only way to get out is to go back to your life, take care
I agree with a lot of the other answers, but I have a few additional ideas that haven't been suggested yet.
Do you find yourself thinking about this project at odd moments, even when you're supposedly resting or doing something else? You need to reset your mind by clearing out this project and replacing it with something else for a while. It needs to be sufficiently compelling to get your attention away from the thing that has filled your mind for 4 weeks. Then, after a bit, your enthusiasm for your old project will regenerate and you can be excited about it again.
When you get sick of working on a particular project, one thing that can sometimes be helpful is to spend some time (perhaps a week or two, maybe more) working on a very different project of some sort.
Another possibility is that you are not actually burned out. You may instead have conditioned yourself to associate this project with working very long hours. Now, whenever you think about working on it, you subconsciously feel like if you work on it, it will consume your life again and you don't have the energy for that. This is a bit harder to deal with. To continue to work on this, you have to break the conditioning. If you can force yourself to work on the project, but with more reasonable hours, that may help.
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16121 | Is it possible to receive private tutoring for graduate-level courses from faculty members?
I am having a lot of trouble understanding the material in one of my courses. I feel like the professor often rushes through the material, leaving me without enough time to catch up in my busy schedule.
This professor is also really esteemed for his/her research contributions and speaking to my adviser about this (who also happens to be close to this professor) would make me feel very uncomfortable. I even spoke to my peers in the course about this and they seem to agree about the speed at which things are delivered.
Anyway, I often think about what I can do in this situation since exams are coming up. One idea that I ponder is the possibility of privately hiring a tutor within the faculty who could better explain the ideas in the course to me; after all they have relevant teaching experience.
I'm not certain if this is a good idea or not and because of this, I would really appreciate feedback relevant to this idea. If there aren't any appropriate solutions, what else can you suggest?
Note: I don't really want to give out any other details that would compromise his/her reputation. So I'll just leave it at that.
Just want to make sure the tutor will not be the same person who teaches the course, right?
Of course, it won't be the same person.
Does this class have a TA ?
@Suresh: no, it does not.
Do other students also have trouble keeping up ? maybe an intervention is in order.
@Suresh: Well, I would say in a class of 16 students, I spoke to 7 of them about this issue (at different times) and most seemed to talk about their issues (with the class) quite a bit. I'm not sure about the other remaining students though.
I protect this question because it is an attractive target for spammers.
Go to office hours.
As a faculty member, I feel that most students who struggle
don't put enough time into the course materials; most courses are designed with the expectation that you put into the course around 10 hours a week.
don't seek out help, or don't speak up to communicate their difficulties; there are office hours by the professor, as well as the TAs, and most of these people would be very open to hearing your opinions of the course. If the course is going too fast, tell them.
don't talk to their peers; sometimes understanding the material requires talking to others about it. You may all have been confused by the material, but by struggling through the assignments together, you will probably all learn (but remember to credit your friends).
If you have done all of the above and you are still struggling, then hiring a private TA may be the next step. One tip for choosing a good TA: I actually think that asking someone just a couple of years ahead of you is the best thing to do. They see from your perspective, and they often understand/remember what was hard about the material better than the faculty members. It's cheaper, and you'll learn better. As a faculty member, I would never agree to privately tutor a student. Teaching is only a small part of my job, and I prefer to be doing research instead of spending more of my time with an undergraduate student.
Just a comment about 10hrs/week. This varies and is not a general law. We expect 40 hrs/week because we do not run parallel courses, which I assume is the case in your school/country.
@PeterJansson: I'm pretty sure that in both the question and this answer, 'course' means what in the UK we usually call a 'module'. A student would normally be taking roughly four courses per semester, depending on the university. I would be surprised if at your university the things students study are not broken up into units in a similar way.
@TaraB Our students take one course at a time (could be four in consecutive order in a term) and are expected to work full hours on each course. So as I stated, one cannot necessarily compare workload per week per course (module) between systems.
@PeterJansson: Oh, I see. I've never heard of that before! But of course I would have agreed about not being able to compare between different systems anyway.
Let me give you a few thoughts (which might be slightly off-topic) from a professor's perspective:
I usually design my courses in a way that the average student has a significant work load to keep up with the topic without frustrating them. (with 'average' I mean what I think the average student should be able to do after finishing the class - so this is a bit biased and independent of the actual students in my class)
This leads to the situation that there is about 20% which keep up with (more or less) ease (I try to give them some extre assignments which are usually to hard for the rest of the course), ~50% are doing more or less fine (they have to work hard, but come along), and ~30% are having a very hard time.
The ones which are having hard time are usully not having the required pre-requisites for the course (I talk to each of them and try to find out which problems they are having), this could be they dont have the knowledge and skills needed, but some have problems organizing their daily life etc.
Depending on the group you are in (I know, it's very rough classification and might not be helpful in your case), you can follow different strategies:
If you are usually among the top performers in your class, you just might have some misconceptions which prevent you from putting the topics in the right part of your brain. I'd suggest talking to your adviser or your professor about this. They can help to disentangle your thoughts.
If you are in the "average" group, you are the core audience of the class. Your professor should be interested in getting feedback about speed and perception of the content, but you must decide by yourself whether they are interested or not. If they seem to be open, I would suggest talking to your adviser and ask him about additional material or whether s(he) can recommend a tutor.
If you feel you are missing some pre-requisites, you should clearly identify for your self, what you are missing. Try to get this first, even if it's not part of the course or you already shoul be knowing it. If you skip this opportunity kow, life will only become harder. After you know what you are missing, try to find appropriate ressources to learn thos skills (online courses, personal coaching, taking a class again, whatever). Additional tutoring will not help as long as your brain is not ready for the topic (unless the tutor helps you with getting this knowledge and skills).
In general, I assume that my studnets are working in groups. Many assingments are very hard to complete for one person, you often need discussion about the topics. One thought gives the other and having a group of peers working on the seem topics is very helpful. If you are learning alone at the moment, try to find some peers and team up with them. It is optimal if they are a bit better than you, but the most important thing is to talk about the course content and try to find different approaches to understand it. Tackle the problems from different directions and see which one is the best for you. That's the real skill you are learning when you are studying.
I personally regard taking a tutor as a last resort, but that's a bit opinion based. A good tuutor is a coach helping you with the things described above (which is great, go, get one!), a bad tutor tries to think for you and focuses only on the course topic which is at hand. You won't learn much.
And coming to the question whether it is ok to ask a faculty member: It depends! You can not ask someone who is actually involed in the course (directly or indirectly), otherwise one could argue that the course is intentionally to hard and the faculty members are doing side business by helping the studnts to succeed. This would really be unethical (end even if it is not the case, it might look like this to an outsider).
If you can find someone, who is not involved in the course, and (s)he is willing to do it, I see no problem, unless there are no rivalries between your professor and the person. Still, I would prefer someone from a different institution since teaching students should be their main job, anyway. I personally would not take any students for private tutorship.
I hope this helps a bit.
I'm going to provide a completely different perspective, mainly based on your comment
"Well, I would say in a class of 16 students, I spoke to 7 of them about this issue (at different times) and most seemed to talk about their issues (with the class) quite a bit. I'm not sure about the other remaining students though"
if you have confirmed that many people in the class are struggling (note: it's not 100% clear from this quote that you have), this is enough to warrant talking to the professor about the general pace and difficulty level of the class. In this case You may want to schedule an appointment with the professor and speak to him/her about your troubles with the class and how you have talked with other students and that these students are having similar issues. Ask the professor about what he/she imagines the average work load is for the class.
Most professors want the class to learn and are willing to teach to the ability of the class, but many of them are not so good at adapting to subtle cues from their students; they need to be explicitly told to slow down or cover more basic concepts. Find out what your professor thinks about what the course should be like and then adapt what you say based on that.
Sometimes the instructor does not modify their course (or they try to but really don't change as much as they think they are). There isn't too much you can do about this, however, many professors will change the course significantly and you may find yourself happier because of it.
However, whatever you do, do not make any accusations and try your best not to come off as entitled. Stay nice, and spend more time listening than talking. You may not end up needing a tutor
That said: for most research colleges the answer is NO to your question (graduate students would be more appropriate, perhaps someone who TAed the course before - but not currently, and possibly not while this instructor was teaching the course). For teaching colleges, there are often not enough professors in the department to even find one that would be an appropriate match to the subject matter.
The description is vague I agree, modified the response by starting it with "if". The op clearly states in his comment that others talk to him about issues they have with the course. You are right that such a description is vague, but if students are having difficulties the instructor should at least be made aware of it.
From a student perspective, there are actually several things you can do:
First, you can go to the professor and/or the TA's office hours to get help with the material that you're struggling with. You didn't mension whether or not you've tried this, but often if you aren't understanding things in class then the professor or the TA would be happy to go over it again with you and to try explaining it in alternate ways or more slowly. If you're having trouble making office hours because of scheduling, the TA or the professor will often be able to schedule alternate office hours to meet with you.
Second, you can ask other students for help. You could try starting a study group or many students have mailing lists where you can ask for advice from people who have taken the class before. In addition, in a graduate level class there are likely to be graduate students who are working in/doing research on some of the topics covered in the course---these are definitely people who might be able to help.
Last, as someone mentioned, it's unlikely that other faculty will have the time to provide private tutoring. It's much more likely that a TA or another graduate student, probably one who is doing research under that professor!, would have the time and the inclination to tutor. Some ways to try to get in touch with someone like this is through student mailing lists, the professor or lab's website, or by asking other graduate students.
Most graduate students are pretty open and nice because they've been where you are in not getting a course, so don't be too nervous about approaching them.
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16738 | How do I ask the author of a book in English if I can translate it into my native language?
I want to translate an English book, but before translating it, I want to be sure if the author will permit me to do so.
I am not doing this for financial gain. Since it is a book about a new subject, my professor asked me to translate it, so that students in my country become better familiar with the topic.
Would you please provide me a good text to email it to the author?
I'd be interested to know what happened. Did the translation go ahead?
In most cases books are published through a publisher and certain copyright laws apply that may be shared between the publisher and the author. Exactly where the right to decide on translations lie may vary. You therefore need to contact both the author and the publisher to look into what might apply and to what extent they are interested in such translation. My suspicion is that it will not be as easy as just getting permission to translate. When a book (or any publication) is translated, there will be a need to get a translation that properly represents the original content. A publisher may not be content with "anybody" translating the work, they may request some form of review etc. So, the bottom line is that you need to contact publisher and author to see what is possible and under what conditions. It is possible they accept translation into a different language for different reasons but they will most likely want to retain some form of copyright.
Tja svenska är ju inget större språk heller. Hopefully the change will satisfy the one reader.
While there may be lots of copyright issues and the publisher will likely need to be contacted. I think starting with the author is the way to go. The email can be rather simple and the content of your question is a good starting point:
Dear X,
I would like to translate your book. I am not doing this for financial gain. I want students in my country become better familiar with the topic.
You may want to include a little about yourself so the author realizes you are familiar enough with the material to translate it and have a use for the translated book.
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16365 | How do I ask a professor for a summer research project?
I am a student of IT in India. I'm in my fourth semester and want to work on some project during summer. How should I write the email to the professor asking for the same?
I get many letters of this kind, and I now summarily delete them without replying. Let me explain why.
Money: it's never clear in these letters what kind of support the student wants/expects. The default assumption is that I would pay for them, and as an academic with limited resources, I have very little incentive to pay for an undergraduate to travel from India to the US to work with me, especially when it's unlikely they'll be able to do much in three months. Which brings me to
Project timeline: most letters of this kind are of the form "I'm interested in BROAD TOPIC A and want to work with you because you're interested in NARROW TOPIC B". For a three month internship to work, a project has to be very focused, and set from day 1. There's no time to explore.
Self-interest: There's very little gain for me here, or at least none that's mentioned in the letters. If I want to hire an undergraduate, I can do it locally. I can even get financial support (sometimes) for doing that. I can't do that with a student from abroad, and I can't even vet them in advance.
So any successful letter needs to address these three issues very effectively and quickly (because I delete these emails without reading more than a few lines).
Having said that, I know of at least one example where a student came from India to work with a colleague and that summer project turned into an application to grad school. The student is now at my university.
But is there any indication that the student wants to travel to the US? Perhaps they want to apply with a professor at their home university?
What is there for you to gain in such situations? What would you like to gain from an undergraduate project like this one? I am asking because I would like to know what a professor can gain in such situations.
The only potential gain for a professor is if they are able to attract an undergrad from a strong institution, build a relationship, and then have that undergrad come to their university for grad school. There really is no other gain.
What if the student is really strong and has great potential but he is from a fairly unknown institution? I think that there are (some) strong students at many unknown institutions who are self-motivated. Wouldn’t you like to attract any of those to your lab for graduate studies?
I would for graduate studies. But for a summer internship ? that's a long shot gamble.
But with a summer internship you may attract him to your group. Moreover you will find out whether you want to get this student in your lab for the next 5-7 years, or not. Is the cost that high for a few months (2-3)? (Does this include university fees etc.?)
yes. there's a risk-reward calculation here that I estimate to not work out in my favor. if either the cost or the risk estimate changes, then my opinion would change as well :)
How about something like the following.
Dear Professor X,
I enjoyed your course on letter writing and would like to learn more about it. Would it be possible to do a summer project with you?
Sincerely,
Your student of IT in India
If you didn't do a course with him, there must be something that singled him out amongst the other 50 professors at your IT institute (and I don't mean his new glasses).
Alternatives might be:
I enjoy topic X [your professors specialty] and have used it to program a simple program ...
I tried to read your paper "Letter writing for IT students" ...
You asked for a letter, but allow me to suggest to go and talk to him directly. Make sure you know why you want to do a project with him. From a short conversation, you should be able to tell, whether he is willing to invest time into guiding you through a summer project. (He might be away on conferences or other business.) If he seems like he might be very busy, you might consider doing a project with someone else. (If your professor is too busy to meet with you every few days, anyone, even me, can give you a research project: "Research about topic X as much as you can and let me know what you found".)
Say that you have never done a summer project before, and ask him how much time he expects you to put in (per day) and how often he might be able to meet with you.
All of this can be settled in a short conversation of 5 minutes. Via email, this all might take well over a week, or the professor might just not care to reply.
From my home university, I understand that "summer project" means roughly guided pseudo-research for undergraduates in their free time and without pay. If you are asking for free time of your professor plus money, you will probably have to make a more compelling case.
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18395 | College Staff Taking Classes and Doing Research
I presently work in a facilities-type role at a small Liberal Arts college.
One of the benefits of working at the college is the ability to take two classes per academic-year (not including summer or winter terms).
I have a BS in Economics from a larger university as well as a pretty broad quantitative background and I'm interested in taking classes in mathematics, statistics, and computer science (they have an MSCS program here).
What I'm wondering is this:
How likely would it be for me to become involved in research projects?
Would it be odd for a staff member taking a few classes to ask about doing research with a faculty member?
I'm hoping to pad my resume a bit for acceptance into a PhD or MS in Applied Math program down the line; but, I'm wondering if it's worth getting my hopes up about doing research even though I'm just a staff member taking classes.
This is happening currently in my university. It is a small tech school in midwest united states. We have a staff member in the mechanical engineering department who is pursuing a PhD in humanities with "advisers" in both humanities and mechanical engineering since she is working on an area of "technical communications". I have spoken with her and she does say that getting a PhD would definitely do more than just "pad" her resume/profile! I think in your case, given a similar situation, it would be a good idea to get some research/collaboration to boost your profile!
Well, after I the PhD hopefully a resume wouldn't matter so much (I'd much rather have a stellar CV with loads of research projects/papers); however, getting into a funded program is going to mean having something a little unique given that I'm a pretty unconventional student (I'm 30 y/o with a background in Army Human Intelligence--so, even though I'm older, I don't really have "work experience" in a quantitative setting, so to speak (though I did do data munging at a large market research firm post-undergrad, it was only for a year).
Well, your request would certainly be unusual for most faculty members, but that also doesn't mean it wouldn't be accepted!
The main challenge would be if you were looking to be paid for the work. Under such circumstances, it might be much more challenging to get involved with projects, because the funding mechanisms (such as NSF REU grants, which fund many undergraduate research projects) would not be available to fund you (since you're not an undergraduate student!).
However, if you're just looking to do it for the research experience, I think the biggest obstacle would be convincing a potential advisor that you're serious. I would recommend then that you make an in-person appointment, rather than trying to set something like this up via email.
Good answer. It will probably be easier to convince them you are serious once you have taken a couple of classes and done well. The fact that you have a degree in a somewhat related field should help too. Best of luck!
Great answer! Exactly what I was looking for.
And, yes, I am just looking for the research experience and not any financial compensation. I'm looking to take a class in the fall; so, I will make sure that I research the class/professor to make sure it fits my background and research goals.
Thanks for the answer!
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159 | How can I find out which universities allow a sandwich (stapler) PhD thesis?
Following on from What is a "Sandwich thesis"? , is there an easy way to find out which departments at which universities will allow a sandwich thesis (aka a stapler thesis, portfolio thesis, three-paper thesis, thesis by portfolio of publications, thesis by publication, article thesis or compilation thesis)?
That is to say, universities that explicitly allow PhDs theses that consist of a collection of published or in-press articles, possibly topped and tailed by an introduction and summary? It is, to my knowledge, quite rare in the UK - does it perhaps tend to be a country-specific thing?
I accept that it will depend on the supervisor's approval too, but that's a secondary issue: the supervisor can't allow a stapler thesis if the university/department does not. My question is about identifying eligible departments.
Of course you don't need to explain if you don't want, but I'm curious why you're asking. I think it's a bit unusual to actively seek out an institution with the plan of doing a "sandwich thesis" (or indeed, with any so specific ideas about the ultimate nature of a thesis).
The department where you are going to submit the thesis probably has a document of PhD/thesis regulations that specify if such a thesis is allowed. For example, my department's regulations have the following statement:
[...] Scientific publications may form a part of a doctoral thesis. If the doctoral thesis consists of several scientific papers, a presentation of the guidelines of the papers submitted has to be added in an appropriate extent. [...]
i.e. a sandwich thesis is possible here. So you should find out if your favored departments have similar regulations and have a look in there.
It's essentially impossible to know if you'll be able to do a stapler thesis or not, because the decision also lies with the thesis supervisor, who may not allow you to do that, even if it is allowed by the rules of your university or department. I was co-advised, and one thought a stapler thesis was an inherently logical way to write the thesis, while the other thought it was a really bad way to write a thesis, and didn't allow his students to do it.
This is true: I've examined a sandwich dissertation as an internal examiner at my own institution, then I found out a different student had been denied this option because his supervisor didn't believe our university allowed it.
I don't think there is an easy way to determine this. I don't think it is often set out in the University regulations. For example, where I did my PhD different departments would have different approaches and within each department different supervisors would have different approaches (that fits to what the department 'allows'). Moreover, by 'approach', I do not mean anything written down. Rather, there were/are unwritten, sometimes spoken, conventions.
You could infer these by looking at what theses have been written at the university, in each department under specific supervisors. N.b., if you have more than one supervisor, the power-relation may determine who's conventions are followed.
All of this is a lot of work. I would like to address what I imagine your original intention is - will I be made to do extra work that could be detrimental to my academic career (by reducing publications, for example)? If this is your motivation, perhaps a more effective tool is to simply see for each potential supervisor where their students ended up afterwards. You would not be able to infer what type of thesis must be written from this, but you would be able to get the bigger picture.
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12907 | What should a good theoretical physics PhD progress look like at the beginning of 3rd year?
Obviously I am asking this because I am worried!
I am a theoretical physics grad student at one of the top places in the US. The following is a brief history of my last 2 years and I would like to know of opinions and suggestions regarding the path ahead.
I did the most advanced courses (relevant to my interests) during my first year and worked on some project ideas through very high-profile external collaborations (but the projects didn't work out and I had to can the drafts) During my second year I tried working with some other profs but the projects were never really interesting.
[..though I have a (single author) paper on arxiv from my 2nd year work and may be I will get one more...]
Towards the end of second year I started meeting with a very brilliant scientist who will be joining my institute as a faculty in January 2014. With him the projects are very exciting - but interactions are difficult since he is still mostly not in campus.
Of course this unstable path happened since I had to join a grad school which didn't have people in my subject of interest. But over the last 2-3 months things have been looking up as this new person came in...
I would love to get it done in 5 years!
what about your phd advisor?
@user774025 As in?
"but the projects didn't work out and I had to can the drafts" — this sounds weird to me. It is not rare at all for a project/idea not to work ou the way you would like, but for it to fail so utterly that you cannot get any work published out of it, i.e. that there is nothing for the community to learn from it, is rather rare. That it happened multiple times might be an indicator that you threw the towel too early, or that you could be looking harder into how to extract something useful from your failed attempt. Helping you out with that would typically be the job of your advisor, because it is not the easiest part of the job...
Other than that, your account does not look particularly worrying: as others have noted, you have already built a good network of collaborations, have one publication, and advanced your course requirements... Sounds good to me!
I'd suggest this is more common than you might imagine in theoretical physics. I wouldn't call it failing utterly, but there is in general little patience for false starts. You can get such things published somewhere, but of course, you will be told that those publications (with IF < Phys.Rev.[subject letter]) don't "count."
Those projects very soon became way too difficult for me to carry on on my own. There is only so far that a beginning student can possibly collaborate with big scientists over email. Whatever little I achieved through these collaborations is seemingly not of publishable standards.
I don't think you have much to worry about. I recently obtained my PhD in physics from one of the top universities in the country and then went on to my current position of postdoc at another of the country's top universities, and I didn't get my first publication until my 3rd year. Hell, I didn't even start research until early on in my 3rd year, so you really seem ahead of where I was at this point.
With regards to the comments on having to abandon the fist projects you worked on, that doesn't seem particularly worrisome either, especially as you get started in research. Your ability and speed with which you can do research will increase dramatically over the next couple years, and your ability to choose good problems will do so perhaps even more. Perhaps the reason your projects previously didn't pan out has to do with problem selection (I'm assuming the external collaborators were largely involved in the project selection here); PIs can sometimes be pretty poor judges of project quality, since some don't know the literature as well as they used to, but this varies from PI to PI.
+1: you're ready to graduate when you start having all the good ideas, and resent your advisor riding on your coattails ;)
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58987 | What are unique job titles in academia called?
Occasionally a university gives a famous professor a job title individually designed for that one person only. Thus:
Donald Knuth is "Professor Emeritus of the Art of Computer Programming" at Stanford.
Gian-Carlo Rota was "Professor of Applied Mathematics and Philosophy" at M.I.T., although he had an appointment only in the mathematics department.
Is there a common noun referring to such custom-designed job titles for rare famous professors?
PS inspired by things written below: This is not the same as an endowed chair or a distinguished professorship. Some universities use the titled of "Distinguished Professor" and have rules saying only a limited number of professors can have that title; some universitites call the appointees "University Professors"; M.I.T. calls them "Institute Professors" (Isadore Singer in the math department is an Institute Professor). But with Distinguished Professors there is some codified rule saying these can exist and setting forth certain criteria for granting such a title. Similarly for endowed chairs. Knuth's title was based on the name of an influential and famous three-volume work on computer programming that Knuth had written; it would be absurd to promulgate a rule saying who might be appointed to this position in the future and according to which criteria, since it's a title that can fit only one person. Nor could it have been contemplated in Rota's case that others might some day have that title; it was awarded only because of the unique circumstances of Rota's life.
Often these are called "chairs" or endowed chairs.
Named Chairs, for positions named after a person.
Rota's position looks like a generic full professor with appointments in two departments: (1) applied mathematics and (2) philosophy. I often sign my official correspondence "Professor of Computer Science", but that just means I'm a full professor with an appointment in the computer science department; it's not an actual job title.
I'm not sure Rota is a good example of the phenomenon you are interested in. It sounds like he simply had a joint appointment in two departments. I know of many professors whose title is "Professor of Mathematics and X" because they have a joint appointment in math and X (usually a science or engineering discipline like CS, statistics, physics etc.). I wouldn't call this a "custom-designed" job title, but please clarify if you meant to include all such cases, which are quite common.
@StrongBad : I don't think what I'm referring to is the same as an endowed chair, although the incumbent may also have an endowed chair.
@DanRomik : You're mistaken: Rota had an appointment only in the math department, but the Corporation gave him that title.
@JeffE : You're mistaken. I've revised my posting to clarify this.
@MichaelHardy That's unclear. [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Rota.html](Rota's MacTutor biography) says: Rota was given the title Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT but in 1972 his title was changed to Professor of Applied Mathematics and Philosophy. His New York Times obituary says: At M.I.T., Dr. Rota was the only professor of applied mathematics and philosophy, a dual position to which he was appointed in 1974. (1/2)
Neither of these sources state explicitly that his title was honorary, and the Times obit suggests he actually had a dual appointment. What's your source? On the other hand, we was also the "Norbert Wiener Professor of Mathematics", which is clearly an honorary title. (2/2)
Rota's philosophy professorship was not honorary, but he was not considered a faculty member in MIT's Department of Linguistics and Philosophy either.
This is was what Rota himself told me about his appointment in philosophy: His philosophy professorship was not honorary, but he was not considered a faculty member in MIT's Department of Linguistics and Philosophy either. He taught classes in both mathematics and philosophy (his specialty in philosophy being Husserlian phenomenology), but he was not listed among the linguistics and philosophy faculty. I asked him about this discrepancy, and he told me that the philosophy appointment was a something special he had been given, and he was independent of the regular philosophy department
The thing the in the New York Times obituary was cribbed from what I wrote in Rota's obituary in the MIT newspaper The Tech: http://tech.mit.edu/V119/N21/21rota.21n.html (The first draft had a more detailed statement about his joint appointment, but we cut it because it hardly seemed relevant.)
This is not about named or endowed chairs. Those are things often created before it is known who the incumbents will be. The question is about titles created just for one professor, based on what that professor individually has done. With an endowed chair the appointment follows a rule rather than making a singular exception.
@MichaelHardy evidently the positions you are referring to are very rare indeed and seem to arise only in response to a whimsical or quirky wish on the part of a famous scientist. Considering this, do you have any special reason to expect that there is a noun associated with such positions?
@DanRomik : I don't know how rare they are. As for a wish on the part of the appointee, I wonder if the wish came from those who appointed someone? It's not hard to imagine some authority granting the title of emeritus to Donald Knuth and deciding to give him a special custom-designed title. But certainly I would not expect to see such a thing at most universities. ${}\qquad{}$
Emeritus just means he is retired.
@DanRomik : QUOTE In some cases the term is conferred automatically upon all persons who retire at a given rank, but in others it remains a mark of distinguished service, awarded to only a few on retirement. END QUOTE
It seems that at Stanford it is conferred automatically upon retirement.
In the United States, these types of "one-off" titles are typically given as a stage of promotion beyond full professorship. The typical generic name would be "chaired professor," "distinguished professor," or "titled professor." This is a rank that many faculty never reach, and typically the highest rank that a professor can achieve in the university as a professor---any further "promotion" is actually a change of position into management, e.g., dean, provost, president.
Such positions often come with a set of funds dedicated to support them, giving the faculty promoted to the position additional freedom of operation. Often the exact title is set by the person or organization that endows support for the position. For example, my thesis advisor is the "Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering" at MIT, meaning that his particular "one-off" position was endowed by the Panasonic corporation. Such ties, however, typically mean little besides the name.
But "chaired professor" and "distinguished professor" are not the same thing. Some universities have a position called "Distinguished Professor", and that is something that exists under codified rules, sometimes specifying that only a small number of professors can hold that title at any time. At some universities the title of "University Professor" is used. At M.I.T., the title is "Institute Professor", and I think only 12 professors can have that title at any time. Isadore Singer in the math department is one of those. That is not an uncodified title created for just one professor.
It's more than just the name, usually endowed chairs come with endowed chair funds for additional salary or research. These can be quite considerable -- tens of thousands to low six digits more.
so your thesis advisor was Gerald Jay Sussman?
@darethas Indeed, as can be readily confirmed by anybody who feels like looking up my thesis. :-)
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78944 | "Recognition" of scholarly journals
Are there some academic fields in which there is such a thing as official recognition of scholarly journals, so that speaking of a journal as being "recognized" or "unrecognized" would be generally understood by those in the field without any accompanying explanation?
I encountered someone on the internet saying that the unrecognized status of a certain journal in health sciences was of some consequence. But he got bored and went away when I posed this question.
Note: "Anonymous mathematician" wrote in a comment "I see this usage as being like the term 'recognized expert' (which is talking about reputation rather than certification)." But although the term "recognized" is used in that way, "unrecognized" in general usage often refers to something official or precisely defined. "Ian_Fin" wrote in a comment below: "Recognised by who?". But that of course was a substantial part of the question.
What do you mean by recognition? Beyond the obvious, what would be the difference between a recognised and an unrecognised journal? Recognised by who? I flagged this question as unclear.
It's not clear to me that the person on the internet was talking about official recognition. For comparison, there's certainly no notion of official recognition of mathematics journals, but if someone referred to a certain journal as being recognized or unrecognized, I think it would be generally understood and agreed upon. I see this usage as being like the term "recognized expert" (which is talking about reputation rather than certification).
@AnonymousMathematician : It seems the word "recognized" is often used in the way you describe, but "unrecognized" usually means something official, or the absence of something official.
@Ian_Fin : That's what I was asking!
@MichaelHardy: That's a good point.
I'll take New England Journal of Medicine as an example. Is it recognized? I think most people would agree that it is recognized in medicine. Is it officially recognized? Then people would argue what do you mean by "official". This question is unclear to me in the sense that what "official" is. Would you please consider rephrasing the question so that it is clear?
Judging by your "clarification", this question seems to be more about the semantics of the word "recognized" than anything having to do with academic journals.
@ff524 : I don't think so. For example, in the fields of chemistry and astronomy, there are professional bodies that decree what "correct" technical terminology is. This is somewhat like that.
It appears that what you mean to ask is something like: "Are there academic fields in which some professional body maintains a list of 'recognized' journals, such that work in journals not on that list tends to be discounted by scholars in the field?" Is that about right?
@MarkMeckes : Yes.
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77213 | How to deal with students who are among the more ignorant but think the know everything because they worked hard and got straight "A"s in high school
How should instructors deal with the fact that the students who know the least are precisely the ones who think they know everything?
NOTE: This question is not and never was intended to be primarily about mathematics instruction, but was intended to be equally applicable to all subjects to which it can be applied (which probably means all subjects). It has been edited by seemingly many people. I hope I've now expunged the most offensive edits from it. The examples below are about mathematics for the obvious reason. END OF SPECIAL NOTE
Someone takes high-school math courses in which all that is required of them is that they learn algorithms for solving assigned problems, and they think that learning those is what learning math consists of (in other words, they learned no math) and since they always worked hard and got straight "A+"s, they think they're really good at math. Then they say they're entitled to take a course requiring only learning technical skills and algorithms and not requiring them to understand anything, and they think it's outrageous that an instructor would think there's something more that should be required of them. You can't get more ignorant of mathematics than to think that learning procedures to follow mechanically in solving assigned problems is what learning mathematics consists of (or at least you probably can't get more ignorant than that and still get admitted to a university), nor more arrogant than to think that an instructor needs instruction from people who think that.
High-school courses in which students effectively learn (without being told so) that learning mathematics consists of learning procedures to apply mechanically to solve assigned problems are the result of official decrees that everybody must learn mathematics. So ignorance of mathematics results from decrees intended to have the opposite effect.
In one case a student wrote on a test something like "Are you kidding? u-substitution? We shouldn't see that until next semester!" An entirely inexperienced person would have laughed out loud at a student mistakenly thinking under the circumstances that they were being asked to use the technique informally called "u-substitution", and moreover the class had been told in advance that that particular problem would be there. And sometimes they're not angry (as in the example in my previous comment) but they neglect a topic of which they are completely ignorant because they think they already know everything about it.
So is the question "How to deal with the fact that..." or "How to deal with the students who..."? I voted to reopen anyway...
There is an entire site on the SE network dedicated to math educators. I think this question is much more relevant there.
Set them tasks from the Math Olympics. As extras. Give brownie points for solving them. That should show the good ones what they need to stretch towards, and the others will find themselves behind and feel the limits of their "competence".
I think this question has nine down-votes and nine up-votes so far. The large number of down-votes without attempts to say what anyone objects to about the question makes me suspicious. Will admitting to suspicions incite more down-votes?
I think it's a tough question because it's right on that line of how to handle difficult students without hating on them. I'm not saying that's what you're saying, but I can see how it could be read that way. Giving them their first bad grades will go a long way towards straightening things out.
I downvoted this question originally because it was extremely ambiguous - it didn't say what actual student behavior you were trying to fix. "Dealing with the arrogance of ignorance" can mean a lot of different things. I tried to fix the title to better reflect your specific question, hopefully that will help with the votes. (If you keep the edit I'll retract my own downvote..)
Someone edited this to say "higher-level" mathematics" and that's grossly wrong and I deleted it. The sort of conceptual thinking I had in mind can be done just as much with elementary-school arithmetic as with "higher-level" subjects. It isn't often done that way because in elementary school the powers-that-be say everybody must learn mathematics whether they want to or not, not because that kind of thinking doesn't go with the subject at that level.
I downvoted the question for the same reason I upvoted eykanal's comment. There is an entire Stack Exchange for math educators, which is for all levels, but you asked it on Academia SE, which is explicitly for graduate and higher-level education. So you're effectively off-topic here with what would be perfectly on-topic there.
@Nij : This question was never intended to be primarily about mathematics instruction, but rather about something that could happen in teaching any subject.
I think this is an important issue, and wrestling with it has informed a lot of what I do as a community college lecturer in mathematics. Helping students make the transition from the BS they get in many K-12 programs, and getting to share real math with them for the first time, is a great challenge and responsibility.
What gets me a surprising amount of traction is to address this explicitly, as the first thing on my syllabus. Top goal: "Read and write math properly with variables." I verbally quiz them on this on day two. I touch back on it almost every day. I explicate how I'll be grading for this on tests, and show grading examples from old tests. Why? The professional writing (a) provides a shared language, (b) allows them to read any math book, (c) serves as an explanation to other students and colleagues, and (d) makes it easy to find and fix errors and disputes.
