<issue_start>username_0: I recently attended an interview in which my supervisor is a panel mate.

After the interview, I met my mentor and asked whether I performed well and her opinion about the interview happened.

She (my mentor) told, "you performed well and I think you will get hired".

After a day, I shared this incident with a colleague. He (my colleague) opined that asking such a question to the mentor is unethical because it may be an obligation for her.

Indeed, I cannot ask opinions about my interview with other panel members and took advantage of rapport with my mentor in asking such a question, but I am not feeling that it is unethical since I didn't ask her any favor and just asked an opinion about my performance in the interview.

Is asking such a question unethical or perfectly ethical?<issue_comment>username_1: Here is a possible interpretation: the paper might have received the comments of all of its reviewers. So, its status is "Awaiting Decision". But the editor, for some reason, e.g., conflicting opinions in those comments, has sent the paper to another reviewer. Thus, the status also reflects "Awaiting Reviewer Scores".
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Nobody here can tell you what is happening with *your* paper. However, I will give a possible interpretation that is slightly different to @Robotocist:

Often people decline invitations to review papers. If an editor wants, say, two reviews for a paper, they may initially invite four or five referees. Once two have accepted they will typically cancel the other invitations. However, if they are too late to do so, they can end up with more reviewers than they really need. The system will continue to show "Awaiting reviewer scores" until all reviewers have submitted their reports.

Meanwhile, the editorial management system will be configured to automatically mark the paper as 'ready for decision' once the minimum number of reviews has been submitted. However, it will still recognise that not all the reviewers who accepted have submitted a report. It is up to the editor to decide what to do - they may choose to make a decision based on the information they have, or wait for the additional report(s).

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do except wait, and you should not take this as providing any information (positive or negative) about the eventual outcome of the review process.
Upvotes: 0


<issue_start>username_0: I apologize in advance for such a long and possibly bizarre question. I have tried to find an answer to this issue but could not find it anywhere. First I want to provide some context.

I was a student taking an alternate high school education program to the one my area’s schoolboard offered. This program administers standardized assessments on an international scale and awards a diploma upon completion. For a report that I submitted in this program, I remember being worried that I may have violated academic integrity rules. The program punishes plagiarism sternly when proven (the guilty loses their diploma or the ability to earn it + receives a grade of 0 in the subject for which the report was submitted) and can apply punishments retroactively, although examples of this are very rare.

After submission, I remember asking my teacher on several occasions about concerns I had with my paper, which, in retrospect, I should have asked before submission. Each time, the teacher said that what I had done was not a violation. I asked questions about this so often because my handling of references was so dubious in that report that I kept finding new problems with it.

I was so obsessed and anxious about this issue for months. I was extremely worried and consumed by the feeling that my future was in jeopardy and this made me spend hours daily examining my report for issues, doing research about plagiarism, etc. whilst rehearsing my "defenses" for perceived infringements in the report.

Eventually, I was able to move on with support from family and friends. Nothing ultimately ever came of the submission of that report; I completed the program and successfully got into university the year after and received an admissions scholarship. At the time I was happy about this and the issue of my report was not really on my mind.

Currently, I’m going into my senior year of undergrad. By all measures, I have been cautious to a fault when it comes to academic integrity in all my time as a university student, so I believe I learned my lesson. However, whenever I get reminded of the report, I become very worried, like I have been for the last few weeks.

The reason that I feel worried is because there were a few unresolved concerns that I never brought up, mostly because I felt regret for pestering my teacher who had been exceedingly patient. I worry about it now because there was an idea/technique used in the report that I feel I should have referenced (before, I thought that the idea I used was “obvious” and didn’t need to be referenced). I say “feel” because I am going by my fallible recollection of what I did several years ago. The program does somewhat vet these reports through graders (the teachers) and plagiarism checkers.

Although I would say it is incredibly unlikely for me to be retroactively punished for that report, I feel as if I deserve to be penalized because I do not have confidence that that report was tolerable from an academic integrity standpoint. If I lost my diploma and the university was notified of it now or in the future, I fear that the university could respond in turn by expelling me, revoking my degree, depriving me of my scholarships, etc. But that is speculation on my part, I don't know what the university would do about that. That it is really unlikely that this outcome would occur is not reassuring, because I honestly cannot bear the thought that the university I attend would boot me if it was ever notified that I had been stripped of my diploma, which is perhaps what I deserve.

I feel terrible because I just want to earn my degree with a clear conscience and I feel that that is not possible given what happened in the past. Frankly, this whole issue makes me feel like there’s no point in working hard anymore because I may not even deserve to attend my university to begin with. Whenever I get reminded about this issue I worry about it for weeks at a time until I'm too busy to worry about it. I cannot take this anymore; I really need some help and insight if anyone could offer that.<issue_comment>username_1: You are suffering from an irrational fear.

From an academic perspective, I can only tell you that the point to move on from the referencing in your report was somewhere between submitting it and the first few questions you asked your teacher. I suppose you already know this, although a part of your mind is refusing to accept it. As the issue is ultimately not an academic one, an academic mentor is not the qualified person to help you. Please seek support from a mental health counsellor, a therapist or a doctor.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: tl;dr

1. We will not be able to know with certainty whether or not what you have done constitutes an academic integrity violation; however, it seems as though you did not commit a violation.
2. Seeking professional help from a doctor, therapist, or mental health counselor might help you in this situation.

---

Let's walk through your story step by step:

>
> Each time, the teacher said that what I had done was not a violation.
>
>
>

Strangers on the internet will not be able to confirm whether or not your past actions constituted plagiarism, however it seems as though you have taken measures to figure this out (with positive results).

>
> By all measures, I have been cautious to a fault when it comes to academic integrity in all my time as a university student, so I believe I learned my lesson.
>
>
>

This is, in my opinion, the most important outcome of your situation. Academic integrity is important, and plagiarism is plagiarism whether or not it is intentional. However, students (especially those in high school) make honest mistakes. The important thing is to learn good practices and use them moving forward. It looks like you've done this part very well.

>
> I worry about it now because there was an idea/technique used in the report that I feel I should have referenced (before, I thought that the idea I used was “obvious” and didn’t need to be referenced).
>
>
>

Again, strangers on the internet will not be able to tell you whether or not this lack of reference constitutes plagiarism. But according to what you say next

>
> The program does somewhat vet these reports through graders (the teachers) and plagiarism checkers.
>
>
>

it seems like you have not committed any academic integrity issues because your submission has met the standards of your program.

>
> I feel terrible because I just want to earn my degree with a clear conscience and I feel that that is not possible given what happened in the past.
>
>
>

It is your high school's job to judge what occurred during your tenure there. They have judged your performance to be adequate.

It is your university's job to judge what happens during your tenure there. Given that you are in your senior year, they have been judging your performance to be adequate. Moreover, you have learned from your experience in high school and you are taking extra measures to ensure that your performance is good.

>
> I cannot take this anymore; I really need some help and insight if anyone could offer that.
>
>
>

I hope that this answer has offered *insight*. I think that *help* should come from a licensed doctor, therapist, or mental health counselor (which I am not). But from an academic perspective, it seems as though your situation is fine.

>
> Would these be adequate grounds for severe reprimand from my undergraduate program?
>
>
>

No.
Upvotes: 0


<issue_start>username_0: in APA 7, How do I cite works that have text cited previously.

For example:

Author Smith (2020) has a sentence in published works:

>
> This is an important sentence (Jones, 2010; Franks, 2011; & Gates, 2014)
>
>
>

I want to use this sentence.

I'm a little confused on APA 7 rules. Does it mean that this is correct?

>
> This is an important sentence (Smith, 2020)
>
>
>

Or

>
> This is an important sentence (Jones, 2010; Franks, 2011; & Gates, 2014)
>
>
>

Or

>
> This is an important sentence (Smith, 2020; Jones, 2010; Franks, 2011; & Gates, 2014)
>
>
>

and if I have to include Jones, Franks, and Gates, does that mean they go in the reference section as well? Does a reference section grow because of this, even though I didn't actually refer to them directly?

Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: You are focussing on a secondary issue. The primary issue is that you must use quotation marks because you are not paraphrasing.

>
> "This is an important sentence (Jones, 2010; Franks, 2011; & Gates,
> 2014)" (Smith, 2020)
>
>
>

You can decide to omit the citations from the quote but I would not advise it.

