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48796 | Can I teach in the nude?
In this comment it was suggested that teaching in your underwear is a bad thing. While in general, I think academics are accepting of a wide range of dress (there are people in my department who teach in suits and others in ripped jeans), I am not sure a nudist or teaching in your boxers would be acceptable.
Part of me thinks there is the issue of sexual harassment, but I think if it is your style, it is not harassment. Can an academic really wear, or not wear, what they want? Let's assume that it is a state university and therefore not public nudity or that you are in a state/country that allows public nudity.
I am interested in the ethical/professional side of teaching in the nude. I am assuming that someone who wants to teach in the nude would understand the legal implications and how it affects their productivity.
Are you asking about legality? Ethics? Professionalism? Impact on your effectiveness as a teacher?
If we're considering male teachers in cold areas I can imagine there will be a certain amount of ridicule that may prohibit proper teaching.
Why would one want to do that? I have a hard enough time to remember shaving my face. All this additional manscaping will just make life so much more daunting.
@ff524 does that help?
As an ethical question, I don't think it's any different than being nude at any other workplace. I move to close as a "boat programming" question.
@Penguin_Knight I am not sure why someone would want to, but teaching nude seems to be taking you can wear what you want (excluding offensive clothes) to the extreme.
Also, per the [help/dont-ask]: "You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face." This does not seem to qualify.
@ff524 most workplaces have some sort of dress code (written or unwritten). Most academics, at least the way I view it , feel we do not have a dress code.
@ff524 I think understanding the unwritten rules of academic dress is practical and answerable. Nudity is just the edge condition.
@ff524 I thought this was a terrible question too, and then I started writing an answer and thinking outside of the STEM curriculum, to art classes and other areas where one might actually legitimately encounter nudity. As such, I think it's surprisingly not boat-programming, as academia is one of the few places where this type of boundary-pushing might be legitimate.
@jakebeal I don't think it would be a bad question if it was given in the context of a specific scenario, like this one. As a general question, I still think it's terrible.
@ff524 The scenario you link is a very good example of a boundary case! I think that I will add it to my answer.
Please edit your question to include university and country in your question.The university policies on teaching in the nude will vary from place to place.
This site gets better every day. No wonder some people think that academia is "ivory towers".
@StrongBad You call it "edge conditions", I call it reductio ad absurdum.
@Calchas This is one of the sanest stack exchange sites in the network. Have you checked out Parenting SE (http://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/20604/i-think-my-11-month-old-is-afraid-of-his-dad), or Travel SE (http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/51070/can-i-pass-through-the-airport-security-with-a-de-activated-bazooka) lately?
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because boat-programming.
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's too hypothetical.
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's not specific to academia as opposed to any other profession where work is carried out in public.
No, No, No, and also No!
Setting aside all aspects of legality, I see no way around the ethical problem of consent and harassment. Simply put: the teacher is in a position of significant power with respect to the students. A teacher choosing to be nude may place students in a position where they are compelled to either remain in a situation where they are uncomfortable or else may face significant penalties. There's no way to spin that where it's not an abuse of power, compounded further by the sexual and gender implications that nudity would have on most university campuses.
Maybe it could be made consensual if the class was optional and had instructor nudity as a clear expectation as part of the curriculum (so people would know what they were signing up for---like in this example), but we're getting pretty far out of the mainstream of university instruction with such a case. Even figure drawing classes in art school generally use neutral third parties for their nude models, rather than the instructor.
Let us be a bit rational here.
A) Is being in the nude helpful to students' understanding of the subject matter in any way? I have no preconceptions on this, but still fail to find a great many subject matters in which nudity may be pertinent. Art history, perhaps? Or a philosophical discussion on the perception of nudity through the ages? But not the vast majority of subjects taught in universities, by any means. For the situations that can objectively require a perception of the nude human body, perhaps substituting teaching materials for the corpus delicti would be sufficient.
B) Is being in the nude an interference to students' learning process? This seems likely, due to most cultures' taboos on public nudity. There are not many places in the world (except, perhaps, nudist beaches and one small island in France) where you can cross the street with your attributes on display and not attract people's attention.
Balancing A against B, I would tend to think nudism in the class is not constructive to an atmosphere of concentration on the subject in hand, in the vast majority of teaching situations.
This is probably the most interesting question I've seen so far and I can't completely tell if you're serious about the question but I'll give an honest and serious answer anyway.
A goal we would all like to see achieved is equality for all no matter your race, lifestyle, etc. But there are lines where things cross into the inappropriate.
Do you remember, a couple months ago, that med school which had students preform vaginal examinations on OTHER Students? Messed up, I think so. Illegal, no.
I mention the med school because while you should not teach a class naked for an immense amount of ethical and liability reasons @jakebeal mentioned consent but I don't think that works in practice. If you make it clear that you will be nude and that students must be okay with it:
1). A vast majority will think it's a joke.
2). Students may feel forced to consent if your class is required and they can't change their schedule to have full-time status.
Though the topic can get touchy when you talk about an art class. Are the students drawing you naked? Is being nude part of the curriculum? While models would be better for everyone I can see where there would be an argument in the context of art.
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10277 | How can we change things so more researchers are willing to share their source code?
This is a followup to Why are CS researchers reluctant to share code and what techniques can I use to encourage sharing?. That question specifically asked how one can succeed in obtaining researcher's source code.
As discussed in the answers to that question, the reasons largely boil down to competitive advantage and people thinking their code is not good enough. The former issue is difficult to address. However, one could try to address the latter issue, making the reasonable assumption that this behavior stems from the surrounding academic culture. There may be additional aspects of the academic culture that discourage code sharing, and which do not relate to competitive advantage.
So, one could instead ask the general questions what concrete actions one can take to change this culture? Or, to put it a little differently, how can I help change the academic world so that more researchers are willing to share their source code?
An interesting read on this topic from SIAM news: http://www.siam.org/news/news.php?id=2064
The easiest thing to do, as an individual, is to release all of your own code as open source software on public repositories, then write it as a footnote or reference in your paper.
http://matt.might.net/articles/crapl/ comes to mind
In the long term, this will only happen if you change the culture (just as you say). How do you change the culture of a field? Very slowly, and only with enormous effort. You talk to other researchers. You articulate your values, and seek allies who share your values. You patiently make the case to your fellow colleagues, perhaps by writing opinion pieces. You don't harangue or attack them; instead, you gently lay out the reasons why it is good for science and good for them to share their code. Remember, in all likelihood you all share the same common values: the love and dedication of science and the pursuit of truth.
You lead, by acting as a model for how you would like others to behave. You do what you think is right, and set a good example.
You try to persuade referees and program committees to value and reward researchers who do share their source code. Recognize the amount of extra effort this takes, and (if you believe it is valuable) reward it accordingly: bump up your rating of their paper correspondingly, and make the case why others to do so. When you write letters of reference or evaluation for another researcher, if they share their source code, give them kudos and explain why the hiring or promotion committee should view this positively.
Ultimately, this is not something that a single individual can change. Only the entire community, acting as a whole, can make this kind of change. Individuals can catalyze and facilitate that change, but like any other kind of reform, it takes extraordinary patience and effort, as well as buy-in from your colleagues. It's not unusual for this kind of change to take a generation or two. But keep your chin up: remember, you're doing this because you believe it is good for science and good for your field!
"Only the entire community, acting as a whole, can make this kind of change." I'm not sure how this would work. I just had in mind concrete actions an individual could take.
@FaheemMitha, indeed, it's a daunting task, if looked at from a broad perspective. For concrete actions, see the earlier part of my answer (talking to fellow researchers, setting an example, rewarding other researchers who do share their source code, etc.).
Researchers are unwilling to share their code because it's a lot of extra work -- for which there is little or no recompense. When I write some to simulate an experiment or an algorithm to verify numerically the result of a calculation, it is not production-ready code that can be easily run in another environment: at the very least another researcher needs Matlab or Mathematica, they need whatever special toolboxes or auxiliary code I am using, they need the data files in the right place on the hard drive, they need to understand how to program themselves so that when some small glitch arises, they can deal with it. When I try to run my own code from a year ago, it almost needs some massaging: perhaps a needed file has been moved from one directory to another, perhaps a toolbox has had its code base "updated" and no longer works exactly the same way.
So -- here's what usually happens. Someone contacts me and wants to try out my code. I warn them of all the above issues, but they insist that they know what they are doing and will get back to me with any problems. I spend 2 or 3 hours preparing things, checking stuff out so that they will have an easier time, explaining to them how to put things together so that it will all work. I mail it to them. And I never hear back. It happened again last month. So -- how likely am I to "share" code in the future? Just a little bit less likely than last month.
Now to the question: how can you get researchers to share their code? First, when you ask, follow through - don't "take the code and disappear." Second, try to get the researcher interested in why you want the code, what you might do with it. Third, the burden is on you to take research-style code (poorly commented, bad error checking, disorganized structure) and to make it do something. Fourth, return something: when you do make some progress, let the researcher know. Fifth, don't ask for impossible things: can I compile the code for your machine (that's different from mine)? (Hint: no).
Thanks for the feedback, bill. While I meant the question to be what one can do to change the culture towards a more sharing culture in a general way, you make good points. One comment - if you are sharing your code with one individual by email, why not make it generally available via hosting sites like github or bitbucket? I think one issue that is not clear is - is it reasonable to publish ones code as is (meaning, put it on github etc.), even if one does not consider its quality suitable for third parties? If so, this would presumably come with an explicit disavowal of any support burden.
And I never hear back. — Why should you? I mean sure, maybe it would be nice if people told you whenever they found your work useful, but expecting people to tell you when they find your work useful is unreasonable.
IMO talk about "cultural" impediments are overstated. Academics are as rational agents as any, and currently the academic system (mainly publish/get grants or perish) provides little incentive to publishing the code or making analysis entirely reproducible. Some fields have started intiatives to encourage this by making either analysis and publicly releasing data mandatory or strongly recommended for publication (e.g. The Journal of Applied Economics) or for funding (e.g. NIJ grants frequently have stipulations to post the data to ICPSR).
Greater awareness of technical computing skills necessary for reproducible analysis will help (see Koeneker & Zeileis, 2009), but on its own won't spurn greater compliance, even if the already discussed negatives are largely mitigated. It still will be more work to publish the code than to not publish the code. When it helps your tenure case, then it will become more commonplace.
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47416 | What are the archiving policies of arXiv?
In this answer it is suggested that arXiv, as its name would suggest, is archival. One of Beall's criteria is that a publisher is potentially predatory if it
Has no policies or practices for digital preservation, meaning that if the
journal ceases operations, all of the content disappears from the
internet.
The only thing I can find about digital preservation on the arXiv website is
arXiv submissions are meant to be available in perpetuity. Thus, arXiv has high technical standards for the files that are submitted.
While it is good that the articles are in a format which will allow access in perpetuity, the primer says nothing about what happens if arXiv ceases operations. What is the arXiv policy in regards to digital preservation?
I would presume that the arXiv is simply too big to fail.
@Arno I would presume that perpetuity is a long time for things to "just work".
The arXiv also benefits from not having a single point of failure. By design it has some geographical redundancy.
@NajibIdrissi I used Beall's criteria because it nicely described what I was looking for, not because I think of arXiv as predatory.
StackExchange is the same way. If StackExchange were to implode tomorrow, well, our questions are gone. But you should also weigh the likelihood of that versus the severity of that.
@Compass but I have never seen Stack Exchange claim to be archival and it is not in their name.
@StrongBad It's not in our name, but Stack Exchange, at least Stack Overflow, encourages information to be brought into the fold as opposed to linked as the guarantee of the question being useful and non-volatile depends on its content being hosted on the server. The service is useless if it isn't archived, even if it doesn't call itself an archive, it is still an archive <_<
Also, monthly, the entire text-based content is, in fact, uploaded to archive.org.
BioRxiv is backed up by CLOCKSS. It would be great if this were true of arXiv as well.
@Compass : That's simply false. StackExchange publishes Creative Commons licensed dumps at regular intervals. If StackExchange would implode someone else would publish one of the dumps.
@Christian I was referring the conceptual point of Stack being designed as a primary service of being a Q&A site as opposed to the secondary service of being an archival site.
@Compass : Part of StackExchange design are data-dumps and an open license. That's to make sure that the data can continue to be used long after a question got answered. If StackExchange would implode the data wouldn't be gone.
@Christian just because data is made available does not mean someone is actively archiving it. If that was the case, the answer to this question would be that arXiv makes the data available.
@StrongBad : There doesn't have to be someone who actively tries to "archive" the data. http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/71820/report-high-google-ranking-stack-exchange-content-copiers-here/173542#173542 gives you a list of various parties that do try to host mirrors. There are various machine learning projects that have use for the dataset as training data. But even if you look at people who archive more formally the Internet Archive is currently the main host for the StackExchange dumps.
From their FAQ:
What are CUL's preservation strategies?
Digital preservation refers to a range of managed activities to
support the long-term maintenance of bitstreams. These activities
ensure that digital objects are usable (intact and readable),
retaining all quantities of authenticity, accuracy, and functionality
deemed to be essential when articles (and other associated materials)
were ingested. Formats accepted by arXiv have been selected based on
their archival value (TeX/LaTeX, PDF, HTML) and the ability to process
all source files is actively monitored. The underlying bits are
protected by standard backup procedures at the Cornell campus.
Off-site backup facilities in New York City provide geographic
redundancy. The complete content is replicated at arXiv's mirror sites
around the world, and additional managed tape backups are taken at Los
Alamos National Laboratory. CUL has an archival repository to support
preservation of critical content from institutional resources,
including arXiv. We anticipate storing all arXiv documents, both in
source and processed form, in this repository. There will be ongoing
incremental ingest of new material. We expect that CUL will bear the
preservation costs for arXiv, leveraging the archival infrastructure
developed for the library system.
It looks like they're relying on a) multiple offsite mirrors; b) periodic stored backups at LANL; and c) deposit in the institutional repository at Cornell.
It's a little unclear if that deposit is actually happening yet or is still part of a long-term plan, but it's worth noting that the arXiv program director is also the librarian responsible for Cornell's digital preservation work, so it's unlikely to have been forgotten about!
The link is now dead, and I couldn't find up-to-date information. Does someone know if there is info available somewhere about their current archival policies?
This is answered in the FAQ for the arXiv Membership Program:
CUL [Cornell University Library] has an archival repository to support preservation of critical content from institutional resources, including arXiv. We anticipate storing all arXiv documents, both in source and processed form, in this repository. There will be ongoing incremental ingest of new material. We expect that CUL will bear the preservation costs for arXiv, leveraging the archival infrastructure developed for the library system.
The same FAQ also tells you about the current funding model (up until some years ago arXiv was entirely funded and ran by the Cornell University Library; now funding comes from also the Simons Foundation as well as other participating university libraries).
In terms of Cornell's digital preservation policies, I cannot find a full description online (probably just due to my weak google-fu today); but this would be person to contact and ask.
The link is now dead, and I couldn't find up-to-date information. Does someone know if there is info available somewhere about their current archival policies?
I would suggesting emailing the arXiv staff. There is a contact link in the help page on arXiv.
I asked arXiv on October 4, 2023:
I am involved in an overlay journal whose articles are published on arXiv, and we are asked by the Free Journal Network about our long-term archival policies.
For this reason I would like to know if there is a long-term archival policy for arXiv articles: are there backups or continuity plans in place to ensure that the articles are preserved if arXiv is unable to continue operation?
Also, is there publicly available information about this? I could not find anything in the FAQ or in the help about long-term preservation.
I got the following reply one day later:
Thank you for reaching out. We are committed to permanently archiving the content that is submitted to and hosted by arXiv and operate under policies designed to ensure long-term access to the scholarly record. However, at this time, arXiv is not engaged in formal preservation activities. We hope to implement a preservation strategy in the future.
So the answer seems to be that arXiv does not currently have any long-term preservation strategy.
That said, in practice, in addition to the current bulk data access options, it looks like there is a downloadable copy of the data here https://archive.org/details/arxiv-bulk (though it was apparently last updated in 2020).
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9646 | If one wants to generate several papers from a single research project, what is a reasonable way to do so?
As a follow-up to "Whether to publish one big paper or many smaller papers for a given research project?":
Suppose one wants to generate a number of publications from a single research idea or project, because other things being equal, more publications is better. What is a reasonable way to do so; one that does not dilute or compromise the quality of ones papers?
Have a project that generates multiple significant results that would not comfortably fit into a single publication?
@JeffE: I guess that is the good situation. The previous question seemed to be suggesting a case whether one was artificially dividing up work into multiple publications to increase the publication count. So, I was just following that.
In the previous comment, "whether" should have been "where".
There is one trend that I see around me, which is in some cases to split a piece of work in two pieces: a high-impact letter, and follow-up full paper with all the details.
There are many reasons why this might be a good idea. Increase in number of publication is one of them, but there are others:
If you work in a rapidly developing and highly competitive field (i.e. you risk being scooped if you wait 3 more months to publish your idea), this allows you a fast publication of the idea and first results (proof of concept, if you will). Also, letters tend to be reviewed more rapidly, which also decreases publication time. Then, you will publish all the details, influence of method parameters, etc.
If your work would be interesting to a wider community, it allows you to deliver two different messages (or at least, the same message at two different levels) to two communities. This increases the overall impact of your research.
This is essentially the standard computer science publication model, only we call them "conference papers" instead of "letters".
These types of publications may also be called "communications" or other things depending on the field.
This will probably vary from field to field, but I've seen instances of publishing different analyses in different papers. One rich data set can yield many different analyses which may be largely unconnected with each other.
By way of example, a single longitudinal study of depression may collect data on a number of fronts; information about the participants (gender, age, location, etc), their depressive episodes, family history, genomics, neuroimaging, etc. Each of these can result in a different set of analyses, many of which would be of interest to completely different fields. A neuroscientist interested in activity patterns in the brain would not necessarily be interested in a study examining instances of suicide in high-SES vs. low-SES populations.
By thinking carefully about study design before collecting data, you can position yourself to examine questions in many different fields, leading to numerous publications.
As a final point, I'll just briefly mention that cross-disciplinary collaboration is a wonderful thing, and is very relevant to this discussion.
Of course it depends how narrow or wide you define what a "project" is.
I'm chemometrician working with vibrational spectra of biological samples.
So there are:
Applications (e.g. a particular biological/medical question)
We write papers about medical diagnostics or biochemical characterization of samples or biochemical changes that occur with some disease, ...
Even within this "application" topic, there may be distinct subtopics. E.g. basic research about a disease is different from developing a diagnostic method.
As chemometrician, I develop data analysis methods (often triggered by the application).
We write methods/theory papers.
We also develop instrumentation to measure our samples.
We write papers about that as well
These separations are sensible to me:
A reader who wants to learn about a particular disease may not want to dive into chemometric theory development but instead wants to see biochemical findings. Another reader may be interested in the chemometric details but not in the particular disease. Readers looking into instrumentation details may not care about the disease or the particular statistical model applied to our data.
If you have a specific research question/problem, and devised a technique, method, algorithm or system, to address it, then I think it makes more sense to showcase that method in a way that seems natural, in a single self-contained publication, to the extent that it is possible within space limits, rather than artificially breaking it up across multiple publications solely to increase the number of publications. This will, first, annoy readers, who don't care about your publication rate. It will likely also make editors/reviewers unhappy. Of course, if the method naturally breaks up into more than one paper, than that is fine.
To generate multiple publications around a single method, I think a good way to go would be to write additional papers that supplement and possibly enhance a single major publication. For example, suppose you were to devise a new technique to analyse some data set(s). Then additional publications could be, for example, an extension of that technique to analyze additional, different, data sets. Also, you could have a separate publication which just describes the details of the software implementation. This would not fit well into a (say) statistical research paper, but could be a perfectly viable publication on its own.
I'm confused. are you answering your own question ?
@Suresh: Yes, see the first para of the question. Hint - it wasn't my idea.
@Suresh: See the following SE blog post: It’s OK to Ask and Answer Your Own Questions
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35280 | Should I cite photos in my thesis?
If I use photos in my thesis that I found on Internet, should I cite them? If so, how should the photos be cited? Should I write something like "In Figure 4.5 [9]" or should I cite it in the Appendix? Or should I add the source in the caption?
The problem with "found" photos is you don't know how reliable they are, and you can't always get hold of enough information about them to cite them properly anyway.
Also see this question on copyright concerns related to reusing images.
This is specifically a question about a thesis, where the position is different regarding "publication" to a journal paper, and at least in some places the fair use or equivalent works differently.
related: What is the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement?
@ChrisH I'm not sure there is any difference between a thesis and a journal paper, actually, except that the journal paper is more widely distributed. Including an unlicensed copyrighted photograph in a thesis is still unauthorized distribution of the work, which is illegal unless covered by an appropriate fair use exemption. (Note also that the US has a rather broader definition of "fair use" than most jurisdictions; the asker is in Turkey.)
@DavidRicherby I didn't look at the OP's location - and I'm considering UK thesis guidance compared with US and UK journal guidance. I didn't mean to give the impression that the related link wasn't useful, just that it wasn't 100% relevant either.
You must cite them!
Failure to cite photographs and figures is just as much plagiarism as stealing quotations. To some extent, it is tougher to use pictures from other sources, because you need to make sure you have the permissions to use them.
You should add the citation in the caption, as well as the requisite acknowledgments required by the author or publisher.
If I take the pictures by myself, should I also tell this to readers?
Any photos without attribution will be assumed to be yours - which is why it's so important to cite other people's as you don't want to give that impression. So just like text you wrote or figures you drew, nothing is needed beyond the upfront declaration that it's your own work except where stated. I would however cite results/methods etc that you have published, even as lead/sole author - for a different reason - published work carries more weight.
here's usa library of congress copyright source:
http://www.copyright.gov/
for using other's copyrighted photos you need reproduction rights permissions.
for using your own photos, you should protect your own copyright with the three-part copyright notice mentioned at loc - copyright symbol or word, date, name - on or near the photo. otherwise you have put your photo into public.
While this is true, the question was about citation (i.e. attributing sources), which is an orthogonal concern from copyright.
@ff524 The second part is also not true. US law doesn't require a copyright notice, and neither do any of the other nations that are parties to the Berne Convention (pretty much everywhere).
@Hotchips And, even more strongly, there are places where you cannot voluntarily place your work in the public domain. In the UK, for example, you can assign your copyright to somebody else, or you can choose not to enforce your rights (e.g., by giving it a very liberal license) but the only way to actually place something in the public domain is to die and wait 75 years.
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24176 | Which term is correct for a work submitted for a master's degree: paper, thesis or dissertation?
What is the difference among the terms paper, thesis and dissertation? Which one should I use, for instance if I am completing a master's degree? Are they interchangeable ?
Use for what (e.g., in a CV or when talking to family)?
I like this Wikipedia quote.
A paper usually refers to a published article but can also mean a shorter written essay, for example as in term-paper. The thesis and dissertation is basically equivalent, at least in its use. Originally a thesis is more than the written work, it is the thought or thinking coupled to the problem as the original meaning of the word indicates. From this perspective the word dissertation is used for the written work that comes out of your degree work.
So for a master degree, you will see masters thesis and masters dissertation used interchangeably. I would suggest checking what is used in your department or university and use whatever is customary.
If I get your question right:
A paper usually refers to an article published either in a journal or presented at a conference. It is rather small in comparison to a thesis or dissertation.
A thesis generally refers to the final written work that leads to an academical degree, like a bachelor or a master thesis.
A dissertation is usually a general piece of written scientific work submitted for the requirements of a doctoral degree.
Depending on the language and on the user and on the context, the last two (thesis / dissertation) are sometimes interchangable. A paper is actually something distinct, although a dissertation can consist of published papers ("thesis by publication").
The "name" of the work for your master's degree usually is "master thesis".
Outside the United States, "master's dissertation" seems to be fairly common too.
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19582 | Should I choose an tenured advisor good at research but bad at teaching or an untenured professor good at teaching?
I have a Phd option with two professors.
Professor A is tenured and is doing very good in research .But many people have complained against him that they cannot understand his class. He has 2 Phd Students -one has been working on Phd for 5 years but still hasn't given his candidature. The other student joined his lab in 2012 as Masters Student and is planning to graduate from Phd in 2016. He closely works with corporate and is very well funded and pays his students very high stipends (like 3k+).These students regularly go for internships in these companies. But i see these students working very long hours on weekdays and weekends to complete their class and research projects.He was recently made an distinguished professor of research in my university.
Professor B has been in university for 3 years and has just graduated a PhD student(after 3 years). He is looking for tenure and is very prolific publisher. However he also published to some questionable open access journals (one's included in Beall's List) to achieve his tenure requirements. There are 3 students in his lab -2 Master's and one 20 hr working CS student to help them out with programming. He has few projects to work on but not as big as tenured professor's. But people have high hopes on this professor as he worked in industry for 6 years prior to becoming an assistant professor.He is also very a good teacher .His Phd student could not get a job in his research field and is now working as a full time research software developer.
Which professor should i choose for an Phd and what should i look out for in each of them like pitfalls and advantages .
This question seems very localized. It's unlikely that it can be framed in a way that is generally useful.
I'm not sure why a professor's capabilities as a lecturer should have anything to do when considering her competencies as a mentor and research advisor. The two skill sets are almost completely separate from one another. Moreover, if part of your concern is that you want to become a teaching faculty member some day, then there's probably a chance to be a teaching assistant for another faculty member who is more qualified as a teacher (such as your Professor B).
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19503 | What's the difference in responsibilities between a committee member, a co-advisor and an advisor in an PhD committee?
What are the differences in responsibilities among them? Can anybody give me an example to elucidate that. Also why are non-tenured faculty more interested in a co-adviser role than a committee member role?
The advisor is the person who is formally recognized as the person most responsible for supervising the student's thesis research. A co-advisor is a person who also works with the doctoral candidate, but often in a secondary role (perhaps providing scientific but not financial support, for instance).
In my own case, for instance, I had two advisors who were fully equal in both supervising the research and supporting it financially. However, formally one of them had to be in charge of the thesis research—I believe they decided it by a coin flip.
The thesis committee is a body that convenes only sporadically (although sometimes on a regular schedule) to ensure that a doctoral candidate is progressing according to expectations. The committee—which usually includes the advisor and several other faculty members (or other advisors)—is also usually responsible for deciding when a candidate is ready to schedule a defense of the thesis and graduate.
As you can see, this is a very different role than a co-advisor, who takes on a much more active role in supervising and guiding the doctoral candidate's work. While a thesis committee member rarely is a co-author on a paper with the candidate, a co-advisor often will be. Consequently, it's much more useful for a faculty member to be a co-advisor than simply a committee member. (The latter role will not carry anywhere near as much "credit" toward a tenure case as being an advisor or a co-advisor.)
@aeiesmail ,i am just afraid my PhD advisor might think i am trying to promote my MS advisor by bringing her in as an co-adviser.
My experience was similar, in that I had two supervisors who were equal in terms of input. Rather than forcing one of them to be a co-supervisor, the institution allows them to share the role, and share the credit, equally. Incidentally, my chair (our word for committee member) also occasionally acted as a third supervisor as his area of expertise was also helpful to my thesis.
@user14285: If you're only going to consult with your MS advisor sporadically, he need only be a thesis committee member. If he's going to be a co-author, then he should probably be a co-advisor as well.
This breakdown of the different roles comes from the University of Melbourne:
Principal supervisor (i.e. advisor)
An appropriately qualified person who takes primary responsibility for the academic supervision of a candidate’s research and candidature
Co-supervisor (co-advisor)
An appropriately qualified person designated to assist in the academic supervision of a candidate's research and candidature
Advisory committee chair (committee member)
A registered principal supervisor in the administrative department of the candidate who is neither a supervisor of the candidate nor associated with the research project and who is appointed to oversee the advisory committee
In committee meetings (12 month confirmation, 2 year review, etc.) the chair organises the paperwork, basically. They are also there if the candidate needs to confide about their supervisors and potentially make a complaint if one of the supervisors' actions is unethical, or if there is some kind of professional or personal issue between them and the candidate.
As to your second question, I would suggest that non-tenured staff/faculty would push to be a co-adviser rather than committee member, because it raises their supervisory profile whereas being a committee member is really just a bureaucratic position. When applying for tenure-track positions, employers will look at the theses that the person has supervised or co-supervised, in addition to a range of other things, obviously.
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30311 | Tuition cost over time
I am wondering if anybody knows of a datasource that makes available tuition cost over time (annually) for US institutions. I am particularly interested in the cost of graduate school expense.
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_330.50.asp Is this what you're looking for?
@Compass -- This is what I am needing. Elevate your comment to an answer so I can give you credit.
The National Center for Educational Statistics publishes reports mostly yearly regarding tuition fees as part of its Digest of Educational Statistics.
Relevant Table for graduate admissions from the most recent report. Information appears to go back to the 80s even with the 1995 report. Earlier data might be available from the Department of Education itself on request.
Professional degree type 1988 to 2010 Of note is that most fields have ballooned in cost the past three decades.
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55848 | Can I submit the same article, which is written in two different languages, to two different journals simultaneously?
I have written an article in Persian and then translated it into English. Is it possible to send them to two different journals (one in Iran and the other one in Belgium)?
AFAIK, the language doesn't matter, it would still be "double" publishing or self-plagiarism. There are journals that accept it in that condition, but I do not think it is the rule...
Do not do it. Plain and simple. If this is a good publication, what will it offer you being published in Iranian? If it is not, 2 or 100 copies of the same paper will not do you any good.
This is plagiarism at worst, double submission at best: in any case it would be shady.
@Alexandros: maybe it will offer the possibility to Iranians that does not speak English well to understand the content of the article? Not everybody can speak English
@Taladris: that’s a good point, but it is served just as well by making the Persian version publicly available online in some other way (e.g. through the author’s website, or a preprint server). Printed journals are no longer the only means of public dissemination, and in many fields, are no longer the main one.
@Taladris That is cause for submitting a translation and making it clear it is, not a simultaneous submission
what is the content of the work? in some cases, the process of translation itself would alter the work somewhat -- i.e., certain ideas would not be identical in the two languages -- making double publication sensible. and i agree with @Taladris that there is good reason for publishing even the exact same work in two languages. however, in order to make that less shady, i think you should have a note in each publication mentioning that it has been published in the other language and giving the citation.
It is about ancient history.
Yes, this is a problem. You should not submit the same work to more than one journal at a time. This applies regardless of language - merely being in a different language does not make the actual work unique.
Further, consider some practical considerations - a simultaneous submission means that you'll have to go through peer-review for both papers and (assuming you don't get caught and summarily rejected) presumably have to make some changes. What if the changes don't align? Now you don't have two translations of the same paper, but two subtly different papers in two languages.
If you're genuinely interested in making your paper more accessible, either post a translation online, or wait until one paper is accepted and then approach a journal in the other language about posting a translation.
Could you cite the rule which includes the line "regardless of the language"?
@ÉbeIsaac An example: "The American Journal of Epidemiology considers manuscripts for which copyright has not been assigned, that do not essentially duplicate already published material, and are not being simultaneously considered for publication elsewhere." You will note no exception for language.
If no specification exists, how could you claim that it isn't allowed. There is proof that it is possible as historical articles of different languages have been published in various languages. Are they all guilty of plagiarism and double publication?
@ÉbeIsaac A translation of a published article is substantially different from a simultaneous submission, which is the question.
@ÉbeIsaac: By making simultaneous submissions as you describe, you are presenting both versions as independent original work — that’s the self-plagiarism/double publication. If you publish one version, and afterwards submit the other, clearly described as a translation of the first, then this would be fine, and analogous to the examples you mention.
@PLL: True and that is what I've included in my answer too.
If you write an article in Persian, you have the legal right to translate it to English, as long as you haven't assigned the copyright to someone else (in which case, you have to obtain the right to create a derivative work from the copyright owner). Many journals require you to assign copyright when they publish an article, and require you to avow that you (still) have the right to assign that copyright. So if you have assigned the right to make copies (including translations) to one journal, you can't then truthfully vow to the other journal that you can assign the right to the derivative work in English.
Journals have two basic reasons for following a no double publishing rule. One is the aforementioned copyright problem, that it might put one journal in a bind with respect to copyright. If neither journal requires copyright assignment and only requires a non-exclusive license, then the second reason may also be applicable, which is that journals consider their space to be a valuable commodity, to be used only when there is sufficient justification. Basic academic quality is one reason, but novelty is another -- a journal's editor could well decide that it is not worthwhile to use journal space to publish a paper that has already been published.
Since this is a matter of editorial judgment, the solution is simply to ask each editor whether it is okay for you to also submit a version in the other language. If both editors agree (and assuming that you have stated the facts clearly enough), then there would be nothing problematic with submitting a version of a paper in Farsi to one journal and a version in English to another journal. Versions in French and English would be more problematic, because there is a reasonable expectation that scholars can read both languages, whereas there are relatively few areas where scholars are standardly expected to read both English and Farsi, and providing an English translation could be a significant contribution.
So, to repeat, ask the editors.
"because there is a reasonable expectation that scholars can read both languages"????
Yes, is that idea unfamiliar to you?
@user6726 They're contesting that French-English bilingualism is common enough for your expectation to be reasonable.
I don't claim that anyone expects bilingualism, just that (depending on the field) a reading knowledge of French, or German, is normal, and often a forma; requirement for graduation.
"Reasonable expectation" implies far more than just "sometimes this happens in some fields"
I think this is the correct answer. I've done exactly what's being suggested here. I had one paper in my native language accepted, and I got permission from the editor to publish the same article in English. I then asked the editors of a couple of international journals if they would accept an English translation of my article. One journal said no, the other said yes (incidentally the top journal in the field), as long as the article made it perfectly clear how it related to the other article. Case closed (the final version ended up being a new paper, but that's a different story).
This is a important experience and because of it I removed the acceptance tag from Fomite's answer.
@Sverre Again, submitting a translated version of an already accepted/published article is vastly different than a simultaneous submission of the two. The end result is the same, but process matters. For example, "as long as the article made it perfectly clear how it related to the other article" is impossible with simultaneous submissions.
I lied - the end result isn't even the same. See the edit to my answer re: peer review and revisions. Simultaneous submissions are just a bad idea.
Publishing the same manuscript in more than one journal at a time is technically double submission. But this wouldn't be so if you consider one as a translated version of the other after one is published as long as you make this explicitly clear in the second paper. It isn't ethically wrong to publish your research in different language as it increases the visibility of your research in the right sense.
In this case you shouldn't just cite the already published paper; you should make it absolutely clear that the second paper is a translation of the first (e.g. in a footnote on the first page).
Yes, that is my point, @PeteL.Clark.
I do not recommend it, for the following reasons:
Firstly, because the same ideas and results will appear on two different papers, and someone that wants to credit your findings (and reads both languages) doesn't know which paper to cite.
Secondly, if I would see your Iranian paper (in journal X) cited on paper Y but I would only know the English version of it (in journal Z), I would have to check that they are, in fact, the same scientific result.
Finally, in most journals publications are required to present new results. Pushing your case to the edge, I could write 2 papers in English: one in such a way that only a native speaker would understand, and another that my community would understand. This is not acceptable by most journals.
There are exceptions on which publishing the same results is acceptable, for instance, some journals do not require the results to be new. In this situation, I don't see the issue.
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28154 | Can I count on "future works" ideas in a paper to work?
Can I count on paper future work or not? in order to work on that for my master thesis. I have a paper and its implementation. and I work on that for some months.
This paper belong to 2013 and the author work on another fields on 2014. I track his publications and I am not sure he goes back to his 2013's paper future work.
I want to know and make sure if the idea will work or not? How can I make sure if it will work or not?
What do you mean by counting on it? That the idea will work? That it's publishable? That the author will or won't work on it themselves? Something else?
There's no way to know but to try it. Sometimes the ideas people say they'd like to try in their future work don't pan out. Also, you can be pretty sure that they are working on it. They don't have an enforceable claim on the area, but given the head start that they have, they might beat you to finishing the idea (if it's viable).
No, of course not!
@JeffE Do you have any ideas, please guide me, I need members experiences
I have no idea what you're asking for. There are only two ways to know whether an idea in the "Future work" section of someone else's paper will work: Try it yourself, or wait for someone else to show that it does. Figuring out which ideas work is the definition of "research"!
How to make sure if it will work or not?
The reason why it's in the "future work" section is that no-one knows because it hasn't yet been done (and it's easily possible the original authors never will try it). "Future work" ideas can range in feasibility from wild speculation to simple, almost-guaranteed-to-work extensions that just need a bit more manpower or computer power to finish.
This is a good topic to discuss with your supervisor as soon as possible. You should be asking questions such as:
How feasible might it be for these ideas to lead to some useful conclusions?
What if it doesn't work? How soon will we know, and what alternative paths are there?
Of course, some ideas are much easier and more feasible than others. There's no way to know for sure but to try the idea yourself (after making sure that the problem is not already solved in later literature). Because dead-ends often go unpublished, it might even be worth contacting the relevant authors to ask if they attempted to follow up on their future ideas.
It's a courteous thing to do especially if theirs is a recent publication: if the original authors are still working on the problem, publishing the solution first might annoy the other researchers. Though whether to proceed anyway (and give them notice that you're working on the idea as well), stay silent, or offer to collaborate, is a dilemma that's off-topic for this question.
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36910 | How do you respond when people talk about the possibility of profiting from, rather than the exciement of, your research?
Let's say you are passionate, I mean really passionate, about your field.
However, whenever you try to share the pleasure induced by your findings or further understanding or even acknowledged works with those you love and who love you, could be your family members or lover or spouse, you always get a response such as "Oh yeah, that might make a lot of money."
What do you do if you are uncomfortable with such a response but do not know how to properly express yourself in this context without hurting them?
What would you do to make yourself more comfortable?
I have to admit that this question may not necessarily be proper in this S.E., and I am not sure of that. Please just let me know if it is indeed so.
I think this may be off-topic because it is about personal relations outside academia.
Yeah, that is also my concern :) I just feel that maybe not a few senior researchers are experienced in such a situation and may have wise ideas.
One way to think about it is that they aren't trying to disparage your passion, but rather are approaching things from another perspective. In a way, it's a positive message: they are agreeing that they value your field, and adding an additional reason to do so (beyond what matters most to you). It would be nice if they could understand/appreciate your passion more directly, and perhaps they will start to do so over time, but at least you all have a positive view. Their perspective is complementary to yours, rather than in opposition.
@AnonymousMathematician: Much appreciated; I think, yes, I unintentionally get astray...
@silvado I think that it is on topic, because it is a challenge that many in academia face, not unlike imposter syndrome.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but in a passive roundabout way, the other person may just be trying to talk about their unmet need for money or security. So I wouldn't take this as complete diss of what you were talking about, but more as an awkward way of trying to broach the subject of money, future employability, and possible future income with you.
If you are really that passionate about your work, why do you need others' approval or praise about it?
I don't think this problem is specific to academia (people in a wide range of fields experience this), and the answers are not different for people in academia vs people in other fields. So I agree that it is off topic here.
Hmm - I can actually relate a lot to this question as a researcher. I do a bit of work in machine learning and I met jerks all the time with their own interests to profit from either me or my research; it's actually gets a bit annoying.
@Alexandros: I am afraid your comment assumes that I SIMPLY need others' praise. But this is not the case. :) I was annoyed NOT because I depend my self-value on others' approv or derog, but mainly because, perhaps, I implicitly subconsciously respectfully require their minds to concern more than money. Of course, we are currently not lacking in money.
@Alexandros: Sometimes, I have got a weird feeling that I would rather they are against my research, instead of for my research by looking at what physical interests may be thus induced...
@Alexandros: Incidentally, my comments left elsewhere in this question may make you assume what you have assumed. To this point I have to say that I left some responses because those comments or answers somehow give me inspirations, not necessarily reflecting what really concerns me exactly. :)
Let's pretend that it's not an academic field that you are passionate about, but instead something like train spotting or fantasy football or competitive button collecting. Seriously, pretend that when you are talking with non-practitioners, that every technical word that comes out of your mouth is replaced with something like "'Jaques Israel' Pink Latticino Swirl" or "1820 Georgian British Livery button."
Would you feel upset by their disinterest then? Depending on the answer to this question, I think that there are two ways to approach the issue:
If you would still feel upset, then it's not so much that you want the people close to you to be button enthusiasts too, but that you want them to be excited for you and supportive of your enthusiasm. A way that you can address this in your relationships is by talking less about the subject that you care about, and more about your little triumphs and setbacks in pursuing it. For example, if you are elated because you have just figured out a difficult problem, tell about your struggle and your joy, or about how it can affect your relationship with your fellow button collectors, but don't try to explain the problem or the solution.
If you would not still feel upset, then it seems that you feel there is something important about your field that means that non-practitioners should care about what is going on in it. In this case, you again need to drop the technical vocabulary, but instead talk about how the ideas that you encounter may come to affect the world that we all live in or our understanding of it. A personal example: some of my synthetic biology work focuses on the study of translational regulation of Sindbis replicons via calibrated flow cytometry ("1851 Goodyear Patriotic Lady Liberty Button"), but I talk about it with non-practitioners in terms of the ways it could make vaccination easier, safer, and more accessible.
I either case, in my personal experience, the core of the solution is to drop the technical language and talk about whichever human dimensions it is that you really want the other person to engage with.
How about this - taken from Donald Schön (.. on top of the o) Reflective Practitioner
The response you are getting surprises you. It is often in the nature of skilled professional work that circumstances surprise us. And at that moment, we begin to work.
Stop yourself. Brake. And ask yourself, "What surprises me? and what would I like to know more about?"
If you can understand and articulate what surprises you in their response and how you can learn more, then you move from being irritated (and closing down) to being curious and opening out.
Does this help?
Thanks very much for answering and introducing the book; I have never heard of the book. Yes, I think to brake is a good idea, after all being irritated is (to me) a waste of time :)
Some things you could try:
Get really good at selling your work, and develop an elevator pitch that most laymen would find interesting and relevant.
If your topic is very esoteric, you could try selling your field as a whole before moving to your specific research topic (answering the question "what is math?" rather than "what is algebraic number theory?"). This will generally be easier for laymen to relate to, and if you give them a good introduction, you may be able to steer the conversation towards the specific things that you find interesting about your field (rather than "it could make money"). As a bonus, this will remind you of the broader impact of your work, and the things that make your problems fundamentally interesting to other people.
If that fails, you can find different people to talk to about your research.
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34857 | Normal length of time taken to arrive at a phd admission decision?
I would like to know, if possible, how long it takes on the average to reach a first admission decision for doctoral programs?
Let us say a doctoral program promises to inform the applicants of the outcome three months after the deadline for submitting application packages. Does this really mean that to reach a decision requires exactly three months?
I am not quite sure what you are uncertain about. I do not see any way the quoted statement could mean what you ask. They just promise not to spend longer than that.
Downvote for what? My question is clear. That my motivation is unclear does not constitute a reason for downvoting, by the rules here.
@TobiasKildetoft I am afraid you asked a wrong question. That you cannot tell why something causes a question does not mean that the question is not a question. My question is clear in itself.
In my experience it's common for academic departments to have a graduate admissions committee that meets periodically to make admissions decisions and decisions on financial aid. Sometimes decisions on financial aid are made separately from decisions on admission.
In our department we review applications as they come in and typically respond with a decision on admission within a few weeks. However, decisions on financial aid are made only a few times per year. For example, we'll meet in early April to decide on assistantship awards for the fall semester.
Under this system, if you applied for admission now, we'd review your application and reach an admissions decision by the end of January, and you'd either be told "no", or "you've been admitted but we'll make decisions about financial aid in early April."
I've seen other institutions where all of the applications are held until one meeting where both admissions and financial aid decisions are made at the same time. Under that system, you probably wouldn't hear anything at all until the committee met and made its decisions.
A couple of other comments:
Applications are often sent to a central office ("graduate studies" or something similar) and then distributed to the departments to make admissions decisisons. In my experience, there are many incomplete applications received by our graduate office. We don't see them in the department until and unless all of the required materials have been submitted. You can and probably should check with the office where you sent your application to make sure that the complete application has been received.
Christmas (December 25) and New Year's Day (January 1) are important holidays in the US. Traditionally, fall semester classes end before Christmas and spring semester classes don't start until after New Year's Day. Many colleges and universities are effectively closed for a few weeks around these holidays. You shouldn't expect to hear anything from any university in the US until after New Year's Day because of these holidays.
I am assuming that you are referring to programs that offer rolling admissions—that is, programs where you can submit an application at any time of the year.
The key words in your question are on average. If you consider all of the applications received by the committee, it will take the committee approximately three months to reach a final decision on a randomly chosen application. However, that is definitely not an exact number—in clear-cut cases, they could reach an answer much sooner. Similarly, applications received during "peak" periods or during the summer—when many faculty are on travel and therefore not as readily available to meet for such decisions—it may take a bit longer.
Part of the reason for this is that several layers of decision are usually involved: first the applications need to be reviewed, and individual members of the admissions committee will have a chance to weigh in. Then, if needed or part of the program's process, interviews will be conducted. After that, the application will still need to be approved by the entire admissions committee, and possibly departmental-level approval will also be required.
If you have not heard anything after three (or better, three and a half) months, then a politely worded email to the admissions office to ask about the status of your application would be appropriate.
On the other hand, if there is a single admissions cycle per year, the decision-making schedule is usually more or less the same each year. Thus, regardless of when you actually submit the forms, notification of the decision comes at the same time for everyone.
Thank you very much for the answer :) In fact, I am not referring to the rolling admissions! I am referring to the normal admissions: One admission for one year. To this case, does the answer still apply or situations might be different? Thanks!
The situation is more or less the same. The issue is that when you submit the application relative to the deadline has less of an effect. The decision will be made for everybody as a group, not just on an individual basis.
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43643 | How do I find a PhD research area that will be commercially viable?
I want to find a PhD position which will guarantee my ability to obtain a job in industry as a researcher.
I need some ideas how to find a research field which companies will want to invest in and hire researchers in.
How do I find an area that will be commercially viable?
If you want a job in industry, do not do a PHD. Operating tools like openstack is not research. You can learn such tools on your own.
People mainly do a PHD because they love doing research. No piece of paper (including a PHD) can guarantee that you will get the ideal job you want.
I don't think there is a specific PhD position that will guarantee your ability to land an industry research position. What will guarantee you hire-ability will be your own skills and drive for an area of research. Yea most companies require that shiny piece of paper, but what they really want out of that is the abilities gained and refined during the process of earning that paper. Show you have the ability for good research no matter what the topic and you will have more opportunities.
@scrappedcola most companies require that shiny piece of paper Nope.
i'll adjust to many who are looking for researchers require it, though I haven't seen a single technical research position that lacks that in the requirements.
Pick something with a lot of software engineering/scientific computing. Those are very portable skills.
@user2379888, thanks please expand the answer I am looking for some thing like that.
First, there are no guarantees when it comes to degrees and job prospects. I assume you mean "improve my chances" or "give me a high probability" of getting a job in industry.
Here's a procedure you use:
Identify the industries that hire a high number of PhDs. These data
can be found at US Department of Labor and similar. If you can't find
any, start with Finance, Health Care (Drugs, Biotech), Chemicals, Oil & Gas,
Information Services, and Government.
Identify the largest employers in each of these industries.
Likewise, identify the top employers of PhDs -- e.g. the National Labs. This used to include Bell Labs, IBM, HP Labs, Microsoft Research, but all (but the last) have been decimated in the last 20 years.
Go to their web sites, find "Careers", and search on "PhD" keyword or criteria. Read the job descriptions and find out what is common among them -- discipline, skills, experience, etc.
I think you'll find the common denominator is that the organizations that hire PhDs have a way to covert PhD skills and knowledge into money (i.e. via competitive advantage, marketable innovation, etc.) If your #1 goal in getting a PhD is to get a job in industry for big $$, then you had better become an expert on how your PhD skills and knowledge will get converted to money. This should lead you to study your target industry in great detail -- history, economics, strategy, and recent trends.
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98487 | Is there value in posting a video of my paper presentation online?
I am a PhD student in computer science and I have a paper accepted in a conference. One of my friends will record me presenting the paper during the conference and I was wondering if there are any benefits of uploading that video recording online for example on YouTube?
Does your conference allow you to record presentations? All that I have attended prohibit it.
@RichardErickson I am not 100% sure, but I think I saw people doing it in previous installments of the same conference.
Many IEEE conferences these days record talks themselves and put it on youtube (and embed it on the paper download page). Presumably they are seeing some value in it, but I have to admit I haven't yet watched any of the talks when downloading a paper.
The greatest value most likely will come from watching your own performance - perhaps with your advisor or someone whose presentation style you admire - to look for ways to improve your skills. But unless you intend to share the link with specific people of groups of people, it is unlikely that your talk will be "found" by anyone. What audience would you hope to reach?
@RichardErickson Without an explicit transfer of performance rights (in addition to transferring copyright to the paper), do conferences have any legal standing whatsoever to prohibit speakers from recording their own talks and distributing them however they like?
@JeffE Meeting may limit attendee's behavior. For example, see SETAC's policy: _No attendee at a SETAC annual meeting may record, film, tape, photograph, interview or use any such media during any presentation, poster display or exhibit without the express, advance approval of the executive director of SETAC North America. This policy applies to all SETAC members, nonmembers, guests and exhibitors as well as members of the print, online or broadcast media._The page I linked to also has a link about copyright.
@RichardErickson Fair enough. So if you want to record your SETAC talk, do it at home or in your hotel room, not at the conference proper.
@JeffE I agree. However, other life science meetings have similar guideline: Ecological Society of America. I would suggest the OP read the details for her or his conference.
You need to be sure that you are allowed to record presentations—as one of the comments indicated, many conferences prohibit such behavior.
If you are allowed to do so, it's usually for personal purposes, and public postings may be limited.
On the other hand, it may be possible for you to create your own version of a "podcast" with the talk using screen capture software. You can talk through your slides in greater detail than is possible in a typical conference presentation.
That said, I don't think there will be a huge demand for such a presentation.
I like your answer. Please feel free to include these two citations for examples of meetings banning recording talks without approval: Ecological Society of America http://esa.org/ftlauderdale/social-media/ and SETAC https://msp.setac.org/general-info/meeting-policies/
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14203 | Statement of purpose: how important is correctness of grammar and punctuation?
English is not my first language, and I am concerned that my statement of purpose might contain some grammatical and punctuation mistakes that neither Microsoft word nor I can see. What is the best way to overcome this problem, and to what degree does this affect the admissions committee decision putting into consideration that English isn't my first language?
P.S. I don't have any native English-speaking friends and I don't trust companies or online sites to see my statement of purpose to check its correctness.
Okay, so basically I will need the help of an English language expert, but how can I make sure that my work will not be taken advantage of?
professionals, by definition, will consider any material submitted to them as confidential… I think you're worrying way too much about this, as the commercial value of your document is probably close to zero
A statement of purpose has no commercial value except for someone who would be applying to the same grad school at the same time. You're not writing a research proposal.
@aeismail and with the same background… if your statement of purpose could fit anyone, there is something wrong with it :)
@F'x♦ My statement of purpose can be modified and with the removal of two paragraphs, then it could fit a large pool of prospective graduate international students who might want to continue their highr education in the US
@aeismail so basically my statement of purpose currently (since I am applying to universities now) is valuable!
No, that's a sign that your statement of purpose is improperly written. A statement of purpose should be specific to you, in that it describes your experiences and motivations, and outlines what kinds of problems you want to solve. It also talks about the department in which you want to enroll, and how your interests dovetail with their research. If, as F'x says, your document can fit anybody, then it's not a very good statement of purpose!
If you are at a university, there might be centers on campus which specialize in such things (in case you are more willing to trust an on-campus center than a company or website).
If the written question above is a genuine reflection of your English spelling and grammar abilities, then I strongly suggest you seek professional services to assist if you are in any way concerned about your abilities having an adverse impact on your application.
This application is clearly a very important step in determining your future, and if it is so important and you have concerns, it is not worth leaving it to chance. If you have no suitable friends, use a professional service. Plenty of other native-English speaking applicants who are competing for spaces with you will have done so.
I can't say for certain how a selection committee will factor your English as a second language. It is likely to depend on the institution and the course you are applying for.
can you please explain you first sentence in your answer, does my question show any English grammatical errors?!
Wow, native English speakers really use professional editing services? Seems like a gray area to me...
@TheHiary - Yes, your question contains a number of errors, albeit minor, but errors nonetheless. Some of these errors, in fact, Microsoft Word would probably pick up and offer to correct for you. Your reply above also contains errors. Please don't take it too critically, but if I'm not mistaken, you'd like your application to be as close to perfect as possible, wouldn't you. If you can't trust a professional editing service, who do this type of thing by the hundreds for a living, how will you ever trust the institutions you are applying to?
@DnuorgSpu - You'd better believe it!
@long if the institution I am applying to offers this kind of service I will be more than happy to ask them for help, anyhow thank you for your answer
@TheHiary - That you are seeking advice from the outset is a great sign of your enthusiasm and drive. I sincerely wish you the best with your applications.
English not being your first language should not be an excuse. No one is perfect and making a mistake is acceptable, surely if you're not a native speaker. But it makes you look less interested if there are a lot of mistakes in your text.
A native English speaker would be advised - since they might be able to phrase something better than someone who's just "good".
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20464 | Is excluding a co-author from a proposal considered academic misconduct or just an ethical issue?
I worked on a proposal together with a coworker. The idea for the proposals came from industry and we all discussed this. There were 2 project and we all have inputs. My project was accepted and his was not. We all contributed ideas back and forth with the 2 projects.
I did put his name on the first draft proposal but left his name off the final version and put myself as sole PI. I did ask him for further corrections but his reply was that there was none. I simply forgot and left his name off without asking his permission. It was an oversight.
Now he saw this proposal and wants to report me for misconduct.
Is he right that he can report me for academic misconduct? Is this an ethical issue and not academic misconduct?
You started the question with 'Is it wrong for me to take a coworker's name off a proposal' and ended with 'I simply forgot and left his name off'. Those are too radically different things.
I'm interested in the notion that "Academic misconduct" and "an ethical issue" are two separate things.
@mandysmith Please do not remove the content of the question.
Your question as I understand it is: is it considered misconduct to exclude a co-author from a proposal, or is it some other ethical issue?
Certainly "research misconduct" can broadly be defined as "ethically problematic behaviors in research" - in which case there is no difference. However, let us assume a narrower definition of "misconduct."
The specific definition of "misconduct" may depend on where you are. In the United States, the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) defines "research misconduct" as follows:
Research misconduct means fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.
and "plagiarism" is further defined as
the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.
(Individual institutions may, and often do, extend this definition as a matter of internal policy. However, the ORI policy represents the least inclusive definition of misconduct in the United States.)
According to this definition, it seems that using your coworker's ideas, processes, results, or words in your research proposal without giving him credit is academic misconduct.
Having said that, the ORI also says this on plagiarism:
Many allegations of plagiarism involve disputes among former collaborators who participated jointly in the development or conduct of a research project, but who subsequently went their separate ways and made independent use of the jointly developed concepts, methods, descriptive language, or other product of the joint effort. The ownership of the intellectual property in many such situations is seldom clear, and the collaborative history among the scientists often supports a presumption of implied consent to use the products of the collaboration by any of the former collaborators.
For this reason, ORI considers many such disputes to be authorship or credit disputes rather than plagiarism. Such disputes are referred to PHS agencies and extramural institutions for resolution.
From your description, however, it seems that this is not the case in your scenario - you and your coworker did not "go separate ways." There is no "implied consent" to use his ideas. He fully expected to be a co-author, and you yourself admit that he should have been a co-author, except that you somehow left him off.
(Even if this is considered an "authorship dispute" and not "plagiarism," it's not up to you to make that determination - it's up to the investigative body, who will look into the matter if your coworker chooses to report this.)
Finally, "honest error" is not considered misconduct according to the ORI. However, your coworker is not required to take your word for it that your exclusion of him from the proposal was an honest error. This is a determination that a third-party investigative body will typically make.
In summary: Your coworker is well within his rights to report you for misconduct. If he does so, you are free to try and persuade the investigators that this was an honest mistake.
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38401 | Should I notify people I mention in the acknowledgements section?
I recently finished a paper in which I received valuable feedback from two professors (neither supervisors nor coauthors) at some specific points, which ultimately leaded to localized significant improvements. I highly appreciated it and of course I added explicit mentions in the acknowledgements section stating their suggestions.
My question now is: I hardly will see again these professors for a long time. I thought about sending an email to them commenting on their inclusion on the acknowledgements... But then I thought that it should be something understood as obvious, without too much interest for them or even spammy. So, shall I communicate their inclusion in the acknowledgements section? If so, what will be the correct etiquette for such an email?
EDIT: As @StephanKolassa comments, another important and highly related issue is what is the best timing for communication, if this is considered adequate:
First submission
Acceptance
Publication (early access or traditional)
Good question, +1. Looking forward to answers. I'd also be interested at what people believe the best point in time would be for such an email: at the first submission, at acceptance, or on (early online) publication?
Thanks @StephanKolassa. Indeed that is a question I would have in the future! I edited the question to incorporate it.
I have seen journals require this. Example from the manuscript preparation instructions of many BMC journals: "Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section."
shall I communicate their inclusion in the acknowledgements section?
Yes, why not? It helps at building connections and improving relationships. Besides, if the acknowledged people are from a different field than yours, they might never know you've acknowledged them otherwise.
what will be the correct etiquette for such an email?
I don't think there is any need to be overly formal. Typically I would write something simple, along the lines of (names and facts have been changed to protect the innocent):
Dear John,
thank you very much for helping me with the problem of packing holes. I've included an
acknowledgment in a paper I recently wrote on the topic.
The paper is titled "Packing the unpackable and stacking the
unstackable" and has been submitted to the Transactions on Painstaking
Stacking. You can find a preprint of the paper at the address (link to, e.g.,
arXiv).
Kind regards/Sincerely/Cheers,
Massimo
The above example is meant to be sent just after the first submission. In more critical cases, when I'm not sure whether the acknowledgment would be well-received or not, or if I think I might have written a wrong detail (e.g., the affiliation), I typically send a copy of the paper before the submission, asking for feedback.
IMHO, definitely before first submission. It would be a nice idea to send them a "Thank You" email and let them know that you've finished the paper and in order to show your appreciation you've included their names in the acknowledgements section. So If they do not feel comfortable with this they could tell you even before the paper is submitted.
+1, but you should also probably send them a note when the paper is accepted and a final copy with any revisions when it is published (or available online, or whatever).
I was not considering acceptance or rejection of the paper; Instead I wanted to make sure the professors are happy with their names mentioned in the acknowledgements regardless of the peer-review result.
Agreed, thus the +1. I think it's polite to let them know at submission, with a copy, and at acceptance and publication (with a final copy), too. It helps to foster the relationship in the future.
In math at least, you do not usually explicitly inform people that you have included them in the acknowledgements. You should of course thank them for their help, and it is common to send them a copy of the paper when you have a more-or-less final version (often this is the version you submit--in math the refereeing process takes a long time, plus your acknowledge-ees (sp?) may have additional comments/suggestions), or notify them when you post it on the arXiv. (This is regardless of whether they have seen a preliminary version or not.)
To add a little more on the question in the edit: sometimes I will send a pre-submission version if I really want to see if anyone has comments before I submit (students probably at least want to get comments from advisors before submitting), but usually I send out copies of the paper/post on the arXiv about the same time I submit. I don't typically actively notify acknowledge-ees when a paper has been accepted or published (though I will update the arXiv), unless the final version ends up being significantly different in a way that would be of interest to them. However, sometimes I see colleagues I have acknowledged, they will inquire about the status of the paper.
What if it's not a paper, but a dissertation? I'm not sure that everyone would appreciate receiving a 200+ pages document. Would providing a link to it be an appropriate alternative?
In this context I assume that "send" means "send a link to the URL where the paper can be found. I don't think I've ever received a PDF attachment in this context; it's simply less convenient for the recipient.
@TomChurch Once upon a time, I sent physical copies. But in my circles, people often attach pdfs in email or send a link. I personally prefer giving links also--I usually give an arXiv link when possible, though occasionally I will email the pdf if I haven't yet posted the paper anywhere.
@AleksandrBlekh Yes, a link is fine. See also my previous comment addressed to Tom Church.
My advice (coming from physical science experience) is yes, you should. Massimo's format for the communication makes sense. In addition to the courtesy, there is also an aspect of letting them know their name is running around there. 99.9% of the time they will be happy but if they are not, at least you surface it. [Note, this is notification, not permission, though.] Also if there is any chance they are going to kerfuffle about wanting coauther status versus attaboy, at least it gives them a chance to say it earlier. Again, though this is just informational, not a permission.
But in general, it will just make them happy. It may also open their eyes to some application of their work or apparatus or the like that they don't normally think of. For instance, if I acknowledged a physics prof for an insight in a chemistry paper, he would probably appreciate knowing that some ideas of his have meaning outside the tuff Bessel function loving world of physics and in the more applied materials space.
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29554 | If a professor is not offering funding to a PhD applicant, does it mean that he doesn't really want to be his advisor?
In some countries, it is required for students to contact a professor and find an advisor before they start their application for that university. I have heard from some of my friends who are studying PhD that if a professor is eager to advise a student who has contacted him (because of his outstanding vita, publication, etc.), he will help that student to find a good scholarship or even offers some scholarships from funding providers he knows (maybe from industry, research institutes, etc.).
I am asking this because after I heard this comment, I feel that if a professor does not show support for scholarships, or if he says in emails
I will be happy to advise you on your PhD, please go to admissions webpage, also visit scholarships webpage and apply for one you are eligible for receiving.
it means that this professor is not strongly interested in advising me.
I mean, if the professor really wanted to have me in his research group as a PhD student, he would try to help me finding scholarships. If he is not helping and is not talking about it, he is not really interested in having me as a PhD student. He believes that I am not a strong student and I will not find any scholarships. So, this is a way to politely and automatically reject a PhD student. Is this really true?
Just a note: I understand what you meant, but "PhD candidate" usually means a PhD student that has passed some sort of mid-way exams. I can't think of a better word, though.
@Davidmh Prospective PhD student? PhD Prospect?
Related: Implications of being accepted without funding?
@Davidmh I mean a student who is on the applying process to enter a PhD program.
What country is this professor in? What field? Funding practices differ widely among both.
@NateEldredge I had similar responses from professors at Australia and in civil engineering field.
I don't think there can be a yes or no answer to this question. It has been my experience that it's up to the student to secure funding rather than the advisor holding the student's hand throughout the process. However, it's also been my experience that in applied sciences there is usually research funding available for PhD students and thus scholarships are not needed.
It could be, as is usually the case in the UK, that the Professor has no direct influence on the awarding of scholarship money. It would, therefore, be irresponsible of him to mislead you about your chances of obtaining funding. I certainly wouldn't take it as a sign that he doesn't wish to supervise you.
That could be the reason, but I can think of a few alternatives.
He may have a deadline for a paper next week, or has heavy teaching, or any other very time consuming task.
He hasn't had a new PhD student lately, so he is not really updated in the funding sources available.
You know your eligibility much more than he does. For example, you might state in your CV that your were born in Colombia, so he knows you have that nationality, but you may also have a Spanish passport, and thus be eligible for funding for EU citizens.
I would guess that these applications require you to submit some sort of research plan; that should be done with your future supervisor. Once you found a suitable funding possibility, ask for help to write the proposal.
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139780 | Minimum thereshold for scholarship
I emailed a professor in Australia for a PhD program. In the response, and as a part of that, he told me "For scholarships, you need to be at least 85% and over". What does it mean? Is this refer to GPA or something else?
Probably, but he's the one who has the ability to clarify, so why not ask him?
It may be GPA. It may be rank in your class. It may be your percentile on the graduate exams. I agree with @GrotesqueSI: The answer is to email the professor again and request clarification.
Typically Australian universities would use Honors 1 equivalence for allocating scholarships both to locals and international students. So the 85 would be that of an equivalent mark. I have found one document from QUT that explains this, you should search something similar for the university you are applying for.
https://cms.qut.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/275477/honours-equivalence-research-applications.pdf
In my experience that would be the minimum and without things adding to it, you would be less likely to be competitive for a scholarship.
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76626 | How do I add an article that is already in Google Scholar to my profile?
I have authored some publications that are already present in Google Scholar and have citations listed for them, but I see no way to add them to my profile. I see how to add an article with all of the same information manually, but this creates what appears to be an independent (duplicate?) entry for the article, with no citations or links associated. I also see how to get a list of suggested additions, but the articles I'm looking for are not among them.
How do I add an article that is already in Google Scholar to my profile?
Have you changed your name or institutional affiliation?
@BrianBorchers: No, but some of the missing papers have (correctly) a slightly different name for me (e.g. initials vs. full first name).
Has someone else with the same initial/name already claimed the article?
Sign In to Google Scholar.
Click on My Profile.
Click on the + button above the article list
Click on Add articles in the context menu
Tried that. It doesn't work: "I see how to add an article with all of the same information manually", and the articles are (obviously) not among the list of articles that appear automatically.
You can add them manually. Google Scholar will probably eventually notice that the two areticles are the same, and suggest combining them. If it's a new article, you can also just wait. I have found that articles usually appear in Google Scholar a few days earlier than they are suggested as additions to my profile.
May not be what the OP wanted, but this answers my question and the question in the title. Thanks.
follow the instructions above, then, when offered a search box, enter the title of your article. Then you click on the checkbox next to the identified article and click on the validation button (top-right corner).
Sign in to Google Scholar.
Find the article in Google Scholar that you would like to add to your profile.
Select the star (Save) under the article.
Click on my library (Top right)
Select the article and click the Edit icon (pencil icon on top)
You will see the details of the article, copy it as is in Add articles manually. (instructions mentioned above!)
In direct answer to the OP's question...
Do what was mentioned earlier about getting to the Details of the article.
Then copy the entire author row (not just your name).
Go back to the Add Articles "+" button above your article list.
In the search bar where your name is, paste that author row you searched for. You should be able to find it now.
This worked for me immediately. Great answer!
The answer is not self-contained (Do what was mentioned earlier)
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79101 | Advisor professor asks for my dissertation research source code
I am a PhD student and I wrote a computer program for my dissertation research. Recently my advisor professor got a grant and she wants to use my computer program in her grant and she asks me for the computer source-code. I will graduate next May and I am planning to use this program in my other studies. So I am not willing to share the code with her. She didn't mention future cooperation and I will also not cooperate with her because of huge differences in our research interests and perspectives.
So how can I refuse her properly?
Note: I was not a RA for her when I wrote the computer program, but this semester she got a grant and she set me as RA.
Does sharing your code with her prevent you from using it in your other studies? I don't understand why sharing your code is a problem here. Research projects in CS and Computer Engineering frequently use other groups' code without infringing on one another's research.
This is great that someone wants to use your software! You might even get some cites from this, congratulations! You could even put it on github or something so that she can cite that too and others can benefit from your program.
I am not in CS or related domains. I am in neuroscience, citation of computer code is meaningless and uninteresting to me. Honestly speaking, one reason I am not willing to share code with her is due to her lack of support in my research.
this semester she got the grant and she set me as RA You're currently her RA. Why do you say due to her lack of support in my research.?
I understand that you're upset with your advisor for whatever reason. But, you may stand to lose a lot by refusing to share your code (alienating your advisor, not getting good recommendation letters from her when you graduate, etc). On the other hand, I can't think of a single thing you will gain by refusing to share.
If you wrote the program for your dissertation research, doesn't it belong to your institution?
Not sure about this, but shouldn't your PHD thesis be somewhat novel and original? What if that got compromised by part of the OP's research 'leaking' before he gets to publish it under his name? My advice: Hand over the code, but make sure you get credited wherever it is used.
@W_H Generally speaking, you don't cite computer code, you cite the papers which first introduced or described the computer code. A paper cited for the methods section looks exactly the same on your CV or h-index (and to the tenure committee) as a paper that's cited for the conclusions section.
@R.M. while a paper is certainly preferrable, you can cite code as well - and should do so if there's no paper yet.
(Reference on availability of source code used in computer science research articles)
My adviser is a much more experienced and so is a much more skilled researcher than I am. The notion that my adviser would take some rough idea I had discussed with him and spend a serious amount of effort himself turning into his own research (to be published only under his name) would be terrifying to me. It is very unlikely someone just getting their feet wet in research could compete with someone who already is an established researcher. I don't know the general ethics of the code sharing, but I would not want to be advised by anyone trying to compete with their students in this fashion.
What would she be doing with the source code? I suggest you contact the Ombuds office at your institute. They should be able to give you a better understanding of what your options are, and if necessary, help you resolve the issue with your advisor.
@JimmyB: If transfer of information from a PhD candidate to the candidate's advisor is considered "leaking", something seems fundamentally amiss with the PhD project. (Personally, I'd go as far as saying it's nowhere near "leaking" as long as information is transferred only among people at the same university, but from what I have read on this site over the years, I am aware not all places are that cooperative to start with.)
If this code was important part of your PhD research, ideally, you should share it with everyone (open source or similar manner). Not sharing even with your supervisor makes the transparency of your research rather questionable. I am not questioning your intentions, you can have all kid of reasons to not cooperate with your supervisor, but in general keeping everything for yourself is not a good policy.
In my particular sub-field, if the code is not shared with at least the internal reviewers and everyone else in a particular collaboration the paper just doesn't get published. I'm quite amazed that you are/were able to submit a thesis that uses novel/homegrown code without sharing it with your supervisor. If you really want to go ahead with this, make sure you are on legally solid ground.
@Marianne013: Based upon the question, there actually isn't all that much information on what the code actually is. Is the code the "result" or the "research", or is it merely a tool to simplify the research, or just a demonstration of the actual research? I can think of many cases where "novel/homegrown code" has merely been created for internal demonstration purposes and was never in any state to be shared (e.g. depending on the specifics of the OP's system setup). If that is the case, though, the OP should have even less reason to fear being scooped based upon the code.
If the code was a significant part of your dissertation, it should be part of your dissertation. I guess I don't understand how your dissertation could have been accepted if the source code wasn't included somewhere. If it's just code you wrote to help you do or explain something, then you may need to consider your schools IP policies. Generally, they own you, so you may not actually have a choice.
If it is just about getting credit of your work, make the code wordwide available first. Then just give her the link. In other case, I do not know How to proceed.
I’ll go further than the other commenters: if you don’t share your source code, it’s not research, it’s an anecdote. It can’t get published, and shouldn’t be used in any of your publications. It’s bad science not to publish research code.
You may wish to look at the conditions for getting your research grant - it may very well be that the code you've written, isn't yours, but the universities.
@KonradRudolph: As I've indicated in my other comment, I think your comment makes plenty of assumptions that are in no way based upon what we actually know from the question. If a paper presents an algorithm, interaction concept, or other programmable thing, and that algorithm is unambiguously defined in the paper or additional materials, that is fully sufficient for the research to be taken seriously. It is in no way implied that a concrete implementation of the algorithm or concept itself must be made accessible, ...