Example interaction from yesterday (day 9 of the fall semester): One student has garbled the writing of a polynomial multiplication; I point this out, and she does the "But I got the right answer" bit. I ask, "But what's the number one goal for the course?". She says, "I don't know" (which even she can tell is not a good response), and almost all the rest of the class calls out, "Reading and writing math properly".
So this makes the expectation very clear, and by talking about it as item #1, I get the majority of the class on my side, and the community standard (peer pressure) works greatly in my favor. There aren't many silver bullets in teaching, but I'm delighted at how effectively this one works for me.
(P.S.: While the above is math-specific, I think the basic idea of setting a reading/writing/justifying "top goal" can work in many classes. E.g., in my C++ programming course I start with a quote from Bjarne Stroustrup, "Design and programming are human activities; forget that and all is lost", and then likewise emphasize making one's code readable to other programmers via a common style. As Ken Bain writes in What the Best College Teachers Do, "Finally, the best educators often teach students how to read the materials..." [Ch. 4]).
Telling them the right bottom-line answer in every case at the outset might help deal with those who think that getting that is the whole point.
@MichaelHardy: I do a little bit of that; I hand out practice tests that are presented that way.
Some students can be extremely proud (or arrogant), especially if they have been straight A students their whole lives. You may be better off explaining to them that there is a huge gap between the math they have learned in K-12 and the point where college starts off. Effectively suggesting that there are things they need to learn in addition to what they already know instead of implying that they didn't learn anything.
Those who think they know everything "know" that any such messages are intended for their classmates and not for them.
There shouldn't be such a huge gap, and probably isn't among students are are good at the subject.
"Effectively suggesting that there are things they need to learn in addition to what they already know instead of implying that they didn't learn anything." A problem with this is that some students, and some professors, try to be deliberately stupid in some circumstances because they know that in some circumstances that is a good strategy for getting ahead in the system, as opposed to actually learning. The kind who think they know everything are usually the kind who do that.
You're going to not come over as very likable if you're the one who always corrects the same student. But you can put this task onto other students. For example, if problem student A (again) provides his or her opinion on a topic, ask the rest of the class what they think. The other students will do your task in correcting A. Of course, you ought to also ask the class about opinions brought forward by others, which is generally good class design anyway.
What is typical is that several students are like this and sometimes it's entirely private. In one case a student wrote on a test something like "Are you kidding? u-substitution? We shouldn't see that until next semester!" An entirely inexperienced person would have laughed out loud at a student mistakenly thinking under the circumstances that they were being asked to use the technique informally called "u-substitution", and moreover the class had been told in advance that that particular problem would be there.
. . . . and sometimes they're not angry (as in the example in my previous comment) but they neglect a topic of which they are completely ignorant because they think they already know everything about it.
I don't seem to encounter these kinds of students, so don't quite know what to suggest.
@MichaelHardy I don't understand the u-substitution comment - Is this a problem that explicitly asks a student to use substitution to integrate something when it was also explicitly mentioned that problems requiring the use of that technique would not be on the test? Or is it a problem that is "usually" solved with substitution that can also be solved with a different method and the student just assumed that he/she was supposed to use substitution?
@KevinL : No integrals were involved. Nor derivatives.
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15066 | How can women improve their chances to get postdoc positions in computer science?
I am planning to apply for postdoc positions in computer science (CS) departments, preferably in the US or Europe. I have searched several computer science departments/research groups at different universities to see the current projects and Postdoc researchers. I saw that most current postdocs are men. So, the following questions came into my mind:
Is it because either women did not apply for the position, or were the women's applications unsatisfactory to get the position?
Is it true that women do not have much interest and hence success in CS than men? or lets say are men in general better in CS than women?
Although it is unethical, is it true to assume that the CS members have tendency to hire men more than women in reality?
If answer to Q3 is "yes," what would be the most effective motivations to encourage
the hiring of women postdocs in CS?
For women who have recently finished their PhD's, is it better to apply for academic research fellows or industry research positions?
I think the best one to answer this question is @JeffE since he is "the chair of the faculty recruiting committee in a top-5 US CS department".
(With rare exceptions, CS departments in the US don't hire postdocs; individual faculty do that. But I'll try to answer anyway.)
A slideshow about whether CS being heavily male-dominated is due to innate differences in ability: http://www.slideshare.net/terriko/how-does-biology-explain-the-low-numbers-of-women-in-cs-hint-it-doesnt?
I don't think there is any discrimination - our CS dep. in Canada is full with female post-docs. I think however that - in general - there are less female CS students compared to male students. In a typical CS undergrad class in my school, 10% of students are female students - on average.
I can only answer for Europe, but I assume JeffE is going to provide high-quality info for the US anyway.
I saw the most of current postdocs are men.
With some exceptions, this is unfortunately very true across Europe. And not only post-docs. It gets worse the higher "up" you go in hierarchy.
1- Is it because either the women did not apply for postdoc or women's applications couldn't make the CS community or individual faculty members satisfied?
In Vienna, where I did my PhD, we simply received basically no female applications. It was not a question of my professor not being satisfied with the female candidates - in the majority of cases, there simply were none.
2- Is it true that women do not have much interest and hence success in CS than men? or lets say are men -in general- better in CS than women?
I am sure that women are able to do CS just fine. We just "lose" them some time during school. How this happens is a question of reasonably heated debate (gender studies etc.), and I do not feel qualified to answer it competently.
3- Although it is not ethically feasible, is it true to assume that the CS members have tendency to hire men more than women in reality?
This will surely be true for some individuals, but by and large the official university policy in most places is that "equally qualified" female candidates should be hired over male ones, and this actually seems to be the case. In general, as most universities are pretty desperate to increase their quota of females in higher positions, being a top female researcher will actually make it easier for you to get a strong postdoc or junior faculty position in Europe. Edit: I should make clear that the last sentence is based on personal opinion and anecdotal evidence more than anything else.
5- For the women who newly finished PhD, is better to apply for academic research fellows or industry research positions?
Follow your heart. I don't feel gender should play into this decision. Anyway, in Europe there are preciously little industry research positions, so for the most part it's either academic research or industrial practice over here.
Is it due to lack of applications or lack of qualifications?
I am sure it is mostly due to the lack of applications due to the extremely small number of women studying computer science. Listen to episode 54 of the stack overflow podcast where they discuss how few applications they receive from women. If you consider women are a very small minority of people who have CS bachelors degrees (qualified for SO position) then we can assume that only a tiny percentage of those will continue studying for a PhD.
Is it true that women aren't as interested in CS? Or are they not as good at it?
It is obvious it is the former, women are not as drawn to the profession. Although they are as good as men at CS, if not better. There are societal pressures and influences that may subconsciously guide women to work in a profession that is considered more feminine (humanities, nursing and teaching for example). In this way women are more attracted to other areas because of social influence and simultaneously pushed away from CS. I feel that most of the time these are not conscious decisions. However it may be a conscious decision but women don't like explicitly stating social pressure as the reason for their career choice.
There is also the case where women would like to work in the profession but are repelled by the idea of working alongside mostly men as they feel they won't fit in with the group. They may also feel that they would be discriminated against in the hiring process and career progression. There are many reasons why women are not as interested in CS but not being as good as men is not one of those reasons.
Do some members of the CS community favour men over women?
Some, but only a small minority of people favour men over women. In fact many organisations encourage the hiring of women.
Should a woman apply for an academic institution or for an industry position?
This is up to the specific person and you cannot simply generalise by gender in this situation.
I've worked alongside female computer scientists – programmers, analysts, testers, students – in both academia and the workplace. They weren't inferior in any way, and many of them were damn good at it. If the numbers are relatively low, though, it's hard to pinpoint why that might be. I tend to think (or at least hope) it's more due to stronger interests in other areas than because social pressures pushing them away. Shame on anyone who would either squash the dream of an interested young woman or be skeptical about ability based on gender bias.
@J.R. My point about social influence was not so much "women can't do CS because of X". Rather I was describing the more subtle and subconscious social influences that over time push people in certain directions and which explain why women have stronger interests in other areas. For example they might not be aware that they are interested in teaching or nursing because society prescribes these as feminine jobs. There is a push and pull effect. Women are attracted to those jobs and men aren't. Vice versa for CS.
"In this way women are more attracted to other areas because of social influence and simultaneously pushed away from CS" this seems like something that would need a reference.
Something to consider is the atmosphere at a particular institution. Where I attend, about 20% of our CS staff are female. That is, unfortunately, quite high for a CS department. But the problem is not unique to Computer Science. This disproportion exists across many of the sciences. Try to find an institute where the number of women---both faculty and students---is high. That department will be one that is already proactively hiring females. If the tables were turned, I would be more comfortable in that setting, anyway, but that may be my personality.
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17340 | I have been betrayed and isolated by my advisor and I am mentally drained. What should I do now?
I'm in the middle of a complicated situation, and I'm wondering whether this is commonplace in academia.
Long story short: I'm an international student, and I recently completed my master's degree in CS. I had been working with one adviser (Prof A), I completed my course work in December, but since Prof A couldn't find worthy candidates to fill my place, Prof A told me that if I assist her with her research projects for one more semester, she will help me find a job. Fast forward two months, she told me in a meeting that she tried to help but she can't and that I should look for a job on my own. I recently asked if I could pursue a PhD in her lab. She said no, as she has no funding. I've successfully applied to a different lab (Prof B), only to find out that all professors are provided funding for first-year graduate students. Why would she lie about this? Is this normal?
The situation has since developed that I've been able to play my acceptance to Prof B's lab off of Prof A, and she was very happy to take me on now that I'm working on B's research; she clearly hopes to get research funding out of this new-found collaboration. This seems incredibly callous to me; she clearly has no interest in my situation, and simply wants more grant money. Is this normal behavior for academics? I was on the edge of being deported, and she clearly could not care less about my personal situation, only for her research money. Are all academics this callous?
Calm. Even if other people are behaving dishonestly and/or childishly, you should restrain yourself from responding in that fashion. Don't "engage" on those terms. Professors should take care for the scholastic welfare of students, not exploit them, certainly, and if they fail, then there is no dishonor in your taking your own welfare into your own hands. Don't apologize to someone who has proven their disinterest in your welfare.
Why not search other universities and institutions. US has many great universities and CS departments.
Should i tell my advisor sorry? — NO! You have nothing to aoplogize for.
By the way, the existence of departmental funding for first-year graduate students does not indicate that your advisor was lying about funding, since you need a lot more than one year of funding to complete a Ph.D. It would be irresponsible for her to take on another student without a reliable plan for securing funding for the rest of their studies.
Still, don't allow yourself to be drawn into morally or ethically dubious situations. Don't allow yourself to participate in a professional "drama", even when it seems it's already happening. The "deportation" issue is irrelevant to scholarly merit, by the way, so don't confuse your visa issues with research issues or ethical issues... First try to imagine what you'd decide if visa issues didn't exist, as a baseline. Then see how far you must compromise yourself because of visa issues, and determine whether you are willing. No, people are not all jerks, but many are.
Your update is best asked as a second question. But no, advisors are not normally like this. It sounds like you need a new advisor, if not a new department.
@JeffE i have posted it as another question. Here it is -http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17399/i-need-advice-on-how-i-should-handle-a-potential-awakward-situation-with-my-advi
@eykanal That edit completely changed the question. It makes more sense to delete (or revert) this question and post a new one rather than do this.
@trutheality - I disagree that it completely changed the question. It definitely edited it, but I just tried to summarize what was a lot of story into his basic questions. If others disagree they can definitely flag for deletion.
@eykanal the initial question was basically "this is my situation, what should I do now." What it is now, is "this was my situation, this is the action I took, this is the result, now please explain the psychology behind my advisor's actions."
@trutheality - Perhaps you missed the edit, that added a bunch of questions about whether this is common. There were also a few "what should I do now" questions which are too localized for this forum, and which I removed in the edit.
@eykanal I know, I saw the history. I think that instead of letting the edit go through as a moderator you should have educated Boneck35 on proper SE etiquette, e.g. not completely changing a question by editing it a day after it has been asked. When new information turns up and created new related questions, it's ok to post new questions and link to old ones for context. It's up to you and the other mods how to run things here, but it just looked like you encouraged that change, which is unusual to me.
@trutheality - We actually had this discussion before, and quite frankly, I forgot about that. It seems that the proper thing to do would have been to delete it. I should have remembered that discussion, my fault.
trutheality's answer is excellent. If prof A doesn't have funding beyond first year, she should have clearly stated so. If that is the case, I wouldn't necessarily call her later actions callous at all. Maybe she just genuinely wants to collaborate with a good student. I would withhold judgement until you can make the distinction between poor communication and manipulative action.
@Moriarty The advisor refuses PhD and when other senior professor offers to work with me on a PhD ,she suddenly wants to become co -adviser so that she could go to that client and pitch her own project to them. When that didn't work out ,and i asked her for PhD again, she said she doesn't has plans to take any new PhD students for next 2-3 years .There were 2 other people in my thesis committee defense.Both offered me a Phd but i could work with only one of them as the other Prof's projects need security clearance. Why would they offer me a PhD if i was just not good enough?
@Moriarty "Maybe she just genuinely wants to collaborate with a good student."Can you please clarify what you meant by this?
@Boncek35 perhaps there was merely a miscommunication about the whole funding issue, rather than Prof A acting maliciously. It's possible that she still wants to work with you in good faith (but just cannot support you financially). Basically, I'm saying that her intent may not be malicious.
So essentially, what you need is someone to take you on as a PhD. It looks like your current advisor just isn't interested in having you be her PhD student. This other professor is interested in having you as a PhD student, but you aren't interested in his research.
It sounds like neither of these is an option for doing a PhD. This means that you need to find someone else to be your advisor. Think about who else is in your department.
Other than that, your only choices are probably to find a job or leave the country.
(I'm not mentioning trying to apply to another university because I think admission season is almost over for most, but there might be some places still accepting applications.)
Post-edit things:
Why would she lie about this? Is this normal?
First of all, you don't know if she lied. You have no idea under what constraints she operates. Yes, you've been told first-years get funding, but a PhD is more than a year, so what is she supposed to do with you after that, if she really doesn't have funding? That would have been worse, spending a year working for her and then being deported, don't you think?
Secondly, if she did lie, she might have done it because she doesn't tell you what's really preventing her from taking you on. What if you're not as good a researcher as you think you are and she doesn't want you working on her project? What if she got funding from a grant that requires the participants to be citizens, and she's trying to get another student, who actually qualified for it, to join her? There are lots of possibilities.
Is it normal? Academics aren't special. People lie. I lie sometimes. I'm sure you lie sometimes. Lying is as normal in academia as it is anywhere else.
Honestly, the above answers the rest of your question too. You assume you know her situation and motivations when the fact is that you don't. You conclude that she's callous---maybe she is, maybe she isn't---again, sometimes you're going to run into a callous person, might even get (un)lucky and stumble upon a sociopath, that's just the risk you run when interacting with people. Nothing special about academia there either.
I can't get over the irony of someone named "trutheality" ("truth" + "reality") admitting to lying sometimes. Still, this is a good answer, so +1
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170398 | What are the potential pitfalls of using non-Greek/non-European characters as symbol in scientific writing?
So I am in a dilemma in that a recent publication literally has used up every (legible) character on this page. We have checked thoroughly and every single character is necessary and this many characters are unfortunately needed to avoid confusion (This is what happens when you try to combine several different theoretical areas together). We have also used up a bunch of symbols such as stars or dots. This question is not about how I should reduce the number of characters.
So right now I am thinking of using characters from outside of the European family, such as Japanese characters (Hiragana/Katagana) or Korean or Chinese. Of course, provided that these characters are simple enough. Some candidates include ひ, と, ㅈ, ㄹ, し, 十. Some of these characters are quite suitable and have simple pronunciations, although we are not thinking of pronouncing them in presentations.
But I have two concerns:
most conferences and journals have a "We only accept submission in English" rule: The submission must be written in English. Does this violate that policy?
does using these character violate some sort of implicit cultural norm in scientific writing and European/North American conferences so that we should avoid it?
Update:
Thanks for all the feedback. But most seem to focus on what other fonts I should try to use instead. Just as a clarification, in my area it is highly not uncommon for the papers to use many many symbols. Here is a mild recent example (not affiliated with these authors) and this one I saw that made me go "wow the notation is so nice!" (again, not affiliated). These seem to be conference submissions (around 10 pages). For full submission it can go up to 20-40 pages. So as you can imagine a symbol problem quickly arises.
I can't help if everything comes out like this. If you notice, it is easy find usage of thing such as $a^{i,j}_{k,l}$. k, and l are two agents from i and j graphs and a is just one possible variable out of many variables. So we are already making heavy use of super/subscripts. We use hats to denote estimated values so we are already there as well. We are also making use of mathcal, mathscr, mathbf, mathfrak, texttt, etc. to denote sets, graphs, matrices, special matrices and special conditions respectively. All extremely conventional usages.
I moved to chat a number of comments partially answering the question or suggesting alternatives. Please read this FAQ before posting another comment.
I am confused by the update. None of the two papers you link to seem to have an unusual amount of symbols. Iin fact I think most of my papers have many more, and I never risked to run out of them.
@DenisNardin 1. This is not a competition :), 2. I have mentioned already that these papers are "mild" and "nice" examples (look at the dates of these pre-prints: I grabbed them on the fly), and 3. I am not lying about running out of symbols and made this question for fun.
Also I'm seriously looking at these comments and weighting them in. Also thinking about simply cutting out some symbols.
Use of non-Greek letters in the equations is not as uncommon as it seems. While the Greek letters are obviously the most popular, there are several commonly accepted symbols which are taken from the other alphabets, e.g.
Russian letter ш (sha) used in the number theory and Л (el) is used in some hyperbolic geometry,
Hebrew letter ℵ (aleph), ℶ (beth) and ℷ (gimel) denote aleph numbers, beth numbers and gimel function correspondingly,
Old english ð (eth) is used in context of derivatives,
Maltese ħ denote Planck constant,
Japanese よ (yo) is used in cathegory theory.
See this topic for more details. I myself have seen ℵ and ð being used in the papers and I am not working in any advances mathematics.
While there certainly are some drawbacks connected with readabilty of a paper written using excessive number of new symbols, there should not be any formal problems with the publisher as long as you can write all symbols in proper LaTeX script.
As the side note, there was a mistake (as pointed by @DanRomik) in this post with incorrect naming of the Hebrew letters, what quite well illustrates the danger of using new characters which are unfamiliar both to the autor and the readers.
Do you have sources for the representation of the Planck constant being of Maltese origin? He was German and according to Wikipedia, the variable name comes from a German word.
@WoJ not really. But as far as I know Maltese is the only language which derived this symbol from Latin before Dirac (there are similar letters in non-latin Slavic languages). So knowingly or not, when printing the papers existing Maltese symbol was probably used. Also, in 1900 this maltese letter was introduced into Int. Phonetic Alpabet, so maybe thats the way how it get into math. These are of course just guesses. Also, the information about Hilfsgrosse on wiki is about normal h (without bar) and comes only from an anecdote in book from 2003. Btw the symbol was proposed by Dirac, not Planck
I think ð and ∂ are slightly different symbols. (If anything, ∂ looks more like the Russian cursive form of д, д.) But there's also よ for the Yoneda embedding!
The letter you call gimel is a beth, and your beth is a gimel. A good illustration of the pitfalls of using unfamiliar character sets…
@Deusovi you're right, but ð is also used, see e.g. spin-weighted derivatives
@DanRomik good catch
About $\partial$: from my amateur comprehension of the history of this, I think it is not "eth", but just some form of cursive "d", used deliberately by various people in the 18th century. Also, I'd suspect that Dirac and others just put a slash through an "h" as a sort of modifier/accent, rather than consciously adopting a Maltese letter.
You need to distinguish between the optical representation of a character and how it is intended or interpreted. If a φ is used in mathematical literature, we pronounce it phi and this dates back to the tradition of using Greek letters because they were familiar to most readers at that time. If an ℏ is used in physical literature, we pronounce it h bar (not ħe) and this originates modifying the letter h used for a similar constant. I see no reason to assume that this is or was ever thought of as a Maltese character, even in the unlikely case that the typesetter used a Maltese glyph.
Really good answer. Anything that looks letter-like should work for variables. I remember in some calculus homework running out of usable letters (there aren't really all that many distinct letters in longhand with the number of things that have assigned meanings) and sticking an elvish letter in. If I knew the greek alphabet at the time I would have used that, but I didn't.
You’re doing it wrong, and are already violating a cultural norm that’s much more important than any norm having to do with a specific choice of character set.
That cultural norm is: write papers that can be understood by other people.
If you are using all the characters in the Latin and Greek alphabets, and dots and stars and a bunch of other symbols so that you literally ran out of symbols to use and still need more, I am willing to bet that your paper violates this norm in the worst possible way. If you add even more characters from other character sets most people in the West are unfamiliar with, you will only be digging your paper deeper and deeper into a black hole of incomprehensibility.
Aside from this, the answer to your two more specific questions are “probably” and “yes”, but I would classify those concerns as secondary compared to the one I mentioned above.
Bottom line: if Andrew Wiles was able to prove Fermat’s last theorem, Perelman proved the Poincaré conjecture, and countless other mathematicians and computer scientists successfully publish groundbreaking new results all the time with “only” the Latin and Greek alphabets and standard mathematical symbols at their disposal, I’m confident you too could expound your theory with those resources. So I suggest rethinking the approach behind your question and asking yourself why you need so many symbols when everyone else doesn’t.
Edit: another couple of observations about your suggestion:
The Unicode standard, widely accepted as the ultimate in standardization of text representations, defines what is a mathematical symbol, and has several dedicated blocks for those symbols (with certain standard symbols falling in other blocks for historical reasons, but still being classified as mathematical). Your idea would pretty clearly go against the spirit (if not the letter) of that standard.
Your idea would also go against the increasingly common idea of taking accessibility, and the needs of people using screen readers and other accessibility software, into account in writing and publishing. Admittedly this is also a problem with existing mathematical writing, but your idea would certainly make things even worse than they already are for (for example) blind readers.
Using symbols from outside the mathematical operator blocks is not a "violation" of the Unicode standard. (+ is not in any mathematical block, and the upright letters used for things like \sin are also not strictly mathematical - they're the same characters you type with every day!) Blocks are just the general way that the characters are organized, not any sort of prescription on how the characters are used.
A "violation of the Unicode standard" would be using, say, an invalid byte in a UTF-8 string, or a font that switches φ and ϕ. Unicode describes which characters are used, and notes that other characters are often used as well [see the bottom of page 5, which explicitly gives の]. Unicode does not set any standards for how you write, only for how that writing should be encoded.
https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/UnicodeStandard-13.0.pdf Page 44: "The normative status of blocks should not, however, be taken as indicating that they define significant sets of characters. For the most part, the blocks serve only as ranges to divide up the code charts and do not necessarily imply anything else about the types of characters found in the block. Block identity cannot be taken as a reliable guide to the source, use, or properties of characters, for example, and it cannot be reliably used alone to process characters."
@Deusovi edited to soften my violation claim a bit. Thanks for the feedback.
It says "do not use combining marks" for MathML, a particular markup language. And again, this is about how you should encode your writing. Unicode does not make any sort of guidelines for how you should write text or notate things in general -- only for how that writing should be encoded into a sequence of codepoints. I agree that using other characters would be a violation of a social norm, but it's not a norm related in any way to Unicode.
Unicode does not standardize mathematical writing any more than it does nonmathematical writing: when, say, new Chinese/Japanese characters are created, it expands to be able to encode them, rather than prohibiting them. The standard is for how you should encode writing, not for what you're allowed to write in the first place.
@Deusovi fair enough. I softened my claim as I said, but still think Unicode’s designation of specific characters as mathematical is relevant for OP’s question. Saying the norm is “not related to any way to Unicode” is misleading IMO.
As a software engineer, I find the reference to Unicode laughable. The whole point of the Unicode standardization process is that it follows common usage. It does not define common usage. If a significant number of people have ever used a given character for serious purposes (i.e. not something like Klingon or Elvish script), and the Unicode consortium is aware of that fact, then they will generally encode that character. They do not go around telling people which characters to use.
@Kevin they don’t tell people which characters to use, but they assign derived properties to characters that affect how they are processed by typesetting algorithms (linebreaking, bidirectional text, kerning etc), and one of those derived properties is math, which applies only to characters traditionally used in math notation. If OP asked about writing Latin characters from right to left, would you say that it was irrelevant to point to Unicode’s classification that those characters belong in left to right text? Similarly here. Anyway, I stand by what I said, but thanks for your opinion.
@Kevin and Dan: I think you can meet in the middle: If something is not in the Unicode standard, it is at the very least pretty exotic. While the standard doesn’t tell you what characters you should use, it reflects what characters are used and thus should be used if you want to adhere to general usage. Compare to dictionaries: An English dictionary doesn’t define the English language or tell you not to use certain words, but it reflects the usage. Thus you should think twice before using a word not contained in a dictionary for a wide audience.
@Wrzlprmft: Eh, I wouldn't even go that far. Unicode has a lot of legacy crap in it that can't be deleted or fixed because of the Unicode stability policy (which forbids modifying, re-categorizing, or removing existing characters once they have been added to the standard). For example, Unicode has all the funny script-looking Latin characters, which probably makes you think that those are "real" mathematical symbols - but in fact, they're deprecated and only in there for backwards compatibility, since you should just use a font for that effect.
@Kevin: Unicode has a lot of legacy crap in it that can't be deleted or fixed – But that affects the inverse claim (if something is in Unicode, it’s okay to use), which nobody made and is not relevant here. — but in fact, they're deprecated and only in there for backwards compatibility, since you should just use a font for that effect – I cannot find any evidence for that. On the contrary, they appear to have just accepted more of them. Also doing this properly with a font would quite tedious.
@Wrzlprmft: Well, until recently that was the attitude I had been hearing from the Unicode people. Apparently they changed their minds. Regardless, the point is that Unicode is at best a seriously lagging indicator, and not at all a source of truth or set of best practices. You have to figure those out for yourselves, and then tell the Consortium about them, not the other way around.
Hint: variables/symbols don't have to be unique throughout the entire paper, they only have to be unique within their specific context. I'm willing to bet that you can drastically reduce the number of variables used by splitting the content into smaller chunks and re-using symbols for the intermediate steps within each chunk. If you need that many symbols at a global scope, you might be doing too much in one paper.
In mathematical writing, it is common to use variants like these:
and possibly others
Don't forget accents, so easily hundreds of options.
Good point, although I must admit that I find script and fraktur difficult to read at a glance.
"Difficult to read" ... but not more difficult than と, ㅈ, ㄹ, etc.
Fair enough. I should clarifying that I wasn't comparing with "と, ㅈ, ㄹ, etc.", just making a remark about my own experience.
Readers may also be interested in https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/q/4427/376 and https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/q/4437/376. @GEdgar, I see in fact that you provided an answer to the latter question. Full disclosure: both questions were asked by me.
Luckily capital greek letters are rarely used .... :-)
Script vs calligraphic may not be so clear with some fonts, and getting both may take a bit of effort anyway
@lalala, I do like a capital upsilon! :)
If you really run out of symbols, I would try a different path.
In software development, people name everything by just using ASCII characters: They use words instead of single letters.
I know that in mathematics, you usually don't do that. But on the other hand, calling the cost variable cost instead of c will not make the paper unreadable.
In fact I’d argue that software is more readable for precisely the reason that we use full words with actual meaning. I find mathematics hard to understand because I have to look up the meaning of symbols all the time.
The way mathematics is written established itself when people mostly wrote by hand. When you have little space on a blackboard and you don't want to spend ages writing everything down, you tend to use short symbols instead of words. Mathematics is often very condensed.
@Michael true, but there are other reasons why software is more readable. Programmers are incentivized by their industry to document their code and make it easy for other programmers to understand. They work in a more collaborative environment (often in large teams working on a project and needing to edit the same code base). Programmers and their industry also worked hard to come up with a set of good practices to facilitate good communication and collaboration. I guess you think more about such things when the difference between good and bad communication is many millions of dollars…
@Michael I don't disagree, however you shouldn't underestimate that maths often is harder to understand simply because it really is harder. A long mathematically formula will typically get even harder to understand if you make the variable names longer, even if they're more descriptive then, simply because of the further increased size. — What really helps for understandability is refactoring formulas into subexpressions, theorems into smaller lemmas, thereby making small variable scopes where it's quickly possible to look up the meaning.
If you use a variable such as cost in a paper, a way to clarify that this deviates from the standard mathematical notation would be to use a different font for it. I would use the typewriter font, hinting at software development being a major provenance of such notation.
+1 Mathematics doesn't usually treat large problems in one sitting, so a terse formulation generally makes sense. In OP's examples, however, the math is basically describing a complex algorithm. Developers also started out writing terse code and, as you say, quickly learned that code which looks like math is impossible to maintain or read once the ecosystem grows into more variables that you can count on your fingers. A descriptive pseudocode does seem like a much better language for OP's problem, or at least for some subset of their problem.
@Michael I strongly disagree. Try to write math with words with symbols instead of symbol some time. It will be unbearable and in no way more readable, it will make all formulas extremely long and hard to scan. If you write business software logic with databases or a web frontend, you use words but when inputting a mathematical equation with recognizable symbols it is just fine to use the symbols just fine. y = a*x**2 + b*x + c will be more readable than result = quadratic_coefficient * input**2 + linear_coefficient * input + constant_coefficient.
@VladimirF Yes, when it's something trivial like a quadratic, of course that's true. But when it's four pages of terse mathematics describing a single algorithm that could be equally described in 100 lines of pseudocode, the argument changes somewhat. There are also options in between a and quadratic_coefficient, so making the comparison with extremes, again, is perhaps disingenuous. Mathematics is a language evolved to represent functions and relations. Programming languages have evolved to clearly express algorithms. Both are poor when used in areas where the other specializes.
@J... No! It is the opposite! Only such a trivial equation can still be done in words, the really complex ones will become a complete hell when you try that! And the question is about a paper, not software and Michael was orguing for words instead of symbols in math, it was not me calling for disusing descriptive names in software. I was only illustrating that equations become a nightmare when written in words. And yes, even those that are implemented in a straightforward way in software, as it is often the case in math, physics and engineering.
Even with a symbol list, keeping track of so many different letters will be difficult for readers. It can be made easier by introducing order and hierarchy to the symbols.
The style will vary by field, but for example you could have:
Uppercase letters A, B, ... for main symbols that link together the whole work and appear in multiple sections.
Subscripted uppercase letters Ax, Bc, ... for symbols that are related (but not equal) to one of the main symbols.
Lowercase letters a, b, ... for local parameters, which can then be reused for different purposes in different sections.
That still leaves a lot of symbols available for other purposes. For readability, you should make use of the same symbols and conventions that other papers do, within reason.
How about subscripted letters where the subscript is a descriptive word. I'm thinking $\lambda_\textrm{min}$ and $\lambda_\textrm{max}$. I think this is a great way to make it clear the subscript is not an index.
@Clumsycat We are in fact already there. The two examples are currently being used to denote maximum and minimum eigenvalues. Again standard in the literature.
Apart from the other answers that a paper using so many symbols will be incomprehensible (I do entirely support these answers): many publishers use commercial custom fonts and their fonts may simply not contain characters for scripts other than latin and greek.
Even European scripts such as cyrillic cause problems. See what happened here, for example? All of the text is in Times, yet the Russian abstract is in Computer Modern: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hm.2020.04.003
You should definitely use those characters. Academia needs to be less Eurocentric.
The primary goal of a paper is to be understood, not make a geopolitical statement. Papers used to be written in French and in German before they were mostly written in English. Cultural norms do vary over time. Still, papers should be understood, and I don't think many people would understand a paper containing every Latin and Greek symbols, and some Asian ones for good measure.
And to be thorough let's use every single symbol ever invented by every culture chosen randomly, you know, to commemorate world history.
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9408 | Are law review publications helpful for gaining acceptance into a PhD program?
I'm currently finishing up my J.D., and I plan on practicing law for at least a few years. However, I'm also considering returning to school to study CS. In the meantime, I plan on researching and attempting to publish at least a few articles - perhaps some related to cyber law.
Given the less rigorous nature of law review, how would an admission committee view these?
Also, does the prestige of the journal matter - i.e. Harvard Journal of Law & Technology vs. Michigan State Law Review?
First, I don't agree much with aeismail's assessment that review articles “may carry less weight overall than a traditional research article”. A good review article is very hard to write, because this requires a very high level of understanding of the existing research and literature, as well as strategic thinking to discuss what will be of importance in times to come. To me, this is actually very much harder for a PhD student to have than publishing a “regular” research article. I think most committees would agree.
Now, how will the committee recognized a good review article? Ideally, by reading it and being impressed at the clarity and level of the discussion it displays. In the real world? Probably by the name and prestige of the journal it was published in.
So, my advice is: publish good stuff, in good venues. It matters more that you get to publish things, than what exactly you publish, as long as it is good! (Yeah, that sounds trivial, but you asked for it!)
Reading and synthesizing literature is one thing; applying it to do something new is another.
I think the important part of this discussion is the distinction between what type of law review article is being published. Plenty of law review articles suggest new policy and procedure to alleviate existing legal problems. Is this not something new? I think these are the type that are difficult to write but also highly regarded (at least in legal academia).
@aeismail synthesizing literature is not a review, it's a bibliographic notice; review involves some critical thinking
The higher the quality the journal you can publish in, the better—but that's a truism.
On the other hand, I don't know how much weight an admissions committee would give to a law review publication, because these tend to be synthetic papers rather than creative papers: that is, a law review acts much like a literature review paper, instead of a paper where you've done original research and found an interesting result. Consequently, it's not fully reflective of what you would be doing as a researcher, and thus may carry less weight overall than a traditional research article.
Many law reviews actually do publish original research, (I'm more aware of those typically oriented to some pertinent social science research, but that may just be because of my field).
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9642 | How can I invite open comments or reviews of my published papers?
I would like to attract more discussion, comments or reviews of my papers and so would like to add the ability for comments or reviews to be made by the public in relation to my papers. Ideally I would like a comments section similar to those found in blogging software which allows comments to be moderated. I would like to provide this ability in an easy to maintain way but also maintain mediation control. I would rather not use blogging software.
What would be the best way of allowing open comments/reviews on my work? What are the pros and cons of allowing open, but moderated comments like this?