However, I would probably not make the citations part of the quote:

>
> Smith (2020) highlighted "This is an important sentence" and cited
> studies by Jones (2010), Franks (2011) and Gates (2014).
>
>
>

Or maybe:

>
> Based on the work of Jones (2010), Franks (2011) and Gates (2014),
> Smith (2020) concluded "This is an important sentence".
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If the sentence is important, then (Jones, Franks, Gates) should also be explored as additional sources. username_1's answer is great, but if that comes up frequently, then consider reading all the sources and forming your own opinion instead of citing another author's opinion on other sources.
Upvotes: 3


<issue_start>username_0: I am an international student trying to contact a potential PhD advisor in the US. I believe I have solved an important question in my field. To contact the potential PhD advisor, I will mention that I am working on some important problems and made some progress, that I am interested in becoming their student, and then I attach my resume. I hope to impress them with my work. However, I can imagine it may backfire, maybe they think I am a crank, maybe they become interested and request my work to view it, only to find out it is wrong, and lose faith in me. What should I do?

**Update**

Thank you for all the answers and comments. I decided NOT to mention my work in the email, just mentioned it in the resume with only the title. I receive positive feedback from the professors.<issue_comment>username_1: Note that, unless your field is exceptional, for most purposes in the US, an application for a doctoral program doesn't require (or expect) that students contact a potential advisor. Likewise, in most places/fields, an individual professor has no say in who will be admitted unless they happen to be on the admissions committee. Even then, the rules require that they make decisions on the required, submitted, materials.

Instead, what you do is prepare required documents, including a Statement of Purpose, and get good, positive, letters of recommendation. The committee then chooses those that it thinks will fit well with the program and are most likely to succeed.

It is only after you arrive that you need to think about an advisor, and in most fields (some exceptions), the first task is to pass comprehensive exams. Only then is an advisor essential, but by then you have had a chance to meet some people and choose your best option.

The implication of this is that by trying to impress a professor before there is any benefit to be gained, you put yourself at risk needlessly if you are wrong. I suggest that you don't do it until you are already admitted.

True, however, that the process is a bit more compressed for those with a masters at time of admission. But, unless you know specifically otherwise for the program you are applying to, the contact is both unnecessary and unlikely to be fruitful. So, in the general case, you get a chance to sit down and have an actual conversation with any potential advisor.

For more on doctoral admissions, see [the answer for the US to this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/176908/75368). In the general case, an email to a potential advisor might well go unanswered or you get a standard/boilerplate reply.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I will not go into details on how to get a PhD scholarship in US. All I did in my time was look universities up and go through their application process.

Related to what you're saying, it could go into your statement of research.

I would be skeptical to anyone trying to contact me and tell me they solved some important question in a field. Professors in US, and even postdocs get that kind of letters every day. Most of them are from mentally deranged people who simply have no scientific background. But if you're not one of those people, the chances that a potential supervisor would ignore your mail as scientific spam are high, precisely because of those people.

But, I remember I taught some course at a summer school this year. The way it was organized, I got to select the applicants I would work with myself. After I carefully read all the normal things (CVs, letters of recommendation, etc.) I made my final decision based on their research interests as they were reflected in their statements.

They were young people and they were gushing about how much they love their field of study and what interests them and so on, but I only looked at how well they explained what they did themselves and how. And I think I selected the best applicants.

So, if you think you solved an important problem, you should talk about it in your research statement. You should be succinct and honest. Even if your solution is not as great or as important as you originally thought, if you present your main result in a clear and logical manner, with easy to follow arguments, your application will be very good. If you already are in contact with some strong researchers, ask them for a model of a cover letter they sent when they published their work in a top journal. That's how you should present your research result in your statement.

Another thing that comes to mind is that you could have already submitted your research to a top journal, if it is as good as you say. Even if it isn't it's worth getting the opinion of an editor and of some referees. A good published work, at this stage in your career, would help your application a lot.

Finally, if you wish to contact a potential adviser, you could sent them an email saying you applied to their school's graduate program, and given your research interest, and their expertise in your field, you think you would be a good fit in their research group. You tell them what you've been working on, and attach that research statement, if they want to read it. If they are looking to hire a PhD student, they might be happy to have you, especially if your work is as high quality as you think.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Sorry to say so, but, yes, it may certainly backfire. From my own experience, if I get a PhD candidate claiming they "solved a major problem", I'm very cautious about them, and I tend not to recruit them, usually after seeing their "proofs". I definitely see it as a strong indication of being a crank, and in every case I've experienced myself the person was indeed a crank, or at least lacked the sufficient ability of judgment to evaluate basic rigorous scientific arguments.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: The effect that showing your work to the professor will have is a function of several things:

* Did you actually solve the “important question in your field”?
* If not, did you make any meaningful progress? Or if not, do your ideas have any value at all (even if they are not novel), or are they complete junk?
* Is there a significant gap between what you are claiming to have done and what you actually did?

In the best case scenario, you did solve the question — the professor will surely be very impressed. The problem is that this scenario is also statistically the least likely.

In the worst case scenario, you *claim* to have solved the question but your solution is complete nonsense. That will certainly leave a very poor impression.

Between those two extreme scenarios lies a spectrum of quite plausible situations in which you did have some interesting ideas, novel or not, publishable or not, and do not make any outlandish claims about solving famous problems but instead show yourself capable of recognizing that you cannot entirely evaluate their correctness and/or importance by yourself. As a professor, I would view such a situation somewhat positively and think that it likely says good things about you. In other words, I would be (mildly) impressed.

Basically the things to keep in mind are that these sorts of in-between situations are somewhat common, and that from the professor’s point of view, their expectations of what a student at your level can come up with through independent work are pretty low to begin with. So showing the professor anything that shows you to be a non-crackpotty, curious, independent-minded student, can be useful, and unlikely to harm your prospects. Good luck!
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: PhDs are not about solving major problems, breakthroughs, etc. They are about learning research methods and making some real contribution to a really small sub-field. You will also need to deal with bureaucratic issues and the financial aspect.

Einstein's PhD was not about general relativity theory, special relativity theory, space-time, the nature of light, Brownian motion, or the photoelectric effect. It was not about any fancy stuff. If was "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions."

Consider focusing on something that is a good match to you, your situation and your potential advisor/university.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: As you mentioned the key undertone that's going to happen is the professor might think you are a crank. So your first job is to convince the professor you are not a crank. The easiest and possibly best way to do this is to get an expert to vouch for you. If you are able to write something like the below, then it might become impressive:

>
> Dear Professor [name],
>
>
> I'm a prospective PhD student intending to work in [field]. I work on [topic] and have made some progress during my Honours year. My supervisor, Prof. [name2], recommended I pursue a PhD to develop these ideas further. [name2] specifically mentioned you as an appropriate supervisor. Would you ... [yada yada here's my resume blah blah]
>
>
>

Here Prof. [name2] is indirectly vouching for the credibility of your work. If Prof. [name] knows [name2], then it's even better.
Upvotes: 3


<issue_start>username_0: **Some background**

Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder, which is often characterised by a e.g. difficulty reading (e.g. comprehension), writing, and with pronunciation. A common misconception about dyslexia is that it has something to do with vision (it doesn’t). Dyslexia is not correlated with intelligence

**The question**

What strategies can be used by a student starting a PhD in maths related disciplines who have dyslexia to reach their full potential?<issue_comment>username_1: **Reading papers**

When it comes to reading papers, my strategy was simply not to. I find reading difficult, and if forced to do it I would not get anything from it. Instead I’d recommend:

1. Use lots of different resources of information, don’t use just one. Google Books is a life-saver in this regard.

If you have to read a full paper

2. Use text-to-speech software. This definitely leaves somewhat to be desired, especially in papers with lots of maths. I would recommend trying to find a HTML version of the paper for this - one can try <https://www.arxiv-vanity.com>, although I think they currently have problems with maths rendering.
3. Get access to the LaTeX source code if it exists - if the paper is on the arXiv, this information can be obtained from there. Use this to put the paper into a font and style that you want. One can go very far done this route if one wants, see e.g.: <https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/131883/>

**Getting your daily dose of the arXiv**

The arXiv for certain disciplines may be the source of all important information. You will hear endlessly how it is important to make sure that you read the arXiv every day. For someone who struggles with comprehension, this can be difficult to do.

1. Find somewhere that produces the arxiv summary in a different format. I would link to some, but I actually don’t know of any. An example of what I have done to aid in this can be found here: <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjIsl9vgzOW3YAHeek9KUog> (though this is a working progress).
2. Form an arxiv discussion group with other people
(Rant: I wish video abstracts were as common in maths related disciplines as they are in some of the biological sciences)

**Writing papers**

Despite been really bad at it, I do find writing to be an enjoyable part of academic life. Here are some strategies I’ve used when writing papers:

1. Use speech-to-text software. Dragon Naturally Speaking is the gold standard here, but annoyingly they have discontinued their mac version. That said the built in dictation software on mac’s is actually pretty good. This does require a quiet space though - for your co-workers' sanity.
2. Look at parts-of-speech. I found this helpful, one can study the parts of speech of different sentences, and can determine if one is using certain types of words too often. I once wrote a little LaTeX command to highlight certain parts of speech.