... and much less so any surrounding code such as a user interface for running the algorithm/concept, code for saving and loading test cases, and other peripheral utilities that may have been useful to the OP (and possibly even to others using their code), but that are simply not a part of the scientific contribution.
@O.R.Mapper I fundamentally disagree. You seem to narrowly define the outcome of research as the dissemination of knowledge. However, I’m more interested in cumulative increase of knowledge. By refusing to make usable implementations of algorithms available you cause other people to waste time on mundane reimplementation, thus decreasing their time doing useful work. You may still have contributed to science, but you did so patently ineffectively, for no good reason.
@KonradRudolph: Personally, I am an avid fan and contributor to open source projects, and I like providing more or less everything I do for reuse online when I'm allowed to. That notwithstanding, I'd consider it downright unethical to, say, reject a paper that clearly communicates its findings and everything leading up to those findings for the sole reason that the author just provides the information how to rebuild all tools used instead of the tools themselves. Doing so is a tremendous convenience and good practice, but requiring it would draw the focus too far away from the results ...
... in my opinion. What about a tool that was built in such a way that it cannot be integrated with my research code? Does that count as "published tools" or as "did not publish tools"? What about a published tool that only runs on a heavily customized OS that itself cannot be published? Maybe we need a separate publication channel for research materials/tools (as opposed to results) that contributes to how researchers are evaluated, but I see no point in conflating the two. ...
... Lastly, there are plenty of good reasons why research code might not be ready for redistribution. However, this is leading quite a bit off-topic - my point in this question was rather that we do not have enough information to evaluate how crucial for their research the dissemination of their code is, irrespective of pointing them to the generally good practice of helping fellow researchers by providing convenient tools.
if you decide to share, consider doing it with free license — GPL v3+
So, you're a research who doesn't make her/his research reproducible by voluntarily withholding part of your data collection / analysis tools? Sadly, that probably puts you right on track for tenure in the US system... :-(
Is this person on your committee?
Reading some of the answers to this question, there's another related question: what if you believed your code would do society more harm than good? E.g. an open-source method for effectively toppling an economy, say, with armies of twitter-bots... would it be immoral to share that code?
One of the reasons Science has been so successful is that scientists treat knowledge and tools as public goods. We don't hoard knowledge, but rather we write papers, share techniques, offer suggestions, etc. There are certainly cases in which sharing isn't beneficial, but these seem not to apply here. So of course you should share your computer program! You should share it with people you like, people you don't like, and people you don't even know.
Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
Ideally in this situation you would make your program publicly available.
Giving others access to this code does not prevent you from using it, and will help you build reputation within your field.
Not only that, but by making it publicly available rather than to just your advisor there is no risk of them claiming your work as their own - which I would assume to be your primary concern with the current power balance of your relationship.
If you publish it online with a free software license (e.g. GNU GPL, Apache Software License etc., see this page for a list and comments) - it will be unlikely it could be misused to appropriated by your Professor.
@einpoklum: there's a big difference between a copyleft license (like the GPL) that requires that copies stay open-source, vs. the MIT or BSD licenses that let people use the code as part of a closed-source project. Choose whichever you want based on how you want people to be allowed to use your code.
@PeterCordes: You're right, but - the code would still not be usable as something a third party can submit as their own work to some grant committee or other financing body.
@einpoklum: Ah yes, that kind of misuse. I think even if you made your code public domain, it would still be plagiarism for someone else to claim credit for it. ("Look at this play I wrote, it's called MacBeth"). The difference is that you can take legal action directly, because they'd also be violating your copyright rights as well as committing plagiarism / fraud (against the grant committee, not against you).
As someone who works in scientific computing, I agree with what others say, and would likely take it a step further. To put it hyperbolicly:
Refusing reasonable requests to code used in a published article is ethical misconduct.
If you relied on the output of a program to produce your scientific result, then that program is part of the "materials" of your paper, and the same guidelines for sharing other materials used in making papers apply. Just like you're ethically obligated to reasonably make available (non-commercially available) plasmids, cell lines, mouse strains, etc. which you generated for your published research, you're likewise obligated to make available the (non-commercially available) code that you generated for your published research.
That's even more applicable to code, as code is not just a "material", but also a "method". While you certainly should describe the algorithm in text, there's typically a large number of details which are only apparent on examining the code. It's unlikely that a researcher would be adequately able to recapitulate your results from a reimplementation of the algorithm from just the methods section. This is particularly true in the (unlikely?) event you have a bug. Not releasing code is equivalent to just saying "We purified the protein" or "We measured the X" in the methods section: lacking in the needed details for someone to adequately reproduce your results.
Of course, "reasonably" is there in the release requirements, but "reasonable" refusals for wet-lab materials tend toward availability and time considerations: there's not currently enough of it to share or it would be a significant burden on the lab to send it to you. These tend not to apply for software - you can make as many copies as you want, and it's cheap to do so.
"Reasonable" refusals of software tend toward licensing issues. For example, if you don't have the legal ability to distribute the code due to the libraries you used. Or if your institution is selling the code commercially, you may need to require others to obtain the software commercially.
In your case, it doesn't sound like you have an effort-based or license-based reason for refusal. It doesn't even sound like you're refusing due to potential competition ("huge difference in our research interests and perspectives"). Instead, it sounds like you're more refusing because you are nursing a grudge. That's not good. It certainly happens that others act that way, but I think most people would agree that refusing reasonable requests for methods and materials sharing because of pique is unethical.
I hope they will now give me codes to the UK Met Office weather model, because someone certainly published something with it. If it is an academic misconduct...
And that many papers about simulations with ANSYS/Fluent..
He does not need to release MATLAB because MATLAB is already available to all scientists (and others). (same for other tools)
I agree with your answer, but in the case of the original question there is no publication to be immediately cited.
I respectfully but categorically disagree with the assertion that "If you relied on the output of a program to produce your scientific result, then that program is part of the "materials" of your paper". On that basis, I should claim ownership of Microsoft Word source code for that great chili recipe I wrote up a decade ago.
@DavidW Just because it's materials, doesn't mean you own all rights to it. For example, if you did a research study on Viagra, then Viagra would be a material for your paper. That doesn't mean you can claim ownership of Viagra. The bulk of the answer only pertains to code you generated yourself. As David Balažic mentions, if code (or other materials) were obtained through third parties, you can direct people requesting to go to those same third parties.
@VladimirF If you wrote to them with a genuine scientific enquiry based on something that appeared in a published piece of research than the Met Office would help you. Of course they would not hand over complete source code to their model to someone who wants to exploit it commercially or avoid paying them for weather predictions.
“to put it hyperbolicly” — No. This is not a hyperbole. It’s literal truth. And luckily it’s increasingly handled just like this by institutions (though progress has been slow).
@VladimirF The Met Office is providing a funded service, not publishing Ph.D. dissertations or scientific papers of any kind. Your analogy does not hold water.
@EJP Surely you are joking https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=met+office+journal+of+atmospheric+sciences+unified+model&hl=cs&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjq48L7_orQAhXCHxoKHZbxCBwQgQMIHjAA But actually, jwg is probably right and MetOffice researches could help in some cases. But they cannot hand out the code they used for their research.
If you wrote the code as part of your work as a PhD candidate, and were at all considered an employee of the institution as a PhD candidate, then the institution may well own intellectual property rights to the code you write ("work for hire" rules). This of course depends on the laws of the country where your institution resides.
If you wrote code that is essential for some future work of your supervisor, and which reflects an important intellectual contribution, then either (a) it should be cited if a publication describing the code exists; or (b) you should be an author on publications using the code.
In any case you have a moral (and possibly legal) responsibility to share the code; your supervisor has a reciprocal responsibility to acknowledge your contribution properly. Ideally you should publish your method (e.g. Frontiers Neuroinformatics), and then it can be cited in academic work.
Very often a PhD candidate is a student, not an employee.
Often, but not always.
Writing code is sometimes, but not always, an intellectual contribution that merits authorship. (Whether or not it is "essential" to the work does not necessarily determine whether authorship credit is appropriate.)
@VladimirF Such rules on intellectual property may apply to students, too.
@ff524: You're right. There's a big difference between writing a plotting function, and developing an analysis toolchain. I edited my answer slightly.
IANL but the student handbook at my university reads as though the university can claim anything developed as student coursework/thesis/dissertation as the universities intellectual property. In practice there are usually several startups being formed within the university and later spun off as independent companies. I'm not sure how they handle the handoff of intellectual property rights.
What does it say about the community I live in that I saw IANL and rather than thinking it might be a typo for IANAL, I immediately thought, "huh, does Iowa have a National Lab?"...
A lot of people have mentioned making your code available, and I entirely second that. But to get more specific, put it on GitHub.
Public repositories are free, it keeps a version history of your work so that even you can't mess it up in a terminal way, and others can branch your code off in another direction and develop it, all while keeping the proper reference back to you as the originator. You can include your licensing in the repository; you often want one that allows free usage but requires citation. GitHub even automates it for you.
You can also explain your code and leave links to your website/published work/etc using markdown in the readme.md file
Then when someone like your professor asks for your code, you just share your GitHub link.
This is good advice and GitHub certainly is great but what part of this answers the question?
@RyanfaeScotland How to carry out the suggested course of action doesn't seem relevant to you?
Someone asks how to refuse to share something and you provide an answer on the best platform to share it with the world. So no, I'm afriad in this case it doesn't seem relevant. I should mention that I'm of the school of thought that most of these answers don't actual answer the question, but I've picked up on this one as it seems even a further step removed from those answer.
@RyanfaeScotland I think that's an unnecessarily pedantic adherence to a literal reading of the question, which isn't the way StackExchanges work. The question was "how to not share it" and the correct answer is "actually you should share it and here's why", while my answer simply adds "and also, here's how you can share it in a way that should address any concerns with sharing it."
@JeffL. Hmmm I still disagree and tend to think of answering the actual question that is being asked as the right thing to do (pedantically literally or otherwise). However the other answers and votes do look to support your train of thought. Thanks for taking the time to explain.
@RyanfaeScotland I'm grateful for your considerate attitude, and hope my explanation makes a bit more sense. Would you always assume that the asker knows the best course of action X when they ask a targeted question, How do I do X? I myself don't even assume that the OP even knows the best way to describe the problem, because often enough, I find myself in that situation. Those who know how to ask the best questions are often (already) experts themselves. Conversely, when I'm not an expert on a particular topic, I rely on comments/answers to refine my question, or broaden my perspective.
@Jeff Actually, if you put content on GitHub without a license, it's automatically under the MIT license, which is one of the most permissive ones (e.g. allowing commercial reuse)! MIT does require attribution, however; and that's about as little protection as you can get beyond public domain. (In other words, "you [must] include your licensing...," because if you don't (explicitly), you still do (implicitly) include the MIT license.)
@JeffL I don't assume the OP knows the best solution and it could be the solution they need help with is going to make the situation worse, I'd advise on it but still answer the question. Take this Q as an example, if I had the rep my answer would be 'If you are commited to refusing then you can do so politely as follows.... however be aware the code may belong to the university as part of the conditions also be aware you may be burning your bridges and limiting the good that can come from sharing your work.' Alas I don't have the rep (perhaps cause of my too literal answers!)
There are other version control systems than Git. And Github only supports Git.
@jpaugh: I'm pretty sure Github doesn't have a "default license". Quoting: "[The] absence of a license means that the default copyright laws apply. This means that you retain all rights to your source code and that nobody else may reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works from your work." (Github does reserve some rights though, through the ToS.)
@You Thanks. I must have misread that, way back when. Yes, GitHub would have to reserve enough rights to actually provide the service to you, even if you reserved all rights otherwise.
It's generally considered good practice to publish code that you use for research/analysis related to things you publish. Not everyone does but then lots of people fail to follow best practices.
Not publishing it is like keeping part of your methods secret or using confidential chemistries.
If you've used it for other publications then not only should you provide it to her: you should provide it to everyone who might want to inspect/replicate your work.
Also, as someone working in a neurology dept who writes a lot of code: Yes citations for analysis does still count positively, not as much as citations for things in your exact specialty but it shows you as being more well rounded.
Code used in research should be peer reviewed just like any other methods anyway.
First things first: find out who is the owner! I'm not a lawyer. Depending on situation, country etc, code may already belong to institution, research group etc. Before refusing, first make sure it's really your decision to make.
If it's yours, I suggest making it public, but put licence that will require mentioning use of it when results are used, and require sharing improvements with you.
In practice (and unfortunately), the costs of reviewing (potentially large amounts) code to the required level are prohibitive, and it's also not clear that the same people who are reviewing the paper should be reviewing the code (put bluntly, not all good researchers are good programmers). Moreover, a lot of research code is (quite frankly) hacked together just before the deadline to the point that reviewing it would be (a) an unholy nightmare and (b) unproductive.
I say this as someone who's spent a lot of time over the past couple of years reviewing code in a research context - you can do it, but it takes ages, and you have to be willing to let people incur (significant) technical debt just before deadlines and (hopefully) pay it back afterwards. It's not ideal, but the way in which academia is structured (i.e. prioritising papers over code quality) makes it difficult to do much more.
@StuartGolodetz even if code can't be reviewed, it should at least be reviewable, right? If anyone would doubt if program results are good, he should be able to see for himself?
Yes, in principle. In practice, though, stipulating that all source code must be released as a condition of publishing (which is the obvious way to try to enforce it) would just restrict who could publish papers - in particular, licensing and intellectual property issues can prevent people from releasing their source code even when they want to. I would err on the side of rewarding people who publish their source code rather than punishing those who don't. (Disclaimer: I publish my source code and I want cake, so I'm not unbiased.)
"Code used in research should be peer reviewed just like any other methods anyway." - I am not convinced it is useful in any way to spend scientific peer-reviewing resources on evaluating makefiles that copy our documents to our internal share server.
Read your institution's policies.
Your position assumes that you own the copyright for said code, and that's false in general. This will strongly depend on which university you attend, your formal student/staff status, and the institutions that fund you, but there are plenty of cases where the copyright for a PhD candidate's research output rests with the university. Moreover, in those cases, the person responsible for this bit of intellectual property is usually your line manager - i.e. your supervisor.
That means that your supervisor may well have the legal right to demand that you give her the code, and that you refrain from using it in further research outside of your current institution. This means that your very first stop here needs to be verifying that this is not actually the case.
If you must refuse, refuse in person, or refuse by phone. Do not put anything in writing, unless you're absolutely sure of your rights.
Since your advisor is making you a Research Assistant, note that she could be implicitly buying your future collaboration as well. After all, if your code is sufficiently complex, she may require your expertise to install it, understand it, run it properly, and possibly modify it.
In which case, you could use the fact that you don't have the time to work with her, nor the time to clean up your code to make it more readable or usable right now. Or you could simply refuse her request without justifying yourself to her (but again, do not put any of this in writing, just tell her in person or over the phone, if you're not absolutely sure of your rights).
And some people mentioned that you might want to get cited for your source code, but it could also be that you don't want your name associated with her project. So you could ask for that as well if you wanted.
Or perhaps, you could set the goal to release the source code, but only a year or two from now, by which time, it will be too late for her to use it in her grant. Or perhaps, you could release an older less usable version of the code.
Or if your relationship ended really badly, you could just tell her that you won't help and that you don't wish her to ever contact you again. And then, you could make a filter that ensures that you never see her email messages ever again.
My point is that you have many options. It's just that I am not really clear about your reason for refusing her request. If we knew your exact reason, then maybe we could supply you with a more exact answer.
Here's what I would advise: write a paper that uses and explains the code. Then when you share the code, request that whoever you share it with cites your paper.
A good example is here: http://www.modelinginfectiousdiseases.org/. Read the last line, where some code is distributed with the line "if you use any of the programs in your research, we ask that you reference..."
Especially in your case where you say you have different research interests, and so your advisor will not be competing with you, you're just throwing away free citations (and good letters of recommendation) if you refuse to share. The fact that no-one has given a good answer to "how to refuse" is because we can't think of any good justification for doing it. If you really need an answer to this question, you need to explain what the reason is to do it. "I don't want to collaborate" is not a good reason.
I am not convinced a paper about a set of utility routines that combines spreadsheets from different Excel files into a single Excel file will be accepted anywhere. It is simply not interesting as research. No, the OP doesn't say that's what their code does, but they also do not say anything beyond "a computer program for my dissertation research", so it is completely possible their computer program is meant for such "menial" tasks. This answer applies only to the limited case that the computer program is the actual subject of the research.
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119759 | Contribution vs. novelty in the papers, especially in computer science?
I'm a little confused about the two concepts of contributions and novelty especially when I want to clarify them in my papers (CS scope).
For example, as a common practice, people talk about their contributions at the end of the introduction chapter. So, is this the place that I have to emphasize all the novel parts of my algorithm/approach? Or should I talk about how better is the performance of my approach comparing to others?
If I do not have to mention the detail novelty of my method in the contribution section, then where should I clearly emphasize them to make sure the reviewer get them without too much effort?
Might depend a bit on what tier conference and how competitive it is. Also, depending on how you achieved the performance improvements, that might be novel in and of itself.
It depends. Novelty simply means "something that hasn't been done before", while "contribution" specifically talks about pushing the state of the art and solving a problem that hasn't previously been solved (or solving an old problem better).
To illustrate the point, assume you are working on a big data application and you realize that no one yet has ever tried algorithm X on that problem. You apply algorithm X and try to publish simply because no one has done so before. This is novelty, but it probably wouldn't be considered a contribution unless algorithm X is clearly better and you provide a solid justification for why.
A contribution is all about pushing the boundaries of what is known. To continue our example, let's say now that you produced a new algorithm, Y, and are able to prove that in this specific problem it is better compared to other algorithms. Then this would be both novel and a contribution.
When writing a paper with a "contributions" section, you usually should stick to the contributions in the sense described above - how does this work push the boundaries of the field.
It should be clear from the introduction that:
A problem exists in the field that hasn't yet been solved (or that can be solved better)
Your work solves/helps that problem (this is the novelty - if your work doesn't do this, then what's the point?)
Then in your contribution section, you can specifically explain what your contribution is ("we propose an algorithm for... that uses... to solve...")
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49766 | How can I fund my PhD after the first year?
I'm in the process of applying for admission to a PhD program this Fall after several years in industry. Due to the late timing of the application I'm looking at self-funding my first year, but after that I would rather not be doing so. What would my options be for funding after the first year beyond just TA and RA-ships?
You will get better feedback if you edit your post to include your location (e.g., US, Germany, etc.).
@MadJack Yes, good catch! Updated.
This depends on your field. In science and engineering, probably funding is available. But good luck getting funding to study medieval architecture ... besides RA and TA there may be AA (administrative assistant). They get some graduate student to do clerical work in the college office, for example.
In my Ph.D. program at Stanford, because I was married I wasn't offered any funding. But everything I did - RA, TA, etc. brought a certain number of tuition remission credits. In the end, I only paid for 3 units during my whole program. This will only work if you have a partner who works.
@ewormuth: "In my Ph.D. program at Stanford, because I was married I wasn't offered any funding." Wait, what? It sounds like you are saying that you were discriminated against based on your marital status. Could you clarify/confirm and also indicate when this took place?
In the US, various funding agencies (NSF, NIH, DOE, ...) have fellowships you can apply to for predoctoral students. They tend to be very competitive compared to internal sources (Teaching Assistantships, Research Assistantships, Graduate Assistantships), but they may offer a higher stipend.
Depending on your field, professional societies also offer fellowships: American heart association, Whitaker foundation, Gates foundation.
Industry also offers some in association with various schools: Siemens, Raytheon, Johnson & Johnson.
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127069 | What defines a PhD dissertation/thesis?
This might be a bit of an abstract question, but what defines a dissertation? Some colleagues and myself have been debating this and some are arguing that three peer-reviewed publications or a long monograph make a dissertation. However, others are arguing that the dissertation is defined not by the length or number of publications, but the significance of the contribution. Is there any scholarly consensus on this, or is this a continuing discussion in academia?
A dissertation is whatever the committee will sign off on and the university will accept. Anything beyond that is opinion and custom.
Just as a curiosity, in my country of origin it depends on the degree: monograph for finishing the bachelor degree, dissertation for finishing the masters degree and thesis for finishing the doctorate (there is no PhD over there). So, we say "bachelor's monograph, master's dissertation and doctorate's thesis". If someone says "I'm writing my doctorate dissertation" it will sound very strange.
It would help to indicate at what level. In British English, a dissertation is an original work at masters, undergraduate, or high-school level. Most of the answers seem to assume a dissertation is produced for a PhD - in British English that would be a thesis.
Don't have a source, and things may be different in different parts of the world, but I've always considered a dissertation to be:
A long monograph submitted in partial completion of the requirements for a PhD
Dissertations are generally submitted by grad students as they complete their PhDs -- other academics might publish long monographs, but that wouldn't be considered a dissertation.
Certainly I don't think there is a well-defined standard for how significant a contribution has to be to merit a dissertation -- it's whatever the committee will accept (though in principle, it should have some new advance, not merely a survey or report).
Some institutions may allow you to staple together your papers to produce a dissertation; most require a separate document that re-hashes work that may (or may not) have been published elsewhere.
Indeed, on point three, I have seen dissertations that, quite literally, where a heavy duty top sheet with a title and name on it and then several reprints of published papers stapled behind it. (Of course, this is from when one actually got reprints of papers, but that is another story.)
...where "long" means anything from "at least 20 pages" to "at least 500 pages".
This depends on field and on location. In mathematics, generally, if not universally, a dissertation is a significant contribution advancing mathematics in a subfield, where significance is judged by an advisor and a committee. It doesn't need to be published at all, though the candidate may have one or more papers based on it.
In other fields, a "dissertation" is, as you suggest, just a collection of published papers, where the quality is left, perhaps, to the editors and reviewers. It might even be a single publication.
A dissertation could be long or short, but its length has nothing to do with its quality. A three line proof that P = NP would, in CS, if correct, be a monumental contribution.
There isn't really a discussion "in Academia" though there might be within some fields or at some universities. A new field, in particular, might go through a period of uncertainty as to what should be generally accepted within that field. Most likely it would settle out somehow within a few years.
In those fields in which advisors/supervisors play an important part, it is the definition of the supervisor that weighs the most.
The question of "significance" is, of course, subjective and will depend on the institution, department, committee, and advisor. But the property of novelty should be more objective. Should a PhD recipient always make a novel contribution to the field or subfield (and perhaps leave the "significance" or "impact" to be decided in the future)? I should hope so, but I doubt it's always the case, even in hard sciences and mathematics. I dunno. (Personally I think there is a glut of PhDs and wish that some of the quantity were traded for quality and novelty.)
Obviously there is not a consensus, given the differences in practice. Even if debating this, I don't think there is an easy answer and you will get different points of view (different pluses and minuses and tradeoffs).
I tend to the view (in the sciences) that the dissertation is just a hurdle to get out of the way, but much less important in learning or in contribution than what you did in publications. I think a gentle stitching together of previously done papers along with a perfunctory intro and background is fine. (Perfunctory because I think a thorough review makes more sense when a senior scientist.) The main disadvantage to spending too much time or effort on the thesis is that it either keeps you longer or it takes away from lab work and real papers. Time is not infinite.
In general, I think most students would be better advised to try to get through the thesis fast AND to look at it somewhat cynically as a pass/fail school exercise. In other words, NOT like writing the King James Bible. On the other hand, your papers ought to be very well honed little gemstones. They are going into the archived literature (so is the thesis, but nobody looks at it.) This might be very different for someone in the humanities where writing a monograph is an important skill. But we need to be realistic that somebody working on helium-3 is getting a doctorate in condensed matter physics, not "philosophy" (despite the confusing term "Ph.D.")
I do like the use of the dissertation to be able to include results not yet published (but then please try to get the chapters converted later...nobody reads dissertations like they read papers). In addition, you can include a little more work that does not fit well into regular papers (failed experiments, etc.) The rationale is that at least you are getting it published somewhere. But still better in articles if possible.
In addition, you can go more into details on future work ideas, innovations in lab technique or tools, or practical advice on benefits of different methods. Follow-on students in the lab group can benefit from this and are a likely audience to read the dissertation.
+1 I'd argue a PhD is just a hurdle to get out of the way, aspiring academics should graduate as quickly as possible.
"as a pass/fail school exercise." It should be noted that in some countries (certainly in Germany) a doctoral degree is graded. And the grade is exclusively determined by the dissertation and the defense. So this may be dangerous advice.
The advice also appears badly misguided in some fields, where students typically are not expected to produce papers during their studies.
@user2768 That is also terrible advice in some areas. It may take a significant amount of time to acquire the required knowledge to be able to contribute meaningfully.
@AndrésE.Caicedo graduating as quickly as possible is compatible with a significant amount of time to acquire the required knowledge. The period of a PhD should be as short as necessary. A dissertation should contain just enough to pass with the desired grade---albeit, I'll concede there are valid reasons to include more. Taking longer than necessary hinders a career.
@user2768 "longer than necessary" is the key thing. My point is that what is necessary varies quite wildly depending on the topic. I know many examples of people that graduated quickly and found themselves as a consequence grossly underprepared.
It would be more interesting to talk about what a dissertation ought to be. I have always been against the (rather modern) convention of a candidate stapling together 5 published papers and calling it a dissertation. If one is to really be a Doctor of Philosophy, then he should really understand the philosophy of his field and his dissertation should show it.
You published 5 papers, two of which were "monumental" and all in highly respected journals? Swell. That shows that your advisor can hand you problems and you can solve them (or hand you topics and you can research and write interesting things about them.) But is doesn't show that you know what an interesting problem or topic is. Sure, you can get an assistant professorship and then work in a research group at a flagship university, but still, it's the PI handing you problems which you solve.
But how to your papers fit into the larger body of knowledge? What makes them useful and interesting? Where are these topics going to lead? Those are higher-level questions, and I think the dissertation should not only be a publishable result, but also should show the world why the result should be published (and funded and pursued further.)
I speculate that the pressure (which I believe began with the Viet Nam war college deferment) to produce a lot more Ph.D.'s has caused academia to loosen the standards for who gets to be a Doctor of Philosophy. We now have about 3 times the number of Ph.D.'s that society really needs and most of them are just grinding out papers that no one really cares about.
So my opinion is that a dissertation is a publishable result wrapped in a good thick layer of why it's a publishable result.
So, one novel and justifiably novel result is worth more than five "solutions to hard problems?
@anonymous "Worth more"? That isn't my issue. I would think that academia wants to know what this student is made of. I'm interested in evaluating the person, not the results (or in addition to the results.)
I think that's my point though. If the student works hard, makes a significant breakthrough, then it does it really make sense to say, "OK, now gives us four more publications!" So I'm interpreting what you are saying as, one significant advancement that the student is able to articulate and position in the literature well is better than volume, even if it's very productive work.
@anonymous If the student publishes 5 "good" papers and only one is "breakthrough", but he doesn't know why the one paper is a notch above the others, then he is somehow lacking in the philosophy of his field.
More like, if a study has a breakthrough paper and knows why it's a breakthrough, is there any point in making them write more for the dissertation?
@anonymous Yes. He should write down why it's a breakthrough. The point of the dissertation is to prove to others that you have mastered the philosophy of your field. He should write about further direction that this breakthough should lead to.
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108358 | What's the proper way to list authorship of appendix to a publication on a CV?
I'm collaborating with some others on an appendix to a historical paper for submission to a high profile journal. In the field the convention for authorship appears similar to mathematics (see also this discussion) in which authorship can be split between the main paper and appendices. Since the basic rule of thumb is that the CV should include all intellectual products what would be the proper way to include the appendix? Would it be appropriate to just include it as a publication, e.g.
Author, A., Author, B., Author, C., “Appendix: Neat Computer Simulation Justifying Historical Argument.” Appendix to Author, C., "Historical Argument." High Profile Journal, vol. XX, no. XX, pp. XX-XX, XXXX.
How would such a work usually be cited?
@user2768 MLA calls for it to be cited as a separate work.
Cite it in your CV in the style suggested by MLA
This question was asked a long time ago but never received an answer. In my field, the standard is to list it alongside the publications on your CV, with the text of the citation making it clear that what you authored was an appendix to another paper. This advice was already mentioned on MathOverflow.
Here's an example. The paper "A comparison of norm maps" by Anna Marie Bohmann, has an appendix by Bohmann and Emily Riehl. Here's how it's cited on Bohmann's CV:
A comparison of norm maps. With appendix by Anna Marie Bohmann and Emily Riehl. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society 142 (2014), 1413-1423.
Here's how it's cited on Emily Riehl's CV:
A.M. Bohmann, A comparison of norm maps, with an appendix by A.M. Bohmann and E. Riehl, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 142 (2014), no. 4, 1413–1423.
The OP didn't ask about this, but I also want to discuss citations with the phrase "with contributions by." These are even rarer. Here's an example: the book Equivariant Stable Homotopy by Lewis, May, and Steinberger, with contributions by McClure. On Peter May's CV, it is cited as:
(with L.~G. Lewis and M. Steinberger and with contributions by J.~E. McClure). Equivariant stable homotopy theory.
But, on McClure's CV, it is cited as:
L. G. Lewis, Jr., J. P. May, M. Steinberger, and J. E. McClure. Equivariant stable homotopy theory, volume 1213 of Lecture Notes in Mathematics. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1986. With contributions by J. E. McClure.
Furthermore, each chapter says which subset of the authors wrote that chapter, and McClure is listed as a co-author of at least one chapter. I have no idea how this came about, but I think if I was writing a book and had to choose the level of authorship of someone who contributed, I'd just make them an author and not stress a ton about marking precisely who contributed what. There are better things to spend mental energy on.
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85833 | Are there grants and fellowships for PhD students past the first year, but before candidacy?
Effectively as per the questions title, are there grants and fellowships for PhD students past the first year, but before candidacy? From what I have seen, most are intended for first year students (i.e. those with no more than twelve months of study), after candidacy has been achieved, or are finishing fellowships for the last semester of work. For example, the Hertz Foundation says the following:
We generally do not award fellowships to students who are already
beyond their first year of graduate study except in cases of
"exceptional leverage". Such awards are very rare—only three have
been made in the past 10 years. (Leverage here means what difference
the award of the Hertz Fellowship is likely to make in the kind,
quality, and/or personal creativity of the student's graduate
research.)
Which seems to be a fairly common theme. As such, I'm looking for answers in two parts:
Are there open grants and fellowships for PhD students past the first year, but before candidacy?
Are there field specific ones (computational social science or computational science & engineering) that may apply?
@tilper Quite likely, I'm biased towards general questions since other may have the same problem though. I've updated it with some field specific information though.
Yes. Several of the fellowship and scholarship mentioned in a previous question (Options other than the NSF for PhD level grants?) are open to non-first year graduate students.
For example, The EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship, The Ford Foundation through the National Academies, NSA Fellowships, Google Research, and The Data Incubator all allow people to apply past the first year.
The NSA, Google Research, and Data Incubators Fellowships all target computer science. "The Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students." The EPA Fellowships target environmental science, which could include computational science applied to studying the environment.
Edit note November 2019: The EPA no longer offers their fellowship program.
The Data Incubator appears to be for people that have their PhD and want to enter industry. I don't see anything about PhD student support.
They have a Fellowship Program, albeit it only covers attending their training camp.
Yup, that's what I'm referring to. It's not exactly something you could use to find a PhD.
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95659 | What action can be taken if hostel allotments are not out just after admissions are done?
I just joined a university for my post graduation studies, but as I'm from a different country, I don't have a place to stay. Therefore, I asked the hostel prefect if I can stay in a room as a paying guest until the hostel allotment are out. He said yes. After two weeks however, the DEAN OF STUDENTS WELFARE asked me to leave the place the same day. He took our names and now I got a letter for disciplinary action. What should I do now?
It's unclear what you're asking here, and I suspect it's off-topic on Academia S.E. since it's institution-specific. But to make a long story short, it sounds like you need to find new accommodations.
There are two things you need to do:
Apologize to the Dean of Student Welfare for the unauthorized stay in the hostel, explaining that you thought you had permission.
Find somewhere to stay. Possible resources include hotels, AirBnB, the university's housing department, the Dean of Student Welfare (after or as part of step 1), and personal contacts in your department.
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100431 | Access to scientific articles that cite mine after leaving academia
I used to work in academia. I was lucky enough to publish important papers in peer reviewed journals that now regularly get cited by other papers in peer reviewed journals. I have left academia to work in the private sector, so every time I get a notification that my work has been cited elsewhere in a non open access journal, I can't even see how it was used. I should be able to ensure my work isn't mis-quoted or wrongly interpreted, but I can't without paying extensive fees for each and every article...
Is sci-hub my only non-option because I refuse to use illegal means?
Possible duplicate: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26235/is-there-an-affordable-way-for-non-students-to-subscribe-to-multi-journals-archi
Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
There is not much you can do about it if you are being mis-cited or mis-quoted, is there? You get to read it after it has passed through peer-review and not before.
Use of Sci-Hub is more legal than you think.
You can write an e-mail to the authors and ask for a copy of their published paper. Almost everyone will be happy to send you one.
Before doing that, check if the paper is already published on their webpage, or if they have submitted it to a preprint server. Use of preprint servers and embargo periods vary among the various disciplines --- in some fields you are more likely to find it online earlier, in others it's almost impossible.
That seems to me like a sensible alternative I hadn't considered. Thank you.
@tistbajean One particular caveat for you, since you refuse to use illegal means: although a researcher may upload a paper to their website or send it to you, this doesn't mean that it's necessarily legal. I'm delighted to share my publications with anyone who asks, but I have no idea, in general, whether I'm legally allowed to do it.
@Pont Good point, but all publication copyright transfer agreements that I have seen explicitly allow private redistribution (at least as long as it's not automated).
I confess I don't read the T&Cs in detail, but I do know that on publication Elsevier send me a "personalized URL providing 50 days' free access", which generously allows me to read my own article and share it with others -- for 50 days. From this I always assumed that they don't grant me a general right to email my article to others in perpetuity. Either way, the upshot for @tistbajean would appear to be: make sure any file on an author's website is legal, and if not email them to request the identical file (if they're permitted to redistribute it by email) in order to stay within the law.
@Pont https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/sharing : "If you are an author, you may also share your Published Journal Article privately with known students or colleagues for their personal use", and "Authors can share their accepted manuscript [...] via their non-commercial personal homepage or blog".
It appears from Elsevier's text that sharing of the published article is restricted to "known students or colleagues" (i.e. I shouldn't email it to a stranger who requests it) and sharing via web is restricted to the accepted manuscript (i.e. not the final published form). In this context the "personalized URL" makes sense -- it's an additional avenue which lets me share the published article with unknown people, albeit only for 50 days. This is relevant to @tistbajean since (from comments) they seem to start article-hunting in response to citation alerts, so probably within 50 days.
@Pont: I would guess by "known" they just mean you are sharing it with people that you know specifically rather than making it available somewhere with a note like "for anyone who is interested". If a stranger contacts the author, the author would presumably "know" who the stranger is after the first contact.
@sumelic Even if I "know" someone after they send me an email, that hardly makes them a "known colleague". At least to me, "colleague" implies someone I work with on some settled, regular basis.
Some options:
https://openaccessbutton.org/
http://unpaywall.org/
http://doai.io/
Also, Google Scholar will sometimes list mirror versions located elsewhere online.
That said, both with that and with contacting the author on whether you can access the article, you cannot be sure that the author has studied the publisher's terms and is allowed to share it, so it's quite hard to make sure you're not using illegal means.
Another option is to walk into an academic library and download them on their guest WiFi.
While these options might seem dodgy, they are perfectly legal. Most funders now require that research is available in open access form, and to comply with this almost all journals will allow you to place an unformatted version of the manuscript on your personal website. These services find these copies.
I owe you a beer. A lot. 2. This makes me wonder: is formatting the only difference between paywalled and unpaywalled documents? If yes, is that the only reason why pubishers fight e.g. SciHub but allow sites like these?...
@Neinstein That depends on the publisher. Some allow you to incorporate the feedback from peer review, some even the formatting, some allow you to share them elsewhere directly and most only after an embargo periods of several months or years. See also https://medium.com/flockademic/how-open-can-open-access-be-cf6662565ecd
Your local library probably has access to academic journals through JSTOR. Unfortunately it takes a few years for journals to be added to that.
Another option is to get access through the library at your university. Alumni are often given library privileges and even if that is not the case, as former staff, you might be able to set up some sort of arrangement. Get in touch with someone from your former department and ask how can you get access to scientific journals.
I have the same problem.
I used to just go to the local university library, as others suggested. But that doesn't work any more because I no longer live anywhere near a good library.
I eventually solved the problem by volunteering to serve as an associate editor of one of the main journals in my field, and I serve as a reviewer for other ones. The publisher then gave me open access to those journals and several others that they handle. This works for me because a large fraction of the interesting papers in my field are published in one of two journals. If publishing in your field is more scattered, my approach might not work.
I'm all for open access, but you don't have any special entitlement to access research articles simply because they cite you. It is up to peer reviewers and the editors of the journals that publish the articles to ensure that your work is quoted and interpreted accurately. Thus the method you use to obtain access to these articles should be the same that you use to access any other article you are interested in (contacting the authors to ask for a copy is an excellent method).
Im afraid I have to disagree with the accepted answer. At least in my field of academic medicine (where authors are at least likely to have funding to order reprints), most authors stopped ordering paper reprints more than a decade ago.
I used to receive many requests for reprints from eastern Europe and from parts of the far East. Those requests died out as internet access grew.
Writing a senior author these days may net you a PDF, or simply be ignored.
Your best bet is a public access library.
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65019 | Is it OK to go to postdocs for help?
There is a postdoc from another group in my department that frequently helps PhD students in his area when they have questions or want to talk about a particular subject. I would like to know if this is expected/normal. In other words, can I go to a postdoc looking to talk and ask questions related to our field?
Discussing research with postdocs and other graduate students and asking for some advice is usually encouraged, but you have to give alot more detail for us to be able to provide a useful answer to your situtation.
You could ask the postdoc (or the professor) if it's part of their contract to help supervise PhD students. I'm not saying that if it's not part of their job you should never ask for help, but it does change things a little bit if you know they're going above and beyond their usual workload to help you.
They are humans. Sometimes they just like to help. Be prepared that, at some point, they may find their time is made too much use of, and than they pull back from helping so many people.
When I was a lad (ok, postdoc) I certainly thought that working with grad students in the group was a big part of my job. It helped both them and I get lots more done quickly and efficiently.
In other words, can I go to a postdoc looking to talk and ask questions related to our field?
It depends on what you mean by "can", as well as the culture in your field and department.
If you are asking whether it's an ethical and reasonable thing to do, then the answer is certainly yes. You can talk with and ask questions to anyone you'd like, provided you appropriately acknowledge any assistance you receive.
If you are asking whether the postdoc has an obligation to provide substantial assistance or tutoring, then the answer is quite possibly no. It's hard to give a definitive answer, since precisely what the word "postdoc" means varies between fields and departments, but you shouldn't assume supervising graduate students is a serious part of the job unless you have some confirmation that this is true in your scenario.
If your questions are genuinely interesting and thought-provoking to the postdoc, then they will probably be happy to chat with you. You may also get a good response if you ask about topics that are truly difficult to learn about elsewhere, so that the postdoc will be sympathetic. On the other hand, if you try to lighten your workload by asking the postdoc relatively routine questions so you don't have to bother looking things up, then they will probably lose patience with you.
Yes. Helping students is commonly part of a postdoc's job. They are not obligated to help with every problem a student brings, but they probably will if they can.
Part of the idea of gathering professors, graduate students, postdocs and others is precisely to encourage exchange of ideas.
Yes, it's definitely ok as other answers suggest; I'd like to add a few more points though:
Remember if you receive help beyond a certain level, you have to give that person credit afterwards, either in a thank-you note in a paper/poster, or perhaps even a coauthorship. I'm not saying that to discourage you from getting help, just so you don't forget later on.
You can sometime reciprocate by offering them help with problems they're working on, if you feel it's too much of a one-way communication.
Try to use the opportunity of getting help on something specific to maybe get a broader perspective on your research directions from someone who's pursuing something else. You don't have to agree with what he says but these can be useful reality checks sometimes.
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177179 | Can I request for a change of a musical piece assigned to me due to physical discomfort?
I wonder if this is going to sound silly, I'd rather vent this anonymously online first before taking any action in the real world... I'm doing a Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing and part of our next assignment is on Mozart. The music they've selected us to analyze is his Horn Concerto No. 2. Due to my autistic spectrum disorder, I find certain frequencies/noises to be irritating to listen to, it's this sort of throbbing in my inner ear like when you listen to something that is too loud or at the wrong frequency. I think it's related to my sensory processing disorder in some way, I have similar issues with tactile sensations. The Horn Concerto causes this throbbing/vibration and trying to analyze it is uncomfortable/painful.
This sounds ridiculous but would it be wrong of me to ask my tutor if I could do another piece of his music like Lacrimosa/Requiem or the 9th Symphony for one half of my assignment? I enjoy both those pieces, Mozart has such a wide variety of music to choose from and I'd hate to have to choose something else just because of my condition. Feedback would be much appreciated.
Not an answer to your question per se, but it’s quite easy using common music apps to take an audio file and shift all the frequencies up or down by some desired amount without changing the tempo. The sound quality degrades a bit but not by much. If your discomfort is really associated only with specific frequencies, consider the possibility that that will solve the issue and allow you to complete the assignment without making any requests.
There is even easier path to try. Try listening to the same piece performed by different people, or even on a different instrument. Almost anything more or less well known can be found played on piano.
I did this once, of course its ok.
Personally, if I set an assessment task that caused physical discomfort for one of my students then I would want them to tell me so that I could change it.
Any request has more weight if you have a (medical) doctor in your side, if you are met with refusal, offer to come back with a letter from your doctor. I would expect that the university rules require him to accomodate your needs.
I think you have a disabled access requirement to study a different piece of music. I'm disabled; my experience is that when I say 'I have disabled access requirement X', this language helps. Your additional needs sound very reasonable to me; certainly not ridiculous. In general I think people are required to make reasonable adjustments for such things
would it be wrong of me to ask my tutor if I could do another piece of his music like Lacrimosa/Requiem or the 9th Symphony for one half of my assignment?
No, it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask and in many places accommodation would be required by law. But in some other places what they should do and what they will do might be quite different. I would hope that the UK requires appropriate accommodation.
But you should ask and explain your reasoning. In fact, since the program isn't one in music at all, it might be necessary for someone like me (almost completely deaf and totally deaf in certain frequencies) to use a completely different assignment that doesn't depend on normal hearing.
I've had to give up music - even Bob Dylan - sad.
Have you had a look at bone conduction headphones?
You're majoring in Writing. Write about how irritated you get with those notes and yes, emphasize your spectrum disorder. That should give your prof a fresh perspective about how "other" people view Mozart. You could do a whole book about this even to a point comparing autistic and neurotypicals who also hate listening to that type of music.
The OP describes it as "uncomfortable/painful". I don't think they should have to suffer through discomfort and pain to get their point across to the professor. If I was the professor and I read an assignment written like this, I would ask the student: why didn't you just tell me so I could give you a different piece to write about?
On the other hand, if this is something that OP wants to do, there's nothing stopping them from clearing this with their Professor first. They can both make sure this can be done in a way that still accomplishes the goals of the assignment, and this avoids getting into a situation like the one @kaya3 describes.
This has nothing to do with hating Mozart.
This sounds ridiculous
It's not ridiculous, you're feeling physical discomfort. Plus, how can you be inspired to write creatively by something that's mostly grating for you to even listen to?
but would it be wrong of me to ask my tutor etc.
It's perfectly fine, but:
Your tutor might give you some sort of excuse, like "I have to give everyone the same piece" or "I can't make this decision myself" or whatever. I don't think that's a valid excuse, but it might happen.
Make an effort your request to sound respectful and non-aggressive, and not like a demand. You've explained it pretty well here, i.e. focusing on how it affects you; just make sure to use an appropriate tone of voice. Also, don't make a concrete suggestion for an alternative piece; rather, first wait for your tutor to acknowledge the problem, and either ask you for a suggestion or start wondering out loud what to do.
Your tutor might have another alternative, e.g. using a painting instead of a musical piece; or even letting the other assignments have more weight in the final grade and letting you skip this one.
I agree, especially with the point of not suggesting specific pieces. This might give rise to the thought that you want it, because you know it well already. Instead explain what exactly is the problem and with which kind of music you are fine and giving some pieces as examples for which is ok. And speaking from experience, most professors are quite understanding in such regards (speaking from the point of view as a graduate student and tutor).
Asking for accommodation is fine -- remembering that there are laws that dictate whether such a request must be honored, and that many profs will respond to polite and timely requests, whether they are required to or not.
I don't think you should recommend a piece for replacement though. That might offer you an advantage over other students. My preference would be to do your best to communicate what disturbs you in the original piece (perhaps indicating times of such passages in a recording), examples of works that don't disturb you, and ask the prof to do their best to offer you an option that you wouldn't find disturbing.
If I were the professor, I would welcome the suggestion of an alternative. Otherwise, I'd have to spend a lot of time listening to different pieces of music, trying to guess what would or wouldn't cause OP's discomfort.
@DawoodibnKareem -- the point is that a pre-familiarity with a piece may prove an unfair advantage. Perhaps an alternate assignment assessing the same metrics is the best option.
You can certainly ask but there are several potential issues with your request. I'm always reluctant to modify an assignment for a student because, if I do it for one student, then I have to be willing to do it for everyone. I understand that you have a situation that makes the assignment problematic but I have no way of confirming that and I definitely don't want to put myself in the position of trying to decide what constitutes a good reason and what doesn't.
It's true that faculty are legally required to provide accommodations for students with disabilities but this is only the case for disabilities that have been confirmed by the university. We can't make this decision unilaterally and, for better or worse, this is a situation that the federal government takes very seriously. That means that there are lawyers involved and, whenever lawyers get involved, things get very rigid. I'm required to give students the accommodations the disability office has decide they get and I'm specifically required not to do anything else. If I do, we're back to having potential fairness issues with the other students in the class.
The path forward for you should be to go to the disability services office at your school, provide them documentation of your condition (or find out what documentation they want to see) and have them provide an official accommodation notice that you give to your professors. Unfortunately, that's a process that probably won't be done in time for this assignment.
There's nothing necessarily wrong with this, but I would point out that it seems to me that you are answering based on an unconfirmed assumption that the OP has not reported his condition/disability to their University.
In the UK (mentioned in the OP's profile) a disability does not have to be "confirmed", and ASD disorders are really hard to get diagnosed, even in childhood. Obviously a diagnosis helps, and it's good practice not to spring something unexpected on the organisation, but having been notified of a disability qualifying under the Disability Discrimination Act, the duty to accommodate applies. Disputes need to be dealt with by the courts, but "You don't have a disability" is quite uncommon. [A reasonable adjustment may be to suggest a different work of Mozart's, or a different arrangement of it.]
This may just be my opinion but, you should be willing to modify the assignment for every student. If there is an innate problem with the assignment, such that every student is asking you to change it, it would be extremely stubborn of you not to change it.
I really don't see how there would be any fairness issue raised by the professor simply assigning a different piece of music from the list of pieces of music they must already have drawn up for the task. If the pieces aren't all of equal difficulty to write about then the assessment was already unfair, otherwise if they are of equal difficulty to write about then assigning a different one is still fair. I also agree with Zibbobz; "if I do the right thing once then I will have to do the right thing more times" is not a good argument against doing the right thing.
For some kinds of accommodation request, I would agree with this answer’s stance — when they compromise the fairness/appropriateness of the assignment, or put a large extra burden on the instructors. But for requests like this, which seem easy to grant, I don’t see any reason to be unwilling.
@kaya3 You made some huge assumptions. Why "must they already have [other pieces] drawn up for the task"? When I create an assignment, I don't create five equivalent versions so that I have backups in case someone has an issue with the first one. Also, the OP mentioned already being familiar with the other pieces he suggested which would give him an advantage over other students who were likely hearing the other piece for the first time.
-1. OP has a disabled access requirement to study a different piece of music. Your approach is essentially, 'I don't want to take responsibility for helping you, come back when the system has certified your situation so I don't have to think about it'. I'm disabled and the system discriminates against me in many different ways. Getting certified can take a very long time and cause all sorts of difficulties; your approach added on to that process can cause a lot of additional suffering in my experience
@Joe My approach is, "There's a process in place for handling your situation. You should go and use it." And you're right - I'm not taking responsibility for evaluating your condition, getting the documentation to confirm that it is what you say it is then determining what accommodations are appropriate. Again, that's why we have a process and it's been my experience as an instructor that US school's often go overboard in the accommodations they require.
@G. Allen, I think you're lacking the experience of starting that kind of process, and finding that it's still going after a number of months without any useful response. I'm not saying you need to take responsibility for evaluating people's condition etc., I'm saying that if people come to you with disabled access requirements, you can take responsibility for helping them by making reasonable adjustments regardless of whether they have documentation or not. It took me two years of being too ashamed of my disability to get any kind of documentation.
+1 @G.Allen, without any kind of formal confirmation of the issue it is a minefield, better to let those entrusted with the process deal with this.
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134905 | How to "know" if I have a passion?
Most students encounter a life-changing decision during their undergraduate years. That is either to choose a high-paying career, yet such that they might not be passionate about or a career they like but is unlikely to be high-paying.
It is not unusual to find career advice popping in various internet circles that fixate on the importance of passion. The general rhetoric is "If you have a "sufficient" passion for X, you are guaranteed a "good" career in X and hence a good life."
Now, on some levels, the advice makes sense. Students are usually willing to sacrifice guaranteed-to-pay-well professions in hopes to excel in their own professions fueled by passion.
Now my question is, What is the sufficiency precisely in this context?
To be more precise, say I think I feel passionate for mathematics. Maybe because I am good at it. Maybe because I contemplate on it in my free time. Now when it comes to the actual profession, the "apparent" passion fades away and I am left regretting pursuing the field (something that is not unusual to see with Ph.D. students).
Or say, I feel I like physics and mathematics but I also get easily swayed away by high paying professions like data science.
How can I come to "know" whether I truly have a passion for mathematics or whether I was merely deluded into thinking that because I was made to feel that I am good at mathematics by the relevant education system?
You are passionate about a field if problems in that field keep you awake at night.
It's okay to be passionate about data science, too. Hard for us to pick your career for you, though.
I don't think the premise in your first paragraph is correct. Most students have no clue what to do with their lives, will figure it out during the next decades, and change careers and lifestyle multiple times throughout their life. Life is a winding road.
Exactly. Also, there are no circumstances which guarantee a good career, much less a good life. I furthermore would hesitate to equate those two.
@BobBrown: that's a pretty unhealthy litmus test.
@CliffAB: It's a pretty good litmus test, nonetheless.
Don't forget the old saying (there is a Chinese version that is more than 1000 years old) - "anybody can find any subject absolutely fascinating, if they study it in enough detail." The path you take to get to the "I've studied subject X in enough detail to become passionate about it" point isn't important, in the long run.
@henning Even if it's true that most students don't face the pressure, there is certainly a demographic in which most students are facing this issue (say students who have to support their families). Consequently, whether the premise is precisely actually true has less to do with the concern I raised.
@mathnoob123 I understand the concern! My advice would be not to expect too much in the way of "finding your calling" soon. It takes time, experimentation, and dead ends.
@BobBrown: Awake with anticipation of a solution, or awake with anxiety about your lack of progress and sense of inadequacy? :-(
Many students don’t find out until after getting hired that a job in their “passion” requires a good percentage of activities NOT in the “passion.” That’s one of the reasons software documentation is so often bad or nonexistent.
I knew I was passionate about computer programming when I would wake up in the morning, and I would literally jump out of bed with complete joy to do it.
I must be passionate in the field of noisy neighbours.
If you have to ask... the answer is probably no.
An advice from abroad in all senses of the word. Forget everything about heroism. Eat and bathe as you wish. Just be sure to understand what exactly you want to achieve as you're doing something. If you want to get a mark — in all senses of the word — then it's not passion no matter how you like it. To give in a homework, to solve a problem in the test (or elsewhere), to get a degree, to let others see how smart you are, to enjoy your own smartness by yourself in private etc. That's not passion.
But if you know by yourself, without others explaining you, why you need all those tests, and homework, and even a degree, and have some kind of work in mind that you can get done either for your own benefit or one of the others, and that is something that's evaluated and set out by yourself rather than by a common opinion, then that is is a passion, no matter how weak, or faulty, or even misguided. One is passionate to the degree in which he is independent, in the inner sense of the word. Of course, passion is still not a universal solution, it doesn't always result in success.
Passion is all well and good, but in the long run, what you really need is commitment.
@BobBrown I sleep remarkably well, despite having a pretty strong passion for my field.
This sounds very similar to the concept of a "calling" in some varieties of Christianity. And is similarly vague and doubtful.
If you have a "sufficient" passion for X, you are guaranteed a "good" career in X and hence a good life. — unfortunately, that isn't true at all. There are (far) more people passionate about particle physics or astronomy than that there are positions in those fields. Fortunately, particle physicists and astronomers tend to be smart and they'll find jobs in other fields, but they're certainly not guaranteed a career in particle physics or astronomy.
If you were really passionate about something, you'd know because you'd want to do it in exclusion of all else. You think about that thing even if you're bathing, eating, etc.
Having said that I can understand what you're asking because if we define passion this way, precious few people would be passionate about anything that they can actually make a living from. That includes academics - e.g. this question
I just want to get married, and have weekends and evenings off, and chill out and play board games, and have nice conversations with friends, and have time to exercise and eat good food, and partake in hobbies, and read books and play computer games and watch movies and write a novel or two.
And from there it's just a short way to "I just want to get married and have my entire week off ..."
So now what? I suggest:
Can you imagine yourself doing it as a career? You don't have to like it more than board games, conversations with friends, etc, but you should like it enough that you can do it for upwards of 40+ hours a week. On the other hand if it starts getting painful to go to work every day, it's not a good idea to do it.
Are you good at it? If you are, then you can get results even if you aren't passionate (by above definition) about it.
It may not be a popular position, but you can certainly base your career around things that you aren't passionate about (by above definition). For example, my mother became a doctor because that's traditionally what all good students at her high school did. She didn't particularly like it any more than other careers, but she studied it, did well at it, became a trained doctor, became a specialist, and eventually managed her own department. She would often complain about her work at the dinner table, and talk about e.g. how she would rather teach language at a local high school, but by all metrics she still had a successful career.
For what it's worth, this is not an unpopular position in most of the population. My unpopular opinion is that people talk a lot about "passion" in fields that tend to be exploitative to newcomers (academia, start-ups, certain branches of politics). As in, it's often a good excuse to not improve conditions for juniors because if you ask for reasonable work-life balance or compensation you're clearly not "passionate" enough. (you may correctly surmise that I am not a fan of the concept)
Exactly! IMHO, "passion" all too often gets in the way in professional life, because it's perfectly possible to be both passionate about something, and totally incompetent at it. Find something that you're good at, which is reasonably enjoyable, and which will let you make enough money to live comfortably, and save your passion for hobbies.
Remembering the times when I asked myself the same question, suggestion 1. would already have left me helpless because I had no idea what "having a career", or even regular working hours would feel like. Also, if things start feeling painful, the time of making the decision is long past... you can't decide based on data you don't have ;)
If you were really passionate about something, you'd know because you'd want to do it in exclusion of all else. - Do many people define passion this way? Merriam-Webster doesn't.
@Kimball 4b and 5a and b come down to pretty much the same thing. I’m not sure why a dictionary definition would be relevant though, since knowing the dictionary definition is different from knowing that that is what you feel and exactly that is what the OP is asking. Clearly, the dictionary definition would raise the question how such feelings would manifest in a person.
This might be a necessary condition, but for sure it is not sufficient. You can be extremely worried, stressed, and everything but passionate about something and have exactly the same symptoms. And the funny thing is that sometimes your passion itself drives you in that condition...
@11684 My point is most people (at least most mathematicians) who talk about being passionate about mathematics don't refer a level of obsession where you don't want to do anything else. I think interpreting passionate in this extreme a sense is more likely to create misunderstandings than good communication.
Most students encounter a life-changing decision during their undergraduate years. That is either to choose a high-paying career, yet such that they might not be passionate about or a career they like but is unlikely to be high paying.
This is false, on many levels:
Students face the choice of what to do after having finished their studies. You don't choose your entire career at once (although certain choices obviously draw you away from certain career paths).
Passion is not something binary (have it / don't have it), nor even a spectrum (have zero, little, lots, maximum passion). People have mixed and ambivalent feelings about their pursuits.
In a sense, you can usually not really develop passion for something you will do later in life - in your actual career - when it's not what you do during your studies. As a student, you study, you don't practice. (Exception: Some degrees have a practical experience phase.)
Now my question is, What is the sufficiency precisely in this context? ...I think I feel passionate for mathematics.
That's rather general and abstract. It may be enough to consider an M.Sc. (if that's customary in your country; in some countries, those are discouraged as opposed to direct Ph.D. tracks) - you'll spend 2-3 years on getting deeper into one particular subject and experiencing research in math. Actually, that's not a very representative experience of what research is like later, but it should be enough to help you decide if you're really into it.
Alternatively - try to think of something you would like to use math for, or apply math in. If there is something like that - consider looking for relevant work in that field. That might arouse your "passion" either for more applied, industrial work or for more academically-oriented research work.
How can I come to "know" whether I truly have a passion for mathematics or whether I was merely deluded into thinking that because I was made to feel that I am good at mathematics by the relevant education system?
You're assuming these two options are distinct. Have you considered they might overlap, or be one and the same? At any rate, my suggestions above are what I'd do to be able to better know.
On MSc being customary or not: https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/q/4471/1033
I'm going to just guess that if you are asking the question, then you don't have it. Yet. Or at least, not a lot of it. Yet. But there is time to develop it and, at your age, my suggestion is that you don't worry too much about it. Yet. And you look around at the possibilities.
A wasted life is one in which you can't really do what you really want to do. Too many people have that forced on them by circumstances, but if you can manage it, spend some time to see what develops.
And also expect that at different times in your life you will have passion for different things, some quite distinct from the others. If you can manage to follow those passions then you can have a rich and rewarding life. And you don't get a do-over.
You will know it when you experience it. But first, experience a lot of things.
I think your first paragraph is a bit too simple argumentation. Nevertheless +1 for "If you can manage to follow those passions then you can have a rich and rewarding life."
I have to disagree. A wasted life is one where you need to resort to dumpster diving in order to eat. Sleeping in a bed (with clean sheets, even!) is also nice, as are hot showers. There are lots of things that I really want to do, though I can't say that I'm actually "passionate" about any of them. Unfortunately, as the world is presently constituted, I have to pay to do them.
How can I come to "know" whether I truly have a passion for mathematics?
If you are considering an academic career, this is the wrong question to ask. Academic careers do not require passion. They require work. If you can put in the required work, you might succeed. If you do not put in the work, you won't. That work might require appearing to have passion for something sometimes, but the actual feeling is irrelevant. There are many passionate students out there who try to get an academic job and fail because they do not have the required achievements.
It sounds like you might have a passion for maths, but are in the wrong environment to allow it to blossom; you're in the right field, but working on the wrong problems.
Consider another passion of yours, and work toward a field where maths and it intersect. You've found the tool you like, now you need to find a project that resonates with you, where you can apply that tool.
This is also a good formula for job security. It's easy to get surpassed in your field by AI, or someone younger, more passionate, with more time on their hands if the field is homogeneous. By crossing two disciplines, you're likely to get much higher job satisfaction, and better job security.
Yes, working in the sub-set of the field that you really like/are actually passionate about is much different than working in a sort-of-similar-but-not-quite sector. At best, you'll still be doing things in your field of study, at worst, you'll see projects you really want to work on being handed to others, since it's not your job title or whatever. Going directly what you're after is almost always the best option, unless it requires time and experience in something else first, which is rare but happens.
It seems the question is broad enough to be considered not necessarily related only to academia, therefore I feel I can submit my 2 somewhat anecdotal cents.
This will be somewhat long, but I think the background is relevant to the conclusion.
First, it should be noted that passion for anything is not necessarily a lifelong thing. Even if you consider you have passion for X now, it in no way guarantees you will have passion for X in 20 years time. And, at the same time it might turn into something different.
Point in case. I was fascinated and passionate about most things computer-related since about age of 5 (at a time when mobile phones didn't exist, PCs had just arrived and laptops were the size of a hefty briefcase).
I learned quite a lot about them and made my profession intimately connected with computers from the very start.
Then at around if 35, I understood that I am not really interested in things related to computers anymore. A somewhat disappointing thing at a time when it becomes cumbersome to switch to something entirely new.
Fortunately, after realising it, I found out (in a new job) that what I really enjoyed was not so much computers themselves, but learning things. And applying my learned solutions to problems relevant to other people.
In this case, since I have somewhat extensive IT knowledge, I am still working with computers, but I have rediscovered my passion for them from an entirely different perspective -- I enjoy creating as efficient IT/human solutions to various everyday problems and projects as I can.
That seems to give me a feeling of meaningfulness I find very comforting. In fact, I believe at least some psychologists consider the feeling of having a meaningful life one of the most important things a person should have.
Therefore, based on what I have experienced, I would advise:
1) try to understand what motivates you. It is probably a more general thing than "being passionate about maths". Do you enjoy learning new things? This sounds probably useful for an academic career. If not, what do you enjoy and how does it relate to your options of future jobs?
2) It seems that people enjoy doing things they find meaningful. And one of the most meaningful options is doing something useful for other people.
3) There is a perception that academics are the kind of people who are so deeply interested in some transcendent things in their field of study that they don't care about my previous point. If you do have ardent passion for something you might not care whether anyone gives a fig about it. However, then the question whether you are passionate enough would probably not even occur to you.
As people have answered before, think about what drives your mind.
What keeps you awake (except emotional/mental/physical issues)?
What fuels your curiosity?
What gets you in the zone and makes you forget your surroundings?
What gives you a feeling of accomplishment?
What gives you "energy"? How do you want to contribute to society and to the progress of mankind?
Are you willing to put in the work without muttering?
Most likely you're able to answer these questions with multiple topics and subjects. That's why you have to consider your financial goals:
Do you aim for a certain lifestyle?
Do you have to provide?
Are you in Debt?
Shall it just pay the bills?
Does my current employment-/financial-status allow me to follow the passion?
Then pick the "passion" that's in accordance with your financial goals and circumstances.You could accuse me of being a "sellout" but let's face it: this is an economic world - nothing won't last if it isn't at least covering expenses. Yes, A.I. could be making many jobs obsolete within the next few decades. So,choose wisely. But I think with mathematics you're on the right path. You could use your expertise for data-analysis, machine-Learning in medicine e.g..
Edit: I just realized that with certain internet-technologies (e.g. social media, youtube, e-course-platforms, diy-onlineshops, blogs...) you could monetize your passion that has no "formal" carreer. In my field, CS and Software, you could sell a self-written software that solves a particular problem.
I'd recommend improving the writing of this answer, otherwise it'll be downvoted over quality, perhaps eventually deleted.
I think most of the good answers explain what it is to have passion, and how you "already know" if you do have one. I'll give you a bad answer, in the sense that does not directly answer the question.
I think most people have passions. But, they are called different names, depending on what they are, and why we have them. If you have a passion for math, or for electronics, than your passion can be harnessed by the society and people will respect you for that. If you're passionate about alcohol, not so much, but even then, you could become a wine taster if you go the right way about exploiting your "strength".
It is true, your passions might keep up all night, but it's so common that passions get hijacked by the very people paid to nurture them. For example, I love to create and invent stuff, I love to solve problems that seem unapproachable, I love to calculate, and I enjoy even writing the stuff down to explain to posterity what the hell I was doing. Yet, the people I work for, need me only to write long and tedious technical reports no one ever reads, about mundane research that everyone does, they need me to organize meetings and participate in committees, things that tire and disgust me, to the point I'm questioning my passion and career choices (as if I ever had those). Yet, during my vacations, I end up working on my creative stuff that might never get published, because that's the only thing I ever cared about.
Sometimes it's hard to know if you have a passion, or not. I personally don't believe people can ever be passionate about math, physics, history, robotics or whatever. Those fields are artificial, and I doubt someone was ever born with a passion for those. But, as you get exposed to these fields during your education, or self-education, you might find in the structure of one of those fields something appealing to you, some place where you get the freedom to unleash your true self. That is where your passion lie. But, it matters a lot in what way were you exposed to that field. If you are exposed to a field the way a student is, through tests and long, boring, tedious, soul crushing lectures, or the way a researcher is (or should be), through real life problems that are worth tackling.
I honestly can't say I had a passion for my field. I think I was good at it as a student because I was an overachiever, and I was interested in overachieving. When I actually started research in graduate school, it was a shock. I had to discover stuff. I had to do, not to "know" things. My stellar course work, my straight A's, meant nothing compared to the difficulty of doing actual science. It was hard and seemed not worth it at all. I almost gave up. About three years in, things seemed to connect. I started to understand what I was doing, my first paper got published, and it felt like I was good at something once more.
Two postdocs later, I realized I was doing the same type of work over and over, and didn't feel I was going anywhere, so I started thinking about quitting again. So I quit. Then I came back on a permanent position, in an awful place, true, but with a much clear idea of who I was and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
In a nutshell, I realized I would only care about something I created. No matter how many small problems invented by other people I solved, I always came back to my own. This is why I hated my postdoc jobs. I was doing other people's research, while my own ideas were put off indefinitely. In the name of a career and status among my peers, I was living a miserable life.
I'm not saying your passion should be research, banking, music, or your children. All I'm saying, it has to be something that truly represents you. And you will know when you will prefer to do the thing you are passionate about, in spite of the availability of cheap distractions like TV or movies, in spite of what your friends and family tell you, and despite losing your social status, or having a smaller salary.
In my opinion, the main problem with finding a passion is that the passion is hidden within yourself. Most people search for it outside. They go to art classes, they volunteer, they study in universities, go to seminars and get internships. If they are lucky, their true calling will surface during any of those activities. In most cases it never does, or goes unnoticed in the daily humdrum.
Sometimes, you can get "inspired" and you think you have found your passion because someone else who is passionate has told you about their own passion. I think it is the most common way people become passionate about things. I also think that even if you don't find your own passion that way, the "inspiration" would move you closer to it. Just listen to inspirational talks given by people who truly achieved things in their lives (I recommend the one by Arnold Schwarzenegger on youtube, because it's so hilarious). Or read the writings of Nicola Tesla. To a normal guy, they sound like madmen. In a way they are, because passion is madness. The more passionate you are, the bigger sacrifices you will be willing to make.
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104296 | How can I balance the reading requirements for a large survey course?
I'm currently developing the lesson plan for a large (~100 students) survey course in history for the fall semester. Since this is my first time as instructor of record for the course I'm having some problems balancing how I would like to teach the course (several books worth of reading) with feedback from others in the department (i.e., limit the reading). My concern is that while the textbook is quite solid, there are some significant gaps that I think should be addressed. How can I balance the reading for the course so that I don't overwhelm the students in my course?
Some specifics that might be relevant, course is an upper division US Military History course with consistent enrollment of about 80 - 100 and is required due to a ROTC presence on campus. The university is an R2, but since most students are STEM majors they tend to get a heavy homework load from other classes. Very few history majors so for some this might be the only real exposure they get to the topics.
^ Suggest you edit that into the question text?
@DanielR.Collins I'd rather not since I want to keep the base question fairly generic. Once we have a couple answers I will be deleting the specifics.
Survey courses are generally designed to be superficial. The music department offers music appreciation. The fine arts department offers art appreciation. These courses expose you to the major themes of the field for the sake of appreciation and not mastery. The goal is to expose none experts to a field in order to broaden their horizon.
You state yourself that the majority of the students are not history majors. Therefore, why would you treat them like history majors and expect them to develop a deep understanding of military history? Few of us become experts in the electives and GEs we take as students.
If you are worried about the history majors you may want to include additional optional reading so that they can go deeper if they desire but weighing down STEM majors seems pointless. Better to stoke a fire/passion for history rather than burn them up with heavy content.
My undergraduate history courses were probably not anything considered typical at most universities. The reading load was usually a book per week, and the "course text" (when one was assigned) was generally to be fit in on top of the weekly assignments. I got used to it as part of the requirements for studying history at that school and dealt with it.
That said, such a workload is not typical, and there is the need to balance an assigned textbook with supplementary readings. The question is how much you want to focus on the main text. In general, "outside" readings tend to be much more interesting and valuable than the basic text—although you need to understand the basic material to derive greater meaning from the more specialized readings.
So perhaps the way to balance it is to carefully consider which passages in the main textbook are critical, and which ones are ancillary to the course contents, and fill in gaps or extend the work with limited supplemental readings. You can certainly have "suggested additional readings" to help people understand things that you think are worth knowing, but not required to know to be evaluated for the course.
How can I balance the reading for the course so that I don't overwhelm the students in my course?
Select some portions of the textbook to exclude from the reading assignments.
For the supplementary sources, select portions, that is, don't assign the whole thing unless it's short.
Supplement as needed in lecture.
The standard rule of thumb is 2 hours of study time for each hour of lecture.
"2 hours of study per hour of lecture" depends on the school. The schools I attended officially assumed 3, but in reality the multiplier was more like 5.
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99588 | What is the proper CV listing for an accepted paper that was not presented?
This question is similar to ones about accepted papers not being presented; however, one thing that other answers fail to mention is how to list the paper in your CV. Quite simply what is the appropriate way to list an unpresented paper where you are are a) solo author, or b) a co-author?
For specific details I suffered an injury that prevented my attendance at an IEEE conference where I was registered as a speaker. The paper does appear in the proceedings, but it remains to be seen if the organizers will submit it to Xplore. However, I'm trying to keep the question generic enough that it can address other situations.
if the organizers will submit it to Xplore — Typically, once the camera-ready papers are sent to the publisher to build the proceedings, they're out of the organizers' hands. Also: You paid the registration fee, so as for as IEEE-the-business is concerned, you've fulfilled your end of the publication agreement.
@JeffE It seems to be a bit hit-or-miss on that front for IEEE conferences. For this one the chair has requested that moderators keep track of no-shows so that the papers can be pulled form Xplore indexing. However, this might also be an odd situation since the registration fees are paid (I'm assuming it's a sunk cost as well) and it was literally just pesky bad luck.
Sorry to hear the chair is being a jerk, and that IEEE is willing to introduce errors into its index. Have you communicated your situation to the chair/organizers? Can you arrange for a backup speaker, or to present remotely via Skype/Hangout/similar?
@JeffE I don't think they are being a jerk, just super busy coordinating the conference. I have heard back from the section organizer though so i might see if I can work something out with them.