I agree with Charles Morisset. You want to post something to the web and collected moderated comments, which is basically blogging. There are a few stylistic differences (for example, blogs are often organized chronologically, which doesn't make sense for research), but it's nearly the same thing.
Current blogging software doesn't exactly fit the flow of comments for this purpose, as you have mentioned. I would be interested in how blogging software could be modified to better support this, e.g. google scholar or arxiv integration to save on blog maintenance.
Okay, this is totally not an answer to your specific question, but I think it is an interesting answer to the broader question of getting comments and feedback on your published papers…
Go to conferences, present your work (either at oral or poster presentations), and make sure you stick around and are welcoming enough so people will ask questions, give you feedback, engage in discussion about your methods and results, etc. I have received tons of insightful comments on my own work in conferences, and still find them an extraordinary tool to gather feedback on your published work.
Also, do not hesitate to engage with other researchers with research interests close to yours, and after you get to know them, ask them clearly what they think about it. I mean, if you discuss with top-notch people in the same area, they will have read your paper (unless it's really very recent); I have started very insightful conversations with lines like:
Hello, professor Smith, it's nice to meet you. Since the 2011 conference, when we last met, I saw your nice paper on X in Flagship journal of your field. It was really an improvement over existing methods. Actually, there was a question I wanted to ask: you may have seen that we published a different approach with the same goal last year in International journal of our field, and we are getting slightly different convergence properties. I haven't had yet the opportunity of asking you what you thought of our approach and the way it may prevent the issue of Y…
Just remember, that's not a conversation everyone is willing to have. So, if it looks like they are trying to bail out, help them get out easily! Manners, always :)
I agree that blogging would technically be the way to go.
However, realistically speaking, I don't think you are going to get many comments unless your papers are truly outstanding. See for example Terry Tao's blog -- one of the best-written and widely admired math blogs out there -- the number of comments is often in the single figures. Presumably that is an upper bound for what you should expect.
The best way to get comments, in my opinion, is to e-mail your paper to individually selected people and invite them to offer comments. Most people won't reply, but you might get a couple of interesting responses.
In fact, a number of scientific publishers are experimenting with online comments on their publications. Examples are the PLoS or BioMed Central. This is of course mostly suitable for online-only journals, and depending on your field they me be more or less reputable. I guess the publishers are also moderating comments on these articles. So a good approach on getting comments on your articles is publishing with a publisher that offers this functionality.
If you check on a few articles with comments enabled, you will quickly learn that the typical number of comments is: zero. I think it is just not that suitable for scientific communication, and the approaches mentioned in F'x's answer would be more useful to get into scientific debate about your paper.
Maybe in the future the scientific culture will change to have more public online interaction, but at the moment this possibility doesn't seem to draw much attention.
If the topic of your paper aligns with a StackExchange site, you could post questions related to your paper on that site.
For example if you you wrote a paper in a psychology journal you could post a question about it on cogsci.stackexchange.com . As a moderator and active user of cogsci.SE, I'd like to see academics posting questions about their papers on the site.
I imagine this would take some thought. You'd have to understand the norms of the site and you might want to post on meta if you felt that this format was a little different to usual questions. You'd also want to be upfront about your motivations.
I think the stackexchange format provides an excellent commenting, spam management, and quality sorting system, and there is often an active community around the topic. That said, you might need to encourage others not familiar with StackExchange to direct their comments to particular pages.
In the post, you'd want to provide a link to the full-text of the article.
You'd also need to think about how to frame a given question so that it is not too open ended.
I like this approach, I have found similar sentiments here: http://mendicantbug.com/2009/02/07/the-stackoverflow-of-academia/
Depending on the area, research questions tend to be too specialist for forums like SE. I have got much useful feedback from SE sites, but almost none on research-related questions.
@FaheemMitha Is your field covered by an existing stack exchange site?
@JeromyAnglim: Well, I've worked in different areas, but, yes, I've asked research related questions on SE sites, see for example my page on stats.sx. The three questions I asked there (all related to the same project) got a grand total of zero replies. The one reply that shows up there is actually from the cs.sx site.
I'm sure that there are some research areas where one can get useful feedback from such sites - for important mainstream pure math areas like algebraic geometry, one could get useful feedback from the people at mathoverflow, for example. However, I think in applied areas things can get quite balkanized. Often one is off working in one's own specialized area working on specialized problems with specialized tools, and there isn't that much commonality. By contrast, one can get an answer to a programming question in as little as 20 minutes on Stack Overflow.
@FaheemMitha From a cursory glance at your questions on Stats.SE they seem particularly huge and a little daunting to read. Perhaps that level of background is required ultimately to ask and answer the question. Alternatively, perhaps there is potential to compartmentalise your questions more so that they tackle smaller aspects of your topic. I think converting scientific questions into that which is suited to the StackExchange format is very much an evolving idea.
Perhaps also my answer here is somewhat aspirational, such that even if certain StackExchange sites are not there yet, that they may be there in the future.
@JeromyAnglim: Yes, I'm aware the questions are long, but I don't think it is possible to isolate a research project into a few lines. If one could, it would not be research. Having said that, if the area is sufficiently mainstream, and one can expect one's reader to already know the necessary background (like on mathoverflow) then maybe it is possible.
Interesting article on open peer review describes a reviewing process which might incorporate a voting or 'karma' system to entice reviews. Wonder is there the possibility of extending the SO voting model for this purpose? (http://yann.lecun.com/ex/pamphlets/publishing-models.html)
I've seen researchers posting their papers on Researchgate, explicitly asking readers to submit questions or criticisms.
Resaerchgate aims to be a social networks for scientists. While posting your paper there may draw the attention of people who don't already follow your work, I'd see it as an additional channel to communicate with collegues, and not as a replacement for beeing present at conferences or similiar.
Disclaimer: I'm an engineer, not an active researcher, so the dynamics on researchgate might look different to me than to they would to you.
For questions on a given topic my experience is that the sites around here are much better both in terms of the infrastructure (graphics, formulae) and in terms of the answers. Also, depending on the local laws and the copyright transfer, authors may not be allowed to publish the accepted manuscript there even though it is fine to make it available on your personal web pages (applies e.g. Elsevier where AFAIK currently arXiv is the only big repository they allow). Also (if I understood correctly how that works), clicking on discussion below a paper will just open a general question.
as I said, an active researcher might have better input on researchgate ... thanks.
I recently asked a similar question here. Although I haven't received any answers, I came up with some possible answers myself.
I use a service named Academia, who describe them self this way:
Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. The
company's mission is to accelerate the world's research
When you have uploaded your paper, you can then invite people from your network, or outside your network, to participate in a review and discussion of your paper. An example of how to do this, can be seen at this example.
Academia is also a sort of social network, which mean you can "follow" other researcher with same interest and then invite them to review your paper.
If you want to expand your reach further, you can see in the above example, that it can be shared on twitter. You are probably already familier with twitter and know how hashtags work.
If not, I will simply explain:
Lets say your research area is webdesign, then you add hashtags like #webdesign, #webdevelopment etc.
As above, I'm also an engineer and have only used it, as a part of my master, so it might not be as relevant for you?!
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19761 | Why are there no standards for awarding PhD degrees?
I am considering doing a PhD however I was surprised to find out that there are no set standards for a PhD in research.
For example, one study could test 500 patients, while another, tests only 10, yet both students are awarded their PhDs. Then there are retrospective studies, which are easier than starting a new study. Finally, there are some PhDs that are purely research and then there are some that are based on essay writing.
However, at the end of the day, the degree is the same, Doctorate of Philosophy, it does not mention anything special for those endless sleepless nights of analysing data and being able to pull off amazing statistics, as compared to a student of any other field.
So my question is, why bother going the tough route when it makes no difference at the end of the day, unless there are careers out there outside of academia, that specifically asks you, what type of PhD do you have?
Do you know any particular school, department... that promises easy to get PHDs by plain "essay writing"? If yes, it would be interesting to know where is this "magical" place.
There is no "easy route". Every PhD project is difficult in different ways. No reputable academic would supervise or graduate a PhD student on a project that was genuinely easy. Your doctorate is only ever as good as the skills you earned which back it up.
The degree is just a piece of paper, it isn't very important by itself.
And a second note, if someone does all the work involved with doing a PhD, then they probably shouldn't/wouldn't be getting a job where their employer can't tell the difference in the quality of their work.
You don't get a Ph.D for effort, or sleepless nights spent analyzing data. You get a Ph.D for demonstrating the ability to do research and add something new to the repository of knowledge.
You should ask yourself the question: why do you want to do a PhD? If you don't know it already it is not a guarantee of employment, or fame, or wealth (in fact it might correlate better with the absence of these).
Can you give a uniform definition for the bachelor or masters degree, or even high school graduation in an international context for that matter?
As opposed to a Bachelor's, Master's, or other comparable degree, which are more or less standardized (within each field) because they are based on comparable criteria arising from standardized tests, reproducible tasks etc., a PhD and similar degrees are specifically meant for doing something new, something no-one has done before, so there cannot be too much standardization by definition. With that in mind, I think the differences you list are less due to different requirements, but to totally different approaches of PhD students working for their degree.
As a side point, sleepless nights are neither sufficient nor necessary for a good PhD. Working on the right questions, for instance, is much more important (see for instance this essay on the topic).
Why are there no standards for awarding PhD degrees?
There are certainly standards for awarding PhD degrees. I think you mean to ask why are there no grades? It's a subtle distinction perhaps but an essential one.
If somone holds a PhD, what does that tell you? It tells you that the university awarding that PhD feels that that person is capable of pursuing independent research in the area of the thesis. Different universities may have different ideas on how to measure that, but typically a PhD will have to have published at least one peer-reviewed contribution (often more, sometimes many more).
However, at the end of the day, the degree is the same, Doctorate of Philosophy, it does not mention anything special for those endless sleepless nights of analysing data and being able to pull off amazing statistics, as compared to a student of any other field.
Your degree does not mention anything special (e.g., a grade). If you work harder than your peers, you may end up with the same degree on paper, but your head will contain lots of special information useful for lots of jobs, and your publication record will show lots of papers with lots of citations useful for lots of jobs
In other words, your grade is your demonstrable research output.
How else would you propose to grade or differentiate or categorise different PhDs? How could those grades be compared across different supervisors, different examination boards, different universities or different areas?
So my question is, why bother going the tough route when it makes no difference at the end of the day, unless there are careers out there outside of academia, that specifically asks you, what type of PhD do you have?
A PhD is a requirement of many jobs in academia, and some research positions in industry. Typically PhDs are competing with other PhDs for positions, hence holding a PhD in-and-of-itself, is just the entry point. After that, candidates will be judged on what they did during their PhD and afterwards. If you spent "endless sleepless nights of analysing data and [pulled] off amazing statistics", you'll have lots to talk to the hiring committee about.
I think the question is about standards, not grades. There really is no consistent set list of things you need to do in order get a PhD across institutions and the requirements vary within institutions, departments, and probably even advisors as well. I agree with most of the rest of the answer.
The impression I got from the question implicitly suggested grades to me. It think the OP seems concerned that someone who does a lot less work can end up with the same degree on paper as someone who worked night and day and achieved a lot more.
It's clear this the OP is worried about the fact that different PhDs get the same piece of paper. That said, grades are only one way that PhD might be distinguished and it seems presumptuous to assume that this is the specific question she/he meant to ask
I edited to soften the emphasis on grades. I disagree that it is presumptuous to go from a statement like "it does not mention anything special for those endless sleepless nights of analysing data and being able to pull off amazing statistics, as compared to a student of any other field" ... to interpreting the question as being about comparative gradings of PhDs. Maybe we read it differently? (EDIT: ah okay, I think I see what you're saying; that the OP means that the standards should be so high so as to only allow people who work so hard to get a PhD in the first place?)
Your degree does not mention anything special (e.g., a grade) except German ones.
@federico, interesting! I didn't know that (even though I had a lot of German colleagues)! :)
see here: http://phd-in-germany.blogspot.de/p/german-grading-system.html
Focusing on just a small part of this question, my answer is this: Because 'academia' is a wide and diverse place, with many different skill sets, questions and challenges.
You're also focusing too much on the "letters" in a PhD. You don't get a PhD - you get a PhD in something. You'd no more expect a PhD in Epidemiology and a PhD in Theoretical Physics to have done the same work than you would expect a BA in Math and a BA in German to have done the same coursework.
For example, one study could test 500 patients, while another, tests only 10, yet both students are awarded their PhDs. Then there are retrospective studies, which are easier than starting a new study.
Consider the following studies:
A study of the biomarkers associated with an extremely rare neurodegenerative illness that effects mostly children, doing full genome sequencing on the small number of prevalent cases of the disease (10), extensive personal histories and environmental sampling, etc. to identify potential drug targets.
A study of the risk factors, survival times, etc. for ventilator-associated pneumonias in a large group of community and academic hospitals, pulling all incident cases within the hospital for the past year (500), sorting through the medical records for each, and applying some cutting edge statistical techniques to deal with some of the messiness of the data - interval censoring, competing risks, and non-independence of patients.
A study of exactly 227 animals to understand the pharmacokinetics of a new tetravalent vaccine, specifically looking for markers of immune response and nephrotoxicity.
The development of a complex, agent-based model of the human gut, applied to both inflammatory disease, and the post-antibiotic exposure proliferation of certain bacterial species that impact the lining of the intestinal wall.
Which of these doesn't deserve a PhD based on their sample size, or whether or not they were a retrospective or prospective study (also, a largish 'Citatation Needed' around retrospective studies being easier - they're faster but not necessarily easier)? And these are just examples I can think of off the top of my head that fit in the somewhat wide field of "Biomedicine". Heaven forbid we throw in Mathematics or Physics or Religious Studies. One of them doesn't even have patients, and is entirely separate from the "Prospective/Retrospective" distinction.
"Why are there no standards for awarding PhD degrees?" (which is, incidentally, not true. There may be no universal standards, but universities often have them on the school or departmental level) has the same answer as "Why don't we publish everything in the same journal?"
Because academia is wide and diverse, and only describes a certain aspect of the pursuit of knowledge, not a specific set of methods, study populations, or even study questions.
Review studies are only easier in the sense that they are cheaper, therefore easier to get them funded. Nice examples.
Whenever someone acts impressed by a PhD, I tell them tongue-in-cheek that a PhD is nothing more than a testament to that persons patience... they were willing to remain a graduate student long enough to earn the degree.
More accurately, though, a PhD is simply an indicator that someone is able to think. You're completely right; research topics will vary tremendously from field to field, and one person's degree and/or experience in grad school is likely completely different from the next's. However, both of them demonstrated their ability to reason through a problem, their willingness to put their nose to the grindstone and get the research done, and their ability to communicate their results to a third party (their thesis committee).
Regarding fields asking about your PhD, I joke with people that (the following is all true) my undergrad is in psyschology, my undergrad specialization pre-med, my graduate lab electrical engineering, my research topic neuroscience, my actual PhD degree biomedical engineering, my postdoc in biology, the stuff I actually enjoy statistics, and with all that my two industry jobs have been in banking and health insurance operations. How you sell yourself is a function of your salesmanship more than your actual credentials.
+1 for how you sell yourself. "What am I?" depends on whose asking and why.
Why bother going the tough route when it makes no difference at the end of the day?
It does make a difference. It's very unlikely that there will be a job where they ask you if you have a PhD, and when you say yes, tick that checkbox, move on and never mention it again.
A PhD is the single biggest unit of research experience for most young researchers (for older ones, usually their recent publications are much more relevant than their PhD). Therefore, if you apply to any job (academic or industry) where the PhD is a relevant qualification, you will be expected to discuss your thesis work at length. The employer will then judge the quality of your work, and based on that they will decide whether they will hire you over all the other PhDs. Of course, some employers are incompetent, and are influenced by the "brand" (whether you got your PhD from a famous place/advisor), but that's another matter.
So, no, if you slack off and get an "easy" PhD, it will not impress anyone who matters.
I was surprised to find out that there are no set standards for a PhD in research.
This is because such standards are unnecessary. Advisors are senior scientists who know well that if they let a student they supervise graduate with a garbage PhD, it will hurt their reputation when one day someone says "Wow, what a horrible thesis! Who supervised this?". So advisors will naturally try to make theses as good as possible.
unless there are careers out there outside of academia, that specifically asks you, what type of PhD do you have
Indeed, there are many careers where they would ask all sorts of details about your PhD (as I've also remarked above), both in the industry and academia, assuming it's relevant - Wall Street, for instance, has a habit of sometimes hiring people based on the fact that they have a PhD (in a quantitative field) alone without caring much about what the thesis is about.
Consider that usually, hiring a PhD is pretty expensive - even postdocs make about $50k annual, and in the industry it goes to $60k-120k. Why would anyone pay that much money for a PhD holder, and not even bother to ask the details of their PhD?
"This is because such standards are unnecessary. Advisors..." Do you think that all advisors are equal? Garbage papers exist and are often written by professors who supervise bad PhD programs.
@Blaisorblade No, they aren't, but my point is this: There is no reason to add an incentive for stricter supervision in the form of standards, because a much larger incentive already exists in terms of reputation, and advisors are already trying quite hard to make sure theses are very good. Of course, some PIs care less about the effect of a bad thesis on their reputation, so it's not exactly equal, but even so, I think explicit standards would be largely redundant.
I agree on the conclusion, I just disagree on part of the argument. But I didn't explain myself: the problem is not that some supervisors are good researchers but don't supervise well enough. My point is that some supervisors are bad researchers themselves, so even their best effort is not sufficient for a "worthy" PhD.
Supervisors supervise. But it's your Ph.D
AFAICS, many talented PhD students don't learn how to do good research on their own. Heck, before starting my PhD I didn't even begin to know how I should pick my supervisor — I could easily be wasting my time on irrelevant problems, getting no citations and not even understanding why, by working with other supervisors (I have examples in mind). After all, most papers don't ever get cited. And I'm not sure you can be blamed for picking the wrong supervisor if you haven't been trained on doing it right.
Enjoy your studies! don't worry about paper certificates or PhD. The endless sleepless nights will be amazing, because you have spent them without sleeping, as you were more involved in it (research) than in your relaxed sleep.
If you are more concentrated towards what those certificates mean, that implies you are studying for marks not for joy that you get by studying. I hope you will not be the one who studies for marks, but indeed who studies to enjoy, to know the world better. What more do you want? Go ahead, enjoy your studies.
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18210 | Writing a research proposal in mathematics for graduate school
My question is about research proposal, I want to apply for a PhD program which requires writing a research proposal.
What exactly should I write for the methodology section of a research proposal in the area of mathematics? I have several ideas about my project, but I have not proved anything yet, so how can I know its methodology?
What does the term "methodology" even refer to in mathematics in general? This sounds like it might be a standard form meant to be used for all subjects.
@TobiasKildetoft yes it is standard format for all subjects. researchers describe the methods which they want to use or provide some experimental analysis. However, I have not found any short research proposal in mathematics.
You can try to explain with which techniques you believe you can solve the problem you pose. It does not matter that you have proven that these work, but you should try to convince the reader that it is a plausible approach.
What sort of Ph.D. program is this? (E.g., which country is it located in? Is it in a mathematics department per se, or another department?) I've never heard of someone having to include a methodology section in a math grad school application, so I assume it's a different sort of program than what I'm familiar with. Some more details about the program might make it easier for someone to answer.
@AnonymousMathematician It's in Italy and in a Mathematics department and my area of specialization is Algebra, and most Italian univ want a research proposal, I downloaded some, they were vague and in different field. For example, Agriculture.
Is a methodology section explicitly required? Even if it is standard in other fields, it's possible that most mathematics proposals would not include one.
@AnonymousMathematician Yes, they wrote a well written proposal should include research methodology section, and their samples included, but there didn't provide any in Mathematics.
My recommendation is to try to ask some current students if you can see their proposals. Obviously, what they did can't be all that terrible.
More generally, I would agree that methodology is not a extremely well defined concept in mathematics, but you can write something intelligent about it anyways. How are you going to approach the problem? Are there special cases that might be illuminating? Stepping stone lemmata you might get to before the whole proof? What areas of mathematics do you hope to use? Unfortunately, I can't speak for the system in Italy, but certainly in the US with such research proposals, the main point is to see if the candidate can write about and analyze mathematics in a cogent way, not the details of the problem.
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29209 | Can you cite other master's theses when writing your own?
I am completing a master's by research (in Humanities), and thus shall be writing a thesis with no class work. I am using both a mixture of primary and secondary source but one item that has me a bit unsure is the use of other master's theses. Is there an expectation at the master's level that you would only consult documents at a higher level (PhD and up)? I know the simple answer would be to ask your advisor, which I intend to do, but I wondering it their any accepted academic practice or principle on the issue?
Should or can I refer to (and cite) other master's thesis as source material or should I be only using material that would be considered above the master's level, such as PhD theses?
What about rephrasing your question to something like: Is it acceptable to refer to another same level thesis or dissertation?
In general, there is no such widespread requirement or expectation anywhere in academia. (Perhaps a particularly unusual advisor might have such an expectation, but even then, I doubt it.)
If you note the citations of research papers, a decent number of them will cite master's theses—some of my papers certainly do! And if I can submit a paper to a major journal that cites a master's thesis, why wouldn't another student's master's thesis?
Yes, you can cite another master's thesis. You also should, if it is relevant to the work. And no, don't just pillage that other thesis for sources and ignore it. That would negate the benefit of access to that thesis, which you should make available to future readers of your own thesis.
Above all, don't think like a student. Think like a writer, which is what you are. Your work, and those of other writers, should be treated with due consideration no matter the pedigree of the writers. Stop thinking of academia like some sort of sacred place where "students" are lesser beings. There are no gods here; only flawed men and women with nary a grasp of purpose.
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10357 | Find out author’s name in foreign writing system (Chinese, etc.)
I have some literature written by Chinese authors who I would like to attribute in my bibliography with their names in Chinese characters (汉字). The problem is that, as the literature itself is not in Chinese, their names appear only in their romanized form (Pīnyīn or Wade–Giles).
What resources can I use to find out the correct characters for their names, e. g. library catalogues with both forms given, author lists, etc.?
I am not only looking for Chinese names but Japanese ones as well.
UPDATE:
Examples include:
Pao, Erh-li / Ying Cheng (1982): Wörterbuch der chinesischen Redensarten. Chinesisch–deutsch; Tetragramme des modernen Chinesisch [= 漢語成語]. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter.
Huang, Yankai (1964): A dictionary of Chinese idiomatic phrases. Hong Kong: Eton Press.
Hisa, Michitaro (1896): Some Japanized Chinese Proverbs. In: The Journal of American Folklore 9, 33, pp. 132–138.
I don't know much about other languages. I'll answer the question in Chinese case since I am a native Chinese speaker.
The literature you have is not in Chinese. The best way is to contact the authors. They will give you the correct answer.
As far as I know, there is no such reliable resources at the moment. There is no unique and consistent way of translation between English name and Chinese name. As you already know, Pīnyīn and Wade–Giles are two of them. I don't think there is one-to-one correspondence relation. There are other issues, such as traditional Chinese character and simplified character. You won't know the correct answer unless the author tells you.
If you have no way to contact them, try their collegues or others who might know. Don't use the Chniese name unless you are sure. Use whatever the name appears in the literature if you are not sure.
I am aware of this, and this is precisely why I am asking for a catalogue of some kind where publications by foreign authors are listed in romanized as well as native forms. WorldCat sometimes lists the original name in some cases (cf. [http://www.worldcat.org/title/chinese-proverbs-with-bilingual-text/oclc/34719722]) but the list is far from being complete, so I hoped someone would have found something similar.
@brian-ammon A complete list would be a huge effort if not impossible. For example, "Wong Ping" can correspond to at least 100 names in Chinese. Not to mention three character names. You can calculate the number of possible combinations.
@scaaahu: If I understand the question correctly, the OP is not asking for a catalogue possible ways to write a name that would be transliterated to "Wong Ping" in Chinese, but for a catalogue that lists concrete, existing researchers with their names in transliteration and in Chinese characters.
@O.R.Mapper I do know what the OP is asking. I personally know two Chinese scholars. They are in the same field (CS). Different Chinese namess. But same names in English. Because of the name conflict, one of them decided to change his English name. The new name became his official name when he naturalized to be a US citizen. As I said in my answer, the best way is to ask the author.
@scaaahu: Well, sure - but, as far as I understand the OP, the envisioned "catalogue" would not contain "at least 100 names" or "[all] possible combinations" as you implied, but simply those two names. When listed along with the titles of their publications, they could be unambiguously told apart and the correct original spelling could be retrieved from that catalogue.
@O.R.Mapper I'll try to explain to you my own personal experience. The second character of my own Chinese name (it's in my profile) is easily mixed up with another character. I always get upset about this. Authorship is so important in Academia (we are here, right?) Sometimes, I wish people would ask me first before they mistakenly used the wrong name. My answer is based on this personal experience. As matter of fact, other answers are gearing toward to the same direction. Japanese is about the same. My opinion is, if it's a personal project, fine. If used by anyone else, better ask first.
@scaaahu: I do not claim otherwise. I am just pointing out that rather than asking you, that information could be collected in a catalogue, as suggested by the OP.
@O.R.Mapper As I said in the answer, the database(catalogue) does not exist, as far as I know. The main reason is the transliteration is not one-to-one correspondence and there are many ways to form an English name from a Chinese name and vise versa. It's a very complicated issue. If you are interested, I would suggest you to visit Chinese Language SE to ask a question there to see what others think.
@scaaahu: For a particular Chinese author, are there many different ways to write his or her name in Chinese characters?
Let us continue this discussion in chat.
@O.R.Mapper I am in the chat room if you'd like to continue to talk.
I am aware of this
If you're already aware of the transliteration problem but still asking the question, then I assume you have other information about the authors to help identify them, e.g., affiliations. If that's the case, I'm curious why you don't use the most useful searchable database, namely https://www.google.com/ Depending on how much information you have (and possibly how proficient in the target languages), you'll eventually be able to identify them in their native languages unless you're talking about very obscure or older-than-the-internet authors. Since the authors you want to identify wrote something in foreign languages, I think chances are they have personal or official websites that have their names both in Latin alphabet and in their native languages. If they don't, you may find some pages that help you identify them in their native languages.
I don't get why you think a database on literature is particularly useful for that purpose either. You can use any available resource. For instance, if the authors you want to identify are active Japanese researchers, you can search them in one of the researcher databases found here: http://read.jst.go.jp/ (in Japanese) http://read.jst.go.jp/index_e.html (in English). (The English version is the first hit on google for "japanese researcher database" by the way. You'd run into these sites very frequently if you google Japanese researchers, too.)
Anyway, as an example, assume you want to know, say, the Japanese spelling of my former Ph.D. supervisor Masakazu Jimbo at Nagoya University. And you want to avoid navigating the internet in Japanese as much as possible while searching. Then, you go to the English version of Read & Researchmap, click "Researcher Search" to get to the researcher search page, and do the usual search with the information you have (i.e., the name is spelled Masakazu Jimbo and he's at Nagoya University). You'll be directed to his information in English. Then you switch to the original Japanese page by clicking 日本語 to check how to spell his name in Japanese.
Of course, you don't need to use the Read & Researchmap to know his name in Japanese. You can simply google him. If you know publication titles and his name in Latin alphabet, you can surely locate his personal website, where you can see how to spell his name in Japanese.
Exactly what kind of situation are you in? You talk about literature, so I assumed you wanted to cite/quote works by Chinese and/or Japanese authors. And you say those works are not in their native languages, which, I assume, means that you know more about the authors than just their transliterated names (unless you're trying to cite/quote them without reading them). Was the additional information you have not enough to identify them through google? Are libraries' databases and such on books etc. really the only kind you can identify them with what you already know about them? Maybe, they're from 19th centuries or something or way too obscure for the internet to be of use? Or is this question "What resources can I use to find out the correct characters for their names?" asked as a very very broad inquiry for Internet Search 101? If that's the case, it's too broad to answer because you don't tell us what you already know about the authors and why you can't identify them through usual means like google.
I have added three examples of my literature so you may comprehend my situation.
I'm repeating myself, but are you citing/quoting them without reading them? What does the 1982 book say about the authors' affiliations etc., for example? Was it not enough to find the original spellings in some way? The third one seems tough, but a casual googling tells me he's most likely the guy who co-authored "Lyrics of Li-Tʻai-Po," where you can find his brief bio. How about asking Doshisha University (同志社大学) about him? They may have a record of their past faculty and even keep his publication list or something, so you can be sure this Michitaro Hisa is indeed the one you're looking for.
The methods you describe are the ones I have already been using and have found them to be—in some cases at least—quite tedious. As the paper I am writing is extremely short and as I am not required to give the correct name forms (I just thought it to be a courtesy to my supervisor), the thought of contacting the (former) universities seems a little overblown to me. What I originally had in mind when I was asking this question was more sources like WorldCat with (sometimes) both forms given: http://www.worldcat.org/title/chinese-proverbs-with-bilingual-text/oclc/34719722
@brian-ammon I don't understand why you would even think it wouldn't require tedious legwork to find the original spelling of the author of a 120 years old paper from Far East... Anyway, if you're saying you're not that serious about it, I don't know how to reliably resolve Asian names back to their originals without much effort.
Actually, what I expected was tedious legwork (as encountered), yet I had not given up the hope for an easier way—sometimes it is out there and one just does not happen to know about it. But this is exactly what I feared. Thanks for your efforts, nevertheless.
Transliteration between major East Asian languages and Latin alphabet orthography is not a bijection, which means that the exact same spelling of an Asian name in Latin alphabet can correspond to many different spellings in their native language and vice versa. It's somewhat similar to how you can't tell if it's "principal" or "principle" by just hearing the sound /prɪnsəpəl/. In this example, pronunciations and spellings are not a bijection.
This problem is particularly severe for certain names such as typical Chinese names, so some journals allow Asian authors to write their names in their native languages to mitigate the difficulty in identifying a researcher. For instance, see this editorial by American Physical Society: Which Wei Wang?
I was born, raised, and educated all the way up to my Ph.D. in Japan. But I can't tell how my namesakes in Latin alphabet would spell their names in Japanese because they may not be namesakes in our native language. The exact spelling in Latin alphabet may not always mean the same pronunciation in Japanese either.
So, there is no easy resource to resolve names in Latin alphabet back to their original spellings. Sometimes you might be able to make a fairly reliable educated guess if you're as proficient in the Asian languages as native speakers. But you'd run into the Asian version of Steven vs. Stephan and Erica vs. Erika. So, I'd recommend you ask the person(s) directly unless you have definite evidence such as a copy of a recent paper written by them in their native language.
Now I learn that Japanese is about the same.
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21685 | Is an algorithm that stitches together various algorithms "good enough" material for IEEE Trans?
I have worked on a paper which utilizes concepts from signal processing and machine learning, and then implements them in a low-cost embedded system. Since the work was more on the implementation side, it required less mathematics and more engineering. Furthermore, since I was using hardware from a particular company which suited my application the most, among other contenders in peripherals and price, the implementation is really hardware-dependent. Finally, I cannot seem to find similar work. In that way, it is a bit novel. Is this something which will be acceptable for say, IEEE Transactions in Industrial Electronics?
"Stitching together" some existing algorithms is not necessarily bad, if the combination is both valuable and non-trivial. It can be argued that a lot of today's research in computer science is mostly stitching together ideas that have existed for a long time. Further, I am a huge opponent of the notion that it is somehow better / scientifically more valuable to come up with your own (almost always inferior) algorithms for well-known standard problems just so that one can claim to have a higher "novelty".
That being said, it is of course hard to answer your question without knowing the concrete work. As a rule of thumb, read through a number of back issues of your selected journal. If all of them seem to have a much broader contribution than what you have in mind, your idea may be too small (but don't let the impostor effect get you, either).
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21780 | Correct way of referencing equations, figures and tables inline?
What is the correct way of referencing an equation, figure of table inline?
I would currently say something like:
It can be seen from Equation (11) that . . .
or
Inspection of Figure (3) shows . . .
Is this method—capital letter for Equation/Figure/Table and the actual reference in round brackets—acceptable?
I leave away the (), but I would not fault somebody for writing it exactly like you did, and it is certainly style / venue dependent. Check out other papers in your targeted journal / conference.
Is this for a thesis or a journal/conference publication?
Well the question is for technical report writing in general, but I am starting on my masters thesis so this is probably the method I am planning on using.
Use LaTeX and let it figure out inline referencing style.
Related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/15704/1471
As far as I know, the standard in mathematics is:
Put parentheses around equation numbers; don't use the word "Equation" unless after a period.
"Figure/Table/Algorithm X", with no parentheses. Parentheses are reserved for equations, and square brackets for citations.
Example:
This follows from (11). Equation (12) does not hold in this case. See Figure 13 for further information.
In your LaTeX source, use from~\eqref{someref} and Figure~\ref{someother}, with nonbreaking spaces and \eqref for the equations.
(The standard in mathematics is LaTeX; Word is often frowned upon.)
That said, as already stated in aeismail's answer, every journal has its own house style, which may override the standard.
EDIT: see also the answers to Referencing non-equations as to why adding "Equation" is not a good idea: not all numbered formulas are equations.
In your LaTeX source, ... (The standard in mathematics is LaTeX; Word is often frowned upon.) In the interest of generality, most journals I'm familiar with provide templates for both Word and LaTeX formats.
@user11192 Regardless of what options the journals offer, very few mathematicians (or theoretical computer scientists or other people in very mathematical fields) write papers in anything other than LaTeX.
@DavidRicherby Yes, I am aware of that.
As a generic style, your method is probably the most frequently encountered. However, just about every publisher has its style guide, which usually includes instructions for exactly this sort of reference. Those guidelines should be followed when available; if not, then you are free to use whatever format you wish, so long as you use it consistently.
I don't think I've ever seen "Figure (3)" with the parentheses (theoretical computer science, maths).
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21382 | Can I do a thesis project in an area if I haven't taken a course on it?
To provide a background, I am currently a Physics major and along the way I ended up getting really interested in Mathematics, so much that I'm now planning to do pure math in graduate school. Now, the problem is that, we are required to do a senior's thesis before we graduate, and I still don't have a topic in mind.