To be continued…
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In addition to all the things you mention in your own answer, let me suggest that you find a way to depend on other people to help you with important papers that have to be understood.

There are a variety of ways to do this, but the best, I think, is collaboration and frequent discussion. Small working groups and seminars can help, even using things like Zoom. And, collaboration has its own benefits. These small working groups are unlikely to be all one sided.

I don't have dyslexia so can't offer deep help, but I wonder if you can make better sense of notes you write yourself. If that is the case, then a discussion over a paper, not just someone reading it to you, while you take notes might help.

Some professors, in fact, assign papers to students and then have the students explain it to them. Dyslexia isn't involved here but it is a way to get the students reading more as well as easing the path to understanding new papers themselves. So, it can have a mutual benefit.

You seem to have a good grasp of the needs and some solutions already, but for people struggling even more with this I'd suggest talking to a knowledgeable professional about techniques available. I suspect that there is research on this.
Upvotes: 1


<issue_start>username_0: I wrote to 6 professors whose research aligns with my interests (all in Europe) on December 21 for disussing PhD opportunities and attached my CV along with the mail. One of the professors replied after 3 hours that he doesn't have an opening. The rest have yet to reply. I came to know that it is also holiday season in Europe. I am from Asia.

How long should I wait before sending a reminder E-mail given that it is holidays there?

In general, how much time it takes a professor to reply to an e-mail of a potential PhD candidate?<issue_comment>username_1: At the holiday season, wait many days. Send a follow up after the first of the year, perhaps. A mail sent at the start of the holiday season might actually get "lost" if they get a lot of mail.

Note that a very short reply ("Nope, sorry") is likely to come quickly, but one requiring thought will take longer, especially with end of term running in to holidays. In lab situations, a professor might even need to consult with some folks about current needs and openings. That takes time.

Unless there is a serious deadline, give it some time and pursue those options where you have some information.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: You can go search for their university calendar to get a better idea when it's a good time to prompt. The universities I have ever been a student / worked for all put their calendars online.

If the calendar cannot be found, maybe prompt them on the 10th? Meanwhile you can spend your time bugging those folks in countries that don't do Christmas, but still make sure you avoid Christmas Day and New Year Eve / New Year.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: This close to the holidays, your email may get overlooked. Definitely follow up in the new year, as I suspect many will not respond before then. Outside of holidays, professors are generally very busy and need/welcome email reminders. If you really want to work with them, follow up a few times. However, six professors is a lot, so make sure your messages are tailored to them and their interests and not boiler plate -- otherwise they will be much less likely to respond.
Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer]


<issue_start>username_0: I'm being asked (by my advisors) to include a person I don't even know as author of my new papers, in which they haven't done anything. The reason seems to be that my work is based on source code that was written by the three of them in the past. These people have already published several papers that rely on this implementation. I don't think that if I write a different version on top of their code I owe them authorship. I have done this before using libraries and other open source software. I have never included the authors of the code as co-authors of my papers, so I don't see how this situation is different. Still, I'm worried that they might not let me use the code to complete my implementation. Interestingly, I had already started an implementation with a different version they gave me from some other student, that was too different from what I had to do, which is why I asked for this other version, but they never asked me to include this other student as co-author and they're only doing it now with this other person. Is my reasoning correct? What can I do?<issue_comment>username_1: In theory, you would simply cite their previous work implementing the software in your paper rather than crediting them as authors, especially if that software is broadly available - this is what someone else from another research group would do.

In practice, if this is software developed within a research group (rather than software made broadly available and used by others), writing key software elements of a project can be considered a strong intellectual contribution to that piece of work, even if that contribution is spread across multiple papers, and therefore may be treated as worthy of authorship. From your perspective up until now, you're responsible for the whole of the paper, but from your advisors' perspective perhaps they see multiple people working on aspects of the research question: perhaps they as the advisor/PI are setting some overall research goals/direction, someone is writing software to implement a particular algorithm, someone else (you) is using that software to test a particular theory, etc. You may not have met them (yet), but your advisors have. I've certainly had coauthors whom I did not know personally, because we've worked on different aspects of a project under the direction of someone else.

I'd say that if they have done no additional work towards your project and everything you are using of theirs has already been published separately, that would be reason to put them into the "cite them" category. If they have done additional work towards your project that has not been published, though, then I would strongly consider offering them authorship, even if they have done this work before you interacted with them. However, that offer of authorship should come with other responsibilities of authorship, including assisting in drafting and reviewing the manuscript and approving its final form. That is, they should not simply be given authorship without you knowing them, but that you might owe them the opportunity to be more fully involved in the paper before you publish.

Your advisors should help guide you on which of these choices is more appropriate, so I think it's fine to raise your concerns but to also keep an open mind to their thoughts of what is appropriate.

I think many people who post here on Academia.SE believe too much that having other authors credited on their paper dilutes their own contribution to the paper in the eyes of others. While that may be true for some fields, in others it doesn't particularly matter if you add some 4th and 5th authors. I would avoid outright "gift authorship" where people are credited as authors for added prestige or to let some senior academic collect paper trophies, but I think it can be a fair reward for people who do the trench work of building tools useful for the research that others do.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Another perspective that could be worth considering is the contributions that these new authors may bring.
You state that they have not done anything for your project, but if they agree to be co-authors they could contribute with critical reading and discussion on your manuscript before submission. Remember that the work is not finished before it is published.
Upvotes: -1


<issue_start>username_0: I am interested in a research topic (say X). I see several survey papers on X, but they all date back to 2013. I can't find a recent survey paper from 2013 to 2022. I feel a need to get a recent snapshot of the X for my thesis and future research. Upon discussing it with my supervisor, he thinks we can write our own survey paper covering literature from 2013-2022. However, I have doubts about the significance of the work. For example, how should the title be justified as "A literature review on X from 2013 to 2022?" I have never seen such a title or such a review paper.<issue_comment>username_1: Most of review papers like the one you are planning to write are titled "A current overview on topic X", "Recent advances in X", and other titles along those lines.

If the topic X is still (somewhat) relevant today, then writing a review paper on X covering the last 10 years is not insignificant. It makes sense to mention in the introduction why you only concentrate on the last few years, though.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I concur with username_1 that a recent update to literature that has no surveys for the past nine years or so could be a very helpful scholarly contribution. To increase the helpfulness of such a survey, you should not take for granted that the previous 2013 survey is fully satisfactory. After doing your updated survey, you should critically consider whether the previous survey did as good a job for pre-2013 literature as you have done with post-2013 literature. If not, you might want to reassess some or much of the previous literature. However, if you consider that the 2013 survey did a good job, then you can position yourself as building upon it and then contrast the recent literature with the earlier literature.

In any case, there is plenty of value to be offered by such an updated survey.

Concerning title, I personally dislike titles that say that they are "new", "recent", "current", etc. because such titles expire very quickly--within a couple of years, they become old. You can simply say that your review is "A Review of the Literature on the Topic". Your published article carries a date, and so any reader will now how "recent" it is and it is obvious that your 2022 review is more recent than a 2013 review. There is no need to say anything about that in the title.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]


<issue_start>username_0: I defended my master’s thesis in engineering. My advisor didn't help me much.
Now he wants to publish the thesis as a scientific article. Even if he will write the article, I don't want the project to be published for several reasons:

I didn't like the topic that much and I don't have time, energy and interest anymore. The method has some serious issues and needs more work. I don't feel comfortable with publishing the thesis as it is now because I think it's really bad honestly, but at the same time I really don't want to spend energy explaining what to further work on, cleaning the code etc.

This thesis was really psychologically stressful for me, I felt desperate and alone; and I would like to just say no and close this chapter forever. I don't know if I am obliged to send the codes and data or if I can refuse doing so.
Does someone have any suggestion on how I should proceed?

I am 100% sure I will not work in academia, so I don't even care about publishing in view of a possible PhD.<issue_comment>username_1: You don't say where you are located. In Germany, you are the author of your thesis, so you hold the copyright and can decide what you want to do with the written expression of your research. If you were paid for by the university, you *may* have signed away a right to use the results research, so you will have to check anything you have signed. This is a complex problem, it is usually better to get this sorted out before you begin working, but it crops up usually when the research is over.