The paper does appear in the proceedings
Its appearance in the proceedings makes it a publication, so you can (and should) include it in your list of publications.
If you separately list your conference presentations, you can't include this paper in that list, because you didn't present it. Similarly, if your list of conference publications indicates which papers you presented [for example, by writing "(presented)" or making the presenting author's name bold], you can't give that indication for this paper, because you didn't present it.
where you are are a) solo author, or b) a co-author?
This is irrelevant. The publication list in your CV should list all authors of each paper, ideally in the exact order they appear on the paper's title page.
tl;dr: Just tell the truth.
The format that my CV follows has the papers grouped by either "Presentations" or "Posters" and has the authors list along with "(Presenter)" next to the person who actually gave the talk. Would splitting things into "Papers", "Presentations" (most of these were abstracts), and "Posters" and then note the presenter accordingly make sense?
I strongly recommend listing "Conference publications", with a separate indicator for the papers you presented orally and the papers you presented as posters. Your publication record matters more than your presentation record. (Presentations/posters without associated publications should be listed separately)
The only rule for CVs is that they must give an accurate record of what you have done. So the answer is simple: list it in a way that is accurate.
I am mainly going to answer what would I do in such a case.
IEEE allows the author to upload accepted version of paper in authors personal webpage. (I have one, so I will upload it. You can do it as well if you have one. Otherwise, upload a copy in Researchgate or arXiv).
After doing that, I will update my CV.
Conference Publications.
R. Varadharajan, Title of the paper, Proceedings of IEEE, 2017. (Accepted, Preprint can be downloaded at [URL]).
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118531 | Is it preferable to cite the dissertation or a publication based on the dissertation?
I'm currently in the process of writing a literature review for a methodology and I came across two relevant works by the same author. The first is their dissertation which includes expanded details about their research questions the methodology they developed to address the research questions. The second work is a publication that is based upon one research question and doesn't contain as much detail about they methodology. My instinct is to cite both,
method is used by Author et al. (YYYY) in an evaluation of system, which is described in more detail in (Author YYYY).
but generally it seems like only the publication is cited if available. Is it preferable to cite the dissertation or a publication based on the dissertation, or both?
By "manuscript" do you mean a published or an unpublished paper?
Thanks. "Manuscript" is often used for pre-publication drafts.
If there is a published version of the paper, you usually want to cite that first. The main reason is that it's the version you're most sure has undergone rigorous review and revisions. As a bonus it will often be easier to find (e.g. through DOI numbers), and citations for papers "count more" so it's nice for the author(s) too. The latter two points should be in favor of also preferring citing preprint versions instead of dissertations, if that's all that's available, but it's a less clear-cut case.
However, if you find that the dissertation provides particularly helpful exposition or, as is often the case, contains information or details not published elsewhere, absolutely feel free to go ahead and cite both! (If you specifically make use of that information you clearly need to cite the dissertation.)
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1150 | When is it appropriate for a post-doc/grad student to be the senior author?
This is slightly different from What does author order indicate?. Our group has debated when would it be appropriate for a student or a post-doc to be considered the senior ie. the corresponding author.
As an aside, for CV building purposes, would it be more beneficial to be the first author or the last author? Does it matter if one is an academic vs. in the industry?
Assuming that you're not in a field where it's "strictly alphabetical order" (like economics), the question of which position is more important depends on what stage of your career you're in.
If you are a beginning academic—a PhD student or a postdoctoral fellow—then the first-author publications are most important, as these will show you taking an active and leading role in your research. As you move up the chain, however, and reach more senior positions, having the last-author credit becomes more important, as now you're showing your leadership role in directing projects. You don't want to be stuck in the trap of being a "junior" partner in research collaborations, with the senior PI getting all of the credit for the work.
I'd like to add here that not all fields share the convention that the last author is the senior PI. In my field, the PhD advisor is almost always the 2nd author, possibly 3rd if the paper was shared between 2 PhD students.
Just for edification: in which field does this happen?
@aeismail "atmospheric remote sensing", per his/her bio
In my field (Computer Science), I usually assume that the first author and/or the "corresponding author" is the one who "did most of the work" and the last author is the one who secured the funding to do said work. In some cases the latter does not exist (e.g., if a publication is not funded by a research grant/contract) or these are both the same person. In my opinion and experience, the author with the greatest technical contribution should be the corresponding author. This is because most inquiries to the corresponding author will be technical in nature. If I were interested in contacting the authors of a paper for a non-technical reason (e.g., an inquiry to team for a competitive proposal) and I were unfamiliar with the authors (which is unlikely), then I would do a quick Internet search to determine if any of the authors are advisors of the others and contact the most senior one in terms of academic rank.
Therefore, I think it is perfectly appropriate and even desirable for whomever provided the greatest technical contribution to be the senior author. This may vary by discipline and/or country, however.
In my field (theoretical computer science), authors are listed alphabetically. Always. (And many journals in my field don't even distinguish a particular "corresponding" author. And funding the work does not by itself merit coauthorship.)
@JeffE: +1 (my work straddles AI and TCS). By "funding" I was mostly referring to advisors injecting their names onto students' papers they have funded but about which they have little technical knowledge. It's by no means desirable or suggested, but I see it happen a lot.
A few points.
Most(?) PhD students don't stay in academia. If they a planning on leaving academia for some other profession, does it really make sense for them to be a corresponding author? Once a PhD student has left Uni it's hard enough to get them motivated to write any papers, never mind answer future questions on it! Ditto for RAs, not all RAs stay in academia.
Let's suppose a PhD student does stay in academia and goes on to do an RA. It's unlikely to be on the same topic, so they won't be able to keep on top of the subject.
As @aeismail mentioned, I really don't pay attention to who the corresponding author is. If you are doing a PhD with a well known researcher, anyone who looks at the paper will automatically assume that the senior person had the original idea. The junior author gets to dispel this "myth" by giving really good presentations or by "author order".
Isn't the point of being the last author to avert point 3?
In my field (statistics), being the last author doesn't mean you are the head of the lab, it just means you contributed the least (if the ordering isn't alphabetical). Instead, the first author position is used.
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1878 | How do I become a journal reviewer?
Possible Duplicate:
How do you earn opportunites to review journals or conference papers?
Assume that I have just finished my postdoc and am now starting a professorship/scientist position (I am not). How do I start joining the ranks of peer reviewers? More importantly, how do I become a peer reviewer of a particularly prestigious journal rather than some junk journal? Does the journal contact me or do I start to publish in those journals, the editors recognize my "expertise" and then they solicit me? Even though everything is "blind" does my reputation of doing quality reviews get shared with other editors?
related/duplicate: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/1498/324
Discussing this on the meta.
The best way to do it, in my experience, is to write. Every single journal I've been asked to review things for (with the exception of one done as a favor) was born of a request by an editor to review a paper in an area where I might be considered an "expert" - because I had a publication, and a decently received one, in that topic area.
Once you get an invitation or two, accept them and as importantly make your reviews useful and timely. Establishing yourself in an editor's mind as someone who gets their reviews back, and gets them back on time (or communicates when they aren't able to do that) can't do anything but help in ensuring that you'll get similar requests in the future.
So if I was a post-doc, how would editors know that I am now peer-review available if I don't have any articles as the corresponding author?
@bobthejoe I'd make yourself reachable. I'm the corresponding author on some of my papers, but it's a dead email address - you have to be findable. Beyond that, I'd talk to your supervisor - they might be able to pitch some requests for reviews your way.
@bobthejoe: So be the corresponding author on your next paper! (But... does being the "corresponding author" really matter that much?)
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94931 | Do we really need gold open access if publishers permit self-archiving and sharing?
Several well-established journals nowadays allow self-archiving or sharing of articles through an institutional repository. For instance, Elsevier allows immediate sharing of the accepted manuscript via the author’s non-commercial homepage and, after an embargo, through their institutional repository. Springer has similar rules. More in general you can check on Sherpa/Romeo for any journal’s policies.
So I am wondering: is it worth it paying for the open access option, when we can just choose our publisher wisely, and then prepare a nicely formatted version of our accepted articles to share them online?
By definition option means something you do not need to do.
Changed "do we need" to "is it worth it".
One should also keep in mind that it was not always the case (and in some cases, still isn't) that authors could immediately share a PDF on their homepage. That is is allowed more and more these days might very well be due to the push for open acces (and preprint repositories like the arXiv)
If you mean is it worth it for you personally to pay out of pocket, no (at least to me). But if you have research money for this, then it depends on you.
Related, borderline duplicate: Does gold (i.e., author-pay) open-access really help access to science and save taxpayer money?
@CapeCode, I admit I did not find that question before asking mine, but I am more interested in the dissemination of the paper rather than in the economics of it.
What you're describing is open access. It's simply a different form of it to the one Springer want you to pay for...
There are effectively two-and-a-half routes to open access, with a lot of subtle variants between journals -
Gold - the article is available immediately, freely, and in perpetuity, via the journal's website, probably with a permissive copyright license. The big open access journals (PLOS One, Scientific Reports, etc) are generally all-gold. It is usually paid for, but not always - many journals are gold but don't charge.
Hybrid gold - a special case of the above but for a single article in an otherwise subscription-access journal, rather than an all-gold-OA title. Usually costs more than an all-gold journal and almost always paid for.
Green - a version of the article (usually but not always the accepted manuscript) is available through a repository (or personal website, etc), often after a delay of around a year, and usually without a permissive copyright license. Usually no charge (other than standard publication costs if relevant).
Almost all mainstream journals allow green open access, though the rules are complicated, and they often refer to it as something like "permitted distribution" rather than "open access". Most journals from the big commercial publishers offer hybrid open access, though exactly how common it is for people to take this option is still a bit of an open question. (Finally, most all-gold journals also permit green open access, but obviously it's less important in that case!)
So, the question becomes - assuming my journal allows green OA, as almost all Springer and Elsevier titles do, what is the point of paying for hybrid? (This is a question I answer a lot for people looking at OA option forms, and most of them decide not to...)
Possible reasons to take gold over green, assuming you've already decided on committing to that journal, might be -
Audience. If you expect the title to be of wide public interest (= lots of non-academics want to read it) or valuable to particular audiences in regions without great journal subscriptions (Africa, South America, etc) then hybrid gold may make sense.
Timeframes. If you know it is likely to be of particular interest now, and making it publicly available a year or two down the line would be much less valuable, for whatever reason, then hybrid gold is more useful.
Distribution. If you know you'll want to make a lot of copies of your paper and distribute them widely and publicly, having a permissive copyright license through hybrid gold may help do this.
Discoverability. Hybrid OA papers are marginally more discoverable than green OA ones, as you can find them through the journal website, the DOI points to them, etc. A repository or personal website may not always be as easy to find.
Policy requirements. In some cases, funder or institutional policy will require that a hybrid OA option be taken if available. This is rarer now, and most of them are starting to pedal back on hybrid spending, but it may apply.
In practice, most people don't take the option. And if you want those specific benefits, you can get most of them from using an all-gold OA journal in the first place...
the one Springer want you to pay for...* that's a typo, you mean the one people running "publishing companies" out of internet cafes in Hyderabad want you to pay for.
Thank you for your thorough answer, and you are right: my question is more about free Green VS Gold for a fee. I agree with all your points but Timeframes: Green OA often allows immediate self-archiving.
@Zep yes, but in the majority of cases there is an embargo period on the more discoverable versions (=repository) as opposed to the personal website versions, so I think timeframes can still be an issue here. It also interplays with audience - if you know there'll be immediate public interest, the ability to point to the more authoritative-looking "real" one can be seen as valuable.
@CapeCode those guys are a whole other problem, but Springer will still happily steer you towards giving them an extra 2000 EUR if you give them half a chance ;-)
@Andrew are you implying a publisher makes more money out of article processing charges than from charging readers...? Now that's a thought!
@CapeCode hybrid OA is currently a perfect moneyspinner - you make it OA, and while in theory overall subscription costs should go down in proportion (5% hybrid = 5% less subscription fees, right?) there is not much clear evidence this is actually happening as envisaged. The numbers are so small for most journals that it's lost in the annual inflation, and most publishers only make vague statements and don't quote actual reductions. So even if it's only a small income stream, it can be effectively free money.
@CapeCode having said that, there are some programs to offset subscription/APC costs on a per-institution basis, and these are broadly looking good, but it's still a bit of an open question as to whether they do truly cap the amount spent. And not all publishers offer them, and not all institutions can take advantage of them, so...
In short: don't pay to publish.
You forgot the third option: Diamond open access: Neither authors nor readers pay for papers, which are written, typeset, refereed, and edited by volunteers, and published exclusively online, typically under a Creative Commons license, with the author retaining copyright.
@JeffE That's really just a special case of gold - "gold without money changing hands". Gold doesn't require the payment of an APC or the involvement of a professional publisher.
I think the distinction is important. Most gold open acess journals do charge authors rather exorbitant publishing fees.
But green open access makes an article available before it is accepted, which is much faster than gold!
One of the reasons why authors sometimes choose hybrid open access is that their funder accepts only a maximum embargo period of e.g. 6 month (e.g. FP7, Horizon 2020) and doesn't accept papers posted on a personal webpage since the availability is vague and the indexing in scientific search engines is low. By the way, Elsevier's typical embargo period varies between 12 and 48 month.
The distinction between diamond and green is very important. When authors pay to publish, there is a strong incentive for journals to accept more papers than they should.
in many fields, e.g. in mathematics, arxiv.org version of the paper would be often cited, instead of the journal one. all these pay-for options in such fields are merely extorsion. don't pay for things you can get for free.
There are several strands to the question, that I will try to answer separately. But I want first to stress that one should not make the confusion between Open Access and Paying author charges. These are distinct notions, the first being about who can read the paper, the second about the business model. There are several way to make one's article open access without paying any charge (let me take this opportunity to advertise the Fair OA Principles) and there are journals that have authors pay charges without making their papers open access (e.g. color figure, excess pages charges, front cover seem to be commonly paid for in chemistry; one of the top economy journal needs all authors to be paying members of a learned society to publish a paper).
The opposition you frame between Open Access and self-archiving is misleading: there are several ways toward open access, and self-archiving is one (called "green OA"). So, in the most common terms, when you put your paper in a public repository, you are actively engaging in Open Access.
Many institutions have their own repository, and several fields have world-wide field-specific repositories, but this does not cover everyone's research. For those who have no good repository available (good meaning in particular not owned by a legacy publisher who can shut it down any moment if it threatens its revenues), putting papers on one's web page is nice but not sufficient for many purposes (such papers go dead often, e.g. when the author changes institutions or retires). In such case, publishing Open Access with the publisher (sometimes called "gold OA", but here the precise meaning may vary) can be a plus.
In most cases (including Springer's and Elsevier's policy in the matter), subscription journals only allow the postprint (author-formated version of the paper, after peer-review) to be shared in repositories and web pages. This may be an issue (e.g. Theorem numbers may not match between the published version and the postprint, which can be an issue). It would be preferable to have a clear, unique version of record, properly identified (with a DOI) and available to all to read. Thus having journal publish OA is a benefit.
Once we look at the problem not author-side, but reader-side, then OA policies matter a lot, because much fewer papers are actually deposited in repositories than could be. So access still is an issue, even in fields that are assumed to use repositories a lot such as maths (to the best of my knowledge, high-energy physics is probably the sole field where nearly 100% of papers are actually available OA).
That said, to answer the question in your text (rather than the title question), I would not advise paying OA fees (often named APC for "Article Processing Charges") unless maybe if you are in a field where this is common and in a position where this is easy (e.g. you have access to specific founds); I would strongly advise against paying OA fees in hybrid journals (journals that mostly run on subscriptions but make individual papers OA for a fee), since the revenue from OA articles seems not to be really offset from
subscription prices, and I would strongly advise against paying high fees (high usually start at more $500 or more than $1500 depending on who sensible you ask - note that Nature would say that $30,000 is not that high). Be wary that predatory OA publishers usually charge moderate fees (a few hundred dollars), which are nonetheless extortionate given they do no work and no peer-review, so publish only in journal for which you can establish they have a serious reputation (this is also important for non-OA journals).
Thanks. I clearly DO confuse Open Access and author charges. I guess I should not mix them because I never paid author charges, and still all my articles are available for free, in some form or another.
Don't pay them for refraining from restricting access - which is like paying them for not beating you up. And do make your papers available online - in a place that's robust and visible to search engines (e.g. ArXiv, or your institute's repository of online publications).
We are in a state of transition - with copyable work in general - between the age of copy restrictions and the age of free dissemination and sharing.
The previous age has its roots in the church in the middle ages with monks transcribing forbidden texts while the masses can't even read; or with English printers getting the crown to forbid independent printing. Publishers like Elsevier and Springer have these behaviors and this mindsets as their heritage.
In the new era, we only hide private information (or rather: we only let the NSA and the other state agencies who spy on us see our private data); but anything else - like scientific and artistic creations - are publicly accessible, to be copied and used for whatever cause people might have.
As more and more people expect to see the latter in the world rather than the former, the publishers are trying to have sort of a compromise which people would be willing to stomach. Let's put more pressure on them.
-1 Lots of unsubstantiated claims, speculations, soapboxing and no real answer to the question.
Your first paragraph contravenes several funding body and institute regulations (which require accessible, archived OA publications). Do not do this unless you’re allowed to.
@KonradRudolph: How is putting papers on, say, ArXiv, or your institute's web repository for publications, not accessible and archived?
@einpoklum That’s completely fine. But it’s very different from self-hosting the paper on an ephemeral server without DOI, which is what the OP was asking about.
@KonradRudolph, Institutional repositories are usually accepted by funding bodies for article dissemination, I believe.
@Zep: Konrad's comment was from before my edit...
And what stops them from selling that private data and using it to make people not believe you if you push an agenda that risks destroying their income model? The only thing you basically can do is to go on strike. But doing so is probably gonna make you mostly look like a maniac / burned out loser. Just give up, get back in line and don't do anything fruitful at all except for exactly what you are getting paid for.
@mathreadler: Nothing stops them. Which is why we need better encryption and distributed platforms to supplant Google, Facebook et al. There are lots of things you can do other than go on strike (although strikes can be useful in various contexts). About the "making people not believe you if you push an agenda etc." - already happening, in a sense. See this story for example.
It is not worth it. They can so easily break you if they want. But chances are that they really rather want you to help them if you are smart enough to understand those things. They have no lack of money. They have a lack of skilled people.
@mathreadler: I'm not sure where you're going with these comments... but - one person can be broken, while a mass of people - not so easily.
They have people employed for this. Don't know how many percent but quite a large overhead.
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97592 | Only one student answered an exam question - and I strongly suspect he cheated
Today we (professors + teaching assistants) proctored a midterm exam for a class of about 80 students. There was undoubtedly a "hardest" question on the exam, since nearly the entire classroom of students asked us how to proceed with that question. To be fair, we didn't give any hints, but it was clear that one had to use a definition to be able to proceed.
When we collected the exams, all of the exam booklets had that question unanswered -- except for one student's exam. And this was the only student who asked to go to the bathroom. I gave him permission to go, but I did not ask for his phone, which I now highly regret.
What can we do in this situation, in which I strongly suspect that this student went to the bathroom to look up a definition on his phone, so that he could answer the question correctly?
We still have to look at every exam to be sure that only one student got it right (the bathroom student), but if this were indeed the case, do we have any power to accuse him of cheating, or, have we missed our chance by not asking for him to leave his phone in the room?
I feel a big injustice will have been done to the rest of the honest students, if we let this one slide ...
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...nearly the entire classroom of students asked us how to proceed with that question... - what does it mean? Is it ever acceptable for students to ask for hints during the exam?
I apologize in advance for my frankness.
What can we do in this situation, in which I strongly suspect that this student went to the bathroom to look up a definition on his phone, so that he could answer the question correctly?
Nothing.
have we missed our chance by not asking for him to leave his phone in the room?
You missed it, but it doesn't really matter: the student might have had a mate with a phone in the bathroom. Or not. The student might even have known the answer.
I feel a big injustice will have been done to the rest of the honest students, if we let this one slide
In your career you quite probably have already let others slide.
I wrote in this answer that, on the basis of my (now sufficiently long) experience, if a student wants to cheat, they will. Therefore, one has to accept that, from time to time, a student cheats, and one doesn't notice or is not able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the student cheated (and you don't want to accuse someone of cheating if you're not able to prove it, right?).
So, move on.
NB: As some have remarked in various comments, the fact that almost all students were unable to answer that question can be a major issue. In this answer, I specifically wanted to address the cheating part only, because I think that this other issue is a totally different matter, which can be also culture-dependent, and which is probably worth of a different (interesting) question.
I also was a student once, and in one exam I, by pure luck, chose a particularly convenient representation, and solved a question in a super-compact elegant way that no-one, including the professor, had seen before; I had a one-liner response for a question for which several pages of computation were expected. Now, I didn't go to the bathroom; but assume I had, and assume that I had later been falsely accused of cheating, by asking a clever friend while out - how do you think I would have felt? It would have been adding insult (accusation of cheating) to injury (the loss of marks). Cont'd.
Now, I had never been accused of cheating (in fact, I made a point to myself never to cheat), but I was typically known for bloated overcomplicated responses; this compact solution was completely out of character and style for me. So, it could very easily have been that a suspicious tutor would have decided for themselves that I hadn't found elegant solution on my own and canceled the marks. I would have been furious (or demotivated) and definitely would raised a major fuss, if only to clear my name, not even for the marks. No. OP messed up, and without proof, OP cannot accuse.
@CaptainEmacs, from your story, I am very interested what you think of my answer to this question since it is essentially just to consider and explore that possibility (of an ingenious student solution).
Your answer is good, but should include Wildcards answer as well to extend on what you can do now realistically.
This should be the accepted the answer. There is no "calling the student later" or this sort of somehow passive/aggressive things. The exams is the same for everybody and unless there is some clear proof of cheating what is done is done. Next time, be clear about bathroom policy/phone policy. Learning is neverending for both teachers and students, this time your lessons are: -Should I really give questions that can be solved only thru the "luck" of remembering a clearly not-that-central definition? -Should I be more proactive against cheating?
@QPaysTaxes Had the same thing. Teacher accused me of looking at my neighbour (with an eye so short-sighted I can't even read with it unless the paper is less than 10 cm from the eye) and refused to grade my exam. After I raised a major stink it turned out the guy I "cheated" from scored a 3 (out of 10) and I had a 9.
"...if a student wants to cheat, they will." I know someone in IT security who would always say that security systems are mostly intended to deter the casual attacker, but a determined attacker will find a way in eventually. I think the same thing applies to preventing cheating students. I have heard rumours of students developing hand signals or Morse code for communication during exams. There's not a lot you can do to stop the most determined and creative cheaters. Just try to make it so secure that they need to spend more time developing their cheats than it would to study for the exam.
I would +1 this if not for the last sentence. OP must not move on since, irrespective of that individual student, his/her course staff gave an exam with an answer which they failed to teach the students how to solve (or it was too obscure, or whatever). That needs to be addressed.
@einpoklum You're right that there is a major issue in the exam, but I specifically wanted to address the cheating part only, because this other issue is a totally different matter (which is probably worth of a different question), which can be also culture-dependent.
@MassimoOrtolano: If you were to at least allude to this in your last sentence I'd +1.
@einpoklum I've added a note about that.
-1 If you see something (likely) unfair and you can check into it, then check into it.
I don't think there is any harm in asking him how he solved it, face to face. Even if you accept that you won't proceed with the accusation beforehand, it can be just to judge his response for your own piece of mind. If he breaks down on his own, great, if not, you at least have more insight into what happened.
@CaptainEmacs similar story here. I was doing an advanced maths course, and was asked to prove the existence of a mathematical function with certain properties. My proof didn't use any of the methods taught in the course, it went beyond what was asked (instead of just proving existence, I gave an example), and it resembled the style of a well-known mathematician who happens to be my father. My prof discreetly asked him if he'd helped me. There was a simple explanation: I'd been distracted that semester and hadn't absorbed much of the lectures, so couldn't use the methods we'd been taught!
@einpoklum That's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes students get into the habit of expecting every question on an exam to be just like all the example questions in the book and homework questions. Some teachers/professors like to test other aspects of problem solving by getting the students to apply knowledge in ways that they haven't been "taught" to do. It's a legitimate way to teach critical thinking - all my good teachers and professors in the past have asked those questions.
The fatalistic attitude that students will cheat if they want to disturbs me. There are obviously measures that can be taken to make the cost of cheating sufficiently high as to make it undesirable as an option.
@k_g It's not a fatalistic attitude, it's a realistic one. I've seen cheating happening also when quite strict countermeasures where in place. And recall that also the implementation of those measures take a cost from us teachers, and there should be a trade-off between the cost involved in the countermeasures and that of allowing a bit of a cheating, because we are not hired as policemen (and see my other linked answer to understand what is my position).
@MassimoOrtolano I think we might be more in agreement than my initial comment suggested, given your other answer. I think that making exams cheat-proof is probably a good strategy in general, but I disagree that we are not police in any sense, to a certain extent we should be preventing students from gaining unfair advantage and circumventing the system to the extent we can.
@k_g in most circumstances, students are paying tuition (and thus ultimately call the shots). if students collectively are angry about cheating there will be strict enforcement. if students collectively are OK with cheating there will not be strict enforcement. it is not the job of the professor to determine how much resources should be allocated against cheating.
There is something to be said for cheating. As @CuriousFindings points out, students have used morse code and whatnot to communicate information in a supposedly 'secure' environment. Such things obviously can't be tolerated if discovered, but at the same time demonstrate some mental capability that the exam in question wasn't asking about. I'm not sure calling a friend in the bathroom is quite as inventive, but this student did something no one else was able/prepared to do.
@CaptainEmacs Would be interested in knowing what that problem was
@alphacapture I don't remember, it's too long ago and I never took the exam problem sheet with me.
I remember taking a number theory final exam. About half-way through the exam, I had to pee; as in HAD TO PEE. The professor would not let me leave. I rushed through the exam, tossed it onto her desk, and ran out the door. She posted the grades and I saw that I had gotten a C on the exam. I asked her if I could see my exam paper. Every question was marked correct with no deductions. Confused, I turned the paper over. There were more questions on the other side. At the time, it didn't occur to me to turn the paper over before I turned it in. I just marked it down to hard lessons learned.
Call him in. Ask him how he solved it.
Don't imply that he cheated. Just ask how he solved it with genuine curiosity and interest.
If he asks why you're asking, tell him he was the only student in the entire class who solved it and you'd love to get an insight into his problem solving process.
Either you have a genuine genius on your hands or you have a cheater. Don't do anything yourself to imply the latter possibility.
If he really IS a genius, you will be glad you had this interview with him and can now give him the scholastic accolades he deserves! Rather than going on falsely believing he is a cheater.
If, as you suspect, he was cheating, he may "fess up" to it. Or he may not. But if he can't explain the answer or how he arrived at it in any way, shape, or form, you will know he was cheating. And he will know that you know.
And that may be enough to change his behavior for the better in the future.
If it turns out he was cheating (either by his admission or by his total failure to be able to explain anything about the answer), the lightest thing you could do would be to not give him credit for that question. So then no one gets credit for it, since no one else answered it. Or, as others have said, you might just let it slide as far as grading is concerned.
But having the above interview gives you the chance to (a) discover a possible genius or (b) put a little bit of discipline on the student so he's aware he didn't "get away clean" and will be less likely to cheat again.
The very least it will do, if he cheated, is to make him sweat.
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Not exactly an answer, but perhaps some perspective: a long time ago, I went to one of the U.S. service academies (Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, nevermind which) and, like all incoming people, was subjected to an extensive battery of placement tests, some generating college credit, and so on. Far more systematic than most U.S. colleges and universities even today.
Having been an avid student of mathematics for some years prior, I had indeed read a lot, and in particular had known how to do calculus (which was the basic entry-level topic in mathematics) for some years prior. While doing generally well on the other exams, apparently I only mis-answered a single question of 100's on the calculus exam. Since even competent people rarely do that well, and since I did not have high school calculus on my record, this was suspicious. (Let me remark that, yes, I did in fact know how to do calculus pretty well, and, yes, I also knew how to "game" multiple-choice questions. And I guess I had a good day, too.)
A point is that at the U.S. service academies, any lying or cheating or anything-at-all is a dismissable offense. So, given the suspicious nature of the situation, I was called before an "officers board" to account for the situation (since there was certainly no overt evidence of cheating).
Being a naive, scared kid standing at attention in front of officers, to the question "how do you account for this?" my initial response was "Sir! I read a lot of books! Sir!" (That was the required style of address...)
(This got a laugh, which did not calm me, by any means, because at the time I didn't know how to interpret it.)
The wrap-up was that I was not punished or dismissed from the place...
So: in your situation, you'd definitely need to interview the student before thinking in terms of accusations. Some people are not typical, even though, yes, statistically they are.
Also, the whole "deny bathroom break" thing is silly, and insisting on "accompanied breaks" is silly/rude, and so on. The complications to "testing" are not solvable by outlawing bathroom breaks.
Nor by outlawing phones, because dedicated cheaters can get much smaller devices...
"Catching and punishing cheaters" is obviously not the primary goal of education of any sort, so we don't want to let that goal corrupt the rest of it.
Unfortunately in the military they hold a lot more cards than a teacher (particularly public school). While it's not actually constitutionally so (at least in the US), public education is seen as being basically a right. And any misstep is under the guise of a government entity. Such that lawsuits are even a more common event. At the least, most schools are now quite rapid to dismiss teachers at even the hint of an issue that may cause media attention. One student gets "interviewed" and is "fragile", you've got a crying kid on tv, and a mess. It's a world of scary caution anymore
And in this world, a cartoon like https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5b/91/09/5b910943f0a80e3b63425b0d5a887261.jpg... hits far too close to home :-/
Oh, and while in no way am I suggesting that the very vast majority of sexual assault allegations are anything but true... it's nonetheless real that students who are willing to cheat may be willing to go to other means to get their way. Places like military academies will generally quite naturally filter down to be those motivated by a purpose, and ethics. But at public schools (even many CCs/universities) some are there because they're told to be/fairly aimless, and may be uninterested with morality not seeing any benefit to them... and so may seek revenge or means to restore control :-/
I once was that student as well. Failing nearly every easy question, but succeeding the hardest one(s). The first time it was suspicious. The second time, it became even more suspicious. Since then, I had a personal supervisor during my exams. Until the third and fourth times came. The supervisor didn't find any cheating. I was only bored and wanted challenges: I overlooked easy questions and focused on hard ones. I became known as the one who solves only the hardest questions and teachers left me alone. That doesn't make me a cheater: the system was inadapted for me (or vice-versa).
@OlivierGrégoire, off topic, but you would love the book Concrete Mathematics if you haven't discovered it already. It has virtually nothing in it but interesting, challenging questions.
If you can't prove that a student cheated, you can't prosecute or penalize them. Bear in mind cheating is a very serious charge, and can ruin a student's academic career.
Don't throw this charge around lightly.
If you're the teacher, and if your test isn't well-written enough to be able to discern if someone knows the material (v.s. googling the topic in the bathroom for 5m), your test-making skills could stand some improvement.
In other words, rethink your student evaluation process if it can be defeated by a cursory google search, or a 'cheat-sheet'.
I am not sure if I agree with the thesis that professors have to pay a price (rewriting exams to be ungoogleable) simply because students cannot be trusted to abide by the honor code that they signed. It's an interesting question. I prefer an explicit policy that gives the professor the right to ask the student to explain a solution, and gives the professor the right to change the grade if the student cannot demonstrate an understanding of the work they handed in.
First, a bit of (my) perspective: Don't overestimate the significance of grading people, in general. As a researcher I have not found that much use for the exam grades of undergrad/grad students I encounter. It's basically something the capitalist economy needs, or thinks it needs, for employee selection. This, as opposed to giving students feedback on their answers - what they got right or wrong and where their mistakes seems to stem from; doing that is super-important. So the fact that the bathroom-student's grade may be wrong, in itself, would not seem to me like the sky is falling.
On the other hand, fairness is a big deal in my book. Thus the prospect of someone having gotten phone help on a hard question and "sticking it" to his/her fellow students would bother me. However
Either the question you gave was solvable - in which case you have no basis for suspicion - or it was objectively practically-unsolvable, in which case I don't believe you even have a moral leg to stand on for accusing the student of misconduct. To quote the line from the biblical Samson: "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle" - if it were a question which half the class answers, you never would have been suspicious of the "bathroom student".
You should adopt the proposal of @SolarMike and just cancel the question, so that the grade is based on all of the other questions and this one doesn't count. If that student complains, you can figure out whether he actually understands the material well enough to have solved the question him/herself... also, +1 @SolarMike's answer.
Next time, Have the least experienced TA in the course, who had not seen the exam in advance, sit down and solve it - before administering the exam to the students. That will save you a lot of grief if you can manage it.
The greater injustice in this case is you guys either writing an inappropriate exam question or failing to educate your class to answer a question on an appropriate exam. Try focusin on bettering yourselves rather than on punishing the misdeeds of others.
"- or it was objectively practically-unsolvable, in which case I don't believe you even have a moral leg to stand on for accusing the student of misconduct. " I do not see your logic.
@Acccumulation: It's like an abused spouse shooting their abusing wife/husband. Sure, shooting people is wrong, but the abuser doesn't have a moral leg to stand on and complain about having been the victim of this kind of violent act. If an unsolvable exam drives someone to cheat it is not for the person who administered it to complain. Ok, that's not a perfectl analogy, but you catch my drift. Or - read the Samson Riddle story.
Giving hard questions isn't unethical, and it doesn't force people to cheat; anyone who cheats in that situation is making that decision on their own. Your analogy relies on the premise that the professor was unethical, which is the whole issue at hand. Analogies are for explaining claims, not for simply reiterating them. I'm not clear on what relevance you think the Samson story has. Is the professor Samson?
@Acccumulation : Yes. More broadly, Samson represents whomever is innocent and whom the wrongdoing was against. Which in this case I equate to the professor.
+1 for the first bullet point. My question(s) for OP: OP says "I feel a big injustice will have been done to the rest of the honest students, if we let this one slide ..." Why? If the goal is to produce skilled graduates, how does one student getting credit for one question harm everyone else? Is this a two-question midterm? Will this one question even impact the entire course grade, much less whether the person graduates? This seems to be a lot of stock in just one question. Or is judgement of students' ability to answer questions your actual ultimate end goal? Why is this so important?
@Acccumulation: If nobody found an answer, the question wasn't "hard". Also, no, the student is Samson - which was indeed cheating with his riddle; but the Philistines couldn't have known that without their own inappropriate conduct.
+1 for "Next time, have the least experienced TA in the course, who had not seen the exam in advance, sit down and solve it - before administering the exam to the students."
@Mico: Actually, I like my last point the best because it's more spiritual, but the one before is very practical. It's a time-honored tradition in the 1st-semester programming course in my old department, in which I TAed a bunch of times.
Just remove that question from the paper - on the grounds that so few managed it or the material had not covered that sufficiently...
Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
I often feel like a nonlinear scale might be a good idea, or be able to earn bonus points (i.e. answers add up to >100% if you get them all correct). No need to dismiss it just because only one person got it correct (especially if >0 got it correct). If someone genuinely studied very well, had some bad luck with the other questions, and got the bonus one(s) right... that should be good. And anyone scoring >100 is just capped to 100%.
Disclaimer: I have never to date taught a class and never compiled, overseen or marked an exam.
As much as I believe cheating or attempting to cheat is a bad attitude and as much as I want cheaters to be punished accordingly, I also believe that proving cheating must come down to hard evidence. Hard evidence meaning enough evidence that you would win a criminal case in court if it were taken there. One key principle is in dubio pro reo and this applies here: you do not have proof, you only have a hunch. Unless you manage to find actual, factual evidence do not accuse this student of cheating and do not adjust only their mark in a way that suggests cheating.
I for my part know that I sometimes remember the weirdest details while missing out on often-repeated details. So I might well have performed poorly or averagely in that exam because of not knowing general stuff — but by chance I may remember exactly that definition almost word for word (or symbol for symbol if this is a mathematics exam) and be able to answer that question.
Cheating isn't as serious as murder, so it is acceptable for the burden of proof for the former to be lower than for the latter.
I hereby accuse you, @Acccumulation, to have insulted me. Now, insulting someone may, depending on the details, be less severe than exam fraud. Therefore, the burden on proof is on you. In case you cannot prove your innocence, German courts grant me some amount of money up to 2,000 EUR. Yay :) Oh, while we're at it, I accuse you of illegal disposal of oil. And because it isn't murder, the burden of proof is on you, too.
@phresnel I think the "insult" example is better than the oil spill. The damage is "virtual", and therefore the similarity is much clearer. Apart from that, I agree with your point.
@phrensol I said that it's acceptable for the burden of proof to be lower, not nonexistent. There is no way your comment could have been made in good faith, and I am flagging it. Making up bullshit arguments and pretending that they follow from someone else's comments is wildly disrespectful.
@Acccumulation I'm going to say that Phresnels arguments were very likely made in good faith. They're a bit cheeky, but the ridiculousness of them was presumably intentional to show that (s)he was not serious in the accusation, but instead trying to point out the problems inherent in a sliding scale for the necessary evidence for the burden of proof.
@Acccumulation: Had you cited my display name correctly, I would have received a notification and not just lurk by by accident. Anyways: I wonder what's more "bullshit"'esque: Giving practical counterexamples for arbitrarily flipping the burden of proof. Or arbitrarily flipping the burden of proof. // edit: Ah, now I realise my mistake. Please accept my sincere apologies. Yet, your "no way in good faith" is quite an accusation itself, excluding the possibility that I was basing my examples on a mistake.
the burden of proof is whatever the university says it is. however, as an outsider I do not have to respect university decisions. if I think the university is rigging its plagarism charges to unlawfully expel African Americans, then a jury (external to the university) might get a chance to decide. I think most juries would find this stupid shit to be extremely questionable.
@emory I can’t quite tell how this comment is relevant to my answer or the rest of the discussion …?
I pretty much agree with Massimo Ortolano's answer, but there might be one thing you can do. Run a search on the web with some sentences of the suspicious answer. If the student copied verbatim some text available on the net (something more extensive than a single generic sentence), then while you won't be able to prove he or she cheated, you will be able to prove plagiarism. That may, or may not be useful.
I had a similar problem once in a course preparing to a national competition. At one test that was taken from a former competition sheet, three papers where copied extensively from a correction of that test available on line. The students argued they learned the solutions by heart to several of these competition sheets, which might be true (I don't know if it would makes me more sad if that where true, or if they had cheated with phones and lied to our faces). I tried to make them understand that plagiarism was a serious offense even without cheating involved, but we did not proceeded with the disciplinary board. That test was not used for grading the course at all, and I explained why to all students (without giving names) -- this was possible because we train student with numerous such tests.
There are people with exceptional memories. And knowing solutions to known problems for such people can be like knowing vocabulary of a language: an anchor. Neither punishable, nor a legitimate reason to deplore anything, but a perfectly legitimate way of acquiring knowledge. It does not even mean that these are not original, as they may save their creativity for other problems.
@CaptainEmacs: In my 2nd paragraph, the point was not to punish memory, but to punish plagiarism - if one memorizes a solution and uses it word-by-word without using quote marks and mentioning the source, then one commits plagiarism: using other's work under their own name. If they memorize and understand the answer, they are free to rephrase it in their own words.
What can we do in this situation, in which I strongly suspect that this student went to the bathroom to look up a definition on his phone, so that he could answer the question correctly?
You can examine your suspicions:
Is the student’s conduct suspicious? What conduct? At worst, the student went to the bathroom, with permission, without surrendering a posession that they weren’t asked to surrender. Not suspicious. At best, they didn’t have a phone to begin with.
Is the student’s answer suspicious? No, based on this question.
Now you say that it’s suspicious because the student was the only one to answer it. But you must have expected that someone would be able to answer it, or you wouldn’t have included it, right? And since you are a competent teacher, it had might as well be one of your students, right?
So the answer is: Unless you can come up with some better evidence, do nothing.
(Or, if your university has an integrity board, let them handle it. In that case, you shouldn’t even be here asking about it.)
If the question was really too difficult for 79/80 students to attempt, you should consider not punishing them for missing the answer.
Note that this is not because 1 student did answer it, but despite that one student did answer it.
Practically the implementation may be the same (e.g. everyone gets full/partial score for the question), but because this is about ethics it is important that you only do this if it is not to punish the 1, but because you want to be fair and the question was too difficult.
If the method offered by Wildcard doesn't help you determine whether the student cheated or not, your best bet is to either let it go, or find a way to adjust how you weigh the entire test in the final grade.
You may consider dropping each student's lowest test score (for example). You can even drop each lowest-scored question on this particular test (assuming all questions have the same point values).
However, (since you are troubled enough to ask for help here) I assume you understand that you cannot accuse a student whom you suspect if you don't have the proof to justify the accusation.
I am puzzled by the fact that this "hardest question" could hinge on just knowing "a definition." A pragmatic approach would be to exclude this question from the exam, on the grounds that with 79 out of 80 miss rate it was clearly inappropriate given the reasons we organise these exams, and rescale the remaining questions.
If you think that you failed to teach the class sufficiently enough for any your students to be able to answer the question on an exam you gave them, then the things that are unfair are these, and a few others:
1. You put questions in the exam that you did not teach them adequately
2. You assume that your student cheated
The exam and its results have no value in the real world. The knowledge gained from a well-taught class has value. The skills learned while studying subjects has value.
Do a much better job teaching the subjects. Do a much better job building exams that test the students on only the material that you sufficiently taught them. Grade your teaching skills on the results of the student's ability to answer the questions.
If you had the only student who realized that it was completely unfair of you to have put a question that you as the teacher thought not one student should have been able to answer, and that student decided to make it fair, by looking up the answer themselves, then that student deserves extra credit.
You are not the only teacher who has their perspective on what matters wrong.
Praise the student for being the only one to get it right, and ask them about how they got the answer.
Deciding to cheat is not an appropriate answer to unfair exam questions. Two wrongs don't make a right.
I understand the sentiment you are expressing regarding unreasonable exam questions, but it's quite a leap to suggest that would somehow validate cheating (if that is even what happened here).
Condemnation of the teacher solves nothing. However, if I were the teacher, I might (disingenuously) say something like, “Congratulations to the one student who got ___ correct. Since everyone else had trouble with it, it’s possible I didn’t teach it. So the exams will be scored as if they did not include that question.” So the student now knows that IF he cheated, it was to no avail. And if you catch his eye while you are saying it, a very subtle change of expression will make him think you suspect cheating.
WGoleau, that's unprofessional behavior. Students are no less intelligent than teachers, just less knowledgeable. Let's not use our podium as a chance to play "clever" word games with hidden accusations.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:55:49.982691 | 2017-10-19T20:15:25 | {
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88691 | Does "bad credit" affect postdoc application in math?
Does a bad credit score affect my chance in applying for a postdoc in math? In my case, I have a credit card that had the bill sent to the wrong address and this impacted my score with all three credit agencies.
Crosspost on money.stackexchange?
I've never heard of academic employers screening based upon credit scores. A bad credit score might affect your ability to get a postdoc position that requires a security clearance (e.g., NSA or a DOE national lab).
Okay. I suggested edits to make your question more general. Also, where are you looking for a postdoc? Academia, gov't, private sector?
It could affect your chances if you mention it in the interview. It will show that you are irresponsible and absent-minded; if you are also bright this could help.
Be careful; some of the people answering do not have any experience with hiring for math postdocs. (For example, a comment above referenced interviews; but there are no interviews for math postdocs.)
@Tom Church: Each of the 3 finalists, of which I was one, for a math postdoc I applied to had a conference-phone interview with the hiring committee. But this was for the 1996-97 academic year, and maybe it's no longer done.
@TomChurch Oh yes; even in things I have experience I like to proceed from thought/understanding rather than inferring from experience.
I have a lot of experience with postdoc hiring in mathematics at several institutions. There is no mechanism by which faculty who are reading postdoc files would know your credit score, so you shouldn't worry that it will affect your application.
HR departments don't really play a role in academic job searches (aside from technical things like approving the wording of job ads). It is all done by academics. So though in the private sector HR departments do things like run credit searches, this just doesn't happen during faculty and postdoc searches at universities.
It depends on the position and organization you are applying to. Since it is in math, I would say no. Your employer will most likely not check your credit score/report. When I was in HR, I only ran credit checks for people who would have financial control over a certain department (i.e. CFO, budget officers, etc.). Since pulling credit reports/scores require explicit permission, it will be stated in either the job application or the recruiter will tell you - it might also be possible that it's listed on the job description - in which case you can either agree, or disagree to it.
What do you mean by "recruiter"? That's a common role in hiring in the private sector, but I've never heard of anyone with such a title being involved in academic hiring.
@NateEldredge In HR, anyone responsible for posting job descriptions and/or doing the initial resume review is known as a recruiter.
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151368 | My former post-doc host failed to credit my work in a paper - what to do?
I was employed as a post-doctoral fellow at some institute, and left it a couple of years ago. When I left, it was on ok terms with my host (= person who invited me and arranged for funding for my stay) - although our relationship had not always been on the positive side, and we ended up collaborating only here-and-there rather than closely. We both have a negative view of some aspects of the other's personality.
Anyway, I've noticed that members of the research group - some junior ones, but also my host - have published a certain paper a few months. This paper is mostly not about my own work, but it presents a certain concept which (*) I was studying and developing; these ideas are now in work that I've published - but mostly on ArXiV and not in peer-reviewed venues. I've also sent an email link and an invitation to read it to a bunch of people in my field - including my post-doc host and one of his junior co-authors.
The paper does not mention any of the above; makes no reference to my work or to me; and says something like "In this paper we introduce the concept of X".
Now, my work is much wider than just that concept (it fits into a larger theoretical framework); and the paper does something with this concept which I didn't explore nor write about. So it's not a case of brazenly stealing results.
A final point is that this work of mine has not yet gotten any (non-self) citations, which makes this situation sting more.
My questions:
Considering the circumstances, should I even get in contact with my former host and/or other co-authors about this, or should I just drop it? Especially seeing how this paper is already published and has made its rounds for a few months? I am worried that this will just develop into a fight involving third parties, a sort of a "crusade run remotely" on my part, and end up hurting more than it helps.
Assuming I do contact my former host about this - How diminutive/coy/reserved should I be in a first email about this?
What can I / should I ask for as a rectification of the situation?
(If you'd like more information, please ask in the comments.)
What does a solution look like to you? Do you want a citation? Also, are you quite sure you deserve a citation? If the paper you complain of is genuinely a body of original work and thought in its own right, and arguably it only just touches on the same topic as your work, then why potentially get dragged into bickering with someone you don't like?
It's unclear why you think there was plagiarism. Failing to cite related work is not necessarily plagiarism (though it is bad).
@AnonymousPhysicist: Rephrased the title to not commit to that term. I am not very knowledgeable about the different "crimes and misdemeanors" in academia.
Steve:1. I'd like some form of recognition/apology, at least to me, by the authors; and a rectification of the paper being published without crediting my work and my ideas. But I'm not sure what exactly that would mean. 2. In a sense, that's not possible, since the paper is already published and the conference in which it's presented has already taken place. The paper doesn't "only just touch" on my idea, it bases itself on it and does something with it; that something is not my work, but the basic idea - discussed in the initial part of the paper - is mine.
First, please remember that human memory is fallible. People have honestly forgotten work done by their students or their postdocs or even themselves. So I'd be inclined to assume, unless there's evidence to the contrary, that your supervisor has forgotten your work on the broader concept Y that subsumes the "new" concept X, and that he hasn't had time to study the arXiv preprint that you sent him.
Second, what should you do about it? I think that, under the assumption that no malice was intended, you could write your former supervisor an email along the lines of "It seems to me that the concept X in your paper "[title]" is an instance of the general concept Y studied in my paper "[title]" [arXiv link] which I sent you a preprint of a while ago. I hope that my work on Y will be useful to you if you contiue to explore X." It seems to me that something like this should alert him to pay attention to Y and cite you in further work on X. (Of course, you can put personal things like "I hope you are well" before and/or after the main message.)
I think you're unlikely to get a citation in the already published paper (unless it has an on-line version that gets updated), but if your supervisor produces more papers about X, you might get some citations in them.
This type of question is asked often in different contexts, but usually comes down to the same points.
What do you gain by bringing it up? e.g., Satisfaction? gratification? Do you try to get them fired?
Asking your ex-host: Well, if they plagiarized your work, they are aware of it, and clearly did not think it necessary to discuss with you or that it was not ethical.
Since your work has been publicly available on the ArXiV, you could send an email to the editor that published your ex-hosts paper, showing this is plagiarized. Then what do you get from this? A retraction? A reprimand from their department head? Stopping them from doing it again?
If this is more about how you can publish your work in a journal next, I would not be concerned at all with your ex-hosts paper. If it is tangential to your core work, and your manuscript gets a review saying someone published this, you can easily point to your dated ArXiV paper saying your journal paper is just extending that. The dates speak for themselves.
Update:
However, since you also changed the title away from stating it was plagiarism, the assumption is they did not copy your text, but instead your ideas. I would first remember, if you were in their lab and working somewhat on related issues, there is the possibility they had a similar idea. It is not uncommon for people to 'see' their ideas in others papers.
Next, I would consider the issue that you have already put your paper on the ArXiV. If this other paper was not from your ex-host, but rather another lab, what would your question now be? Would it be "how to rectify the situation?" ? If so, the question comes down to "How can I make someone cite my paper?". The answer you are looking for would likely be found in:
Are 'please cite my paper' emails socially accepted?
or
Is it plagiarism and/or copyright infringement if research started from one person but another diverged onto a different path?
When faced with the situation, you must ask yourself what you gain from it. You can say it is not revenge, but it is difficulty for others not to see it this way when you do it to stand on moral ground. As stated above, I don't see how this prevents you from publishing your work (although you don't seem interested in it), and it does not prevent you from claiming you came up with the idea (since you have a dated paper on ArXiV).
I said I want the situation to be rectified - I don't want revenge. Why are you suggesting that? 2. "Clearly did not think it necessary" - it's really not clear at all what he thinks. It could be careless, an oversight, or something more intentional. 3. I could send an email to the editor without first talking to the author... and that would be like taking a knife and stabbing them. Why-ever would I do that? Honestly, your answer is not helping me.
@HadynRyley I am not sure what you mean by 'rectified', or why you consider this different than the questions I pose for you to reflect on, as I did not say revenge. Maybe the issue to accept is that 'rectifying' the situation can end up appearing like revenge. To rectify the situation, you have to make 'right' a 'wrong' that happened. If the wrong was not being credited with the concept, your choice to 'right' this is to have the paper retracted, or a letter to the editor, both raise the questions in my answer.
How does someone carelessly copy someone else's paper? Now that you changed your question to not say it was plagiarism, I updated my answer. You publicly released your idea, and years later someone else also wrote about it. The issue you want to rectify is then not being cited in an already published paper.
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123542 | Using mendeley and science papers from sci-hub in Germany
I am using mendeley to organize all my science papers and to keep things structured. From time to time capitalism forces me to get the texts from sci-hub which is not totally legit.
Now I noticed mendeley uploads the science papers to a cloud to save and synchronize them for different machines using that mendeley account. As I am uploading these papers again. So is there either an option to turn this feature off or is there any attention by any persons regarding this? If there is none I continue using it as it is.
What does is there any attention by any person mean? Are you asking whether the copyright owner might demand (with a court order) that Mendely reveal the identities of any users who are violating their copyright? If so, then: Yes, that's plausible.
Note that this is essentially backing up your articles in the cloud, so it is private use, not file sharing / uploading. So you'd be liable for downloading the articles illegally for your private use, but not for sharing/uploading them which is usually the thing that is punished more harshly, in most jurisdictions. The upload part is irrelevant.
Also, from what I understand the pdf files that sci-hub provides are the same that you could download from the journal's website if you had legitimate access to it. Mendeley does not know where you obtained those pdf files, nor if you have or not have the right to use them legally. So they do not have the technical means to identify that you are a copyright infringer (unless some of these files are watermarked --- which AFAIK is not standard practice).
capitalism forces me you misspelled "laziness"
In Mendeley you can turn off file syncing if you'd like, by folder or for all files. Right-click any item under "My Library" (folder name, "All Documents", whatever you like), and choose Edit Settings from the context menu. You will be presented with settings that includes Synchronization options, including an option for "synchronize attached files", which you can turn on or off as it pleases you.
In terms of checking copyright or digital rights management schemes, I'm not aware of any reference manager that cares about this - but then back in the days of Napster (or even the early days of YouTube) no one cared either, right up until they suddenly did. The main difference is that most reference managers, including Mendeley, have extremely limited file-sharing ability, as well as limited space requirements, so they tend to be more like a cloud file backup service than a file-sharing service. Also, historically, "digital rights owners" disagreed that even having a digital file was legal at all, even if it was just a personal backup copy, and this made the 1990's a bit weird in retrospect - but should not be an issue with academic papers, which are mostly digital now anyway. And when services are only backing up files only you are using, and often accepting payment to do so, there is far less incentive for anyone to care about the provenance of the materials.
If you are concerned about the availability of the files in-case a service suddenly decides to start erasing files they can't establish you were licensed to obtain (which seems unlikely and technically difficult to achieve in any useful way, but I can't predict the future - and passing files around between colleagues and students/teachers is so common that it would be really disruptive to attempt), you can instead just have a system like Mendeley organize the files into a folder that you then backup/save with a backup service/system. But if you are concerned about being targeted for having such material at all, I'm not sure that just turning off a feature like sync would actually do anything to protect you at all, as there is no guarantee a software could not still scan files and report back to the mother ship whenever it pleased anyway. So I'll have to leave it to you to decide how big of a risk you think that is, and whether it is worth attempting to mitigate.
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125517 | What makes papers publishable in top-tier journals?
What are some factors that enable some papers to be published in top-tier journals while others (apparently similar) cannot?
For example, in the field of control theory, there are so many papers with complicated mathematics. Some paper is related to a very similar topic, but some get published in a top-tier journal while others not.
This question is important because knowing this, then I know which journal my paper might be submitted to that is possible to be accepted in the end.
your top-tier paper will change the working plans, goals, methods of many of your colleagues working on a related/similar topic or has major interdisciplinary influences on several other fields. And when you can reflect this, then you will now if it is worth the time to prepare and submit to top-tier journal. Some groundbreaking discoveries have also not been published in top-tier journals, because the authors didn't know they made one ;-)
@MichaelSchmidt yes, ideally if one made a breakthrough, then by all means send it to a top tier journal. However, most papers do not fall under this category. Then the question remains, what makes such papers publishable at such venues?
@Prof.SantaClaus you answered your own question...that the reviewers of the top-tier journal cannot rule out it is a minor/major breakthrough :-)
To be accepted and published it has to be submitted. Some papers that might be accepted just aren't ever submitted.
Some of it is just luck. The editor was looking for something. Even something as simple or stupid as s/he needed to fill an 8 page gap in an issue and yours was the best available candidate at the moment.
Some of it is just the writing itself. Good journals want, and try to get, well written, understandable, papers. If the reviewers have trouble understanding you, it will be hard to get accepted.
But most of it is that a paper answers a question (or two) that seems important at the time the paper arrives. It is the science/mathematics/whatever behind the paper that really matters. The members of a scientific community are fairly often on the lookout for an answer to a perplexing problem. If you can provide that, and submit a well written paper, you are more likely to get published.
Then how to find out these perplexing problems?
I'd guess that the only way to plan for excellence is to work toward excellence. You won't hit the mark on the first shot, most likely. An olympic level swimmer spent a lot of time in the pool. Thrashing at the start, but improving. I doubt that there are shortcuts. If you want to write better, then write more. If you want to solve hard problems then work on a lot of problems.
@winston Finding perplexing problems is trivial. The hard part is solving one of them.
@winston - Solve Pi and I guarantee you'll get your pick of journals.
Top journals don't necessarily contain the best papers
For many fields, especially in the natural sciences, the "top-tier" are not just looking for well-done, well-written research reports. Instead, they have an explicit editorial goal of finding papers that are impactful and interesting to a wide, interdisciplinary audience. For example, Nature wants manuscripts that
are of outstanding scientific importance, and
reach a conclusion of interest to an interdisciplinary readership.
technique reported will have significant impacts on communities of fellow researchers
the therapeutic effect reported will provide significant impact on an important disease.
In practice, this means that they often select for 'hot' or controversial topics, the use of exciting new techniques, and surprising, counterintuitive results. As a result, the zeitgeist of the field is probably the major determinant of whether your paper gets accepted in a 'glamorous' journal like Science, Nature, or PNAS. Quality is obviously important too: even the trendiest paper won't get in if the experiments are obviously flawed or the writing is impenetrable (usually!). However, it is manifestly not true that the best quality papers are published in the best quality journals, or conversely, that everything published in a well-regarded journal is gold.
To add some specific examples, Physical Reviws rejected Theodore Maiman's description of the laser, Physics Letters didn't want the Higgs model, and Nature declined the first reports on MRI, the Krebs Cycle, and(!) the cell cycle. Paul Lauterbur, whose MRI paper was rejected from Nature--but nevertheless won him a Nobel Prize (2003)--has quipped that "You could write the entire history of science in the last 50 years in terms of papers rejected by Science or Nature."
On the hand, these journals are also full of papers that seemed exciting at the time, but either went nowhere or turned out to be fatally flawed (e.g., arsenic-based DNA, water memory, and so on).
How do you decide where to publish?
If you already have a target venue in mind, you can often submit a presubmission enquiry. Each journal handles them slightly differently, but they almost always contain the manuscript title and abstract, and often include a short discussion of the results and why the journal's audience may care about them. The editor will reply, often in a few days, to tell you if the proposed article is a good fit for the journal. While you often don't get much feedback at this stage, it can help you avoid journal-specific scutwork, like reformatting the text or redrawing figures. Occasionally, editors will also mention concerns related to a specific topic: Current Biology told us, for example, that while they were interested in the topic generally, they also felt that much of the existing literature was not very good, and so they would be expecting very rigorous controls.
If you don't have a "target journal", you need to think about the potential audience for your paper. There are many journals which specialize in particular techniques (e.g., J Neurophysiology, for neurophysiological experiments), topics (Attention and Perception for studies of, well, attention and perception), and application (J. Neural Engineering). Browsing your own reference list may help: your paper is likely on-topic at the journal you cite most!
Finally, I would quickly browse through a few complete issues of your candidates. For example, while Journal of Vision and Vision Research are both nominally interested in anything pertaining to seeing, Journal of Vision skews very strongly towards human behavioral experiments. Although you could submit other kinds of work there--and people occasionally do--there are probably better venues for experiments with other techniques or animal subjects.
Whenever I read through a paper in a top-tier journal, I will usually notice the paper has top-tier results. However, that is not enough. You also need top-tier presentation, including top-tier figures and top-tier handling of data. For example, if it's possible to use a statistical method and obtain useful results at a 99.9% confidence level, go for it!
To help you getting a paper published in top-tier journal, you can:
Learn statistical methods.
Illustrate the paper well with excellent figures. If you need to draw some of the figures, consider hiring a professional graphical artist. However, then you need to set exact criteria for the images (what should they show?) and also have a clear copyright status on the figures. You should also mention who the graphical artist was in your acknowledgements section, so that you don't claim the illustrations made by others as your own.
Run a professional language check by a native speaker of the language, and you could also consider mentioning this in the acknowledgements section as well, although in this case I don't think omitting the mention would be claiming the work of others as your own work.
Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite! I would get feedback from several peers, and be prepared to rewrite the entire thing based on their feedback! In fact, I typically start writing at a very early stage, even before I have useful results, and this means I often use content written before the direction of the research was clear. This has led to many rejections. Had I bothered to rewrite, some of those rejections could have been acceptance decisions.
Be prepared to remove content. Usually, the first version of your paper may be a bit repetitive. Don't repeat, use concise language! If you're prepared to remove content, you can fit more useful content in.
Be through. Explore all of the implications of your research. A paper that says everything that can be said about a certain idea will be far more successful than a paper that just introduces a concept and makes thoroughly exploring the concept a future research topic. You could also consider criticizing your research and subsequently defending it. For example, I recently submitted a very good paper, which identifies certain anomalies in my solution. I think I was very thorough in listing the anomalies. I also included proof that an anomaly-free solution to the problem I presented cannot exist.
Underline the importance of your results. Sometimes, you might think the reader ought to know the importance, but better to mention in explicitly. All it takes is few sentences.
However, I would say that you should go through this list only if you have top-tier results in the first place. A paper having mediocre results, but top-tier presentation, top-tier figures and top-tier handling of data will get published only by sheer luck if you're targeting the very best of the journals.
While all of these things are important for writing a good paper, I'm not actually convinced that they're either necessary or sufficient to get into a top-ranked journal.
@Matt I agree: language check and professional artist aren't necessary if you can do those things yourself, and I can't guarantee acceptance after following all of this, for obvious reasons. This is the best answer I could write on the subject. If you have more ideas, consider posting an answer of your own!
added one below!
A lot of it is about audience: this is obvious in places like Nature and Science, which are general science journals, and are therefore looking for papers that will appeal to a general science audience - for your example of control thoery: what is a paper in control theory that a biologist or materials scientists (for example) might think was cool. This also applies further down the pile:
Would a mathematician or engineer from a different, but related field find it interesting?
Step down again: Would anybody in control theory find it interesting, or only people studying that particular problem?
Actually, my personal experience has been that top-tier journals tend to publish articles that are more like summaries of a certain field. Take Nature, the papers you will find in there are either groundbreaking discoveries from CERN or similar institutes, or papers that offer a kind of Big Picture of a certain field.
So I would partially disagree with some of the other answers - it's not all about writing high-quality papers. The content also needs to be what the journals are looking for, and what they want is often not a brilliant, but highly technical paper. Instead they want the paper that summarizes/reviews your brilliant technical paper, together with a dozen others, and offers some general/accessible insight.
And it feels wrong to omit that of course, your standing in the scientific community has some influence. There are exceptions to the rule, but I would imagine that even someone with Einstein-level brilliance would have trouble getting his groundbreaking theoretical paper published in Nature if he is only just starting his PhD. Such is the way of the world.
There was a point when the Nature/Science paper was, more or less explicitly, the 'best' results from an on-going research program that was described in more detail elsewhere. However, I think this is less true than it used to be: the papers are more self-contained
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86414 | Is it legal to use Sci-Hub in Germany?
I used to use this website to get the research papers that are not freely available online. So, passing the right name of any research work for this Russian website will derive the paper directly to your browser in Pdf format.
I used this website for the last 2 years when I was doing my Masters in Jordan. Now, I am doing PhD in Germany, So is it known this website in this region ? is it legal to explore or download the results?
As far as I know the only actual prosecution in Germany is done for sharing (meaning uploading) copyrighted material. This is also started by the copyright holders or their representatives, the government itself is not starting investigations.
I don't think there have been any cases anywhere where an individual was prosecuted for downloading publications for personal / educational use. Even if it came to that, it would be only for downloading from an illegal source, because you probably have access to most papers for free through some kind of inter-library sharing service.
When in doubt, use tor.
@MikeyMike I bet I will be ending up in a jail rather than PhD research office...
Because this would lead to the fast acceleration of mandatory open access publishing and the end of for-profit publishing as we know it. Publishers might have the right to prosecute individuals, but I think they know that it's a really bad idea.
@Roland I've yet to hear about a single case of an "Abmahnung" for downloading. Uploading is a different story - in particular, people from other countries visiting Germany are frequently sued for using bittorrent, where you cannot download without uploading, too.
Why not ordering via your institution's library?
@FuzzyLeapfrog its worth at long run but I am fresh student and still need 8 weeks to get my account access.
@Krebto I see. Here are some suggestions what you can do, if you want to avoid Sci-Hub: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/85623/what-to-do-if-cited-papers-are-not-freely-available-while-reviewing-a-manuscript/85628#85628
8 weeks to get a library account? Where in Germany is this happening?
@CapeCode Posting a proper answer could be more informative than posting no-sense comments ;) If you read all the comments, you could be noticed that I already mentioned I was in my first weeks, and normally, in your Germany, things take a lot of time, specifically when it comes to Ph.D. registration and committee final decision.
Normally in your Germany, you walk in the university's library and you can access anything they subscribed to. They can also often set up a temporary account until you're formally registered.
@CapeCode I did bachelor and currently Ph.D. in the same university and I can't confirm your 'often' hypothesis. And 'Normally' does not mean 'all' universities in 'your Germany' follows the conduct that you just mentioned nor the main question is asking about...
Again then, where in Germany did the library declined your request to access their resources because you're not registered? That sounds crazy.
I worked in Germany. You don't need to be a PhD student. So long as you're on payroll, you should be able to go to the library and request an account.
This is not a site for legal advice, and you should bear in mind that the answers are (unless they say otherwise) from academics, not legal experts.
@VonBeche Sharing is most often prosecuted, because a single download only leads to a minor penalty (just for one copy), while somebody uploading someone is charged for thousands of copies, which could potentially originate from his initial upload. So for some "Abmahner" it is worth more to look for uploaders than downloaders. (And it is easier to find them. Try to download something and you get the IP of the uploader).
The paper of
E. W. Steinhauer - Die Nutzung einer "Schattenbibliothek" im Licht des Urheberrechts Einige Überlegungen am Beispiel von Sci-Hub
says that downloading is probably illegal and viewing it in your browser is in some grey-area (although making this difference looks like some law-people did not understand the technicalities at all).
But there does not seem to be one court case where one was prosecuted for just downloading such material.
So if you still want to access the publications this way, then I suggest to use the following robust solution: Use the Tor browser or even the Tails operating system. In the latter you could save material with questionable copy-right license status in an encrypted file-system, then in Germany the law is pretty robust (compared to the USA or UK) around the "Aussageverweigerungsrecht", i.e. no authority can force you to decrypt it.
Cool, but I am not certain about the legality of downloading a Tor browser at my office machine where located inside German university. Do I have to contact the admin? if so, is it some how bad impression to ask about using a Tor ?
I do not know what the policy about running certain programms on your school computer are. But I am pretty sure that just using Tor on it is covered by the "Forschungsfreiheit". But note that this is a very paranoid approach, I am pretty sure that you could just access them without tor (like everyone else) without any consequences.
Note that one can use encryption even without that OS.
You should add a link to https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en somewhere in your answer: not everyone knows what Tor is, or where to find it, and this is the simplest way to obtain a "running browser".
-1 since this seems to be saying that "I know it's illegal, but here's how to avoid getting detected". I can't condone doing something illegal, even more so teaching someone else how to avoid detection.
@Cashman: In light of my answer below - could you add a few words regarding how you believe recent changes to the law affect those conclusions (if at all)?
According to publishers, it's technically illegal to use a service such as SciHub. As Cashman points out, viewing the content from SciHub is considered a "grey area" in Germany and in many other countries. While I might recommend its use in countries where it's economically unviable to do otherwise, that can't be said for the German system.
As an alternative to avoiding any of the legal issues associated with SciHub, have you considered using "interlibrary loan" services? Most university libraries, including those in Germany, participate in some sort of network that allows them to request articles that are not available as part of their "local" collection. It may take some time (a few business days, usually) before you get the article, but it is completely legal and a low-cost means of obtaining it compared to buying it directly from the publisher.
"According to publishers"? I wouldn't put much faith in their opinion.
They are the ones most capable of influencing the law (see the recent link tax brouhaha). As I said though, I’ve offered a solution.
So, I just looked into it for a bit; would appreciate your feedback on my answer.
You might be interested: https://law.stackexchange.com/a/33647/15133 since that answer (and sources cited) indicates it's illegal not just according to publishers.
Since April 2018 at the latest it is most likely legal
In 2018, the "Act on Copyright and the Knowledge Society" (that's an English translation!) came into effect.
It says in Section 60c(3) that
... full use may be made of illustrations, isolated articles from the same professional or scientific journal, other small-scale works ...
Now, I am not a lawyer, nor do I live in Germany, but that seems pretty clear-cut to me.
Regardless, downloading and sharing academic material is important
While I would not presume to recommend anything in your case - with your being a non-citizen and non-local - I would make the claim that if enough German (or otherwise) students, junior researchers and faculty use it and legitimize it in their circles, then it would become de-facto legal, regardless of the letter of the law.
... In fact, considering past customs of German academics and students, and @cashman's indication that no one has ever been prosecuted on downloading SciHub content - perhaps this is what actually transpired in Germany.
In support of this argument, I would draw a parallel with the legality of homosexual sex: It was officially illegal in Germany since at least 1871 - but was of course practiced; and it wasn't until 1968/1969 that the criminal ban on homosexuality was lifted in the (split-up) Germany.
I see the law as saying the end user can use and distribute individual articles but the issue is SciHub creating an illegal archive and if it’s legal to obtain articles from them.
@aeismail: 1. But is the archive illegal if it only distributes "isolated articles" (which is indeed the case for SciHub, to my knowledges)? 2. Where does it say that what you can legally copy becomes illegal if the copy is from another copy and that other copy was made illegally? 3. Wouldn't this section override your answer to q. 2?
Section 96 seems to be relevant to point 2. I understand 60(c)3 as saying it’s OK to use an individual article but if SciHub is not the end user or an allowed source then it can violate 96 which overrides 60(c)3.
@aeismail: 1. As long as we agree that the potentially illegality is Sci-Hub's rather than the end user, then ok :-) 2. I'm not sure that SciHub's copy is made illegally; an argument might be made to the contrary, plus - it could well depend on which specific article you're getting from them.
That’s why I said it was a gray area in my answer and suggested workarounds. I doubt anyone will get prosecuted for downloading an article or two, but someone trying to do something like Aaron Swartz might find themselves facing legal action.
Downvoted since according to the Law.SE question, "If the file is only available for a fee, and the website purchases a copy and makes it freely available, and you download it knowing that you should be paying for a copy through the official site, then both you and the website are at fault." i.e. the user is at fault as well as the website (not to mention almost surely in breach of his or her ISP's policies).
@Allure: There's no answer that says that about downloading academic papers after the 2018 act has gone into effect. As in other questions, you are trying to mislead people and scare them away from sharing research, by mixing up sharing/streaming of entertainment media and cases such as Sci-Hub.
That answer references the link you gave. So no, you should stop trying to mislead people. Also see things like this, which isn't in Germany, but you should get the point. https://answers.library.curtin.edu.au/faq/204046
You're referring to "that answer", "the Law.SE question" without providing a link. The link you did just provide regards Australia - which is of course irrelevant to this question regarding Germany.
Disclaimer: not a lawyer.
It is probably illegal to use Sci-Hub in Germany. By "probably" I mean that although it is possible to defend yourself in court, your defense would be based on technicalities such as the difference between downloading and streaming (more on the difference below), which is definitely shaky ground. If sued, you do not have a strong case. Several court rulings have also inclined against things that would make using Sci-Hub illegal, so if the court sets a precedent in the ruling it is likely to be against you.