I actually worked a little bit with a professor in Theoretical Physics, I did bits of grunt work under him. I got exposed in Asymptotic methods when I was in his lab, and I got the idea that maybe I could do an undergraduate thesis about/using asymptotics. During the time I was working there, I was under the impression that he'll eventually talk about my thesis topic but he never even mentioned it (to be fair though, I never talked about it to him either), so now I'm kinda panicking that I might end up going solo in my research.
Now, in the case that he'll not accept to advice me on this , my question is, is it naive to even think about doing an undergraduate research that mainly involves Asymptotic Analysis/Methods when I've never even taken a formal course in it? To make the odds worse, it seems it's a graduate level topic, I am willing self study it though.
I want to know just how far I can go with doing research in a topic I haven't formally studied in a classroom setting, it doesn't really need to be Asymptotics or anything, I just wanted to do something that's theoretical, and that's borderline math, just so I'd be forced to learn as much math as I can during my last year in undergrad. I figured doing research in applied math is the best area to do work on since I'm still a Physics major.
Hello, Kurome: Welcome to Academia.SE. There are a couple of issues here that will likely prevent you from getting useful answers here. (1) You're asking two questions here, and should preferably asked separately. (2) The first question is too specific—questions asking for guidance on individual research projects are off-topic. The question "Can I do research in a field I haven't taken a course on?", however, would be on-topic here.
I have deleted the second question part, and I believe I'm effectively asking only the "Can I do research in a field I haven't taken a course on?" question now.
Like I said, you can ask the second question on its own. Also, I've edited the title to make it more reflective of the question now.
I started my research project before taking any classes on the topic. If necessary, you could always take any relevant coursework after you begin the project. That's what I did.
Rather than being under the impression that somebody's going to talk to you about something, and panicking that they dont -- open the conversation yourself! Professors are pretty smart but they're not psychic.
To answer your question: it depends on the department and if you can find a supervisor.
It being a graduate level course or topic just means it may involve more work and the same is true for not having taken a formal course in it. If you do not mind the extra work (you shouldn't imho) it is no problem at all.
However, there are two questions left: Is someone willing and able to be the advisor for that topic? Is the research question suitable for your undergrad thesis?
So, talk to your (potential) supervisor about it.
Well, turns out I was just thinking too much by myself. The professor is willing to advice me as much as he can, and I confirmed it by actually initiating to open the topic to him.
Of course you can! (I did. My advisor did. Most of my students did.)
Someone will have to agree to supervise your research, but that's true even if you have taken a course in your proposed research area.
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87466 | Why arXiv version disappeared from Google Scholar profile once journal version published
Based on a question I asked previously Uploading a revised version of published journal article on arXiv I uploaded a new version on arXiv which included minor corrections and enhancement to published journal version. Once journal article came online the pre-print version disappeared from my google scholar profile. As the current version of arXiv is advanced version of journal article I want arXiv version to appear on my profile.How can I make arXiv version to apear in my profile?
I side with Google on the position that the archival version is definitive and that it should supersede arXiv.
It doesn't disappeared, it is only grouped together. If you click to your article in Google Scholar, at the end of the page, you'll find "All N versions". Click on it, you will find your ArXiv versions, and some other mirror sites that you may not aware.
Next time, if you want your ArXiv version to be listed separately, change the title to "My awesome paper (extended version)". When the titles are different, the article will not be grouped together.
Note: it's never a good idea to inflate your paper count in Google Scholar with different versions of the same paper.
This is not the case for me! My first version on Arxiv (having a different title with over 10 citations on google scholar) got removed completely which is insane! Now only the published version is displayed and all the citations with the previous title of my Arxiv version have also disappeared! Google Scholar is definitely the worst Google service ever!
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86084 | Who to contact when handling editor is anonymous and manuscript is delayed?
Here a question has been asked about the ethical grounds for an editor to be anonymous from a reviewer point of view. I am facing similar problem but being an author my concerns are different. I have submitted an article to a prestigious Elsevier journal. The article went through two revisions, one major and one minor, and still under review. During all this process the handling editor never showed his identity. Currently I am facing unexpected delay in review process (5 months after minor revision). I want to send email to associate/handling editor but whenever I send email via Elsevier system I receive an unsatisfactory response from journal manager not from editor. I am not sure if he/she is seeing my emails. Is it an appropriate approach for associate/handling editor to hide the identity from an author? Is it appropriate if I write email directly to Editor in Chief? if yes, then how should I compose my email?
I think it's acceptable to write directly do Editor in Chief in this case. I'm also bothered by such anonymous associate editors...
@ShakeBaby I wonder if the associate editor will take it as aggressive approach. how was your experience?
@MBK What do you mean with "aggressive approach"?
Contact between authors and someone related to the journal are commonplace. Did you check the submission system, if it doesn't have an option for contacting the editor (through the internal system)?
Is it an appropriate approach for associate/handling editor to hide the identity
from an author?
This question has been discussed extensively in the question you linked. Whether it's "appropriate" is a difficult question, but it's not entirely uncommon and I am not sure why it would be an ethical problem. Personally, I prefer transparency over information hiding, but there are definitely arguments in both directions (and most of the time it probably simply does not matter).
Is it appropriate if I write email directly to Editor in Chief?
Sure, why not? 5 months is a fairly long time for a minor revision, and sending an email to a person concerning an official role that (s)he voluntarily took over seems almost always ok. Whether this will change much is a different question, but it's worth a try.
if yes, then how should I compose my email?
Short and respectfully. Avoid being combative, avoid assigning blame, and don't ask who the handling editor is so that you can bug her or him yourself. Briefly state that you have submitted a minor revision for the manuscript XXX on date YYY, that you are wondering what the cause of the delay is, and want to inquire whether a notification date can already be foreseen.
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2265 | What are the minimal screen parameters for tablet bought for reading papers
Kind of related to my last question: Is typical ebook reader with pdf support enough to read scientific papers (but I guess that this is distict enough).
What are minimal sreeen parameters for tablet so I can read papers with ease:
is 7'' screen size enough, or do I need 10''? I figured out that 5'' is not enough (to much scrolling).
Is getting additional 3'' (from 7'' to 10'') worth about 70% price increase?
is iPad's retina display (2048 x 1536) really usefull or I can stick to cheaper tablets?
Like @scientifics says, you should really go try these devices out yourself to see what you prefer. I find 7" is fine with zoom on my Kindle Fire. Also, I can't possibly imagine Retina Display being worth it just for reading papers...
Alas if I was living in a civilized counrty interacting witch such device before purchase would be easy, yet in Barbaric country I come from only place I can get to touch these devices are telecoms saloons (and I managed to download an example paper only in Galaxy Tab 7, rest had internet disabled).
Aaah, that is a problem. Well this youtube video might help for the Fire, and there are certainly similar videos for other devices: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGv3BszDzU4
Also, I find that if you turn the tablet so that it's in "landscape" orientation, the text size of math pdfs is the same as on paper. So then you simply have to scroll up and down each page. [I swear I don't work for Amazon! I just love my Kindle Fire!]
What field of research are you in? If papers are text only, probably anything is good enough. Large diagrams or pictures? 7'' probably won't cut it - you probably want something similar in size to the paper it would be printed on.
The screen size really depends on how much scrolling/zooming you want to do...I would suggest trying both the 7" and 10" out in person.
As for the retina display, text is going to be much sharper. Again, I would check this out in person.
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1246 | Should I include publications where I am a "team member" in my CV
Related to but different from Should I include a publication where I'm only acknowledged (and not one of the authors) in my CV?
I'm a part of some publications which officially are written by author A and B and then the Team Members. Should these publications be on my CV? I contributed to the project (hence the team co-authorship) but don't want to seem like I'm trying to pad my CV.
Currently I have my publication list broken up by sections: Journal, Talks, Technical Reports, and then Other, and I have the Team Member publications listed under Other.
Is this appropriated and/or reasonable, or should I remove them?
Looking at the CV that's linked to your website, I don't see anything inappropriate about what you've done. The only thing to make sure of is that when you have a team listed explicitly as the author in a paper (e.g., "Author X, Author Y, and The A-Team"), you will need to make sure that there is a publicly available listing of the team members available for reference. This could be as a supplement to the paper online (as "supporting information"), or it can be on a permanent web site for the team's endeavors. However, people should be able to confirm that you are a member of this collaboration beyond just what's on your CV.
If you are listed as an author in the paper, then you can always include the paper in your publications list.
If you are pruning your resume to be a 2-page one and if you have better publications (say where you are the lead author) to show, then have a single category titled "Selected Publications" and exclude this paper.
If you are making a very detailed list of publications, say one on a webpage, then do consider including the name of all authors in the same order as in the published paper.
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10145 | Is there a stigma of assigning the title TA to an undergraduate?
I am entering my senior year of undergraduate study in Computer Science at a small, primarily undergraduate institution. I plan to attend graduate school and pursue a PhD in Computer Science and Mathematics, my main goal to teach. The school I attend is quite small, and is all but unknown outside our geographic region. As such, I've attempted to add as many positive bullets to my CV as possible, mainly because I feel I will have to fight harder than my colleagues at larger universities to get into a great program.
One of the things I have attempted to add to my vita is teaching experience. I have had the opportunity to tutor in our Mathematics Tutoring Center for a couple years now, and have fallen in love. I have also had the pleasure of assisting a professor in her Freshmen CS labs. Last fall I spoke with her about increasing my duties to more than just fielding questions as the students type their programs. I wanted to start grading lab submissions, and perhaps even hold office hours. She was delighted that I wanted the increased responsibility, but sharply objected to calling it a "TA" position.
Is there a stigma of assigning the title TA to an undergraduate?
As the answers have shown that this isn't a question of "stigma", would you consider editing the title to remove the false assumption?
At US institutions where the graduate students are unionized, the union contract often forbids the use of undergraduate TAs. This could be what you are running up against.
If you have tutoring experience in mathematics and experience assisting with CS labs, then I would put that because it is true. If you aren't a TA, then it isn't a stigma, it is a lie.
A teaching assistantship (TA) is a formal job category at most universities, which implies that you are being paid a specific wage for teaching duties while a graduate student. Consequently, you would be misrepresenting your work on the CV if you called yourself a teaching assistant, because you are not formally a graduate student.
At the university level, another issue may be that while many undergraduates do participate in teaching responsibilities at many schools, this is often in the form of tutoring programs and informal arrangements. Part of the reason for this is that many universities want to be able to claim a higher percentage of teaching duties are done by faculty than is really the case. Calling undergraduates graders and tutors helps to shift off the balance, since they are not officially "teaching staff," and therefore wouldn't be included in such time accounting.
That is exactly what I was looking for, thank you.
This answer does not apply universally, even within the US. There are universities that explicitly allow undergraduate teaching assistants, with that title. (Sadly, my university is not one of them, not because the undergrads do any less teaching than graduate students, but because the TA union restricts the title to graduate students, and because we'd have to pay those undergrads the same wages as grad student TAs.)
At many Canadian institutions, the T.A. position is given to undergraduates, but they are paid much less than their graduate colleagues. This is partially because the T.A. position (hourly wage) is meant much more as a way to transfer funding to the student than it is as an actual reflection of the 'wages earned' for the actual work. So while there isn't necessarily a stigma, undergraduate T.A.s are given much less priority in some locations in Canada.
In my experience, the answer is: teaching assistantship (TA) is a formal job category at most universities, which entails a specific combination of job duties. Those job duties go beyond what you are doing. Therefore, you would be misrepresenting your work on your CV if you called yourself a TA, because you have not been formally appointed as a TA (and because a TA would be expected to take on additional duties beyond what you have been doing).
Note that this is a little different from aeismail's answer. In many institutions, undergrads can be appointed as a TA, under certain circumstances. That doesn't mean that you can just call yourself a TA if you feel like it. For instance, assisting informally or helping with grading papers doesn't necessarily make you a TA; it's not unusual to hire undergraduates to help with those tasks, under some other job title -- but not as a TA. A TA is a very specific job title, and unless you've been appointed under that job title, you should not call yourself a TA.
And I think you're misinterpreting the situation, when you presume there is a stigma against hiring undergrads as a TA. I suspect it's more likely that there is a different explanation: that your instructor reacted negatively because you were proposing to describe yourself as a TA when you have not actually been formally appointed as a TA.
I think you've misinterpreted my statements. I never put this on my resume. When she offered the position to me, I asked her about the job title, and she said specifically that undergrads couldn't be TA's. That is why I asked the question "why". I never called myself a TA.
@JonathanLandrum, OK. Maybe your school is one of those where undergrads can't be TAs. (That wasn't clear from the question -- so thank you for the clarification.)
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20609 | How do I convince my department that not all research needs to be profit-oriented?
I have gotten a job in a sort of university of Applied Sciences; this work place wants to start a small research group, but one issue that I started to notice is the orientation they want to give it. I mean, they want that all research to give a profit. For that reason, I was wondering how to convince the persons in charge of the Faculty, that not all research will give immediate profitable results.
The faculty is information technology oriented, which has a big influence on Computer Science topics. For what I saw in other institutions, not all research is profit-oriented, but oriented to expand the knowledge about some fields.
Any advice?
Would you explain what you mean by immediate profitable? Do they expect the research product be immediately sellable to the market, e.g. a smart phone app, or a relatively longer term profit, e.g. a research product that is patentable and sellable to a company?
@caseyr547: That's a serious over-generalization. Many US institutions are doing basic research in computer science. In fact, I bet within an hour or two we'll get a comment from at least one of those very researchers.
@caseyr547: Maybe you should ask this as a new question, so that it gets the attention of people who can answer with authority. (Though I have a suspicion that looking at recent NSF grant awards will turn up several that we can all agree constitute "basic research".)
@caseyr547 A lottery with a 10% chance of winning? Even my small department wins it a few times each year, I would hardly call it a lottery.
I have gotten a job in a sort of university of Applied Sciences; this work place wants to start a small research group, but one issue that I started to notice is the orientation they want to give it. I mean, they want that all research to give a profit.
Well, that's a direction that many research centres around the world go. Fundamentally, IBM does not maintain IBM Research to contribute to human knowledge, but so that IBM Proper can get an innovation advantage (and patents - lots and lots of patents).
A University of Applied Sciences is usually not a research university in the traditional sense. They are not funded to do research, and, by and large, it is not their job. It seems perfectly reasonable that they expect their upcoming research group to fund itself or even be a cash cow. There is no obligation that a research centre needs to also do unprofitable things.
To make this perfectly clear: building up a for-profit research centre is a perfectly valid strategy. Clearly, it is not the kind of research you want to be doing (which is perfectly fine, even very understandable for me), but you cannot expect them to change their global strategy to fit your idea of research, especially if you just joined them.
should all research be profit oriented?
No, of course not.
This is pretty much everything I was going to say, so you've saved me the trouble of writing it up myself. :-) However, I've edited the top-level question, so you may want to edit the intro to your answer.
The statement "If I knew what I was doing, it wouldn't be Science" provides some insights. New knowledge builds on earlier knowledge but the groundbreaking new insights come from unplanned events, even mistakes. It is of course possible to research new products in a planned way, where a focus is to arrive at a sellable product. Where the difference between research and engineering goes in this case is not clear. But, it is not so likely a goal oriented approach will lead to revolutionary developments, particularly if experiments are deemed from a commercial point of view. This is because risk is involved and if commercial products is a goal it will be the organization's willingness to "waste" money on risky but potentially lucrative ideas, or, just stay within the safer zone of incremental development.
So trying to figure out what strategies they see driving the research will also allow you to assess the picture. It may also allow you to influence the direction of the institute depending on how the process is working in forming the organisation.
There is a difference between
Doing things that will immediately generate a profit (product development; low risk, mostly applying known technologies, possibly combining them for the first time)
Doing things that you expect may lead to profit (sometimes called "line of sight" - you have some unknowns, but if the risks pan out you expect to move into category 1 and will be able to make a profit).
Doing things that are interesting but you're not quite sure how they will be used (there was a time when nanotechnology fell into that category. "I bet something interesting will happen - I just don't know what"; and now it is everywhere)
Doing things that you can confidently predict will not affect "profitability" for your employer over your career (think - searching for exoplanets in solar systems that are 30 light years away).
In principle there is nothing wrong with any of these approaches - and a healthy research department will have a blend of the first three, with maybe a smattering of 4 thrown in for the odd chance at a Nobel prize etc. The mix (proportion of each type) that an institution can afford depends on their source of funding - not only for the current year, but going forward. A department that keeps says "just fund me one more year - NEXT year will be the breakthrough" eventually loses credibility. By spinning off a few short term hits you earn the right to work on longer scope / higher risk higher reward stuff.
There are other things than money that can and should motivate research - but unfortunately, unless you make sure that there is bread on the table, your high ideals will only carry you so far.
Final thought Having a diverse, motivated, and highly skilled workforce should be at the top of the list for any research organization. This is an excellent argument for keeping a mix of projects with different time scales going in parallel.
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26719 | To publish or not to publish a paper in an ERA "type C" conference?
I have been researching a topic in Computer Science for several years now. The topic was interesting, but while I managed to get some conclusive results, I was not completely happy about them. It was like something was missing, but I knew that I really needed to talk to somebody more specialized in the topic, but unfortunately a lot of external professors that I contacted did not have enough time to collaborate. Anyway I submitted it to two conferences, which were ranked like B according to the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) schema:
A* - flagship conference
A - excellent conference, determined by a mix of indicators
B - good conference, determined by a mix of indicators
C - other ranked conference venues
The final verdict at both conferences was a weak reject. So I made the corrections that the reviewers suggested and submitted it to another conference. This new conference has a rank of C, but it deals with the subject that I was making research; the final verdict was accepted as a borderline paper.
Now, the question that I have is that if I should present my paper at that conference, or should I try to fix other things and resubmit to other higher-ranked venues? For me it would be more practical to leave it as is, and let another researcher pick it up if she is so interested.
Is "Type C Conference" a standard name which you brought into your question title, or it is just your own categorizing? If it is not a standard name, it would be a good idea to choose another title for your question.
@EnthusiasticStudent: It is part of the Australian research evaluation schema, which I have linked to in the original question.
It is too late to change your mind now. You have already submitted the paper, which means that you have agreed to present the paper if it is accepted.
yeah, but I still have not paid the subscription, so I think it is not late to change my mind, or is it????
You should have asked yourself this question before you submitted to the conference. Withdrawing your paper now, after it's been accepted, means you wasted a bunch of people's time (editor, reviewers, ...). Do unto others ...
Additionally, given that it was accepted as a borderline paper and was rejected at two previous conferences may be a hint that your work is not perceived as top of the line by external referees. I doubt you can shoot much higher than what you have now.
+1. Two rejections and a borderline accept is a serious indication that this paper cannot do any better.
so should I just go for it? pay the subscription and just present the paper at the conference?
@Layla yes, it's the best thing to do.
ERA ranking is subjective, I am not aware of peer-reviewed evidence that it works. Personally, I know conferences ranked as A, and whose quality is below acceptable. On the other hand, EuroPLoP is the premier conference for software patterns practitioners, and is ranked B in ERA.
So, do not dismiss a conference just because it is marked as C there. If it is not relevant to Australian community, it does not mean it is not relevant to European/Asian/US community. It is always better to see PC, authors published in the past editions, and other factors to make a decision, not relying on some subjective number.
BTW, there are more conference rankings:
Conference H-index calculator
Microsoft Academic Search ranking
community rankings: http://perso.crans.org/~genest/conf.html and http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/assourav/crank.htm
ERA rankings are a left-over from earlier days when venues couldn't be easily and quantifiably evaluated in terms of "impact". The ERA rankings are/were driven by apparent popularity and "votes" cast by a small subset of Australian academics. This makes ERA rankings dubious since they are largely subjective.
These days one has access to various online tools to evaluate the impact of a venue, such as Google Scholar Metrics (h5-index) and Scimago Journal Rank. In turn, these tools often expose many ERA rankings as erroneous.
In terms of getting feedback on your work, conferences are not the only venues. You may also want to try "Letters" type of journals, which allow publication of short communications. Even if your paper isn't accepted, the feedback from the reviewers can be very useful.
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18358 | how to express my thought to my supervisor without being disrespectful?
I applied to a not-so-well-recognized university for my PhD studies. The reason behind it was that one of my undergraduate professors moved to that university for some financial benefits.
I have been working in the research proposal for almost one year, and it got accepted. The problem is that I would like to continue with my studies, but I know that if I continue in that university I would not get many academic chances, and I will be obtaining my doctoral title just for the sake of getting the certificate and nothing more. Actually I would like to move forward to other more respected university with my research proposal. By the way this is my own work and is not related to any on going project from my supervisor.
How I can tell the professor that I would like to still have the professor's help in matters of getting recommendation letters? so I can move with my project to a more well-respected university? I just do not know how to mention that I feel that my academic future will be jeopardized if I decide to stay at this university. It's not a big deal for the professor, who already has a stable academic position.
How to deal with this situation? I do not want the professor to get pissed off with me or to burn any bridges.
Just be honest.
For best diplomacy ask questions. "Where would be the best places for me to...?" "Who would be able to give me recommendation letters...?" "Do you think...?" etc.
A good advisor and mentor will want what is best for your career as well as theirs. If you're going to be unhappy sticking around, you're not going to be of much benefit to that advisor.
Write great publications and you'll be able to get a post-doc at a famous university.
My personal recommendation would be to say you're trying to complete your PhD with a university that specializes in your field of study/research. I would also recommend a certain level of honesty (not saying their school isn't as respected, just that you're trying to get into a school that is well known and respected for your specific pursuit.)
Most people working in education understand and respect the pursuit of knowledge, not that they aren't unhappy about losing people, but they either respect you, or they don't. Either way you must do what's best for you.
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10519 | in which language should I write my first draft a paper?
This might sound like a silly question, but I am not a native speaker of English, so I find it sometimes difficult to write my first draft in that language. What I usually do is write my first draft in Italian, my mother tongue, and then translate it into English. Once I went to a short course on writing in English, where the lecturer advised us that it is better to write the first draft in English, even though it can be very difficult for some people.
What would be your advice in this case? Should I still stick with writing my first draft in my mother tongue and then translate it into English? I feel more productive in that way, but any advice would be helpful.
Slightly related: I’m German (working in the UK) and I predominantly hold my meetings with German collaborators in English. This gets odd looks but there are at least three reasons: 1) no need to switch when a non-German person joins mid-conversation, 2) I have no idea how to translate many the technical terms and 3) it’s good practice. Many non-native speakers I know who work in English-speaking countries don’t do this, and while I understand their reasons I’m still puzzled by this.
Having reread the previous question that Charles cites, this is pretty much an exact duplicate. Therefore this question should be closed. However, we'll leave the answers, since there are several new ones that aren't in the previous one. Additional new answers, though, should go in the old question linked above!
Personal opinion from a non-native english speaker:
You should write it as much as possible in english. Start working with bullet points of your ideas and then transfer them to full sentences after you are done. Since most academic papers are in english, it has already been mentioned on this platform a ton of times, that you should get used to the language, i.e. the vocabularies and the way people reason, in your field.
I think I understand how you're more comfortable drafting in Italian first then translating it to English, however I believe this is a mistake. Many terms and ideas don't translate properly from your mother tongue and it often shows.
Go ahead and draft it in your best English and if you have trouble expressing some ideas then make the note in Italian and you can go back and work those into your most colorful English with your final draft.
It turns out that English has a vast variety of words at your fingertips when writing and this allows you to be very unique while maintaining creativity and genuineness, that's why most books now are written in English.
My grandmother always tells me how Spanish (our language) is such a beautiful language and the best for writing poetry. I think this is a common belief if you do not know other languages well.
Interestingly, some centuries ago people developed elaborate arguments about the French language's superiority.
For better or worse, the lingua-franca of science nowadays is English. If you plan on staying in science, you can use all the English training you can get. So, I would advice writing everything in English. Do try and get feedback from someone who is good at English, preferably a native speaker, to point any language errors you might not see yourself.
Who said the OP's field is science?
@NateEldredge my association with Academia is science, so I assumed that the OP was working in science.
@NateEldredge: In an earlier question she mentions working in computer science.
On the one hand, writing in English is better because the phrases and sentence structures you will end up using will sound more natural to the reader. On the other hand, if you are writing the first draft before having a crystal clear idea how your argumentation will flow (i.e. if, for you, writing is also a tool for thinking), then writing in English might take take away from this process because it's difficult.
I would certainly agree with everyone else that using English for the first draft is a good idea. But when I write, I also write an outline of the draft in a separate document. This outline summarizes each paragraph I plan to write, usually in a single sentence, so that it gives me a good overview of the structure the manuscript is going to have. I use it to combine the points I want to make with other findings I think are important to mention (usually I find that these don't match up very well on the first try!), and then I shuffle things around, add and remove items, until I have a story that will flow naturally from the questions I ask to the conclusions I make. And only then do I start writing the draft. And this outline, I would recommend writing in your native tongue. It should be easier to switch to English afterwards, when you begin writing the draft, because you'll already have a clear idea of what you want to say.
Excellent point about meta writing - identify the structure when writing. However, I would identify the structure before writing the draft.
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30252 | Should I list GRE scores on my CV?
If someone scores quite high on the GRE, how and where would they list it? Or would they even list it at all?
A CV for what? (Related: Should a CV for a fellowship application ever include test scores?)
I don't think you should. I can't recall ever seeing test scores listed on a CV. Nobody really cares about GRE scores except graduate admissions committees, and they get the scores straight from ETS anyway.
I guess it came to mind because of the tendency to list GPA when it's high enough
Field dependent, GRE section dependent. In my field (physics), about 25% of graduate school applicants had perfect scores on the math GRE when I was preparing for the test. In that case a perfect score was not worth a lot. Physicists also put low weight on the verbal score.
Copying my comment:
I don't think you should. I can't recall ever seeing test scores listed on a CV. Nobody really cares about GRE scores except graduate admissions committees, and they get the scores straight from ETS anyway.
Additionally, GRE scores may be meaningless or misinterpreted with the score scale changes in recent years. Telling someone you got a 170 in Math means nothing to someone who took the GRE on the 200-800 scale. If they want to know, they'll ask.
A C.V. should list everything that is significant in your accomplishments at your stage of career. Before you get into grad school, a good GRE score may be significant. After you're in, not so much.
A good GRE score doesn't mean anything before getting into grad school either, because the only point of the GRE is that it's required for US grad schools. As Nate says in his comment to the OP, those schools obtain those scores anyway, so there is no reason to ever put it in your CV.
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65047 | I need to change PhD topics. Should I pursue one of my advisor's ideas, or one of my own?
I had an idea for a PhD proposal and found a supervisor for that topic. My supervisor is pretty busy and is reachable only once every month or two at best.
Unfortunately, I saw that my research topic could be usable only for publishing a paper, but not to develop something really novel that could justify its presence in a PhD thesis. Thus, I feel like I've "wasted" a couple years of my PhD.
When I realized that my current research was not enough for a PhD thesis, I came up with another idea related to the same field and topic, but the problem is that my supervisor is not an expert in the field that I am proposing. To discover this other technique I spent an additional year.
Now I have the following courses of action:
Since my supervisor is not an expert into the field that I am proposing, then I should try to find a co-supervisor at another university. This is not so easy because a lot of professors have their own set of students to advise.
My supervisor has a list of projects that could serve ås PhD research topics, but I'm not so interested in those topics. However, I need to graduate so I am seriously thinking of picking one of them. The problem is that I am very rusty in the background of the topics he has because since I haven't looked at those topics since my bachelor's program.
I am pretty confident that I can continue to develop my new idea by myself, even though I know that is going to be pretty difficult. The problem is that I will have to do it all by myself, and my supervisor will not be able to give me any advice because it is not his field of expertise.
If anybody is curious my PhD is in Computer Science.
So what should I do? Should I aim for a new topic or should I stick to my "feelings" that I can make my proposal work, even I have to do it alone.
I ended up picking one of my major professor's pet projects because he had funding for those and I didn't. (Biotech is a bit different, admittedly.) I wasn't upset about the topic though. (It was actually useful and even interesting, just not as nifty as my first choices.) If you want to change topic, you do have to get it approved by a committee, right?
Big Fat Note On Timing: First and foremost here, make sure to changing your topic is allowed by your supervisor. Then your supervisor will check the time you have left and will point out if you can do it or not. You don't want to change a topic while your supervisor do not know about it.
Answer On Changing the PhD Topic With Your Supervisor Agreement
Ok, I did my PhD in CS as well; also was very close to change it for two times as my supervisor was not as an expert I thought he would be. So here my takes on changing your topic as a CS PhD student:
1.What you have gained so far?: Without comparing yourself to anyone else, are you deep down happy with your progress and how much did you gained, knowledge wise, so far? The conclusion in this point brings me to the second point.
2. Problem is Environment or Yourself?: After thinking about how much you have done, if the sadness relates to the environment (such as supervisor) or yourself (such as the issue of focus).
2.1 If the problem is you: If the problem is you then, changing your topic does not change a thing. Now you might say well "I will change myself"; this is not as easy you might think and you might need professional help on this. If you see you need help and the supervisor is not helping either or even recognizing that you are having an issue, then you need to think seriously on how to get help. This is very important, as you might get depressed without doing anything wrong. You see what I'm trying to say here?
2.2 Problem Is Supervisor: It is more common as you might think, so in this case, if you have the ability to do the PhD, then YOU need to inform the supervisor about the changes and YOU need to decide what you want to do. This might get ugly at times, because if the supervisor does not know the topic and tells you, your thesis is total rubbish, you should know "well I'm submitting it and defending it regardless". So basically, take the control of the situation from start to finish.
2.3 Problem is Topic: To be honest I doubt it, because most of the time the problem is based on the first two sub points. Anyway if this is the case, then change the topic. Don't listen to supervisor to do a topic in a field he/she did not publish a thing for the last 5 years. Be honest to yourself and your supervisor ability before choosing it. This should be also discussed with your supervisor as well, don't accept anything without knowledge. I recommend to choose a topic that your supervisor is known for. If your supervisor works on software testing and you want to do a topic on code generation, things might not go well.
You also should make sure starting over is alright with those supervising the program, as it may cause significant delay in completing the degree.
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46008 | What are RTD-b positions in Italy?
I recently saw in an ad that an Italian university invites applications to "Senior researchers (RTD-b, tenure track)." What are RTD-b positions? Since they are said to be tenure track, I guess they correspond to assistant professors in the US system? Are RTD-b position holders expected to do independent research and advise PhD students as assistant professors do? How much teaching load do they usually have? What is their career path after getting tenured?
[EDIT: this position is now outdated: starting from 2024, the RTD-b position has been replaced by RTT, a tenure-track position more similar to the ones in the US system. The only prerequisite to apply is a PhD, and the pre-tenure period is 3 or 6 years, according to the seniority of the candidate. Habilitation is still required.]
Exactly, they are tenure-track assistant positions. After 3 years, if you pass a successful evaluation based on your research activity (abilitazione scientifica nazionale), you become an associate professor. The guidelines for this evaluation include an indicative target number of papers and citations, which is field-dependent. This is only indicative, there is a national committee in charge of the evaluation, and they are supposed to always check case-by-case.
The teaching load is quite low: 60-80 hours of frontal teaching per year, plus exams (warning: there is a lot of exams in the Italian system). As far as I know there aren't other obligations, apart from maintaining a good research output to get the abilitazione. Supervising PhD students is not required.
(The teaching load becomes 120 hours after you become an associate professor.)
The system for the final evaluation is still provisional and has to undergo a new reform in the next months. These positions were introduced in 2010, and things are still new and bleeding-edge. But in any case they are worth pursuing, there are not many other chances to get a permanent associate professor position in Italy.
To be eligible, you need at least 3 years of post-doctoral experience (comparable to an Italian "rtd-a" position).
Addendum to Federico's excellent answer: in Italy neither researchers nor professors are really expected to advise PhD students. You advise students if you wish or if you want to build a research group, but it's not mandatory nor it counts in the application for a professor position. Lastly, you might not have any TA to assist you for courses and exams.
@Lao I think that this requirement is checked at the moment when applications close. You can ask that to the contact address for the individual position, for sure; they will be well prepared on the legal requirements.
RTD-B is an acronym for Ricercatore a Tempo Determinato tipo B. That is to say, fixed-term researcher of type B. The term is three-years, by the end of it you are supposed to have passed a national habilitation based on a few key metrics, and then become Associate Professor (Professore Associato). Type A on the other hand, is simply a postdoc position.
The "Ricercatore" title is the italian nominal equivalent of a USA Assistant Professor. I specify nominal because, contrarily to USA positions, you are not expected to start a group of your own, your are not given any research money to do so, you are not expected to supervise BS, MS, or PhD students. You do are expected to perform high-class research; the independence of your research will largely depend on the ability to attract funds on your own.
In that regard, your moral standing is more like a Research Scientist in USA, unless you are capable of attracting large national grants, or large AND prestigious European grants. With those funds, you will be able to gather all resources you would need for fully independent research.
You will be expected to teach, and the teaching load will vary a bit depending on the institution that hires you. Typically one course per year, that amounts to 50 to 80 hours of formal lectures, to a typically a large number of students, grading exams scattered throughout the year.
One thing to keep in mind is the selection process. In the USA, an institution will receive several applications, make a short list, and invite the shortlisted candidates for one or two full-days interview. In Italy, institutions nowadays use shortlisting as well, but interviews last only 20 minutes or so. Also, recommendation letters are not needed in Italy, although some places are starting to ask them.
After getting tenured, the next path in your career would be to become Professore Ordinario, the equivalent of a USA Full Professor. And then, just as in the USA, you might take other paths as to become Dean.
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34979 | Why do US universities have strict formatting requirements for dissertations?
Recently, I got a mildly panicked email from a friend/collaborator who was preparing the final manuscript of his thesis. He had just noticed that page numbers were a fraction of an inch closer to the page edge than the regulations of his university specify, and he was concerned that the lady in charge of filing dissertations would notice and reject the manuscript. This concern wasn't unjustified: I personally know a couple of people who had to reprint their dissertations at the last minute because they had the type of formatting errors that you need a ruler to notice.
In the end, I was able to tell my friend how to modify his TeX markup to avoid disaster, but I was left wondering: why are (some) US universities so obsessed about aspects of a dissertation that nobody will ever care about, or even notice? I did my PhD in Europe (Netherlands), and nobody there cares much about the formatting of your dissertation, so long as it doesn't look silly.