If the professor publishes without your permission, you then may want to publish a paper discussing this issues you have identified :)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Publication ethics require the permission of all authors to publish. So no, your supervisor cannot force you. This ethical requirement applies even if your supervisor holds the copyright for some reason.

That said, there is probably no downside for you to allow your supervisor to use their time to publish the paper. If your work is not medical and not on a controversial social issue, it's likely any real or perceived methodological issues will not impact your non-academic career. If the supervisor wastes their time on a rejected submission, that won't impact you.

Refusing permission will hurt your reputation.

>
> I don't know if I am obliged to send the codes and data
>
>
>

Providing them would be a more ethical choice.
Upvotes: 3


<issue_start>username_0: What is the smallest reasonable amount of time needed to prepare lectures?

I have recently learned that professors at my university (in UK) don't know who is going to teach one of the new modules starting in October. They say they sometimes aren't allocated until a few weeks before the semester starts. It shows.

I think it should take a couple of months to write lecture notes and prepare everything. I think this explain why so many lecturers use so much poor quality half-cooked material (typos, non-sequiturs) and I can't always blame them.

Is this normal? Are all universities like this? Shouldn't professors refuse to accept a module if they haven't been given a sufficient amount of time to prepare?<issue_comment>username_1: There really isn't a minimal time. Things happen. Solutions are needed. People resign, get sick, die. Courses are required. Someone has to cover. It isn't ideal, but it is common enough.

Getting as long as a semester/term of prior notice is quite good and probably the target aimed for most places, but picking up a course in the middle of a term also happens.

In tight cases the notes and such of the last person to teach the course may be available for a quick start. But new courses also come along. Hopefully some advance planning is done in that case.

The first time a person teaches a course they might do so day to day and week to week. It isn't ideal. But, even in the case in which you have lead time, the first run of a course can be painful for everyone. Professors can/will misunderstand the proper level of understanding of entering students. They will pitch the lectures to the wrong level. Require too much or too little. But then, the first time you do lots of things you are likely to be less than perfect at it.

This can be further compounded if teaching isn't the first priority of an institution or a professor.

So, a certain amount of muddling through is expected, but it is also expected that things will improve. It is also best if professors are flexible in how they do things, what they require, and how they assess student work.

It isn't quite as chaotic as the above might imply. Most professors tend to teach the same courses year after year, relying on past experience. Or a couple/few of professors will swap off courses to get a bit of variety, but still with a lot of experience backing it up.

In my experience, the number of people who have a course completely "in the can" for the first offering are pretty rare. I've known one, I think.

For someone who has to teach a course for the first time with little lead time, I recommend that they first focus on student tasks, assignments, projects, exam coverage. Then fit other things to enable student success in those things primarily. Save time in daily schedules for student questions so that you can zero in on the appropriate level.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Many academics in the UK believe that the workload allocation models applied in many universities are broken and do not reflect the true time required to perform academic duties, forcing staff to work evenings and weekends to stay on top of their marking and preparation of lectures. This is one of [four fights](https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/11818/Four-fights-dispute-FAQs) in a dispute between the Universities UK (representing employers) and the University and College Union (representing staff). The dispute has been ongoing for several years now and has resulted in quite a few strikes and actions short of striking, such as assessment boycotts, etc.

In some universities in the UK where I worked, the amount of time allocated to create teaching materials was about 2 hours of preparation per 1 contact hour of teaching. Modules typically have ~30 contact hours, so you get 60 hours (1.5 weeks) to prepare everything for your students. This includes typeset lecture notes, problem sheets and answers to them, mock exam questions and fully worked out solutions. Everything needs to be provided via some online system, and departments usually monitor the quality of teaching materials. Unlike in some EU countries, in the UK students typically expect learning materials to be provided to enable them to learn even without attending some (or all) of the classes. You can deliver a blackboard lecture, but you will be asked to provide typeset lecture notes afterwards.

For me, personally, it usually takes about 3 months to prepare the first draft of the materials which I am not completely ashamed of.

The inadequate workload allocation models put a very severe pressure on academic staff. Some better departments manage it by giving the same modules to the same academics for several years in a row, making it possible to maintain and improve materials little by little. Some less organised departments suffer from high staff turnover and (re)allocate modules at the last moment each year, as you described in your question. In this case academics have no motivation to put extra time to prepare good materials, because next year they may be given a completely new module again. Students complain, managers react by putting more pressure on staff, academics burn out and leave, turnover increases and the process spirals down.

>
> Is this normal?
>
>
>

Disorganised departments and poor admin practices in academia are not normal, but also not uncommon in the UK, as evidenced by the UCU dispute ongoing for several years all across the UK.

>
> Are all universities like this?
>
>
>

No, there are still quite a few good ones. The marketization of higher education in the UK continues though.

>
> Shouldn't professors refuse to accept a module if they haven't been given a sufficient amount of time to prepare?
>
>
>

Some may try to cause trouble, but this is not going to be popular with their Heads of Departments. However, academics can't refuse to teach a module or to take an admin role if it is within their "capacity" as per the workload model approved for use in their Department / University. Needless to say, the people who approve this model are mostly administrators and managers, not common professors and lecturers. Many professors do not agree with the workload model approved by admin/managers in their University, as evidenced by the ongoing [national dispute](https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/11818/Four-fights-dispute-FAQs).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Not as long an answer as some of the others, just a point to keep in mind: When you've taught a course a number of times, the time necessary to prepare for a class is not particularly large. I can now roll out of bed, take a five-minute look at my notes for the next class period of my Partial Differential Equations course, and be in my classroom at 8am knowing what I'm going to talk about for the next 75 minutes -- and nobody would know that 5 minutes is all that it took to prepare. Of course that's because I've taught this course or a variation a good half dozen times over the past decade.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Least reasonable time to prepare for a lecture will depend on many variables such as your level of experience teaching that subject, what subject it is, what you plan to include in your presentation (slides, writing on whiteboard, online-could involve quizzes, etc) and your audience (1st, 2nd, 3rd yr, postgrad, etc).

I delivered university lectures online and face-to-face for the first time over the pandemic using zoom to a group of masters students. The subject was in the biological sciences and involved a combination of formal lectures with slides (lots of pictures), online quizzes and some group tasks. It took me between 4-7hrs to prepare as I was starting from scratch. If I was to deliver the same lecture now, I would only have to glance through the slides for a few minutes and I'll be ok.

If the subject was mathematics, it could take just as long or even longer to prepare as I would have to ensure I've gone through the calculations before attempting it in front of a class.
I would imagine most professors are very experienced lecturers and perhaps won't need that much time to prepare provided its a course they're familiar with.

I have to say that teaching generally doesn't get the attention and priority that it deserves amongst UK universities (I'm not sure about elsewhere). From my experience of being a student and now a lecturer, not every lecturer has received formal training in teaching/lecturing and certainly not every academic has the aptitude to be a good lecturer. Academics are overwhelmed with work and this may reflect on the quality of teaching.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: The amount of time you'll need to prepare depends on whether it's a class you've taught before and on whether it comes with some existing course materials including lecture slides and assignments used in previous terms. That's four combinations and I've done the three that make sense. (If you've taught it before, we can assume you still have your materials.)

If I have a lecture in the afternoon for a a class I've taught several times, I'll likely still spend most of the morning leisurely preparing. I'm always looking for ways to improve my slides and it's easy and pleasant to keep polishing.

If it's a class I've never taught (often called a *new start*) and I'm given some existing materials, I will watch videos of previous lectures if available and I will likely edit the slides for style or to improve the graphics, but I'm going to hold off making serious changes to the content until the next time, when my opinion might be backed by some experience with the course. I'm probably going to need to do some research on some points raised in the lectures that are new to me. I'm very likely to need to do all the homework assignments and read the textbook so I'm prepared for office hours. For me, this could be about a day of preparation per lecture, plus the weekend for the homework and reading. It's a lot more work.

If it's a new start and there are no existing materials, this is consuming! There are simply not enough hours in the day to do this really well the first time, so you will just have to do your best. It's helpful if you can pick a textbook that comes with instructor materials, but often those are very rough, just the images or tables in the book, not usually a set of finished lecture slides.