Sci-Hub acquired the papers illegally. This should be fairly obvious; if it isn't then see this article on how Sci-Hub acquires its papers. This matters because German law distinguishes between making a copy from a lawful source and making a copy from an unlawful source.
Streaming vs. downloading. Streaming is looking at the material without also making a copy of it. This could, e.g., happen if you are watching a broadcast of a live event. Downloading is actually making a copy of it. In the case of Sci-Hub papers, these are PDF files, and you can't read them without also downloading (at least) a temporary file on your computer. Therefore using Sci-Hub falls under downloading, not streaming. Every time you access something using Sci-Hub, you are making a copy of the work.
Under German law, it's legal to make a copy of a work without the consent of the copyright holder if all of the following conditions are met (section 53(1) and 53(4)):
The work (if it's a book or periodical) has been out of print for at least two years.
The source from which you got the book from is lawful.
Personal use only. No commercial use, either direct or indirect.
Point #2 is particularly important. The source from which you get the original copy has to be lawful. Since Sci-Hub is not a lawful source, downloading from it is automatically illegal.
More technical details: These aren't really relevant to question of using Sci-Hub, but answers a common objection.
German law has a separate section for works used in scientific research (section 60c of the above link). You are allowed to reproduce:
Up to 15% of a work for non-commercial purposes, to a limited circle of people. So for example if you're using it for your conference presentation, you're in the clear.
Up to 75% of a work for personal use.
You may use all individual figures or individual articles from a scientific journal.
The catch is that this does not supersede the requirement that you get the work from a lawful source. If you downloaded a paper from the publisher's website using your university's subscription, then you are allowed to make copies of it without the publisher's consent, but if you downloaded a paper from Sci-Hub, you're still in illegal territory.
Precedent cases: there have been two important rulings on this.
ACI Adam. This established that EU law for private copy exceptions (i.e. exceptions in which making a private copy is legal) takes precedence over national law. This means that German law can be more restrictive than EU law, but it cannot be more permissive; you cannot do something that is legal in Germany but not in the EU. EU law mandates that you provide fair recompense to the copyright holder even if you use the work for noncommercial personal use only (see article 5(2)(b) of the Copyright Directive). If you acquired the original legally, this usually takes the form of taxes on the CDs, hard drives, etc.
Filmspeler. This established that streaming copyrighted material from an unlawful source without consent of the copyright holder is also illegal. So even if you are able to view a paper using Sci-Hub without making a copy of it, you are still breaching the law. This was covered in the popular media, e.g. here.
Finally: chances are very good that your Internet Service Provider, e.g. your university - has policies that prohibit you from doing illegal things using the service. In other words, if you download the papers anyway, you are likely in breach of your institute's policies. In addition to that, your university could get in trouble for providing you with internet access.
If there's a silver lining to all this, it's that you are unlikely to be caught. But you'd still be doing something illegal. Should you use Sci-Hub anyway? That is up to your personal moral code.
Using material in the public benefit (e.g. in research) is highly different from personal entertainment, in many (most?) countries, and I would guess also in Germany.
@einpoklum can you find any source that says the motivation for illegally downloading matters?
You said the first link deals with streaming videos or music, so I didn't read it. The third link is a media broadcaster/publisher, and so not a credible source on these matters. The second link mentions an ECJ ruling about some kind of streaming - which I also assume has to do with video entertainment content.
... after reading the links, I reiterate - you haven't linked to someplace that says it's illegal to make copies of academic material for purposes of academic research.
Oh, and that ECJ ruling has to do with selling a player which streams copyrighted films without license. Are you sure you're not just spreading FUD here?
Are you familiar with what "streaming" means? Read the first link, it doesn't have to be videos or music. If you download a copy of the file, that's downloading. If you just view it without downloading, that's streaming. Also the laws don't just deal with videos and music, it deals with all copyrighted material.
I reiterate as well, you have not showed any evidence that motivation matters. Breaking the law is breaking the law. Breaking the law for good intentions might earn you a reduced sentence, but it's still a criminal conviction (usually).
@einpoklum I strongly suggest you familiarize yourself with the law, or you're at risk of breaking it without even knowing it. Check out the deleted answer and comments in this question (I assume you're able to read it). https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/112509/legality-of-downloading-books-from-websites-such-as-library-genesis? Downloading is well-established to be illegal for a long time; streaming is not so certain but the April 2017 case established it is illegal. http://www.ip-watch.org/2017/04/28/european-court-justice-tightens-screws-streaming/
I quote: "Now the highest EU judges have declared that obtaining a copyright-protected work by streaming without consent of a copyright owner would not satisfy the exception clauses of articles 5 (1) and 5 (5) on temporary acts of reproduction." The "selling a player" aspect isn't really relevant here. If you're still not convinced I'll start a question in Law.SE.
"Störerhaftung" ist currently an issue under heavy discussion...
You cannot stream a paper. Streaming means you have only a part of the file at the same time. Your streaming movie player shows you the movie part of the current chunk and then discards it when loading the next part. You browser first loads the full PDF and then shows it, which is a full download.
@allo yes, I believe that's mentioned in the streaming vs. downloading bullet point.
Merely browsing the public web, including PDFs on the web, is generally legal in Germany, that's for sure. So it stands to reason, by set inclusion, that it is legal to browse Sci-Hub in Germany. Also, Sci-Hub obtains and is generally used to view individual articles that are contained within much larger published journals. Also, Sci-Hub is generally used for scientific research.
There are 5 examples of German theses that acknowledged Sci-Hub at https://sci-hub.se/theses#de and there have been no prosecutions for their or other Germans' use of the website. Furthermore, "there does not seem to be one court case where one was prosecuted for just downloading such material," as Cashman noted.
It is illegal to build and start some WMD using instructions you find using Sci-Hub. But it is not using Sci-Hub that makes it illegal. Likewise with many of the plethora of examples created by monopolists and intended to mislead readers into believing or even stating that all use of Sci-Hub is illegal, or "It is probably illegal to use Sci-Hub in Germany." Selling access to copyrighted content without permission of the monopolist is illegal (Filmspeler). Sci-Hub obtains articles from sources that the law considers to have obtained them legally: the for-profit journal publishers (and their ISPs). Sci-Hub, in contrast, does not use them for commercial purposes.
Disclaimer: not a lawyer.
It is probably legal to use Sci-Hub in Germany.
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118525 | Conference proceedings and talks on a CV?
I come from a multidisciplinary background, mostly biostatistics and bioinformatics. I'm currently updating my CV to apply for a post doc and I'm wondering how do people include conference proceedings and invited talks in a CV.
In my case, I have two type of abstracts:
- peer-reviewed conference proceedings which are published in journals,
- peer-reviewed abstracts accepted in national or smaller conferences which aren't published.
Should I make a distinction between these two types of abstracts? How do you separate abstracts selected for an oral comunication and/or poster and invited talks?
I used to have a section named Conference contribution and three subsections Invited talk, Oral communication and Poster but I'm not sure about this format and I'm wondering whether it's relevant to add this information or if I should filter more. Also, do people include all abstracts or only the first author?
I would not include my presentations in my CV, but I keep only the most important things (CV should be around 2 to 3 pages). Your potential employer won't read everything but only what he is interested in (for sure not your presentations). You can add a link at the end of your CV referring to your complete CV (which can be a web page). For publications, you could put your 3 best papers under a section named: Selected Publications
@Younes the OP is applying for a postdoc so a complete CV would be appropriate.
@anonymous I am sure that my professor does not spend one second to check the list of talks. A postdoc is not different than any other position. Even publications, one would mention the number of his publications but one puts the best of what he published (What if the candidate published 30 articles in proceedings? -which happens often-). The professor is as any other employer, is interested not only in research but also the ability to work in a group, solving problems, working under hard circumstances. Hence, the CV should cover everything but rationally.
@Younes That would be correct for a short CV, but generally a CV is intended to be a complete listing of your productivity as an academic. You will see postings that will indicate if a short version is preferred and there may be some regional differences, but if you published thirty articles, you should have thirty articles listed on your CV.
There is a little bit of variation depending upon the discipline, but generally the convention is along the lines of the following:
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Invited Talks
Unsolicited presentations (ex. keynotes) where you are invited by the organizers.
Papers
Complete manuscripts that are published in proceedings and indexed by relevant databases.
Abstracts
Short (i.e., 250 words) or possibly extended abstracts intended to describe the talk.
Posters
Any poster presentations, these may be eliminated by senior scholars.
Generally the rule of thumb is that the section is organized by most prestigious (i.e., invited talks) to least prestigious (i.e., posters). When applying for an academic position this section should be as complete as possible as well. Additionally, it may include notation indicating you are the presenter if you are not the first author.
Thank you for your answer! So you would include any poster, including the ones you didn't present but you're a co-author or only the ones you presented?
@psoares Early career, listing everything makes sense, as you advance in your career you might limit it just the you presented and have something noting "Selected Posters." Be sure to indicate the ones you presented though.
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147625 | Choosing between a Post-Doc and a faculty position at "2nd-tier" institution
I am Ph.D. student in India working in computer science. I will be graduating soon. I have two options: 1) post-doc 2) join a "tier 2 institute" (i.e., an institution ranked between #11 and #20 in India) as a faculty. I don't have sufficient publications to join a tier 1 institute.
I am inclined to go for a post-doc because I want to improve the quality of my research. Many people are suggesting that I join tier 2 institute and then keep working. My research field (computational mathematics) is such that if I have to work alone then I can only publish one paper per year, but in a collaboration I can publish with more speed. Some people told me postdoc will impact you badly if you do not publish enough. I don't know what to do, but I want to pursue my carrier in research.
What are the pros/cons of doing the post-doc vs. taking a tier-2 faculty position?
And do you actually have offers for these positions or are you simply deciding which to try for?
"Joining as a faculty" normally implies a permanent position -- is that the case here?
You say these institutions are 11-20 in India; what would those rankings work out to globally?
@cag51 Would global ranking matter at all?
@mast - I think so, if only because I don't have a great intuition for what the 15th best school in India is like, or how much "worse" it is than the tier-1 institutes.
@cag51 11-20 in India is around 600-800 global, comparable to mid-lower tier state universities in the USA, if that's familiar to you.
Why do you think the "level" of the institution will either enhance or degrade your ability to do research? Separately -- if you are just looking for lots of co-authors, then the size of Uni matters, not its reputation.
My little experience during my Ph.D. tells that it matter to larger extent as in tier 2 not many professors are active in research they are more active in teaching and academic activities. Funding is also less in tier 2.
@CarlWitthoft If research and facility quality has no impact on career prospects, funding, and success potential, then why would we bother ranking them?
This depends on a number of personal factors. Here are some questions that I'd be asking in your situation:
How happy would you be with a career at the Tier 2 institute? Is this what you were aiming for, more or less, when you started your PhD? If so, then consider taking the job.
If you do a postdoc, how likely would you be to get a "better" academic job afterwards? And how much "better?" I wouldn't focus on the distinction between Tier 1 and Tier 2 so much; the characteristics of universities will differ greatly within each "tier". Here I'd ask the opinion of some senior scientists -- whoever wrote your recommendation letters, for example.
If you do a postdoc and don't get any academic job at all, how would you feel about this? If, for example, you would also enjoy an industry job, and those are widely available in your field, then you could consider taking on more risk.
Are there any personal factors at play? Are you eager to "settle down"? Do you have any responsibilities that require financial stability? Is the Tier 2 institute in a city where you'd enjoy living? If you do a postdoc, do you mind the prospect of moving again in a few years?
None of us on this website can answer any of these questions, but I suggest them as good questions to ask yourself. Best wishes to you!
I'm going to come out and say something possibily controversial, but postdoc was the most enjoyable part of my career. I was trained enough to know what I was doing (at least a little), but I had none of the responsibilities of being faculty. I didn't have to apply for funding, teach, or be responsible for the success of a team of others. If my grant applications failed, at worst I lost my own job, I didn't put 2 or 3 others out of work as well. Now as faculty, not only do I have that responsiblity but 60% of my time is take up with non-research activities, and where I do get time for research, its mostly supervising others. Don't get me wrong - I think my team is great, and there is a lot of pleasure in seeing others succeed, and helping their plans come together.
Of course this is predicated the fact that as a white, british, middleclass, able-bodied male, with a partner who works remotely and is willing to move around 1) I didn't mind the instability and the moving regularly 2) If it all went belly up, and the jobs dried up, I would be okay - there were other careers that would accept me, and in the very worst case, I could go live with my parents without really making a dent on their living standards.
I have every advantage that life can throw at me. If I had failed, I would have undoubtedly continued to have had a comfortable and prosperous life, because in our society, its pretty hard for someone with my advantages to not do.
When I was an undergrad there was this program in the astronomy department for astro majors where you would go to a different professor's home for dinner once a week over the course of a term. We'd talk a bit about their research, but a lot of it was about what pursuing a career in astronomy was like. Interestingly, almost all of them said the same thing as you --- their postdoc years were the most enjoyable of their career for the same reasons you mentioned. By that time they had learned how to do research and their only professional responsibility was to do research.
About a month ago you said in another question that you had no offers. Perhaps that has changed. I hope so. But if not, I think your expectations are unrealistic. If you get an offer for a tenure track position from any of the top 20 institutions (in the US, say) or even the top 50, grab it. Carnegie Mellon is rated as 25 by USNews. Most academics would, I think, die to get an offer from CMU. Or University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign, rated 49, I think.
But for general advice, treat a post-doc, not as a thing of value in itself, but as a bridge to a tenured position. It can be a solid bridge, but the goal is the tenure track position in which you can build a career.
If you have a choice to step directly into a permanent position at a good place (never mind top 20 or even top 120) take it and avoid the bridge.
The exception would be if you were offered a collaboration by a top researcher (no matter where) in your field whose own reputation would be a boost to you. The institution would matter very little. Joining the collaborative circle of a superstar, is a boost.
Another exception would be an offer of a post doc at a place that uses them to "take a close look" at potential permanent faculty. I don't know that many universities are even allowed to do that anymore, but it was possible in the past. And even in the past, universities of that calibre were still required to conduct an honest national (at least) search even when they had a favored candidate.
But I'd also suggest that, if you are having any difficulty in finding any position, then you broaden your search. Your question suggests you have too small a target. It is possible, of course that you are capable enough to get hired at a "top" institution, but in any given field, the total number of offerings by the top 20 in a give year probably isn't too far from 20 or so. And with hundreds of potential candidates for those few openings.
Thanks for answer. I would love to join a institute which is in top 20 worldwide even 120 is fine but the institute is in top 20 within the india not in the world.
I can't judge the quality of universities in India, having no experience. I expect there are quite a lot of very high quality. The grad students I had from there were generally very well educated. But I think the advice holds anywhere. The post doc is a bridge. Search widely for a position. etc.
@Buffy Going by the Times ranking the best Universities in CS in India, the top ranked one is in 125-150. For top20 we're talking 400+. Not exactly Carnegie Mellon.
@Voo, I wrote it before India was specified. I left it as I think the basic advice is sound. And, the universities in India seem to be doing a good job of educating students, independent of their research rankings. But even 400 on a world wide scale is pretty high.
Congratulations for getting the offer! It is really a privileged position to be able to chose.
Before I tell you my opinion on this, I think contextualizing my situation would help. I am also from India and I obtained my PhD from a 'Tier1' university in North America about 3 years ago. I was lucky to get a faculty position straight out of my PhD in a top 20 university in the world. I have eventually moved on to a good European university (not top 100).
In my opinion, a post-doc is a great option to elevate your research profile. I would consider it as the ideal option if there was not a faculty position it was getting compared to. The logic behind this is that a postdoc is a contract position and brings with it uncertainties. For example, there seems to be general consensus that a recession will follow the current pandemic. So, in a year or two are you certain that there will be faculty positions or postdocs on offer?
Further with regards to the 'tier' of the university, I would not place too much importance on it. As Buffy has pointed out, rankings are not an all encompassing metric. Even though I do not publish as many papers now compared to before, I do have much better work-life balance. I am less stressed and I invest more efforts into my students and classes. All of these are benefits which an get obfuscated by university rankings.
Again, take my advice with a grain of salt. I have made my positionality clear. Having never been a postdoc myself, I am sure there are dimensions associated with it I cannot fully comprehend.
My own advice (I come from the U.S.A.) is that taking the faculty position (if still available) is far better, but of course I don't know your particular situation. A lot of factors would go into it, such as the distance to loved-ones, your family goals, etc. In general, a post-doc is not always very prestigious.
If the faculty position is tenure-track so much the better. (See comment on question for a question about this).
Either way, best wishes for your future!
My career has had many winding roads I would not have set out to follow, so enjoy the journey as opposed to fretting over the destination.
First, congratulate for getting multiple academic offers. I can only say for the situation of US. It is extremely unlikely to get any (tenure-track) faculty job right after finishing PhD (in the field I am familiar with), that if people end up getting one, they will almost always go for it over any temporary postdoc. position.
A few professors I know end up in switching institution when they rank up from assistant professor to associate professor. If that could be a possibility for you, you might want to consider it over doing a postdoc.
For more people (include myself), the alternative of "not doing a postdoc." is to work in a teaching position or moving to industry, due to either lack of outstanding research results (enough to get the degree, not enough to be competitive for an academic position), or simply due to personal preference/interest/etc. change.
Take the one where you are able to do the most independent research. Even just not having a position, but researching, can be best, in order to develop a profile in your field.
Then, tenure track will come to some extent for how well you are known, not how good an institute you have been associated with.
So I think postdoc at Tier 1 is best.
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106737 | Withdraw manuscript from peer review after finding a major error
I just received a major revision decision (1st round) for a manuscript I submitted to a reputable journal. After looking into one of the reviewer's comments I found a major error in my analysis. The conclusions of my research are almost completely different as a result. I also don't think the reviewer realized the severity of the error.
I would like to withdraw my manuscript from the journal because of the major error. However, I don't know how to approach my co-authors or the journal about this issue. I've always been able to complete major revisions for other papers I've written, and so I've never had to deal with this type of problem before. I also realize that the editors and referees have already put a lot of time into reviewing my paper.
I would like to ask this forum for any suggestions about withdrawing a paper once it's in review. I don't know how common it is to do this, and how it is generally perceived in academia.
Is this a "everything's ruined, nothing can be salvaged, toss the whole thing in the bin" kind of major error, or a "everything changes, but we still have a paper" kind of major error?
I would say an "everything changes, but we still have a paper" but only after doing an extensive amount of additional work (i.e., include another data set and more simulations, rewrite intro and discussion). It really may not be worthwhile.
But if you say "it really may not be worthwhile", wouldn't that then equal the "everything's ruined, nothing can be salvaged, toss the whole thing in the bin" category (if perhaps we insert "with reasonable effort" after "salvaged")?
@Thomas: It seems to me that the OP is saying that (they believe that) they still have a potentially publishable result, it's just a completely different result from what they originally thought they had and so would take a lot of effort to (re-)write up. That's very different from realizing, say, that your experimental results were just random statistical noise or that the axioms from which you'd proved a bunch of remarkable results were actually self-contradictory.
@anonymous47 "but only after doing an extensive amount of additional work". Well, I would guess that's what major revision is supposed to mean...
@mathreadler "major revision" usually means that substantial parts of the paper have to be changed/improved/extended based on the remarks of the reviewers. If I am a reviewer and I recommend a major revision, I don't expect to get a paper with completely different conclusions. OP should notify that editor about the problem and resubmit the paper as a new paper. No harm done.
@trunklop it quite often means new actual research work has to be done for which the result is not known.
There are two parts to your question:
How to broach the matter with your colleagues.
How to withdraw your paper from review.
The trickier issue is how to broach the subject with your colleagues. If you feel there is absolutely no way for you to finish the revisions on schedule, then you owe it to your co-authors to tell them of the problem. However, this should be a dialogue, not a unilateral decision. They may see the issue as being less onerous timewise, and that it may be possible to finish the work within a reasonable period of time. Or they may agree with you that withdrawal is the best option. In either case, it should be a team decision, and once that's made, you can proceed with notifying the journal.
Notifying the journal is the simpler issue to handle. Most journals usually set a timeline for submitting major revisions. Just send the journal a note stating exactly what you wrote above. There is nothing wrong with independently withdrawing a paper because of significant errors. (Better that you do so now than need to retract it because of errors later on!)
If you want to withdraw the paper, don't just let the deadline pass. Do it explicitly so the editor and journal staff don't waste their time sending "Hey, your revision is overdue -- do you need more time?" mails.
I had a similar thing happen -- the journal was happy to accept my later, substansally improved paper, sent it to the same reviewers (I believe), and it was accepted. Remember journals are usually run by fellow academics, they will understand problems arising,
If you feel there is absolutely no way for you to finish the revisions on schedule, then you owe it to your co-authors to tell them of the problem. - If there is a major error to fix, you owe it to your co-authors to discuss this with them regardless of anything else. That should be the first thing you do.
I don't think the OP should notify the journal before discussing it with the co-authors. If I was a co-author and someone withdrew a paper without consulting me, I'd be seriously angry.
I’m not saying he should. The first step is the discussion with the colleagues to determine what to do.
Perhaps the "independently withdrawing" phrase is being read differently from what you meant, by some people. I think you mean that the authors (plural) withdraw their paper instead of having it rejected. But I think @StephenG interpreted it as "independent of your co-authors". Add an "after that" at the start of the last paragraph, and/or some other phrase that makes it clear you only do this if / when the group of authors decides to give up (at least temporarily) on this publishing deadline.
@PeterCordes If that's the case, perhaps changing "independently" to "proactively" is another way to clarify the meaning.
The whole point of the peer-review process is to avoid that any sub-standard garbage gets published. That is the reason your "reputable journal" is reputable in the first place.
Here, the review process pointed at a major issue in your work. That's great because that's why your paper gets reviewed in the first place. (I would even argue that whether or not the reviewer actually realized the gravity of the implication of their review is secondary.)
Now, you're currently in the following situation:
Presumably, you have already invested a lot of work to get to the current point in the research for this paper.
To conclude this part of your research, you've now realized you need to spend a whole lot of additional work.
Naturally, the question then arises: are you either (1) willing to spend the additional work or (2) completely scratch all the work you've already done?
The option that's missing here is: (3) pretend nothing happened and publish the current paper after addressing the outlined revisions. Clearly, you do not intend to go for that, so the decision is between (1) and (2). In both cases, you will have to tell your co-authors and the journal that the paper will need more additional work than anticipated.
But I don't quite see the problem with that. The journal did their job, so if you honestly inform them about what happened, I can't imagine that it will lead to any bad consequences for you. It is in their interest too, after all, that only high-quality results get published. So, why not thank the reviewers and inform the journal that you will (1) withdraw the paper completely, or (2) resubmit at some point in the future but probably not within the specified time frame for the revisions they asked for?
Also: I would probably discuss your newly gained insights with my co-authors as soon as possible. Not only so they are informed but also because maybe there's a different angle that you're missing and that would put the whole situation into a different light again? One of your co-authors might have some relevant insights that might change how you will move ahead.
Thank you for the very thoughtful response. It seems that the sensible thing to do would be to discuss the error and any future plans for the manuscript with my coauthors. I'd be willing to do the extra work if my coauthors also think it's worthwhile.
If you keep the journal editor informed then if you end up resubmitting to the same journal they may try and use the same reviewers (which may speed up the process).
@anonymous47 I would suggest also to be gracious to the editor when you inform them of your decision. Their selection of reviewers has saved you some substantial potential embarrassment, and the "system" worked.
I'd say the problem is that you're trying to tackle this and make decisions alone.
Contact your co-authors and explain the situation just like you explained it to us. Don't tell them "we should do XYZ", just explain what's already happened. Let them make suggestions first, then make your own suggestion (or support somebody else's).
Your discussion with your co-authors will dictate how to inform the journal, but - the swifter the better. The only thing reviewers or editors may be angry about is delaying this kind of notification.
" then make your own suggestion if at all" this reads like you're implying that OP shouldn't suggest a course of action, or that it would at least be a bad idea? Why?
@Cubic: Edited to clarify what I mean.
It is possible to ask extra time on major revision and it certainly is alright to modify the paper in a major way. Talk with your co-authors on how to proceed. If you agree on to fix the paper, explain the editor that the modifications required to solve the problem pointed out by the reviewer would take longer than the allotted time. You might receive extra time to fix the issue, or you might need to resubmit later on. If the editor decides to give you the time you need, no work will be wasted. Just make sure you act swiftly.
Even if you do not get the chance, you should not feel sorry about the time invested in reviewing the paper. The system is worked and the mistake is found. The reviewers do reviews willingly for multiple reasons, one of which is to ensure their field is not littered with papers having wrong results.
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115249 | Do author name(s) dominate the content of the paper?
Suppose I did not publish any papers till now in reputed journals and I want to publish a paper with a novel idea. Colleagues are suggesting me to ask any expert to proofread the paper and then to include his name as one of the authors. But I don't want to involve any other person and want to do everything on my own and if any revisions are there, I revise my paper according to the comments by reviewers. In addition to that that are saying that there is a possibility of immediate rejection without seeing the content if authors are new and English is poor.
Some are emphasising that the author names with a good track record can influence the reviewers to fasten the process of reviewing and avoids immediate rejection.
Note that mere proofreading is not usually considered enough for authorship (see, e.g., the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, aka the "Vancouver protocol").
You did not mention which field you are in. While all fields theoretically focus on quality and importance of the product, that is sometimes hard to fully assess. In some fields it is a fairly open secret that reputation and reputation of who and what you cited can be used as a factor in assessing quality, especially in a first pass.
What is the review process for the journal you're submitting to? If it's blind / double-blind then it shouldn't matter, right? Are you only concerned about rejection by the journal, or also about broader acceptance of your work by the research community / getting a higher citation count, etc?
For what it's worth, there are academic editing services that specialise in helping get papers up to publication-grade English. It's not a trivial expense, but it is an option if you're concerned about being rejected for poor English.
So what's your question, in the end? I guess "how much would it hurt my chances to get published if I decide to go alone rather than involving an academic", but that's not very clear altogether. And it's difficult to answer without having an idea of how much you are familiar with the field.
Can you please rewrite to better focus on the focal question? I am now voting to leave it open... this time.
In what you have written, you are confusing together two things:
Is the author known to the reviewers? (e.g., "names with a good track record")
Is the paper well written? (e.g., "English is poor")
While some sub-fields may have "cliques" that exclude people who are not part of them, most reputable scientific publications have a basically honest review process. Reviewers are human, and so even honest reviewers will tend to look more favorably on a person whose work they already respect---and thus many publication venues have double-blind review to try to eliminate this possibility.
If you haven't published in a well-reputed journal before, however, there's a good chance that your paper will not be well-written. Writing scientific papers is a skill, and that skill takes practice. Moreover, writing well is often much harder if you aren't writing in your primary language. And even if you write well in general, writing effectively to a particular scientific community requires being conversant with the current state of that community, in order to understand how readers (and reviewers) are likely to think about what you write.
Thus, I would strongly agree with your colleagues that it is extremely useful to get an expert to look at your paper. I would strongly disagree that means that expert should become an author---merely reading and commenting on a draft is definitely not sufficient for authorship.
If the expert finds problems in what you have written and is interested to become involved, however, it might be very good to begin a collaboration in which they work with you to refine your work and connect it better to the community of interest. In that case, the expert would indeed become a co-author: not because their name is valuable, but because their expertise has helped to improve the paper into something much stronger than it was before.
The double blind systems I am aware of are only blind to the reviewers and not the editor, so names with a good track record can still help move the manuscript along (and I am not sure that is a bad thing).
@StrongBad True---editors almost always see all the names, and it can matter significantly for "glamour" journals with high desk-rejection rates. For many reputable journals, however, desk rejection is rare and so it should matter much less.
Colleagues are suggesting me to ask any expert to proofread the paper...
That's a good suggestion, although I would start by asking such experts to listen to an "elevator pitch" of your idea before you ask them for a more serious review. Also, what about your advisor, if you're a graduate student? S/he should help you with that.
...and then to include his name as one of the authors.
This part of the suggestion is inappropriate. Don't add his name unless s/he has made a significant contribution to the paper.
But I don't want to involve any other person and want to do everything on my own
That's the wrong attitude. Part of the experience you're missing is knowing you shouldn't, and should not want to, do "everything on your own".
and if any revisions are there, I revise my paper according to the comments by reviewers.
Don't rely on journal / conference reviewers to do the work of a colleague examining your paper. The reviewers should only need to make sure you haven't missed anything, and that the work is significant enough.
there is a possibility of immediate rejection without seeing the content if authors are new and English is poor.
You need to make sure and write your paper in proper English. Consider improving your writing using a short book on the matter such as The Elements of Style, or taking a university course in academic writing. If that's not enough - pay or find someone to do literary editing in English for you, to improve your skills and not get auto-rejected.
The review process has multiple stages. The first is an administrative/editorial review making sure the paper meets formatting requirements and is vaguely related to the area of specialty for the journal. At this stage the author's names do not matter since the person looking at the paper generally does not know everyone in the field. Really poor language very well may result in the manuscript being returned to the authors. At the end of this stage the manuscript is typically handed to the Editor in Chief or an associate/handling editor.
The EiC may also halt the process. The decision to precede at this stage might depend on the authors. If the EiC is unsure of the topic area, but recognizes an author that may help them decide on which AE to pass the paper to. A failure to recognize any authors and if the EiC cannot determine which AE to hand the paper to, may result in the manuscript being returned to the author or rejected. At the end of this stage the manuscript typically proceeds to the AE.
The job of the AE, at this stage, is to determine if the manuscript is worth the time of reviewers and find suitable reviewers. If the AE is doubtful about the manuscript, but recognizes the authors, they might send it for review while if they do not recognize the authors (or recognize the authors for causing problems), and the manuscript is bad, they might (and should) desk reject the manuscript. Typically, the manuscript then proceeds to the reviewers.
At this stage, the manuscript is reviewed. Sometimes the review is double-blind which means the authors cannot influence the decision, since the reviewer does not know who the authors are. Even when a single-blind system is used, the hope is that the authors do not influence the decision. That said, there is concern that it does, since double-blind systems are gaining popularity.
At all stages a poorly written manuscript can result in rejection and will likely lessen the quality of the reviews.
I don't understand the down vote on this answer. It seems both complete and accurate to me. I encourage down voters to leave a comment for the author so that they can understand any objection.
@Buffy I find I tend to get down votes on answers that point out that reality is not always the ideal that we want it to be.
@StrongBad Not fair. Your comment points out that reality is not the ideal that we want it to be but it's a comment so I can't downvote it.
Short answer: having a big name helps, but in practice the names that are big enough to help are not in business of letting themselves being added to mediocre papers.
I've been in your situation before. English is my 3rd language and at the time it was a bit hard to write a paper up so it would seem on par with other papers in ranked journals. I went the solo route and don't regret it. The bottom line is you need to learn to write well by yourself. Your future career and earnings depend on it. Taking a shortcut now will become a huge technical debt later on in your career. Also, writing is soooo much more than just English grammar and style. You are the creator and the only one in command of the content and the structure of your paper. You need to have that control through all the revisions/resubmissions/rewrites your work will go through.
Practical advise: learn to proofread well and make time (~100 hours to proofread your own first paper is about right).
On proofreading by yourself:
read aloud. Your ears will hear what your eyes miss;
google search every phrase you are not sure about, in quotation marks, e.g. "till now" 41m results vs "until now" 199m results. Therefore you should write "until now".
a paper is finished not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Edit as you proofread. No proofreader can help you with this.
With that being said, its great when you can get someone to proofread your paper, but not at the cost of diluting your ownership.
One hopes that the process is more honest than your colleague fears, but no one can guarantee it. In general, I think it is a poor practice and dishonest to include someone as author if they didn't participate in the creation of the work.
The idea that you could get advice from a respected person is probably good, but not that they become an "author" for making suggestions for improvement. You could, however, in an acknowledgement section, thank other people who made some small contributions.
But your idea of doing it all yourself and relying only on official reviewers is also fine.
If you are submitting to a journal or are in a place where prior reputation is all important then the advice might be different even if not really the best. But in such a case it is very difficult for a newcomer to ever advance.
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15419 | How to address an Oxford/Cambridge full-time lecurer who is not a Ph.D.?
I am currently writing an e-mail to a member of Oxbridge staff. He is a "lecturer," full-time staff, who co-ordinates a well-known program, but does not hold a PhD, only an MA.
I can't call him "Dr. ," or even "Professor ," so is "Mr." sufficient? It seems too informal for someone in such a high-ranking position.
How about "Sir" ?
There is a similar question http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/12346/546 , This one is specificly about UK (Oxbridge staff). I hesitate to vote to close as dupe yet.
@scaaahu I think the UK part might make it different, but the email part definitely makes it different.
I had this problem recently when I wanted to (verbally) ask an academic who happened to be sitting near me a question. I just decided to promote him to Dr :)
@TCSGrad : But "sir" is a knightly title. What if he isn't a knight?
@mathreadler calling someone "Sir Firstname" would indicate a knight (or baronet), but "sir" without a name is just a respectful way to address a generic man.
How about Heighness? ;)
A more serious comment - it he/she cares about titles, most likely you don’t want him/her as supervisor/collaborator
"Mr" should be fine (though note that British style drops the period from common honorifics). For example, Trinity College Cambridge's list of fellows has two "Mr"s and four "Ms"s.
However, be very sure that the lecturer you're emailing doesn't have a doctorate. Most Oxbridge (and I believe UK) lecturers are equivalent to some sort of professor in the US system, and the title of professor is generally reserved for academics somewhere between "regular member of teaching/research staff" and "department head". Accordingly, most UK lecturers do have a PhD.
If you're not sure, it's probably better to go with "Dr" rather than "Mr", as if you do get it wrong one way or the other, that's the one that's less likely to offend.
In the UK (and most other European countries) only full professors would be addressed as professor, where in the US associate professors would be (equivalent to UK Lecturer).
@paul: In fact, in the US, it's usual to address any academic as "Professor", including assistant professors, lecturers, instructors, adjuncts, etc. (Also, if I correctly understand the UK system, a US associate professor is closer to a UK reader.)
UK style does not have a full stop for contractions, but does for truncations, hence Mr, Mrs, Dr, Prof., Col., etc. This does not apply only to honorifics, hence Lat., Gk, etc.
It is better to amuse your addressee than risk causing offence. A journal editor addressed me as "Professor" in all email correspondence, even though I (twice) told him that I was only "Mr". This amused me and caused no offence. But I can imagine that addressing a real Doctor or Professor as "Mr" would not be well taken.
Not everyone would be amused by this...
The journal editor was probably dealing with dozens or hundreds of emails and didn't have time to register who said what regarding their title, so erred on the side of rounding up to "professor", routinely, to save a little bit of brain power for the actual thinking about the paper.
While the etiquette for salutations in formal letters is pretty well established, email etiquette is less clear. While this question on the English Language SE was not particularly well received, I particularly like this answer. The key part of that answer is that because of the prevalence of spam you need to establish who you are and why you are contacting the person as quickly as possible and not waste the valuable first line with a redundant salutation. If you drop the salutation (which some would say is the proper etiquette), you avoid the issue of how to address the individual.
Isn't that what the subject line is for? I delete emails based on subject line without even opening them... On the other hand, I consider the lack of any kind of adressing by an unknown person as rude (things are different in an email "conversation"). As the address line is usually followed by an empty line it is easily identified visually, so I don't consider it a waste of my time. For a student email requesting something it would add another point towards deleting... (I'm not based in the UK, though - and maybe we're more formal in this respect over here in Germany)
The argument in the answer you link to is a bit strange. A letter just like an e-mail usually or at least often also comes with all the contact information one needs (frequently even on the same sheet not only the envelope). If there is an argument that there is significant difference between a letter and an email it ought to be based on something else
For your answer, due to spam and if not spam then email sent in bulk, there is also the issue of knowing if an email is actually (and specifically) addressed to the recipient. In that sense a proper salutation is also relevant.
You probably have multiple aims here:
to be polite
to avoid being considered ridiculous
to get your email read
First of all, do your research: how is the person you wish to approach described on their institution's website? In extreme cases you might wish to consult a modern book of etiquette. For example, if you were addressing yourself to "Professor, the Right Honourable, the Lord X" you need to know that 'Dear Lord X' is fine and that 'My Lord' is now ridiculous.
Secondly, do not go over the top in honorific titles. (I still giggle at once being addressed as 'Your Excellency' in an unsolicited email.)
Thirdly avoid generic titles without a name, such as 'Dear Professor' or, even worse, 'Dear Doctor'. 'Dear Sir' might once have been OK, but these days it feels as if the writer has not done their research.
All of the above will probably permit you to avoid offending the recipient. But remember that, in the UK at least, a doctorate is not necessarily a requirement for a senior academic position. I have known very renowned, actually world famous, academics who never proceeded beyond an undergraduate degree and also some whose published books established a reputation before they had the chance to finish a formal doctorate so they never bothered. Some of those might have been mildly offended at being addressed as 'Doctor.'
All of this points to finding out something about the person to whom you wish to write before actually doing so.
Mr. is fine. Don't worry it's not that big a deal just because they go to a famous university. They are still just regular people. Just be super polite in the tone of the email.
Option 2 is to avoid using the term "Mr.", and just to write simply "Hi", or "Dear Sir"
also you should be aware that consultant doctors (very high ranking surgeons) are properly referred to as "Mr" in the anglo-saxon world
SURGEONS take on the title "Mr"/"Ms" etc, in UK (but not in US) because of the historical practice of barbers doing this work. PHYSICIANS do not do so, they stick with Dr. An additional note, it is not very high rank, and not limited to consultants. It is once they pass the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons exam, which happens about 3-4 years after choosing to be a surgeon rather than a physician.
Nice, great and informative answer
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61933 | Can I somehow leverage my willingness to work for a lower salary in job applications?
In the future, I will be on the market for a temporary academic position (postdoc or visitor) in the US, in math. Because of my lifestyle and financial situation, I do not need a large salary. Ballpark, let's say I would be willing to work an academic job for about half the typical salary.
Is there any way I can use this to my advantage? I mean: is it possible to use the fact that I am willing to work for cheap to get a job that is better (with respect to some criteria like quantity and caliber of research at the university, strength of students at the university, desirability of teaching duties,...) than I would have been able to get otherwise?
I have often thought that their should be math monasteries. Come and learn for free with the masters who own nothing but their knowledge. How are monasteries funded, anyway?
@StevenGubkin Sign me up!
@StevenGubkin It is often a mixture of (Agricultural) property, government aid, donations and support from the Church.
@StevenGubkin some of the Belgian monasteries brew and sell beer (and they're very good at it!).
Leveraging your willingness to work for sub-standard wages is called "lowering the bar". Please don't.
In some job in some time, I could derive a colleague 's salary after he spoke too much (I correlated different informations he gave on different days, and the salary became clear). So either the company was lowering the bar, or he was; in any case, that was the day I decided that the company and I don't have a future.
@casey I prefer to think of it as a "User subsidy"
@casey - it's also called the free market.
There is some possibility of this, but it would work only in certain restricted ways and in certain limited contexts. I don't know of any reputable college or university that, when considering applicants for a position that already exists, consider an applicant's willingness to accept less than the standard salary as a point in their favor. If you think this through, probably you can see why it makes everyone look bad.
You might have some luck getting an academic institution to make a position with an unusual combination of duties and salary that is tailored to you. Here are some possibilities:
At some institutions, faculty couples "share" positions in some fractional way: e.g. the couple together has 1.5 positions and each does 75% of the work of a full-time faculty member. If someone had come to me with this as a new idea I would have rejected it as ridiculous, but nevertheless it actually exists in the real world. I know several examples.
Similarly, you may be able to arrange a single position which is "part time" in some specified way: so maybe it is a visiting teaching position with half the normal teaching load and half the normal salary. In the very short term, such positions are common. It is not directly in the spirit of what you are asking about, but the effect could be similar.
Finally, if salary is really no object, it is much easier to get a visiting scholar position which pays no salary whatsoever. I did this myself once: the summer after getting my PhD (at Harvard), I moved back to my hometown (Philadelphia) and got an apartment in University (of Pennsylvania) City. I noticed that there was a wonderful library and gym a few blocks away from me, and I presented myself "cold" in the UPenn math department with a copy of my CV and my PhD. I walked out as a Visiting Scholar. (Nowadays I think that what I did was a little weird: why not first contact some specific faculty member in the department? Maybe I didn't know who to contact, or maybe I was curious to see if walking in cold and presenting Ivy League credentials would actually work. It did! This "position" still appears on my CV.)
If what you are interested is not covered by the above, then I would say: in general this will be hard to swing, but if you have a more specific arrangement in mind you can ask about that (e.g. here) and maybe it can be worked out.
Let me end by saying something that I suspect you already know: if you aspire to have anything like a conventional academic career in the future, advertising yourself broadly as someone who is willing to work at a discounted rate is a pretty bad idea. If you do seek to pursue this idea of yours, I would do so with much discretion.
As a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania you had use of the library and gym. What other benefits and responsibilities were associated with your appointment. I am asking b/c I would like free gym membership.
@emory: I didn't say that the gym membership was free! But it was reasonably priced. Essentially the benefits were (i) that I had a card that granted me access to campus buildings as though I were a regular member of the university community, (ii) I was invited to attend and speak in one of the seminars (which I did), (iii) I got a key to a "visitor office" which -- since it was the office for all visitors of a certain type, not just me -- I never used. There were no responsibilities that I can recall.
Nowadays I think that what I did was a little weird: why not first contact some specific faculty member... Depending on how long ago this was, perhaps you didn't have the Internet to make all of this easy? We tend to forget now, but back in the day, this was actually hard to figure out without access to an academic library. Walking a couple of blocks was a lot easier then than getting those names and numbers externally ...
@RBarry: This was in 2003, so: yes, I had internet access, even at home.
Thank you. In my particular situation, possibility 2 seems the most likely to be applicable (though my partner and I have daydreamed about scenarios like 1). Probably more likely than not that I won't pursue a low-salary position, but it's nice to have some ideas in mind of what might be possible.
I checked it out. I can become a Visiting Scholar (with gym access) at my local university for $400 per semester (I pay them $400). @PeteL.Clark got a better deal than me.
I like the subtle "I got my PhD from Harvard" embedded in this answer.
I up-voted this primarily because of the third point. In a somewhat parallel situation at the other end of the experience and age vector, I was able to seek out a job more attuned to what I wanted to do because I was not so concerned with salary as the only measure of value.
My friend, please don't shortchange yourself. Having a modest lifestyle does not mean that you should not consider, say, buying an apartment or building a house of your own someday. And to do that you would need to save.
Also, even if you're not concerned with your own expenses and savings, remember that most of the rest of us - academics without a tenure-track position - are struggling to make ends meet with our salaries. We need to support ourselves, and often our family as well. For someone to be willing to work for less, to "undercut us" so to speak - would mean to apply a downward pressure on wages and working conditions as a whole. Now, obviously, an individual's effect on the entire system is small, but this stuff can add up; and the influence on your immediate colleagues, at the university where you will end up working, would be much greater: You would have an effect on the attitude and expectations of your department or university regarding what it offers non-tenured academics.
So, I urge you not work for cheap. If you really feel you don't need that money - consider donating it to a worthy cause (or whatever you believe is a worthy cause; it might even be donating to some scholarship fund at your alma mater).
I'd second this point... Operationally, what is proposed would literally be under-cutting nearly everyone else. Upon reflection, this is why it's bad, or not allowed, to volunteer to do work that others do for pay... not that the volunteerism is innately bad, but that it reduces the leverage of people who need_the_money. Similarly, "Teach for America", while having good-sounding features, nastily undercuts the livelihoods of teachers. Some days I wonder whether retired high school teachers and retired professors offering to teach at low cost isn't a similar bad-thing...
Thanks for the the interesting answer. I had not considered the effect of offering to work for less on the wages of others
Absolutely this! Not only in academia, but anywhere, this is SO true!
Is Academia somehow exempt from free-market laws? If your job is well-paid, you will be undercut, sooner or later, by someone who can work for less.
@DmitryGrigoryev: I'm not having this ideological debate in Academia.SX comments, thank you. You're free to post your own answer to the question with your own perspective.
@einpoklum The OP doesn't mention this aspect, so I'd rather not post an answer which does not address the question asked.
@DmitryGrigoryev I do not believe academia is exempt from free-market laws - which is why we have answers like this. Who would want to encourage a race to the bottom in their profession?
@paulgarrett, not that I disagree, but to play devils advocate, the similar logic can be applied by those that need_the_experience over needing the money, and I don't think that is inherently problematic.
@emory Of course nobody wants that. But IMO one can secure his position and salary by being better than others at what they do, not by discouraging newcomers to work for less. Frankly, if one is afraid being undercut by a retired teacher (or a college grad from TFA), my advice would be to develop skills a retired teacher doesn't have.
@DmitryGrigoryev I agree. The answer strikes me as "Don't do X because X would hurt me - your hopes and dreams don't matter." For all we know, User is independently wealthy and has a life dream of being an academic. Perhaps the best course of action for User would be to fund his/her own position.
Whilst not applicable to your case (as you're only concerned with US universities) I thought I'd add this for colour.
I've worked for 3 UK universities (currently still a visiting lecturer at one of them), and the payroll has always been done using "salary spines"; all staff of a certain level are on a "spine" - they aren't free to negotiate their own salary, so there's no pay rises unless the whole spine level goes up within the school in question, and as such there's always an explicit set salary for whatever position you apply for, with no room for manoeuvre.
So the nominally-part-time position would still work, as part time salaries are pro-rata or something like it.
@ChrisH Yes, I suppose in this case it would, as a proportion of the full-time salary spine, or its own "part-time salary spine".
I am not involved in Academia, but I think that advertising yourself as cheap is not in your advantage. This is a sign for any employer that you don't value your skills. This raises more red flags, maybe you're evaluating yourself accurately but you're pretty unskilled.
Also, you're missing an opportunity to earn more money. You are losing money, not only now, but also in the future, because if this temporary position turns in a permanent position, it will be a lot harder to catch up and get a normal salary.
I'd use a salary range and if you really want to sell yourself as cheap, I'd use 60%-90% range(YMMV). This way you're still cheap, but you have less chances to raise questions about your skills.
If you decide to take a job for less-than-average salary, at least make sure that it is clearly labelled as part-time. If you ever decide to leave Academia and take a job in a field where salaries are negotiated (e.g. engineering), expect that your new employer will try to find out your previous salary and base his offer on that. In that case, it will be hard for you to negotiate, unless you can explain why you used to earn so little.
...expect that your new employer will try to find out your previous salary and base his offer on that...I understand the sentiment and I do understand that this is a negotiation tactic that is actually in use, but I find that it is much much more likely to occur in market areas where labor supply forces tend towards oligopsony.As a software engineer, I have never been asked "what I used to make" and I would be offended if a skill buyer tried this tactic with me.They state their requirements. I state my requirements. If we don't match, we negotiate;if we can agree to terms,we have a contract.
A "part time" position might not have key benefits such as health insurance, in the U.S.
@OswaldVeblen Does that mean that professors who occupy faculty positions in a fractional way don't have health insurance?
@Dmitry Grigoryev: Are you talking about two faculty who share duties a single position? I have never seen details of how that works, but those are normally full-time positions. I suspect that the "position" has health insurance, including employer contributions that cover one of the faculty members, and that the faculty in question have to pay more for the second person to be covered, no different than if one person held the position alone and the second person was "just a spouse."
If you mean a non-full-time position held by a single faculty member, I think i would be very likely not to include health insurance. The same holds for adjunct faculty who are paid "by the class" for each course that they teach - those positions are often like an independent contractor, with no benefits besides the payment for teaching the course.
So, it's not possible to occupy 0.5 of a position and keep health insurance without being in a couple? But then I guess you can have more than 0.5 of a full-time salary, since the university doesn't have to cover your health insurance.
@Dmitry Grigoryev - unfortunately, the way the academic job market is in the U.S., a 1/2 time position will likely have less than half the pay of a full time position, along with none of the benefits. Some argue that these jobs are actually exploitative, and they have a point.
Ignoring any philosophical debates about whether it is good to work for less: what you are trying to do will be challenging simply because of the way that ordinary academic hiring is done in the U.S. The typical academic "job search" process in the U.S. has at least two "phases". In the earlier of these, a committee of mostly faculty evaluates applications and performs interviews. If this phase is successful, the committee sends a final list of successful candidates to the administration, which makes the job offer and handles the actual negotiations for the job in the later phase. I am leaving out many details here to emphasize that the people who do the interviews are different from the people who negotiate the salary.
Because of this, it is unusual in my experience for the people in the first group to worry about salary at all. For the plan in the question to work, this group would have to look at your application, go to the administration, ask them about it, see whether the administration was willing to go through with the plan, etc. - which would require a lot of effort on their part for just one application. So I don't think you will increase your odds of getting through the normal process by mentioning that you will work for less. The job search process is not designed to handle such requests.
If you really are willing to work for less, and just want to be at a better school, I think you'd have higher odds if you try to bypass that search process entirely. One possibility, if you do not need health insurance, is to contact several departments directly, and see whether they are planning to hire any part-time lecturers or adjuncts, and whether they are interested in having you.
At some schools, these hires are made directly by the departmental administration, without the same formal "search" process. It is perfectly conceivable that a department chair might be able to find a calculus class or two for you to teach, or something like that. I do not think you would get to half a regular salary in this way, and you would probably not have benefits (retirement, health insurance, etc.). But you would likely be able to get some kind of office (maybe shared) and library access.
I am not sure, however, that this kind of plan will really get you what you are looking for, such as desirability of teaching duties. At best, it might give you more time to work on your own projects, or allow you to be in a location you would prefer.
Even if you can get a job at this lower salary, you should also wonder whether you want to. Ultimately, when you are in academia, you are likely looking for intellectual challenges, and you are likely looking to work with the people at the top of your field - the kind of people who have their pick of positions.
When you offer yourself as the lowest bidder and get a job that way, even if you are personally happy with your salary, your co-workers likely aren't. And the only reason they are working their is that they wouldn't get hired in the better positions.
As a side note - you don't explicitly say it, but it sounds like you would be coming to the USA as a foreign visitor. Some of the other suggestions involved part-time positions. When you are foreign, the terms of your visa may not allow that. Even if the terms of your visa do allow it, it may later become difficult to switch to full time if you change your mind.
I think the closest situation to your question revolves around your intended job. Instead of applying for a professor position and stating you can work for half the salary, you can apply to a lecturer position, which may very well be half (or less) of the salary. The actual salary of this position will already state your willingness to work for it (since you applied). It could very well lead to an interview where they question your motives as you may be 'over qualified', which could lead to a suggested change of title.
I have known this situation to happen more than once, albeit from a different perspective, where someone applying for a position was borderline of higher qualifications, so negotiations reached a similar salary as the lower position, but higher status.
I picture a lecturer teaching something like 4 sections of calculus a term (maybe this is wrong), which is what I am trying to avoid.
...is it possible to use the fact that I am willing to work for cheap to
get a job that is better...?
With all due respect, if you were able to do the job better than the university's current faculty members, they would hire you paying full salary.
The reason why most universities set high salaries is precisely to keep the quality of research and education high.
If you really believe you are competitive, then you should signal it to your potential employer. The best way would be with publications. You can also visit the university as a visiting researcher to demonstrate your competence. In any case, dumping the salary is not a good strategy. If salary is indeed irrelevant for you, you can communicate this to your potential employer by stating that you are very passionate about your research/job and you don't care about the salary. There is a whole science behind setting salaries in organizations. Unless this is your field of research, let the university set the salary for you. It is likely to be the same as your colleagues'. Benefits are usually negotiable though.
If you are not that good and don't have enough on your CV to impress your potential employer in the US, go to another country that has lower standards for academia and allows lower salaries.
Edit: Every country I've been to had fixed salaries for employees, at least within one institution. So it really comes down to what country you choose to go to and how highly ranked the university is in that country. But it is HIGHLY unlikely that you will be allowed to work for lower salary doing the same amount of work as others.
If you are not convinced, here is a paper by Akerlof and Yellen (1990) discussing why lower wages for the same amount and quality of work are harmful for organizations. Akerlof is a Nobel laureate and Yellen is the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve.
If you want higher caliber work I recommend asking for more, not less money. The reason is they are looking for a high caliber employee, and high caliber employees tend to ask for high caliber pay. If you ask for less they may not think you are a serious candidate.
Also, don't offer an amount unless asked for salary requirements. Sometimes an application will ask for salary requirements, but typically salary and benefits discussions take place after the interview process when the hiring manager knows you are the one they want.
Note that this question is related to academic hiring, where customs and procedures are completely different to industry. There is no hiring manager, and applicants are evaluated on their extensive CV (for example, my supervisor's is 20 pages long, as opposed to the typical 1-2 pages in industry).
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85494 | Is it advisable to publish a paper in a Journal Issue edited by my PhD Supervisor? Or is it better to try to publish it somewhere else?
My PhD supervisor is co-editing a Journal Special Issue, in a good journal, even if not top-ranking, with double blind peer-review (three reviewers are asked for the review). And I'm tempted to submit a paper (which fits with the topic of the Issue).
I've recently obtained my PhD, and I see that in order to apply for prestigious grants (such as the ERC grants) a requisite is "having produced at least one important publication without the participation of their PhD supervisor" (ERC starting grant).
In this case, it would be a solely authored paper (not invited by the Supervisor but submitted to blind review).
Is it worth to try and publish it there? When the paper is evaluated by a judging panel, will the fact that the Issue is edited by my supervisor be a negative factor?
Why not send it on the same journal in a regular issue? Review time should be roughly the same.
DId you ask your supervisor about this?
Ask the grant support people, they are the only ones who can answer questions about interpretation of the grant conditions with any authority. The contact address for questions is at the bottom of the ERC page you linked to.
@DanRomik I am not sure about this. Ultimately, the ERC will rely on reviewers and the have little control about how the reviewers will judge such a detail.
@Dirk then OP will be told that when he emails them. Either way some useful information will be gained.
-1 As per conversation with @DanRomik, this question is effectively unanswerable in this format. The OP should ask the ERC directly.
It's not surprising this might happen. That your advisor is on the board (or equivalent) for a journal you might submit to is a situation often encountered. If you want to make sure no conflicts exist, ask your advisor to recuse himself from all decisions regarding your particular contribution. He might already have planned to, given the obvious conflict.
I think it is in fact a smart idea to publish in a specal issue edited by your supervisor. The conflict of interest supposition is something best left to your Supervisor, and he will and can be very explicit in what needs to be done thru the usual communication channels.
You must focus on how it looks to the scientific/management community at large that is your audience. And That is positive , not about the conflict of interest.
Anyone that reads your work will recognize your supervisor and people at your phd university without much effort, because the dissertation would also be available online, but mostly because you and him write on the same pain points and have illuminated research together in a particular field. You are already joined at the hip whether you like it or not, it is best to use it constructively and shine in the work you do together.
Even though you are not doing the piece together, and maybe you should even explore doing it together to make it more relevant, your work will be especially relevant in the right context and this special issue is likely to give you that right context for others like me looking for your work on that subject at a later time.
It is not at all surprising to find the context having changed on you in two years and then you may not have the opportunity.
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2034 | Does Impact Factor reflect the quality of a journal?
Is the impact factor really useful for judging the quality of a journal article?
related question: How do you judge the quality of a journal?
No: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1010.0278v4.pdf
Interesting commentary (written by Physical Review Letters) about how journals that publish more articles are penalized with lower impact factors: http://prl.aps.org/edannounce/PhysRevLett.102.060001
everybody says no, but everybody looks at it :)
No.
To answer Paul's comment:
The title of the post asks about journals. For a well-worn list of criticisms of Impact Factor as an indicator of journal quality, see the Wikipedia article and the sources it cites. In many disciplines, important papers receive most of their citations well outside the IF's two-year window. Raw citation data can be manipulated by editorial policies, some more nefarious than others, or even by individual papers. Thomson-Reuters' calculations of Impact Factor are not reproducible, even using their own citation data. Et cetera ad nauseam. But most importantly: Having lots of citations is not the same thing as quality.
The body of the post asks about journal articles. Impact Factor is (roughly) the average number of citations to all papers published by a journal in a given time window. Even if it were a reliable measure of average quality (which it isn't), it would say nothing at all about the quality of any individual paper.
Could you elaborate?
To answer the question of whether or not impact factor "reflects" or "is useful" for judging the quality with a simple "no" is a gross simplification, and is gravely undermined by the concrete evidence in @Jeromy's answer. (I'm not going to give a -1 since the answer does provide useful criticism of the impact factor, but I would encourage people to also look at Jeromy's answer for a more balanced and realistic view.)
If the other two answers haven't made this obvious. The answer is no, but it can be taken even further than what the above answers suggests. We can study this!
The above image is the coefficient of determination between the impact factor of journals and the 2-year citation rate of their papers from 1902 to 2009, for all natural and medical sciences journals. Basically this means that even if all you care about is the number of citations you get then even then the impact factors of journals is starting to matter less and less.
Of course, what matters is how influential your ideas are and not how much they are cited, but we don't really a have a good metric for that.
Unfortunately, the number of citations matters a lot if your university decides to give you citations times X dollar of travel grants.
Clearly, people here don't seem to like the idea that impact factor would be used to evaluate journal quality. I'm not a big fan of impact factor either. It can be gamed (and the degree to which it is gamed will increase as greater importance is placed on it). It also becomes particularly problematic when you compare across disciplines with different citation practices and citation half-lives. Furthermore, there's also the risk that people start using impact factor to evaluate article quality, which is a lot more questionable.
That said, within a discipline, I generally find that better journals have higher impact factors. It's not perfect. But there is a strong correlation. There's also research that shows very high correlations between various indices of journal quality including peer ratings, impact factor, and various other citation based indicators.
So in short, within a field, impact factor is one of many variables that typically correlates highly with journal quality. If you know nothing about the quality of a journal, you'll know more about it by looking at its impact factor. However,
That shouldn't stop you from looking at other and most likely better indicators of journal quality (e.g., what is your own evaluation of the content published in the journal in recent years).
It is also really important to ask yourself why you want to evaluate journal quality. Is it to select a journal? to reward, promote, or hire academics? Using impact factor in these cases can be problematic for a wide variety of reasons, but these are separate issues.
Here's one article that I found providing empirical evidence by Saha et al (2003). To quote the abstract:
Objectives: Impact factor, an index based on the frequency with which
a journal's articles are cited in scientific publications, is a
putative marker of journal quality. However, empiric studies on impact
factor's validity as an indicator of quality are lacking. The authors
assessed the validity of impact factor as a measure of quality for
general medical journals by testing its association with journal
quality as rated by clinical practitioners and researchers.
Methods: We surveyed physicians specializing in internal medicine in
the United States, randomly sampled from the American Medical
Association's Physician Masterfile (practitioner group, n = 113) and
from a list of graduates from a national postdoctoral training program
in clinical and health services research (research group, n = 151).
Respondents rated the quality of nine general medical journals, and we
assessed the correlation between these ratings and the journals'
impact factors.
Results: The correlation between impact factor and physicians' ratings
of journal quality was strong (r2 = 0.82, P = 0.001). The correlation
was higher for the research group (r2 = 0.83, P = 0.001) than for the
practitioner group (r2 = 0.62, P = 0.01).
Conclusions: Impact factor may be a reasonable indicator of quality
for general medical journals.
References
Saha, S., Saint, S. & Christakis, D.A. (2003). Impact factor: a valid measure of journal quality?. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 91, 42. PDF
"Quality" is very subjective. Impact factor is a good measure of how often articles in a journal are cited, but this doesn't necessarily directly relate to "quality".
Many journals with a narrow focus will have relatively low impact factors, but are still considered very "high quality" (i.e. prestigious to publish in) journals.
As an example, in the geosciences, the Journal of Structural Geology is a much more prestigious (and harder to publish in) journal than, say, Tectonophysics (just to pick another Elseviver journal), but it has a lower impact factor.
The editors of Epidemiology (a very good journal), recently had an editorial about this:
Most major epidemiology journals, including ours, have seen a steady
rise in their impact factors during recent years. At the same time,
the relative rank of these journals changes from year to year. Such
changes are unlikely to represent true annual changes in these
journals' relative quality. We think the various epidemiology journals
are indeed different, and they deserve to be evaluated and compared.
But we're happier when such assessments are based on matters of
substance, such as editorial policies, quality of reviews, quality of
editing, efficiency in the processing of manuscripts, and the (real)
impact of the journal on the field.
Said editorial also has links to several others in that journal critiquing the notion of the Impact Factor, and its scientific merit (or lack thereof).
I have seen that in term of citation of an article you will notice that in most of the cases that an article has been cited many times by author himself in his other research articles or by his students and sometime by his/her colleagues without attaching any real importance of citation. The geographical location of citation also does matter, suppose for an example, if author from certain country receives 10 citation from 10 different countries then these 10 citations would be more important than 10 citations from single country.
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94127 | What does this mean in the offer letter
In my offer letter:
$XX,XXX is being offered as "for Spring and Fall semester for the year 20XX"
Here what do they mean? Is $XX,XXX being offered on a per month basis or for the whole year?
To my knowledge, within the US, i think it is bi-monthly (every two weeks).
You should ask the graduate office (or whoever sent you the offer letter) for clarification, but from the wording, it appears that this is a 9-month TA contract- you'd be free to do something else over the summer, or there might be additional support available for the summer that you would have to apply for separately.
There is no way to know. The $MMM could be paid weekly, biweekly, monthly, per semester, or yearly. It could be for 9 months or 12 months. Only way to know is to ask (or ignore it and see what happens).
Typically you'd be paid $MMM/18 every two weeks during the 9-month academic year. $MMM would typically be somewhere in the range from $18,000 to $30,000 for nine months, depending on the institution and the local cost of living.
Whether it is paid monthly or every two weeks is completely dependent on the institution - there is no standard, even within the US.
My experience in the US was that we were paid monthly for 12-months but with a 9-month contract. Ask for clarification but you might also be able to request a specific pay schedule.
No- that's definitely not the case. We were paid (pre-tax) a little over $27,000 on a 9-month contract, but it was paid in 12 monthly increments. After taxes and around $2000/yr in fees and health insurance premiums it came out to around $1,800 a month. I would suggest asking to talk to one or two current graduate students who are willing to answer questions about their finances, such a request was pretty common in my department and we would also have a financial question/answer session with the new students every year.
Could you edit the question to roughly state the value of $MMM, to within an order of magnitude? You had previously mentioned it in a comment, but it seems to have been removed. It is important in order for the question to make sense.
From your comment, $MMM is on the order of US$20,000. This is almost certainly the stipend for one academic year.
It will probably be paid in monthly or semimonthly installments, over 9 or 12 months.
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118689 | How to build healthy working relationships with my male colleagues as a young-ish, attractive-ish woman?
I'm a PhD candidate from Asia currently visiting a prestigious university in Europe. Recently I've noticed quite some "strange" behaviours of male "colleagues" around me (by "colleagues", I don't mean that we work on the same projects or from the same office. They are just people who work at or visit this place: faculty members, PhDs, or research staff).
For example, these gentlemen seem to be giving me a bit of extra attention: following me to the pantry; "appearing" several times at the same time at the place that I'd show up; or even try to wait for me when I leave. (Please don't suggest that I might be overreacting - I am quite confident that I'm not exaggerating here.)
Honestly, I am more annoyed than flattered. I want to focus on my research and want to be able to have healthy, normal, constructive working relationships with these people. I don't want any extra attention other than that I am a dedicated and capable researcher, and a nice person in general. However, because of these strange behaviours, I have to try to distance myself from some of them who I have had some friendly exchanges before. I've become a bit cold and unapproachable to them - I guess I am trying to say that I am not interested in anything romantic, and I don't want any attention in that matter. I guess some people might say, well, just tell them openly that you are not interested. I simply am not able to do that: first, they don't say anything or do anything that would allow me to bring up this topic; second, some of them might not even really want to pursue a relationship (they are married, or too young/too old for me anyway), but just kind of show some sort of admiration I guess.
However, I also feel very uncomfortable about that. I am by nature a nice and friendly person. I really feel bad about being cold and unfriendly to other people. Also, I want to have a circle of contacts that I can talk with about my research and their research, and get feedback and/or inspiration from that. I am not sure how I am able to have that type of positive working relationships in this kind of situation.
To clarify a few things...
These male colleagues are decent, respectable, and in some cases, brilliant and achieved people. There is no inappropriate advance from them or anything creepy in this (or it would be rather easy to handle the situation). It is just the continued, affectionate attention that is making me uncomfortable.
I am not sure this is associated with my newness or novelty. I have been here for eight months now and I did not notice this kind of attention at the beginning. Instead, I noticed the association with me slowly building up myself professionally here. I'd assume these male colleagues are slightly more refined than the general public and would look a bit further than a pretty face for a pretty mind (not that I am suggesting I am any or both of these). If this is true, then I would assume this issue would not go away as time goes by, but might hang around or even intensify as I become more established as a capable researcher. In that case I would have to find a solution for myself in the long term.
After second thought, I guess I wouldn't be able to take the "dressing down" advice. I like to dress in a classy and elegant way and that makes me feel good (it is like I enjoy making my room clean and nice and that makes me feel good). I don't see anything wrong with it and don't want to punish myself with other people's reactions to me. In fact, I have become more convinced that the solution to this type of issue is not to make women less feminine/attractive. There should be other solutions where we can be ourselves and still be comfortable around male colleagues. I don't know what those solutions are though.
Please give me some advice on how to handle a situation like this.
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Any progress? What did you do?
I will answer here because it may help to have a female perspective. I will note that most of my points are covered by the male answers. The thing that is missing is a firsthand perspective, which I can bring.
First, the thing you are experiencing is very common for women in your position. Many, many women who are youngish, attractive-ish, and pleasant have this problem with men in their departments or cohorts. It is important to acknowledge this because I am not sure if that is commonly known among male academics.
Second, this tends to get better with time. Over time, people will get used to you and your appearance. They will notice that you are focused on research not relationships (especially not on relationships with them). I had this problem in my PhD program to a certain extent. I would say by the end of my first year this became a much lesser problem, and by the end of my second year this had gone away.
Third, you can employ some basic strategies if you want the attention to dissipate faster. It is ridiculous that you might need to change from a perfectly appropriate style of dress to one that is dowdy, but it might help. Many of my female colleagues have found that wearing glasses, particularly rather nerdy ones, helps men to take them more seriously. I myself did this. I also dyed my hair darker and stopped wearing makeup on a regular basis. Finally, it can help to dress less femininely. For instance, avoiding skirts, ruffles, flowers, happy colors, etc. Note that I am not saying that there is anything wrong with the way you dress or with wearing these things in a professional setting. I am merely saying you may be able to manipulate the visual cues and get the desired result.
I do believe this strategy has some substantial drawbacks. One drawback is that I typically feel better when I look put together, and it is grating to have to make these changes. It is totally unfair that the men’s behavior becomes your problem. However, these strategies do sometimes help.
Edit: I've thought a bit about your update, which states that the behaviors you are concerned about have grown over time. In this story, the colleagues’ intentions seem more ambiguous. As a foreigner, you could perhaps get away with asking a naive question which gets at the intentions of the parties involved. You could say something like, "I have noticed that people often wait to walk with me to the pantry or lunch. Is that a professional custom here or should I read something else into this? Is that something I should be doing for others as a professional courtesy?"
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If there are any female faculty that you trust, I would go and talk with them about the situation. This would accomplish a few things.
Documents your concerns if anything ever escalates.
Allows for you to share your concerns with another person, who may be able to give you insight specific to your situation.
Allows you to verify if your colleagues are indeed being more than "just friendly." (As in, a third party may be able to silently observe some of the behavior and verify what is happening).
May open avenues administratively for departmental intervention such as a general email about sexual harassment or the like.
You do not even need to mention specific people in your conversations. This faculty member does not even need to be in your direct department.
I also would be prepared to "friend zone" these men if necessary. One challenge with female/male relationships is that it can be very difficult to read soft signals. There were girls I knew in school (I am male) that I wanted to get to know better. I would chat them up after class. And, I'll admit, I even went walking by their apartments a few time in hopes that they would be outside and we could talk. I did not have any nefarious intentions; I just wanted to make them like me. Even if they brushed me off a bit, I was not always really fast at taking a hint. I would just think they were having a rough day, or were busy. (Sometimes this actually made me want to stick around them more to make them feel better—I was naive). However, when one girl directly told me "I am only interesting in being your friend" that is when I realized that I was bothering her. We went on to have a congenial relationship at school, but did not do anything outside of school. Be prepared to directly tell your colleagues that you are only interested in keeping your relationship professional.
While you may not really want to directly tell these men that their attention in not wanted, that will honestly be the most effective way at fixing the situation I feel. This is especially true if you do not want to radically alter your lifestyle (e.g. leaving school at 2 a.m. so that they cannot wait for you).
If your colleagues are decent guys, they will not ignore stronger signals that you are not interested in their attention in they way they have been giving it.
If your colleagues are still too dense to take a clue (or blatantly ignore it), this is when it could be helpful to have an established dialogue with a female faculty member. You may need to initiate an administrative intervention.
Do not be afraid to sever a relationship if you have to. No one does themselves any service by trying to be friends with someone while simultaneously trying to keep their distance from them.
The clothes thing is odd, but I'm honestly not sure what you could do about that. The department cannot begin sending out emails saying "No one may dress like Lily." If you see someone that is blatantly copying you, I would call them out on it. Perhaps if they see that, yes, you did notice their clothes, and that, no, you were not amused, they will stop matching your clothes. This could be done in a joking manner if that makes it easier:
Woah Jim, you are wearing the exact shirt I was wearing yesterday! Have you been in my house? (said while chuckling and in the presence of other people)
I see you're wearing plaid. I have one ugly plaid shirt that I only wear on laundry day. Do you like wearing plaid? It makes me sort of dizzy! (Ha ha ha.)
In closing, the fastest way to get this unwanted attention to end is to end it directly, either by telling the men themselves, or getting a person in authority to do so.
Thank you Vladhagen for your comment. I appreciate that you share your own experience from a male perspective. Yes, maybe some of my male colleagues are simply just wanting to have some friendly and professional interaction, but they might not know very well how to do that. I will be more careful to filter out this type of interest and respond accordingly.
+1 for talking to colleagues, but -1 for quotes making fun of fashion. Banter can be associated with romance or close friendship, promoting the behavior. Additionally, copying fashion, alone, is not bad. People copy their friends and colleagues fashion all the time. It's the following and lingering that seems more problematic. Your suggestion about saying something emphasizing "professional" is good. E.g. "I've noticed you near me a lot, It's probably a coincidence, but I just want to clarify that our relationship is and will always be purely professional." It is direct, but non-accusatory.