I'm not sure it's a Europe vs. US thing, there is a great variability in format requirement between institutions within each European country.
While my university didn't care much at all about the formatting (Austria) I can attest to the fact that a good friend of mine at Paris 1 got quite a long list of formatting requirements (yes I wrote her the class file too).
Never heard of a "lady in charge of filing dissertations"... isn't the advisor the one that should sign your thesis? If the advisor signs something that doesn't respect the requirements then it's his fault. IMHO nobody would go against a professor for such a small detail.
There are pretty strict formatting requirements in the UK as well.
Maybe you can deviate from the format requirements and misplace the pagination - but at any rate please don't use Comic Sans ;)
@Bakuriu: The professor signs the contents of the thesis, not the precise formatting. Depending on the university, the people in the library who have to archive and publish the thesis (be it printed or digitial) may have a say, as well - such as, requiring a specific page format, requiring a specific title page, etc.
I think this is a historical issue more than anything else. Until quite recently, dissertations were usually sent for microfilming, microfiching, or both, for later reproduction and distribution. As a result of this, they needed to be carefully formatted so that they would reproduce correctly when photographed. Thus the requirements for font size, margins, line thickness in graphics, positioning of page numbers, and so on.
In recent years, this has not been so important, but that doesn't mean universities have completely relaxed the rules regarding formatting. There is definitely an interest in having a consistent "look and feel" for theses from the same institution.
Traditionally some copies of the final thesis were bound and placed in the university library. For that purpose it's important to make sure that the margins are correct.
The margins and fonts are also very important for theses that were/are stored on microfilm. The microfilm process tends to reduce the quality significantly, as anyone who has had to look up microfilm can relate. So, if the original is not prepared with that expectation, the microfilm can end up unreadable. Similarly, text too close to the margins might be cut off during the microfilm process.
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32472 | Which is better for PhD application: research-based BS thesis somewhat related to interests, or extra courses + standard thesis in area of interest?
I am studying applied math. My bachelor's thesis is coming up next semester and I've got a dilemma.
I was originally planning to do a standard project (most of them seem very soft to be honest) and then take an extra course (I got permission to take a PHD level course in information theory) or two simultaneously.
But then a project involving a fairly novel part of control theory popped up, novel enough that it might be possible to get something interesting published from the project. It seemed like a fairly interesting problem and the possibility of co-authoring a paper at this stage is very appealing as I have an eye on a PHD after my masters degree.
Control theory itself doesn't interest me that much, but the tangential mathematical subjects do (optimization, algorithms, information theory, etc). The problem is that it's probably going to be a lot more time consuming than a normal project and I don't know if I'd benefit more from it than just taking another course in an area I'm actually interested in.
I'm nervous it's going to be a stressful spring without much to show for it if we don't manage to get any interesting results at all. On the other hand, I suppose any research experience is positive even if it's not in my main interest area.
So, the question is: for a PhD application, should I complete a research-based thesis tangentially related to areas of interest, or normal thesis focused on my areas of interest plus additional courses in my areas of interest?
(edit: I'd probably drop a PDE course in favor of this project)
I believe this is largely a matter of personal preference. There is a lot that can be learned even through a tangential project, and sometimes even coming up empty handed (at the undegraduate-level) from a project is its own reward, it teaches you (hopefully) how not to come up empty handed in the future! I would personally only go with the "normal" thesis if you are 1) content doing the straight forward thing (nothing wrong with that) and 2) are genuinely interested in that subject to the point that you might consider it as your primary field of interest for a PhD.
The OP is hoping to pursue a PhD; the question is, which option will help him pursue that goal. I think that question could have an objective answer from someone who has experience in graduate admissions.
Do you know where are you applying? As I was told, in Sweden in general projects are the most important piece of the application, and a good showcase of research the best kind.
If your plans to pursue a PhD eventually are serious, I would definitely recommend the research-based option. You'll see this advice in many other places, but acquiring a PhD is very much the process of learning how to do research and proving that you can indeed do it. Even if the project is not directly in an area that you're very interested in, you'll have the opportunity to start practicing your research skills. The prospect of a publication is also something to keep in mind; an entering PhD student who has already published is viewed as already having proved to some degree that they're capable of quality research, and I've never met a faculty member anywhere who didn't appreciate that.
You're exactly right in that the research experience will be valuable to you even if you do not end up with a publication. Why? Primarily, if you do good work you've given your faculty collaborators some very good material to put in the reference letters you're going to want them to write when you apply to PhD programs. In fact, in your position I'd probably be thinking more about coming out of the experience with a strong reference than a publication.
As a senior phd student, I always recommend bachelor students to have some flavor of research in their thesis rather than doing a pure implementation work. Any research work requires some level of implementation and this gives the student good chance to find out which parts are more favorable and then he/she can easily decide to go to industry or continue academic carrier.
The field is mathematics, not engineering or CS; neither thesis is likely to involve "implementation" work
@ff524 Actually, since it is applied math, it could easily involve some implementation.
@TobiasKildetoft Probably not the kind of implementation the author of this post (a CS student) is referring to. It would be what I'd call an "application" rather than "implementation"
@ff524 Why not? There are plenty of areas of applied math where it would be a natural part of such a thesis to implement some algorithm.
@TobiasKildetoft I'd consider implementing an algorithm an "application" of the work, not an "implementation."
@ff524 Then I am not really sure what you mean by an implementation.
@TobiasKildetoft I guess I'm not really sure what I mean, either. Sorry :(
@ff524 I have one mathematics student working with me toward his thesis and his work has lots of programming in C++. This is what I mean by implementation.
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44122 | Why do undergraduate admissions in the U.S take into account nonacademic criteria?
College admissions in the U.S. takes into account many factors that are rarely considered in other countries and seem unrelated to academics. For example, legacy status (children of alumni may be given preference), athletics, extracurricular activities, etc. Why do these nonacademic criteria play a larger role in the U.S. than they do elsewhere?
This is related to (and possibly--but not really--a duplicate of): http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/44107/how-does-hiking-in-himalayas-show-academic-promise
A cynical but not implausible view is that by taking extracurriculars into account, schools are able to favor the children of the relatively elite classes in the US -- whose enrollment in turn makes a college more desirable to other elites. See e.g. Mitchell Stevens's book Creating a Class , an ethnography of how US private college admissions process serves "privileged families and the impressive organizational machinery they have developed to pass their comfortable social positions on to their children” (p.3)
Related question : http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/16367/948
Do they really do this?
@gerrit Definitely. There are high correlations with extracurricular activities and graduation rates and GPA. Besides, how else do you compare a bunch of 3.8 GPAs all from different high schools and backgrounds?
@AustinHenley I'm used to the system where they admit any student meeting the criteria and likely to succeed, and that competition only comes in when competing for merit-based scholarships. An Erasmus Mundus Master Course I was at would admit 150–200 out of 500 applicants, but award 35–40 scholarships, with 45–50 students actually starting. Why reject likely successful students paying high tuition fees, when 50 extra students in a course can easily pay toward hiring an additional undergraduate lecturer and/or rooms for teaching on a satellite campus?
@gerrit At most good US colleges (say, top-30 or so), that would likely result in getting 5-10x of their current enrollment numbers (at least). Many (most?) undergrads are not on scholarships either way and are paying through loans and/or parents.
I don't have time to post a full answer, but @AustinHenley touches on another aspect. With grade inflation in the US in high school, colleges (even non-prestigious ones) need additional information in order to determine who to admit. If you have 1,000 applicants who all have a 4.0 GPA and a 1550 on the SAT, but only 100 available spots, you need a way to determine who to select. This can be done by looking at other factors, whether they correlate to college performance or not.
Dutch medical courses simply draw lots in that situation. (Anyone average grades above 8/10 is admitted directly, but that is rare. I've never met a 10/10 student, but I did read about one of those once, he made the national news. I don't quite understand why grade inflation is so severe in the USA, and it also makes it difficult for students from countries with less grade inflation to get in, but that is a different question.)
@gerrit I don't think grade inflation in the US really affect international students. Most US universities already have quotas on how much of each incoming class can be from outside the US, and I think those are the bottleneck there. And I think that I would prefer being evaluated on extracurriculars over a random drawing.
Why not invite them all to write a test designed by the university? Surely the university should be able to design a test where the majority of those applicants will fail and only a small minority will score over 90%.
@gerrit There's a million obvious reasons why that isn't feasible or desireable. Many have been stated in the comments and answers to these questions. Too add to them, what would you even test? One of the greatest things about the US education system is that kids don't have to choose a future career path until very late in their education.
@gerrit You think a test can predict success? Also, you're going to remove any diversity by only admitting the type of students that your test is designed for.
@AustinHenley I don't see how designing a test and admitting students based on test scores is any different from considering grade point averages at all. Personally, I see tests as a necessary evil. They are not the best predictor for success at all, but possibly better than a person's baseball skills or hiking experience. I do understand from Anonymous' answer that, for example, Harvard's primary goal isn't to educate smart people, but rather to have an impact on the world by educating influential people, which does clear up a misunderstanding for me, but not every school is Harvard...
@gerrit Designing and administering a standardized test is more expensive than using GPAs that are already built into the educational system. Additionally, these tests already exist in the US and we know they have low correlation with college success rates. Creating more of these tests wouldn't help the situation; it would create additional and repetitive tasks college applicants need to complete in order to apply to a variety of schools. If I need to take test A for admission to school A, and test B for school B, I've now had to complete two tests that (hypothetically) measure the same thing.
Please take extended discussion to [chat].
As a high school student, I can attest that people obsessed with college are more concerned with "volunteering" for NHS (of course, without actually doing any volunteer work and preferably securing some free food for themselves) than studying anything even vaguely related to the careers that are the cause of their obsession with college. In effect, not only are the nonacademic criteria useless, they actually hurt students by encouraging them to waste time on nonsense instead of studying or enjoying their lives.
Why is this question on-topic here? Our [help] says: "please do not ask questions about undergraduate-specific issues". Isn't this question off-topic, according to that rule?
I don't see this as being undergraduate-specific in that sense. As I understand it (others may disagree), policy or historical questions related to undergraduate studies are OK, as long as they are of genuine interest to faculty or grad students. Mainly, the restriction is meant to rule out a flood of questions on how to get into college or how college works, but I see this question as something academics at all levels might wonder about (especially those outside the U.S.).
@gerrit there is a huge difference between GPA and standardized tests for people who have learning disabilities like dyslexia, ADHD, and dyspraxia. Many talented students with learning disabilities do poorly on standardized tests, but excel in their classes especially those based on projects and not only exams. GPA allows that to be taken into consideration as well. Also, looking at extra curriculars allows students to show case what they can achieve outside the testing environment e.g. for a computer science major contributions to open source projects would be relevant
As with any complicated social phenomenon, there is no simple and conclusive answer. However, here are two important factors:
The U.S. didn't have world-class universities until the 20th century. Even ones that are world-famous today (such as Harvard or Yale) did not particularly impress 19th century Europeans. These universities had started out as vocational schools for pastors and gradually turned into finishing schools for the elite, but they weren't scholarly powerhouses. In the early 20th century, there started to be more academic competition for admission. This was very upsetting to the traditional students (largely wealthy young men from prep schools), who didn't want to be around too many Jews or other minorities or to have to compete with nerds for grades. One tactic universities used in response was quotas for Jews, but the Nazis made that look bad. Leading U.S. universities then moved on in the 1930's to develop other methods to ensure that they could pick whichever students they wanted. For example, geographic diversity (you should take students from Kansas to avoid having too many New Yorkers), preferences for children of alumni, athletic recruitment (you really need a strong lacrosse team and fencing team), well roundedness (students should study hard but not be too nerdy), extracurricular activities, etc. Jerome Karabel has documented this history in his book The Chosen.
What is Harvard's purpose in educating students? People often imagine the goal is to educate smart people, and that corruption is the only explanation for why Harvard would deliberately admit a wealthy applicant over someone more talented but poor. However, this is thinking about it completely wrong. Harvard's primary goal isn't to educate smart people, but rather to have an impact on the world by educating influential people. They want to educate the people who are going to grow up to become leaders of all sorts (social, political, commercial, academic, etc.), and while they are happy to help shape who becomes a leader, they know perfectly well that wealth and privilege play a major role. When Harvard admits someone whose wealth exceeds his intellectual talents, it's because they want to help set the national agenda by providing this person's education. From this perspective, all the strange admissions criteria are an excuse for Harvard to select whoever they feel has the most potential to change the world, taking into account all aspects of their talents and background.
So what about other universities? The first axiom of higher education in the U.S. is that everybody imitates the most prestigious universities. If Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are doing something, then everyone else will follow. Not necessarily in exactly the same way: different universities may employ very different criteria for admission, thanks to different goals regarding who they want to educate. But they almost all use the same basic framework for what information is relevant to their decision.
As an addendum to this answer, it's worth noting arguably the single greatest benefit a university supplies to it's students (even before academics) is the peer group. Part of being a "well-rounded individual" is being able to interact with and learn from people from many backgrounds. Since this is part of the university mission, it must supply students with that varied cohort. Similarly, privilege can be transmitted by proxy. It will be much easier to start a business if you have immediate access to capital in the form of a wealthy roommate.
The Myth of American Meritocracy by Ron Unz investigates this line (which made things harder for Jews, now is making it harder for Asians... to get more space for the children of alumni and other "true Americans"). As of now, Caltech seems to be a meritocratic outlier.
Although you make some good points, this jaded outlook isn't always warranted. For example, one reason to admit more students from Kansas and not students, even more prepared students, from the coastal metropolises is to increase cohort diversity. Racial and ethnic diversity has been found to improve learning outcomes; I don't know if effects of geographic diversity has been studied, but it certainly makes sense that a New Yorker can gain a broader view of the world by interacting with someone from Kansas.
Yes, this is definitely not the full story, and there are other arguments in favor of the U.S. system. As you point out, U.S. universities typically care about diversity (both for reasons of social justice and to create a rich, well-balanced environment), and having flexibility in admissions decisions certainly helps with that. I emphasized these points mainly because they played a bigger role historically than diversity arguments did, and they aren't as widely understood today. (But I certainly don't intend to say they are the only factors.)
I really like that you mentioned that it was to keep Jews out. This is really the reason there is holistic undergraduate admissions. Perhaps it would have turned out this way anyway, but lets remember the original reason for the change.
@Philip: "Racial and ethnic diversity has been found to improve learning outcomes" would you happen to have any links on this? Thanks!
Not handy but I know it was essentially the winning argument by Michigan in Grutter v. Bollinger so you can start there. They made a very calculated decision not to argue on the basis of racial equality being a desirable thing, but rather on the learning outcomes. Let me know if you can't find anything and I'll hunt it down.
I think this is a good answer, but it is somewhat of a simplification. I think even Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, etc. don't know exactly what they want. So I think they muddle their criteria to get a bit of everything -- future politicians, scientists, businesspeople, celebrities, civil rights activists, etc. You can call this group "future leaders", but I think it's a product of uncertainty more than clarity.
My dad was admitted to the university in Novisibiersk in the late sixties, which was indesputably one of the top three technical universities in Russia. He said the only admission criterion was an exam with olympiad-level math questions, which kids studied for all through high school much like some American kids study for the USAMO etc.
Now, the reason I mention this is because he said the reason why admissions here are different not only from Russia but from most of the rest of the world is because in other countries, the students study to serve the state, while in America, the universities provide education as a service to students.
In most other countries, a student is accepted on the basis of the expected value he can bring to society if he is given the appropriate educational opportunity, and then his education is subsidized on the expectation that by studying he can improve the general economy of the state.
However, in America the state pays little (especially for private schools) because education is not a service the individual is doing so he can better the state: it's a service being given to the individual so he can better himself. Even when the government expands measures to pay for student loans etc. the main motivation is to aid poor people in improving themselves, not aiding smart people in improving the state. There isn't anything inherently wrong with this, it's just different and perhaps less efficient.
So that's why American schools don't care so much about academics: they don't care as much about how you do because they aren't investing in you. In fact, you're investing in them, and the return on that investment is an education you can use to get a better job. So they take into account criteria related to how much you'll improve their image, how much you'll be likely to donate later in life, etc.
I'll answer the less-obvious point that other answers so far missed:
Colleges practice sport recruiting, whereby athletes are recruited by the colleges for their athletic promise, over other applicants who might be more qualified in terms of academics.
The reason for this is that most US colleges are funded in large part by college Alumni donating money.
And college Alumni donate more money if the college has a successful sports team(s).
Here's one study showing causation
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/03/report-finds-alumni-giving-among-other-areas-correlated-football-success
Anderson’s report found that for NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision teams -- teams that compete during the season and are potentially eligible for postseason bowl games -- winning football games increases alumni athletic donations, enhances academic reputation, increases the number of applicants and in-state students, reduces acceptance rates and raises average incoming SAT scores.
Please note that the other benefits are also somewhat explainable - college athletics is pretty visible in US culture, and therefore a university's brand among possible applicants is raised significantly - a LOT more people can name top NCAA winners than top colleges with best biology superstar professor.
A totally unrelated reason is tradition - USA has a very long tradition that sound body is a big plus for a sound mind (it's not a uniquely USA thing, of course - the same idea was held from Ancient Greece to Russia to modern scientific studies results). As such, a good student was always expected to be able to do athletics for well-roundedness.
Interestingly, the "legacy" point also is influenced the same monetary way - a wealthy Alumni is more likely to donate to the college if their family member, especially offspring, will attend.
Many of your questions are difficult to answer without a larger industry/history lesson, but you can find much of that information by searching for it.
As for your actual question, why do schools care about non-academic things;
There are many reasons, but these 'non-academic' things are what makes well rounded people that are likely to succeed. Leaving the country and helping people in need is just one of many ways to show that your mind is broader, which helps creative thinking, which helps problem solving, which helps you to succeed.
The act of doing something non-academic in a group setting shows ability to work cooperatively. It shows a diverse background, which is regarded as important by many prominent institutions because diversity in academic settings helps improve educational experiences.
In essence, your question is the same as "Why do undergraduate students in Engineering need to take non-engineering classes?" If you don't know the answer, im sure you can find other posts about this.
What @user1938107 states is, at least, the official narrative Americans tell themselves when discussing these matters. In reality, it's just what Americans have historically done, and consider important. Whether it really makes for better leaders, engineers, or teachers is a separate matter that can be debated. Most European countries don't take such factors in account yet, arguably, have better teachers and engineers. I think the real answer is just: for historical reasons.
@WolfgangBangerth My answer was based on the OP question. If they said, 'Why do american universities care about these things when the better schools like the ones in europe dont?' I wouldnt have bothered. My answer is based on what the universities reason is, trying to improve success (as Anon Math) points out, success is impact for many.
This is from 'Americans' so maybe it cant be trusted, but its a bit more information on why things beyond grades matter to schools: http://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/97003B7B-055F-4318-B14A-5336321FB742/0/DIVREP.PDF
I would like this question to be discussed more seriously than the other cynical answers, i.e. these non-academic criteria are a way to exclude minorities. Historically that could be true. Is it still true today? Don't the non-academic considerations actually incentivize American students to do community service and other things outside the classroom? As someone who grew up in Asian high school but went to US colleges, I know that my peers and their parents think very highly of the non-academic considerations.
@WolfgangBangerth Don't generalize what 'Americans' do. Your generalizations would be more appropriate for liberal arts schools, not Americans in general. Most American engineers, for example, do indeed focus almost solely on engineering. In my case, for example, I took exactly 3 classes in college that weren't directly related to the work I do as an engineer. One of those was a bowling class that I took just for fun in addition to all of the other classes that I would have taken anyway that semester. Also, I would definitely argue that point about Europe 'having better engineers.' :P
@reirab: Yours is a fair point. At the same time, the general education requirements at my own state school, Texas A&M, equate to approximately 1/3 of the credit hours students have to take for their 4-year degree. This is true whether you're a liberal arts major or an engineering major. So I think it's not state schools vs liberal arts colleges, but something that may be specific from university to university. Either way, your point is well taken.
@WolfgangBangerth It's starting to be known that character like conscientiousness is a better predictability of success than IQ alone. It is well written here.
Maybe. But does this correlate well with admission criteria?
Extra-Curriculars
There are a few reasons why US Colleges make some of these selection criteria. Having extra curricular activities shows a number of potentially important things:
the ability to juggle more than just school (I can volunteer and play a sport on top of keeping my grades
travel can indicate a wider range of interesting experiences
Interesting students will do interesting things, which can be good for recruitment
Being successful in a variety of areas indicates a general ability to succeed better than being successful in only one (and Universities here gain prestige by having successful alumni).
Something worth noting - in most places in the world University is about specializing. You take one subject, gain mastery in it, move on to work in that subject. In the US this is not the case. We value a "broad" education where you are required to study many subjects that have little to do with your major - in fact many people do not decide their majors until a year or two in (we feel this creates "well-rounded" people). As a result students who have evidence of non-academic achievements can be favored over those who focused their efforts (especially if both candidates have comparable grades).
Affirmative Action
You highlight on "quotas" (often referred to here as "Affirmative Action"). Ultimately it is a political issue. The idea is to ensure fairness. At one point (basically any time before 1970) a perfectly qualified black woman would be passed over in preference for a white male. Rules (and often laws) were enacted to say that women (and other minorities) needed to be fairly represented in the school (and business) - the quota was the way to ensure the school would look at the non-preferred candidates. Legally Affirmative Action is not discrimination, and in many jurisdictions it is still legally mandated.
Whether the practice is discrimination or not is highly subjective (to my incredibly intelligent mother who likely got a chance at earning her BS and MS in Computer Science only because Duke had to let women in for their "quota" it was not discrimination).
Finances
(Disclaimer, there is a large amount of politics in the discussion over what is "necessary spending" for universities in the US, and the high cost of tuition)
The rest of your questions are actually talking about the same point. I am not familiar with universities in India, but in many places in the world universities are fundamentally part of the state - the state either directly runs the institution, or it subsidizes most to all of the cost for the students attending.
In the US there are a few state sponsored schools, but individual US States get to determine the amount of support those schools get, and most schools are not well funded in the state's budget. In addition there are a large number of private schools that do not receive any funding (Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, etc.). For most schools in the US, they have to fund their own budgets. These budgets include facility/maintenance fees (paint, lights, utilities, etc.), staff pay (student, faculty, and non-faculty employees), expansion to the campus, and all the other things the school pays for (e.g. having a gym, hosting symposiums, etc.).
Tuition is very high ($20000+ per year is pretty common), but even still is often not enough to cover the budget. Thus the school relies on other things to pull in revenue - research grants can help, but are earmarked for specific projects and do not help with general budget goals. The two other major sources of income Universities can get are donations, and "event fees".
Donations often come from alumni who are grateful for their success. The school does not want to upset great donors - nor potential future donors - and will give preferential treatment to children of alumni as a result.
"Event Fees" can come from a number of things (e.g. hosting a conference/symposium, putting on a play or concert, etc.), but in general Universities believe that Sporting activities bring in the most money (for the rest of this I will assume that is true, even though there is evidence that is not always the case). Sporting events bring in money through a few avenues:
More donations from fervent supporters of the school's teams
Ticket sales
Merchandise sales
Advertising
Concessions
Some competitions pay winning teams in some way
Because the schools with the best teams get the strongest support and thus the most income from all of those avenues, schools do what they can to ensure their teams are the best. Sometimes the best athletes are exceptional academically, but more often they are not. Since the school wants the best athletes they will provide scholarships and admission to candidates who might have been disqualified academically.
I wouldn't generalize the U.S. at all in the manner you've done in your first section. Quite a lot, perhaps a majority, of U.S. college students do indeed choose their major before admission and do focus on it. It's more the liberal arts schools that don't do that, not all schools. Engineering schools will generally focus almost solely on engineering, for example.
Would just like to point out that affirmative action and quotas are not necessarily the same idea. For instance, if we assign a hypothetical score between 0 and 100 to each applicant, we could add 5 to all applicants from [group X], then proceed as normal. There's no "minimum number" of people we need to admit from group X, but they still got a bit of a boost.
Universities routine skim a cut (called "overhead") from research grants, and some of that goes into the general budget. The funding agencies keep an eye on overhead levels so there is a limit to how much general funding can be developed in this way, but some definitely is.
I think a lot of the other answers here have some good points, but I think the most important thing you need to remember about universities in America is that they are BUSINESSES. Education is the primary service that they provide, but they are also selling things like prestige (how good does your University degree look on your resume/CV?), contacts/networking, sports programs (many professional athletes start at colleges that have top-notch sports teams), etc.
My guess is that the United States probably has more universities than any other country and therefore has the most competition amongst them than in other countries. A university's admissions "formula" is like a food company's recipe or a technology company's patents - it provides a competitive advantage (hopefully) and is constantly reviewed and tweaked in an effort to maximize profits.
When looked at through the eyes of a business looking to maximize profit, it's pretty obvious why legacy students, promising student athletes, minorities and foreigners, etc are admitted - it all ultimately leads to more revenue over time.
Some examples:
Endowments are the #1 source of funding for universities. Harvard's is around $35B (yes, that's BILLION) while Yale's is around $25B. Thus it's obvious why sons and daughters of alumni are given preferential treatment in admissions.
College sports is BIG business. Recruiting and admitting talented student athletes is a no-brainer for universities.
Part of the "university business" is hiring and keeping the best professors. Famous people like former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Cornell West can teach anywhere they want. I bet they don't want to teach at a university with a homogenous (i.e., dull) student body. Professors are also very liberal and therefore support initiatives like affirmative action. Also, they want to go where the money is!!
Like I said, other people have some good points, but having received my undergraduate degree from Harvard and my master's degree from New York University I've seen firsthand how these educational institutions are just like any other business in America.
Specific example of why this is considered: MIT has been known to turn down people with top grades when there's evidence that they will deal very poorly with no longer being at the top of their class. Someone who can draw good grades and sustain extracurricular activities is more likely to survive in that environment than someone who got those grades by doing nothing but study.
One further point that I haven't seen yet in the other answers relates to a general philosophy of education.
My impression is that in many countries, the philosophy of education is centered around the development of technical skills. In the United States, however, it is often held that the primary purpose of education is to develop a creative and insightful mind.
This philosophy is reflected in the "breadth" or "common core" requirements that appear at many universities, which assume that a student cannot be considered "well educated" unless they have been taught to think in ways other than is preferred by by their discipline. For example, as an undergraduate at MIT, I was required to take classes from a range of scientific disciplines (math, biology, physics, chemistry), and also a humanities course in every semester, as well as doing a humanities focus entirely unrelated to my major.
This notion that intellectual "breadth" is as important as intellectual "depth" seems to play a strong role in the way in which admissions are handled for US undergraduates. Whether it is truly a good or bad thing is something there is currently no clear answer to, but some have argued that this philosophy may be an important contributor to the highly successful US "startup" and small business culture.
My impression is that in many European countries, these broader subjects are just covered in the equivalent of high school instead.
@TobiasKildetoft In the US, they are also covered in high school. University courses, however, tend to go much deeper and expect much higher performance out of students than high school courses in the humanities, just as they do for technical courses.
I suppose it depends on the specific course and the country. As far as I can tell at least the language courses tend to be very introductory (and those math courses that seem to be commonly taken by non majors certainly cover less than what I learned in high school).
In the US, it all comes down to decentralized control and funding.
Education is primarily a State and local responsibility in the United
States.
[source]
This is actually a consequence of the US constitution which limits the reach of the Federal government in States affairs. Even in the few instances where some Federal funds are allocated to education, the Federal government will usually disburse those funds and leave the implementation details to the States themselves.
It is States and communities, as well as public and private
organizations of all kinds, that establish schools and colleges,
develop curricula, and determine requirements for enrollment and
graduation. The structure of education finance in America reflects
this predominant State and local role.
[source]
In other words, there is not one single academic standard that runs across the entire United States and there is not a single standard way to measure the abilities of students. One could say that the SAT and the ACT are such standards, but those are not government-sponsored, nor government-mandated, they're just private and proprietary products owned and licensed by the companies that developed them, and those tests are just partial bandaid solutions that have evolved over time as a direct result of not having standards in the first place.
In any case, even if academic abilities could be measured accurately, there is still the issue of which entities and special interests are funding the University. If it's a particular State, it wants the children of its electorates (this is usually written in their charter). If it's private donors, then it means they want their children and the children of their friends to be accepted (that's also written in their charter, but instead of using the word "nepotism", the euphemism "legacy" is used instead). If it's the military (through the ROTC, or the GI Bill), it wants its recruits and its veterans and/or their dependents to be accepted by the schools it funds (keep this in mind if you ever want to become a Medical Doctor and don't have the best absolute grades for it).
If a University was started by funds from a particular religion, or if it is supported by local politicians, or by local private interests, that are predominantly one religion, then it will tend to favor members from that particular religion. The same goes for Universities that practice racial discrimination (whether be it the negative kind of discrimination and preferential nepotism, or affirmative action which is supposed to correct past discrimination and past nepotism).
And if a University depends on the funds from college sports, either franchising, rebroadcasting rights, increased publicity, and/or increased donations from Alumni, then it will do its very best to recruit athletes for its sports teams through its admission process.
In the US, professional sports leagues are government-backed monopolies (exempt from anti-trust regulations). Those sports leagues artificially limit the number of teams they allow to very low numbers (at least compared to our population size). And semi-professional college leagues end up filling the gaps left by professional leagues, except that schools are legally required not to pay their athletes (except for tuition and expense reimbursements), thus creating a real bargain for each school.
Also on the athletic side of things, even if you're not good enough to play on a college league for a University, having attended school both in France and in the US, I'll disagree with you and say that athleticism probably has a bigger role in France than in the US. The French school system has a standardized and a rigorous way of testing high school students for general physical education, which will figure as a part of their Baccalauréat and therefore indirectly be a part of the overall criteria used for University admissions. But physical education in the US is largely dependent on the particular high school you attended. In California, where I attended, it was basically a joke (and thus can not be relied on for University admissions, unless you took sports as extracurricular activities, thus this would explain why they would want you to list those extracurricular sports on college applications).
Extra curricular activities indicate levels of involvement and discipline that grades alone don't always reflect. If two students have equivalent grades and equivalent coursework, it's more impressive if one student was able to do that while participating in a sport, a music group, and volunteering while the other student did not have these additional time constraints. A university would likely see a student with strong extracurricular involvement as one who would be more likely to be involved in activities in college, which can benefit the school by improving its image ("look at our students giving back to the community") or through research (the "do it all" types may be more likely to participate in undergrad research). Colleges like well-rounded students, and having extracurricular involvement shows well-roundedness.
Legacy students...that's an entirely different matter in my opinion. That may be more to appease the alumni parents who might donate. Also, if the parents are alums, the kid may be more likely to matriculate (because colleges want a high matriculation rate among accepted students) and be successful (if the parents were able to graduate, the kid probably would as well).
I always assumed parents would complain that their precious child was not being measured accurately if admissions criteria did not include ridiculous things like hiking in the Himalayas.
But there’s also not really any choice. As a current college student in a fairly elite college with fairly elite stats, I of all people know that high-school GPAs and the SAT are meaningless for college success. A lot of high schools, like inner city or rural schools, produce kids with high GPAs and the inability to do basic math. The SAT is something you can study maybe three weeks for and get a full score on. The most impressive thing I can see on a resume is doing well in Math Olympiad or high-school programming/robotics contests. That is not something available to everyone.
In the end, colleges need to separate kids somehow, and the basic criteria, like GPA and standardized test scores are just not adequate. So they turn to feel-good things like trips to Nepal. It’s almost not the college’s fault... except they could imitate the Asian system and administer their own personal examinations for entrance. That would make a lot more sense, but you would have to refer to my first comment about over-sensitive parents and college administrators as for why that would not work.
i would be way more impressed by someone substantially contributing to an open source software project before graduating high school then doing well in a programming/robotics contest. Another example is that I personally knew a fellow classmate when I was in high school that was actively involved in fighting for the rights of diabetics including health care rights on a fairly high level which was impressive. These are only some examples of extra curricular activities that might hold weight other then the aforementioned hiking in the Himalayas (which is completely irrelevant).
As Najib Idrissi pointed out, nonacademic criteria play a large role in the admissions process in the US, because it is a way for universities to discriminate students while keeping plausible deniability. It is a common misconception, however, that it's mostly rich White men who benefit from this:
Perhaps the most detailed statistical research into the actual
admissions practices of American universities has been conducted by
Princeton sociology professor Thomas J. Espenshade and his colleagues,
whose results were summarized in his 2009 book No Longer Separate, Not
Yet Equal, co-authored with Alexandria Walton Radford. Their findings
provide an empirical look at the individual factors that dramatically
raise or lower the likelihood of acceptance into the leading American
universities which select the next generation of our national elites.
The research certainly supports the widespread perception that
non-academic factors play a major role in the process, including
athletic ability and “legacy” status. But as we saw earlier, even more
significant are racial factors, with black ancestry being worth the
equivalent of 310 points, Hispanics gaining 130 points, and Asian
students being penalized by 140 points, all relative to white
applicants on the 1600 point Math and Reading SAT scale.
source
Here's how it typically works:
Consider the case of Tiffany Wang, a Chinese immigrant student raised
in the Silicon Valley area, where her father worked as an engineer.
Although English was not her first language, her SAT scores were over
100 points above the Wesleyan average, and she ranked as a National
Merit Scholarship semifinalist, putting her in the top 0.5 percent of
high school students (not the top 2 percent as Steinberg mistakenly
claims). Nevertheless, the admissions officer rated her just so-so in
academics, and seemed far more positively impressed by her ethnic
activism in the local school’s Asian-American club. Ultimately, he
stamped her with a “Reject,” but later admitted to Steinberg that she
might have been admitted if he had been aware of the enormous time and
effort she had spent campaigning against the death penalty, a
political cause near and dear to his own heart. Somehow I suspect that
a student who boasted of leadership in pro-death penalty activism
among his extracurriculars might have fared rather worse in this
process. And presumably for similar reasons, Tiffany was also rejected
by all her other prestigious college choices, including Yale, Penn,
Duke, and Wellesley, an outcome which greatly surprised and
disappointed her immigrant father.