If you don't even have a text with some instructor materials and you're simply creating the course from thin air as you go, wow! The first time I taught my search engine class at University of Michigan, where students worked in teams of 6 to build a whole internet search engine in C++, I needed to create and deliver two two-hour lectures every week. All I had going in was a two-page syllabus I'd written, so it was like a death march. I got through it and so did my students, and the course got better each time after that. But the first time took every waking moment.
Upvotes: 4


<issue_start>username_0: If x paper says "y et al. [1] have found so and so in the water of India", why can't I use the exact same words as the "x paper" and just cite [1]? My understanding is this- since x paper does not own the set of words that was used to explain what y has found, it's not their 'idea'. And stating that another paper have found something doesn't give x paper credit for the findings. It's a bit like saying that just because some person said "This store makes tables", I can't use these words and instead I have to say "Tables are made by this store", which, I think is an unnecessary restriction.<issue_comment>username_1: If x paper says "y et al. [1] have found so and so...," then you need to [read and cite the original **y** paper](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/12391/43873), not the citing **x** paper.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: No, paper x does not own the words. You could obviously write a very similar, if not identical, sentence like it is written in paper x after reading paper y. And as long as you really, really do not use paper x as a source there is no issue at all. In this case, the identical wording is pure conincidence and you would not have to cite paper x.

However, if you use paper x as a source you must make that transparent, especially if you in fact copy and paste their words. Never ever simply copy words you read without citing properly. There really is no reason to deny the authors of paper x the credit.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Generally there are two things to consider and they are not the same: copyright and plagiarism.

Plagiarism is attributing the ideas of others to yourself. Your reuse of "a few words" doesn't have that effect, so it isn't plagiarism. In most places, plagiarism is a social, not legal matter, though there are some exceptions.

Copyright violations involve copying and republishing the words (music, ...) of others, even if you properly attribute it. Copyright is a civil law matter (most places) and laws differ though there is a movement to unify national copyright laws. One of the principles of most copyright law is whether the copying reduces the value of the original to the copyright holders. Again, a few words is almost always unlikely to do that and certainly not in your case. Copying a paragraph, or a chapter, from a copyrighted work is a much different matter.

But another principle of copyright law (generally speaking) is that for some things there is really only one way to say it. Some mathematical definitions and theorems fall into this category and they aren't limited by copyright which is aimed at creative expression.

It seems like you are operating ethically. You properly attribute the idea to Y, just as X did. It is only a few words. There are few ways to express the same (proper) idea.

There could be closely aligned situations, however, in which the idea you are trying to get across is that X agrees withy Y, rather than Y says something. In that case, a citation of X might be needed.

The title question, however, can't be answered without context. Sometimes yes (as above) and sometimes no, depending on what you want to copy. When in doubt cite and also quote, while minimizing your quotes.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: If this is a piece of assessed work, then leaving aside the copyright/plagiarism issues (well covered by @username_3), it is worth bearing in mind that assessments are set to give you an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the topic (as that is generally what is being assessed). Direct quoting or close paraphrasing only demonstrate that you are able to identify a suitable source, not that you understand it. Use the literature review to demonstrate that you understand the relevance of the source for your project/work. All to often literature reviews are just thinly paraphrased quotes from the abstracts of the papers, which does not create a good impression and conveys little useful information.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: The fact that you are able to write "x paper says 'y et al. [1] have found so and so in the water of India'" strongly suggests that x paper has been helpful to you in identifying the original Y et al. reference. This suggests that you did not come up with these exact words yourself, but that you got them from x paper. This raises the issue of copyright. Facts and ideas are not copyrightable--no one owns the fact that y et al had a particular finding. However, the precise way that ideas are expressed in recorded form (specifically in writing, sound recording, video, etc.) is copyrightable. The first person to express an idea in a specific way gets copyright to it. Others who come after them are supposed to find their own original way to express the same idea.

You seem to object to this application because the phrase ("y et al. [1] have found so and so in the water of India") is so short. But if it is so short, then you should have no problem reading y et al yourself and then expressing what they did in your own original words. **If you read y et al yourself and then use your own words to summarize what they found, then there is no need to cite x paper at all and then there is no problem.** But if you somehow feel that you cannot come up with an original way of saying "y et al. [1] have found so and so in the water of India", then indeed you should quote and cite x for their original way of saying that. (That said, as some of the other answers have indicated, scholarly rigour expects you to read the original source and cite it directly rather than taking the shortcut that "x said that y said…".)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: >
> It's like saying that just because some person said "This store makes tables", I can't use these words and instead I have to say "Tables are made by this store", which is totally unnecessary.
>
>
>

I don't think you have a correct understanding of the issue of plagiarism. If copying the words "This store makes tables" were plagiarism, then changing it to "Tables are made by this store" would still be plagiarism (but the change in words might fool some plagiarism detectors). If you find yourself changing words or "paraphrasing" then you are trying to hide something, you should stop and reconsider what you are doing.

Plagiarism is about presenting somebody else's work as your own. It's not about whether you use the same words or not, but whether you use the same ideas (without proper attribution). If you write your literature review by very closely mimicking the structure of another literature review (citing the same references in the same order, synthesizing the ideas in a very similar way) then it's plagiarism. It doesn't matter how many words you replace by synonyms and how you change the structure of the sentences, it's still plagiarism.

As a general rule, I would never, ever, use the literal ctrl+c, ctrl+v way of copy pasting anything from another paper without immediately putting it in quotation marks with a citation. Even if the amount you copy is "small enough" to not be plagiarism, I think the fact that you are even considering copying and pasting from a paper is a very troubling sign that you are writing your own work with the other's work too close in hand, and there's a very real risk you would mimick the structure and synthesis of ideas too much.

If you end up writing the same words by chance then it is okay and not plagiarism. A good lithmus test is the following: if you were to forget about the paper for a week and then continue writing (without consulting the source you are "copying" from again), would you still use the same words?
Upvotes: 1


<issue_start>username_0: For the past two years, I have been working as a postdoc under a new German professor with what I consider to be an atrocious work ethic:

* His presence on campus is limited only to when in-person teaching is involved. The rest of the time he stays at home hundreds of kilometers away.
* He is disorganized, often misses to register grades for students, or respond to their emails (I know this because they contact me instead with "what is happening here?").
* Zero research initiative. He relies on other people to put his name in papers.
* No support for his PhD students; he has had one since 2016 who is supposed to defend this summer, with two workshop papers since 2018, and I have met her and she is not the problem (the field is computer science).
* He is constantly delaying procedures that just need to be signed-off by him, like reimbursements for travels (I've waited for mine for over four months for something that is done in two weeks tops).

Suffice to say, I have worked in universities in four other European countries and Australia, and I have always been the lazier one.

So, I walked to the dean's office and I asked him what the point is of someone having a job that he can't do. He told me that my attitude is not nice, and that this is normal in German universities as they “don’t follow the US model” (whatever that means).

Two months ago, I got a call by the president. He told me that I what I describe is indeed not professional behavior, but nothing really happened after that. In fact, I still see students looking for him and not finding him, missing grades, and so on.

I don’t really know what my options are. The dean basically suggested me to shut up and just do my own work as if I am independent here (I don’t have to involve the professor), but I think that this is nonsense, as I’m not a slave to ignore what is going on in my environment.

I would resign, but I like the city here, and why should I resign anyway for someone else?

Let me know your thoughts, please. Perhaps I have been extremely lucky so far to have worked with dozens of different professors/researchers that had some baseline qualities and work ethic and now I am acting paranoid?<issue_comment>username_1: If this doesn't affect your work, I suggest, like the president, to let it go and finish your projects so that you can move on. It is their problem to resolve, not yours.

Pressing it too hard can negatively affect your own future if someone in the system is vindictive, say that professor or the chair.

You will find a lot of unfortunate things in academia that you have no real power to correct, especially as a junior person.

If you want to do something positive, and have the time and energy, do what you can to benefit the students that you see affected.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: ### What you can do for others

Professors in Germany (and other countries) are very difficult to fire. Most failed professors end up without a group, or one or two employees that are come with their professorship instead of third-party funding. They are like a permanent teaching staff with somewhat higher salary.

Complaining to the department, faculty, or similar is not bad, but only if such complaints accumulate can you expect for something to happen, though even then I would not expect too much. Unless you can motivate others to complain too, you probably did all you can do in this respect.

You can also warn people considering to join the group (if such people exist) about what to expect. If required, you can thinly veil this, e.g.: “In this group, you have much freedom to decide the direction of your research, but are also expected to work very independently.”

### What you can do for others and yourself

If you have the capacity, use this situation to gather experience and CV points by taking the role of your professor where he is failing, for example:

* Advise other supervisees of your professor in research and writing and earn authorships as well as some supervision experience.
* Publish your papers without your supervisor as a co-author showing that you can do research independently.
* Establish collaborations as you seem fit.
* Take higher responsibilities in teaching and thus gain experience with organising courses etc.
* (Basically what your dean suggested:) Organise your own time and explore your own research ideas.

Ideally, when you are interviewing for a higher-ranking position, you can honestly say that you have experience with these things.

What I wouldn’t do is to get involved in any grant applications as they mostly enable your supervisor to harm more advisees in the future.