@WetlabStudent If an attractive lady called me out on my fashion in front of my peers, there is no way in Hades that I am ever wearing that outfit again. This all comes down to how much the OP actually cares about the fashion thing though. She might be best just not pressing the issue.
@Vladhagen that's valid for your personal preference. But if anyone, male or female,jokingly made fun of my fashion in public, I personally would take that as banter and it would draw me closer to them - I'm just warning that this suggestion could have an unintended consequence for those who are not like you (and there are many).
The fact that this question (by a person who is obviously confused by what most people would consider as a form of politeness) led to an answer that immediately mentions "sexual harassment" is appalling, at least. It seems like this rabbit hole can only be avoided by fostering a clear segregation of men and women in the workplace. Let's see how this sorts itself out.
I am confused - what does "the clothes thing" refer to?
@HagenvonEitzen The OP has edited her question since I wrote my answer. She originally spoke of men copying her style of dress.
Could this answer be edited to remove the clothes thing? It is confusing.
The whole clothing thing can help you a bit I think. The same counts for males if you come to the office looking well dressed, shaved, good smell, slick haircut. Ladies will try to get your attention a lot more. Can be distracting. But this is just my experience I had a couple of times in the office.
The reality is that as an Asian female in a European research group, you can't avoid being "different" from the typical member of the group you are in. You physically look different, you probably dress different, you have a different accent, and you probably have different social norms.
As such, some of your work colleagues will be trying to hide the fact that they are terrified of you, and some will be strongly attracted to you. And some may be both of the above simultaneously!
The best strategy here is to figure out which people are neither of the above, and start by developing good working relationships with them. As your "novelty factor" wears off over time, your problems with the others will diminish.
Note, I haven't mentioned the gender of the other group members here, and that was deliberate. In my experience (as a male!) interpersonal conflicts between two females can be much worse than between either male and female, or male and male. If that has not been your experience so far, living and working in a non-European culture, be warned!
I don’t think this is true man because of multiculturalism in western European cities you often see Asian people. It’s not that special.
I am a male researcher who has worked alongside attractive female colleagues from different countries. I come from a sexist culture, where casual relationships are common. I think I can provide some general advice.
First and foremost, you have to understand the "fresh meat" physiological phenomenon. You're new to the place, and people are still checking you out (literally) and getting used to your presence. Men are particularly struck by attractive new comers in the scene. This effect should subside after some 2-3 months after they get used to seeing you around, and others arrive to divert their attention.
Furthermore you perhaps fit in some mode of local fetishist stereotype. Asian ladies are frequently a fetish in western societies. In this case I recommend you do not reinforce the fetish by avoiding behaviours and displays associated with the idea. If you think this is the case, and you correctly identify what they're fantasising about when you flutter around.
Finally, just manage your own circle of friends and learn to deal with physical attraction as a background noise to building up a true friendship with someone who's attracted to you. With time, people will appreciate you for what you are instead for what you look like.
Anyway, don't worry. Your aura should be weaker soon enough, naturally.
@LilyOfTheEast I cannot say much without actually being in the situation. This greatly depends on the local fetish (or even small talk, recent events, etc). Often what you think is correcting a main issue might make matters worse. For instance, many "petite" Thai ladies may look very young or even androgynous (i.e. not quite womanly) and if this is what is considered attractive where you are, dressing in some discrete ways might enhance the appeal. Thus I recommend researching into possible stereotypes. Consider asking somebody local who's openminded and outspoken, who you can trust.
@LilyOfTheEast My understanding is that part of the "asian fetish" is the idea that asian women are meek and submissive. Therefore, being more assertive in pointing out and shutting down this behavior could be doubly effective at discouraging it
@divibisan Depends on the country and the local cultural context, being more assertive can lead to be labeled as a tsundere (ツンデレ) which might actually have the opposite effect.
Ugh, the phrase "new meat" is terrible. But I think you are right about the newness phenomenon.
@Dawn Sorry: I prioritise clarity over PC choice of words. At least among my peers (across different countries) this phrase immediately distills the idea / feeling.
I believe "newness" would convey the same meaning without the feeling of disgust I get by being compared to prey. However, I have not downvoted. I just wanted to alert you in case you were willing to be sensitive to these things.
-1 I recommend you do not reinforce the fetish: NO the OP can do whatever she wants it is the other people who are behaving badly.
OP, might be a regional variant, but "fresh meat" is more common than "new meat." @Dawn I'm not sure "newness" actually does convey the same meaning though - I'm struggling to think of a less blunt and colloquial term though. There might be something in the feminist literature but nothing really comes to mind.
I also hate the verb “flutter” in this answer. It betrays a feeling by the poster of women as “flighty.”
@StrongBad I understand this community is to specifically advise question openers, and not to draw or merchandise some ideal world. Surely you can advise the OP to lecture her colleagues good manners on a separate answer.
@Dawn Note that the notion of linking "meat" to "prey" is not widespread. On a trivial example, flies are no predators.
@StrongBad Are they? Some of the OP's examples of behavior could also just be a Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (ex. fashion), or locally "correct" behavior of a man trying to court a woman given that the OP is in Europe (ex. waiting at the end of the day). Following someone to a pantry is pretty universality unusual though, but so far I'm still not sure how much is just culture shock. Practically speaking, none of the advice given so far is any good given that Europe is a big place with lots of cultural variation.
The common meaning is someone to be preyed upon. Check urban dictionary if you don’t believe me.
@Dawn Both Wikitonary definition and the UD definition imply being preyed upon, but quite frankly the more prevent theme is the new person. Generally as I've heard the term over the years (ex., freshman at my high school were called "fresh meat") the understanding is that it meant new people in a general sense.
@anonymous "Novelty" would probably convey a similar meaning but then, alas, some will claim being compared to products & merchandise. I am correcting to "fresh meat" as you suggest, thanks: English isn't my 1st language. I am not sure why some "feminist" literature should be the reference -- I was the fresh meat arrival amongst yearning ladies and lads alike before. It's just how life goes in the actual world.
@Scientist I mention the feminist literature because it generally has more socially acceptable terms to use in some cases, but I'm really not sure if there is one in this case. My experience in the US has been that "fresh meat" is incredibly common in hierarchical environments like schools, the military, and prisons.The only way around it might be more verbosity, "First and foremost, you have to understand the physiological phenomenon associated with seeing new people in your environment."
@anonymous Dosn't that convey the same connotation of prey? Of course in neither case are we talking of prey in the sense of huntable food, but rather somewhat metaphorical about potential victims to some kind of violence - and be it pranks or bizutage instead of dating
Is it really a "physiological phenomenon", or did you mean "psychological"?
@HagenvonEitzen In the US, in a general sense, no. My experience has been that the term is used the same way as "frosh" unless the context clues around the use of the term imply otherwise.
@StrongBad "NO the OP can do whatever she wants it is the other people who are behaving badly" - From what I've read so far, she feels somehow "preyed upon" by the mere presence of other people. There certainly is no consensus that "waiting for someone when leaving" is a bad behavior. But ... well, the hypocrisy of "politically and socially correct behavior" has been driven so far that it's impossible to get this right, anyhow, so maybe it just doesn't matter.
@Marco13 Thing is, PC comments and preaching is highly popular nowadays, and is an easy path to anyone towards a lot of votes and shallow positive impressions.
@Marco13, this answer says, don't wear certain clothes and not that the OP is over reacting. Telling someone they cannot wear something because men are/might be have badly because of it, is almost never the right answer. Explaining why they are over reacting would have been fine (assuming they were).
@StrongBad There is nothing about clothes or overreactions in this answer - at least, not explicitly. And I'm certainly not up to arguing about "How short may a skirt be before it's 'too short'?" here. But saying that one person can do "whatever she wants" and at the same time saying that other behavior is "bad" is contradictory, at least. And it's particularly pathetic when the asker herself said that the ""offenders"" did not "say anything or do anything" that could justify an argument at all.
"Telling someone they cannot wear something because men are/might be have badly because of it, is almost never the right answer." -- Sorry if not clearly expressed, but avoiding behaviors and displays goes way beyond "certain clothes". I'd not advise for instance anyone going around looking, speaking, and moving in a way that directly copies some famous hentai character. Particularly around seemingly aroused men, in being the sole lady with Asian features, and not wishing to be desired in any sexual way. But of course, I am not pulling any straightjackets here!.. Europe has a democracy.
"Explaining why they are over reacting" Can't say that without specific info, or actually being in the situation. My main bet is that OP is "exotic" and new to the scene.
I can understand that this is a very annoying problem, and I am truly sorry that you have to deal with that.
Order of business number one is probably to make sure that you are not reinforcing this kind of behavior - it's ok to be a bit cold when people "randomly" drop in on you whenever you happen to get a cup of coffee, and don't even appear to be charmed when they start imitating your style of clothing. In short, try to hang out with the people who act naturally and don't make you feel uncomfortable, and be a bit chilly towards the ones that do. Nothing at all wrong with that. Note that I am not suggesting to be actively unfriendly towards them, just keep your distance and most people will get the message soon enough. Unfortunately, some may not, and in these cases remaining distant is probably the best option.
However, even more importantly than that, I would suggest to find allies. Surely, you are not the only decent-looking girl in the entire organisational unit? Be proactive about this and try to befriend other people in a situation similar to yours. This has two advantages: firstly, you can be fairly certain about their intentions, and secondly you can share and validate your concerns, and discuss how they deal with this behavior. Find a trusted person, and talk openly to them about the behavior of your co-workers. Maybe some of the people that you have seen as creepy are in fact just friendly and/or weird towards all new hires? Having allies is also really important if the problems escalate to a level where you feel you need to report it - if other people have also observed that A, B, and C are acting really strangely towards you, it is much easier to make a case that you are not just imagining it.
Finally - and I understand that this may be little consolation right now - I would assume that the novelty factor of having you around will cool off sooner or later. At that time it should become easier to develop normal workplace relationships with your colleagues (although I understand that by this time you may not really want to have too much of a relationship to some of these guys anymore).
Thank you for your advice xLeitix. I unfortunately am one of the very few female researchers here - this field is rather masculine and male-dominated. Also, I've been here for a few good months now, but it is only recently that this becomes so obvious that it annoys me. I am sure most of these people are harmless (only 1 of the, ergh, old, faculty members who asking me out for dinner via work email who I rejected clearly, twice) - that is what makes the situation difficult. I really want to be nice and gentle to them without causing too much hard feelings.
@LilyOfTheEast In the entire department / company? Maybe you need to look a bit further out of your immediate surroundings. I also work in a very male-dominated field (CS), but there are still at least a dozen or two women in our entire department.
This is rather weird, but the entire department so far has only one female visiting faculty. The other females who work here are either in the admin function, or on short-term research supporting roles.
@ Monika, thank you for your reply. It is really nice to hear that this is a rather common phenomena. I hope that I'll learn to be comfortable with the situation soon, or that their attention will subside earlier than that.
I'm good with my boss/advisor. The thing is that he doesn't make all the hiring decisions for the faculty - they are done through the hiring committee I'd guess, and sadly, most of the top researchers in our field are indeed male.
@LilyOfTheEast Still, raise the issue with him if you feel comfortable doing so. He should be aware how you feel, even if he can't immediately do anything about it.
"Surely, you are not the only decent-looking girl in the entire organisational unit?" Why should the appearance of your allies make any difference whatsoever?
@Buffy Lived experience?
This answer will be very different, I hope, from the others here. It is based on a different assumption. I assume that you want to be a success in this place and want to actually work with your male colleagues, not just to avoid their, possibly improper, advances. This advice should apply not only to women, of whatever physical appearance, but also to minorities in the workplace, whether racial, ethnic, religious, or whatever.
For some balance, go watch the movie Hidden Figures about a group of women who made the US Space program work by doing the computations needed to get to space in the age before computers existed. They where called "computers" actually, and had very low status, though many of them were brilliant mathematicians.
The way to succeed is to be better than everyone else. At least 25% better. Maybe more. Outshine everyone. Become the person that other go to for answers and solutions. Become the resource that everyone needs.
Interestingly, you don't need to be the best at everything. But if you are the one everyone goes to for some small but essential part of the common work, it can be enough.
Again, it is unfortunate that the world seems to be wired in such a way as to make that necessary, but it generally is. Furthermore, though you need to work harder than everyone else to do this, it can be the path to success. Even then, it isn't guaranteed. As I noted in a comment here, in at least one case the scientific work of a woman led to a Nobel Prize for her male advisor. The world isn't especially fair, it seems.
Defer to no-one in scientific skill or knowledge. Help those people you work with so that they have a vested interest in your success.
But also, and this is essential, don't try to work alone. Fine allies to work with and protect you as needed. Those allies can make your life easier, but can also help make the world into a better place so that advice like this isn't necessary in the future. Nor the advice given in other answers. here.
Great answer. I think people starting to pay attention to your expertise over your physical appearance is the crux of why this dissipates over time. My only critique is that you seem to assume/imply that OP is not already working as hard as she can. I don’t have any evidence of that.
I love your answer Buffy. This is a great answer, as Dawn has mentioned Thank you.
@Dawn, Actually, you may not need to actually work any harder, but simply share the expertise you have already gained more widely. Become more visible. But no, I seldom make such assumptions. But, as a woman yourself, I'm guessing that you already know about the "be better than everyone" idea. It isn't subtle.
Fine words, but it still seems so wrong that one should have to work at being perceived as better at something in order to be treated as an equal.
@beldaz, you are right of course. Somehow the world got wired up wrong.
This could backfire and make @LilyOfTheEast even more 'attractive' so to speak, netting even more unwanted attention.
@Pharap, but at least the attention would be for the right thing.
@Buffy Assuming for a moment that these men are indeed showing the OP unwanted attention, what you're essentially saying is that it's alright for them to perv over her if it's because of her intellect and not her appearance?
@Pharap. I'm saying no such thing. She wants a healthy working relationship with colleagues. She doesn't want to hide from them.
@Buffy Exactly, so trying to outdo everyone else is just avoiding the actual issue. And if executed badly it could even have the opposite effect, it could lead other colleagues to resent the OP for being a 'know-it-all'.
It might actually be good if your colleagues see this and come to realize that you aren't interested and that you find it awkward. I don't doubt that this is happening to you, males can be that way (nope I'm not saying it is okay, just that it is common)
Some of the attention should wear off when you aren't as new, and haven't responded in an encouraging way to any of it. You might try shortening your answers instead of being intentionally cold since you say you want to be seen as friendly. (Keep being cold to the ones you've already started down that path with, or they may take it as encouragement)
I guess some people might say, well, just tell them openly that you are not interested.
I simply am not able to do that
If you don't want to say anything to them, I guess about the only thing you can do is dress in a way that is less flattering to your body style.
Please note that:
I am not saying or trying to imply that "you asked for it" because of how you dressed
Nor am I saying/impling that you should have to put up with it.
You asked for help and constrained my advice by saying you didn't want to be blunt, so this is what I have.
I'm not familiar enough with your culture or your university's, but there is a small chance that something you're doing is being perceived as encouraging and you aren't aware of it.
Speaking to a female colleague (another candidate or faculty member, not a female researcher or administrative staff person) could help with this.
You could also speak to someone (female; preferably attractive) from your culture and ask for ideas.
P.S.
... some of them might not even really want to pursue a relationship
(they are married, or too young/too old for me anyway), but just kind
of show some sort of admiration I guess
Yes, some of them are just being nice, they want to be friendly with the 'pretty girl'. If you can "talk shop" with them and they speak to you as equals, it is a good indicator that it is okay to be pleasant to them.
Don't assume that all of the ones who are "too old" or "too young" know that fact.
@Dawn I didn't mind your first comment - just explaining :–)
I actually don’t know what happened to my first comment. Maybe I was censored for being sexist.
@dawn Don't know how to find out. I deleted mine as it makes no sense without yours in front of it.
Please give me some advice on how to handle a situation like this.
I note that you just ask how to "handle" the situation. You don't ask us how to make them go away (but if that is what you are interested in, feel free to update or comment).
These male colleagues are decent, respectable, and in some cases, brilliant and achieved people. There is no inappropriate advance from them or anything creepy in this (or it would be rather easy to handle the situation). It is just the continued, affectionate attention that is making me uncomfortable.
Aside from measures to stop the males from their behaviour, how about re-framing for yourself, by looking to how this behaviour comes to be (and I notice specifically that you say that those guys are good-natured and not creepy; this answer only makes sense if everything is good-natured, not overtly sexual, and not a power-play).
Evolution turned out so that for most mammals, it is the male that has the job of actively finding, proposing to, and winning a female to produce offspring. Females, instead, usually have the job of trying their best to keep males away. This must be this way as the female can biologically only produce the offspring for one male at a time - the male obviously does not have this limitation, instead it must get as many offspring on the way as it can, to increase the chances of distributing its genes.
So far, so good, this at least tells it that both the behaviour of the males in your vincinity (reacting to your presence) and your own instinct (trying to get them away) is, biologically speaking, perfectly normal and to be expected. The fact that they are still gentlemen (not creepy, not actually "doing" anything untoward) also tells us that they are quite able to suppress their instincts in your institution, to keep them from acting in any way more uncomfortable or unacceptable - so society and its constraints absolutely do seem to work quite well.
However, I also feel very uncomfortable about that.
There is still that. You already got a lot of answers which tell you ways to change the behaviour of your colleagues (dressing down, being 25% better than them, lying about being in a relationship etc.). Those probably work in some way or other to change the colleagues, but they require you to lie or change your outward behaviour; depending on your disposition, this may be even more uncomfortable for you, and would be a very straight way into unhappiness for me.
So, another possibility is to make yourself not feeling very uncomfortable about it is to see how it is:
It is normal behaviour for a mammalian species.
It is sufficiently curbed by society so that you are neither in danger, not have to fend off actually creeping advances.
It shows you that you are - speaking objectively/statistically - a very nice person. Don't change that!
I know an example in my company who has your "problem" - very friendly, charismatic, intelligent, knowledgeable, with a huge network of people. You can imagine what happens if he enters a room; everybody (male and female) zooms in on him.
I've known him from the time when he obviously could not really handle it; it was a huge burden (and not in a sexual way, all work related). Everybody was heaping a lot on him - because he could and would do anything that everybody else just couldn't. At the end, he radically changed. He is still all that I listed above, but now he just does not accept advances (like being asked for help, being asked to do jobs, being asked to speak with XYZ, and so on) at all. Zero. He still does his job (which is on the C-level of the company), but he goes out to people, not the other way 'round. You can see how it worked wonders, he looks more healthy and relaxed than ever, the stress level has gone down a lot, and he still performs as well as before.
So: pick your fights. Yes, they happen to appear where you are, but so what. As long as they do literally nothing but indirectly let you know that you are probably the greatest being in their lives, just ignore it. Be glad, smile (just not at them specifically). You're probably making their day.
I am by nature a nice and friendly person. I really feel bad about being cold and unfriendly to other people.
Whatever they actually ask of you, deny (in a friendly way). I.e., if they want to hold open doors for you, or pay your meals, or go with you anywhere, or whatever; just deny it. I can't tell you how because you haven't really given examples. Ignore them as if they were air, even after noticing them, but not turning yourself into something unfriendly that you do not wish to be. If your sights cross, give them the same small nod you would give everybody else, and then simply go on with whatever it has been you've been doing.
At the end, they will either lose interest, or they will actually talk to you (in which case you can tell them in friendly but firm terms that you are not available), or, if they keep doing what they're doing, they will reduce themselves to clowns of the evolution, which you can maybe handle with humour.
This is quite difficult, and admittedly more a journey than a quick fix; but if you can get yourself to make it a fun journey (play with their reactions, objectify them in a good-natured way), then it can be a fine thing and much easier than trying to change their behaviour without changing yours in a way you do not wish to.
All this is fine:
"I wouldn't be able to take the 'dressing down' advice. I like to dress in a classy and elegant way and that makes me feel good ... I don't see anything wrong with it and don't want to punish myself with other people's reactions to me. I have become more convinced that the solution to this type of issue is not to make women less feminine/attractive."
... but you have to expect that if you are conventionally attractive, you will attract the masculine gaze. That is also normal. Particularly with elevated hemlines. You can tell someone who hits on you to "beat it". If they come back for more, tell them to leave you alone. And if that doesn't stop it, find out who their supervisor or department head is.
You have every right to dress in a tasteful, elegant, and feminine manner and you have every right to be treated with professional dignity and respect. Personally, I like it that attractive women appear as such in the workplace and I don't hit on them (my wife might not approve if I did). But you cannot expect that if you are attractive and dress attractively, that you will not catch men's gazes. But they should respect you and your position enough not to hit on you at work.
i didn't know i was addressing "building healthy working relationships". i was telling Lily that she has a right to both wear a cute mini and be treated with respect and safety in her academic workplace. but she has to expect the occasional masculine gaze if she does.
"Personally, I like it that attractive women appear as such in the workplace and I don't hit on them (my wife might not approve if I did)." But you would treat women inappropriately in the workplace if it were okay with your wife? (I have heard this sort of "my wife says..." comment many times over the years. I think it used to come off much better than it does in 2018.)
@PeteL.Clark, no one should be "treat[ing] women inappropriately" at all. nor men. at the workplace or anywhere else. we should always treat everybody we come in contact with appropriately. are we all agreed about what is "appropriate"? consider an unmarried and unattached person of either gender that may be attracted to another person that one learns is also unmarried and unattached. are both persons simply forbidden to flirt or "make a pass" or inquire about a social date simply because they both work? must one of them quit the job so that the relationship that comes out of it is legit?
@robert: I did not say or mean to imply that there can be no legitimate workplace romances. Upon reflection, the term "hit on" is quite ambiguous. I took it to mean "Flirt aggressively, signalling sexual intent." It doesn't have to mean that, and in many workplaces there are acceptably mild ways to flirt with certain coworkers...but you yourself seem to suggest the above meaning with the line "But they should respect you and your position enough not to hit on you at work." So I confess I am a bit confused as to what you mean and why your wife is relevant to the OP's question.
i understand @PeteL.Clark, your take of "hit on" is the same as mine qualitatively, but maybe not quantitatively. and i still think that even an office romance has to be done very carefully, if at all. but any romance begins somehow when one party, in some sense of the word, hits on the other. someone breaks the ice (as if there were any) first. someone asks the other "what'cha doing tonight". now that person should not be considered a scoundrel for doing that. but if it is unwelcome (and such is communicated) that person needs to take the hint and leave it alone.
//So I confess I am a bit confused as to what you mean and why your wife is relevant to the OP's question.// i wouldn't want my wife to be seriously flirting with another man. it might make me and our marriage seem a bit insecure. i imaging my wife feels the same. that said, a cute chick, mildly provocatively dressed in a public context will still catch my gaze. my wife might slug me for that if she detects it. but if i go up to that cute chick and hit on her, that could be very problematic for our marriage.
I know this feeling very well and I actually think this is in many cases not purely related to romantic/sexual interest (as suggested in many answers so I will focus on a different aspect and based on the additions to the question). In my personal experience many guys are just trying to build a friendly relationship (even if they wouldn't mind more) but with so much effort that it becomes unnatural and annoying.
If you want to have a purely work based relationship with someone, try to keep the conversations in this direction. Do not answer non-work related questions at length and do not show much interest in their stories. This doesn't mean you have to become cold or rude to them. Maybe think about a collection of research topics/questions that you can bring up if the conversation becomes personal and then you can change the topic without seeming distant. (This has the additional positive effect that people will probably think you are really smart and a dedicated researcher.)
If you are getting any "special" treatment (anything, like being invited to coffee), try to bring other people into it or share. This can always be seen as humble/social but diffuses any intimate atmosphere.
The average person will stop certain behaviors after some time if they are not reproduced at all. If they do not, this is normally a big red flag.
This answer might be a little bit to pragmatic, but I think it will bring about the desired effect.
Basically, find a way to tell these men that you are in a relationship and are not currently looking for a man, regardless of whether it is true or not. If they are as polite and kind as you are saying in your question, this should get them to back off.
As to how to get this point across, there are a variety of ways it can be done. An easy way is to get a picture of a man, and stick it on your desk, where these guys can see it. Even better if you can pose with a friend at a restaurant.
Of course, it is unfortunate that you would need to do any of this subterfuge at all, and I have certain ideological issues with this plan. However, it is pragmatic and efficient.
Most answers so far seem to address the question at a level where they silently assume that there is a problematic behavior. Maybe I'm insensitive (and being a nerd, this is even very likely), but let's dissect the points that you mentioned:
For example, these gentlemen seem to be giving me a bit of extra attention:
Others already mentioned that being "the new one" may cause some curiosity in any case. Beyond that, you did not clearly say in how far this "attention" goes further than the usual attention that "seniors" tend to show towards "juniors": There is often the feeling of being in the role of an "advisor", even when this is formally and technically not the case.
So I have to assume that this refers to what you described next:
following me to the pantry;
When one of my colleagues grabs his mug and walks towards the pantry, I'd likely say: "Having a coffee break? Wait a minute, I also need one...", or just follow them silently. (Male colleagues. And I'm not gay, for that matter...)
"appearing" several times at the same time at the place that I'd show up;
You are working together. If "(randomly) being at the same place as other people" is problematic, you should consider remote work. (That's not meant to be cynical. That's really an option to consider for someone who is lacking certain social skills. Note that this would not improve your social skills, though. I can tell that for sure...)
or even try to wait for me when I leave.
When I'm about to leave and ready to go, and notice that one of my colleagues shuts down his PC, I'd wait for him, to maybe have a short chit-chat on our way out.
(Please don't suggest that I might be overreacting - I am quite confident that I'm not exaggerating here.)
I do suggest that. When you feel "uncomfortable" in a social environment or during normal social interaction, you cannot simply accuse others of misbehavior and attribute this to your "young-ish"-ness, "attactive-ish"-ness, "asian-ish"-ness or "woman-ish"-ness. Sometimes, feeling uncomfortable, insecure, annoyed or even anxious among others has other reasons. I feel this all the time, and I'm an old, ugly, caucasian man.
So, this is certainly going to be downvoted a lot. I know that when a question comes up here on stackexchange that says nothing more than "I'm a woman and feel uncomfortable, what should I do?", some people hastily start talking about the oppressive sexually discriminatory misbehavior of men, up to a point where any answer that even dares to ask where the actual problem is will be downvoted into oblivion. But seriously: We have to figure out where the limit is, and whether there are reasons for feeling uncomfortable that other people can not be blamed for.
I have to try to distance myself from some of them who I have had some friendly exchanges before. I've become a bit cold and unapproachable to them.
I suspect that this tactic will probably be enough to work - it is likely that this will put them off from continued interest. Indeed, I suspect that even if you backed it off from "cold" to just neutral, that would be enough to dissuade continuing pursuit after a period of non-reciprocation of interest. With most men, I think you will find that if they are interested in you then they will try their luck for a period of time after they first meet you, and if that interest is not reciprocated after a reasonable period of time, they will accept that and get on with other pursuits. If there is a continuing problem after a longer period then you might need to escalate to some greater response, but you can probably just wait it out.
(American dude with a PhD here)
One subtle way you might indicate that you're open to professional and maybe friendly connections with these fellows, but not interested in romance with any one of them, would be to find moments where you can invite a group of them to get lunch, coffee, dinner, whatever together, or even ask them to attend a practice run for a presentation you're preparing. This establishes a sense of camaraderie, while putting it in a clearly communal rather than diadic context.
For the ones who either don't realize they're subconsciously acting out an attraction to you, or who are maybe consciously interested but decently aware of social cues, this will steer them toward the kind of interaction you'd welcome with them. Sustained interaction with these guys will likely yield some friendships as well if desired.
Unfortunately, there may be at least some of these guys who are oblivious to your disinterest, or (the creep case) aren't interested in leaving you alone just because you haven't shown any reciprocal interest. My suggested approach might kinda help with them, in that it cuts down on time they're spending around just you. Ultimately, if they end up still being a big presence, the advice given by others here will be more applicable.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:55:49.997400 | 2018-10-19T14:47:18 | {
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60087 | Do I need to inform my PI about every single project I am working on?
I feel like my PI doesn't care much about my thesis (as if I already had one), and keeps assigning me several unrelated tasks to support the publications of his postdocs. Even worse, I don't feel like he is my "academic" advisor: every weekly meeting revolves around grant writing and research expense rather than the experiment itself. And the worst? We differ in our approach to science: his is data-driven, mine is hypothesis-driven.
At the same time, I greatly enjoy the mentoring I have been receiving from three members of my thesis committee. We did have many exciting sessions of exchanging ideas and fruitful follow-ups. I feel like with their help, I am becoming the kind of scientist I always try to be. Last but not least, although they are experts in different fields, they respect each other and are happy to collaborate through my thesis.
Here is my problem: I have several ideas with each of my three committee members, and want to turn them into publications. However, these are deemed not the interests of my PI's lab. Do I need to inform my PI that I am working on these projects? Do I need to describe these projects in detail (he will yawn his way through the meeting anyways)? And if I can get some publications, should I put my PI's name there?
Any reason you can't just send your PI an email saying "Hey, I am working on some awesome projects with A, B, and C, let me know if you'd like me to tell you more about them sometime"?
how are you funded?
@JackeJR: Excellent point. 100% from my PI.
So I think he needs to know how you are spending your time. I think you should seek approval from him to work on these. It is being resepctful. It can be in the form of I have some ideas I would like to develop with Prof xxx and Prof yyy, can I go ahead and discuss with them? Your PI would probably also need assurances that working with them does not compromise too much in your abilitty to support his lab.
And lastly remember this. It is in your best interests that relationships between your advisor and you remain cordial.
@JackeJR: Please post this as an answer so that it can be upvoted.
Your work to support publications by his postdocs should lead to you being a co-author on their publications, which is a good thing.
In your comments you mentioned that you are funded by your PI, which changes the dynamics and expectations somewhat between you and your PI; and I think he needs to know how you are spending your time.
My suggestion would be to seek approval from him to work on these. This is to show him that you are respectful and value his opinions on if these are worth working on. It can be in the form of I have some ideas I would like to develop with Prof xxx and Prof yyy, can I go ahead and discuss with them?
Your PI would probably also need assurances that working with them does not compromise too much in your abilitty to support his lab. And lastly remember this. It is in your best interests that relationships between your advisor and you remain cordial.
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18227 | Graduate training programs from other departments, how helpful are they?
I notice that there are quite a number of graduate training programs across departments in my university that encourage multidisciplinary researches. For my case, I am an EECS/ Computational Biology grad student, and I am considering a training program in biophysics/nanotech.
I don't mind taking one more course per semester, and finding co-supervisors from other departments as the program requires. My main concern: will there be any real advantages of getting that certification in term of (academic) career prospects?
In one of his famous blog post, Sean Carroll advised:
Don’t dabble. Another slightly counter-intuitive one. You might think that, while most of your research work is in area A, the fact that you wrote a couple of papers in area B will be taken as positive evidence of your breadth and intellectual strength. Very wrong. What will actually happen is that your work in area B will be compared to the best people in the world who spend all their time thinking about area B, and you will probably come up wanting. Even worse, it will be taken as evidence that your interests may wander over time — so that, whereas you were hired to be an expert in area A, maybe in a few years you won’t be doing that at all. Kiss of death. Deep down, there is a strongly anti-intellectual strain within academia; you were hired to work in a specialty and that’s what they expect you to do. Once you get tenure, of course, you can do whatever you want; so it’s important that the department be reassured that you don’t want to do anything else.
I wonder if people will look down on me if they deem biophysics/nanotech a discipline too far away from computational biology (even when my thesis are dealing with all of them)?
In my experience, Sean Carroll is completely and utterly wrong on this point. If anything, being too narrow is the kiss of death.
Yes, as @JeffE attests, there is at least a balance to be struck in the diversification of your skills and perspectives versus having a clear focus that will mark out your niche. You can overdo either one. My perspective, as someone who has been involved in inter-disciplinary research for 15 years, and who has had a lot of advice from much more senior folk about this, does err somewhat on the side of Carroll. In particular, your goal is to mark out a well defined territory that is not too diffuse. "Trajectory" in your career (mainly your pub record) is a primary consideration for hiring and promotion, and it's difficult to build up a body of work if you dabble in many areas.
My own perspective resonates with Carroll's here: continual, long-term dabbling is Bad for getting tenure. It will dilute what others will be able to confidently perceive/predict about your current and future impact in a specific field. But being a "drone" who just followed faithfully in the footsteps of his/her PhD mentor, using the same perspective that might already be "old-fashioned" and not future-proof to the growing inter-disciplinary pressures (you should be able to insert your own field-specific examples here!), is also Bad. Either because you find eventually yourself bored or devalued as a "mere follower" rather than innovator, or because your micro-focused view dries up in terms of peer interest or funding.
Remember that institutions at least pay lip service to inter-disciplinary work. Some actually really support it in a meaningful way, and look for fresh, innovative thinkers to join them. As a junior academic, now is a good time to explore what's not too far from your area and learn more about how to position yourself with a unique and/or highly desirable set of skills and body of knowledge. So, this can be exactly how you end up being successful in contributing in a clear direction in exactly the way I interpret from Carroll's blog post.
For you, ask your mentors and colleagues how they see the current and future combination of the two disciplines you are talking about, and what the interesting questions are. Then try to see how you could fit into that and do something innovative while remaining feasible and concrete. It's tricky, but finding that sweet spot should get you a long way, and it could be much more rewarding. Just be careful who you work for. Some places or people talk the talk but don't walk the walk. When it comes to decisions involving money, if your institution's administration or your peers don't know how to properly evaluate your highly innovative inter-disciplinary work then you might "fall between the cracks" and be passed over for a more traditional candidate whose work they can, at least, easily understand! Good luck
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19982 | Is it possible to submit a conference paper without results?
I am writing a paper for my first conference which is actually about my MSc dissertation. In my dissertation I designed a system and tested it with a number of users however, I don't want to include the testing/results in the conference paper because I believe it needs more testing (on a larger number of users).
I'm not sure though if I can submit the paper without results or will it be rejected because of that?
Normally, you would include some preliminary results and convert your gut-feeling into a founded explanation as to WHY the system need more testing.
You certainly may submit the paper. It very well may be rejected.
If the papers published in this conference in the past all include results, that's a signal that unexceptional submissions without results probably won't be accepted.
I'd include your results as preliminary and explain why more data is required to obtain a significant result.
(as you are talking about a system that needs to be evaluated on a number of users, I have the impression that you may be in a field related to software engineering, so that's what I am working with in the rest of the answer - but other fields will likely not be much different, just the examples I provide below may be of less relevance)
The answer to this question largely depends on what conference you plan to submit to, and how preliminary your results are. Different conferences value different things, and differently ranked conferences need results on different levels of maturity.
Some examples from the wider field of systems and software engineering:
ICSE is the major conference in software engineering. You will need a solid idea and a strong, convincing evaluation. Testing on a significant number of real users will be required (what this means exactly depends a bit on the type of system, of course). Generally, reviewers at ICSE are not so interested in the concrete software you built, more in the processes, concepts and methodologies underlying your system.
USENIX Middleware is another major conference, but with a completely separate focus. Here, the actual system implementation is what counts. Few Middleware papers have user studies etc., but all of them provide detailed performance analysis and comparisons with existing tools and systems. Providing your system in a useable (!) way for download is almost mandatory.
The World Wide Web Conference is the premier conference for Web engineering. What really counts here is the data you have. Access to real-life data (e.g., usage data, search logs, social network data sets, etc.) is really important, more so than testing with real users. Papers that provide a new publicly available set of real-life data with some interesting characteristics are often valued highly. Implementation generally counts less than algorithms.
ICSOC is an example of a smaller, more subfield-oriented conference. Here, you need a good idea and some preliminary or intermediary results, but most papers are not evaluated very strictly. Most papers submitted here are still, at least to some extend, work-in-progress.
Basically all sub-fields have their own smaller conferences similar to ICSOC (last example). While they are usually at least one tier below the more general conferences, they are usually a good first outlet for publication, as they are often less competitive and do not require a fully evaluated and finished research project. However, do not think that smaller conferences accept everything. ICSOC still sports an acceptance rate between 15% and 20%.
What I am trying to say is that different conferences work completely differently, and submitting the same paper to two (even equally good) conferences can easily end in a Strong Reject followed by Strong Accept. It is important to know how papers in a given conference typically look like, how they are presented, and how they are evaluated. Going against the mainstream in a conference is usually not the best idea, especially not in the beginning. This is were you need the advise of a senior person, who should have experience in writing papers for the relevant conferences in your field. If that is not available, you can also try to carefully survey previous proceedings, and see if you can find patterns and overall styles yourself. However, be prepared that you may miss nuances if you do this yourself. For instance, if your target conference typically does not have many applied papers, it is difficult to tell without knowing an experienced insider whether this is because applied papers are not often submitted there, or because the TPC always rejects almost all applied papers.
Edit:
I noticed that I rambled on without ever really answering your questions ...
I'm not sure though if I can submit the paper without results or will it be rejected because of that?
Without any results may be difficult, although you can still try to submit to a workshop or work-in-progress track. However, if you already have some preliminary results, it sounds like a smaller, more specialized conference may be a good choice for you. Of course the validity of this depends a bit on how small your evaluation was...
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15820 | What do I do if I feel there are many things which need to be learnt to do my research?
I am a second year PhD student in probability from the UK. I enjoy what I do, but here is a problem:
as I dig deep into my study, I realize I have to read a lot of stuff I do not fully understand and they often arise in fields of study which are not probability, but related areas: e.g. PDE theory, functional analysis.
I have a basic understandings about some of these things, sometimes I might even feel I have enough to get by, but I am unsatisfied. This is perhaps due to the fact I never studied some of these topics as an undergraduate, but to be fair, no one told me an understanding of PDE theory is very useful to probability (I even think this only depends on what you do)
I do want to know more and previously I tried to attend multiple courses in a term to make up for some of this - this was not effective. Going to 1 or 2 courses a term is fine, but doing any more is a big drain of time if I want to fully understand the material lecture.
So have others experienced this? What is the best way of getting around this?
What I try to do is read the papers "backwards". Let me explain. I don't go for the foundations and then read everything in the area, on the contrary I find a paper that (I'm sure) is interesting to me (probably very recent as well) and I backtrack through the citations and searching on the web for information until I can understand it. Therefore reading a paper takes very long and I don't get a wide knowledge, but it's deep and guaranteed to be necessary (to understand the first paper). This isn't perfect, but it's possible to survive like this.
@dgraziotin as I said, this isn't perfect. You point one limitation, which is the topic identification or identifying what is relevant for the state of the art (SOA). There is another limitation, you don't know what you don't know, and often understanding the SOA isn't enough to propose something that goes beyond it, it is often the case that you need a good understanding of a broader picture, but then you are in front of a vast ocean and your only hope (AFAIK) is having someone (e.g. a supervisor) that can tell you the direction to explore, so that you are not completely lost. IMHO.
@dgraziotin And you did read 30k papers on this topic, right? The questions seems to ask what is the level of knowledge one one should get.
so have others experienced this?
Basically every smart person feels like that when starting their studies. The majority of the people for which this is not true are usually not the second coming of Terence Tao or Dr. Sheldon Cooper, but simply affected by the Dunning-Kruger Effect. You are not supposed to know everything, and in fact you never will. You already have a head start on your colleagues, who have simply not yet discovered (or wilfully ignore) that they do not fully comprehend many of the seminal papers in your or related fields. You, at least, can work on this in order to produce better research.
what is the best way of getting around this?
There is no getting around this. To paraphrase the title of your question, many things are to be learned. That's part of doing a PhD. The trick is to learn what you will really need for your research, and to not get lost in the things that are interesting but ultimately not relevant to you. This requires some experience. Hopefully, your advisor or a postdoc will put you on track of what to focus on for now.
As funny as the advice mentioned by @dgraziotin above sounds - in practice, what you really need to develop is a good mental filter to select the 15 or so papers from a 30k papers field that are really relevant to to you.
the first part made me feel so much better... but there is still a lot to do.
Thank you, i think i can offer you something better than an accept - a populist badge, as a sign of gratitude. This is gaming the system, but i dont feel too bad about it
You have lost me here ...
i misread the description for populist badge, never mind :P
Man... I have this problem on an hourly base. Here I will throw a bunch of "strategies" I have been accumulating for you to consider.
Sleep on it
Seriously. If I have to actually learn everything I think I should learn, I'd need to be live beyond 480 years old. And since the more you learn, the more you don't know... this route is not viable.
A lot of the times, I suppressed the impulse and slept on it. In the process I usually think about this questions:
Do I need to learn this or do I want to learn this? Would the new knowledge make my work complete or make it better?
Can the piece stand alone fine without it? Can it still contribute to the research questions I need to answer?
Can I explain what I wouldn't learn as a potential extension/development in the Discussion section? Perhaps other people can work on it?
Usually after a couple rounds of iteration, I could ditch most of what I wanted to learn, and focus on learning the skills that would make my projects a complete project.
Keep a wish list
Be it a go or not, I always write that down whenever I thought I need to know something. I use EverNote to document all these strayed thoughts. And if I come across any relevant materials (review articles, short courses, software, etc,) I'll document them with the same tags.
Draw a skill tree
It also pays off to sit down and analysis what are your knowledge and skill sets. A skill tree is simply just a conceptual framework or mind map that links up your skills and domain knowledge. Some people may grow a big deep-rooted tree while some may favor a garden of little bit of everything. We need both types of people but generally I would consider in academia it is better to have a good big tree with some side bushes.
Now, you can focus on a few major branches, what are the domain knowledge? What are the skills associated with them? And what are the applications that are associated with each skill? I found it easier to start with my courses I have taken and the syllabi of those courses. You can also consider using some competencies published by professional organization as a blueprint.
For myself, my big tree is statistical analysis applied in biomedical studies. If someone asks me to work on a project about, say, psychometrics, which is part statistics part psychology... I may return to look at my trees and think if this new skill will make a logical branch, or it's too far off. And if it's too far off, is it worth to plant a new one for this? And what kind of root (aka basic courses or books) do I need to plant? Then decide if it's a go or not.
I found this exercise pretty useful because i) it's therapeutic, you may be amazed by your domain knowledge. And you're likely going to feel better about yourself. And ii) having a bird view network helps a lot on deciding the relevance of the desired skills.
Think return of investment
Before diving into the skill, think how much the skill can help you back. There are many sides to consider:
Will it lead to higher competitiveness or salary?
Will it complement/strengthen your skill tree? Would there be any synergy?
Can you re-purpose or re-use this skill? How versatile it is?
Will I be using this skill enough to rip the benefit of the time and resource I spent in the learn process? etc.
Return of investment exercise is best done when you have competing desired skills to learn. Put them side by side, design a rubric if you must, and evaluate which one is better to go for.
Gathering good resources is 80% of the game
Okay... after much thought, we decided to learn a skill. When learning a new skill the major problem is not knowing where to start. I usually perform this beginning rituals:
Read up on Wikipedia or other encyclopedia to acquire general lingo.
Read a couple relevant review articles.
Schedule a meeting with a someones proficient in that skill/knowledge and ask for a few recommendations on i) text book, ii) journals, iii) controversies, and iv) prominent schools of thought and researchers in the field.
Search for some syllabi that teach these knowledge and document their text books, software, course structure, etc. Those usually give you a good sense on what to cover.
Gather all materials, and start working on it.
Immerse at least 20 hours into it with undivided attention
This is a slight modification of Kaufman's The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything... Fast!. The book itself is not super groundbreaking but Kaufman also pulled a stunt journalism and explained how he learned some new skills and brought them up to functional level in 20 hours. It's an entertaining read, but what I got away from it is the importance of preparation and immersion.
I usually spread my learning into many 90-minute chunk, and then make sure to enter these blocks first at the start of every week. I laid out what I need to learn, read, do exercises, watch videos, perform self-evaluation, talk to others (e.g. your committee members or other scholars)... It's actually pretty amazing looking at how I become a half-baked specialist in a matter of week.
In the learning process, I focus on learning the basics really well, and I write down a lot of questions (for me or my specialist friends to answer later.) I also try to figure out the flow the ideas and their connections. When working on a problem I don't insist of getting it right, but I do insist on getting why it's wrong.
Compose a self-learning syllabus every 6 months
Every semester I also compose a self-learning syllabus. Basically I design courses for myself. I started doing this last year because I was getting tired always having to catch up with tasks that require me to learn new skills. I wanted to turn the table: I am going to learn some skills that I chose, and I'll look for opportunities in the tasks that I can apply what I learn and enrich the contents. I feel that being even just very so slightly more proactive has injected a good sense of control into my life.
Closing remarks
I can't say I am a successful learner, but I am moving along bit by bit. Action, even just very little each time, is the most important ingredient. Hikers may know this feeling... all the hills look so darn tall, but once you stepped onto the trail, the scenery was great, the air was fresh, and suddenly you forgot to wonder how tall the hill was.
If your question is:
How do I learn (quickly) all the material that I need in order to be
proficient in my area
then Penguin_Knight's answer has some excellent suggestions.
If the question is also
How do I avoid feelings of despair and hopelessness when I think of
how much I have to learn
then the trick is to change the premise. You're not acquiring knowledge in a Ph.D as if you're drinking from a (very large) cup that needs to be finished before you can move on.
Rather, you've been plonked down without preparation in the middle of a raging river, when all you've ever dealt with before are little rivulets that drip into a cup.
Accordingly, the goal here is not to try and "drink the river", but merely to observe little eddies and streams in the torrent and learn something about them. As you become more and more proficient, you'll see more and more of the river and you'll be able to manipulate it better, but you are never "in control" of the entire torrent.
I might be stretching this analogy further than it can go, but hopefully my point is coming through: that you shouldn't fall into the fallacy of having to learn "everything" in order to be a competent researcher. Rather, as Penguin_Knight says early on, you should think strategically about what you really need to learn and how you can pick up relevant skills based on what you're working on.
One way to keep it in perspective is to realize that these feelings are only going to become more extreme as your career progresses, but they aren't actually a problem in themselves. Instead, once you get used to them, they can actually be a source of joy.
You're never going to catch up, because the amount you learn will grow at best linearly with time, while the amount of research you recognize to be relevant and important will grow rapidly (seemingly exponentially) as you learn more. You'll never be able to say "Well, now I've got a solid foundation in everything I need to know," because each topic you learn will naturally suggest two more. And the more you understand how deep and interconnected everything is, the more you will realize how limited your understanding actually is. Anyone who thinks they have the world all figured out is not a researcher.
As I see it, this is cause for celebration. The scope of your favorite subject is unbounded! In a few years, you will happily be using ideas you barely understand right now, or perhaps haven't even heard of yet. From a broad enough perspective, you have interests in common with researchers who superficially seem to be doing something utterly different. Why would you give up infinite possibilities in favor of a limited world?
I can sympathize with feeling overwhelmed. I remember sitting in a class thinking to myself "This is beautiful stuff, but I'm glad I won't need to use it myself, because that would be a lot to master in addition to my own research area," and then, a few years later, realizing to my horror that I did need to master it. It's not easy, but you shouldn't let that put you off. Research isn't easy for anyone. Famous mathematicians are also missing knowledge that would help them in their research, just like you are, so nobody can judge you or look down on you for your ignorance. Ultimately, we are all ignorant and struggling to become less so. Fortunately, what we learn is enough to justify the struggle.
As for concrete suggestions, the other answers have lots of useful information, especially the one by Penguin_Knight. One thing I'd emphasize is the importance of keeping at it over time, even if progress seems slow. It's easy to get depressed if you work intensely on something and have to give up when you can't sustain the time commitment. By contrast, slow but continual progress will really accumulate over time.
You have 2 choices.
1) as a probability researcher, invent the infinite probabability drive and use this to increase the probability that you can instantly learn everything that will ever be known.
2) go back and read xLeitix's great answer.
http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Infinite_Improbability_Drive
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19863 | Applying for a post-graduate degree with an Italian three-year bachelor's degree
I will get an information science under graduate degree this July in an Italian university. I want to apply for a computer science degree at an American university. Here in Italy the high school lasts five years instead of four, and the undergraduate degree (laurea triennale) lasts three years instead of four.
So my concerns are:
Is there a way to get a list of all American universities that accept an Italian laurea triennale as an undergraduate degreee?
Since I will graduate in July and in most universities the next semester begins in September, I think that I should start applying from now. So the question is: do they allow students to apply even before they got the graduate degree and TOEFL?
It is standard practice in the US for students to apply for graduate programs before they have received a degree, and the TOEFL exam is normally taken as part of the admissions process.
However, you should also be aware of the fact that you have largely missed the admissions "window" for this coming fall: at most American graduate schools, you need to apply during the previous fall. So, for instance, to apply for admission in September 2014, you should have applied during the period (roughly) September 2013 to January 2014.
It is unlikely you will be able to secure admission to any American graduate school starting this September. At best you will be able to apply for admission in the fall of 2015. The only exception will be schools with "rolling admissions," which accept applications at any time.
As for the acceptance of the "triennale" degree, you will need to ask the individual schools you're interested in; I'm not aware of any such master list (because the number of recipients of such degrees who enroll in any particular program probably isn't big enough to support such a list).
I suspect many schools may not even have a fixed policy on this particular degree. The burden would be on you, in your application, to make the case that your degree is roughly equivalent to a US bachelor's degree and qualifies you for entrance into the program.
The laurea triennale I believe is the Italian version of the bachelor's degree under the "Bologna process," so in that sense should be fairly close to a four-year baccalaureate from the US.
Yes, but it's 3 years so I have far less credit hours.
@RamyAlZuhouri: Your overall credit hours will likely be less, but you will also likely have more coursework in the major to compensate.
I was admitted to a graduate program at UCSD based, in part, on a 3-year bachelor's degree from London University. There did not seem to be any issue at all with the duration or number of course units. I don't know whether it would have been different if that had been my only qualification - I also had a master's degree and very substantial work experience.
Many of my fellow students had bachelor's degrees earned outside the US, and the admissions process seemed to be designed to handle that smoothly.
I do think you have left applying far too late for starting in Fall 2014. You probably need to reset to Fall 2015, plan what to do for the next year, and collect the critical dates for applying to each university you would like to attend.
The italian laurea triennale should be the equivalent of an US bachelor degree. I think that professor from your Italian university can help you to understand better the situation.
You should not encounter any problems. As long you respect the deadline
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20202 | How to symbolize that figure is cropped?
I need to add a photo with some additional data drawn over it to my thesis in computer science. But the photo is large and I want to crop bottom half of it. But then it could be misleading, that there is a part of the image missing.
I will write it to the image description, but I want it to be obvious at first sight without reading the description. Is there some standard way to display that part of the figure is cropped?
Standards are likely to vary across disciplines. You should probably specify yours.
True. I've edited the question, it's computer science.
What kind of a figure is that? If it is a plot, and you want to zoom in to a particular range of it, then you may want to include full plot, then a zoomed in one. For the latter, you may mention that "plot of y from x{a to b}" in the caption. Plus, it would be much better if you say a few lines about why this particular range is important to be emphasized this way, in between your text.
This is not a symbolization, but an effective one to crop something out of a drawing. Thus, I'd prefer this if I were to read your thesis.
It's not a plot, it's photo with some additional data drawn over it.
Then I suggest the previously suggested way of doing it: Draw a visible rectangle on the area you are going to crop it; then write a few lines of reasoning behind the importance of this particular area, then put the cropped version with appropriate captions.
You can show it is cropped by having a lined/dashed border around the edges this will show that it is cropped.
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20929 | How to deal with a difficult team supervisor?
I m in the fourth year of my PhD in veterinary sciences in North America. My Research project involves a lot of farm/team work. I have to work with technicians, farm staff, research associates and other students in the team as well as my advisory committee. I attended in many leadership workshops but still find it hard to deal with negativity, anger and control issues from one of my superiors. She in managing students as a research associate and has quite an influence on my advisor. She told me herself that she has chosen to be mean to people and has been humiliating others and me in various occasions. What should I do? How can I keep myself safe from anger, control issues and related stress?
I am unclear about your situation. Is she just your team mate? Is she also a graduate student? Does she have supervisory power over you? Have you talked to your advisor about it? You said she has quite an influence on your advisor. To what extent is this influence? Is she really indispensible? Can you continue your research without her?
I would suggest to get to know some previous cases of reporting a harassment at your university. Sometimes reporting is worse than solving the problem by yourself.
She is a research associate. Managing all the projects and lab works and teaching students new techniques. so in the beginning my supervisor asked me to check each experimental design specially if it involves farmwork with her. She has influence because she is scientifically good and knows what she is doing but unfortunately not in the case of professional behaviour.
In terms of reporting her I have talked and witnessed few other cases of harassment. University might help you to come out of the harassment circle but won't do anything to solve the problem. That person will stay in the university specially if she/he brings a lot of funding. so money talks at the end!
Being mean and humiliating anyone, let alone subordinates, in the workplace (academia or otherwise) is inappropriate and should not be tolerated. I would suggest you informally talk to whomever is in charge of harassment claims at your university to let them know what is up. Depending on how bad the situation is, you could either file a formal complaint or go talk to the person directly. By having the informal talk with HR you will be protected if your one-on-one discussion blows up.
She told me herself that she has chosen to be mean to people and has been humiliating others and me in various occasions.
It seems you have talked to her, but did you tell her that her attitude and behavior is making it difficult to do your job? Maybe you can work something out where she is less abusive to you or that your work environment is more structured to prevent the harassment. Hopefully that will resolve the issues, if not, file the complaint.
University's do not kid around with complaints about harassment. These types of formal complaints make promotion much more difficult and will often be reported in any reference written by the department head. They often will require the individual to receive training and monitoring. Once the possibility of a formal complain is on the table it is in the best interested for the colleague to do everything possible to prevent the complaint. Once a formal complaint is raised any escalation by the colleague will likely be dealt with swiftly and harshly by the University.
'University's do not kid around with complaints about harassment' Sadly, they often do. Many academic institutions work as self-defending groups and there is always the risk of a backfire. I fully agree that abusive behavior should be systematically reported but OP should be aware of the associated risks. In this case, as it seems that OP is not a lone victim she should seek support from others and maybe take a common action.
Unfortunately @Jigg is right. I studied few other cases in our department and other faculties. It SEEMS that university cares but the actions are opposite and when things get serious they retreat and put their priorities first.
You seem to be close to completing your PhD so the usual answer here of "Run don't walk" don't seem to be the way out. Instead you need to find a way to go through the final time. I would strongly suggest seeking professional help. Hopefully your school has access to psychologists or the equivalent who can not only help out with personal problems but in your case, more importantly, how to manage difficult personalities. I have no doubts that it is and will be a burden at times but for you the question is finishing or not, what the effects on yourself will be and in the short of it, is it worth it if you add all factors together. Only you can answer that question. It does not seem as if you have come far down that path so trying to find the support and guidance from professionals on how to deal with difficult personalities is the best way forward. You will bump into these later in life as well so gaining understanding and acquiring strategies is never a waste of time.
Thanks @peter! I have been in few counselling sessions in university. Also read few books to manage last 4 years dealing with her. Takes lots of energy and time some times more than PHD workload itself. It's a life time process. Any book or website recommendation?
I’m sorry to hear this; such situations can be unbelievably stressful and upsetting. As you’re in your fourth year, you’re nearly there and have your own network, which are very helpful.
Such situations are tricky because they can degenerate suddenly and unexpectedly. The ideal (not always possible) is to avoid conflict at almost all costs. Conflictual people tend to be better at managing disputes that break out...they often have had a lot of experience of this and you might discover that they are uncomfortably well acquainted with university harassment procedures etc.
I would hesitate to make a formal complaint unless if the situation becomes unbearable, as things may escalate and affect your relationships with others in your department, which might cause delays to your PhD. Hopefully, you are known in your department and group as a positive team member who isn’t associated with conflict. Maintain that reputation as long as you can.
I would also hesitate about approaching this supervisor one-on-one in order to directly address the behaviour. Any such discussion would need to be handled with extreme care so that your supervisor doesn't feel threatened. I would venture to suggest that avoiding any suggestion of threat could easily be impossible to achieve during such a discussion. It may be better to remain in the background as much as possible and minimize unnecessary interaction with your supervisor instead. Try to keep things very cool and professional.
Have you somebody more senior in the department you can confide in? A mentor would be perfect for this role, as long as they are discreet. Now would be a good time to request a mentor if you don’t have one.
Although it’s not nice to do, keep a diary of every incident, even if reasonably minor. Any unpleasant emails etc, keep them safe. This is because if things become more difficult, you might need every scrap of evidence.
I’d recommend pre-emptively reading the book by Bill Eddy “It’s all your fault: 12 tips for managing people who blame others for everything” as he gives a lot of good advice for avoiding being dragged into disputes and minimizing their fallout when they do occur.
If things become absolutely impossible (hopefully not), it may be possible to remove this supervisor from your committee. This is where having an impeccable interpersonal record, the diary and an established relationship with a senior member of your department comes in.
To end on a positive note, I think a lot of academics at all levels have had experience of these sorts of situations and we’ve all survived! But I wish you and others who come to this page good luck.
Thanks @L Platts. I will take a look at the book. Remaining in the background and minimizing my interactions is what I have done so far in last 4 years. I survived but witnessed her behaviour and hurt for me and others. I also tried to talk to her but she gets even more angry and mean. Now that I have more power over my project and have my main supervisors's support I started to question my self? Is that it? Just stay quiet? As @peter Jansson said: I gonna bump to this later in life. How I gonna deal with it then? She seem to enjoy humiliating others, not the first case and not the last.
The book really helped me. It provided tools for life. I would have just written read the book in my answer, because its philosophy is difficult to summarize, but Stack Exchange suggests writing a fuller answer so that's where all the rest came in! I hope the book helps you too.
topic is never outdated. I was dealing with bullying supervisor as well. fortunately I have managed to change my supervisor in the middle of second year. As 'my therapy' I wrote couple of blog posts about 'dealing with difficult supervisor'. Part one is about 'easy cases', part two is about more difficult and part 3 is about bullying monsters!!
enter link description here
Hope everyone who is dealing with a supervisor like mine is able to get out of this situation ASAP!
Thanks,
Monika
Can you put some excerpt from your blog into the answer? SE frowns upon link-only answers
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145010 | What is the academic argument against Sci-Hub?
I know that some consider certain activities of Sci-hub to violate the law in some jurisdictions. Many of the previous questions and opinions related to Sci-hub have focused on these legal aspects (and they are certainly important to consider).
However, I am wondering what are the main harms or downsides associated with the existence of Sci-hub and similar services from the perspective of academics, researchers, and students. I am asking because this topic is relatively new to me, and I would like to better understand the main cons of Sci-hub as perceived by fellow academics (as opposed to publishers or lawyers).
Just about all of the answers seem to have been voted on whether the voter supports or doesn't support open source. In some stack metas, an up-vote often means "I agree" and a downvote, the opposite. In a main site, downvotes usually mean an answer is incorrect or not complete. The voting pattern here feels abusive.
What is the academic argument against Sci-Hub?
There are none. The arguments against sci-hub are legal or economic. Copyright is a legal right, not a moral or intellectual right.
You could argue that repositories like ArXiv or open access journals are better than sci-hub because they are more reliable. But that is not an argument against sci-hub.
Hmmm. "not a moral ... right". Are you suggesting that creators have no moral claim on their creations nor to benefit fairly from them?
@Anonymous Physicist Thank you. I also could not come to any convincing arguments on my own, which is why I have posted here. I hope it is ok if I wait for a few more answers. The ones so far have been interesting and helpful. But I do want to say that I appreciate your answer and am probably inclined to agree.
@Buffy If the "creations" are ideas and not physical objects, then there is no moral right to benefit from them. As an academic, I don't deal with the creation of physical objects, so I won't go there.
Also, the true creator is the academic, not the publisher. Yet the copyright is often partially or totally assigned to the publisher. Thus, I personally feel an answer about how the academic is harmed is more convincing than one about harms to the publisher. (For instance, Buffy’s answer discusses how economic harm to the publisher may in turn damage an academic’s ability to publish. And David has proposed an example of a direct harm against the author.)
@AnonymousPhysicist do you consider any of the following physical objects? 1) Music 2) software 3) electronic versions of textbooks?
@Allure Definitely not. I'm unclear on how that could even be open for questioning.
@AnonymousPhysicist are you saying then that there is no moral right for people to make livings off music/software/ebooks?
@Allure the comparison to music and software makes an interesting point. There is less incentive to make music if you can’t make a living from it. On the other hand, the analogy with academic publishing is not exact either. Academics do not publish articles primarily to make money.
@Allure, no, I am saying there is no moral right to the copyright on those things. There might be a moral right to charge for live performances or to charge for the service of writing sheet music/software/ebooks. When you buy music recordings or streaming subscriptions, the money goes to the copyright holder, who is usually not the artist. Artists make most of their money from live performances.
@richard many musicians don't make music primarily to make money either. It's just that they don't have a choice if they want to put food on the table. The difference is academics don't actually have to monetize the research they do.
Good point. I didn’t mean to imply that about musicians and others. I was trying to point out that while musicians make money off of music sales, many academics do not make money from publishing. I do understand the point you are trying to make though.
The comparison between musicians and academics is interesting. Academics are often hired by the state, and producing research papers is part of their job as a civil servant. In some countries, it is even mandatory that this tax-funded content is published open-access. Would the same model work for musicians? The state selects the best musicians via a fair competition, and hires them to produce music that is then distributed for free and available to everyone. Maybe we should try to make musicians work more like academics, not the other way round.
Every journal and conference I've ever published with allows me to post my papers on my personal website and distribute them freely. When SciHub posts my work they are not actually adding any value, as my work is already available for free. Instead, they're breaking copyright law and driving traffic away from my personal website, where interested researchers might find out more about me and what I do.
So how do I find the papers you’ve put on your personal website? They won’t turn up in regular indexes (the paywalled journaled versions will), and will be lost in the noise on regular search engines. SciHub gives a centralised place to find accessible papers. Seems like added value to me (copyright law not withstanding).
Well, that's when SciHub posts your work :)
That said, don't be so sure. Even if the preprints you post on your website are text-equivalent to the respective published versions, many readers (especially those who want to cite the published version and thus need to make sure they're citing it correctly) will still want to see the published version, unless you explicitly say that your version is equivalent (which very few academics do).
This is an interesting answer. Thank you. As I understand it, the motivation is to drive those who can’t afford journal access to turn to your personal website, where they might find not only the paper but more of your research.
Personal websites are a bit ephemeral. When a person changes jobs, their old websites might be destroyed, leaving dead links.
@rhialto Google Scholar is very good at picking up PDFs from personal web sites.
While the legal and economic arguments around Sci-Hub are important, there are also potential harms from an academic perspective that are worth considering.
One key risk is the loss of traceability and integrity of the scholarly record. When articles are disseminated through unofficial channels like Sci-Hub, it becomes harder to ensure the version accessed is a reliable copy of the published work. This introduces the concerning possibility of undetected manipulation or corruption of articles. Even if such tampering is rare, the mere fact that it could occur without easy detection threatens researchers' ability to trust the stability of the scientific record. Unreliable citations and the spread of misinformation are serious downsides from an academic integrity standpoint.
Another potential harm is that relying on Sci-Hub as an alternative may reduce pressure to pursue more fundamental reforms to the academic publishing system. While Sci-Hub provides short-term access, its existence does not solve the underlying issues around paywalls, access, and costs that led to its creation. There's a risk that the availability of pirated papers could slow the momentum and incentive for universities, funders, and researchers to advocate for changes like responsible open access policies, shifting to non-profit publishing models, or reworking the incentive structures that preserve the status quo. To be clear, this is not to say all researchers supporting Sci-Hub see it as a complete solution - many likely view it as a stopgap or parallel effort. But there is a potential tradeoff between short-term access and long-term, sustainable change.
Moreover, there are valid questions about the wisdom of outsourcing civil disobedience against the current publishing system to a single individual. While Alexandra Elbakyan's efforts have undeniably increased access to academic works, relying on one person to illicitly provide that access introduces significant risks. It's unclear if Sci-Hub is a heroic act of resistance or a conduit for subversion by bad actors. The academic community should be wary of placing so much trust in a system with little accountability. If we believe that the current publishing model is unjust and that civil disobedience is justified, we should be exploring ways to do that collectively, as a community. Putting together "pools of disobedience" as researchers, while simultaneously demanding fair compensation and credit for our labor, would be a more sustainable form of resistance than depending on Sci-Hub alone.
All that said, it's also important to recognize the very real access challenges that lead researchers to turn to Sci-Hub, and the role its existence has played in catalyzing serious discussions about reform. While the downsides outlined above are concerning, they must be weighed against the benefits of increased access, particularly for researchers at institutions with limited resources. There are no easy answers.
One potential mitigation is to advocate for wider adoption of persistent identifiers like DOIs for articles and ORCID iDs for researchers. Consistently including these identifiers makes it much easier to verify that a copy of an article matches the version of record, even if accessed through an unofficial source. This doesn't eliminate the risks, but it provides an important safeguard and accountability mechanism. Funders and universities requiring these IDs as a matter of policy would be a step in the right direction. (As the US has recognized, since the NIH has been mandating ORCID since 2019, the NSF since 2023, and the entire US public R&D ecosystem will mandate them by 2027.)
I also think that arXiv + peer reviews at other websites is a healthier way of publishing, and one with a clearer governance structure.
Ultimately, Sci-Hub is a symptom of a broken system more than a solution. The academic community must continue to advocate for legal reforms like oversight of academic publishers' profit margin, open access mandate for all science that is publicly funded, and a clearer upfront discussion of the cost vs value-add of commercial and non-profit academic publishers. In the meantime, the risks to the integrity of the scholarly record that Sci-Hub introduces, and the questions it raises about the ethics of individual vs. collective disobedience, deserve serious consideration even if one believes its benefits outweigh its harms.
I don’t get done of the points you are making. For one, how do publishers guarantee "reliable copy of the published work"? The agent any signing processes or similar for publishers. Rather, many of my publications are changed by the publisher, ideally only to inject metadata (such as page numbers of a journal), but it is also not uncommon that a publisher recreates a paper from source (which often enough lead to subtle changes for me).
The other point is the persistent identifiers - I don’t get at all what this has to do with things. As far as I am aware, all these systems are persistent identifiers for the location of the content, not the content itself. They do not ensure that a paper can be accessed, not do they in any way allow to "verify that a copy of an article matches the version of record, even if accessed through an unofficial source".
Publishing requires money.
If you reduce the amount of money in the system, publishers will lose incentive to publish. That would be bad for authors since publishers, simply by publishing, provide a valuable service to authors as well as others wanting access to scholarly works.
It might be possible to do all of it as a charitable endeavor, but it would still require money. It needn't be a profit making business, but it isn't free (as in beer).
It is also possible to do this as a government (tax) funded operation. But that would bring the possibility of censorship of things that a given government might not want to support; reproductive health comes to mind in the US under the current government.
Online publishing requires less money than print, but most of the expenses are still there. It doesn't eliminate the need for money. People still expect to be paid for their efforts. And note that a publisher putting something online is, in effect, promising to keep that server running in perpetuity. Few organizations can make that commitment lightly.
So, the "academic" argument is actually an economic one. If you want something to exist, you need ways to assure that it does.
Let me note that if you are a working academic and need access to papers to continue your work, there are zero cost (to you) alternatives that are perfectly accepted and valid. If you ae normally grant funded you can usually charge access and, perhaps, even subscription fees to a grant. If you are not grant funded and your need is sporadic, you can sometimes get a university department to cover your fees. Failing that, you can sometimes contact authors for "preprints" that are often given to them for print journals. And, almost every academic librarian knows how to find copies of almost everything on the planet through inter-library loan. The existence of high fees need not be a block to academic progress.
It's a valid argument per se, but there's a cost-benefit computation to be made here. The benefit of an available infrastructure doesn't come for free, but costs academics and academic institutions money, either in the form of subscriptions, or of open-access fees. It's perfectly possible that most academic institutions would save money if the majority of the publishing infrastructure was based on a non-profit publishing service financed by networks of academic institutions, rather than relying on external service providers.
@lighthousekeeper, yes, that might be a viable economic model. There might be several others, but resources are required in any case.
If there's a viable economic model that lowers the publication-related cost for academic institutions while offering free open access, the economic argument against using Sci-Hub collapses.
@lighthousekeeper, but not if the use of SciHub still reduces the amount of money to below what is needed. Even your model might require some inputs from subscribers and/or authors. If the cost of running a university increases the funds must come from somewhere. The costs don't, somehow, disappear.
I'm not sure about that 'commitment' argument. If I have to bet on which one is more likely to keep a server online for the next 50 years between Cornell University and Elsevier, my money goes to Cornell. In addition, it would be easier for someone to make a dump of all Arxiv papers before it goes offline, than to do the same for Elsevier, just because they have to jump through fewer hoops to download them.
Also, regarding the censorship argument, note that the US government has already proved that they have the power to decide what Elsevier can or can not publish.
Thank you for writing this answer. It makes sense that if people stop paying for subscriptions, publishers will find it hard to survive. On the other hand, a lot of the users of Sci-hub are those who don’t have the money to pay for the articles in the first place. Are a lot of universities canceling their subscriptions to journals because of Sci-hub?
@richard, I don't know about that. The current system is far from ideal and it is good that things like open science are exploring options. But many uses of SciHub can also be handled just through inter-library loans from any decent library. Even in poorer countries. But I doubt that uncompensated "taking" is a sustainable solution.
Good point, thanks. But do you think that interlibrary loan has the same problem? As a substitute, it also seems to decrease profits for publishers.
@richard, they are actually fine with publishers. It is a long tradition of sharing. It was an easier concept when all published materials were physical and there were no cheap copying mechanisms, but the traditions continue.
I encourage people not to downvote this answer only because they find it unconvincing. I asked for arguments against Sci-hub, so please only downvote if you find an answer to be low-quality. Otherwise, even answers I disagree with are valuable for my learning.
-1 for an answer that ignores existing alternatives to the subscription business model. Copyright and paywalls are just one way to fund publishing.
Sci-Hub violates copyright law.
Do you believe in copyright law? I'm certain you use a lot of copyrighted things in your work (e.g. Windows, Google Chrome). When you use a program like Google Chrome, you are supposed to agree with the terms of service. Typically these terms will include something similar to this line:
9.2 Subject to section 1.2, you may not (and you may not permit anyone else to) copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract the source code of the Software or any part thereof, unless this is expressly permitted or required by law, or unless you have been specifically told that you may do so by Google, in writing.
What Sci-Hub does is say "I don't care about this, I'm taking your program and reverse-engineering it anyway, because it is for the greater good"*. If we take this to its logical conclusion, then to do research I need to have access to a computer (therefore it should be permissible for me to rob my local computer store), power supply (ditto for siphoning power off the local power grid), and install a pirated version of Windows (my grant is already too small to pay for software licenses, Microsoft already makes billions of dollars in profit anyway). Hell, if I need grant funding to send a space probe to Uranus and NASA rejected my application, I should be allowed to hold the NASA director hostage until he funds me. It's all for the greater good.