There was also the case of half-Brazilian Julianna Bentes, with slight
black ancestry, who came from a middle-class family and attended on a
partial scholarship one of America’s most elite prep schools, whose
annual tuition now tops $30,000; her SAT scores were somewhat higher
than Tiffany’s, and she was an excellent dancer. The combination of
her academic ability, dancing talent, and “multiracial” background
ranked her as one of America’s top college recruitment prospects,
gaining her admission and generous financial packages from Harvard,
Yale, Stanford and every other elite university to which she applied,
including the University of Chicago’s most prestigious academic
scholarship award and a personal opportunity to meet Chelsea Clinton
while visiting Stanford, which she did, before ultimately selecting
Yale.
Finally, there was the case of Becca Jannol, a girl from a very
affluent Jewish family near Beverly Hills, who attended the same elite
prep school as Julianna, but with her parents paying the full annual
tuition. Despite her every possible advantage, including test-prep
courses and retaking the exam, her SAT scores were some 240 points
lower on the 1600 point scale, placing her toward the bottom of the
Wesleyan range, while her application essay focused on the
philosophical challenges she encountered when she was suspended for
illegal drug use. But she was a great favorite of her prep school
counselor, who was an old college friend of the Wesleyan admissions
officer, and using his discretion, he stamped her “Admit.” Her dismal
academic record then caused this initial decision to be overturned by
a unanimous vote of the other members of the full admissions
committee, but he refused to give up, and moved heaven and earth to
gain her a spot, even offering to rescind the admissions of one or
more already selected applicants to create a place for her. Eventually
he got her shifted from the Reject category to wait-list status, after
which he secretly moved her folder to the very top of the large
waiting list pile.
In the end “connections” triumphed, and she received admission to
Wesleyan, although she turned it down in favor of an offer from more
prestigious Cornell, which she had obtained through similar means. But
at Cornell, she found herself “miserable,” hating the classes and
saying she “didn’t see the usefulness of [her] being there.” However,
her poor academic ability proved no hindrance, since the same
administrator who had arranged her admission also wrangled her a quick
entrance into a special “honors program” he personally ran, containing
just 40 of the 3500 students in her year. This exempted her from all
academic graduation requirements, apparently including classes or
tests, thereby allowing her to spend her four college years mostly
traveling around the world while working on a so-called “special
project.” After graduation, she eventually took a job at her father’s
successful law firm, thereby realizing her obvious potential as a
member of America’s ruling Ivy League elite, or in her own words, as
being one of “the best of the best.”
source
Whether or not one agrees with the stance/opinion of this answer, it should be edited down and not just a copy-paste of a large chunk of text. It also doesn't seem to address the question "why does X happen", it merely quotes at length some sources saying "X has led to Consequence Y which we think is very bad"
@YemonChoi : I DID respond to the question "Why do undergraduate admissions in the U.S take into account nonacademic criteria?", explaining that it is a way for universities to discriminate students while keeping plausible deniability. And I quoted from a source that addresses this issue in great detail to refute one of the most common misconceptions about who is discriminated and why!
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44782 | How should I write an email asking about the status of my PhD application?
I applied for a PhD position. As part of the admission process, the professor requested two letters of recommendation, which have been sent. I was then asked to wait a week, but now two weeks have passed and I have not heard from the professor yet. So, I would like to ask about the status of my PhD application. I have no clue how to write it. Please help!!!
Thank you in advance.
Welcome to Academia SE. It would help if you expanded your question with additional details, as it is, it is very vague and hard to answer.
Thank you very much. The question is edited accordingly.
Thanks for editing, this is much clearer now and I retracted my previous comment.
You applied directly to a professor? This is most unusual, normally you apply to a department or a university.
@RoboKaren: This may be most unusual in some countries, but it isn’t in mine.
I wouldn't make too much fuss about it. A simple short and polite email which states that the current state of affairs (letters were sent, you were asked to wait for a week) and inquires whether there were some problems with your application and what its status is.
On the side note, a week waiting is not at all alarming in academia, unless some explicit deadlines are in place. I would wait for at least another 10 days before contacting the professor.
I also agree with RoboKaren, it is highly unusual to apply to a professor. Therefore, another cultural/professional practices may apply in your case. However, a polite email is almost always acceptable (whether or not it is ignored is another question...).
It really depends on OP's location. In Europe it would not be "highly unusual" to apply directly to a professor, it is actually pretty normal.
I'm from Europe and the only instances where I heard of such practice is when you transition from undergraduate to graduate within the same institution. In those cases the process is usually somewhat informal, although the future graduate student still has to go through the admission process. "Outsiders" first pass the admission and afterwards go to a professor for supervision. Prior communication with the desired mentor is not unusual, and the professor can convey their impression of you to the committee, but you still need to address your documents to the official admissions.
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208871 | How do I navigate a tenure track job offer, having already accepted a 1-year postdoc offer?
if I already accepted a postdoc offer from Europe (only 1 year) and later received a tenure-track assistant professor offer from a research university in US,
I do not want to lose both opportunities, are there any good suggestions to handle these offers, how to write a letter to the professors/chairs?
Is there any reason why you can't quit the postdoc? It'll be inconvenient for them, but they'll sure understand.
would the university be willing to delay your start date? When are the relevant start dates?
What is your goal here? To tell the post-doc you changed your mind so you can start the faculty position? Or to do both?
I tell you what, if the postdoc that I accepted to my lab told me she landed a tenure-track job here in the US, I'd be excited for her and wish her good luck if she needed to back out.
A general observation to supplement the answers below: tenure-track hiring is a long-term endeavor. A department offering you a TT position hopes that you will be there for the rest of your career. Waiting one extra year to get someone you hope to employ for decades is not such a big deal. (Although as Aru points out, the department may face other constraints.)
Many universities would be willing to defer your start date by 1 year. A 1 year postdoc, with eg few teaching responsibilities and not worrying about finding your next job, can be extremely fruitful! So in that sense it also benefits your future university. It’s very reasonable and usual to ask for such a deferral.
EDIT: Regarding how to broach the topic with the TT/postdoc places, personally I would suggest to be up front and honest. Your mileage might vary depending on the university/institute. You said that the TT offer is from a research university. For any university or liberal arts college in the US where your TT job will have a substantial research component, this request should not surprise them. When you negotiate the terms of the TT offer, write something like the following:
Earlier this year I accepted a 1-year postdoc position at
[[INSTITUTE]]. This would be a valuable opportunity to get my research
up and running before starting a permanent position. Would it be
possible to defer starting at [[UNIVERSITY]] for one year?
If you are nervous, you could consider being a bit more vague in the first part, for example by saying "I have the opportunity to go to [[INSTITUTE]] for up to one year", rather than saying you accepted an offer.
There may well be reasons that they cannot grant you a deferral, or maybe they can only defer for part of a year, but it's a reasonable to thing to ask for. It's worth remembering that once you have a TT offer, the ball is in your court, and it would be virtually unheard of for them to retract the offer.
If the TT offer is for a position with little or no research expectation, they are less likely to grant a deferral. But it might still be worth asking for one.
If they agree to defer, they will create a new offer with a new, agreed start date, and the procedure to accept will be the same one as now.
For the postdoc offer, again your mileage may vary depending on the location and your responsibilities. At my current (pure mathematics) institute there are numerous postdocs with zero teaching or administrative responsibilities, so if someone accepts an offer and then later changes their mind, that does not make a huge difference for us (yes this does periodically happen). This just opens up another spot for us to fill in a future application round, or off the waiting list. If your postdoc comes with teaching responsibilities, or you are supposed to be doing something specific in e.g. someone's lab, it will be harder for them to find a replacement. If you know someone at the postdoc institution, e.g. a postdoc mentor, it would be best to ask them directly for advice. If you were made an offer from someone's personal grant, backing out of an offer, while possible, is a delicate procedure and should be undertaken diplomatically.
Source: I work at a research institute in Europe where numerous people spend such 1-year postdocs (I am extremely curious if that is where your postdoc will be!)
This is a good answer, but you might want to add a bit about how to communicate with the various places as well.
i agree! Working in Europe even for 1 year will benefit my career. So how to write a letter to defer the offer from US? should we sign an agreement with the US school?
I added some text about how to contact the two places, I hope this helps!
Yes, I agree with this completely, in the USA.
thank you so much!
I've run faculty searches in STEM at a top-5 University in the US. It is extremely common for us to hire someone in a tenure track (TT) position and then recommend that they do a one or two-year post-doc before coming to our department.
As somebody else stated, this usually benefits the department as well, because you learn something new, and they clearly think very highly of you already, which is why they gave you the TT offer in the first place. So just ask the department if it's okay.
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1820 | Undergraduate European Computer Science Schools and their application process?
I'm a U.S. sophomore (junior in the fall) studying Computer Science looking to transfer. I have three questions:
What schools in Europe should I look into for Computer Science? To clarify what I'm looking for out of this question, I'm not asking for schools tailored to what I'm seeking (ie, will this school be good specifically for me), but rather the shared consensus of which schools are considered respectable for Computer Science. For example, even in the states I think everyone would say Oxford and Cambridge are well respected, but beyond that most (including myself) are not aware of other schools not in the U.S.
What is the timeframe for applying to these schools? In the U.S. most schools allow you to transfer into the spring or fall semesters, with the application being due approximately 6 months in advance (for example, due in March for fall semester that starts in September) and the application process starting 9 months in advance.
Ballpark, how much does it cost for international students to study at these schools? I've heard that University tuition is much lower in Europe. I have tried transferring to schools in the U.S., but for both schools I got accepted into the financial strain of ~30k in loans per year made it impossible to transfer. I don't want to waste my time applying to schools across seas if the same will happen.
I suppose you're looking for advice related to undergraduate courses in Europe? In that case, perhaps you might want to re-frame the question title to reflect that...
You are correct. The title has been revised, thanks.
That's three questions in one - please just ask one question at a time. And please be aware that, in general, this site doesn't take questions about undergraduate study - see the FAQ: http://academia.stackexchange.com/faq
Independent of the issue about undergrad scope, I think the first question might be better posed on cs.stackexchange.com since it's very CS specific.
I grouped the three questions together because if someone knows the answer to one of these questions, they'll most likely know the answer to all three (based on the perspective of a European asking me the same questions about U.S. schools). If I must split these questions, should I farm this into three questions asked concurrently or serially? And if it is believe to better ask the first question on the CS board, I will happily move it.
I think these three questions make more sense together than apart.
One thing you need to be aware of is that most undergraduate courses are taught in the native language of the country. It is only (and not always) at the masters level that English kicks in. There are of course exceptions.
maybe you could ask this question on this site proposal: undergraduates. Follow it if you find it interesting!
As there are many different countries in Europe, each with many different Universities, and each probably has its own application procedures and costs. You will need to consult each candidate university's website to find the appropriate information.
As an example, I googled "International Admission University College London" and clicked around to this page. It estimates 11-14,000 pounds living costs (food, accommodation etc) per annum and, clicking further, 24,500 pounds of tuition fees (I guess, per annum). London is expensive to live in.
There's plenty of information on the web. Universities are competing for students, and are happy to take your money, so they provide good web sites to make it easy for you.
Regarding timing, I think it's good to start looking into it now. On one website (ETH, I think), they said admissions closed at the end of April, but late admissions will close at the end of July. Time is tight.
You need a strategy to get this done relatively quickly.
Do a bit of googling about universities and countries.
Select a few candidate places and find their web pages about international admission procedures and fees. Also check whether they have a program in English.
Perhaps make a few phone calls, though with the time difference this will be difficult.
Narrow down the set of candidate universities to relevant ones that fit your budget and are in sufficiently interesting places.
Apply!
Don't forget that you will need to obtain a visa, and that can take months (especially if you were to come from a dodgy country).
If you believe in university rankings here is the one from QS. According to it, the following nine European universities belong to the world top 50 in Computer Science: Cambridge (UK), Oxford (UK), ETH Zurich (CH), Imperial College London (UK), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH), École Normale Supérieure, Paris (FR), University of Basel (CH), University of Amsterdam (NL), London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (UK). Basically, I would say that all universities in the world top 200 list are good.
Moreover, depending on what are in Computer Science you prefer, it might be a good decision a university outside of this top 50/200 if they are specialised in the area you like.
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17178 | "Due to many requests, the submission deadline has been extended" is this real?
following different CS conferences I see the following phrase very often:
Due to many requests, the submission deadline has been extended.
Or something similar to this.
I won't overestimate if I said 80% of the conferences (I have followed) have this attitude. This brings me to the question of whether this is true or people (conference organisers) admit a lie when say this. Why does this attitude exit in CS conferences? Do other fields experience the same thing?
Even if this were a lie, why does this bother you?
Because it's unprofessional to lie. If the organizers always intended to use the later deadline, then it's manipulative to announce an earlier date. If it's an unplanned extension because the organizers are disappointed in the number of submissions, then it's misleading to suggest that the extension is because of great demand.
maybe to learn how CS conferences are organized ..
In order for the extension to happen, you'll need more than half of the organizing committee to approve, right? That should constitute "many."
The last conference I submitted to sent out an e-mail five days before the deadline: Warning: the deadline will not be extended!. It seems very common for deadlines to be extended, at least in the geosciences.
Warning: personal opinion.
I view conferences that regularly shift submission deadlines as a little suspect. You're right that this happens in CS conferences, and it soon becomes pointless because everyone expects the extension ("Nobody expects the extension!!"). But your estimate of 80% is rather off. Almost none of the (many) conferences I submit to have deadline extensions for submission of the full paper.
And don't underestimate the level of pleading that goes on. People will always ask for an extension if they have even a smidgen of hope that the pleading will work. It's only when a conference takes a firm stand for many years that people stop asking.
In my fields (Software Engineering, Web Engineering) 80% seems about right. Basically none of the A conferences move their deadline, and basically all of the B-or-Weaker conferences and workshops extend.
More importantly, and pertinent to the OP's concerns, do deadline extensions in any way undermine the reputation/quality/prestige/integrity of the conference itself, regardless of the reason?
@Paul that's hard to say. It does for me personally, and also for people I speak with, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a widespread feeling.
@xLeitix then I'd say the OP needs to look at better venues :)
@Paul Arguably, yes. Deadline extensions because there weren't enough submissions are obviously bad. Deadline extensions because of many requests mean that many papers were rushed and written at the last minute, so are more likely to contain more errors.
@DavidRicherby: I guess it all depends on the lens with which one looks at it.
Extensions are common in conferences because many people procrastinate and or otherwise just need a little more time to complete their paper, prompting a heavy demand for extensions. Unless the conference is overwhelmed by submissions (which is very rarely the case), there's usually room for a little bit of flexibility in the submission deadline.
It's not a lie... Organizers tend to anticipate it based on past experiences in previous conferences.
It may not be a lie - there may be indeed many requests for extension. It's unfair to those who submit their papers before the first deadline.
I agree with @scaaahu. I consider late submissions unprofessional and often such submissions still have rough edges due to being rushed. I can only hope timely submissions get the benefit of the doubt over late ones when applicable. Ofcourse this depends entirely on the people handling the CfP.
I fear that because it is so prevelant, and everybody expects deadlines to be extended, conferences may feel that if they announce the true deadline (after which they will be too rushed for the rest of the process), they will not get enough submissions by then...
This is a chicken-and-egg issue though. People "expect" it because it's already happened before, and "it's been done before" because allegedly people "expect" it. The easiest way out of this cycle is to not do and make it clear that you won't do it.
The people who do submit their papers before the first deadline usually withdraw their paper to work on it more and resubmit, or they just enjoy their week off while everyone else scrambles.
This is outside CS, but in my field, I've only had three conferences extend submissions, and they were all for low numbers of submissions.
One I know because the day a office mate and I submitted (the last official deadline day) we were abstracts 001 and 002, and we were not early morning people. This one, ironically, is probably the closest to your experience, and arguably was a CS conference, even though I'm not in CS.
One has a chronic problem with this, because the session they're recruiting for (its a big enough conference that there are multiple sessions each with their own abstract committees) is a lot of work without much payoff.
One was because the sequester made travel by federal employees in the U.S. impossible, which meant a quarter of the abstracts were suddenly gone. So the "late breaker" deadline got moved way back.
So in my experience its fairly uncommon, and either symptomatic of a larger problem with submissions, or some unforeseen circumstance.
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23354 | A manuscript I refereed gave me an idea for a paper, not sure how to proceed
So, last week I refereed a paper for a journal. The paper in question is a reply to a previous paper by a different author: it points out a serious problem in the original paper and then proposes a solution. The evaluation I sent back to the editors is that, while the problem is real (to the extent that a different researcher has independently identified it), there are a number of reasons why the proposed solution is not going to work.
Over the weekend, I started thinking about the paper in question again and suddenly realized that I know how to solve the problem (in a nutshell: you need to use a technique originally developed to solve a mildly related class of problems, but which nobody had yet thought of applying to this particular domain). Right now, I have a bunch of handwritten notebook pages with everything I need to write a paper, and all I have left to do is to find a couple of hours to sit in front of my computer and type it up properly.
The question is, how should I proceed now? On the one hand, given that I've developed my own solution, I'm not plagiarizing the paper I refereed (in fact, I intend to give it proper credit for discovering the problem). On the other hand, if I hadn't been asked to referee this paper, I wouldn't have put enough thought into it to come up with my own solution. More generally, to what extent is it acceptable to write a paper that directly builds on a paper you've been asked to referee?
Is there a preprint of the paper available, or any other way how you could have learnt about their work beside being a referee?
I'm not sure why you think this is a special case? Had you read the paper in pre-print and come up with the same idea would you have a problem then? I'm not sure where you think the issue lies?
The issue lies in the idea that you can't cite to a non-public source. If there were a pre-print on the web, you can cite to that as the source of your inspiration even if the pre-print turned out to be wrong. On the other hand, you have a duty of confidence in an article you receive for review. It doesn't really exist outside the review process.
@JackAidley: There is also the ethical concern that the OP gave what amounts to a negative evaluation of the paper (a measured one, but the way these things work one presumes the journal will not publish it), but at the same time the paper has turned out to be -- somewhat indirectly -- of real value to him. I think his instinct of inquiring how to behave honorably here is a good one.
To be sure: in related situations, I've wondered whether there's a conflict of interest pushing the author to reject the paper to publish his one.
I think there are two questions that need to be answered first.
Is it important to you (e.g. for career reasons) to publish solo, or would you consider publishing with the other author? Keep in mind that publishing jointly may have extra benefits: the two of you together might come up with an even better solution, or it may lead to future collaborations on other projects. Or do you perhaps not care about getting credit at all?
Is the manuscript public? Has it been posted as a preprint on arXiv or a similar server, or on the author's website, etc?
Depending on the answers, there are a few cases:
You don't care about getting credit. Write your report on the paper: "The approach to agrobaric frobotzim via PDQ analysis is unworkable because of foo, bar and baz. However, this could be fixed by using QPM analysis instead. [Sketch your idea here.] Pending this fix [and any other suggested revisions], I recommend the paper for publication." Expect that when the paper is published, there will be an acknowledgement: "We thank the anonymous referee for suggesting the approach used in Section 5."
You want to publish jointly. Contact the editor: "The author's approach to agrobaric frobotzim via PDQ analysis is unworkable, and as such I cannot recommend the paper for publication as it stands. However, I have some ideas about how to resolve the problem, and I would be interested in collaborating with the author to work them out. Would you be willing to put me in touch with her?"
The editor says yes. Great!
The editor says no, and the manuscript is public. Submit your report pointing out the flaws and recommending rejection. After a decent interval contact the author: "I saw your preprint, and had an idea to improve the results using QPM analysis. Would you be interested in working together on this?" Opinions vary on whether you should reveal that you were the referee; it is possible the author will guess anyway.
The editor says no, and the manuscript is not public, but you know who the author is. Submit your report pointing out the flaws and recommending rejection. The next step is a bit controversial. Some would say you should wait until it is public, so as not to break the anonymity of the reviewing process. Others think it is fine to reveal yourself and contact the author directly to suggest collaboration. I am not sure what to say here.
The editor says no, and the manuscript is not public, and you do not know who the author is (double-blind reviewing). You have no choice but to wait until the manuscript is made public (maybe until it is published somewhere else), since that's the only way to find the author and suggest collaboration. If you think you should give up on finding the author and publish solo instead, see below.
You want to publish solo. Write and submit your report. Now, is the manuscript public?
The manuscript is public. You may write your paper, citing the other author's preprint and giving her due credit for noticing the problem. This is ethical, but if you meet the author at a conference, don't expect her to buy you a beer: she was hoping to solve this problem but you beat her to it.
The manuscript is not public. You may not proceed. As a reviewer, you received the manuscript in confidence, and to write a solo paper based on it would be to take unfair advantage of that access. You must wait until the preprint appears publicly. (This might be when it is published in another journal, or maybe never.) It's possible that in the meantime, the author will discover your solution independently; those are the breaks. This would be a great time to reconsider seeking joint authorship.
In case 2, if your field has a notion of "first authorship", that would be something you'd need to negotiate with the other author, based on your field's norms. (Mine uses alphabetical ordering almost exclusively, so this issue wouldn't arise.)
I think the morals of this also depend somewhat on seniority. If the referee is more senior than the author, then 1 is definitely the right thing to do, and 3.1 would be pretty unethical.
@NoahSnyder Why does seniority play into this? If the OP is a post doc or assistant prof and the original author is a PhD student, the ethical choice is to gift the younger author with a central idea for a paper? I'm not convinced. All in all, I think all of the above are ok from the point of view of research ethics. However, 3.1 may indeed not make you any friends. I would try to make 2.X work.
Btw., super-good summary of a complex issue! +1
@xLeitix: It's pretty common in pure math for competing with a grad student to be viewed as unethical. There's an expectation that grad students will work on independent projects, and pressuring them to collaborate or coauthor could hurt their careers (by making it look like they weren't capable of independent work). As for giving them an idea, they should certainly credit it to the referee. But turning the idea into a paper is usually a far more substantial project than just coming up with the idea, unless it's an amazing idea or a mediocre paper, so this may not be an unreasonable gift.
@AnonymousMathematician Interesting! How do you decide whether you are competing with a PhD student? For all you know, for every problem you are working on, there might be a grad student somewhere just one step before a solution.
@xLeitix: Yeah, accidents certainly happen. Mainly the expectation is that if you know a graduate student is working on something, then starting to work on it yourself would be unethical (while it would be perhaps rude but ethical if you were competing with someone more senior). There are certainly limitations to this: if a grad student announces their intention to solve the Riemann hypothesis, that's not taken seriously. One way this works in practice is that the advisor will go around telling experts "My student Alice is trying to do X." (to try to keep accidents from happening).
@Nate Eldredge: thanks for the very useful reply. I'm going to go with option 2.3, which is pretty much the case. I don't like option 1 because it's one thing to hint at a certain way of doing things and a very different thing to write a whole paper for another person and then have only his name appear on it. We are both about the same level of seniority and he's one of the people I want to have my name associated with. So, joint publication it is.
@Koldito: I'd be careful about 2.3. If the editor refuses to put you in touch with the referee, then the editor may feel this is unethical (in which going ahead and doing it anyway could be a problem). 2.1 and 2.2 are much less ethically fraught.
My advisor told me a problem that I solved and turned into part of a dissertation. (At the same time, another researcher came up with an independent solution, but that is not the point.) The problem was obviously inspired by a paper he was reviewing, and the authors of that paper later welcomed my solution. No discussion of who the referee was ever reached my ears. I suspect they didn't care. If someone did care, in court your lawyer could ask you to "plead the fifth" and tell the jury that you learned it from the actual referee, whose identity you are protecting for other reasons.
Co author.... all the way.
But don't ask if he wants to coauthor after you've completed the paper 100% because then you're not really asking, your telling him. Which is generous true... but in a sort of superior way.
This is a good point. As an author, I'd be much happier to be asked "Would you like to work with me on the following idea? I've got some promising preliminary results, so perhaps we could write a joint paper." than told "I decided to work on the problem myself and have finished writing a better paper. Shall I add your name to it too?"
You really do have three options: 1) don't write a paper (ok, not an option), 2) write it by yourself (I don't think a great option), or 3) write it with the other person as a co-author. It depends a little on how your field assigns authorship.
Here is what I think I would suggest. Write the paper and when it is basically complete, email the author of the paper you reviewed and let them know you came up with a solution and have written a paper on it. Offer them an authorship on your paper and then send them your paper with a timeline of when to get back to you.
This way you are not burning bridges and you are collegial. Then they can decide if they want to be on the paper or not.
It is a tough position to be in but given their paper got you thinking it is probably best to ask if they would like to be an author.
BTW, if you are a student, discuss with your supervisor. :-)
You wouldn't offer them authorship if their paper was published and you built on it; why should you just because their paper isn't published?
Because you reviewed their paper and shot it down. :-)
That has nothing to do with authorship
It depends a lot on the situation, but if you rejected a paper and then published on the same topic it could be viewed as non-collegial. In my field, at least, first and last authors are the most important. The one writing the paper will get first author (in my field) and offering a middle authorship doesn't cost anything but could be beneficial. It does depend on how authorship in the OP's field is assigned.
Why not do the whole thing together? Email telling them you know how to solve the problem, and propose to work it out together.
It depends on how authorship goes in the OP's field and how collegial the original author might be. If the OP has already figured out the solution, then, my feeling is that the OP should write up most of the paper and then contact the original author. If the OP only has "an idea how toward the solution" but not the solution, then, sure, maybe contact the original author and discuss how they could solve it. But it sounds like the OP has the solution. It is a balance, no question there.
@Steve To play a bit Devil's advocate: Isn't this all independent of whether Koldito was a reviewer or not? If the work done in identifying the problem is worth a paper (I can think of quite a few problems where this was the case) it ought to be published. If Koldito would offer co-authorship to someone after reading that published paper, he ought to do even if it isn't. Also how would co-authorship work here? It seems to boil down to "Hey I read your paper and decided to work on the problem myself and actually solved it. Shall I add your name to the finished paper?".
@Steve I assume the paper would focus more on the actual solution, since there's already another paper out there showing that the original paper is flawed. Summarizing this would certainly require a citation and citing unpublished work is always complicated, but is this really co-authorship? To be completely hyperbolic here (it's 4am, if this counts as an excuse :-)): Wiles certainly read some accounts of Fermat's last theorem from which he got the idea to work on the problem, but giving him the idea wouldn't really qualify for co-authorship - he probably cited the source though.
@Steve That's how I interpreted "while the problem is real (to the extent that a different researcher has independently identified it)". Certainly if a large part of the paper was proving this assumption I would agree that that would change the matter at hand.
@Voo: ah, my mistake then. I interpreted "points out" to mean that doing so was original, I didn't really clock that the independent confirmation was already published before this author came along...
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35109 | Appropriate response to misattributed title?
There are many questions here on how to address someone by their title or current status.
What should one do in the case they are addressed by a title they do not have?
Some example of this:
A student submitting a paper and the editor emailing using the Professor/Dr. title.
A PhD in a research lab (not university) being invited for a talk and a letter stating "Dear Professor..."
A researcher (non PhD) being referred to as Dr.
If this is too broad, the question can be edited to just one situation.
In this type of case, should one reply and directly address the title?
I reply and correct (I had people address me as "Professor Grinberg" even back when I was in high school -- I suspect someone taught them it is better to be safe than sorry, and they are doing it to everyone). If you ask me, the very idea of addressing people by title belongs in a museum.
@darijgrinberg "This belongs into a museum!" (cue Indiana Jones theme song)
@darijgrinberg: Good luck with that, especially in Germany. . . .
Closed as a duplicate of a question that was posted 10 months later?
@user1938107 Yes, this happens sometimes: when a high-quality question and answer set emerges that people do not realize is a duplicate at the time, then people may choose to close the earlier answer if they judge it lower quality than the later.
The standard answer to such issues is to ignore. By and large, these situations arise because the editor etc. did not care to look up the recipient's real title. There is no malicious intent, actually there is likely no intent at all other than trying to use a catch-all title that the editor assumes will not offend anybody (typically Dr. or Prof.). No harm is done by not rectifying this error, and indeed spending more than a short chuckle on this is too much effort.
(also, being addressed by the wrong title is, at least for me, so common that I mostly stopped noticing it)
I am not sure about "no harm is done" -- the author might view your silence as a confirmation that you, in fact, hold that title, and then the title will wind up in the press or on the internet, often in a context that will create the impression that you have agreed to its use. (Back when I was the only schoolkid in my town taking part in math contests, I had a fair share of press about me, and I learnt a lot about not leaving things to be misunderstood...)
@darijgrinberg: It needs to be corrected if it's a "persistent" issue.
I'd go with calmly correcting them at the next easy opportunity to do so without causing them too much public embarassment, just as you would if they got your name slightly wrong. Drop them an e-mail, or bring it up next time you're talking with them: "For future reference, I prefer to be called Mr. Blanc, not Doctor Blanc." (With or without explanation of why the other form is incorrect.)
When I was a graduate student, I was often called "Doctor", and now as a working research scientist I am often called "Professor." I also frequently have people misattribute my affiliation, e.g., saying that I'm at my alma mater rather than my current affiliation.
How I respond depends on the context. My main categories are:
Interactions with an organization that doesn't care about me (e.g., review request from a journal, conference spam): I don't bother to correct: they aren't making a judgement based on the title, and they may not actually have a reasonable ability to correct it if they do, given that many journal and conference management systems use atrocious software.
Interactions with an organization that really does care about credentials (e.g., serving on government review panels): Here, I note the misattribution and check to make sure that my actual credentials satisfy the requirements of the organization, because otherwise I might be wasting everybody's time and money.
Interactions with colleagues and long-term interactions with students (e.g., co-advising): Gentle correction when I feel the misattribution could be perceived as giving me status that I do not have.
Brief, role-based interactions with students (e.g., questions at a guest lecture in somebody's class): I feel it would be actually rude to correct a student who really doesn't care about the title at all, and just wants some help understanding something.
Mostly, I take the stereotypical American position that we shouldn't care too much about title and affiliation, because we are all ultimately judged by our works, and most of the time nobody involved in the interaction really cares all that much about your title. In those cases where getting it right might actually matter, though, don't be shy about inquiring and correcting as needed.
Point #4: As a student, I do my best to use the correct title, but I often get it wrong with professors who I don't know well, especially at the start of of a new semester. That said, the majority of students just don't really care and default to 'professor', with the exception of introductions at seminars/presentations where the speaker has introduced themselves with a specific title.
There is going to be a large cultural bias depending on the country.
I have been addressed "Professor" even though the person speaking to me had "Dr" in front of his eyes, just because this was the tradition there.
In Italy you are a "doctor" when you get a MSc.
In Germany titles are very important, you do not want to make a mistake there.
In many other countries you address someone who graduated from medical studies as "doctor", however in Poland they do use "lek. med." as opposed to "dr med." -- the first one being the generic title for someone who graduated and is licensed, while the second clearly indicates that he or she has a PhD. You would still address that person as "doctor" in a conversation, but would refer to him or her as "lekarz" (the official name, where the abbreviation lek. comes from) when talking in 3rd person.
So it really depends on the place.
The only case where I would care is if this gets formalized (in a book, in proceedings, ...) or at the beginning of a long-term relationship.
Before I finally finished the doctorate, my syllabus said, "Call me Bob or Mr. Brown, whichever is more comfortable for you. but not 'doctor' or 'professor.'" Other than that, I didn't worry about it with students. Faculty all call each other by first names anyway, so it never came up in that context. (Now the syllabus says, "Call me Bob or Dr. Brown, whichever is more comfortable for you.")
My professional correspondence (email and postal mail) includes both my degree and my academic rank, so anyone corresponding with me has the correct information whether they need it nor not.
Outside school, I corrected those with whom I expected a long acquaintance, such as a new dentist, by saying, "Please call me Bob." If that didn't work, I added that I did not hold a doctorate. For everyone else, I ignored it.
In my institution and many like it, "professor" is used as a courtesy title by students for faculty who do not hold the doctorate, and less as a title of academic rank. How one reacts to "professor" will depend on local custom. Whether to correct those who call you professor depends on how it's used where you are. If one is a faculty member and "professor" is used as a courtesy, no correction is necessary.
I am reminded of a novel in which a character addressed as "doctor" says, "Oh, no! Not 'doctor." I'm only a humble F.R.C.S."
Yeah, addressing someone as "teacher" just feels wrong in college, somehow (or Mr./Mrs./Ms., if you're using their last name as well).
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19005 | How much can you trust a reference of a paper that is not available
It recently occurred to me that probably more often than it should happen, while reading someones paper, they see a reference to a different paper, and just use the reference without looking. In my area, a common example is in referencing data, such as average human height, etc.
I came across this as I was looking for data on human dimensions from a somewhat smaller country that does not use English. I found 9 papers that all referenced the same data sheet. I then contacted the author of that data sheet and was informed that there is no online version (never has been), and the only print copy exists in that country. The author herself does not have this book. I'm guessing the only reason the other authors referenced the data was because the author of the referenced data wrote a paper that referenced her own data.
I am not interested in how to format these citations. I would like to know if it is appropriate to cite this information at all, or cite that someone else cited it. I am curious as I am not sure about the accuracy of the information. If I do cite someone else's citation (which i am 99% confident they never saw the data), it seems like I can just make something up myself. Is there a way to express that maybe this data is accurate, but that I'm not sure, since it is the only available source about that data? Or should I ignore it all together and pretend as if there is no data?
I agree with ff524's answer, but I want to add that I think this is a really terrible situation. Just yesterday I found a study with over 400 citations which, once I obtained a copy, was extremely sloppy/borderline fraudulent.
Interesting related paper on arXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.2272 From the abstract: "We develop a stochastic model of the citation process, which [...] shows that about 70-90% of scientific citations
are copied from the lists of references used in other papers." (People who copy the reference line may still obtain and read the cited paper, but still...)
Related question in physics.se.
Is there a way to express this (not as a citation format), that maybe this data is accurate, but not sure, since it is the only available source about that data.
How about something like: "X, measured by Jones in 1950, is commonly given as the value for Y (as cited in Smith, 1989 and Cutler, 1995). However, the original manuscript by Jones describing this result is not generally available."
Or should I ignore it all together and pretend as if there is no data.
Don't do this. If X is cited often in the field, then by pretending as if there is no data, you give the appearance of not knowing your field.
Whether or not you should use X (knowing that it is unreliable) depends on your purposes.