### General caveat

Many of the above suggestions can obviously backfire when your professor feels attacked and can muster the energy for revenge. It is up to you to judge how likely this is and how much you prioritise security over doing good and a chance to benefit from the situation. On the other hand, an escalation after a serious backfire may be what eventually brings down your professor (in the sense that he cannot find students, supervisees, or funding anymore).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Since you've already brought this to the attention of several others, you no longer have to deal with this in secrecy.

So, take the time to conduct 1-on-1 chats with other people who are affected by his behavior - other post-docs and PhD candidates, and possibly junior tenure-trackers. Also talk to the relevant people in the student union.

After those 1-on-1 chats, try to schedule a meeting of several of these people. In that meeting, each person should present two or three cases of "not doing the job" misconduct on that Professor's part. Summarize the meeting in a joint letter to be signed by participants, calling for action to be taken to address the situation - but without demanding specific measures (e.g. don't say "fire him").

Before sending this out, see if someone closer to him can get a draft of that letter in front of his face, so that he has a chance of offer making amends (although he might just lash out at those involved).

Finally, have different people, not just yourself, mail this letter to:

* The head of the department
* The department council or body of senior academic staff
* The student union
* The graduate employee union if you have one
* The senior academic staff union
* The Professor himself

... and post a few copies on the bulletin boards where your research group is at.

An additional measure you could consider - if the university is mulling the affair and claiming they can't do anything - is indicating this may be brought to the attention of donors and funding bodies.

Of course, as I've already hinted - the more of these things you do personally, the more this is likely to gain you the reputation of a trouble-maker, or get that Professor to bad-mouth you to colleagues, or terminate your post-doc early etc. Doing the right thing rarely goes unpunished.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: In Germany (like in many other countries), professors are civil servants and it isn't easy to fire them. Therefore, all your efforts to report this behaviour won't probably have any effects.

However, even if they do not have this privilege, I don't see reporting to the dean or the president is the right action. First, it is not your task unless you are directly affected (and here, you complain only about your conflict with him by following the right procedure). Second, it opens the door to many malicious complaints. Third, if the professor decides to complete only his basic duties (according to his contract that I am pretty sure you don't have access to), he is free and no one can complain about it.

As a postdoc, it is recommended to stay professional and not bad-mouth your professor because you don't have the competency to judge him. It is your right not to like working with him and you can simply resign. You mentioned you do not want to do it because you like the city. Are you expecting the professor to be fired and you keep your position because you like the city?

**EDIT**

>
> he has had one since 2016 who is supposed to defend this summer, with two workshop papers since 2018
>
>
>

Since you are not a professor and I assume not habilitated, you are not allowed to supervise PhD students. How can you assess whether the students deserve the degree or not and judge the assessment of many professors (i.e. Supervisor, the examiners and the members of the PhD committee)???

>
> what I consider to be an atrocious work ethic
>
>
>

Nothing you mentioned has to do with work ethics. I would rather call it "irresponsibility".
Upvotes: 2


<issue_start>username_0: I'm a Congolese grad student who has received two PhD scholarship offers.

I got the first quite a while ago but when I saw the call for the Irish program I applied because it fit everything I've been doing in my career like a glove, and at the time I was having second thoughts about the first offer and I got the offer as well, just last week.

After thinking hard about the housing situation in Ireland which every single student on the program complained about (some people sleep in labs), compared to the first, the stipend, the interdisciplinary nature of the program and how no one complained about anything of all the students I spoke to, and a bunch of other things I decided to go with the UK offer.

I have no issues with Irish immigration. I'm almost certain that I would get the visa since the program is funded, so I would like to hold off on making a decision.

How do I ask for some time before accepting or declining the Ireland offer so I have the opportunity to hear back regarding my UK student visa application?

Do I reject the second offer? Or ask for time while waiting to hear from the UK immigration? How do I politely ask for time?<issue_comment>username_1: Considering the economics, if you compare [cost of life in the two cities](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United%20Kingdom&city1=Nottingham&country2=Ireland&city2=Dublin#:%7E:text=Cost%20of%20Living%20Comparison%20Between%20Nottingham%20and%20Dublin,to%20compare%20cost%20of%20living.) and the current exchange rate [EUR-GBP](https://www.google.com/search?q=eur%20gbp), life in Dublin would be a nightmare in comparison with Nottingham.

And £18'500 per year in Nottingham is already a quite low salary.

I will let others chip in about the advisor. I do not know enough the UK and Irish systems to judge the importance of having a good advisor. The only thing I would consider, is that since you have a rather small scholarship, a good advisor may be preferrable because they may be proactive in finding funds for you to attend conferences/workshops/etcetc ...
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I recommend you don't reject the second offer until you are *certain* that you can undertake the first (i.e., when you have sorted out all your visa requirements, etc.). If you need more time for this, you can ask for it, but bear in mind that an unaccepted offer can be rescinded by an institution at any time. If I were you, I would let the second program know that you are presently examining visa rules and eligibility and this this process is taking some time, so you need more time before accepting their offer. While it is possible that the second offer might expire, or they might even rescind, I would think that they would be likely to have some patience.
Upvotes: 0


<issue_start>username_0: While reading the paper of some authors. I have decided to work on a question which they listed as an open question in the conclusion section. I'm hesitating on whether or not to cite the paper, from which I got the question, because usually we cite papers providing answers rather than papers stating questions.

Is is unethical to work on the question on my own paper without giving proper reference to the paper I got the research question from? if so, how should I cite the paper?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, I think you should. Questions are at least as difficult to develop as answers, I would not privilege one over the other.

You need not cite it as explicitly as "We got our research question from (Andy, et al. 2022)", though.

Rather, typically in the introduction of a paper you want to set up what current knowledge in the field is and what issue the paper at hand is addressing and *why that is important*. One of the most straightforward ways to make a case that the problem you are addressing is important is to say that someone else also thought the problem was important! Or at least, important enough to mention in their own paper as an open question. You can cite this motivating paper as you make your case.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Yes, you should absolutely cite the paper. In addition to the reasons explained in username_1's anwer, here is another important reason:

People who read the open question in the paper might want to know whether the question has been solved meanwhile. The first thing they'll probably do to find out is to check where the paper was cited.
So by citing you will help those who are (or would be) interested in your work to actually find your work.

By the way, I really don't see any reason at all not to cite the paper. There's simply no disadvantage in citing it.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: Citing a paper that inspired your research is *extremely* common; refer to it the way you would any other background information that situates your work.

Some examples from a quick search of the arXiv (quotes are taken from the final published versions):

* *Arch. Math. Logic* 43 (2004) pp. 583-663:

>
> In this realm we may classify forcing notions using the methods of [23], [24] and, for example, declare that very Souslin (or generally ω–nw–nep) ccc forcing notions (see 1.3.1) are really nice. Both the Cohen forcing notion and the random forcing
> notion and their FS iterations (and nice subforcings) are all ccc ω—nw—nep, and [22, Problem 4.24] asked if we have more examples. It occurs that our method relatively easily results in very Souslin ccc forcing notions (see 1.3.4(3), 1.5.8(2), 1.5.11, 1.5.15(3))
>
>
> …
>
>
> [22] <NAME>.: On what I do not understand (and have something to say). *Fundamenta Math.* 166, 1—82 (2000) math.LO/9906113
>
>
>

* *SIAM J. Discrete Math* 16:1 (2003), pp. 99–113

>
> In particular, we answer the question of
> Erdős et al. [8, Problem B], who asked for the asymptotics of r̂(Ks,n, Ks,n).
>
>
> …
>
>
> [8] <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, and <NAME>, *The size Ramsey number*, Period. Math. Hungar., 9 (1978), pp. 145–161.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Usually it is difficult to proof that your research is relevant. You get a witness for free!

Further, it gives credit to the author which is justified.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: The other answers have pointed out that the answer is yes, you should absolutely cite the paper you got your questions from.

I just want to emphasize how narrow a view

>
> because usually we cite papers providing answers rather than papers stating questions.
>
>
>

is.

Providing answers is *a* reason to cite a paper, but far from the only reason. Citations are not a precious resource only to be used when absolutely necessary. It costs you nothing, and helps your reader, to cite papers “merely” because they provide relevant context for your result.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I believe that you should cite the paper. One fundamental reason is that context is hugely important in conducting research and framing it properly for the purpose of publication. Here you seem to have gained a lot of the perspective you need in order to ask the main question for your paper from the paper you are referring to. As such, I think it warrants a citation.
Upvotes: 3


<issue_start>username_0: I need to submit my PhD thesis for archiving (online and physical), and a copyright-related question dawned on me.