If you've read the Harry Potter series you might recognize that phrase as the mantra of the Dark Wizard Grindenwald.
All that said, it's ultimately up to your personal values and morals. I am against using it entirely, and would not approve of anyone who does.
PS: Here's a recent question by someone looking to make money off a textbook. If the book is published, Sci-Hub is undoubtedly going to pirate it too, because making its information accessible to all is for the greater good. Is it? Again, it's up to your personal values and morals.
*If you think Sci-Hub is a benevolent entity that only breaks the laws by sharing the files it acquired legally, read the link.
Edit:
Tried to access a particular article and ran into this error message:
Thanks, Sci-Hub. /sarcasm
Thank you for the answer. If I understand, you are saying that following the law is itself of academic value. Otherwise, we should be concerned about people breaking all kinds of laws and social contracts in the name of furthering research and learning. It is dangerous to endorse illegal activity just because it enables some virtuous goals. Is that correct?
@richard not completely - I believe copyright law is itself justified, and if a jurisdiction didn't have copyright law I would be in favor of implementing it.
Thank you for clarifying. So whether a person is against Sci-hub may reflect whether their moral stance on copyright law (as it applies to academic publishing). And you feel that academics should support the existing copyright laws.
-1 Copyright law is already riddled with exceptions. From the angle of copyright law, the question is whether an exception for academic works would be justified, not whether we should abolish all copyrights.
Which is still "no", per the PS in the answer. Also, those who want to release their works under a free-to-access license can already do so - just nobody does it.
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111498 | Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media
Inspired by this question, I have a similar but somehow different problem.
I recently assumed a tenure-track position. One of my strategies for a visible start is to have a strong presence in social media. We have a youtube channel in which students regularly explain their achievements. Or sometimes we post short educational materials. We also prepare brief videos for each publication as some publishers promote the videos.
However, one of my PhD students refuse to cooperate. I specifically asked him in the interview (both video chat and email questionnaire) if he is willing and ready to prepare such video materials for the group, and he firmly answered YES. Now, he claims it is not part of the job description for a PhD.
I first preferred to ignore this conflict, but now other students are reluctant to do so. Now it is more a matter of my authority.
Since I am new, I do not want to take the case to the department head or other officials.
Is there an official 'job description' for a PhD at your institute? In most places there is some catch-all phrase of 'other duties as assigned'. Perhaps you need to dig deeper about the reluctance, but many places will now include participating in video and interviews about one's work as an expected part of a researcher's job duties, explicit or not.
As the ultimate in snark (and definitely not recommended) would be to suggest that writing letters of recommendation for students is not listed on your job description. (Note this is not a real suggestion.)
everything about this situation strikes me as odd and totally foreign to my experience . . . both your fixation on making youtube videos (and on your "authority") and your student's bald refusal and reference to his "job description" . . . can you at least state what country (or region of the world) you work in, so i can get a vague sense of your cultural background?
Several answers have touched on this... what benefit does this activity hold for the students?
If you are in the US, what you are asking the student to do may in fact be a violation of FERPA. The same goes for other countries with similar privacy laws.
I have so many questions. The title says "appear in", but then you say "prepare". Which is it? You say "We have a youtube channel". Who is "we"? Who is "the group"? What do you mean by one of "my" PhD students? When you say "A visible start", a start for what? When you say "the" interview, what interview do you mean? Interview to be admitted into the PhD program? Interview to be in your "group" (whatever that is)?
In a US-like system, my question would be whether the student is employed as a research assistant. If so, then it might be reasonable to assign them tasks like this, which involve disseminating the group's research. If not, then in my view, you may not assign or pressure them to do things that are not in direct furtherance of their own dissertation research. In that case, it was inappropriate for you to make this a condition of advising, and I would not consider their agreement binding.
I made this comment on another question somewhere else too, but it is possible for both of you to be at fault, hence invalidating both of your rights to complain.
@DanRomik - if talking about your work on a video violates FERPA, so does presenting at a conference...
@JonCuster indeed, there are lots of unresolved questions about FERPA, especially as it concerns graduate students. I don't claim to know whether OP's request would violate it, and suspect the question has never been tested in court. However, I do feel that OP's demand would be more likely to be found in violation of FERPA than an adviser having their student present a paper at a conference - the latter is a much more restricted, and much more academically relevant, forum than the former.
So why did the student go back on his word? The bit about the "job description" doesn't really explain it. He said he would do it when you interviewed him, and now he says he won't... What changed?
"Now it is more a matter of my authority.": Are you saying that you're primarily concerned about your ability to compel others to obey your direction?
Just want to make sure that it's not miscommunication.
@JonCuster: Talking about your own work on a video doesn't violate FERPA. Someone else making that happen without your adequate consent is what could violate FERPA. I don't see why conferences would be different here.
I think you need to clarify just what the student agreed to in interviews. To "prepare" a video is not the same thing as to appear in one. I'd be perfectly willing to prepare graphics and animations for videos, but I certainly wouldn't appear in one.
@Mehrdad: Conferences are a one-time thing. Videos can last forever.
Does your university's outreach department provide professional support for those activities? As some answers have commented on, it is important that the result looks professional. I would refuse to do it completely on my own, but if I had some major result I would gladly participate in a video produced professionally by the university's outreach department.
As mentioned by others and on my answer, what is missing in your question is a general description of what you asked the students to do (vs. what they agreed to in interviews). [Side comment: Certainly you made some online impact here, look at the popularity of this thread. A pity you're anonymous on this one!]
It's been mentioned in comments, but I don't think that they made the implication obvious. If this student started out saying that they would make these videos and then later decided not to do so, something changed their mind. Having been in situations where a toxic relationship caused me to find any way out of a verbal agreement, I think you really need to reflect on the entirety of your relationship with your students. It's possible this has nothing to do with you, but it's also very possible that it has everything to do with you.
"I first preferred to ignore this conflict, but now other students are reluctant to do so. Now it is more a matter of my authority." Are the students opposing your video program (and supporting a colleague) or forcing you to enforce your mythical authority ? I doubt you have any legally supportable authority to force the student to do what you want. Drop this nonsense before people start filing legal cases against you and your department is my gut instinct.
How would this student react if you reneged on your agreement to fund or advise his or her research?
Another note; Was the scope of the videos clear when the agreement was made initially? Doing some video for a publication or the occasional educational material is a completely different scope compared to regular explanations on their achievements,
Why do the students themselves have to appear in the videos? Creating "promotional material" of your work is a common part of research (and squarely within the researcher's own interest, for finding collaborators and making one's work more known). However, in my field, videos typically show the on-screen output rather than the researcher (other fields without on-screen output could likewise show some explanatory graphics), and whether it's the researcher themselves speaking, a helpful colleague with good pronunciation, or a TTS engine is up to the researcher, as well.
Why do you assume you could/should/have authority to force people to post in social media?What is the relevance to the PhD?Have you considered privacy, personal security and financial repercussions of this policy?How can you warrant your stance that by declining to partake in (public) social media the students unjustifiably attack your authority?Should you not rather concentrate on teaching students instead of entertaining the world by apparently unwilling students?Wouldn't monetizing(not saying you do) these videos in your channel made by students be ethically,even professionally unseemly?
Now it is more a matter of my authority.
Well, yes... I’m sorry if this will come as a surprise to you, but coming across as an unreasonable, coercive boss who wants to force their students to participate in distasteful, privacy-violating activities that have zero relevance or value to their professional training, is in fact something that will greatly undermine your authority as an advisor. Effect, meet cause.
My suggestion is that, for your own good and the good of your students, you cease those authority-destroying activities immediately. Your “authority” is something that is given to you for the sole use of doing research and training and educating your students. Asking them to appear in social media videos so that you can have a “visible start” is no different than asking them to make you coffee or give you a back massage so that you can feel energetic - both of those things are indeed not in any job description of any PhD student anywhere. They are not things you should ask students to do, and they are not things you have any right to be upset at a student for not wanting or agreeing to do.
Finally, the fact that you asked the student in the interview if he would be willing to appear in YouTube videos only means that you declared your abusive intentions in advance. It does not make those intentions any less abusive.
Good luck in your tenure track career.
Edit: I said I will address some of the comments left below. Rather than try to discuss fine points of logic, which I think will be tedious, I've decided to add a more personal type of note, which I think will do a better job of getting the point across.
I have been asked many times over the years by various people to have lectures I was giving recorded and made publicly available online (on YouTube, etc). I always refused. Frankly, I find the thought of making publicly available videos of myself lecturing pretty repugnant. Why? Well, just because; I don't feel like it, and I don't owe anyone any explanations. If some silly people want to think that it's because (to quote a comment someone wrote) "some people are super self-conscious about their voice and/or their looks", fine, go ahead and think that. (Oh, and by the way, on another occasion I did agree, happily, to participate in a YouTube video that now has more than 700,000 views. Go figure... I guess I'm inconsistent! Again, I leave to others to engage in their pointless Freudian analyses of what that means about my personality or whatever.)
One of the lessons I learned from these experiences is that people who don't care about privacy have a really hard time understanding people who do. The people who asked me to make my videos available online were sometimes quite offended at my refusal, as if they could not understand why anyone might refuse such an amazing opportunity, and even (this was really bizarre) subtly pressured/guilt-tripped me, implying that I would be depriving the world of an important resource (trust me, I wasn't).
OP, I am sure you are a good person and a good researcher who means well, but know this: your student who doesn't want to make YouTube videos really, really, really means it when he says he doesn't want to make YouTube videos. You might have a hard time understanding why; well, it's not important (or any of your business really) why -- just trust that it's true. And it's quite possible that your other students who haven't been as firm in standing up to you feel exactly the same.
To summarize, you probably don't view yourself as an abusive adviser. You think the student is being unreasonable, but he isn't. Attempting to force the issue will have bad consequences for both of you, and more importantly, is simply wrong. So please let the matter go, and figure out more acceptable ways to market yourself and your group.
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tl;dr: You need to inspire, you mustn't coerce.
If you believe it's significant for the group to invest time in social media presence, you need to convince incoming junior researchers of this fact. You need to provide compelling examples of how doing so helps the group and helps them. It's not sufficient that it helps only other people in the future - remember your Ph.D. candidates will likely not continue as part of your group in their future, nor do they know they'll ever interact with it; and it is also up to the existing group members to inspire in them.
So when your PhD candidate says "it's not part of the job description", what he's really telling you is: "You've not demonstrated that this is worthwhile and important, and since I believe it would be at least somewhat detrimental, I'm avoiding it."
I specifically asked him in the interview (both video chat and email questionnaire) if he is willing and ready to prepare such video materials for the group, and he firmly answered YES.
If someone asked me in a job interview whether I'm willing to go buy them lunch, and I really wanted/needed the job, I'd likely say YES but then try to get out of actually doing that.
Luckily for your PhD candidate(s), your inappropriate questionnaire is not reflected in the contract in any way. You could theoretically get that changed if you really expected the questionnaire to be binding; but, well, don't do that.
Now it is more a matter of my authority.
So, what you're saying here is that you want them to...
right? Well, it's ridiculous for Cartman from South Park and it's inappropriate for you as well.
I'd likely say YES but then try to get out of actually doing that - I'd call that a black mark against your character ...
Everything is ridiculous in South Park, it's a comedy show.
Hah, I really dislike South Park, but that's still the first image that came to mind reading the question.
@Allure: You're ignoring the imbalance of power and conflict of interests. Anyway, and just so you know - I once almost failed to be accepted into a Master's program because I used the "wrong" name for my country of birth (the one that management doesn't like politically).
@Allure that is unfair. Would you say that a woman who is coerced to agree to meet her boss at his hotel room late at night and then tries to get out of it, say by making up a dishonest excuse, has a “black mark against her character”? The nature of coercion is precisely that it puts people in situations where they have to resort to behavior that is normally perceived as dishonorable, like reneging on an earlier promise (in the case of the student in the question) or lying (in my example). The fact that coercion is involved completely changes the moral calculation of what’s acceptable.
@DanRomik yes, I would say the woman has a black mark against her character. She should not be making promises she does not intend to keep; if she does not want to meet her boss at his hotel room she should say so and deal with the consequences (I think there are also laws protecting against such wrongful dismissal as well). I think though that this is strongly coloured by our personal values. I find it unacceptable behavior, but you and einpoklum clearly don't, and none of us are "more right" than the other.
@DanRomik I'm actually considering asking the reverse question, if it is OK for the PhD student to promise to appear in social media while secretly intending not to. Any thoughts on this, or how to frame the question?
@Allure She should not be making promises she does not intend to keep. Again, I find this a simplistic view that is objectively (not subjectively as you suggest) wrong. Say the woman is a single mother. Does she not also have a “promise” to feed her child, which is in fact considered one of the most sacred promises in most societies? So, if she follows your strict honor code and refuses her boss’s demands, then gets fired and as a result becomes unable to keep her commitments to her child, is she then not behaving in a way that is even more “unacceptable”, even according to your own logic?
@Allure obviously if the student can avoid making promises they do not intend to keep, that would be a preferred course of action. But since there is an element of coercion (or an imbalance of power as einpoklum put it) in the request, especially in the setting of a job interview, if the student feels they have to agree to it (possibly in a moment of inattention or before thinking deeply enough about the matter), I don’t think they can be faulted for later going back on that agreement.
@DanRomik yes, it's clear our personal values differ. That's why I want to ask the reverse as a question; if nothing else, it'll be interesting! I'll word it as "I lied to my supervisor in the pre-matriculation interview that I want to appear in social media because I really want to work with him. Is that OK?". Do you see any issues with this wording?
@Allure go ahead and ask whatever you feel like asking (who knows, I may be tempted to write an answer to your question). I don’t have any comments about your wording.
@Allure: With due respect - the issue is not "personal values" but class outlook. You seem to have an ideological conception of human society consisting of independent property-owners who engage in free contractual relations. In that scenario it (may) make sense to hold moral principles such as "should not make promises one does not intend to keep". The proletariat does not live in such a world, however.
@Nat: I read your comment; then I read the quote on your profile page; then I read the attribution for that quote; and now I'm somewhat confused.
@Allure I think there is a possibility your logic is not considering. Your claim about 'making a promise the do not intend to keep' implies that the intention to break the promise was known at the time it was made. How does your 'black mark' calculus handle when things change between making and fulfilling a promise? The single mother might have agreed to meet at a hotel thinking lobby or bar and then refuses when it's clear it's his room. Or maybe they change their mind in the social media case. Keeping ill-conceived promises is a trope of literature for ages, we should learn from that.
@einpoklum Does the confusion imply that you saw Bush as an authoritarian, or...?
@Nat: I couldn't figure out which piece of text to take seriously, as reflecting your opinion, and which to consider as tongue-in-cheek. But - never mind, this discussion would digress even further from OP's question.
Hah, yeah, if they seem to be contradictions, I'd imagine that the world's a lot more black-and-white in your eyes; in fact, much of what I liked about the quote in my profile is the objection to Trump's push for disunification, and the counter-partisan appeal to consider our common humanity.
@KellyS.French yes, I was wondering if the student agreed, tried it, then realized he didn't like doing these videos. I would judge that differently from lying during the interview. The OP doesn't give details however. I'll wait a bit to see if the OP will give details before asking a new question.
@einpoklum as mentioned we clearly have different personal values. From my point of view, the student was not coerced - he could have said he will not do it and find another supervisor if necessary - so this was indeed a free contractual relation. In any case, we should discuss that in another question.
Every time I read "not part of my job description" I translate either
a) "You are here to exploit me and I am protecting myself by exhausting the interpretation of any formal contractual agreements we may have"
or
b) "I am here to exploit you, namely to take as much as I can while offering as little as I can, and I do that by exhausting the interpretation of any formal contractual agreements we may have".
Collaborative efforts in either case are bound to be lukewarm to difficult to non-existent.
I would suggest to first assess objectively which one of the two describes better the situation you're in. Understanding why the student changed course so completely, is critical in deciding how best to deal with the problem the PhD student has created.
Why do I say that he has created the problem? Because, to indulge his approach, reversing course and reneging on an explicit previous agreement without a shred of explanation apart from the "job description" angle, is not part of the "PhD job description" either. In fact it is part of the "Unreliable and Untrustworthy" job description. This is a PhD student we are talking about, not a teenager, so failure twice to raise and argue his (possibly valid) objections to the matter, is not a good sign.
OP is also “not a teenager”, so it’s a strange bit of logic for you to assign all the blame on the student for behaving in a way that someone who is “not a teenager” presumably shouldn’t behave, when you acknowledge (viz. “possibly valid”) that the exact same may be true of OP.
@DanRomik The OP may be faulted as regards the essence of his behavior (his demand for marketing activities), but the essence is what we fight about all the time. His approach was appropriate in that he brought up the issue unambiguously. In contrast, the PhD Student is to be faulted not for the essence of his stance, but for the way he went about it.
The conclusion does not follow from the premise. Collaborative efforts will be lukewarm and difficult mostly if the employer persists in its demands/pressures on the employee. In case b it would probably more like non-existent.
@einpoklum So the premises are two, and, treated as a union, they lead to the three predictions about collaborative efforts. I don't see any logical inconsistency here. What I wrote is not meant to be read as a verbal description of a function or of a mathematical lemma.
@AlecosPapadopoulos: What I was implying was that OP should consider not pressuing the PhD candidate, and that would probably allow for more productive collaboration.
@einpoklum This is always wise advice.
Downvoted because, as I said above, there easily could be a misunderstanding between the OP and the student as to exactly what was agreed to. Until that point is cleared up, there are no grounds to castigate the student.
@jamesqf Thanks for taking the time to explain a downvote.
You blame the student for violating an "explicit previous agreement", but also blame him for bringing up the job description, which is in fact a much more explicit (and binding) previous agreement.
@Kostya_I Certainly, because he should have brought it up in the first place, or even just a plain refusal. Again, my issue with the student here is immaturity. Either he is erratic (and so unreliable), or he didn't want this from the beginning but initially caved and "tried to please the master" -which again makes him unreliable (as a professional partner I mean, nothing here relates to his potential as a researcher).
Nope, it's the advisor who should have brought up the fact that he was asking about the tasks not included in the job description. By not doing so the advisor deceived the candidate and abused his power, since he's not a "master", but an employee, who is paid, in particular, for selecting the candidate best fitting the job description (as opposed to pleasing himself). This, of course, nullifies all the promises made by the candidate. And I still fail to understand how bringing up an explicit, written agreement could possible make you "erratic" or "unreliable".
@Kostya_I We are discussing something that we have no data over -we do not know what this "job description" actually contains. Apart from that, it appears that you are endorsing the general approach "in an agreed collaboration, we do only what is explicitly written in the text, and not a tiny bit else or more than that". I, from my part, am completely against such an interpretation of what is the function of a written agreement/job description.
Forcing him will not yield desirable results, appeal to his egoistic interests
I think even if you could force him to comply by insisting on his contractual obligations or threating to sue/fire him the produced result would be of low quality because the type of work (creating Youtube videos) requires a positive attitude, i.e. appearing happy and interested. If he just does the bare minimum (reading a script with a monotone voice) it might yield little to no positive results for the perception of your group.
I suggest:
Find out why he does not want to cooperate. Maybe he finds the other videos too childish, unprofessional or "below" his qualification ("let some art students do it", "Why does he put me on the same level as some stupid youtube creator that comments on funny videos of cats?"). This will help you identify the exact nature of the problem. For example explaining that vanityis not the reason for you doing this.
Also, personally I find that "social media" carries a negative connotation: fake news, self-portrayal, orchestrated life on Instagram, people of questionable levels of contribution to society with millions of followers, etc. Maybe he has the same attitude.
Present to him reasons on how he will profit from this as well, e.g. "It is important to be visible in academia even for PhD students." or "Other researchers in your field might stumble up your video and contact you for a chance to give a talk or cooperate with you on further research." and "You will profit from this just as much as I." The latter communicates that you are not exploiting him for you own end.
If he is convinced of the personal benefit for himself, he will probably put much more genuine effort into the production of the videos, increasing their persuasiveness and positive self-portrayal of your group.
One other reason he might not want to do one is because he thinks he wouldn't do a very good job, even if he understands the benefits.
Yes, some people are super self-conscious about their voice and/or their looks. Maybe, the OP could allow them to prepare videos where they are not in it. For instance, they could ask a friend, or they could hire someone on fiverr.com to do the voice over. Another approach would be for the OP to video their project himself. And finally, the OP needs to tighten his initial interview questionnaire and perhaps ask for a prepared video as part of the screening process. That should weed out the ones that are truly incapable of doing it.
The requirement to present work is a very reasonable ask, and in fact part of what a PhD student is supposed to learn.
That said, take a step back and think about what you're asking for. Perhaps "produce a video" or "submit to an interview" might not be a fair ask, both for different reasons. Producing a video requires expertise which, arguably, has little to do with what your student is trying to learn. Doing it well takes skill, and it frankly requires some aptitude. Done wrong, it looks bad, and can negatively reflect on a student who does it badly. It can take quite some time to learn, and can be a substantial detractor from what your student should be spending time doing. As for the interview, appearing on-camera can be very stressful for a shy student. For all you know, the student may have skipped bail and doesn't want to attract undue attention!! Of course, that last is ludicrous, but the point stands -- you don't know because you didn't ask.
If you would like to put up a social media presence around this student's work, you should find out what the student's real objections are, and address them. If its "I don't know how to do this", you can teach the student, or make sure the student gets help from the right support staff. If it's "I don't think this is my responsibility" (and the student might have a real point there), you can suggest that presenting data is the responsibility of a student, and you would like the student to work with staff member "X" to generate material sufficient for that staff member to produce a social media article or video. That is the student's responsibility.
"You said you would do this and now you won't!" won't get you very far, with students or with colleagues. If you dig in your heels on this, you won't accomplish what you need to, and your authority may take a beating. Worse, the grapevine can carry the message, and your source of valuable students could dry up.
"I'd like to generate an exciting social media presence for our lab, and I think your work would be a great thing to include. I understand that you don't want to make a video, but communicating your work is an extremely important part of being a researcher, and even if you don't feel you can produce a video, you are still responsible for helping your lab keep our social media presence up to date. Can you provide material to go into this template? Can you video your next experiment for us, maybe with your phone, and write a brief description to accompany it? Are there tools or expertise I can match you up with to make this social media post possible? What sort of help do you need?" might be a more productive approach. It might start a conversation that points you to what the real obstacles are. It might help your relationship with this student, instead of killing it.
Your student might not end up doing the entire job on his own (which may really not be what the student needs to do with his time anyway), but you clearly lay out that the student still has substantial responsibility toward helping the lab complete the mission, and he is not off the hook for contributing. You have reasonable expectations, and fulfilling them will advance the student's abilities.
Re "skipped bail", that might be stretching things somewhat, but the student could easily have an abusive (ex-)spouse or significant other who possibly could track them down through videos.
I see a strong contradiction between "The requirement to present work is a very reasonable ask, and in fact part of what a PhD student is supposed to learn." and "Producing a video requires expertise which, arguably, has little to do with what your student is trying to learn." just one paragraph later.
@O.R.Mapper There are many ways to present work. In academia, the "normal" ways tend to be papers, posters, and live presentations. Those are the "reasonable asks", at least for the moment. Preparing materials similar to what one would prepare for those media, and handing them to a producer, would thus not be a distraction from the academic workflow. One could argue that video is the way of the future, and have a valid point, but then again, I've seen a ton of really bad videos, too!
@ScottSeidman: I see then. I consider the papers, posters, and live presentations the bare minimum of "having" (published) work in the first place, and the true "presentation" (the one that actually entices possible collaborators, students, authors who might build on top, users whose products will serve as case studies in the future, etc.) starting only beyond that (by providing links with additional materials, live demos, tutorials, etc.), but that might indeed be field-specific.
@O.R.Mapper I can certainly agree with that, but I would put most of that in the PI's pile of stuff to deal with, and not necessarily the students' high priority. Of course, how, then, do the students learn to do this without doing it?? Even that considered, the nicest examples of that form of communication I've seen here come from a joint effort of the PI, the lab staff, the students, and people who know what they're doing with respect to web design, graphic arts, user interfaces....
he claims it is not part of the job description for a PhD.
But the matter has nothing to do with what he "claims"; either it is a part of his job description or not. If it is not, then you should cease and desist, there is nothing to discuss here.
I'm quite astonished that some answers blame the student for referring to his job description and get upvotes. First, this is a typical way to set boundaries against power abuse. Second, there is a third party - that funds the student - and it is the job description that specifies its intentions. Third, this may be the only way to for him to stand his ground without telling his (perfectly valid) reasons that will put you at cross.
I also don't understand blaming the student for changing his opinion. At the time of the interview, the student (with no experience in academia and possibly from another culture) thinks that what you are asking for is a usual part of the job. Later, he finds out that it is not, students in other groups spend their time more productively, and, moreover, many colleagues find this activity distasteful. What's he to do?
The last remark: if this activity is not a part of the job (as stated in the job description and thus as intended by the funding party), including a question about it in the interview is in itself an abuse of power. This alone makes the answers of the student non-binding.
I really like your legal perspective.
"I'm quite astonished that some answers blame the student for referring to his job description and get upvotes" -- My overall impression from seeing a number of student x abuser debates in SE Academia is that most users here are biased against the student.
"either it is a part of his job description or not" - I think this claim is nonsensical. A job description can never be so detailed that it explicitly covers each possible situation and detail that might make sense in context. Referring to the job description is, as you say, a way to set boundaries against power abuse. But unless the entirety of the task is unreasonable (which promoting one's research is clearly not, for a researcher), referring to one's job description signals a complete unwillingness to even think about possible alternative solutions to achieve the intended effect.
@O.R.Mapper, nothing indicates that the student is "unwilling to think about possible alternative solutions". Quite the contrary, it is the advisor that insists on a particular way of promoting research, and it is this particular way that is opposed. Otherwise, you have a point that the job description may be vague. But an ambiguous job description doesn't mean the employee has to do whatever can be stretched to fit there. "Acting in publicised videos" is a specific activity that is not universally understood as a necessary part of "promoting research".
Since I am new, I do not want to take the case to the department head or other officials.
Many of us here understand the nerves of being a new faculty member, and having uncertainty about how to deal with a difficult situation. But for God's sake, talk to your department head! I'm sure your department head would be happy to give you guidance and assistance on a difficult matter, and would probably appreciate being consulted in preference to a group of random people on academia.SE.
New staff at a university can sometimes be nervous about bringing problems to senior faculty, but this is a deficiency in their own work habits. It is far preferable to seek guidance from experienced staff in your faculty than to try to muddle through on your own with the sporadic advice of outsiders. You will be doing your job better if you swallow your nerves and go and talk to your department head, or other senior faculty who run your department. Presumably these are the same people who chose to hire you, so I'm sure they are happy to hear from you!
Personally, I agree with some of the criticism of your practice, and I think it is a stretch to require a PhD student to participate in this activity. (Though I am critical of this practice, I appreciate that you have a bona fide belief in its value.) As you can see, some of the academics on here are pretty scathing of this, and you might find that your department head is also critical of this practice. But even if this is the case, it is much better for him/her to hear about it early, and be able to do something about it, than to hear about it later when it becomes a staff complaint and a disciplinary matter for a student.
I totally agree. The OP's position is as counterproductive as a newly married person not wanting to ask their spouse what they would like from the relationship. It is very hard to succeed in a department if you violate local norms and show no interest in finding out what they are. The OP has a lot to learn from their senior colleagues. All of us do. FWIW, I'm a department head (and former junior faculty member).
@Ellen: Thanks for your comment - it's nice to hear this echoed by a HoD.
I find this question quite important. As there are so many laboratories in my field taking up this 'marketing model' of establishing a strong online presence. I understand the potential gains and how it relates with the Impact Factor craze but I shall not linger on this aspect here.
As you said, students agreed in participating during interviews, which is your main argument to be used in pushing them to do it. However you also said that after a while this particular student (i.e. probably the most courageous) started refusing and others soon followed. As mentioned by others in this thread, you ought to find out why student(s) are refusing to participate in videos. Which brings up the point that no potentially relevant details about such videos are disclosed of in your question. I think this point is quintessencial to your problem: perhaps the investment in your videos turns out to be more than students anticipated in the interviews? And it took one stronger personality (i.e. potentially your best student) to spark a revolt? My point here is: reconsider what you're asking of your students regarding these videos. If it takes a few minutes and is a lot of fun, I am sure almost everyone will engage every now and then. On the hand if it takes extra work hours, scalding, unwanted exposure, and surplus tasks (i.e. editing) then soon enough you'll end up only surrounded by minions and likely producing unquestioned (i.e. bad) output.
Finally, I do not encourage you to push some authority onto someone refusing to participate in videos, unless your local priorities are not the usual of a scientific research facility. Apart from destroying your reputation in the mid-term, you will (also) end up with very bad videos & results & lab ambiance in the short-term.
Do write about the experience on your blog and shoot a vlog about it: I think this problem is more widespread than you expect.
The student must understand that outreach is part of academia. A lot of scientific research, in particular blue-sky science, is tax funded. It is entirely reasonable to expect scientists to reach out to the general public and present what they're doing. As a scientist-in-training, it is very much in the interest of the PhD student to be trained in outreach. Nowadays, social media are a popular way to do outreach (but not the only way).
However, some scientists are unwilling to participate in outreach in general or to outreach via social media in particular. Perhaps they don't want to spend the necessary time, they feel shy, or they for some reason have negative connotations to outreach in general or to a specific medium such as youtube. Talk to the student, and find out where his objections are coming from, then try to address them:
Does the student believe outreach in general is a waste of time? Try to explain why outreach is important. Later in an academic career, it may very well be part of promotion criteria.
Does the student fear the produced video may not look professional? Ensure support from the university's outreach/media production department. Surely they're on it already? They should be, for amateurish videos reflect poorly upon both yourself and the university brand.
Does the student have personal reasons to not have his/her face on a video? That should be respected. Perhaps he/she is willing to instead provide a voice-over, or write a script that someone else will read out, or support the production of video outreach material in another way?
Does the student have specific reasons to oppose social media in general or youtube in particular? An alternative compromise could be to post the video only on the website of the university. It may be less visible, although I think Google Video search may still find it.
If none of that works, so be it, other answers have pointed out the student cannot be forced. But in any case, explain to the student that saying one thing at the interview but another thing after getting the position is, to say the least, not helpful.
The bottom line: explain to the student that if s/he wishes to stay in academia, s/he may very well experience (strong) pressure to do outreach later in life. Training in outreach is good for his/her CV, and outreach is a moral duty in publicly funded science. Dig into his/her objections, and try to address them where possible.
There is a clear line that may be blurry to you, but its not to a lot of people. Outreach does not mean social media presence. There can be outreach in social media, yes, but no academic job requires a Facebook page. Outreach is important, but not any type of outreach, especially if by doing it you can violate personal privacy (which social media does). It boils down to a personal choice, and if a human being doesn't want to be in social media, you should respect that. This answer is only valid if the student refuses to give department seminars or go to conferences.
@AnderBiguri I have already addressed your objections in the answer, specifically in the 3rd bullet point. Unless you think that providing a script (or even voice) for a video that is posted under the department or supervisor Youtube account violates privacy?
Sorry, I might have sounded harsher than I pretended to, but my point is that for this question, the fact that outreach is part of academia is completely irrelevant,
@AnderBiguri Outreach irrelevant? What is Youtube (or Vimeo, or a personal website) if not a medium to reach out to others, including the general public?
Yes! But youtube is also part of social media where personal information is posted and not everyone is OK with being recorded and that information is publicly shared with everyone in the world. The student is refusing to do accept that. I suspect that they would react equally to someone taking a photo of them and posting it to Instagram publicly. Therefore, the fact that OPs objective is outreach is irrelevant for the question itself, as I believe the real problem that is exposed is that OP does not respect personal privacy of the student. That was my point
@AnderBiguri I assume that university-related work would be posted under a university account, so request from OP should not require that student has personal social media account. So the personal information that youtube will have from student may be minimal. But as stated, conversation needs to happen between OP and student not between you and me :)
I would also add, along the lines of what I wrote to Dan Romnik's response, our research group does stuff like this per publication or per project, the videos are silent and subtitled, and are complimentary material to conference or poster presentations (re-using parts of experimental data and showing results). It is not up to the student to distribute the video, and the attribution is the same as on published papers (often related to it). I can possibly understand reluctance to upload it to "non-scientific" youtube but not to hosting them e.g. on the uni web along with group publications
@gerrit He didn't say "Outreach is irrelevant." He said "The fact that outreach is part of academia is completely irrelevant." Those are completely different statements that mean different things.
@barbecue You are right. I did intend to refer to that, but my comment is too short and therefore unclear. I do believe that the fact that outreach is part of academia is very relevant to the question.
Since I am new, I do not want to take the case to the department head
or other officials.
You don't know the laws or rules and regulations of your country and/or college. The purpose of these people is to make sure your doing the right thing legally and ethically.
If between the video and the emails are considered legally binding and enforceable your option of last resort is to kick them out of the program and/or group.
However, you definitely need to make this clear at the beginning of the process. If you are serious about this and have the legal authority to demand this you need to have a signed contract.
The contract needs to say exactly what is expect, when it is expected, and the consequences of failure.
If you say I expect youtube videos within a week of request and we plan to expect them at point (or actual date if available. Failure to comply will result in being kicked out of the program (or etc).
In many cases a student can and will go and complain, and the final decision maybe up to a committee. The decision may go in the students favor if you don't properly document everything in minute detail.
Then you need to have your department head and probably others review it to make sure it is legally enforceable, and that you have your department there to back you up.
Many instructors have gotten in trouble by trying to fix the problem themselves and in doing so did the wrong thing and got in trouble because they didn't consult the department head or other source of authority.
All that being said, you should probably ask detailed questions about why they are refusing before acting. I would definitely prefer to find out if it is a solvable problem like stage fright, the projects not ready, or some other legitimate excuse before acting.
Making sure resources are available to help them. Here's 20 other videos from other students, so they have something to go by. A written template for a script, allowing the student to ad lib so they don't sound fake and scripted (unless there supposed to). We have camera you can use on site to make the videos and etc. Here are other resources for the students .......
Probably the best course of action is to sit down an ask your student: If you don't feel comfortable taking part in YouTube videos, why did you say otherwise when we spoke previously? This will give you a starting point. Maybe something happened in your student's life that changed their mind. Maybe the other requirements of the PhD program are putting too many time-constraints on your student, and spending this extra time engaging in social media would take focus away from their research. Maybe it wasn't clear to them what "social media" involvement meant.
It's also possible that they were just telling you what you wanted to hear because they wanted into the program (If they were being purposefully deceitful, then that may be a case for your department to step in).
These will give you a better understanding of your student, but one thing should be very clear - you should not and cannot force your students to perform duties outside of their contractual obligations to the PhD program. I would even question the ethics of admitting students to your lab on the condition that they agree to social media appearances. It could be your other students are now reluctant to create videos because they are now less afraid of saying "no."
As an advisor (particularly a tenured advisor), you have a great deal of power over the future of the students in your lab, and while it's not technically in your job description, it is in your lab's best interest to not abuse that power.
It isn't clear which jurisdiction or discipline you are working in? Is this your first time managing people?
There are several northern European countries where PhD "students" are actually fixed-term employees and the supervisor may not even be included in the line management, with obvious implications. It is not uncommon for people to work in the public or private sector for some time before undertaking a doctorate; in particular, they may have held positions in their previous life which are comparatively more senior than yourself.
The point of saying that is that you appear to be focusing on your authority rather than your responsibility. Your primary concern in relation to your students is to guide them well and look after their professional, and on occasion personal, welfare. If you do that in a competent manner, the rest will fall into place.
The old axiom that the best advertisement for a teacher is a good student applies here: is the student in question performing well otherwise?
Is the YouTube video idea really for your students' benefit or is it because you've got a new position and are perhaps feeling insecure? Is that time really best spent on what I would personally perceive as a somewhat frivolous activity rather than undertaking research and building a robust publication history (which will cement your position)?
A research group is much like a workplace. The group takes on the personality of it's leader. Some groups require weekly presentations, some go out to beers together, some are broad, some are very narrow, some have web 1.0 web presences, some present their work on YouTube. If you made it clear that you expect your group to be out there on social media and presenting their ideas to a broader audience than they can reach just through conferences and papers than that is a reasonable expectation. If that student doesn't want to share their knowledge in that way then maybe they should find another group.
This can cut both ways though. If you as a new professor have this policy in place and cannot attract good students because of this expectation then realize it is going to adversely affect your career.
All this bullshit about "privacy" is just that, bullshit. People can want privacy, but need to recognize their are side effects to that (one of which might be not working with you). So many academics feel like they can do everything themselves and come off as extremely arrogant because of it. The nature of the world is that you MUST work with others and you can't expect privacy while working with others. Anyone can choose to limit their exposure but they have to recognize that they are giving something up by doing so.
I upvoted this answer, not because I agree with what you wrote (I don’t), but because you seem to have a coherent view and you expressed it well. So I feel that this answer furthers the debate even though I disagree with your view that privacy is bullshit.
You seem to imply that those who want privacy often does not recognize the side effects. Trust me, we do. It would sure be handier to let Facebook manage all my online accounts and connect my credit card to Google so I can easily buy Candy Coinz™. In this particular case, there has been no side effect (only benefits - less work), so I don't see how it applies.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:55:50.006901 | 2018-06-20T16:42:01 | {
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138387 | My accepted paper now appears as "under review" - could it still be rejected?
I have a paper that was accepted at a conference and in publication of conference special issues of a journal. The acceptance email stated that we will be contacted by the journal editorial office for further actions regarding the publication.
At the time of acceptance the status was “editorial assessment”
But this changed to “under review” again about a week after.
Now the status changed to “reviews received”.
Why could this happen? It was already peer reviewed before. I am confused and anxious and it will get rejected. Any thoughts?
Your work was accepted to be presented. The proceeding was received not accepted. Then it went through editorial assessment, then through peer reviewing, now you should be contacted and they will tell you the final decision. Hopefully positive.
It already went through the reviews, revisions, then I got the acceptance email.
I am confused because the acceptance email clearly stated (our pleasure to inform you that your paper got accepted for oral presentation and publication in conference special issue). The submission to the conference was through the journal webpage and the classical steps already were conducted.
I think they weren't that clear then. Especially if you did not see any reports or nothing was stated about the referees opinion, even in a concise fill-in format such as "publish as it is". They basically accepted your oral presentation and said publication in a rush of optimism :) by the way referees are benevolent towards special issues manuscripts so don't worry too much.
Some conferences try to encourage submissions by providing an expedited path to journal publication. However, the condition is that the journal version must have x% new materials as compared to the conference version. Also, the journal version is treated like any other journal submissions but fast tracked, meaning it has a strict deadline on when acceptance will happen. The journal standard remains unchanged. So it is possible for a journal to reject the extended version of an accepted conference paper.
I agree, but I feel like this is special case. The submission to the conference was through editorial manager, and the progress from the initial submission to the revision was like the journal. They clearly stated that accepted paper (will) be published in a special issue of a journal. They do not say it will be considered. I am very confused. Sigh
It seems to me that the conference committee accepted your paper to be presented.
The related proceeding is then subjected to its own revision according to the journal standards.
This is what I get from your Q - in which is not that clear who has accepted what - and it is a common work-flow for many conferences when the proceedings are to appear in a journal, albeit in a special issue of it.
Alternatively, the editor at the journal could have decided to consult one more referee. This can happen, of course.
But in this situation you shouldn't have received any acceptance letter from the journal, yet, but only that coming from the conference organisers and regarding your actual presentation at the conference only. Hope it helps and good luck.
This probably hasn't happened in your case - but technical glitches do occur. It is possible for an acceptance email to be issued by mistake: Human error or software bug/glitch.
The main (and perhaps only) thing to do IMHO is to contact the program committee chairs or contact-person and ask.
Well, I hope it is not the case. I emailed the committee chair (who usually replies quickly) but did not reply yet. Which makes me wonder if it was mistake and they are reviewing their files.
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29652 | Can I get a job while still applying for a scholarship for PhD studies?
I'm interested in a Ph.D. program in Switzerland. I know that all Ph.D. students can apply for scholarships, and it is very possible to get it. I am wondering if, meanwhile I could find myself an actual job—and if so, if the salary is not enough, for tuition, rent, and so on, if I could still receive at least part of the scholarship?
There are several types of PhD students in Switzerland, among them are:
University/laboratory employees. These receive a monthly salary of about 3 to 4.5 kCHF (the exchange rate is approximately 1 to 1 with the US$, there are rare variations above and below this range) and have to pay a tuition that is typically in the range of 500 to 1200 CHF per year. This salary is low in comparison to the standard of the country (the median salary is about 7000) but enough to comfortably cover the cost of living and some extras. To get on these positions, you apply to them like a regular job and in an increasing number of cases, you have to apply to a graduate school. These contracts frequently include teaching duties, TA work, sometimes infrastructure work (like lab maintenance and management). Having a part-time job besides these position is not necessary, but not unheard of. Note that depending on the location, if you are issued a full time contract, you might legally not work for another employer.
SNSF-funded doctoral students. (rare in the experimental sciences, more frequent in the humanities). These applied to a grant, with the collaboration of a professor or senior researcher. They receive a stipend typically lower than the above category but still in the order of 3000 CHF. They don't have teaching duties. For part time jobs, see above.
Industry-funded PhDs. Companies like large pharmaceutical companies offer industry-based PhD studies in collaboration with the local university. I've heard mixed feedback on these, since they are often paid like a PhD student but require industry-standard commitment and constrains. No chance of having another job in general.
'Freelance' doctoral students typically ex-members of the two first categories who ran out of time as a regular student and didn't manage to finish their thesis during the time they where funded. These people have another job and try to finish on weekends and evenings. Allow 10 years until graduation.
With all this being said, I have a hard time understanding your situation, PhD studies in Switzerland are rarely funded with a 'scholarship'. I think you need to figure it out with the institution you are interested in first. It's rare that PhD students have another job, some do a bit of consulting, some have a start-up, but the PhD is typically a full time job.
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34520 | What attitude should a speaker have to going over time?
From John Baez's Advice for a Young Scientist:
Your talks should be clear, concise, fun, exciting, and never ever run over time. For each extra minute your talk runs over, 10% more of the audience will decide you are a jerk and start fantasizing about you falling down a trap door.
After 11 minutes, 110% of your audience will start hating you.
That makes perfect sense, because that includes the people waiting for the room to open up for the next talk to begin.
But some people at my college like to take the opposite view. One lecturer never releases his class until he's run at least five minutes overtime. In the mandatory presentation class, the teacher maintained that going five minutes over the twenty minute talk period time was ok, but when one student went one minute undertime, she insisted that he repeat the assignment.
My question is: how should the speaker treat overtime?
I don't understand. Are you interested how somebody in the audience should react to a speaker who goes over time or how the speaker should act when they go over? Also, are we talking about teachers or speakers at conference?
Context should give you some indication. It's very difficult to perfectly time a talk. Going a minute or two over to finish off is far from uncommon. Starting on something new, or saying 10 'last thing's gets annoying (for me at least).
For most talks, the opportunity to ask questions is expected. Sometimes that falls within the allocated time, sometimes after. Where possible organisers usually allow gaps for this sort of thing, but when there are tight time constraints you should aim to stay entirely within them.
Related-almost-duplicate: Is it reasonable for a professor to ask students to stay 30-45 minutes past scheduled class time every week?
How far over (or under) time is reasonable is something you'd measure more on a percentage-of-the-whole-talk basis, not in a fixed number of minutes. If your talk is supposed to go for an hour then two minutes over is barely noticeable - assuming you're a good enough speaker to keep people's attention that long. But if you were only supposed to have five minutes then going two minutes over is inexcusable... And I think it ridiculous that your teacher made someone repeat the assignment for being 5% short - they might just have spoken a little quickly due to nerves (perfectly understandable).
I'd hope they'd have the attitude "I'd better wrap this up quick, I'm over time!"
Even people who are enjoying your talk would have to be really enjoying it to not feel annoyed when you go over time. People have places to be, some have scheduled appointments after the talk, and some just expect their time not to be treated as worthless.
Very approximate rule of thumb, overruns are about as bad as showing up late by the same amount. People are busy and they have schedules based on when you claimed your talk would start and stop. You're choosing to mess with them.
Going over time excessively indicates that either you're a poor planner of time, or that you don't adequately respect other people's time.
With abject horror. Or at least acute embarrassment.
Perhaps you could clarify something: In many situations talk times are given in the form talk+questions, e.g. 15+5. Are you talking about eating in to your own question time or to the next speaker's slot. Most session chairs I've come across will stop you before you eat in to the next slot, but say 1/2 way in to your question time you could get away with (though aim not to).
Speaking for longer than the allotted time is unprofessional, and it can be very damaging and offensive in some circumstances. For example, if a conference schedules talks back to back, then it's not acceptable for one speaker to try to use part of the next speaker's time.
It may not be quite as bad in other cases, but it's still disrespectful to the audience. It tells the audience that the speaker believes his/her final words are more important than whatever else the audience might need to do, and it forces anyone with other obligations to risk drawing attention by leaving before the end of the talk.
Classes are something of a special case for two reasons. One is that the professor has a certain degree of power over students in the classroom, unlike a typical seminar speaker; another is that it's easy for professors to rationalize that they are going over time for their students' own good. Going over time is still problematic, but some people don't feel bad about it.
As for how to handle it, this problem should never even come up if the speaker is on top of things. It's important to keep track of the remaining time and adjust the presentation to omit details as needed to finish on time. If you screw this up, then you are out of luck if anyone is scheduled to use the room after you. Otherwise, you could apologize and offer an extremely brief summary of your remaining points. (I.e., if you suddenly discover that your time is up, that's when you should switch to the 30 or 60 second summary of your conclusions, rather than continuing with the seven minutes remaining in your talk as planned.)
However, if you're a good teacher, you allow reasonably high amount of student interaction (asking questions, on-topic discussions etc.) which can make it difficult to stay on time, especially if your subject is really important for their studies. In such cases, even as a student I would have preferred the professors to continue, but they should make it clear when the time is up, like: "Well, I'd like to finish this, it'll take like 7 extra minutes. It's of course in the lecture notes, so those who are in a hurry can leave if they wish."
@tohecz: true, but then you're prioritising your students' educations over those of the people waiting to use the room immediately after you. You might feel those other students aren't you're responsibility, but 100% of them and their teacher will start hating you, and they might convince your boss to hate you too ;-) You're also prioritising your class over the class that your students need to get to next, so even though you've given them permission to leave early and miss the extra 7 minutes, they'll hate you because they missed 7 minutes.
@SteveJessop We've got 20-minute breaks between each two lectures, so that's not an issue. Of course I know that for the students, the 7 minutes lost can mean being late for another lecture or having to skip their sandwich. However, they usually realize that if I leave it unfinished or spend 20 minutes of the next lecture on it (because you always have to re-introduce something), it's not a better choice. Of course, still this should be exceptional, but it's a reasonable option nonetheless.
Here's an extreme case of a teacher keeping his students late in lectures, underscoring your point about teachers having the potential to abuse their power over their students when they go over time: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28320/is-it-reasonable-for-a-professor-to-ask-students-to-stay-30-45-minutes-past-sche
I think the presentations teacher who is forcing students to repeat talks if they run too short is not working in reality. Her students will be very ill-prepared for real conferences, where such behavior is not likely to be appreciated.
As someone who has chaired a lot of sessions at conferences, I have to admit that I have minimal tolerance for people who try to run over their allotted slots. If your slot is 20 minutes, I will warn you when you have five minutes left and again at two minutes. If at 20 minutes, you're not on your conclusion slide, I will cut you off and ask the next speaker to set up their talk.
However, a lot of that issue comes up when one of two situations occur:
The organizers of the event where the talk takes place do a poor job of managing the session and ensuring speakers stick to their time slots.
The speaker is clearly unprepared for the time slot they have been allotted.
I recently attended a talk which should have been about 45 minutes long. When the speaker stopped, after nearly 75 minutes, he had only completed two parts out of seven in his outline. He had way too many slides, talked about each one for far too long, and generally ticked off the audience in the process.
As for lectures, as a student, I would tolerate a minimal overrun to "tie things up"—if the lecture is 90 minutes, for instance, a one- to two-minute overrun would be OK. But an extra 10 or 15 minutes would be unacceptable. As an instructor, I would rather end the class five minutes early and leave some material uncovered rather than run that far overtime.
+1 for making clear the difference between a lecture being overtime and a conference/similar talk being overtime.
+1 for "too many slides". One course I was on asked all the participants for a one-minute intro; all of them needed a PowerPoint crutch, some of them five slides...
Amongst the answers presented so far, I see a lot of strong sentiment, but am missing two things that I think are extremely important: 1) context-sensitivity, and 2) how a speaker should manage timing.
To the first point, the degree to which a speaker should be concerned with running over (or under) time is highly sensitive to the precision with which their talk is scheduled. Contrary to what most of the answers have said thus far, this can vary highly depending on venue.
Lecturing a class is the most rigid context, as students often have other classes that they must leave to go to immediately at the end. You need to stop on time, period.
Conference talks are typically designed for a five minute question period, which provides a cushion for going a couple of minutes over: you just get less questions.
In settings aimed at discussion, such as workshops, there is often a looser schedule with more flexibility and buffer times built in. Here, one can feel comfortable running over somewhat longer as long as the extra time is primarily caused by interaction with the audience, as that is the purpose.
In informal settings, such as an invited presentation in a group meeting, you can go over as long as the discussion takes you. In this type of setting, I have had a 15 minute talk turn into a 90 minute talk, because the people I was presenting to wanted to dig deep into discussion with every slide.
To the second point, for the more tightly constrained talks, it is important to also have a way of thinking about time management in order to ensure that one can end on time.
A very useful method that I learned from one of the best speakers I know is to include an "accordion section" toward the end of the talk, containing material that
is enriching but not strictly necessary. If you are running ahead of schedule, you can dawdle in the accordion section, explaining all of the lovely details. If you are running behind schedule, you can skim through.
For example, I might give a talk that ends with a couple of case studies. The first case study will get an in-depth treatment no matter what, while the second case study is there to show the generality of what I have been talking about. If I have enough time, the second case study can be presented in the same detail as the first. If not, then I can instead say something shorted, even to as short as, "X is fairly general, as can be seen by the fact that is works just as well in case study Y as well."
Thus, you should always plan your talk to be precisely on time, and include an accordion section that simplifies the task of controlling your timing. In settings where there is flexibility in the schedule, however, you should feel free to allow the audience to extend the time of your talk within the bounds of schedule flexibility.
For the conferences in my field the alotted time usually includes questions.
@cbeleites I've seen it phrased both ways, either "X minute talk" in an X minute slot or "X minute talk" in an X+Y minute slot, depending on whether they assume you're smart enough to leave time for questions. The point is: plan your talk to leave time in its slot for questions, and then you can be a little imprecise and it's OK.
@cbeleites In my field, the question time is included if you're told its included and not if you're told it's not. It's generally a good idea to find out what the rule is, rather than guessing.
Yes, the accordion section is key. How fun to know that other people call it that, too! Practicing will get you hitting your time, every time. And your audience deserves that.
The speaker should follow the guidelines given. Granted, normally one should limit a presentation to exactly 20 minutes. A range is much more common, and much more reasonable. Indeed, I would say the limit that was given was really 20-25 minutes (though not given in a very clear way).
It's like speeding. The posted speed limit is 65, so how should you consider yourself when you go over 65? You should slow down and fit within the posted limits.
In presentations, when you cannot fit your material within the allotted time, it shows your lack of preparation. If you just keep blabbing away, it shows your inability to follow your own structure. If you simply do not think the limit is important then you are showing a great disregard for the audience.
This is true of lecturers, too. If they do not care about the time limit they are simply being disrespectful. A philosopher would say being disrespectful to anyone is really showing your own disrespect to yourself.
In the end, people who do not follow the limits are saying they are special and the rules do not apply to them. Sadly, this attitude is all too common. Trying to change others is futile but we should do what we can to set a good example for others, regardless of our position.
I don't know if speeding is a good example. My observation suggests that a huge fraction of drivers, probably the majority, see no particular problem with exceeding posted speed limits.
Talk chairs, like policemen, are somewhat lenient. You can get away with going 68-70 on a 65 road, but going 100 will earn you a ticket. Similarly, if you get to the end of your allotted time and it's clear that you only need an extra minute or so, nobody is going to stop you; if you are still halfway through your talk, a good chair will step in and tell you to stop talking right away.
@NateEldredge If you are in the US, I completely agree with you. There is a very high disregard for speed limits in the US. This is not true in other countries. Switzerland, as one example. Clearly different cultures care about different things...and that should be factored into my answer.
@earthling it's not that americans don't care about the speed limit, it's just that the posted speed limits are always around 5-10 mph below the real limit (i.e. what a cop would actually stop you for going).
Keeping to time is just basic respect, for your audience and for any fellow speakers.
Admittedly, it varies somewhat with context - the only presentation at a group meeting going over probably doesn't have many knock-on effects, whereas at a conference there's coffee going cold outside, parallel sessions getting out of sync, and generally far more going on and more people to annoy.
That said, a rule of thumb: Is your time worth more than that of everyone in the audience combined? No? Then don't finish late - even when they all filed in five minutes late (another pet hate of mine). Yes? No, it isn't.
At the courses and conferences where I've presented, I've always been the last speaker before lunch, where you're already struggling to keep the audience's attention before you start. With a bad chairman, half of that last slot can disappear easily; that speaker is then faced with either making everyone late for lunch or mutilating his/her presentation. Bad chair or not, it's disrespectful for earlier speakers to put other speakers in that position. Admittedly, my experience is that you get massive brownie points for getting back on track and saving the lunch break, and you can get some interesting conversations in the lunch queue as a result, but you shouldn't have to.
Within the department, where we're being kept from actual productive work, I like to count the people in the room, calculate a rough figure for their combined hourly cost, and hence work out how much of our hard-earned funding is being wasted every minute that the speaker goes over. Needless to say, I'm not paying attention while doing this.
The worst example of going overtime that I've experienced was at a conference with a number of lunchtime sessions. Someone whose name started with Sir was assigned one of the first ones, and he was still talking (and his audience still hungry) when the second sessions were over and we were meant to be back in the main auditorium. As it happens, that was the same room where we were booked to give the second session; we ended up giving a software demo standing in the hallway, with one of us holding a laptop for the other and people pressing in to see what should have been projected on the wall.
So, having been on the receiving end of it both as audience member and speaker, my personal tolerance for it is very low indeed. From discussions with many colleagues over many years, I haven't found one yet who's OK with it, even when they find the topic interesting.
Going overtime in a conference is a nightmare for the organising committee. Usually, there are parallel sessions focusing on different topics, and people try to make their own collision-free schedule to make the most of the conference, if one talk gets shifted, the people changing rooms will be affected. Also, it is common to have a few keynote speakers for the whole conference, but if one session is very delayed, you are either forcing the whole conference to wait for you (and then you will get the hate of 10x the audience of your talk), or make people miss the keynote (that is presumably of particular interest).
Exact timing of a presentation is difficult, but perfectly doable. You should rehearse it until you are confident. You can always take an extra minute from the questions, but then be aware that you are depriving another person from speaking.
Don't do it. If you do, don't expect attention from anyone after your allotted time. The busier people in the audience may very well need to leave at the scheduled end-time in order to make their next meeting.
I think the amount of time leeway in how long you can talk is proportional to how long you are talking. If you are supposed to give a 4 minute summary and it takes 6 minutes, that is too long. Similarly, giving a 4 minute summary in 2 minutes is too short. Alternatively, I think it is perfectly reasonable if a 60 minute lecture takes anywhere between 58 and 62 minutes. I think audiences will generally give you up to a 10% margin for error. Many talks, both research and teaching, also include a small period of time for questions at the end which provides a nice buffer.
For a typical teaching scenario a 1 hour time slot is often only 50 minutes of teaching and you might allocated your self 3 minutes for questions at the end. This means you should be aiming for your class to take between a 43 and 51 minutes. If you hit 51 minutes, you apologize and tell the students they can stop by your office to ask questions and that there will be a chance for questions at the next session and you let them out 1 minute late. If you finish early you can ask for questions. If you do not get questions you can recap the syllabus and schedule for a few minutes and let them go 5 minutes early.
There are many contexts where it is extremely important that talks fit the allocated time as precisely as possible. Some other contexts benefit from more flexibility. A speaker may be able to precisely predict how long it will take to present a certain corpus of material, but it's much harder to predict how long it will take to present the amount of material the speaker has which the audience will be interested in. In some contexts it may be better to have the speakers guess what the audience will want to hear and present a fixed corpus of information, but in others it may be better to have speakers adjust the lengths of their presentations according to the audiences' levels of interest. The latter approach would likely be better most of the time but for the fact that speakers and audience members may have conflicting time obligations elsewhere. The problems created by conflicting time obligations, however, often outweigh the benefits of such flexibility.
If in a certain context a speaker could go overtime without creating difficulties for himself, the audience, or anyone else who would want to use the space, then it may be good for the speaker to adjust the length of his talk according to what the audience wants to hear. Such situations are not the norm, however. If a particular conference or convention has many activities which people will be able to do at "any time", and most visitors will be expected to want to spend a lot of time on such activities, then it may make sense to have talks which might benefit from going overtime be followed by "free time".
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13462 | Statement of Purpose-How specific it should be?
I have a doubt regarding the Statement of Purpose for grad school.
Toward the end of the essay, should I specify the list of professors who I am interested to work with? For example:
"...Since research in this field is very active in Dr. A's, Dr. B’s, Dr. C’s groups at XXX University, I would like to apply to your program..."
My concern is: though doing so may indicate that I have read about the professors and their works (which is a plus I suppose), it is risky at the same time. What if Dr.[A-C] are not able to accept more people to their labs? Will the admission committee automatically disqualify my application in this case?
Hence, I would love to hear more advices from you of how to play it safe: whether such specifications are needed, and how to phrase them properly.
Thanks!
Disclaimer: I am still a graduate student and my experience is limited to my own application process and as a student member of my department's graduate admissions committee.
I have seen that specific reasons are almost always better than general reasons. When I was going through the application process, my SOP always mentioned current specific projects that my POI's were doing and how I could be an optimal choice for those projects in the near future with my background and current research. This approach seems to have worked well enough for me.
During multiple interviews in the application process, my SOP was often alluded to, especially in context with these specific projects and my fit with them.
If you have specific and substantial reasons for wanting to work with a particular professor, definitely mention them by name and say why. But do not lie, do not bluff, and do not just drop names and paper titles. Admissions committees already know you can use Google; anyone can read the department web page. But actually incorporating appropriate technical details from someone's papers into your own research plans will generally draw their attention and impress them.
What if Dr.[A-C] are not able to accept more people to their labs? Will the admission committee automatically disqualify my application in this case?
It should. If you want to be a student in department X specifically to work with Prof. A, but Prof. A is not taking students, then joining department X anyway would be stupid. In that case, you should hope that Department X rejects your application.
I don't understand your last sentence
If the only advisor you want to work with is not accepting students, then it's better for you to be rejected by their department.
I mean, is it because you will have a courage to apply to another department?
No, I mean because you really don't want to go to a department that doesn't have a suitable advisor. I already assume that you're applying to multiple departments; applying to ony one department is reckless under the best of circumstances.
"Admissions committees already know you can use Google; anyone can read the department web page." I'm pretty sure there are many applicants who cannot do those things.
Perhaps I should have written "assume" instead of "know".
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11789 | talk with professors about prospective graduate study
Following some tips about graduate study, I have contacted the professors before the admission cycle, and managed to secure some appointments with them. I have read through their publications that match my research interests, and prepared some brief write up about my research experiences (though I had sent them my CV beforehand).
I am just confused about what I should expect from such meetings. To be frank, do you think to impress them to the point that they agree to accept me is a feasible thing? Or I should aim for something simpler, like maintaining relationships with them through this semester?
I endorse such meetings, but keep them brief. Prepare a couple of questions, not too many, listen to them talk about their research (and maybe their graduate program), thank them, and get out of their hair.
I don't know what "maintaining relationships with them through this semester" means, but unless it involves you having something to offer them, or having particular questions which are uniquely important to your case, and whose answers can't be determined by looking at the department's website, then I recommend against it.
Good luck to you.
Hi, thanks for your comment. So, could that imply that to contact the professors in person before the admission to increase the chance is just a myth? Says, if he "likes" me, can he do anything at all to interfere with the admission process? I am talking about the graduate programs that do not require contacting the home faculties. For the ones that require, I assume that such meetings is a must
I don't know whether it's a myth or not. Individual professors certainly can influence the admissions process, but generally choose not to, unless there is a very particular and specific reason. Also, I'm not aware of programs that require such meetings, which suggests that maybe your corner of academia is far from mine, in which case please take my advice with a grain of salt.
As a rule, I think such meetings are a bad idea. At a minimum you should go in with no admissions agenda. If you are interested in research and only research I think the meeting will go well. But if your real agenda is to help the admissions process, they will read through the facade and probably be annoyed.
exactly what I have been pondering on. Thanks.
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46961 | How do journal editors and reviewers view previously published conference paper?
I am submitting my paper to a journal, but a very small part of the work was previously presented in a quite prestigious international conference (although not the top). The journal policy allows for this, given the revised journal version has at least 30% novelty as a thumb rule. It even allows some copied texts and figures, which I do not have.
So from what I see, it is not absolutely necessary for me to mention the conference edition as part of this work although I am citing it as relevant, along with other references. But researchers will understand that it is not black and white, but gray. The previous research will always somewhat influence the future research.
If I do mention the conference presentation as part of the submitted work, will it make the work more authentic to the reviewers? Will they somehow take it more seriously, so to say? I am interested in the opinions of experienced reviewers and editors.
Just to make it clear, in my field, journals are considered more prestigious and they publish the more refined, expanded versions.
Also, this journal has an anonymous review process, but not double-blind.
There doesn't seem to be any issue here. The journal explicitly allows you to publish material based on conference papers. By omitting mention of the conference paper, you are risking being seen as trying to hide something. Why wouldn't you just be transparent?
it is not absolutely necessary for me to mention the conference edition as part of this work — Yes it absolutely is. "Portions of this work were previously present at the 43rd Annual Conference of Really Cool Stuff [5]." Leaving this out of your journal paper runs a serious risk of rejection without review.
I do not think you really have a choice here: if part of the paper has been previously published elsewhere, you need to mention that fact explicitly. Not mentioning such is generally considered self-plagiarism and looked on very badly.
Now, depending on how you are re-using the material, there are two different ways that you might do it. If you were doing a typical "extended version" paper, then the appropriate thing to do is to state this fact both in the introduction and in the cover letter.
It sounds, however, like it's less an extended paper than a repeat of a particular section. In that case, I would instead recommend putting early in the repeated section a statement like:
"This section has been adapted from [citation]"
For example, I often do this when presenting background sections, on which the new results of a paper will then be built. The background section will be adapted to fit the circumstances, of course, but rather than artificially try to paraphrase definitions just for the sake of avoiding self-plagiarism, I prefer to handle the issue by making a clearly stated reuse of background material that is similar in spirit to a block quotation.
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69475 | Do Postdocs have any seniority ranking or progress?
I am seeing many people doing postdocs for years, or even nearly a decade, well into their late thirties. Do they usually have progressive salary and responsibility, as one could expect in a job? Is your fifth or sixth year as a postdoc essentially the same as your first month after PhD., but with some extra publications?
For clarification, this is what I mean by progress.
In your later years, do you get to build and lead a small team of junior researchers who you hire from your grant, whom you can give some instruction, or you divide the tasks of a more ambitious project and you take some supervisory role in addition to your own hands-on research? I do not expect it to be completely managerial because I know postdocs love the actual research…but at least some mark of seniority and experience?
It depends on the institution and supervisor. Salary progression seems pretty common.
Also depends on the field and country.
Of all the kinds of academic positions, the postdoc is probably the most variable. The common ground across (almost) all postdoctoral positions is: you should have a doctoral degree when you start the position, and the position should not be permanent or tenure-track. That's really about it. (Added: I agree with @StrongBad that most postdoctoral positions have an expectation of "advanced training" of one kind or another.)
It is rare for a single postdoc position to last more than 4-5 years. In my understanding, the ones that do are soft-money positions and thus are more explicitly doing specified projects for the PI / grantholder. I am not aware of any kind of formal seniority across multiple postdocs: generally the reason that someone does a second postdoc is because they want a permanent academic job and haven't gotten one yet. They may also want additional specific training / the chance to work with other researchers, but this really is "additional" rather than on top of.
In terms of salary: in my experience [mathematics, US], postdoc salaries are rather flat across the period of employment. (I previously had more detailed information, but I am less confident that it is representative even among math postdocs in the US.) In my department we have one kind of postdoc that pays about $10K per year more than another postdoc is funded by an NSF grant, and the salaries for the latter postdoc are set by the NSF, so will be the same unless / until we get a new grant (or an updated version of the same).
When it comes to skilled labor, wherever you work for a year or more, you gain knowledge, experience and seniority in some informal sense. One might say that a postdoc is a process of laundering a student into a faculty member, so late-career postdocs resemble faculty members more than early career postdocs. Most postdocs in mathematics find their way from a combination of completing / continuing their thesis work and starting new projects with their new supervisor to developing a distinctive and independent research program. Although the particulars differ across fields, I think that something like this is the goal of most postdocs: if a postdoc only does their supervisor / PI's work then it will be difficult for them to portray themselves as a valuable faculty hire.
For math postdocs, the only formal seniority comes from teaching obligations: namely most math postdocs start out teaching freshman / sophomore level courses. If they are competent at their teaching and interested in teaching other courses (not all postdocs are), many postdocs move on to teach a junior/senior level course for majors in their second year and some postdocs teach a graduate course in their last year. (In my fifth semester as a postdoc I was able to teach a topics course in the arithmetic of Shimura varieties. I have since taught about a dozen graduate courses, but none as advanced as that.)
In your later years, do you get to build a small team of junior researchers who you hire from your grant whom you can give some instruction,,
Some postdocs are not associated to a grant in any way; they are rather temporary faculty funded by their department. Some postdocs work under their PI's grant, in which case the answer to the question is up to the PI (and the grant proposal). Some postdocs receive grant funding of their own, in which
case some kind of money for junior personnel may well be included. Also some postdocs work with graduate students, in a variety of different ways. My current postdoc is for instance a member of the dissertation committee of one of my students.
or you divide the tasks of a more ambitious project and you take some supervisory role in addition to your own hands-on research?
That could happen. Some large research groups employ postdocs in a kind of managerial role.
I do not expect it to be completely administrative or managerial because I know postdocs love the actual research…but at least some mark of seniority and experience?
Keep in mind that any seniority you acquire as a postdoc is ephemeral. Spending too much time doing administrative / managerial work as a postdoc sounds very risky if you are aiming for a permanent faculty position. Some departments somewhere must be hiring some faculty largely for their administrative skills...but I confess I have never seen it with my own eyes.
@Chris: It means the first thing, if by "work" you mean anything that contributes to the department / university rather than the postdoc's own research program. Such a postdoc would be free to (i) get an outside, even non-academic [though it seems unlikely] job over the summer, (ii) apply for summer research funds (e.g. NSF provides some), or (iii) try to teach a course over the summer if they really want a "12 month salary". For postdocs interested in a tenure track job at a research university, the last is a pretty bad idea, IMO.
In addition to a doctoral degree and temporary, the NIH and NSF, at the least, also require "mentored advance training" in post doc positions (see my answer.
I'm happy - for mathematicians - to hear that $45,000 is not considered competitive anymore (implying that more is now usual)! In my wife's fairly trendy field (neuroscience) that's a standard Postdoc salary when provided through PI grants (pretty much always during the first, or first two years), and if you want more, you need to go out and get your own grant (which still would probably be capped by the $55,000 you mention).
I do not believe math postdocs can be usefully compared to postdocs in any other field. Accordingly, although this response is excellent (as usual), I do not think it answers the original question.
@Pete why is that a really bad idea?
@Tom: I agree that math postdocs have some distinctive features. On the one hand, a math postdoc is a kind of postdoc, and I think a positive proportion of the users of this site are interested in math postdocs. On the other hand, I included some information about postdocs other than in mathematics. So I think this answers the original question...partially. It would be good to see other answers as well.
@Azor-Ahai: Well, I said "pretty bad". The reason is that a postdoc is a training / audition for something else, namely a permanent academic job. The amount of additional salary you get by teaching a summer course is probably not going to offset the loss of research time. This assumes, by the way, that you are teaching during the academic year (as is the case for most math postdocs); if you aren't, then teaching over the summer sounds like a good idea.
@StrongBad: Yes, I agree, at least in theory. However: tenure track faculty can also have faculty mentors. For me, the amount of mentorship I got as a postdoc was about the same as the amount I got in the first two years of my tenure track job (small, but positive, as much as I wanted, and very useful nevertheless). I did not do any joint work in any sense with my postdoctoral supervisor.. (Except that he generously paid me to read through a book he had just written. I did this the summer before I started, and I got paid extra for it.) Tom Church's comment seems applicable here!
By the way: non-STEM fields also have postdocs. See e.g. http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/Humanities_and_Social_Sciences_Postdocs_2015-16. My guess is that in many of these fields, postdocs are close to the kind of "visiting assistant professor" position that they often are in mathematics.
@gnome: By "not competitive," I meant that the majority of math departments we consider to be our peers or aspirational peers [a lovely term I learned from a dean on a job interview many years ago] offer more. I didn't mean to imply that (i) no else pays this little or (ii) we can't fill the positions. But it is not an attractive feature of the offer, if you take my meaning.
About salaries: our department (a peer to Pete's I'd say), pays almost 10k more to postdocs, and feel that's not as competitive as we'd like. Also, I received a pay increase as a postdoc at MIT, and since our salaries are public record can confirm that postdocs in our department have received (small) increases over the course of their time at UVA.
@Ben: Based on your comments I took out some of the information which was specific and detailed to my institution. I don't want to speak for all of math postdocs in the US if it's not representative...and I don't want to call too much negative attention to my own department! (Also, your institution may be more like an "aspirational peer." Finally, it must be said that the cost of living in Athens, GA is notably low compared to everywhere else I have ever lived...)
For math postdocs, the only formal seniority comes from teaching obligations - I don't think there's much correlation between "seniority" and what kinds of classes postdocs teach at my department. They teach what we need them to. This could be 1000 or 4000 level classes their first year. (Though they do get a chance to express preferences after their first year.) I don't know which scenario is more common.