If your work hinges on having an accurate value for X, then you definitely should not use X if you cannot track down a reliable source for it. (Nor should you make something up.)
If you are using X just as a "sane" value for something, and it isn't central to your work, on the other hand:
If you think you have a better value than X, and can justify why you are using a different value than everyone else in your field, go ahead.
Otherwise, if you need a value, you should just use X (unreliable as it is). A bit of unreliable data that is accepted in your field is still better than a bit of unreliable data that you just made up with no justification.
I agree that you shouldn't ignore the existing data, and that it is appropriate to cite it. But you should not use if you aren't convinced that it is reliable. Of course, if you have no reliable data, and can't produce your own, then you might not be able to proceed with this project; that's just the way it is.
@NateEldredge I would say it depends how much that value impacts the rest of the work. If you're using X as a "sane default" for something tangential, then an accepted but unreliable X is not such a concern; if your whole study hinges on X, then you have a major problem.
Sure. I guess by "reliable" I meant "reliable enough for your purposes".
@NateEldredge agreed, clarified in an edit
yea in this situation it is anthropomorphic measurements, so theres no way I can sample a large population size to get my own estimate, but it does data weighs heavily on the project
Actually, "there is no online version (never has been), and the only print copy exists in that country" shouldn't be an obstacle - that's what inter-library agreements are for; univeristy libraries generally are able to get [a copy of] that book for you even it's not online and the physical copies are all located abroad.
It's not conventient and does take time for it to arrive, but if it's widely cited but suspect, then taking a look at the original (and publishing what you find out) would be a Good Thing.
Some sources are just not retrievable - ILL only goes so far. But if your library can track down the source, that's definitely the way to go!
as I mentioned, there is only one copy, so ILL is not an option. Its also at a national library, not a university
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11267 | What is an empirical study?
I always read phrases such as "empirical data" and "empirical study." What does it mean when a study is empirical?
In computer science, this terminology is often used to indicate that an algorithm has been run on real (or simulated) data sets, and observations are made as to how it behaves (how fast does it run, does it solve the problem correctly, and so forth). The experimental procedures are usually not so much of an issue here, because the testing environment can be so well-controlled (i.e. you can generate infinite amounts of random test data).
This is to be contrasted with analyses which are based on mathematical proof, i.e. proving that your algorithm has certain behaviors (e.g. proving it is always correct).
Some times you will see papers in between these two poles.
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10891 | How to differentiate between articles, conference proceedings, etc.?
I have many PDF files for some academic papers. I want to sort them into journal articles, conference proceedings, reports, etc.
How can I know which one is an article and which one is a conference proceedings and which one is ... (any other type of papers)?
Unless the publication information is stored in the PDF file, either as text or metadata, this task is essentially impossible. The same paper (or at least a paper with the same title, authors, and abstract) may appear first as an arxiv preprint, then as a technical report, then as a proceedings paper, then as a journal article, and then as a chapter of a PhD thesis. Which version do you have?
Totally agree with @JeffE comment. you might look to the "Papers" app. I remember it does something similar. it still however has its limitations.
May I ask why you want to sort them in such a manner? In my reading, I do not care where the material came from, and the only time I needed to differentiate was where the publisher demanded special reference formatting for each type of entry.
@JeffE this depends on the field - in some disciplines it is extremely unlikely for the same paper/abstract to appear in multiple formats. Also, in life sciences there is a central database for papers, which contains much of the metadata, so it can be extracted from there.
Reference managing software such as Mendeley usually provide an import feature for PDF files. You simply supply a list of PDF files and the software automatically extracts the metadata such as title, author names, journal, and so on. The accuracy is usually pretty good, and then you can easily sort and organize the files in whichever way you want.
Do you mean that the software can tell me which one is article and which one is proceeding, etc?
@Saqqaf: Only if the metadata for the paper is available to the software. A generic PDF may not have this—especially older PDF's.
@Saqqaf the program will try to reconstruct the metadata from the text of the PDF, or extract a DOI/pubmed number from the document and get its metadata from a database. So it might find the name of the conference or journal. This could make the job of categorizing them easier. It will probably not be able to say that a paper is a review unless the text (or its metadata) says somewhere that this is a review.
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28718 | Why do principal investigators not hire grant writers?
The success of a research-active professor is related to his successful proposals for securing research funds. For this purpose, he should spend something like half of his time for writing proposals, but still he misses several possible calls for proposals due to the lack of time while the current proposals are not idea.
To resolve this problem, many people have this idea to hire a grant writer to perfectly and quickly write/re-write proposals. I personally heard this from many junior and senior professors, but in practice I have not seen any example.
This plan seems reasonable (the salary of a grant writer should be less than a postdoc), but why it is not common?
Researchers pay much more money to patent attorneys to have legally ideal text, then, why not investing on the text of proposals, which can directly enhance the chance of winning?
This is a good question. However, given the technical nature of the grant, perhaps even a postdoc couldn't do it well?
Writing a proposal needs subtle technics more than scientific content. So, an inexperienced person is unlikely to write a winner proposal.
Related: the comments following this answer.
In central europe, we have professional grant writers. We call them postdocs.
"[A] research-active professor [...] should spend something like half of his time for writing proposals" [Citation needed].
@user13854 "a proposal needs subtle technics more than scientific content" I really hope we have not fallen that far.
@StrongBad It is like a patent, we are playing with words in the text. Our phrasing can attract the attention of reviewers. Our claims in the text are not always the way we meant.
@user13854 That is nonsense. The reviewers are people who are scientifically very close to the subject reviewed. A few stupid mistakes by a professional "grant-writer" will kill your proposal. He can be very useful to check the formalities, make sure that the less scientific parts of the proposal are understandable to the political and administrative reader, push scientists before deadlines, etc.
Most research staff and many students are paid by grants, but most grant terms do not allow for you to pay for administrative staff or proposal writing time. So the funding has to come from the universities or departments. Most of them don't have the funds to hire a grant writer, though some do. I think most departments would rather have half the funding for another professor than a grant writer. I also think your estimate of the salary of a good grant writer in the sciences is off by large margin. The good ones, employed by institutes with large enough institutional budgets make as much as full-time researchers or professors.
To expand a bit on my comment:
In central europe, proposal writing is one of the core jobs of postdocs. In that sense, we do have "professional grant writers". Postdocs write proposals sometimes in their own name, but more often they actually do it in the name of their professor, so they actually come pretty close to what you envision above.
That being said, I have never heard somebody talk in honesty about hiring an actual, dedicated full-time non-scientific employee for writing down grant proposals in the name of the professor. I would see the following problems with this model:
Funding. How do you pay for this guy? The university will likely not be overly happy if you hire somebody from their budget to basically do your job, and funding agencies certainly don't cover these posts.
Qualifications. Writing grant proposals is damn hard. Even assuming that all the ideas come from the professor, you still need to be an experienced writer. You need to know the content field to write down things technically correctly. You need to stay up to date with funding agency policies and politics. You need to have connections in the field. And asking for all of that for, as you say, a salary less than a postdoc seems very ambitious, especially if combined with the next point.
Perspectives. What is the career outlook of a professional grant writer? What can you offer her/him in compensation for a relatively meager salary? This is a general problem with these kinds of "non-academic" positions at universities - there is usually no career track at all for such people.
Incentives. Junior professors or postdocs are very motivated to write successful grant proposals, as quite literally their own professional well-being depends on them. This would be much less, or at least much less directly, the case for a professional grant writer. If you disconnect the process of writing the proposal from actually benefitting from an accepted proposal, I would assume the quality of the proposals to drop significantly.
That being said, none of these problems are unsolvable. Indeed, the big industrial players in the european funding circuit (FP7, now H2020) actually employ staff that are basically full-time proposal writers, similar to patent lawyers. However, those people are certainly not cheap clerks.
I know of a few instances of people who have been hired to handle and facilitate the grant writing process but they are hired with the title and salary of postdocs. Despite their postdoctural role, they have very few laboratory roles but serve as super lab managers who handle the finances and long-term strategy of the lab. As mentioned, the sources of funding to pay for these non-laboratory staff are limited but for larger and wealthy labs, they can typically siphon enough funds to pay for these positions.
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18053 | Do's and Don't's of Undergraduate Research
I was fortunate enough to get a position as a researcher for the Mayo Clinic's SURF Program this year. My PI's lab focus is on the the immune system's role in CNS axonal and neuronal injury, specifically through the lens of how innate and adaptive immune effectors interact w/ infected neurons.
Although I do research under a professor at my college and I volunteered for a state university lab during the previous summer, this is my first REU/SURF opportunity, and I REALLY want to make a good impression. Here are my questions:
What are the do's and don't's in terms of being a skilled and efficient researcher?
Since I am still an undergrad, I know that I will be a less useful asset to the lab than a grad student or post-doc, but what can I do as an undergrad to not burden my colleagues and PI?
Thank you all for your help! Wishing you all the very best!
I wish more people asked questions like this.
I've removed "biomedical" from the title of the question, since your question isn't field-specific.
"what can I do as an undergrad to not burden my colleagues and PI" the awareness you show by this question already means that you are far further towards this goal than the vast majority of interns. Congratulations and keep going this way.
I will be a less useful asset to the lab than a grad student or post-doc — [citation needed]
These big-list questions really aren't suitable to our Q&A format: it's just too broad, with too many possible answers.
@EnergyNumbers I think the more specific question asked by the OP - "what can I do as an undergrad to not burden my colleagues and PI?" - is an answerable question that is not too broad.
To me, the quality that makes a student not a burden is the following:
A willingness to learn for themselves and good judgement about when to stop and ask for feedback.*
If a student isn't willing to try things out and learn independently, then it creates a burden on the supervisor. I really don't appreciate when a student asks me how to do something before they do a basic Google search.
Similarly, if a student doesn't know how to judge when he/she is "stuck" and needs help, this also creates a burden on the supervisor (because the supervisor has to keep checking on the student to make sure they're progressing).
The dos and don'ts (to avoid being a "burden") that come to mind are:
Do ask your supervisor this question at the very beginning, to find out what he/she expects from you.
Do take detailed notes when you have a meeting with your supervisor or somebody teaches you how to do something, so you can refer to them later
Do keep a written record of your own attempts and progress (such as a lab notebook) to show your supervisor during meetings
Do ask a question if you don't understand an instruction or something that is said, because it will be much better for everyone involved if you clear things up sooner rather than later.
Do mention your own ideas to your supervisor, if you have some that you think will make your research better.
Don't think that just because you are an undergraduate, you can't make much of a contribution. Obviously experience helps, but it's really only a small piece of what makes someone a skilled researcher. Willingness to learn is a much bigger piece, IMO. I've had high-school summer interns who were better than any of the M.S. students in the lab, simply because they put in more effort to learn.
* Source of the quote: The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research, by Marian Petre & Gordon Rugg
For what it's worth, I think the same formula would apply in most non-academic roles. Almost all jobs involved being instructed by others at some point. Aside from knowing whether you can progress on your own, also develop an idea of the relative value of your time and other people's. e.g asking someone else to spend 5 minutes explaining something that would take you 10 minutes to work out on your own, is not a good use of 10 person-minutes, unless their time is worth less than yours. And maybe not even then because you interrupted them, so you cost them more than 5 minutes productive work.
... and not asking for help when you're stuck doesn't just create a burden on the supervisor to check on you, it also means that for the whole time you're stuck you're not achieving anything. On the reasonable assumption that your supervisor wants you to achieve something, they would want to un-stick you once you're stuck. Getting that balance right is a lot about self-awareness but also reading cues from the supervisor, asking for feedback, and accepting criticism/correction.
I love that book. it's excellent.
@SteveJessop: and in addition is something that needs to be learned (as in try and possibly fail many times). As a mentor I learned that many good students are shy in terms of asking to get unstuck. (In constrast, many bad students tend to be not shy at all and unable to read clues when not to disturb). (I attribute it to a thourough training to exam situations where you are not allowed to ask if getting stuck)
The purpose of REU/SURF programs is to educate undergraduates about research, and to encourage them to make good decisions about graduate school. Secondary benefits include advancing science and the careers of the participants. Note that these are not the same goals as of a PhD program (such as in ff524's answer).
The very natural desire to be a "skilled and efficient researcher" is orthogonal to these goals; in some circumstances it will be counterproductive to be skilled and efficient. Your supervisor sees the whole project while you only see what's been set in front of you.
You should set your goals as:
To learn as many details of the lab dynamic as possible.
To participate in the lab dynamic in the manner you are expected to.
To do the tasks you are assigned in a skilled and efficient manner.
To noticeably improve in your abilities and understanding, over the course of the program.
(stretch goal) To have a good and creative idea that transcends the tasks you were assigned. Share this idea with your supervisor; do not just implement it. Do this at most once during the summer.
To expand a bit on (2): Listen carefully, including to body language. Your supervisor has a role in mind for you. Different faculty have different expectations with regards to issues such as creativity, asking questions, frequency of meetings, quality control, etc. You need to meet these expectations as well as you can. Exceeding expectations may not be a good thing; that's why I recommend doing it at most once.
Exceeding expectations may not be a good thing; that's why I recommend doing it at most once - What does this mean?
If you are given task A, and you do tasks A and B. Or, in a discussion, you are told to use method A, and you point out that method B may be better.
I completely disagree - if you think you can do better than what your advisor tells you to do, you should absolutely speak up and suggest it.
I agree that that final comment really needs to be explained. Why would it be bad to exceed expectations?
It is bad to exceed expectations because of the likelihood of wasting time, both your own and the supervisor's. Keep in mind that this is an undergraduate, not a PhD student/postdoc.
Undergrads are perfectly capable of having ideas that save time and improve the quality of the research (I have supervised several). If you think you have an idea, speak up - the worst that can happen is that your supervisor will explain why it isn't suitable (which is no big deal, wastes 2 minutes at most, and you'll learn something from it). The best that can happen is that it will be a really good idea that makes the research much better!
Look, I don't want to get in an extended debate here. The supervisor sets the parameters -- be creative in the areas where creativity is encouraged. Being creative "outside the box" is unlikely to lead to an outcome the OP wants, and in a lab science might even lead to someone getting hurt.
I think this may be very field-specific - I see that you're in mathematics, where the role of undergrads in research is quite different than many other fields. In any event, acting on a "creative" idea without consulting your supervisor first can be bad - but I am always pleased when a student I am working with (undergrad, grad, or other) makes a suggestion.
... particularly as it also shows very clearly that the student does put his mind on the problem. In any case, as a student (and also later on) you can always formulate it as a question: "What are the reasons for approaching the problem this way and not say, from that (=new idea) angle?". For an undergrad internship the answer is usually known ;-). The point where I draw a line is that depending on how sensitive the lab equipment is, I may not like the idea of students trying out ideas on their own without consulting me first. If it was not a good idea: I have to realign the instrument...
In my master's project (being completely new to the field) I have had several discussions with my supervisor about techniques and approaches. I would say half of the time he was right and the other half I was. He has the experience, but I have been working with my data set and thinking about it much more than he has, so we both have very different perspectives. The risks of not following their advice are wasting time (the summer is limited) in something leading nowhere and the risk for the instrument. Discussion and suggestions are free in both cases.
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20626 | MOOC's certificates on graduate admissions
Do departments look at MOOC's certificates favorably during the graduate admissions process? Will it give me any advantage over students who don't have them if I am trying to enter a PhD program?
You're free to mention the certificate in your application. How much weight to give to it is presumably up to individual committee members. I think unless the certificate pertains to a specific skill that's in demand for the program, you shouldn't expect to get much of a boost from having one. At the moment, people don't have much experience with such certificates, and will be more inclined to look at indicators they know better, like grades and GREs. It's possible this will change a bit in the future, but it will likely move pretty slowly.
What sort of advantage do you have in mind? MOOCs could help a little in addressing weaknesses in your application: if there's a standard course you were unable to take, then it could be helpful to be able to say you learned the material by other means, and a MOOC certificate might carry a little more weight than completely independent reading. However, on a scale from saying you read a book to getting a strong letter of recommendation, a MOOC certificate is much closer to saying you read a book.
Beyond that, it can't hurt to list MOOC certificates on your CV, but I doubt they'll make any difference. If you're going to graduate school, you should have spent time on many different sorts of learning: lots of formal classes, extensive discussions with peers, independent reading, and ideally working with a faculty member on something (a senior thesis, undergraduate research, etc.). Adding a few online classes is just not a big deal, especially if people are unsure of what the standards are. Compared with things like letters of recommendation or research experience, MOOCs disappear in the noise.
If the MOOC certificate is in a closely related field, it will help. If it is in something like "Underwater Basket Weaving", it may not give you an advantage over anyone else, unless of course you are entering a program in Underwater Basket Weaving. Or something similar, such as Underwater Knitting.
If the MOOC certificate is in a closely related field, it will help. - [citation needed]
I see the trolls are out
What? I honestly don't think a certificate from any computer science MOOC would help in my department, or in any strong CS department. Graduate admissions is largely based on building a convincing case for future success as a researcher; a MOOC certificate doesn't provide evidence of research potential. But if you have evidence that relevant MOOC certificates help in graduate admissions, say in the form of a citation, I'd love to see it.
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23099 | Preventing leaking exam papers/cheating using phone cameras?
I work at an educational institution where exam papers are considered protected. Leaking the exam question sheet and taking photocopies or camera shots is considered illegal and is strictly prohibited. I am not here to argue about this policy but to ask about the best ways to enforce it. Students have been taking pictures of exam papers during exam time, leaking them to subsequent sessions or posting them with solutions and often selling them to students of subsequent semesters. Though we don't use the same questions between semesters, they do exhibit some similarities at times for some courses.
Even with strict invigilation and requests not to bring cell phones to the exam room, there have been some incidents. Lockers are out of the question, as is collecting all cell phones before exam time. I would welcome any suggestions.
How about "if we see you handling a cell phone during the exam, you will be thrown out with a big F"? Of course, communicated clearly at the beginning of the course, the beginning of the exam and multiple times in between. If a phone starts ringing, the owner should just let it ring (and be pilloried by his classmates afterwards).
We have done that. I dare say some students do take risks and still do it. If a student knows he is failing for sure, he has nothing to lose. So he tries to make money out of it or get solutions in the hope the next exam will be similar.
Collect phones from every student before exam.
Why is collecting phones out of question?
If cell-phone collection is the answer, how will you know if you got all the cell-phones? For example, I've seen a case where student had four cell-phones. What if someone correctly claims not to have a cell-phone? It all comes down to honesty in the end.
@AndrejaKo Solution: exam proctors. If a proctor sees someone with a cell phone during the exam, take their exam, rip the exam up in front of the student, and kick them out.
@user11192 Indeed, but then there's no need to waste time by collecting the phones.
@AndrejaKo Yes, my mistake, I agree: collecting phones is a waste of time. Exam proctoring would be more effective in my opinion.
If we see you handling a cell phone during the exam, you will be thrown out with a big F, and we will keep your phone. (ha ha only serious)
If people can manage to take pictures of exam sheets, you should really worry about them using smartphones and similar to cheat for their own sake (and not for future students’), e.g., by communicating with an external helper or using a CAS in math-heavy fields, since this is much easier to conceal. It’s for the latter reason and not because of leaking exams that students are usually required to switch off any electronic device and keep it in a bag or similar which they cannot reach without drawing attention and must not reach unsupervised during the exam.
You can confiscate my phone, but good luck finding where I keep my charcoal and parchment of tracing paper.
@coburne: or, you know, your memory. Maybe I'm unusual, but when I left an exam I could sometimes remember some of what I'd been doing for the past 3 hours...
Reading all this, I'm suddenly relieved that we just give our exams to the students council who organise the distribution of copies of old exams. Means a bit more work for us preparing the exams, but far less hassle otherwise.
Why are students even allowed to HAVE phones in an exam hall? Every exam I've ever done (in UK), I've had to leave all possessions except for a transparent bag of stationary at the door...
Even if none student has a phone, or any material to write the questions down, there is absolutely nothing you can ever hope to do to stop them discussing the questions and collectively recalling them after the exam.
@SimonW And how do they check? In most countries teachers are not public officials, which means that if you ask the student to empty his pockets and he says "No", the teacher can't do anything about it. And you can't even prohibit a student from taking the exam without proofs of their misconduct. The only way to do that would be to call the police for every exam and let them do the searches...
@Bakuriu hmm, I've always assumed that refusing to leave belongings at the door would lead to disqualification from the exam. I don't know the precise legal situation, though.
@SimonW What if the student states that he doesn't have any belongings with him? Since you cannot search them, you cannot prove anything. And you can't prevent them from taking the exam without clear proofs (if you don't want to go to trial...).
@Bakuriu well, they can't take anything but a clear pencil case to their desk. If they have a phone secreted on their person, then it is the job of the invigilator to make sure that they are not using it to cheat during the exam. That's the whole point of having the invigilator there... of course somebody might manage it, but you'll never eliminate all cheating. And IMHO if you're allowing students to have smartphones in exams, the cameras are the least of your worries...! I really don't think it's a different problem to any other items-not-allowed-in-exam-hall one.
There's no point to enforce something that is stupid. Keep yourself out of this as far as you can.
Lazy professor wants to use the same exam questions every year, but finds this work-avoiding is somehow not so very simple! I'm sorry, but my sympathy is very limited.
I'm going to be a bit harsh and say that your cause is doomed to fail if you want to solve the problem just by policing students.
What happened is that some factors contributed to atmosphere where it is considered advantageous to have a copy of past exams and your students are motivated enough to risk getting a copy. The tradition of having a monetary incentive makes things even worse.
At my previous university, I had opportunity to witness the evolution of hi-tech copying systems. At first, nobody was checking for cell-phones because they had bad cameras and weren't as popular, then cell-phone copying became popular. Then cell-phone detectors of various levels of sophistication came into use. After that, cheaters moved on to other devices.
Today, spy devices are cheap and commonly available and they are next logical step from cell-phone cameras. Are you going to start checking your student's watches next? How about buttons, glasses or even pens? What about say calculators (OK, that one in particular isn't the best example, but if there's demand, supply will come), whose use might even be allowed in some examinations? Are you going to have a spy-equipment expert on your staff to check what your students are using? What if they home-brew some equipment?
What if someone actually steals a physical copy of questions? That actually happened at my previous school. Guy (not a student at the school) came to a lecture hall where an examination was being conducted, waited for TAs to hand out the questions and then proceeded towards the exit with a question sheet, running over anyone who tried to stop him. There was even a recording from video-surveillance of him doing the deed and a wanted poster was placed at the school entrance, but it didn't do any good. That particular problem was solved by asking for IDs before handing out questions, but it shows the trend of escalation that can happen.
Next, what if a group of students organizes with the idea of memorizing questions in detail without any technological aids? There's literally no way of preventing that.
The more you press the anti-technological/anti-cheating offensive without taking away the incentive to cheat, the greater is the risk that you'll instead form a core of semi-professional cheaters who will have connections to the sources of appropriate cheating equipment and serve as a cadre which will train future generations and make problem even worse. For example, in my hometown, a sure way to detect presence of a higher education institution is the high concentration of flyers advertising rent and sales of spy equipment.
The only sure way (that I at least can think of) to solve the problem is to cut it at its source and take away the incentive to have the pictures of past exams. Try to take time to analyze all factors that could lead to such behavior and see if you can actually affect any of them in a meaningful way. Although questions aren't repeated, it's obvious from the response of students that seeing past exams is beneficial in some way. It's normal for questions to be similar, since there are probably some underlying concepts that students should learn and that knowledge needs to be tested. If the students are already aware of what they're going to find at the exam, then there isn't much need to see how exactly the sheet with questions looks like. If the exams is supposed to be a surprise, then you should reconsider if you're actually preparing your students properly for the exam.
If going in-depth when solving a problem such as this isn't real motive, then it would be best to take advice from Moriarty's answer. You'll be doing something "direct" and you probably won't challenge existing policies too much.
+1, Eliminating the motivation is really the only true way to police the students. Even better, you can make seeing past exams negatively affect exam score by making the question seem nearly exactly like a past exam question but so that the solution is completely different. If you are a teacher I highly recommend addressing motivation, you can always say to administrators that you do the best you can watching out for cell phones.
How do you propose to minimize the incentive? The two ways I can think of is to (a) make the past examinations publicly available, or (b) if they don't already exist, write some special exemplar exams so that students have an idea of what they're in for.
@Moriarty At my current school, both (a) and (b) are practiced. Some teachers also like to provide exemplar exams instead of providing past exams. Another variation used in some classes for mid-term exams is homework. For example, homework assignments carry 5%-10% (so are low risk) of the total score and are similar to content of mid-term exam. Those who do HW correctly, get the points and those who don't, get feedback before the exam, so they know where to improve. Of course, such approach takes more resources of the faculty and can be hard for large classes.
I agree that there is something wrong with the way you're teaching and conducting exams if seeing previous exam papers gives so much of an advantage. In my university previous exams could be downloaded from the course page.
@Moriarty: I have a handout where I've taken a handful of questions off of previous exams. These get posted on the LMS for all students to see. Because I use a lot of essay questions, I also include actual student answers (names removed, of course), along with detailed explanations on why Student A received full credit, and Student B did not. I've not gone so far as to distribute entire exams, but doing this representative sample seems to eliminate a lot of test anxiety for the students.
Apparently some people are looking out for the spy stuff during exams, too
My favorite fix of this is use the same base question, but alter the wording so the answer is switched. Instead of "A did B...this is an example of what?" you change it to "A did C...this is an example of what?" - with the same multi-choice answers listed. Someone naive to the question won't be effected, but someone who has studied the previous version will be more likely to recognize the question and rote-answer it...incorrectly. In this way you use the inherent cognition of cheaters against them, but minimize workload on test makers.
I once failed a course and was escorted to the dean's office by campus security because I forgot to remove my watch before entering the exam room. Forget about fancy spy watches, this was an analog wrist watch.
For starters, you could supply them with all the pens and pencils as per their choice. This way, one big source of bugs is eliminated. For the super stealthy bugs, how about fighting spy tech with spy tech, i.e counter surveillence and counter intel tools ? Camera dectors - http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/category/counter+surveillance/hidden+camera+detectors.do
You could also let each student pass through MRI-grade alternating electromagnet which at least has a relevant risk to fry electronic devices (not a serious suggestion).
"Next, what if a group of students organizes with the idea of memorizing questions in detail without any technological aids? There's literally no way of preventing that." Kudos for that one, I had to experience this myself and this was for a test that was published online 48h after the exam time.
This is not the answer you want but I have to get it out of my chest. (My background is engineering).
The best, most effective and easiest way to completely avoid students taking pictures of exams, selling them and making a profit out of that is:
Publish online all previous exams as an exercise book.
The questions in an exam and the exercises done before the exam should not be more different than an exam and a previous exam, actually old exams make for perfect exercises and practice.
The point is that studying the courses and making a few exams/exercises to practice should be easier and lead to greater success than checking the whole compilation of past exams, which should anyway lead to a good knowledge of the contents of the course (in a more tedious way than reading the theory and checking this with a few exams).
Personal story: When I was in high-school the homework would be much harder than the exams, anyone making the homework (optional) would get good qualifications and the qualifications would reflect actual good knowledge about the subject. In the university there were exercises, but they were explanatory and very basic, the questions in the exam were much harder. This made the exercises useless, students needed exams from previous years just to practice in answering the questions, and I hated that.
+100 if I could. This is the only sane solution.
It's a great solution to someone's problem, it just doesn't answer the question. It seems pretty unlikely that the questioner can either change university policy, or refuse to even try to enforce the policy in place. So this isn't far from a "quit your job and get a proper one" answer. If it was the person in charge of the policy asking, on the other hand, they'd deserve a piece of the minds of everyone who works at or just attended a proper university with proper exams.
I wonder if one can come up with an infinite supply of problems which vary significantly from each other. At some point you might run out and copy old problems from the supply. Now, if your supply is large and most problems differ from each other, then you are at an advantage. Students will have to either cram them all or learn how to solve all/most of them.
@BoratSagdiyev the supply of problems may (in an extreme case) be composed of one single problem (or one type of problem), but if that was the case then the students should only learn in that course to solve that (type of) problem. The point of lessons and exercises is helping students to learn and the point of exams is checking that they have learned, the overlap in the topics and questions in both things should be very significant. We could consider that an exam is similar to a unit test, the set of exams should provide a good coverage of the course materials. (see next comment)
@BoratSagdiyev One single exam may not cover everything, for example because the course is long and the time for the exam is limited. But the set of all exams should cover as much as possible from the course contents, and if some part is not covered (directly or indirectly) then maybe that part isn't that relevant and should be removed. For me, testing whether a student has acquired some knowledge is similar to testing whether some code works. The coverage of the exams is related with the coverage of unit tests.
+1 Publishing exams from previous semesters before class registration makes it easier for students to pick technical electives which are relevant to their future careers. I'm interesting is solving problem X, last semester's exam(s) from class Y has a similar problem. I bet I can learn to solve problems like X by taking class Y.
Make the punishment for being caught well-known. Make every effort possible to track down the perpetrators, and make the offence
and punishment publicly known.
You could set up one or two cheap cameras to take high-resolution photographs at set intervals, say every 15 seconds (making sure it's all kosher legally, and warning the students). I know that Canon compact cameras "hacked" with the CHDK software can do this. Don't use an SLR, they have noisy shutters. If you find out an exam has been leaked, you should be able to comb the archive and catch the perpetrator. Yes, it's an extreme solution -- but also a scare tactic.
Cell phone detectors are another possibility to catch offenders in the act, though by no means foolproof. Turning on airplane mode would render them useless.
Make offending harder by confiscating cell phones at the start of the exam. This won't stop pre-meditated offending, though -- you can't do pat-downs!
Yes, you claim this is out of the question. But I am truly surprised that this is not an institutional policy to collect all cell phones before an exam. Put this back into the question. My undergraduate institution also had a substantial fine (NZD $70, IIRC) for the owner of a cell phone that rang during the exam. It should go without saying that phones must be turned off.
Place a subtle random symbol somewhere on each exam paper, that is unique to each individual.
Your average none-too-bright cheater might not take much notice of a "⎋" symbol in the corner of a page. But, it would be a pain to implement for a large class and will only work until someone catches on.
There are more subtle watermarking techniques, e.g. some that work with a faint dot pattern across the whole page. One would have to experiment what kind survives mobile cameras. Of course such measures won't work indefinitely, but it stands to reason that one (occasional) very public case of a student being kicked out for misconduct lowers motivation to cheat (in this way) considerably. (FWIW, I personally don't think this policy is worth enforcing.)
For starters, you could supply them with all the pens and pencils as per their choice. This way, one big source of bugs is eliminated. For the super stealthy bugs, how about fighting spy tech with spy tech, i.e counter surveillence and counter intel tools ? Camera dectors - http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/category/counter+surveillance/hidden+camera+detectors.do
When designing the exam paper, place fewer items per page. To reduce paper waste, this can be achieved by using A5-size exam papers, created by putting two exam papers on a single sheet, then cutting the pages in half. This will not prevent students from taking photographs, but it will mean that each photo they take will be obtaining less information about your exam. The student will need to take their camera out more often to get the whole exam, increasing the chances that your proctors, who should be watching the room carefully, will catch them.
or print double sided but only have one question per page. If there are many questions you could have very small exam packets (note card sized) with one question per page.
I had a professor that solved this problem nicely when I was in college. This is all based on what he did.
Before the Final, tell the all the periods that everyone is getting the same test. And that all the grades will be scaled across all periods. If the second period class does better than the first period class, it will suck to be in the first period when the mean will be substantially higher.
Repeat this warning on the day of the test.
Hand out a substantially different test to the 2nd period students.
Yes, he lied to all the students, but he had watched the 2nd period Antennas class consistently score higher than the 1st period.
I've met people that had that second class, they studied our test exclusively and more than one of them lost 2 letter grades in their final class grade over it. Studying the other test exclusively wasn't a problem for this teacher after that.
His tests were deep in theory and derivation of where the equations come from, and Antennas is a very complicated subject. Might not work with all classes, but when word of this kind of apocalypse gets out, it will live in the history of the folklore for many years.
While I don't doubt this works, why is lying necessary? Wouldn't just giving the different test to the second period work the same?
The prevailing idea when I was in school is that the professors were lazy. There was a filing cabinet full of old tests in the basement run by the student IEEE association. Lots of people passed classes because the profs didn't even bother to change the test from year to year. This was a well publicized resource for students. Would you believe that the prof was going to make a new test in that case, or would you see it as an empty threat. If any other prof at the school had said he was making a different test, I wouldn't have believed it.
but that doesn't matter if he actually did change the test. Who cares what the students believed, it's the same result either way.
@MHH: I'd assume the purpose (or at least the effect) of lying about the tests being the same would've been to amplify the difference between the two groups of 2nd-period students: those who'd take it as an invitation to cheat and only study the first test (and therefore fail) and those who'd consider doing so unethical, even if they had an opportunity to do so (see the comment about the filing cabinet full of old tests), and would thus study properly and pass.
It seems this would result in drop/add from the 1st section to the others, until all sections are full but the 1st.
@MMH - Why the lie? Human nature, perhaps? There's a feeling of betrayal when students connive and cheat like that; I imagine it was especially satisfying for the professor to outwit them at their own game.
I know it made a lot of us in the first section feel better to know something had been done to level the playing field!
A straight-up lie about examination procedure like this may open you to legal action (in some countries).
To prevent questions being copied from one test period to another is relatively "simple"—just make sure that classes taking the same test take it at the same time. (This requires some central planning of course, but should be something the university would in principle approve of.)
As for the use of cell phones, we take care of that by making sure that students can't access them during the exam. Because our protocols require a "gap row" between students taking the exam, that gives us an extra row of desks. We ask the students to put their extra materials in the gap rows. That way it's immediately obvious if students start reaching for the materials, because they have to stand up or visibly get out of their seat to access them.
In addition, it is announced that cell phones are not allowed material, and that any violation of the exam regulations results in an automatic failing grade. (Thus, any use of a cell phone gets you in trouble.)
Exam questions can be shuffled, or reparameterized (being careful to make both versions equally difficult) to obtain at least 2 versions of the same exam.
But don't mark them version A/B. Let the cheater try to figure that out.
Start playing this game early. Do it on quizzes and midterms.
This doesn't eliminate cheating, but may make it not worth the trouble.