I used a figure from a book in my introduction. It is a very standard materials science schematic of crystal systems that is present in virtually every single materials science book in some shape or form, as it illustrates one of the founding principles of the subject.
I couldn't manage to extract the image in good quality, so I actually redrew it myself. I rearranged it, relabelled it, and changed the schematic up a bit. I'm not even sure a reference and copyright notice would have been necessary at all at this point, to be fair.
However, I did nevertheless request and obtain clearance from the Copyright Clearance Center with minor editing privileges, and I included the permission statement in the caption. I also stated I redrew, and relabelled the figure, and stated a modification I made to the schematic itself.

However, I now realised I missed stating a couple of additional modifications I made to the image.

Now, there are two things:

* Will having a potentially unnecessary copyright permission statement be an issue? Or would it be better for me to remove it otherwise I might have issues (not sure what issues you can have for being overly cautious to be fair)?
* If I leave the statement in, will the fact that I didn't state the additional modifications made be a problem (considering I probably didn't need the permission in the first place)?<issue_comment>username_1: You have gone way beyond what's required for fair use. Thanks for that. You have nothing to worry about.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I can only confirm username_1's answer. Your cares for fair acknowledgement are very appreciated. For my own thesis, a simple statement in the caption ("Redrawn from <NAME> et al., with authorization") was deemed sufficient by my committee (and they were on the "picky" side of the spectrum).
Upvotes: 2


<issue_start>username_0: I am an international student in my final year of Electrical Engineering. I enrolled in an RnD course last semester and tagged it as an honor course. This is a semester-long research project where you work closely with one of the professors in your department. The work I did in the semester was satisfactory. However, it wasn't AA-worthy, so I decided to work on the project during the summer (the professor agreed). The professor I worked with is known for allotting the grades for his other courses even past the grade submission deadline. (In one of the courses, the grades were assigned two days before the course registration for the next semester began). Hence I assumed that I could work through the summer and have my grade evaluated before the start of the next semester. However, I could not get hold of him, so the grade column shows "not allotted" for this course.

So I talked about this with the professor guide at the start of this semester, had my evaluation done, and my grade submitted to the academic office within a month. However, the Dean did not approve of this, and I am looking at a potential Fail grade in this course. My current transcript still shows "not allotted".

I am applying for MS to top US grad schools. So my question is - Should I submit the current transcript with justification (in the SoP) or the updated transcript(which has the fail grade) with proper justification? The updated transcript has a slightly higher converted GPA (3.92 vs 3.9). On one hand, since I did not actually fail the course, a proper justification should suffice. On the other hand, since it's an RnD Course, it could negatively affect my chances (not sure how much, could someone shed light on this) and so "not allotted" looks better than the alternative. Also, if I do decide to submit my current transcript and get accepted, will I have problems later since the grad schools require official transcripts to be submitted after completion of undergraduate studies, and that would have the fail grade?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> On one hand, since I did not actually fail the course
>
>
>

Actually, it seems you did actually fail the course. It doesn't seem like you had any official arrangement or explicit agreement to receive a different grade by completing the work past the semester, and as of right now your institution (i.e., the Dean) is not in agreement with your assertion that you should get late credit for it, and your professor has not taken any action to support your position and get it changed.

>
> Also, if I do decide to submit my current transcript and get accepted, will I have problems later since the grad schools require official transcripts to be submitted after completion of undergraduate studies, and that would have the fail grade?
>
>
>

Yes, this failed grade will eventually come through. Whether or not that will affect anything is entirely up to the institution admitting you as a graduate student.

If you think you should be credited for the course, you really need to work that through your current institution, not just expect to explain it away in your application materials. That means working with the professor and/or dean to get your grade adjusted if appropriate. It's your current institution that decides what your grades are.

Yes, you can attempt to explain your grade in your graduate applications, but consider that there are good reasons and bad reasons to have a poor grade, and "I thought I could get special treatment but didn't" is not necessarily a "good reason".
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Should I submit the current transcript with justification (in the SoP) or the updated transcript(which has the fail grade) with proper justification? The updated transcript has a slightly higher converted GPA (3.92 vs 3.9).
>
>
>

I guess the question boils down to whether the upside of the extra +0.02 in your GPA is worth the downside of having to explain the fail grade. This is a clear NO: 0.02 is in the noise and is unlikely to have any affect at all, whereas even if they buy your explanation that "my failing grade should actually be an A+", it still introduces confusion. Further, giving explanations or excuses in your SOP, while sometimes necessary, is very difficult to do successfully.

>
> will I have problems later since the grad schools require official transcripts...and that would have the fail grade
>
>
>

Could be. It would be very good to resolve this with your institution so your transcript does not have a failing grade. It sounds like your professor should be dealing with the dean directly, since he allowed / encouraged you to do what you did. Failing that, I would recommend explaining the situation to your preferred graduate school after you are accepted but before you accept their offer.
Upvotes: 0


<issue_start>username_0: I'm half way through my MBA, and my highest mark is around 73%, which I've had in several modules and pieces of coursework. I've contacted the university to ask for concrete examples of previous answers for exams I've sat that have received > 80% but they won't provide any. I've read several books on critical thinking and essay writing, but still something's missing.

The university has published guidelines for > 80%, and they're things like:

>
> Exploration of topic showing excellent knowledge & understanding through thorough & appropriate research. Impressive choice and range of appropriate content.
>
>
>

and other similar vague statements.

Specifically, how can I get over > 80% for an exam/coursework at masters level, or should I take this further with the university?<issue_comment>username_1: You have a contract and it may detail the requirements here. If you are teaching then you should give the head enough notice that they can replace you without negative impacts on students. If you have thesis advisees you need to consider their needs, ethically, if not necessarily legally.

Quitting, but continuing to end of term is likely to be fine, though the head may need to scramble to fill any teaching slots for next term.

Other than consideration for students who will be impacted I don't see a lot of issues, provided that your contract isn't too restrictive.

If your pay is pro-rated in any way, then some adjustments might need to be made but probably more likely in your favor than otherwise.

For the administrative details a month seems reasonable. For student and especially advisee outcomes it might be more complicated.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Ultimately, there's no way to say it nicely. You're leaving, and that makes things difficult for them, so the best thing you can do is let them know as soon as possible. They will want to know why, so you have to be prepared with a *well-crafted reason* for your departure.

One crucial detail that I think is missing from your post: do you want to remain on good terms with the university, the department chair, and your colleagues, or are you leaving academia for good and have no interest in maintaining connections?

* In the former case, you have to be a bit careful. Firstly, you should try to let them know as soon as possible -- I would think, more than just a month in advance! And second, you should be careful about your reason. It's generally advised not to make it about the university or the department; things that they can change.

For example, don't say: "I haven't been getting along with my colleagues here and I feel the university is not supporting me enough financially." That will make them feel defensive, and in the worst case, it could leave them thinking that they could have retained you if you had only talked to them earlier, and you could have worked something out.

Instead, it's generally more effective to make your leaving *not about them.* It can be the university location, or personal/family constraints, or you simply have decided that academia is not for you. Since you want to remain friendly with your colleagues, you should be as honest as possible, without unnecessarily insulting them.

For example: "While I have really enjoyed my time here, it's become increasingly clear to me that being in academia long-term is not the right fit. In addition, I have personal and family constraints that would require me to be away from for extended periods of time, and make having a more flexible work location a necessity for me in the future. I have nothing but positive things to say about . I'm sorry for the short notice; I'm letting you know as soon as possible, so that you can hopefully work to make plans accordingly for my departure."
* In the latter case, you have nothing to lose, so you can share some negative details about the department if you so choose, as long as you are careful in expressing it. In this case, you can also choose to leave on short notice (as long as it is allowed by your contract); it may upset them, but at the end of the day, you have to do what's best for you.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]


<issue_start>username_0: How do research funders audit where their money is going? Say they give some amount to a professor, after one year the professor didn't produce a thing in his research. How does it work?

It seems very unlikely to me that these funds are run by people who doesn't care if they throw their money like that.

The problem is that some professors are not active at all, they offer really low quality courses, they use the same material, same assignments, etc. You would suspect they are good at their research, but you hear similar things from their students. Still, they continue to receive grants and money from the government !<issue_comment>username_1: First, researchers have to request funds for specific purchases, budgets are usually provided as part of the grant proposal. Rarely can a researcher request substantive funds without a clear purpose. The most open-ended type of funds are "summer salary." This is literally pay for the summer, since most professors aren't paid over those months. If someone wants an academic to work during that period (typically research but could be otherwise), it's common for them to request payment. This is summer salary.