In order to answer this, we first need to define what a post doc is. I have talked about how the NIH defines a post doc in this answer. Both the NIH and NSF define a post doc as
An
individual
who
has
received
a doctoral
degree
(or
equivalent)
and
is engaged
in
a
temporary
and
definedperiod
of
mentored
advanced
training
to
enhance
the
professional
skills
and
research
independence
needed
to pursue
his
or
her
chosen
career
path.
In terms of salary progression, the NIH has a scale: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-16-047.html. It starts at $43,692 for a new post doc and progresses to $57,504 after 7 years of experience.
Within the NIH framework post docs are either funded through a grant to a PI (e.g., R01) or an NRSA postdoctoral fellowship (e.g., F32). The post doctoral fellowships do not provide funding for hiring staff. After finishing their training, many post docs choose to stay in the lab of their mentor as a research scientist on soft money. They can then apply for research grants and hire and supervise staff.
This varies quite a bit from country to country, field to field and even group to group.
In the US and Canada, I've never seen a lab where the postdocs are officially ranked (e.g., Sarah is a senior postdoc and has some sort of authority over Nick the Newbie and Jamie the junior postdoc). However, it's not uncommon for an informal hierarchy to arise, where a senior postdoc does his own research and works closely with newer staff interested in a very similar topic.
This is partly a matter of seniority and experience (a postdoc has a PhD + a few years of experience, versus a brand new masters' student). It is also influenced by how research happens: new projects often involve a lot of work that is difficult to parallelize, but once they are up and running, there is often a surfeit of directions one could take: existing data could be analyzed in many new ways; it might also suggest obvious follow-up experiments using the existing setup. Having new students/postdocs work on this can be a great way to get new staff up to speed (or could even be a complete project for undergrad/masters' students), while helping the postdoc get publications out.
The postdoc probably would not independently hire new staff, but they might get some say in choosing between potential lab members.
As others have said, it varies. In Australia, I have seen:
Postdocs on insecure soft money go from one postdoc position to another for years on end, with only cost of living salary increases and no change in title or responsibility;
Postdocs on more secure soft money gradually working their way up the academic ranks, with job titles changing from "research associate" to "research fellow" to "senior research fellow", or from "postdoctoral fellow" to "research projects officer", and becoming more and more involved in writing grant applications and managing stakeholder relations as they go;
Postdocs who are told in advance that they have three years in which they will be given advanced research training and financial support, but with no chance of extension;
Postdocs moving from one institution to another either at the same level or with an increase in pay and job title.
I've never personally seen a postdoc given official management responsibilities, but it is common for even first-year postdocs to unofficially be managing postgraduate students and technical staff.
At a UK institution, pay is often set to a single pay spine system where pay goes up annually (this can be automatic or based on merit).
In terms of supervisory roles, a PI may ask for help supervising student or postgraduate projects. But this is usually informal.
It would be unusual for a postdoc to be PI on grants big enough to hire from, and the postdoc would be able to get a lectureship with ease off such a grant.
" get a lectureship with ease off such a grant."---what does that mean? If he brings the big grant, then the school will promote him to a faculty?
One of the main roles of lecturing staff is to bring in grant money. If one can bring in large grants(i.e. one big enough to hire other staff with), it would be trivial to make a case for promotion/move to another institution into a lectureship. The same is true for lecturers, if they can bring in a very large grant as PI (>£1 million, say), the school will likely promote them to professor.
So the grants are tied to the person? If he moves to a different institution, the grants he got (on behalf of the school) will leave with him?
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45601 | What does a university's acceptance rate indicate?
If the acceptance rate of a university is 90%, does that mean it accepts 90 out of every 100 students that apply?
Does a university's acceptance rate indicate its quality? Most top universities have low acceptance rates, however some good universities have high acceptance rates.
If the acceptance rate of a university is 90%, does that mean it accepts 90 students from 100 that applied?
Yes.
Does the acceptance rate of universities indicate the quality of them?
No, not particularly. For example, it's possible to get a good education at an institution with open admissions. It's true that low acceptance rates are correlated with quality, for at least two reasons. A university that is perceived as being of high quality will often receive more applications than it has space available for students, and being able to choose high-achieving students will help create an academically stimulating atmosphere and enable the university to offer more demanding courses. However, this correlation is far from perfect. Acceptance rates are essentially a popularity contest: you are measuring a combination of how many students apply and how many accept an offer of admission. Like most popularity contests, they only tell you so much.
It's also worth noting that these statistics can be intentionally skewed by universities. Because college rankings in the U.S. often involve acceptance rates, some schools have adapted by deliberately advertising to try to attract applications from students they have no interest in admitting (increasing the total number of applications decreases the acceptance rate). This makes the acceptance rate even less meaningful than it used to be.
Added in response to Kimball's question about references:
I don't know of a definitive reference. It's widely believed to be happening, but it's difficult to prove since who would admit it? (Instead of saying "we're soliciting mediocre applications just to be able to reject them," any competent admissions director would say "we're casting a wide net to make sure talented students don't get overlooked.") Certainly schools that are concerned about their rankings are trying hard to get more applications; see, for example, this story about Northeastern, which suggests but doesn't explicitly say that Northeastern is more concerned about the number of additional applications than their quality (the closest it comes is "The more applications NU could drum up, the more students they could turn away, thus making the school appear more selective"). See also this NYT story, which discusses attracting more applications as a form of ranking manipulation (but attributes this information to unnamed admissions directors and doesn't mention any concrete examples). For comparison, seeking more applications is not so extreme: Clemson has been accused of far more dramatic forms of ranking manipulation.
some schools have adapted by deliberately advertising to try to attract applications from students they have no interest in admitting - Do you have any reference for this out of curiosity?
An addition for your last paragraph: This goes both ways; in some countries, public university funding is partly based on acceptance numbers, in which case the statement "the more accepted students, the more money" is valid. In such places, universities are motivated to intentionally accept as many students as possible (just to try and kick as many of them out within the first two semesters by making the first few exams the most difficult throughout a whole major - with failure rates of 70 to 80% being normal).
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48284 | How do junior faculty in the U.S. normally address senior faculty in emails?
In the United States, what is the common way junior faculty address senior faculty in the same department or different department?
Hi First or Last name
Hi Dr ___
Dear Dr __
Dear Doctor ___
Dear Prof. ___
Dear Professor ___
No greetings, start the topic directly.
Varies from place to place, surely. Around here you would not say Dear Lastname. But you might say Dear Firstname.
Another option is to use neither 'Hi' nor 'Dear', but start with a name.
In my experience in the United States, most professors invite even their graduate students to call them by their given (first) name. Junior faculty would be no less invited to familiar address. Whether you say "Hi, Name" or just dive into communication is often a matter of personal style and communication medium---for example, emailing from one's phone often has much terser communication, and this is generally understood and not taken amiss.
Just because you are addressing somebody by their given name, however, doesn't mean you are actually an intimate or a peer. Many senior faculty in the United States will still expect deference by junior faculty; they will just expect it to be shown by the tone and actions of interaction, rather than merely the formality of address.
Just don't do this outside the USA without understanding that different cultures may approach this very differently.
No kidding! I wrote an collegial email in response to a concern that a senior professor in the UK brought up in an email to me (at the time I was an assistant professor in the US), and began it with "Dear First Name," and he got seriously huffy with me!!!
@Alexis - That seems really odd to me as even when I was a student at Lancaster everyone was addressed on first name terms right up the chain.
At some institutions, the University of Chicago, for example, that is actually a rule. The are more formal options, like calling everyone Mr/s. But many times the idea is to treat everyone as equal scholars.
An advice and manners column I once read suggested you start (as in, you have no real history with this person, and you've had little communication before this point) written communications off formally—the Professor title is superior to, and trumps, the doctor title, for the record— and then from there address them in accordance to how they sign their responses. If you write to "Professor Jerrys" and he signs his response "Ben", then he has given you implicit permission to address him as Ben, and it would be appropriate for you to do so in the future. The nature of how they write their message will also give you indicators: if they're saying "howdy" to you then they're not looking to be on formal terms with you, and things like that.
When in doubt: ask them directly. Everyone's familiar with this problem and has gone through it themselves.
In my experience, in the US once you have your doctorate you can be on a first-name basis with your university's faculty by default: at that point you are officially their colleague. For some professors this extends down to their doctoral students, others to all graduate students, and to yet others it applies to everyone. The state you're in can even affect the level of formality a typical faculty member expects from any given person, due to slight cultural differences between states.
Note that this will change wildly from culture to culture. In France, for example, it's a flat hierarchy with essentially no titular addresses. Students invariably address their (male) professors as "Monsieur", and a famous professor could be teaching problem sessions to a lecture run by an unproven fresh hire. Which is not to say there's no social hierarchy at all (the famous guy will most certainly be treated more nicely than the new guy and given more deference), it's just that an institutionalized hierarchy is nearly non-existent. Japan, on the other hand, is very formal (in some ways the language is really two languages: one formal, the other informal) and a first-name basis is generally reserved only for very close acquaintances, like family members and lovers (even friends may still address each other in a formal way).
On that note, I just remembered a story a colleague once told me about the time he spent in Britain. There, he said, the extremely important and powerful guys that had a dozen titles (doctorate, professor, head of multiple societies, etc., for example) were always addressed as "Mr.". So if you were at a university, you'd know that those called "Dr." and "Professor" were pretty normal and weren't going to be the top dogs, but as soon as you were introduced to a "Mr." you knew you were in the presence of a very powerful and amazing man that you needed to show great respect to.
If I'm asking the Chair what she's bringing to the department potluck, it's "Dear Jane" but if I'm asking for additional research funds or trying to get out of committee duty, it's "Dear Prof. Doe" or "Dear Chair Doe" depending on how much I'm trying to suck up.
The more interesting question is how you address the provost or deans.
Does seniority play a role, or do you address faculty more junior than you by title for work related things?
At my university, we tend to eschew titles as a whole. Graf students call faculty by their first name so it'd be unusual if junior faculty acted differently.
You should ask the question about how to address a Provost and Dean.
You would have to clarify what types of addressing you're talking about: conversational (casual and official), written (casual and official) or both. This is, because I believe that there are significant differences in addressing, based on this factor. There are most likely other potential factors, including geographical and cultural academic traditions, particular academic institution's or department's collegial or other atmosphere, professional personal relationships and more.
UPDATE (per OP's clarification):
For the written casual addressing, I would use the same type of addressing you're using (or would use) with that person in a conversation. On the other hand, for the written formal type of addressing, I would consider a "Dear Dr. -Last Name-" or "Dear Professor -Last Name-" to be the safest option. However, keep in mind that some professors insist on addressing them by first name, so, in that case, "Dear -First Name-" is appropriate.
written - email
@ThomasLee: Please see my update above.
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111193 | How to cope with a situation, when I withdrew from a job search, but now I regret it?
I applied for a position. Before the interview, I was encouraged by the selection committee that I was a very good candidate. But I was not sure. I thought it is far more above my capabilities, I was not sure what to do with my family (it was not a permanent position), etc. After the interview, I just withdrew even before I knew the results.
Now, after a couple of weeks, I think I made a mistake. Should I try to correct it? To ask them if the position is still available? It is in different country, so I have only email contacts.
Or should I just leave it as it is? I have the feeling, that if I will leave as it is, they will think I am arrogant because I rejected them. What would be the best solution?
of course, send the email
After how much time? Overnight? A couple days? A couple of weeks?
Is this a position you now want? Or are you simply worried about the committee's perception of you? It is not clear from the question. What is the goal?
Your chances are low, but nothing can you lose. You won't lose face, these things are much more common as you would think. In your case I would try.
I would let them know that you now believe that you made a mistake in turning them down and that you did so only for external (family) reasons. Thank them for their interest in you and tell them that the other issues have resolved themselves and you are in a position now to accept an offer. Thanking them is the most important part, just to keep lines of communication open. For future reference, a position that doesn't seem permanent might develop in to one if you develop a good relationship. It might be nothing more than an inability to commit to a long term position now.
Two weeks sounds like a lot of time and it is likely the position was already offered to another candidate. If it was, you lose nothing by sending an email. If it was not, they probably do not have an appointable candidate and in this case they can be actually quite happy to offer the position to you. However, consider providing a brief explanation of why you have withdrawn and why you are now asking to reconsider you for the post. The appointing committee needs some reassurance that you will take the post if you are offered it.
Yes - if a committee makes encouraging comments, they really want you. If you turn them down, that's fine (in general) as long as you haven't toyed with them. However, coming back to them without a good argument why may come down as dithering - and that's something that committees do not like to see. There needs to be some perspective of what caused the change in your thinking and why this exhibition of indecisiveness is a one-off.
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31623 | Who reads teaching evaluations?
At the end of each semester, usually a month before final exams, my school (in the US) distributes teaching evaluations. What people will read these? Do people only see these after the final grades are posted?
Depends on the university. At my university we see the anonymous feedback ~one month after the end of the course.
This is too broad to be answerable. At my university, all evaluations are anonymous and are publicly available at the university webpages, so everybody reads them: future students deciding which courses to take, the department head, your jealous colleagues if you are good, your good colleagues pointing out that even your teaching is bad if you are bad. But it depends, in some schools, there might be an evaluation committee, in some the papers are collected and never read, ...
In my experience, faculty don't get to see these survey results until after grades have been submitted. Typically, any handwritten comments are typed into the survey summary so that there would be no chance of recognizing a student's handwriting. All of this is intended to protect students from faculty who might take revenege for negative evaluations.
And among those who read them, how many actually care? Anyway, in some universities (e.g. where I work) teachers can read teaching evaluations before the exams.
@MassimoOrtolano: To go even a step further, I know universities that place the evaluations in the middle of the semester and require professors to present the evaluation results in class to discuss options for improving the class with the students. Like that, students may still benefit from some improvements at least during the last few weeks of the semester - and in case of any problems with the exam preparation in the class, there is still a little time to for the professor to react to that before the exams.
My experience (only one place, could vary)... The anonymous results go to the instructor (after grades have been submitted). They may (if they choose) voluntarily submit the numerical summaries to the relevant committee when they apply for tenure or promotion. Although this is technically voluntary, it may be assumed by higher administrators that failure to submit evaluations means you are a bad teacher, and that may be a negative factor in your tenure or promotion case.
While this may vary significantly from institution to institution, my understanding is that, in the US at least, evaluations are at least read by:
The instructor, who needs to get feedback on their teaching efficacy
Others in the department who are evaluating the instructor, e.g., as part of tenure and promotion review, as part of peer mentoring, as part of a departments' own ongoing self-management.
They may also end up being read by other administrators (internal or external, e.g., certification authorities) who are monitoring a department's teaching quality, and may be distributed to students to help them decide which classes to take. In these latter cases, it is likely that a summary will be distributed rather than the raw evaluations.
Timing with respect to finals and grading varies. In all cases, however, institutions tend to take pains to preserve student privacy so that unless somebody leaves a clearly identifying mark in the comments it should be unable to affect their grades either way.
That tallies with my experience as an adjunct professor in the US. For me, the best feedback is in the "open ended" responses: What can the professor do better? What does the professor do well? There are generally one or two gems from each class in those sections that help me figure out how to do better for the next class.
One subtlety at my university (which I didn't know until I'd been here for a decade) is that the individual teaching evaluation forms are available only to the instructor. Department heads, promotion committees, awards committees, and the like only have access to the average scores for the first two questions (quality of instructor / quality of course). In particular, only the instructor sees the students' narrative comments.
@peter-k I've had the same experience too. I eagerly wait the "comments" section of our teacher evaluations as they are typically very useful. BTW, one more data point: in our institution, these comments can only be seen by the instructor (but the averages scores are completely public).
In the university I attended, evaluations were in two parts. A number ranking (1-5) on some university wide (and sometimes department wide) questions were available to the department. A second set of open-answer questions were available to the professor only.
Other universities have different policies, including as open as making all the evaluations available (in an anonymized fashion) on the university website. Often a department secretary (or possibly assistant to the Chair of the department) is tasked with handling these evaluations. They (or your advisor) should be able to answer how your university handles them.
It is nearly universal (in the US at least) that the evaluations are not given to the professor until after final grades are turned in. This avoids the appearance of retaliation for a bad review (or reward for a good one).
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107477 | Which license should be chosen in arXiv for a paper to be published in IEEE TPDS?
I would like to know what license needs to be chosen in arXiv for a paper that is to be sent to an IEEE journal, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS).
Arxiv licenses:
non-exclusive and irrevocable license to distribute the article.
Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0).
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0).
I read numerous pages like A, B, and C, but I didn't find my answer.
Arxiv has a minimal license option. If any of them work, that's the one.
I am no lawyer and I have not read the complete legalese, but as far as I see, the first option (non-exclusive and irrevocable license to distribute the article) is the only possible valid one, as it is the most restrictive.
All the Creative Commons licenses would allow others to distribute a copy of your paper (with attribution and some possible restrictions, such as the non-commercial clause). However the IEEE policy allows only the following:
Author’s personal website
Author’s employer’s website
arXiv.org
Funder’s repository
[...] The posted article must be removed from any other third-party servers.
So using a CC license would result in a conflict, as you cannot both allow others to distribute copies while at the same time guaranteeing to the IEEE that there will be no copies on other servers.
This does not guarantee that the first option is the right one, however since the IEEE explicitly allows arXiv.org and we have excluded all the others, they will probably not complain...
Is the first option the most restrictive or the least restrictive?
I would call it the most restrictive, as the author gives away the least amount rights to others.
This might be relevant after the OP has signed away their rights.
Prevent IEEE access restrictions - Don't use option 1
The IEEE's ability to legally restrict access is based on having exclusive rights, which they take from you by strong-arming you into signing those away.
The solution is using the standard trick: to actually grant the relevant rights beforehand to someone else - without losing them yourself - so that when you sign the IEEE copyright form, there will be someone else to give you the rights back afterwards. That's why you should choose one of the last three options, never the first one.
Recommendation: CC-BY-SA
Personally, I would tend not to restrict commercial use from the get-go. It's tempting, but when you think about it - the social damage from having to go through you for economic use of your findings is probably higher than the benefit of sticking it to the large corporations or what-not.
As for public domain - I'd be against it, since attribution is important not just to you but also for academic/scientific work. So, wanna use my paper? Citation please.
Non-SA licenses: I would be worried about derivative work being non-free.
To be honest, though, this isn't a strong recommendation and all three are fine by me I guess.
Coming very late and just having the same problem,
https://conferences.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/get-published/post-your-paper/#preprint says
Upon acceptance of the paper by IEEE, the author must replace the
posted preprint paper with either (1) the full citation to the IEEE
work with the DOI, or (2) the accepted version of the paper with the
DOI and an appropriate copyright notice (as described in the “Accepted
paper” section below). No other changes may be made to the accepted
paper.
It seems to me that IEEE does not (anymore?) restrict the freedom to choose any of the five licensing options for the preprint. However, if one chooses to upload the IEEE accepted version to arXiv, an "appropriate copyright notice" must be added (apparently the one agreed with IEEE). I understand that if you upload the accepted version then you'd have to choose option 1 (the most restrictive one) to remain consistent.
(I'm also not a lawyer, but hope that helps.)
For the rest, I agree with the other answers.
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91742 | Is it the denomination of the PhD course very important?
I received an unconditional offer for a PhD from two different universities. The first from a famous Department of English. The second from an average Department of Comparative Literature. (I have an MA in Comparative Literature and have studied Russian and English).
My research proposal - for which I received an offer in both departments – has, however, a multi-national and theoretical approach. I was wondering: if I accept the offer at the Department of English, will I still be able, after graduation, to apply for a post-doc position in Comparative Literature? Clearly, I wish to publish papers in Comparative Literature and write my PhD dissertation with a comparative approach.
P.S.: I don't know if this information is necessary, but I am an Italian student and got both my BA and MA in Italy.
No, the name of your degree is not important in most cases. You will be judged based on the quality and area of your work and research and your publication record. If you publish with a comparative approach and want to do a post-doc in a comparative department, you won't be impeded simply because your degree says you have a PhD in English.
It is more important that you have an advisor (and perhaps other mentors as well) around you that can assist you in the approach you wish to take. If no one in this Department of English has any expertise in a comparative approach (I think it would be highly unlikely that no one would, but perhaps no one you were interested in working with), that's a bigger issue than the name of the degree, and something you should actually consider.
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118025 | Letting another author know I'm using one of their results
Let's say I write a paper and use a result from someone that is rarely cited. Would it be polite/acceptable/unacceptable to email them and let them know of my application of their result before publishing my paper?
This would be primarily self-serving on my part, as I'd want to know if they see any other applications of their work to mine. But I don't want to come across as someone who's trying to leach ideas off of them. I'm open to collaboration.
What would be your reaction if you received an email saying something to the effect of:
Hey, I used result X from your paper from 10 years ago to show Y. Do you think other applications of your related work could apply to mine? Here are some of my questions, etc...
Is the researcher still active in that area? Do they have any more recent work that you should be citing? I presume not (for both), which probably means that they've moved on to other things and perhaps aren't well-placed to answer your questions. That said, send the mail anyway!
Citing another is in no way "leaching". It is the natural course of scholarship. It took a long time for my dissertation to be extended, but I was very happy when it occurred. I was, in a small way, an inspiration for another. That is what we do in academia.
Send the email. Moreover, wait and hope for a similar email to come to you in the future. Too seldom do we get to actually thank the people on whose work we build.
And if the person is still working in that field, asking for collaboration is completely proper. In my own example, I'd left the field and had nothing to contribute going forward, but it was still a nice feeling that someone, somewhere, still cared.
+1 Just yesterday I had an email from someone who'd read a paper of mine (and settled some conjectures, one yes one no). Made my day,
I have scientific publications. I'm always happy to hear someone is reading my work and am willing to discuss it further.
That said, I, in no way, expect to be contacted before hand (just properly cited).
With this, I would be unlikely to offer much insight into how my work may apply to yours. Researchers are busy, rattling off an email takes time and it simply isn't worth the energy unless there is the potential for collaboration.
In short, sure flick off an email but don't feel obligated to. Then don't worry about getting a reply, it may never come.
As per the other answers, yes, send the email, but I suggest that you don't jump in with a list of questions.
You could, if you are not sure, ask if they are still active / interested in the field then, if they come back positively, that might lead to collaboration...
It seems like a waste of time to email somebody to basically say, "Can I ask you a question?" Just ask the question and they'll decline to answer it if they don't want to.
@DavidRicherby the way the op put it, was “here are some of my questions”... so if there are 10 or so it is a bit imposing imho... but showing interest could be better...
Yeah, OK. I agree that more than a couple of questions would be too much for a first email.
Write the author - but not the way you've suggested!
It sounds like you've written him:
Hello Prof XYZ. I'm citing your work so now you owe me. Please do some free work for me! Figure out what I'm working on, see whether any of your work applies, and summarize your findings for me so I could publish more.
No no no no no, don't send that kind of a message.
I suggest that:
You greet them
You mention how them work on ABC has been inspirational for you, or how it attracted you to study ABC further etc.
Tell them that you've been able to show whatever you've shown, and that X from their paper was key to achieving Y / helped lay the foundations for Z / gave you the idea to establish Y.
If you want to ask him whether they explored a specific research direction X' following their work on X, ask.
Don't ask them to do something for you. That might be relevant once you've established a rapport - and probably not even then. You can ask them for a suggestion regarding something to read; or for documents they have access to and you don't.
Seeking input for further research is in general a good idea. It could be beneficial for the other group, too.
If in doubt, wait with your email after your paper is accepted or even published.
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122491 | Postdoc with a professor retiring soon
I am starting a new postdoc position with a professor who's retiring soon (<5 yrs, judging from the grad intake).
I am interested in pursuing an academic job and it worries me that I would not be able to count on him during my career, for support after he retires.
Am I overly worried and exaggerating the benefit of having a senior scientist interested in your work in the early stage of your academic career?
Right now, I am thinking of doing as much work as I can and using his connections to do a second postdoc with younger and active PI.
Any advice would be appreciated!
Thank you everyone for helpful input! I think I was just surprised by the retirement news on the first week of my work which led to unnecessary amount of worries as always.. I will definitely communicate with him to make sure that we are on the same page about my postdoc career! Again thank you for your kind advice
You are overthinking it and maybe trying to plan too far in advance. Your current prof, after retirement, will most likely still be able to help you. He will still have his contacts and may still give you some, if less, feedback on your ideas.
You are right to maximize what you have now. But as time passes you will have the opportunity to fine-tune your future. You will know more in a year or so. You can explore with your current prof what he intends after retirement. It may be retirement in name only, perhaps. You can also get connected to his network as you work along, so that his direct presence is less important.
Far worse if someone leaves suddenly for any reason. That can leave you stranded. This situation seems well controlled with a lot of planning time.
Before worrying too much, I think you should simply ask the professor about his plans for the future. Is he actually thinking about retiring, or is this a temporary wind-down? Also keep in mind that some people want to retire from teaching and administrative duties, but stay active in research or writing for a lot longer, while others will simply vanish the day of retirement. (The latter is rare, of course, but still happens.) The point is, if you form a good relationship with this professor, and they aren't the vanishing type, you might very well have their support beyond retirement.
This begs the question if the professor is willing to share that information openly with a new postdoc at the very beginning of their professional relationship.
@Ghanima Sure, and the professor certainly has a right to not share this information (but in that case I suspect OP could learn something from the way their question isn't answered). Still, unless there are strong cultural or personal reasons not to ask, well, I think it's worth bringing it up and see what happens.
I am starting a new postdoc position with a professor
No you're not. Not really. You're being hired as a fixed-term (post-doctoral) researcher. It so happens that you'll be associated to this Professor's research group.
Now, ok, I'm describing this in the other extreme. But the point is that a post-doc is an independent researcher, first and foremost.
who's retiring soon (<5 yrs, judging from the grad intake).
So you don't even know for sure?
Is his output as a researcher and relevance to your fields of interest still significant? Then it's not even clear he's retiring. Or he may "retire" to become an active Emeritus. Otherwise, ok.
I am interested in pursuing academic job and it worries me that I would not be able to count on him during my career for support after he retires.
You're implying you're not worried about his support for the duration of your appointment as a post-doc researcher. If that's the case - then you're in good shape. A lot of people don't have even that.
Am I overly worried and exaggerating the benefit of having a senior scientist interested in your work in the early stage of your academic career?
You're not exaggerating the maximum possible effect of such support, but you are exaggerating its mean effect conditioning on its being extended, and its mean extent. So IMHO, this should not be a major consideration. The main questions could be:
Do you have interesting alternatives? Do Pros and Cons. If not, then be happy you're not busing tables.
Will you be working on what you want to work?
Are there other researchers around with which you can have some "cross-polination" or even proper collaboration?
Do they pay reasonably? (If not, you might still want to go there and help organize a researcher's union; this is not related to your question but I just cannot exaggerate the importance of unionization among junior academics)
How is the environment, housing conditions, spouse support if relevant, child care arrangements, etc. etc.
Right now, I am thinking of doing as much work as I can and using his connections to do a second postdoc with younger and active PI.
Start by "doing as much work as you can". If a second post-doc presents itself and is an opportunity for some variety, consider it - at that point.
"But the point is that a post-doc is an independent researcher, first and foremost." No, some are but many are not.
@AnonymousPhysicist: Independent in the sense that you no longer need the guidance of a senior academic staff member to conduct research. Also, you will be expected to show initiative and independence if you want to advance - at least in all cases I'm aware of.
Most posdocs have supervisors. They may or may not need them. Your comment that "a post-doc is an independent researcher, first and foremost" is mostly wrong.
@AnonymousPhysicist: "Most postdocs have supervisors" <- 1. Can you provide a reference to some stats about that? 2. What's your definition of a "supervisor"?
I don't do reference requests on Stack Exchange. Many universities have regulations on their websites requiring postdocs be supervised. At my university everyone has supervisor(s) without regard to their rank. 2. I define "Supervisor" to be the person who is required by the university to supervise (e.g. monitor their performance, and possibly tell them what to do) the postdoc.
@AnonymousPhysicist: 1. So let me rephrase. What are you basing your claim on? 2. Monitoring is one thing, being able t tell you what to do is a second thing, and being an approving authority for your research agenda and methods is a third thing.
Some advantages of working with someone late in their career: They will be well-networked and knowledgeable in your field, so a good source of advice and expertise. As @Anyon states, many retired researchers continue to publish and attend conferences, so ongoing collaboration is possible. A good person of this type to work with would have many well-placed former students/postdocs/junior colleagues that he or she still works with, and be receiving recognition (awards etc) for their career contributions to your field. You would want to avoid someone who has maintained feuds with their peers since they will be prominent in your field too.
Some advantages of working with someone early in their career: They are looking to build up funding or reputation too, so there will be opportunities to collaborate on future projects. A good person of this type to work with would be getting early-career recognition (asked to chair sessions at conferences, for example) and have a good funding track record. You would also want to make sure they have a personality for collaboration. Some people can get a good start based on their own talent but are not able to mentor junior colleagues well.
Best of all is to get a mix of both, as you suggested.
talk with the professor about your concerns. Ask him especially how he sees his retirement. Many professors get a an office as emeritus, and effectively continues working.
do not be overly concerned about the professor in the first place. Your role is different from when you where a phd student. Reach out and establish new contacts.
Working with a professor that will become inactive (not the same as emeritus) means you have a unique position to take over expertise as he exits, if you are up to that task.
As professor go emeritus, they often pull down on hours. If he will have half finished collaborations, research consortium's and funding applications you may get a piece of that cake as well.
I think it will be fine, ESPECIALLY as a post doc. May even be better because his group will shrink and you get more time with him. Also post docs pull their own weight regardless. Plus older profs get more grandfatherly and supportive.
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143973 | update a paper after the deadline
I have finished my paper for a computer science conference, and I submitted it, but after the deadline a discover the missing of a figure, what if I updated my paper on the Easychair conference organization platform?
deadlines make stress, updated
If the conference uses the Easychair system for organizing the reviewing process for conferences, then you can check if you can still upload an updated version. This often works, as many conference organizers choose to manually disable the submission of updated versions after the deadline has passed. So if Easychair allows you to still upload an updated version, you can use this functionality. This is because in this case, the assignment of papers to reviewers hasn't been triggered, so nobody should have had a close look at your paper already.
When you cannot upload updated version anymore, the best course of action is to send a new version to the PC chair, asking her/him to update the paper on Easychair manually. Accompany the new version with a list of changes and an apology. If this change list really short and lists easy to recognize problems with the paper (such as a missing figure), the PC chair is likely to forward your updated paper to all reviewers, so that they can do the review on the updated version. They may choose not to, though, because your updated version is late. But if a reviewer hasn't even started looking into your paper (and printing it), they will normally not mind.
Correct answer, but without explicit permission, the option of updating the paper in EasyChair after the deadline (if available) should only be used until 1-2 hours after the deadline. Later, some reviewers might have already downloaded the earlier version and use that for assessing the paper.
@lighthousekeeper I'm wondering....doesn't Easychair automatically disable paper uploads when the PC chairs trigger the final paper assignment?
From what I know, it can be set up to be automatically disabled at a specific point in time (e.g., at the deadline). Otherwise it is disabled manually.
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117551 | Is it (ab)normal to propose a course to another university as a PhD candidate
I'm an external PhD candidate at a university in Germany, meaning that I have neither a post at the university nor funding. I know this isn't ideal, but my question is this:
My research is related to language education, and for my field work I'd like to compare students from a certain Asian country (mine) with German students. I have done the field work in Asia, and now I need to teach a class in at least two German universities to observe the students' attitude first-hand.
Would it be very outlandish to write an email to a department chair at a neighbouring university in order to propose a class in relation to my PhD project? I've checked their program, and the title of my proposed course isn't there. As this is for the sake of my project, I could do it voluntarily, although I'd be very glad if I'm paid. Should I state that as well (at least the first part)?
I have no idea whether an unsolicited application like this is common in academia (particularly in Germany). In any case I don't want to sound desperate or forcing someone's hand. Thank you in advance for your insight.
P.S. My supervisor is taking a sabbatical leave, so he's not around at the university, and I cannot easily ask questions like this.
I worry, actually, that your research will be tainted if you (a) teach the course and (b) record "attitudes". It might be best to observe the teaching of other instructors. I don't need a reply, but hope you have considered this issue.
It is even ridiculous, sorry. Another story would be to propose and eventually arrange a project in which you basically observed existing courses or implement a kind of "laboratory" with the students of your future supervisor or so.
Yes, I think it is quite abnormal to suggest that a department takes up a course in their program for the purpose of research field work of a PhD student from another university. To me it seems unlikely that they are going to agree to that.
My field is not education research, but I have a hard time imagining that teaching yourself and evaluating something that goes on in a lecture on a higher level goes very well together.
Some points that you may want to consider to increase your chances of getting to do reliable field work:
Maybe it is sufficient to sit in one or two sessions of an appropriate on-going course just as an observer? Find a suitable course, explain your plans to the instructor, and I think you'll have much higher chances of getting this done than getting to teach a course yourself.
If your field work absolutely requires that you are the teacher, then I would propose that you look for a suitable course that already exists, and ask the instructor of that if you'd be allowed to teach one or two sessions in that course. Of course you have to show your qualification to do that, and it may be helpful if your supervisor could actually make or support that request (assuming that he/she is knowledgable in the field you're looking to teach in).
Even if your advisor is currently on leave, I'd like to suggest asking her/him handling the issue.
While for a Master's level course, you could propose teaching a course to a different department, it is unlikely to work. Normally you need a PhD to be an examiner for a course, and since you don't have a PhD....that will be quite tricky. There may be exceptions for experienced influential external people not holding a PhD (e.g., high-ranking engineers from industry), but that will require some support from a professor within the department.
If there is really no way for you to get your advisor involved in asking (which is likely to drive up the success rate of your endeavor dramatically), you will need to find a professor at the department to teach at who is close enough in terms of research to serve the role of examiner for the course, and do an informal inquiry with that person to check if they are interested.
If - quite apart from your own research needs - you are eminently qualified to teach the module, it would not be outlandish.
However, modules are part of a complex intramural infrastructure and financial ecology. Even a tenured professor cannot just propose modules that he or she would like to teach. (This is why we kept module titles quite generic, so we could extensively repurpose our modules without officially changing title and code number.)
So, unless your proposal fits a clear and present and pre-existing need at that other uni, you are very likely to get thanks but no thanks.
"Even a tenured professor cannot just propose modules that he or she would like to teach." - For elective courses at the Master's level, this is pretty much how it works in several universities in Germany.
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145139 | I drunkenly told a professor something fundamentally wrong about a friend's thesis work. Should I clarify and/or apologize?
TL;DR: I told a professor something fundamental about a friends' work that is absolutely wrong, and I should have known, but I was drunk. Will it help the situation if I clarify and apologize via e-mail?
Yesterday evening I attended a festivity at my old university. I got drunk and talked to a professor who is working in a field related to my studies.
In particular, I told him that a friend and coworker of mine did his master thesis on a topic that is related to a project the professor is working on. However, I got it mixed up and this is not true. He appeared surprised and said he was going to look into that.
Now I regret getting drunk and I am wondering whether I should email him to clarify (and apologize). Either he did know that I was in the wrong, and did not correct me out of politeness, or he will actually ask around and several people will know that I gave the professor wrong information. The latter option would be very embarrassing to me, since I actually attended my friends' thesis defense and I know what it was about.
If I was the professor, I would appreciate the correction, but it would feel awkward if the student felt very sorry and embarrassed about it. I would appreciate a short e-mail with the purpose of "correction", so that I don't have to look into it (and confusion is avoided for the case that I actually do.)
You should apologise if you a) were inappropriately drunk, or b) said anything inappropriate. And to just clear this up, you are probably too late, if that prof knows how to run a search engine.
DOn't apologize or make a big deal about it. Don't tell them you were drunk. Say you mixed up two different friends, that happens all the time.
You got the answers below. I just point out that likely the prof was either drunk or aware of you being drunk. Not a drama.
How well do you know the professor? If you got drunk together I imagine you know him at least a bit on a personal level, is that true?
While alcohol may have played a factor in your confusion, I don't think it's relevant in the apology. Just say that you were mistaken, no reason to mention the alcohol.
The professor having been surprised could actually be a good thing. You can use this as hook for your e-mail, in the way of “Oh yes, you were right. I checked again and the fields are indeed not as related as I thought.”
@Issel that is a lie, and doesn't even make sense, the professor doesn't care which friend, he cares that there is someone out there doing similar work.
I don't see why Germany should be any different from other places, but generally it is a good idea to apologize for stupid things said drunkenly. And since this may have a bearing on the reputation of a third party you probably have an obligation to make sure the record is correct.
Sooner is better than later in such things, so the professor doesn't spend effort on a lost cause.
Well, the teatotaller faction generally is very small in Germany, so there is a good chance that prof was sloshed himself. ;) And while most Germans know that the prohibition has been repealed, we´re not sure how Americans feel about the issue of being drunk in public. I.e. we´ve got the feeling they feel a bit different about it than we do.
I would add that if possible I would give the apology in person rather then per email. If that is hard to do, maybe a phone call is better then an email.
Maybe I have a different threshold, but I would hardly call what the OP described a "stupid thing said drunkenly". It is an honest mistake that can perfectly happen while sober. Correcting the mistake is good (I would not go so far as to call it an "obligation" either, as this happened during an informal gathering), but the words "stupid" and "drunk" do not need to be in the email, as the first one is false and the second one is irrelevant.
This shouldn't be a big deal. If I were in your position I would simply email the professor and apologise, say you had made a mistake. But keep it professional, don't make a big deal about it, and you don't need to draw attention to the fact you were drunk... especially since not everyone's drunkenness presents as making up random things about people, and it might lower the professor's opinion of you. Just say something along the lines of, "Hi, it was nice to have a chat the other night. I know I spoke to you about x, but I realise I was mistaken."
Right, it seems like the mistake could have been easily made while sober, too, so no need to make the drunkenness central to the apology.
There is no need to apologise for being drunk, as this is really not relevant; such a mixup could happen in any state of mind. There is also no need to apologise profusely for giving him false information; it is just a small mixup that is of little consequence to anyone. To keep the consequences at a minimum, it would grace you to spare your professor the wasted time of looking up (or even going through) an irrelevant thesis, by sending him an email along the following lines:
Dear X,
A few days ago I suggested that my coworker's masters thesis might be of interest to you, as its topic is related to your field. Today I realised I got his thesis mixed up ; his is not at all related to your work.
Sorry for the confusion.
Regards,
You could start off the email with some niceties depending on how familiar you are.
If there is another one, he should be prepared for the followup "oh, what was the thesis that did relate". If there isn't another one, he should not say that there was. OP said "mixed up" but not "mixed up with another one". I'm just saying, careful with the wording to make sure the problem isn't made worse.
@msouth Agreed. Upon rereading the question, it seems that I read something that was not written. If there isn't another one, the phrase "...with another one" should be omitted indeed.
Just want to take a second here to thank you for taking the time to respond and update your answer--it is nice to have one's effort (even if small) be acknowledged and reciprocated. It makes the site work better if we can just submit improvements to a question rather than having to submit our own to address a problem with an existing question. Welcome to the site, I hope you keep contributing and enjoy your time here.
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49709 | How to revoke my old paper from a fake journal (waset.org)?
It was like more than 6 years ago, I was an undergrad senior in a south asian university, we did not have much internet connectivity back then.
I wanted to publish something on a journal/conference to get a feedback on my undergrad thesis (I was curious to know about the quality of my work) and submitted a paper to one of the journals listed on that notorious waset.org.
I was young and novice, above all, I had no idea that people could do such a scam with intellectual issues like "research papers", anyway.
but the thing is that when I search my name on a web search engine (google, duck-duck-go etc.), that biggest mistake of my life still comes up on the first page, I am now near the end of my PhD and looking for an academic/research job. So, I wanted to communicate with them so that I can request them to revoke my paper.
However, their site does not provide any specific contact address/person to whom I can discuss with.
I have no wish to resubmit that to any other place, after 7 years now I can understand that my undergrad thesis work was too "trivial" to be "published".
Is there anyone who is in the similar situation? and is there any way to retract the paper from waset.org ?
any pointer will be greatly appreciated.
Apology: I am feeling very uneasy to share the link of my paper, but their website is provided.
Personally (and I don't know how other people would feel), I would be wary of holding a publication in a scam journal against you without further investigation. For all I know, they published it without your knowledge.
If you consider that the biggest mistake of your life, you're doing pretty well for yourself so far... :P
@Davidmh I hope people will realize that, because as far as I remember I did not sign any consent form with waset, it was long ago.
@henning I don't think this is a duplicate of a question about conferences.
I think there is something you can do to help yourself in this situation.
You could contact Google and ask if they would remove this particular search hit from their cache. As a result your paper will not come up when people search your name in Google. Of course your paper will still exist in their server but I think that a major part of the potential damage can be avoided since I would believe that people do not intentionally go the predator publishers website to search anyones articles.
Here are the instructions to contact Google: https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/3111061?hl=en
Reading their removal policies, I'm not sure if an embarassing publication is the kind of thing they would remove. But I guess it's worth a try.
@mhwombat I think it definitely worth of try. If celebrities get their pictures removed, I guess this should be valid also. Especially in the context of "predator publisher"
Moreover this is about removing one particular hit from the Google cache, not a two dozens of hits
@ramgorur, if you ask Google to remove this search hit, please let us know whether or not they do so.
@mhwombat According to Google's policy, it's unlikely that it will be removed because it 1. doesn't violate any laws (unless the fake journal is breaking the law by publishing?), and 2. doesn't expose any personal information other than that which would normally be exposed if you published anywhere else. Furthermore, most other search engines (Yahoo, Bing, etc) will have indexed it as well. In fact, Google will probably re-index it because waset.org still exists and has the journal available via link.
good idea, I will try this way and will update if anything good happens.
If it's not their IP to publish, and the author has withdrawn reproduction rights, then they are indeed breaking the law, and stuff like DMCA takedowns will work. I used one once to take down my own work from geocities when someone guessed and changed my Yahoo password.
Of course you can try to contact the conference 'organizers', but I am afraid that a scam conference, like waset (which is an anagram for waste), will not revoke your paper.
I would suggest that you leave the paper out from any list that you can control (your website, your university's website, your cv, your google scholar profile, etc).
Try to focus on your genuine papers. As that list grows, the trivial one will become less and less visible.
yes, that's why waset people do not keep any contact point, in the meantime I will try to take the google approach.
@ramgorur, they were forced to provide a contact point when they registered the domain -- https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/88367/22768
You can look-up domain name owners. World Academy of Science Engineering and Technolo [sic] is listed as the owner of waset.org, their registered business address is given as 6, Dubai, 28817, AE, which probably doesn't help much, they also registered phone number +971.559099620 and email address [email protected], which might be more useful.
Google ranks results based on an algorithm that calculates the page rank of a page, which is (over simplified) a combination of links to that page and the ranks of the pages linking to it. I can't think that this fake journal would have a very high rank.
Social websites usually have a sky high page rank, so you can try and bury this result in search by creating a public profile on as many social media websites as you can (linkedin, google plus, facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram, youtube (upload a cat video please), geni, blogger, google scholar, wordpress, to name just a few), and those should quickly outrank this one.
You can create public profiles on forums in your area of research (or any sizeable forum for that matter), as these also tend to have high page rank. I also see some of reviews on zomato when I google my own name, so that could be worth a try.
Last but not least, you can register your name as a domain name, and host a website there with your CV. Typically domains that exactly match a search term tend to rank well for that term.
The key is to use your name, or the name that appears in your paper that you would like to bury.
We all make mistakes, but learning from them is where the value lies.
Add this under notable life experiences on your CV. This way you have the opportunity to explain the situation, and show that you have grown since then. It also shows that you are not trying to hide things, that you can own up to your mistakes, that you have courage, and that you can poke fun at yourself.
The softer skills in life could indicate how well you would fit into an existing team, and that also counts towards your appointability, not just your academic achievements.
I am also in a similar situation. I am a PhD student. I submitted a paper to one of WASET conferences which they had used a name of a genuine top level conference. After I submitted my paper, they accepted within 3 days without any reviews and that made me suspicious. I decided to withdraw my paper after 2 weeks. However, I was surprised to learn from my friend 2 months later that they went ahead and published my paper yet I had withdrawn and did not attend nor pay for the conference. I have written to them almost 20 times to remove my paper but they declined. In short, never submit a paper to WASET, it's a scam for making money through registration fee from unsuspecting researchers.
This is interesting but not an answer so far. Perhaps you can emphasize the conclusion that there is not really anything OP can do.
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163863 | Supervisor who accepted me for a research internship now says he doesn't know who I am
I've been accepted in a research internship. However, after I sent an email to my supervisor asking about some details, he told me that he has no idea about who I am, and that maybe I've been exchanging with someone else. But the confirmation letter was signed by him.
I'm so confused, I'm afraid if I send more emails it would look like I'm forcing things. I'm really confused because I refused many offers to work in this lab. Any suggestions please?
Is it possible that there are two individuals with the same name?
No it’s not possible, I already discussed with the professor, I think he just forgot ... which is a bit weird
When you say "I've already discussed with the professor" what exactly does that mean? Did you email, meet on Zoom, speak on the phone?
No just by email, he put me in contact with another professor with whom I had the interview
Are you sure that the professor who signed the letter is to be your supervisor, and did not simply sign it in some administrative capacity? Particularly since you say some other professor interviewed you for the position. If it is a structured internship program, the professor who signed could be the program coordinator, for instance.
@GoodDeeds he’s my supervisor and it’s even mentioned in the letter of acceptance
@pjc50 That's exactly what the very first comment asks about here. :)
Did you pay anything for this "internship"? It could be a possible scam.
I know of a professor who one day came and said he had a new PhD student he didn't know about, because he forgot to have accepted him. But bottom line, he had a new student, he signed and accepted him, so that already done. Likely the professor will work with you, but if you got acceptance and he forgot, its his problem, not yours :)
Professors are people, too. Probably just slipped his mind. Nothing wrong with reminding him, telling him you have the letter of acceptance. It pains me to admit it, but I could see myself doing something like this, so it's not so surprising.
This is a great story. An update would be nice ;)
@AyoubAjarra Where was the interview with the "other professor" conducted? In person? Remotely? Did you actually set foot in the institution you think you're going to attend? Do you know for certain that the person who interviewed you is actually a professor at that university? Did you pay anyone any money?
Sorry guys for the late response, I am going through some hard times lately because of what happened, I’m shocked and disappointed, this is my last year internship that I take too seriously, unfortunately this is not ethical coming from one of the best labs in the world, I don’t know what to do now ...
I didn’t pay anything ... but from what I’ve heard, they recruited another intern for the same position, the other intern is paid and they’re preparing his visa and work authorization, unlike me... I’ve been ghosted for a long time ... I was hoping this is just a joke, I rejected many paid good offers to start this internship that isn’t even paid ... Anyway, I don’t know anymore what words would best express my situation ... I’m just disappointed and lost hope.
@AyoubAjarra It's been two days - did you not follow up with the professor since then, like the top answer suggests? Don't wait - do that now!
@J... I did, I’m trying not to give details about the lab or the professor ... I tried the best I can, the professor gives me short answers or doesn’t answer me at all.
The RH sent me the internship agreement with a stipend salary, then later, told me it was a mistake and that the internship is non funded.... These are certainly the worst conditions that an intern can work on, now I just regret all the good offers that I withdrew because I’ve been dreaming to work with this brilliant professor... he’s one of the best researchers in the world and I am very grateful for the opportunity he gave me ... but after all, it seems like it wasn’t what I really imagined ...
You need to get one of your local faculty involved to help you on this ASAP. Whoever the faculty member you have the best relationship is, show them the information and ask if they will email the other faculty to try to work out a fair solution given the situation.
So in the meantime, what has happened?
Don't read too much in to this. There are a variety of possible explanations, including a miscommunication between the PI and the person with whom you had the interview. It is also possible that the PI is very busy and a bit distracted and someone who delegates a lot of such things to others, such as the person you interviewed with.
I would suggest just reminding both of the state of affairs as you see them and ask again (both people) for the details you need. Hopefully everyone will get "on the same page" soon.
this seems like just a guess that has no basis on the question asked and really should be a comment.
@blankip: what kind of answer would you expect to "my future supervisor does not recognize me"? Something like "there is a rule 23-49 in the official Yale handbook that states a supervisor will forget students in 42% of cases"? All the answers will obviously go from "he is busy, to ""he delegated and someone fucked up", to "he may have a brain damage". Anything will be speculation for such a question.
Send him an email with a copy of the acceptance letter. Don't phrase the email as "you were wrong", but rather express that you are confused, that maybe there is a misunderstanding.
If the prof is a reasonable person things will improve from there. Otherwise, you could contact the admissions office that sent you the letter, explaning the situation. That said, if you get to this second stage, it is not clear if it is to your advantage to work with this person.
Why should one express being confused when one is not confused?
Out of politeness and pragmatism. There is little to gain from telling idiots that they are idiots. If you tell someone "you are wrong", in particular when the person is supposed to be some kind of authoritative figure, it goes bad more often than not. It shouldn't, but it does.
Yes, I agree with you that one should not say that someone is wrong. One should just state facts, like: "I have this signed paper from you, which should confirm that I am not exchanging". The shorter the better, to my opinion.
@yarchik: I wouldn't say "I have this signed paper from you", because it comes across as accusing, and at this stage you're not 100% certain that you have the right person (as others have mentioned, it's not that uncommon for there to be two people with the same name, or at least similar enough names that their email addresses are easily confused). If it's the wrong person and you're polite, they're much more likely to send a helpful response ("Ah, you need Dr Xyz, whose email address is [email protected], I'm Dr Xyzz [email protected]. People always get us mixed up").
+1 for stressing a non-confrontational, non-accusing tone.
@yarchik: 1. OP literally says they're confused.... 2. You could phrase it as "Perhaps I have gotten confused, but" or "I hope I am not confusing you with someone else, but the acceptance letter seems to indicate that XYZ". etc.
You do not indicate whether you have exchanged emails or calls in person with this supervisor. (At the very least, my email program will remember who I've interacted with even if I don't, and I confess that this has at times been my first checkpoint.) However, I suspect that your dealings thus far have been with a different person and that you and the supervisor have simply been assigned to one another. However, s/he did sign the letter. It is quite possible that they may not remember this as their PA gives them a pile of letters to sign everyday (but then it would be unprofessional for them to plead complete ignorance, if they have a PA with whom they can check what happened!). There could also be a bog standard mix-up.
In any case, be forewarned that this mess is a sign of things to come. You will be supervised by an overworked junior staff member or postdoc, your supervisor will rarely if ever see you and most likely still not have the slightest clue who you are when the internship is done, unless you deliver them a high-impact manuscript they can put their name to.
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87688 | What are the consequences of using Sci-Hub?
A student of mine has told me about Sci-Hub, where people can download copyrighted scholarly articles for free.
I have cautioned him that it is illegal, but he challenged me asking me what would be the consequences for him if he only downloads files uploaded by others.
So my question is, what are the potential consequences of using Sci-Hub?
Theoretically, the answer depends on many factors, including your jurisdiction, your internet provider rules, and your University Honour code. Practically, the consequences are likely to be nil.
The answer depends on the laws of the country. Here's an answer for Germany: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/86414/is-it-legal-to-use-sci-hub-cc-in-germany
what are the consequences - am I assuming correctly that you are interested mainly in the legal consequences?
I'm also interested in the consequences, both at personal and community levels, of not using Sci-Hub.
Right now the main consequence is being unable to get papers. It has been broken of the time!..
Which country were you asking about?
I am mainly interested in European countries and USA
Using Sci Hub is like borrowing books from a library without checking them out: 1) It is stealing, 2) it's the same DB or very close to Athens, Jstor, etc. that you already have 3) Sci Hub is way easier to use 4) it's arguably less ethically wrong than outright stealing (from a book store or without a university license respectively). On the subject of theft, how 'bout them publishers? But I digress...
Scihub also often has quality pdfs, sometimes more easily readable by iphone pdf readers than university libraries.
It's of questionable legality, but it's not going to lead to prosecution. For me personally using sci-hub has led to new research results in fields outside of my specialization that will (very likely) appear in leading peer reviewed journals. One problem I'm not sure about is whether it's wise to say in the acknowledgements: "I thank Alexandra Elbakyan for setting up Sci-Hub without which the research results reported in this paper would have been impossible", in an Elsevier paper.
Using sci-hub therefore has at least the consequence of your personal scientific enlightenment, and possibly even of many other people who benefit from research you have been able to as a result of using sci-hub.
Wise or not, it's increasingly common to thank Alexandra Elbakyan in published acknowledgements, even (apparently) on an Elsevier journal. You can just use a generic phrase like "for her support", or "for help with the literature review" or "for her indirect assistance" as someone did.
There would likely be no consequences for a student to use sci-hub. In fact, for a student to not use it is foolish, considering that much valuable research that could be used for school assignments is hidden behind paywalls that no student can be reasonably asked to pay.
I could see the argument being made against using sci-hub for a professional research paper, in which the user actually stands to receive some form of profit from their work. But a student can only gain knowledge and assignment completion, with no monetary profit from using this site.
The legality of the site itself is dubious, but there are not likely legal consequences for simply using the site, especially if there is no monetary gain for the user.
Morally, there is much to be said about academic monopolization. Too many publications and companies control knowledge, inflating prices to take advantage of already poor students with few other options. This was a legal question, not a moral one, so I will say no more about it, but I would not take action against the student if I were you.
There being no monetary gain for the user doesn't make it legal to use something acquired illegally - see https://law.stackexchange.com/a/33647/15133
The consequences are overwhelmingly positive!
Gaining access to research papers one would probably not otherwise have access to.
Undermining the control major publishers (Elsevier etc.) have over access to scientific findings.
Contributing to a social norm of free access to scientific information.
There is effectively no possibility of your friend being sanctioned for downloading articles from Sci-Hub. I do not know of world states in which researchers have been penalized or sued in court for doing so - although, caveat: I have not followed the question of such legal action closely.
Sorry, your #2 is a deal breaker. While the system isn't perfect, it does get scientific findings both properly viewed and disseminated.
@Buffy: #2 is not necessary for scientific findings to be disseminated. Not sure what "properly viewed" means.
Hmmm. properly "reviewed". Garbage can also be disseminated, and is. If you don't believe the publishing system is valid, don't use it. But copyright has a valid purpose.
@Buffy: Why do we need Elsevier for journals with proper reviews? Academics do the reviews anyway, they/we would just do it in freely-accessible-content journals instead.
But that isn't Sci-Hub. I hold copyright on much of my own work. Sci-Hub can make it less valuable to me, the creator. Nevermind Elsevier. You are attacking copyright, not Elsevier.
@Buffy: You focused on #2. If you want to argue about copying restriction mechanisms, we can do that. I don't understand what you mean by your paper being "less valuable" because people can read it. Do you mean you want to be able to make money by charging people for reading it?
Using Sci Hub can also be like reading books in a library without borrowing them: 1) Is it operating as the library intended? No and yes. 2) I agree that it's arguably less ethically wrong than outright stealing. After reading copious articles on a subject, I can then decide which articles I want to cite/include/research further. Impossible to gain such knowledge and familiarity with the subject if I had to purchase each paper.
As a teenager I would go to a Barnes and Noble and read another chapter of the same book every day till I finished it. Then on to new book. Was it stealing? I didn't really care because I couldn't afford to buy school lunch much less books. I see this much the same way.
Why "no and yes"? Libraries I know have tables and chairs where people sit and read.
And is "Barnes and Noble" a library? It sounds more like a bookstore.
Maybe you meant to write "bookstore" rather than "library"? I know it is a false friend in some languages. The comparison works better with bookstores anyway, since they are for-profit and selling books is their main source of profit.
Not a good comparison - if the bookstore wanted to prevent you from reading the book, they can seal it up. The same doesn't apply to SciHub, which is illegally accessing papers/books that the publishers explicitly do not want them to access.
Barnes and Noble is, indeed, a US bookstore chain. The commenter was not confusing bookstore with library. He was describing two scenarios, I believe.
@user111388 So what? I don't think that a core aspect of a library is that it has chairs and tables—the important thing is that it allows you to read literature for free, usually within a wide selection of topics. I have my own chair and table when I read articles on SciHub.
Sci-Hub is not a repository of user-uploaded material. See e.g. this explanation - it uses institutional usernames and passwords to obtain the material. When you request a paper, if it's not already in the repository, Sci-Hub uses someone else's institutional access to get the paper. How Sci-Hub got those usernames and passwords is unknown. It's possible they were donated by Sci-Hub supporters, or they might have phished for them (remember also that it is almost certainly against your institutional policies to give out your username and password).
In other words you are correct and your student is wrong: Sci-Hub is illegal.
As for consequences, as in the linked article, if you are doing analysis of the papers themselves, then you're stuck because you can't publish data which you obtained illegally. Beyond that there's likely to be no consequences. There are simply too many people using the service. On a personal level it comes to one's moral values and how much one is willing to do something that's illegal, which I won't comment on.
In the long term if everyone decided to use the service then the publishing world will change massively, although it's complex enough that it's hard to forecast what actually will happen. Also, remember that the modus operandi of Sci-Hub isn't unique to academic publishing. Sci-Hub is a threat to all publishers of non-free electronic content, since it will probably work on Wall Street Journal articles and whatnot.
If everyone used Sci-hub "institutions ... won't subscribe, after which Sci-Hub won't have access to the papers either". Many publishers would then turn into open access, and other novel paywall-less, noncommercial publishing model(s) would appear as well.
@Orion OA would need to gain wider acceptance too (c.f. Jeffrey Beall saying gold OA is fundamentally not workable). It's hard to forecast. Let's just say the publishing world will change massively and leave it at that. I'll edit the "predictions" out of the answer.
Note that Sci-hub is illegal may mean two different things: (1) they are infringing the law by letting people download copyrighted material, or (2) I am infringing the law if I download copyrighted material from them. While (1) seems clear, (2) is much more debatable in my view.
Per https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/86414/is-it-legal-to-use-sci-hub-in-germany/112475#112475, (2) is not much more debatable, although it varies by country.
Using Sci-Hub is not universally illegal. In some states in the world it is, in some it's of questionable legality, in others it's perfectly legal. In some states it is not criminally prohibited but is cause for civil legal action (e.g. in the US), so it is kind of illegal but not in the police-and-jails sense. Anyway, your sweeping statement that using Sci-Hub is illegal is untrue.
@einpoklum The best part of that question is "A judge in NY found that viewing child porn on internet not criminal possession bc no possession" -- aka. streaming is not illegal, but downloading is, and this question asked about downloading.
Where is Sci-Hub illegal? No region tag was added to the question! Could we be victims of yet another case of Euro/Amero-centrism here?
@David pretty much anywhere with copyright law would suffice to default to "SciHub is illegal". Doesn't mean it is illegal, but it would be enough to take it as illegal until proven otherwise.
"you can't publish data which you obtained illegally" - Not true, when you cite a paper, or use the attached data for re-analysis no-one will ask for you to prove you obtained the paper or the data legally.
@Ivana if you publish a paper and you use self-generated data, you'll need to describe how you acquired it, or your results won't be reproducible.
I'm a bit disturbed that this answer was downvoted as it introduces a lot of interesting important elements to this conversation.
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71981 | University knowledge of student and/or staff viewing free online journal article databases
Is there evidence that Universities network administrators are aware of, or actively tracking student and/or staff usage of free online journal article databases such as Sci-Hub or LibGen?
My question is not meant to address any legal issues. I am merely asking about knowledge of student and staff usage by network administrators and by extension the University.
Unless faculty and students are using Tor a VPN or some other sort of anonymity network, University network administrators can easily track what web pages are being accessed over the University network.
University network administrators commonly track access to social media, gambling, pornography, plagiarism related sites and more. Are Universities also tracking faculty and staff usage of sites like Sci-Hub and LibGen?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis
"University network administrators commonly track access to social media, gambling, pornography, plagiarism related sites and more." - [citation needed], or at least some context. Given that "the university network" may well serve as the internet connection provided to dorms, tracking students' use of social media and pornography sounds like both a severe restriction of legitimate private internet use and a violation of the students' privacy.
@O.R.Mapper: You are very correct. My own university has a separate residential network, possibly for that reason, although more likely "because security."
As an alternative, you can install TOR on your computer. In this way, the access will be encrypted to the network provider.
There easily could be, so don't do marginally legal things on your university's network. Mine doesn't appear to do more than shut down bot nets and torrent hosting, but it's not hard to track the rest. It's mostly only in the university's interest to stop crimes and copyright infringement committed on its network so that it doesn't have to deal with law enforcement and/or lawsuits (i.e. paperwork and cooperation). I don't think Sci-Hub and LibGen have risen to that level quite yet. You might get away with it for awhile, but if enough people start accessing scientific content that way, then the paperwork will start to flow in, and the accesses will start getting shut down.
I guess I'm lucky to be in some university where there is not self-censorship and it's up to the users of the networks to deal with the law (and the days getting a PDF from sci-hub will land someone in jail are hopefully quite far away, otherwise jails would soon become research labs).
It's not obvious who would be sending "paperwork" to the university if its students are reading papers via scihub. The only people that know are the university and scihub, and I don't see scihub complaining to the university. (The copyright owner has no way of knowing that students from University X got a copy of their work for personal use via scihub.)
@ff524 and Franck, my opinions of these activities and the realities of what can happen are different things. It wouldn't be hard for some government to take over Sci-Hub without much of anyone knowing in order to gather information on downloaders for future criminal cases. It might also be possible for Sci-Hub to be required to reveal such information in its ongoing civil case in New York, USA. Frank, usually the network provider has to get involved for the copyright holder to figure out who to sue (aka paperwork). No self-censorship required. The copyright holder can then sue the end user.
@BillBarth True, I was just pointing out that some network providers prefer to do the paperwork than banning websites/p2p/etc. No worries, I don't mix up personal opinions and knowledge.
@FranckDernoncourt, I agree, but this was a question about tracking not banning, though my answer mostly applies to both.
Thank you for the answers. It sounds like widespread University network tracking of this is not yet common (or at least not common knowledge in the academic community) yet but that could change in the future if usage continues to increase.
@MagnusGustafson, it would only take a few moments of configuration changes to begin tracking such activities at the border of almost any university's network. Be very careful with what you have learned.
@BillBarth I have no reason to worry because I do not use those databases. The purpose of my question was only to identify what is occurring right now. Based on the size of this industry, I suspect we will hear a lot more about this in the years to come. The topic of paywalls are already being hotly debated in fields outside of academia: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/09/is-an-academic-publishing-giant-trying-to-paywall-wikipedia/
Enhancing on @BillBarth's answer: while universities do not typically monitor access to services on their websites, they are quite capable of doing so when the need or desire arises.
The handling of Aaron Swartz's JSTOR mass-downloading by MIT may be instructive here: MIT information services was apparently fairly unexcited about the incident for quite a while, treating it as relatively routine network misbehavior. Eventually, however, it changed positions and began carefully monitoring him and cooperating with the prosecution that would eventually lead to arrest, massive charges, and Aaron Swartz's suicide.
Are Universities also tracking faculty and staff usage of sites like Sci-Hub and LibGen? Yes, they are.
Source
Jim O’Donnell, university librarian at the Arizona State University Library, said that news of the investigation of Elbakyan had not changed his views on Sci-Hub.
“We are very aware of Sci-Hub. They make assertions about their business practices that cannot be verified -- they’re very untransparent,” he said. But the ASU Library does not tell academics and students to specifically avoid Sci-Hub, nor has it blocked the site. “Our advice to users is that they should abide by the law and follow our university policies,” he said.
The investigation into Elbakyan has “created more smoke, metaphorically speaking. But all we’re doing is a little more coughing,” said O’Donnell. He added, “We observe, we watch, we wait.”
@Libor did you look at the other question on IS.SE? You're certainly not the only one who thinks it's bullshit.
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115621 | Is it wise for researchers to thank Alexandra Elbakyan (founder of Sci-Hub) in the paper acknowledgements?
Alexandra Elbakyan founded the site Sci-Hub, which allows bypassing publisher paywalls.
If this service is used by researchers to access papers that would otherwise be out of their reach - due to their university not having subscribed to publishers or not being able to buy papers due to budget constraints - is it a good idea / wise to thank Alexandra in the Acknowledgement section of a paper citing the otherwise unattainable papers?
For example, "We would like to thank Alexandra Elbakyan for her work / contributions to science" without explicitly mentioning any specifics.
A similar question was already asked with the top rated answer pointing out that it would be unwise for paper authors to admit to illegal activity in a formal document.
This seems like a reasonable point.
Reseachers thanking someone for their contribution to science does not seem illegal and might get some readers of a paper to research the background of the acknowledgement.
Did you read the answers of the question you linked to? The answers cover all that you ask...
I am not sure whether it is 'wise', but it is definitely a very good idea. I should do that as well. (Maybe an attentive editor will ask you to be more specific about her contribution or to remove that acknowledgement, but give it a try.) As Solar Mike said, with this formulation you do not admit any illegal activity.
@PuzzledBiologist I said no such thing, also, the first answer points out one has to live with the consequences ie raising the flag of a bad idea... I would NOT make such an acknowledgement for the reasons outlined in the answers to the other question.
Thanks for your comments! I was wondering about using the acknowledgements in a subversive way, i.e. not admitting to an illegal activity specifically, which I agree would be a bad idea. I think @Buffy's answer makes a good point. I also agree that my question was very similar to the related one (hence why I linked it).
I think this question should be re-opened, because it asks about a specific case which can be handled in a specific way. Nowadays it's pretty common to include her in acknowledgements. You can just say "for her support" or something similar which doesn't imply anything problematic.
Not a dupe, because the other question's title is "websites which host illegal book downloads" - and it is certainly not established that Sci-Hub is that, universally.
An lawyer assured me that downloading from SciHub is legal, only uploading is not. Obviously, one can't distribute the downloaded material, but individual use for academic purposes is within the fair use provision of US copyright law.
I'm hoping here that you want to express your opinion that we need a site on which broad copyright license is granted by authors, rather than held closely. I hope you aren't expressing favor of a site in which copyrights of others are simply ignored and not respected and on which illegal activities occur.
I, too, think a site on which people voluntarily agree to a broad license to their work is granted would be a very valued thing. But I wouldn't praise any site that actively encourages the disrespect of authors and their rights.
I don't have a lot of use, either, for journals and other publishers that demand the rights from authors, but that is a different problem.
But, to answer the question directly, associating yourself professionally with behavior treated by many as unethical and even illegal, is probably a mistake. Tactical, if nothing else. You won't really effect the needed change that way.
Thanks for your answer! I think your the viewpoint of seeing it as a tactical professional mistake is valuable.
"You won't really effect the needed change that way": I don't think that's obvious. Publicly acknowledging your use of Sci-Hub helps making it acceptable (by protecting the other people who do it), which casts a spotlight on the problem of access to scientific literature. The more people who do it in their paper, the stronger the effect.
@a3nm, hmmm, does robbing corner bodegas make it more acceptable or protect other people who do it? How about other things that may not be explicitly criminal, but are frowned upon by most people. Publicly berating your children, for example.
@Buffy I'd be interested in a source for the implicit claim that using Sci-Hub is "frowned upon by most people". My own experience is that people are usually fine with it, and agree that it shows a problem with the system; they're just not comfortable saying publicly that they use it because it's illegal, not immoral. (And about the content of your answer: I have yet to meet a scientist who doesn't want their work to be read as widely as possible, given they don't benefit from subscription money. Making this about the rights of authors, rather than of publishers, is nitpicking at best, IMO.)
Are authors and copyright holders the same?
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187110 | How to find journals that only require a PDF for their final submission?
Almost all journals I have published so far have required either Word or LaTeX source files after acceptance (but with present-day OCR technology it is straightforward to generate Word or LaTeX files from a PDF). Thus, where and how to find journals that are content with just a PDF (or a link to a pre-print repository) for their final submission?
EDIT: The reason I am asking this is because a *.tex file can be compiled in different ways and what worked on creation, need not work at the production team's office. And the need to submit separate source graphics when it is already possible to embed it in a high-quality PDF seems superfluous.
There is a name for this class of journals. No need to list all such journals, so this is not a shopping question.
"with present-day OCR technology, it is straightforward to generate Word or LaTeX files from a PDF." ha!!
Indeed, the OCR bit is not close to reality. The question in the title is seems valid, however.
@TerryLoring - well, really? Nobody (well, almost nobody for sure) writes their paper directly as a PDF - it usually is written in Word or some TeX variant to begin with, so those files are available. Conference proceedings (camera ready copy) are the big counterexample, but those would not do any OCRing much less editing of the paper.
I'll at least reopen and let the community decide now that the post has been edited.
If you want your work to be taken seriously, I advise you to prepare it using LaTeX. See #1 here: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=304
@TerryLoring why do you say the OCR technology is not close to reality? Software from Mathpix.com is quite good and much better than Adobe and MS-Word for equations.
If you can get a complex equation parsed by Mathpix.com, I would love to know. Something like this: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/5183/split-like-environment-inside-cases-environment
I don't think there is any reason to downvote this question, but this sounds very much like an XY problem to me. Are you sure the appropriate response to whatever problem you're experiencing isn't ensuring that your .tex file compiles correctly on all computers (e.g. by avoiding various non-standard packages) rather than looking for a journal which accepts pdf submissions?
@Cel I'm confused why anyone would ask this question. Why is this relevant to you?
There are journals called overlay journals. All the formatting is done by the author which can be a lot of work. Anyhow, you can look on the web for overlay journals.
I have never heard of a journal that takes a PDF, reverse engineers a latex file and proceeds from there. Simple equations perhaps can be dealt with, but OCR is going to have a hard time dealing with kappa vs k, double subscripts, commutative diagrams, that sort of thing.
Also, most authors do not know enough about color-space conversion to deal with images correctly.
I think there should be more overlay journals, but be aware these are not exactly friendly to authors. You have to make it look good, and if you fail, whom are you to blame?
Added later: The journal I am familiar with, SIGMA, seems to have changed how they work (or I just forgot). I think they do fiddle with your latex file.
https://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA/about.html
To get and idea of color profiles, read this.
If the journals is to be online only, this stuff gets easier.
Getting printed paper images and online images to mathc is a job for someone who is not me. https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/color-managing-documents.html
Thank you, for this great answer. Indeed, I wish there were more overlay journals too!
You still need to fiddle with a style file, most likely, but need only involve your computer and the arxiv computer. There is one figure in my book that is blurry because the publishers computer could not handle the tex code. One survives.
I think an overlay journal collects content from different sources and does not receive authors' contributions and manuscripts in their own formatting style.
@Younes To clarify: you have to do the formatting; you don't get free reign to pick the format. Edited to clarify that point.
Are you sure this is correct? As far as I know (and Wikipedia confirms), an overlay journal is one that essentially just gives a "stamp of correctness" to submissions to a preprint server such as Arxiv. But even Arxiv will reject your submission in the first place if it's a pdf generated from tex without the corresponding source.