If you think there might be spies within your department who are leaking the exams, give one version of the exam to the assistants to photocopy, and say nothing about an alternate version. Photocopy the alternate exam version yourself, and substitute at time of test. You won't be questioned about wasting trees, but if you are, say you thought there was an error in the test or that it didn't cover things with the correct weight, and you wanted to correct that.
It is a bit of work, but it is not 2x or 3x the work and if it seems like it is, rethink what to change. A side benefit is a larger pool of example questions is generated as time goes by.
Alternative: Make the exam open book, no time limit (i.e. this should take about 3 hours but you have all weekend if you need it), and the questions impossible, like what you would expect at Caltech or MIT.
Contraindications: Requires working honor system; honor.
I've played the A/B game in the opposite direction, conspicuously marking the exams as "version A" and "version B" even though they were otherwise identical.
It's amazing what open book exams can do to students. I had some midterm exams in two parts, a 24 hr preliminary computing part (open book, open notes, do-it-yourself, browse help files, do not talk to others, all numerical questions are unique for each student), sufficient for a grade of "C", and an in-class theory part necessary for a grade of "A" (the subject was statistics). I found that students would spend anywhere between 2 and 8 hours on the take-home part alone, and noted that they ended up working more on the exam that they would if they crammed in a "regular" way the night before.
About not marking them A/B: Do mark them A/B, just don't make it correlate with anything.
@JeffE: Another fun game is printing the same exam on two or more different colors of paper. Of course, this falls through if you post solutions or go over the answers in class, and have to admit that the same solutions apply to all "versions".
Do you have the option of conducting the exams centrally? At my institution, all final exams and major mid-semester exams were conducted at the same time for all students, under the supervision of external monitors.
Any person who was seen using a phone or unauthorised notes would be guilty of serious misconduct, and likely get zero for the exam at the very least. Similarly, no person was permitted to leave the room until all papers had been collected, so it wasn't possible for the question sheets to go walkabout.
Unfortunately, that will be difficult if there's not institutional support for it. (Although I'm constantly amazed to find out that it's not the norm elsewhere.)
What I have seen work in the past, though, is to use subtly different question sheets for different students. On numerical exams it's easy enough to change a few numbers, but people who intend to copy answers out probably won't notice the difference.
Of course, that won't help if there's later sessions of the same exam, but honestly that's not something that should be happening at university level anyway. No technical solution is going to be able to stop students from talking.
even if the OP did, this does not address the between years issue.
although I agree, one central exam for the course is the most efficient. No need for spending money on external proctors. Just make all teachers/TAs proctor the large room at once.
@MHH - I'm a little puzzled by the between years issue, to be honest. Isn't it the norm to release past papers? All the universities around here do it as a matter of policy.
I am not here to argue about this policy but to ask about the best ways to enforce it.
Like some of the other excellent answers, I am going to argue about this policy as I do not see a good way to enforce it.
Like many other institutions (entertainment industry, telegraph ) you are clinging to an old model in the face of overwhelming technology and a client base (students) that simply don't care about your rules (copying exams is not illegal: your institution is not the government and cannot enact laws).
Focusing on cellphones will accomplish nothing. I have a high-res camera in my laptop that is smaller than a shirt button. While I personally cannot hide it under my hairline, many 20 year olds can. See other answers (or amazon.com) for more places to hide a camera.
Your end goal seems to be to reduce cheating, meaning knowing the answer to question 17 before going into the test. You reduce cheating by making the contents of question 17 irrelevant because everyone gets a different question 17.
Any decent-size institution will have a large question bank built up over the years. Digitize it if you haven't done so already, and get the IT department to make a system that prints out 200 different tests with questions drawn at random from the database. Randomize the order. If you want to be really fancy, have the system randomize values if that is appropriate. This is not a complex process, I would probably quote you delivery within a week excluding the questions themselves.
Administration will probably whine about running costs, but there are none. Printing used to cost more than copying but today it's exactly the same machine.
So, 200 students each getting a different set of 50 questions drawn from 1000 in a random order with random values -> copying any particular test is of no value to others and the problem largely goes away.
This would open you up to accusations of unfair testing practices, though - some students would get a more difficult test than others.
You can still randomize elements of the problems if you are in a field that permits this.
@David-Z Question in the system should be graded for difficulty, the system can easily grab 5xA, 20xB, 20xC level questions. Randomizing numbers shouldn't make the math any harder, and any professor who cannot create 20 questions of equivalent difficulty should be shown the door.
If you also record the overall mark of the students that passed each question, and put some new questions into each exam that are ignored by the grading system (don't tell the student witch questions these are). Then using basic stats skill, you can auto generates lots of exams that are about as hard as each other.
I love the possibility this opens up to get some good meta data on test problems - which questions consistently stump students, which ones have a strong correlation of correct/incorrect answers to a particular teacher, etc. Data is beautiful.
In many jurisdictions student's answers are his/her intellectual property and he/she is legally entitled to copy and reproduce them. You need to consult with local lawyer ASAP, because your institution may actually be asking you to prevent students from exercising their rights.
(I do understand that students transfers some of their rights to the institution. But depending on local laws, some rights cannot be transferred nor relinquished, like the right to make a copy for personal use. There is also a possibility that university might have no rights at all to student's work - until he/she submits it.)
This isn't about ownership of student answers, it's about conduct during an exam, which the school is certainly allowed to regulate. Besides, the OP says the problem is about exam question sheets.
@ff524 That's my point - some aspects of the conduct might not be in school legal powers to regulate.
Just as you can tell students "I won't accept your exam if you walk out in middle of the exam to make a photocopy of your paper," you can tell students "I won't accept your exam if you take out your phone in middle of the exam to take a photo". These in no way infringe on students' intellectual property rights.
@ff524 I think this is already done, OP said "taking photocopies or camera shots is considered illegal and is strictly prohibited" so I assume some form of punishment is involved. The question is about what other steps to take, and IMHO some of them are illegal.
If a student submits the same essay for two courses they get into big trouble.
Therefore why are you allowing your staff to cheat the system and not do the work they are paid to do by using the same exam for more than one presentation of the course?
The solution is to remove any member of your staff that are too lazy to do the job they are paid to do.
And then publish all past exams, as is done for every exam I have taken in the UK, for some reason the UK does not allow the same lazy and cheating by it’s university staff.
While there is something true about the essential thought of this answer, classifying it as cheating is out of scale in my opinion.
Why do u assume it is an essay exam. It could be engineering, physics, maths etc
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11165 | How to respond to someone plagiarizing my work?
I have recently come across a paper that copy-pasted entire paragraphs of one of my papers which is already published in an international journal. This paper appeared in a journal which is not very popular, and I did not get a courtesy citation.
How should I proceed with this? I was thinking of reporting the issue to the editor of the journal where the paper appeared but then I thought that it may not even worth the effort. On the other hand, I still have this in my mind since this is clearly unethical behaviour.
What would you suggest?
what a disgraceful behaviour. email him fire it in his face and let him know the rules!
I would definitely contact the chief editor of the journal and place the evidence before him/her/them. Plagiarism should not be taken lightly. There is a tendency to be lenient when it comes to self-plagiarism of non-critical parts of the text, for example, parts of methods sections (in experimental work). Regardless where one draws the line, copying sections of text verbatim from others is a clear breach to me.
Anyway, it will be the editor's job to pursue the matter after you made the point. If the journal belongs to a publishing house they may receive legal help to deal with the author. If the editor does not react and there is a clear publisher behind the journal it may be relevant to bring it up a level. If you have someone in your university working on copyright issues, perhaps at the library, then you could also talk to them. They may be able to provide further assistance and help evaluate the case.
Many thanks for pointing out different directions and different levels to proceed with this. I have a co-author in this publication, then I guess it is also sensible to let my co-author know about this before proceeding.
I don't think you should let it slide.
Contact the editor-in-chief of the journal where the offending paper appeared, and explain the situation (with the citation of your paper). If they do not respond, or do not adequately address the matter, "name and shame": spread the word that this is not a journal to be taken seriously. You could also contact the publisher, as Peter Jansson suggests.
Contact the editor-in-chief of the journal where your paper appeared. They have an interest in protecting the work of their author, and may have more leverage in dealing with the offending journal. If, as is common, you transferred your copyright to them upon publication, they may have a legal interest as well.
Consider contacting the author of the offending paper, and/or their department chair or dean.
Thank you for your answer. Point 2 is interesting indeed.
Point 3 is also a smart strategy.. Contacting the institution is also very important. Good departments will treat such charges very seriously as well.
From a general "dealing with offenses" perspective, it seems to me that first contacting the author of the offending paper would be the best way to avoid complicating things. I might be wrong about academia, though.
@user7748: you may want to go back and read the copyright transfer form or any other documents you've agreed to when you submitted your paper for publication. I remember at least one publisher who listed, as one of the things that they do, in return for your assigning them the copyright, to defend the article against copyright infringements and plagiarism.
I think that you should send an email to the following persons:
1) To the person in charge or program committee of the journal in which your work has been plagiarized. Be prepared that you can stump upon some frisky person who would like to deny any responsibility about this actions, but at least you state your point that what is that person doing is completely wrong.
2) To the author who make the plagiarism action
You mentioned that the journal in which they plagiarized your work is not well known. Well that is one strong reason why you should communicate with them. For the following reasons:
Sometimes those small conferences and journals want to start to build a reputation, so consider that you will be helping them in that task.
Also they can get a grasp about the quality of reviewers that they actually have in their staff. In some occasions the reviewers only pass thru the article very quickly, but actually do not check if there has been some plagiarize on it. Do not get me wrong, but a lot of reviewers do that, and most of the discovered cases of plagiarism in journals or conferences has been discovered by external persons to that environment; like in this case.
So in both cases, you will end up teaching some research ethics to both: the cheaty researcher and the careless journal.
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12062 | Does work experience help in (US) graduate admissions?
I have around 8 years of work experience. At this stage, the possible step is to go along management track. But, I am neither interested nor does it appeal to me. Thinking more on this, I have decided to go back to school, preferably for a PhD or, in the worst case, a master's degree.
My GRE and GPA are not so strong: 1100 GRE with 770 in math and 3.0 GPA (out of 4.0).
My experience includes companies like Amazon and Zynga, but I have no research experience whatsoever.
Am I a good candidate for PhD or master's with research? My primary interests are in computer graphics or applied mathematics in simulation/visualization. What do you suggest I do? I am aiming for top 20 schools, but not sure if it will be right thing to do.
Welcome to AC.SE. I am struggling to see what your question is. It might help if you take a look at some of the related questions about graduate-admissions.
Thank you. In simple, I want to know if work experience in industry will add to grad admissions of top universities in USA. I mentioned my GRE and GPA.
That would be a good, and I think new, question. I would suggest you look at previous questions and answers and then edit your question to get at what value admissions committees place on previous industry work experience.
I would strongly recommend sitting in on, or somehow actually enrolling in, some upper level class at a local university. Treat it as if you were actually enrolled, and ask (beg) the professor to grade your homework and exams. And be sure to sign up for something brutally hard.
This will let you test your chops, and if you excel, then you can ask the professor to write a letter of recommendation.
Please keep in mind that top 20 programs are extremely competitive, and reject very many good people. Your competitors will have letters of recommendation from professors specifically familiar with the requirements of Top 20 programs, confidently saying that they are prepared to handle it.
An alternative would be to try to get into a master's program at a lower-tier university. If you prove yourself to be head and shoulders above everyone else, you can ask your professors to support transfer applications to better programs.
Your work experience is likely to count for very little, or perhaps even against you, since you have been out of school for so long. Sorry -- that's just how it is.
This is a hard road, I have at least sort of walked it myself. Good luck to you!
Thanks a lot for your reply. I will follow your suggestions.
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12718 | Biological data being used by an unpublished research paper is considered proprietary
This question may be too specialist to be on topic here. If it is off topic, please feel free to transfer it to another SE site, or close it, as
appropriate.
I am planning to publish an applied statistics paper. This paper
develops an algorithm and then applies this algorithm to some data. I
obtained most of this data from the site http://www.imgt.org. The data I am
using are immunoglobulin and T cell receptor nucleotide sequences, in
the form of FASTA files. I'm using around 200 of these.
Here is an random example of the data I am using (click on [6 Sequence (FASTA format)] to get the FASTA file).
Now, I have a problem. In Warranty Disclaimer and Copyright Notice, is written
The IMGT® software and data are provided as a service to the
scientific community to be used only for research and educational
purposes. Individuals may print or save portions of IMGT® for their
own personal use. Any other use of IMGT® material need prior written
permission of the IMGT director and of the legal institutions (CNRS
and Université Montpellier 2).
I just heard from Prof. Marie-Paule Lefranc and she replied:
I have no objection that the data you retrieved for your work from
IMGT/LIGM-DB be made available to the reviewers, but unfortunately we
cannot authorize a script or a distribution of the IMGT/LIGM-DB files
with your code to the users.
You can provide the users with the list of the IMGT/LIGM-DB accession
numbers you used, with the source of the data clearly identified:
(IMGT/LIGM-DB version number) and reference to NAR 2006.
Well, this just made my life more difficult. To start with, I'm
puzzled by this. Isn't biological data like this public domain? Is it
really possible to treat immunoglobulin and T cell receptor nucleotide
sequence data as proprietary information?
I just wrote back and asked Prof. Lefranc what license the data was
published under, which I had not done earlier.
Additionally, how does one make data available to reviewers and not to
users? That is awkward, to say the least.
Also, the data is inconvenient to download. As you can see
from the example above, the FASTA file is displayed in a web page, and
is not downloaded by that button. One needs to clean the web page to
get the FASTA file, which is a pain. As you can see Prof. Lefranc also
disallowed the use of a script for doing this. What this most likely
means in practice is that no user will ever actually test the code,
because obtaining the data is too difficult.
I realise that the users of this site may not be comfortable offering
what is essentially a legal opinion, and if so, can anyone suggest a
more authoritative source to ask about the legalities of this? Thanks.
I guess I do not understand why you chose data that had restrictions for your paper (will the algorithm not work with other data?). It seems you tripped yourself up by assuming everything is free.
It seems like the problem is offering the users the scripts to download the data. But if you keep the algorithm that you used to download the data off your paper, there doesn't seem to be a problem with presenting your results on the imgt sequences (as one of the answers proposed). But since this is an old thread, you could tell us how it went.
Hi @BioGeo. It has indeed been a while, but I remember I used the approach suggested by Peter Rice. As you can see, I accepted his answer. SE helpfully tells me that I did so on September 18th 2013. How time flies.
The copyright is probably on the full database release flatfile and the formatted entries ... you will find similar conditions for UniProt/SwissProt so it is not so unusual.
The restrictions on scripts are common to prevent server performance hits from a large number of requests.
You can simply invite reviewers to download the data from some other server, for example from the EBI SRS server. The URL for entry A00673 would be
"http://srs.ebi.ac.uk/srsbin/cgi-bin/wgetz?[IMGTLIGM-ID:a00673]+-view+FastaSeqs+-ascii"
You can also use a list of accessions, for example A00673 or A01650
"http://srs.ebi.ac.uk/srsbin/cgi-bin/wgetz?[IMGTLIGM-ID:a00673|a01650]+-view+FastaSeqs+-ascii"
If downloading many entries you should pause between requests, but putting lists into the URLs may reduce it to few enough not to cause a problem. I doubts EBI would be upset by 200 requests - they would be concerned about thousands.
There are various fasta formats available for IMGT data, you need to find a server that produces fasta files compatible with your input requirements.
Alternatively of course your reviewers could download the whole database from IMGT or any of the other servers (including ftp://ftp.ebi.ac.uk/pub/databases/imgt/) and generate their own fasta subset from the list of accessions/ids
Hope that helps!
Thanks for the super helpful answer, Peter. I'm replying in more detail on the Debian lists.
+1 for suggesting to download the entire database. imgt.fasta.Z is only 46 MB, and it's already in a clean machine-readable format, so @FaheemMitha could easily write a script to parse it (or just use an existing tool written for the purpose).
Yes, it is making your life a little harder, but it doesn't mean publication of your work is impossible, nor does it make IMGT's action unethical. I cannot comment on the legality of IMGT's copyright claim on the data, but contesting their claim doesn't sound like a great idea in the first place. In any case, talk it through with a lawyer from your university's legal department, before you do anything that deviates from what IMGT asks for.
Now, how can you move forward? Well, separate your existing code (which does the scraping and the analysis) into two separate parts:
The IMGT website scrapper/parser, which will download data and write it to files named after each query (M38103.txt for query “M38103”).
Do not publish that part (but keep it around, it would be a shame to throw away code that you have already written, and that works: you never know, IMGT's policy may change in the future).
The bulk of your analysis code, which takes these query results as text input files.
You now publish #2, and give the referees access to the files (journal submission websites have an option for “supporting information for reviewers only”, although it may be called differently). In the paper, you indicate clearly (but not aggressively) that “because licensing restrictions do not allow us to redistribute IMGT data, we provide a script that requires query results as text input files”.
You're not the first person to publish valid research results that come from analysis of a proprietary data source. There is no ethical issue here, because the reviewers have enough information to accurately review the validity of your work. Moreover, even the readers will be able to reproduce your work, though it will require a separate download step (and definitely depends on IMGT keeping its database online and freely accessible).
So yeah, it makes your code is little harder to use for others, but it doesn't diminish the values of the results you have obtained with it!
Thanks for the helpful response, F'x. If you look at my question, you can see that Prof. Lefranc says "unfortunately we cannot authorize a script..." I find the treatment of biological data as proprietary surprising. I find this prohibition doubling surprising. Is the owner of a web site really in a position to dictate that e.g. curl in my case not be used to download the files?
If even a script is not allowed, then the difficulty level for
obtaining this data is prohibitive. Nobody, except a fanatic is going to manually download 200 web pages and manually clean them. Of course, I suppose they could write their own script and not tell Prof. Lefranc about it. :-)
Focus on your results! Do not put so much the focus on the code, but on the algorithm/method and the results… that's what research is about. It's nice to publish the exact code you used, so that others can use it (and also verify your results). But that's an added benefit, the methodology and results are your main contribution to the field. (Anyone can write the code, but fewer people can have the idea behind it.)
Sure, the ideas/algorithm/method is important, but making sure people can reproduce the results without excessive difficulty is also important. Apart from anything else working code is important if one wants to understand how the method works in all its details. The paper discussion may not include all necessary details, but working code by definition does. Obviously, working code which does not include necessary input data is not very useful working code. :-)
@FaheemMitha the ideas behind reproducible research come at a cost. You cannot use data sets which are not open.
The OP says IMGT objects to the posting of a scraper. Presumably writing the scrapper requires access to the data and the license for accessing the data has a clause saying you cannot publish a scrapper. I would not attempt to publish the scrapper unless it was key to the finding (and not to the reproduction).
@DanielE.Shub sorry if I was unclear, I'm definitely not suggesting to write the scrapper, and even less publish it. Since the OP already has a scrapper as part of his code, I advise him to factor it out, in order to publish the rest of the code (I have edited my answer to make that clearer).
@FaheemMitha: but code that works only for that one data set isn't that useful, neither!?
As F'x already said, from a scientific perspective there is no problem.
The data is available, just not automatically and from you, but from the original source (via the ID numbers). So editor, reviewers and readers can get the data, given they are not too lazy to download it from the original web site. That is much more than is common in many fields of physical/experimental science.
Considering that you are talking about biological data, not having an automated download is so much more convenient than trying to reproduce experimental data (although I have to say that it is a sensible and under-used mid-way checkpoint) ...
However, here are a few more thoughts:
Isn't biological data like this public domain? Is it really possible to treat immunoglobulin and T cell receptor nucleotide sequence data as proprietary information?
Facts cannot be copyrighted. But the measured data is subject to copyright. If I go through the effort of doing these measurements, I'm the owner of that data. Just as you are the author of the program code you wrote and the paper you wrote.
But, as you cannot forbid that someone else to write another program doing the same, or another paper on the same subject, just because I have the rights to my measurements, I cannot forbid you to make your own measurements.
Of course I could donate my data base to the public domain, just as you can put your program under a FOSS license.
Copyright varies considerably depending on jusdiction. So IMHO this question cannot really be answered without taking into account where the database comes from (EU) and where you are located.
Now, in the EU we have a database copyright given you put enough effort in making the data base (it is not enough to grab an old encyclopedia and scan pages from that. But carefully curating a nucleotide sequence database is clearly enough). Again, this copyright is for the database, not for the facts stored in the database.
For your nucleotide sequences that means: if you choose to use their nucleotide database, you have to stick to their rules. But again, you are free to measure the nucleotide sequence yourself and use that data set instead.
how does one make data available to reviewers and not to users
You can use the letter to the editor to tell the editor that you'd be happy to supply the reviewers with the curated data set you acutally used for the analysis.
the data is inconvenient to download. [...]
I realise that the users of this site may not be comfortable offering what is essentially a legal opinion
While it is certainly a good idea to learn about copyright, I cannot recommend going for legal loopholes against the database owner's expressed wishes. They do allow enough for you and other scientists to do science. Why would you want to upset them?
I think it would be better to talk to them. What about this instead of asking them to allow scripts, you could offer to produce for them a second version of the data base that is suitable as machine-readable input, and kindly ask them whether they would be willing to make that version available via their server.
In addition to learning about copyright, maybe you could ask them for their reasons for their download policy. There may be a whole lot for you to learn in that answers as well.
I come from one of the physical sciences where good measurements take lots of effort. Here are some reasons why a data base ownder may say that people should download the data base from the original source:
The name of "owner"/author of the database is associated with it. As author you may not want to run the risk of getting associated with derivatives that do not follow your strict high-quality policy.
One very simple way to ensure that people actually get your data base when they think they do is to tell them always to download the original
(there are alternatives, such as signing a version for distribution etc.).
In addition, the owner may want/need to have at least a rough overview of how many people use the data base. Such information is at the very least extremely helpful when you need to show that you are not doing useless stuff for your wages.
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23306 | Applied to two MS programs, but one wants a decision before the other has made a decision
I applied to two graduate schools (both for an MS). "University A" gave me an admissions decision already. Upon reading their admissions letter, I have to make a decision within one week (it's currently mid-June). Unfortunately, I still have not heard back from "University B". They will be making their decision by July 31st.
I'm not entirely sure what to do here. My preference would be to go to University B, but if I don't get in there, then obviously I'd like to go to University A.
Would it be wrong to accept the offer to University A, and then withdraw later? Or, would it reflect poorly on me if I asked for an extension to make a decision? I find it strange that University A wants a decision so quickly, seeing as how you can apply for admission for the fall quarter up through mid-August.
Probably useful: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9985/how-to-ask-an-university-for-application-selection-result-before-accepting-an-of?rq=1
possible duplicate of Opinion on accepting a grad school offer after having already accepted another offer
I suggest contacting University B and letting them know your circumstances. If they have flexible policies and your are a particularly strong student, it may be the case that they make an earlier decision. However, many of the admission decisions are made at a committee level, so you may be in a position of having to make an immediate decision. I strongly advise against accepting admission at University A and then deciding not to attend if University B accepts you. If you choose to accept University A before a decision from University B, I think you should inform University B.
Would it be wrong to accept the offer to University A, and then
withdraw later?
Ethically, I think this would be wrong unless you expressly told University A of your consideration when you make the decision. When you accept an admission offer you are taking up limited resources and potentially depriving someone else of admission to the university.
Or, would it reflect poorly on me if I asked for an
extension to make a decision?
Not at all - just tell them that you are very interested in A but also have other possibilities and would like to make a fully informed decision. The worst thing that will happen is that A says "no".
I find it strange that University A
wants a decision so quickly, seeing as how you can apply for admission
for the fall quarter up through mid-August.
Presumably, University A has a limited number of slots that they can fill, and, if you say "no", they would like to extend the slot to someone else before decisions are made. I'm a bit surprised that these universities are making fall MS decisions in June - these decisions are typically done by mid-April.
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26267 | Is it OK to write recommendation letters for two students for the same institution and how to avoid the competition?
I am a teacher in a high school for gifted students and a student (let's call him A) asks me for a recommendation letter some time ago to apply to a top-level university (say AU: Awesome University) in our country. His level is below the average but he is very motivated and worked very hard. He is also a very nice, dedicated student with a good sense of ethics. His rather low score is explained by the high standards of my school: it is highly considered at the national level and in some countries around, and senior students can validate in advance some university courses. So I am sure that A will do well at university and I really want him to enter in AU.
Recently, after I accepted writing a recommendation letter for A, a second student, B, asked me for a recommendation letter for the same university AU. B is a great student with excellent grades. She always works with passion and could be considered as a dream student. I of course would be very happy to write her a recommandation letter and I have no worries about the outcome of the application of her application to AU. But I am worried on how my recommandation letter for A will be compared to the letter for B and whether writing for B would lower A's chances to enter university.
The shorter, the better, here are my questions:
Is there any (maybe unofficial) policy about writing recommendation letters for two students for the same institution?
Do my worries about one of the two recommendation letters disregarded by comparison with the other one make any sense?
If my worries are founded, how can I avoid the competition between the two letters?
I am sorry to say that I don't see how the question -- which concerns high school and prospective undergraduate students -- could be made suitable for this site. If one tried to modify the question so as to include graduate study, the answers would probably change: in particular, it often is appropriate to make comparisons in the latter situation. With apologies, I have voted to close.
This question appears to be off-topic because it is about high school students.
@PeteL.Clark I think the question could apply just as well to multiple college seniors applying to the same graduate school, or multiple grad students applying to the same postdoc position, with only minimal modification. I don't see how the answers would be that different. So even though this particular situation concerns high school students, I think it's general enough to be on topic here, perhaps after a small amount of editing.
@DavidZ: "I don't see how the answers would be that different." Most unis admit thousands of students per year. Most grad programs admit less than a hundred. 2) Most letters written for hs students are written by hs teachers or guidance counselors and read by admissions officers. Most letters for grad school are written by and read by profs in the same field, who know each other at least by reputation. 3) The letters of recommendation are not a very important part of most university applications (at least in the US); they are the most important part of grad school applications. And so forth...
I asked a similar question before for grad students. I think the answers are just as relevant. The link is above.
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18367 | Will my job have a negative impact on my profile as a graduate student applicant?
I am a senior undergraduate in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and I ultimately want to pursue a Master's degree in the field of Embedded Systems. However, my current financial situation prohibits me from paying for this, so I have decided to take a couple years off in order to save money and to apply for loans and scholarships. To that end, I have recently accepted a job in the IT department of a respected bank (I was unable to find a job in the field of Embedded Systems). Since I am not able to work in my target domain, will this time off negatively affect my prospects at top graduate programs?
Your question is very localized, but there's a useful nugget in the form of "will an industry job hinder/help my future plans for graduate school". Maybe you'd consider an edit to focus on the general question ?
Unfortunately, probably yes. How much so will depend on graduate programs' perception of how difficult it is for undergraduates to find industry jobs. (If is common for very good students to fail to find jobs in your specialty and region of the world, then professors are likely to know about it and not hold this much against you.) However, this is certainly not fatal to your chances. Best of luck to you!
my current financial situation prohibits me from paying for this — I assume you mean "but my current financial situation makes it impossible to live on a graduate student stipend."
@JeffE I am sorry but I don't know of any graduate student stipend. I am an Indian student aiming for graduate schools in the US
If a graduate school in the US is not willing to offer you an assistantship that pays you a stipend, Do. Not. Go.
@JeffE as an applicant for next season, I thought this applied more to phd programs than ms programs?
@JeffE Why do say that? I have come to know that assistantships are hard to come by. Some of my friends joining this fall don't have TA or RA offers.
PhD programs always offer stipends to the students they value. Contrarily, Masters programs (even at the same schools) usually don't, assistantships give priority to PhD students, and Masters tuition can be pretty pricey on top of that. Especially for foreign students, the exchange rate can make tuition and living in the US quite difficult financially.
Masters degrees are often funded not by the university but by an employer. Generally with the requirement that you continue working during your program, which constrains choice of school geographically (has to be close to the employer), the rate at which you complete a program (part-time, not full load), and only works for the degree most closely associated with the job you do -- companies don't fund you to move on to bigger and better things elsewhere, they invest in making their employees provide more value back to them.
Your job history shouldn't have a lot of impact other than whether it enables you to be employer-funded, and in the case described of working in your field but outside your desired specialization, it pretty much rules out receiving that benefit.
On the other hand, most Masters (MS, MSE, or MEng) in Engineering programs even at highly ranked schools don't have extremely competitive admissions. So you might focus on trying to find employment (and the necessary visas) compatible with the program you want to enter.
Actually I am aiming at the MS program not the M.Eng program. I am not quite sure about the MEng progam. I believe the MS program has a more rigorous curriculum. It is more technical and less managerial.
Also as far as I know, visa is not granted fro people looking jobs abroad but only for education.
@user191156: I didn't mean that the curriculum isn't rigorous, or is less technical. But when there's no money being given out along with admission, admissions aren't as selective. Work visas are definitely harder to get than academic visas. Which is why I said focus on obtaining a work visa and job, if you pull that off you won't have to worry about whether you will be allowed to enroll.
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10583 | Research Design Help: Measuring the effects of plagiarism intervention
(Background: I am a full-time EFL instructor at a university in S. Korea. I want to do independent research, as most faculty would not be interested to collaborate with someone who only has an MA.)
Korea is known as the plagiarism capital of the world. Since I work with student writers there, I am very interested in the subject. I am trying to devise a research project which can measure the efficacy of plagiarism intervention strategies, namely teaching paraphrasing, summarization, and citation skills. I have done a small literature review and have ideas for getting student perspectives on plagiarism using already validated surveys. However, since I want to focus on effect, I was wondering if anyone had suggestion on how to actually measure this?
I was thinking some kind of pre-test/post-test, but would really love some more ideas.
Edit: to expand on the pre-test/post-test idea, I had thought about giving them a number of short paragraphs which they would need to paraphrase and cite correctly (assuming paraphrasing is a vital referencing skill) pre-intervention and then post.
MA is short for 'MAsters' or 'Master of Arts'? I am surprised that no one is interested in working with you on that problem, since a positive result could make your university stand out in a positive way?
Unfortunately, the foreign faculty and the Korean faculty don't have much interaction.
I've voted as not a real question for being overly broad. I don't see how designing a research project for you is in within reasonable scope of the forum. Please attempt to edit and ask a much more specific question.
My specific question was how to measure the effect of plagiarism intervention.
"Teaching paraphrasing???" I am always bewildered by the notion that taking somebody else's ideas, reformulating them in different words, and passing them as your own is supposed to be more honorable than plagiarism. A notion that is very widely held in academia. (Note that I am a university professor as well, albeit my field is in molecular neuroscience - where deeds possibly count more than words).
I am just improvising on the fly here but does Korea have software like TurnItIn which measures (in a few different ways) the level of plagiarism in a particular paper or a set of papers usually from online sources.
If you do, then you could think about devising an experiment where, in a class, you inform the students that you will be trying to reduce their "plagiarism tendencies" and take a pre-test perceptions survey. Next, you set a particular class paper as an assignment and note the different measurements on TurnItIn (or equivalent). Then, you make your intervention (in whatever form you choose) and finally set another class paper as an assignment and note the different measurements on TurnItIn this time. Finally, you set a post-test debriefing and follow up survey.
I think this would make for a very nice repeated measures model (from the TurnItIn or equivalent data) and some nice latent variable analysis from your surveys.
I hope this helps you in some meaningful way.
So you recommend setting a small research paper, and checking for instances of accidental and deliberate plagiarism? I had also thought about this but was trying to find something a little more controlled. This will be their first time ever writing research papers (in English, maybe even Korean) so they may not use outside sources at all (plagiarized or cited).
As I said, I was improvising. :). This kind of a repeated measures study involving one controllable unit is quite common among the psych or comm scholars that I find myself collaborating with. As you pointed out, there will obviously be issues (like the language choice) that one must address while designing the study. However, if you are interested in this topic (and its a great topic), you must start somewhere, even in an exploratory way. :)
I will have them write short essays at the beginning of the semester as a diagnostic anyway. I suppose if I find a high incidence of plagiarism, I can start there. What free alternatives to TurnItIn are as reliable? Also, What did you think of my edited idea above? Also
Sorry for the late reply. I checked your edited answer. It could work. Basically, we are talking about how you operationalize your theoretical construct. This can be done in multiple ways. I would need to know more about the specific literature in that idea to go deeper. Unfortunately, I do not have that expertise. :(
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42177 | If you make a substantial contribution should you be given the opportunity to satisfy the other requirements for authorship?
The ICMJE has developed a set of guidelines to help determine who authors should be. They say
The following recommendations are intended to ensure that contributors who have made substantive intellectual contributions to a paper are given credit as authors
The requirements to be an author are:
The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:
Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
I think that it is reasonable that authors should meet all 4 of the criteria. What seems surprising to me is that someone could use the guidelines to justify not including someone as an author that did the work, drafted the manuscript, and agreed to be accountable, by simply not allowing them the chance to provide final approval of the version to be published.
Shouldn't the guidelines include a condition that if you meet the first criteria, that you then be given the option to meet the other criteria?
Am I missing something?
Has this apparent shortcoming been addressed anywhere?
Further down the ICMJE remarks:
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.
The guidelines do include such a criterion.
Well I missed that rather obvious statement.
I guessed so. :) It is remarkable that the statement answers your question that precisely, by the way... You had the "shortcoming" cornered pretty well!
Shouldn't the guidelines include a condition that if you meet the
first criteria, that you then be given the option to meet the other
criteria?
This does indeed sound like a no-brainer.
However, it is really a question of etiquette within a collaboration. A journal can't really enforce this, can it? Would a tick box in the online submission system really be useful?
By ticking this box, I declare that everyone who has done work AND
revised the manuscript AND agreed to be accountable has also had a
chance to provide final approval of the submitted version.
I'd find seeing something like this... strange. What should a journal then do in the case that someone did get the chance to provide approval, but didn't answer within a reasonable time frame?
Bottom line: I'd say this is a borderline case. Journals can't possibly control every single aspect of authorship, and they need to draw the line somewhere. This seems like a good point where we don't need yet another tick box.
Finally, it seems like problems like these may be self-correcting. Once word gets around that someone treats their collaborators like this, they likely will see their possibilities for collaboration disappear.
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