Most researchers don't get research funds deposited into their personal accounts. The funds typically go to the university they work at, and then are disbursed after receipts are shown or through the normal purchasing process at the university.

These processes tend to be extremely bureaucratic with great oversight. For example, timesheets might need to be shown for summer salary to be collected - even if the research has been created and published.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If the researcher has not produced anything after a year, they will find it difficult to obtain any grants after that, because recent publications are a factor in grant decisions. It would be a great way to stall your career. So researchers tend to try pretty hard to produce something once they receive a grant. Also, there's not that many sources of funding out there, so if you totally waste an agency's grant they might remember it when you apply to them again.

Some grants restrict what they may be used for. You cannot, for example, apply for a grant saying you will research X and then instead research a completely different topic Y. Everything you purchase or pay for with the grant money has to be tabulated and reported to the funding agency. If there's stuff that is obviously not related to the research, there may be various repercussions. It depends on the agency how closely they look at your expenses and how strict they are about judging them.

There are also some grants that are structured in installments. You don't get the whole money right away. You have to meet with the agency's officials periodically (for example yearly or every 6 months) and give them an update on your progress. If they don't like the update, you might not get the rest of the money.

Lastly, there is not necessarily an expectation that results must be produced. Science deals with the unknown, so it's inevitable that sometimes the hypothesis just turns out to be wrong. So many funders take broader view. They accept that there will always be some studies that fail, and it's not necessarily the researcher's fault. At the proposal stage, they try to pick applications that would still produce some useful results even if they failed.

>
> The problem is that some professors are not active at all, they offer really low quality courses, they use the same material, same assignments, etc.
>
>
>

Research grants don't really care about the quality of your courses. They are primarily concerned with research. There are sometimes specialized grants that do also take teaching/outreach into account, and these will of course expect you to provide evidence that your courses are high quality.
Upvotes: 3


<issue_start>username_0: I am in the UK and I am looking to contact a supervisor about starting a PhD.

First, I know the area that I want to focus on but I don't have a defined research project just yet. I'd like to define the proposal once I know who my supervisor will be and I would look for his input into the proposal. I can come up with a proposal myself now but I think this is sub-optimal. Should I indicate this in the email? Something like:

>
> I am looking to do a PhD in field X. While I have ideas about a
> research proposal, I would value your guidance in producing the final
> proposal.
>
>
>

Second, I don't really need funding. I'm a working professional and I wouldn't need a stipend. Should I indicate this in the email? I don't want to be distasteful and talk about money at the beginning. At the same time, I don't want to get a "No" from a supervisor that I like because they don't think they'll get funding for me.<issue_comment>username_1: Regarding the second question ("I wouldn't need a stipend. Should I indicate this in the email?"), from experience I would suggest *no*.

I have a family member who let slip similar information in an interview for a PhD position (U.S.) and the effect was that they were eagerly admitted and then indefinitely delayed in being able to graduate (and so, contributed to the department's income stream out-of-pocket as long as they were there). After an extended number of years, they were compelled to drop out of the program and switch to a different department at the same university, from which they ultimately did receive a PhD (after several more years).
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Q2: Second, I don't really need funding. I'm a working professional and I wouldn't need a stipend. Should I indicate this in the email?
>
>
>

Two things here. Are you contemplating **part-time**. Your "I'm a working professional" would be construed as seeking PT.

There's no rule, AFAIK, that stipulate indicating outright from the onset.

Nonetheless, often, if a potential supervisor is interested in you, (s)he/they will set up a short session with you. Both parties will get to engage on interest and key areas. Issues of stipend can be engaged on here.

Be it as it may, whether you indicate in your '*introductory*' email or not, keep it succinct and polite as you can.

>
> Q1: ... *Something like:
> I am looking to do a PhD in field X. While I have ideas about a research proposal, I would value your guidance in producing the final proposal.*
>
>
>

In my view, there's no clear cut approach.

You may consider along the line

I'm looking at PhD in field X ...

I have looked into subfield X.1 ...

I have researched into subfield X.1

... ...

Your work in subfield X.1 caught my interest and I'm keen engaging further on subfield X.1, X.1.1, X.1.2 ...

... ...

In essence, simply mentioning I've ideas in X without a 1 or 2 sentence of what that/those idea(s) is/are might not suffice. Of course, you are not compelled on specifics: you can be broad (within field X).

Just to mention:

In the UK, some universities list

* studentship (with awards/stipend)
* open PhD research projects (funded or unfunded)
* units/centres research areas/interest

PS: Each has its own dynamics within the interested candidate and potential supervisor/advisor.
In certain instances, not all, for competitive studentship, the dept/doctoral school/college might request you submit a formal application. Post interview and upon acceptance, the proposal writing process takes place with (possible) supervisor/advisor.

One writes and submits around the studentship's research topic
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: The correct answer to the first question will depend on the field. In more science oriented fields, particularly lab based sciences, then the answer is no, you shouldn't have a fully worked out research proposal in mind. It is likely that the supervisor will only want to put the work into supervising a student who can work on things they at the supervisor's priorities. This is particularly the case where the research will cost money.

However, the tone of your post suggests to me that your are not thinking about lab sciences. In which case I think it might be slightly different. I think here, you will want to have more of an idea about what it is you want to do. I'm sure a supervisor who decides to take you on will help you hone and polish the idea, make it more specific. But I think you should have at least some idea of what it is you want to do.

For your second question: Yes, I think you should tell the supervisor up front. Generally being unfunded rules somebody out, and I throw emails from students who don't say how they will funded their students straight in the bin without further consideration.

Be aware that as well as a stipend, funding also includes tuition fees, which will have to be paid, as well as, in some subjects "bench" fees (which are supposed to cover the cost of the research).

I wouldn't be too worried about @DanielRCollin's point. In the UK, students must *successfully* graduate after 4 years (or the equivalent if part time). Failure to graduate or graduating later than 4 years is a black mark on a supervisor's record, and if more than 20% of students fail to graduate in 4 years, the department by be blocked form taking government funded students. There is a strong incentive not to do this.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Taking it from a computer science/information systems background I would say that in your case (without a very clear idea of what you really want to do) it is better not to have a full proposal. Instead you should identify a supervisor/supervisors that you are interested in and contact them (this must be specific and details relating to this professor). Then you can work on looking at a proposal (and whether there is a "click").

Overall the vast majority of student PhD proposals are not fit for purpose, but they may convey the message that you are very stuck to the topic or approach chosen. This may disqualify you for many supervisors (either because of the topic or method mismatch, or because they think that you are set on a way they don't believe in). It is better to work with the supervisor to actually get a workable proposal that fits shared interests. This is especially true if you are not actually that invested in a specific topic.
Upvotes: 0


<issue_start>username_0: I typically use the following workflow when citing papers:

* search paper name on Google Scholar chrome plugin
* click cite -> BibTeX -> copy BibTeX into references in Overleaf (LaTeX)

I once had a conversation with a PhD student (whom I don't know personally or have any contact with) who said I need to be careful with references elicited in such a way. I can't recall anymore, however, what his full point was.

Now I am wondering how I should check source for source that I've cited in order to make sure that everything is 100% correct.

Is there a well established/recommended process in doing that?<issue_comment>username_1: I assume that you have a copy of every paper that you intend to cite since you wouldn't be citing a paper unless you had read it. With that in mind, the easiest way to check the citations is simply to compare the downloaded citation information with the information that you can typically find on the first page of each article. That, at least, is what I always do!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Whenever you are consuming somebody else's BibTeX, it's useful to check for some specific issues that commonly occur with BibTeX. Mangling capitalization is common in human names and paper titles - which you would see in the final output even if the `.bib` file looks OK. Sometimes the parts of names are given incorrectly, or are written in a way that looks normal in the `.bib` but will be horribly wrong once all the compilation steps have taken their turn.

You should also do a "global pass" to make sure bibliography entries from different sources are consistent. Journal and conference proceeding titles may appear differently depending on the source: "SIGCOMM '22", "SIGCOMM 2022", "Proc. ACM SIGCOMM 2022" and "Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM 2022 Conference" are all the same event, but if you have obtained `.bib` entries from several sources then they could all appear in your bibliography, inconsistently. Similarly, sources may differ as to whether they give the publication month, or the issue number, or both, for a monthly journal. Books might have a city of publication, or not, even for the same publisher, and the publisher's name might not appear consistently (consider "OUP" vs. "Oxford University Press").

These problems can be noticed by looking at your final formatted bibliography *carefully*, and comparing against the actual authoritative sources, i.e. the publications themselves, for how the various names, titles and metadata ought to appear.
Upvotes: 1