You have to use the style file, which means you have to use latex. Of course, there may be non-latex overlay journals. No idea how those might work.
@Federico Poloni By my logic, an overlay journal is accepting a pdf submission, or at least a pointer to a pdf as submission. Now you have to upload the latex file to the arxiv, but I think young academics assume they need to do that anyway.
@TerryLoring So what's the difference with respect to a "traditional" journal? You still need to submit a .tex.
In a tradition journal, the latex needs to run on the journal's system, and the journal will edit your latex file directly. Thus you need to make your latex run in three environments. On the overlay journal, you end up doing more of the work, but only need to deal with your system and the arvix.
@Federico Poloni Of course, some journals don't use latex for the final product. I think the OP did not live through submitting to math journals in the days before latex. Overlay or not, the modern systems are a lot better. (Now the referee report systems....)
@Federico Poloni Checking a journal website, I see I had it wrong, or that my answer was a bit dated. Y'all can read about this overlay journal 'cause I added a link.
Remark: the journal Sigma mentioned here is not to be confused with Forum of Mathematics: Sigma.
The premise of the question is triply false.
It is NOT trivial to convert technical documents to OCR in a systematic way. OCR works for 99% of the regular text (enough for indexing and searching) but still struggles with small fonts, specialized fonts, indices and the placement of indices, and a lot of the technical stuff that goes into technical writing.
Many journals that accept .tex files have publicly available LaTeX templates, style files and packages that will produce local versions very close to the eventual published version. All the journals I know also handle various external packages or are explicit about packages they do not handle.
Producing a pdf does not guarantee the published version will be identical to the submitted version. Most editors have house rules to enforce some measure of uniformity between articles when it comes to referencing, figures, tables, and the labelling of them, abbreviations, or use special sets of fonts which inevitably lead to small changes between the final accepted version and the production version. (Even overlay journals have house rules.)
To the user who raised Low Quality Post flag on this answer, please explain why. After reviewing this post, I see no problem at all. If you believe there is something wrong, please point it out.
I disagree with your point 2: in my experience, incompatible packages (amsthm, tikz, mathtools...), quirky syntax (author/institution, keywords) and spurious text (criminally false "copyright (c) 2001 someoneelse" lines) are still an annoyance, when one uses journal styles.
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85811 | Seeking career advice on transitioning to work/postdoc in a new country after a PhD
Hello Academia community,
I am a soon-to-be holder (next week) of a PhD in zoology (mammalian biomechanics). Following my graduation, I would like to move to the UK. Ideally, I would like to continue my research in a postdoc position. However, I would not mind taking up non-academic work, in a relevant field, if possible.
Probably, I need to clear some things up:
Why move? I currently live in Greece. Working conditions are terrible, and funding is scarce. As a postdoc researcher, if I successfully get a position, I can expect a salary of ~600 euros a month (it is hard to live on this budget, and impossible to live relatively comfortably). There are incredible limitations in research expenses as well, and my work requires some high-tech equipment. Plus, huge uncertainty for my future.
Why the UK? I will be making the move with my girlfriend. This is very important to me - perhaps more important than my work. She works in education, and is fluent in English, therefore the limitation. I have had suggestions to apply in other European countries, but I am not seriously considering.
What actions have I taken so far? I have been invited to apply for a Newton fellowship by a lab I have contacted. However, getting the fellowship is highly uncertain. I have also applied to some openings for Lecturers in zoology in various universities, but I think it is highly unlikely I will get one without a postdoc. Other than this, nothing.
What are my qualifications? My PhD project has gone quite well. I have 8 (soon to be 9, hopefully) papers published or accepted for publication in some of the best journals in zoology. I have a Masters in biological anthropology, from a very prestigious university in the UK, and a Bachelors in biology from a university in Greece. Apart from this, I only have limited work experience in conservation research (<6 months).
I am in a very stressful place right now, due to the uncertainty and the lack of current employment - I expect to be unemployed in the near future, unless I get a job in the tourist industry for this spring/summer season. This might seem strange to some, but my qualifications mean next to nothing due to the high unemployment rates here.
Thus, the question.
What should my next step be?
How should I approach the move?
I was considering writing to relevant departments in universities, zoos, natural history museums, etc.
Should I do this, even if they do not advertise positions
Should I ask for postdoctoral employment or let them now I am fine with working in other, less specialised positions as well?
What outcome should I expect from this?
Anyway, I am open to any suggestions, and hope to learn from your experience. Please ask me for more information, if you need any.
First let me express my sympathy for having to endure the brutalization Greece has been undergoing by Capitalism generally, and the EU, Germany and the banks particularly. It saddens me to learn that academics have to move out across the globe to avoid material want.
My background for the sake of this answer: I'm a post-doc in Europe, and I moved out of my country a while after concluding my PhD. I differ from your case in that I'm in Computer Science, and I worked in industry for 3 years between my PhD and my post-doc; and my current research does not continue what I did in my PhD.
To the point, though:
The fact that you only speak English (in addition to Greek) should not dissuade you from considering moving elsewhere. This is true even for your girlfriend, but is definitely true for you as an academic. Academia is much more accommodating to people who don't speak the local language (although I guess it might not be as cosmopolitan in Zoology as it is in Comp Sci; can't say for certain).
Specifically, some European cities have large numbers of expatriates, patriated immigrants, or migrant/guest workers, who don't speak the local language - and the most common language they're likely to use is English. Plus, you have Greek expat communities in a bunch of places. So Britain is not at all your only option. As an extreme example, I live in Amsterdam, at which - so I'm told - 1 in every 4 residents is not Dutch-born. Just tomorrow there's a large Expatriate fair.
With apologies to the British, I know that the UK has cut funding to academia tremendously over the past several years. In some places, entire departments are closing. I might be overstating this since I don't follow UK academic affairs much, but that's what the rumors say. Plus, now there's Brexit, so Britain is likely to lose access to some EU research budgets.
Try to find a place to work rather than a country or region. Figure out which universities, research centers, or zoos (?) have activities / research groups which you believe you could be part of, and apply to them. Yes, all of them, or at least many of them. Some will not reply, some will reject you outright, some will be indecisive, and some will interview you.
When you have one or more concrete job offers, your perspective will change quite a bit. You might decide not to accept, but at least you'll have a good idea of what you're giving up (which means you'll need a good idea of what you're giving it up for).
You're in a very stressful place right now, but realize that the fact that you're under stress is clouding your judgement and may lead you to the wrong choice. I remember how stressed out I was during my period of unemployment at the end of my PhD when I was no longer had the pseudo-salary (a.k.a. research stipend) coming in; and when I wasn't sure I would find work, and what kind, and thinking about my limited savings being eaten away every day. Not a fun experience. But - try to think about it this way: Suppose your future self has loaned your current self a relatively large sum of money. Now you have a(n imaginary) financial cushion; use it to be more patient and try to choose the best option for you and your spouse, career-and-life-wise. Granted, you can't know in advance what that ease, but you must allow yourself a bit of breathing space.
Remember that while moving to another country takes time and effort, and is quite stressful - if it doesn't work out, it's not the end of the world. I'm going to move on after my current post-doc to someplace else (haven't figured out exactly where yet). The second time you do you'll be a lot less stressed out than the first.
Another point regarding looking for employment: You need to contact specific researchers, as in people, no less, or even more, than sources of funding. And even if someone can't/won't hire you they're not unlikely to give you good advice.
On that note, have you talked to your PhD advisor? To faculty you've collaborated with on research? They could point you in some directions and/or put you in touch with their colleagues abroad (in Britain or elsewhere).
If you have more specific questions about life abroad as an expat, in the UK (you do mean Britain, right? Not North Ireland I'm guessing) - head over to expats.stackexchange.com which is another useful site on this network.
Have you thought about short/mid-term employment as a professional Zoologist or Biologist, rather than a researcher, outside of Academia? In the equivalent of what we in Engineering disciplines would call "the industry"? That's also a kind of an option.
That's what I got for now, I hope it helps.
Thank you very much for taking the time to write down all this advise. It is vastly helpful, especially now that I have just graduated and been stressing out tremendously.
I have been contacting people, and will be applying to any relevant job opening I encounter. I am giving myself a couple months to look for jobs in the UK only, and if this doesn't turn out well I will be exploring possibilities elsewhere.
Once again, thank you for all the advise. I am reading it again and again, and find it extremely helpful!
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26376 | Can I enroll in just the second year of a master's degree program in Germany?
In the french academic system, master's programs last for 2 years and one can start from the second year (if he/she fulfills the academic requirements, such as having already studied the first year or has already another master's degree in the same specialization). From what I saw in some german universities websites, master's degrees in germany last 2 years, but they don't precise whether one has the possibility to apply for an entry from the second year (if for example one has already a master's degree in the same field). Is it possible to join from the second year?
The best way to answer your question is to explain that it's a two-step process:
First, you need to be admitted to the master's program. If you're coming in as an international student, this can be in and of itself very difficult, particularly if you are applying to what is known as a "consecutive" master's degree program, for which the usual prerequisite is a bachelor's degree in the same field from a German university. If you are coming from a different field, or from outside Germany, you need to have the university recognize and accept your credentials as substantially equivalent to the bachelor's degree in question.
After you have gained admission, you can then proceed to establish that courses you have taken are equivalent to the master's courses offered in the degree program of interest. Normally this has to be approved by the instructor of each course you're interested in getting "transfer credit" for.
Thus, you won't be admitted into the "second year" or "semester n" of a given master's program, but you can get the equivalent credit, which will thus shorten your overall time-to-degree accordingly.
Admittance is usually to a nominal semester, with 30 credits necessary for a semester. So for admittance to the third semester 60 credits of level 2 (master's) work will be needed.
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27165 | Old PI's coauthorship on a paper after finishing the postdoc, a preliminary idea developed then but rejected by him
I understand that according the ethical rules, obtaining the funding does not automatically entitle the principal investigator (PI) for authorship. But I don't understand the unwritten rules.
I was on a postdoc. During the postdoc, I was paid from a grant obtained by the PI. At the beginning, he told me to find a good research topic and write a paper ("this will be your child"). I spent some time on literature search and very preliminary computations. I presented my idea to the PI but he told he doesn't want me to continue this topic. He even repeated this several times, on different occasions. He said my idea was too losely connected to what his group was doing. So I gave up that topic and did not do it any longer. Finally, I published a paper on quite different topic, together with the group members, and the PI was also a co-author.
One day I talked to a colleague from that group and I mentioned my old research idea. I said I would like to develop it anyway, when I finish the current postdoc. He told me that the PI should still be a co-author because I spent some time working on this idea in his group and I was paid by his money.
Now, it's been a couple of years since I finished that postdoc. I have independence and I can publish myself as the corresponding author. I would like to publish a paper on the idea I once had. Should I somehow credit the old PI? (And his grant? It's over already.)
The whole idea of the research is mine. The PI did not contribute whatsoever to it. I feel that crediting someone just for his funding is not ethical. The more so that he rejected my idea. But I understand the words of that colleague as a sort of a warning because he has been working with the PI for a long time and probably he knows his attitide. And that guy (the old PI) is quite well-known person in the community. Do you think I should somehow negotiate with him? Or stick at nothing and just publish the paper as entirely mine?
I cannot see why the former PI should have co-authorship on a paper they did not support or had any interest in. You are not a slave (or at least should not be) when on a post-doc (or any other position) and should retain the freedom to take own initiatives. As long as you fulfil any obligations within the position you are holding, no-one can prevent you from developing your own ideas. I can see an issue if you use materials that involve costs that you are not covering, for example, lab equipment or chemicals, electronic resources that removes capacity or resources otherwise used by the project. I do not count, for example, using a computer and printouts as such resources.
So, for me there is no question you can use the research as your own and you should add only authors that fulfil reasonable contributorship criteria, that is have contributed to the science of your work (see posts under the authorship tag for such criteria).
In (pure) mathematics, if you began working on this project while supported by the PI's grant, but without or even against his advice, then your publication about it would ordinarily include a footnote on the first page, saying something like "Partially supported by grant 314159 from the Munificent Funding Agency, John Doe principal investigator." I actually often see such footnotes without the name of the PI, but I see nothing wrong with including the name if it helps to placate him. CAUTION: Conventions may be different in other fields.
PI's grant ... 314159 ... I see what you did there!
Most disciplines have either a "Funding", "Financial Support", or a general "Acknowledgements" section that people use to note the source of funding for the research in question. Since the initial research that led to this paper was supported by your previous PI, you should note that in the paper and thank the funding agency and your former advisor for their assistance and support as you developed the idea.
Since the PI in question repeatedly decided to not support or become involved in the work when they had the chance, I don't see how there could be any reasonable expectation of co-authorship and it's very unlikely that they will be upset.
In my time, I've known one or two academics who could be highly unreasonable about "credit". But in general you are correct. I don't think your PI would have reasonable grounds to be upset with not being offered secondary authorship.
@StephenC, I've edited the answer to include the term "reasonable" and to hedge a little bit in the direction you are pointing.
I believe the PI does not qualify for authorship. However, there is nothing to be lost by a little civility. You could send him a note - something like this (fill in the blanks)
Dear Professor <name>
I hope you are well. It has been <some time> since I moved from <old institution> to <your current institution>, and I am settling in well. <some personal details about your life>.
You may recall that we once discussed <the idea>, but since it did not align with the research direction of <old group>, we dropped it and instead I focused on <what you did in postdoc>. Now that I am at <new institution> I have dusted off the old idea, and actually was able to turn it into a paper that shows <some salient details>. I intend to publish it in <journal, timeframe>.
Now since the idea had originally been formed while I worked in <old group>, I thought it would be appropriate to make a mention of this in the acknowledgements; I hope that you agree that this is the correct way to indicate the link to <old group>, given that we did no research on this topic while I was there.
I hope everyone is well. Please send my particular regards to <friends> - I miss <whatever you enjoyed>. Best wishes,
If he thinks he ought to be included in the authorship list, such a note leaves the door open. It is usually not worth ending up in a fight with someone who is well established in your field - and it's their transgression, not yours, if they insist on being named a co-author.
That said - I stand by my first sentence: what you describe does not qualify the former PI for co-authorship in this instance.
So far, there is only a vague hearsay (through the postdoc colleague) hint of a claim to authorship. If in fact the PI himself would make such a claim in response to this message, I believe one should stand one's ground and at the very least let the PI substantiate the claim. E.g. by referring to the journal's authorship policy, or to the intellectual ownership clause in the old postdoc contract. The PI's reputation would also be at stake if he tried to force the issue, especially if your new PI is already a real co-author.
@TemplateRex - you make very valid points. If a new PI is involved, then if things do get to a head, letting the two of them fight it out (especially if the new one is a real co-author) might be a good approach.
Send them the manuscript when it is ready for submission but before you submit it with a note explaining that you feel s/he warrants a mention in the acknowledgement or even a co-authorship.
Their response will tell you a lot about their character.
But if they want to be on it, put them on it, and if you later regret doing this, just do not deal with them again in future.
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15698 | Getting letters of recommendation for a master's degree if I don't get along with my current advisor
I'm currently in my final undergraduate year and I really want to go to graduate school, but there are some problems: I'm not sure if I can get recommendation letters.
< rant>
My current advisor is insane and unfair. She didn't let me take part in a conference paper that she and another student worked on. That was a very good chance for me to improve my chances of getting to graduate school, but now it's lost. She slightly modified the Caesar cipher and the other student just wrote a program that demonstrates her "algorithm", and it took him several days, while I could've done that in 4-8 hours.
Second time around, I decided(took her advice) to take the research category in a course where we have to make a project my the end of the semester. She didn't guide me or provide me with any references or resources that could help me. She just tells me "write it and I'll read it" or "look it up and understand it". I spent most the semester trying to get my head around the research topic and implement the algorithms, until I finally had to change to the development category because I was going to fail the course otherwise. Now she tells me that "she lost trust in me" and that she won't waste her time with me again.
< /rant>
So obviously my relationship with her is not very good, but what can I do now? Is doing research(or "research" in this case) at the undergraduate level mandatory for applying to graduate programs? My previous advisor liked me and my relationship with him was very good, but he left. If I could find him, can I get a recommendation letter from him? There is also another professor that is no longer at my school, can I get a recommendation letter from him as well? I've never worked on something with them or been their assistant, though.
A paper about a slight modification of the Caesar cipher? WTF
I didn't even believe it will ever be published, probably it was some insignificant conference. It was something about XORing the original data with the encrypted data and then maybe using that as the key or something like that. I just can't believe it actually got published.
A few points regarding your questions:
Presenting a weak conference paper is only very slightly better than presenting no paper at all. It may even be worse, if someone evaluating your application saw the presentation and came away unimpressed.
There is no requirement that you get a letter from someone like your present advisor. Such a relationship is clearly not productive for either of you, and including a letter would definitely not help.
You do need to get letters from people who can comment on your work skills, so your old advisor would be acceptable. Other people with whom you have worked—so long as it's technical in origin, even if it's not explicitly research—could also write letters for you. If you can't get three such letters, then you should get them from people who know you beyond taking classes with them. Only if you exhaust all other possibilities should you rely on people who know you only from classwork.
Finally, find yourself a new advisor, if at all possible.
Presenting a weak conference paper is only very slightly better than presenting no paper at all. — Or more accurately, only slightly worse.
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10889 | Should I opt for physics as minor for better mathematical intuition?
Context: I intend to study mathematics and do research as a career. I am studying analysis and abstract algebra now and I shall begin my undergraduate studies shortly.
Should I opt for physics as minor for better mathematical intuition?
I have been told my friend that physics may lend one intuition into a few mathematical structures though I am not sure. I can only think of differential equations as an example. In particular, please tell me if physics can serve as a source of motivation and if it is crucial enough.
If you don't want to study physics, I don't see why you should. If you don't find it interesting, you probably won't remember enough for it to be useful later anyway. If you do find physics interesting, go ahead and study it. It can be useful for motivation, intuition, applications, in a number of fields of mathematics.
You didn't tell us your level of study (late/upper- undergrad?) or anything about your institution - or exactly what you mean. If you're already interested in maths, then you don't need motivation; it's true that physics has often been a motivation for maths, or at least that they have developed together (Calc and Newtonian mech, for example). I think the answer depends a lot on how much you like physics and how you like your school's physics dept (I like physics, but hated the undergrad teaching I saw). +1 to StasK, especially that CS might be a good choice.
It is not only differential equations! Whole linear algebra (and a lot of functional analysis), a lot of group theory and thinks related to symmetry, countless things related to 'approximations', many aspect of meta-approach where you rather need to tinker with assumptions to get the result, than just set assumptions and only see what follows... But I guess you get intuition only if you put heart in it, at least a bit.
@hunter2 I shall begin my undergraduate study shortly.
Hmm. Then, unfortunately, your question doesn't belong here (tricky, I know - I just realized this when I was told a few days ago). Otherwise/more prosaically ... There's good answers here. / Keep an open mind, try and sit in on a variety of lectures (CS, Phys, etc.) in your first term to see what you like. / Note that 'topic' and 'department' aren't the same; you might like to read some books on topics, rather than getting the minor. / Give some good hard thought to the prospect of a career in academia/the math department.
No, you should opt for computer science. (Ha ha, only serious.)
While essentially seconding StasK's points, I'd be inclined to make a stronger claim about the utility of looking at not-so-elementary physics. That is, in addition to all the "mechanics" applications of the 18th and 19th centuries, and Maxwell's late-19th century electromagnetism (which provided a huge impetus to ideas about vectors!), many aspects of quantum theory focused attention on differential equations which have proven to be important examples of mathematical phenomena, in addition to applications to physics. This important-example-intensely-studied phenomenon continued with Bargmann's and Wigner's studies on representation-theory of specific Lie groups, which provided the backdrop for Harish-Chandra's vast program. This specificity was in marked contrast to the "generalism" that mathematicians of the time were embracing, e.g., Weil, Godement.
I think it continues to be the case that physical considerations suggest very-specific examples meriting intense study... which provide test cases for "purely" mathematical ideas.
Witten's (and others') relatively recent "physics" programmes have had a large impact on algebraic geometry (moduli problems, mirror symmetry).
Although I'm also fond of the crypto application/motivations of algorithmic number theory, the breadth and depth seems not as great as the math-phys connection, although of course the elapsed time is much less than for math-phys.
(The optimization and math econ, and comp sci and category theory applications/connections are less familiar to me.)
Still, I must confess that I dropped an undergrad physics minor while studying mathematics, because it seemed dreary to me at the time. Partly this was due to my inability to see the physics ideas underlying the tricks to evaluate integrals, but perhaps partly due to the accidentally-dumbed-down viewpoint promulgated in the physics courses ... presumably aiming at "accessibility".
And, yes, there is a similar common risk/disappointment in mathematics courses that give up ideas for the sake of "tractability". The risk is that it gives the wrong impression.
(Yet, yes, sometimes I've been told that what seems to me insanely fussy detail-mongering is the very essence of mathematics, and that perhaps I insufficiently appreciate "proof".)
There's a range of applications for mathematics around many disciplines. In the XX century, physics was definitely the biggest consumer of mathematics, from the photoelectric effect and the black body spectrum in the early century through nuclear bombs and space exploration of the second half. The XXI century looks to shape around biology and life sciences.
Physics leans heavily on PDE, real and complex analysis. Some areas may require abstract algebra, but they could turn out to be somewhat exotic (quantum Hall effect and other solid state physics stuff), and you would need to study physics for about 5 years to get to understand what it is if you are starting from ground zero. (School physics IS ground zero, in my books.) Until you know what Green's function is, there may be little point approaching physics for you.
Economics leans heavily on real analysis and optimization. There's some use of abstract algebra, although again to get to the areas where it is really needed (welfare economics, may be some very abstract macro), you need to get very deep into grad school in economics.
There's quantitative biology, in which separate fields may require way separate math tools: ecology uses some PDEs, while protein structure is computation that could be using abstract algebra, too, to describe the spatial structures (where it overlaps somewhat with material science).
Computer science is another big obvious consumer of mathematics, and abstract algebra is very immediately used in various codes. If you want to have an immediate gratification from having learned simple groups, you can go ahead and figure out how the PGP algorithm works.
Another comment about computer science is that studying (and programming) algorithms can give you a very good feel for growth models of different functions, which shows up all over the place in the math world.
@CharlesStaats, I am not quite sure what you mean here. Can you elaborate?
I mean, roughly, that you develop a good sense of which functions dominate which others as x goes to infinity. This is often handy for making estimates (in the technical sense).
This may come from some serious mathematical physics... as well as series expansions, basis function representations and other approximations. But, again, that's five years from ground zero. I would not expect even "calculus-based" physics, which would be the first class offered, by default, to user3498582397523754, even mention these in passing.
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60506 | Why are grants not given via a centralized and organized system?
Grants are currently given via an application process.
Grants could be given via a more efficient process: A single website - much like the patent database, filled with brief research proposals, categorized just like the patent databases, possibly restricted to one or several proposals per researcher to keep things lean. This database would be so organized that any grant giving agency could merely select which areas of research it wishes to fund and the browse the latest ideas in that field.
A large strength of this model is that researchers would not be bothered with a detailed proposal until the grant agency already established interest in the idea - this removing the waste associated with an obscene number of rejected proposals.
There are many small details that would have to be ironed out, but why is this system not used?
I don't really understand the question. Currently, funding agencies do already establish interest in a research area before soliciting proposals in that area. In most cases, they call for proposals in a specific area that they are interested in funding. I also don't see how your proposed system would lead to every published paper being "automatically categorized."
@ff524 If I submit a research proposal to an agency, only that agency can see it. If I submit it to a database, anyone can see it. Good question.
(Also, in some cases funding agencies do multiple proposal rounds, with interested researchers submitting a brief pre-proposal for a given call, and then some of these are invited to submit a full proposal.)
Um, because there is (much) more than one funding agency for grants and different agencies have different requirements? I also find the idea that a given agency would decide to fund certain areas and not others by reading brief proposals rather counterfactual. In my experience, to the extent that an agency is truly committed to funding research in one area versus another, they make that clear. Most of their evaluation is not deciding what area they what to fund but which individual proposals are most compelling.
any grant giving agency could merely select — As I tell my students when they read papers, the word "merely" is code for "Here's a half-baked idea I thought of in the shower this morning; it won't actually work." (Similarly, "obvious" and "trivial" and "clearly" all mean "false".)
@JeffE not to mention "There are many small details that would have to be ironed out, but.."
What country are you in? Also, have you seen http://www.grants.gov/ which tries to do this in the US?
First, let us consider why there are many organizations that fund research, rather than a single research-funding organization. This is a matter of evolutionary organizational structure. In most countries, research has a non-trivial budget and applies to many different concerns of government. That means there has to be some (probably largely hierarchical) structure for organizing it. Now, let's consider two prototypical organizational structures for government-funded research. First, we might have a general research agency, which contains subdivisions addressing the research needs of various other governmental tasks:
Alternatively, each government department might have its own research agency:
Almost everywhere, we see organizations more like the second structure than the first---there might well be some countries in the world where research is so small or so controlled that is it organized in the first way, but if so, I am not aware of them. Why might that be?
Consider what happens if you are a leader in the department of agriculture, and you want to expand your agency's research work. Unless strong regulation prevents you from doing so, it's much easier to create or expand a research organization within the agriculture department than it is to get an independent research department to do it for you. A research sub-department within agriculture is also more likely to serve the peculiar needs, time scale, market structure, etc. as relates to agriculture. It's also easier and more rewarding to go to government leadership and fight to get resources for your own organization, where you can explain exactly how you plan to utilize them, than to fight to give them to somebody else.
Since both government structure and research needs evolve over time, we may thus expect research organizations to multiply, both across the government as a whole and also within individual sub-organizations. They are in fact occasionally reorganized and combined with the goal of making them simpler and more efficient to interact with, just as other government agencies are, but that will typically not reduce the number down to one, just to a smaller "many." Moreover, we've only discussed government funding, not industry funding or funding by foundations and NGOs, which all have their own separate needs and desires and further complicate the funding landscape.
Now, to the second aspect of the question: why is there no central database for applications? Sometimes there are, at least partially. For example, in the United States all government requests for proposals go through FedBizOpps. Most research solicitations can thus be found there (though not all, due to the diversity of mechanisms), along with requests for things like security guards for the US Embassy in Costa Rica. As you might guess, however, the sheer breadth means this often isn't a terribly efficient method of searching.
Likewise, every agency has different sorts of information it's looking for in research proposals. Again, taking the US as an example, the NSF really wants to know how its funds will support graduate student and postdoc education, since that's a key part of its mandate. AFRL, on the other hand, usually doesn't care much about supporting students, and has a mandate instead focusing on how its funds will affect current military concerns. As a result, a "universal" proposal would likely be quite cumbersome even if the bureaucracies were somehow reconciled.
Bottom line: "research" is too complex and pervasive a set of needs to readily stay contained within a single unified organization.
I think the only aspect missing from this otherwise excellent answer is that, unless we are looking at an extremely tightly controlled structure, nothing is stopping your first schema from "devolving" into the second schema in no time. Even if there is a central "research agency", the (w.l.o.g.) agriculture department may, as one of its task, look into creating more farms. For funding these projects, it needs to decide what types of farms and what technologies to use in them. Among the different options for technologies, there might be one that is not well-tested yet, but that promises ...
... a much higher production rate than the other technologies. As a result, the agriculture department decides that 10% of the new farms are to be run with the new technology and also asks those farms to produce reports about the observed efficiency and perceived potential for optimization of that technology. There we are. We now have something conspicuously similar to a research project, funded by an agency unrelated to the central research agency, and without even officially creating a research department in the agricultural agency, or anything labeled research upfront from the start.
@O.R.Mapper This is exactly the point I was aiming to make about how we can expect research agencies to multiply: "both across the government as a whole and also within individual sub-organizations"
I don't understand your concept of databases, but there are websites and systems for grant and scholarship/fellowship search!
I don't know if it is allowed to put names here?
I think in the USA you have similar systems. All websites I know are for Europe grants, but I also know one huge database (not free) that is available all over world.
The question is asking why grants are not administered with a single database and adjunct website, and not about websites for grant search.
They are! but these database are not free to access, unfortunately! @Wrzlprmft
@SSimon: It is completely allowed to put names of resources or services relevant to the question here (in fact, your answer, as it stands, is more like unverifiable hearsay due to the lack of a concrete reference). If you are affiliated with such a resource or service, you should, however, say so, and asking for open-ended lists of services is discouraged, as well. So, if you can actually point out a service that serves as a global, complete distribution system for all research grants, this might be a valid answer - even though personally, I doubt this exists in the extent being asked for.
I didnt want to make public advertisement for such a company @O.R.Mapper some of universites are subscribed to database of that company ( http://info.researchprofessional.com/funding-opportunities/) I was told in META dsccusion that I shouldNOT write names of institutions and organisations in STACK exchanges or post a question conserning it, I am suprise that you told me that I should put!
@SSimon: As you did not link to the particular Meta discussion, I can only guess what it was about, but in general, naming particular institutions is discouraged when you are reporting about questionable procedures or other problems - and many questions are about such issues. That is usually a different case than citing a particular institution as a verifiable example of something non-questionable. Likewise, linking to a company could come across as an advertisement, which is why I mentioned you should reveal any affiliation you have with that company, and the reference should, in your ...
... opinion, really be on-topic. Now, as for the service you linked to, I agree with @Wrzlprmft; that website seems to simply allow for searching for grants or funding agencies. Once found, researchers still have to send individual proposals to those funding agencies. The website does not seem to provide a centralized entry point for researchers to apply for grant money, and for funding agencies to distribute their available money based upon abstract factors/topics, as described in the question.
@O.R.Mapper I am sorry, I dont know how to link topic on other sites, about OP I dont really understand question and what OP needs to know, most of other governmental or supra governmental grants,( example HORISONT2020) goes through centralized systems
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99571 | How to run a fiscally independent research department?
I spoke with a professor and learned that The University of Tennessee chemistry department turns a net profit. It receives zero tuition money. It has patents and research grants. How does it achieve this? Is this a common thing? How to find/execute profitable patent producing research? And How to win grants?
How to find/execute profitable patent producing research?
Do you have any sources for your question? To me, it seems unlikely that the department "It receives zero tuition money".
As part of a non-profit state sponsored university, it is unlikely that it makes a "profit". Certainly the (total dollars in) must be greater than or equal to (total dollars out), or somebody in the university finance office (or the legislature) will get very interested in them.
@richarderickson I spoke with a professor.
This is a really interesting question, though its statement above doesn't include much in the way of references or information. Editing in some background might help to improve its reception.
@Dale your question lacks information. You mention "the...chemistry department turns a net profit" from just "patents and research grants," and question how this is possible. Assuming the University of Tennessee provides buildings and equipment, pays salaries, etc., there are approximately zero outgoings. Further assume revenues from patents and grants are the only incoming revenue. It follows that the department "turns a net profit." But, this is a meaningless calculation. Your question is interesting nonetheless, but without detailed financial information it is difficult to answer.
@nat what do you mean by background? I am not sure what to reference or what info to cite.
@user2768 the question is strategic. How do they keep grants? How do they obtain monetizable patents? How does the system keep money flowing?
How do they keep grants? Grant money isn't distributed equally. Those with a history of bringing in grant money are likely to continue doing so. How do they obtain monetizable patents? They produce good, commercially viable research and have talented people that can license that research. How does the system keep money flowing? You keep brining in grants and producing more patents. These are all trivial answers. Perhaps you can ask a more precise question.
@user2768 how do they keep research commercialy viable?
@Dale, do you mean how do they keep the revenue streams? (They do what the market wants.) Or how do they keep producing commercially viable research? (They tackle problems that are likely to produce revenues, they listen to the market, ...) Your question seems like a shopping question.
#user2768. I could have asked two separate more specific questions. How to find/execute profitable patent producing research? And How to win grants?
There are a large number of soft-money research centers that are essentially stand-alone - they have to bring in enough research money to cover their costs, and don't receive tuition support, TA lines, etc. I suspect the most common place to find them is in the biomedical field. I worked for one when I was a postdoc.
How does it achieve this? There are a number of ways to do this. A generous initial endowment can help. Patents, and the licensing revenue that comes from them are, for some fields, a major source of income. And then there are grants. Lots and lots of grants.
Do they have strategies that get them here? Yes. One does not get there by accident.
Is this model reproducible? Given there is more than one such organization, the answer is clearly yes.
Whether it's desirable or sustainable is, on the other hand, another question. In my experience, there is an immense amount of pressure on the senior leaders of such organizations, because if grant funding doesn't come through, there's no safety net, and you're immediately talking about firing people. And because the operating expenses for any academic unit are quite high, they often depend on a small number of large grants to support them (for example, where I was a postdoc, I don't think it was possible to write enough NIH R01-scale grants to cover things).
That's a very high risk position. If a program gets cut, funding falls through, etc. there's suddenly a massive hole in the budget.
I was hoping patents played a larger role.
@Dale Patents can be involved, and a lucrative licensing agreement is a big deal, but it would have to be something wildly successful to subsidize a whole department, and it's not something you could count on from the outset.
This is an incredibly complex question. The only way to get a near accurate answer would be to ask to meet the department chair and ask him or her. Given that UT is a public university you might be able to use the Freedom of Information Act to get your questions answered.
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32067 | Are there any universities in US/Europe which will give PhD in Engineering in 3-4 years?
I know that PhD is not like other degrees which ends in a span of 2-4 years.
Also, one cannot control the span of the program which entirely depends on topic and guides.
But I heard from some where that some universities offer PhD within 3-4 years and there is no minimum journal requirements.
I would like to know if such universities really exist and a comment on the university will be highly appreciated.
So you want to get a PHD with minimum or none publications. Why?
In (Continental) Europe, PhD typically lasts 3-4 years. Journal requirement - usually it is up to a professor.
United States Data: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvydoctorates/
Less than 5 years is unusual. Typically publications are not formally required.
In the UK (or at least in my Uni) now one MUST finish his PhD before 4 years.
In Europe a Phd normally last from 2 to 4 years. But to be admitted to it you must have a Master degree.
The American and the European system are pretty different I think.
check this link about education in Europe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process
I have Masters already.
So you should have no problem in being enrolled in a PhD program in a European university. They last 3-4 years.
If you have funding for your PhD, it will usually have a fixed duration of 3 or 4 years.
Where is Europe is a two-year PhD normal?
for example in Switzerland (Veterinary medicine) and in Poland (Philosophy)
In Germany, some students require up to 6 years from diploma or Masters to PhD, although many do it in 3 - 5.
@BiA: Not sure if this is universally applicable to all European universities. In some unis at Germany for example, foreign Masters degrees (esp. from Asian countries) are first evaluated. If the candidate is not suitable to start a PhD immediately, he/she needs to attend a few courses and give a test (normally after an year of enrollment).
@jayann those matters are usually regulated by each university. There isn't a rule that is valid in every case. My experience tells me that it strongly depend on the subject you want to do the PhD in.
A PhD in 2 years? Never heard of that, and usually there will be a minimal duration of 3 years (maximum varying between 4 and 5)
This seems to be a trick question. Are there universities which will "give you a PhD" in a short time? Well, yes. If you work hard enough to "earn a PhD" in a short time.
That said, it is quite common in continental Europe for PhD positions to be offered for a period of 3 years. That's nice if your Masters degree has already prepared you with the relevant graduate-level concepts. You will still have to find a PhD topic and complete your investigations in the stipulated time.
On the down side, PhD supervisors (who may even be a Postdoc or a researcher with individual grant) usually find it difficult to arrange for additional funding if you are unable to produce satisfactory results within 3 years. At good universities, and in well-funded disciplines, this is usually not a problem. But this really happens, and if you do not come from a first-world country, it may get difficult to sustain yourself.
Publication limit? It again depends upon your field. In theoretical fields, like pure mathematics, theoretical physics, some branches of computer science, etc. it is difficult to publish, so you may get a PhD with one or two papers. But in experimental fields, it is difficult to put a number. That shouldn't bother you though, because your supervisor is usually there to help you out.
And PhD is after all a training in becoming an individual researcher. So why bother about number of publications already? What you should worry about is, do you really want a PhD? There, your query suggests only a superficial motivation.
Is there anywhere in Europe where you PhD supervisor might be a postdoc? I don't want to speak for all disciplines in a whole continent but I've not heard of that happening in the UK in computer science.
Also, in terms of papers, the usual deal (again, in the UK) is "By the time you're ready to submit a thesis, you'll probably have submitted about X number of papers," where X varies by field. It's not a causation or a requirement but a correlation.
Okay, I didn't mean someone who's currently pursuing their first Postdoc, but someone who has completed one (or two Postdocs) and is not a professor yet. Such people are usually employed as Researchers but sometimes also as Postdocs. In Germany, it suffices if they have been granted their own funding by a funding agency. They may then supervise a PhD student. Although I am not sure whether or not they are also allowed to be the official "first evaluators" of the thesis.
In the UK, it is common to go straight from a Bachelors degree (3-4 years) to a PhD (minimum 3 years). Not many complete their PhD in 3 years, but in that time you are expected to reach independent research level and have published papers. Certainly I and my colleagues followed this path and published papers in that timescale, although some of us took a lot longer to finally finish.
At our university, you start technically on an MPhil (Masters) course, and there is a review around 12-18 months in; if your work is on course for PhD grade (i.e. you have published or are soon to publish), you are switched to the PhD. If it is not going so well you can just finish the Masters and move on.
The best option in the UK is to get a sponsored studentship with a company; they will pay a lot of cost of the degree (we got a bursary whichever way) and usually assist with materials, funds, direction during the course itself.
AIUI in the UK it's required for the work to be of a publishable standard but it's not actually required to turn it into a journal/conference publication.
In the Netherlands, PhD programs are usually salaried four-year programs (though typically requiring 3-4 journal publications to get the degree in the end). For example, good universities for engineering are located in Delft and Eindhoven.
In France the average length of a PhD in engineering is ~3.5 years
Source 1:
Dans le domaine des « sciences dures », la durée moyenne des thèses
est de 42 mois (3,5 années). Le taux d’abandon est de 5%. Le taux
d’insertion professionnelle est de 90 %
Source 2:
une durée moyenne de thèse de 41 mois
In the US, in most places it is hard to be complete the PhD in less than 4 years.
In Cambridge University in the UK it is (well, was, in the '80s) not uncommon for students to do most of the work for their PhD in 3 or 4 years - but nobody "gives" you a PhD, you have to work for it (quite hard), and earn it.
A PhD, in the end, is a piece of paper that testifies you have a "license to learn on your own". You are expected to have developed the skills needed to be a successful researcher; while it is important to develop your ability to document your work and write coherently about it, I don't think it should be necessary to have first-author publications to graduate.
Skeptically, one might suspect that organizations that demand publications may be more concerned about their own publication rates, than about the careers of their students (but see below)...
Having said that - if you want to get a job as a postdoc, it is advisable to have some publications under your belt. This may be less important if you want to work in industry - not an unlikely course of action with an advanced engineering degree. And given the salary jump from student to industrial engineer, you may want to "get it over with" quickly.
In summary, you need to take a look at your own career aspirations before choosing a program based on their graduation requirements. The piece of paper is just that - but whether you will have, at graduation, the demonstrated skills needed for the next step is something only you know.
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47053 | What exactly are academic librarians?
I completed my postgraduate studies in France where, unless I am mistaken, librarians that work in an academic library do more or less the same work as, say, librarians that work in a public library.
When I started to seek information about faculty jobs in Canada, I was struck by the fact that librarians seem to be pretty much considered as faculty.
Is that a fact? Is it the same in the United States? Is in the same in different types of institutions, i.e. more or less research/teaching-oriented?
I have looked at a few faculty collective agreements, and it seems like they usually include librarians. They seem to have pretty much the same working conditions, e.g. in terms of salary, sabbaticals and workload. The last agreement I read specified that librarians have a maximum of 12 hours of "scheduled student contacts", in the same article that specifies that professors teach a maximum of 12 credits per year.
I would like to know what exactly is the job of an academic librarian, besides acting as "regular" reference librarians. I suppose they must keep up with the progress in their field and be able to assess the relevance of journal subscriptions and book purchases, but that probably doesn't account for the missing 23–28 hours a week.
Do librarians actually perform and publish research? If so, would that be mostly in their respective field, or in library and library science? Do they have tenure, and is the process similar to the one applied to professors?
Also, how does one become an academic librarian? Do you need an MLIS like a "regular" librarian? Do you need a PhD, and if so, must it be a PhD in library and information science, or in a field related to the position?
+1, nice question. I think I could answer most of these questions with respect to librarians at my institution (US), but I don't know whether that would be more broadly representative.
@NateEldredge, I frequently see questions here that end up requiring more than one answer because things are different in different places. I would suggest, if nobody has felt confident to provide a more general answer in some time, you could answer w.r.t. to your institution and, if it turns out other institutions are the same, I suspect people will point it out in comments and you'll be able to update if you want to. If it turns out to be specific, it's still relevant—and interesting.
Keep in mind that some academics don't find the sort of job they originally envisioned, and eventually find a niche that works for them, and such a niche might be in a library position.
@aparente001, That's actually a pretty interesting fact. In your experience, do they go through the process of acquiring an ML(I)S? If you have some further information or useful anecdotal evidence, you could consider making that an answer.
At many (but by no means all) universities in the US and Canada, professional librarians (usually with a terminal Master's of Library Science degree or perhaps a PhD in some academic discipline) are treated as members of the faculty, including eligibility for tenure, participation in shared governance, etc.
In many other universities, librarians are staff members and not considered part of the faculty. In a few places, there is a mixture with some librarians on the tenure track and other librarians who might have an MLS degree who are strictly staff members. Most libraries also have lots of support staff and student employees who aren't professional librarians.
In places where librarians are considered faculty, they are usually expected to be involved in some kind of scholarly (research) activity and in teaching students. For example, a librarian who specializes in archival collections might produce a catalog of a special archive and publish it. Librarians often teach courses in how to use the library to do research and might be involved in teaching courses in library science to future librarians.
At my institution, librarians are simply staff members, although the director of the library is an ex officio member of the faculty senate.
I've known at least one librarian who had a PhD in English and no degree in library science. However, most academic librarians I've worked with have an MLS degree.
Librarians are awarded tenure at the City University of New York. The educational requirements are an MLS and a subject Master's degree or an MLS and/or Ph.D. Like tenured professorships, librarians must publish. I suppose there are a few exceptions, but most follow these requirements.
Are they expected to perform research and publish in their respective field or in library science?
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11740 | How to handle a PI who constantly threatens to kick me out of their lab?
I am a first-year PhD student in Biology and I am currently working in a lab for a very hard-to-please PI (a new PI who started a couple years ago and only just recruited her first few graduate students). I am very interested and excited about this line of research and I really want to do what I am doing. But my PI's way of managing people makes everyone miserable and I am not sure what to do.
Background: Last fall, I rotated in a lab which I really enjoyed working in and generated some great data, but had to leave, along with the other rotation student, because PI had no funding. In the spring, I rotated with a brand new PI, whose lab I helped set up and started on a project, but did not stay in his lab because his management was very poor - was never around, didn't know or care what was going on with projects, etc, and I was also advised to join a different lab by the academic coordinator who said they thought this PI was not "ready" to handle a graduate student. So then, I started a THIRD rotation in another "new" PI's lab and have been here for three months.
This person's research is really great, but their management seems to focus heavily on threatening language and negative reinforcement. They often send very angry emails to the lab. When this person is feeling "iffy" about you because you didn't get fantastic results or you responded to an email too slowly, they will tell you to your face that you are not worth their time to mentor if you don't "try harder." I recently gave PI a sequence alignment, but accidentally gave them the wrong version of the sequence, and as a result, they said they would not be willing to fund me as an RA. PI actually made the same mistake when they did the sequence comparison (which is OKAY! It is an easy mistake to make!), but they were just so harsh on me for the mistake. All their communication with me makes me feel that, despite my good merits, progress or improvements, they disapprove of me or are angry with me. They deal with my labmates in the same way and my labmates have often expressed their worries and stresses to me over this. I should note that some of my labmates are well-accomplished, highly dedicated post-doctoral researchers who devote ALL of their time and efforts to their work. The dynamic in the lab overall is not very good, in part because people feel increased anxiety from the PI's anger or lack of professionalism in expressing themself. It is really a huge distraction from my work whenever PI is talking about kicking me out of the lab. I go from focused on an experiment to panicking about what to do or who I should talk to.
I still respect this person as a scientist, but I feel at times that this harsh style of management/dealing with people is too much for me. I am not perfect, but I am trying very hard and have made so much progress on my work, I just wish PI would recognize this. Almost in my second year of graduate school, and with the school potentially not able to support me with a TA in the future, and with me working in my third lab, I am extremely stressed out by this situation. I feel that, if I do not make it work in this miserable lab, I will be kicked out of the school and then lose my chance to earn a PhD.
What is a good way to deal with this type of advisor and how to keep clam and focused in the lab with this kind of stress? Any advice is appreciated.
As several professors here have previously pointed out in other questions, Don't Walk, Run !
@Shion The OP's problem is where to run. It's already his third rotate. IMHO, he needs to figure out a way to stay.
Hi. I don't mean this critically, but did you check to see what this PI was like before joining his lab? Talk to the other grad students etc.? It is possible this person's employees would lie to you, or be too afraid to be candid, but it is worth doing this anyway. In any case, I suggest, if possible, try checking on people before working for them in the future.
Don't walk. Run. Abuse is simply not acceptable. Don't accept it from your PI. You need a new advisor, and from the sound of it, a new department that doesn't hire so many jerks who aren't "prepared" for students. Get out.
@user8088 Your question title "How to handle a PI ..." suggests to me that you don't want to leave your current lab yet even you know you're being abused. Is there any reason you don't want to leave?
P.S. I really like this kind of questions. in part because it shows that academia isn't always about success. One thing I know for sure: You can't be good researcher and have good results under such harsh environment.
I just thought I should add that this PI is not just threatening/talking. They do indeed have a history of kicking out a lot of people (EIGHT people, I've learned).
The PI's job is to be a manager, not to be a scientist. Sounds to me like they may not be a PI much longer.
I have sometimes had a manager with a very dramatic, apparently angry, way of expressing himself. That can be handled by adjusting one's own interpretation - no comment means "you are doing great" etc. However, the no RA funding thing sounds like this one's bite is just as bad as the bark.
Don't walk, run.
This kind of behaviour should be viewed as entirely unprofessional and unacceptable in any working environment; it astonishes me what gets politely overlooked in the academic world. What you describe is bullying. While the work may be exciting, it is doubtful that you will ever be able to flourish as an independent researcher facing daily abuse from your supervisor and suffering the toxic secondhand effect of your supervisor abusing your colleagues. I cannot imagine that after several years of that you will still be able to maintain the same level of enthusiasm for your work, and perhaps for academia altogether.
First off, I'm really sorry about your situation. It's certainly not a nice boat to be on, metaphorically speaking...
Since you have omitted any information about where you live and work, I don't really know what rules and regulation apply, likewise what the "norm" of a PI - grad student relationship is over there. So I will try to keep it as general as possible.
Let's start by looking at your options, you can:
keep wishing that the PI will eventually realize your efforts and give you a break
accept the constant stress and harassment (yes threatening someone is a form of harassment)
leave the lab
communicate your concerns to the PI
(1) and (2) are pretty self-explanatory. Let's consider (3) for a second, why would you want to work in a lab like that? I know that cultures vary and level of respect and fear professors command is scary at certain countries/cultures but I honestly don't get why you would be willing to put up with that. Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that working in a lab like that will make you work harder and get better results (and I sincerely doubt this will be the case in the long run), who cares that you got a publication in a fancy journal if you hate your life every day. I am possibly dramatizing it a bit to make my point clear. Honestly if you have been doing research with 3 different PIs and none are sound to work with, I'd consider some other uni/lab.
Lastly (4); communicate your concerns. You have mentioned that other people have similar problems with this PI. Gather some good arguments; enriched with facts, numbers that cannot be easily denied... Then try to get a 1-to-1 meeting with the PI, and simply tell the person that s/he is terrorizing the lab, and it's hurting peoples mood and ultimately effectivity. If you make good, logical points without diving into emotions and thoughts and beliefs, you could actually make your concerns heard right there and then.
If the PI in question completely ignores your concerns, and ultimately tells you "my way or highway" then one option would be go pursue your legal rights. I don't know what the situation is where you work, but in Sweden PhD students are actually employed by the university, and thus by the state (exceptions exist, but that's beside the point). So you have certain rights assured by your employment. Even without a formal employment, i.e. only a student, you should have some rights and some representation towards the faculty. The student unions here in Scandinavia are pretty strong and well connected. They actually work together with the faculty and university administration to catch up, and deal with issues like this. I would recommend you to try and see if there is a similar concept in your university.
That's all I got, hope the situation resolves itself soon.
Good luck!
Sorry to hear about your situation. But as others pointed out, based on my own experience, I have following pointers:
In my personal experience, there is no way the situation will get better. Your PI is less likely to be punished for her behavior. So when a thief is not caught while stealing from a cookie-jar, the encouragement for the thief is to steal more, and more, and more. So, you should assume that you are in for abuse for a very long time. It would be a wishful thinking that she would change, and you cannot base your decision on something that you can't control (i.e. change in behavior of your PI).
The second question: How common are these situations? Answer: Shockingly common. It is one of the biggest shames of modern academia. It really stems from a general culture of immunity and impunity - a "cozy club" in which faculty members operate and protect each other. This does not mean you have to accept it as a fact of life and continue to take abuse. Road accidents are also common. It does not mean we stop driving in a car. The key is to be more careful while driving, more careful while choosing the next PI: do your research, meet students, email former students/postdocs, keep thinking of alternatives. Academia is like a lawless country: if you complain against your adviser, her friends and colleagues would be the judge, jury and prosecutor. There is no hope of a fair trial. During the course of your complaint process, you will face character assassination, slander and even more harassment. So, do not even try to "handle" the situation by going through the official complaint process unless you have resources for legal recourse.
Things have gone so bad these days that I see news of lawsuits by grad students every now and then. For example, check these ones out:
http://chronicle.com/article/My-Adviser-Stole-My-Research/135694/
http://www.gwhatchet.com/2014/02/23/in-rare-court-appearance-gw-will-face-former-graduate-student-alleging-emotional-distress/
https://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/blog_posts/1747
As is the case with other fields/sectors, only appropriate laws and legal action can flush the corrupt advisers out. Turns out there is more awareness on such issues these days, and this has not escaped the attention of even some lawmakers. For example, see this:
http://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/photo-gallery/student-right-to-know-before-you-go-act-introduction-and-discussion
Suppose you decide to stay and take the abuse for several years or even a decade. Would that make you a successful researcher? Most likely the answer is in negative. Your PI's exploitative conduct and toxic work environment would not let you think independently. The very fact that you currently think this is a good lab and you are working on the best topics is already a sign of some brainwashing you might have suffered. A lab is not good if its citizens are mistreated. Period. A thesis topic or research field is not good if you work on it in an environment of fear. Period. Compare this with scientists forced to work in a concentration camp: they are mistreated, they don't publish and nobody knows such researchers. Look around you - you will find that most the successful students who came from reputed labs have stories of how good their relationship with their advisers were. Do you have such a story to tell? No. Would you eventually have a nice story to tell? Less likely.
Having analyzed the situation, let's come to the solutions:
Is there a way you could quit this lab, say today, and have your studies continued? Is there any such way? If the answer is yes, then you have to "run" to that solution. Like someone said, "don't walk, run". The sooner the better.
As a student, you don't want to lose any of your years, and want to build on whatever best you have got. People like your PI know this and take advantage of the student's psyche by making false promises, threats, baits and harassment. You have to liberate yourself from this psyche. If you could transfer to another university, may be credit a few more courses, go through the admission again, it would benefit you as an independent person and researcher. You have to understand that the situation would not improve, and there is a good chance you will get a better PI in a better place.
Finally, instead of feeling inferior, you have to realize that your PI indeed likes your work. But she thinks it is beneath her to appreciate your efforts. Also, she has figured out that she can get more work out of you by berating you. That itself tells you two things: you will not gain anything by trying to "impress her", and that you are really good to go somewhere else.
I encountered an abusive adviser in my PhD. It took me five years to come to terms with a sad fact that I was being exploited, that there were no returns or brighter future prospects, and that I was really a good student who could easily transfer to other universities. So, I changed to a better university and benefited a lot from working with the best in my field. Looking back, I feel I could have taken this decision much earlier if there was a stackexchange thread on this topic :-) It is never too late. Run, run and run to something, not away from something.
However, the "clean break" that I was looking for didn't happen: after I quit my previous lab, my adviser tried to take back my thesis citing "national security concerns" (yes, he did play that card). I complained to the Dean, and my thesis was published. My adviser contacted my new advisers and tried to put a negative recommendation. He slandered my character before my colleagues. When he found out that there was not much he could do, he turned to something completely unthinkable: my brother was a PhD student in the same department. My adviser contacted his adviser (who was another jerk) and conspired to kick my brother to out of the university on false accusations - all in broad daylight. I and my brother went through the official complaint process, but nothing happened. No one heard our side of the story. In the meantime, 8-10 more students quit my former adviser's lab in less than two years. A few months later, the university gave the highest recognition to my former adviser. This is what a "cozy club" does.
I wish you good luck. Just RUN.
+1 for excellent, candid summary of the situation. "Academia is like a lawless country". Well said. Having said that "you have to realize that your PI indeed likes your work". There is no way of knowing what the PI really thinks.
That's true. But my experience tells me that only the most productive and bright students are at the receiving end of the harshest harassment. What does that tell us? That their work has more value for the PI. So, in this context, I said that PI actually likes the student's work, otherwise there is nothing to gain by harassing the student.
Well, the PI might be a horrible person and treat everyone like that. Without more data one cannot say anything. And if a PI harasses a student to work harder, it might be because he/she genuinely believes he/she is lazy/unproductive, and the PI just wants the student to work harder.
Agreed. But why would a PI constantly threaten to kick out a student, if the PI really has best interests of the student at heart. Should the PI use only "stick", or both "carrot and stick", if the student is indeed lazy?
Who says the PI has the students best interests at heart? I don't quite follow your point here.
Just taking a leaf from what you said: "if a PI harasses a student to work harder, it might be because he/she genuinely believes he/she is lazy/unproductive, and the PI just wants the student to work harder." This would imply that the PI wants the student to improve (= shun the laziness).
No offense, but I find that a curious argument. If you were a slave in the American South, and your master told you that you were lazy and should work harder, would you then assume he was concerned for your welfare?
Not to belabor the point, but i find the direct comparison with slavery in south fascinating and somewhat out-of-context. If a student is lazy and unproductive, that hurts student's interests as well. Irrespective of who the PI is, how would such a student succeed on his own? A slave in American South could remain lazy for he is resigned to his destiny of being a slave for life. But a student would not be a student-for-life, he has to graduate and find a job with upward mobility in career ladder.
Yes, I take your point that the comparison is a bit of a stretch in some ways. I guess what I was trying to say is that many (most?) PIs are focused on their own benefit, not the student's benefit. When the PI is saying to a student, work harder, he may simply mean, do more work, publish more papers, so I can put my name on them. It doesn't mean he thinks well of the student's abilities. I suppose he must have some minimal appreciation of the student's ability, otherwise he would have some other student there. And yes, the student may benefit from this pushing, but as a side-effect.
It really does sound like you are better off leaving. For one thing, since he really does kick people out, what will you do if this person does kick you out later on in your PhD? I'm assuming here what you seem to be implying in your question, but have not stated explicitly - that this lab will be your home for the remainder of your PhD.
I've also suffered abusive conditions, though as a post-doc. (Although the PI in question did not generally kick people out.) I think it is unlikely to get better. These kind of people don't change unless they are forced to, and academia tends to be very undemocratic, and my experience is that department officials are loath to interfere unless they benefit in some way. E.g. if they want to get this person for some reason, they may use his behavior towards his juniors as an excuse, but they won't really care. (Something like this actually happened in a department I was in.) Your setup certainly sounds very undemocratic. Even if the PI is pressured into behaving better (unlikely by the sound of it) it will still probably not be a positive working environment.
If if it already late in your PhD, I suggest you discuss funding problems with your department, and sooner than later. Maybe something can be figured out, but the longer you wait, the more difficult your position will become.
As I said in a comment above, if you do move again, check the PI in question out, as far as practicable.
Also, as Jack said, there is a significant possibility that this treatment will end up ruining your appetite for research altogether. You should take that possibility seriously.
Here's my quick story with a nightmare PI:
I'm at an R1.
I switched labs after my first year because my advisor was a tyrant. This PI was very unethical and emotionally abusive, and I would have reported her to our IRB in regards to research integrity issues that I saw if my program had a way to do that anonymously (as an aside: it still baffles me that they don't have such a process!). I talked with our department chair who helped facilitate me leaving the lab when I gave her the ultimatum that I'd be leaving the program if I could not move labs. Schools don't like that, especially when you are pre-dissertation because it makes their programs look bad. The department chair basically told me not to speak up to higher levels in the university about what I was experiencing, and quietly helped facilitate meetings with other PIs so that I could move to another lab.
After that, she lost an existing student every semester. Another student took the issues to the Dean, and things seemingly "hit the fan" with this professor and our Department. Two years later she had no students, and was finding it hard to recruit. The thing that still baffles me to this day is that she faced NO repercussions from the graduate school. She lost 5 students in 2 years, and nothing happened to her. They tried to convince her to take an easy high paying administrative position and cruise into retirement, but she refused. Now she has a beautiful lab space that no one occupies, and she still brings in private funding that no one does any work with other than failed post-docs who take a side gig with her as a consultant to move something along for her ever so slightly. I guess this kind of behavior really is tolerated in Academia?
Honestly, I think the best thing to do is leave the lab and go somewhere else. I won't lie and say that it always works out, it might not. Your current PI might make a stink in the field and you might find that moving to another lab doing related work is not possible. You might find that in the department if the PI brings in enough money and has power that moving to another professor is difficult. You have to leave quietly and make it about your interests and a lack of a match in where the work was going, etc. You have to play the hand you have been dealt as shrewdly as you can.
Best of luck to you.
P.S., if your PI is not a rational person then don't expect any direct conversation with him/her to go well. The best predictor of new behavior is...?
I have to wonder, how does this person "brings in private funding" if she can't find anyone to do the work?
@Faheem Mitha: Research was based on the arts. People giving money were doing it more out of being able to say "we have this great project and are having researchers from this prestigious university look at it." In reality nothing ever happened with money and deliverables never happened. People giving money had no clue they were being taken for suckers. Of course, university didn't care because all they see is green.
That seems rather strange, but ok. My impression is that even with grants, some results are expected at the end of the day, reports and so forth. But maybe it depends on the funding agency.
@Faheem Mitha: I wish there was a way to private message you because I'd tell you parties and project involved and I promise it would make sense. But I've probably already said too much here to be identified if anyone I knew read these.
Oh, I believe you. I'm just saying it seems a bit strange. But it's a strange world.
You would not come here, if you thought the situation acceptable. Unfortunately the isolation of the PI will have given rise to a wrong self-perception. If you are ready to search for yet another PI, and again some criticism on another person arises, wait (not too long) till you can talk to the PU alone, and say:
you are the best PI till now, you have gotten,
I have no experience, but isn't the tone quite harsh? - especially as there are still professional unsurities on the side of the coworkers,
I am a bit longing already for a bit collegual tone at work
English is not my native language, so formulate the above as short and open as feasible, maybe in question form.
that you are missing a bit of lightness, humour, in the day-to-day operation,
whether the current team is a bit disappointing; in what respects.
Also be sure to give the PI his say, listen: if the PI does not react on a pause: what do you think?
Stop if the PI cannot reach over (in that moment). Leave the case open "just wanted to air my mind; thanks for the patience".
On a negative reaction: "you are the best PI I had till now."
I doubt, that such a deviation of normal lab behaviour, will come easy, and the appropiate formulation will be difficult.
Of course this advice is a risk, but all other measures are less direct, being less open-minded towards the world.
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12033 | Doubts about PhD advisor and unsure how to continue
tl;dr I think my supervisor has a severe lack of knowledge, does too many things instead of focusing heavily on just a few things and hence I can't really focus on my research project.
Long Story I started my PhD a few months back and was hired specifically to work on a certain project. We have a few very outstanding research groups as collaborating teams but all in different research areas.
After a few weeks into my PhD, I was hit by all the different side projects my supervisor tries to kick off. They are extremely time consuming and not research related at all. Besides, I noticed that my supervisor has a severe lack of knowledge in one of our core research areas. As a consequence, I can't discuss any of my ideas with him. As the other PhD students feel the same way, we have mentioned the lack of time quite a few times in our group meetings. And although he agreed that we need more time on proper research, things didn't really change yet. As a consequence, my motivation for the project starts to decline, although I continue to be extremely passionate about the project's overall goals!
So my question is, how I should cope with this situation? I thought about leaving his group, but I'm kind of stuck in a dilemma: I'd love to work on the project, and I don't want to let my collaborating teams down.
It's your project, not your advisor's. Your lack of progress/motivation and supposed lack of time have nothing to do with him.
Nevertheless, you must sit down with your advisor and have a serious talk about both of your expectations. Be honest about your lack of motivation, be honest about your disappointment, be honest about your intellectual loneliness. Ask for suggestions. Listen.
You have other senior collaborators that you can work with, so if you need senior collaborators, work with them. Ask your advisor to fly them out to visit you, or to fly you out to visit them. Schedule regular Skype/Gchat meetings. Similarly, get to know other faculty in your department, who might serve as more experienced mentors/advisors, if not collaborators.
You're surrounded by colleagues who are excited enough about their research to want to draw you in, and you turn them away because you feel stupid? What a wasted opportunity! Of course you feel stupid. Everybody feels stupid listening to other people talk about their ongoing research, because by definition, they're talking about stuff that nobody understands (yet). You're simultaneously complaining about intellectual loneliness and turning away potential collaborators. So what if they're not working on your project?
Of course you're constantly forgetting important things you once knew well. It is totally unrealistic to think that you can keep everything you've ever learned/read fresh in your mind. Don't even try. Write things down. Maintain a library of papers, or at least a close personal friendship with Google Scholar. Let yourself forget details, confident in the knowledge that they'll come back amazingly quickly when you read them again.
Since your feeling is shared by other students in your group, it sounds like your advisor is a bit overexcited and has bitten off more than he can chew. All the more reason to sit down and talk with him directly, and to develop mentoring relationships with other faculty in your department and elsewhere. Also, start looking into other potential advisors, even if it means moving to another university.
For 6., what I understood when I read it was that the OP spent time explaining the other PhD student's project to the advisor, but I can see that it doesn't actually say that.
Thanks for your answers! I edited my initial text quite heavily after scaaahu's remark so you may find new insights there. To your points: Although I know that it's my project, the major problem is the lack of time to work on it. The problem with the other collaborators is that they have completely different research areas (by different, I mean different as in computer science vs biology).
To 6.: Our supervisor didn't get the other PhD student's research although it was explained in very simple mathematical terms. I had to "take him by the hand" to guide him through some basic equations.
I see only two possibly justified complaints here: "supervisor incompetence" and "overloading with routine work". Unfortunately, without knowing both the supervisor and the subject in question, I cannot really tell you anything about the first (beyond the general statement that it may or may not be true and that if it is, nothing short of changing the adviser will cure it). The second can and should be discussed directly with your adviser, or, if it doesn't help, with the department chairman. Remember however that if the load you are talking about is a common rule for all PhD students in the department, you cannot request an exception for yourself without a really good reason laid out in a very convincing way.
I believe JeffE said everything else there is to be said here already.
You are right about the two complaints. The act of refining my text as suggested by @scaaahu actually helped my narrow down my thoughts. In essence, I'm extremely unhappy with my work as I'm doing nothing I'm really interested in. As you and JeffE suggested, I will seriously talk to my supervisor and draw the consequences.
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42889 | Should those more interested in research choose a postdoc or teaching position?
For PhD graduates who are more interested in research and little teaching, which is better, a postdoc with a focus on research, or a (non-tenure-track) teaching position (lecturer, instructor, etc.)? I assume that both positions would be helpful when moving to a research position. The point with a postdoc is that even at top schools, the pay is low and they don't guarantee a good job afterward, while a teaching position, with 3-4 courses would be distraction from doing research.
A teaching position/teaching experience will contribute little if anything towards getting a research position and would probably only be used to differentiate between candidates with very similar research output. And, in that case, a postdoc would still be better because you'd have more time for research, increasing your output and making that hypothetical comparison moot. Ymmv depending on location/field, but from what I've seen in STEM fields a teaching position is generally a one way track that is leading away from a permanent research position.
Good points, but a postdoc may not lead to a research position. So should someone take the risk and do 2-X years postdoc without guaranteeing that it may lead to a permanent research position?
What makes you think a teaching position is going to be more likely than a postdoc to lead to a permanent research or teaching position? If anything, I'd argue that taking a teaching position is even riskier, as there is little chance for a permanent research job and permanent/secure teaching jobs aren't that common (at least where I am from). Unfortunately, certainty and academia don't really go hand in hand...
There is no way to guarantee a permanent research position, no matter what path you take.
@JeffE so you think that postdoc is the best way to increase the probability of getting a research position?
I think doing good research is the best way to increase the probability of getting a research position. If you can do better research in a teaching position than in a postdoc position, take the teaching position.
In my discipline, mathematics, there is a huge range of tenure track positions, from very strongly research oriented positions to positions that are entirely oriented towards teaching. Most new PhD's would prefer to end up in a more research oriented position, but most tenure track faculty positions are not at that end of the spectrum. This means that a lot of new PhDs will ultimately have to settle for something less than the research oriented position that they have dreamed of.
If you're only willing to accept a research oriented tenure track position and would not accept a teaching oriented position then you should focus your efforts on getting a research oriented post-doc.
If you are most interested in a research oriented position but would at least be willing to consider taking a somewhat more teaching oriented position, then you should make an attempt to get some teaching experience by doing some teaching during your post-doc or by taking a position that is designed to mix research and teaching. For example, Dartmouth has named instructorships in mathematics with a teaching load of one course per quarter.
There are also non tenure track faculty positions (typically called "visiting assistant professor.") These are a good way to get teaching experience but it is extremely difficult to get any research accomplished while teaching a load of 3-4 courses per semester in such a position. These positions are sometimes created to temporarily fill the vacancy created by when a tenured faculty member leaves or retires. Sometimes the visiting assistant professor position turns into a tenure track position in that department, but you shouldn't count on this happening. .
Visiting assistant professorships do not always carry such high teaching loads; at some places they have a reasonable balance between teaching and research. Unfortunately the naming of positions does not seem to be very standardized.
"do not always carry such high teaching loads" is certainly correct, but "most often carry teaching loads of 3-4 courses per semester" would also be correct. Know what you're getting into. There's certainly a distinction between positions (like the ones at Dartmouth) that are designed to mix teaching and research and jobs that are simply short term non tenure track teaching jobs.
If you want a research position, you should go for the postdoc: a heavy load teaching-centric position will make it hard to publish, which will make getting a research position much harder.
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45995 | In case of multiple job offers, should school name or offer letter be revealed?
In case of multiple job offers, should candidates reveal schools names or show offer letters?
Some say do not name the competing institutions in either of these initial emails
Others say "there are too many crazies in departments--you never know what someone might do to interfere with the other institution's perspective. I've seen it happen, and it ain't pretty. On the other hand, it made the choice easier."
Some say do: "Just to let you know, I do have another offer that came in from Midwest State U. They have initially set my salary at ... "
I do not see any reason to show the offer letter. If the school you are negotiating with does not believe you, then that is not a good sign. As for mentioning the other university, it depends on if you can pitch it as a selling point that makes the other offer better. While you should always tell the truth, you can be somewhat selective and play both sides of the coin.
For example, if you get offers from both Stanford and Harvard and you grew up on in the Bay area, but are currently doing a post doc at MIT, you could tell Stanford that you have an offer from Harvard and that you are really happy in Boston, so they will have to beat Harvard's offer. Similarly, you can tell Harvard that you have an offer from Stanford and that your family is in the area so Harvard will have to beat Stanford's offer.
Alternatively, if you have offers from both Stanford and Bunker Hill Community College and you grew up, were educated, and are currently in the Bay area, you would not want to mention the name (bunker Hill) when talking to Stanford, unless you can explain to Stanford what benefits Bunker Hill uniquely provides. You probably want to specifically mention Stanford when talking to Bunker Hill.
If, however, you grew up, were educated, and are currently in the Boston area, then you are in a gray area and may want to mention Bunker Hill to Stanford. Given the difference in the ranking of the two universities, it might be a hard sell to convince Stanford that the Bunker Hill offer is really competitive to the Stanford offer.
If you get an offer from both Stanford and Harvard, you could just say to one that you got an offer from a school on the east coast and you could say to the other that you got an offer from a school on the west coast. Being too specific can be risky. In these circles, everyone knows each other. If you're too specific, then it means one could easily just pick up the phone and horse trade you without you having any input in the matter.
@StephanBranczyk there is a big difference between an offer from Harvard and an offer from an East Coast school. Stanford knows they will have to up their game to match Harvard, but less so for Bunker Hill.
@StrongBond, Yes, I got your point, but I'm not sure you're right. Assuming his CV is extraordinary already, it may be a given for Stanford that the other school could be Harvard. Also, it's difficult to control what's going to happen. What if Stanford upon hearing the news gives up because it thinks that you will accept Harvard's offer whatever it is going to be. After all, we're not talking about being accepted as a student, we're talking about the hiring of a faculty member. A potential faculty member who takes too long to reject an offer can cause the loss of other very good candidates.
What if Stanford upon hearing the news gives up — Ha! You've never dealt with Stanford, have you?
I received several competitive PhD offers and would suggest that you do not reveal unless asked, you have a right to privacy and I believe its best to hold back information like that as you can make the point that you have another competitive offer without being specific,the name adds nothing to the discussion.
I believe the principle still applies with faculty offers because it again adds nothing to the conversation, there is no need to mention another offer unless it is required for leverage for a certain benefit or if they wanted to know later on why you turned them down.
Furthermore, including the name brings in the personal opinions of the people who made the offer, removing aspects of your control. All they need to know (and only when negotiating your offer) is that you are considering another offer and why, you are already being taken seriously by the fact you have an offer. Talking about other offers in too much detail (or when not necessary) brings in doubt and extra questions when they have already offered to hire you.
I employ the policy of keeping communication to the necessities in the rest of my life too. Its an efficiency and control thing.
I believe OP is seeking answers specifically for faculty job offers.
I entirely agree that you have the right not to reveal information about competing offers, but why do you believe it is best not to reveal information about competing offers?
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:55:50.032539 | 2015-05-25T12:00:58 | {
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